Movie Junction

Before watching the John Huston’s “The Dead” (1987), the same day I watched a Bollywood movie, Ashwin Kumar’s “Road to Ladakh.”  After watching “The Dead,” I realized both movies had striking similarities.  First, both movies have short run times, “The Dead” running about sixty-five minutes (excluding the credits) and “Road to Ladakh” running about forty-five minutes.  Second, the only thing you remember about these movies is their ending.  Of course, that does not say much about either of the movies. “The Dead” was John Huston’s last directorial effort, and the studio released it posthumously.  Huston created a ton of classics in his first decade of directing with “The Maltese Falcon” (1941), “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” (1946), and “The African Queen” (1951) that have managed to rank high in the list of critics around the world.  Although he continued to make good films, his later filmmaking efforts did not match the earlier efforts in his firs...

Before we get into the details of the review, one thing I would like to mention is that I have never watched the 1973 Tobe Hooper release of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.”  I own the 1973 version on Blu-ray, but I’ve never gotten around to watching it.  Maybe it has to do with the subject matter of the movie and the fact that I am not big into the horror genre.  So, for this review of the 2003 version, I chose not to watch the older version so I could evaluate the newer movie on its own merits. The film begins with five friends led by Jessica Beil driving down a desolate highway and encountering a lonely girl.  The curious friends try to get some insight on how the girl ended up alone on the highway.  The friends then stop at a creepy farmhouse in the middle of nowhere.  From that point, the friends are chased by a deadly, chainsaw-wielding fiend (a.k.a Leatherface) played by Eric Balfour.  One by one, each of them falls prey to Leatherface. ...

Mira Nair made a stunning directorial debut with the Oscar nominated drama, “Salaam Bombay!” in 1988, a gritty film about day-to-day life growing up in the streets of Bombay. Even before “Slumdog Millionaire” (2008) became a household name, it was “Salaam Bombay!” that introduced Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) to Western audiences along with its new, talented director.  Mira Nair started her film career directing documentaries on a wide variety of subjects with a focus on capturing life as it happens. Her earlier works, “Salaam Bombay!” and “Mississippi Masala” (1991) generated critical acclaim and box-office successes respectively.  However, “Monsoon Wedding” (2001) remains her most well-known film to date. The story revolves around Lalit Verma (Naseeruddin Shah) trying to organize a big and expensive wedding for his daughter Aditi (Vasundhara Das). Aditi is having an affair with a married man, Vikram (Sameer Arya). Nevertheless, there are also a couple of subplots inter...

Recently, I received four horror titles--“Seventh Moon,” “Offspring,” “The Thaw,” and “The Children”--from Lionsgate as part of their new “Ghost House Underground” series. The series is perfectly marketed by an imprint on the cover of the movie:  “From the makers of the Evil Dead Trilogy.”  Still, I haven’t heard about any of these movies, so I needed one title for the review that would stand out.  After looking at the stories and actors, only one movie seem interesting to me with the presence of Val Kilmer in “The Thaw.”  I decided to check it out. Val Kilmer stars as a famous environmental advocate, Dr. David Kruipen, who discovers the real horror of global warming when he finds the carcass of a woolly mammoth in the polar ice that also contains a prehistoric parasite.  Soon, a team of four students lands on a remote Arctic station to find Dr. Kruipen.  Through a series of events, students find themselves trapped in this station trying to escape the ...

As a three-day rock festival held from June 16 to June 18, 1967, at Monterey, California, the one and only “Monterey Pop festival” presented artists who performed for the first time at this grand event. Not only did the festival introduce various performers who would later become quite famous, it also created a unique template for future rock shows. Moreover, the festival unified its performers and audiences in  a common cause--music. This concert film by director D.A. Penebaker rightly captures the idea that music has no racial, genre, and regional boundaries. Criterion has now released the two-disc “Monterey Pop Collection,” combining the “Monterey Pop” and “Jimi plays Monterey & Shake! Otis at Monterey” films. The two discs are also available separately. Monterey Pop (Spine #168) “Monterey Pop” runs 79 minutes and showcases performances by Canned Heat, Simon & Garfunkel, Ravi Shankar, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, The Who, The Mama and The Papas, Otis Redding, and...

After making a promising debut with “Pi” (1998), the movie about a genius mathematician obsessed with predicting the behavior of the stock market, Darren Aronofsky returned to the subject of obsession yet again in his sophomore effort, “Requiem for a Dream” (2000).  The success of his last two movies, “The Fountain” (2006) and more recently the multiple Oscar nominated drama “The Wrestler” (2008), ensured that his new fans would come back to watch his earlier efforts as well. “Requiem for a Dream (2000)” offers a broody and ominous tale of four characters intertwined through their actions. The story begins with Harry Goldfarb (Jared Leto) forcibly taking a TV set from his mother, Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), and walking the television through the streets of Brooklyn with his friend, Tyrone (Marlon Wayans). Harry and Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly) are lovers living in Brooklyn with the hope of setting up their own business and spending the rest of their lives in love. Howeve...

In the original movie, "Crank" (2006), we heard the lead actor utter the words, "My name is Chev Chelios, and this is the day I die." Apparently, Chev did not die, and he is back. "Crank" represented a new concept: high energy driven by a fast-paced story with over-the-top violence and sex. "Crank" was an instantaneous cult hit, in spite of its only generating $28 million at the box office. In Hollywood where sex and violence sells, the cult status of "Crank" ensured that the directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were back pumping new life into Chev Chelios in this high-octane sequel. "Crank 2: High Voltage" (2009) picks up at the point where "Crank" ends. We see Chev Chelios (Jason Statham) falling from a helicopter. Soon after reaching the ground, Chev is captured by a group of Chinese thugs. He soon discovers that his heart is taken out and is replaced by an electronic one that runs on a battery. He meets...