Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Genre: Documentary/War/Animation/Action/Historical Event/Biography

Starring (voice): Ari Folman, Yehekzel Lazarov, Ron-Ben Yishai, Ori Sivan

The 1982 Lebanon War saw a ruthless attack of the Israeli forces against Lebanon which eventually led to the Shabra and Shatila massacre where civilian minorities were held in a fortified camp and mercilessly killed. Ari Folman (Folman) is an Israeli film-maker who recounts his experiences of war when he was serving in the Israeli Army during the Lebanon War. In 2006, he witnesses a dream where he is in the war with a friend and realises that the war is a memory that he does not recollect anymore. In a bid to refresh his memory and remember what happened, he meets various sets of people who could potentially help him remember what he went through. From traveling to Netherlands to meet Carmi (Lazarov) and meeting the infamous journalist, Ron-Ben Yishai, Armi slowly starts recollecting his thoughts right up to the massacre. The movie follows a very unique animation style that is a blend of typical comic book illustrations, rigid animations but contemporary  that use solid colours along with special effects that are extremely contemporary and advanced. This unique style is pleasing and lifts the heaviness and bloodshed from the movie but at the same time creates a very big disconnect from the movie. It diverts the movies core idea of war, death and destruction and showcases it in a light and cheerful manner. The movie is a Cannes Palm d'Or nominee along with numerous other global victories.

Thumbs up: Unique animation style

Thumbs down: Animation style tends to shift the core focus of the movie

Rating: 7.7/10

Read More

Mahabharat (2013)

Genre: Animation/War/Fantasy/Action/Drama

Starring (voice): Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Vidya Balan, Sunny Deol, Jackie Shroff, Anupam Kher, Shatrughan Sinha, Anil Kapoor, Deepti Naval, Manoj Bajpayee

The Mahabharat is being credited to be the longest epic poem in the world and when a story of such scale and grandeur, a story that lays the foundation of a religion and hence a society of billions of people is remade into a movie, justice needs to be given. Touted as being the most expensive animated movie to come out of Bollywood, it is no doubt that the audience has modest expectations from it. Bhishma Pitamah (Bachchan) is the mentor or custodian of the throne of Hastinapur. His eldest son, Dhritarashtra was blessed with a 100 sons who were collectively called the Kauravs and his younger brother, Pandu was blessed with 5 who were called the Pandavs. Unfortunately since Dhritarashtra was blind, Pandu ascended the throne of Hastinapur and after his death the throne was handed over to his eldest son, Yudhishtir (Bajpayee). Duryodhan (Shroff), the eldest son of Dhritarashtra was of the opinion that he is the rightful prince to the throne and in order to avoid a fight between the brothers, the kingdom was divided in two halves for each of the princes'. Jealous of his brothers popularity and success, Duryodhan continued to plot against the Pandavs which ultimately led to the battle of Kurukshetra, a war that saw both sides battle it out for the ultimate victory. With a strong cast that covers almost every credible actor in the industry, it is extremely disappointing that no attention whatsoever seems to have been given towards the movies animation. It suddenly seems as if one is watching a movie made 15 years ago with rigid animations, imperfect movements and an overall lack of finesse. A stark contrast to the botched animation is the superb special effects that stand out from the rest of the movie, even though it is used sporadically. Condensing such a long story for a 2 hour movie is a challenge and the makers have been successful in highlighting all the major aspects of the story but yet they seem to be situations that have simply been pieced together with no flow or connect to each other. Major aspects of the story were identified and glued to one another without any concern for logic and maintaining a fluid story. The background score is loud and powerful but the overall lack of finesse in executing the action sequences does not seem to compliment what you hear. The audio does not seem to agree with the visuals and hence look completely out of place. The movie was made to target children and explain to them in a simplified manner the story of Mahabharat. Whilst the movie might achieve this target with the audience it is trying to reach out to, had the animations and overall development of the movie been better, it could have been appreciated by a wider audience which would have worked in the movie's favour ultimately. To be watched only if you have someone younger than 10 years accompanying you, else avoid this at all costs.

Thumbs up: A decent attempt at reaching out to the younger audience

Thumbs down: Bad animation and an overall lack of finesse in the storyline

Rating: 5.3/10

Read More

Courage Under Fire (1999)

Genre: War/Action/Drama/Mystery

Starring: Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Matt Damon, Lou Diamond Phillips, Michael Moriarty

The medal of honor is the highest military honor awarded by the United States government and is awarded for outstanding bravery and valor at the time of combat. The medal, however, cannot just be given to anyone and a deep research precedes the actual awarding of the medal. Lieutenant Colonel Nathaniel Serling (Washington) has been assigned the task to evaluate whether Army Captain Karen Walden should receive the medal of honor who died whilst trying to rescue fellow soldiers. Serling served the army during the Gulf War and had accidentally fired a friendly tank assuming it to be an enemies. The army has kept this information a secret in order to save it's face but this has affected Serling's conscious and he finds it extremely difficult to live with that lie. A probe into Walden's story throws some surprising results with contradictory stories coming from various sources.The army and the government want to go ahead with Walden's story and gain media attention for awarding it to the first female military person ever but Serling is adamant on digging deep and finding out what really did happen that night. A very interesting movie that showcases the insides of the functioning of military organisations and how after a point, the life of an individual does not matter as much as gaining attention and maintaining an image does. The story became slightly repetitive and a hence a bit boring somewhere in the middle and failed to climax with an interesting twist. At the end it still became another movie which highlights American pride and supremacy and seemed to deviate the point that it was trying to make. It is still a good watch for once but do not expect too much.

Thumbs up: Interesting concept

Thumbs down: Story fails to pan out in the way it should have or it intended to

Rating: 6.4/10

Read More

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Genre: War/Action/Historical Event

Starring: Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, Sam Shepard, William Fichtner, Ewen Bremner

Somalia, an east African country was locked in a civil war between the Somali government and an uprising with Mohamed Farrah Aidid proclaiming himself as the new ruler of Somalia. The United Nations, with the support of the US Army, entered Somalia to provide relief and bring peace to the nation. In a bid to take down Aidid and bring democracy to Somalia, the US Army fought the First Battle of Mogadishu between against Somali militia. The entire length of the movie recounts every move of the war from start to end and something that should not have lasted for more than one hour, turned out to become an overnight ordeal for the US soldiers. The US Army suffered 18 deaths and 80 wounded, in comparison to more than 1,000 Somali lives lost, both civilian and militia. Usually, recounting the events of a war, makes the movie dragged and slightly boring unless the war itself is eventful. There is a lot of high-drama and action to visually recount every move of the war and give the viewer a first hand re-count of the battlefield. Coming from Ridley Scott, the movie lived to its expectations in every aspect and ensured that it was a treat for its viewers. A large ensemble of star cast that did justice to their roles and represented all the soldiers that fought and lost their lives. A great war and action movie that would never disappoint.

Thumbs up: Brilliant performances

Thumbs down: Perhaps the story could be broader to capture more aspects surrounding the war

Rating: 7.7/10

Read More