Armored

Image courtesy-Wikipedia

Armored-Starring Jean Reno, Lawrence Fishburne, Matt Dillon, Amaury Nolasco and others.

Directed by Nimrod Antal.


Interesting premise!

Exploring the gamut of emotions among men when a huge amount of money is involved.

A story about a group of federal officers who transport money from the main office to the banks. A cross-section of American cultures, there is the Hispanic, the Italian and the Afro-American and the white-guy.

They decide to rob the two vans divide the money amongst themselves and flee.

Complications arise when the group hides the money present in one van in an old abandoned factory.

An old man sees the group and is shot dead.

One man among the officers is aghast at the killing and locks himself up in the second van with the remaining money.

Now begins a cat and mouse game between a single man who listens to his conscience and the remaining gang-members.

Narrated in a believable manner it describes the lengths to which we stoop down when large sums of money are involved.

What happens? Is the lone-man killed? Does the gang get all the money?

Watch the movie for answers.

Chennai Super Kings in the Doldrums

Chennai Super Kings were defeated by Rajasthan Royals about 25 minutes ago.

This means that CSK are in the seventh place just ahead of Kings XI punjab.

Shane Warne continues to inspire his team and lead from the front with consecutive victories.

IF CSK need to reach the semis they will have to win all their remaining matches from now on. That would be difficult.

My pick for the semis:

Mumbai Indians, Deccan Chargers, Royal Challengers Bangalore, the fourth place will be a fight between Delhi Daredevils and Rajasthan Royals though Kolkata Knightriders might pull a surprise or two.

Mom & Me

How the years have flown by!

I have always been mother's little kid who was admonished for not reciting the slokas during evening prayers or not washing my feet after returning from playing cricket.

Growing up in the absence of my father, it was my uncle who brought me up. Everyone used to fear and admire uncle. The only person who would argue with uncle was mother. Being his youngest sister she always found a way to convince him that she was right and he was wrong.

Uncle is in other city now with his family and I am all alone with my mom. I sometimes get frightened wondering if she is all right. If her sugar-count has gone up and she is having panic atacks?

Don't know but with each passing day I am getting paranoid and keep worrying about my mother.

Yesterday she was very ill and I had to rush her to the doctor.

By God's grace and the doctor's medicines she is better now.

I pray that she regains good health. The emotional trauma that she has undergone through all these years has left a permanent scar.

I try helping her and comfort her but she still keeps worrying!

Life goes on and I worry what would happen if something happened to me?

Who would take care of her?

Or if something happened to her how will the void be filled?

Life is strange. With the years rolling by and as she gets weaker and tired more often, I keep praying that I fulfill her dream of buying my own house and that she stays in it.

Let us see what happens!

IPL Updates

Well things are really heating up and though there are no clear winners yet, Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Deccan Chargers and Mumbai Indians have impressed a lot.

Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings need to get their act together.

Kolkata have flattered to deceive.

Kings XI Punjab were very very lucky to win the match against CSK in the super-over.

All of Shilpa's smiling and dancing are not going to save Warne's Rajasthan Royals.

Let us see how the remaining games progress and if more surprises are in store for us.

The Princess and the Frog

Good old-school Disney animation. Transports one back to the era of hand-drawn scenes.
Thoroughly enjoyable but a tad too many songs.

The movie reinforces one to follow one's dreams with relentless fervour.

There is Prince Naveen who has been thrown out by his parents. There is Tiana a waitress who dreams of owning a restaurant. Stella the spoiled brat daughter and a heiress friend of Tiana. The Shadowman the Voodoo villain.

By a quirk of magic the prince and Tiana turn into frogs.

The story traces how the frogs find their goals in life, find the meaning of love and fulfill their dreams.

A must watch for all lovers of fairy-tales.

Horoscope Updates!

Seems like one horoscope has hit its mark!
Folks will keep you posted!
Have a feeling that the game's afoot.

Fantastic Mr. Fox

Loved this Wes Anderson movie based on a short story by Roald Dahl.

Puppet-style animation about a fox and his family.

The fox voiced by George Clooney steals from three wicked farmers.

How this affects the remaining animals in the village and the measures taken by the farmers to capture the fox are portrayed in an interesting manner.

A refreshing change from the Pixar-Disney school of animation.

MARRIAGE WISHES

Two of my very good friends-
Siva and Sudha got married last week.
Here is a toast to the couple.

May God shower his blessings on them as they begin a new chapter in their lives.

ALL THE BEST!

Something Funny!

Well no comments from no one!
Not even an anonymous one!
Something wrong :)

Hockey World Cup

India demolished Pakistan in the first match to raise the hopes of hockey fans. Unfortunately the momentum could not be maintained and we lost the remaining matches.

The only saving grace being that Pakistan had their worst outing and ended up being the last team.

Indian hockey needs to break its political connections. Brasa our coach is trying to do his best but the administration and people like K.P.S. Gill and Suresh Kalmadi and many others in similar posts need to be shown the door.

The country needs more players and sports psychologists and trainers. We do not need jingoistic and partisan politics inspired administrators.

When will the glory of Dhyanchand be achieved again?

From Paris with Love

Image Courtesy-Wikipedia

John Travolta attempts at a comeback of sorts in the Bruce Willis Die Hard 4 mode. He plays a bald American special agent on a mission in Paris. Produced by Luc Besson the movie is directed by Pierre Morel who gave us the Liam Neeson starrer "Taken".

We are introduced to a young couple, the man (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) works in the American embassy in Paris and the woman is a fashion designer of sorts.

As the story progresses once Travolta lands in Paris he partners Meyers and the two go about demolishing a drug syndicate run by Chinese and Pakistanis. As the story unfolds it is revealed that the bigger threat is posed by the fundamentalist jihadis - terrorists.

It is unveiled that Meyers fiancee is a suicide bomber and she is on a mission to assassinate a top U.S. politician visiting Paris.

Does the suicide mission take place?

Can Travolta and Meyers save the day?

Watch the movie for answers!

As an afterthought it would be a bold experiment to see our very own Captain Vijaykanth in Travolta's role :)

We may have a Tamil thriller soon!

Delhiil Oru Vettai Aarambam:)

The Edge of Darkness

Image Courtesy-Covershut.com


Based on a popular BBC T.V. series, the Mel Gibson starrer is enjoyable in parts.
Gibson plays the role of Inspector Craven, he plans to meet his daughter who is interning at Northwood Enterprises. The movie starts with videos of his daughter as a child.

His daughter Emma look frail and the two prepare for dinner. Emma eats a bit of the dinner and suddenly starts bleeding from the nose and the mouth. Mel rushes to take her to the doctor and opens the door. A masked assailant shouts "Craven" and shoots Emma who dies in Mel's arms.

The mystery starts building. Initially it is suspected that Mel was the target. Slowly bits and pieces of Emma's troubled work-life are revealed and Mel finds out that the corrupt bosses at Northwood, a senator and many important people are involved in an illegal act. Emma wanted to reveal this and paid with her life.

What was the illegal activity at Northwood? What were the implications? Who was the masked assailant?

Watch the movie for answers.

Could have been a bit more gripping. Some scenes are well-shot and some decent hide-and-seek chases involving Mel and the "corrupt lot" are filmed.

Can be seen once!

First Semester Results Out!

Folks some good news I have passed in all the papers in my first semester. (MBA Project Management).

I managed to clear two papers literally by the skin of my teeth.

The Good Lord above, the Goddess of Learning and the Examiner have been kind enough!

I was really worried about one paper called Quantitative Methods and I was worried that I would fail in it.

I was surprised that I had got the maximum marks in it.

Two papers for which I had studied and researched a lot--I barely got through.

Now the second semester has even more complex papers and I need to focus on them.

One paper-Financial and Management Accounting is giving me the jitters.

Folks, wish me luck.

Dork

Dork the debut novel by Sidin Vadukut is funny. Clear semi-autobiographical touches are visible:)

The hero Robin Einstein Vargheese an IIM graduate gets a job at Dufersene Consultants and lands up in Mumbai.

The tension among the new joinees, the confusion, ass-kissing in top management, office politics, attempted office romance, crazy HR policies, endless project meetings, the messy PowerPoint presentations, on-site visits, the Blackberry:)... everything has a mention.

The novel appears in the form of a diary and has its moments of brilliance. The story progresses and with a lot of "willful suspension of disbelief" we accept lot of stuff.

But the climax :( well somehow did not do justice to the beginning.

Worth reading once, when you just want to relax, unwind and laugh a little.

Romancing the Stone

Image Courtesy-Wikpedia


Time-pass and jolly fun.

Michael Douglas as the fortune-hunter do-gooder gels in to the role easily.
Quirky performance by Danny De Vito as the gangster's cousin.
It is Kathleen Turner as the novelist Joan Wilder who does a great job.

It is a story of a treasure map a precious stone, gangsters, mercenary police officers, drug-lords, hungry crocodiles and superb comic timing.

Director Robert Zemeckis helmed this movie and the viewer does not lose interest at all.

Recommended for lazy summer afternoons.