Thursday, December 2, 2010

Inglourious Basterds, Very Glorious

Now if you have watched Kill Bill, you would know what a stylish director Quentin Tarantino is. But the real strength of his movies is the depth in the script and the performance that he extracts from the cast.

Inglourious Basterds is certainly a must watch. Don't be deterred by the fact that it is another movie about World War 2 and that it is as much French and German as it is English, it makes a great watch.

The movie is about two parallel plots being hatched by disconnect groups to assassinate Hitler. While one is hatched by a French Jewish girl whose family is executed by Germans, the other is led by a team of Jewish Allied soldiers. Incidentally, both plan to assassinate Hitler and important German officers during the premier of a German movie at the theater owned by girl.

I personally loved the movie because of Christoph Waltz. He plays the role of SS Colonel Hans Landa who also was responsible for the death of the girl's family. Waltz excels as a The Jew Hunter. While one can easily hate the person, it is an actors nightmare, as Tarantino himself has acknowledged. As mentioned in Wikipedia, "...character who is courteous and speaks four languages but is self serving, cunning and callous, Tarantino feared he "might have written a part that was un-playable".

No wonder, Christoph Waltz won the Oscars in the Best Supporting Actor's category. Very nice!

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

I Hate Luv Stories, Puppy Love

We are so prejudiced. And as far as Hindi films go, I, certainly, am. I believe that there is more style than substance in Hindi movies.

When I Hate Luv Stories was released, I told myself that this would be another one of those meaningless stupid Hindi movies. So, like I do all the time, decided to skip it.

But thanks to the in-flight entertainment on Kingfisher flight I took to Mumbai, couple of weeks back, I chose the movie over the book I was carrying to read. Before I begin on what I thought, let me say that I didn't get to watch the climax as the in-flight announcements and duration of the flight cut it short.

I hate to admit it, but I was giggling away to glory on those juvenile humor. Though Om Shanthi Om also takes a dig at the film industry, this movie is more comprehensive in the way it ridicules the love stories films. Of course, there is nothing new in the storyline. Boy meets girl, they both fight and then fall in love. Of course, there are too many twists that kept me hooked.

Well, by the way, IHLS is quite stupid movie with little intelligence, but then not everyone may want to watch serious movies all the time. If you are young at heart, this may keep you occupied and giggling.