The Conspirator - Review

The Conspirator - "A very delicately crafted movie about life at the end of the American civil war. A very educational, emotional and entertaining movie"


The movie tells the story of a young lawyer, Frederick Aiken who fought as a Captain for the Union on the civil war and was tasked with the job of defending a Southern woman, Mary Surratt, charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State.


The movie is not a fast paced thriller, but is like a slowly crafted story that takes you through the lives of the people who lived in that time. The chaos that the assassination caused and the aftermath is the center of the story. In a country that was literally split in half the movie goes on to show how clearly the lines were drawn between "us & them". It's this feeling that give the story so much of it's heart. Aiken, a northerner, a man who fought for the Union during the war, defending a Confederate woman accused of a heinous crime. As the movie goes through the first 30 minutes to an hour you see Aiken go from a man who shows contempt & disdain in defending a woman whom he feels is completely guilty to someone who is unsure of her innocence or guilt. He gets the feeling that she's being used as a scapegoat or as bait to catch her son John Surratt, who is known to have conspired with John Wilkes Booth and the rest in the assassination. The ambiguity of the characters, Mary Surratt, Anna Surratt & Frederick Aiken provide the story with a compelling story.


At the end of the movie, you want to know more about what happened 150 years ago. But the more you read about it, the more difficult it is to reach an opinion. That's not really the intent though. It's a well crafted movie & if you are a history buff (I am) then you should enjoy the movie.


A few stunning performances give this movie a rating of 3 on 5.


Rahul. 

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides - Review

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger tides - Glad I decided to watch it. Unlike what most reviews say, is actually a lot of fun.

When you decide to go watch a movie with Captain Jack Sparrow what are you expecting to see? A deep thrilling adventure with a convoluted story and swashbuckling adventures. Not really. You are going to watch the movie because you expect a bunch of crazy laughs with swashbuckling adventures & a funny story thrown in for good measure. And that's exactly what you get this time around as well.

If you are honest with yourself. The first time you saw The Curse of the Black Pearl, it was something new and you really loved it. And that made you go see The Dead man's chest. Whether or not you liked the second movie you really did not have an option. It left the story hanging and made you go back for At the World's End. To credit to the series they finished it off well. Jack where he started, on his own looking for his next loot, Turner becomes the captain of the Flying Dutchman & Barbossa is the captain of the Black Pearl.

So did we really need another one in the series? Especially considering most of the main characters were gone. One got the feeling that they were trying to milk one more out of the cash cow. It would be a movie that should not have happened. One that gave a forgettable end to the franchise.

Not if the writers of the latest movie have anything to say about it. The series is still awesome. Jack Sparrow is still really funny & you still love to hate Barbossa.  So what if Turner, Elizabeth Swan  and the rest of the English Navy is gone. Bring on Black-beard, Angelica & the mermaids.

So they are after the Fountain of Youth this time. Go join them in the adventure. I am quite sure you will enjoy it if you liked any of the last 3 movies. It's a bunch of stupid laughs but that's what we watch this movies for anyway.

It's a 4 on 5.

Rahul.

PS.: So that means, at least according to me, it's another one that RT got wrong. Come on this movie deserves a lot more than 34%. But the audience rating on this movie is about right

Movie Reviews - Can you really trust them?

Talking about Movie Reviews on a Blog that has become mostly a review portal is kind of ridiculous, especially considering my take on a movie may not be the same as the rest of the planet. But what the heck, let's give this a shot.

There was also the time when I used to purposely stay away from reviews of movies I wanted to watch, for fear that it would sway my opinion one way or the other. What did that do? Make me waste a lot of time at movies that were painful to get through.

Up until a year ago, I used to go completely by the reviews of a certain few movie critics & Rotten tomatoes. But as I've started to watch more movies, my tastes seem to have evolved & I find myself unable to trust any of the reviews, Good or Bad.

I'll agree that more often than not when a  movie is really bad, the tomato-meter is not way off. And for that matter when a movie is actually really good, like "The King's Speech" or "Inception" there are very few people who get it wrong. But it's the movies that fall between the 3.5 to 4.5 star categories that are the problem.

So here I am, disappointed with the reviews that I've trusted off late, too-good to be true, or really off the mark on a fantastic movie.

When I decide to watch a Hollywood movie, I don't shop around for reviews, I go straight to Rotten Tomatoes. Why? Well, it's the way they get their ratings. It's a average of what all the critics think of a movie. When you put a whole bunch of opinions into a hat you should get a reasonable estimation of the movie right? Wrong!

When I realized that  the best example of this I guess is the last 2 movies I saw, Source Code and Thor had really good ratings on RT. 86% and 78% at the time when I saw the movie. Those are really good ratings for movies. You would go in expecting the movie to expecting something really cool. Both the movies were average at best (keep in mind movies like The King's Speech, The Fighter & Inception have ratings in the 90 to 95% range).

And then there's the other side of the story, going by the review of one single person. At one point in time, I liked Rajeev Masand's reviews they seemed to match mine and I skipped a lot of bad movies thanks to him. But then over time I guess tastes changed & I find that his reviews don't really match mine in any way (of course other than the really bad ones). This situation is way worse than RT. Going by one person's opinion of a movie (esp. when you are not sure if your taste in movies is the same) is not the best way to do it.

Did I just say that? You can't trust one person's opinion of a movie? Damn, am alienating my target audience.
Oh Well, not like I had a huge target audience anyway. If you do decide to come back & you find that you can trust my reviews, there are new movies coming out every week. You should see something or the other new on this blog.

In the meantime, I continue to look for a Movie Critic with my tastes. One that can give me a "Useful" opinion on new movies.

Rahul.

THOR - 3D - Review

THOR 3D - "Blah!! Not like I was expecting a story anyway. Good Special effects, a fun way to spend an hour and half."

First off - if you want to watch the movie. Don't watch it in 3D. There's hardly any 3D scenes to talk about. A couple of weeks ago, when I saw the trailers, I had made up my mind to watch it on DVD. But then the tomato-meter was at 78% for 2 weeks. That's  quite good for a super-hero movie. And then a couple of long weeks at work. THOR seemed like a pretty good way to relax. But my first instinct was correct.

I'll give MARVEL this much. They are trying to build up to the Avengers movies with all their stories. And if you are a super hero geek like me, that may be one of the only reasons to watch the movie. But really, is he really a super hero? He's a Norse God.  Not a super hero.

The action sequences are quite cool. But some of the scenes with Natalie Portman could have been cut and replaced with a few more action sequences.

Conceptually, the idea of 9 realms and a worm hold bridge connecting them is cool. Stargate like concept. Any hey, if someone has seen SG-1, you are going to think of the small grey alien when you think of THOR or the Asgard.

What's next for the Avengers franchise? Captain America. There was a trailer at the movie yesterday. It looks like one I'd actually want to watch. Here's hoping it's better than THOR - God of Thunder.

My Rating: 3 on 5 (hey and that's being generous - just because I'm a sci-fi geek.)

Rahul..