I’m reviewing movies based on true stories – deceit and trust; hate, love, wrongfulness and forgiveness; death and living life. represented on silver screen.
‘uwantme2killhim?’ a true story about how a harmless cyber chat can turn ugly; ‘fruitvale station’ tells the true story of the merciless shooting of a black youth by a white cop captured in camera phone; ‘the railway man’ is a true account of a former brit soldier and the tortures he endured by the japanese circa 1940-s. finally ‘blood ties’ a movie which basically reminds me of the countless plot of hindustan movies.
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an intriguing true story of how a harmless cyber chat can result into unexpected consequences; even deadly one. a well-made movie, helmed by the two young actors who dominate the storyline.
plus they are both SO adorable!
plot : 16 year old mark; cute, popular, happy family – starts chatting with a random girl named rachel and found out she’s in some mysterious witness protection program with her abusive boyfriend. she asks him to take care of her lil bro john, an outcast in his school. and so begins a friendship between the two – which gets more complicated as the truth comes out…
jamie blackley as mark is so adorable I can’t believe I haven’t seen him in any other movie. if I were a teenage girl, I’d have his poster on my wall! haha. he’s like a very young ‘man of steel’s henry cavill. he’s charismatic in this one; very believable in all the emotions he has shown. I hope for bigger break for this young lad!
the story of ‘u want me 2 kill him?’ seems outrageously unbelievable to be a true story, but it’s more common than we care to admit. watch it and you’ll understand. a shocking ending to a well-told true story.
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we know how the movie is gonna end. the hero dies. the story is about the brief life of oscar grant, a young african-american; redeeming himself from his crimes, starting new, loving father, playful son – he’s the hero we wanna root for, despite his troubled past.
the movie made us like him a lot, with that touching scene with saving the dog and his lovely relationship with his mom – and then slapped us with the truth we all know – that he died in vain. shot (allegedly accidental) by a white cop in the middle of a busy metro station, on new year’s eve.
writer-director ryan coogler and michael b. jordan who played oscar grant are both in their 20-s and as african-american youths themselves, always feel like oscar grant could’ve been them; it could’ve easily happen to them. the whole cast presented a very natural kind of acting; almost like watching an interesting documentary or a reality tv show. wonderful assemble of cast, especially octavia spencer as the mother.
but of course, michael b. jordan steals the show; a brilliant performance that made us care for the character so much that the final scene became very painful to watch.
no matter how dark your past is, no one – NO ONE deserves to die the way he did.
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colin firth as ‘eric lomax’ and nicole kidman are both academy-award winners, so there’s no doubt of their acting ability. so I would just like to move your attention to jeremy irvine, the actor who played young eric. he captured the mannerism and speech of colin firth down to his footsteps and the way he stands. incredible!
an interestingly enough, it was colin firth himself who suggested that jeremy irvine played him as a young man!
based on an autobiography of eric lomax (the main character in the movie) a british army officer who experienced extreme torture by the japanese soldiers at a POW camp during the construction of thai-burma railway during WW2 just for building a radio. it was so traumatizing that he was still haunted by it till the present day.
colin firth is believable as the soldier with psychological trauma – the fear, the hate – all encompassed in his expressions and voice. a true great actor.
what if you were brit soldier eric lomax, and years after, found out that the japanese soldier who tortured you is still alive? would you confront him? will revenge be first in your mind? and what would be the response of that japanese soldier? unchanged? remorse? indifference?
I dislike war movies, for obvious reasons, but this is a must-see for fans of colin firth. “sometimes, the hate has to stop.” ~eric lomax.
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oh, this is one movie from my list today that is NOT based on true story. it’s practically citer hindustan actually. brothers. one a cop, one an ex-con. the rest, is pretty predictable.
of course the brother has a troubled past; drug-abusing wife and kids he left for prison. of course cop-brother’s work is compromised when his criminal bro gets out of prison. and of course they have a sweet dad who’s dying of something. and don’t forget to throw in a love interest with an abusive husband to make it more dramatic!
dah kata dah, hindustan!
but I won’t say that the movie is bad. it’s okay. and I’m giving it more stars than it deserves simply because of the A-list cast – billy crudup as the cop-bro, macho clive owen as the ex-con-bro and zoey zaldana as the cop’s ‘colored’ girlfriend.
watch it if you’re into this sort of family drama. for me, the actors make it worth the watch. and the ending is not bad too. really wraps up the whole drama; but at that point I dont even care if anyone is supposed to get what they deserve.
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