American Pie 4: Band Camp

Director: Steve Rash
Cast: Eugene levy, Tad Hilgenbrinck, Arielle Kebbel
IMDB Rating: 5/10
My Rating: 3/5

American Pie, for the uninitiated these words might lead to
thoughts about an eatable or something but for anyone whose watched
even a couple of minutes of action from the American Pie Pentalogy
these words would conjure images of Wild Campus Life, Wannabe Teens,
Bikini Clad Babes and Couples in Love or rather Couples Making Love
n that to scores of them.
That's Pie for you......

It was refreshing to watch another Pie after a long while and good
to know that they still make Pie's the way they used to a while back.
I still can't forget the opening scene from the last Pie(3) ;)

The backbone of all films in Pie Pentalogy is the experiences
of a bunch of really wild and whacky guys from a high school who are
ultra high on testosterones. Pie has all sorts of situations
and can easily make you fall on the floor laughing unless you find them
disgusting rather than amusing( which I think can be the case with
some girls).

Pie 4 sees a new bunch of people lead by Matt Stifler younger
brother of the infamous Steve Stifler who tries to fill into
shoes of his elder bro and gets it all wrong.The new cast is what
gives the film a refreshing look but you can see a few commonalities,
spy cams to capture chicks for one.Also there was Jim's Dad(Mr. Levenstein)
who never fails to amuse and there was that Sherman-ator
which I didn't particularly like ..

Other then all the Super Wild stuff, the film has a tinge of
cute romance and also a happy ending.

Go watch it if you wanna have your dose of laughter ...

Trivia:
1) Tad Hilgenbrink really bared it all in the scene where he undresses in front of the girls while playing the trivia game. He didn't inform the girls in advance, who were expecting him to keep his privates covered somehow, so their reaction is quite genuine


Links:
1) IMDB
2) Quotes
3) Wiki


I love the way they kiss :D

When Harry Met Sally

A week doesn't seem complete until I watch a movie or two(at least).
This feeling that somethings missing got the better of me and
I decided to watch "When Harry Met Sally" (Yes this is the film that
inspired "HUM TUM") on an ideal Saturday.Had heard about this a long
time back but somehow couldn't watch it earlier.



Talking about WHMS

Director:Rob Reiner
Cast: Billy Crystal,Meg Ryan,
Carrie Fisher,Bruno Kirby and Lisa Jane Persky

It's a Romantic Comedy that
revolves around the lives(and relationship) of Harry Burns and
Sally Albright played beautifully by Billy and Meg.The movie opens up
slightly unusually with an elderly couple(not part of the movie)
sitting on a sofa set, sort of being interviewed with the Man going like

"I was sitting with my friend Arthur, in a restaurant and this girl
walked in ----
--- and I turned to Arthur and I said, "Arthur, you see that girl ?
I'm going to marry her." And two weeks later we were married. And
it's 50 years later and we're still married."

Similar scenes with old couples of different cultural backgrounds
summarizing how the they met their partners, got married and are still
together, occur intermittently throughout the film and give a subtle
feel to the story.

For the uninitiated its d movie that gave world one of the all time famous
lines "Ek ladka aur ek ladki kabhi dost nahi ho sakte" OR in Harry Speak
"men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way"
Yes, that's how those lines came into existence(1989)and are still
being used and reused by people(basically guys I believe) all around.

Harry is a forthright, pragmatic and maverick glib talker whose in touch
with himself while Sally is a pretty looking, picky women with cerebral
approach whose kinda out of touch with herself(away from her reality).
Harry and Sally start off being acquaintances and eventually end up
falling for each other.The movie focuses on their relationship
as acquaintances, friends and more then just friends. I think any/everyone
who is or was in such a relationship can correlate a lot(I do for sure).

Beneath the layer of consciousness where the people
involved care n feel for each other(in we are just friends way) is another
layer(unconscious) where they secretly and unknowingly like/desire that
chemistry and want it to never end.

I strongly feel(it happens in the film also) that a guy and a girl cannot
be just very good friends, no it's not really that the sex part that gets in
the way but its the emotions part that does. There's a very high chance
that one of the two persons involved would be knowingly/unknowingly
feeling much more about the other person. But then not every pair of
very good friends end up the way Harry n Sally do. Maybe cause there
is not a Harry(Guy or Gal) in every such case.Think about it..

The movie has its share of some really funny and some really
touching moments.Even while writing this I cant stop thinking about some
scenes and laughing out loud.

A must watch

My Rating: 4/5
Imdb Rating: 7.6/10

Scenes that I loved:
1) On way to New York when they enter a restaurant and Sally loudly says
"It just so happened that I had plenty of good sex".
2) The one in which they meet on a plane
3) Harry n Jess raise n do Mexican waves while discussing Harry's wife.
4) When they talk on phone before going to sleep.
5) The one in museum where they speak in a different/funny way.
6) Harry n Jess while practicing baseball
7) The one with "I'll have what she is having"(Orgasm Scene)
8) When Sally breaks down n Harry goes to her place
9) Harry n Sally calling Jess n his wife
10) Harry proposing Sally on new year's eve

Dialogues that I loved:
Well there were lots of them so I put them in a separate post here

Trivia:
1)In the famous faked orgasm scene, the woman who says, "I'll have what she's having. . ." is Rob Reiner's mother.

Links:
1) Answers.com
2) WikiQuote

Dead Poet's Society

Dir: Peter Weir
Cast: Robin Williams, Robert Sean Leonard, Ethan Hawke, Josh Charles

At some community on Orkut a random poll question read

"When u r not happy with ur surroundings wat would u do???".

I nonchalantly voted for "Watch Movies".

After two days I found myself in that very situation and I did
Watch Movie the movie being "Dead Poet's Society". I had
heard of this movie before but it was when i read
"We don't read and write poetry because it's cute.
We read and write poetry because we are members
of the human race. And the human race is filled
with passion. And medicine,law, business,
engineering, these are noble pursuits and necessary
to sustain life. But poetry, beauty, romance,love,
these are what we stay alive for." that i decided DPS
would be the next movie I'd watch(at home).

Carpe Diem is the phrase that comes to mind every time I
think of DPS, as it's the essence of the movie. The movie is
beautifully written and has much more to it than the life at
a boys school, it hints rather it hits at some of the all time
deep philosophical ideas like freethinking aka freethought
and Carpe Diem. The movie is to each according to his/her
perception.

Robin Williams does his role as Keating quite naturally and is
needless to say quite good at it. Robert and Josh also do
justice to their roles and as far as other's are concerned their
wasn't much of acting needed in their roles..With some
visually appealing scenes and a nice background score DPS
is a heady mix. The movie also has it's share of some really
funny moments like this one

Keating: Language was developed for one endeavor, and that is,
Mr. Anderson. Come on, are you a man or an amoeba? Mr. Perry.
Neil: Uh, to communicate?
Keating: Nooo!! To woo women

Parent's enforcing their ambitions on their children, corporal
punishment, Institutions thriving on tradition are some of the
more explicit themes in the film. It is one of those films
that can and should be watched multiple times to bring
the prescribed thoughts home.

My Rating: 4.25/5 (after flip flopping between 4 and 4.25)

Imdb Rating: 7.7/10

Dialogues I Liked:

1) No matter what anybody tells you, words and ideas
can change the world.
2) There is a time for daring and a time for caution,
and a wise man knows which is called for.
3) We're not laughing at you - we're laughing near you.
4) I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately.
I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life...
to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to
die, discover that I had not lived.

5) McAllister: "Show me the heart unfettered by foolish
dreams and I'll show you a happy man."
John Keating: "But only in their dreams can men be truly
free. 'Twas always thus, and always thus will be.

6) Boys, you must strive to find your own voice.
Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you
are to find it at all. Thoreau said,
"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation."
Don't be resigned to that. Break out!

7) John Keating: Now we all have a great need for acceptance,
but you must trust that your beliefs are unique, your own,
even though others may think them odd or unpopular, even
though the herd may go, [imitating a goat]
John Keating: "that's baaaaad." Robert Frost said,
"Two roads diverged in the wood and I, I took the one less
traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

8) Just when you think you know something,you have to
look at it in another way. Even though it may seem silly
or wrong, you must try! Now, when you read, don't just
consider what the author thinks. Consider what you think.

“Carpe Diem! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.”

Scenes that clicked:

1) All of Keating's classes.
2) The one on soccer field.
3) The first DPS meeting.
4) Tow Knox meets Chris for the first time.
5) Tow "The world's first unmanned flying desk set".
6) Tow "Phone call from GOD".
7) Tow "Knox asking Chris for a play".
8) The last scene with boys standing up on their desks.

Trivia:
1) DPS partly inspired a Bollywood hit called "Mohabbatein"
starring "Shah Rukh Khan" and veteran actor "Amitabh Bachchan".
2) DPS is Loosely based on the experiences of private school
students with Samuel Pickering, who is currently a Professor
of English at the University of Connecticut.
3) The movie's line
"Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary."
was voted as the #95 movie quote by the American
FilmInstitute (out of 100)
4) Originally, Professor Keating was supposed to die of leukemia.
But the director decided to have the story focus on the boys instead.
5) The film was also inspired by the book Goodbye, Mr. Chips
by James Hilton, which has been adapted for television or film
at least four times.
6) The quotation from Henry David Thoreau read at the
beginning of each meeting is incorrect. It actually reads
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately,
to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not
learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived. …
I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear;
nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite
necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow
of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all
that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to
drive life into a corner…"

Links:
1) Script
2) Wiki
3) Peter Weir
4) Misc Link
5) List of Poems in DPS

The Pursuit of Happyness

Director: Gabriele Muccino
Cast: Will Smith, Jaden Smith & Thandie Newton

This part of my life, this tiny part of my life is called "writing movie reviews"

Christopher Paul Gardner (born February 9, 1954 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) is a self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and philanthropist.
--Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The movie is inspired by a book with the same name authored by Chris himself and is about
his life and his struggle(in early 1980's) with marital life, career and homelessness while raising
his toddler son. As it happenes most of the times,the movie adaptation of a book
tends to miss out on some vital aspects of the story on various pretexts, here also the movie
doesn't refer at all (sparring a dialogue when he refer's about not knowing his father)
to Chris's life before his marriage.

First close up shot of Chris Gardner(Will Smith) drops a hint about the tone of the
movie followed shortly by, a beautifully sequence( in which he feels quite left out on seeing a crowd of happy passerby's), that makes the tone more apparent. Of all the actors the one
that stood out for me was cute li'l Christopher, who apart from acting beautifully made audience
have their share of laughter. Will did his job good enough to be nomitated for the
Best Actor's Award at the Oscars. The movie picks up slowly and continues to do so till the very end with getting Painfully Slow for a good 10 minutes. The film has some intermittent
beautiful and touching scenes. Particulary touchy one's being "The one in which Chris and his son spend there night in a restroom","when there reach a Flophouse only to find a long queue"
and "being thrown out of the motel".

The soapy background score, witty yet meaningful dialogues and nice direction work together
to make the movie worth watching.

Memorable Dialogue's:

"You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period"

Martin Frohm: What would you say if man walked in here with no shirt, and I hired him? What would you say?
Christopher Gardner: He must have had on some really nice pants.

"Maybe happiness is something that we can only pursue. And maybe we can actually never have it no matter what."

Trivia:
The spelling of happiness came from the daycare center Gardner attended as a child, where the word was misspelled with a “y”.
The expression "pursuit of happiness" was coined by Dr. Samuel Johnson in his 1759 novel Rasselas.
"Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" is one of the most famous phrases in the United States Declaration of Independence.

My Rating: 3.75
Imdb Rating:7.4