Killing me with cleverness

I am not precious about Inception. After sitting through six hours of the movie, I came away feeling a little daft. I don't like movies that do that to me.
Inception is a bit like the bore at the bar who just can't stop trying to prove how clever he is while all you want is a barf bag.
I am a big Nolan fan but he should be locked up in Gotham. You let him loose in the real world and he can tire you with his cleverness.

My Name is Anil

Mr Johar, my name is Anil and I want my £10.50 and three hours of my life back.

And Mr.Johar, his name is Advait and he wants his money back too. He is clearly in deep post-Khan-Johar trauma.

Sherlock, stock and two smoking barrels

Guy Ritchie takes Conan Doyle's gumshoe by the neck and scruffs him up a bit. If you have grown up watching Jeremy Brett's Brylcreemed turn in the BBC series, Ritchie's dark art can startle you. It's an unwashed, cage-fighting Holmes, all sharp tongued and bare knuckled. The brain still ticks like a metrnonome but there is an unmistakable edginess to Ritchie's Holmes. And England never looks a more dangerous shade of grey than in a Guy Ritchie frame. Go watch Sherlock Holmes and listen carefully ... you can hear Sir Arthur Conan Doyle roll below the floorboards.

PS: Robert Downey Jr. was born to play rogue. Can't wait for Downey as Moses in Ritchie's Ten Commandments.

He's got Pacino eyes

The next time you watch Al Pacino do the Tango in Scent of A Woman, don't watch his feet, watch his eyes.

So long Patrick

A dead movie star is everybody's favourite movie star no Patrick?

Bastard with a T

Movie Alert: Inglorious Basterds

Tarantino messes with history, your head, makes you curse the ticket price and yet leaves you smiling. It's a huge exercise in self indulgence but it is still Tarantino. Basterds has all the not-so-secret Tarantino ingredients -- dark humour, dark banter, dramatic stand-offs and bright ketchupy violence. And it has Christopher Waltz doing a star turn as the self-annointed Jew Hunter.
Tarantino has done better but Basterds is still worth a look. A little thin around the script and gloriously infuriating.

Riddler on the roof

Do you always have to write within the fence of form and structure to make sense? I doubt so.

Absolute power doesn't absolutely corrupt? Big bad mafia chief is a family man. Never take sides against his family. There is always a prodigal son. And he always returns. If you live by the sword, you will die in a patch of tomatoes. There will be blood. Blood is thicker than water, especially if it's Sicilian vintage. Child is the father of man. All hail the new king. There is enough white space for a sequel and a remake in a faraway land.

Capisce?

Re-return of the dragon

Hollywood is making a new movie on the life and kung fu of Bruce Lee. I think that's pretty cool. Bruce Lee oozed cool. He was the lean mean fighting machine who introduced America to kung fu and Hakka noodle bowls. I grew up watching the man take down all manner of fighters including a very hairy Chuck Norris. My beef with Hong Kong is they haven't been able to produce a good enough Bruce Lee clone. Jackie Chan decided to be a bufoon and Jet Li decided to be Clint Eastwood. Can't wait to see who is going to play the original dragon.