Movie Junction

As the 2012 Presidential race gathered steam, we saw political candidates and political pundits working overtime to acquire vital gains in votes. That is obvious given the nature of the closely-fought election. But we also had filmmakers and authors working within their respective media to produce materials that were bound to influence voters. At one point, in 2012 year alone, there were six anti-Obama books in the Amazon’s top-100 best-sellers list. To name a few books: Paul Kengor’s “The Communist,” Dinesh D’Souza’s “Obama's America: Unmaking the American Dream” and “The Roots of Obama's Rage” on which this film is based, then Mark Levin’s “Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America,” David Limbaugh's “The Great Destroyer: Barack Obama's War on the Republic,” and Edward Klein's "The Amateur." On the funny side, one has to give credit to our President; his name brings money to big publishing houses and keeps writers busy all year around. It ...

“Because even though success is a reality, its effects are temporary. You get hungry, even though you’ve just eaten.” – Don Draper, “Mad Men,” Season Five Late in season five of the enthralling “Mad Men” series, Don Draper (Jon Hamm) passionately discusses an account with a client. His eyes show hunger for getting the new business, and he maintains eye contact with the client. He is sitting with an upright posture indicative of his confidence, conviction, and exemplary smooth-talking skills that have made him a force in the advertising world. He presents his arguments by defining how much market share makes a company successful, after all. Is 50% market share good enough? Or should the company go after 80% of the share? But the crux of Draper’s argument in this episode (“Commissions and Fees”) is when people in the advertising world have an unflinching professional appetite for creating a difference in a company’s market share, the company should not be satis...

Director Anurag Basu’s “Barfi!” (2012) is the latest Bollywood blockbuster that has got everyone talking. The hype is immense, and the film is already generating an Oscar buzz as one of the films in the foreign film category; the film is the official Indian entry for the Oscars. With cheering word-of-mouth, the film has managed to draw record audiences to theaters, a popularity also driven by positive critical reviews. In addition, moviegoers are not divided about the film’s entertainment value, which is in fact evident by a solid 8.9/10 rating given by the users at IMDB.com. Irrespective of a person’s reaction to the film, one thing for certain is that “Barfi!” offers spectacular images, absorbing camerawork, and a pair of two magnificent performances from its two leads, Ranbhir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. Indeed, the images are so empowering that it makes one forget the film’s flaws. The story of that of a deaf-mute person, Barfi (Ranbhir Kapoor), and his relationship to two...

One of the most-anticipated movies of 2012, “The Hunger Games” arrived in theaters in March, with record box-office receipts for a non-sequel in midnight showings, as well as a record for the highest single-day opening. The film, based on the record-breaking “Hunger Games” trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, is vying to become the next big thing after the “Harry Potter” and "Twilight" series. Surely, the mad rush to see the film bears all the hallmarks of a cultural phenomenon. So, what drove people to theaters in record numbers? For one thing, the female protagonist, Jennifer Lawrence playing young adult Katniss Everdeen, becomes the central draw of the show, because we see our heroine, among other teenagers in the film, left vulnerable and exposed to the cruel world. It’s a theme that pleads for sympathy from the audience, as we hope these teenagers can survive on their own. “The Hunger Games” starts with a brief introduction to the concept of the hunger games. We le...