The Protagonist in the novel is a young well educated, 7 language speaking, attractive 30 year old girl “Kaveri” living in Mumbai and doing freelance translation at foreign consulates & for visiting dignitaries. The story starts off interestingly with Kaveri worried about being a virgin for too long, but mid-way into the book the story gets lost in the direction it is going. It strays into reality TV, tour guide, then into New York and Barcelona, ending kind of abruptly.
Just Go with it is a regular comedy movie starring Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler and Brooklyn Decker. Adam Sandler is a successful plastic surgeon (unmarried) and Jennifer Aniston is his assistant. Adam pretends to Brooklyn Decker (math teacher) he is in a bad marriage, has two kids. All of them go on a vacation to Hawaii. How Adam handle one lie after another with Brooklyn and finally marries Jennifer Aniston is the story. A light movie, can watch on a plane like I did – no complaints that way.
Carried by the TV Series, I watched the movie “Sex and the City 2” today. The regular characters makes the movie watchable, the plot around the visit to Abu Dhabi was initially exciting and then turned boring. I would have liked to see more of Abu Dhabi outdoors and the girls mixing with people of the city, rather it turned out to be inside the hotel only and the one market scene they had was clearly shot inside Hollywood studios with a bad recreation of the Middle East city. The movie was too long too, which made me wonder how some stories are fit only for 20 Minutes TV Series format and not suited for 90-120 Minutes full-length film.
I have been planning to see this movie for some time now. Found the time today evening to watch it along with my wife, glad we did it. I was expecting it to be a dragging storyline. But the movie “No Strings Attached” turned out to be fun and enjoyable.
Natalie plays the role of Emma who is afraid of getting to a committed relationship and resulting hurt when it breaks, but she can’t control herself falling in love with irresistible Adam (played by Ashton). Both Natalie Portman & Ashton Kutcher have done their roles well. The story moves at a good pace too. Some of the scenes like the one below where Ashton gives Natalie a Carrot bunch on a valentine day, as Natalie specifically said no flowers.
Yesterday while returning from Singapore to Chennai in SQ flight I saw this Egyptian movie “Khaltet Fawzeya” (Fawzia’s Secret Recipe). Hollywood and Kollywood movies are always there, but if you are lucky you get to watch wonderful hand-picked movies in Flight Entertainment and most often Singapore Airlines comes with good selections. The movie was described as “Fawzia is a poor woman, who has a magical, secret recipe for achieving happiness in life. She marries five men and lives with her large family in her small home”. The movie didn’t disappoint & was true to this description as well.
The first few scenes start off on a high comedy note, with Fawzia shouting in the midnight complaining about her present husband, then the whole neighbourhood coming to her support and she demanding and getting Divorce from her husband. She then asks the next man to help her to marry her and the whole sequence repeating for 4 times. The story happens entirely in a small Egyptian neighbourhood (though a slum it is shown clean and friendly, no gangsters or dark lanes) where Fawzia who has been divorced four times live with all her kids alone in a small house of her own. Each Thursday all her former husbands join for a family dinner bringing with them gifts and foods, each father taking care of his Son/Daughter. All her former husbands admire Fawzia for her strong will, caring nature and they show true affection and respect to her after divorce, she calls them affectionately as her brothers!. Fawzia has earned the love and respect of her small locality, she helps the ladies to prepare Jam in her house as a community activity, then distributing them free to kids around the graveyard, takes care of a fallen from fame dancer, a single lady friend of hers who is struggling to live after her love dies. Fawzia’s fifth husband learns her liking for a private bathroom (now all of them sharing a community bathroom), constructs a private one for her but authorities demolish it for they lack money/power.
The movie is directed by Egyptian Director Majdy Ahmed Ali, and Ilham Shaheen (the main cast who did the Fawzia character) has done a great performance in bringing out a down-to-earth practical lady with a strong will. Her will is tested by events and deaths (of her former husband, her good friend ‘dancer’, her first son) but after initial pain and sorrow, she overcomes them with resilience. The movie has many small fine touches by the director, like the scene where two men driving into their street seeing Fawzia’s large family eating together mistaking it for a Ramdan community dinner and joining them without being asked or asking; the last scene where all her former & present husband join together in building a beautiful bathroom (again!) for Fawzia with each one of them bringing something special to it; a wealthy rich lady leaving a flower bouquet in the grave of her loved one, then immediately the kids around picking it up and selling it; when Hood (fifth husband) complains that Fawzia’s mother didn’t come to their marrige, Fawzia countering that his sister too didn’t come.
Overall a comedy movie but an undertone message about how to take on life as it comes and how to care for others around you. Don’t miss watching this fine cinema. You can see a trailer of the movie (in Arabic without subtitles) here.
Apart from this movie, the other International Movies from the KrisWorld listings that I was interested to watch were: Two Girls from Egypt, I love Hong Kong, 20 Cigarettes & Outside the Law. I hope I find those movies too sooner.
I have heard few times about this 1989 movie “Sex, Lies & Videotape”. It has scored like 97% on Tomatometer, Cannes Film Festival winner, nominated to Oscar & Golden Globe and many other awards. Got a chance to see it this weekend. Definitely a trend setting movie, can’t believe it was taken 22 years back. The movie feels familiar and that’s because over the last two decades many movies/TV shows have been inspired by this movie when it comes to talking about Sexuality, Marriage issues & compatibility among spouses.
The movie is about a trouble married couple & the story of a man who films women discussing their sexuality. The title can be misleading, as the movie has no nudity or explicit scenes. If you love a good cinema don’t miss this one.
Picked this movie “The Switch” DVD without any idea on the plot or expectations. The movie by Jason Bateman and Jennifer Aniston turned out to be an average affair, not much to write about. The movie’s byline goes as “The Most Unexpected comedy ever conceived”, after watching the movie I realized there is nothing in the movie that you didn’t expect coming or any comedy in the movie. The first half of the movie was nearly boring, the second half was better. For some reasons throughout the movie, I had a feeling I have watched this movie before (though I haven’t).
The plot is this – Jennifer Aniston (Kassie) decides to have a baby and raise it as a single mother. Despite objections of her best friend Jason Bateman (Wally), she chooses to do it alone. Wally has feelings for Kassie, but as her friend keeps it to himself. Similarly Kassie doesn’t express her feelings to him till they meet again after seven years and weird turn of events.
I have been hearing/reading about this movie for over six months now – Eat, Pray & Love starring Julia Roberts, I had bookmarked the trailer in my YouTube favourites as well to remind me to see the movie. The movie is based on a true story which came out as a New York Times Best-Seller book of the same name written by Elizabeth Gilbert.
Today I booked for myself and saw the movie alone (my wife said the movie sounds boring, if you ask for Endhiran I will come and all my friends were still busy in their office) in Escape Theatres, Express Avenue.
First about Escape, the whole place is still being constructed, so they haven’t figured out all the pieces. I waited in line for over 10 minutes for buying some snacks during the Intermission, but I was still having 5 people before me. Extremely slow service at the counter, so I gave up – thinking that I was wise to save the calories. Since the multiplex is inside the Mall you end paying Rs.65 for parking. Unlike other multiplexes in the city, the screen was big, the audio was good and the seats were wide & spacious.
About the movie – Nice direction and as usual a brilliant performance by Julia Roberts. As usual Hollywood showed a Poor India in the introduction scenes, but then the Ashram were portrayed in a normal way. Though the movie’s story line is emotional and spiritual in most places, it had its share of humour. Lot of places, there were bit of unrealistic portrayal of scenes which could have been avoided. The ending was something that you can easily see coming and very cinematic.
After seeing the trailers few months back, I saw this movie today – “The Bounty Hunter” acted by “Friends” fame Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler. The movie was advertised as a comedy and it starts out that way, making the first half enjoyable. After that, the Director seems to have dragged it unnecessarily. The rest of the movie is a patchwork of love, action and mystery.
The story is about a divorced couple. Milo Boyd played by Gerard Butler is a ex-policeman and now a Bounty Hunter (someone who catches people who has jumped Court Bail) who is running short of money. His ex-wife Nicole Hurley played by Jennifer Aniston is a Journalist hungry for a good story. Nicole trails a suspected suicide and gets into trouble as Policemen themselves are involved. Milo wants to catch Nicole and put her behind bards for jumping parole, so that he gets some cash as reward. The rest of the story is how Milo helps Nicole, solves the mystery and the couple gets united.
Today I watched this movie on way from Chennai to New Delhi by Jet Airways, as I was lucky to get a business class seat available as upgrade using my Frequent Flyer voucher.
ISHQIYA, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Arshad Warsi and Vidya Balan. For Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi their role may have been cake-walk and they have done it nicely. It was Vidya Balan who catches our attention by performing with ease whether in scenes she appears as a typical housewife managing the household, when she appears glamorous and on scenes where she handles a Rifle or a Gun – simply brilliant performance by her. The movie touches a subject that is kind of Taboo in Indian films – two men falling in love with a married woman (they believe to be a Widow) and she engaging knowingly in infidelity. But the story is told by the director skilfully with no trace of any vulgarity.
The content of this site are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway. In addition, my thoughts and opinions often change, and as a weblog is intended to provide a semi-permanent point in time snapshot you should not consider out of date posts to reflect my current thoughts and opinions.
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