The Bank Job Movie Review
Posted by Kushal | Filed under Uncategorized
"I‘ve just got one question. What are we going to do with all the dirt we dig out?"
"That’s all planned for. We’re going to dig another hole over there and bury it."
There is a story that boggles the mind. In 1971 there was a bank robbery. For real – not just in the film. Allegedly (don’t you love that word), during the night of Sunday September 12th a bunch of opportunists tunneled their way into the vault of Lloyds Bank, Baker Street and made off with around £4m. That’s m for million. I thought the Great Train Robbery (1963) was the biggest robbery in British History until the Securitas Job in 06. Apparently not – This one is nearly double the Great Train Robbery amount.
Thing is, most of us haven’t heard about this one because 3 days later, the Government Issued a D-Notice that effectively stopped all media coverage of the event and has done so since. The story sounds almost like an urban legend. Apparently there was something stolen in those safety deposit boxes that was a matter of national security. So important was the contents of the box that known criminal Michael X (Yes, you read correctly. Only real life can be so corny) was able to use it to prevent is own conviction and virtually hold the British legal system to ransom! The story continues that a file on Michael X is classified in the National Archive until 2054 (!). What could be so important? I search the national archive on the net and found on a basic record here. Interestingly, a search for "Great Train Robbery" produces over 300 results – and it happened nearly 10 years earlier.
Despite the suspense and secrecy around the story, the film jumps out of the screen like a mash-up of some black comedy, some Carry-On and a just a pleasant-enough dash of Lock Stock. Written by TV writers Clement and La Frenais (Porridge, Lovejoy, The Likely Lads), this is an obtuse and provoking departure compare to their light-hearted projects of the past. Jason owns the screen as Terry, a down-on-his luck used car dealer that is offered the opportunity of a (criminal) lifetime. Director Roger Donaldson (Cocktail, The Recruit, Thirteen Days) holds his ground well, balancing what is really a very twisted and dark story with rich and bubbling characters that weave together, creating enough depth to really satisfy the question at hand; namely, what the hell happened and why is it still an official secret. If you get a chance to watch this anywhere, anytime, grab it and enjoy.
8/10
Tags: English Movies
The Kite Runner Movie Review
Posted by Kushal | Filed under Uncategorized
I‘m almost at a loss for worlds. Almost. Every now and then a film comes along that evokes more emotion than I’m sure is medically safe to experience within a two hour period. The Kite Runner is one of those films. Not melancholy or depressing, yet deeply moving, it follows the story of Amir, a writer from Afghanistan that lives in San Francisco, CA. The film spends the first half exploring Amir’s upbringing in pre-Taliban Afghanistan with his best friend Hassan. And that’s where I will stop. I don’t want to paint any image that may bracket such a beautiful film into a class or genre or category. I will instead jump to the end where Amir has to travel back to visit a childhood friend and travel into Taliban controlled Afghanistan. The location is almost secondary to the depth of the film but it is still an added experience to see the change from 1978 to 2000 in Amir’s Homeland. This is another masterpiece in movie making from Marc Forster, the Director of the phenomenal Finding Neverland. I my opinion Marc is become legendary with his ability to reach out to the audience and evoke deep compassion for his characters. Yes, credit is due primarily to Khaled Hosseini for writing such a landmark novel but I feel that many directors attempt the novel-film conversion and screw it up to the point where the audience is under-whelmed by a film that doesn’t deliver the depth and experience of a novel, and left so disappointed that they don’t read the novel either. Not Forster. I have put off seeing Atonement because the novel is sitting on my shelf, waiting for a read. I took a risk with The Kite Runner and, honestly, I would still read the novel to experience the story again. A word of warning to people that don’t like / can’t read. Most of the film is in Dari – the Afghan dialect of the Persian language and hence subtitled.
Verdict:
A truly moving experience.9.5/10
Tags: English Movies, Middle Eastern Reviews, MovieReviews
The Cloverfield Pukefest
Posted by Kushal | Filed under Uncategorized
"I was excited" undermines the feeling I had of sitting there about to watch a film with such a unique concept and trailer. The excitement however, was short lived.
My wife tugged at my top about 2 mins into the film "Is the whole film like this?" She looked like death’s wife, warmed up.
"Erm, yeah, I think so." I whispered.
"I feel sick."
It was at that point that I remembered three rather relevant things. One was that my wife suffers from motion sickness. The other was one of the first film directing lectures I went to where the lecturer said "The camera must be stable and smooth in motion. ’24′ style on-the-shoulder camcorder shots blown up to cinematic proportions may induce motion sickness…"
The third was that I knew Cloverfield was an first-person perspective film, shot with camcorder style camera work.
So apologies to my darling wife who stayed as long as she could then walked out the cinema, preventing a catastrophic display of intestinal fluids. Other people, I’ve heard, have not been so lucky. I honestly didn’t see any warnings about motion sickness and I’m sure more people will suffer.
Personally, though, I suffer from very little motion sickeness. I can whole-heartedly say then that this was a true roller coaster of a film. I will watch it again, guilt free, at some point. But in the meantime, I reccomend it highly to anyone that doesn’t feel motion sickness.
4.5 / 5
Tags: English Movies
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