Archive for October 2013
#List: 59 movies you can watch on a random day
In the past, I have pondered over more than a hundred movie lists on IMDB, EmpireOnline Magazine, Listal and a lot more places on the internet and felt dissatisfied with the exclusion or inclusion of a certain cinema in many of them.
But now that, I have made my first list, I know its really tough to keep everyone satisfied. Anyways, let me explain what exactly this list covers.
This is the list of 59 movies that I can watch time and again and never get bored, which do not mean that these films are the best I have seen, you may miss some of the greatest films of all time in this list because some films are so great that you need a good 6-7 months gap to have a second watch of it, you give it a lot of time to feel and absorb every character in it, the classical dialogues and the unforgettable scenes that watching it for the second time instantly just ruin the magic it has. For example The Godfather Trilogy, I love this film, but I can't watch it twice in a week or in a month. Same goes with Citizen Kane, Gone with the wind and Casablanca.
Same goes with The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I cannot watch it one more time, at least for the next 2 years but when I did watch it for the first time, I had huge respect for the perfection with which it was made by director Peter Jackson.
Basically this list covers all the film that can be watched on any random day, these are great films and there are greater films which do not make it to the list. The list is in alphabetical order so do not try figuring out who beats who. I will come up with a ranked list later.
Tell me what do you feel about the list above, and do mention name of the films that you think should have made this list.
Same goes with The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, I cannot watch it one more time, at least for the next 2 years but when I did watch it for the first time, I had huge respect for the perfection with which it was made by director Peter Jackson.
Basically this list covers all the film that can be watched on any random day, these are great films and there are greater films which do not make it to the list. The list is in alphabetical order so do not try figuring out who beats who. I will come up with a ranked list later.
Here goes the list:
1. 8 Mile [2002]
2. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective [1994]
3. American Pie [1999]
4. American Pie II [2001]
5. American Wedding [2003]
6. American Reunion [2012]
7. Apollo 13 [1995]
8. Batman [1989-1992]
9. Back to the Future Trilogy [1985-1990]
10. Black hawk Down [2001]
11. Bruce Almighty [2003]
12. Cast Away [2000]
13. Cloverfield [2008]
14. Deep Impact [1998]
15. District 9 [2009]
16. Donnie Darko [2001]
17. Einstein and Eddington [2008]
18. Face Off [1997]
19. Fight Club [1999]
20. Goal: The Dream Begins [2005]
21. Good Will Hunting [1997]
22. Iron Man [2008]
23. Jaws [1975]
24. Kick-Ass [2010]
26. Limitless [2011]
27. Magnolia [1999]
28. Memento [2000]
29. Men in Black [1997]
30. Ocean's Eleven [2001]
31. Pirates of Silicon Valley [1999]
32. Real Steel [2011]
33. Road to Perdition [2002]
34. Shaun of the Dead [2004]
35. Snatch [2000]
36. Source Code [2011]
37. Superbad [2007]
38. Superman [1978]
39. Terminator 2: Judgment Day [1991]
40. The Amazing Spiderman [2012]
41. The Avengers [2012]
42. The Butterfly Effect [2004]
43. The Dark Knight Trilogy [2005-2012]
44. The Girl Next Door [2004]
45. The Good, The Bad and The Ugly [1966]
46. The Goonies [1985]
47. The Hangover [2009]
48. The Matrix [1999]
49. The Others [2001]
50. The Polar Express [2004]
51. The Pursuit of Happyness [2006]
52. The Prestige [2006]
53. The Shawshank Redemption [1994]
54. The Sixth Sense [1999]
55. The Social Network [2010]
56. Toy Story 3 [2010]
57. X-Men [2000]
58. X-Men: First Class [2011]
59. Zombieland [2009]
[Image source: Google Search]
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Tag :
Lists
#Trivia: The Alternate cast of Shawshank Redemption
The Shawshank Redemption, a movie which finds its place in almost every movie enthusiast's list of greatest films. Among many other important depiction of human emotions, it showed the friendship of two prisoners over a time period of almost 2 decades; Andy and Red. The supporting characters included Heywood, Lloyd, Brooks and Tommy. There was a great equation among these characters. However these characters could be completely different, if the actors who were first approached agreed to portray these characters .
Red; the role for Ellis Boyd ‘Red’ Redding was determined to go to Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, Paul Newman or Robert Redford. In the Stephen King's book, Red was a white Irishman, so it was meant to be played by a white skinned actor in the first place, but director Frank Darabont wanted to cast only Morgan Freeman as Red.
Frank Darabont made sure that his favorite character actor James Whitmore must get a role in this film, so he asked him to do the role for Brooks. The role for the character Tommy Williams played by Gil Bellows was first going to Brad Pitt. Though this character had a small part, it was an important role in the film.
Given the great actor Tom hanks is, we would have loved to see Hanks do the Andy part, or Clint Eastwood being Red, but then, could Shawshank achieve the cult status, it has achieved now? I doubt.
Given the great actor Tom hanks is, we would have loved to see Hanks do the Andy part, or Clint Eastwood being Red, but then, could Shawshank achieve the cult status, it has achieved now? I doubt.
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#List: Top 5 Mahatma Gandhi portrayal in movies
It is a National Holiday here in India, because of Mahatma Gandhi's 144th Birthday. So, I thought of writing something about the man himself. I am going to write about five of many portrayals of Mahatma Gandhi I have watched on the big screen and TV and will rank them performance wise. The idea of writing about a list of movies on the Mahatma seemed so common, perhaps everyone is doing it. So, I thought lets talk about the actors who perfect his role.
5. Portrayed by Rajit Kapoor in The making of the Mahatma [1996]: The only reason, he is at the 5th spot and not on the 4th or the 3rd is because this film showcased the life of Gandhi during his stay at South Africa only. Though, it was the only reason he was cast as Gandhi as Shyam Benegal wanted to make a movie on the younger Gandhi. He did all the justice with the role, just the film was a little slow.
4. Portrayed by Annu Kapoor in Sardar [1993]: Before Annu Kapoor became a popular anchor on Antakshari, he delivered some really fine performances in Ek Ruka Hua Faisla [Indian version of the classic 12 Angry Men], Mr. India [practically India's first superhero film] and Sardar. Sardar was made by Ketan Mehta on the life of Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel, played by Paresh Rawal during the time of Indian freedom and partition. Annu Kapoor took care of almost every little detail, and was quite convincing as Mahatma Gandhi. Though he could have worked more on his speech, which was a little inappropriate.
3. Portrayed by Darshan Zariwala in Gandhi, My Father [2007]: This is a different kind film on Gandhi's life. It focuses on his personal life rather than his political life, his relationship with his son and how the nation's father couldn't be a good father to his own son. For his portrayal as Gandhi, Darshan Zariwala received mixed reaction. He deserves the 3rd spot according to me.
2. Portrayed by Naseeruddin Shah in Hey Ram [2000]: Many of you won't agree with Naseeruddin Shah on the 2nd spot for the best Mahatma Gandhi's portrayals. It is not because he is one of my most favorite actors, but because he did it as intelligently as any other role he executes, not taking the responsibility of being Gandhi too seriously and perfecting it with ease. No other actors who played Gandhi ever tried perfecting or working on Bapu's Gujarati accent but he did, that is Naseeruddin Shah for you.
1. Portrayed by Ben Kingsley in Gandhi [1982]: Do I even need to tell who tops the list of best Gandhi portrayals, Ben Kingsley lived Gandhi. For those who never cared to find out what Mahatma Gandhi looked like, what was his mannerism, how he used to get angry and the way he ate, slept or cried; go watch Gandhi, Gandhi did everything like Ben Kingsley did in this Richard Attenborough Biopic.
#Honorable Mention: Portrayed by Dilip Prabhvalkar in Lage Raho Munna Bhai [2006]: it is a contemporary setup and his character has no issues of his own. He is here to make a difference through the protagonist. It is a great film, but perhaps the other 5 Mahatmas scored a bit higher.
#Honorable Mention: Portrayed by Dilip Prabhvalkar in Lage Raho Munna Bhai [2006]: it is a contemporary setup and his character has no issues of his own. He is here to make a difference through the protagonist. It is a great film, but perhaps the other 5 Mahatmas scored a bit higher.
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Tag :
Lists,
performances
The Resident Evil Franchise [2002-2012]: This was fun but stop it now
Cast: Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Ali Larter, Oded Fehr.
Directed by: Paul W.S. Anderson [Part 1, 4 and 5], Alexander Witt [Part 2] and Russell Mulcahy [Part 3].
Resident Evil [2002]: ★★★
Overall Movie Geek’s Rating: ★★
Also featured in IMDb Critic Reviews
Okay, so I was having a little chat with my friend some days back about movies, movie reviews and about The Movie Geek’s Blog. He asked me if I am only going to maintain a blog that praises every film, or I am going to be harsh as well to those who deserves.
This remark was like an eye opener for me, and I rushed to check my previous reviews and I found out that most of the reviews I write are for the films I liked.
Following the advice he gave, I decide to write about a film franchise, which went from Alright to Bad to Garbage after every new part that came. I am talking about the Resident Evil Pentalogy [I don’t even know if that word exist or not].
So I watched Resident Evil: Retribution [the 5th part] a few weeks back only because I have this syndrome to finish off movie franchises I started, and I had to watch this film and I will continue watching it even if they come with a 6th part, which they will.
When the original film; the part 1, Resident evil came in, I kind of enjoyed it [okay I watched it in 2005, forgive me for saying that], it was one of the first few zombie films I watched. I can’t fake to be sophisticated enough saying I did not like it at all and totally trash this film; instead I admit I liked the first film of the franchise. The whole concept of the Umbrella Corporation was fascinating; they remained untouched even after the greatest of apocalypse.
Zombie films are a very dangerous investment for the producers if they are looking for some critical reception; most zombie films fail because of several reasons. The authorities do not consider such films for any form of accolades or awards, critics do not prefer rating them anywhere above a 6 on a scale of 10. These films have to be extremely innovative to climb the ladder of success and critics & user ratings.
Some of the coolest zombie films I saw in the recent times are Shaun of the Dead, Zombie land and Go Goa Gone. They were successful because they used the element of humor in the background to present the supposed Horror.
Resident Evil on a completely different note tried a serious approach to present an apocalyptic tale that failed miserably as it became more and more unrealistic with every new addition to the franchise.
A zombie film is kind of a fantasy film itself, so in a good zombie film, there should be no other fantasy element. This keeps the horror intact, while in this franchise, you will come across a dog with 4 faces, zombies with 4 tongues, some characters that never die, characters that multiply, laser beams and many more things that you will ultimately regret being a witness to a crap like this. I will make some honest remark that you can like the 1st part as it had a story to go after and save the curiosity of the viewer till the end, you can continue to see what happened later to Alice and the others she befriended in the 2nd part.
In the 3rd part, you can see some really nice cinematography and lots of brightness and sun in this otherwise dark patched film also do not miss the little section that showcased Las Vegas covered in deserts after the T-Virus infected everyone.
Do not go any further; if you are into good movies only, the 4th and the 5th part are real shame to this otherwise entertaining franchise.
If you are only into great cinema, do not bother yourself to watch any part of the Resident Evil franchise.
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PS: Since Movie Geek's Blog is trying to determine the greatest movie ever made as voted by its readers, will you please take a minute to vote for your favorite movie(s) on the right side bar of this blog?
PS: Since Movie Geek's Blog is trying to determine the greatest movie ever made as voted by its readers, will you please take a minute to vote for your favorite movie(s) on the right side bar of this blog?
