Reviews by Happy Vader

Mere mann ko bhaya toh maine kutta katke khaya

Translation: I am a free person and, if I will, I can cut open a dog and eat it!

Let me warn you, it is not said by a hero, but the main villain, Jagira, who grew up drinking "fox milk". The reason why I started off with that quote is because it was the most coolest quote ever back then. All over TV, it was shown and became one of Bollywood's instantly recognizable quote which still stands today. Inspired by Seven Samurai and Sholay, this Rajkumar Santoshi movie is a clear example of how great, and somewhat epic, Bollywood films once were. The violence is over-the-top and sickeningly graphic.

Although cliched the movie is, it still manages to knock you silly but I am confused. You see, it has so many sub-plots and they're all meant to be inspiring but I just don't get it how are they connected with the rest of the film. A true hero is always flawed, yes, but over here we get dead soldiers, an ex-soldier with blood disease and the like. Let me put it this way: An action movie with a heart of a road-movie and soul of an inspiring one. The quite-interesting mix of genres will interest you but the use of too many sub-plots might detach you.

Anyway, Om Puri, Amrish Puri and Naseeruddin Shah were among the greatest actors of oldskool Bollywood. With the exception of Amrish Puri, who died in 2005, the other two are now starring in comedies or otherwise embarrassing roles. If you wanna check out some real acting, and I do mean real acting, then China Gate is a great place to start. The confrontation scene between the three, and others, is arguably one of the greatest. Then we have Mukesh Tiwari as the above-mentioned villain. Although he was created as an answer to Gabbar Singh, he became an iconic villain in his own right and one of the most, most violent and aggressive character in Bollywood history. Not only he is utterly quotable, but Mukesh Tiwari's performance is a must-watch. You can watch clips on YouTube easily.

China Gate is the Expendables of Bollywood and a great action movie. Granted, cannot be enjoyed with family but you will come to love it after repeated viewings.

7.5/10

Paul Thomas Anderson's greatest achievement to date is There Will Be Blood. Punch-Drunk Love is second. No, I mean it. It's an art-house film and times better than Magnolia and Boogie Nights, at-least to me, if not you. It's surreal, addictive and top of all, extremely fun to watch and is very reeling. It has all the PTA touches: perfect casting, long steadi-cam shots, memorable background music, dysfunctional family and a fidgety, yet somewhat likable, character in the lead, although this is not present in his other movies. PTA is a pretty kick-ass director and his creativity can be seen when Barry Egan is talking on the phone in his apartment. I fell in love with the steadi-cam technique right then and there. Then we have the moment where Barry and Lena share a 30 second kiss. The scene is so artistic and wonderfully done.

Granted, Adam Sandler never really was in my top 10, or anyone's top 10 for that matter but he turned heads and proved people wrong, if only for just a moment, by his performance Barry Egan. Truth be told, he reminded me of Dustin Hoffman and Ben Stiller from his appearance on Friends The One With the Screamer. He was great in his role and it makes me wonder why didn't he play more roles like these? Comedy is one word I've grown to fear nowadays because they are either too silly, disgusting, or downright unfunny. Many being Adam Sandler's movies. In this film, he felt like an actor but in his other "comedies", just a product, a running character, no more, no less. Anyway, accompanying him is the beautiful Emily Watson as love interest Lena Leonard. An OK performance but she was a delight to watch. I thoroughly enjoyed their chemistry and they should do another movie together. From the supporting, Philip Seymour Hoffman was good too. Frankly speaking, I haven't seen much of his films so I can't really say how good or bad an actor he is. But, after watching the 100% brilliant anger-phone seen between Hoffman and Sandler, I would really love to see them do another scene like this again in another movie. Now that's what I call anger! Pure and simple! A must-watch. In all senses, the best memorable phone scene since Dog Day Afternoon or maybe Jerry Maguire.

In all, don't get put off just because it has Adam Sandler in the lead role. In fact, get ready to be surprised. Although nowhere a classic, Punch-Drunk Love is memorable and enjoyable to the last minute.

8.9/10

I've seen quite a-few of Billy Wilder's works but since that was long time ago, I'm seeing them again, as I've forgotten most of it.

The Major & the Minor is an OK movie, nowhere classic in my eyes and I swear, if this film is not a metaphor for sex, then I don't know what is. Our beloved Susu Applegate is suddenly thrown in-between 300 cadets and suddenly everyone wants to jump in bed with her, as noted in the must and must-not dance.

Ginger Rogers transforms herself from a 20-something to a 12-year-old and then to an old woman. The way she transforms is done so masterfully done that when you will be re-visiting this film, it will be only for her performance and nothing else. From the supporting, everyone was just fine, yes, Ray Milland was nothing special, just fine.

Anyway, it struck me as a silly movie, quite irrational, but a decent entertaining movie that only once is more than enough!

6.8/10

DPS is as warm a film as an electric blanket, as rich as history and as likable as any wise old man with inspiring words. First off, I'm a sucker for inspiring movies and since I have recently taken an interest in poetry, connected with John Keating because we kinda share almost the same views on life. Now, DPS is either a really great flick with scenes that you just wanna rewind over and over or an unnecessarily over-rated one. Finally, for once, a decent, mature, flawed yes, movie comes from Hollywood that not only breaks certain stereotypes, like, for example, boys mulling over poetry more than girls, but also makes you come out of your shell and associate yourself with at-least one character. I mean, whether we're verbal about it or not, aren't we all really like them, if just a little? If you wanna talk about plausibility, then DPS is a whole lot more plausible than those rebel flicks, any John Hughes one and those 80's action movies that we've come to love. Dead Poets Society is a thinker's film. No IQ drop here.

The only qualm I have is why didn't they use English actors, (I'm talking about the boys), giving the English atmosphere of the film. Not to say the American actors were miscast or anything, its just that it could've been times better with English actors, because most of the seniors talk in an English accent.

Anyway, Robin Williams has one of those careers that can be divided as hits and misses. Great performances they may be, he has a-lot of misses but DPS is certainly not one of them. It's a hit, in fact more than that. After watching him in countless comedy roles, it certainly was surprising to see him do a dramatic one. Something that I did not see coming. Although his performance as the charismatic and utterly likable John Keating is of no match to his own performance asSean Maguire, it certainly is one of his damn greatest. He is one of those cool teachers that you wish you had in school, high-school, university whatever. Robin Williams almost perfectly combines comedy and drama, as noted when he gives an inspiring speech and then does an imitation of Marlon Brando and John Wayne. Now that's class, something you don't see everyday and something not everyone has the power to do, except maybe, I said maybe, Tom Hanks.

From the others, Robert Sean Leonard was truly excellent and he was the king of all sans-Williams scenes. Nearly all were excellent in their respective roles but Leonard was a rung above than everybody else. The closest was Ethan Hawke as Todd Anderson, a character with whom I quite-associated myself with. I swear, that was me up there, you know. When Keating drags Anderson to the middle of the class and encourages him to say aloud his poetry was something that happened to me, almost similar, but, instead of poetry, it was reading an essay I'd written. That moment won me over and I rewinded that oh-so many times. I may not be exactly like Todd Anderson but we share common characteristics.

In a time where the more CGI the more better your film will be and idiotic high-school movies with unbearable airheads as the lead, Dead Poets Society was a good surprise and certainly one of the films that requires a revisit. 10 times!

9.0/10

The arrival of Toy Story announced two things: That Pixar is the new creative kid in town and that it is putting Disney out of business. Seriously, has Disney, before it took over Pixar, ever produced a great cartoon after 1999's Tarzan? One-or-two maybe but not to the level of their previous classics. Now, the 90's was a cool decade and I'm glad I'm one of those 90's kids because I grew up with the franchise. Instead of tackling dragons, monsters, anthropomorphic animals or flying elephants, the team of Pixar tackled the life of toys and bought forward some of the greatest cartoon characters in the history of cartoons. The animation is mind-blowing still but the 90's kids will know exactly how it felt watching it for the first time, as if Toy Story was the very-first cartoon ever produced. It still to this day remains a perennial classic and, apart from Tom & Jerry and Disney's earliest classics, can be enjoyed by both children and adults alike.

I like the sharp, witty writing and cynical, sarcastic characteristics of Hamm and Mr. Potato Head, the latter, in my opinion, the break-through character of the first film. The pop-culture references and quirky personalities also did the trick, making the toys more believable and near-human. I don't know why but I've always found the humans in Pixar productions to be very weirdly shaped, either big jaws or high-foreheads or big eyes or small head and big body and I don't even know why I'm complaining. Anyway, the human characters Sid and Andy get 10/10 stars from me because of their realism. I should know because I was both of them when I was young and now that I've grown up, have witnessed it numerous times while watching my sisters and cousins. Not only they associated themselves with Andy but their imaginations grew and became more protective of their toys, so that's a good thing, right?

The scene where Buzz finds out that he is a toy and Woody was right all along is just heart-breaking and even though Pixar has created more touching moments, this one will always be in the top 3.

In all, if you still haven't seen this and if you're planning on watching a feel-good cartoon with your kids, Toy Story should be up your alley!

9.4/10

Clueless, one of the greatest 90's high-school movies, is unlike the other high-school movies, previous and the ones that followed. Instead of characters whom you love to hate and parents who very well could be made out of cardboards, the Clueless world offers something more realistic and a central character who you can love and love over. It also boasts an impressive cast, with Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd, Brittany Murphy and Stacy Dash being the best, and offers a-lot of Valley-Girl talk.

I've observed that in high-school movies the one thing that matters the most is chemistry between the cast, then dedication to their respective characters and then everything else follows. Clueless successfully achieved the first two points and because of that, solidified itself as one of the greatest high-school movies and became the highest point of the cast, at least for some. Seriously, the chemistry is impeccable and everyone breathes, eats and talks accordingly. I could go on you know!

Alicia Silverstone has done an impressive, perfect job, so perfect that it's almost a shame because people somehow always remember her from Batman & Robin and therefore are put off by her. Alicia's break-through performance deserves to be seen. I do wish to call her the new Molly Ringwald but I'm afraid that tiara is on Lindsay Lohan's head, for the 21st Century.

Anyway, a fun movie, not may be a classic in your eyes but in its genre it surely is. And how can it not be? After all, this is the woman who gave us Fast Times at Ridgemont High!

8.3/10

Here you go, my shortest review ever:

Confessions is a pretty average movie, quite popsy, but the book is times better, as they always are. Believe me, there are several other better high-school movies out there and if you haven't seen this, you're not missing much!

Lindsay Lohan was quite-good in her role (yes, I like her, thank you very much) but the main icing on the cake was the utterly irresistible Alison Pill. That's the only excuse you need to watch the film and, (insert your favourite face-palm image here), Megan Fox (I just don't see the obsession) was so cardboard that Trey Parker and Matt Stone can make 20 Southpark episodes out of her. Even Eli Marienthal was wooden and he was the worst high-school "heart-throb" ever.

There you go, another movie that solidifies one of the many things I stand for: movies just cannot be better than the book

4.0/10

In my review of The Jurassic Park, I ended it by saying

In conclusion, I like Jurassic Park but I enjoy the sequel more.

Well, I take back my words because I found the sequel to be even more boring than the first. First off, none of the scenes involving dinosaurs seemed plausible or the least bit entertaining. I mean the part where two T. Rex's attack Ian Malcolm and company still remains a total joke and cliche and not the least bit enjoyable and don't get me started when Ian, Kelly & Sarah get attacked by the two Velociraptors. Not very convincing enough and I could swear the actors were laughing on the inside.

The inclusion of the character, Kelly, was painful and even though I have nothing against the actress, her performance was sub-par and her character wasn't memorable or anything. Julianne Moore is always interesting to watch but I'm afraid this isn't one of her better moments. She didn't connect to her character and therefore, could not connect to the audience, or at least to me. But however, even bad films have redeeming qualities and it goes by the name of Pete Postlethwaite. Director Steven Spielberg called him the greatest actor ever and I can't help but agree. He was truly classic in his role and the character has now become one of my favourites. True, he never was in my top 10 but this performance is worthy of being noticed. Another redeeming quality is giving Ian Malcolm a central role in this film, as opposed to a supporting in the previous. I liked Jeff Goldblum's performance and his character remained the best. Further going, I also liked Vince Vaughn in his role but the worst part was that just as I was beginning to like the character, he disappeared!

So, entertainment-wise, this won't give you much but for some silly, irrational fun, it has plenty to offer. I guess I have to watch the third part now and if I don't like that either, the franchise is just not for me, sorry!

6.5/10

12 years after first watching it I was surprised to find three things: 1) It still remains a family classic, despite the fact many shielded their eyes during some scenes 2) The animatronics still stands up the test of time and are times better than recent movies and 3) It was a huge disappointment for me. That's right, when I first saw it when I was 7, I liked it when I saw it again just yesterday, you have no idea how disappointed I was and here's the reason why:

Sure, the dinosaurs were pretty awesome but that was pretty much it. The characters, especially the main ones, were not fully fleshed out and were unnecessarily put in implausible situations. To put it this way, the characters, and their situations felt akin to a little 9-year-old girl playing with her Barbie dolls. Poor Barbie is in peril and the brave, but unwilling, Ken comes to her rescue, rescuing her from highly impossible places where law does not apply. I guess Spielberg tried to use the same technique. So that is what worried me when I saw this film. Now, despite being one-sided, Sam Neill was pretty decent and so were Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern and Richard Attenborough. But the two performances that impressed me were from Ariana Richards as Lex Murphy and Joseph Mazzello as Tim Murphy. First time I'm seeing kids overshadowing adults. Both were excellent.

So, like I said, apart from the dinosaurs shown, and some small dialogues here & there, the film doesn't have any other strong points and I found it kinda weak. But however, I still got the goosebumps when the team first encounter a dinosaur in the wild. The music, and Laura Dern's classic expression, bought back a flood of memories!

In conclusion, I like Jurassic Park but I enjoy the sequel more.

7.8/10

One of my earliest favourite film, The Mask

also happens to be one of the earliest darkest.

Based on the popular cartoon series of the same

name (I was a big fan of them), the silver-screen

adaptation is equally funny and brilliant. The

first time when Stanley transforms into the

titular character was one of the earliest scariest

scenes I'd ever seen. From the age of 6 till 9-or-

10, I must've seen it over 30 times and I just saw

it again recently and it still remains one of my

absolute favourites.

Any other better actor for the titular character

than Jim Carrey? One of his damn greatest

screen roles to date and his most impressive so

far, although I also like him in Eternal

Sunshine. He handled his character flawlessly

and gave us one of craziest, zaniest heroes to ever

grace the silver-screen. Then we have (the then

juicy) Cameron Diaz in her debut. I like her

as an actress but I'm not too gaga about her looks

and all but her character, Tina Carlyle,

alongside Ming-Na's Chun-Li from Street

Fighter were two of my earliest childhood

crushes. Come to think of it, I think the first two

ever. Anyway, she was pretty good but I liked the

duo of Jim Doughan and Peter Riegert.

They were pretty good in their roles but the main

icing was Peter Greene as the main

antagonist Dorian Tyrell. He has always been a great character actor and has a great screen dominating power. If you remember at-least two of his cameos, then you will know what I'm talking about. Dorian is one of the best villains I've ever seen on the big screen.

So, the whole setup is amazing and Jim Carrey alongside most of the cast will keep you entertained throughout. A fun movie, and quite dark!

8.3/10