Les Chansons d'Amour / Love Songs (2007)

Director:Christophe Honoré
Cast: Louis Garrel, Ludivine Sagnier, Gregoire Leprince-Ringuet, Clotilde Hesme

I am not sure if this is a beautiful film or just plain French. In true musical style the characters converse here in songs every now and then, and the film successfully maintains a fine balance between being too cheesy (the most common pitfall for most musicals) and too real. Though through subtitles, I liked the lyrics, it was pure poetry and refreshingly different (my French friends told me the original were even better). And the music is so good that you actually wait for it (unlike the Bollywood numbers in most of the times, where you fast forward them).

The Parisian society portrayed here is no different than the regular world, with family bonding and sexual experiments, curiosity and hatred, homophobia and post-mortal melancholy. But the human mind works here in a strange way that one can imagine only in a world created by wishful thinking. A couple very much in love get another girl to make it better, straight girls kiss each other passionately, and the mourning husband falls for another guy who is gay. It is not just about being liberal / experimental / adventurous, I am rather unsure if it works that way at all in real life! May be all the characters are bisexual or something. Or just French! Though set in real world, for this one reason (and for the beautiful songs), all these look like the parts of a fantasy that is smooth and poetic. But even if one can digest all that, what haunted me more was the fact that everyone in the movie are extremely beautiful (with the sole exception of the dog, which was little unkempt). I mean everyone, the hero, heroine, her two sisters and her parents, the other girl in their relation and her boyfriend, the kid brother of the boyfriend, literally everybody! I can't really say I had seen so many goodlooking people in my tour to Paris.

The movie was not very big budget, and eventually has become a cult-favorite among the French youth. One critic has described the climax balcony scene as "the best balcony scene since Romeo and Juliet". I wasn't so much exited probably because I was not much convinced with the fact that this can actually happen, but liked it nevertheless. Overall, it is a beautiful film, very different from the usual musicals churned out by Hollywood.

Jumper (2008)

Director:Doug Liman
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Samuel L. Jackson, Jamie Bell, Rachel Bilson, Diane Lane, Michael Rooker

During the last decade, our world is gradually being taken over by people unlike us, e.g. mutants, muggles and hobbits, and we are reduced to nothing but squibs. Vampires were really lucky to enjoy the monopoly for such long time, but their days are numbered now.
Here is another addition to this overpopulated world of fantasy creatures. The story revolves around the age-old fight between jumpers (people who are capable of teleporting themselves) and Paladins (people with no special power but an undying passion for killing the jumpers, for no apparent reason). Oh you didn't know about them? What else, do you think it was, the witch-hunts? Don't e surprised if someday Joan of Arc is declared as a Jumper.
Anyway, here Hayden Christensen plays the lead. I am no Star Wars fan, but everything else in those movies were better than his acting, and I mean everything. Jamie Bell (from "Billy Elliot", it is good to see the young guy turning into a fine actor) is another jumper, and Samuel L. Jackson in a strange white wig is the lead Paladin. Rachel Bilson is the love interest who other than making their fight tougher by screaming and creating trouble, does nothing much. And all the way I wondered, what Diane Lane was doing in such a small insignificant role in such a forgettable movie.

Try this jumper, in the picture, if you really need one.

Chaos (2007)

Director:Tony Giglio
Cast: Jason Statham, Ryan Phillippe, Wesley Snipes

Writer-Director Tony Giglio seemed to be fascinated with the idea that less visual effect would make any movie an old-school classic. In the extra material in the DVD, he talks a lot about how we don't make those movies anymore. Well, this one lacks the special effects alright, but he forgot to add life and to make it interesting. The climactic twist is contrived and dumb. I could not stand the strange and funny face Wesley Snipes made throughout the movie. Am a big fan of Jason Statham (just for his action, I see other actors' movies if I need good acting) and he might have done many bad movies, but he was always charismatic in them. Here his role, despite of all his efforts, never takes off to that level. And Ryan Phillippe sleepwalks till the end. But then, he was good probably only once, in 'Cruel Intensions'.

In simple words, bad movie.

A Home at the End of the World (2004)

Director: Michael Mayer
Cast: Colin Farrell, Dallas Roberts, Robin Wright Penn, Erik Smith, Harris Allan, Sissy Spacek

This one is a treat for those who like sagas. I was no big fan of Colin Farrell, he did alright in Phone Booth and Alexander. But here he has done things so naturally and got into the skin of the role he played that soon we forget that he is just an actor. He is best at the scenes where acting is less verbal, his body language speaks in volumes. Erik Smith as the young Bobby is good and resembles Colin Farrell quite well. Dallas Roberts lacked the screen presence and looked more like one of those small-time Indy actors. Robin Wright Penn would however be remembered for her role, undoubtedly one of her best.

This is one of those movies that make you feel lonely, knowing that life is a journey alone, till the end. And one of those that stays with you, for long, if not forever.

Brief Movie Reviews

These days I am getting a chance to watch a lot of movies, thanks to Netflix online and HBO, and also the Dollar-a-day vending machines for DVDs at my workplace. "Let's do something constructive", I thought, so decided to write brief reviews on some of these movies. For some time I would be posting them on here, and might use them as source for writing my reviews on some webzines.

Of course this is not an absolute new idea, my last two posts were in the same line. But these new ones would be briefer and hopefully published more regularly.