Movie Review : Batman Begins.

I am a great admirer of Christopher Nolan's movies...Memento, The Following, etc...So, when he decided to take the reigns of the next Batman Movie, I felt a sigh of relief. After the original classics by Tim Burton had almost been butchered by Joel Schumaker...any self-respecting Batman fan would agree as to what an outrage those two movies were to the image of Batman...while Tim Burton had cast the Dark Knight in his typical, dark, brooding atmosphere, Joel Schumlaker made a travesty of the entire situation, what with his ridiculous neons and post-apocalyptic visions ! .

Finally it seemed like Hollywood was getting its senses back to order...in the hands of Christopher Nolan, one can expect that Batman would regain his true self on the celluloid, as comics fans for decades have known. To say the least, the movie doesn't disappoint...in fact, in my humble opinion, this is the BEST Batman movie to date....why ? Simple...although Tim Burton's movies did a good job of capturing the darkness that lay beneath the cape and mask, as well as the criminal, desperate feel of Gotham City, they did not venture forth into the psyche of Bruce Wayne...except for the obligatory parents getting killed, mightmares. etc. In Batman Begins, Mr. Nolan seems to realize that Bruce Wayne is the character that must be really explored...Batman is nothing if not a product of Bruce Wayne's tortuous past and his darkness which flooded over onto the mask and cape...his addiction with finding out about the criminal psyche at all costs and his meeting of Ras Al Ghul( that criminal mastermind with the twisted morality and ideas of good and evil ), etc. have been captured extremely well...

The only "flaw" that I can see in this movie that didn't exist in the comics, is the excessive violence and pyrotechnics...yes, Batman is a violent vigilante, but NEVER in the comics does he resort to tearing down Gotham City in high speed chases and having total disregard for police officers and civilians...but then one must, begrudgingly, allow for aritistic liberties taken for making the cinematic version !

Of course, Christian Bale seems like the perfect foil for Mr. Nolan's direction...one must watch The Machinist" to see the amount of dedication and intensity that an actor can put into a role...the same intensity and dedication is visible throughout "Batman Begins"...

Movie Review : The Interpreter

Just saw the movie The Interpreter...must say I had high hopes for it considering that it had Sean Penn actng and Syndey Pollack directing...an utter disappointment to say the least ! I can't imagine that this is the same Sydney Pollack, who made such good movies like Presumed Innocent, The Firm, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and so on...

What should have been a 90 minute movie, at most, was stretched to over 2 hours !!! It had an interesting plot...but still very cliched...a lead character who has a "past" and is revealed one step at a time...sigh ! How many times has such a concept been ignored in multiple languages around the world ? Sometimes a movie can be a great thriller, even though it has a slow pace...a la Silence of the Lambs...but in this case, the movie seems to have be DELIBERATELY slowed down...so much so, that it seems to flow backwards ! ( and no, not intentionally like that classic Christopher Nolan movie mind you ! ). One gets the feeling of watching honey trickle downwards in the absence of gravity !

No wonder then that this went from production to DVD in a flash...let's hope Mr. Pollack can revitalize himself and get back to good movie making !

Ineptitudes of Life

Where does one person or a group of people suddenly become special ? It might be someone that you met today, or even someone you have known for years...but somewhere along the way, you feel a new connection....what is the line that is crossed ? It might even be a person that you have never met face to face...new phases is life get people to change in ways that are not always comprehensible !