Epic Movie

This was probably a collection of a satire of all movies that have been popular recently.
The movie opens with a blond woman trying to investigate code all over the museum similar to the DaVinci Code, finally finding a ticket for an epic adventure in the chocolate vending machine.
Next comes a black woman travelling on the plane, when snakes attack on the plane and a look alike of Samuel L. Jackson, throws her off the plane onto Paris Hilton and she finds the ticket to the epic adventure in Hilton's purse.
Third of the lot, is Kal Penn in a Mexican orphanage, refusing to eat the substandard food in the institution and has to put up with a Nacho Libre cook and kid, until he is thrown out of the window and finds a ticket to an epic adventure.
Lastly, a mutant high school kid, with the mutant power of constantly being a chicken, who is always bullied at school by likes of Wolverine, Storm, Mystique and so on, finds a ticket in one of the lockers that he is banged into.
All the four, meet outside Charlie's chocolate factory, where they find out that human parts is the secret ingredient in their chocolate products. Event though, they try to escape, they are captured and locked. When they are walking around, the blond girl finds a cupboard full of things and ends up entering it (after all the things fall out). It turns out to be the entrance to Gnarnia, where she finds warning messages from a half goat half man inhabitant - who speaks of the White Bitch Queen and her evil ways.
Meanwhile, Kal Penn enters Gnarnia and meets the Queen and promises her to bring the rest of the crew, in exchange to be her king. But he soon discovers her true colours and is held captive. Here he meets Captain Jack Swallow and a song about the pirates follows. Snow Bitch tells Kal Penn about her plans to destroy the world with some yellow biochemical substance, that would create earthquakes and bad things as such.
The remaining 2 also enter Gnarnia and together with a half lion, half man king, whom they had to bribe, they manage to save Kal Penn. Together they discover, they were a family predicted to rule the kingdom and kill White Bitch.
They go over to train to Hogwarts with an old Harry Potter, an overgrown Ron Weasley and a pregnant and smoking Hermoine Granger.
With soldiers, they attack the Snow Bitch and her soldiers. But bit by bit, three of the 4 are injured. Finally, the white guy finds a remote control (Click) to stop everything that he wants and manages to save himself, heal the other three and destroy the rest of White Bitch's soldiers. Now the four of them rule Gnarnia as a family for years, until they find the wardrobe they took them to Gnarnia and they return in the youth that they had left in.
It was excessively bland and elongated story, which tried to make jest of the things it showed, but succeeded and got nowhere. Definitely a good idea to skip.

attahaasam

With double action from Ajith, with Pooja, Sujatha and Ramesh Kanna, the movie is about a family that was split due to circumstances and things that happened with the children in the family.
Ajith1 lives with his mother Sujatha, running a driving school. He is a calm and peaceful mummy's boy. He is in love with his neighbour's daughter, Pooja. To retrieve a car back from one of his employees, he leaves for Thirunelveli. Surprisingly everyone seems to know and respect him, which he thinks is because of the different dress that he was wearing that day. He returns home.
Meanwhile Ajith2, a thug who makes his living by threatening and killing others is shocked to find out that people had mistaken Ajith1 for him. He then reels to his childhood story about hw he had seen his father die and how his mother sold him away. He starts creating ruckus between the other 2 local thugs. Amidst this, he calls Ajith1 to Thirunelveli.
Ajith2 crisscrosses the roles and attire with Ajith1. Ajith2 returns to Sujatha's home and everyone is annoyed and angered by things that he does. Sujatha feels that her son has changed a lot and is worried. Somewhere along this time, the true past of the family is revealed. Sujatha and her husband, Nizhalgal Ravi lived happily, until Ravi decided to betray his boss, who was a thug. Unable to bear the betrayal, the boss kills Ravi and is seen by little Ajith2. To prevent the trauma and make sure he lives, Sujatha sends him off with a childless couple. But along the way, Ajith2 jumps out of the car and makes his way to Thirunelveli, living as an orphan to-date.
Meanwhile, Ajith1 is put in a quandary between the Thirunelveli local thugs, but he manages o escape from them and cheat them everytime. Finally, he reaches his actual home. This is the same time, when Ajith2 is told about the actual circumstances of his childhood. He is repentant. Together the Ajith's bash up the bad guys and everything ends happy.
An enirely cheesy flick - which was extremely noisy. For some reason, a thuggish demeanour doesn't suit Ajith - who has much of a calm appearance. There wasn't much work for the other people in the cast - perhaps for Ramesh Kanna and Sujatha. The guy who came as Ravi's boss and the white dress clad villain from Thirunelveli probably stole the show along with Ramesh Kanna. A tolerable flick for Ajith's fans, but can be skipped for others.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

This was probably this decade's most awaited ending book of the series. J.K.Rowling has permanently carved her name in the world of magical fantasy and fiction. Harry Potter is just as alive to all of us, as he lives through the books.
Being the last book of the series, Rowling promised a racy, non-stop action and surprise ending and she gave it. A well deserved close to the book. Although there were spoilers, true Potter fans would not have been hindered by that. The spoilers lead to a little disappointment, but what are a couple lines of plot leaks versus 600-page exciting roller coaster ride.
Harry is finally about to turn 17 - the year that the protective charm of his mother breaks. Now, he truly needs protection from other wizards, which the Order of the Phoenix is more than happy to give. Although he stays in safety, the task that Dumbledore had entrusted him, makes him leave his warm home.
Along with his most trusted friends, Ron and Hermione, he sets out into the world. They face many trials and even have a close brush with Lord Voldemort himself, but along with all the horrid experiences, they also had enlightening and discoveries, that brought them closer to what Dumbledore had asked them to do.
Many times Harry wants to give up, he is sad about the losses he went through, he is careful not to shed more blood, but he is unable to refuse the help. And finally, he comes face to face with the Dark Lord. Here, I have to stop as it would be gross injustice if I were to give away what happened. Definitely, a book more than worth reading.

stuart little

Apart from Charlotte's Web, this is another cute story from E.B. White about a little mouse living with humans.
Stuart lives with his family and is more than glad about. He also lives with another pet - a cat. Then, a beautiful bird enters his life. Stuart and the bird become inseparable.
But the cat has evil plans for her. When the bird hears of the warning, she flies away from the house. Stuart is most heartbroken and leaves the comfort of his home in search of his love. Along the way, he becomes a fun substitute teacher, he tries to woo a girl, who is surprisingly also as tall as he is, but his plans go awry.
After all his trials, he still continues on his journey to track his love anyway.
A sweet and easy read. The book was recommended to me by a fellow workmate, when I mentioned the movie Ratatouille to him. I don't know if the story was cuter or the illustrations in the book were cuter. Of course, if the story hadn't been there, there wouldn't have been any illustrations. Anyway, a cute and quick read.

manikanda

With Arjun and Jyothika in the lead, the film is about a tried theme of caste clashes and rivalry between two families over their beliefs.
Arjun's family lives in Bombay. Jyothika arrives in Bombay from a village in Tamilnadu to seek a religious lady, whom Jyothika believes would be able to bring peace to her violent village. After some clashes between the lead pair, love begins to show itself.
Chandrashekhar is Arjun's father. When he sights Pasupathy in Bombay city, he is intrigued and tries to find out why he is there, but they are only able to meet at Pasupathy's deathbed. Pasupathy insists on killing Jyothika before he breathes his last.
Jyothika returns to her village. Her father Aashish Vidyarthi urges her to invite Arjun to their village after seeing his photo in her bag. But when he arrives, there are thugs trying to kill him left right and centre. After tackling them, Arjun meets his father, also in the village. Now the story goes to flashback.
Arjun's real father, Manikanda was a good man, against caste differences, while Aashish's father, P.Vasu was an extremist. There was a constant tug of war between them. In the final battle, Vasu kills Manikanda and Manikanda manages to kill him in his injured state. Chandrashekhar had been protecting Arjun against those people and now Arjun decides to take matters in his own hands. He fights off the bad guys and all ends happily.
An OK story, although the Uma and Arjun pair was very good, and the older Arjun looked very good in his get-up. Although we frequently see other action heroes, I think Arjun is the only one who is truly an action king, with agility and the do-gooder looks. Worth a watch.

paramasivan

Ultimate star Ajith Kumar, Laila and Prakashraj come together in this movie about eradicating terrorism.
Ajith is a death sentence prisoner. Prakashraj tries to use him to kill the terrorists, who were responsible for many civilian deaths using bombs. Everything goes according to the plan.
Ajith's flashback is that he was part of a happy family. But because some policemen were corrupt, unlike his father, he lost both his father and sister, due to their caprice. In revenge, he killed the policemen and was thus, serving his death sentence.
While helping out Prakashraj, he promises to marry Laila, who is part of the family that rents house from Prakashraj. To make sure he does so, he runs away from Prakashraj, when he finds out Prakashraj is going to kill him. Apparently, Prakashraj had promised his senior that death sentence prisoners had to be killed to answer his superiors. But in the end, Prakashraj lets him go.
Somewhere along the story, Jairam is also tagged along as a CBI officer, who finds the mixup of Ajith's death with some random guy's ashes. But all ends well.
An interesting story. However Prakashraj could have been given a stronger role to play for his calibre and Ajith could have acted easier in some parts. An OK movie to watch.

chellamae

Introducing Vishal, the movie also stars Reema Sen, Bharath and others.
Reema has been a sister-like figure to Bharath since his baby days, because he became motherless at a very young age. They have also been neighbours.
Bharath's father is a big industrialist, whose home is raided by IT (income tax) office. He almost manages to cheat them, but Vishal - one of the IT officers - sees through his ploy and defames him. In the process, he almost brings Reema to shame, but Bharath protects her and gives up his dad.
Vishal falls in love with Reema and after some minor misunderstandings, get married. During the marriage, Bharath is constantly displaying antagonistic behaviour, that is noticed by nobody. After marriage, the couple move to Goa and surprisingly, Bharath ends up their next door neighbour in a few days time. The couple are really happy and during one of the Vishal's business trips, he meets with an accident, but is unharmed.
However, Bharath uses this news to his advantage and kidnaps Reema away to his dad's bungalow. Vishal is devastated, as Bharath stages it as an elopement. But bit by bit he finds out the truth and the potential culprit. He hunts Bharath down and him finally finding Reema forms the rest of the story.
A good movie to watch after a long time. I have become Vishal's fan for the time being. It was hard t say it was his first movie. God performance by Reema too, although her lip syncing wasn't the best and some of the emotions was excessive in the background voice compared to her acting. Bharath, as usual has performed well. Only minus in the movie was probably, the excessive skin show and mature subject matter - which would be a little uncomfortable to watch with elders in the family. But definitely, the movie is worth the watch.

aathi

Starring Vijay and Trisha in the lead with a while bunch of supporting cast, the movie is about the revenge of a family against the one who destroyed it.
The movie begins with heroine and her uncle killing a policeman along the beach. After the killing, the movie explores the innocence and cuteness of the heroine - blah blah blah.. Somehow, she holds a vengeance for some guy who seemed to have given her a disturbing past. Then our very energetic and do-gooder hero enters. Vijay wants to study in Chennai and his entire family comes along.
In Chennai, the hero and heroine meet at college, since they noticed each other's weird actions of eating icecream in the rain (*sigh* these things still haven't left since M.G.R.'s naalai namathae.. That was good, this is unbearable). Overtime, viewers are exposed to similar thoughts of both the hero and heroine.
The villain is a very evil man, who seems to be used to getting his way with everything. Trisha's family plans to get him during one of the fights and misses. When they try again, the targeted is killed without knowing who did it. Of course it is Vijay's doing. During one such killing, Vijay is seen by an auto driver and also seen by his family.
Now flashback appears to be that both Trisha and Vijay are from the same family. Vijay's father and Trisha's uncle, Prakashraj was a policeman who punished the villain's brother for having destroyed an innocent family for monetary gains. In turn, the villain destroys everyone in the family. Surprisingly, Vijay and Trisha, along with an uncle, Nazar, escape from the scene unknown to each other.
While doing rite for their death anniversary, Vijay finds out that Trisha is related to him, but doesn't tell as he is worried about her future. But with his face to face challenge to the villain, the villain ends up kidnapping Trisha for questioning. While Vijay has a change of mind to tell the truth, he witnesses his uncle being killed too.
The rest of the movie was how he finishes them off.
Funny thing was that Vijay didn't recognize Nazar the first time, while rescuing Trisha. Only recognizes him the second time. Does he have selective memory that works at selective times? Anyway, this family thing trick needs to be bettered a little. I can understand a 10-year old remembering the face of a killer or a murderer - something too traumatic, but the fact that all of them used to be in the rain eating icecream and things like that is a little overkill. And really if they were to do that every time, they would definitely get pneumonia, especially for the monsoon weather in Chennai. An OK movie. I really liked the villain - good looking, except for the odd lens and acted well. Otherwise, worth a skip..

Do androids dream of electric sheep?

Written by Philip Dick, the novel is a science fiction about the time when androids, robots with human intelligence rule over the planet.
Lots of bounty hunters are now hired, with the sole aim of removing androids from the planet. The only difference between the humans and the androids is the presence of empathy in humans and androids lacking it. So begins the novel with a bounty hunter who is on the lookout for androids. He encounters a very gutsy female android, who tricks him into believing that she was unaware of herself being an android and he leaves her alone.
Meanwhile, he gets to other androids and along the way, gets a shock when he is taken to a police station, where nothing he knew exists and finds out it is another trick of the androids. By and by, some information about androids start coming about - how earth was made into a unlivable planet and because of that people started migrating to Mars. How androids were created to help out humans and how eventually they started taking over, but humans have now started to kill them again.
At the same time, another human - a chickenhead - a human with relatively low levels of IQ - is introduced as someone living outside the normal human civilization. Here is where some other androids take shelter.
After some interesting interactions between the female android, the bounty hunter and the chickenhead, the story ends with the androids being killed and bounty hunter going about his normal life.
The story seemed slightly inconclusive - but nevertheless, it was interesting to read this different kind of viewpoint about how the future could possible become. It was suggested to me by a co-worker, who is more interested in sci-fi novels than others. So although I was apprehensive of how it would turn out, it was a good read with the right elements of empathy and human touch.

From Hell

With partnership of writer Alan Moore and artist Eddie Campbell, this graphic novel forms the basis of the movie From Hell.
The story in the graphic novel is a little different and more sexual and violent. So a royalty meets a shop girl, falls in love and fathers a daughter. They are then torn apart. At the orders of the Queen, the royal physician undertakes upon himself to 'clean' up the mess. So begin the string of murders.
Abberline is an honest cop, who doesn't want to come back to Whitechapel but doesn't have a choice. He isn't able to find out anything about the murderer, only feels more and more dejected at being stuck at the place.
During the inquiry, he befriends a prostitute whom he helps, but gets cheated in return.
A physician is most honoured at meeting the royal physician, but is insulted in return and to take revenge, he poses to be a psychic and claims that he can see the murders to the police. He leads them to the royal physician's house and crazily enough the royal physician accepts the blame.
Both Abberline and the 'psychic' physician are silenced for life. And the story ends with the both of them discussing about their lives.
This novel was probably more gruesome than the version shown in the movie. Atleast, the movie stopped with a fewer murders. In the novel, there was a whole explanation about Masonic theories and The Great Architect, which was a compulsive drag and a craziness to ths royal physician, who was mad even before the 'cleaning' task was given to him. In the final scene, he actually roasts the heart of the victim, before he blows away the ashes into the air - absolutely sickening. So be prepared for some severe violence and disturbing thoughts before you pick this 592 pages of graphic novel.

Birth Order and You

Written by the Richardson's (Ron and Lois), the book was an introduction to development of our behaviour based on our birth order and gender. The book explored the oldests, the middle ones, the youngests, twins and only children.
Not just the birth order, but also the gender matters, with the type of society the children are born in. Not necessarily, the personalities follow the book, but there are situations when things do not follow the order and severe events, such as death, divorce, disagreements and adoption could potentially change personalities.
The essential things that stood out to me everytime I finished a chapter were the following - everyone needs attention and love, especially if they are children. Be prepared to give a lot of your time to them, especially if they are young (6 years or less, for some, older) because that's when the majority of the personality develops and if you don't give them what they want then, they would miss it for the rest of their life. Don't always think a kid is bad or rebellious - they are obviously finding something in the other company that you are not offering (and that's not drugs or any craziness). During teenage, it is normal for kids to rebel because they are finding their place in the society. Instead of being a parent then, try being a friend. There are different ways of saying things, parents - find the nicer way. They learn more from seeing you than listening to you. Be sure that you are practising what you are preaching. And lastly, treat all children equally, without imposing your bias or labels on them.
Definitely a good read for someone looking to understand deeper about human relationships and thought process.

thalaimagan

Starring Sharathkumar, Nayanthara, Vadivelu and some North Indian actors, the story is about the strength of a man with a pen - a reporter.
The beginning of the movie is filled with ruckus created by Sharathkumar on the other people in a press, yet he is held dear by the editor. It contains lots of pointless teasing between Nayanthara and Vadivelu and Sharathkumar - which build up an annoyance.
The villain is the female policewoman and the corrupt politician - who are now affected by Sharathkumar's article. They try their utmost to destroy the newspaper. The editor and his daughter are brutally killed. Now Sharathkumar takes it as his aim to destroy the bad guys. As he is running it, the police bring wrong charges against him and take him away. Along the way, the policewoman cheats and kills Sharathkumar in a blast. And clearly, Sharathkumar escapes. He lives obscurely in some part of Kerala - time for him to show some of his beef and six-pack. Then he returns.
He leaves for the village where the politician has opened an illegal factory and pretends to be a handicap working there. He stays there most of the time and leaves for the city time and again trying to get evidence about the bad guys. The rest of the movie is just him fulfilling that role.
Probably a tolerable movie for die-hard Sharathkumar fan, but for those with non-bias artistic taste, you can skip this movie for something better.

Transformers

Made into a movie from the comic strip, this movie was a surprising entertainer for me.
A bunch of automobiles seem to have a mind of their own and they seem to go through some type of transformation to become Autobots - a superior form of robots. Amidst this, a boy, who is considered to be a loser, is introduced. He is trying to sell some of his grandfather's antique things and also trying to get a girl he has an eye on in class. Finally he manages to catch hold of a car from a junkyard that seems to be cool and even gets the girl in his car.
Eventually, the boy finds out something is weird about his car and even witnesses his car's transformation into an autobot. He then experiences some crazy things like a driver less car chasing him and his car takes him to escape.
Meanwhile on a state level, a military base in Middle East was attacked badly, with few survivors by a strange machine. With the systems tracked by an unknown code, the White House is thrown into an upheaval. But a rookie programmer manages to detect some things that the White House is able to leverage on.
The boy, by then is introduced to the autobots, and they are after his grandfather's glasses, which contains the co-ordinates to a powerful source of energy from their dead planet. After an interesting set of events, the autobots gets what they want and leave to save the planet.
After this it is just defeating the bad autobots and saving the planet.
Although the idea and dialogues were pretty cheesy, this was probably one of the good sci-fi comic based action movies that I have ever watched. Perhaps because I walked in without any expectations. The special effects were totally cool and awesome to look at. Definitely worth a watch.

Harry Potter: The Order of the Phoenix

After a week's wait, I finally caught the flick in 3D.
Fifth one of the seven books, this must have been one of the toughest book to condense as this was the thickest of them all so far.
Voldemort is starting to seep into Harry's consciousness and Harry is able to see things that Voldemort can. Ministry of Magic is annoyed with the hype that Harry has created, with the support of Dumbledore about Voldemort's return. To keep an eye, it has appointed the ever-umm'ing Dolores Umbridge, who totally underplays the severity of the risky situation, but rules with an iron fist.
Beyond her, Harry and his friends form a secret group to practise defensive magic. Finally, Voldemort 'invites' Harry to the lair with Sirius. When the group of students reach the Ministry, they are in for a shock, but the Order of the Phoenix comes to the rescue, but Harry potter loses Sirius in the battle. Amidst shock, he goes through another round of torture with Voldemort ricketing his body, but finally, Harry comes to consciousness and is thankful for everything he has.
Although much was taken out to shorten the movie, it seemed pretty flowing and wasn't in bits and pieces. But I wonder when the final book is out, if the pieces that the movie makers have removed actually come into play, how would they incorporate it. There seems to be a huge chunk of people, who seem to be dependent on the movie for their share of Harry Potter. Apart from the fact that they miss an entirely different world in the books, they also have chunky stories and not as much fun. But considering the story, I wouldn't really mind even if the movie was for a longer time. Definitely not a movie to miss.

thamirabarani

Starring Vishal and newcomer Banu, thamirabarani is a racy flick set in a village.
Vishal's family - Prabhu, Rohini and Manorama are ahppy family. However, Vishal is extremely short tempered and resorts to violence frequently.
In business, Prabhu and Nazar's family - Nadhiya, Vijaykumar are always at loggerheads. Vishal warns them many times and even tricks Nadhiya many times.
He gets into an accident with a girl, new to the area and gets attracted to her. But he finds out that she is the daughter of Nadhiya. He decides to take revenge and end up finding out she is in love with him. With a twist of events, he ends up being printed on the paper derogatorily with her.
As a revenge, Nazar's men hurt Prabhu. Seeing him hurt, Vishal leaves to cut up Nazar, but accidently cuts off Nazar's younger brother's hand, who is actually a nice guy. Vishal is remorseful and surrenders, but when he is released, he realises that his enemies are actually his family and now tries very hard to get everyone together, which he does at the end of the movie.
Even though it is kind of annoying to see this thoughtless bloodshed that has been running for centuries in our country's villages, this was a well paced movie with the appropriate amount of cheesiness. I don't know if visual touchups were done for the people in the movie, but all of them looked very good, especially Prabhu and Nadhiya, looked different. Banu was tolerable, although she looked much better with no makeup (scenes where she is crying) than with makeup.
A movie worth a watch.

Irish Thoroughbred

Written by Nora Roberts, the story is about an Irish orphan who comes to stay with her uncle living in America and has a brush with her uncle's handsome employer.
Adelia Cunnane lost her parents in an accident and since then, lived with her strict aunt on a farm in Ireland. After her aunt died, the farm was too much to maintain, so she decides to come and live with her uncle in America.
When she arrives in America, she is amazed and dazed by the fast paced lifestyle and the number of people. Luckily for her, her uncle works in a stable of a rich employer, enjoying a good relationship with him. She manages to get a job. The first night, unable to sleep, she goes to the stable, only to have a rough introduction to her employer - Travis Grant. They strike a secret deal to keep her if he is satisfied with her work, in spite of the tumultuous introduction they had.
Over time, she finds Travis excessively overpowering and constantly startling her. And then she finds him irresistible and feels butterflies in her stomach. After some passionate encounters, she thinks he holds some feelings for her.
She has a brush with his ex-girlfriend and gets mixed feelings. After a major horse race that all of them went to, her uncle Padrick gets a heart attack. To save him, Travis says that he is going to marry Adelia. Adelia thinks it's a cheap trick buts agrees to a false marriage.
They get married and gets a lot of things from Travis, but she feels inadequate as Travis doesn't treat her like a wife. Finally, after a thunderstorm, things change and she feels happy. But just that morning, she overhears a conversation that ruins all the happiness. She leaves the house, but Travis catches her and explains the mixup. And they live happily ever after.
If you have read heavy books for a long time, and need an easy read with some cheesy romance, this is the book for you. I was actually in two minds about whether to write a review on this book. An OK read, but don't expect any improvement of knowledge or experience.

Papillon

Written by Henry Charriere, the book outlines a man's quest and obsession. Papillon is wrongly sentenced for a crime he has never done and he is taken to prison. Even though I can't recount every bit of the experience and story in the book, I can probably mention some paragraphs that just made me squirm in my seat.
My first one was how Papillon hid his money while in the prison - inside a baton inserted at the end of his digestive canal.
Next how he found worm and centipedes in his wet cell crawling all over the place.
Then how he scalded the prison warden with hot water and the warden's sweater was stuck to his face, as he tried to remove it.
Then how he faced the quicksand when trying to escape and his experience of just seeing two horrified eyes of his companion as he was being suck into the quicksand.
Then how he saw people being burnt under the charcoal, while he was waiting to help his friend's brother escape with him.
The strange culture of the Indians where an elder sister lets her younger sister become her husband's wife because the elder feels that he is tired of her.
The craziness of the lonely confinement where prisoners are not allowed to talk to anybody, but just left in a dark cell with one small window where the food comes in from.
In short, the book wasn't pleasant but it shows the part of the world that is not pretty. If you want a rude awakening to see the world out of the dainty 4 walls, here is a classic book. The book also showed how feverish Papillon was for freedom and persisting in breaking out wherever he was. An interesting book, definitely worth a read.

Ratatouille

'Anyone can cook' is the motto that underlines this movie and that 'anyone' in this movie is a rat - the being that could lead a restaurant to close.
Remy is a rat with refined senses, living in a rat colony that feeds off garbage. He sees cook Gusteau on TV in the kitchen (one of the forbidden places for a rat to go to). His want to cook gets larger and larger. He starts reading Gusteau's book secretly. But one of the adventures to the kitchen goes horribly wrong and he is separated from his family, only left with his prized book.
Lead by Gusteau's imagination, he finds out he is in Paris, right under Gusteau's restaurant. After some craziness, his passion calls out. He sets a soup right. He is discovered by the garbage boy.
Meanwhile, the chef thinks the garbage boy was the one cooking the soup and admonishes him. Before they could stop, the soup is served to a critic and receives great reviews. Chef is surprised and challenges the boy to remake the soup. The rat is spotted and the garbage is given the responsibility to dispose of it.
Just before he throws the rat away, he has a heart to heart talk to the rat. And come to a deal.
Now Linguini (garbage boy) is lead by the little chef (Remy) for all the creations. He becomes famed and known.
Overtime the truth comes out that Linguini is actually Gusteau's son - a secret the chef was keeping secret. The chef is kicked out and Linguini basks in fame. But in the fame, he loses his head and tiff gets bigger and bigger, until the time comes for all the cooks to know the truth. They leave him in disappointment.
Now, Remy and his rat colony complete the cooking, while the most severe of the critics awaits the service. Remy suggests the making of Ratatouille, a peasant dish with some modifications. And that strikes the chord in the critic, who is surprised to see the chef and gives raving reviews.
But a health inspector sees the rats in the kitchen and closes down the restaurant. But the crew - Remy, Linguini and his sweetheart, Collette start their dreams successfully elsewhere.
A very good movie. A different story and my favourite bits were when they showed parts of Paris. It looked awfully real. Perhaps it was real footage with some animation essence added to it, but the movie is definitely worth a watch.

Ocean's 13

The crew comes together again, with Al Pacino, for the 2nd sequel of Ocean's Eleven.
Reuben is afflicted by myocardial infarction with Willy Bank cheating him off his money. To take revenge, the rest of them come together to being Bank down. Although they manage to plan around everything, they are stumped by the top level security called Greco, that finds fraudsters by their biological reactions. And even that, they decide to bring down with the huge drilling machine that sends wave similar to that of an earthquake.
The rest of the movie goes in showing the planning and actual actions taken to bring down the casino on the opening night. There is also introduction of Andy Garcia - owner of Bellagio and the Night Fox. Although it makes you suspect that something is happening, it is not very clear, until the connection is shown almost close to the end.
An interesting movie, yet again. This sequel was better than Ocean's Twelve, still not as good as Eleven. The funniest part was probably when the Danny and Rusty were sniffling, while watching Oprah. And I really pitied the inspector who came for rating the hotel. he got into quite a fix.
There were some unbelievable parts to the movie. Why would be Bank be so careless to leave a seismograph from an unknown person, without checking what it has, when he has a top security stuff running downstairs? Shouldn't the dice and stuff that came in be checking for something funny when it comes in? Why would the inspector continue to stay in that hotel when he found out it is so unhygienic? Inspectors are supposed to check the hotels but not at the expense of their health! That huge machine - how did they get it down there without any official seeing it? If indeed the casino was in such a earthquake prone zone, wouldn't Bank have invested some money to get the place checked before he built the hotel?
Nevertheless, the movie is definitely worth it for Ocean's Eleven fans and others.

The Pride of Baghdad

I forget the authors and illustrators of this book, but the story is of a group of lions that escape from the zoo in the area of attack and the troubles that they go through until they are finally shot by the soldiers.
The story was an interesting viewpoint and the graphics were beautifully drawn and conceived. Any story can only be understood if the characters have been anthropomorphized, especially if the story is about animals. We tend to put human tendencies to non-human things and make them think like us - which is interesting but I don't know how much true that is. Do animals truly think like us? That's another topic of discussion, but as far as this book goes, it was interesting to see what happens. Worth a read.

From Hell

Johnny Depp acts as Inspector Abberline in this story about Jack the Ripper, a serial killer of prostitutes in England.
A series of murders of mainly prostitutes startles London. Inspector Abberline, who has solved many murders in his hallucinations is appointed for this case too. Bit by bit, he unravels the mystery, but often is held back by his superior.
He gets help from a friend of the murdered woman about the murders. He also becomes romantically involved with her. He manages to trace the murders to one of the top shots of London and his Masonic affiliations. He also finds out the reason why the top shot might be involved in the murders.
His superior tries to stop him by taking him off the inquiry, yet Abberline persists and finds out more information. The night that the last murder is to take place, Abberline goes to the top shot's place and challenges him, but gets knowcked out. By the Abberline gets to the scene, the last woman, his lover is also gruesomely killed.
But Abberline notices something that everyone else overlooked and is relieved to find that his lover is safe, but he does not pursue her as he knows a change in his plans would divert the royal police attention. He dies in the last scene.
Definitely not a movie for kids or people who get disturbed by certain scenes easily. Lots of gruesome thoughts and scenes! Especially the last scene of murder was horrific. Even though the actions weren't explicitly shown, it was nasty enough when imagining. Interesting movie, but be prepared..

The Life of Pi

Written by Yann Martel, the book is about a boy who is shipwrecked at sea for 227 days until he finally lands in Mexico.
The book begins in Pondicherry, India, where Pi (Piscine Mollitor Patel) spent his childhood in exploring animals kept by his father at the zoo and religion. Due to disturbances in the country, they decide to leave for Canada for a new life, but faces an accident at sea, when Pi loses all family and is left on a boat with a hyena, zebra and a lion called Richard Parker. Hyena kills the zebra and lion kills hyena and finally it is Pi and Richard Parker left. Pi resorts to living at the sea with the fishing and other emergency supplies that are stored in the boat to stay away from Richard Parker and escape being eaten by him. He also uses tricks that he learnt working at the zoo to survive.
Along the journey, he lands in a carnivorous island, sleeps with a whole bunch of animals, gets blinded for time, gets his eyesight, starts getting hallucinations and finally reaches Mexico. From there he is brought for questioning. And he faces a whole other turmoil with distrusting officials.
From time to time, there is reference to the current life that Pi is leading with his family.
And most of the discussion in the book seemed interesting way of looking at things. I particularly liked the part where he discusses whether animals truly love the wild or do they love the cage? An interesting read.

Pirates of the Caribbean

The first of the series, Pirates of the Caribbean was a super hit among all ages and countries. Starring Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, along with the others, the movie is about pirates.
Elizabeth Swann, a girl fascinated by pirates, finds a boy, Will Turner, with a pirate medallion rescued on her father's sea voyage. The East India Company is rounding up and destroying many ships.
8 years later..
James Norrington is promoted among the British Royal Navy. At his ceremony, he proposes to Swann, but she falls unconscious into the water, with her medallion sending strange vibrations. Jack Sparrow arrives at Port Royal. He rescues Elizabeth but is captured. He sees Elizabeth's medallion and meets Will Turner before the capture.
The Black Pearl lays siege on Port Royal. Elizabeth invokes parlay at her capture and meets Hector Barbossa, the captain of the ship. In exchange for the medallion, she asks for ceasing of attack on Port Royal. With her lie as having a last name of Turner, she is kept prisoner by Barbossa. Eventually, it is shown that the people on the ship are cursed and she is the answer to the breaking of the curse.
To save Elizabeth, Will teams up with Jack and leave with a British ship to Tortuga, get a crew and start sailing. Will gets to know that Jack was the former captain of Black Pearl. Barbossa marooned him when an Aztec treasure chest was found. The pirates then find and spend the treasure, but they find out it is cursed by 'Bootstrap Bill' Turner, for what the crew did to Jack. Now they need his blood, but since they drowned him, Will is their hope for breaking the curse.
Barbossa, meanwhile tries to break the curse with Elizabeth, but doesn't succeed.
Will gets some trusting issues - he knocks out Jack and rescues Elizabeth, but the Black Pearl catches up. Will reveals the truth about himself in exchange for leaving the crew and Elizabeth unharmed. Lacking in specifics, Barbossa leaves Jack and Elizabeth in the same island that he was marooned before.
Elizabeth burns off the entire stock of rum on the island, catches the attention of the British ship with Captain Norrington. She agrees to accept Norrington's proposal, if he rescues Will. Jack and Norrington to fulfil the plan. After some interesting twists and turns, the crew is captured.
The lovers unite and Jack Sparrow is the captain again of the Black Pearl.
An awesome story. I was a little apprehensive of watching the movie as the hygiene quotient seemed to be really low. And the movie was liked by all - which is a rare sign - mostly to say that people were liking the movie because others were liking - a type of hype! But it really was entertaining and marvellous job done by Johnny Depp. This is part of his streak of doing unique characters. But he has certainly brought Jack Sparrow to life. The animations when Jack and Barbossa fight under the curse is a hilarious treat to watch. Definitely a movie not to miss.