Hardcore Movie Talk

Merits of cinema as a means of amusement and education

iGodFather — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:16:05 +0000

The days when bulky books were considered the only sources of knowledge are gone, as are the times when people relied on a so called ‘more-knowledgeable’ person to give them know-how of the world. Introducing, weighing more pounds than the burdensome books and hailing from farther than most scholars reach, the real sources of knowledge, amusement and real know-how : (it is) the movies. Movies, also known as cinema, are the addiction of people who want to know more, to progress and above all to be entertained.

Movies can be the real education materials these days. Almost all of human history has been literally screened. Whether it be about the first heroes in ‘10000 BC’, the human-sacrificing Mayan civilization in ‘Apocalypto’ or the valiant Spartans of ‘300’, our ancient history has been reproduced in very captivating ways. With the visual-reality, many people might have been total scared watching the ‘Jurrasic Park’ and ‘The Lost World’ movies. The movies like ‘Nero’, ‘Tiberius’, ‘Spartacus’ and ‘Rome’ can really put the Roman history into perspective. More recent history has been depicted in movies like ‘Pearl Harbor’, ‘The Pianist’, ‘Enemy at the gates’ and the likes. By watching these movies, one may never turn a page of the History text books and still know a lot about it.

Many people find it very boring to read novels and plays. Why even bother now? ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Da Vinci Code’, ‘Angels and Demons’, ‘In cold blood’ and other best sellers have been successful movies already. Many timeless classics like ’Pygmalion’, ‘A tale of two cities’ have already been reproduced, in a different art form and using scenes instead of words.

Movies help people know about natural disasters and to prevent them. ‘Volcano’ showed a catastrophic eruption in California, which claimed many lives. California being in a volcano and earthquake prone zone, this movie helped people to imagine what it would be like and also what to do during such a time. The Hindi movie ‘Tum Mile’ showed the 2007 Mumbai floods when a ‘month-worth’ of rain poured within six hours. ‘Avalanche’ is another movie which raises the natural calamity issue.

Many movies explore the possibilities of our science. The movie ‘Pay Check’ examines how it will be if our technology could predict the future. In ‘Godzilla’ the effect of nuclear energy on a lizard is used to warn us against the harms of atomic power. The movie ‘Pu239’ shows the dangers of nuclear weapons if in the wrong hands. In ‘Alien’ astronauts are sent to far reach of space, only to find an alien planet and aliens.

Many movies try to put our future into perspective. The warning movie ‘I am legend’ takes place about 3-4 years from now with an outbreak of a deadly disease. Will Smith’s ‘I Robot’ is another futuristic venture, showing the development of Artificial Intelligence in robots. The ‘Terminator’ series also goes into the tomorrow. ‘Star Wars’, ‘ET’, ‘Alien’, ‘Independence Day’ all try to explore our possibilities.

Movies like ‘The Inconvenient Truth’, ‘2012’ try to open our eyes to global warming, green house effect and the climate change. These movies urge us to act when there is still time to save the world, our only home. The sensational ‘Avatar’ tries to show the close harmony between nature and humans.

There are some movies which are richly entertaining and yet they have an underlying message or a story to tell. We could think of the hilarious ‘Night at the museum’ and ‘Ice age’ at this note. Many movies are made for pure entertainment. These are supposed to captivate people’s imagination. Amusement and pure amusement is the word we generally use for these movies. All the James Bond 007 movies are a great watch. They are all big, huge commercial successes. We go, watch the movies and forget our tensions, at least for some time. The ‘Mission Impossible’ series, The ‘Indiana Jones’ movies, The ‘X-Men’ movies, The Rambo movies and the list can go on and on and on.

Movies can be a really handy means of amusement and education. They have great merits in that respect. One edge that movies can have over other means is that unlike other means like book which appeals to the eyes; songs, speeches which appeal to the ears, movies appeal to a person’s eyes, ears and brains. So movies give thrice as much pleasure as other means can. It is true that sometimes movies can become addictive and movie-watchers lazy, but there is no disputing the fact that cinema hold true merits as a means of amusement and education.

Horrible Bosses – Gets The Job Done But Won’t Get A Promotion

Elli — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 18:07:00 +0000

Director Seth Gordon was essentially in a can’t-lose situation when he agreed to helm Horrible Bosses. After all, in a time where there are daily headlines about how the U.S. economy is in the toilet and millions of people are struggling just to find employment, who wouldn’t want to watch a dark comedy about three guys who absolutely loathe their abysmal superiors – enough to actually try and have them knocked off?

Horrible Bosses doesn’t execute that premise in as sharp or bitingly witty a fashion as one could hope for. Fortunately, it still works well enough, thanks in part to the combined comical chemistry of its three main stars: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, and Jason Sudeikis.

The trio doesn’t exactly have to stretch their comedic chops in Gordon’s film – Bateman is droll as ever, Day is the dim-witted nice guy, and Sudeikis is often just an unmitigated knucklehead – but, again, Horrible Bosses doesn’t require them to. Most of the movie revolves around the three men as they constantly fumble up their already ill-conceived efforts to kill each of their respective bosses. Basically, it’s like watching an R-Rated, contemporary version of The Three Stooges. Nothing substantial, but fun all the same.

Michael Markowitz, John Francis Daley, and Jonathan M. Goldstein shared scripting duties on Horrible Bosses, which is overall less smartly satirical and more just a bit of foul-mouthed silliness. Fortunately, enough of the raunchy humor hits its target and there’s never really a lull period throughout the film’s 98 minute running time.

However, what really make Horrible Bosses a pleasant time are, well, the horrible bosses themselves. You’ve got Kevin Spacey as a heartless head honcho who overworks Bateman’s character and gleefully mocks the nickname for his late grandmother, to his face; Jennifer Aniston as a nymphomaniac dentist who sexually harasses Day (there’s a contrived, but lewdly humorous, reason for why he tolerates her behavior); and Colin Farrell as the coke-headed son of a recently-deceased, kindly business owner who, upon taking over his father’s company, orders Sudeikis to fire all the obese employees – among other things.

What allows these caricatures to work is Spacey, Aniston, and Farrell’s willingness to dive heads-first into their respective roles. A lot of people have praised Aniston for completely inverting the nice-girl image that she’s carried over, from her days on Friends, but it’s arguably Farrell who’s the best of the lot – even if he is, ultimately, underused in the film.

The biggest problem with Horrible Bosses is that there’s nothing really altogether memorable about the whole thing. Most of the one-liners and gags are amusing enough – and some are even laugh-out loud funny – but you might sometimes feel like you’re watching a glorified sitcom, less a fully-realized movie. As far as adults-only comedies of Summer 2011 go, it’s a solid notch below the hilarious Bridesmaids, but a step or two above the mediocre Bad Teacher.

To use a fitting analogy: if Horrible Bosses were an employee, you’d congratulate them on doing a nice job – just not one that’s good enough for you to give them a raise, is all.

Rating: 6 out of 10 stars

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Maverick

iGodFather — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 10:25:35 +0000

: Maverick

Maverick is the story of a poker player (Gibson) who is trying to get into a championship poker tournament to find out how good he really is. But, unfortunately, he is $3000 short for the entrance amount, so he does his best to get that money, anyway possible.

The film begins with Maverick (Gibson) at the end of a noose, sitting on a horse, out in the middle of nowhere. Then the movie goes into a flashback telling how he got in such situation.

He finally gets into the tournament. As you might have already guessed, he does win it. But, there’s more to the story. The plot is totally unpredictable and there are different twists and turns along the way. Just when you think the movie is over, you see another twist that you hadn’t imagined of.

Its a good mix of comedy and drama. Most of the scenes are funny and will leave you with a laughter.Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, James Garner and Graham Green, all seem well in the lead and supporting character. Mel Gibson is as handsome as usual and has got some pretty funny lines. His role is terrific.

The film is really enjoyable and has a great number of unexpected developments. Hence, the nomination for the Oscar is justified. I do have to agree, this is one of those rare movies you can watch over and over again without getting tired of it. Direction and cinematography both are superb. It is definitely a wonderful movie and a pleasant way to spend 2 hours of your life.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Acharya – A new wave of Nepali movies?

Eraserhead — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 16:24:58 +0000

It has been quite some time I last watched a Nepali movie. What I can vouch – Acharya is totally different from any Kollywood movie made upto present or atleast the ones I’ve watched. It covers the story of Bhakta Raj Acharya- a followed classical /modern singer. The story can be divided in two -his struggle to make upto the recording studio of Radio Nepal and his life after his music starts getting recognized.

Satya Raj Acharya (the elder son of musician Bhakta Raj) in lead has presented a fine display of talent and is just what the story needed. He has succeeded in sticking within the limitations asked by the plot – a phenomenon I have not yet seen in any lead actor in Kollywood. Satya shows extensive knowledge and thorough study of his character and has been successful in playing the lines without tilting away from the script. I could not see a bit of overacting in the part of protagonist.

The direction is superb. Prashant Rasailey has done a commendable job. The screenwriter (Rick Baraff) too would be for applaud had it not been for some minor glitches throughout the movie. I always got the feeling of certain “flowness” lagging in some scenes. Many small scenes are cut right away leading to a different part causing a weird feeling of the absence of coherence. One of them is when the letter comes hinting his mother to be seriously ill, but in the interval of seconds, his mother is fit grinding flour.

Similarly, I could not digest unnecessary clips shown “just to add charms (?)”. Showing sceneries, birds flying or snow clad mountains hardly please the audiences, not at present atleast. These clips also had an effect in the smoothness in the cinematography. Clearly these scenes seemed to be from an outer source and the only reason of them shown had to be the director not wanting to waste his miscellaneous. Talking about unnecessary scenes, one scene where the protagonist cries in the middle of the field seemed in no way to be in accordance. It was probably added (from nowhere) to gather the sympathy of the audience/ make them emotional. This has to be the biggest drawback of the entire film.

Another achievement of the movie would be the right selection/presentation of the soundtrack.The music has helped a lot to the film. Not a single track seemed unnecessary. I don’t think the movie would be the same had it not been for these tracks.

Kollywood, after a long time, has gained something it can keep for the future. I consider the money I paid- a well spent and hope the team involves in a new project soon. The movie will remain in the record only if the successor Kollywood movies retain the uniqueness ‘Acharya’ has shown. I hope ‘Acharya’ to be the pioneer of a new wave of Nepali movies.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

[Solution] Top Bar & Launcher disappears after enabling Desktop Cube

iGodFather — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 17:01:29 +0000

If you enable “Desktop Cube” from CompizConfig settings manager, you are prompted to disable desktop wall and other plugins. Disabling these plugins might cause havoc to your Ubuntu system. Immediately after you click on “Disable Desktop Wall”, the launcher and the top bar will disappear from your Ubuntu. You will see no borders around windows, so you cannot close them, move them, or resize them. And worst of it all, hotkeys are also disabled. You cannot run terminal by pressing Ctrl-Alt-T. All you can see is the desktop background and the stuff on it. The problem would not be solved even if you restart your system. This might cause you to format your system and install a new copy of Ubuntu. But, there’s a simple solution to it.

Immediately after you disable desktop wall, you will no longer see the top bar. So, you cannot logout, restart or shutdown. So, Press Ctrl + Alt + F1. You will be taken to a console where you will be prompted to enter username and password(It will be better if you login as root user, since you need to use SUDO command.) After entering the necessary login information, type the following on the console:

sudo service gdm stop
sudo reboot

Your computer will now reboot. Once you get to the login window, choose your username and instead of logging in directly, look on the bottom. There’s a bar showing the language you are using and the type of ubuntu you are currently on. Click on the one saying “Ubuntu” and select “Ubuntu Classic(No effects)” from the drop down list. Now, enter your password to login. You should now see the top bar.On the top bar, click on Applications and look for “Terminal”. Open up the terminal and enter the following exactly as it is, on the terminal :

gconftool –recursive-unset /apps/compiz-1
gconftool –recursive-unset /apps/compizconfig-1

Remember that, immediately after “gconftool”, there is a space and then two hyphens (–) but there is only one hyphen after “recursive”. And there’s a space after “unset”.

That’s it. Now, Logout from the system. Again, on the login screen, select “Ubuntu” on the bottom bar instead of “Ubuntu Classic(No effects)”. Enter your password to login. You should now see the top bar, launcher and borders around windows. And the hotkeys should work too. Good Luck!

Install CompizConfig in Ubuntu 11.04 (Offline & Online Methods)

iGodFather — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 18:26:12 +0000

CompizConfig is used to add exciting new features and animations to your Linux system. After the installation, you will find your Ubuntu more enjoyable and exciting to use.

Online Method
Go to “Ubuntu Software Center” and search for Compiz . Download all the packages listed there (including the “Advanced Desktop Effects Settings”). After installation is complete, run CompizConfig Settings Manager from Applications. Select the animations and features you’d like to have.

Offline Method
Download the basic dependencies listed below one by one :

Remember these dependencies are updated from time to time. So, although you can run CompizConfig by downloading these dependencies, you cannot expect to have latest plugins and updated dependencies. Anyways, put them inside a folder named CompizConfig. The size of the folder should reach about 6.55 Mb. Then move the folder to your ubuntu OS. Paste the folder on your desktop. Launch Terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T. Enter the following on the terminal :

cd Desktop

cd CompizConfig

sudo dpkg -i *.deb

It should now prompt you for the user password. Enter the password and the installation will begin. The installation will complete in a moment or two. Then Go to “Applications” by clicking on the icon on the topmost left corner. Enter “Compiz” there. The result should include “CompizConfig Settings Manager”. Click on it to launch CompizConfig. Select the animations and features you’d like to have. That’s it. Some features might ask you to download more plugins but most of them won’t. Enjoy.

Install music and video codecs in Ubuntu 11.04

iGodFather — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 18:02:44 +0000

The first thing anyone would want their computer to do is to play music. Mp3 is the most common format for storage and distribution of digital music files. Unfortunately, the codec is propriety, so it cannot be distributed free with distros. Some distros like Linux Mint simply give the codec with the distro. Contrary to open source beliefs, most free music on the internet is also distributed in the mp3 format. Installing the codec on a linux distro, while not exactly painful, is an irritating process. It is irritating if you do it the old way i.e. downloading the fluendo package and copying them to /usr/local/lib/codecs.

If your Linux system is connected to internet, you will have no issue playing songs and movies. If you try playing any music file, whose codec is not installed, the default Media player (Banshee or Movie Player) will automatically ask you to download the codec before you could play that file. And after downloading the codecs, music files associated with that codec will play without any problem. But, the thing is, you have to download new codecs for each kind of file format. For example, suppose you are trying to play Mp3 file, and it asks you to download the codec. Once you download the codec, all Mp3 files will start working, but mpeg won’t. You have to again download codecs for mpeg, wmv, mp4, flv and other formats seperately. There is a solution.

Ubuntu 11.04 Natty

Online Method
If you prefer terminal way of working, go to Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and type this :

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

It will look for the “ubuntu-restricted-extras” package in the software repository, download it and then install it. The Ubuntu Restricted Extras will install Adobe Flash Player, Java Runtime Environment (JRE) (sun-java-jre) with Firefox plug-ins (icedtea), a set of Microsoft Fonts (msttcorefonts), multimedia codecs (w32codecs or w64codecs), mp3-compatible encoding (lame), FFMpeg, extra Gstreamer codecs, the package for DVD decoding (libdvdread4), the unrar archiver, odbc, and cabextract. It also installs multiple “stripped” codecs and avutils (libavcodec-unstripped-52 and libavutil-unstripped-49).
If you prefer to install it graphical way, go to Software Center and enter Ubuntu Restricted Extras. Press ‘Use this source’. Wait for the program to complete downloading.
And then click on install.

Restart the system and most of the music files should work now.

Offline Method

Installing music codecs is only difficult, if you don’t know what to download. Once you know the thing you require to download is “Ubuntu-restricted-extras”, you won’t have any problem. Just google for it.

To make your task easier, I have already looked up one for you : http://www.mediafire.com/?qcm0wzkv59wjn6m (126 Mb)
The above file consists not only music codecs, but lots more common files like fonts and java run time plug ins. If your internet connection is slow and you’d like to download only music codecs then here’s the one for you : http://www.ziddu.com/download/12921112/ubuntu-codecs-pack-10.04.tar.gz.html (19.57 Mb)

Once downloaded, put them in your USB drive and copy them to your Ubuntu system. Now, Extract and read the ReadMe file for further instructions.

Good Luck!

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

iGodFather — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 07:52:47 +0000

I don’t have a great appetite for musicals. I rarely watch them. I found even ‘Fiddler on the roof’ and ‘The sound of music’ too boring. But, this movie was something different. It wasabsolutely wonderful. Based on a Broadway musical play, this movie really adheres closely to Sondheim’s book, resulting in the most dramatically satisfying movie Burton has ever made.

The story begins with Benjamin Barker’s arrest by Judge Turpin for a crime he did not commit. He is sent away from London. But, he returns back with a new facet : Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Sweeney Todd

This time he vows to take revenge. He starts as a barber once again and continues in his path of vengeance. There’s more to the story and you need to watch it to find it out.

Johnny Depp has sang rather well. Keeping his accent, whether singing or not, has made the film much better. I believe the music was performed and carried out beautifully.

Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham carter, Sacha Baron Cohen, Alan Rickman are all spectacular. Depp and Bonham Carter are both excellent and its down to their performances that I never quite lost sympathy with them in their descent into madness, blood lust and cannibalism.

Some elements of the plot are predictable, in a Greek tragedy sort of way, but it doesn’t really detract the movie.

The second half is completely gruesome and enjoyable. It’s all dark, bloody and dazzlingly disturbing from the second half. It sings, it glows, it enchants, it horrifies. It’s a brutal and shattering masterpiece.

All in all, the movie was awesome, filled with damned and hopeless characters.

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Eraserhead — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 05:07:56 +0000

That what started as a children’s movie has finally come to the end. This time though not as jolly and preferably not for very young. The darkest version had the most to tell of all the installments which surprisingly David Yates seem to have failed to recognize.

Not that i have read , I can tell Yates has done no justice to the book. Right after 15 minutes of the movie, I felt something is wrong with the pace. With the continuation from the previous installment and much to tell, the movie seemed to have been way short sometimes making you wonder why they couldn’t make a Part 3. It seems everyone was in a hurry to finish the long and much appreciated saga.

The horcruxes seemed to be quite easy a find even for Potter (I know he had the Voldemort’s sense) but the quest could have been made more struggling and ‘magical’ . The killing of Nagina (final horcrux) was simply a waste.

The Lead characters have done a good job. Ralph Fiennes (Voldemort) and Alan Rickman (Snape) were perfect in their roles (as always). Helena Bonham Carter would have had another masterpiece in her account only had Bellatrix Lestrange shown more. Carter seemed to be the most unused character.

Had the fight between Bellatrix and Mrs. Weasly (Walter) been extended and Dumbledore shown few more times with his story, the movie would have been far more better.

For the rest of the characters, Matthew Lewis’ character of Neville, Evana Lynch (Luna Lovegood) and Tom Felton (Malfoy) are worth commending.

And lastly, there’s nothing to see of this movie in 3D except some firecrackers.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars

Spielberg confirms Jurassic Park 4 at Comic Con

iGodFather — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 12:16:48 +0000

Steven Spielberg has finally confirmed that a fourth installment in the iconic Jurassic Park series is in the works. This news must be of great relief to those who have been expecting a new movie from the series (due to great speculations and unfounded rumors).

Though it’s been 18 years since the first Jurassic Park movie, people are still interested in the series. Speaking in front of 6000 people, Spielberg (making his Comic Con debut to talk about his upcoming animation The Adventures of Tintin) said:

“We have a story and a writer who is writing the treatment and hopefully we are going to make Jurassic Park 4 in all of our foreseeable futures, hopefully in the next two or three years.”

He also confirmed that the picture will be shot in 3D.

The Adventures of Tintin is slated for a 26th October UK release date, and a USA release of 23rd December.

Jurassic Park 4