Rebel Without a Cause

Took a break from the mundane.. found old alma-mater stuff.. box in the attic.. came across old DVD collection.. pulled out East of Eden & Giant and relished them over the imperious afternoon.. reminiscent of the days influenced by James dean, the who, Led Zeppelin.. Yell Rebel!.. typical teenager, caught at the crossroads where no one understand you..

Coming to the movies..East of Eden, Paul Osborn's adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel of the same name is one of Kazan's (On the Waterfront, A Streetcar Named Desire) richest films and James Dean's first significant role, part of his short but resplendent career and is arguably his best performance. The film aptly depicts the interaction between Dean and his father (played by Raymond Massey) as the quintessential generational conflict. Dean's performance in the film portends his role as Jim Stark in Rebel Without A Cause. Both characters are angst-ridden, protagonists and misunderstood outcasts, desperately craving approval from a father figure. It can also be interpreted as Kazan's updated re-telling of the Biblical story of rival brothers, Cain and Abel and a paradise lost. All characters do justice to the movie. Julie Harris as Abra is great and Jo van Fleet as Kate (Dean's mother in the film) won the Academy award for best actress in a supporting role.

Giant, I remember having watched before in my early teens, has Dean play a supporting role to legendary actors Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson, and standing on his own with remarkable grace and ease. His role in Giant is in quite contrary to his earlier roles as Jim Stark and Cal Trask, typical teenage rebel in his earlier films. Here he plays Jett Rink, an oil rich Texan and his effort is great as he seamlessly portrays both the young energetic and an older version of his character with ease. In one scene, Dean dyed his hair gray and shaved some of it off to give himself a receding hairline. Giant was Dean's last film due to his untimely demise in car crash in 55.

Dean's enduring fame, popularity and iconic status lies on these three films with his death at an early age cementing his legendary status.

Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

Went for a luncheon and later ended up watching this flick, and family enjoyed it. Much better than part-I, this one has a tight storyline starting with Silver Surfer crashing Reed & Sue's wedding and to wreak havoc across the globe, leading to its ultimate destruction by Galactus, dramatic return of Dr. Doom and finally the F4 with help from Silver Surfer saving the earth.
Dr. Doom is a hit-and-miss as the silver surfer enjoys most of the focus. There is good humor provided by Johnny Storm and The Thing. The Galactus-side of the story seems interesting but probably needed more exploration.
The SFX are much improved and much improved storyline make the movie enjoyable, specially to watch with kids.

Die Hard 4.0: Live Free or Die Hard (2007)

Caught John McClane [JMC] (Bruce Wills) in all the Die Hard 4.0 action this Friday, opening night show. If you are wondering whether you should watch this flick - my suggestion is certainly/+vely YES! Specially, for all Die Hard fans and action movie buffs.
The entire movie in totality gels and amalgamates into a great overall experience; although may seem to be a bit clumsy and not all that fine in disintegration.
It has abundant amount of kick-ass stunts (some of them have actually been performed on streets rather against some green backdrop), thrills, comedy with a storyline built on a plot to wreak the entire US utility, telecommunications, transportation…infrastructure and control the entire financial data (Its always about the money) by a group of cyber-terrorists led by Timothy Olyphant and Maggie Q. The rest is how JMC, an analog entity in the digital world with the help of Justin Long his hacker sidekick save the day.
You definitely can't miss out the trademark McClane quick & witty humor and bone crunching action (Stunt double of Wills did get injured while performing a difficult stunt for the movie).
There is good chemistry between Wills and Justin Long (The "I'm a Mac Guy" you can catch on Apple commercials & earlier seen in Herbie Fully Loaded, Jeepers Creepers) and their on-the-run byplay gives each scene the added X-factor.
There were occasional applause from the audience especially when JMC brings down a helicopter with a car, Fight with Maggie Q & when his kidnapped daughter is told by the villain (Tim Olyphant) --- to make him understand that he is fighting a loosing battle, she quips - "There are only 4 left now, Dad!"; however the F-35 taking on McClean in a Semi & him riding it to the ground was something I thought a bit over (reminiscing of Arnold in True Lies with a Sea Harrier).

So go ahead and have fun. Thumbs Up from me! Yippee-ki-yay!!!

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (2007)

Although AWE may seem to have a convoluted, intermittently inexplicable narrative, it's worth seeing for the jaw-dropping action, the doses of humor and special effects, swashbuckling adventure and of course the star power of Johnny Depp, Knightley, Rush, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Chow Yun-Fat and a host of other talented actors who utter their lines with great enthusiasm & gusto, even if they're dripping wet and pretending to do battle with computer-generated creatures.
Keira Knightley comes out with probably the strongest performance as her character, Elizabeth Swann reprises in its true element. Rest of the cast manages to hold their presence though tending to loose themselves in the clutter of too many characters (It is evident that the director-Gore Verbinski is not sure what to do with most of them). Chow Yun-Fat as the sneering Singapore pirate lord Sao Feng, Jack Davenport as Admiral Norrington are prominent ones. The plot weaved between Davy Jones (Bill Nighy, under a wriggling mass of Computer Generated tentacles) and Calypso (Naomie Harris) shreds off, Bloom as Will Turner is mostly in the background. Depp as Jack Sparrow is great as always and the scene involving multi-Jack Sparrow's are one of the best moments in the film. Depp and Geoffrey Rush as the rip-roaring Captain Barbossa are treat to watch.
The story may seem to frustrate, but the acting and the visual effects and the overall scene never tends to disappoint.
Great to watch movie, we enjoyed it. Word of advice, just enjoy the impressive blend of live action work and CGI wizardry, don't spend too much of effort in understanding the story.

Ocean's Thirteen (2007)

Lot of insistence from my wife finally made us catch Ocean’s 13 and we didn’t regret it. The movie is all heist, high style presentation wonderfully shot and witty, quite enjoyable. The plot starts with Al Pacino (Willy Bank) a Vegas big shot hurting one of the original Ocean’s gang members, leading Ocean to put his team back together for one more heist and target the casino owner Willy Bank, and bring him down.
Pitt & Clooney perform as expected with effortless charm while Matt Damon, Andy Garcia, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin, and Al Pacino, as the scrappy villain; hold on their own making the experience worth watching. The sparring between Pitt [Rusty] and Clooney [Ocean] is great, especially when Rusty teases Ocean, referring to the pounds Clooney gained for Syriana. "Keep the weight off," Ocean replies back "Settle down, have a couple of kids," with a real life reference to Pitt & Joile, which can’t be missed.
So just make yourself comfortable in the theater chair and enjoy the movie.