Quick Review, edition 2

The Messenger: Story of Joan of Arc (1999)
This movie written and directed by Luc Besson has Vincent Cassel, Faye Dunaway, Dustin Hoffman, Milla Jovavich, John Malkovich in leading roles is quite a treat to watch, for I like period films that offer a brave new alternate to an established lore. As a given for epic movies, it has a running length of 158 minutes; and honestly, the length does not hinder the movie as it has done easily in other films of this genre. The original story itself presents a LOT of questions about the nature of the person that Jeanne D'Arc was. The best thing about this movie is that Besson does not attempt to over-simplify and give an neatly folded conservative or ridiculously modern answer. He does something else, and for this, I appreciate him. He steers clear of history and focusses on the central issue of Faith. The definitions of the word Faith and Heresy is very important to follow this film. If heresy is anything that is in disagreement with the dominant view of the church and Faith is the only vessel through which the god of the christian mythology can be acessible, it sets up a polarity which is bound to encounter great conflicts. This conflict, despite the apparent other-worldliness, is essentially HUMAN. It is this human nature of the heavenly conflict that Besson captures brilliantly in his film. On the flipside, I found the movie peaking too early, as it starts really well but slows down to an unreasonable and overly complicated pace. The length of the film is battled by its compelling screenplay, but at times, I felt that Besson dropped the ball in his approach to the characters in the last quarter of the movie. Vincent Cassel shines throughout the movie as does John Malkovich. Dustin Hoffman in his really brief stay onscreen takes the movie to a whole another level. Milla Jovovich strangely reminds us of her fifth element days; and her character loses its way towards the end of the movie. So a really good movie that falls short of expectations thanks to streaky story-telling, The Messenger slips into a 6.4 in general rating for its unsound and unexciting second half but surprisingly bucks up to a 5.8 in the critics' rating thanks to the conception and making of really memorable moments and characters overall. Catch the movie if it is running at a convenient time on TV; but not worth buying the DVD.

After the Sunset (2004)
Pierce Brosnan, Woody Harrleson, Salma Hayek and Don Cheadle. Looking at this film from 2010, I am pretty amazed at the role played by Don, given the star value that he packs in today's industry. People like him have surely worked their way up. I have said this somewhere else about Brosnan, but he is more of a Bond in non-Bond films than he was in the Bond ones. Though the movie is nothing like the excellent Thomas Crown Affair, it gives a great canvas for Brosnan to showcase his suave, charismatic presence. However, the best moments of this film comes between Brosnan and Woody; whether it is when they are rubbing sun-screen on each other's back or spooning at dawn. Despite having cliched elements of heist and bromance genre of movies, this is a thoroughly enjoyable affair thanks to passionate actors, a witty screenplay and the sun-kissed, colorful Carribean setting. I say Watch-it; particularly if you are yet to see Thomas Crown Affair as this would be a good way to build into TCA. However, if you have just seen a great heist film in the past week, give this one a skip. It is download-watch/enjoy-delete kind of a film that scores pretty high on the regular scale at 6.6 but fails to cross 5.2 at the critics' level.

Anchor Toothpaste Ad
After months of crying out loud about the poor quality of advertisments in the recent past; this ad was a breath of fresh air (the bad pun, not intended). It is funny, contextually apt, well cast as well as drives home the product's functionality. This is exactly how an ad should be; and that is after seeing so MANY bad Toothpaste/dental care ads amongst other bad ads. Please do watch this; it is not the smartest ad ever made - but it puts a smile on your face (again, the bad pun) at the end of the sixty seconds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw5arTc26-0

Funny People (2009)
I am not a big Judd Apatow fan. I think that he has a lot of potential but the acclaim he has received is unwarranted. Neither as a producer nor as a writer, he has done something exceptional. I often get a feeling that the product is a result of cotton-candy flavored, shallow, simplistic writing pushed in the right direction by some big names in the business. The Forty Year Old Virgin, well, it showed how funny Steve Carell could be but nothing from Apatow. Knocked up had a few moments but it was never fully a comedy, romantic or any other sort nor was it a drama on unwanted pregnancy. Thanks to Katherine Heigl (who for some strange reason gets better billing than Gerard Butler), it was as bland as bland could be. He also wasted all our time by writing You Don't Mess With the Zohan. But come Funny People, Apatow makes up for all that mediocrity we have endured. Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler are absolutely brilliant in their roles. Right from the first minute, the movie had me hooked. The conception of the movie is exceptional and the casting could not have gotten any better than this (of course it could have, had Elizabeth Banks played Laura; but we have seen her once too many with Seth Rogen on screen). Jason Schwartzman is an actor that whose work I have always liked, and he continues with the good work here. Every role is well fleshed out and the stand-up comedy moments are brilliant. Aziz Ansari is bound to turn heads; and I hope that he does not end up becoming another Russell Peter's ripoff. He has a solid, unique style, which is bound to succeed just as Jonah Hill would. Like Date Night, this movie has some of the finest cameos in recent times. The pick of the lot is Eric Bana in his Australian-Buddhist-Rugby-Brawler role. He lights the screen on fire every moment he is there. Ray Romano is a personal favorite of mine and never would I have EVER imagined him sharing a conversation with Eminem. Just the sheer mention of these two talking sets me off. This must have been a good movie because it runs a whopping 153 minutes. Trust me, I am a big fan of the 80 minute movies for a REASON. I get bored pretty easily. But I surprised myself with this really funny and really well-written movie. It gets an above-average 7.4 in the regular scale and since it is a comedy, it also draws a 6.1 Woody scale rating and a Must-Watch tag.

Strange Wilderness (2008)
Though I kept thinking that Steve Zahn deserves better than this, the movie itself was quite candid. It was one of those comedies where there are no obviously funny situations arising out of dramatic tension but just crazy bunch of people doing crazy things. A broke, bong addicted TV crew that is on the verge of losing their 3am slot sets out to South America to shoot never-seen-before footage of the BigFoot. As simple as the plot is, it is riddled with mindless misadventures that take us quickly through the ninety minutes. Look out for Steve Zahn speaking Spanish. That, coupled with the Turkey scene, the low-rider scene and the scene with the BigFoot himself are the highlights of the movie. it is not an intense comedy by any stretch of imagination. What the movie lacks is conviction to give it strong story-based moments or courage to make it into an all out farce. Stuck in the middle, Strange Wilderness is a movie worth watching to kill an afternoon if you have no other movie to watch. At a regular level, this movie gets a passable rating of 5.7 while it fails to even breach anything at a higher level thanks to its dumb-comedy approach.