Charlie Wilson 's War (2007) review

Day before yesterday I watched a movie directed by late Mike Nicholas ( The Graduate) named "Charlie Wilson's War"  which is based on true story.

In 1979, USA was still reeling from loss in Vietnam in 1975 and facing a hostage crisis in Iran, which made it clear that USA was losing in Cold War. Détente with China in 1972 did not help either. Meanwhile, in same time, Afghanistan was invaded by USA 's biggest enemy ,USSR . Still angry  with USSR , USA wanted to help Afghanistanis to defeat the Russians, but at same time did not to want to send it's army after loss in Vietnam. So USA government launched "Operation Cyclone" as a response, in which weapons, money and CIA training was supplied by USA.

This task was given to Charlie Wilson, A Texan Senator who was also famous for his playboy lifestyle.

Here Charlie Wilson is played by Tom Hanks. Julia Roberts plays Joan Herring, a Texan deeply religious socialite who force Charlie to join "Operation Cyclone". Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Gust Avrakatos, a CIA official. Even though big stars like Emily Blunt and Amy Adams are present here, they do not really matter here.

This movie is written by Aaron Sorkin. Now I know it may not come as surprise because this movie is a political movie, but you will be surprised to notice that the characters do not talk like Aaron Sorkin character. I mean Charlie is a playboy, Joan is a socialite and Gust is profane. A lot may have to do with the fact that they were real people. Or maybe Aaron this time did not want to write character in a typical way ?

For a subject that is bit heavy, the movie deals it very lightly in a very tasteful manner. To be fair it was only way to deal with this story. If it was dealt in a straight manner, it would have been quite boring. I mean there is not really lot of action here. Sure, there are some Afghanistanis exploding helicopter but it is not exactly Rambo 3.  This is more of talky movie as expected by Aaron Sorkin.

This is a great movie for history buff and Tom Hanks fan

The Forgotten Heroes

9/11 attacks  was devastating not only for USA , but for whole world. World would not be same again.There was sadness everywhere. People were ready to change to combat terrorism. 

2 days after 9/11 attack, Tomas Young,a patriot enlisted in army to combat terrorism. He was just 22.


On April 4, 2004, five days after being sent to Iraq, Young was shot while riding in an open, unarmored truck during an ambush staged by rebels in Sadr City. One of the bullets pierced his spine and left him paralyzed from the chest down.
He returned home to Kansas City, Missouri and joined the Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). He later became a public critic of the Iraq War.

In 2007, a documentary called Body Of war was released, which showed us about life of Tomas Young as a war veteran and anti-war activist. It received a lot of accolades.


In 2008, however, Young took a turn for the worst with a pulmonary embolism and an anoxic brain injury that impaired his speech and expanded his paralysis to his arms. He's since undergone numerous painful surgeries, including the removal of his colon, to deal with emerging medical problems. 
In February 2013, he decided not to take supplement anymore that were keeping him alive. That same year he released a video called "The Last Letter"

In 2014, he lost his life. He had a wife and mother.

I am telling you this story, because of negligence we show towards veteran. Not only they have to suffer PTSD, but they do not have enough money to pay for their medical bills. On top of that, people call them bad names. We need to be responsible for men and women who fight for us. They take care of us during war, we should take care of them after war.

Revenge of the Nerds Review

It has been 30 years ,since the movie has released and it shows. This movie feels like a 1980s movie in each and every way.And the fact that since that since the emergence of The Big Bang Theory and Joss Whedon, nerds have become a part of mainstream. Thus, the movie shows how much time has changed. Despite these facts, the movie has aged very well.For a guy who was not present in 1980s and watched for the first time in 2014, I must say that movie has aged pretty well.

                                

After "Animal House" became a hit in 1978, many R-rated sex comedy came in 1980s like Porky, Risky Business and Fast Times At Ridgemont High. They were quite funny, but sometimes they took themselves seriously at a time. Seriousness worked flawlessly in Risky Business, but it felt mismatched in Porky and Fast Times at Ridgemont High. This is not the case here. Sure it has all the typical T&A Teen Sex Gross-out ingredient like sex jokes, men peeking at naked girls, drugs, booze, partying, F-word, toilet humor and of course gratuitous frontal nudity,but the fact that movie never takes itself seriously sets it apart. The director of movie knew he was not making another "The Graduate", but a very stupid comedy and he did not hide this fact with serious topics like racism(Porky) or abortion(Fast Times).The plot is very simple and you can guess from it's title. The title clearly specifies that nerds take revenge from jocks. Nerd represent nerd and jocks represent jocks. Nothing symbolic here.  
                                     
                                            

One of the best thing about movie is it 's character. Just like the film itself characters are slapstick and cartoonish. For e.g.; there is a character named Ogre, who behaves like Marvel superhero Hulk. Only difference is that Hulk is green skinned and has more hair. But the character that steals the show here is Booger. His role here is to be disgusting. Be it burping,eating dirty things or as you can guess from his name taking out his booger ! Booger is played by same guy who played Tom Cruise 's best friend in Risky Business and gave what the f--- speech.

                                       

The movie is often accused of it's misogyny, but I am at movie 's defense here since a) movie is equal offender. It offends every one . Be it male or female,nerds or jocks, gays or rebels. b)girls were also nasty towards "nerds" and thus nerds had lame excuse to take revenge and c) it was 1980s. It was in trend for movie of similar genre to be sexist. At least it is not MASH.

Ferris Bueller Review

I found it very strange that a teenage boy would spend his day off at mall and fine dining. It is rather what a middle age man with bad job would do on his day off. But that 's not my biggest complaint is not that. I don't mind if movie lacks logic or realism as long as it is entertaining.

My problem was that movie didn't live up to hype it got. I didn't find the movie as entertaining or funny as everyone on internet said nor I didn't find Ferris as cool or likable as everyone thinks.

First let me talk about the movie. The movie was very dull, boring, slow and uneventful for me. Even the situation that happens are not so entertaining sometime. For example, take museum scene. Sure setting a scene in museum is boring itself.But that is not a big problem. A good director can make a scene set in boring classroom interesting. What makes this scene boring is that characters do nothing. They do not do any mischief, they do not destroy anything, they do not do prank or the fact that do not give any witty remarks on any painting. They just stand and stare the painting. Instead camera shows the paintings. If I had to see the painting, I would use my internet to Google some painting or if I don't have internet, I would simply go to public library and read a book about painting. When fun thing actually happen i.e.; watching baseball game , they don't show much. Only time I laughed was when Ed Rooney was humiliated.

Now let me talk about Ferris Bueller himself. Even if I forget he lies and manipulate people who loves him the most, I still don't like this character. I did not find him cool at all. There is no strong reason why he is the most popular kid in school who is worshiped by everyone. Only special thing about him is his unbelievable luck. I found him boring guy who keeps on explaining why is he cool.

MASH 1970 Movie Review

Directed by famous Robert Altman, a guy who inspired his actors to improve, this movie is about surgeons who use to treat wounded U.S. soldiers fighting in Korean War. Though the premise sounds like it is a serious movie, it is actually satirical black comedy set in background of Army Hospital.

The movie follows three surgeons named Hawkeye, Trapper Joe and Duke, who spend their free time in womanizing and drinking. These three protagonists or “anti-hero” may be one of most unlikable characters to put on screen with not much of redeeming quality except the fact they are good surgeon who saves lives of soldiers. They like to break rules for their benefit and bully anyone they don’t like or does not cooperate with them. Though the audience should be rooting for them as they are rebelling against authority which is strict, it is pretty difficult to root for them as the authority they are rebelling against is not so bad. I mean they get to play, womanize and drink in their free time. What makes rooting for them even harder is the fact that antagonists (Hot Lips and Colonel Blake) are actually likable character who are humiliated and bullied just for the sake of fun. The audience is supposed to laugh at these people but it is difficult to laugh when the pranks played to nice people are cruel and unnecessary. Here, not only lead characters are misogynist, but the whole movie‘s storyline in misogynist. Worst of all is the leading characters never feel ashamed for their cruel joke.

Though the movie is often referred to “anti war satire”, the movie does not feel anti war at all, because the protagonist does not suffer from war much but instead they are having time of their life. There is no excuse or good reason for their bad behavior.

Saying all this, I am not saying movie is bad. The director was quite revolutionary for the technique used in movie, which sets the atmosphere of a dirty hospital and even brings to your world. If you want to see the movie for its direction, do watch this. But if you are expecting good humor, entertainment and a smile on your face, you will have hard time. You will enjoy this movie, only if you are ready to drop your moral and sanity. 

There‘s something about Mary Review

Coming off with hits like “Dumb & Dumber” and “Kingpin”, audience must have expected funny but juvenile and uncomfortable scenes from Farrelly  brothers .But what they did not expect was a mature and sweet love story. Sure this is a romantic movie. But this is not another clichéd love story. No, this is a romantic movie with twist. It contains elements of a black comedy as well as a mindless gross-out teen sex comedy (of which I am a big fan)

Though the main plot is not new, how it is executed is. The best part of the movie is its unpredictability. You actually wonder whether the boy will get the girl or not? The movie shocks you not only with its brilliant twists-and-turns but also with its grossness. This movie is quite rewatchable even if it loses shock value after you have seen it many times. Those who are fan of the first three “American Pie” movies will quite appreciate its humor. Though the gags may not be as disgusting or sexual like the 1999 American Pie, they are still funny and memorable. Some of them are so funny that your stomach will hurt from laughter even if you know what is going to happen.

Even if you don’t like its humor, you will still like the movie for its memorable character, brilliant pacing, nice music and believable acting, which is done by everyone in cast. Be warned this movie is not for everyone due to its vulgarity and political incorrectness.

Godzilla Review

So Hollywood tries their hand on Godzilla for second time. Will it be a hit this time unlike last time? Well unlike Ronald Emmerich helmed 1998 remake, which I haven’t seen so far, this is the best monster movie made in Hollywood since Jurassic Park. In some parts it is even better and more creative than Jurassic Park. Only thing lacking is the humour and memorable character like Dr. Ian Malcolm or Dr. Alan Grant from Jurassic Park. But enough with the comparison, let ‘s talk about the film on its own. This movie is non-stop entertaining that’s for sure. It is entertaining even when the scene does not involve monster fights and human drama. And main credit for this goes to Bryan Cranston(whom we said goodbye on TV last year as “Walter White” on incredible  finale of equally incredible “Breaking Bad”) and Ken Watanabe who steal every scene they are in as scientist due to their incredible acting    despite the fact they are in supporting role. As for the leading characters played by Aaron Taylor Johnson and Elisabeth Olsen as husband and wife, they are okay in their performance, but are not convincing enough to be a parent of 5 year old, since they themselves look like a teenager. However when they are not together, they do their job decent enough to hold their scenes tight.

 Enough about performance, let’s talk about the action scenes. The fight scenes are pretty awesome. They would be one of best fight scenes you would see this year. Some of the monster-vs-monster fight can give competition to last year‘s Pacific Rim. Unlike some monsters in a PG-13 film, here monsters are really scary not only because of their looks (kudos to creature design department) but because  the not so experienced director add enough build up, momentum ,unpredictability and thrill without any clichéd jump scares, to make the atmosphere scary.

The film is brilliant technically. And by technically I do not mean just the special effects but the cinematography and sound effect. But most impressive thing is art direction. Here everything is not grey or dark, which is the case in movie like these, but here each and everything looks beautiful, be it architecture of Japan or close up shots of insects(yes, insects!) which looks like they are from National Geographic Channel.