Burn After Reading (not the film)
Thought that should be done to a script we (a dear friend and me) had worked on for the past few months. A lot had gone into it and the results were a disaster of Quantum proportions. Need to burn it down and throw it out of my system.
Wanted a let out……watched a few films. Random. Some Back to back ….
Body Of Lies – Whoever thought it was bad…..damn!!!! A film in essence which was all about making this one guy make a phone call. In Hindi Filmdom terms…saari qaynaat jud gayee uss ek phone call ke liye….superb. Loved it.
People accuse Scott of giving a raw deal to his Gladiator star…he made him munch all that cheese for a role that required him to be stuck to a phone!!! I thought it was Crow’s best in recent times.
Memento – In search of John.G. This time I saw it….it was spiritual. We all are in search of that one elusive JOHN.G. The motivation to live, that goal to achieve…..one JOHN.G killed, you want another one….the chain goes on…..
some great lines……Worth scribbling down…..
“how can I heal? How am I supposed to heal if I can’t… feel time?”
“She’s gone. And the present is trivia, which I scribble down as fucking notes.”
“You mix your laundry list with your grocery list you’ll end up eating your underwear for breakfast.”
“Can’t I just let myself forget what you’ve made me do. You think I just want another puzzle to solve? Another John G. to look for? You’re John G. So you can be my John G… Will I lie to myself to be happy? In your case Teddy… yes I will.”
“Now… where was I?”
City of Violence – Just can’t keep Korea out of this right. What’s new? nothing but was a great let out. A sense of Nostalgia. This was sans Korean Gore….. just some cool oriental guys with fast fists and faster legs……as in my childhood…after I saw the film…..saw the last 15 minutes of action again thrice. These guys never tire…..they keep kicking ass till the final duel with the main villain after walking over 100 bodies in a matter of 10 minutes. That’s when one has some time to pause and mouth a few priceless one liners as blood flows out of thy mouth…..the finale…. A top shot of the dead and the limping…..soothing oriental music……just love this genre….uncomplicated and hi octane….
American History X – EDWARD NORTON. Had seen Primal Fear a long time ago. Forgotten all about it till I discovered an alternate religion. FIGHT CLUB…. ….from the puffy eyed meek cubical geek he is here unleashed as a skinhead….racist……almost does a Tyler Durden here, his alter ego…..in Fight Club. What a transformation!!!!!! …Love him.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest – Always a pleasure to revisit a young Jack Nicholson. Just a reaffirmation as to why he was chosen to play the Joker in the first place…..and why Thani keeps saying when we call Heath Ledger’s Joker God……Ledger just did what Nicholson has been doing over the years…..it was just taking pieces from Nicholson’s performances over the years. Can’t disagree with Thani here.
Burn After Reading –Clooney-Pitt….they make me wonder……BRAD PITT one of the biggest stars….so effortlessly slips into a role tailor made for a Ben Stiller. Gets blown off mid-way…..and is ready to play the “SHIT”….this is great SHIT man……super SHIT….High Intelligence SHIT man…..
Just wondering……What SRK is doing in Rab Ne bana Di Jodi….almost looks like a Mithilesh from Main Meri Patni aur Wo. An SRK would never have done it if a Chandan Arora went with that script…..but then the Pitts and the Clooneys do it for the Coens and the Soderberghs……
Quantum of Solace – Bond, Bloody Bond……..those aren’t razor cuts on his face…..forever bruised and spoiling his tux. This Bond is accident prone. A new Grumpy Bond……almost reminding me of another Norton film…The Hulk….forever grumpy and angry……musing over this girl…….
Hot Bond Girl with a Kill Bill past…….her father was killed before her eyes….mother and sister raped in front of her…the house was set on fire….she escaped…..vengeance is her bane of existence….she has to find her John.G too.
And for Bond….this pretty much sums the film.
M: It’d be a pretty cold bastard who didn’t want revenge for the death of someone he loved.
Bond: I don’t think the dead care about vengeance.
Forget saving the world and the big threat here……the grand finale is in an empty desert…almost a Kung-Fu franchise finale…2 one-on- ones intercutting with each other…Bond and his nemesis….Bond Girl and her vengeance…..would actually not mind this Bond venture run in reverse chronology…… ending with that breathless 30 minutes of action…….with which it starts.
Anyways more power to the new Blond Bond……
Whew!!!! I feel much better now.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Good list of Movies there Vasan. Love Memento, and American History X.
For me Ed Norton is one of the most underrated actors. That guy has some splendid performances Primal Fear, American History X, The Illusionist, Fight Club. In Primal Fear in fact he totally dominated Richard Gere.
Not seen Body of Lies, but will check it out soon. I like Crowe always, but Ridley Scott, of late has not beeen too good.
One Flew is an all time classic. Jack Nicholson is just fucking awesome in it.
i loved Body of Lies……
Russel crowe and Leonardo…..both did well..
though Leonardo gave me a deja vu feeling…..his performance seemed to be a mix and mash of Blood diamond and The Departed……but was effective…….
and the actor who played the chief of jordanian spy agency was brilliant…….
this movie was worth the ticket price….infact i liked it more than American Gangster….
Body of Lies is definitely a good one….intricately plotted….well acted not only by the leads…but sometimes the supporting players do better….a very good political thriller…..in Ridley Scott’s body of work…this is on the same level as American Gangster.
Burn After Reading….well the Coens strike again…a good Thriller Comedy, though not on par with Fargo…still its awesome…and the last scene is the best IMO
Memento and One Flew are certified classics….which leaves Quantum of Solace….which I could say I enjoyed much ….was a letdown after Casino Royale…..plot is a bit silly…although action is pretty good.
Loved the interpretation of Memento… Never thought like that (about a personal John G. for everyone)
Cant stand One flew over cuckoo’s nest – just like 2001: a space oddessey, Taxidriver etc… Dont get the big deal about them, actually… (except maybe 2001, but it was toooooooo slow to actually give another shot)
As for Ed Norton, to think about the (physical and mental) transformation he must have gone through to have done Fight Club immediately after American History X! And both such amazing performances! Became a big time Ed Norton fan post these two movies… Can think of only Christian Bale in recent times to have surpassed that amount of transformation (from 54 kgs for The Machinist (a wonderful movie must say) to 90+kgs for Batman – so tells the wiki).
the dildo scene was the only scene that really made me laugh in burn after reading
anyways i liked the lady killers a lot more i just think theyre getting a lot more praise for nothing just because they won the oscars etc
Vivek I loved Lady Killers too…..my fascination with these kind of attempts like BURN AFTER READING are the irreverent cameos by the Big League Superstars. Just love the way they work as a group….and generally have FUN making movies.
rbehemoth – Memento grew with every viewing for me…LOVE IT…SIMPLY LOVE IT…..and the cyclical search for John.G just seems so apt. applies to each one of us.
TAXI DRIVER I loved…..I differ over there.
Hi Vasan- Can you send me the script that you gave up on…I would like to read it. I’m at anbharadwaj(at)yahoo(dot)com
I just realised that I haven’t watched a single Korean action film!!! Which is highly weird, considering that Taekwondo is from Korea and contains the most beautiful kicks. Yeh City of Violence mujhe visit karna hai.
I love Ed Norton. He makes acting look so easy, so effortless. Special mention: loved seeing him as a villain in The Italian Job.
another norton fan here.. if you want a different look at norton, check out “the painted veil”.. naomi watts and china have never looked more beautiful.
Another Norton movie highly recommended is Spike Lee’s 25th Hour.