My 10 best English movies. A tough choice to make amongst so many greats.
1. FORREST GUMP - Tom Hanks playing the simple, hardworking Southerner American who never stops running since he threw his clutches to run away from getting bullied. Dejected for being naive and slow witted, trying hard to get his girlfriend's love - his innocuous "Why don't you love me Jenny" would moisten anyone's eyes. Jenny finally comes to him, but not for love but out of compulsion.
2. GODFATHER - Vito Corleone played by Marlon Brando arrives as a child in New York when his family is wiped out by a mafia Don back home in Sicily. He takes the opportunity of the land of opportunity to build his underworld empire in "Big Apple", New York as his son Mike Corleone ruthlessly kills his rivals to consolidate father's empire. It's sequel GODFATHER II was great too which catapulted Robert De Niro to the limelight.
3. GOOD, BAD AND UGLY - A movie watchable multiple times. It is Clint Eastwood all the way. Can't forget its epic whistling music during crucial scenes in the movie. One of the best monologues I have ever heard comes from this iconic Western classic - "If you want to shoot, shoot. Don't talk".
4. SCENT OF A WOMAN - It was all the way the one man movie from iconic Al Pacino which earned him his 2nd Oscar in 1993 for this stellar performance. The way he blinks his eyes and walks with his walking stick makes you feel he is really blind, not acting.
5. SIXTH SENSE - M Night Syamalan's first and probably the only masterpiece which grossed over $600 million worldwide. The scene of the little boy who could see dead people whizzing past him prevented many from visiting bathroom in the middle of night at that time, including me. In another scene in a cemetery, the boy says hi to an woman standing in the crowd. She smiles back at the boy only to vanish into the thin air the next moment. Simple yet profound but scaringly eerie - the trade mark of M Night Shyamalan, an American of Indian origin.
6. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS - Dr. Lector, Hannibal the Cannibal can send chill down your spine. Jodi Foster as usual has done a stupendous role. Watching the movie can make you have the feel of a psycho just lurking beind you. The final scene is nail biting gripping.
7. THE INSIDER - Denzel Washington, a New York cop tries to negotiate a Bank hold up by Clive Owen, where Jodi Foster plays a consultant appointed by the Bank owner with a Nazi past. In one scene Clive Owens says - After this is over, I will be sipping pina colada cocktail in a remore island, to which Denzel responds - "This is what I think. After this is over, you will be standing in the shower in New York jail in between two big guys Jamal and Joseph, the thing you will be sipping won't taste like pina colada".
8. THE BRIDGE OVER RIVER KWAI - A historical drama from the year 1957 when a bunch of British POWs captured by the Japanese in Burma during the World War II were building a bridge over the river. I thought of ignoring the movie but couldn't get up after starting, sitting through the end. A must for those who like old classics.
9. COLLATERAL - In this movie from 2004 Tom Cruize, playing the role of a ruthless contract killer, goes around killing people in LA and Jamie Fox is his cab driver. The later won the Best Supporting Actor for his role in that movie, gracefully playing the role of a cab driver who is scared but still keeping his nerve and trying to save himself from his cold blooded killer passenger. The talented Mark Ruffalo plays a cop. Tom Cruize kills his first victim who lands up on hapless Jamie Fox's cab. A baffled Jamie Fox asks Tom Cruize "Did you kill him ?", to which the later gave a nonchalant but techically correct answer "No. I just shot him. The bullet and the fall killed him".
10. AIRPLANE - This farce of non stop nonsense will make you laugh till your stomach aches. Loved the way Leslie Nielson barges into cockpit to wish the best and his "Don't call me Shirley".
No comments:
Post a Comment