Re-Watch: The Lion King (1994)

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There are quite a few movies seen as kids that we never revisit as adults. So now that we are all grown up (well, at least technically), here’s a review ‘re-watch’ of a fond memory, but with a whole new perspective…

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When The Lion King released, there was huge hype created about its incredible new animation, although it was still 2D. My brother and I were among the first to rent a video cassette of the movie and huddled up in front of the TV. Carmen Twillie started belting out ‘The Circle of Life’ as the entire animal kingdom rushed to catch the first glimpse of the new prince. But for me, the most everlasting memory of that isn’t the hero shot of Rafiki the mandrill holding up baby Simba; instead, it’s a scene at the very beginning of the movie, where the camera is focused on a line of ants walking up a tree and slowly switches the focus to the background as a herd of zebras marches on. They looked almost real!

Cut to 15 years later and on a dull Saturday afternoon, I decided to return to The Lion King, just to see what effect it has now. The quality of animation has obviously gotten a lot better since then and while the film can’t compare to modern productions, I was glad to see that one shot still stands out just as much. Believe me, there’s nothing cooler than having a nostalgic memory stand the test of time…

Makes for a wonderful wallpaper, eh?

I’m not going to waste space on the movie’s story or other such introductory factors here. If you haven’t watched the movie (and in that case, go stand in the corner, you heathen!), you can check out the IMDB plot synopsis and its Wikipedia page to know more about it. The movie’s great and well worth your time; if it wasn’t, people wouldn’t be talking or reading about it years later.

What really surprised me about The Lion King while re-watching it now was that this was a ‘kiddie movie’ with messages that are aimed completely at adults.

The most explicit message to film is to embrace one’s past by learning from it rather than running away from it. Honestly, what is someone with 8-10 years of experience on this planet going to gain from that?

One of the best parts about re-watching the movie is that certain conversations and dialogues bring about a new depth to them. As a kid, I hardly even noticed these! Take, for example, this little exchange between Mufasa and Simba about the ‘Circle of Life’:

Mufasa: Everything you see exists together in a delicate balance. As king, you need to understand that balance and respect all the creatures, from the crawling ant to the leaping antelope.

Simba: But Dad, don't we eat the antelope?

Mufasa: Yes, Simba, but let me explain. When we die, our bodies become the grass, and the antelope eat the grass. And so, we are all connected in the great Circle of Life.

Another cool bit about watching the movie as an adult — especially one who has been exposed to hours of Discovery and National Geographic — is to observe the attention to detail that the animators and the writers have put in. As a child, I watched Simba and Scar face off in a vengeful final battle, hoping the noble, prodigal prince takes out the undeserving, evil king. As an adult, I noticed a lion’s instinct to rise up on his hind legs when fighting another lion, so as to use those powerful paws that can easily crush a human spine. These are little things, but they mean a lot to a keen viewer.

Hakuna Matata! (Click to listen)

Oh, and the soundtrack! I loved the songs even as a kid and had the album, but always fast-forwarded them while watching the movie. Now, the songs suddenly seem so integral to the film that it would be sacrilege to skip through them. The Lion King is an all-out musical with the songs being used as narrators and to take the story forward. Take a bow, Elton John, take a bow.

In the end, it’s almost poetic that the first feature of the Re-Watch section is a movie that tells us to revisit our past and learn from it to understand who we really are…

Rating: 7/10

Review: Burn Notice [TV Series]

If you think it’s difficult to find a good movie, try finding a good television series among the many broadcasted by over 500 TV channels in the US. The effort is worth it, though, as your reward upon finding one is a veritable gold mine that will keep you entertained for a long time. One such recent find for me has been a lesser-known series called ‘Burn Notice’.

Created by Matt Nix, Burn Notice is based on the premise that spies don't get fired, they get ‘burned’ or terminated. Set in sunny Miami, the protagonist Michael Westen (played by Jeffery Donovan) is a spy burned in the middle of a covert operation for reasons unknown, and forcefully deported to Miami. With all his assets and bank accounts frozen, he is forced to reconcile with people who will still accept him: an ex-girl friend and field operative Fiona (Gabrielle Anwar); an old friend and former navy seal Sam Axe (Bruce Campbell, famous as Evil Dead 3’s chainsaw-toting Ashley J. Williams); and a dysfunctional family led by his mother Madeleine (Sharon Gless).

The series follows Michael’s transition from ex-spy to your average Joe’s knight in shining armour, while trying to find the reason why he was burned and black listed by his own agency.

Every episode is a complete story in itself, while a common thread runs across all in the background. This makes the show perfect for the flirting viewer, who can miss a few episodes and still come to par after watching the next few ones.

Burn Notice: (L to R) Madeleine, Sam, Michael and Fiona

Usually, detective/action series are based on a tried and tested formula: A heinous crime in the opening act followed by solving it with clues or forensic evidence unearthed during investigation. And with so many shows adapting that (Life, Dexter, The Mentalist), the only difference between two shows is treatment and characters.

Burn Notice, thankfully, doesn't follow the thumb rule. It’s an all-out action series and the treatment is where it excels. Matt Nix has combined stylish execution with light whimsical humour, thrown in small portions of serious drama, and added insights from the world of espionage to create a refreshing change from the norm.

What we get is James Bond, without his fancy gadgets, performing covert operations while the protagonist’s voiceover doles out funny excerpts from ‘Espionage for Dummies 101’. Take this one for instance:

To build a listening device, you need a crappy phone with a mike that picks up everything. But you want the battery power and circuits of a better phone. It's a trick you learn when the purchasing office won't spring for a bug.

Michael shows useful ways to make spy gadgets on a budget

Successful TV shows also have good characters which the viewer creates an emotional bond with. This is one aspect where Burn Notice is slow to catch on. It’s a case where the creators try to do too much of everything, as meticulous perfection in every episode often does not give enough room for character development.

In season 1, this was slightly disappointing as I would have liked to see a softer, emotional side to Michael’s otherwise spy-like demeanour. However, towards the end of season 1 and start of season 2, the series sees some major efforts in this direction.

In season 2, new dimensions have been added to Michael’s personality depicting a certain kind of vulnerability for the people he cares for. For example, he consciously distances himself from his ex-girlfriend Fiona as he believes his growing emotional dependence on her is distracting him from getting to the bottom of his burn notice. While the interactions that follow add depth to the character, it also makes for some funny scenes.

Fiona the ex-girl friend who is quite the tactical situation expert

Even some serious mother-son bonding moments are shown in a very humorous tone, thus helping maintain a light feel to this charming series, which could easily have been heavy-handed if handled by someone else. My only complaint, as such, is the lack of screen time given to Sam, and I hope that gets fixed in the coming seasons.

Sam (Bruce Campbell) known for his role in Evil Dead franchise

All in all, Burn Notice is a cool action series and is perfect for those evenings where you don’t have time or inclination to watch a full movie, and would prefer something light and engaging.

Rating: 8.0/10

Review: Groundhog Day (1993)

Some movies are all about the director, others about the actors, some about a great plot. But there are very few movies that are more about a concept and a writer/director who wants to see where he can take it. The Man From Earth (a must-watch, if you haven’t seen it) was one, and Groundhog Day fits the bill perfectly too.

So what would you do if there was no tomorrow — in fact, every day is the same, with all the people in the city going about a set routine of events every time you wake up? Groundhog Day puts Bill Murray in an infinite loop of what he describes as the worst day of his life.

Murray plays TV weatherman Phil Connors who is set to the little town of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania — along with his new, cheery producer Rita (Andie MacDowell) and cameraman Larry — to cover the Groundhog Day festivities on February 2nd, where a badger predicts whether spring will come early that year.

After wrapping up the report, the television crew tries to make it out of the town but is thwarted by a blizzard that blocks all roads. Having been forced to spend another day in the place, Phil wakes up to find the radio playing the same song as the day before and the RJs spewing the same lines. Of course, it soon dawns upon him that he is reliving the day.

But upon waking up the next day to find that it’s still Groundhog Day, he realises that he is caught in an infinite loop.

And it seems that he is the only one unaffected by the event. Everybody else in the town is a slave of routine and they continue to perform the same actions and say the same things, day after day after day…

That’s when director Harold Ramis (Ghostbusters, Analyze This) puts across a question that is directed more at the audience than our protagonist: What would you do if your actions had no consequences? Groundhog Day is a cool representation of the question and a wonderful concept overall.

Phil, of course, goes through mood swings as he uses his new power to spoil himself with food and women; then reach utter depression and try to kill himself; finally — and predictably – falling for Rita and trying to win her over. I won’t spoil it much, do watch the movie for yourself.

One question does remain though: Why doesn’t Phil just try to get out of town as soon as he wakes up? The film does have a few such loopholes, but it would probably be best to ignore them and enjoy the ride.

As usual, Murray delivers a solid performance — understated, sarcastic, funny and prone to moments of utter madness. The concept and the script, though, overpower his role as Ramis tries to depict what pros and cons come with immortality. Still, this is the writer of Ghostbusters and Analyse This, so don’t worry about the movie getting too heavy or philosophical at any point.

Groundhog Day is a light, fun comedy that doesn’t overstay its welcome and is perfect for a lazy Sunday afternoon, where you don’t want to tax your mind but still want something more stimulating than a Schwarzenegger movie.

Rating: 6.5/10

Trailer:

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

Anyone who has seen some of his previous movies (Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill, Deathproof) will tell you that Quentin Tarantino is an acquired taste. So distinct is his style of script-writing, direction and editing that it’s impossible not to tell his movies apart from someone else’s. But for the first time – and this is coming from a self-confessed Tarantino fanboy – I think this directorial style has gone against him while making Inglourious Basterds.

The movie is set in World War II and the Inglourious Basterds is a platoon of Jewish American soldiers under the leadership of Lt. Aldo Raine, played by Brad Pitt. Their only job is to land in Nazi-occupied France and kill as many Germans as possible, as gruesomely as possible.

Meanwhile, a Jewish cinema-owner in Paris (played by French actress Melanie Laurent) is going to be screening a huge premiere with all the major heads of the Third Reich showing up for it.

Of course, the Basterds hear of this and decide to blow up the theatre somehow. And so does the cinema-owner herself!

'A 100 Nazi scalps, or die trying!'

Tarantino’s masterful script-writing skills show throughout this movie, with his trademark intricate plots that bring several different threads together to form an explosive situation – it’s almost as good as one of Frederick Forsyth’s novels (but don’t go in expecting a factual history lesson; this is still a Tarantino movie, after all). And really, is there anyone in the whole of Hollywood who writes more memorable characters?

The movie’s title is quite misleading, in a way, as the Basterds themselves aren’t the central point of the film. Pitt, especially, seems like a bad casting choice and the film would have benefitted with a lead actor who was more… ‘American’.

The Basterds do feature in most of the major scenes, but the real stars of the movie are Laurent and the incredible Christoph Waltz, who plays Col. Hans Landa, nicknamed ‘The Jew Hunter’ for his ability to sniff out Jews in hiding. The immediate comparison I can think of to his role is that of Willem Dafoe playing Detective Paul Smecker in The Boondock Saints.

Beneath the exaggerated genius, there is a quiet, understated menace to Landa throughout the movie, unleashed in one final scene. If ever anyone in a Tarantino movie deserved an Oscar, it’s Landa as Best Supporting Actor.

Christopher Waltz as Col. Landa will make
you want to stand up and applaud

The dialogues are vintage Tarantino: drawing analogies to convey the Nazi perspective on Jews; lightening tension-filled environments with the odd quip about genitals; and somehow making the language itself seem more cold-blooded than the person who says it.

At times, the direction does benefit from the Tarantino touch. There are just a handful of people who can pull off conversational scenes as well as he can (Kevin Smith and Thomas Schlamme being the only other names that pop into my mind immediately). I had read an interview by Barry Sonnenfeld, the director of Men In Black, where he talked about how writing long conversations is difficult enough, but directing the same is even more so. Tarantino does it with ease, probably helped by the fact that he writes his own screenplays.

Still, overall, I feel it would have been beneficial to have Tarantino write the script and get someone else to direct it – say Spielberg, Stone or Ridley Scott. There are quite a few scenes in the movie where it seems like the director has a hangover from his last endeavour, the campy Deathproof. His style is intact, it’s just that I do think it does not go well with this script.

Oliver Stone showed how well he could handle Tarantino’s scripts with Natural Born Killers and I can’t help but imagine how amazing Inglourious Basterds would have been under the direction of the guy who gave us Platoon.

But by no means does that mean you shouldn’t watch the movie. Watch it for the script-writing; watch it for the dialogues; and most importantly, watch it for Christopher Waltz delivering a performance that will make you want to stand up and applaud.

Rating: 7/10

Review: State of Play

Real investigative journalism, I have been told, is about facts, conviction and the courage to stand tall in the face of adversity, ala Woodward and Bernstein. In real life, though, it’s altogether a different ball game. Working in a newspaper, I’ve realized true journalism doesn't hold much water against the immutable law of business: ‘Thou shalt not throw a spanner in the wheels of Profit (read: advertisers)’.

Still, fiction demands certain liberties, so we will take a page out of Rahul Dravid’s style and leave this one well outside the off stump. State of Play is no All The President’s Men, but it’s still not a movie to be missed out on.

Directed by Kevin MacDonald, the film has a stellar star cast with names such as Russell Crowe, Helen Mirren, Jeff Daniels, Rachel McAdams and Ben Affleck. This one almost slipped under my radar given the low amount of publicity it received – given that it’s summer time in the US, networks aren’t quite interested in marketing anything that doesn’t have ‘blockbuster material’ written all over it. But, being a patient man with a good amount of free time, I saw the movie because movies about journalism interest me. And hey, it’s Russell Crowe – how bad could it be?

State of Play is a good remake of a British television series of the same name, which aired in 2003. In the movie, Crowe plays Cal McAffery, a crime journalist who is somewhat of a relic in this new age of Internet blogging. But being a good traditional reporter, he has his contacts in every related department in the city, where he can sniff out a good story.

Russell Crowe as “Cal McAffery, a Journalist in the Washington Globe

The film starts with a petty thief being murdered for apparently no reason whatsoever by a professional assassin (depicted by two gun shots, one in the head and the other in the heart). What's strange about the incident is the critical wounding of another innocent passerby – a fact that grabs Crowe’s attention.

This is followed by another mysterious incident where a young girl is killed in a subway. She just happens to be the lead research attendant at the office of Congressman Stephan Collin (Ben Affleck) and also a secret lover of the ‘happily married’ congressman. A little digging around reveals that his office is investigating the US-Iraq war and the US government’s outsourcing policies related to it.

What follows is a chance discovery by Crowe to arrive at a larger, sinister plot where politics, business and war merge to make for one roller coaster of a ride complete with deception, intrigue and pot boiler situations.

Congressman Collins investigating the outsourcing of US Army Defense contracts

Here’s a bit of a spoiler, but honestly, there’s no way you couldn’t have seen this coming: Yes, this is another conspiracy movie about the US government’s secret hush-hush cover-ups. This time it involves PointCorp (a company loosely crafted after Blackwater, infamous for killing of 17 Iraqi civilians during the war), the US Army and its malpractice of outsourcing international defence contracts – namely getting ex-militia mercenaries to fight the wars in Iraq in the name of world peace and WMD’s.

The movie gets a bit loose towards the end, when it bites a bit more than it can chew after Crowe realises that ‘outsourced’ international warfare is just the beginning and the ultimate aim of this conspiracy is the outsourcing of the fabled Home Land Security of America.

A thought after watching the movie, was the amount of interpersonal relations and addition of new characters seem like a vestigial remnant of a television series building the complexity of its main characters hoping to add another season after a successful first. This level of complexity works in a series where the writer has reel time to develop it. But in a movie, if not handled well, can seem pretty confusing and force fitted.

Mirren, McAdams and Crowe playing characters which are probably more documented in the TV series

For example: The history between Crowe and Affleck going back to their college days where they were dorm buddies. A connection that is touched very lightly and taken for granted by the script writers. Another example is a past affair between Crowe and Affleck' wife Anne Collins played by Robin Wright Penn - an angle which would have had significant focus in the series but has to be deciphered by the viewer in the movie.

Congressman Collins and McAffrey reminisce their old college days

Characterization is where the movie excels. I liked the character of Helen Mirren who plays Cameron Lynne, the publisher of the Washington Globe. Well characterized and fits the bill of a publisher perfectly, she walks the thin line between a good story and sound business woman.

Hard nosed publisher Cameron Lynne played by Helen Mirren

Rachel McAdam playing Della Frye is a rookie online blogger for the Globe. And as with any young entrant in the field of journalism she dreams of making it big. She does get her wish fulfilled as she is unwillingly paired with Crowe who like a seasoned but fair veteran manipulates her to do the dirty ground work of following up on a potential story.

Rachel MacAdams as a cub online reporter in the Globe

What I didn't like though is the lack of use of Jeff Daniels as Republican George Fergus. His character is probable a very important one but somehow mysteriously ignored. A great loss as I think Daniels is an underrated actor able to deliver some crackling performances in 'The Squid and the Whale' and 'Good Night and Good Luck'.

Still, credit is due to the men behind the movie who have done a remarkable job to create a good two hour shortened version of an entire season and make it an gripping one too.

All in all, this is a highly enjoyable movie when you are in pensive mood and do make sure that you get the subtitles on as the dialogues can get a bit heavy during certain scenes.

Rating: 7/10