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.

Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)

Director : Clint Eastwood.
Genere : History / War / Drama.
Cast : Ken Watanabe, Kazunari Ninomiya, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Ryo Kase.
Rating : Classic
War always is one sided, and so is any war movie. It is usual for a war movie to show enemies as demonic characters who is willing to do any inhuman things to kill the good or specifically the side where the camera is placed. So Clint Eastwood used two movies “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters from Iwo Jima” to show both sides. “Letters from Iwo Jima” stands by the Japanese side and their struggle to survive. The movie tells the story of Japanese soldiers fought on Iwo Jima through the letters unearthed from a Japanese Second World War tunnel in Iwo Jima. Iwo Jima is nothing but a volcanic island with no fresh water or food but strategically importance of Iwo Jima is vital for this war. Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi was send not to win the war but to hold Iwo Jima as long as he could. He knows well that they are outnumbered and is in a no win situation. So he develops a strategy to make victory difficult for the enemy.

Unlike a usual Hollywood movie here the enemies are the Americans, the greatest encroachers of all time. The movie is told through the stories of Saigo (Kazunari Ninomiya), Baron Nishi (Tsuyoshi Ihara), Shimizu (Ryo Kase), Lieutenant Ito (Shidou Nakamura) and Lt. General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) which they performed to their finest. Iris Yamashita the screen writer has done a wonderful job and Eastwood was bold enough to use the Japanese language rather than making the Japanese soldiers speak English. “Letters from Iwo Jima” shows us the sacrifice and hardship of Japanese soldiers during the war and lets us think that even enemies are men and have life and reasons just like the others. Also recommends its counterpart “Flags of Our Fathers”.

A Beautiful Mind (2001)

Director : Ron Howard.
Genere : Biography / Drama.
Cast : Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris.
Rating : Classic

Solving an equation often involves many manipulations like assumption, derivations, integration, neglection, formulation etc. “A Beautiful Mind” is a well formulated, sure/safe shot, semi-fictional tale about a genius mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economics, whose brilliance was in a constant battle with schizophrenia. His mind wont satisfies anything less for an ordinary but for an original idea.

The story starts with Russell Crowe as John Nash at Princeton in pursuit of an original idea to make his name in History. It’s here where he develops his work on game theory which contradicts exiting theories. Soon he began to work at MIT which involves confidential code breaking for the Government. There he happens to meet a beautiful and brilliant student Alicia, played by Jennifer Connelly, whom he latter marries. Soon their life becomes a struggle and John gets diagnosed with schizophrenia.

The movie is a thin line between an extraordinary mind and a self-destructive mental disease, and his struggle to overcome it with the help of his wife. It’s a conflict between mind and heart, a story about true love and passion. Director Ron Howard has utilized Akiva Goldsman to maximum for creating a highly contrasting and unpredictable character for Russell Crowe, which Crowe exploited very well and delivers a fantastic performance which makes us feel John Nash had just lived before our eyes. Especially notable is Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris as supporting characters who did their finest. The film ends with John Nash getting standing ovation at the cinematic version of the Nobel Prize ceremony, it is not only John Nash but also all the crew members of this movie who deserve a standing ovation.

Philadelphia (1993)

Director : Jonathan Demme.
Genere : Drama.
Cast : Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, Jason Robards.
Rating : Classic
“Philadelphia” is all about AIDS and the societies prejudice towards AIDS victims. It’s a court room drama about a homosexual AIDS victim (Tom Hanks), and his lawyer, a homophobic family man (Denzel Washington), against Hanks’s former employers who fires him after discovering his illness. The movie mostly revolves round the main subject AIDS and thus lightening the gay factor between Tom Hanks and his partner Antonio Banderas.

Joe Miller, the character played by Washington can be said as a mere representation of the whole society in general. As the movie progresses, along with Joe, our minds are also get transformed and fills with compassion. The movie is plain and simple but made extraordinary by brilliant performances and a wonderful script. The director Jonathan Demme succeeds in keeping the emotional tension throughout the movie to gain a better reach.

My Sassy Girl (2001)

Yopgijeogin geunyeo (2001)

Director : Jae-young Kwak.
Genere : Comedy / Drama / Romance .
Cast : Tae-hyun Cha, Gianna Jun.
Rating : Classic

My Sassy Girl is also known as the titanic of the East, it is a romantic story between an aimless college kid and an enigmatic Sassy girl. This can be said as a romantic adventure movie. They meet in a subway station in a most embarrassing situation. Each time they meet our hero get more and more embarrassed. But he finds himself drawn to her and hopes that he could somehow heal her desperate inner sorrow.

The girl always loves to boss and humiliate the hero. She tries many things, but slowly a romance builds up between them. But she was not sure about the relationship, so they decides to write about their feelings and put it in a time capsule(HEROIN is a strong believer of time travel) bury it near a tree and read it after two years. But it took three years for the girl to come back for the capsule. The movie beautifully transforms from comedy to an emotional one in the second half.

This Korean flick is packed with an unusual energy and freshness which will remain in you for days. It says that the film is made based on an original story. Its simple, realistic storyline mixed with right proposition of comedy, romance and fantasy along with awesome background music makes it one of the best Romantic movies made. If you want to watch a good love story with your girl friend for the first time then, “My Sassy Girl” will make a wonderful choice.

Bridge to Terabithia (2007)

Director : Gabor Csupo.
Genere : Adventure / Drama / Family .
Cast : Josh Hutcherson, AnnaSophia Robb, Zooey Deschanel.
Rating : Classic

A warning for those who thinks all stories for children, although I disagree that this movie is just for children, should revolve round the good vs. evil thing and at the climax the evil has to be defeated. This is not a movie about such things. Also this movie doesn’t have wonderlands powered with special effects. In this movie the only evil that the character may feel as evil, in the end, is Ms. Edmunds green eyes. Bridge to Terabithia is a beautiful fable. Here your imagination is the only limit. You must have an open and imaginative mind to enjoy this movie to its full extend. Once you open up, the movie will carry you.

The movie tells the story of a 10 year boy Jess Aarons. He is the only boy among the five children. His father is more of a farmer who always expects more from his only boy and worries about what he doesn’t, than does. Jerry is a kind of loner and the kids at school always bulled him. His only support at his school is his little sister who cared him the most. For an imaginative child the school may feel dump.

Things began to change when Leslie Burke comes to their neighborhood. She is a live, sprit full and imaginative kid who can bind any one in her spell. Soon they became thick friends. Their real fun begins when they invent Terabithia out of their imagination. For them Terabithia is a magical kingdom that they rules over, where any thing happen according to what they can imagine.

If you think this is just a movie about child play you are wrong. This is a movie about friendship, about relationship, about lose and more over this a movie about imagination. I don’t know if this movie have done faithful to the original novel by Katherine Paterson, but this movie stands perfect. Both Josh Hutcherson and AnnaSophia Robb done fantastic job as Jess Aarons and Leslie Burke. Robb can pour magic on screen with her energy. Gabor Csupo and the screenwriters should be congratulated for relaying more on characters for telling the story than special effects. This movie is done with in the imagination and perspective of 10 year old Jess Aarons. And if you could go back to that age along with them, then they will take you to the magic lands of Terabithia for sure.