The Adventures of Steven Spielberg : TINTIN (2011).

From the greatest story tellers of our time, Director Steven Spielberg & Producer Peter Jackson, the title flashed by on the big screen during the trailer of Tintin. My eyes took a 32x zoom pretty much like our Jim Carey in The Mask. It looked like the animation version of Pirates of the Caribbean when I saw ships flying over other ships amidst thunderstorms, in the beginning of the trailer. The face of Tintin and his white puppy, Snowy takes us back to our childhood days, remembering the comic books.

Being satisfied of having enough leftovers of the delicious Spicy brisket beef with potatoes from my lunch at the Chinese restaurant, Tintin was a mouth watering dessert. Got into the theatre, skipping the 2$ games as we didn’t want to miss any of those 3D trailers. After the commercials came the spectacular trailer of War Horse, yet another Steven Spielberg movie, making me wonder, if he has got more than 24 hours a day. The screen widened as the curtains pulled over, with the stars of Paramount pictures flying around in 3D followed by the lady of Columbia pictures holding the torchlight, setting stage for the adventures of a lifetime.

The movie is a thrilling adventure mixed with clever, witty chase sequences and an intelligent fast paced story line, making us craving for more after the end credits. The fresh animations, graphics and the special effects used in The Adventures of Tintin is a sure visual treat, especially in Digital 3D, making The Polar Express look like a steam engine. It wakes up the adventurous child in us with a freedom to run like a freed rabbit.

The plot revolves around our ever in trouble newspaper reporter Tintin as he buys a classic model ship without knowing the mysterious secret associated with it. The pick pocketing, fighting and chasing sequences delivers the fun and feel of a Jackie Chan movie. The company of a boozy captain from a cargo ship, whose character resembles with Jack Sparrow, adds much more chaos and fun to Tintin’s adventure. Steven Spielberg has done a wonderful job in directing his first animation movie. Peter Jackson made the movie seem so real, as his company WETA Digital used computer animations such as the motion capture effects, where the actions of actors are digitally transferred to a computer. The scenes where a mirage in the desert transforms the sands into a rough sea with pirate ships tossing in the waves, the clash with two giant cranes using the control keys, the burning ship with people fighting all along swinging over another ship, the motorcycle chase along the sides of a broken dam with a heavy rush of water, the plane ride through the middle of dark clouds and the alcoholic refueling etc. are more than enough to keep us at the edge of our seats.

The movie combines the plot of two adventures from the respective books, Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham’s Treasure into one single adventure. The screenwriters are exceptionally good as they have transformed the electrifying comic stories of Tintin into a flawless and smooth movie. This one has undoubtedly got into the list of my all time favorites and I would give this a 5/5. It doesn’t matter whether you are or you are not a Tintin fan, this movie will be close to both the kids and adults who have that spark for adventure. 

  

The movie leaves room for the possibility of an even more spectacular sequel, as Tintin's unquenchable thirst for adventure takes him to grab his next mission. A sequel to this one, with Spielberg on the production side and Jackson on the director’s chair has already been announced.

Drive, The Movie : a 2011 hp Hybrid.

Drive, an instant cult classic, happened to me as I was doing my usual browsing through the new Hollywood trailers in YouTube. The trailer wasn’t quite catchy in the first view until I saw the best director 2011 at Cannes de festival label, which prompted me for a look at the user comments that eventually led me ending up with IMDb. Damn, it has a whooping 8.2 score. I should say, I haven’t seen such praising comments in YouTube for a just released movie which don’t have a strong banner to back up such as the Transformers or Harry potter or The Dark Knight or even the stupid Twilight. I usually go doing WoW, if the trailer has a Steven Spielberg or a Christopher Nolan. This one had nothing peculiar except for Ryan Gosling, who for me seemed to be the only familiar name, thanks to Notebook.

The user reviews grabbed most of my attention with some recommending everyone to watch this movie in a decent movie theatre to cherish the whole magical Drive experience at its best. And yet another who got one of the best days in ages just coz he bunked his university lecture and chose to watch this new flick in a cinema. I have always been a movie enthusiast who prefers watching movies only if it gets released in some of my favorite screens back in my hometown, Kochi. As I have left India, the new screens in New Zealand took quite some time to be familiarized with, my favorite being the XtremeScreen at Hoyts. Unfortunately Drive wasn’t playing in XremeScreen which was pretty much a disappointment but never mind, the other Hoyts screens still deserved a class and decency of its own. Guess what, the movie was actually chosen to be screened in one of the finest screens Cinema 5, where I have previously watched the spectacular Avatar in 3D, next only to the XtremeScreen though.

The movie started off with some low key warehouse robbery pretty much like in Transporter but with much intense and realistic getaway choices. The whole ambience was so in par with reality filled with neon flashlights, traffic signals, helicopter spotlights etc. The chase stands out entirely different from that used by Jason Statham in Transporter, as Ryan Gosling preferred to go unnoticed rather than being aggressive. The progressive background score takes us with a storm to the title credits with Drive flashing on in a pink color. The retro soundtrack is so addictive and haunting that it still runs through my head making me wonder if there is an MP3 player being installed with some Drive playlist in my brain. The hero resembles something like an Eastwood with short yet legendary dialogues and silences. The beautiful Carey Mulligan lights up the movie drowning its storyline with romance to an action plot. The pace and mood of the whole movie is exceptionally brilliant. I would give a whole lot of credit for the Cinematography by Newton Thomas Sigel synchronized perfectly with the magical music score by Cliff Martinez and of course the Danish Director Nicolas Winding Refn for his spectacular US debut.

This is pretty much like a stylish adaptation of the Steve McQueen movies of the 60’s and so don’t expect any Fast and the Furious action junk. Instead we could expect a beautifully crafted masterpiece wrapped up with breathtaking original soundtracks. There are some extreme blood spilling violence and traces of nudity restricting the film with an R rating. But this one should never be missed, as movies like this happens only once in a decade or so. This is definitely a must watch and possibly the coolest movie in years which does justice to every frame filling up with nothing but pure excellence. 

The Mystery of the Butterfly effect in Real Life.

A million thanks to the magic on the silver screen for introducing me to the interesting phenomenon called the butterfly effect. Starting from ‘‘The Jurassic park’’, which gives one of the most basic and simple explanations on this effect to ‘‘The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’’, the list goes on. However, it was ‘‘Mr Nobody’’ which really screwed up my mind and made me interested in digging up the concept, which finally led me to watch the most critically acclaimed one among this genre, ‘‘The Butterfly effect’’. To make it sound simple, let me say, small changes create big results. Enough said. It’s like picking up lotto or even the flipping of a coin. It’s like the possibility of having a disappointing Saturday night since you went for a pointless movie, just because you watched a catchy trailer in YouTube while causally surfing Facebook or randomly checking out Twitter.


The Butterfly effect derives its name from the popular explanation of creating a hurricane weeks or years later, just because some butterfly on the other side of the planet flapped its wings and moved some molecules eventually resulting in a sequence of disturbances in air. The relevance of initial conditions at any point of time is the ultimate factor of this effect also otherwise termed the Chaos theory. Movies with themes and concepts which pose a reality check have always excited me. The most recent one being Inception, where Christopher Nolan screwed up our mind by taking us for an adventure ride travelling through the different levels of our sub conscious mind. Possibilities of altering our realities or cheating our time frames is undeniably one of the best thought provoking themes experimented in movies. Movies with themes such as The Time Traveller’s Wife, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Back to the Future, Minority Report, 12 Monkeys, Kate & Leopold which challenges our time frames or rather check the reality of our current lives such as The Matrix are possibly some of the best works in this category. What confuses me with the time travel movies is the Time Corruption hypothesis or the more popular Grandfather paradox which makes the present reality impossible when someone goes back in time making different life paths, ultimately resulting in a butterfly effect.


My first instance of the butterfly effect from an Indian movie is from ‘‘ Dasavathaaram ’’, where the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean is portrayed as being caused by the sinking of Lord Vishnu’s idol along with Kamal Hassan in the 12th century. Though I wasn’t that interested in Chaos theory and Butterfly effect after watching this movie in 2008, I was pretty much impressed by the basic concept of this phenomenon and the brilliance of its story line. It’s quite interesting that, if we could go back in time and do things in life pretty differently and make alternative decisions & choices, doesn't that make a big difference to what we are or where we are today? If there ever comes a chance to travel back in time, the knowledge and wisdom of having lived our lives in this present life path makes us aware of the possible outcomes of choosing some of the options. But if we are to believe in God, then whatever options we choose in an alternative life path by picking a different school or a life partner or a bus or even a pair of footwear, we would eventually end up in the same fate. If it’s supposed to be so, then even our weirdest thoughts and our most awkward moments in life should be part of a master plan by the so called architect of life. At this point, I prefer to believe, there has never been any wrong decisions in our lives. Understanding the framework and complexity of the big picture as a whole, improves our perception to address the day to day issues and strategically organize our life.


It is the human form of butterfly effect which matters in the present world. The very actions we make at this moment, the very next move we make, matters a lot and could make a big difference in shaping not just our life, but even the lives of generations to be born. Messing up and screwing up our present daily lives could possibly ruin the entire culture of our country in future. Life opens up different doors for us to follow. It is up to us to choose the life path. In reality time doesn't go backwards, making it harder to make decisions. But that’s exactly how life works. Butterfly effect is all about the big picture. We are what we think or rather we become what we think we are. Instead of regretting about the options we made in our past, think about the moves and actions we could make in shaping our future and the future or even the existence of people some 20 or 50 years from now. Each and every move we make matters, not just for us but for our very universe. After all our universe desires randomness or entropy, so choose not to go with the flow and start making the right moves instead.