Cast Away (2000)

Director : Robert Zemeckis.
Genere : Adventure / Drama.
Cast : Tom Hanks.
Rating : Classic.

Have you ever thought about going back to the beginning, where man is just himself? Can he survive without the modern gadgets and tools? What about electricity, pure water and clean cooked food? Man is a social being; so can he survive by his own. In “Cast Away” Tom Hanks, a time conscious busy man, happens to be on an isolated island far away from civilizations surviving a plane crash, having nothing but time. Four years of absolute solitude- without proper food, water or shelter. What can you expect on a small island in the middle of an ocean? Its man vs. nature. He has to start from the beginning – invent fire, make Stone Age tools, fishing, hunting etc to keep him alive.
Hope is the base of humanity, a little bit of “hop” can do the impossible. It accelerates our survival instincts. “The ship wreck piece”, his “ball-pal”, unopened parcels etc are all his symbols of hope and with it he finally decides to escape to civilization. Sometimes life will be more difficult than a hostile island to survive. The return of a long lost, supposedly dead man to his normal life won’t be that easy.
Tom Hanks with his outstanding performance made this movie unforgettable. Actually this is a one man show by Tom Hanks supported by the director Robert Zemeckis from behind. Half of the movie doesn’t have any dialogs, but Hanks made the film talk by itself. “Cast Away” is recommended as a must see for all Tom Hanks fans, if you are not one don’t worry this will turn you one.

City of God (2002)

Cidade de Deus (2002)

Director : Fernando Meirelles.
Genere : Crime.
Cast : Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Alice Braga.
Rating : Master piece

City of God tells the story from the poverty sunken slums of Rio de Janeiro. Rio de Janeiro is actually a battle field; survival comes with two choices, be a part of the crime element or let consumed by it. Li'l Zé (Leandro Firmino)growth from an angry child to a trigger happy, blood thirsty warlord give a brief but strong exposure to the crime world of Cidade de Deus. Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) never expected anything from this slum, but his ticket to a better life came from the same battle field. He was offered a very risky job of taking pictures of the gangs and their activities by a newspaper. His dream of becoming a photographer and a better life depends on this performance. City of god is intense with heartless killings, blood trials, rape, and gang war all run and maintained by kids or mere teenagers. Throughout the story, poverty stands out as a reality and advocates for much of the happenings with unbelievable honesty. Is the pain of poverty strong enough to decay the deep-rooted humanity and romanticism even from a child’s sole, or is it just a reflection of the society.
City of god is a perfect package comes with stunning performance, fantastic visuals, and a well formatted screenplay. Director Fernando Meirelles’s approach with style and control is perfectly backed by the cinematographer César Charlone. Bráulio Mantovani’s work with the screenplay enables the smooth navigation between 60’s to 80’s through 70’s. But the real claps goes to the actors, mostly untrained kids, who takes us to a world of ultimate crime and mischief are the real heroes of this true story.

Shoot 'Em Up (2007)

Director : Michael Davis.
Genere : Action / Thriller / Comedy.
Cast : Clive Owen, Paul Giamatti, Monica Bellucci.
Rating : Must Watch

Well I can’t say this as a heartwarming movie or it carries you in its magical arms, but it does pumps up your adrenalin. At least I can say this is what one expects from a Hollywood flick of its kind. Like its name, it never stops shooting from the very beginning. But guess what; I was enjoying the music of guns and bullets. Shoot 'Em Up is a perfect trinity of action packed thriller-comedy, which doesn’t have even a single minute of boredom to let you take your eyes off.
In one line- it’s the story of a hero along with a beauty tries to save a baby from the villains by shooting them up. “My god! Do we really suck or this guy really that good?” I can’t say may be like our hero said “Eating carrots can magnificently improve one’s eye sight” Or maybe the others are shooting blanks, but I truly enjoyed it. Although I give full credits to the special effects team (both Audio and video), I must say the dialogs are perfectly written to go well with the spirit of the action that’s going on the screen. All Thumps-Up for Michael Davis. And the reason I didn’t categorize this mainly as a comedy is just because the hero doesn’t kills the baby himself at the end (probably for a better cause, like saving the world from a deadly virus the baby is carrying or something) and it doesn’t have Tom Cruise from Tropic Thunder as the main villain.

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Vals Im Bashir (2008)

Director : Ari Folman.
Genere : Biography / Drama / War.
Cast : Animation.
Rating : Master piece

Media and movies have created a strong impression in peoples mind that heroes are someone who descend from heaven and fights for his country until his last breath. And enemy is someone who is born and raised as evil and all he has in mind is the destruction of his adversaries. There are some films which do not follow these rules; Waltz with Bashir is one of them.
Waltz with Bashir is a journey through the memories of the main character, that often switches between real and unreal worlds. The film portrays the life and actions of young boys send to war. Before entering the Lebanese soil they sings, jokes and enjoys as though they were on an excursion, after entering Lebanese soil they were greeted with RPG's and AK47 fires from all directions. Without knowing where the attack is coming from, all they can do was shoot hysterically without knowing who they were shooting at and in which direction they were shooting. Every war is complex and bloody, those who really fought it can never forget it. The hallucination and trauma haunts them even after 20 years.
The main theme of this movie is the Sabra and Shatila massacre, in which Christian Phalangists kills thousands of Palestinian refugees, for the assassination of Bachir Gemayel. It vividly tells that war is a slaughter house for both combatants and no one can be innocent. The conclusion of the movie is very simple and unbelievable and may be unacceptable for many. Killing is not a joke nor a game; the memories will haunt you even if it were your worst enemy. David Polonsky and Yoni Goodman along with Ari Folman had to be congratulated for their outstanding work in creating a surreal world and an excellent combination of cinematic and documentary style through hand drawn animations.