LTR: Bret, Jemaine and Murray (Image from: IMDB)

Flight of the Conchords, regardless to it’s weired name, is one of the best TV series in comedy genre I’ve ever seen. This sitcom (situation comedy) TV show, that at the first glance make us sure that there is not a huge crew behind the camera, is about two Newzelanders (Jemaine and Bret) who are experiencing their professional life in America. They live together, they love together, they travel together and more important, they play and sing together. Yes, this TV show is a story of two young musicians who are being managed by a third Newzelanders (Murray). They use simplest probable and sometimes stupid situations to make jokes and their weired way of acting and their simplicity help them in this regard. The exaggerated Newzeland accent plays a key role in making confusions and forcing supporting characters to react unusual (e.g in one of the episodes an Indian guy rejects selling them fruits just because of their accent that reminded him of Australian people!). One of their persistent concerns in making love. (They started first season with this question that how…), though they keep complaining about everything all day long even at night when they are in their beds (that surprisingly are two single beds in the same room!!!).

In general, I can say, this sitcom is a kind of TV series that either you hate it or love it (like watch all 12 episodes of first season in a row!!) and I don’t think there could be a third kind of judgment in between!

Here is the link of Conchords in IMDB.

–Hamid–

This one is really splendid. One of the best I’ve ever seen. Another great work of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski. I hope you have already watched “The three colors; Blue, White, Red” -exactly in the order I mentioned- to be familiar with his works. But “Blind chance” is something different. The theme of the film is about the … OK I’m not going to tell you about that right now but the story is about a young man who studies medicine has a girl friend and altogether a normal life. Then his father tells him an incomplete sentence just before he dies. Something like “Don’t …” But the young man is not sure what exactly his father wanted him not to do. Does he mean don’t continue studying medicine? Don’t go in politics? Don’t marry your girl friend? Afterward he decides to go to a journey and from this point we see three different stories about what will happen to him depending on if he catches the train on time or if he cannot be on time for the journey. And in the latter case if he simply accepts this fact that he was late and could not get into the train or he shows anger for being late. This simple turning point of his life ends in completely different destinies. The stories covers his life from this train journey to a plane journey at the end of all three stories but what happens between these two points are totally different and the reasons for the last journey are also different.When we look at this point carefully we’ll be amazed how big could be the results of very small decisions that we make sometimes even without being aware of them and also maybe there is no so-called the best decision because each decision may have some contrary results.I strongly recommend watching this movie and thinking about that to whom they like movies which have ideas to share with the audience. Maybe it’s not very easy to find the DVD but believe me it worth. By the way if you are into action or mystery films, this is not a right choice for you. It’s just a simple story about mankind and life.Interested in “Blind chance”? Click here.

–Ahmad–

First time that I saw this movie I thought it’s one of Tarantinio’s work because of its simple and realistic story. I was almost shocked when I saw Sam Raimi’s name as the director. Anyway, the film is about the greed of man and the things that man is ready to do to fulfill this greed. Hank (Bill Paxton) who lives with his wife and expects a child finds a crashed plane together with his brother and a friend. In the plane they find a bag full of money (4 milion dollar). Hank takes the money home to share it later among the three and find a suitable way to spend it but his wife is not in favor of sharing and always tempts him like a devil. On the other hand hiding that large amount of money is not very simple and they have to attempt very hard to keep their secret even if it requires murder. Making difficult decisions is the second theme of the movie, decisions that one finds the best in a specific situation but turn on to be maybe the worst at last.Maybe the film cannot be rated as a masterpiece but I was attracted by the simplicity of the story line. During watching the film I was really convinced that, this could happen to me and I was thinking that what I would do in that situation.

 This is the IMDB link for the film. Enjoy it!

–Ahmad–

Womanising chef, Will Keane (Gere) lives abreast of his time. He doesn’t believe in “forever” and shies away from committing himself to anyone. His attitude changes when he meets a beautiful young designer Charlotte (Ryder), an orphan raised since birth by her cantankerous grandmother, Dolly (Stritch).

Will and Charlotte overlook their obvious age difference - he is 48, she is 22 - but their friends and family warn them about getting too involved. Dolly is especially cautious (who knows Will from his earlier encounter with Charlotte’s mother), as is Will’s top bartender John (LaPaglia) and both of them try to persuade Will to give up the relationship. The dates, which are not particularly erotic due to routine staging and also weak chemistry between Gere and Ryder, serve mostly as platforms to propagate differing philosophies and intergenerational clashes. “I’m too old for you,” Will says, time and again, to which Charlotte replies, “I specialize in antiques.” The dialog seldom goes beyond this level of “edginess” and “sophistication.”Will indulges his interest in Charlotte, expecting yet another quick and easy romance. But nothing-about Will and Charlotte’s encounters are quick or easy; instead they are rife with intergenerational clashes, differing philosophies and an inexplicably urgent sense of sensuality and connection. Then, just as Will attempts to escape from the relationship with his usual line about “not promising forever,” Charlotte provides a surprise response: she has her own reasons to believe in things those absolutely can’t last. Oblivious to the pitfalls, the pair fall in love, but their happiness is short-lived when Charlotte is diagnosed with a life-threatening heart disease. Will’s life is changed, and he rushes around trying to find some medical miracle or plot device which might be able to save her.She turns down the slender chance offered by a risky operation, and decides to die in the arms of the man she loves.

Here is the IMDB page link from this movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0174480/

xxGhazALxx

Image from IMDB website

The Fountain is a fantasy movie which its story happened in three different time periods each 500 years apart from the other. 500 years ago, present time and 500 years later in three different places.

The story deals with the concept of life and eternity. It tries to challenge these concepts in different aspects, Tree of life as a symbol of eternity, Cancer as a symbol of death and researches done to fight with this symbol (that is shown as fighting with some evils to reach the tree of life in the other time period) are some of these aspects. The story talks about love as a context of all events in all three time periods. As a motivation of fighting to reach the tree of life. It shows this concept in different ways, like taking care of a lover who is suffering from cancer or working hard in research laboratory.

Watching this movie will make you think deeply about the concept of life, existence and eternity.

The Fountain is directed by Darren Aronofsky in 2006. It’s categorized as a Sci-Fi,Drama and Romance and was nominated for Golden Globe film festival.

Regardless to some computer graphics used in this movie, I can say it’s not a great movie in terms of technique or story line but if you want to challenge some predefined concepts such as life, I recommend you to watch it.

–Hamid–

Insomnia is the second important film directed by Chris Nolan. He showed his talent in his first movie Memento, an extraordinary movie with unusual chronological order. Insomnia is a rebuilt of a Norwegian movie with the same name but here the Chris Nolan’s direction and of course the Al Pacino’s acting makes it memorable. The story takes place in Alaska where a murder has occurred and local police was not able to solve it and two detectives from Los Angles come for help. It’s not just another cop story, because here the murderer (Robin Williams) knows something about the past of the detective (Al Pacino) so sometimes you wonder who the murderer is and who the detective is while both of them are carefully watched by a local cop.The name of the films comes from this fact that in Alaska in that part of the year the sun doesn’t go down and it never gets dark so the detective can not simply go to sleep due to the light. Or one can conclude that his insomnia is because of this reason that “A good cop can’t sleep because he’s missing a piece of the puzzle. And a bad cop can’t sleep because his conscience won’t let him.”

One of my most favorite scenes in this movie is at the end of it when Al Pacino is going to Robin Williams house in a desolate road with no sign and no other car and he is severely suffering from insomnia, at one second he imagines that he is going to crash another car and he pushes the brake and his car turns several times and then he doesn’t know which direction he has come from and which direction should go now.

Here is the IMDB page link from this movie

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0278504/

Watch it and enjoy a good exampe of this genre! 

–Ahmad–

This movie has won academy award (Oscar) last year as best foreign language film.

image from IMDB web site.

The story starts in East Germany 1985 and continues after the downfall of the Berlin Wall. It’s a story of a screenplay writer and an actress as a couple who are monitored by Stasi (GDR’s Secret Police). The East Germany government believed they should know everything about everyone in the country. Everything about “Lives of Others” , so they used to hire handreds of thousands of people and train them to monitor country population. This movie is about a change. We can see falling down of the Berlin Wall as a symbol of a change in one of those monitor guys who plays the leading role of the movie. He was impressed by the writer’s philosophy and idealogy and the love and faithfullness of his girlfriend (the actress, who was pushed to have relationship with the minister of cultural affairs). In this movie I believe beside the strong story and the great job that has done, I think they tried to somehow convince audiences about western democracy and freedom and I believe that helped them a lot to win Oscar, though I admire the strong play of the leading role (Ulrich Mühe) of the movie and the story (by: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck).

It’s categorized as Political “Thriller” and “Drama” and is in Gernam language. You can watch it using English and French subtitles.

In general, I recommend you to watch this movie. It’s a deep amalgamation of Love story, Politics, Sociological issuses and History.

The official movie webite: Click Here
IMDB page for this movie: Click Here

–Hamid–

First of all I gotta say that this is neither the best nor my most favorite movies that I’ve ever seen but simply the last one. I remember that I’ve heard about it when it was released but never had enough motivation to watch it. And now after about 2 years I had chance to watch it last weekend. The movie is great for those who like riddles and puzzles and also for people that are interested in the history of Christianity and religions. Somehow it reminds me of “Last temptation of Christ”, the masterpiece directed by Scorsese. I know that maybe some Christian friend would not agree with me in this, but I’m looking at it from art point of view.

One of my most favorite quotes in this movie is one of the last sentences actually said by Robert (Tom Hanks): What really matters is what you believe. And the director emphasizes on this quote by repeating it twice and also with the last scene of the movie. And another one: “Why is it human OR divine? Can’t human be divine?” also said by Rebert.

In spite of lots of positive points in this movie and also brilliant story, the film, in my opinion, is suffering from a few drawbacks also. One of them is that Sophie (Audry Tautou) is not a real help in solving almost any riddles though she is a cop and happens to be in Cryptology department. Anyway, I’ll suggest you to watch this movie at least once although I watched it two times completely and even some scenes several times and I can tell you it worth.

And finally this is the IMDB link for the movie:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382625/

–Ahmad–

A while ago, I saw the “About Schmidt” movie. This movie is a great one that I recommend everybody to see it. Seeing more than once is highly recommended! ;o)

This movie deals with one of the main questions, the philosophy of life. Why we live? What will happen when we pass away? The movie can be categorized in comedy/drama genre but it’s not a real comedy or drama. Imean it can neither make you laghing out load nor crying!

The last ten minutes of this movie I believe, is the ten golden minutes. All of the conclusion could be achieved in this 10 minutes.

Here I want to write down one of those golden sentences narrated in last ten minutes by Jack Nicholson as Mr. Schmidt:

What in the world is better because of me?

–Hamid–

We, (Ahmad and Me) are supposed to write down about all the movies we’ve already seen and those we are gonna see here. We try to impart our conclusions and feelings and whatever we understood from those movies. I hope we can do a good job here. We will change the appearance after a while as soon as we find a good template relative to cinema stuff.
Your comments can help us improving here, so don’t deprive us of your ideas and points of views. Criticism is welcomed for everyone!