Showing posts with label heist special. Show all posts
Showing posts with label heist special. Show all posts
Friday, October 1, 2010
Heist Movies | Editor’s Pen
Welcome back. Well, last year, same time, same day we came up with our first genre special- Horror Special. I think TRM is quite struck with the letter H. That’s the reason why when we decided to go ahead with this year’s genre special, we zeroed upon another H. Heist Movies!!!
Heist Movies? What’s that? Frankly speaking, I don’t blame you because it is not a very common term. We generalize these movies as Thriller or Mystery but that doesn’t changes the nature of these movies. They have a purpose and they tend to accomplish them. In these movies, the core plot is all about a few people trying to steal something or accomplish a task that is not-so-legal. The twists and turns in the plot make these movies such a kill. Example, Reservoir Dogs and Inception.
Heist movies are inherently racy and the pace of story-telling usually is so breath taking that audience tends to skip major loopholes in the plot. They just go with the flow and when they come out of theatre the expression is a big O. Example, did you noticed that in A Wednesday (not exactly an heist movie but very close to this genre), where did Shah got his only bomb which he planted in the Police Station? Like getting RDX is a joke? We just tend to believe whatever is going on screen. That’s the power of Heist Movies. So… gear up… We are going to take you on a topsy turvy ride.
Love,
Sujoy Ghosh
Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels | Snatch | Mega Review
When you sit to watch a heist film, what is it that you exactly expect? ... thrill? action? adventure? …right? but what about comedy?? And that too not just for a few minutes, but from the first frame till the last!
Here we are talking about two of Guy Ritchie’s blockbusters, Lock stock and two smoking barrels, and Snatch. The two movies that brought in a new genre of movies …and that was of Guy Ritchie’s.
Lock stock basically deals with four friends who are trapped in a debt they take from a local smut for a game of gambling, which was fixed & Snatch is based on a search for a diamond, that involves groups of crooks from different geographies, with a backdrop of a boxing promoter under a gangster’s thumb.
If I start discussing the brilliant story of both these movies, I will need the entire edition to cover them up, coz they are an assortment of twists and turns. So, rather than elaborating the plot, I would just highlight the distinguishing factors, which put these two on an entirely different level of cinema.
The feature that attracts me the most is their dark humor, which keeps you happy even on their tragedies! You definitely would have seen a lot many comic flicks but trust me they are a different lot. They might not make you hold your stomach but they make sure that you keep on smiling till the end, and get surprised along with! There is no moment in the movie where you could feel that the comedy is being imposed on you. It just comes on to you naturally.Another notable feature about them is that you cannot identify the protagonist. It’s an amalgamation of performances. Each one is unique and in turn uniquely contributes to the movie. Like for example the Russian, who cannot be killed, whatsoever! Or be it the Brad Pitt’s and his community’s accent, the so called ‘gypsies’, who pronounced ‘dogs’ as ‘daegs’! All the characters are wonderfully crafted and hold on to their spirit till the last cut.
Also you will witness a collection of coincidences, but none of then comes on with stupidity. They just go on with the flow and never give you a feeling that they are being desperately planted.
So if you have already had enough doze of tense flicks, here comes my advice. Go for these two, you are surely going to enjoy them.
Written by ‘Rishabh Shukla’
Kaante - Reservoir Dogs Mega Review | Critique
The film that launched career of much loved director Quentin Tarantino, 'Reservoir Dogs' is an evergreen cult film. It is a heist movie, but with a difference.
There is no Heist shown in the movie. The movie is set on events after the Heist. Partly, because of budget constraint and partly by design, so that film remains about what happens after the robbery.
Unofficial Hindi remake came in the shape of ‘Kaante’. It was released after multiple delays in release date. (It probably became only delayed film to get such success). Spiced with songs, loads of the choicest curse words and surprise package in the form of Mahesh Manjrekar’s superb debut as an actor, it worked big time for Indian Audience. In fact, it was probably the biggest hit of the year.
Considering the fact that Hindi movies have a longer running time they incorporated Heist and back stories of almost all characters as opposed to Reservoir Dogs. They played to the gallery whenever possible, thus taking out many shocking scenes from the original such as Torture scene of the Kidnapped Police Officer; it had a scene where thugs in kill of an arms supplier of Kashmir, silly if you ask me but it clicked.
At time of release of Kaante there were voices of concern from Hollywood about it being copy of Reservoir Dogs, but if you study Kaante closely, it is a loving remake of Reservoir Dogs.
Moreover, the original parts of Kaante were actually good. Many twists of original were improvised and are not blind copy paste of ‘RD’ (Ok many have been taken of ‘Unusual Suspects’). In fact, detailed back stories each character in Kaante had, was praised by Tarantino himself.
In fact, for many Indian audiences (including me), Kaante was first introduction to Reservoir Dogs and thus to Master Tarantino himself. What else can you ask of a remake?
Written by- ‘Ali Naqvi’.
Frank Abagnale Jr. | Criminals In Cinema - Part 2 | Under Lens
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| Frank Abangnale Jr |
Though there is no movie that is directly based on life of Frank Abagnale Jr. made in India, some movie have scenes and plot pretty much like him.
Bunty Aur Babli was loosely based on another Hollywood Movie Bonnie And Cloydd; there were few scenes inspired from his life. Notably, the escape scene from airplane. Moreover, the B&B duo joins hands with police to track cons was also draws a parallel between life of Frank Abagnale Jr. and Bunty ‘n’ Babli.
Another amazing movie of our time made in India, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye was inspired from real life of a notorious con from Delhi. Interestingly, Director Dibakar Banerjee’s story telling was pretty much influenced by Spielberg’s story telling in CMIYC. Like Frank Abagnale Jr. Lucky is a thief and also an imposter with a troubled childhood.
On a closing note, Frank Abagnale Jr. became a part of cast of CMIYC by playing the role of the French Officer who formally arrests his reel character played by an amazing Leonardo Da Caprio.
Written By: Sujoy Ghosh
Catch Me If You Can | The Critique | Heist Special
There is a FBI Agent Carl Hanratty who is taking his work and cheque frauds seriously. There is a very smart young criminal Frank Abagnale Jr. who can fool even the champions of trade. He has a disturbed and broken childhood and wants some attraction. FBI, Police and Bankers running behind him give him the kick that is very intoxicating. Carl knows that someone is doing cheque forgeries but don’t know him by face. Frank has a close shave with an inquisitive Carl. Though, Carl misses him… he realizes that he got his man and now will find him out wherever he hides… Like every good chase, it ends positively. Carl arrests Frank. But it’s not the fullstop… it’s a comma. Watch the movie to understand what I mean…
Tom Hanks as Carl Hanratty and Leonardo Da Caprio as Frank Abagnale Jr. are delight to watch on screen. This is one of those films where chemistry between two men on the opposite sides of the wall is so intriguing that you tend to forget everything else about the movie. One classic scene is when Carl narrowly misses Frank and Franks fools him. That particular scene is simply breathtaking. You will realize the power of direction and storytelling
Performances are awesome and story is the stealer. Direction… Man, I am not qualified enough to review Steven Spielberg’s direction… Period. Watch this movie even if you hate this genre because… it has more than just chase, run, steal and…
Jewel Thief Movie Review | Critique | Heist Movies
Oh and I thought we didn’t have classic Heist movies in Indian Cinema. Answer came in the form of Vijay Anand’s ‘Jewel Thief’. If you have not seen the movie you have missed a major movie.
Plot: Vinay(Dev Anand), a young man suddenly discovers that he has a look alike criminal. Just days after knowing this City is rocked by many thefts of jewels. It doesn’t help that he himself has interest in jewels. Slowly and steadily police start to think that in fact He is the Jewel Thief.
Opening scene in the movie (before Vinay is intoduced) shows a startling heist. It just sucks you in. Moreover people involved in robbery actually appear in Vinay’s life the intrigue become much more intense. As audience and Vinay soon find out that nothing is what it seems; He is surrounded by imposters and betrayals; And it is all leading to plan an huge robbery. Will he be able to clear his name
Ashok Kumar has stellar performance in the movie. A character who has so many shades not many could have played it equally good. Dev Anand’s performance is good and some scenes performance is very powerful like when he has lost his memory (or has he?). Vyjayanthimala as Shalaini is perfect, with her act as Damsel in distress and her superb dance performances.
Trust me you HAVE to watch it. Hugely entertaining and reveting
Written by ‘Ali Naqvi’
Ocean Thus Stole| Cine Talk
Ocean’s 11 (both 1960 and 2001 editions) saw Ocean forming a group of 11 professionals and robbing casinos in Las Vegas. In content the remake was very close to the original. Propelled by the success of 2001’s Ocean’s 11 (earnings over $450 million), the makers decide to follow up with sequel Ocean’s 12. Ocean’s 12 saw another heist to escape from clutches of Terry Benedict (a character form prequel). It was not as big hit as its prequel, but still fared very well on box office prompting another sequel Ocean’s 13. It was also a big hit but since the revenues fell short of expectations, in all probabilities, there won’t be another sequel. This trilogy boasts of stars like Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Julia Roberts, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy Garcia and Al Pacino.
Ocean’s 11 (1960) has a cult status in this genre. It is still considered to be one of the perfect torch-bearers of this genre. The story telling in this movie set a bench mark and inspired many movie makers since then. Quentin Tarantino who made Reservoir Dogs was heavily inspired by this movie and shades are easily visible.
What make Ocean’s Series and the original so popular? First, experts join hands to do something that seems to be next to impossible. These experts have issues and they need to sort them as well. Second, the way of presentation is extremely high paced making you so involved that you don’t even care to raise your bum to fart. You simply watch with eyes, ears and brain open. Third, some good performances. Frank Sinatra portrayal of Danny Ocean is simply legendary. Similarly, charming Clooney puts a decent show… Four… there are innumerous reasons to fall in love with Ocean and his gang… Just watch it.
Written By: Sujoy Ghosh
Johnny Gaddar | The Critique | Heist Special
Johnny Gaddar is considered to be one of the smartest thriller movies made in last decade standing tall with A Wednesday. The movie boasts of a good star cast spear-headed by veteran Dharmendra and a newcomer Neil Nitin Mukesh who is grandson of iconic singer of yesteryears Mukesh. While Dharmendra was the anchor of the plot Neil was the main lead who plans to steal the money and execute his plan despite of some glitches and errors. However, though the plan succeeds; he fails. Why I am saying that… watch this movie to find out. One promise is that it’s not going to be a cheesy anti-climax.
The movie gives tributes to many Hindi films and the most brilliant writer of this genre- James Hadley Chase. Infact, the movie flows like one of James Hadley Chase’s novel. This movie is dedicated to iconic movie maker- Vijay Anand and the first word of title was taken from movie Johnny Mera Naam. There are also references to another Hindi movie- Parwana. Shades of red are prominently used as a tribute to Sin City and Dharmendra’s singing ‘Mera Gora…’ was a tribute to movie ‘Bandini’.
Performances of Neil and Dharamendra are outstanding while others did justice to their job. Director and writer Sriram Raghavan did a brilliant job. Background score and cinematography were simply gripping. Applause…
Johnny Gaddar is a film Bollywood should be proud of. It is as good as any good quality heist movie made anywhere on this planet. A very tight script and flawless execution. It has a pace that is trademark of this genre.
Written By: Sujoy Ghosh
Aankhein Movie Review | Critique | Hiest Movies Special
Aankhein came out in 2002, with Mr. Amitabh Bachchan towering over the rest of the cast in terms of strature. Others included Akshay Kumar, Arjun Rampal, Sushmita Sen and Paresh Rawal.
What if you have a HUGE ego and intelligent criminal mind and somebody takes away only thing you ever made? Wrath. One, Vijay Singh Rajput (Mr. Bachchan) plans a heist to rob his former bank, to teach them a lesson. He makes an ingenious move to get three blind men to do the job. He ropes in Neha (Sushmita Sen) to train 3 such men.
3 men picked for the job have interesting characters. Iliyas (Paresh), the clown of the three, was made blind as a boy to beg on the streets. Arjun's, the simpleton, later developes feelings for Neha. Vishwas (Akshay) is the smartest of the three, having an acute sixth sense.
It works as a heist movie as it has an element of looming danger, an interesting premise, comic relief in form of Paresh Rawal. The sequence of their training has been put together really well; The replica of bank that is set up for training; Vishwas who many times nearly finds out presence of Mr Bachchan during the training are shot brilliantly.
Written by 'Ali Naqvi'
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World | Flash Review
Smiler Grogan is a robbery suspect and is running from police. He crashes in an accident and five bikers help him out. Grogan tells them that he has hidden 350 thousand dollars under a mysterious W, somewhere near Mexican border. These 5 bikers initially decide to share the bounty but soon the deal goes off and it becomes a race to grab it. A policeman, who is working on Grogan case; assumes that these 5 fellows may have an idea and hence chases them. Who will win the race??
Written By: Sujoy Ghosh
The Bank Job| Flash Review
Rating: 3/5Terry and his group are all set for a bank robbery attacking one of the safest banks in silence of night. This is supposed to be their one big job together for a life of luxury. To their bad luck, while they talk over radio frequency, they are overheard by someone who informs police.
So will they be able to do the robbery? Is it just a robbery or there is some hidden agenda as well? The introductory scene suggests that there is a lot more than just a plain bank job…
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