Year: 2011

The trailer was better than the movie. And that's a sad commentary for any review!

But seriously, the talented Russell Crowe didn't do it for me. The details of the plot seemed implausible, and much as I'd like to believe that every husband would go to such lengths to jail-break his wife out of prison, there's the niggling thought that it wouldn't really work out!

Oh well, you win some, and then you learn some!

And this is how you do it, Folks! When you retire, that is. RED is the acronym for Retired Extremely Dangerous, and that's just what they are. A more impressive cast would be hard to come by, and they sure do go about their business just as if it were any ordinary day– whether it's calling the Pension Office or taking in the afternoon soaps in the retirement home in their PJs, or even attending a gala with a machine gun tucked away on the side, and a string of black pearls that easily doubles as a door-locker!

You go out just like you came in– with a bang, that is, and with a lot of class. Who said retired wasn't sexy? 🙂

A brilliant satire that showcases the great rural-urban divide in modern India, without glossing over the contradictions of the world's largest democracy where the media is all-powerful to shape public opinion, but the nauseating bureaucracy of the government and those running for public office rival the degenerate state of affairs of vote-bank politics and the general disconnect with the rural poor.

With a superb script, the story reveals the irony of desperate measures taken by people in desperate times, and is an exemplary offering to the Academy Awards 'Foreign Film' category.

This isn't about the afterlife.  It's about being open to the unknown and the unseen during your lifetime. It's about the randomness that rules are lives. And it's about the element of predestination that each of us recognizes when certain people come into our lives– even if for a passing moment– or when certain events occur, that upon hindsight cause us to believe in the oft-quoted line, "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will".

There isn't a role that Matt Damon doesn't embody completely– be it a soccer captain or a psychic.

And what about that Clint Eastwood– going on 80, but making movies that make you think– and dare I say it, feel!

It's never too late to turn things around– to make a clean break– to start over. It seems like that is a theme that runs through many a Ben Affleck movie.

You know he's up to no good with the company he keeps and the things he does when he's done with his day job; you know he loathes his father, and adores his dead mother; and you know that he's deceiving the one he claims to love.  And yet you can't help but harbor the thought that this will all be behind him sooner or later, and that he'll turn over a new leaf. And that is exactly what he does.

The road to redemption might be a long one, but he gets on it, and you know that he means it when he says, "I'll see you again– either on this side or the other". Not an entirely believable script altogether, but the suspense, drama, and acting are a strong compensation for it.

And the Bostonian accents are impeccable all the way through. It's a lark, a shark, a walk in the park!

Finding yourself isn't the prettiest thing always, but the fact that you are desirous of this venture and brave enough to embark on it is in and of itself worth the endeavor. One of the more insightful and unsettling aspects of the human condition as portrayed by Maugham in this film is that of showing how willfully allowing a thing to occur is as good as not preventing it from occurring, i.e., causing good or evil in the most passive-aggressive way.

BTW, I didn't know this was Bill Murray's debut movie; he doesn't seem to have changed too much in the last quarter century!

Gorgeous cinematography with beautiful people. And if those were the only two ingredients to make a movie remarkable, then you could call this a remarkable movie. But all flash and not enough hook or punch in the story makes me want to sing 'I can't get no satisfaction.'

Clooney bears the title of sexiest-man-alive very well, and the breathtaking scenery of rural Italy makes you gasp with wonder… but where is the redemption? There is none.

There's suspense which doesn't bear much fruit.  And there's a lot of silent brooding and the music to match it.  There's also a nice looking dark-blue fiat car and a vespa scooter that reminded me of the kind my father owned once upon a time.  But is Jack anything more than a skilled gun-maker? Last I checked, shooting in self-defense does not an assasin make.

I'm sorry to say that the movie was a reward to the eye, but not the mind.

If the idea was to celebrate the mediocre and mundane, and the sometimes downright boring aspects of post-adolescence, then I suppose this movie has it all.

And if the point was to fight for your supposed true-love to the very end with the help of nifty gaming superpowers, then, well, whatshisname certainly fought the good fight well.

And if spending almost-two hours listening to lame one-liners and watching a group of maladjusted and semi-dysfunctional young adults muddle through the hours of their day and their relationships was another point of the movie, well, then, I suppose it hit the nail on its head.

I laughed only to be polite, and was thankful for the ending when it finally came.