It’s that time of the year when the much awaited Hollywood Academy Awards are going to be announced. I somehow managed to view five of the movies that are nominated in different award categories this time. Just thought of sharing my views on those movies.
Movies
Get lost in the jungle
As a kid who grew up watching Doordarshan TV during my school days, I have fond memories of my favorite shows. Though my Hindi is bad, I can still recite the song, “Jungle Jungle baat chali hai….”, the popular title track of Jungle Book cartoon series.
So, when the new movie adaptation by Disney, The Jungle Book, got released last week, I was all the more excited to watch it.
The movie is awesome. The CGI makes the jungle come alive. With great voiceovers for the animals, it is a delight to watch the characters of Sher Khan, Bagheera, and Baloo. Neel Sethi as Mowgli is cute, but looks more rehearsed.
Rudyard Kipling’s wonderful story of a kid lost in the Indian jungles has come out well in this movie. Go watch it and get lost in the jungle visually.
Stamp of Zoological Survey of India
My Oscar Delight
StandardLast week when I was looking at this year’s Oscar winning list, I was pleasantly surprised and felt happier for one person than for other winners. He happens to be the oldest ever to win an Oscar in the competitive category. I saw that movie (for which he won the Oscar) in the big screen in January. His work in the movie kept me mesmerized right from the opening scene till the end.
The Ugly is the Beautiful!
StandardWhile flipping through ‘The Hindu’ newspaper three days ago, one article got all my attention. The article was about the passing away of Eli Wallach, the man who played ‘Ugly’ in the iconic movie, ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’. Who can forget one of his famous quotes in the movie, “When you have to shoot, shoot, don’t talk”?
He seems to have had a wonderful career in both stage and screen, but I think most people including myself will remember him for his role as Tuco in this movie. He aptly titled his autobiography as ‘The Good, the Bad, and Me’!
Tuco’s character is the most interesting among the three main characters in the movie. Eli Wallach made it lively and beautiful with memorable and sometimes funny quotes.
Gotta watch that movie again! 🙂
Transcending through Artificial Intelligence
StandardI watched the movie, ‘Transcendence‘ today in theater. The movie has a interesting plot of a high-profile Artificial Intelligence (AI) researcher creating a machine that provides unimaginable possibilities. Johnny Depp plays the researcher who creates the AI machine. The machine uses all the intelligence in this world and responds with human emotions. The movie really takes off only after the researcher is killed and his machine form takes over from there.
In one scene where the researcher interacts with a AI machine called ‘PINN’, I was reminded of the MS-DOS command-line chat-bot, ‘Eliza’ that I used once during my college days. The chat-bot responds to your questions that you type at the command prompt.
Go watch the movie if you like science fiction.
On an another note, Stephen Hawking shares his thoughts on the movie and AI here.
Adrenaline Rush
StandardI watched ‘Need for Speed’ movie at Luxe today. The movie is based on the most popular car racing video game series of the same name from Electronic Arts.
It was during my college days that I played this racing game for the first time. The thrill of driving luxurious cars such as Ferrari, Jaguar, Mustang, or Lamborghini on wonderful race tracks along countryside, sea coast, and national parks was just awesome. Needless to say, I was hooked to the computer screen for long hours with adrenaline rush. Of all the car games I had played, ‘Need for Speed’ is the best.
In late 2008 I got an opportunity to visit Electronic Arts’ main office in California. As an avid player of their games, I was very eager to visit their office. It was one of the best workplaces I have seen in my life. Every floor had few gaming consoles for the employees! Even though it was for just three months, I can never forget the time I spent in their office.
So it was with much enthusiasm that I went to watch the movie and I wasn’t disappointed. The cars, the tracks, the races, and the chases were beautifully shot. Though the movie is about street car racing, which is illegal, it gave me such a high adrenaline rush. Imogen Poots as the exotic car dealer with a heavy English accent was lovely to watch. The final race finishes on the beautiful Californian coastline. My wife and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the movie.
Ravi Writes 