Mirrors (2008)

Directed by: Alexandre Aja
Writers: Alexandre Aja (screenplay) & Grigory Levasseur (screenplay) et .al
Starring: Kiefer Sutherland (Ben Carson), Paula Patton (Amy Car-son), Cameron Boyce (Michael Carson)

Can anyone tell me if director Alexandre Aja has a fetish for remaking horror flicks. First he remade Wes Cavern's 'The Hills Have Eyes' to a considerable box office success. Now, in 'Mirrors' he turns to Korean horror for inspiration. Yes, yes, we are tired of Japanese ghosts, and we don't mind some Korean ones. But it was not to be. The story is purged of any oriental shadows. The film is set in New York, and later travels to a monastery somewhere in the interiors.
Are you expecting a firecracker of a horror flick? It's good news if you are not. You might just like the film. I did. It may not be fantastic, but the film has its moments, especially when the reflections on the mirrors refuse to leave even after the person has left the mirror, and these reflections have murderous intent. I have not seen the Korean version, but I'm sure, whatever Aja might have changed in the story, the ending is from the original. It's spooky. I'm not telling anymore.
Like all good horror stories about a hero with a haunted past, here too there's a disgrace cop from, where else, NYPD. Now, he works as a night ‘chowkidar’ at a burned-down building, which once was a swanky mall, which once was a mental hospital, where once there was a little girl with a serious problem. Oh, I am going ahead of the story.
So, our cop wants to find out what ails the place, why the mirrors shine when everything else in the place is dusty? Why the mirrors are showing him images from the past? Why the previous guard had run away?
You have to wait patiently till he finds the answers, or try to till, till the ghost/s in the mirrors come home to haunt his family.
The explanation is, if there's one, very flimsy. But Keifer Sutherland is believable. So is Paula Patton. Don't expect much and you will like the Aja fare.

— Dibyajyoti Sarma

The Hunting Party (2007)

Directed by: Richard Shepard
Writers: Richard Shepard, Scott Anderson (article)
Starring: Terrence Howard (Duck), Richard Gere (Simon Hunt), James Brolin (Franklin Harris)

The film begins with a disclaimer Only the most ridiculous parts of the film are true. As the film opens, we are in Bosnia in late 90s, covering the war, with Terrence Howard's Duck giving a voiceover, telling his story as a wartime video photographer, and the story of his reporter, Simon Hunt. Okay, get ready to enjoy a war movie. Phew! But this is not a war movie, it's a spy thriller. No, no, it's a revenge drama. Not at all, it's an action film. Never, it's a spoof on the so-called war against terror initiated by the US.
The idea is not to confuse you. The idea is to de-clutter your mind. If you are watching the film as one of the aforementioned genres, we request you to refrain from it. The film has all these elements, yet, it's a very, very fluid story, told with sympathy and bravado, with a care-a-damn attitude and good natured humour. It's an American film, and most critical of America, the CIA and its stand against terrorism.
The best part of the film, however, is the pairing between Howard and Gere, the way they look at each other, you would imagine they are lovers. Their chemistry is shimmering; it shows. And then, the narrative. As the film progresses you start to believe that the story is true, because it goes from one ridiculous level to another.
Before we proceed further, here's the story: Simon Hunt was a celebrated war reporters for a US TV network. Then one day, he snapped. (Later, we are told the reason, his pregnant Muslim girlfriend was killed by the war criminal named Fox.) Then he was sacked and disappeared from the radar. Cut to five years later. Duck is now a big-shot and travelling to Sarajevo to cover the fifth anniversary of the end of the war. Hunt catches up with Duck and he has a big story. He knows whereabouts of the Fox, the dreaded war criminal, on whose head the UN has put a $5 million bounty. So, begins the journey to interview the Fox, ostensibly, but you know, Hunt has other plans... Soon, all hell breaks loose when they are suspected to be CIA agents, until the real CIAs arrive.
It's suspenseful, it's hilarious, it's funny, with an UN officer of Indian origin eating doughnuts, a perpetually suspicious Russian, Boris, and a midget, which the end credits reminds us are all real...
Yeah, the film would have failed miserably had the director taken the task seriously. But he decides to have fun, at the expense of everyone else, the media, the UN, the US government, the CIA, and even the terrorists. See the film with an open mind and have a blast!!!

The X Files: I Want to Believe (2008)

Directed by: Chris Carter
Writers:Frank Spotnitz and Chris Carter et al
Starring: David Duchovny (Fox Mulder), Gillian Anderson (Dr Dana Scully), Amanda Peet (ASAC Dakota Whitney), Billy Connolly (Father Joseph Crissman)

I too want to believe. Seriously. But the problem is, how? Especially when you are surrounded by one impossibility after another. An ex-FBI agenct who thinks his sister was abducted by aliens (he means it, you see. He has the poster of the Third Kind movie at his home), a pheadophile turned priest turned occultist turned someone who cries blood, and can find the locations of missing girls, a doctor who thinks that she can cure a young boy by downloading information off the internet, through Google, a Russian who transport human organs and runs a shaddy lab something in snow-filled West Virginia apparently without any problem with the authorities. Welcome to the world of X Files.
It's starts like a The Silence of the Lambs redoux. Young girls are abducted. Then comes the twist, a twisted old man, the ex-pheodophile announes that he knows about the girl, not exactly they are, but that one of them, an FBI agent, is still alive. The bewildered FBI asks for help from good old Fox Mulder, who is now a loner, living somewhere in the jungle and Dana Scully, now a doctor, struggling to save the life of a young child from a rare disease.
Without breaking the code of 'spoiler alert', it's safer to say, the film is the good old version of the faith versus reason story, where ultimately faith wins. That why, in the beginning of the film, Mulder says, I want to believe, even if he finds the facts trifle absurd.
As a thriller, I Want TO Believe works to an extent, thanks to the performance of the cast, especially, Gillian Anderson as Scully, the rational voice of the film. In one sense, it's her story, her journey from faith to believe. In between, are all the red herring, some deaths, and some chasing and the finale. When it's over, and you leave the theatre, it's just another film. and just that...

Bond, Bond, bang, bang

Quantum of Solace (2008)
Directed by: Marc Forster
Writers: Paul Haggis,
Neal Purvis et.al.
Starrting: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric, Judi Dench, Giancarlo Giannini, Gemma Arterton

The first thing that surprised me about the latest James Bond adventure is the presence of Paul Haggis (of Million Dollar Baby, Crash fame) as one of the screen writers. What's in Ian Flemming's name is he doing here, an avowedly action fare. Then, it gives me some hope. Probably, we will see some subtleties in Daniel Craig's second outing. But that was not to be. This bond, as expected, is all bang, bang, from start to finish. And in between, there's close to nothing.
To begin with, it was not a very good idea to do a sequel to Casino Royale. Each Bond movie exists on its own terms, from film to film; each Bond girl is singular to Bond. That's the allure of the character from the days of Sean Connery. This time, however, Bond is on a rampage to avenge the death of his beloved from the last film, the beautiful Eva Green aka Vesper Lynd, and he would stop at nothing.
While we are at it, fasten your seatbelts tight, it's going to be one hell of a bumpy ride, around the world at that, from Spain to Haiti to Austria to Bolivia to Russia...
Here's is the story, written by Paul Haggis et. al. (you wonder why you need three screen writers to come up with a story like this; it's a film of an action director). Anyway, to begin with, there is nothing Fleming about the new bond, except for the title — Quantum of Solace. The story, itself, is convoluted at its best, creating space for one action set pieces after another. And, you don't really care. It was supposed to be a revenge drama, isn't it?
Not really. Despite moving considerably from the typical Bond fare, we will still need to have coherence. So, we have a new Bond villain, a man called Greene, who, under the garb of being a green crusader, is actually is a political mover and shaker, who wants to cash in on the water crisis in Bolivia; everyone's talking about global warming, shouldn't our Bond too? Then there are the Bond girls, two of them, as usual. But... Bond is in mourning remember, so he hardly gets the time to sleep around, except for a brief sequence with Gemma Arterton, or whatever her name is. She has such a minuscule role that you forget about her before the movie ends, this despite, she is used to reconstruct one iconic scene from a earlier Bond film, Goldfinger, even though it's black gold this time around. And how sadly the scene is executed!
Okay, our director is more interested in showing the action scenes. Yet...
The other girl, Camille in the film, gets to kick some ass. As a revenge drama, she complements Bond well, she too have some revenge to take, the killing of her family by a Bolivian general. So, we travel in Bolivia for the climax. Before that, a tour around the world. Oh, I forgot to mention, Italy too, where Bond hires the expertise of his friend and in the process get him killed. There are deaths galore in the film. Bang, bang... And unlike the previous Bonds, Craig does not wear his gadgets in his sleeves. In all likelihood, Q is dead and the new Bond is on his own. But his well-toned muscles are enough.
Writing about the movie, the critic in Salon.com goes all orgasmic about how Craig brings out the nuances of emotions to the Bond character. When reading the review, you almost agree with her. Craig is actually a great actor, despite his deadpan; his agility is marvellous; you almost believe all those punches he gives to his nemesis. Only if, we had a credible story.

Changed In Transaction

A Study Of How The Use Of The English Language In India, Especially In Cities And Among The Youth, Has Witnessed A Change In The Globalised World, With Special Reference To The Language Used At The Call Centres And The BPO Industry

The Proposal

Hypothesis

The proposed research stems from the hypothesis that language as a human phenomenon is constantly in a flux and is constantly changing. We do not speak or write the way our grandparents used to speak and write, in whatever language it may be. The current study strongly believes that language is ever evolving, and attempts to study how that change is happening ‘right now,’ especially in the context of the so-called ‘global village’ we live in.

The focus of the language here is English, especially English used in Indian cities. At the dawn of the new century, after the concept of business process outsourcing become a household name in India, in the last 10 years or so, the use of English language in India has gone a drastic sea-change. The present study proposes to understand this change.

It has been a give-and-take situation for the people working at the call centres, where they assume a different personality, complete with a different names, and different accents. Now, an Indian, who is used to distinct type of English deal with this situation? How his acquiring of the new style of speaking (US English, complete with the mannerisms, and that too with varied accents for various US regions, for example) affect his personality and his use of the English language outside the premises of the call centre. After calling up a US client, how would he talk to his Indian friend?

The researcher is aware that the study falls more under cultural studies than language. But the research seeks to under the phenomena through the theories of the use of language, especially socio-linguistics.

The Route To The Study (The Tentative Chapterisation)

Chapter One
The Language Theories

Ferdinand de Saussure: Course in General Linguistics
Structuralism/ Post-Structuralism
Theories of Socio-linguistics: There are several; The researcher will select a few

Chapter Two
The Current Happenings

The language used at call centres: A detailed study complete with data and analysis

The linguistic background of call centre employees before joining the call centre: A detailed study complete with data and analysis

The change that occurred to the call centre employees after working at the call centre after a year or so: A detailed study complete with data and analysis


Chapter Three
The Findings

What are the changes found and in what areas: A detailed study with data and analysis (Analysis would be done using the theories studied in Chapter One)

How other factors such as economic background, educational background, sex, age, demographic background and so on affect these changes

Chapter Four
Conclusion

The researcher’s comment on the finding and probable prediction for the future

'The Departed' in the time of terrorism

Traitor (2008)
Director: Jeffrey Nachmanoff
Writers:Jeffrey Nachmanoff (screenplay); Steve Martin
Starrting: Don Cheadle (Samir Horn), Guy Pearce (Roy Clayton), Saïd Taghmaoui (Omar), Archie Panjabi (Chandra Dawkin), Jeff Daniels (Carter)

Mainstream Hollywood has a major problem. In its eagerness to please the audience, it actually leaves them dissatisfied. This is what bugs the Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce starrer 'Traitor.' What could have been a gripping tale of our time, the story of global terrorism, told in the fashion of a nail-biting thriller, a la 'The Departed,' loses all its sting when director (also the story and screenplay writer) goes all the way out to make our Sudan-born and America-raised Muslim protagonist Samir Horn a hero, literally and figuratively, and prove to us that all Muslims are not bad, after all, and, hear, hear, Uncle Sam knows this.
The story begins in Sudan, 1978, when a young Samir sees his father go up in smoke after a bomb blast. Now, in Yemen, he sells explosives to whoever may be interested. He is caught by the Yemeni police and is put into jail. Here, he meets a terrorist, Omar, with whom he escapes to France, then to Canada and US, making bombs and blowing up buildings. You feel like you are watching a James Bond or a Bourne movie, only that Don Cheadle makes things more convincing. So, we know how the Muslim population all over the world are brainwashed into anti-American tactics.
Yes. Cheadle's Horn feels guilty about killing people. But there are not real attempt to understand how global terrorism works, only that there are some people who are using unsuspecting youths.
Then comes the twist. It's not really a twist. Somehow, you know this all along. Samir may be a devout Muslim, but he is not a terrorist. He's the 'rat,' remember 'The Departed.' Then his source in the FBI is killed. 'The Departed' again. Now, what would Samir do? Remain a terrorist or listen to his conscience?
Guy Pearce's return to mainstream after a long time is a sort of waste. The talented actor (remember 'Memento') has nothing much to do as a FBI agent other that travelling the world in the trail of Samir and finally act as an agent to prove Samir's heroism.
It may sound silly, but the film is not actually very bad, especially when you do not have much expectation from Hollywood. At least, it keeps you engrossed. Other thing that works for the film its minimalist approach. A far cry from summer blockbusters, the film keeps its profile as low as possible. And with a competent actor like Don Cheadle in the lead, you do not complain as long as the film is running.

Rating *** out of *****

P. S. Two years ago, if someone told you that the next American president would be a half-black, half-American with a Muslim name, you would think this as a improbable proposition. Now, Barack Obama wins the election, and in a moment, everything has changed. Now, everything is possible. Even the idea of a raceless world!
P. S. 2. I may be biased about the film. Because I simply adore Don Cheadle. Even in silly movies like the Ocean's trilogy.