Gattaca (1997)

Director Andrew Niccol's Gattaca, in my humble opinion, is  the peak of the motion picture art form. All aspects of the production serve the story spectacularly.

Vincent (Ethan Hawke) is one of rare naturally born children, who is condemned to die in young age with 99% percent probability. Vincent wants nothing more than to be an astronaut, so he buys himself a different life as Jerome (Jude Law), who has been crippled in an accident. From here begins Vincent's deception game to reach the stars.
Basically the plot deals with the issues of human spirit: what Vincent can achieve despite of his condition. Can he be better than the perfect people? Can he deceive everyone? Also there are lots of issues between the perfect and their humane flaws and how Vincent as flawed contrast with them.

Gattaca represents a rare genre of intellectual sci-fi movies that contains minimal amount of action and none of larger than life stuff (usual weapons and monsters kind)  This kind of  genre is heavily relied on the actors and settings. Settings for Gattaca are originally adapted where the future children are not conceived naturally, but through genetic engineering. This has brought up new kind of racism: perfect versus flawed

Watching Ethan Hawke's role as Vincent evade the relentless pursuit of the authorities while trying to be on the Titan mission, romancing Irene (Uma Thurman), and micro-managing his samples from Jerome (Jude Law in a very impressive supporting turn) made for some the most riveting viewing ever.

The best part for me regarding the movie is the greed and passion Hawke carries to be successful on his mission despite the disabilities on his side......At that point of time it doesn't matter wether he gets caught or not but his passion really stole my heart giving an insight into the hard work he really does although is not very legal though...

Do watch the movie for great screenplay,stunning cars,and great sets and decoration and Uma Thurman delivering a great performance in one of the most glamorous role of  her career accompanied by excellent acting of two leads well played by Eathan Hawke and Jude Law. The retro-style art direction, script, acting, music, and lighting all brought to life, much too chillingly, a cold and soulless world where the content of your genes counted for everything while the content of your character counted for nothing.

My Rating  - 9/10

Layer Cake (2004)

Matthew Vaughn  (Director of Stardust & Kick-Ass) made an impressive Directorial debut with Daniel Craig in the lead for the first time in his career in Layer Cake, a British movie.Craig, portrays a successful cocaine dealer at the top of his game, and he's planning to get out while he is ahead. His boss has one last assignment though, to find the missing daughter of his old pal. Caught up in a major ecstasy deal, a brutal Serbian gang and everyone trying to double cross each other, Craig has go against his own rules and outwit the lot of them.
The movie packs on the machismo and revels in the outlaw's contempt for the "straight" world without ever losing track of the menace and danger of the outlaw way of life. The plot is full of twists and turns and may take more than one viewing to take in, which is good for movie fans who like their films "chewy".
Layer Cake runs a fairly brisk hour and forty some odd minutes. It's well paced and has great narration. The lead character played by Daniel Craig (aka the next/future James Bond) is interesting as sort of someone obviously greedy but smart enough to know he's in the wrong business. There's an excellent mixture of fear in his character's actions/dialogue which is well placed earning believability.The supporting cast, on the whole English produce polished snappy dialogue with cool, collected energy. The editing is fast paced, but thankfully the director has chosen a fairly linear storyline.
Layer Cake is based on a novel by J.J. Connolly, who wrote the screenplay for the movie.  Originally Guy Ritchie was due direct but he had to put out because of scheduling conflicts. This was a blessing really because we all know that Ritchie would have just made Layer Cake a comical mockery fair. What Vaughan did was he played the material as straight as possible, keeping comedy to a minimum and a made an good example of a British Gangster film. Vaughan shows that he could handle the material and do some stylist directing trick like a pro, fitting in with the film.

My Rating 8/10

Ray (2004)

This is the true story of the great pianist and jazz singer/legend Ray Charles (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winning Jamie Foxx) telling how he became one of the most loved souls of  Music that people of America ever saw .  He was born in a poor African American-town, and he went blind at 7 years old, but with his skills of touch and hearing, this is what would later in life would lead him to stardom. By the 1960's he had accomplished his dream, and selling records in millions, and leading the charts with songs and albums. But the story also showed his downfalls, including the separation from his wife and child, because of his affair with a band member , his drug and alcohol use, and going to prison because of this.
It is a great story with a great singer impression, the songs, including Hit the Road Jack, are the highlights due to which the movie is must watch for any music fan.
Also starring Regina King as Margie Hendricks, Kerry Washington as Della Bea Robinson, Clifton Powell as Jeff Brown, Harry J. Lennix as Joe Adams, Bokeem Woodbine as Fathead Newman, Aunjanue Ellis as Mary Ann Fisher, Sharon Warren as Aretha Robinson, C.J. Sanders as Young Ray Robinson, Curtis Armstrong as Ahmet Ertegun and Richard Schiff as Jerry Wexler.

Talking about supporting cast, Kerry Washington is superb as the understanding and long suffering mother and wife, Della Bea Robinson as are the rest of the supporting cast. While Foxx does some of the singing, we mostly hear the voice of Ray Charles from his hit recordings. But Foxx is so good we have to remind ourselves that it isn't really him performing them live.
The ending feels a bit raffled, as if they were saying Hey the movie is 2 and a halve hours long now, lets put an end to it. But yet the movie covers that needed to be covered, so I tend to forgive them makers for that.

A good biopic movie. You don't have to be a fan of Ray Charles or his music to like this movie.

My Rating - 8/10

Thankyou for Smoking (2005)

Aaron Eckhart made his first big-screen impression in Neil LaBute's 1997 flick "In the Company of Men". Since then, he not been given good enough leading man roles, but luckily, this time was not the case as he stars as Nick Naylor, tobacco industry lobbyist extraordinaire, in first-time director/writer Jason Reitman's (later directed  Juno and Up in the Air) wonderfully acerbic comedy about the power of media spin around the availability of cigarettes despite inescapable evidence that smoking kills. Nick's two lobbyist buddies are played with barbed precision by David Koechner as the Bush-sound-alike firearms specialist and the wonderful Maria Bello as the sharp-tongued alcohol representative. The film's perspective is ruthlessly cynical and most of the characters are morally ambiguous, but those are the primary reasons why this movie sizzles full of shrewd insights about political gamesmanship in both the public and private sectors.

Aaron Eckhart is used to great measure to portray a character who has a moral black hole and an eager disposition to show just how black it is.Nick's lobbying powers make him a god in his world. He cannot do wrong, he flies coach and mingles with the people (and induces them to smoke), and he's become the favorite of the tobacco czar (Robert Duvall) who is using his own money to bribe a former Marlboro man dying of cancer, played by Sam Neill, not to talk against the industry and to use the money for a charity. He's also trying to negotiate a smart move (against his bosses’ wishes) with a Hollywood super-agent (Rob Lowe) to re-introduce smoking in films because nowadays, only Europeans and psycho-villains smoke -- it's deglamorized Hollywood. They suggest bringing Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a movie about smoking in space. (Listen to them talk, and listen to how they would resolve the "minor" issue that smoking cannot be done in space.)

Beginning with the inventive artwork of the opening credits, the plot goes in unexpected directions, and while the ending is a bit soft, overall the movie satisfies. The smart, provocative characters really make you think about the persistent hypocrisy of big business and government in refreshing ways that are not remotely disdainful. . Don’t miss the scenes involving MOD Squad and how Katie Holmes exploits Nick. Even the comparatively soft-centered scenes of Nick with his son have a nice edge, and with his translucent blue eyes, Cameron Bright strikes the right, non-judgmental notes as Joey. Reitman seems fully capable of bringing an acidic flavor to the most Capra-esquire situation.

Reitman has recruited a first-class cast to bring his brittle satire to life starting with a superb turn by Eckhart, who alternates easily between unapologetically smug and begrudgingly likable..

My Rating- 9/10