Top Ten actors of all time

Well, i had previously posted my top ten movies. Here is my list of top ten actors. This is purely based on my likings and not on any ratings. But believe me, for me to like an actor he has to be good. There is no order and i like them all in their own way.

1. Tom Hanks
2. Leonardo DiCaprio
3. Jeff Goldblum
4. Robert DeNiro
5. Jack Nicholson
6. Al Pacino
7. Dustin Hoffman
8. Denzel Washington
9. Russel Crowe
10. Morgan Freeman

Phew, that was tough to choose. There are so many others who i wanted to put in this list like Brad Pitt, Tim Robbins, Matt Damon, Sean Penn, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Greg Kinnear, John Cusack, Nicolas Cage, Bruce Willis, Mel Gibbson etc. but if it is top ten then it is TOP TEN.

Snatch- Worth the watch!!

I had been postponing to watch this British film not knowing its cast and the director for a long time. Finally when i watched it it took the breath away from me. Directed by Guy Ritchie the cast includes Brad Pitt, Jason Statham, Stephen Graham and a lot others. The movie has a good storyline and does not loose speed at any point of time. Comedies are subtle and are efficiently delivered by the actors. As usual Pitt takes the role of a invincible man with lot of muscle and brain. He does well in the Irish accent and gives us a lot of exciting moments in the film. Statham plays a normal guy's role and does a good job too. I specially liked the African American trio who provided a lot of funny moments. Though the film has no great message nor tells us any great story it has been well directed and well presented and deserves the #161 place in IMDB top 250.

Ratings

Direction: 8/10
Acting : 8/10
Background Score: 7/10
Overall: 7.7/10

Top Ten movies of all time

Here is a list of ten movies which have made an impression on me. There are a lot more that are amazing but i believe these 10 are the best and i would watch them any number of times and at any time.

1. The Shawshank Redemption
2. A Beautiful Mind.
3. One flew over the cuckoo's nest.
4. The Dark Knight
5. Apocalypse Now
6. Schindler's List
7. Jurassic park
8. The Matrix
9. The Lives of others(Leben der Anderen, Das)
10. Fight Club

Miracle at St. Anna - In for a surprise

Miracle at St.Anna is directed by Spike Lee, the director of the big movies like Malcolm X and Inside Man. Based on the novel by James McBride the movie gave a lot of hope and expectations to the audience and also to me. I decide to watch the movie in a theater and was prepared for the 2 Hr and 40 minutes of WWII story. What came in was a surprise to me. Comparing to other WWII movies that i have watched like Saving Private Ryan, Windtalkers etc. this stood no competition. But i sat along for the mystery to be unfolded that they had promised. The cast was all new and the African American team were entertaining but i do not believe that they had the same accent back then in 1944 as they have now. I distantly felt that Snoop Dog and 50 Cent were rapping the dialogs in the back. The story dragged a lot in the middle and i would not give a "thumbs up" for direction either. I did watch Inside Man a few years ago but do not remember it well and hence could not gauge the Director's style. I felt that the background score was kind of ripped away from the movie and i heard it separately in my head.

Ratings

Direction : 5/10
Acting : 6/10
Background Score :4/10
Overall :5/10

Form here on....

For a long time i have wondered what my real passion is? I tried doing everything possible and lost interest in the middle of it or in most case just in the beginning. But to my surprise i have never gotten tired of watching movies. I moved from moderate Indian Tamil/Hindi movies to a much better Hollywood movies only to find out out that Hollywood do not make the best movies in the world. So i ventured into other indie movies and later in German, Italian and Brazilian movies. I was stunned at their direction and storytelling ability. But i did visit my native movies quite frequently. So i have decided to start blogging on movies and also soon come up with my own rating system. From here on i would be discussing about one or more movie in my blog posting. I may also blog on older movies. So here it goes......

How i stopped worrying and learned to love the american food.

It was my first week in America and i was scooting across Marshall street looking for a place to eat. Fatigue had hit me and i badly needed carbohydrates. I came across this food outlet called Augies and went in quickly realizing that this seemed like an inexpensive place to eat. Being a vegetarian all my life had never been a problem in India. There was always a Adyar Ananda Bhavan or a Shanti Sagar to the rescue. But this was a different place and i had read about the massive amount of beef these people consume. Everything under the sky revolved around beef here and i was a bit unsure of the menu in the place i went. To my rescue there was cheese pizza and i happily munched away the food.

Slowly i eased into the American system of nourishment and started trying different vegetarian dishes. Sometime it was terrible and sometimes it was awesome. I had always read in people's profile that they love Italian food, so i tried pasta and other such dishes and hated it. I guess salt has still not been discovered in Italy and spices are like alien contact for them, something in the future. I also once went to a middle eastern restaurant and loved the food there.

Once i was in JFK and was extremely hungry and in a state of hurry ordered Japanese rice and got so sick that i had nightmares during my flight. Chinese food is safe bed for rice lovers but i always get the idea that something from the dish is going to come out and sting me. Maybe it is just my imagination let loose but i still believe it is quite possible.

Braindrain...in people!

Recently i was conversing with my old roommate and he told me a strange story. It goes like this. He told me that during a group discussion with his classmates who constituted of students from various places like India, China, America and Africa, a student from Bombay surprisingly came up with a doubtful remark saying that Chennai is the capital of Karnataka. Enlightening the readers is my duty that the student is doing his/her Master's in Information Management and is a potential employee of the (God knows what) Big Four. I believe it is a sad demise of human thirst of knowledge and the beginning of a new wave of trend called moronism. I fail to trace the time when this all started, the divide of India as North and South. There has been a imaginary line drawn and everything that falls below Bombay is termed South. Now having said that, it is surprising that some of them take this to the next level. How can someone call Chennai the capital of Karnataka. Did they not read their texts?

Chennai has long cultural tradition and was noted as the gateway to South a few years ago. It has the one the India's oldest modern Universities, University of Madras who's alumni include the two Nobel laureates Sir C.V. Raman and Subramanyan Chandrasekhar. It has an Indian Institute of Technology and other notable Arts and Science colleges like MCC, Loyola and Presidency. Indian culture was always portrayed with the symbol of Bharatanatyam, a product of Chennai and Carnatic music which was popularized in Chennai. In a sentence "Chennai is the seat of culture in India".

Chennai is the home to much of the automobile industry and is the second largest producer of Software Technology only behind Bangalore, which i believe falls below Bombay.

Mumbai has long cultural tradition too. In fact it was considered the Gateway to India. It has the other oldest university, University of Bombay. It is India's largest city. It has the BSE which is the oldest stock exchange in Asia. It is the birthplace of Indian Cinema. It is the perfect example of a Metro in India. And according to the 1991 census 3% percent of the population include Tamilians. There is more outstanding facts about Mumbai which i expect the readers to go research.

I take a pride to be associated to both these cities and I would suggest to all those who are ignorant of these facts to read History properly. There is more to Chennai and Mumbai than what you think is.