Quickie reviews

Bengali
Antarmahal (2008) - * * * * * - A Bengali movie by Rituparno Ghosh about ancient superstitions and how they are twisted... Bengali directors are simply awesome. The region has immense talent and art! Not to forget, beauties too! This movie is set in 1878 and is about a landlord (Shroff) who desires a child. He marries a young bride (Soha) while his 1st wife is still with hi (Rupa Ganguly). The two women share a bond amidst the insecurities and yet they have this sisterly bond between them. The story is told from different POVs at times and is simply brilliant in some moments! Bachchan plays a sculptor who is to make an idol of Goddeess Durga. The landlord wants him to put the Queen's face on the idol to earn a title from the Empire and grow his power. The movie handles various topics like lust, power, marital rape, childlessness, polygamy, superstitions, vain kings, dis-loyalty, seduction. To watch such strong, bold, controversial cinema made at home was quite a shock for me. I was mighty impressed by the director and his handling of such a myriad of emotions with elan in this 2 hour movie! Classic!

French
A man and a woman (1966) - * * * - A story of a divorced model/actress and a widower race car driver. Their kids go to the same school and they both meet. The romance shown is very innocent and classy. The movie sometimes uses black and white to nice effect and also makes ample use of facial expressions to convey the romantic connection between the woman and the man. It also has an unexpected twist in the end... A nice romantic movie to watch when you have nothing to do but get your mush on! The man is played by Jean-Louis Trintrignant and the woman is played by Anouk Aimee. Direction is by Claude Lelouch. Classy romance.

English
Tadpole - * * 1/2 - Just what is it about the older woman that boys find attractive? Is it the intelligence, the full bodied figure, the commanding attitude, the understanding motherly way in which they act? The young boy (John Ritter) in the movie falls in love with his french step-mom (Sigourney Weaver). Only she doesn't know it yet. His mature demeanor and suave ways makes him irresistible to girls. The story takes a turn when he gets drunk and unwittingly sleeps with his step-mom's best friend (Bebe Neuwirth) because she was wearing his step-mom's scarf. The boy now jumps thru hoops in an effort to conceal what happened and this presents various funny moments in the movie. Rom-Com.

PS: Post style inspired by Vee's latest!

Roller Coasters!

Yesterday was fun - I discovered myself actually peaking while having fun. It was different from the other times because usually I go from 0 to 100% in no time when it comes to doing such things! Yesterday was different because it took me a good 8 hours before I started enjoying the roller coasters in the park! 8 hours! Can you imagine that?

Now before the smart asses start getting ideas about me turning older, etc, etc and invoke my wrath upon them - let me clarify, it was because of food! I ate too much and the drive to the park did not leave enough time for the food to settle down. Not the one to waste time, I jumped on the "Son of Beast" as soon as I entered the park and really "felt" the effects when the ride was over. I decided to take it slow and give myself some time to chill before I hit other really good coasters.

Thanks to new friends and old, a few hours were spent talking to them! Good conversations from the heart even though I was speaking to some after ages... picked up right where we had left off and the fun, flirt and leg-pulling started! Amazing how you can love certain ones while actually hurling abuses at them... marvelous joy! Cheers to such friendship!

A few conversations and a coke later, the spirits were lifted... - Coca Cola, an amazing dark bubbly liquid - what a business idea. BTW, do you know, the formula for making coke is known to only 3 people in the whole world. The other 2 cannot travel in the same airplane and they both have a key to the safe in which it is stored! And now, just because you are a loyal readers of my blog, you will know it too...
So ladies and gentlemen and whoever-you-are ... Here it the formula for Coke - the best selling soft drink in the world!

water + color + CO2 + addiction = handsome profit!

Genius! I do realize, this actually makes me an addict and also a fool, but hey, it makes me feel great! And if it makes you feel good, it has to be good for you, right? RIGHT! (I know the effects - so spare the wise comments about how its good for cleaning toilets and such... I have read that forwarded email already)

Now where were we? Ah yes, coasters! Amazing creations of steel, wood and concrete! They give such an adrenaline rush while keeping the rider in a safe and controlled environment!

Frankly, "Son of Beast", with its shaking wooden frame, harsh ride and the steep drop, provided more excitement than the newest addition - diamondback.

So which is the best coaster in the park? According to me, it has to be "Firehawk".
It makes you feel you are hanging in mid-air held and gives you the feeling of flying in the air! I thoroughly enjoyed riding it - twice!

Unfortunately for me, "The Beast" was closed, so missed out 1 coaster - that should be reason enough to visit the park again!

The park is called Kings Island and it has many Nickelodeon based attractions for kids and it also has many water rides. The water rides I plan to check out in my next trip whenever it happens.

Some free survival tips while visiting an adventure park -
1. Never eat too much food. It'll make you queasy. If you have to eat, do it in moderate quantities and have east food like fries, chips, etc. A 7 course meal and coaster do not match!
2. Water is your friend. Stay hydrated at all times. Often times its not the ride that will wring your guts out - its dehydration. Spot the signs.... If you are not sweating like a pig when its warm outside, its not the new anti-perspirant you are wearing - you are just dehydrated!
3. Dress for the occasion - water parks + bikini/swimming trunks = fun! - for everyone ;-) A spare set of clothes would come in handy after the water rides.
4. Hot sun - Sun block = dark burnt skin
5. Travel light. Some rides can be topsy-turvy, so its better not to carry a $500 cell-phone with you. Laptops are a strict no-no ... unless you have a girlfriend by that name (That was for guys and open minded girls reading this blog)
6. Carry a camera to capture the moments, but try not to make the curvy blond in the skimpy bikini the sole objective of your trip! She may have a tattoo sporting boyfriend watching you while you watch her!!
7. Makes friends with the boyfriend first and click the blondie snaps later!
8. Why are you still looking for more tips? This is not a project for God's sake! Go and be yourself, the point is to have fun.

So folks, do you like roller coasters or are you the ones who cannot handle them? or do you need to be called chicken before you hop on to one to prove the person wrong? Are you an adrenaline junkie too?

PS: Does any one have the video of Aakash and Shalini in Dil chata hai where he calls her a chicken before she hops on to the coaster?

Movie Review: Terminator Salvation

Movie review: Terminator Salvation (2009)

Sacrifice lunch hour to book tickets.
Build up hype to watch it FDFS.
Spend evening trying to sleep.
Make the mistake of turning on the television!
Catch "Pirates of Caribbean" and "Take the lead" on TV.
Lose sleep.
Catch the movie at 12:01 am. FDFS!
Come back disappointed.

The 1st half of the movie is spent in building up the premise of the story. The 2nd half is where all the action is.

The scenes in the movie will remind you of -
1. Black Hawk Down
2. Matrix
3. Matrix:Reloaded
4. Mad Max - Road warrior
5. Crank 2
6. Death Race
7. T2
8. I am Legend
9. Doomsday
10. T3
11. Dark Knight

T4 is a mish-mash of all these movies with some original "spice" thrown into it. The mix does not work for these reasons.
1. I have seen all these movies - just this year. I did not want a refresher course!
2. In this month alone, there were 3 other movies released - "X-Men Origins: Wolverine", "Star Trek", "Angels & Demons" - All were better than T4, even Wolverine, and I did not like wolverine that much!
3. I have not even watched "Angels & Demons" yet
4. I thought T3 was a bad movie
5. The music in some places felt like it was from a Hindi movie (Zanjeer is the one that came to mind)
6. Unlike Star Trek, no one clapped in joy when the movie ended (Star trek still got claps 3 weeks after its release!)

The movie evoked the similar feelings as watching Matrix Reloaded. The action was good, but the story was weak. It felt like this movie should have been an "in-between" movie. Like Matrix Reloaded, its too weak to stand on its own. And since Matrix reloaded was released years ago, this one was highly unoriginal even in its action. Come on man! Its a T4 movie. Try to show something original.

Seems like to me, the movie was made to cater to video game fans! Did someone in marketing forget, the movie has to be a hit for the other franchise to be successful? The plot is full of gaping loopholes! The action is barely passable. This one fits in the category of movies where all the cool scenes are already shown in the trailer.

The 1st half stands on a rating of 5/10. The second half stands at 6/10. This brings the avg rating to 5.5/10.
Disappointing for any movie.
For a T4 movie, that's very disappointing! Especially when you stay up in the middle of the work week to watch it. I know, you will still want to watch it and judge for yourself. Be my guest. I'll wait for you at the "frustrated fan party" right here! remember, there are no refunds! You are warned. No salvation in this movie!

Some of the trailers look good - Eagerly awaited movies are - Surrogates (Bruce Willis), Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law (i think)) {One has to find solace in something, right? We all live on hope after all!}

Kitchen tales of a bachelor - How to start an oil fire!

1. Take a pan and pour some oil in it
2. Put it on a flame
3. As the gas takes time to heat the oil, you cool off with a chilled beer
4. Since cold beer does not go with hot kitchen, retire in bedroom
5. You have lots of work to do later that involves cooking! Pop in a movie dvd to relax
6. Get engrossed in movie and fall asleep
(In the mean time, the hot oil has started smoking and managed to catch fire)
7. Wake up when the smoke alarm goes off
8. Call friend on phone to ask what is this buzzing noise and why wont it stop
9. On finally noticing the smoke, run into the kitchen
10. Take the hot flaming pan of oil - which by now has burnt half of the microwave - and place it on the kitchen floor
11. Leave a burnt mark in the kitchen floor with this brilliant maneuver, so perfectly round, it'll make your geometry teacher proud and your apartment owner really mad.
[Its just a parting gift for him to remember you by :-) ]
12. Blame friends for leaving cold beer in the house that almost caused the building to burn down!
13. Open another beer to relieve you from the stress you just had to undergo
14. Finish off all cold beer in the house to prevent another fire

The next lesson will be on how to kill the colluding cooker - be on time for the lesson and bring your own beer!

PS: Post inspired by THIS article by Abha!

Why is your blog named thus?

One of my friends had an innovative blog name in her erstwhile blog. I liked the way "eye" was used in place of an "I". So, like Anu Malik, I was "inspired" by that and named my blog eye in sty in... which if pronounced together spells Einstein. Also, And this is where things get interesting, so hold on to the seat of your pants.... if you take the 1st letters of each word in the blog, it spells EISI also means I-See... See? How bright can I be at times!

I told you the secret of my blog name, now whats the story behind yours?

PS: post inspired by another friend.

Movie Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Admit it! There is something special about those Adamantium claws that make it really attractive for people of both the sexes, even if it is for different reasons! Right?

If there was one character from X-men that people just didn't get enough of, it has to be Wolverine! Complex, deep, disturbed, torn he was the one who gave the vibe of being on or near the edge! A little more bad and he could easily be on the other side! This edge is what warrants wolverine his own movie!

The movie was already part of a controversy, even before it was released. Rumor had it that it was already leaked online before it was released in the theaters. Fox had to send out memos in the news print to assure the audiences that the "leaked" movie was very different from what will be shown in the theaters. Of course, once the news became public, websites were leery of carrying the movie in fear of a lawsuit!

Not to sound disappointing, but the movie plot did not have enough in it to make it REALLY enjoyable for me. Perhaps I was expecting to see the antics of Wolverine himself, but was surprised by seeing other mutants in the movie. Or perhaps it was that some of the other mutants were a little bit too cool for wolverine! Or perhaps it was that wolverine's brother, the sabertooth mutant had similar powers. Or perhaps there was not one single villain in the movie and he was not that powerful, just cunning? Ok, I'll go with the last excuse.

Having got that out of the way, now I can focus on the positives of the movie.
The one thing worth mentioning is that the action in the movie is really slick! I totally loved it when they slowed down the scene to make it look more exciting than it really is.

Also have to admit that the character of Silverfox (Lynn Collins) kinda grew on me. The director really built that suspense quite well in the movie. Totally believable. Being full bodied (read not skinny), she kinda looks hot! I like her ;-)

Liev Schreiber plays Victor Creed / Sabertooth. He is Logan's brother, with retractable nails instead of knuckle-claws. He has elongated canine teeth that make him look like a badly developed vampire/werewolf. Kinda silly actually!

Danny Houston plays Stryker - cunning to the core, he is quite intelligent. But then,I feel it does not take much intelligence to fool a gullible and confused wolverine, just guts. And Stryker may be cunning, but he does not display the same level of cool cunning as displayed by Magneto in the X-men series.

I liked the character of John Wraith played by Will.I.Am. A mutant, his powers are pretty cool. His character had a slight Morpheus-like feel to it and I liked Morpheus's character much in Matrix.

Other cool mutants in the movie are blob , Gambit, Agent Zero, Deadpool, Bolt. Scott's character was quite weak. Weapon XI was kinda ugly and looked unbeatable, and yet, was easily destroyed.

The character that needs no introduction is, of course, wolverine. Even though the plot is kind of shallow, his character has the maximum screen presence. However, the movie fails to develop an emotional attachment towards its main character. One does not quite feel for the character as he goes through enduring various events in the movie. Perhaps the gruff exterior of the character dis-allows for an emotional connect? Somehow, it didn't quite work for me.

In spite of the negatives, the movie is still very good for a single watch. I also have a feeling that the video game is going to be quite a hit with the fans of the series. Director Gavin Hood has made a decent attempt at the movie, the action being the highlight in the movie. Also, there is enough oh Hugh Jackman in the movie for the ladies to ogle :-) This should make it easy for guys to drag their gals to watch the movie. Just throw in the words "bare chest" and "Hugh Jackman" at 'em and surprise surprise, they might even get ready before you :-)

I give the movie 6.5 / 10 for its slick action, the other mutants and a weakish plot. Enjoyable fare this one is.

This revu is dedicated to Mumble - who does not have a link to his blog on his profile! Can you please update it buddy? We'd like to read what you have to write...

PS: This started out as a double feature, but the Star Trek review got the better of me as I started penning it... Sorry to have made you endure me twice :-)

Movie Review: Star Trek (2009)

When any thing has a cult following, the subject has to be dealt with great care. The director has to not only satisfy the audience, he has to be careful so as to NOT offend the existing fans and he has to do it while showing something "new" to them. When the movie is Star Trek, the burden on the director increases by manifold as many of the fans will pick and discuss each and every minutest thing in great detail. Everything has to be logically perfect and yet it must be cool! If done right, it will easily make such a movie the biggest movie of this weekend! If done wrong, it can easily make it a big flop.




The thing that I liked about watching this particular Star Trek movie is that the movie has a "new movie" feel about it. Its kind of like the "new car" smell you experience in a new car. The tag line of the movie says "The future is here" and the movie lives up to its tag line. The visuals in the movie are very fresh and clean. The surroundings in the spaceship appear to be new and futuristic. You do not get the feeling of "Hey, That thing reminds me of that other movie. Or This scene feels like its from the Matrix."


The new Captain Kirk, played by Chris Pine has been given a "I care a damn" attitude in the movie. Something that is different from the old Captain Kirk that I was used to after watching the television series. Although it is this particular quirk about the movie that might make me want to watch the movie again and therefore it actually works to the movie's advantage if others want to do the same!


Spock! With his odd eyebrows and his seemingly indestructible strength and his high level of intelligence combined with his famous hand-on-the-jugular-maneuver that can instantly render the opposition unconscious, it is but logical it was this character in the Star Trek series that I always wanted to be! Although, I must say that the character played in this movie was not as aspiring, it is perhaps the length of the series that made the Spock of the series way way cooler (its logical, isn't it!)! Played by Zachary Quinto, the Spock of the movie is also cool as he retains all the qualities of the (dare-i-say) original Spock!


Hikaru Sulu is played by John Cho. (the biography of this character is quite interesting.) The reliable helmsman of the most famous star ship in the world! The character in the movie is vulnerable, yet solid enough to feel at home in the Enterprise!


"Beam me up, Scotty!" - Perhaps the most famous dialogue in the era of Star Trek! Played by Simon Pegg, this character is the practical scientist. A little eccentric, but full of ingenuity. In this movie he has a relatively small yet memorable role.


Dr. McCoy. The ship's chief medical officer and a personal friend of James T Kirk. Played by Karl Urban, Dr. McCoy smuggles a renegade Kirk aboard the Enterprise in the movie (revealed only because this is not vital to the plot) and also serves as a bit of a comic relief.


Uhura is the ship's communication officer. Her character is played by Zoe Saldana. Oddly, I thought she was being played by Beyonce in the movie. Logically speaking, the mistake was made by me because Beyonce also had a movie coming out around the same time and there was quite a bit of a resemblance although I did think that the character made Beyonce look skinnier and a little - for the lack of a better word - ugly! I found her bio data quite impressive and her looks unattractive! She has a memorable screen presence in the movie and also serves as a corner of a love angle in the movie.


Of course, as it goes with any action movie, the movie will only be as good as its villain. And the visuals apart, this is perhaps the strongest point in the movie for Nero is real "bad" villain who manages to strike fear in your heart! Ruthless, cold-blooded, calculative, scheming, cunning - he makes bad look cool! Played by Eric Bana, I really liked his characterization a lot even though there is not much time devoted to building it. That may be one of the reasons why I ended up liking his character, because unlike Captain Kirk, the director did not waste any screen time in developing this character. It just unfolded as the story progressed! Efficiently ruthless!
The plot of the movie is simple and yet its complex enough to warrant for a second viewing. There is enough "nerdy details" for a Trekkie to discuss over a few cold beers! Like the creation of an alternate parallel universe caused by the altering of the past by knowledge from the future! A good thing to cause an argument and then discuss "what could have happened" by buying the DVD of the movie.


The only quirk that I had was - even though the cast was international, at least in terms of race, once again the action was centered around the US! It gets a little repetitive to time and again see movie makers show - the world = US - in movies! makes me want to be a little crass and say "Come on - get your head out of your ass! There are other continents too. Its OK to go a little more international. The whole world is a market place now and its for yours to take!" There are other things that I want to discuss too, but it will mean revealing a bit of the plot and hence I refrain for now. And since I have digressed, here is a treat for you...

A visual compa rision of the Old v/s new
Star ship... just for kicks :-) Note that the new star ship is shiner! Also note that many more stars are now visible as this is the age od High Definition :-))

The commendable thing about this Star Trek movie is that the director J.J. Abrams has managed to give it a fresh feel while retaining the original Star Trek flavour in it. I can see it winning awards or at least posing serious competition to the other eagerly awaited flick of this year - T4!

Go watch it! The ship is really cool, the characters are exciting and funny, the action is also cool and the plot is deep. This movie has enough in it to make a Trekkie out of you! And if you do not get converted in the first screening, we'll make sure to get a vulcan sign out of you the second time around :-)) 7.5/10 is my rating! Its really good!

This revu is dedicated to Mumble - who does not have a link to his blog on his profile! Can you please update it buddy? We'd like to read what you have to write...

PS: This started out as a double feature, but the review got the better of me as I started penning it... Sorry to have made you endure me twice :-)