A Good day to Die hard

Started watching the movie under the knowledge of that this was named one of the worst movies of 2013. Why even watch, you might ask. Sometimes a dia hard fan of John McClane gotta watch the crappiest movie of the installment, just because he is a die hard fan. I'd still watch a Jurassic Park which will be made by a Michael Bay, just because it is Jurassic Park. Don't judge me, I'm watching A good day to die hard with the same kind of conviction.

It's obvious from the start that this is gonna crush the hopes and dreams of the fans. The 4th one sort of did that already. It proved that the future of John McClane in the big screen is going to be bleak and sad. But it still had a good conspiracy story which was in line with the previous material. Although filled with absurd plot holes and ridiculous, kollywood like action. But this one, the 5th one doesn't seem to have a good conspiracy either.

Man, I love high speed chases. I'm cuckoo for them. The one in this movie, I gotta admit was quite exhilarating. The sheer magnitude of destruction is awesome. Absurd, I know, as the previous one. But it's good entertainment. Can't complain about that. But I think what lacks, as in the first 3 Die hard movies was a sense of sophistication and cleverness. The first one was impressive in John McClane use of the air duct system and cleverness in kicking ass.  In this it's just do the most impressive destructive thing there is to stop the bad guys. The snide signature remarks are still there. There is some consistency I that. And also actions that defies reason. Why the hell, would John McClane go to all that trouble to stop that armored truck, when he just wants to meet his son.

That's not all that defies reason. One trend in recent action movies I've noticed is that , with the story the writers come up with all kinds of absurd crap just to insert a twist. My particular concern is that when the hostage kills the bad guy inside the vault, they wanna give the idea that the daughter was working with the father all along. That's the twist, I get it. But why did the daughter ever betray the father in the first place. They could've taken the key, and went to the vault without the help of the bad guys as they want. Twists in this sense are overrated. If it's even a mediocre plot, if everything adds up, that's just fine. Why they gotta ruin everything just by adding an absurd plot twist.

The bottomline is that, if this was a standalone movie with no history, I think it would've been received more well. But it's the 5th installment in a legendary movie franchise, which makes it a challenge to keep that hype going. The first Die hard movies has set the bar so high for the oncoming movies that hollywood is struggling to reach. They are doing all the wrong things, with the abilities and technology instead of trying to stay true to the original concepts. They are trying to squeeze money out of everything without thinking about the quality. What they mustvr thought is "let's put John Mcclanes son in Russia and send John to visit him where all he'll breaks lose in Russia. I see no fabricated plot here, like in the previous ones. Even the 4th one tried a bit with a mass scale conspiracy. But this one doesn't even try. The story is so mundane and unfit for a Dua Hard movie. In trying to make it more appealing to the masses, it has lost its taste and grandeur. This happens with a lot of things I guess. To reach the popularity, the unique and special identities get lost or sacrificed. And doing so it might become popular, but it loses the value.

Until Bruce Willis lives there will be more Die Hard movies.But I see no improvement in future movies. One can only hope.

Seven Psychopaths

"Life affirming, Schmife affirming. It's about seven fucking psychopaths"

Seven Psychopaths tells the story of how this author Marty (Collin Ferrel) wants to write a book about seven psychopaths and is helped by his dog kidnapper friend Billy(Sam Rockwell), who runs his business with an older friend Hans(Walken). Shit hits the fan when the kidnappers take the pet dog of a mob boss, Charlie (Woody Harrelson). Saying anything more will seriously turn down the excitement of the movie, because surprise is a big and very important element here.

Wow, what a cast, Walken, Harellson. Did not imagine Colin Ferell in that kind of a role. I really thought that he would be one of the psychopaths for sure. And Sam Rockwell. It's a surprise why this dude doesn't get more movies. I really adored him in Moon(2009). In this one my favor for him like doubled! Such a good actor.   

The introduction of the psychopaths is pretty poetic. The second one is my favorite. Man that was a chilling introduction to that character. The twists are too mindblowing. In my opinion one of the overrated movies that everyone seems to love is Zodiac(1997). From that I learned about the Zodiac Killer. The way they sneaked in the Zodiac is pretty nice too. The his execution, so horrifying and frankly beautiful.

Sometimes its gut wrenching to see that people that you'd never hope getting killed horribly. In that sense it is very very unpredictable. But what makes this a damn good dark comedy is, sometimes the deaths just jumps out of nowhere. It's so shocking, so much so that it's DAMN FUNNY. Like "WTF, that just did not happen" funny. 

It takes a different path altogether from the way I imagined it would be. I thought that it was gonna be more like a heist movie or something. But I can't really seem to find an adequate label at all for this. It stands out from the rest. I wouldn't be lying if this is the best movie I've watched so far this year. 

The Master

Joaquin Phoenix is an amazing actor. I really witnessed that so clearly through the movie The Master. That's one of the main things to talk about this movie. The acting and the difference in the nature of the movie. You know with Joaquin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Amy Adams in the main cast, it's gonna be a great one. You wouldn't expect an intellectually numbing movie through this. At first before I started watching, I somehow had the idea that this is a biography movie. It almost is, but not quite. 

The movie is based on the 1950 post WWII USA. A veteran soldier having mental 'issues' was driven into a movement called The Cause. The Master, portrayed by Philip, is a kind of a highly charismatic religious leader. He is a favorite, and his followers love him to death. The progress of the veteran, who is driven to the point of insanity by lost love, or unclaimed love as I see it, is shown step by step and the relationships that he makes with the movement and its leaders family, and its consequences, is what the movie is basically about. It narrows on to the weird side with the different processes that the master uses on the veteran to attempt to make him alright. They are interesting, leads to insights that is not encountered anywhere before. That interview session, processing, that's one of the most powerful sequences of cinema I've seen. Joaquin does it so well. Also when Joaquins character with his fucked up state of mind imagines every girl around him naked, there's also Amy Adams there. That scene was just,.. I don't know, arousing and weird. 

But like all religious movements, this also seems like a bullshit attempt to drain the gullible of their money. The charismatic truly can make sense of any crap to sell it to the idiotic masses. If I haven't said it before, I say that now, that I frikking hate hippies. And this seems like a precursor to hippies. So I naturally hated the fact that this happened. And the facts that they seems to introduce seems natural to most of us who have been led by faith to believe all of that as fundamentals, about resurrection, rebirth and causality of everything. The Master reminds me of such personalities as the person who claimed that he is Maithree Buddha in down south Sri Lanka. Many gullible idiots followed him, and donated money for his cause. When you realize the falseness of it all, it is too late. 

The acting is mesmerizing. Fills me with awe. Joaquin and Phillip are just masters of the trade, hands down. There isn't any suspense or curiosity as to drive the viewer to keep watching it. For me the only drive was the powerful nature of the scenes themselves. What grand feat of acting will they pull of next? That was the curiosity that kept me going. The dedication Joaquin puts into it is amazing. This made me wonder that Leonardo DiCaprio will never amount to be a great actor as Joaquin Phoenix because he is too pretty, and because he talks too perfectly. Just a side thought.

Not a favorite for many I believe. But very critically acclaimed. That must go for it. Otherwise, frankly it is just a boring movie.

 

"leave your worries for a while. They'll be still there when u get back. And your memories aren't invited."

Let it all go...

True grit was a great movie. And this one track from its soundtrack became a favorite recently. Every time I listen to it, it feels like very warm and fuzzy inside. A list was published recently by Buzzfeed, which almost always posts great stuff. It has almost the same title,  32 things which will make you all warm a fuzzy inside. I find that the combination of these can make you forget almost everything, and just bask in a temporary bliss. So here you go, try it out.

32 Things That Will Make You Feel All Warm And Fuzzy Inside

Enjoy!

And here's something extra ^_^. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvt_K4LW29c

Final Fantasy - Advent Children

Final Fantasy is a world renowned gaming franchise developed by SquareEnix. It had been going on for a while now, and the latest installment is Final Fantasy Vs 13. It's an Japanese RPG game series which has won the hearts of so many with its amazing story lines and unique gameplay elements. Japanese RPGs are quite different from other genres. It has a kind of monotonous gameplay when it comes to battles, but still every game can take you buy surprise with its beautifully developed characters, with unique traits, and character relationships and how the story unfolds around them. Like many RPGs it is not only about battles, the way you make decisions, affects the story in unprecedented ways. JRPGs kind of has a linear story, which is always so vivid and beautifully woven, that it proves you can trust only Japanese to come up with a wonderful story which is always unique and awesome.

One other notable feature is its music. They come up with the best music, and still the 80ies or 90ies JRPG sound tracks are still considered to be the best video game music of all time. In 2008, even though there are lot of new games to play, we played the 90ies JRPGs through a SNES simulator and its safe to say that we enjoyed them as much as any new game, maybe even more! One such game is Chrono Sphere, and its music is still very memorable to me. Seems like the internet agrees with me, that it got one of the best soundtracks.

Also played Final fantasy VI through the SNES simulator. I think I was able to finish it. One of the most memorable songs from it is the Opera Scene. I was so impressed by it, that through Midi sound technology they are able to make something so extravagant.

Isn't that just goddamn lovely!

Now to Final Fantasy VII. This is arguably the most favorite of the series for many. It's the first 3D game of the series, and must be one of the first 3D games ever. I was fortunate enough to play it at my age. But sadly could not complete it. It has left so much marks on the path of video game history. I will not be able to go into the whole story here. As a precursor to the movie, Cloud and Aries love is the most notable things which is referred repeatedly in the Movie. By Screwattack.com the death of Aries is rated as one of the most saddest moments in video game history. I couldn't meet that moment in my play. But it claims that that moment has bought many to tears...

I've watched both versions of the movie, the Japanese audio version with English subs, and the English dubbed version. My most recent watch was the 1080p extended English dubbed version, which I specially downloaded, to watch in all its full HD splendor. The Rips don't do much justice though. Get the original BR if you are really interested. In any version though, the dialogues and the story doesn't make much sense. You have to have a firm handle on the whole backdrop of the situation and the extended version did help a little. There's the geostigma, and whatever the heck causes it, Mother, soldiers and whatnot. But it all makes sense at the end. What the viewers really care about is I think to see the characters they loved while playing the game doing all the fantastic things and kicking ass in the big screen. And from that end it delivered more than enough.

Tifa never fails to steal my heart though. I think she is one of the most beautiful, cute, sexy virtual girls there is. And got the moves too. Her battle in the church is one of the most awesome in the movie. There are a few glances of Aries in the movie and she is like an angel too. You only see her well in the extended version.

The battles, oh the battles, how marvellous they are! Correct me if I'm wrong, but I still believe that this got the greatest virtually created battles in movie making history. Every battle is absurdly astounding and carefully choreographed, you might actually want to slow down to get it all in. There's something about highway chases that makes the adrenaline rush, and Advent children nails it!

Must not let Sephiroth go unmentioned in a post about Final Fantasy. He is THE ULTIMATE BADASS. The elegant clothing, hair suitable for a L'Oréal advertisement, and of course the malevolent eyes, vibrant with pure EVIL. The Sephiroth song is fun too. Just the perfectly molded villain, Glad he was materialized in this movie.

I'm huge fan of this genre, but there aren't many movie in it. Please suggest in the comments if you know of anymore.