Waiting For Superman(2010)

Genre: Documentary

Directed by Davis Guggenheim who also directed “An Inconvenient Truth” which is a documentary on Global Warming, now has to tell us about American educational System. He tells us in a more dramatic yet painful way. They are in touch with 5 kids and their families and their aspirations to get into a good school and not in a school by their neighborhood which has fairly 50% dropout rate. A Leap of faith taken by the parents to put them in Kips academy, Harlem Success Academy and other institutes comes down to a lottery system where 1 in 20 could get a chance in the school and the rest 19 off 20 will have to be sad. The underprivileged kids who have limited resources can do academically better than suburban kids who have great campus, athletic rooms, etc. Davis focuses on Geoffrey Canada who purposefully chose poorest area to open Harlem success academy. His Mantra was qualified teachers, highly motivated faculties who are highly paid. They tutor kids from day 1 especially on math and English.

The best part comes when there is a chart showing that in developed nations, US ranks lowest in math and reading. But when it comes to confidence US ranks no.1 but is that just enough. Reality hits hard when stats are recorded in Cultured and employed American citizens to Unemployed and increased crime rates. The Comparison of Doctors and teachers getting fired itself speaks for itself. As every one doctor gets fired or the medical practicing degree gets revoked , but for a teacher a period of 2 years is just about to survive and no one can fire the teacher. 1 teacher gets fired among 2500, which is a huge ratio compared to 1 doctor out of 57.Waiting for Superman enlightens that number of school dropouts and increased crime rate is not because of children’s not studying but it’s just because of ineffective teaching skills and poorly motivated faculties who are not a source of inspiration. It’s a hard truth that I feel every country should accept and follow the methods of Geoffrey Canada who has vowed to create a change in the American society for the coming generations who can uplift the country’s future in all streams right from engineering, doctor, lawyers and other professions.

THIS IS A MUST WATCH DOCUMENTARY which solemnly lightens the shortcomings of American Educational system.

Rating: 4/5- Very GOOD

Buried(2010)

Genre: Thriller

Ryan Reynolds as Paul Conroy is a truck driver working for a private contractor in Iraq. He gets up from his blackness and finds himself in a Coffin which is few feets below the ground. He finds a Cellphone and a Zippo lighter inside the coffin. In due time, he learns that he has been kidnapped and held as hostage in a coffin. The Kidnappers want a ransom from his people. They want him to make a video and send it to the captors. This is more of a Suspense Thriller movie where the director Rodrego Cortes tries to keep his audience at their toes on all moments till the end of the movie.They are ingenious in keep more plausible action than you can ever expect.Paul tries to communicate with his wife and American FBI but he gets stranded most of the time in hold and voicemail , which is really not good when you are buried in a coffin.

Director makes a smart move as not to go through any of the footage of Paul’s Kidnapping or the kidnappers or anything from other end of people conversing. Cortes has done a amazing direction in terms of voice from both the ends of the people, the frustration of Ryan with the limited amount of space available. This is one of the most gripping movies that I have seen so far. It’s a edge of the seat thriller. A perfect 90 mins odd movie fully concentrated on Ryan who gives a Mesmerizing performance. In terms of sheer craftsmanship, this is a superb film

Rating: 4/5- Very Good

Unstoppable(2010)

Genre: Adventure/Action

A Freight train gets pulled out from a engineer and then shoots upto 60 mph and now that convinces you how Unstoppable gets its title from. Directed by Tony Scott , Unstoppable is a movie with incessant surprises and edge of the seat suspense. A beautifully crafted direction makes this movie a WORTH WATCH. Barnes played by Denzel Washington is a long time engineer in the company is made to work with a new guy names Colson played by Chris Pine. Since the train goes out of the engineer’s hands the train gains momentum and every way to stop the train turns futile. There is Chopper running above it, LIVE TV feeds are being covered across the City. The Executive of the train company is worried about losing the train and also the amount of destruction it can cause to the whole Scranton town because the train is carrying huge amount of inflammable substances.Washington and Pine have two contrasting characters which make them a proper fix into these roles. Ready to take risk at the cost of saving the train and city and also putting their personal life of jeopardy. I do not want to break the suspense, but I will let you guys figure out as what this movie offers. Movie with simple plot yet so neatly done that this movie will leave its trails over few days and probably will also remind you of the movie SPEED starring Keanu reeves and Sandra Bullock. After a long time, we could see a movie of that kind which offers you a heavy entertainment in terms of special effects, nail biting scenes, thriller and yet a classy perfect direction. A MUST WATCH

Rating: 3/5- GOOD

The King's Speech(2010)

Genre: Drama

As the Title of the film mentions about speech, it gives a sense of a person’s voice giving a speech to his followers especially when it’s a king. It tells the story of a man who is compelled to speak with stammer. It might be hard enough to take that kind of pain while talking to another person. To give a speech on a radio microphone which would be heard by entire country along with other European countries, ASIA and AMERICAN continents and not to forget Germany who were on the verge of war. The King George VI played by Colin Firth is a person who had no interest in becoming a king, but after his father death, the crown went to him as his elder brother Edward, who then renounced the throne so that he could live with the love of his life. So finally it went to Prince Albert who had issues with stammering since his childhood days. With a failed attempt to give a speech in 1925, Bertie’s wife decided to take him to speech therapy classes in order to fix the stammering problem. With all ways failed, bertie’s wife comes across Lionel played by Geoffrey Rush who has setup a Speech Therapy class.

Albert also called Bertie as nickname is tackled finely by Lionel who sets expectations in his therapy session. Long that he didn’t know that he was giving therapy classes to a future king. Lionel has his own way to handle things when things didn’t go right. He didn’t give up the hopes and always felt Bertie would speak clearly in some point of time. Firth has given a impeccable performance as a guy who is struggling to speak vividly and not being humiliated in front of his empire and other countrymen. Movie has a proper pace , storyline and to the point. At Last, Firth being the protagonist has given a 2 thumbs up performance as King George VI. Watch the movie for Colin Firth’s great acting skills. On the whole the movie is a onetime watch and I don’t feel this is 2010 best movie.

Rating: 3/5- GOOD

SAW 3D(2010)

Genre: Horror

SAW is the 7^th and final installment of SAW series. SAW 3D would be appealing to the people who have been stuck to all the previous 6 films. According to me, none of the films have come close than the original part 1 which was more of a suspense-horror-thriller movie compared to the excessive and convoluted torture-horror installments that followed. This might be the first movie in SAW installments where a torture scene is happening in broad daylight among so many people, where 2 guys are tied with machinery around and a girl at the top who has been guilty and fooling both the guys. Truth shall be bestowed as all 3 have to choose who will be the one to die. Bobby Dagen is a better victim and a survivor of Jigsaw’s game is living his life as an author who made millions by sharing his story of rebirth.

But truth is something different which detective Hoffman knows who tries to kill Jigsaw’s wife at any cost and also plays a game where Bobby is at one end who has to save his wife from the clock ticking amidst his PR team and his manager who have been in his Book business. Its not about how Bobby saves the people but it’s a race between Jill Tuck’s revenge story with Hoffman. SAW 3D has one of the most disturbing and yet violent scenes in SAW series. Best part I loved about SAW series is, none of the mechanism is repeated or one of its own kind. That is the most intriguing part and also more than one person has to suffer in every part of the game to be played. SAW 3D does a satisfactory job of closing up most of the remaining Saw storylines – though it’s hard to imagine that the filmmakers are actually done with the franchise. As always SAW is known for its classic out of the bloom ending, SAW 3D will also give you the jolt of your life and also its hard to believe that no more games will be played as its GAME OVER !!!!

Rating: 3/5- GOOD

Death Race 2(2010)

Genre: Action/Adventure

Death Race 2 is a prequel to Death Race The film explores the origins of the first "Frankenstein" car driver from the 2008 Death Race movie. Luke played by Luke Goss is arrested for a bank robbery for his crime which is carried by his boss named Markus and also killing 2 policemen. He is sent to prison in Terminal Island. Terminal Island is under the control of Weyland Corporation who hosts Death Match between the inmates and is forced to fight until death or submission. The host of the death match is September Jones who is sexually attractive and tries to get pay per view death match resulting in high TV ratings. September asks Luke to have a death match which he rejects. Things go different way when a death match is changed to Death race where any convict who wins all the 5 races without getting eliminated, will be set free. Markus has kept a bounty of 1Mil$ as prize money who kills Luke. As the story is pretty much expected and the rise of Frankenstein is known, the character of Frankenstein is known just to keep his identity safe from Markus. Nice acting by Luke Goss and has given an equally better performance as Jason Statham. Death Race 2 has not so much amount of Car accident scenes as DEATH RACE, but its more about the storyline and the rise of Frankenstein. People, who have watched DEATH RACE, try this. It’s a onetime watch. And people who have not seen, watch this one first and then followed by the 2008 movie.

Rating: 2/5- FAIR

Monsters(2010)

Genre: Drama/Adventure

Monsters as the title of the movie gives u shimmers and some gore stuff, but Monsters is not about it. It has two characters named Andrew and Samantha. Andrew is a free lance photographer and Samantha is Andrew’s boss's daughter. Set in future, there are some Alien creatures that have been living in Mexico due to some scientific research and now they are thriving on the Mexican land and most of the parts of Mexico have been infected. There is a huge wall built to keep the creatures away from the United States. Both of them being US citizens, they try to reach US with limited transportation facilities. Airways being stalled, they travel with armed men across the border area. Threat of Monsters is less during daytime as they don’t come out. Not an inch of Monster alien is being shown until the last scene. The film has very few special effects, a simple story but it has some different feeling which will want you to like the movie. Samantha and Andrew both being very private at start, gradually cut the slack, become friends and they both do not share a conventional romance too. Aliens can be felt by the mournful sounds, and not so clear night vision images. Monsters is not about the alien creatures thriving on earth but the way the film has been carried ahead with 2 characters supporting each other and their fear to stay away from monstrous attacks. It’s not a movie which will hold you onto the seats, but it’s an unusual movie.

Rating: 3/5- Good

The Fighter(2010)

Genre: Drama/Biographical

Directed by David O Russel, the movie is based on true story of Micky ward and Dicky Eklund who are half brothers. Micky played by Mark Wahlberg has grown up looking at Dicky played by Christian Bale. Dicky who is a crack head and is more of a casual guy who roams around keeping a hand on his brother’s shoulder. Dicky is being filmed for a documentary which he thinks its for his comeback, but everybody knows it’s all about his fall of his career and so forth and so on. Micky has been grown up boxing along with Dicky who has once defeated Sugar Ray who used to be a champion at that time. Micky’s mother played by Melissa Leo as Alice is acting as his manager and he has 7 sisters who are stalled at home. Micky on the other hand meets Charlene played by Amy Adams. She understands Micky’s family is the reason for his decline in boxing career and asks him to train with someone else. Things take a deliberate drift when Micky starts reacting in order to change his professional boxing career.

The film doesn’t allow the central character Micky to outshine, whereas Dicky, Alice and Charlene have sparked in the movie as their role offers it. But it’s Christian Bale who has given larger than life kind of acting skill which is spot on to the character who is a crack head, scrawny physique and a cigarette on his ear all time long. The Movie offers the proper insight into a Boxer’s life and the issues it carries with it. Scenes aren’t that visceral but a few blood spills is what you can expect. An Award is what I expect for Christian Bale for BEST Supporting Actor. He is the core part of the movie and would not want to miss his performance.

Rating: 4/5- Very Good