For those of you who don’t know, the plotline, much like in The Da Vinci Code, is a sort of treasure hunt, and just as I mentioned about the prequel, I was excited to finally see all the amazing wonders described in the novel. And I wasn’t disappointed. Being a story largely based on symbols, you can imagine how important it is to be able to actually see them.

Due to time constraints, a lot of the elements in the novel had to be omitted, so I’ll be fair and attempt to critique the movie as a movie alone, as opposed to a fantastic-book-turned-movie. The only really sad bit of course, was that the guy and the girl didn’t get together in the end, as they did in Dan Brown’s novel. But I think there just wasn’t enough time to establish their relationship, so if they did get together it would have just been rather rushed and weird!

Angels and Demons is an excellent movie, with enthralling characters, beautiful settings of the Vatican City and Rome, a confusing-but-gripping plotline, and of course, awesome awesome music!! Unless you’re really squeamish (and if you’re in my film class you can’t be after having watched Trainspotting) and can’t deal with all the murder, then seriously, go watch this!

Speaking of Trainspotting, guess who’s in this movie? One of the main characters, Camerlengo Patrick, is played by Ewan McGregor!

So. The Da Vinci Code! One of the most intriguing plotlines I’ve ever known. In the movie everything happens at breakneck speeds, so you might miss a lot and it was actually in this second viewing that I understood so much more of what was occuring (plus I’m three years older and somewhat smarter). I have read the novel, and I read it again two weeks ago in preparation for watching the movie (we watched it two weeks ago) so I was able to understand quite a bit. However, it seems to me that a lot of the explanations in the movie were very vague, so I don’t know how much of the amazing cleverness was picked up by those who haven’t read the book.

So yes, to be honest, the movie isn’t my all-time favourite. It’s definitely boosted way up on the list by the fact that I love the plotline, and it was terrific to see all the sights described by Dan Brown in the novel. However, there was one thing that I am completely obsessed with from the movie, the one thing that makes books not-that-perfect: the music.

The music is an original score by the famous Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer. If you haven’t heard of him, well, I can pretty much guarantee you’ve heard his work. He’s composed for all sorts of movies, including Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight, Kung Fu Panda, Madagascar, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Simpsons Movie, Sharktale, The Ring, The Holiday and so many many more! (This information was obtained from the ever-so-terrific Internet Movie Database, http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001877/).

You know you love the music when there’s something amazing happening on screen, and you think it’s okay, pretty cool, and then the music starts and you get goosebumps and it’s just like woah! And that’s what happened, at the end of The Da Vinci Code when Langdon figured out where the Holy Grail is, and he went to find it, and the music started playing and it was possibly the best part of the movie.

Oh yeah, one last thing! Pretty irrelevant, but it blew my mind. You know the main woman, Agent Sophie Neveu? She’s played by Audrey Tautou. Sounds familiar? She’s Amelie, in Amelie! What contrasting roles!

*If you haven’t seen it, stop reading here*

How do you know when a movie is great? In terms of plot, specifically a plot with a depressing ending, you find yourself thinking, “NOOO if only he didn’t lose his memory! If only his wife didn’t die! But wait, actually, that’s the only way it could have happened.” You realize that although the ending leaves you extremely heart-wrenched for the protagonist, there is no other possible ending that would make this movie the success that it is. How else would Wolverine become the character that he is today (or whatever time period he exists in) in X-Men?

The setting, when Wolverine the lumberjack lived in the deserted mountainside with his wife, was gorgeous. It served as a stark contrast between the dark days when he was part of that ruthless killing team, and perfectly reflected the tranquility in his life. It was disrupted when his brother came, entered his new life, and killed his wife, forcing Wolverine to realize that he can’t simply run away from his past because it will catch up with him in the end (and it doesn’t help that his evil brother runs way faster than him).

I don’t really have much of a favourite genre in terms of movies, I enjoy comedies, dislike horrors, tolerate romance, and sort of catch a glimpse here and there of action, mystery, and science-fiction. But I can definitely say that Wolverine has a terrific plotline, the characters are extremely well-developed especially in their relationships with one another, and the action leaves you trying to figure out what just happened even ten minutes after the scene is over.

So go watch it somewhere!

I was trying to figure out a theme for this movie. I mean, obviously it’s Love Triumphs, or something like that right? But I don’t know. Isn’t there something more? Because of the eight different love stories, not all of them work out. There’s the woman who finds that her husband bought a necklace for someone else. And there’s the man who’s in love with his best friend’s wife. So maybe when they say Love Actually Is All Around (and that is the title used in the UK) they aren’t necessarily saying that it always works out fine.

The airport scenes were awesome. It’s a perfect way to describe love, both literally and metaphorically, since airports are where people leave and enter your lives, they can cause so much pain and happiness at the same time, like when the little boy Sam had to say bye to his girl Joanna at the airport, but then at the end she was back there to say hi to him.

Maybe sometimes we just try and overthink/overanalyze some films. Movies like Love Actually might just exist to entertain us, to make us laugh and smile and get that wonderful giddy feeling when we realize that hey, love can work out in the craziest situations. And maybe that’s why its so amazing. Because if we don’t see it in our own lives, we see it in the movie, that love actually is all around.

-Smriti

It’s the type of movie where everyday is a battle of its own, so there is really no resolution, but just a sense of hope that maybe they can make this work. For example, the leader of the community Tuvia Bielski (played by Daniel Craig) says in the beginning that there can be no pregnancies because they don’t have the facilities in the forest to deal with such an event. However, upon seeing that a baby was the only ray of light in a young woman’s life, he realizes that their village can only truly become a village with such natural occasions.

There was also a wedding. And a very interesting plot device was used during this scene. I don’t know the name of it, but basically the sequence cut between two scenes: the village all gathering for a joyful wedding, and the men waiting by a path in the forest to ambush tanks in a bloody battle. The contrast of these two events that occurred within meters of one another highlighted a key point in the movie: though the village is becoming extremely functional and natural, the citizens can’t forget that they are refugees hiding in the forests in a Nazi-occupied continent.

Anyways I really liked that technique, and if anyone knows what it is called, this would be a great time to comment thank you!

-Smriti

Bride Wars
John Tucker Must Die
Golmaal (Bollywood)
Defiance
Step Up
RENT
Love Actually

and the ultimate favourite…
Titanic!

-Smriti

*If you’re not in my class and you haven’t seen the movie, I will be talking about the ending so if you keep reading after this, don’t accuse me of spoilers. You have been warned.*

Renton tries to get out of his life of drugs, and he realizes that he has to physically move himself away from his friends. So he does, but what happens? They follow him, and throw themselves into his apartment. And through this scene we come to realize that while Renton was sincerely trying to escape the life (or anti-life, since as he said in the beginning, he didn’t choose life) of drugs, it just followed him around.

In the end, he did the best thing he could to get away from it all, and ironically, this was to steal money. By backstabbing his “friends”, he forced himself away from them, and had to make sure that they couldn’t find him in the future (who knows what Begbie would do to him?) So he had to sink into the life of a thief in order to escape the life of a junkie. It’s sort of like bending your knees and getting low to the ground so that you can jump up higher and get out of the rut you’ve fallen into.

Similarities:

• It’s super cold!
• The buckets of popcorn are way too huge.
• And just to crush any of the stereotypes about India that Slumdog Millionaire created (running barefoot in the streets and all), the cinema was very pretty and clean and the chairs were wonderful, reclining and all.

Differences:

• The crowd. Everyone’s more interactive, laughing  at Clouseau’s amusing antics, clapping when he does something clever, and cheering like mad when Aishwarya Rai Bachchan comes into the scene.
• Intermission! Indian films require an intermission because they’re about a million hours long (well, 3 hours minimum). But the cinemas now put an intermission in any film they’re showing, so about 50 minutes into the film it just stopped, and everyone got up to buy another way-too-huge bucket of popcorn.
• Parking. This was so random! When you enter the cinema area, you tell the personat the parking toll booth what movie you’re here to see, and you’ll be instructed to some corner of the parking lot, where all the cars are parked in line. So once you park, you pretty much have to wait for everyone else watching the movie to get their car out before you can drive away.

I thought that was pretty interesting.

It was pretty hilarious!

There was a lot of irony in it. The movie included a lady who tried to educate Clouseau (Steve Martin) on how to be politically correct, i.e. not making any stereotypes or being inappropriate with the ladies he worked with. However, a lot of the jokes in the movie pertained to stereotypes. The Inspector was working with an international “Dream Team”: a crew of detectives assigned to solve the case, with members from England, Japan, and Italy. And they were completely stereotyped! The Japanese was the tech-geek, the British chap was clever and arrogant, and the Italian was the “ladies man”. Ironic, no?

The other main source of comedy was using running gags from the previous film (as in the one with Steve Martin. There’s been about ten Pink Panther films). Some of these include Clouseau’s inability to say “hamburger”, and his attempts to surprise attack his colleague Ponton, only to be bashed up and conclude it by saying, “Good one”.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was in this film. Yay! Bollywood pride!

This is one of the most popular films of the year, both in India and overseas. What makes it so unique?

Well, it’s the first time an Indian movie has a plot based around a gay relationship. And in a country where homosexuality is still quite unaccepted, this is a pretty big step forward.

It’s the Bollywood equivalent of I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, starring two of the most popular actors of this generation: John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan, who pretend to be a gay couple so they can rent an apartment. And then they both fall in love with the girl who is renting it out to them. But she thinks they’re gay.

So it’s quite hilarious!

One of the best scenes: A dance scene. But it’s not the usual Bollywood type of thing. It’s the main characters trying to entertain their roommates’ boss and the guy who arrived to ensure their relationship is legitimate. So they put on some music and get to dancing. Then Sam’s (Bachchan) extremely conservative mother walks in, to see her son dancing with another man.

What happens next? Watch the movie!

Here’s the dance scene though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thleVgnAe4Q