Recently Watched Movies-2

Thanks to Blockbuster's in-store rental plan, I can now go to store and find the new releases instantly. Here are some of the movies that I have seen since last week:

Lust,caution (2007): The movie is not really that good as Ang lee's previous one's but is definetly worth watching. The movie is about a group of Chinese students who want to fight against the Japanese imperialists and their mission is to kill the Mr. Yee, a japanese collaborator. The plan is trap Mr. Yee into an affair and kill him when they get the first chance. The beautiful Mrs. Wong, agrees to be the bait and her job is seduce Mr. Yee. Their mission is abrutply stopped when Yee moves to Shanghai, all of a sudden. After 3 years, the team re-groups and decides to launch the mission again. The ending of the movie might disaappoint many people.

The householder (1963): I have seen only one movie from James Ivory-Ismail Merchant till now and this is my second one. This movie is so good that I want to see all the rest from their combination. This is the directorial debut for James ivory and the movie stars Shashi kapoor and leela naidu. A simple movie about a normal school teacher and his early years of married life and how he copes up with his meager income, his new wife, his mother and other family issues. The movie's narration style is very similar to Satyajit ray's pather panchali, in dealing with financial issues that a poor/middle class family has to face everyday. The movie was made in both hindi and english, but unfortunately netflix is carrying only the english version.

Rescue dawn(2007) : Christian bale gives an amazing performance in this movie. The movie is based on the real life character (Dieter Dengler) who was captured by Vietnam militia, just after 40 minutes into his first mission in 1965. Once he is held captive, he is taken into POW camp where he meets few other Americans, who were held captive for over an year. Dieter convinces others to assist him in his plan to escape from the camp. What makes the movie so different is the way Christian bale plays this character. The movie was entirely shot on location in Thailand's interior and dense woods. The locations are breath taking and the director (wernor herzog) avoids all those scenes, which would have made this a regular war thriller.A must watch.

3:10 to yuma (2007): Remake and probably a better version of an old western. Russell crowe is Ben wade, an infamous outlaw who is finally caught in a small town. The hard part is moving him to yuma, where he would be imprisoned. Dan (Christian bale), a small time farmer who is in dire need of some money agrees to escort him for $200. Along the ride, Dan and Ben know more about and command respect for each other. Ben is not a complete bad guy and is capable of expressing emotions when needed and Dan sticks to his ethics and morals and is not afraid to sacrifice his life, if that situation arises. I have just seen another Christian bale movie (Resuce dawn) and he is so damn different in both of them.

Death at a funeral (2007): This british comedy is hilarious for the first 30-45 mins but later as it steps into slapstick and some explicitly vulgar scenes, it starts to drag. However, the first half makes up for the dragging final act . Like typical british comedies, the movies find laughter in situations where you least expect it. If you are of sensitive kind, you may want to close your eyes for a minute or two during some scenes in the second half. Barring those few scenes, the movie is a laugh riot.
During the opening scene of the movie, a coffin is brought into the home of the Daniel's. Daniel opens the coffin to see his father for one final time. He solemnly looks at the body for a minute and asks, "Who's this?". And then follows a series of things where everything goes wrong.

Gone baby gone (2007): A decent thriller with a lot of twists and turns and a good debut for the director turned actor, ben affleck. The movie starts slow but you will be hooked after the first 20 minutes.

Away from her (2007) : This is one of the saddest movies that I have seen in the recent times. Alzheimer's can be the most painful disorder, not for the patient but for their loved ones. The story is about an old couple who are married for nearly 44 years. When he comes to know that his wife has alzheimer's, he is devastated. He lets her join in an institution as per her will, but he is not happy to see her go. Her conditions worsens to the stage that she almosts forgets who her husband is. Is she putting put an act or does she really have alzheimer's is the question that the movie does not answer.

We Own the night (2007) : An okay drug related drama starring Joaquin Phoenix, Eva Mendes and Mark Wahlberg. One brother is a cop and the other is a drug dealer. Father, played by Robert duvall, is also a cop and loves the cop son but not the other. Joaquin (drug dealer) takes the side of the family when his brother gets shot by his own people. Though the movie is stylishly shot there are some obligatory sequences where the younger brother (drug dealer) becomes a cop in no time after going through few tests and brings down the entire drug dealing operation and makes his family proud. There are same old scenes of breaking up/getting back with girl friend and winning the love of the father and the fairy tale ending of winning the award for being the best police officer of the year, etc. Some reviews compared it to the Departed, but to me it is very dull and routine and no where near the energetic martin scorcese's classic.