Best Movies of the Decade

Top 10 movies of the decade (2000-2009)

The first decade of the new millennium has gone by. Here's the list of movies which have stand out and have made an impact. This is my list of the best 10 movies of the last decade.

Honorary mention : Minority report, Blood Diamond, Sin City, The departed, No country for old men, Children of men, Batman Begins.

10. Adaptation. : Charlie Kaufman tries to adapt a non-fiction book about orchids into a movie. He hits the writer's block. What does he do? He writes a screenplay about his block in adapting the book. Weird! And very delightful. This is one very original movie executed brilliantly. Good performances by a strong ensemble cast. But the inventive story is what makes this movie elite.

9. 21 grams : Guillermo Arriaga is another screenwriter who has made an impact with his own style (one incident-many lives affected) of writing. 21 grams is another collaboration of Arriaga and director Alejandro Inarritu after amazing Amores Perros (Love's bitch). 21 grams is intense with high emotional quotient and excellent acting performances. It grips you in it's awe and doesn't free you until long after movie has finished.

8. Lord Of The Rings Trilogy : It's just one long movie with three parts. Peter Jackson made impossible possible when he adapted a book which was called as unadaptive with such finesse that it has become an inspiration to all film-makers. He uses the technology perfectly to match the adventures of Frodo Baggins and keeps us at the edge all the time. My Precious!

7. Wall-E : This Sci-fi romantic comedy by Pixar broke all the molds of an animation movie. Wall-e and Eve, two robots romanced the screen like no other couple has ever had. They were such lovable characters that by the end of the movie you have moist eyes .You feel for them. And the last scene where wall-e almost doesn't recognize eve is comparable to the great last scene of Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. It would be very difficult to surpass this animation feature, even for Pixar.

6. The Man from Earth : It was very unfortunate that this superb movie couldn't get a release in theaters and have to rely on torrent sites for viewing. This movie deserves more, much more. It's an amazing take on existentialism through a thought provoking and thrilling story. This was Jerome Bixby's last story and it's a masterpiece. This movie will make you think even in your deep slumbers.

5. The Dark Knight : Christopher Nolan's Batman Franchise is by far the best superhero franchise. And The Dark Knight took the baton from Batman Begins and threw it so far in the darkness that even Nolan(if he decides to) will find it hard to trace it. It gave us a super-villain we won't forget. Heath Ledger's Joker is a legend. This was what every other movies lacked. A menace with witty dialogues. Add to that fast paced action sequences which will blow you away. All of this encrypted in a well written story executed expertly. Hail the Dark Knight!

4. Memento : Such a brilliant mindfuck! This is exactly what Christopher Nolan's movie is. A story by Jonathan Nolan which despite being non-linear remains an edge of a seat thriller. The movie goes forward and then it goes reverse. While it fries your brain it also builds up your anticipation and excitement till the end which is not exactly the end. The story plays with your grasp of the movie and that is one hell of a game you want to play over and over again.

3. Synecdoche, New York : Shakespeare told us that the world is a stage and we are all actors. Charlie Kaufman shows us how the world becomes a stage and how we act from auditions to the end. And it's a sad world. The subject of the movie is mind and it's struggles to survive by connecting to other beings. And Kaufman has illustrated it very hauntingly. The movie is very sad, achingly sad, so sad it would dry your tear-ducts. The movie revolves around all the philosophies of life and death and all that comes between. This movie is a think-ocean. Take a dive. Go deep and explore.

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind : Another Charlie Kaufman's story about the doings of our mysterious mind, this time its entangled in a love story. Love is measured by the desperation and longing you have for your beloved one in face of any tragedy. What if you have done the mistake of erasing the memories of your beloved? A little weird. Well, it's a Kaufman's story. Director Michel Gondry has a done a wonderful work to show the driving powerful emotions of Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. This is the love story of the decade.

1. Requiem for a Dream : A movie to be the best of the decade has to be a hard hitting feature which would make an impact equal of an nuclear bomb in your emotional bone. Darren Aronofsky's Requiem for a dream is that and far more. It will make your stomach whirl, your muscles twitch, your mouth dry and your heart to pump more of that valuable blood. This movie makes you think the value of your life. And you can't ignore it. And yes, this is a movie about drugs. It will feel in you so much fear that you will go through multiple viewings of this movie before even considering doing drugs. And with multiple viewings, you are not going to touch any. This movie is hauntingly beautiful. Clint Mansell gives a music score that magnifies the horror. Lux Aterna will remind you of the horror of the movies for ever. Requiem for a dream is the best movie of the decade, no doubt about that. It will easily be in any decade's list.

Kill me, again

Today I understood the meaning of 'Breathtaking'
I have seen people use it and
I have used it myself all the time
It was no more than an adjective to me
until today when it became a phenomena.

My eyes captured an image
and my mind processed it
That image so much stirred my emotions
that my system broke down
and my mind hanged.

Nothing. Nil. Zero. Zilch.
I was still
My heart won't beat
I couldn't breathe
I was frozen. Totally blank.

I saw myself from another dimension
and I found myself dead.
Wow! She killed me again.

And then, I take a breath
I feel the air gushing in my lungs
My system reboots
and I'm alive again.
After this 'Breathtaking' moment, I wait
I wait, to be killed again.

I see myself from another dimension
What a way to die!
Dead in one beautiful moment
No remembrance of the past
Not a touch of grief
No guilt, regrets and pain of the past
It's like there is no past
You are just born in that moment

Dead, with no consideration for the future
No anxiety and tension for what time may bring
I am dead beyond the realms of time
Dead in a moment of ecstasy
What a way to die!
What a moment to die!

She kills me again and again
but now the moment of truth has come
She has to go and I can't be with her
except in these deaths and reincarnations

It's such a paradox
I've to wait for time to pass
so that I can live a timeless moment

Nonetheless, tomorrow
Ah! tomorrow
Tomorrow, She will kill me
and I'll be alive again.

The Awards

Oscars are going to be announced tonight. They are undoubtedly the most coveted awards presented even though they are the source of many controversies. Or maybe, these controversies are the attraction which makes them so coveted. Whatever it be, it's no hidden truth that Oscars have sidelined the deserving performances far too many times. And this year is no different. With The Dark Knight snubbed and The Reader getting too many nominations and Slumdog Millionaire poised to win big time, I had to do something which will satisfy me and so many of you alike. So, I present to you my own set of awards. And the nominations and awards for excelling in fields of making a motion picture in 2008 are:

Best Motion Picture

The Curious case of Benjamin Button
Milk
The Wrestler
The Dark Knight
Defiance

Best Performance by an Actor in Leading Role

Brad Pitt (The Curious case of Benjamin Button)
Sean Penn (Milk)
Micky Rourke (The Wrestler)
Leonardo Di Caprio (Revolutionary Road)
Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)

Best Performance by an Actress in Leading Role

Angelina Jolie (Changeling)
Sally Hawkins (Happy Go Lucky)
Melissa Leo (Frozen River)
Frances Mcdormand (Burn after reading)
Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road)

Best Performance by an Actor in Supporting Role

James Franco (Milk)
Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
Michael Shannon (Revolutionary Road)
Liev Schreiber (Defiance)
James Franco (Pineapple Express)

Best Performance by an Actress in Supporting Role

Marisa Tomei (The Wrestler)
Penelope Cruz (Vicky Christina Barcelona)
Amy Adams (Doubt)
Taraji P Henson (The Curious case of Benjamin Button)
Rosemarie Dewitt (Rachel Getting Married)

Best Achievement in Directing

David Fincher (The Curious case of Benjamin Button)
Gus Van Sant (Milk)
Sam Mendes (Revolutionary Road)
Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler)
Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight)

Best Achievement in Screenplay

Milk (Dustin Lance Black)
Wall-E (Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, Jim Reardon)
The Curious case of Benjamin Button (Eric Roth)
Slumdog Millionaire (Simon Beaufoy)
The Dark Knight (Christopher Nolan, Jonathan Nolan)

Best Achievement in Cinematography

The Dark Knight (Wally Pfister)
The Curious case of Benjamin Button (Claudio Miranda)
Changeling (Tom Stern)
Transsiberian (Xavi Gimenez)
Defiance (Eduardo Serra)

Best Achievement in Editing

The Curious case of Benjamin Button ( Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter)
The Dark Knight (Lee Smith)
Milk (Elliot Graham)
Frost/Nixon ( Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill)
The Wrestler (Andrew Weisblum)

Best Achievement in Art Direction

Changeling ( James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ( Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo)
The Dark Knight (Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando)
Milk (Charley Beal)
Revolutionary Road (Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt)

Best Achievement in Costume Design

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Jacqueline West)
Milk (Danny Glicker)
Revolutionary Road (Albert Wolsky)
Australia (Catherin Martin)
The Duchess (Michael O'conner)

Best Achievement in Makeup

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (Greg Cannom)
The Dark Knight (John Caglione Jr., Conor O'Sullivan)
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army (Mike Elizalde, Thomas Floutz)

Best Music Score for a Motion Picture

Slumdog Millionaire (A.R.Rahman)
Defiance (James Newton Howard)
Wall-E (Thomas Newman)
The Dark Knight (Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard)

Best Original Song for a Motion Picture

Slumdog Millionaire: A.R. Rahman, Maya Arulpragasam("O Saya")
Wall-E: Peter Gabriel, Thomas Newman("Down to Earth")
The Wrestler: Bruce Springsteen("The Wrestler")

Best Achievement in Sound

The Dark Knight (Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ( David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten)
Wall-E (Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt)

Best Achievement in Sound Editing

The Dark Knight (Richard King)
Ironman (Frank E. Eulner, Christopher Boyes)
Wall-E ( Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button ( Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron)
The Dark Knight ( Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, Paul J. Franklin)
Ironman (John Nelson, Ben Snow, Daniel Sudick, Shane Mahan)

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Wall-E
Kung Fu Panda

Best Foreign Motion Picture

Let the Right One In (Sweden)
Vals Im Bashir (Israel)
Gomorra (Italy)
Der Baader Meinhof komplex (Germany)
Entre Les Murs (France)

Best Bollywood Motion Picture

Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa
Rock On!!!
Fashion
Aamir
Tahaan

Slumdog Millionaire : Blown out of proportions

The Oscars will be announced tonight and Slumdog Millionaire seems to be the hot favorite of the critics. The movie is raking millions of dollars worldwide and is supposed to make Indians proud having got so many awards.

What is shocking is that this movie is in the top 34 movies of all time in IMDB! This is definitely one of the most inconsistent movies that I have ever seen.
The only reason why this movie is a hit is because it exaggerates incredible things. This is definitely a very unrealistic movie. The thing with Americans is that, like all out going individuals, they too want to see and experience exotic and new events in their life. Now, the India that is depicted in the movie is totally not true and yet it is easy for foreigners to believe that this how India is at this moment. This misrepresentation of reality so endeared the movie to the Americans that they went blind to the faults glaring out from the movie.

Inspite of all the glaring holes in the weak script, just because it is getting the lime light in the US many Indians continue to chant that this is as an excellent movie. No wonder then, when the famous Swami Vivekananda was questioned why he went to the US to preach Hinduism when he could have done so in India itself, he replied that it would create a reaction back at home. No wonder then that when his greatness was acknowledged in the Parliament of Religions, immediately he was hailed as a Supreme teacher back in India.

Similarly, when Rabindranath Tagore composed Gitanjali, he was not appreciated by fellow Indians and yet when he won the prestigious Nobel Prize for Literature immediately guests started pouring in saying that his poetry was beautiful. Rabindranath Tagore gave them a piece of his mind to them at that time!

We are exactly like Jamal and his cohorts in the movie who become very happy when they are treated with lots of food and fun by the beggar mafia don. Jamal says, “He must be a saint!”. In the same way Danny Boyle and his mates are treating India to the BAFTA awards or so on and we are becoming happy not understanding that all that is really happening is that shit load of money is being made by them for depicting India’s poverty in an unrealistic way.

Americans are shown as being nice who even give away 100$ after getting their car stolen. This is narcissism at its best.
Is there any Indian who thinks that this movie has not shown India in a poor light?
After watching this does anybody want to go to india? Not even for a visit. People call it a “poverty tour.” Although it does highlight the “new India,” it does largely depict India as a terrible place to live–with corrupt cops, and criminals that blind children for profit. The matter is nobody in their right mind would want to go to India after how it is shown in Slumdog Millionaire.

Indians are trying to have their cake and eat it at the same time. They are saying to us that this film is just a fiction and thus its OK to set it in slums etc and misrepresent here and there. We are saying that this IS going to create a bad image of India. Just like Temple of Doom did.

They just don’t know how media works. It doesn’t make a difference if it is fiction or non-fiction, the selection of details has an influence on the viewer.
It is not surprising that this movie is a low budget one and I can wager a Million dollars if I have them, that this movie could have been shot in just 30 days. There is absolutely no substance in this movie.

If this movie ACTUALLY WINS an OSCAR for the best picture, be sure that for the first time in the American movie history a totally unworthy movie has been awarded one of the most coveted award that often times is denied to the best of the best.

And one last point: The way Salim was portrayed towards the ending of the movie is highly reminiscent of scenes from “The City of God.” How original is that?

However AR Rehman’s score is commendable and deserves an Oscar!

The top ten 'Greatest Movie Characters of All Time' as chosen by Empire magazine:
1. Tyler Durden in Fight Club
2. Darth Vader in Star Wars
3. The Joker in 'The Dark Knight'
4. Han Solo in Star Wars
5. Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs
6. Indiana Jones
7. The Dude in The Big Lebowski
8. Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean
9. Ellen Ripley in Alien movies
10. Vito Corleone in The Godfather

What do you think of the list??? What are your favorite characters?

10 Must Have Software

1. WinRAR - This should really be the 1st software to install as almost everything that you download from the internet will be compressed, and winrar is the only compression utility you will ever need.

Download Link: http://www.adrive.com/public/e0bf5c0705c05bf7b5d95d5e098c15a90846e6e2f3e5c9b7398e163f18bae1c5.html

2. Internet Download Manager - Simply put, the best download manager ever written for Windows.

Download Link: http://www.adrive.com/public/0f2f64dd8a9d489c1409be6c77b2cb227b4b746c7fb8e559ea9e415e0e1d3d49.html

3. BitDefender Total Security- Many people might argue that Kaspersky is better than Bitdefender, etc, etc.. But at the end of the day, you need an anti-virus which knows its job and at the same time is not a pain in the ass.

Download Link: http://www.adrive.com/public/0a94ca0b2bb47c2d78184cdd3879047226fe3e1d5683c9ea6bc9df577b5062c1.html

4. TuneUp Utilities - Well, you have to keep your system performing as good as new forever. This utility has quite a bunch of tools to help keep your system optimized. Though many other software provide a lot of extra features, but an average user can always do with this.

Download Link: http://download2.tune-up.com/TU2009/TU2009TrialEN-US.exe
Serial: User Name: Ferrum vistasoft
Company: -Leave it blank-
Serial: BFHTXJ-JHB14W-QYYRNN-BWA6JJ-XYQND7-0A4EQ9

5. VLC Media Player - One of the most versatile players known till date.

Download Link: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.html

6. Nero Burning ROM - You gotta burn those movies and software and TV shows. The full installation of Nero is a disk space nightmare, and provides a lot of extra tools most users don't require. The best solution is Nero Micro edition, which provides only the basics and is sufficient for anyone and everyone.

Download Link: http://www.adrive.com/public/55f101d61810156fcb4beb09630b63f0e95446f389e389b749aed9d15d2796e9.html

7. Foxit PDF Reader - A PDF reader which is extremely light and provides enough functions for day to day use. Though one can use Acrobat Reader, but that is a severely bloated piece of crap.

Download Link: http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader_2/down_reader.htm

8. Vista Codec Package - Once you install it, you wont need another media player ever. You can run almost all the audio and Video files on Windows Media Player itself. How cool is that!!

Download Link: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/Codec-Packs-Video-Codecs/Advanced-Vista-Codec-Package.shtml

9. Mozilla Firefox - A replacement for Windows Internet Explorer. Do I need to say anything more about this?

Download Link: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/

10. iTunes - Considered the best Media Player by many people (or is it just the Apple charm?), it is a good replacement for Windows Media Player for those MP3s.

Download Link: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/

War and Peace

Born free!
As the world says you are
And then they give you the directions
They feed you their knowledge
They teach you what they learned
And you see what you are told
You speak what and how they say
You judge things ‘coz they judged so
You believe ‘coz they do
Your mind’s eyes open and it asks
Born free… Are you???
But its too late
You are already bound
By the chains of emotions you don’t fully understand
And you also cant help it
Your mind goes fuzzy
It’s struggling between what they taught you
And what you think is wrong in their teaching
Anyway, their teaching is all what you have and nothing more
That is all on which your mind can process
That is all what you see and feel
And you don’t know nothing else
You sense there should be more
Things are missing
Something doesn’t makes sense
But you cant place it
You cant ‘coz you know nothing else than you are taught
And you are confused
There is no peace in your mind
But how can you bring tranquility?
You go crazy and stupid , they say
There is chaos and they also know this
But you are happy ‘coz you think you have made them think
That they also don’t know how or why these things are happening
You are happy ‘coz you have confused them
You think they will bring some answers you seek
Alas the problem persists ‘coz
They also know only what they have been taught
You are unsettled again seeing how settled they seem
And how they expect you to be at peace
How can they? you ask
And then your imagination broadens
Either you believe in a higher power
Who have all the knowledge and all your answers
Who will bring peace to you
Who fills up the blanks
Or you believe there is nothing at all
There was nothing and there will be none
You cant get the answers ‘coz there are none
And that you are really born free
And you can do whatever you want to
Whatever makes you happy
Whatever brings you peace
Whatever keeps you going
Whatever you think about being born free or not
But this journey is definitely free
And making sure this journey brings you happiness to your world
Must bring the answers you seek
Coz time is not a constraint
You don’t know how long your journey will be
Death is just a disappearing act all we know for sure and nothing else
So all these confusion and struggle
Is nothing but a mere neurological disorder
Which you have to break free from
By some performing some acrobatics on your journey
Imagine,
Life is a huge cave filled with darkness
You only see things and people around you
And each one is moving forward seeking the light
Helping or destroying the other, one moves ahead
Hoping to find the ultimate source of light
Which is enabling them to see what they see
One goes through so many wars inside the head
That they go around looking for peace
But what if all they can do is to fight these wars
And make the journey to fight some more wars
And that there is no peace or the luckiest one gets it
What if the cave has no escape?
What if all the light inside is the property of the cave
And there is no light to seek.
But how to find out? How?
We cant and that is exactly the point of life.