We don’t often think of Robin Williams as a dramatic actor. Instead, we see him as a funnyman on big or small screen. Even with his Oscar win for Good Will Hunting, we don’t really see him as dramatic actor. Robin Williams followed up his 1997 Oscar performance in Good Will Hunting with another dramatic role in What Dreams May Come. With budget of around $85 million dollars, What Dreams May Come was considered one of the more expensive films to be made in 1998. Usually, that kind of budget is reserved for big blockbuster action flicks instead of a melodrama/love story/supernatural story.

What Dreams May Come is a Drama, Supernatural, Fantasy, and Romance film rolled into one movie. The story is about a man named Chris Neilson, Robin Williams, who dies and goes to heaven. After the arrival, he finds out that his wife is not there to greet him. He finds out that she is in hell for committing suicide. He sets out on a journey to find his wife and somehow bring her to the heaven.
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he visuals are quite incredible by any standard. The mix of computer generated images and actual set pieces are simply outstanding. After the plots and acting, the visuals will remain with you longer than the other elements of this movie. That is not to say that movie was boring or stale. On the contrary, it was quite impressive watching Robin Williams travel through heaven and hell to save his wife from eternal damnation. Setting aside religious aspect of the movie, the overall story is about love between a man and a woman and their love for their child. Overall, this movie definitely deserved a Blu ray transfer.

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Without any previous knowledge about Micky Ward, you might find The Fighter to be a standard sports movie. The story of down and out underdog making it big is nothing new to the genre. However, if you are a boxing fan or a sports fan in general, you can’t help but love this movie. I recall all 3 Ward Vs. Gatti fights. They were 3 of the most epic boxing matches in recent memory. If you were a fan before the movie, you will most likely love the true story based on Micky Ward. While there are some embellishments, the movie stays fairly true to the overall life story of Micky Ward.

The plot is taken from the life story of Micky Ward. While it is a boxing movie, the most of the movie is about Micky’s relationship with his family. The story of his overbearing mother and his drug addict half brother who trains him in boxing. Micky’s brother, Dicky Eklund, is a local hero who used to box. However, he gets hooked on drugs and drags down Micky’s career. Micky decides to take control of his life with help of his girlfriend. While all this is fairly straight forward, the performances of the lead actors and actress set this movie apart from other typical sports movie.

Brilliant performances by Mark Wahlbert, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo are the reason why this is such a great movie. The stark contrast between Bale’s Batman role and the strung out addict in this movie is incredible. You will not recognize Bale at first. Mark Wahlbert is terrific as Micky Ward. The family conflict between the mother and brother is the main subject of the movie and such made great by the lead actors. One problem I had with the movie is the complete lack of Ward Vs. Gatti moments. While Micky Ward story is so much more than Gatti fight, the Gattif fight is what most people are familiar with. Never the less, The Fighter is one of the better sports movie in a while.

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With so much success with Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, it was no brainer for Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg to team up again for another war drama. This time, they decided to focus on the Pacific theater of the World War II. Aptly titled The Pacific, the drama follows several characters as they go from beginning of the war to the surrender of Japanese that marked the end of the war. Being a big fan of Band of Brothers, I had very big expectations when The Pacific was announced. Some have expressed little let down when compared to its predecessor. However, The Pacific is a very fine series even if it is very different from Band of Brothers.

While The Pacific does follow some central characters, it does not come close to Band of Brothers in terms of character driven war drama. We get to follow the Easy Company from start to finish in Band of Brothers. In The Pacific, the focus is on the entire Pacific theater of operation. This isn’t to say that there aren’t any character developments in The Pacific. On the contrary, we do get to follow central characters throughout the war. But the stark differences in the battle and battle conditions are clearly there for us to delineate Band of Brothers from The Pacific. For one thing, the weather plays big part in The Pacific. While we do see the bitter cold conditions in Band of Brother in few episodes, the constant rain and wet conditions permeate the island fighting from start to finish.

The realistic portrayal of war in Band of Brother is carried on by The Pacific. The producers of The Pacific pull no punches in depicting the horrors of the war. In one scene, we witness Japanese sending wave of civilians to be used as human shields. While the action and storytelling are excellent, I do feel like we missed out on getting to really know the central characters. The character development could have been better even with the wrap up on the series on the last episode. Overall, this is series that should not be missed by anyone. Buy it and watch it on every Veterans Day.

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Two Hollywood legends team up to tell the story of Nelson Mandela’s involvement with Rugby match. In Invictus, Clint Eastwood directs Morgan Freeman in the story about Mandela’s drive to bring the country together through the 1995 Rugby World Cup. To be honest, I did not need any prodding or selling to watch this film. I would watch a movie about paint drying if Clint Eastwood and Morgan Freeman were involved. It’s no secret Eastwood wanted to direct a story about Nelson Mandela. However, there are so many chapters of Mandela’s life that it would be close to impossible to tell life story of Mandela in a movie. So, Eastwood settled on Mandela’s involvement in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.

Based on true story, Invictus tells story of Nelson Mandela and the captain of South Africa’s Rugby team to unite the newly formed government in South Africa. After finally achieving a free election, President Mandela faced a tough task of bringing together the divided country in the wake of apartheid. Even with the end of apartheid, the mistrust between minority whites and majority blacks were just as prevalent. To bridge the gap, Mandela decides to push for the unity via backing of the South Africa’s national rugby team in the upcoming Rugby World Cup.

As stated earlier, the life story of Nelson Mandela couldn’t possibly be told in one movie. But, Clint Eastwood does admirable job of telling the overall story. While focusing on the Rugby World Cup, Eastwood does not forget the background setting. While you are interested in the Rugby World Cup, there is no mistake what the real story is. It is about Mandela and his drive to forgive and forge a new nation. You get glimpse of Mandela’s past and his marital problem. Eastwood does not shy away from both subjects. While there were some changes made from the real story, the overall story and plot does not stray far from the actual event. Overall, it’s a definitely a must see film.

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It’s always nice to see a great movie get the Blu ray release. Apollo 13 is a prime example of such release. Released back in 1995, Apollo 13 is one movie I’ve been looking forward to watching in high definition. Everyone can appreciate this human drama about space travel gone wrong. Even if you are not a science fiction or the history of space exploration, you should be able to appreciate the story. The film presents excellent performances and a very accurate portrayal of the events.

The movie is based on a true story about the 13th Apollo mission. The well known story is about the astronauts Lovell, Haise, and Swigert on the 13th Apollo mission that goes terribly wrong. The mission comes after several successful moon landing missions. The American public has grown little bored with the Apollo mission and has tuned out the latest one in the 1970. However, they are captivated and horrified when there is an accident aboard the space ship. The space ship has small accident which cripples the space vehicle. Stranded in space, the three astronauts must work together and somehow limp home.

Movies based on historical events tend to use a lot of dramatic license. The Apollo 13 stays very true to the original events. The director and everyone involved in the movie paid great tribute to these heroes by accurately portraying the events. No detail was too small to be included or over looked. The all star cast including Tom Hanks Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris deliver solid performances. You can really feel the desperation by the astronauts as well as all the people involved in the mission. This is a must for any movie collectors. You can watch this over and over and not get tired of the story.

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I’ve always enjoyed Kathryn Bigelow’s movies including the not so great K-19: The Widowmaker. She has great sense for action movies and it shows in her films. The Hurt Locker is no exception. She takes a very sensitive subject in Iraq war and makes a non political film. This is particularly refreshing as the liberal Hollywood tends to have very strong anti war messages in most of the war films. Instead, Kathryn Bigelow focuses on the character and the job he is entrusted to carry out. There is no political message on why we invaded Iraq or whether it was right or wrong.

The story is about soldiers who have to disarm bombs. This military job is one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Imagine walking toward the bomb when everyone else is running away from it. On a job to disarm a roadside bomb, the soldier assign to disarm it dies when the bomb goes off. Sergeant James is brought in as replacement. James has reputation for being reckless and wild. His approach is not appreciated by his subordinates at the beginning. The two subordinates think James is borderline suicidal. They go from one incident to another and face some incredibly dangerous situations.

Unlike some other movies, there is no one true evil villain in this movie. The movie portrays the dangerous job and the men who undertake the job. It’s part character study and part action movie. At the end of the movie, we don’t get the satisfaction of watching a cruel villain die or captured. Instead, we see the heroic efforts of our soldiers doing their best to survive and complete their jobs. While this might sound boring, the movie is anything but boring. The scenes are packed with suspense and action. There is not a single boring minute in the movie. I can honestly say this is one of the best war film I’ve ever watched in my life.

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As a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, I was little bit disappointed with his last two films. Kill Bill and Death Proof was a letdown compared to his earlier movies like Jackie Brown, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs. Nevertheless, I was excited to watch his latest film, Inglorious Basterds. Tarantino takes his shot at a World War 2 film in Inglorious Basterds. Inglorious Basterds is a different type of war movie. It is dark, violent, funny, and has tint of alternative fiction element. You really would not expect a conventional film from Tarantino. The overall premise borrows from previous war films for over all framework. However, Tarantino adds his own flavor to the movie.

The movie takes place in Nazi occupied France. The Nazis track down any French that harbor the Jews in order to exterminate them. In one such occurance, Jewish family harbored by their neighbor is slaughtered in the opening scene. Shosanna is the only survivor who runs away from Colnel Hans Landa’s atrocity. Years later, Shosanna plots her revenge when her theater is selected to show a film featuring a German hero. The high ranking Nazi officers and the Hitler himself is announced to attend the event. Meanwhile, Lt. Aldo Raine assembles a group of Jewish-American guerilla force to harass the German forces in France. They hear of the movie event and decide to take down Hitler and his officers.

The plot doesn’t sound like much. However, it’s Tarantino’s dark humor and style that makes the movie such a great experience. There are only small numbers of violent scenes. But, the scenes are funny and cringe worthy at the same time. The violent bar scene is one of the best action sequences in a war movie. The scene contains no CG or crazy explosion. Instead, the comical build up right before the violence and subsequent mayhem is pure Tarantino. Brad Pitt deserves some award for his portrayal of redneck Lt. Hell bent on killing Hitler. Overall, any fan of Tarantino should not miss this film.

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Sugar Blu Ray Review

The description and the movie trailer for Sugar would lead you to believe that Sugar is a typical sports movie when it is so much more. Sports movie tend to be formulaic and overly sugary to attract large audiences. It usually involves an underdog overachieving and beating the odds to become a champion or a winner. The directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck do the total opposite. They show the story of someone who is heralded yet fail to achieve the dream. The film shows what happens to 99.99% of the aspiring ball players who don’t get to live out the dream. While this may sound depressing and ultimately boring, it is actually a very honest and moving.

The story follows a Dominican baseball player named Miguel “sugar” Santos. Like many other Dominicans, he dreams of playing in the Major League. He plays for a baseball academy affiliated with a Major League team. His day is spent playing baseball and learning English in preparation for the call up to the Major League. After showing an impressive array of pitches, he is invited to spring training for the Kansas City team. There, he impresses enough to be called up to A league in Iowa. He goes through up and down season where he achieves great success and great failures.

It’s really an eye opening film for any baseball fans. As fans, we only see the success stories in the Major League Baseball. We don’t get to see the countless ball players who don’t make it to big league. Throughout the movie, I was waiting for Sugar Santos to come through and ultimately make it. It was little sad to see him not achieve so much given his background and all the expectation from the poverty stricken family. At the same time, you realize the movie is not about the few that make it big. Instead, it is meant to show the vast majority of the baseball players who do not make it big.

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After directing the award winning movie, Dances with Wolves, Kevin Costner turned in a stinker in Waterworld. Waterworld reported cost around $200 million to make and took in less than $90 in domestic market. Most critics blasted it as pretentious and terrible movie. This is why it’s little confusing to see him direct and star in The Postman, another post apocalyptic film similar to Waterworld. Some have penned it as a messiah complex for Costner’s portrayal of the leads in these movies. He seems like the savior in dire times where humanity is on the brink or in a dire funk. Never the less, The Postman is marginally better than Waterworld. The movie takes a lot of undeserved criticism because of Waterworld.

Based on a science fiction novel by David Brin, the movie is about our civilization in 2013. The society has all but collapsed due to wars. The collapse of the United States government causes its people to struggle in search of food and safety. Like Mad Max, various groups of gangs are formed and some of them are not so friendly toward other groups. One such group called Holnists, led by General Bethlehem, is bent on conquering all other groups. When one of the drifter, played by Kevin Costner, captured earlier escapes and stumbles on a deserted post delivery truck, he starts the con where he scams the mail recipients. This starts his role as “The Postman” who fights against Holnists and deliver hope to regular people.

There is nothing wrong with the acting. Overall, Costner and the company are very good especially the woman playing Abby, Olivia Williams. It’s the overall cheesiness and the length that ultimately brings the movie down from its epic aspiration. At 180 minutes, the movie is about 30 minutes too long and full of cheesy lines and plot devices. The plot is interesting enough but execution falls short for a film that had a great potential.

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Braveheart Blu Ray Review

Braveheart is Mel Gibson’s best movie, as director or as an actor. Mel Gibson’s first directorial effort, The Man Without a Face, was decent movie but nothing compared to Braveheart. Braveheart was an unexpected surprise in 1995. Mel Gibson was not an established director. Instead, he was very popular Hollywood actor who enjoyed a big popularity due to Lethal Weapon franchise. As far as my all time favorites go, this movie is definitely in the top 10. It’s a kind of movie you can watch from time to time and not get bored at any point in the movie.

The overall story is based on William Wallace’s fight against the English to free Scots in the 13th century. While not historically accurate, it does accurately represent overall story from the period. Mel Gibson plays William Wallace who is well educated Scottish peasant who witnessed the brutality of English rule in early age. He experiences the brutality once again as an adult when his secret wife is executed because Wallace did not want to share his wife with English nobleman. This sets off his thirst for revenge. He gathers a force and eventually kills the English lord. However, this is seen as a great freedom movement by his fellow Scots. Wallace reluctantly leads the army against the English rule.

What really stand out in the Braveheart are the battle scenes. Only Saving Private Ryan can compare to the brutal portrayal of the fight scenes. Sometimes it’s brutal and sometimes it’s downright horrific. Instead of gun fight in Saving Private Ryan, Braveheart seems more brutal because of the primitive weapons used during the fight. If the movie was all about fighting, it would not have been as good. Instead, the movie infuses a great story line of a single man who loses his wife. This movie should have been part of the early Blu-ray release. It is long overdue for a picture and sound upgrade.

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