Movie Junction

What has become of John Travolta? As a talented actor, Travolta, has ostensibly torpedoed his own career by undertaking tedious villainous roles in “Broken Arrow,” “Battlefield Earth,” “Swordfish,” and “The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3.” In these movies, many critics have rightly described his performances as hammy and monotonous. But in spite of this, his filmography contains a number of dazzling performances, like those in “Pulp Fiction,” “Get Shorty,” “Face/Off,” “Hairspray,” and “Primal Colors.” Nonetheless, Travolta’s critically acclaimed roles are far and few between. Does “From Paris with Love” change anything that Travolta has done before? The answer to this would be a resounding no. James Reece (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France, who decides to work for the CIA as a low-level agent. Reece is asked to partner up with a trigger-happy, gun-loving agent, Charlie Wax (John Travolta). Their mission is to find the source of an imminent threat on ...

The opening credits of “Everlasting Moments” (2008) are comprised of close-ups of various parts of a vintage Contessa photo camera: the shutter, the lens, and the focusing mechanism. The tight framing and slow sensual camera movements around the camera body are representative of the director’s adoration of the camera as if it were a lover’s body. The scene bears similarity in technical aspect to Alain Resnais’s masterpiece, “Hiroshima Mon Amour” (1959); Resnais employs a unique compositional technique--two lovers wrapped tightly to each other, and we only see geometrical patterns of their bodies and arms while they make love. In the same way, the segments in both the movies lead to a memory discourse. Indeed, moments later, through a narrator, we realize the camera belongs to the film’s main protagonist, Maria. The segment opens up the door to the world of a woman who, against all odds, dared to break free from her melancholy domestic life by perusing photography. Based on a true s...

It is very difficult just to talk about Shah Rukh Khan’s movie without indulging in a discussion of the biggest star in India. The Nineties was a period when the three Khans--Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, and Salman Khan--ruled the box office in India. Lately, the rivalry between the two biggest Bollywood stars--Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan--for the biggest star alive in India has intensified, with Saif Ali Khan replacing Salman Khan and occasionally challenging the two other Khans with his increasing popularity and success at the box office. Aamir Khan won accolades at the Indian National Film Awards for his representation of a dyslexic kid in “Taare Zamein Pe” (2007), while in the same year, two Shah Rukh Khan’s movies, “Om Shanti Om” (2007) and “Chak De India” (2007), became the biggest hits in India. Later in 2008, Aamir Khan’s “Ghajini” (2008) became the all-time biggest hit in Bollywood history, but it was very closely followed by another film starring Shah Rukh Khan, “Rab N...

It is hard to believe that Jackie Chan is fifty-six years old, yet an energetic, ever-smiling Jackie Chan has been acting in martial-arts movies since the early Seventies. With age no barrier for him, he continues to fascinate moviegoers with his sheer display of acrobatic martial-arts skills, wherein he performs most of his own stunts. In the process, he has become an icon for action heroes in the Western world. He shot into limelight with the success of “Drunken Master” (1978), but his first major box-office hit came with “Police Story” (1985). Of course, “Enter the Dragon” (1973) takes honors for being the first Chinese martial-arts movie with a Western production company, but this does not lessen the fact that Jackie movies have been instrumental in introducing the Hong Kong Cinema to the Western world. To this very day, Jackie Chan is still a superhero in Hong Kong. His movies are hugely popular, and some of them have become big blockbusters. Over the years, he has worked on ...

The South Korean director Bong Joon-ho has a Midas touch; movies he wrote and directed have become big blockbusters in South Korea. His second movie, “Memories of the Murder” (2003), became the most-watched movie of 2003. Then in 2006, he directed his biggest blockbuster, “The Host,” for which he not only cemented his place as one of the top directors in South Korea but consistently appeared in the list of top international directors. Following the success of “The Host,” he returns after a gap of three years to direct and cowrite the critically acclaimed “Mother.”  Bong Joon-ho, along with Park Chan-wook (“Oldboy,” “Joint Security Area,” “Lady Vengeance”) and Kang Je-gyu (“Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War,” “Shiri”), represents a new breed of young, talented South Korean directors who have time and again created some remarkable films. Mother (Kim Hye-ja) lives with her son, Do-joon (Won Bin), and through a small shop in her house she sells herbs and practices acupuncture, al...

I am beginning to believe that vampires, zombies, werewolves, and Roland Emmerich (“2012”) all have a common plan--to eradicate every living soul from the Earth, thereby leading to the destruction of mankind once and for all. But wait a minute: This scenario is not at all possible. Vampires need human blood, zombies feed on human flesh, and, of course, we have hybrid creatures in werewolves, who will feed on anything human. And for Roland Emmerich’s movies to work, he needs heroes to save mankind. Hence, in spite of all the odds stacked against mankind, human life will still continue to persist on Earth. Alas, this setup of the possible extinction of the human race at the hands of vampires, zombies, werewolves, and Roland Emmerich has been shamelessly milked by Hollywood to a point where this so-called human-extinction horror genre feels like a total dozer and uncreative. So far, we see no end to these types of movies, with the latest offering, “Daybreakers,” coming from directors M...

“Tetro” (2009) marks the return of Francis Ford Coppola as a solo writer since the critically claimed, “The Conversation” (1974). With the success of films like “The Godfather” (1972), “The Conversation” (1974), “The Godfather 2” (1974), and “Apocalypse Now” (1979), Coppola was hailed as the greatest American director alive during the 70s. In the process, Coppola also won a total of five Oscar awards, three of which were awarded in the Adapted Screenplay category: “Patton” (1970), “The Godfather,” and “The Godfather 2.” There is no doubt that Coppola possesses immense talent in writing screenplays. Perhaps this is the reason why he is back not only in the director’s chair but at the writing desk, scripting the characters and story of “Tetro.” Evidently, the main character of the film is a writing whiz, too. The story begins when seventeen year old, Bennie (Alden Ehrenreich) arrives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to search for his older brother, Tetro (Vincent Gallo), who has been mis...