iBlog: Nishit Shah

I am a big fan of animated movies and usually don’t miss out on any of them and the ones from the Pixar stable are given special treatment by watching them first day first show. Watching Horton was on top of my list because this was the first time that my friends had watched an animated movie before me and telling me good reviews about it, usually its the other way round. Though watching this movie was on top of my list, I was a bit tied up to actually make time for it. Somehow managed to get hold of tickets for the afternoon show and there I was surrounded by kids everywhere in the theatre !

One day, Horton the elephant hears a cry from help coming from a speck of dust. Even though he can’t see anyone on the speck, he decides to help it. As it turns out, the speck of dust is home to the Whos ( the tiny ppl living on the spec), who live in their city of Whoville. Horton agrees to help protect the Whos and their home, but this gives him nothing but torment from his neighbors, who refuse to believe that anything could survive on the speck. Still, Horton stands by the motto that, “After all, a person is a person, no matter how small.”

The movie was too good and enjoyed watching every bit of it. Hats off to the guys at Blue sky studios which infact is a subsidiary 20th Century Fox and had come up with other animated movies like Ice Age, Robots, Ice Age 2 for coming up with such a brilliant movie. One thing what I like about animated movies and which always draws me towards it is that while making a movie one can just make our imaginations run wild and think of something absolutely absurd and make a movie around it which can be cherished by everyone of us. And at the end of the movie there is always a lesson to learn from it, as mentioned earlier in case of Horton it was a person is a person no matter how small. BTW I am desperately looking forward for Pixar’s Wall-E which is gonna be released on 27th June this year. Watch its trailer here. Damn, the Pixar guys make only one movie a year !

Saw this movie late last night and Juno is by far one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. Juno is a fresh, unusually intelligent comedy with dialogues that are quick, witty and funny.Ellen Page gives a wonderful performance as Juno, convincingly portraying her as a real independent free spirit. Michael Cera was good and funny. For the first time I liked the soundtrack of a movie too. All the songs are too good. Hope to get my hand on its OST. Don’t wanna write anything about the plot / synopsis. All I can say is that its a wonderful movie dealing with teenage pregnancy. Watch it b4 it gets out of theaters. Also, listen to the dialogues carefully, they are damn funny. This movie won the Oscar for the best original screenplay and was nominated for 3 other awards in 2007.

When was the last time you had fallen off your seat while watching a movie ? Enchanted is one hell of a family movie.

Its just too good. The stables of Walt Disney has created a masterpiece after a long time. The movie is yet to be released here. The characters from the 2D-animated world of Anastasia land up in real-life New York City because of the curse of the Evil Queen.I love how the fantasy world comes into ours so awkwardly. And what happens then is absolutely hilarious. I don’t want to talk much about the plot of the movie here. Amy Adams and James Arden play Giselle and Prince Edward respectively, the two main characters of the movie. . Amy Adams is a delight to watch. Surprisingly, there are few songs in the movie too. The music is terrific . Everything works here to bring a wonderful family-friendly story to life. Complete with its pop-up book bookends, Enchanted is truly magical. I don’t know how it could ever have worked as a complete animated work, as I have read it originated as, so thankfully they took the plunge to expand it with live action. Crossing between the two worlds is seamless—2D characters turned into humans or 3D computer generated animals. This film is an ‘all rounder’; it contains all the Disney elements that children and adults love, but also enough to humor to make it an enjoyable comedy for the adults.Fans of Disney classics from SLEEPING BEAUTY to BEAUTY AND THE BEAST will be glad to see their favorite films referenced in ENCHANTED. Jodi Benson (the voice of Ariel in THE LITTLE MERMAID) makes a brief appearance, and the evil queen threatens to kill Giselle with a poisoned apple à la SNOW WHITE. Though it reminds the audience of past favorites, ENCHANTED boasts its own script that is at once intelligent and heartwarming. But the true highlight of the film is the acting by the fairy tale couple. Marsden couldn’t be funnier as the charming prince, while Adams gives dimension to the heroine. As a result, ENCHANTED is a film that deserves to sit on a shelf with Disney’s classics. Its rated fresh with 93 % at Rotten Tomatoes. Enchanted was great fun, and very funny! A must see!

I was traveling in a Volvo coming back from Pune to Bombay (which is almost 3.5 hours journey)after attending ClubHack and they started playing Om Shanti Om on the small TV set kept in the Bus. I am not even a small fan of Bollywood movies and don’t make efforts to watch them. Don’t find them appealing at all. I keep myself satisfied with the movies coming from Hollywood. I was _FORCED_ to see the movie because I was sitting right in front and the speakers were exactly on my head. Not something that I had planned for. After watching the movie for like 20-30 minutes I realized it was all crap. The story made no sense at all. It seemed everyone was overacting. I tried hard to change my place but in vain. Somehow I managed to shut my eyes and put on my earfones to play some music. I was out of luck, I had just couple of songs on my cell, as I wanted to change my playlist after listening to the same songs in Bangalore, but in hurry, I managed to only remove the songs and couldn’t transfer any because of lack of time I would remember this day when I was listening to the same 2 songs for almost 3 hours. Du hast by Rammstein and Turn the Page by Metallica helped me to kill my time. I believe I must have listened to the same 2 songs atleast 20 times each that evening !

Feel pity for those ppl who actually spent money to see such crap movie !

I have become a big fan of Majid Majidi after watching Baran and try and watch all his movies. I love international movies and don’t care if I don’t understand the language as long as there are sub-titles. FYI Baran is a 2001 Iranian film directed by Majid Majidi, based on a book by the same name. The movie is set during recent times in which there are a large number of Afghan refugees living on the outskirts of Tehran. Almost a silent movie, Baran won a number of awards both nationally and internationally for the director and writer Majid Majidi.

The Greatest Game Ever Played is biographical sports film based on the amateur golf player Francis Ouimet. The film’s screenplay was adapted by Mark Frost from his book, The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf.

Had got an opportunity to play Golf once and would love to play it more often. At that time I came to know about Vardon Grip which is used by almost all of the professional golfers around the world. So, I came home and did some Googling to learn more about it and I landed on this movie. These days people are going ga ga over Chak De India, this is a real story which tells a tale of amateur beating a professional in his own game.

Set in 1913, the film is about golfer Francis Ouimet, an amateur who was expected to fare poorly at the 1913 U.S. Open, and who was supposedly incapable of competing against professionals. Additionally, to discontinue an ongoing feud with his father, Francis agrees to get a real job and never play golf again. However, after getting a once-in-a-lifetime offer, Francis goes back on his word and competes for the U. S. Open crown. Against all odds, he managed to beat the British champions Harry Vardon and Ted Ray, who were considered the world’s best golfers.

This movie is really very inspirational. A must watch of you like golf, movies based on true stories or if you need some inspiration.

Saw some really good movies over the weekend. Knocked Up is a hilarious, poignant and refreshing look at the rigors of courtship and child-rearing, with a sometimes raunchy, always witty script that is ably acted and directed. Ben Stone is a 23-year-old slacker,whereas slightly older Alison Scott is responsible and career-minded. One night, Alison and Ben find themselves at the same club, have a one night fling which leads into a misinterpretation of the phrase “just do it already“, but when the alcohol wears off, they quickly learn they have little in common. Eight weeks later, however, Alison discovers that she is pregnant and contacts Ben, who says he will be there to support Alison having the baby. The odd couple’s efforts to develop a relationship include a marriage proposal from Ben… watch the movie to know what happens next. Really funny movie. Rated prety high in Rotten Tomatoes.