There is a lot of debate on the influence of movies in our lives. Can violent movies or games be responsible for increase in crime?  There are people who want a complete ban on such material. But then there are those who support these citing freedom of speech. The struggle between them has a long history and is not going to end any time soon!

In India, attack on freedom of speech is much more violent and is on the increase. As you can guess, every movie is going to offend someone. If the villain is of a specific color some people get offended. If the hero is muslim some others get offended. There are even guys who get offended when they see love between a man and woman!. There is no end to such madness

I am always on the side of freedom of speech. But when you see all the latest english horror movies (for example - saw series or hostel series) I get doubtful. These take violence into its most vulgar form. Most of us may see it and then just forget it. But there could be psychopaths who would want to simulate the movie and that isn’t pretty.

That is exactly the problem with freedom of speech. Above I have written that I somehow find Saw and Hostel movies repulsive enough to warrant a ban. But another person might find other movies equally repulsive. See? It is a catch 22 situation.

Movies have affected my life in various ways and mostly it is in a positive sense. My career in software development is a direct result of the movie terminator 2. I still remember staggering back home after watching T2 lost in thoughts about artificial intelligence. It has motivated me to jump into programming and soon I realized a machine like terminator is not going to built in my lifetime :-). Another movie that left a lasting impression is American Beauty (especially the character Ricky Fitts).  If you haven’t seen it yet I suggest you rent the movie for this weekend.

SiCKO is a documentary film by Michael moore which looks at the American healthcare system. I think this is the best documentary moore has produced. While other documentaries are drowned in “anger” (Fahrenheit 9/11), in this one you see a much subdued Michael moore. It is a comedy which makes you laugh at the misfortunes of other human beings.  It is emotionally charged and will make a lot of people to “think”.

Now why is this interesting to me if it is based on american health system and americans?  The problem is that we are (in india) slowly adapting American ways here. 5-10 years down the lane we might see insurance/hospital/doctor mafia formation in the health sector. You could already sense the problems in the so called “network hospital”  and “cashless hospitalization”. 

In the movie Michael looks at healthcare systems in other countries such as UK, France and Cuba. I have some experience with NHS in UK. It may not be perfect (for some operations, waiting time is long),  but people do have a “choice”. In UK, private hospitals co-exist with NHS just like in India.

The “terror” detainees at Guantanamo bay military base enjoys free healthcare. So this guy takes a couple of sick people to Guantanamo bay asking for medical help! In another interesting scene a drug which costs $120 in US is bought for 5 cents in cuba!

I have a feeling that Michael moore may get a bigger place in American history after 50 or 100 years. He may be one sided, but surely his documentary raises a lot of valid points.

SiCKO is a must see movie and is scheduled for release on 29th June 2007. Check out the following trailer,

Yesterday I saw an interesting english movie - “Blood Diamond” starring Leonardo dicaprio and Djimon Hounsou. This film was nominated for oscar awards in 2006. Essentially it is a look the diamond business from the african conflict zones (Some would argue there is no conflict zone, entire africa is the conflict zone!). Check out the following trailer,

Leonardo plays the role of a mercenary who trades arms for conflict diamonds. Djimon is a native fisherman looking for his family. Both team up to find Djimon’s family and to retrieve a rather “costly” diamond.

I like the movie, but not as much as apocalypto or the departed. But the movie is worth watching just to see leonardo’s superb performance.

The movie also contains some memorable quotes,

Soldier: Archer! You’re a dead man!
Archer: Yea, yea.

Archer: So you think because your intentions are good, they’ll spare you, huh?
Benjamin: My heart always told me that people are inherently good. My experience suggests otherwise. But what about you, Mr. Archer? In your long career as a journalist, would you say that people are mostly good?
Archer: No. I’d say they’re just people.
Benjamin: Exactly. It is what they do that makes them good or bad. A moment of love, even in a bad man, can give meaning to a life. None of us knows whose path will lead us to God.

According to wikipedia,

De Beers Group, which is the largest player in the diamond trade, has expressed reservations about the film, believing it could reduce public demand for diamonds. De Beers maintains the trade in conflict diamonds has been reduced from 4% to 1% by the Kimberley Process. It has been suggested the company pushed for the film to contain a disclaimer saying the events are fictional and in the past; however, De Beers has denied this.

In the movie, rebels are shown as barbarians and brutal. But the fact is in africa, government forces can be as bad or worse than the rebels. Or are you naive enough to believe that UN forces are angels when they go to africa? I wonder why so many people forget that any army is just a killing machine.

My rating : 7 out of 10.

PS: Do you know that if you resell your diamond jewellery you get only a small fraction of the original price?

Die hard movie series is one of my favorites. It is always good to see someone kicking some serious “bad ass”. Now the latest installment in the series , Live free or Die hard is scheduled for release on 29th June 2007. Check out the following trailer. Seems to be pure action entertainment.

Some of you may say that using a car instead of a bullet to bring down a helicopter is too much, but hey he was out of bullets! Yeah, Bruce Willis is getting old and I don’t think we will see a Die hard 5 movie with him in the lead role.

Thankfully I didn’t watch Superman 3. It is a shame that such bad movies go on to become box office hits. I overheard a girl saying that “she cried towards the end” while watching Superman 3. Sigh… 

First, a disclaimer: My movie reviews are full of spoilers. So read it only if you have already seen the movie!

If you are interested in knowing how brain surgery can be done in your garage, Saw III is the movie for you. Want to test the efficiency of headache pills? Watch this movie!

I am a hardcore fan of horror movies. But I am getting bored by the increased gore and blood in the recent horror movies(Saw, Hostel etc.). Saw III is a perfect example of wasting a good plot line on unnecessary scenes such as the long brain surgery in a workshop.

It was long time since I picked up any movie. So with lot of expectation, I watched Saw III today and I am yet to recover completely from the experience. I give it an average rating. Here is a quick review.

Good : Unexpected plot twists and thank god! Jigsaw is dead

Bad : Too much flash back and the whole thing is getting repetitive.

Ugly : Too much blood, gore and surgery details.

If you plan to watch Saw III or already seen Saw III, I recommend you to see first two movies (Saw I and Saw II). Saw III actually connects everything together and should ideally be the last movie in the series. But it appears that Saw IV is already in production and we may see it in 2007 itself!

Saw III starts where Saw II ended. You see detective Eric making the inevitable decision of cutting his foot off. Then there is another game, but this time victim has no chance of escape. That makes Saw III different from other two films. The games are no longer perfect and it appears after all Jigsaw is only human(sigh!)

There is another interesting thing I noticed. The movie reminds me of rooms in Doom 3! They all look  like the ones rendered by John Carmack. There is a scene in which a judge (with his tie on) is tied to the bottom of a container and he shouts “I am a criminal judge, get me out of here”. Only scene where I laughed.

I enjoyed the main plot which is an “exploration of our desire for revenge”. There are numerous plot twists that takes you by surprise! In the end I think I was more surprised than Amanda

My rating : 5 out of 10, which means watch it if you got a holiday and there is nothing else to do!

PS:- Next movie in my list is Borat.