Going My Way (1944)

Director: Leo McCarey

Cast: Bing Crosby

Genre: Musical Comedy

A lovely and adorable Musical, perhaps an inspiration for "West Side Story" and other classic musicals. This movie somewhat reminds of good ol', short & sweet "Marty" as well!

Plot: Father Chuck (Bing Crosby) is a face of progressive Church. He is young, flamboyant, caring person who has left behind a life of fun and frolic to join the Parish. He wins the heart of young and old alike without exercising any harsh discipline or preaching, rather playfully and musically. 

Bing Crosby's act is like a soothing symphony. He is very rhythmic and it is topnotch cinematic art to see how he deals with the aging father whom he is supposed to replace, eventually.

I don't know who that young blond was but she was hot!!

A complete joyride.

8.2/10

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

Director: Marc Forster

Cast: Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Emma Thompson, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah

Genre: Drama-Comedy

Writer: Zach Helm

Plot: Stranger than fiction—indeed!

A delightful movie that exemplifies top notch direction and a perfect script. Zach Helm's writing is the real showstopper; he conceived a brilliantly writing film. "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" would be the obvious next choice for me where he directs too—it’s already tempting with Portman in it!

Marc Forster is another young director to look out for. He already boasts of successful films like Monster's Ball, Finding Neverland, The Kite Runner (need to watch this beauty asap!), Quantum of Solace and none of them are similar. Even his latest “Machine Gun Preacher” has a very strong plot. 

What can be said of Ferrell? Not surprisingly, he wasn’t even nominated for any major awards. It’s is high time these Awards recognize comedians—in addition to perfect timing, maintaining the same intensity with multiple retakes is more difficult in a comic act—and give them their dues. Actors like Ferrell, Jim Carrey, etc have been branded as comedian and anything they are associated with, is branded as comedy—doesn’t matter how meaningful and deep it is. Almost same is the case with negative roles.I just hope awards grow up soon and stupendous acts like “Joker/Ledger”—arguably the best ever—don’t have to settle down with “Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role”!!

As for the movie, I’ll just quote Forster: “It's not the exact accurate story, but for me the film really isn't about reality. It's about the transformation of imagination, about creativity, about belief. That basically, if you believe, you can make anything happen.” 

This was his take on “Finding Neverland” which, for me, holds true for Stranger than Fiction!

 8.3/10

P.S., loved Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium too! 

Fast 5 (2011)

Director: Yipin Lin

Cast: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Dwayne Johnson

Genre: Action

Plot: Fast cars are back on the road once more—only this time they have a Vault trailing them!

First things first, I am not a die-hard fan of Fast and Furious franchise and wasn’t too excited about Fast 5 either. The movie starts out in somewhat dullish manner as the initial daylight breakout scene or the Train robbery scene weren’t as awe-inspiring as a sequel number ‘5’ must boast of. 

 Eventually, the film moves to Rio and continues with regular gun fights, escapes, chases, hideouts etc. In the meantime, we are introduced to the man who succeeds where all others fail—Dwayne Johnson ‘Rock.’ Dom (Diesel) also gathers his team to take on the Rio Crime boss. There are confrontations between all three groups and now the movie seems to gain rhythm. With some more body counts, explosions, car chases and a ‘Rock-Diesel’ slugfest movie definitely gets bigger—somehow not better. This changes when movie climaxes to an over the top final car chase scene. This is the scene that makes it up for entire movie and justifies Lin’s deliberate docility in first-half action - he does a commendable job in building up Fast 5.

This is not all; it ends even more fantastically! Spoilers ahead—back in D.C (between the credits roll-out with some catchy soundtracks) you find out ‘Rock’ being assigned to another mission and it’s Big. A military convoy has been high-jacked! And this is the work of a—won’t give that away, however, you might guess it as I did!—‘Ghost’.

The end really makes me look forward to Fast 6 (2013)!

The only thing I would hope Lin incorporates in his next installment is a real Villian—of equal magnitude to the ‘heroes’. Even if he ropes in someone with 20% ‘Joker's’ credibility, it’ll balance out the sequel beautifully and get rid of any clichés.   

7.3/10

Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986, Japanese)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: Animation

   
Inspired by "The Gulliver's Travel" this is another anime masterpiece from the master of hand drawn animation. Miyazaki once again takes you to a dreamworld with flying machine, pirates, a young hero, and a damsel in distress!
 
The way Miyazaki captures the beauty of nature is better than anything you find onscreen. The creative efforts, thought-process are distinctly visible as always.

A must watch.
 
8/10

Howl's Moving Castle (2004, Japanese - Hauru no ugoku shiro)

Director: Hayao Miyazaki

Genre: Animation

World War I is the backdrop for this unusual and, as always, dreamy world of Miyazaki.

Howl’s Moving Castle is strange in an interesting, rather pleasing, way. It is more like a disjointed dream you enjoyed so much but can’t make much sense of. This is a sort of movie where you need to lose all your senses and go with Mayazaki flow. 

Howl is a wizard who falls for a young hat-maker Sophie. A jealous witch turns Sophie into a wretched old woman but this actually unleashes Sophie's enshrouded adventurous streak! They live in a world controlled by secretive magic where two Kingdoms are at war—because of a missing Prince. Howl has always avoided war, however this time he has a reason to get involved.

The movie is another perfect example of hand-drawn and beautiful Mayazaki animation, and its commercial success proves there is still audience that loves olde worlde style of animation. Even those fed on today’s top notch, hi-tech animation welcomed it as a breath of fresh air.

From my very personal perspective I’ll rate “Laputa” above it—as it was made in 1986 and is at par with “Howl” in terms of sheer creativity. Now, "Monoke Hime" and "Nausicaä" are at another level!

A must watch, and a perfect escapade from an unhindered dose of sequels and too much technology—courtesy the likes of Transformers!

8/10