Water (2005)

Deepa Mehta has been working on this movie for almost seven years. There were troubles on the set, Indian religious organizations threatened to close the set and pull funding. So the production stopped and moved to Sri Lanka in order to finish this project. Usually when one hears about “problems on the set”, the assumption …

The World’s Fastest Indian (2005)

Here’s a movie you won’t easily find in theaters. You probably won’t see it released on DVD either, unless you specifically search for it online. Yet it’s a great, simple film that will inspire you to aim higher, and live a little larger. This flick has been going from festival to festival, and unless a …

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)

Remake films always have it tough – the audiences don’t want a different take on a familiar story; the cast and crew are either following someone else’s footsteps or are trying too hard to steer away from it. And then there’s the story itself – some movies get stale and outdated when they’re remade (what …

Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)

Recently it has become very difficult to go see a movie without bringing in a prefabricated bias. The scandals, the scoops, the marketing campaigns trying to capitalize on the fame of leads are becoming confusing (let alone tiresome). Although I can avoid the gossip pages, or ignore the constant attentions big stars get these days, …

James Doohan (Star Trek’s Scotty) has passed away

Rest in peace, Scotty. We have grown up with you at the control panel as Ster Trek’s most memorable engineer. You may have been typecast after the three-year long run with the original series, but boy, what a character you created. When the ST universe came back in late 70s in a series of movies, …

War of the Worlds (2005)

Death and destruction everywhere. Steven Spielberg sheds the usual cutesy antics. The typically warm fuzzy feelings we associate with “his” aliens are gone out of the theater with the first strike of lightning. And there’s quite a lot of lightning in the movie. What you’re witnessing is an invasion. What will follow is a story …

Batman Begins (2005)

The franchise that was successfully squandered by a well known director (see Joel Schumacher) gets a well-deserved reboot in this origin story. Directed by Christopher Nolan (Memento, Insomnia), and written by David S. Goyer (Blade, Dark City), this film is a prequel that sets up all adventures to come. Darker, more violent, even scarier than …

Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith (2005)

It’s finally over. The saga is complete, George Lucas will hopefully move on to other projects, FOX studios will start looking for a new franchise to milk (while they’re squeezing off the last drops from SW movies), and all of us fans will have to deal with this finale, and move on to other sci-fi …