Movie Review: Charlie Wilson's War

Movie Title: Charlie Wilson's War
Starring: Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Om Puri.
Directed by: Mike Nichols
Genre: Drama/Biography
My Rating: 8.5/10

Based on a novel, based on a true story, edited for movie content, and viola - you have this movie called Charlie Wilson's War. However, this movie was released at a time where most people care less about how Afghan people got anti-aircraft missiles and rocket launchers to kick the Soviets out of their country. All people care about these days is kicking ass and having less sympathy for Afghan and Arab people due to the unfortunate disasters occurred in the last 6+ years. However, I will keep my political commentary off this blog.

Hanks excels as Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson, a morally gray and womanizing politician with a soft spot for Afghans suffering at the hands of invading Soviets in the early 1980's. Julia Roberts, in a wonderful and exceptional return, plays a former playmate centerfold who now runs a feminist group while living a millionaire lifestyle in Houston, TX. Along with a CIA outcast in Hoffman, they find backdoor methods of assisting poor Afghans fight back the Soviet Russians. In Hollywood, there's one simple rule: if a current or former country was a baddie once, they'll always be a baddie on-screen. A touching masterpiece based on facts set in the past and shows some light side of politicians is very likely to be an Oscar contender, and that's exactly where I see this piece heading. It already has Golden Globe nominations!

Due to the political sensitivity of the movie's subject, I'll jump to the praises in production and acting. This has to be Mike Nichols' best work till date, even though Closer wasn't a bad movie, it was carried mostly by the excellent actors. In Wilson's War, too, the movie was carried superbly by the lead and supporting actors. Besides the Oscar-worthy Hanks, Roberts and always promising Hoffman, Amy Adams acted very well as Hank's administrative secretary, the most dignified and least skimpy out of the rest of his young-woman-dominated workforce. The only surprise cameo was by British actress Emily Blunt who plays a lobbying sexual decoy, an odd role after she overshadowed the lead in The Devil Wears Prada. Indian actor Om Puri too excelled as the then Pakistani dictator-president Zia Ul Haq who took over presidency after staging a coup d'etat, which is common in that unfortunate nation. Puri surely deserves more recognition in Hollywood. He is already a successful actor in the UK and one of the most respected in his native India.

8.5/10. Countdown to the Oscars. Not for the narrow minded type. Keep an open mind about politics and history, you may just enjoy this masterpiece.

Blogged with Flock

Movie Review: No Country For Old Men

Movie Title: No Country For Old Men
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Kelly MacDonald and Woody Harrelson
Directed by: Ethan Coen/Joel Coen
Genre: Drama/Thriller/Western
My Rating: 8.7/10.

I had heard a lot of rave reviews and hype about this movie before going to watch it, thus kept my expectations low. For most of the movie I could see why...

Set in the lonely countryside of southeast Texas circa 1980, welder Moss (Brolin) finds $2 million in a satchel and more than a handful of murdered drug-peddling Mexicans, during a hunt. Tired of his trailer park lifestyle and with hope to provide a good future to his wife (MacDonald) and himself, Moss decides to take away the money and run. Little did he expect an uber psychotic killer to be chasing him all over.

Enter Anton Chigurh (Bardem) at the start of the movie. A merciless killer with unorthodox weapons: cattle-gun to open up locked doors, auto-like muffler on a shotgun to reduce noise. To add to that, a very polite speaking demeanor and absurd set of principles. Chigurh is on the hunt for the money, killing anyone coming in the way, even cops.

Contrary to what one would expect in the Texas dessert, the ranger cops are shown to be horse-riding but not so gun-slinging. Tommy Lee Jones plays a retiring and aging sheriff who dreads killing, complicated FBI/DEA style investigations and has the greatest heart of all characters in the movie. Sheriff Bell's primary interests lie in the well being of his townsfolk, no matter how badly they screwed up. This philosophy, however, takes a toll on his aging self and thus the story has such a title.

The movie is a good quasi-western with great photography/cinematography of rural Texas. The acting and direction is very praiseworthy. Jones excelled one more time as a Texas ranger with brains and a heart. Spanish actor Bardem impresses for the first time on American mainstream. Brolin shows for the first time some acting skills while not playing baddie. Scottish actress Kelly MacDonald also did a decent job, while Woody Harrelson's cameo as a humerous bounty hunter who has encountered Chigurh before.


8.7/19. Great cinematography, brilliant acting and a good novel to adapt the screenplay from. Just a weird ending, which I won't spoil for you. Not weird, just un-cliched. Not everyone may appreciate this movie. I know I did, though.

IM Integration: AiM on GMAIL chat now!

Google has invested about a billion bucks in AOL (yes, it still exists) and now has enhanced the already cool feature of chatting on GTALK via GMAIL. For those who don't know, you can chat with other GTALK contacts who are in your address book while checking your GMAIL on the same web page.

The latest innovation is integrating AOL Instant Messenger with GMAIL chat (GTALK). The simple requirements are:

• Internet Explorer 7+ or Mozilla Firefox 2+ as your browser


• Your GMAIL View set to Standard. Check the bottom of your GMAIL to ensure this.


• With the above setting, you should have your chat contact list displayed to the left-center of your GMAIL window.


• Below your name under Chat you'll find a dropdown box that'll allow you to change your status. In the same dropdown, you now have the option: Sign Into AIM.


• Obviously, you'll need an AIM account to log into that :-)

With residential high-speed Internet having crushed AOL in the ISP market, it's Instant Messaging service is probably the only viable product under the AOL umbrella. AIM has a huge proportion in the market of Internet chatters (especially teens, just like facebook and myspace), Google probably thought this was a good idea in order to counter Microsoft and Yahoo!'s collaboration earlier this year. For those who do not know, you can also chat with Yahoo! users from Windows Live (formerly MSN) Messenger and likewise. However, when it comes to download-free, web-based, non-JAVA (but JavaScript) chatting, Google wins. A lot of my friends can only chat via GMAIL/GTALK while they're at work. A lot of employers disallow downloads of AIM/Yahoo Messengers and block JAVA to disable their web-based IM clients as well.

Way to go, big G. However, I think I'm going to continue using meebo at work and at home.

Click here for more info on AIM in GMAIL.

Coming Soon: Windows XP Service Pack 3!

That's right. Microsoft has actually decided to release the third Service Pack for Windows XP. It is currently in testing phase and should release soon, in a matter of months.

This will obviously delay the majority of XP users' migration to Vista, but might be a good thing. Even XP had its faults until Service Pack 2. Vista is working on SP 1, and could improve drastically by the second release. I wouldn't be harsh enough to compare Vista to ME (Millenium Edition - a flopped Windows Operating System), I always hold hope for the second service pack of any OS. Just like XP, even Windows 98's Second Edition proved to be Microsoft's best release at that time.

Link: IT Wire: XP SP3

Movie Review: Beowulf

Movie Title: Beowulf
Starring: Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson, Angelina Jolie, Robin Wright-Penn, John Malkovich and Anthony Hopkins.
Directed by: Robert Zemeckis
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Drama
My Rating: 7.5/10

Honestly, I had low expectations before going to see this movie. The only reason I went, was that it was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I was going to stay in town, and some friends were going. Overall, it wasn't a bad experience.

However, this movie could have just been brilliant with the right screenplay and flow. Great actors, undeniably great special effects and a well-known legendary fairy tale to adapt. I even remember reading "Beowulf and Grendel" as a chapter in World Literature during my undergraduate studies.

The story starts in 7th Century,A.D., when Christianity was still in the process of spreading to Scandinavia. Ray Winstone (Mr. French from The Departed, Sexy Beast) plays the title character, a fearless Saxon warrior/freelancer who travels to Denmark in pursuit of killing a monster for a reward. The monster, Grendel, harasses the town folk of the local kingdom every time there is any merry-making. Grendel is horrific with an incomplete body structure yet huge and strong, and enjoys breaking people into halves. Anthony Hopkins plays the local drunk-king Hrothgar, speaking with his natural Welsh accent and portraying his role exceptionally well. Robin Wright-Penn acts as his younger, dignified and unhappy queen whom Beowulf has an eye for.

The real villain in this story is not Grendel, but his mother - the sea-serpent, played by Angelia Jolie, a gold-coated seductress with unbeatable magical powers and a long hair-tail. Jolie's really learning to play a bad mother very well, remember Alexander? John Malkovich was wasted as the king's chancellor-equivalent.

Another good performance in this film which could probably go under-appreciated is of Brendan Gleeson's. He plays Beowulf's second in command, a red-bearded bulky believer in his leader - very similar to his role in Braveheart, actually.

Contrary to what one may conclude based on the posters and trailer, this movie is not exactly an animation. Well, it is animation in parts. Real actors acted in front of a blue-screen in a studio, more than just lend their voices. Similar to the movie 300, with much of CGI. They were just all digitally "enhanced." 50 year old and bulky Ray Winstone was made to look at least 20 years younger and way fitter. Hopkins was given 50 pounds more. Robin Wright-Penn looked younger than in her current 40's. Jolie was just given just the golden touch and the hair-tail.

Even with the uber praiseworthy graphics/CGI/animation/SFX in general, this movie lacked a brilliant enough screenplay! If you like fantasy movies with monsters, brave slayers, dragons and curses that are supposed to have a moral ending hidden somewhere if you're too bored to figure it out, check out this movie on DVD. Watch it in the theater only if you're an SFX freak. I'm shocked this movie got a PG-13 rating rather than an "R".

7.5/10. Entertaining, keeps you awake throughout. Quite a winter movie.

Movie Review: American Gangster

Movie Title: American Gangster
Starring: Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ted Levine, Carla Gugino, Josh Brolin, Cuba Gooding Jr., Armand Assante.
Directed by: Ridley Scott
Genre: Drama/Thriller
My Rating: 9/10

Based on a true story, Gangster stars Washington as a New York drug kingpin Frank Lucas. In the 1970's Lucas took advantage of the Vietnam War in progress by having drugs smuggled from southeast Asia to the US via military carriers. The protagonist started off as a driver to one of NY's top mob bosses, and built his own empire steadily after his boss died of a heart attack. Sporting a well-dressed, businessman-like demeanor, Lucas would kill in cold blood anyone who came in his way or his family's. Yet Lucas was a good family man and supported his entire extended kin from North Carolina.

Crowe, on the other hand, plays a no-nonsense New Jersey cop always equipped with a handyman's tools when investigating. A wrench one time, an ax another. Richie Roberts is "untouchable" - can not be bought over or bribed. Yet, he's no angel; putting his marriage, son and even ongoing divorce at the bottom of his priorities. Roberts is made head of an investigative team probing into the increasing drug traffic caused by Lucas' superior quality + half priced product called "Blue Magic."

Both these lead actors carried their roles and the movie as a whole just as brilliantly as they could. Their parallel stories were shared very well, even though they don't come face each other until the last 45 minutes of this long-yet-fast-paced movie. The supporting cast did their job decently as well. Carla Gugino looked good as Roberts' to-be ex-wife, Ted Levine fit his cameo as Crowe's boss, and Cuba Gooding Jr. looked old as Lucas' contemporary. The rappers did a decent job, it was just funny to see T.I. as Common's son in the movie. RZA played an undercover operative from Roberts' team. Armand Assante showed experience playing a mafia boss who befriends Lucas, and Josh Brolin played another crooked role of a corrupt NY cop who nobody really lied on either side of the law.

The direction was done with expertise, the pace makes you forget how time flew by, and the movie overall makes for a great Fall movie and one of the best released this year. I definitely see a few Oscar nods coming this way. Great job again, Ridley Scott. Bravo, Washington and Crowe!

9/10. Definitely a theater watch, definitely a keeper.

A good movie to skip

30 Days of Night, unless you're an avid horror fanatic. Josh Hartnett and Melissa George seriously need to replace their agents.

6/10. Saving energy here.

Movie Review: We Own The Night

Movie Title: We Own the Night
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes and Robert Duvall.
Directed by: James Grey
Genre: Drama/Thriller
My Rating: 7/10

Look at the cast, look at the setting, look at the trailer. You'll think it's going to be a masterpiece in the making. A family of cops that gets on the Russian mob's hit list in late 1980's New York - how would that sound to you? The movie had potential, even the setting was well done. What did it lack? Read below..

Respected veteran actor Robert Duvall plays a veteran cop, with one son (Wahlberg) also a cop, and the other (Phoenix) - a manager of a nightclub owned by a Russian "organized crime" family. Phoenix's character decides to give his wild ways a break to help his father and brother upon finding out they're in the mob's kill list.Eva Mendes plays his Puerto Rican girlfriend, more of an eye candy and less substance of a character. The rest of the cast is relatively unknown, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

The bad thing is amateur direction and editing. I can bet all the quarters in my couch that if the movie is re-edited for DVD release it could turn out better. The story wasn't all that bad - it just wasn't given justice. Not with the direction, nor the editing. Despite it's shortcomings, I see this movie playing on the AMC channel on cable television in a couple of years, that's where I'd suggest you check it out.

7/10. Good acting, decent story, well set in the late 80's with Blondie music, but ugh - somebody do something about the pace.

Concert Review: Velvet Revolver/Alice in Chains

This was one hell of an amazing night of rock n' freaking roll! I never imagined while growing up as a teen in the 90's that I'd get to see Scott Weiland, Slash and Alice in Chains all play in one night. But they did, at the Snowden Grove Amphitheater on October 9^th, 2007, and it will be a night to remember for a long time to come.
Artist: Alice in Chains
Genre: Grunge/Rock/Alternative
From: Seattle, WA (Home of Grunge)

People can be apprehensive, cynical and wary when a once famous band gets a new singer after their original kicked the bucket or just left the band, while hoping to restore lost glory. AC/DC and Black Sabbath did that successfully, Van Halen did it twice,so did INXS, Drowning Pool with lesser success. Decased Alice in Chains vocalist Layne Staley had a powerful voice, screaming without shrieking and modulating as necessary. After his OD less than a decade ago and guitarist finding mediocre success with a solo career, the band members got together and recruited "Comes with the Fall" frontman William DuVall to sing for them.

DuVall makes an excellent addition to the band, whilst not a replacement to Staley. However, he does sound similar to his predecessor, only as close as another guy can get. Classics such as "Would?" and "Man in the Box" were sung and played faultlessly and were a great joy to listen to live for the first time! VR's/former Guns N' Roses lead guitarist Slash was invited to play along for AiC's final act "Rooster" - and the air was all about the 90's at that point.

Besides DuVall's voice, he also plays guitar, which in my opinion is a plus - a band with two guitarists always sound complete to me. Wouldn't need extra rhythm for every song, especially none of the classics AiC recorded as is. But moving forward if they actually plan to record a new album, DuVall's backup strumming would come handy. Yes, AiC didn't play any new song that night. Not sure if they even have any yet. But it was good to see them play classics, nonetheless. I finally saw an actual grunge band in concert!

Even though Velvet Revolver was the main performer of the night and the tour, a lot of attendees had AiC shirts on and a good majority of them looked like they teleported from the early 90's.

---

Artist: Velvet Revolver
Genre: Hard Rock/Post-Grunge
From: Hollywood, CA

After AiC concluded their setlist, the arena was all dark while the stage was being setup, and interestingly the song playing in the background to introduce the band was "Straight Outta Crompton" by NWA. Who would imagine using a rap classic to introduce a rock band? The announcer then introduced VR as a band from Hollywood that put the "Punked" back in "Punctuality" - poking a fun at GnR's vocalist Axl Rose who has always been beyond notorious for being tardy at concerts. The next thing you hear is a lead guitar solo, and a silhouette of Slash standing behind a curtain for a minute before the curtains fall, and the lights go full bright with all the band members performing "Let it Roll" - the first song from their latest and sophomore CD Libertad.

Following the first track, singer Scott Weiland (formerly of Stone Temple Pilots) introduced his band in his usually notorious words "We're Velvet Revolver, and we play m-f'n rock n' roll!" Which is true, they're the only band that play any old school rock n' roll these days. They continued with new songs including "Get Out the Door," "She Mine" and songs from their first album Contrabrand :"Superhuman" and "Big Machine." All of a sudden they sat down on coffee shop stools and started playing semi-acoustic ballads - somewhat bizarre but a pleasant surprise nonetheless. Ballads included their latest single "Last Fight" and GnR/STP covers "Patience" and "Interstate Love Song." I might be/have been in a daze, but Scott seemed do have a better job than the original singer Axl Rose at singing "Patience." These softie songs did mellow down the air quite a bit even though they were a delight to listen to, and the band rose to the occasion and went all electric again.

The spotlight fell on Slash alone, who played a guitar solo of the Led Zeppelin classic Heartbreaker brilliantly for a few minutes before resuming jamming with the band. A buddy of mine happens to be an Led Zeppelin fan, and was all praise for Slash's mastery at strumming like Jimmy Paige.

Photos courtesy of http://vr.rated-art.com/

VR continued with their originals "Set Me Free," "Do it for the Kids," their best ballad "Fall to Pieces" - which saw a lot of lighters go up in the front rows, and new releases "Just Sixteen," "She Builds Quick Machines" - which I like best from their new album. They continued with GnR covers of "It's so Easy" and "Mr. Brownstone" along with STP's "Sex Type Thing" which excited the crowd of nearly 6,000 to no end. Scott Weiland's continues serpentine dancing and leaping, climbing over speakers and anything he can get his limbs on, along with Slash semi-dominating the stage with his guitars and top-hat presence were the visual highlights of the show, along with the splendid and constantly varying lights. VR has really grown as a band, and improvised exceptionally as far as stage presence and value added-glamor such as the light-show.

The evening ended with VR's greatest hit ever/so far - "Slither", an elongated version with an obviously longer guitar solo and follow up vocals. The only downsize, and a minor one, may have been bassist Duff's soar voice lagging behind in backing vocals.

Overall, this was the greatest arena concert that I have attended till date, and VR continues to be my current favorite band. Too bad they didn't play "American Man" from their latest CD, but they did well enough too fill their nearly 2 hours of un-dragged performance. Having Alice in Chains tour with them and the pranks exchanged between these two bands showed spirit and support for fellow rock n' rollers of the 90's.

Keep on Rocking!

Links:

• Velvet Revolver's MySpace Page


• Alice in Chains' MySpace Page

Movie Review: The Kingdom

Movie Title: The Kingdom
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Garner, Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Ashraf Barhom and Jeremy Piven
Directed by: Peter Berg
Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller
My Rating: 8/10

Summertime is over and early Fall movies are here. This doesn't mean the worst movies are released, but definitely not the heavily crowd-gathering kind. The goal for movies released in this period are to make money at the box office mostly due to less competition. Kingdom isn't exactly a masterpiece or a classic-to-be, but far away from disaster, moreover. The occasional bouts of action and suspense kept one awake well during the flow dominated by thought processes for basically nothing.

Irregularly, I started appreciating this film right from the opening credits! Yes, they have the so-and-so presents, a so-and-so film, editor: so-and-so, but in between the credits they showed the proven and factual parts of the history of Saudi Arabia ever since monarchy came into power in the early 20th century, followed by the discovery of oil, and the Arab-American joint venture for oil digging (ARAMCO). That followed the unbiased summaries of how the US-Saudi relations got stronger through the years and minor political snippets similar to what you may have seen in Fahrenheit 9/11 without the bashing.

The actual movie starts with a social softball game on an American compound in Saudi (probably oil workers/engineers) and a bomb blows up killing many. An American team of 4 FBI-ers is sent to investigate the same in the ultra-hot, ultra-conservative Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The team comprises of an investigator (Foxx), a bomb-expert (Cooper), a forensic specialist (Garner) and an intel gatherer (Bateman). Good casting. Jamie Foxx now commands a strong screen presence ever since his Oscar win, and did great justice to his role. Garner wasn't exactly the ALIAS girl we know well, but a humble and less-talky geek girl who can kick ass if the occasion arises. Cooper was under-used, but filled his shoes just fine without an extra sole, and Bateman did what he does best. Joke around. He didn't exactly transition to a serious role in this very serious movie, but provided the momentary comic relief which wasn't mistimed at all. Witty sarcasm can always be a good addition to a thriller of a movie.

Middle Eastern actor Ashraf Barhoum impressed as the local cop (titled a Colonel though) who was assigned to escort this team. Jeremy Piven plays a suck up the Prince who's a partner of the oil digging firm. Seriously, after playing Ari Gold on TV's Entourage and winning so many awards for the same, and landing a leading role in Smoking Aces - Piven could have thought better than being miscast for this role. Come on, he can put the a back in a-hole.

Conspiracy theorists won't be adding anything to their bank of theories by watching this movie. Haters will less likely to hate more too. An average and sensible movie appreciating guy could just enjoy this movie like any other action thriller. I have thorough respect for a screenplay where facts are not bent for bias.

8/10 - won't make a bad rental or Netflix queue member. You will need at least half a good stomach to watch this, when compared to a real war flick like Black Hawk Down.