Movie Reviews - 3

Did some more reviews, my rating style is
star 5/5 - must see.
star 4/5 - Good film.
star 3/5 - Okay, can see.
star 2/5 - so so, watch at your own risk.
star 1/5 - don't see, utter crap.

Death note (Japanese) - stars 5/5 - The Death God drops a note book and whoever picks it up becomes the owner of it. The death God will appear to him and explain the rules of owning the book. The beauty of the book is that when you think of someone and write that person's name in that book, he/she will die within 30sec. You can even write the cause of death and the person will die out of the same cause, but there are a lot of rules in writing this which the death god will explain. Unfortunately the book falls in the hands of a very intelligent lawyer, who thinks that crime on earth should be abolished completely even at the cost of human lives. So he starts killing all criminals and threatens the world by the name "kira" who will restore good on earth. The hero "L" , is again a super intelligent guy, he makes his moves superbly to track "kira" down. The story is very thrilling, gripping and makes you wonder what will be the next move of "L" and "Kira". Hats off of the story writer, Japanese are really super intelligent. The character of "L" is an interestingly peculiar and funny one. And the imagination of animating a Death God is also nice.

Death note 2: the last name (Japanese)- stars 5/5 - If you saw the first part, you won't wait to see this because the story ends half way in the first part. Here, to complicate things for "L" two Death God appears. The second death note goes to a girl, Misa. Kira and Misa work together in their business of correcting the world. Finally L risks his life to prove things black and white. The movie is kind a philosophical also. The way story is written without leave loop holes should be appreciated.

L: change the world (Japanese)- stars 4/5 - This one is a spin off to the previous parts. L solves another case in this. But after seeing the peculiar character of L in the previous parts, this one has some funny and interesting twists. The action sequence at the end doesn't fit L though. The movie is okay, but not to the level of first two parts.

The Pursuit of happiness - stars 5/5 - Really good movie. Its a real story about Christopher Paul Gardner ( link from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Gardner - a self-made millionaire, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and philanthropist who, during the early 1980s, struggled with homelessness while raising his toddler son, Christopher, Jr ).
Will smith does it very well. Persistence, struggle and inner strength are shown without much exajuration.

American Gangster - stars 4/5 - This one is about how drug trafficking ruined so many lives during world war. Densel Washington, has acted very well as a tight headed ruthless gangster and Russell crowe as an super honest police officer. The last part of Densel giving up to Crowe is nice.

Phone booth - stars 3/5 - The whole film is taken in a phone booth. The hero receives a phone call at a public phone booth and thats it, he can't hang up the phone neither can he stop talking to the caller because if he does he is dead. Though the movie starts with a slow phase, it becomes gradually gripping and thrilling and ends in a thrashing way.

Letters from Iowa Jima - stars 4/5 - About real incidents happened during world war II. This film tells the Japanese side of the story of what happened when Americans invaded the island of Iowa Jima. The film was taken from the letters Americans found at the empty caves of Iowa Jima. The bravery of Japanese and how they fought the loosing battle keeping their loyalty to the nation is shown very honestly even though its an American made film.

Flags of our fathers - star 4/5 - This part tells the American side of the story when they invaded Iowa Jima. A picture of a few American soldiers rising up a flag in Iowa Jima, gets published in the papers of America to give a boost to the war hit American people. The American military uses this opportunity and pulls out some soldiers at random to go around America and collect funds for the war, saying that they are the ones in the picture. The movie nicely captures the futility of a war and how truth gets swallowed up in it.

Still more to come,
PJT