Green Street Hooligans - DVD Review

Green Street Hooligans (2005) - Review

An old movie, but I don't know how many of us have seen it.

This is a movie about a English Football Firm, called the GSE (Green Street Elite). For the uninitiated (like I was till last night), a Firm is a gang for whom football is their life. They support their club to such extremes that involve blood and violence.

Elijah Wood plays a kid, Matt Buckner who gets kicked out of Harvard for doing drugs. He makes his way to London to visit his sister and her family. This is where he meets Pete Dunham (Charlie Hunnam), the leader of the GSE. He takes this "Yank" kid under his wing and he over time becomes part of the firm. The movie takes you through the life of a firm, from Matt's perspective as he grows in the firm.

It's a powerful movie that shows the perils of the gang life. But at the end of the day it's a coming of age story of Matt Buckner, where he learns to stand up for himself. It's definitely worth a watch.

I'll say 3.6/5

Rahul..

One awesome thing is this movie : The GAME is FOOTBALL - NOT SOCCER!! :D

Robin Hood Movie (2010) - Review

ROBIN HOOD - Review

Ridley Scott, Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett.. A dream team of movie makers. Especially for period epics. Expectations are through the roof. Does Robin Hood deliver? Yes & No. Read on to see why.

The best thing that they did when they made this movie was to change the story. I don't think anyone wants to hear the same old Robin Hood story re-told. He steals from the Rich and Gives to the poor. He's a noble man who lived in Sherwood forest. The Sheriff of Nottingham is the bad guy and Maid Marianne is his love interest. We've all seen and read that story in a multitude of ways.

No, this story did not go down that path. The characters in the story are the same as the legend. But the story completely different. It begins with the story of King Richard and his Holy Crusade. Robin Longstride is a archer in his army who along with his "merry" men gets on the wrong side of the King & at the moment of the King's death escape persecution. As they make their way back to England a strange set of events occur which cause Robin and his men to pose themselves as Knights taking the crown back to London. The movie from this point on shows a very different Robin Longstride, one with morals, but not a cause. The cause comes when he arrives at Nottingham and is made Robin of Loxley. I'm not going to give out much more of the story, because that would defeat the purpose of a new EPIC. Let me just say this really worth the time. The story is very well developed and differently presented.

Where the new story makes this movie really enjoyable is also where this movie has a problem. It takes forever for them to build each character. Explain what they are about, and set the background plot. It's a slow starter. But, I guess it's a EPIC. It's going to take some time to digest. The sets are really astounding, especially the Fort at York and London of the 12th century. The battle scenes in the climax of the movie also make you feel like you are in that age. All the actors in the movie play their parts well. There's no performance that stands out as exceptional or poor. You just like watching the movie.

All in all I enjoyed it. The only thing was I got up from the movie saying. Couldn't it have been a bit shorter? Anyway - it's worth a watch. 3.66/5.

Rahul.

Firefly - The Series & Serenity -The Movie (Review)

Firefly & Serenity - Review

These two series have been on Netflix instant play for a while now. I finally got around to watching both of them.

Half way through the series, I was really looking forward to blogging about it and telling everyone that this was a really cool series that was cut short. I was really looking forward to singing it's praises. But, unfortunately, I can't do that. 'Caus

neither the series nor the movie actually deserve that level of accolades.

They do however warrant a mention. Because it was not bad. Because it was a nice idea, there was some chemistry & well 'caus I'm a SciFi fan who has run out of Star Trek & Star Wars stuff to watch.

I had watched Buffy & Angel off and on. They had a certain flair. Firefly brought that same flair to this series as well. I guess it's the Josh Whedon touch. As a concept, Firefly is great. The earth has run out of resources so humans find other worlds to colonize. And then of course some places become richer and some poorer. Wars break out and battle lines are drawn. All make a great recipe. The best part of this series was that it was about humans in space. Not some humans with 10 other alien species mixed in.

Anyway, the series had a certain space cowboys, western feel and is quite riveting. You go from episode to episode relating to the characters,building a bond. And just when you wonder where the series is going. It get's canned. So, that takes us to the movie.

Ok. Let's take a breath. Before I talk about the Movie. Firefly on it's own according to me is 3.66/5 for a TV series. It's defiantly worth a watch - although not the best I've seen.

So, Serenity. I guess the makers had to make this movie to give some kind of a logical ending to their series, their franchise. I guess they did to that. Eventually. The movie tires to tie up the loose ends in the series. Like, what did the Alliance do to River? Who the hell is Shepard Book? And, what on earth are Refers?

Again, as a concept, the story is good. But the execution is poor. The movie takes very long to get going and by the time it does, you are ready for it to end. To give it credit. It does end well. The closing plot is very good and the acting does get better as the movie moves along. But, since it's a movie, I'll have to say it's just average. 2.5/5 for Serenity.

I think, if you have some spare time on your hands & you like SciFi, you can do worse than Firefly & Serenity. I'd say just watch Firefly, but that makes no sense, you'll want to know how it ends. So take the good with the bad and watch both. You may not regret it. :)

Rahul.

The Blind Side - Movie on DVD Review

The Blind Side

A movie about a gentle Giant. A simple story about a boy and his mother. Micheal Oher is a boy from the tough side of town who gets a chance to join a private school. As he struggles to make use of this opportunity and do well in school, he is noticed by a woman named Leigh Ann Tuohy. She realizes that he's homeless and gives him a bed for the night. She feels for him and she has him stay with her and tries to ensure that the family takes him as one of their own. Over time grows as she takes him as her son. The teachers in the school and Leigh Ann help Micheal with his studies and over time, he becomes eligible to play Football for the school.

Don't expect too many twists and turns, this is just the story of one boy and his mama. What makes it really beautiful is when you realize that it's a true story. What it must have been like for the actual Leigh Ann & her family. How the bond between them was as close as any Mother and son. I really liked this simple story. It's defiantly worth a watch.

Sandra Bullock - She's the star of the movie, and she plays the role with a lot of conviction. You can really relate to the character, the way she has portrayed her as a no nonsense, loving and determined woman. This role deserved all the accolades that it received.

Quinton Aaron - He's the gentlest big guy on screen. He plays the role of Big Mike really well and you feel for this young boy, even though he looks twice my size. His determination, his love for his family, the way he just wants to please everyone. Beautifully performed role.

For the simple truth - 4/5.

Rahul.

IRON MAN 2 - REVIEW

IRON MAN - 2

So where did the last movie leave off. Oh yeah that's right, Tony Stark says he's Iron Man. OK, I thought they'd find a way around that and say that it didn't really happen. I was also dreading what this movie would be. I thought it would just be a money spinner. A cheesy rip-off of the first movie. But, I was wrong it was actually better.

The movie picks up with the Government asking Tony to hand over the Iron Man suit. I think you can guess how that request goes down. :) But from there on, the plot is stitched beautifully, with Ivan Vanko plotting and scheming to take Iron Man down. As with most Downey movies, you see his character fall down only to get up again better than before (not to be read as the bad guy wins - watch the movie, you'll understand - I'm not giving you the story).

How's the movie? It's great. The story is actually pretty good and it's different from other superhero movies and that's 'caus the hero is such an ass. Now if they could only find him some actual villains to fight Iron Man, the movie would actually get interesting. Really, Mickey Rourke just can't act. I'm glad he plays the Russian Ivan Vanko in the movie, that way he does not have too many lines. For the few that he has I don't think he does them justice.

I like Robert Downey Jr. I like his attitude and the way he portrays Tony Stark, and frankly he's the only shining light in the movie as far as acting goes. Oh no, wait. There was one more actor in this movie worth mentioning. Scarlett Johansson. She plays Stark's lawyer/bodyguard - and although she's got a very small role in the movie she plays it really well.

Don Cheadle finally gets to wear the suit and some of the scenes with him and Iron Man are quite cool. Especially in the big fight in the end. Ok, so now we have Iron Man's side kick as well. So what next? Iron Man 3? Or do we go straight to the Avengers ?

RATING : 3.75 on 5... (I'm not giving it a 4 because they should have made the Villain a bit more dangerous)

Rahul.

Note of congratulations to self :)

My 100th published Blog post. Wow, that took a long time.

I had similar blog about 3 years ago when I posted my 50th . I thought this would have come much sooner. Well I guess with me just blogging with reviews it does slow things down. Anyway - I'm going to keep going. I hope people keep reading.