Perfume : The story of a Murderer (2006)

Plot Summary

In the 1700's, well before the French Revolution, a young man is brought before a rabid crowd. His name is Jean-Baptiste Grenouille and he is a convicted murderer. Flashing back to when Grenouille was a baby, his mother gives birth to him in a fish market in France. She tries to hide the child under the table so he can die. When Grenouille gives his first cry, it alerts the other people to his presence. The woman tries to run away but she is caught and hanged afterwards. The baby is sent to an orphanage. The children there fear the baby and try to suffocate it. Madame Galliard, who owns the place, beats the children for their attempt to smother Grenouille.

The child grows up in the orphanage, not being able to speak until after 5 years of age. Instead, it is discovered that Grenouille has an extraordinary sense of smell. He is able to tell different things by their scents. When Grenouille turns 12 years old, Madame Gaillard decides that he can no longer stay at her orphanage so she sells him to a tanner. Shortly afterwards, she dies after being robbed of the money she gained from the sale. Grenouille (Whishaw) stays with the tanner until he is a young man.

One day, Grenouille is taking deliveries to Paris when he wanders off to smell the different scents of the city. While standing outside of Pelissier's perfume shop, his nose picks up a scent that he feels compelled to go after. He discovers a young girl selling plums. Grenouille startles the young girl and starts to smell her deeply when she offers him a plum. She runs off, and Grenouille chases after her, following her scent. When Grenouille finds the plum girl, she screams out in fear. He covers her face to keep her quiet and ends up suffocating and killing her. Grenouille then strips off her clothes and breathes her scent in deeply until it vanishes.

One day, a perfumer, Giuseppe Baldini (Hoffman), decides he wants to replicate Pelissier's famous perfume, Amore and Psyche. He experiments all day, trying to find out which essential oils make up the perfume. Later, that evening, Grenouille shows up at his door, making deliveries of leathers. He reveals to Baldini that he knows that Baldini is trying to copy Amore and Psyche and that Grenouille knows the ingredients. He then mixes the oils (with methods which horrify Baldini) to produce an exact copy of Amore and Psyche. Then Grenouille states that the perfume is poorly made and he can make it better. He does so, and then asks Baldini for a chance to learn about perfumes.

Ritesh's Reviews

Perfume is a very good thriller, and it's mostly the Alfred Hitchcock type. In this movie, Grenouille is a man who has a dog-like sense of odour, that is, he can smell anything and instantly recognise what is that thing, or even smell a dish and tell which ingredients have been mixed in the dish. Baldini, a very famous perfume maker, discovers Grenouille's talents. thus, he teaches the young man how to make perfume, that the "PERFECT" perfume should contain 13 elements. 12 of these ingredients are known to man, but the 13th is still to be discovered.

And Grenouille finally discovers the 13th Ingredient: The NATURAL SMELL OF A GIRL!!! But how to get such a smell?? Grenouille experiments and finds out how to do it. First he kidnaps the girl, cover her naked body with wax and kill the girl such that her natural smell can be trapped between the wax and the girl's body

But to get enough amount of such perfume, Grenouille has to kill at least 13 girls!!

AMAZING THRILLER!!! Two-Thumbs Up!!!

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Other Info about the Movie

As of October 2006, the film had received mixed reviews by critics. Reuters described the movie as "visually lush, fast-moving story," stating as well that the director "has a sure sense of spectacle, and despite its faults the movie maintains its queasy grip." "You may not savor it," Roger Ebert wrote, "but you will not stop watching it, in horror and fascination."

Find out more on PERFUME

Blood Diamond (2006)

Plot Summary

The film begins with the capture of Solomon Vandy (Djimon Hounsou), a fisherman, by the Revolutionary United Front rebels when they invade the small Sierra Leonian village of Shenge. Separated from his family, Solomon is enslaved to work in the diamond fields under the command of Captain Poison. The RUF use the diamonds to fund their war effort, often trading them directly for arms. While working in the RUF diamond fields as a forced laborer, Solomon finds a large diamond of rare pink colouring. Moments before government troops launch an attack, Captain Poison sees Solomon hiding the diamond. Captain Poison is injured in the attack before he can get the stone, and both he and Solomon are taken to prison in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone.

Danny Archer (Leonardo DiCaprio), an Anglo ex-mercenary from Zimbabwe trades arms for diamonds with an RUF commander. He is imprisoned after being caught smuggling the diamonds into neighboring Liberia, and the diamonds are confiscated. He had been transporting the diamonds to a South African mercenary named Colonel Coetzee (Arnold Vosloo), who is in turn employed by South African diamond company executive Van De Kaap (Marius Weyers) and his deputy Simmons (Michael Sheen). Coetzee is Archer's former commander in 32 Battalion, the most decorated unit of the South African Border War, made up of Angolan and Rhodesian soldiers and white South African officers. Archer is desperate for a way to repay Colonel Coetzee for the diamonds taken from him when he was arrested and thrown in jail, in the same prison as the fisherman. While in prison, he overhears Captain Poison ranting to Solomon about the discovery of the large diamond and decides to hunt down the stone. He arranges for Solomon's release from prison and offers to help him find his family in exchange for the diamond.

Ritesh's Reviews

Another Leonardo's movie on my blog:D . This movie shows the bitter reality of slaves having to look for diamonds in the rivers; diamond which are used by militia to buy waepons and drugs.

Director Edward Zwick signs a great movie here.

Another incentive to watch this Movie: Jennifer Connelly (Mne mari gater r sa actrice la, mo laisse zot admire li imP...imP mem hein :D)

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Other Info About the Movie

79th Academy Awards

* Nominated for Best Actor In A Leading Role - Leonardo DiCaprio
* Nominated for Best Actor In A Supporting Role - Djimon Hounsou
* Nominated for Best Sound Mixing
* Nominated for Best Sound Editing
* Nominated for Best Film Editing - Steven Rosenblum

2007 Black Reel Awards

* Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou (won)

12th Critics' Choice Awards:

* Best Picture
* Best Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio
* Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou

64th Golden Globe Awards:

* Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama - Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated)

NAACP Image Awards:

* Outstanding Motion Picture
* Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture - Djimon Hounsou (won)

78th National Board of Review Awards:

* Top Ten Films of the Year
* Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou (won)

11th Satellite Awards:

* Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama - Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated)

13th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards:

* Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role - Leonardo DiCaprio (nominated)
* Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Djimon Hounsou (nominated)

Platoon (1986)

Plot Summary

A young US Army soldier, Private Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), arrives in South Vietnam with several other replacements and is assigned to the 25th Infantry Division. As the new men step off the plane upon arrival in Vietnam, they see the seasoned veterans who have just finished their tours of duty, taunting the new guys as they board a transport plane home. Along with fellow soldier Private Gardner, Taylor joins an experienced rifle platoon that has suffered in recent combat operations. His enthusiasm quickly evaporates as he goes on endless patrols and, as a new guy, is assigned to dig foxholes and perform other arduous tasks.

On his first night ambush patrol, his unit is set upon by a squad of North Vietnamese Army troops who walk into the squad's ambush position. The soldier meant to be on guard duty (Junior) has fallen asleep. Private Gardner dies after being shot while standing up in a firefight. Private Taylor is grazed in the neck. Junior shirks all responsibility, stating that Chris was on guard duty.

As Private Taylor recovers from his wound—a rite of passage that grants him greater social contact with his platoon mates—he reveals that he dropped out of college to volunteer for service in Vietnam. He states that he felt college was leading him nowhere and that it was unfair that lower-class youths had to carry the burden of the fighting in Vietnam, while rich kids could avoid the draft. His new friends among the more experienced troops introduce him to the "Underworld," a bunker converted into a pseudo-nightclub, where they smoke marijuana and opium, drink beer, and dance with each other to soul music.


Ritesh's Reviews

I've seen many movies dealing with the war in Vietnam (Full Metal Jacket, Good Morning Vietnam, Rescue Dawn, The Deer Hunter...). Platoon is one of the best movies describing this war. Oliver Stone gives us one of his best movies ever. Charlie Sheen is at his best, but the best actors of this film are Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe.

Great movie, but some scenes might hurt the feelings of viewers (ban seki leker sensib...lol).

A Must See Movie!!!

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Other Info about this Movie

* Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound.

* Nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Berenger), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe), Best Cinematography and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.


For more info on this movie, take a look at PLATOON

Enjoy!!!

Finding Neverland (2004)

Plot Summary

The story focuses on Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, his platonic relationship with Sylvia Llewelyn Davies, and his close friendship with her sons, who inspired the classic play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up.

Following the dismal reception to his latest play, Little Mary, Barrie meets the widowed Sylvia and her four young sons in Kensington Gardens, and a strong friendship develops between them. He proves to be a great playmate and surrogate father figure for the boys, and their imaginative antics give him ideas which he incorporates into a play about boys who do not want to grow up, especially one named after troubled young Peter Llewelyn Davies. Objecting to the amount of time Barrie spends with the Llewelyn Davies family are his wife Mary, who eventually divorces him, and Sylvia's mother Emma du Maurier, who seeks to control her daughter and grandsons, especially as Sylvia becomes increasingly weak from an unidentified illness.

Producer Charles Frohman skeptically agrees to mount Peter Pan despite his belief it holds no appeal for upper-class theatergoers. Barrie peppers the opening night audience with children from a nearby orphanage, and the adults present react to their infectious delight with an appreciation of their own. The play proves to be a huge success.

Because Sylvia is too ill to attend the production, Barrie arranges to have an abridged production of it performed in her home. She dies shortly afterward, and he learns that her will left the care of the boys jointly to him and her mother, an arrangement agreeable to both.

Ritesh's Reviews

First of all, not many people will appreciate this movie the way I did. I have got many mixed comments about my tastes of movies....that i watch really boring movies, I've got bad taste, etc...well, i respect the opinions of every person. I only share with people movies that i have watched and really appreciated.

Finding Neverland is some sort of musical-comedy-tragedy film....i can't find any other word how to describe this film. But the real beauty about this movie is how the main character (played by Johnny Depp), gives life to the legend of Peter Pan. Really Fantastic movie!!!

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Other Info about this Movie

77th Academy Awards

Win
* Academy Award for Original Music Score (Jan A. P. Kaczmarek)

Nominations
* Academy Award for Best Picture
* Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
* Academy Award for Best Actor (Johnny Depp)
* Academy Award for Best Art Direction
* Academy Award for Best Costume Design
* Academy Award for Best Film Editing

58th British Academy Film Awards Nominations

* BAFTA Award for Best Film
* BAFTA Award for Best Direction
* BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Johnny Depp)
* BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Kate Winslet)
* BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Julie Christie)
* BAFTA Award for Best Adapted Screenplay
* BAFTA Award for Best Cinematography
* BAFTA Award for Best Production Design
* BAFTA Award for Best Costume Design
* BAFTA Award for Best Film Music
* BAFTA Award for Best Makeup

62nd Golden Globe Awards Nominations

* Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Drama
* Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture
* Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay
* Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama (Johnny Depp)
* Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score

11th Screen Actors Guild Awards Nominations

* Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
* Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture (Freddie Highmore)

Additional Wins

* National Board of Review Award for Best Film
* Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Awards Top Ten Films of 2004

1492 Conquest of Paradise (1992)

Ritesh's Reviews

This film chronicles the life of Christopher Columbus - an Italian who emigrated to Spain, from his days in a monastery to him as an old, broken, man. In between, of course, he made history by being the first European to cross the Atlantic to reach the New World (Now called America).

Christopher (Gérard Depardieu) was a navigator who was convinced he would become rich and famous as the first man to discover a "third" route to Asia - the way via the Southern tip of Africa was too long, and the way by land was blocked by Turkey. His method was to sail west and cross the Atlantic and he seemed to think the journey would take a mere seven weeks.
Of course nobody believed him, least of all the scholars at the University of Salamanca. However, some influential people, including another navigator and a banker, managed to get him an audience with Isabel, the Queen of Spain (Sigourney Weaver). Somehow, he managed to persuade the Queen to let him sail with three ships: the Pinta, the Nina and the Santa Maria. The rest, as they say, is history.

The islands that he discovered off the coast of South America were populated by a group of islanders whose simple lives gave Christopher and his men the impression that they had stumbled upon an earthly paradise. However, they did not find the gold and riches that Christopher was hoping for. Christopher returned back to Spain where he was given a hero's welcome. He was given a much larger budget to colonize the islands in the name of Spain. However, his greed, arrogance and nepotism soon incurred many enemies amongst the nobility.

When he returned to the islands, everything started to go wrong. The men he left behind from the first journey had all been killed by the natives, and attempts to build a city were met with one disaster after another.

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Other Info About the Movie

* British Society of Cinematographers:

WON - Adrian Biddle - 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

* Golden Globes, USA:

WON - Best Original Score - Motion Picture - 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992)

The Butterfly Effect (2004)

Plot Summary

Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), who suffered severe traumas as a boy and a teenager, blacks out frequently, often at moments of high stress. While searching for an answer to heal his emotional wounds, he finds that when he reads from his adolescent journals, he travels back in time, and is able to essentially "redo" parts of his past, and thereby causing the blackouts he experienced as a child. There are consequences of his choices, however, that he then propagates back to the present; his alternate futures vary from frat boy to prisoner to amputee. As he continues to do this, he realizes that even though his intentions are good, the actions he takes always have unintended consequences. In addition, he needs to go further back in time after every attempt as several fatal mistakes he makes do something to wipe out that and all subsequent journal entries.

Ritesh's Reviews

Fantastic movie..much better than sixth sense. This story is based on the struggle of Evan to save the life of his girlfriend as he travels back in time. Amazing triller....du jamais vu.

Must see movie

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Other Info about the Movie

2005 Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films (Saturn Awards)

* Nominated—Best Science Fiction Film

2004 Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film

* Won—Pegasus Audience Award — Eric Bress, J. Mackye Gruber

2004 Teen Choice Awards

* Nominated—Choice Movie: Thriller

Equilibrium (2002)

Plot Summary

Equilibrium is set in the futuristic, and dystopian city-state of Libria. The film explains how, in the early years of the 21st century, a devastating Third World War breaks out, the impact of which brings civilizations across the planet to their knees. After the war ends, world leaders fear that the human race cannot possibly survive a Fourth World War, and so set about building a new society which is free of conflict.

Believing that human emotion is responsible for man's inhumanity to man, the new leaders ban all materials deemed likely to stimulate strong emotions, including art, music, and literature. These materials are rated "EC-10" for "emotional content", and are typically destroyed by immediate incineration. Furthermore, all citizens of Libria are required to take regular injections, called "intervals," of a liquid drug called Prozium, collected at the distribution centers known as "Equilibrium".

Libria is governed by the Tetragrammaton Council, which is led by a reclusive figurehead known as "Father". Father never interacts with anyone outside the ruling council, but his image is omnipresent throughout the city in a strong cult of personality. The Tetragrammaton Council strives to create identical lives for all Librians and uses its police state apparatus to enforce unity and conformity. At the pinnacle of Librian law enforcement are the Grammaton Clerics, who are trained in the deadly martial art of Gun Kata, an art which teaches users to predict the actions of opponents during firearm combat. The Clerics exist for the purpose of locating and destroying EC-10 materials and for pursuing, apprehending, and, if necessary, terminating "sense-offenders"—people guilty of feeling emotions.

Despite the efforts of the police and Clerics, a resistance movement exists in Libria, known as "The Underground". Members of this movement are responsible for terrorist activity against Libria, specifically against the Prozium factories. The leaders of the Underground believe that if they can disrupt the production and distribution of Prozium for a short period of time—even a single day—then the Librians will rise up and destroy the Tetragrammaton Council. The Underground operates within Libria itself, but also has contact with resistance groups residing in "The Nethers", the ruins of cities destroyed during World War III. These outsiders hoard objects and artifacts from the old society before World War III, including art and literature. Subsequently, they are the targets of Librian death squads composed of police and Clerics.

The film's protagonist, Grammaton Cleric First Class John Preston, is Libria's highest ranking cleric, and his success stems from his intuitive ability to identify sense-offenders. He is a widower whose wife was executed after being revealed to be a sense offender, leaving him with two children. After a raid on a group of resistance members in The Nethers, Preston notices that his partner, Grammaton Cleric First Class Errol Partridge, has personally taken a copy of the poems of Yeats under false pretenses. Preston discovers that Partridge has not turned the book over for destruction and follows him to a ruined cathedral in The Nethers, where Partridge talks of the loss of everything that makes them human, most notably the right to experience emotions. After quoting Yeat's poem 'He wishes for the Cloths of Heaven', Partridge admits that it is a heavy price to pay, but one worth paying. Partridge then reaches for his gun, forcing Preston to shoot him. Shortly afterwards, Preston accidentally breaks the vial of his morning dose of Prozium, and begins to experience emotions.

Ritesh's Reviews

A matrix like movie...filled with new ideas of how the world can turn after the war. This movie introduces a new combat style; the inclusion of martial arts in gunfight, which makes the beauty of this movie. Christian Bale hits another gr8 movie, and most of you are really impatient for "The Dark Knight".

A must see movie for Action-SciFi movie Fans!!!

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Other Info about the Movie


Gun Kata is a fictional gun-fighting martial art discipline that is a significant part of the film. It is based upon the premise that, given the positions of the participants in a gun battle, the trajectories of fire are statistically predictable. By pure memorization of the positions, one can fire at the most likely location of an enemy without aiming at him/her in the traditional sense of pointing a gun at a specific target. By the same token, the trajectories of incoming fire are also statistically predictable, so by assuming the appropriate stance, one can keep one's body clear of the most likely path of enemy bullets.

The Gun Kata shown in Equilibrium is a hybrid mix of Kurt Wimmer's own style of Gun Kata (which he invented in his backyard) and the martial arts style of the choreographer. They disagreed on the appropriate form of Gun Kata, with Kurt Wimmer advocating a more smooth, flowing style and the choreographer supporting a more rigid style. Much of the Gun Kata seen in the movie is based on the choreographer's style (movements are rigid and rapid). Kurt Wimmer's Gun Kata is dispersed sparsely throughout the movie, most notably in the intro scene with the silhouetted man (played by Wimmer himself) practicing with dual pistols.