Quite a few teen comedies have been a part of the pop culture in the last few decades. But, 'American Pie' stands out. People loved the movie and laughed their guts out at the way Jim(Jason Biggs) made a jackass out of himself or how Stifler(Sean William Scott) walked around being a jerk pissing others off and lots of other hilarious characters/scenes. The 2 movies that followed were good too and then the series lost the plot.
They have now tried to get their act together with the basic story revolving around the reunion of the familiar faces that made the first 3 movies tick. They bank on nostalgia and come up with this movie that carries the mood forward.
All the 5 central characters, Jim, Stifler, Oz(Chris Klein), Kevin(Thomas Nicholas) and Finch(Eddie Thomas) are now approaching middle age and are dealing with their own issues in their respective lives. A high school reunion sounds like a perfect getaway for them to meet friends who made their high school lives memorable. Add Michelle(Alyson Hannigan), Vicky(Tara Reid), Heather(Mena Suvari), Eugene Levy(Jim's Dad), the ever so popular Jennifer Coolidge (Stifler's Mom) and what follows is a fun ride.
All the characters are instantly relatable due to the connect that the audience has with the series. But, it is Stifler who makes you yearn for more movies of this sort. He is,like always, an obnoxious and irritating character but everything that he says or does evokes a chuckle or a laugh, for sure.
They start off with memories of their lives shown in the first 3 movies and the events constantly keep relating to those movies. So, this movie is not a bad watch for anyone who liked those movies even a bit.
Sherlock Holmes was always a great character to be portrayed on the big screen. The literature associated with Holmes has a great following. One of the most intriguing characters ever, even more so in the crime genre.
So, when Guy Ritchie got into a risky endeavour of making a movie adaptation of this popular piece literature that could have gotten a lot of Holmes fans pissed had he gone wrong with his movie. But, he did a good job and made a good movie. Not flawless but a well made movie.
This emphasized the need for his second movie in the series to succeed and surpass the quality of the first movie. So, has he been able to accomplish that? Yes, kind of!
Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) is still an arrogant and self absorbed being. Dr.Watson (Jude Law) has now decided to get hitched and makes up the sub plot. Meanwhile, an extremist group is trying to destabilize the European continent by planning a series of bomb explosions across geography. Holmes has already decided to unravel the conspiracy and is trying to expose Prof.Moriarty (Jared Harris) who he thinks is probably the master mind behind all the unfortunate events. It turns out that Holmes is right in his suspicions and Morirarty has an evil plan behind the explosions. During their effort to explore the matter, they meet Simza Haron (Noomi Rapace),a gypsy who is deeply entwined with the events but is unaware of it. She accompanies Holmes and Watson on their journey to get to the crux of the matter and investigate the case. They transcend geographical boundaries to go across Europe and get into dangerous and life threatening situations but eventually succeeding in their mission to stop this whole operation run by Moriarty.
The games between Holmes and Moriarty are fun to watch and interesting all through. The actions and reactions are well written into the script and well acted out.
This movie is definitely a step ahead of the first one. Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law give fascinating performances and look brilliant in their parts. Noomi Rapace does a good job in the extended cameo that she has and makes the audience feel that she should have got more screentime than what she actually did. Jared Harris is good too and stands tall in his performance. Guy Ritchie is extremely confident with his control over the narration and works with a tight script. Hanz Zimmer is in top form as always. His score adds further interesting feel to the proceedings.
The original story book loyalists may still feel a bit disgruntled with Guy Ritchie’s big screen adaptation. He does take a few creative liberties but I think Ritchie should be applauded in getting the story portrayed as real as it could have possibly been in an entertaining form. Not the best that Ritchie could do but ‘Sherlock Holmes- A Game of Dark Shadows’ is still more than being just worth a watch!
Spy thrillers are yummy to watch when they are done right. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is definitely a thriller but done very differently. It unfolds at its own sweet pace but is catchy from the word go till the last frame.
The movie starts with the killing of a Mark Strong, a spy who is in Hungary looking for information on a 'mole' in the British Intelligence agency who is passing on all the secrets to the Russians. The problem is that the ones who are under the scanner are the heavyweights and the job is more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack. So, Gary Oldman, a retired spy gets recalled by his former boss to help the agency in this matter.
Gary Oldman goes through tons of records and files to understand what really took place during his absence at the agency. He is surprised by what he gets to know during his investigation. He combs through all the information he has about Tinker(Toby Jones),Tailor(Colin Firth), Soldier(Ciaran Hinds), Poorman (David Dencick) . The story then is about how masterly Gary Oldman reaches to the root of the problem and unmasks the mole.
Actors are often judged on how they emote, how they can get through the scenes with finesse and style. The dialogues have to be delivered well but the real test is when there are minimal dialogues. Gary oldman is a fucking genius on that level.We see him at his best in this movie He has always been an amazing actor. But, this movie can convert last few haters left(if any).
He is ably supported by the brilliant star cast and each one has put in amazing performances. The direction is immaculate and one can see how nicely the director narrates the story going back and forth it time and giving out plot details in form a jigsaw puzzle pieces. It is this aspect of the movie that makes it an awesome watch.The movie tries its best to do justice to the John Le Carre novel that it is based on.
This movie should be shown to budding actors as a guide to acting. It never goes over the top and neither does it make the proceedings way too confusing for the audience. Entertaining, interesting and subtle, 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' is a MUST watch.
‘The Descendants’ is a story about modern day families. It is about how dysfunctional the families get and how clueless they are in their attempt to deal with the things that go wrong.
George Clooney is a Hawaii based lawyer, whose wife, Patricia Hastie is in a hospital as a result of a boat accident. He now has to take care of his two daughters, Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller, who have been disconnected from their father due to his hectic professional life. While on this emotionally horrendous phase, Clooney learns that his wife was cheating him and was seeing someone else. Things get worse but he also has to decide with his cousins if they should be selling off their family land.
On a level, it is emotionally draining. But, this movie doesn’t try to take a stand. It doesn’t preach ‘how to’. On top of that , the comic elements at every juncture of that journey that catch the audience by a pleasant surprise and gives instant chuckles. That is the best part of this smartly written movie.
Alexander Payne does an excellent job at managing all the parallel tracks well. It could have gone wrong with these many sub plots. But, it doesn’t feel like that one bit. The dialogues are straight out of real lives and nothing seems dramatic at all.The slow pace of narration goes well with the theme of the movie but still does not make the viewer conscious about it.
The performances by the lead actors are engrossing. Clooney does a remarkable job and doesn’t overdo his role even a wee bit. He has now done the ‘good acting’ part in many movies now but it still feels so amazing to watch him give that best shot at even regular sequences that would have gone unnoticed with many other actors. There are scenes in the movie that stay with you because of the brilliant performance by Clooney and the rest of the cast. I have to mention one scene that has got itself etched in my mind, the one where he makes an announcement to his wife’s friends about 'something important' at a party. As he bids good bye to everyone and turns around to get into his house again, there is a moment when it seems like everything else has vanished and he has nothing but his pain to deal with. He goes down on his knees and feels like he has lost a battle. The way that scene was done made me go ‘wow’ and at the same time created a ‘lump in the throat’ moment!
Shailene Woodley and Amara Miller are very good in their roles. They try to match up to Clooney and do a pretty good job at that. I would be surprised if Clooney and Shailene fail to fetch at least a few big award nominations for their performances. It is movie like these that an actor would love to see in his career retrospection and rightly so.
This movie is one of the best to have come out this year and has fetched/will continue to fetch tons of accolades. Don’t miss the better side of the Hollywood; watch ‘The Descendants’.
There is a scene in which Gosling and Clooney meet in a hotel that’s shut for outsiders. They engage in a conversation where they both try to outdo each other and attempt at proving the other person wrong. It’s a simple scene but the director employs clever lines and great style in conveying the emotional turbulence that both the characters go through during that chat.
Political thrillers are always interesting to watch. There is always a plot of people involved in betrayal, cheating and treachery. This movie also does that. But, where it stands out from the rest of the lot is in its realistic depiction of the behind the scenes events. It doesn’t get too dramatic at any stage nor does it try to over-sympathize with the characters. It is bold, hardnosed and to the point.
The story revolves around the presidential campaign of George Clooney which is ably lead by Philip Seymour Hoffman as his chief campaign manager, Ryan Gosling who is Hoffman’s assistant and their team. Paul Giamatti, who is the chief campaign manager of the opponent camp tries to entice Gosling into working for them and pushes him into turmoil. Principles and ambitions clash with each other but Gosling prefers to stay with Clooney instead of joining the opposition camp. But, unknowingly this event and another critical one (a major spoiler) lead into sequences that threaten to derail the whole presidential campaign of Clooney and career aspirations of Gosling. The story then revolves around these lead characters to show how they battle tough situations trying to come out clean and successful.
This movie belongs to Ryan Gosling. This is his 3rd movie this year after Drive and Crazy, Stupid, Love. He continues to try different genres but still emerges unscathed by the burden of intense characters and difficult scripts. He is truly one of the best ‘actors’ around and has again done one hell of a job. It was an uphill task for him to perform alongside movie heavyweights like Clooney, Hoffman and Giamatti. But, Gosling works like magic. He takes the centre stage with utmost ease and carries the movie forward with his brilliant performance.
George Clooney is impressive as a director. He takes a backseat in terms of screen time and lets the story unfold from Gosling’s point of view. Clooney’s control over the narration is amazing and he doesn’t lose the grip over the story at any point in time. The performances are duly enhanced by smart dialogues and they add a punch to the already impressive package.
This movie may not appeal to everyone because of its pace and the style of film making. But, it’s a definite watch for every moviegoer. Miss it at your own risk as ‘The Ides of March’ is mesmerizing.
Making movies about true events from the sports world is one of the toughest jobs in movie industry. The audience get associated with the movie easily and its then a big gamble from the movie maker's point of view. The passion towards the sport would reflect in the opinion towards the movie and it will get easily discarded by the audience if the maker keeps even one wrong step.
Moneyball works very well given all the gambles it has to play with. It is a simple story told beautifully!
Moneyball talks about the baseball managerial career of Billy Jeane(Brad Pitt). He is incharge of a club that has been mediocre in recent past and its upto Billy to revive the fate of the club. In his pursuit of revival, he asks a young,bright economics graduate Peter Brand(Jonah Hill) to assist him. They both team up and try to "replace transfer of popular players" approach with that of statistical computation of cheaper but good players. They face obvious opposition from the core group of advisors and the coach Art Howe(Philip Seymour Hoffman). But, they relentlessly try to implement their approach and the story is then about how Pitt and Hill try to take the club to pinnacle of success.
The main story track is interlaced with two sub plots. One of Billy Jeane's career as player when he got spotted by a club in his teens. Another story track is that of his current personal life. He is a divorcee and gets to meet his daughter every now and then. Director focusses on how Billy coped with his personal conflicts and devils of past to divert all his angst into his baseball job.
The narration basically is made up of extended scenes consisting long conversations. These conversations are made very engaging and interesting by the dialogues that have been written in a clever way. Not once does the pace drop drastically to make the viewer uncomfortable or bored.
Although the story in itself is good and inspiring but its the performances of Pitt, Hill and Hoffman that takes the movie to greater heights. This can be considered as one of their best performances of all time.
The interaction between Pitt and his daughter are very catchy. The sequences are written and executed beautifully. Brad Pitt's internal turmoil has been portrayed very well and the director shows how good he is at his craft.
This movie was touted as Brad Pitt's shot at the Oscars. I'm not sure if he'll be the leading contender but I'm certain that the academy will reward him with a nomination at least. This is more than a wish than a prediction.
Its a very good movie and definitely deserves all the accolades. Watch it!
We've watched a lot of heist movies. We've also watched many 'heist gone wrong' movies. But, this one is not quite like the ones we've watched before.
DRIVE is a movie about Ryan Gosling who works as a movie stunt man, car mechanic at a garage and a wheelman helping the burglars getaway from the scene of crime. He leads a lonely life and gets sucked into his neighbour Carrey Mulligan's life when he meets her by chance. She is a married woman with a kid and is waiting for her husband to be released from Prison. Gosling forms an emotional bond with Mulligan and her kid and becomes part of their lives. Mulligan's husband gets out of jail and in interesting circumstances gets along with Gosling for a heist. But, this heist goes wrong and Gosling falls into a web of dangerous backlash from the mob and this gets intertwined with his relationship with Mulligan and her kid. The story is then about how he manages to break all the shackles.
Its a simple story with no great layered approach to the narration. But, its the treatment to this story by the director Nicholas Wending Refn that makes this movie go from good to brilliant. Ryan Gosling is mindblowing in his understated and subtle performance. His interactions wih Mulligan are the highlights of the movie. Through out the movie, director goes for fewer dialogues than what would have seemed adequate. He lets the scenes unfold using clever pauses and great background score. He also loads confrontation scenes with violence and doesn't shy away from showing the brutal side of the leading character.
I would be pleased to see Gosling fetching an oscar nomination for his performance but the chances are next to none going by the genre and the tone of the movie. Academy prefers to stay away from this kinda movie.
Fast paced thrillers are ruling the roost these days but its a slow paced, stylish and effortless movie like this one that comes across like a breath of fresh air. Its not your regular edge-of-the-seat thriller but it is more in the space of a Mulholland Drive in which there is no visible urgency for the story to unfold.
Watch this movie and be sure to get treated with this stylish side of Hollywood that entices the audience of better movies in days of mindless, 'heavily loaded with routine action' and cliches days!
Director Steven Soderbergh has an impressive CV. What stands out is his audacity to try different genres and subjects in every new project of his. Good directors often do that.
This time around he has delivered a movie on an epidemic that creates mass hysteria. Its a unique subject material and Soderbergh is more than capable of doing a good job at it.
The story revolves around how the people and global health organisations cope with an epidemic that threatens to wipe out a major chunk of the population on this planet. The movie dwells into psyche of common people and at the same time gives us the picture of how intelligence agencies and government health agencies react to this uncontrollable phenomenon.
To garner public attention, director has casted hollywood heavyweights like Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cottilard, Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne. But, the director doesn't get startstruck and ensures that he does not give more attention to any character more than what the story dictates. Each of these stars have done a good job at what they have been asked to do.
This movie works because of various things. For me, the best aspects were the narration, camera work and background score. Camera lingers on certain objects every now and then to magnify the effect that object would hold on the spreading of the epidemic. Director uses this effect among others to create a thriller out of a story of how a disease takes lives and baffles everyone.
The first and last 10 mins of the movie have fewer dialogues and are brilliantly executed.Director plays with the pace of the story telling almost faultlessly.
The only part of the movie that could have been better is the story track of Jude Law for the first half of the movie and kinda pull the intensity down. But, director makes it up but by adding extra meat to that track and giving it an important place in the narration.
Watch this movie for its unconventional take on a subject that itself has not been tried many times.Watch it for stars who turn into mere characters. Watch it to know how the 'controlling groups' of the society go about their affairs in situations like this.Watch it to witness how common people like us become hooligans for the sake of survival.
I think its the imperative that horror movies should contain few horror elements that can give some 'scary' moments to the audience and make the movie worth watching. This movie fails miserably at that.
This is a story of a kid(Bailee Madison) who moves into her father's(Guy Pearce) house battered by distancing herself from her mother. She also has to adapt living with a step mother(Katie Holmes) at the same time.
The mansion they live in has an unpleasant past attached and the kid discovers those elements and the story is then about how those elements affect the family and their efforts in coming out of this situation.
The story unfolds at a leisurely pace and the director has good hold on the proceedings. He has been let down by a weak script and forced to work in a limited space.
The best parts of the movie are the ones that show the uncomfortable interaction between Bailee and Katie.
There are no good reasons for me to recommend this movie to anyone. Give it a miss and you won't be sad about doing so!!
Every time a Final destination movie releases, it divides the audience into 2 groups - the ones who don't mind watching newer ways of getting killed and others who don't!
I skipped watching FD 4 because I knew that it would be same old shit and wouldn't really excite me as an audience. I wasn't wrong in that, based on what I heard from my friends.
FD 5 gets unwrapped in the similar structure as the earlier movies. A group of co-workers set out on an outing in a bus. They have to pass through a bridge that is under construction. A central character gets a premonition about a tragedy on that bridge and he then saves the lives of his colleagues from it.
Death now has to strike back and take lives of these people and it does it in its own style by coming up with hilarious ways of killing them.
Same old shit!
3D effects were average and were too desperate. Not the best effort, I must say. The plot was as thin as it could ever be and nothing new was offered.
I still can't figure it out as to what made me watch FD 5 in theatre. Was it the trailer ? 3D ? a hope that it would be better this time ? Don't know! I'll just stop thinking about it.
All in all, a movie worth watching if one is a fan of the franchisee. A definite miss otherwise!
It was an ambitious attempt by Marvel studios to make movies about each of their Avengers superheroes and then culminate in a grand movie putting all these fellas on the same stage. Iron Man started it and impressed the audience and critics instantly. Iron Man 2 disappointed in comparison but still kept the franchisee going. Thor was the first big release of Marvel this summer and it made an honest attempt to introduce the character and made its mark.
So, the stage was set for the final superhero launch before the big Avengers movie. Here is Captain America, the first Avenger. He is the first member of the Superhero team put together by S.H.I.E.L.D.
The story revolves around Chris Evans(Steve Rogers/Captain America) who wants to join the military and contribute his bit in helping the nation to win the World War 2. But, his lean and small built doesn’t give him a great chance in making his dream come true. But, his honesty, goodness and determination impress the right people and he gets chosen for a secret project of the military. This project involves making a normal person gain super-humanly powers by undergoing a scientific experiment. The experiment works and lean,weak Steve Rogers becomes a strong, tall Captain America. The story is then about how Captain America fights against Hugo Weaving(Johann Schmidt/Red Skull) , a nazi with intentions of taking control of the whole world.
The story is simple and narrated very well. The script is potent enough to keep the momentum up for most of the parts. But, its the dialogue that takes the cake. The lines are clever and induce smiles every now and then.The director Joe Johnston works with a script that ensures the proceedings are entertaining and there are very few 'could have been avoided' moments.
Performances by all the leading actors and supporting characters is very good. Tommy Lee Jones stands out with his quirky lines. Hayley Atwell does justice to her role of a stern military commander and few moments when she turns into love interest of Chris Evans. Hugo Weaving makes his bad guy performance stand head to head with the saviour's.
Chris Evans looks every bit of Captain America. He doesn't look out of sorts and seems like he was destined to play this role one day. He does well as the bullied and battered Steve Rogers and equally well as dominating and heroic Cap America.
Only problems I see with this movie are that it could have been shorter by chopping off few scenes. Also, the ending seemed a bit dull and let the momentum down. It wasn't a fitting climax to what the story played out till then. But, what followed the climax did bring a smile back.
Captain America will team up with Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Hawk Eye to fight against the baddies!! Marvel now has a huge opportunity in hand with the big Avengers movie next summer. Lets hope that they don't get star struck by putting so many superheroes and superstars on the same screen.
Captain America has few glitches but is surely entertaining through out. Go and get introduced to the first avenger! Watch it!
Michael Bay did nothing much to impress the fans or critics with ‘Transformers 2 – Revenge of fallen’. It was incoherent almost through out and irritating at times. So, it was a daunting task for him to turn around the series with the third installment.
So, is the 3rd movie in the series any different? Yes and No. Its based on the same model of the previous one but just that few bits are touched up well.
Let’s get this straight, the only reason one should watch this movie is for the visually stunning, brilliantly planned and amazingly executed action scenes. Add 3D to that and what you have is scintillating piece of action that has not been witnessed regularly on the celluloid.
The movie relies far too much on the CG heavy action scenes between Autobots and Decepticons. Optimus Prime, Bumble Bee and their gang of autobots again try to be saviors of earth and guard their human friends against Decepticons who this time around want to shift their planet to earth (?!?). The background music is often subdued but is impressive whenever heard.
A special mention is deserved by two sequences, one in which deceptions attack Shia Labouf and John Turturro on a freeway. The second one is the grand climax and the sequences leading to it. It was a smart move to include base jumpers as part of the action scenes as these scenes set up by brilliant camera work and execution add another dimension to the action. I personally loved these sequences.
The scenes in the movie with only human characters are so damn pedestrian when compared to the ones with the machines. There is still no plot around Shia Labeouf and he seems clueless when he is not with machines. New recruit Rosie Huntington-Whiteley who replaces Megan Fox, looks dull most of the times. She for sure is only there to add visual appeal but fails to do it, according to me. Then you have Josh Duhamel, Tyrese Gibson and their gang of fighters who don’t disappoint with all the supporting action they are entitled to do.
But then, a movie of 154 minutes has to have more than outstanding action to achieve a ‘good’ movie tag. This movie is a one time watch and fails terribly if you look at without the action.
Watch it once only for the visual delight of machines fighting against each other and enhanced with 3D.
Brett Ratner(X-Men Last Stand) and Sam Raimi(Spiderman 3) both messed up big time with the 3rd installments of two very famous movie franchises to the dismay of loyal fans. Though these movies made loads of money, it was more than an agreement from most of the fans that lack of quality was apparent and this meant that the studios had to do something about the disappointment. Hence, the decision by the makers to reboot the franchises.
So, here we have Matthew Vaughn of ‘Kick Ass’ fame directing the first installment of this new series. The movie takes us back to 1960s and talks about the circumstances that the mutants had to undergo in their initial days and how they all came together to form the team X-Men. The story has a backdrop of cold war and how the team does its bit to avoid a nuclear warfare.
So, does this movie really leave a positive impression ? For all the expectations it had and all the cynicism surrounding the take of origins approach employed, this movie does one hell of a job! It is beautifully shot, has great background music, good action scenes and all this topped off with brilliant acting performances.
James McAvoy(Professor X) and Michael Fassbender(Magneto) are a treat to watch every time they are on the screen. Not a single line delivered by these 2 gentlemen comes across as ‘off the target’. They don’t seem unmatched to the two legendary actors who played these roles in the earlier franchise. They carry the narration forward and impart great composure and panache to the proceedings.
I loved Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s bone. She plays the role of Mystique here and gives a very humane touch to the character which definitely was never intended to be portrayed in the earlier franchise. The other mutant characters are also very well etched and are able enough to catch the attention of the audience. Kevin Bacon plays the badguy and gives the negative role enough style and meat.
First point that I’m most happy about is the fact that the movie doesn’t go overboard by including too many mutants in the mix and in the process too many stories in the plot. This helps the movie to keep firmly attached to the main plot with the few sub-plots adding enough spice. It would be interesting to see what the future installments will do on this front and how well do they introduce the newer mutants and how many. Second point is that the movie doesn’t solely rely on special effects to provide the ‘whoo-aah’ moments. Its not overdone and used adequately and effectively.
This movie is a perfect launch that the new franchise could have hoped for. All major characters have been firmly placed now and it would be a challenging job to go one up in the sequels.
Its a perfect BIG SCREEN movie that any regular movie watcher wouldn’t want to miss.
'Source Code' keeps you hooked on to it right from the beginning. The movie opens with lovely shots of Chicago, on a beautiful sunny day. The camera goes over the city’s skyscrapers, highways, before getting to a speeding train.
Colter Stevens (Jake Gyllenhaal) is an American Army helicopter pilot , whose last memory is fighting in Afghanistan, where he is flying a helicopter, suddenly wakes up on the train as though he has woken up from a nightmare. A pretty girl - Christina (Michelle Monaghan) sitting opposite to him, sees and knows him as Sean Fentress who is a school teacher. Stevens insists that he is not the one who she believes him to be, even though Stevens looks like Sean in the mirror. Before Stevens could make sense of what is going on, a bomb on the train explodes killing almost everyone on the train. Stevens then finds himself in some kind of a pod, in uniform , strapped to a seat , as a woman’s voice murmuring something about “beleaguered castle” ( a card game). The voice is of officer Goodwin (Vera Farmiga), she along with her boss Dr. Rutledge (Jeffrey Wright) explain that Stevens has zapped in from another time and space through a software program called Source Code and will keep returning to the train to relive the last 8 minutes before the bomb goes off, to identify the bomber was , so that another major terrorist attack could be prevented the same day.
Even though plot seems a little unrealistic rather far-fetched, Duncan Jones , makes it very believable. The characters make an impression, even if they have very small roles and keep doing the same thing (well almost ) over and over again. Stevens develops very soft corner for Christina, and also manages to get some compassion from Goodwin.
The movie over all is very engaging. It is centered around a very interesting concept. The performances are very good. The movie keeps you thinking all the time and its always ahead of your thoughts. It good fun watching it and will make you think even after you have left the hall after watching it.
When Chris started playing with his father's Super 8 camera at the age of 7, no one from his friends or family had the slightest idea of what this kid had in store for his future. Neither did any of his classmates when he was studying English literature at University College London and making short films pursuing his passion.
But, that kid Chris went on to make his passion as his profession and since then has entertained millions of people worldwide and made studios earn billions with his movies.
Here, we take a look at his career so far and peek at his brilliant work.
Doodlebug
Doddlebug was a short film shot in black and white with duration less than 3 mins.But, Nolan packs so much in this short film that it amazes the viewer. It depicts Jeremy Theobald as someone who looks petrified and in search of a bug relentlessly or so it seems. The background score increases the intensity of the visuals and grips the viewer to ponder about what the charcter is trying to do. The climax leaves one thinking and that as a filmmaker becomes Nolan's hallmark!
Did you know ? : This short film has only one character that is played by Jeremy Theobald.
Following
Nolan reunites with Jeremy Theobald to attempt his first full length feature film. Its again an intense story revolving around a writer who has this strange habit of following random people and basing his work on his obervations. In one such 'following' act of his, the writer gets into a situation where he has to interact with the stranger he was following. The story then takes the writer and stranger(who is a burglar) into interesting twists and turns culminating into a very gripping climax.
Nolan tries the non-linear narration style here and makes it work brilliantly. Suspense grabs lot more attention with this unpredictable way of story telling. Nolan shot this movie as well in black and white which adds a certain eerie feeling to the proceedings.
Did you know ? : Principal photography of this film took over one year. Because all cast and crew members had other full-time jobs they were only able to film on Saturdays about 15 minutes of footage until photography had been completed.
Memento
There have been numerous movies done in non-linear narrative style and each film offers something new to the audience. Memento remains an epitome in such unconventional story telling approach. This movie is arguably one of the most complex to dissect and digest as an average movie-goer but very much an appealing and likeable at that. As one of the most audacious screenplay ever attempted , this movie oozes confidence in every shot and engages the viewer in every twist and turn of the story.
Based on a story of a cold blooded revenge by a man whos dealing with memory loss condition, this movie heavily relies on the performance of Guy Pearce and he excels like an ace. Chris Nolan puts in a commendable effort in managing all the unconventional facets with ridiculous ease and style.
Most of the indian movie watchers would identify this movie as the one that 'inspired' the hugely famous Ghajini movies made in Tamil and then in Hindi.
Did you know ? : The medical condition experienced by Leonard(Guy Pearce) in this film is a real condition called Anterograde Amnesia - the inability to form new memories after damage to the hippocampus. During the 1950s, doctors treated some forms of epilepsy by removing parts of the temporal lobe, resulting in the same memory problems.
Insomnia
This movie had everything going for it. Al Pacino and Robin Williams in the main cast with a script that Nolan firmly believed in. Based on whatever I've read about this movie over the years, this one has to be the least appreciated Nolan movie.
Personally, I think that there was nothing wrong with this movie and it was a very well made one.Its a remake of a Norwegian film of the same name.The story deals with 2 detectives who are sent to an Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a 17 year old girl. Al Pacino and Martin Donowan play the roles of these detectives who have to trace the smart murderer who hasn't left many clues behind.
Al Pacino suffers from Insomnia in this town where sun doesn't set, making him lose control over his mind at times and appear unstable! This is where the story adopts the psychological thriller path and departs from being a regular cat and mouse chase. Robin Williams gives a brilliant performance and matches Pacino every bit.
Pacino overcomes the Insomnia and his personal/proffessional conflicts to try and trace the murderer and in the process enthralls the viewer. Nolan has to be commended for the way he has treated this story and added an extra dimension with his detailed portrayal of main characters and their conflicts.
Did you know ? : The only film of his to date where Christopher Nolan had no hand in writing the script.
Batman Begins
Batman was always the least liked superhero by me of whatever little superhero cartoons/comics I caught up before getting into my 20s. I was in favour of more flashy superheroes like Spidey and Superman. So, I paid little attention when this movie released and was more excited about Spidey movies.
It was just before the release of 'The Dark Knight' that I thought of watching this movie and boy was I happy I did. This movie underplays the 'super'ness of Batman so much and tries to make it all look as real as possible. Bale who was selected by Nolan based on his performance in American Psycho looks every inch of Bruce Wayne/Caped crusader. Nolan who has confessed that it was the story behind Bruce wayne turning into Batman that pushed him to make this movie comes up with pitch perfect screenplay and gives a whole new dimension to this superhero. Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman and Liam Neeson form the inspiring supporting cast. This movie kicked off the franchise reboot in a big way and set up the stage for bigger things.
Did you know ? : During filming of the scene where Batman is being towed by a train through the streets of Gotham, so much steam was used that it would "rain" on the cast and crew for several minutes after each take.
The Prestige
Undoubtedly, my most favourite Nolan movie so far!!
Nolan bases this movie on the story of a stirring rivalry between two magicians who make humungous effort to outdo each other at every possible attempt. The rivalry gets bitter with their personal and proffessional lives getting intetwined with each other. The story eventually boils down to efforts put in by one magician to try and break the trick of the other.And then his attempt to do something bigger. All this ending with a great climax that leaves the viewer awestruck!
Bale and Jackman do brilliant jobs taking the centre stage and do total justice to the rivetting screenplay by Nolan brothers. Its a very imaginative and interesting screenplay (based on Christopher Priest novel) which gets beautifully complimented by stunning camera work. The rest of main cast consists of Michael Caine, Scarlett Johansson(ooooh) and Rebecca Hall who deliver great performances as well.
As I keep repeating it, the screenplay has a major role to play here and Nolan ensures that things portrayed remain as real as possible making justice to the theme of magic. This movie is truly master class and is really a mark of an intelligent movie maker.
Did you know ? : The main characters' initials spell ABRA (Alfred Borden Robert Angier), as in Abracadabra, a common word used by magicians.
The Dark Knight
Like all his other movies, this one was also based on a fine screenplay aided by brilliant background score.But, for me it will be just one thing that'll primarily flash in front of my eyes when I think of this movie, HEATH LEDGER!
Nolan was destined to make this movie. He was always destined to cast Heath Ledger as the Joker and give him the one of the best roles of his lifetime.
I had no words to say soon after I got out of the movie theatre. Heath Ledger was all over my mind. His version of Joker vastly different from Jack Nicholson's version had created an impact beyond belief! Every scene that had Ledger in it was a scorcher. His eyes, the face paint, body language, dialgoue delivery and his evil laugh were all just perfect. He made Batman look spineless at times and made audience root for him instead of the caped crusader!
Ledger managed to take the movie from 'Level : Above average' to 'Level : Brilliant' all by himself and rest of the cast had to just be awesome selves to try and match Ledger. It was one helluva cast consisting of usual suspects Bale,Caine and Oldman with additions to the cast like Morgan Freeman and Maggie Gyllenhaal.
May be Nolan would have had Joker as part of the the last movie of the Batman Trilogy if Ledger was still alive or may be he wouldn't have. But, this one movie cemented Ledger's place amongst the best actors ever!
Did you know ? : In preparation for his role as The Joker, Heath Ledger hid away in a motel room for about six weeks. During this extended stay of seclusion, Ledger delved deep into the psychology of the character. He devoted himself to developing The Joker's every tic, namely the voice and that sadistic-sounding laugh (for the voice, Ledger's goal was to create a tone that didn't echo the work Jack Nicholson did in his 1989 performance as the Joker). Ledger's interpretation of The Joker's appearance was primarily based off of the chaotic, disheveled look of punk rocker Sid Vicious combined with the psychotic mannerisms of Malcolm McDowell's character, Alex De Large, from A Clockwork Orange (1971).
Inception
People say the Warner Bros let Nolan make this movie as a token of appreciation for his Batman movies. True or not, I don't really care.
Inception is one of those rare movies that start with a feeling of “Are you frikkin kidding me ?” and end with “Holy mother of GOD!!”. Its an added responsibility on the viewer to pull his dropped jaw back to its original position and start thinking of his schedule in next 7-10 days so that he can take some time out to catch the movie again.
Inception had everything going for it. New story, brilliant performances, eye catchy and justified graphics that are ably handled perfectly by Mr.Nolan with ridiculous ease.
Did you know ? : Nolan rejected producer’s suggestion of making this movie in 3D.
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Nolan has proved his merits over and over again with utmost efficiency. We can hardly wait to watch his future projects and will keenly wait for his movie to hit the theatres.
