Ramanisblog

Tag: english movies

  • 1408 A Review

    1408 is a film that sets out to explore the world of the paranormal.

    A writer who specializes in paranormal stories gets into a Hotel Room in New York,  reported to have caused bizarre Deaths, despite being warned not to enter.

    Though expected to have an open mind the writer is a Non Believer.

    How he ends up a believer forms the Story.

    The first question one wishes to ask the writer is how a Hotel in a Major City had the room open despite the disasters of 56 people having died in mysterious circumstances.

    The feeble answer through the manager is that the Corporation that runs the Hotel wants it to be open!

    The question how the law enforcing agencies reacted to the deaths is also left unanswered.

    However, the film does bring into the fore all your irrational fears reinforced, especially the basic fears of Water,Fire, Snow and of course Death.

    The scenes are so interspersed with instances where one is intrigued as to the fact whether the scene one witnesses is the Story or one of the spirit made confusions in the mind of the writer

    The Movie also touches on Human tenderness and affection. when  the writer sees his dead child talking to him  and her last days are flashed to him.

    The dialogue  where his dead father tells him –’You are what I was and you shall be what I am’ expresses Life and Death in a simple statement.

    barring these minor points, the film is potboiler playing to your fear of the unknown.

    Might able a Film for those who want to watch a Film that makes them confused for no reason .

  • Oscar Winners 2011.

    Complete list.-Kodak Theater,Los Angeles.

    :: Best Picture – The King’s Speech.
    :: Best Actor – Colin Firth, The King’s Speech.

    :: Best Actress – Natalie Portman, Black Swan.
    :: Supporting Actor – Christian Bale, The Fighter.
    :: Supporting Actress – Melissa Leo, The Fighter.
    :: Director – Tom Hooper, The King’s Speech.
    :: Animated Feature – Toy Story 3.
    :: Adapted Screenplay – The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin.
    :: Original Screenplay – The King’s Speech, David Seidler.
    :: Art Direction – Alice in Wonderland.
    :: Cinematography – Inception – Wally Pfister.
    :: Costume Design – Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood.
    :: Documentary Feature, Inside Job.
    :: Documentary Short Subject, Strangers No More.
    :: Film Editing – The Social Network.
    :: Foreign Language Film, In a Better World.
    :: Makeup – The Wolfman.
    :: Original Score – The Social Network.
    :: Original Song – We Belong Together, from Toy Story 3.
    :: Animated Short Film – The Lost Thing.
    :: Live Action Short Film – God of Love.
    :: Sound Editing – Inception – Richard King.
    :: Sound Mixing – Inception.
    :: Visual Effects – Inception.

    http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Showbiz-News/Complete-List-of-Oscar-Winners-At-The-Academy-Awards-In-2011/Article/201102415942183

  • Bourne again: “Green Zone” a remarkable movie-Trailer and Movie


    LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – In “Green Zone,” director Paul Greengrass brings the frenetic, run-and-gun style with which he utterly transformed the movie thriller in the Jason Bourne series to a different kind of thriller, one with a sharper political edge
    For “Green Zone” explores the Bush administration’s willingness to embrace palpable lies over murky truths in order to sell the Iraq War to the American public
    Iraq mostly has been a nonstarter at the box office, but this is Matt Damon, Greengrass and the “Bourne” team reunited on another breathless venture into ticking-clock urgency. So Universal should easily overcome that hurdle to rack up considerable theatrical coin in North America and overseas.

    Drawing on his years as a British television journalist covering global conflicts for ITV, Greengrass brings a cinema verite style to his thrillers. He makes these movies look as if a guerrilla camera crew has somehow tagged along with a movie’s protagonist to catch key moments in an unfolding story as it explodes in the character’s face.

    In Hitchcock terms, the movie has both a goal and a MacGuffin. The goal is the determination by U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller (Damon) to discover why his team of inspectors comes up empty every time commanders send them to find chemical weapons in the Iraqi desert. The MacGuffin is a small notebook an Iraqi general grabbed four months earlier as the U.S. invasion began. It contains the addresses of Baathist safe houses in the Baghdad area.
    Endangering the lives of his soldiers to hit a target, which Pentagon “intel” has fingered as a storage site for MWDs, and again finding nothing, Miller wants answers. Returning to Baghdad, he encounters three people who could supply them: Defense Intelligence agent Clark Poundstone (Greg Kinnear), CIA station chief Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) and Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent Lawrie Dayne (Amy Ryan). Miller doesn’t like what he hears.

    All the intelligence comes from a single source. This source has confirmed Dayne’s many stories about Saddam Hussein’s stockpiles of MWDs and now pinpoints the sites Miller’s team fruitlessly searches. Then Miller runs across an individual who does have accurate information. A local, English-speaking Iraqi who calls himself Freddy (Khalid Abdalla) risks his life to approach Miller to tell him that key Iraqi army figures, all wanted by coalition forces, are meeting in a house nearby.
    http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6240YS20100305?loomia_ow=t0:s0:a49:g43:r5:c0.052786:b31573844:z0

  • An Interview With James Cameron’s Avatar About ‘Avatar’

    James Cameron’s latest film, Avatar, is set to hit theaters next week. The CGI heavy film has taken Cameron over fifteen years to create, delayed by Cameron’s own busy schedule, Hollywood politicking, and the sorry state of computer technology in the mid 1990s.

    To give Cracked readers the inside scoop on the big movie of the holiday season, I met Mr. Cameron at his office in Los Angeles after some mild subterfuge. There we talked about the film, and the lengthy process involved in bringing his vision to the screen.

    ___

    Chris Bucholz: Hello Mr. Cameron.

    James Cameron: Oh Please, call me James.

    CB: OK, sure James. I guess first off, I’d like to say I’m just a huge, huge fan of yours.

    JC: Glad to hear it. -Cameron’s face twitches as he says this, almost like he’s winking at me-

    CB: Uh, yeah. I just totally break down crying every time I see True Lies. And Almost Famous was incredible.

    JC: That… that was actually Cameron Crowe.

    CB: Such a good movie though.

    JC: It was. -His face twitches again. Is he extremely attracted to me, or merely in possession of a facial tic, I wonder.-

    CB: -I cross my legs slowly.- But I guess I’m really here to talk about your latest film, which is called Avatar.

    JC: Yes. Avatar has been my p-p-ppp-passion and my burden for a long time now.

    CB: Yes, I’ve heard about its lengthy development. We’ll talk about that later. For now, can you tell me what the film is about?

    JC: Well it’s about this planet, where humans are battling the native species for control of a valuable resource. The protagonist – the hero – is this guy who, using DNA technology, creates a shell that looks like one of the natives. So he remotely takes control of this shell, or “avatar” and goes undercover, as a spy for the humans. And as the story develops, maybe it turns out that everything isn’t quite what it first seemed.

    CB: So it’s exactly like the Wizard of Oz.

    JC: It is nothing like the W-w-w-wizard of Oz, dammit!. -Another facial tic.-

    CB: You said there’s a guy controlling an empty shell. Like the Wizard did with his big fire breathing statue.

    JC: -sighing- OK. It is a little bit like the Wizard of Oz.

    CB: A lot of people say that was a great movie. Not me. Didn’t care for it. Not believable. So I guess that’s a point against you. -I make a great show of placing a big heavy X in my notepad.- Ok. Let’s talk a bit about the challenges in developing the film.

    JC: -Sounding mildly annoyed.- Yes, well I came up with the original idea in 1994, and wrote up most of the script for it. I sort of shopped it around a bit, but before long I ended up getting sidetracked with a little movie about a boat.

    CB: Growing Pains.

    JC: No. What? Oh. Kirk Cameron. OK, again, not me. Anyways, I looked into it again in the late 90’s and decided that the technology wasn’t there to realize my vision. I didn’t look at it again until 2005, after I saw some of the work being done in other films, like with Gollum in The Lord of The Rings.

    CB: So this is a sequel to The Lord of the Rings.

    JC: Sure. Why not. I’ve also been working very hard with 3D technology, to create a really immersive experience. -Cameron’s whole body starts shuddering at this point, his left arm flapping about like a seal that’s excited about something.-

    CB: Are you OK?

    JC: Yes, of cc-c-c-ourse.

    CB: All right…. So you don’t find 3D movies to be distracting headache machines?

    JC: No, but I know what you’re talking about. We’ve worked very hard to make the effect very subtle and immersive. No spears flying right at the viewer, but techniques to make the viewer feel like they’re really there, at the scene of the action.

    CB: Just like you did in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

    JC: -Long pause- OK, I got it. Cameron from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. That’s a bit of a stretch now. What are you, fucking with me?

    CB: Oh, I’m totally fucking with you. I’ll be totally level with you James because you’ve been so cool. My name isn’t Joel Siegel, and I do not work for Good Morning America.

    JC: Well then who the hell are you?

    CB: My name’s Harry Knowles and I write for Ain’t It Cool News.

    JC: -frowning- You hide both your fatness and unpleasantness well Harry.

    CB: I’ve been taking some classes at the Learning Annex.

    JC: I seee-eee-ee-eeugheeee. TTTTTTTTTTTT ERROR 802: LOST CONNECTION WITH VPN.

    CB: What.

    JC: 123.163.123.44 RECONNECTING… CONNECTED.

    CB: What.

    JC: I’m sorry about that. I have a cold.

    CB: What.

    JC: I’m very sick right now, and I have a cold. I apologize for anything I just said or any unwanted radiation I emitted.

    CB: Are you a robot?

    JC: No, I’m… something else.

    CB: Because I’ll tell my readers you’re an evil Nazi sex-robot if you don’t explain yourself. That’s just the kind of journalist I, Harry Knowles, am.

    JC: No, don’t! All right, I’ll level with you. I’m not James Cameron. I’m an avatar. Mr. Cameron has built multiple remote control versions of himself, which he deploys to speak with representatives from lesser known media outlets.

    CB: If you want to get technical, Ain’t It Cool News is quite well known. It’s just not respected or enjoyed by anyone. So you’re like James Cameron’s personal assistant?

    JC: No. Mr. Cameron’s company has outsourced the operations of his avatars to my company. My name’s Greg Dosanjh. I’m actually working out of Hyderabad.

    CB: Wow Greg, I gotta say, I am impressed. For an Indian, you are really up to speed on American movie and television culture. You picked up those Cameron references like a champion.

    JC: Oh thanks man. I basically live on the Internet here, so it’s not too hard to keep up. Like I know you’re not Harry Knowles. You write for Cracked, right?

    CB: Good eye!

    JC: Thanks! Man you guys are great.

    CB: Thanks! I will quote you on that James Cameron.

    JC: Oh please don’t. You could cost me my job. Actually, please don’t tell anyone about what just happened here. I am so far off script right now…

    CB: Ok. You have my word. Could you do my one favor though?

    JC: Uh, sure, what?

    CB: Can you tell me straight: does James Cameron ever make sweet horrifying love to his own avatars?

    JC: Oh, man. I dunno.

    CB: He does it, doesn’t he? Sick. He does it and makes you take part. Holy shit. I want to barf and high five someone all at once.

    ____

    The interview ended not long after that, and it turns out I did barf a little in the elevator on the way out. As for my actual impressions of the Avatar film, I’ll say that the special effects look amazing, and so long as the image of James Cameron making slow, unhurried love to another James Cameron wearing a little cowboy outfit doesn’t enter our mind, you’ll probably enjoy it.

    __
    http://digg.com/d31C5bp