Movies You Watched This Week 2

Please write mini-reviews or comment on the movies that you watched this week in theater or on TV.

Official Synopsis: From the creator of the Oscar-winning SIDEWAYS, set in Hawaii, THE DESCENDANTS is a sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant journey, for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from the Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.

The movie is based on a novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. The movie is filled with heart touching moments. Some scenes are excellent like the one where Matt tells his 17-year-old daughter Alex (Shailene Woodley) that her mother will never awaken from her coma and what he finds out in return or the scene where Matt gets angry at Alex’s friend or the one where Matt’s father-in-law berates him for not being a good husband or the one where Matt’s 10-year-old daughter Scottie (Amara Miller) finally cries.

George Clooney is very good as always but it is Shailene Woodley who is excellent and steals the show. Amara Miller is very good as Scottie too. Judy Greer as Julie Speer, Matthew Lillard as Brian Speer and Robert Forster as Matt’s father-in-law are good too.

Alexander Payne’s direction is very good. Some may find the movie a bit slow-paced but its apt for a movie like this. The movie has already been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing and Best Adapted Screenplay. It has a very good chance of winning the Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars.

Rating: 4/5

The movie could have been very good as it was a biopic of Margaret Thatcher, the first and only female Prime Minister of The United Kingdom but the bad screenplay coupled with bad direction totally ruins it. The movie could have used a straight narrative but it goes for a lot of montages/flashbacks and one never gets involved or interested in the life of Margaret Thatcher. There is also the whole Beautiful Mind inspired hallucination thing which could have been avoided.

Some scenes stand out like the one where a young Margaret Thatcher tells her fiancee that she will not waste her life just being a housewife or the one where she enters the House of Commons and her struggle being a lady member in a male dominated house or the scenes where she is giving speeches and her being in control as the Prime Minister.

Meryl Streep, one of the greatest actresses ever, is brilliant as Margaret Thatcher whether its the look, accent or mannerisms. The movie however does not do justice to all her effort. She will most probably win the Oscar for Best Actress and it will be a very well deserved win.

The movie has also been nominated for Best Makeup at the Oscars and there is a good chance that the movie might win that award too for transforming Meryl Streep into Margaret Thatcher.

Rating: 2/5

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7 Comments
  1. Author
    sputnik 12 years ago

    Watched the movie The Artist. Its a black & white, silent movie with just music. Loved it. I think this is going to sweep the Oscars. Will try to write something more detailed on it later.

    It has a great chance to win Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction & Best Original Music. Jean Dujardin was brilliant and I think he will win Best Actor.

  2. aryan 12 years ago

    I have seen EK MAIN AUR EKK TU yesterday average movie regarding Imran Khan performance he was good but sometimes he make his face like monkey which i don’t like at all. Kareena was perfect I think each and every film Kareena looks better and better.

    Direction is good. Songs not upto the mark.

  3. Author
    sputnik 12 years ago

    Saw the movie Hugo and did not like it. Found it too pretentious and full of coincidences. The little kid was wearing shorts throughout the movie in snowy conditions without even feeling cold.

    After a point the movie was so boring and I wanted to stop it but completed it just because it has been nominated for so many Oscars. Cinematography and art direction were good but the sets seemed fake at many points.

    I think this is no match to The Artist. Some people are claiming that The Artist is gimmicky but I think this is the gimmicky one. Its like they wanted to make a documentary on movie history but used the guise of a kids movie.

  4. Author
    sputnik 12 years ago

    Watched the following movies.

    Moneyball
    Movie was pretty good and engrossing. Its a regular sports based movie. Did not like the ending though. Brad Pitt was excellent and deserved his Best Actor Oscar nomination. I always felt there is a facial resemblance between Brad Pitt and Robert Redford and that Brad Pitt copies Robert Redford and here it is even more apparent. Jonah Hill was good too.
    Rating: 3.5/5

    Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
    Its good but quite slow paced. I was able to guess who the main guy will be pretty early on so it wasn’t that great. Gary Oldman was good and some are saying he deserves the Oscar for this but I don’t agree. There is nothing so great in his performance so as to deserve the award.
    Rating: 3/5

    The Tree of Life
    Did not like it all. Fast Forwarded through the movie. One more movie where you will keep thinking what the hell is going on. Sure initially it was interesting but with the whole evolution thing it completely lost it.
    Rating: 2/5

  5. password 12 years ago

    Watched EK Main aur Ek Tu – nice movie – 3/5

    Before Sunrise – Just loved it 4.5/5

    Descedants – Well written Sputnik – i will give it 4/5 as well

    Soundtrack – 3.5/5 – I used to watch his debut soap for a while just for his acting skills and i loved almost all his movies. He is here to stay and will grow bigger and better. Instead of investing so much money on Abhishek who is giving disasters upon disasters if film producers give more chances to these talents then Bollywood can compete with some of hollywood movies in quality department.

    Rann- 4.5/5 – Mindblowing performance by Amitabh Bachan, Sudeep and Ritesh. I think i will not miss any of RGV’s future films after this. I watched his Rakt charitra part 1&2 and the first part was just awesome. I missed may be 2-3 films directed by RGV i guess. Sad thing is, most of his work is not being appreciated or accepted by the public and critics as well. Will be waiting eagerly for his next Departed.

  6. Author
    sputnik 11 years ago

    Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female PM, dead at 87

    ormer British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, a towering figure in postwar British and world politics and the only woman to become British prime minister, has died at the age of 87, her spokeswoman said Monday.

    Her funeral will be at St. Paul’s Cathedral, the British prime minister’s office announced Monday.

    Thatcher served from 1975 to 1990 as leader of the Conservative Party. She was called the “Iron Lady” for her personal and political toughness.

    Thatcher retired from public life after a stroke in 2002 and suffered several strokes after that. British media reported Monday that a stroke caused her death.

    She made few public appearances in her final months, missing a reception marking her 85th birthday hosted by Prime Minister David Cameron in October 2010. She also skipped the July 2011 unveiling of a statue honoring her old friend Ronald Reagan in London.

    In December 2012, she was hospitalized after a procedure to remove a growth in her bladder.

    Thatcher made history

    Thatcher won the nation’s top job only six years after declaring in a television interview, “I don’t think there will be a woman prime minister in my lifetime.”

    During her time at the helm of the British government, she emphasized moral absolutism, nationalism, and the rights of the individual versus those of the state — famously declaring “There is no such thing as society” in 1987.

    Nicknamed the “Iron Lady” by the Soviet press after a 1976 speech declaring that “the Russians are bent on world dominance,” Thatcher later enjoyed a close working relationship with U.S. President Reagan, with whom she shared similar conservative views.

    But the British cold warrior played a key role in ending the conflict by giving her stamp of approval to Soviet Communist reformer Mikhail Gorbachev shortly before he came to power.

    “I like Mr. Gorbachev. We can do business together,” she declared in December 1984, three months before he became Soviet leader.

    Having been right about Gorbachev, Thatcher came down on the wrong side of history after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, arguing against the reunification of East and West Germany.

    Allowing the countries created in the aftermath of World War II to merge would be destabilizing to the European status quo, and East Germany was not ready to become part of Western Europe, she insisted in January 1990.

    “East Germany has been under Nazism or Communism since 1930. You are not going to go overnight to democratic structures and a freer market economy,” Thatcher insisted in a key interview, arguing that peace, security and stability “can only be achieved through our existing alliances negotiating with others internationally.”

    West German leader Helmut Kohl was furious about the interview, seeing Thatcher as a “protector of Gobachev,” according to notes made that day by his close aide Horst Teltschik.

    The two Germanies reunited by the end of that year.

    A grocer’s daughter

    Thatcher — born in October 1925 in the small eastern England market town of Grantham — came from a modest background, taking pride in being known as a grocer’s daughter. She studied chemistry at Oxford, but was involved in politics from a young age, giving her first political speech at 20, according to her official biography.

    She was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, when the party was in opposition.

    She made history four years later, becoming prime minister when the Conservatives won the elections of 1979, the first of three election victories to which she led her party.

    As British leader, Thatcher took a firm stance with the European Community — the forerunner of the European Union — demanding a rebate of money London contributed to Brussels.

    Her positions on other issues, both domestic and foreign, were just as firm, and in one of her most famous phrases, she declared at a Conservative Party conference that she had no intention of changing her mind.

    “To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catchphrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: ‘You turn if you want to. The lady’s not for turning,'” she declared, to cheers from party members.

    The United Kingdom fought a short, sharp war against Argentina over the Falklands Islands under Thatcher in 1982, responding with force when Buenos Aires laid claim to the islands.

    Announcing that Britain had recaptured South Georgia Island from Argentina, Thatcher appealed to nationalist sentiments, advising the press: “Just rejoice at the news and congratulate our forces.”

    A journalist shouted a question at her as she turned to go back into 10 Downing Street: “Are we going to war with Argentina, Mrs. Thatcher?”

    She paused for an instant, then offered a single word: “Rejoice.”

    Controversy over Falklands war

    The conflict was not without controversy, even in Britain.

    A British submarine sank Argentina’s only cruiser, the General Belgrano, in an encounter that left 358 Argentines dead. The sinking took place outside of Britain’s declared exclusion zone.

    In her first term, Thatcher reduced or eliminated many government subsidies to business, a move that led to a sharp rise in unemployment. By 1986, unemployment had reached 3 million.

    But Thatcher won landslide re-election in 1983 on the heels of the Falklands victory, her Conservative Party taking a majority of seats in parliament with 42% of the vote. Second-place Labour took nearly 28%, while the alliance that became the Liberal Democrats took just over 25%.

    A year later, she escaped an IRA terrorist bombing at her hotel at the Conservative Party conference in Brighton.

    She was re-elected in 1987 with a slightly reduced majority.

    She was ultimately brought down, not by British voters, but by her own Conservative party.

    Brought down by the poll tax

    She was forced to resign in 1990 during an internal leadership struggle after she introduced a poll tax levied on community residents rather than property.

    The unpopular tax led to rioting in the streets.

    She married her husband, Denis Thatcher, a local businessman who ran his family’s firm before becoming an executive in the oil industry, in 1951 — a year after an unsuccessful run for Parliament. The couple had twins, Mark and Carol, in 1953.

    She was elected to Parliament in 1959 and served in various positions, including education secretary, until her terms as prime minister.

    Thatcher was awarded the U.S. Medal of Freedom by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, a year after she stepped down as prime minister. She was named Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven after leaving office.

    She retired from public life after a stroke in 2002 and suffered several smaller strokes after that. Her husband died in June 2003.

    Though her doctors advised against public speaking, a frail Thatcher attended Reagan’s 2004 funeral, saying in a prerecorded video that Reagan was “a great president, a great American, and a great man.”

    “And I have lost a dear friend,” she said.

    In the years that followed she encountered additional turmoil. In 2004, her son Mark was arrested in an investigation of an alleged plot by mercenaries to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea in west Africa. He pleaded guilty in a South African court in 2005 to unwittingly bankrolling the plot.

    https://www.cnn.com/2013/04/08/world/europe/uk-margaret-thatcher-dead/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

  7. Serenzy 11 years ago

    Haha… Laughed while reading it now again. 😀

    http://www.naachgaana.com/2012/05/19/my-views-on-the-descendants11/

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