Gangs of New York (2002)

Plot Summary

It is 1846. In the Lower Manhattan "Five Points" district, a territorial war raging for years between the gangs of the "Nativist" faction (comprising those born in America) and the predominantly Irish immigrants, is about to come to a head in Paradise Square.

The Nativists are led by William "Bill the Butcher" Cutting (Daniel Day Lewis), a WASP, with an open hatred of immigrants. The leader of the immigrant Irish, the "Dead Rabbits," is Priest Vallon (Liam Neeson), who has a young son, Amsterdam (played as a child by Cian McCormack). Cutting and Vallon meet with their respective gangs in a battle, horrific and bloody, concluding when Bill kills Priest Vallon. Amsterdam is a witness. Cutting declares the Dead Rabbits outlawed and orders Vallon's body buried with honor. Amsterdam seizes his father's knife, races off and buries it. He is found and taken to the orphanage at Hellgate. Sixteen years later, Amsterdam leaves Hellgate a grown man (now played by Leonardo DiCaprio). Arriving in Five Points, he reunites with an old friend, Johnny Sirocco (Henry Thomas). Johnny, now a member of a clan of pickpockets and thieves, introduces Amsterdam to Bill, for whom the group steals. Amsterdam finds that many of his father's old loyalists are now under Bill's control, including Happy Jack (John C. Reilly), now a corrupt police officer in Bill's pocket, and McGloin (Gary Lewis), now one of Bill's lieutenants. Amsterdam soon works his way into the Butcher's inner circle. Amsterdam learns that each year, on the anniversary of the Five Points battle (February 16), Bill leads the city in saluting the victory over the Dead Rabbits, and he plans to kill the Butcher during this ceremony, in front of the entire Five Points community, in order to exact public revenge.

Ritesh's Reviews

This is a fantastic movie directed by Martin Scorsese. The background music used in this movie is simply amazing. Excellent casting, with a really scary Daniel-Day Lewis, a sublime Cameron Diaz, and adrenaline-filled Leonardo DiCaprio. I don't think this movie was on the Mauritian theaters, and it is a real shame for Mauritians to miss such a great movie. Thank God DVD exist now!!! Cheers.

Ratings



Other Info About The Movie

Gangs of New York won the Golden Globe Award of Best Director - Motion Picture for Martin Scorsese and Best Original Song for the song "The Hands That Built America" by U2. Daniel Day-Lewis won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role & the BAFTA award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. However, the film was largely overshadowed by Chicago, which took half of the awards for which Gangs of New York was nominated, and the film failed to win any Academy Awards at all.

Seven (1995)

Plot Summary

Detective Somerset (Morgan Freeman), a week from retirement following a lengthy career in a grimy and forlorn city, meets Detective Mills (Brad Pitt), his arrogant and inexperienced replacement. The men's personalities clash instantly, with the impulsive, temperamental Mills irritated by Somerset's detatched, analytical approach. The next day, on their first assignment together, Mills and Somerset discover a morbidly-obese man, face-down in a bowl of spaghetti in his cockroach-infested apartment, wrists and ankles bound with barbed wire. The criminal pathologist confirms that the man was force-fed an enormous quantity of food before dying from internal hemorrhaging. The detectives meet with the Police Captain, where Somerset requests a reassignment for both him and Mills, angering an already defensive Mills. The Captain disagrees, taking Mills off the case and assigning it to Somerset.

The next day, Mills arrives at a crime scene in the office of prominent defense lawyer Eli Gould, whose body was discovered in his office with the word GREED written in blood on the carpet. Meanwhile, Somerset returns to the crime scene in the apartment and discovers the word GLUTTONY written in grease behind the refrigerator, and later approaches both the Captain and Mills and reveals that the murders are related and patterned after the seven deadly sins, and that five more people will die. Later that night, Somerset receives an invitation to dinner from Mills' wife Tracy (Paltrow). Following dinner, Somerset and Mills return to Gould's office, where they discover a set of fingerprints spelling out the words "HELP ME" on a wall. The prints are traced to a known sexual predator and drug dealer. A SWAT Team and the Detectives raid the suspect's apartment where inside, they discover the suspect tied to his bed, barely alive and suffering severe mental and physical atrophy from a year immobile. The word SLOTH is written in feces above the bed.

Ritesh's Review

This is a really old movie, released in 1995. But believe me, this film is a real masterpiece. A really nerve-jangling thriller with a gut-wrenching climax!!! A must-see movie.

Ratings



More Info On The Movie

Walker received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Film editor Richard Francis-Bruce was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing, and Director of Photography Darius Khondji's extensive use of bleach bypass film processing has since been noted as a major influence on contemporary cinematographic technique, especially in the late 1990s.^[2] The film was given an MTV Movie Award as best movie.

Cashback (2004)

Plot Summary

After a painful break up with his first girlfriend Suzy, Ben, an aspiring artist, develops insomnia. To take his mind off his problem he spends his nights working at a local supermarket, where he meets colorful characters. He falls in love with his colleague Sharon.

He lets his imagination run wild. In particular, he imagines that he can stop time for others, so that he can walk around in a world that is "frozen" like in pause mode of a film. He imagines female clients standing frozen in the supermarket, so that he can undress and draw them.

We see in flashback, with Ben's voice-over explaining how he always has been impressed by the beauty of the female body, how he, as a young boy, could see a Swedish boarder naked while she was going to and coming from the shower; being Swedish she did not believe this situation required modesty.

Ritesh’s Reviews

I simply loved the movie. Actually, I was amazed of the simplicity, yet originality of this low budget film. It really shows that you don’t have to spend millions of dollars to make a good movie.

Ratings

Other Info about the Movie

• Best European Short Film Festival (Grand Prix)
• Chicago International Film Festival (Gold Hugo)
• Leuven International Short Film Festival (Audience Award)
• Lille International Short Film Festival (First Prize)
• Tribeca Film Festival (Best Narrative Short)
• FIKE 2005 - Évora International Short Film Festival (Audience Award)

American History X (1998)

Plot Summary

The film tells the story of Derek Vinyard (Norton), taking place in the late 1980s and early 1990s Venice Beach. An extremely bright and charismatic student, Derek is drawn into the neo-Nazi underground after his father is killed. Derek had already been influenced by his father's critical views on black culture and affirmative action (his father refers to it as "affirmative blacktion").

Eventually Derek becomes second-in-command of the Venice Beach neo-Nazi gang, "The Disciples of Christ (D.O.C.)", which entices young whites to join by promising protection from predominantly minority gangs who are essentially in control of the area. He and Cameron Alexander, the adult leader of D.O.C., eventually regain control of the boardwalk, basketball court, and beach area, and maintain a large presence at the high school. Alexander uses Derek to recruit other members who have become frustrated at being attacked by gangs of different ethnicities. One night, Derek assembles many of the white power skinheads in front of a store that is owned by a Korean immigrant, and employs many illegal immigrants. He makes a speech saying that most of these immigrants are stealing the rightful jobs of Americans, and without hesitation, they attack most of the employees and clientèle in the store.

Ritesh’s Reviews

The story is based on a group of American youngsters who are fed up of the immigrations of black, Mexicans and other Latino Americans into USA. They decide to form a very powerful group, and start to follow the path of Hitler's Nazi regimes. This movie is quite violent, but shows the reality of how life was in the past for these American youth. An excellent prestation of Edward Norton, who in the end decides to alienate himself from the NAZI group in order to save his small brother.

This is an awesome movie, and i recommend you to watch this movie in English, because the French dub really kills all the typical English words such as "F**k, SH*T, Fal***ma*a"...lol.

Ratings

Other Info about the Movie

In a 2007 poll sponsored by Entertainment Weekly, the film was voted among the most violent films of all time.

City of God (2002)

Plot Summary:

Taking place over the course of over two decades, City of God tells the story of Cidade de Deus (Portuguese for City of God), a lower class quarter west of Rio de Janeiro. Told from the viewpoint of a boy named Rocket who grows up there as a fishmonger's son, demonstrates the desperation and violence inherent in the slums. Based on a real story, the movie depicts drug abuse, violent crime, and a boy's struggle to free himself from the slums' grasp.

Ritesh's Review:

Though the movie is a bit slow, it shows a great deal about the life of children gangsters and how they evolve to become hardcore criminals. A quite action-packed film, some sexual scene are also present. but, as a whole, this movie is somehow a master piece, and will be definitely appreciated by the amateurs of masterpieces.

So, what are you waiting for, go and grab the DVD!!!

Film Rating:



More Info on the Film:

Academy Awards

• Nominated: Best Director (Fernando Meirelles)
• Nominated: Best Adapted Screenplay (Braulio Mantovani)
• Nominated: Best Cinematography (Cesar Charlone)
• Nominated: Best Film Editing (Daniel Rezende)

Liverpool 5 : 0 Luton

Ritesh is back with new commentaries :D:D:D

Well, last night, LFC displayed one of their best performances (against a team which is way beyond their competence). Irony:P

I watched the match for at least 30 minutes before falling asleep on my sofa. Well, from what i heard on the radio and saw on the TV previews (MBC sa enkor ein...grr), the match got better in the second half of the game.

Babel opened the score during the dying minutes of the fisrt half...after that, goals began to rain in Anfield

Gerrard showed great composure by heading a goal..then Hyppia, followed by Gerrard, and again Gerrard, destroyed Brill's net. Try to understand the previous sentence...lol

In resume, the players saved the ass of benitez, but i don't think a mere FA cup can really keep benitez in LFC, koz before the season started, he speculated that this season will be LFC's season.

With the elimination from the league cup, followed by the draw with MILAN, and a premiership already out of hand, i really can't see benitez remaining in the team...but what can we say....the show must go on.

CHEERS!!!