The Godfather- DVD Review

Based on Mario Puzo’s best seller novel, The Godfather, directed by Francis Ford Coppola is probably the only film which finds its place in most top ten movie lists.

Winner of three Academy Awards including Best Picture, The Godfather was nominated for an additional eight Oscars. With intriguing depth, it provides audiences with a glimpse into the notorious underworld of warring New York crime families.

Marlon Brando as the Godfather turns in, arguably, the most memorable performance of his career. Also this Hollywood classic boasts of a number of actors who became Hollywood legends with this film.

Considered as one of the most perfect movies ever made, The Godfather is like a Worldwide benchmark for many a film maker, actor and writer.

Godfather is the greatest mafia film ever produced, and perhaps the best drama in all of cinema history. A dramatic story of family and change, of youthful idealism and the pragmatism of adulthood, The Godfather is a must-see for any serious cinema aficionado…although one cannot really concentrate on the film making part of the movie because the story is so compelling that one can’t help but get involved in the story and forget about the technicalities of the making.

Click on the pics below to download Free Wallpapers of Godfather

The making of the famous assassination scene from The Godfather

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SUNDANCE 2011 - Like Crazy

Sunday, 23 January, 2011 Like Crazy (2011) dir. Drake Doremus
Starring: Anton Yelchin, Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, Charlie Bewley, Alex Kingston, Oliver Muirhead

***½

By Alan Bacchus

It’s been three days and us writers waiting in line of the P&I screenings are constantly trying to figure out what the ’it’ film of the year. It may have just arrived Drake Doremus’ epic romantic bittersweet journey of love.

Anna and Jacob are in love. They meet in the first scene in a college class, follow each other home, hang out, giggle, hold hands, eat, play around, maybe they kiss, maybe they don’t. Either way they are hopelessly in love. Oh what bliss, what could possible separate them? Well, Anna is British on a school visa, which of course will run out. But she’s a romantic and nothing can stop her from being with her man. So she stays in the US to stay in bed and make love for two months.

She can’t escape reality though and it comes crashing down when Homeland Security detains her for violating her visa after a brief trip back home to the UK. Now, it’s a long distance relationship with the US government separating them. Thus begins the rollercoaster ride of love, the ups and downs of Anna and Jacob - like Going the Distance made by Michael Winterbottom.

After the opening act, Doremus puts his cynical hat on and tests our ability to believe that these two should be together. So are we watching Blue Valentine? Or (500) Days of Summer? Doremus keeps us on edge at all times. Anna flirts with other boys back home, so does Jacob, but their I-phones always connect them. Doremus constantly oscillates between these extremes of love struck pit of your stomach romance and the agonizing missteps, miscommunications which road blocks us between love. Just when we think they’re splits for good all it takes is a short text across the ocean to jumpstart the rollercoaster ride once again.

Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones are close to the last word as recent on screen romantics. Doremus’ frequent close-ups connect them like intertwining vines. Whenever they’re in the same space together, on screen, they seem to engage in a graceful sensual dance .

Pitch perfect hip music compliments the new millennium courtship these two are engaged in as well as Winterbottom/Boyle visual aesthetic employed by Doremus. And so, just as I’m close to shooting myself having to constantly hear about the authenticity in the highly overrated Blue Valentine, I can latch onto Like Crazy, the superior antidote to that other film.

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Bollywood Movie Wanted Review

Cast Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia, Mahesh Manjrekar, Asseem Merchant

Director Prabhu Deva

Rating: **1/2

‘Wanted’ is Salman Khan’s Ghajini. No, he doesn’t suffer from any short-term memory loss in the film. Rather he mouths about half a dozen times the dialogue: “Ek baar maine jo commitment kar di, phir main apni bhi nahin sunta”. But, like Aamir, Sallu does get to flaunt his rippling muscles, his biceps, triceps, abs, and what not (including the glint of his Vicco-vajradanti teeth), in a series of bone-breaking, jaw-crushing, blood-spluttering fights that makes you feel he’s the ‘last action hero’ that sadly came too late in the day.

Salman Khan, the darling of masses, plays to the gallery in Wanted. To an extent, the movie is a showcase of Salman’s looks, his brawny bod, his dance moves and his overall personality, save his acting. And the star, whose career obit has already been penned and will now be edited by his detractors, manages to pull it off with the flamboyance that will get wolf whistles and catty squeals from his loyal fans. Ceetee!!!

A remake of the South hit Pokkiri, ‘Wanted’ tells the story of a sharpshooter and serial bone-breaker named Radhe (Salman Khan), the man who shoots his gun and pumps bullets into his rivals as if he was forwarding an SMS joke to a pal. Cold blooded and only loyal to those who offer him the most wads of money, Radhe switches sides from one gang to another and makes his entry into the gang of Gani Bhai (Prakash Raj), the dreaded gangster on the most wanted list of Mumbai police.

The handsome killer loses his heart to a cute call-centre employee Jhanvi (Ayesha Takia) at first sight. When Radhe saves her from the frisky hands of a corrupt and testosterone-driven cop Talpade (Mahesh Manjrekar), Jhanvi too feels her heart beat and soon is in love with Radhe.

Even as the duo’s love story keeps hitting speed bumps, Radhe is sucked inside a deadly gang war.

Be ready for a twist in the second half that might hit you harder than Salman’s punches hit the baddies.

It’s strongly advisable to rest and resign your thinking faculties while watching ‘Wanted’. Alone, Salman bashes up a dozen goons blue and black in his intro scene and in the next scene is shaking his leg with the likes of Anil Kapoor, Govinda and Prabhu Deva (who pop out of nowhere for this cameo) in a Ganpati song. More than once in the film, a romantic song or a club number is thrown in at the oddest of places. The most bizarre is the end, when Salman walks into the den of the Mafioso Gani Bhai and goes bang, bang, bang, and shoots down everyone without getting as much as a scratch on his shirtless body (yes, Sallu doffs it again).

But then, given that ‘Wanted’ is no cerebral challenge to its viewers, but just a harmless, full-on masala entertainer, a viewer can flush these flaws down with cola and corns.

‘Wanted’ rests on the strong muscles of Salman and powerful performances by Prakash Raj and Mahesh Manjrekar. Ayesha Takia is a treat to the eyes and she can act as well (a combination hard to find). Vinod Khanna is wasted in the most shoddily written role in the film. In fact, some of the dialogues in the film leave you cringing. Sample this - Salman takes on a bunch of goons single-handedly and says “Sooar (pigs) jhund mein ghoomte hain, par sher ekele shikar karta hai.”

Thankfully, director Prabhu Deva sprinkles ‘Wanted’ with regular doses of humour to keep the violence-filled movie light-hearted. Even until the very end when Sallu shoots his last bullet, there’s some silly laughter to be had.

So even though the film is senselessly violent at times, you’ll find some fun in the edgeways.

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Now Out On Blu Ray/DVD: FREAKONOMICS: THE MOVIE

FREAKONOMICS: THE MOVIE (Dirs. Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, and Morgan Spurlock, 2010)

Journalist Stephen Dubner and economist Steven Levitt's best selling book seems a ripe one to adapt into film, but with its simplified statements, glitzy graphics, and overall glib tone this creaking adaptation more resembles a collection of TV news magazine segments than a hard hitting documentary.

At the beginning Dubner says: "If there's only one element that I say is there in almost everything we do, is the idea that incentives matter and if you can figure out what people's incentives are you have a good chance in guessing how they are going to behave."

With 6 different directors, all noted documentarians, the authors attempt to explore that thesis through contained pieces entitled: "A Roshanda By Any Other Name", "Pure Corruption", "It's Not Always A Wonderful Life", and "Can A Ninth Grader Be Bribed To Succeed?"

Seth Gordon (THE KING OF KONG) ably and amusingly links the film together with transitional segments narrated by Dubner and Levitt.

Morgan Spurlock (SUPERSIZE ME) handles the first segment ("A Roshanda...") about whether parents' name choices affect their path in life, and while there some good points made, the jokey nature, unnecessary employment of actors, and people on the street sound bites overshadow any actual insights. Infomercial type animation doesn't help either.

Alex Gibney's (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE) lengthy contribution ("Pure Corruption") concentrating on cheating in the world of Sumo wrestling fares much better. With well edited footage, insightful interviews, and stirring statistical info, "Pure Corruption" makes a fascinating case study.

However when journalist Yorimasa Takeda in the segment opines: "I read Freakonomics and thought it gave numerical evidence of something very difficult to prove" he could be stating the problem with the entire project.

Eugene Jarecki (CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS, ALL GOOD THINGS) takes on what is posited as one of the most crucial sequences of the film - "It's Not Always A Wonderful Life" - which deals with data that ostensibly indicates that the legalization of abortion in the 1970s is one of the primary reasons that crime rates were down in the 1990s.

Jarecki's segment makes a convincing argument, but its flashy use of cartoon framed footage just highlights that the bottom line theory just isn't that compelling.

Likewise for Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady's (JESUS CAMP) concluding segment "Can A Ninth Grader Be Bribed To Succeed". It looks very interesting at first - the experiment of rewarding students with money for higher grades, but it doesn't give us results that mean anything. Some kids are pushed to work harder, some aren't. So what?

I haven't read the book yet, but I suspect its really where to go for the detailed and engaging lowdown on this material. As a film FREAKONOMICS is an mostly unappealing stylistic mishmash with precious little educational takeaway.

Bonus Features: Additional interviews with Levitt and Dubner, directors' commentary, producers' commentary, and HDNet: A Look at FREAKONOMICS

More later...

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My uncle Antoine

Thursday, 6 January, 2011 Mon Oncle Antoine (1971) dir. Claude Jutra
Starring: Jacques Gagnon, Lyne Champagne, Jean Duceppe, Claude Jutra

****

By Alan Bacchus

Mon Oncle Antoine is like Citizen Kane of Canada. In numerous polls conducted over the years in this country, this film each and every time ranks as the greatest Canadian film ever made. The story of a rural and wintery Quebec mining town as seen through eyes of a young teenage boy, Antoine is deserved revered internationally for it's poetic depiction of an aging and soon to be outmoded way of life, a timeless classic, John Ford-worthy elegance transplanted to a French-Canadian winter.

We’re told it’s a long time ago but never exactly how long ago (it's actually the 1940's). Jutra dramatizes Benoit's journey like a grandfather telling a bed time story, recounting his youth through the filtered lens of nostalgia. Young Benoit (Jacques Gagnon), 15, lives with his drunk and surly Uncle Antoine and his Aunt. He works at the general store owned by Aunt and Uncle helping to serve the miners who work extracting asbestos from the nearby quarry. Antoine also is the town undertaker, a job which has him moving bodies around by horse-powered sled. For most of the film we're observing the relationships of the townsfolk through the eyes of Benoit. The romance of these working class folks is surpringly sweet and tender and humour, their  healthy libidos often cause them to find trysts in barns and attics on a whim.

Benoit is thoroughly fascinating offering us the point of view of this bygone era. The young actor Jacques Gagnon has a remarkable face like Jean-Pierre Leaud in 400 Blows. He barely speaks instead we find emotion through his silent and stoic reactions to the events around him. The moment Benoit sees the corpse of the young Poulin child who has died is heartbreaking, and even more so as seen through the innocent eyes of Benoit.

This terrific scene leads to the stunning and poignant third act journey home where we see the dramatic confession of Antoine and the completion of Benoit's rite of passage and ascendancy into adulthood. The final supremely emotional image of the boy watching the grieving family is as powerful as it gets in cinema.

The asbestos mine looms over the town and thus the historical context of the movie. Health concerns are not mentioned, but knowing the dangers involved and likely the exploitation of the miners adds another level of sadness and melancholy. In fact, though it's not mentioned we can't help but wonder if the young boy's death was not influenced by the asbestos we see billowing into the sky from the quarry.

Those who know their Canadian history will find links to the landmark labour strikes which would occur shortly after this time and the beginning of the 'Quiet Revolution' which provided the seeds for French separatist movement in the 60's. These levels are never referenced overtly, yet so profoundly affect us subliminally.

The poetic and melancholy tone is remarkably affecting. The relationship of the characters to their environment, the omnipresent snow and wind which the characters seem to be guided by reminds us Terrence Malick’s characters drifting through the wheat fields in Days of Heaven. Perhaps the best comparison would be another film from 1971, Peter Bogdanovich’s Last Picture Show, another Ford-influenced coming-of age-story from another era. Mon Oncle Antoine is as good as all of the above.

Mon Oncle Antoine is available as one of the recent titles from the Criterion Collection, the ideal showcase for one of the greatest films ever made.

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The Film Babble Blog Top 10 Movies Of 2010

Although there is still a slew of 2010 films I have yet to catch up on (films such as CARLOS, BLUE VALENTINE, SOMEWHERE, etc. have yet to come to my area) I decided to go ahead and make my list of the best of the year.

Though in many ways a lackluster year, there were still a smattering of excellent films by film makers and actors at the top of their game.

Here are my favorites:

1. THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Dir. David Fincher)

Time Magazine's 2010 Man of the Year: Mark Zuckerberg - computer nerd visionary or just an arrogant asshole who ripped off his best friends? Whether Zuckerberg (played here by Jesse Eisenberg) is really Man of the Year or not, this scrupulous Aaron Sorkin scripted comic drama is my movie of the year because of its snappy narrative take of the phenomenon of Facebook. Read my review here.

2. TOY STORY 3 (Dir. Lee Unkrich) Pixar holds the #2 spot on my top 10 for the third year in a row and that's fine by me. This funny, exciting, and genuinely touching trilogy topper is a supremely satisfying sequel and another entry in the annual Pixar blows every other animated movie away sweepstakes. Take that HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, DESPICABLE ME, MEGAMIND, and TANGLED! Though some of those films had their moments. Read my review here.

3. TRUE GRIT (Dirs. Joel & Ethan Coen)

Enlisting "the Dude" to take on the role made famous by "the Duke", the Coen Brothers make a Western epic that does grand justice to the genre. Jeff Bridges along with an ace supporting cast including Hallie Steinfeld, Matt Damon, and Josh Brolin handle the humor and powerful pathos of this material mightily. Read my review here.

4. INCEPTION (Christopher Nolan)

I called this film "an incredible mind bender of a movie" in my rave review last summer and still stand by that. I also wrote "what wins out is that this film threatens to burst out of the screen into real life - just like the most lucid dreams." Read the rest of my review here.

For my reviews of the rest of the movies on the list please click on the highlighted titles.

5. 127 HOURS (Dir. Danny Boyle)

6. BLACK SWAN (Dir. Darren Aronofsky)

7. THE KING'S SPEECH (Dir. Tom Hooper)

8. EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP (Dir. Banksy)

9. THE AMERICAN (Dir. Anton Corbijn)

10. THE GHOST WRITER (Dir. Roman Polanski)

I may make a revised list later if I get to a film from 2010 that warrants inclusion.


More later...

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Blue Valentine

Monday, 10 January, 2011 Blue Valentine (2010) dir. Derek Cianfrance
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams, Faith Wladyka, Ben Schenkman

**1/2

By Alan Bacchus

Derek Cianfrance would appear to have assembled the two best people for the job of bringing to life his loose and seemingly semi- improvisational neo-realist anti-love story. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams both veterans of naturalistic indie darlings Wendy and Lucy and Half Nelson feel like Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands in this one, a John Cassevetes couple who are at the end of their marriage, two people going different directions in their lives, but with the complication of having a young daughter.

It’s a particularly ambitious effort to show us a tender and hopelessly romantic courtship intercut with the said romance’s demise. We’re constantly shifting between two extremes - heartfelt expressions of love, which borders on preciousness and scenes of simmering hatred and anger which spills off into inarticulate bickering and conflict.

Despite Gosling’s high regard in these types of indie pictures, he’s the weak link in the duo. His character Dean is seen in the romance stages as an impossibly charming working class poet who, as a moving man, decorates the room of one of his elderly clients, a man who at once lifts heavy mattresses for a living but also plays sweet lullabies on the guitar and piano. In the present, he’s just a blue collar joe with failed potential. And there’s little subtlety in this transition with his balding hair, unironic moustache and Brando-esque carefree mannerisms, not to mention the annoying cigarette perpetually hanging from his mouth.

Michelle Williams as Cindy, on the other hand, is a marvel, and seems more suited to this working methodology. Even when Cindy's a complete shit to Dean, unreasonable and cold as ice, Williams riveting to watch, genuine and believable.

At 120 mins, it’s ridiculously long for such subject matter, but then again Cassevetes made near 3 hour films about the same stuff. Then again, I can barely sit through the overindulgences of Cassevetes which many people praise.

As such ‘Blue Valentine’ is a hit and miss affair. The two parallel stories of romance and tragedy works well in tandem with each other but standing alone suffers from the filmmaker’s over enthusiasm for his own work. But Cianfrance admirably wears his heart on his sleeve and goes for broke emotionally. He cannot be faulted for that.

This type of film is the toughest nut to crack, and contrary to what some might think, doesn’t entirely rest with the actors, instead the ability of the director and editor to shape the loose realism into something more formal and engaging. While not everything works, this could become quite a hit for those bohemian/New Wave romantics.

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