Movie No 2 - Good Will Hunting

Which movie have I watched the most number of times ?
Instantly my mouth will utter GOOD WILL HUNTING... Why? Lets see..

First of all it stars Matt Damon, one of the best dialogue deliverers in Hollywood. Second, its his own screenplay!! (well, Ben Affleck added a few lines to it too I guess.. :P). Last but not the least, it stars Robin Williams, and that too in a sentimental and inciting movie, playing the mature friend cum philosopher character (none does that better than him, eg. Dead Poets Society, Patch Adams etc).

Plot Outline:
A trailer trash punk who possesses insane mathematical genius in him (they compare him with our Srinivasa Ramanujan) works as a janitor in MIT and solves the toughest challenges chalked on the board outside the mathematics classroom but is reluctant to make his life in academics. Caught red handed by the mathematics professor (supposedly a Fields Medal winner - played by cold-eyed villainous Stellan Sakrsgard) and is invited to work under him serving that time on parole (basically, Matt gets nabbed for hooliganism). Matt obviously amazes the professor but maintains the air of superiority due to his genius and constantly screws up the job interviews setup by the professor. One more condition for him to be on parole is to be under the treatment from a psychologist and so the professor invites renowned psychologists whom Matt with his genius discomforts and drives them off. So, the professor knows that only one person can help him and it is his college time rival , Robin Williams who due to the constant pressure of competition from the professor gave up mathematics and chose psychology instead and is like a street smart pro in it. Matt tries to discomfort Robin in the very first meeting and ticks off Robin enough for Robin to choke Matt. In the next meeting, Robin takes Matt to the park and explains him how his genius is no use in understanding the realites of life. Slowly they bond together, also with Matt falling in love for a Harvard medical graduate gal alongside. The story goes on as the professor pressurizes Matt to work under him, Matt is defensive in revealing his girl friend that he is an orphan and was raised by a cruel foster father , Robin fights the professor constantly to allow Matt to chose his own way of life, and also Ben Affleck (yeah, forgot to mention that he's also in that movie... and infact, hez pretty cool in it) kicking Matt to use his genius constructively and finally, Matt breaks up with his girlfriend, Robin & professor argue infront of Matt, Robin consoles a crying Matt (coz Robin pries Matt to open up his feelings) and atlast Matt goes off to be with his girlfriend leaving all behind to 'see about a girl' !

Comments:
I know the plot is kinda uninteresting. Yes, it is from the outside. But what drives the movie in top speed is the screenplay (it got an OSCAR!!) and obviously the acting. Moment you watch the famous bar scene you'll know that the movie is worth the Oscar and as it goes on you will find that the bar scene was juz like a trailer for the awesomeness of the screenplay!



And below is the scene in which Robin explains how Matt's genius is not enough to understand life. One of the best scenes in the movie.



Anyways,this movie has got tons of such scenes and it is what makes this movie an amazing experience to watch.

Recommendation:
A must watch for everyone and especially for girls coz you'll obviously drool over Matt for his fresh looks and carefree streetboy attitude! ;-)

Movie No:1 - Yojimbo!

When somebody asks me the best movie I have ever watched all that comes to my head is YOJIMBO- by Akira Kurosawa starring Toshiro Mifune. We'll look into what I liked about the movie so much that it is my favorite movie.

Plot Outline:
When the Shogunate (Japanese form of government) started losing power in Japan, lawlessness grew rampantly throughout Japan. Scumbags who were under the watch of Samurai warriors roamed free as samurai warriors were abandoned by their masters so as to cut costs (samurai warriors are hell costly to maintain!! afterall, they were ready to cut their stomachs to save their master's honour!!). These scumbags who dont even any code of living infested small towns and involved in maintaining brothels and gambling houses and drastically affected the normal lives of the people in there. In one such town, there are two gangs. Basically rivals in business these two clans were neck on neck in killing each other whenever they got a chance and they constantly were equals waiting the 'edge'. And then the 'edge' arrives, in the form of a masterless roaming samurai who for money wants to cash on the rivalry between these two gangs. First in order to prove his worth he teases a few gangsters of one gang and cuts three of them down. Then joins the other side, and then reveals their secrets to the other and earns their trust. An abducted hottie comes in whose son and husband were being held off her and our hero kills off gangsters who were watching over her. Later, investigating the scene of rescue the smart villain ( the wussy dude who feels superior with a gun) deduces that it must be the work of the hero. They catch him, hit him, break a bone or two (a gangster of about 8 feet does the duty!) and toss him into a cellar. Our hero escapes from there, gets out of the town with the help of a coffinmaker and recovers and openly challenges the gang of the wussy dude (just a few minutes before the other gang would be destroyed by the wussy dude's gang) and kills all of them! And then returns back to his wandering with the music decorating his walk!

About the cinema:
Well, to all the cinema freaks (i mean 'cinema' not 'movies') the name YOJIMBO will ring the most awesome 'bell' ever! One of Kurosawa's ultimate works, YOJIMBO stands alone from his other works because of the flashyass nature of the hero and infact of the entire movie itself. The hero is composed, stylish, insanely in swordsmanship and radiates superiority in each scene (even when he stands up all beaten!!). Top characteristics of YOJIMBO..
1. Style!! The way Mifune (hero) talks, walks, cuts ... everything is super stylish and so badass!! The dirty kimono, unshaven jaws and his frequent scratching of the itch over his chin, the hands within the kimono (Japanese dress wear) is all so cool for that time and in fact even now.
2. Cinematography - Well, its a Kurosawa movie and so its gotta be top notch and this one tops all of his work in an obvious manner.
3. Sets - A town haunted by the gang rivalry between two top gambler groups looks like a masterpiece with all its shady looking houses and the water tank like structure in the middle.
4. Action - Best of the best ever made! Not too many to kill, but the hero kills them all with style and technique. The very moments he gets his hands out from his kimono to draw his sword are just too awesome!



5. Music - Lifeline of the style that Mifune exhibits!! Especially the one that plays after when Mifune cuts 3 of the punkasses to prove his skill.. damn, that very music portrays what the Yojimbo is made and capable of!
6. Characterization - Apart from the obviously awesome Mifune, the other characters and their characteristics are pretty unique. Be it the coffinmaker, the scared Sensei, the fat pig-like stupid gangsteror the villain dude.. everybody are so 'cinema' perfect!!

Effect of YOJIMBO on movies:
This movie is the bible of how to portray a badass hero. Not only his role should be badass but everything and everyone around him should focus on accentuating the surrounding to provide the backdrop. After this movie, YOJIMBO was considered to be the archetypical Japanese samurai hero and tons of movies were made with the same character name as the hero (most of them starred Mifune himself). You will be wondered if you come to know that A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS is exactly the western version of YOJIMBO!

Recommendation:
If you love 'cinema' this is a must watch. Will be pretty difficult in admiring it with your attention on the subtitles, so watch it once with subtitles to watch the movie and then once more to see the 'cinema' in it!
And for the ones who don't want the 'cinema' part of the movies, try this movie and if you find it good there there is definitely a person who likes 'cinema' in you! ;-)

Adios for now! (btw YOJIMBO never says 'Goodbye'!)

Inspiration!

"Ahem! Ahem!...What made me a movie freak.... ?"


wait..! wait... !.. wrong line!! (editing is fucked up... its my 1st time, thats why.. )


Err..

First of all... I AM A MOVIE FREAK!..

Not a born one, but a bred one! I averaged 4 movies per week from Summer 2003- Summer 2007 .. which i would call the GOLDEN AGE of the Master!! It was my college time and I was not a regular 'presentee' (damn!wats the antonym for absentee?.. who carez anyways!!?), scored a zero % attendance in five subjects throughout my college time. Before I got into the spree, I have developed this deep unsatiable 'hunger' (something like a born-cannibal on veg diet) for movies during my schooldays (will tell you how I got the 'smell' below). So when I was released into the sweet hostel life in IIT Kharagpur I was like Hollow Man on Halloween.. could do anything and nobody will know shit!! (Btw, u gotta excuse this 'smartmouth' talk for a while coz as this being the intro post and all... once I'm on the numbers, then it will be serious professional posting.. I promise!). So I fished out each and every good movie from the college LAN and watched them and because of this my reputation as a movie buff was like dust in a cement factory (everybody freakin knew abt it!!). By the 3rd semester, people started asking for suggestions on what movie to watch. This trend went on and by the 6th semester I was referred as THE WALKING IMDB.. It was like "First ask Cibi, if not, then check IMDB!". During this time I developed a love deep inside for movies, so deep that I never liked to watch them with company, I never liked to talk how I felt truly about the movie, and especially I didnt want anybody (I really mean, ANYBODY) to disturb me while I was watching a movie.

I have passed out of college and although I am in a 7AM-7PM job, for me watching a movie feels so effortless that I dont feel the necessity to plan to watch one. During this job life I average minimum 5 movies a week ( 1 movie per week more with 50% reduction in time and energy!!) And this 'affair' between me and the movies seems to be a long way ahead.

Now, this 'thirst' of mine for movies... I wasn't born with that. I was born into a readers family (mostly the men). My dad& my grandfathers (maternal & paternal) are voracious readers. My home houses over 5000 books, most of them purchased after 1980! My dad read Marx, Lenin & Engels before he was 15 and still criticizes me that I haven't yet read the real stuff. Damn, I gotta accept it, those people must have been pretty great. Read the first line of Das Kapital and was contemplating on it for weeks. So deep insight is reflected in those words, as Dad says. Anyways, I started out as a reader too. What do u expect a kid to read those days ?! Story books !! I read so many that about the age of 13 my Dad said they wont allow me to read any more non-school books... not even the encyclopedias! He said , "Cibi, you have read so many books that you dont have to read for a lifetime. Its high time you start diverting your total attention to your text books!". I heard that advice, but naturally didnt heed to it! It was in my blood to get distracted from studies coz Dad was juz like that in his young times! So I desperately wanted to divert my energy into something other than books. Sports, although was an obvious choice, I couldn't develop an interest in that at all. I still remembered the day when I was 9 or so, I and my Dad had so much fun watching 3 movies in a row, and that too in the theaters. It was the only 'Guys Day' I ever had with my Dad in my entire life and we spent it watching movies (it was BAD FRIENDS (Chinese action flick) in the afternoon, Robin Hood - The Prince of Thieves (*ing Kevin Costner) for the evening show and some tamil movie in the night. And my Dad &Mom always kept talking about the movies they watched together when they were newly married (McKennas Gold was the most frequently talked about movie) and Dad, when asked about the greatest Director ever, used to explain the brilliance of Kurosawa movies and his magnificent plot outlines. And I swore at those times that I will top my Dad by watching those movies and will one day show them myself to him (and I did, in the summer of 2006 I took the whole lot of Kurosawa movies and my entire family watched them in the night with jaws open at the magnificence of the movies - although my sister was shunted to bed as she wanted to see romantic or horror flicks!) Anyways, basically, it was coz of my Dad that i got into watching movies and i am still on. Sorry for the seemingly 'long' INSPIRATION. Now, letz get on with my movies!

Motivation!

Whenever I used to come across blogs where people (especially girls, dunno wats the freakin deal with them to project themselves as such punkasses!) type down really deviated, supposed-to-be-rebellious / hardcore-romantic stuff, I used to think.. if these half-nut brained guyz (& non-nut brained galz ofcorz) can type psuedo-serious stuff, then why, I, who is honestly in love with movies type my reviews about them.. So hence I have started to write this blog. Will be looking for ur comments (especially harsh ones!!) in the coming future.

Thanks in advance for your cyber-support!

PS: No 'serious'-serious bloggers are hurt in this post. If any, then it is purely unintentional. ;-)