Day Is Done

Okay, I can't believe I accidentally watched two biography movies in a row. Yesterday was The Imitation Game, and today I watched American Sniper. Obviously, I don't read up about these movies before watching them. I'm just watching all these movies after watching the nominees for Oscars.

I really dig archers and snipers. They are like the coolest people on earth. So this movie is about a sniper, a very lethal one it seems. Bradley Cooper played that role. I think he played it pretty well. Especially the parts when he came home but was emotionally detached from his family as his entire mind and soul was at the battlefield.

The Real Chris Kyle

In comparison to The Imitation Game, since they are both biographic movies, American Sniper was much better, I almost teared up a couple of times. Cooper's wife played her role really well, and some scenes were perfectly acted out and not overdone. No scene was too long in the movie - the battles during each tours to Iraq and the time spent at home after each tour were equally balanced and the emotions here and there were delivered adequately. The battles were not like two big groups of people running into each other with swords. These battles were subtle - as they clear each block on the street. The kills and hits were unpredictable and probably that's how it really is in the battlefield.

Apparently, Chris Kyle wrote an autobiography - American Sniper. I doubt I'm going to actually read the book. However, the plot of the movie was not too deep. It portrayed the difficulties and challenges he had to go through as a soldier. I'm still not too sure how I feel about soldiers having a family. I have watched a couple of movies of these kind, where there's a conflict of interest  the family or the troop. Sometimes it annoys me that knowing they are going to have difficulties in balancing them both, they still want to make another human being's life difficult. Other times, I feel - they are human beings too, and they deserve a chance. Probably I'd blog about my stand on that some day. As for today, I was happy the Cooper's wife did not give up on him although she finally stooped to blackmailing him after having a second kid. Blackmail in the sense that, she and the two kids might not be around the next time he came back. At first she was so supportive I hoped she stayed the same throughout, but eventually everybody breaks I guess. Sometimes, we aren't as strong as we think we are. 

Nevertheless, he did quit after four tours to Iraq and came back to her arms - however the end of his life was rather tragic and unexpected. Not everybody who goes to the battlefield, dies at the battlefield. One could get cancer, but die of a motor vehicle accident any day before the cancer kills him. Some of the scenes in this movie were rather violent, especially 'The Butcher'. Perhaps they wanted us to hate him enough, and make us want to snipe his head. The scene of Cooper taking out the Iraqi sniper at an almost ridiculous range, was actually destroyed - for me. I don't get why they have to do it in slow motion. I really dislike slow motion scenes. I actually enjoy it being real. Some other movies, take their fighting scenes in slow motion like as if, they are trying to show off their video editing skills. Thank god, movies like The Dark Knight, and recently I have been watching Arrow, none of the stunts were in slow motion. For this movie, there was only one slow motion scene and it was during the most important scene of the movie - and it was really disappointing. 

Ignoring that scene, I really enjoyed the movie filled with emotion and heart throbbing moments, because you could get shot anywhere anytime, without even facing your killer. This is a must watch movie, so please go watch it if you are reading this. Have a great week people!

Enigma

 

So, I didn't have any idea what this movie was going to be about - besides being something about code breaking. Basically, this movie was set during the WWII, and there were stuff about Allies, and Nazis, and more of history stuff which I can only pretend to know, and not even really bother reading more about. There's really nothing much to discuss over here, for a person like me, who is searching for movies with depth, because this movie was intended to portray the life of a supposedly important person named Alan Turing - played by Benedict Cumberbatch. 

I haven't really seen Cumberbatch cry - it was kinda funny actually. I don't think crying roles fit him at all, and to be honest, I didn't really fancy his overly sarcastic mood. His acting here was like an amplified version of Sherlock.  I think his nonchalance and disregard for insignificant and less important things in life is pretty adequate in Sherlock, but rather overdone in this movie. This movie was directed by a Norwegian director, Morten Tyldum. He probably really liked the way Cumberbatch played Sherlock. 

So for the three main criteria I look for in a movie - Emotion, Depth and Complexity. Like I mentioned earlier, there wasn't much Depth, no intense life philosophy or food for thought. The plot was neat and straightforward with occasional flashbacks. About Emotion, I think Cumberbatch fits characters like Khan (which he pulled off pretty impressively), but the obsessive compulsive, systematic, soft hearted person with a damaged childhood is not really Him. When I saw him cry, I kinda went - "Eww'. Hahaha! I think the roles he played in Sherlock and Star Trek were pretty strong that it couldn't be washed out in another movie suggesting a contradictory role. It's rather difficult to act out a role that demands sarcastic intelligence together with occasional tears and love. However, I liked Kiera Knightley's acting in this movie. Her role wasn't as demanding as Benedict's role. About her hair in the final scene though - it was ugly. 

About the language - it was so British and probably archaic that I needed subtitles. 'Lad' - do people even use that these days? 'Insufferable sod.' I think I shall adopt that into my vocab. Well, the setting was in 1940's so yes, they had to speak that way. It was rather sexy actually. Both Benedict and Kiera are English, so not much of acting needed there, they just had to talk like they usually do. 

For the plot of the movie, I could not appreciate much. They just had to break Enigma, and they did it. I can't feel much - probably because I'm not attached to the emotions during the WWII. So I can't feel the joy of doing something great in saving the world. This was similar to the movie Argo, played by Ben Affleck. So many people loved that movie, but I was like - 'okayyy...they escaped majestically.' No feel. For The Imitation Game, at first I thought the movie was focused on the Enigma, but when they introduced Turing's homosexuality issue, I realised that this movie was dedicated to Alan Turing. In that era, homosexuality was illegal. 

The real Alan Turing

Overall, the movie was interesting, but I just wasn't emotionally attached to the movie. I did enjoy it however. Christopher - was really cool. I didn't really feel the 2 hours go by. Till next time, see ya!

Worse Than Death

 

Okay, I was suppose to blog about this movie a few days ago - but I was binging on Arrow series, so I was occupied. Anyway, this movie, 'I' by Shankar - to me, personally, it wasn't up to mark, but it did much better in relative comparison to other Tamil movies. Since it has been a few days, and my memories are already fading, I shall not talk much about it, otherwise my facts might not be accurate.

The most important thing I would like to mention is the technique of revenge. Finally, they have embraced the Korean art of revenge. They finally understood that death, in fact, is a liberation instead of a punishment. To be honest, this is the first Tamil movie I'm watching, that did not use death as a revenge. The iconic phrase was 'athukum mela', which means 'worse' - as in, the punishment is going to be worse than death itself. All this was good, but as usual, just good ideas without proper delivery would mean nothing. 

The revenge, was focused on torture elements, but it wasn't actually worse than death. On top of that, some elements were not accurate - medically. The punishment for Osma Jasmine, will eventually wear off, because the androgenic hormones were introduced externally. She did not have metabolic problem, which meant, if she stopped using those creams, the hirsutism will go away. Also, for the bee sting punishment - if you are allergic to it, you either die from anaphylaxis, or you swell up here and there and get better afterwards. He was taken to the hospital, which meant he was almost definitely going to get better. I wasn't really sure what was the punishment outcome that was aimed for the dog bite - scabies perhaps? Even for that, he simply switched the medications. Once the medications are cleared out of your system - all symptoms will wear off. Probably the only punishment that was rather acceptable was burnt-not-to-death.That will stick with you and it will be painful as hell.

On other elements, such as the setting scenery and clothing were really good. A.R Rahman, tried a couple of new genres for the songs in this movie, which sadly I could not appreciate. Nevertheless, he is very talented. About the acting, I never can understand what is it with the 'innocent' role. I think, some people like these 'innocent' people, that can be easily cheated. Maybe they think they are cute. The role that Vikram took on as the innocent guy from a small village - is really kinda annoying. This is not the first. There are plenty of other actors and movies with these roles. Anyway, it was interesting to see a girl using a guy for a change, in a Tamil movie. It was less patriarchal, contrary to the popular notion in Tamil movies. Finally the make-up was really really good, because for once, I could not identify the actor's face after the make up. I could not see Vikram, in the post infected face. I'm not even going to talk about the kyphosis and the influenza virus. I'll leave that to you! See ya!