75. KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (2005)

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN (2005)

Language               -       English (United States)

Genre                     -       War, Period Drama

Director                 -       Ridley Scott

*ing                        -       Orlando Bloom (Balian), Eva Green (Sibylla), Jeremy Irons (Tiberias)

IMDB Score          -      7.2/10

PLOT

                                        The movie takes place after 100 years since Christian armies from Europe seized Jerusalem. A knight who was fighting in the east for the Holy Land is returning in search of his son. He finds his son, Balian as a grief-stricken blacksmith due to the suicide of his wife. The knight asks him to join the force to get salvation from the Holy Land, but he rejects the offer from his father. But later he gets involves in a murder of a priest and flees towards his father. The knight is happy by the return of his son, so that he can continue his legacy, while Balian looks for salvation for himself and his wife in the Holy Land. But the destiny of Balian is to become the Defender of Jerusalem from the huge Muslim army who is looking for an opportunity to retaliate for the previous war.

MY VIEW

                                        Kingdom Heaven is another period drama from the acclaimed director Ridley Scott. It deals with the Crusades (Cross wars) between Christians and Muslims for the Holy Land of Jerusalem. The movie doesn’t give a proper idea of Crusades to a person, who doesn’t know much about the historical incident. It starts with the life of Balian, his rise from a poor blacksmith to chivalrous knight who became the defender of Jerusalem. So in the first half of the movie it lacks pace, as it only deals with the life of Balian. But in the second half, the story become more wide open with many characters and the rivalry between Christians and Muslims comes to take place.

                                        It was not a memorable performance from Orlando Bloom. He came to steal the scenes only during the final Battle of the movie. But on the other part Eva Green puts a better performance than Bloom. She shows the lust and love of Sybilla to Balian in the first half, while in the second half she depicted the helplessness of a mother and a queen. The antagonists in the movie was presented as a noble king, unlike other king who butcher their enemy he keeps his word in every scene and tries to avoid War with Christians even though he possesses huge army.

                              Graphic scenes in the movie does not comes to a quality, I felt the same problem with Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator” also. Fight choreography was only taken with average quality, because in many scenes it was not clear about the things happening during the war. But in case of costume it was outstanding each costume gave us a feel of medieval world. There were costumes for Templers, knights, Armies of Saladin which proves that they made proper research before starting this project. Ridley Scott even made a huge replica of Jerusalem in the deserts.

VERDICT

                           20^th century Fox marketed the movie as an action, adventure, drama but for Ridley Scott it was like a story showing the religious conflict. This move of the studio made a negative impact for the movie by gaining mixed reaction in Box-office and it didn’t perform well in US and Canada but made great collection in other parts of the world. Ridley Scott blamed himself on paying too much attention to Fox’s request to shorten the film by 45 minutes. As a result, he later released a director’s cut which gained positive response from everywhere. I saw his director’s cut and if you like to watch this movie; better go for the Directors cut.

Movie Trailer- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320661/videoplayer/vi2492727577?ref_=tt_ov_vi

74. I, TONYA (2017)

I, TONYA (2017)

Language                 -       English (United States)      

Genre                       -       Biopic, Drama, Sports

Director                   -       Craig Gillespie

*ing                    -       Margot Robbie (Tonya), Sebastian Stan (Jeff), Allison Janney (Lavona)

IMDB Score           -       7.5/10

• PLOT

                                  In 1970s at Portland, four-year-old Tonya Harding is forced to start her carrier in figure skating by her alcoholic and abusive mother. She spends every penny from her waitress job to make her child as the best skater in the world. Tonya made her mark in the age of 4 by winning competitions against children of twice her age, but that doesn’t make her mother to treat her child softly. She still demands more from her and continues her abusive nature towards her. This mental and physical torture from her mother makes Tonya to attract towards Jeff at the age of 15 and later marries him. But Tonya’s rebellious nature grows with her which makes her personal as well as professional life a total mess. Even though Tonya is a gifted child in the sports she lacked the grace, beauty and lifestyle of what had become known worldwide as the image of a lady’s competitive figure skater. But that doesn’t prevent her from trying to reach the greatest dream, “The Olympics”.

• MY VIEW

                                        I, Tonya is a 2017 biographical film by Craig Gillespie which deals with the life of American figure skater Tonya Harding and her connection to the notorious incident on attacking her rival Nancy Kerrigan. Being the first American women skater to perform a Triple Axel (the most difficult move in figure skating), but she doesn’t make it to legendary level athlete. This movie shows in a black comedy way of how Tonya fails in both her professional and family life. It can be considered as one of the best black comedy movies with a 90% rating in rotten tomatoes. It balances well between her personal and sports life. There are moments of athletic skating, drama of life and the rebellious cute love story between Tonya and Jeff. Both Margot Robbie and Allison Janney contributed their outstanding performance in the movie. But Janney made a step ahead than Robbie in her abusive mother role. Her “come what may” attitude creates a lasting impression in everyone’s mind. She won an Academy award for the best supporting actress role. Allison Janney filmed her Oscar-winning role in only eight days. More than from the side of acting, I was impressed by the perfection of skate techniques from Robbie. The work behind those impressive steps to portray Tonya in the movie really deserves an applause. Robbie know that she is going to feature the great skater in America’s history and to display her triumph card move the “Triple Axel”. Although Margot Robbie trained extensively for the role, she was not able to perform a triple axel, the jump was accomplished with the use of visual effects (But we would never realize it). From usual sports biopic movie, this one progress with the story and overlapping faux interviews of Tonya and other people in her life. It says the different perspective of people regarding Tonya’s life. Then it’s up to the audience to decide the real thing. The movie also had a lots of background music to enhance the ambience of each scene. Some of the tracks were used by Tonya herself for skating performances.

• VERDICT

                                        Harley Quin made a lot of fan base for Margot Robbie. If we still have the image of Robbie as Harley then it’s a best movie to watch. 

MovieTrailer- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5580036/videoplayer/vi4244617241?ref_=tt_ov_vi 

73.THE TOWN (2010)

THE TOWN (2010)

Language     -      English (United States)

Genre          -      Heist

Director       -      Ben Affleck

*ing             -      Ben Affleck (Doug MacRay), Jeremy Renner (James Coughlin), Rebecca Hall (Claire Keesey)

IMDB Rating- 7.6/10

PLOT

                           A gang of thieves robs a Bank and takes the Manager Keesey as hostage, in case of any crisis occurs. But they leave her into a beach an escape into their hometown, Charlestown in Boston. Later the friends understand that Keesey is living in their own neighborhood, so Doug Macray, the master brain behind all the robberies of the gang decided to monitor her. He gets close to her and falls in love with her.  Meanwhile, the FBI Special Agent Adam Frawley is assigned to investigate the heists to armored trucks and banks in Charlestown and he concludes that the thieves are the four friends. Doug is looking for a way to stop the robberies and start a new life with Keesey, while Frawley is looking for proper evidence to trap the gang.

MY VIEW

                     “The Town” is a classic American Heist film, which is adapted from Chuck Hogan's novel ‘Prince of Thieves’. It shows the life of Charlestown in Boston, a notorious place which was a breeding ground for Bank robbers and Armored car thieves. On the part of acting everyone does a descent job, but I was amazed by only one person and that is Jeremy Renner. I had seen Jeremy Renner only in a tough guy role like the ones in Avengers and Bourne, but here he reprises a bad ass punk who doesn’t care about anything and a troublemaker. He had even spent time with actual convicted bank robbers in Boston to get the accent for the role. There was an Academy Award nomination for his outstanding performance. For each robbery they use different types of mask and the most unique one was the mask with wrinkled face and nun’s veils.

VERDICT

                     It’s a good choice for all those who love heist movies, it’s a also a reminder to say that Affleck is one of the few directors in Hollywood who can make outstanding movies along with his contribution in acting.

Movie Trailer- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0840361/videoplayer/vi897975833?ref_=tt_ov_vi

                          

72. COLD SKIN (2017)

COLD SKIN

Language       -       English (France, Spain)

Genre             -       Horror, Mystery

Director         -       Xavier Gens

*ing                -       Ray Stevenson (Gruner), David Oakes (Friend)

IMDB Rating -       5.9/10

PLOT

                                In the year 1914, a young man arrives in an island to replace the position of a weather observer. The only other inhabitant in that island is Gruner, a Marine technician living in a watchtower. Gruner behaves strangely to the young man and says that his predecessor went missing in a day. As the Youngman started his life in the island by living in the house by the side of the sea, a mysterious creature attacks him in the night. He manages to escape from it and asked the help of Gruner but he neglects him, but in the next night it came with reinforcement and attacks him again. He sets fire and escapes from the nightmare. This time he offers ammunition, supplies and ration to Gruner so he allows him to stay inside. Gruner calls the young man as “Friend” The two man must defend themselves from the strange creatures. Under extreme tension, and without knowing the reason of the creatures attack they must survive with limited possibilities till the next ship lands.

MY VIEW

                                Cold Skin is a 2017 movie which is based on Albert Sánchez Piñol 2002 novel of the same name. It’s a slow movie which need some patience to watch, at the same time it creates some amount of tension in various portions. In the beginning it feels like a horror thriller later it changes into a survival thriller and last it becomes a drama. It begins strongly by developing tension in the story with strange creatures, but later it lacks pace. Cold Skin” never tells us much about “Friend” or the creatures or Gruner and feels like missing many elements. But it is filled with stunning visuals, and scenic beauty of island. The refreshing beauty of Canary Islands and Iceland is purely shown in the movie. It excels in the technical side of the movie.

VERDICT

                                It doesn’t get proper theatrical release and have low rating among many reviewing sites. But it is not such a bad movie. Some may find it as a different treatment among the movies which deals with monsters. If you approach this movie not as a typical huge budget Hollywood film, you may get a better experience.

Movie Trailer- https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1034385/videoplayer/vi943175705?ref_=tt_ov_vi