20.DARK CITY (1998)

DARK CITY (1998)

Language- English

Genre-       Neo-noir, science fiction

Director-   Alex Proyas

*ing-          Rufus Sewell (John Murdoch), Jennifer Connelly(Emma)

PLOT

                                                              John Murdoch woke up in a bathtub and suffers from an amnesia, he founds the corpse of a women who was brutally and ritualistically murdered in his room. In that shock, he receives phone from a person who reveal himself as Daniel Schreiber, and asks him to flee from the room to escape from a group a people who is coming there to investigate. Eventually John finds various truths about him, that his name, his wife Emma and most importantly that he is a suspect for various murders happened around the city, though he cannot remember killing anybody. Later he confronts with a group of people (known as strangers) and realize that he possesses super powers which is known as tuning, which the strangers also possess and uses his ability to get away from them. He doesn’t know what is happening in and around him like everyone gets falls asleep at midnight, the city always remains in dark and when he tries to get the direction of his home land, shell beach- which is the only memory he owns, no one knows it. Even no one remembers their own past.

                                                            Dark City is a 1998 American neo-noir science fiction film, which was nominated for Hugo and Saturn Awards, and has become a cult film. It can be said that this is an unsung classic among the Hollywood movies. This is the forerunner movie for matrix and even the great director Christopher Nolan studies Dark city for his movie Inception. It lacks good action scenes and CGI, but on theme wise and screenplay its one of the masterclass. This will surely a worth watching movie for all those who love science fiction.

19.AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007)

AMERICAN GANGSTER (2007)

Language- English (United States)

Genre      - Crime, Drama

Director  -  Ridley Scott

*ing         -   Denzel Washington (Frank Lucas), Russsell Crowe (Richie)

PLOT

                                                           Frank Lucas is the right-hand person of Harlem crime lord Bumpy, he considered bumpy as his godfather and does many work for him. When Bumpy dies of a heart attack, he finds himself unemployed. So he decided to find a new way of living from the recent trend in American soldiers who were fighting in Vietnam, the use of drugs. He buys pure quality of heroin directly from the suppliers in the Thai forest (cut the suppliers were the main teaching of bumpy) and smuggled into U.S soil through returning Vietnam war service-men. He sells it under the name blue magic, through this new business Frank became the next bumpy of Harlem and blue magic become more prominent among all age groups due to its quality and low price. Richie, an undercover cop is appointed by captain Lou Tobeck with a mission to eliminate this new virus Blue Magic from America. Richie starts his investigation while the time Lucas is spreading his empire by recruiting his five brothers.

                                                            Ridley Scott, Denzel Washington, Russell Crowe these three names is enough to watch a movie without knowing anything about that. American Gangster is based on the true story of Frank Lucas, an unknown crime lord who is far beyond than the Italian Mafia during that time. It is undoubtfully one of the best gangster movie in the world, it’s a clear example of Scott’s craft as he was able to recreate the 60’s perfectly. Both Denzel and Russell were best in their roles. It will be in the class list after some years. But still there is an outcry that this movie is just  "one percent reality and ninety-nine percent Hollywood” from the real story.

18.THE KINGDOM (2007)

THE KINGDOM (2007)

Language- English (United States)

Genre-       Action, Thriller

Dir     -        Peter Berg

                                                 *ing-           Jamie Foxx (Fluery), Chris Cooper (Skykes), Jenifer Garner (Mayes)

PLOT

                                                      During a softball game in an American housing colony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a group of Al Qaeda terrorists lashed a massive assault on the innocent people by rapid firing and suicide bombing, which results in the death of large number of Americans and Saudis. When special agent Frank Manner calls his colleague Ronald Fluery (Jamie Foxx) to inform the incident a second massive explosion happens and results in the death of Manner.

                                                       Fluery made all his efforts to get into the Saudi soil to investigate the bizarre incident by overcoming the opposition from all bureaucratic personals. He made a team with  Special Agent Janet Mayes (Jennifer Garner), a forensic examiner, FBI analyst Adam Leavitt (Jason Bateman), an intelligence analyst, and Special Agent Grant Sykes (Chris Cooper), a bomb technician to carry on the investigation, but the Saudis where not at all cooperating with the FBI officials, they were not even allow to enter the crime scene or to make any forensic reports. Fluery finds a better officer among them and that is Colonel Faris al-Ghazi (Ashraf Barhom), the commander of the Saudi State Police Force. But except him they had to face all other odds to find the gang behind the massacre.

                                                               The Kingdom is a 2007 movie which is based on the 1996 bombing of the Khobar housing complex and the 2003 bombing of the Riyadh compound, from all other military based movies this happens to be stand off among them. Action scenes are very less when comparing with a normal military movie, but it  strictly follows its storyline and happens to be a good work. The climax scene in this movie conveys a great message that the fight between militants and the army is a never ending one.