Change Your Image
aqifali
Reviews
Legion (2010)
Good concept .. very hard to pull off
Its always interesting to watch something regarding God, its angels and the mankind. Most of us are fasciniated by seeing something which always exists in our dream world on the big screen. With such theme its easy to come with an interesting concept but very hard to actually pull it off through the entire length of movie and to top it all, come up with an interesting ending. I though Constantine did it well. That's why its rating is 6.7 as apposed to 5.0 for Legion.
The movie starts off with excellent suspense that something big is about to happen. The scene involving the old lady at the diner really made me jump out of my couch but after that the movie went downhill. After the initial wave of attack of the demons/angels, Michael gives the warning that a much bigger thing is about to follow and all we see in the end was 1000 people standing still outside the diner. Anyway, what started as an interesting movie ended as an slightly below average movie.
Khuda Kay Liye (2007)
It can't get more real than this
To actually see a movie from Pakistan in which actors are talking and not yelling was a pleasant surprise but as the movie progressed it completely blew my mind off for being so real. This movie take its viewer right in to the world of Pakistanis who are either living in Pakistan or residing abroad especially in western world. It realistically portrays life in Pakistan where people are caught between the hardliner religious scholars and carrying the normal activities and pleasures in life. It also shows the dilemma of overseas Pakistanis when they see their children being brought up in a western society. Finally, it painfully shows what has happened to many Pakistanis that have been targeted by western people and law after 9/11. The greatest service that this movie has done is to show the world that how difficult it is right now to be Pakistani and I can't say much more than that.
On the side of acting all the actors did justice to their characters. Shaan (Mansoor) was at his best and I must admit that I never thought that Shaan could deliver such a powerful performance after seeing his mindless Punjabi movies. His acting, while being tortured by law was realistic to a frightening extent. After watching the movie I felt that huge amount of research must have gone on the background as every situation looked near to reality. For example, the way Government Political Agent approached tribal council was very realistic.
Amidst all the painful realities the film does give a ray of hope in the end when Iman Ali (Maryam/Marry) opens a girl's school in tribal area. I guess it was necessary for the artist (Shoaib Mansoor-director) to give hope in the end. Although, sadly speaking that ray of hope is still no way near in sight to Pakistani society as during the last few years, many of the girls schools in northern area of Pakistan have either been bombed or closed down as a result of threats and I am afraid that Maryam school might have been one of them.
Shadow Hours (2000)
A truly gripping plot
I started watching Shadow Hours one evening on Foxtel (Australia). Pretty soon I realized that I had to watch it all the way through as the suspense regarding the mysterious rich man (Stuart) kept on building. The movie is about a journey of a young man (Holloway) in to the very dark side of city's night life with that mysterious rich man. Holloway was a former drug addict and is supporting his wife pregnant with their first child by working through grave yard shift on a petrol station (yes we call it petrol in Australia :). He gets acquainted with a rich guy who takes him to very strange clubs and places. That sparks a battle of conscious within Holloway and he finally manages to get out of way by following a rather hard way.
The movie reminded me of 8mm in which Nicholas Cage goes deep in to the dark and ugly of porn, gambling and some very psycho stuff in pursuit of a missing girl. Shadow Hours also takes us to all these sick places where at first you will not understand that what kind of people would want to go through that sickening lifestyle. But, If you think a bit more that probably you will realize that most of the people who hang around these places and gets abused by people like Stuart are mentally ill and are probably not accepted by the society. By hanging around such places people like Holloway who often are at borderline of sanity can be influenced in a terrible way. Anyway the movie was entertaining and thought provoking and I will recommend it to all people who liked 8mm.
Izzat (2005)
Strong plot..realistic events..overall worth seeing
The word Izzat means 'respect' in Urdu. In a way the movie was all about gaining respect in society. Unfortunately many people enter in to a one way street to get their place in society. A street where there is no turning back...ever! This movie is about 3 boys who were disappointed with poor state of their migrant Pakistani families and the fact that very few Pakistani were enjoying real respect in Norwegian society at that time. One day they come across to a drug gang run by a very ruthless Pakistani 'Sadiq'. They grow up with the gang doing small jobs for them and ultimately becoming the core members of the gang. The main character of the movie Wasim comes across many ugly situations which were all due to his involvement with the gang. That includes shooting his best childhood friend, seeing his sister being raped by his enemies and trying to pay off his younger brother gambling debt. I don't want to spoil the movie for others by telling a lot but this movie does succeeds in gripping it's viewers with it's realistic yet ugly events in underworld crimes. You will almost wish for Wasim to somehow get out of the whole thing.
I will agree with one of the reviewers that acting might have been better in the movie. The Urdu acting was not fantastic either. But the movie still managed to grip me with its strong plot and realistic events. I will certainly recommend this movie for people who like gangster type movie with underworld background.
Satya (1998)
Realistic to the extent of being frightening ....brilliant
This movie will always be the best that almost comes out from blue. With no major film actor except Urmella, the film featured such brilliant and wonderful acting that easily surpassed some of the bigger names in the bollywood. The story was brilliant and gave such a deep insight to the world of organised crime in Mumbai, that you almost feel frightened to be involved with any kind of people that were dipected in the movie. Movie had no flashy sets or over the top dialogues. All it did was to tell what really happened to a man who came to Mumbai from somewhere. In saying that they created a masterpiece of gangster movie. I will recommend it for everyone who wants to see reality in its most original form.
Zinda (2006)
Good for first 15 minutes. Extremely disappointing later. Poor film
The way the movie was publicized in newspapers and magazines and the way they termed is as "darkest movie ever", I was very keen to see it as soon as its out on video. The movie started quite well and captured my attention as soon as our hero "Sanjay Dutt" disappears all of sudden. Next seen we find him in a prison cell and a complete suspense was kept for next 15 mins or so about who the captives are and why is this happening. After a while the prison scenes started to make me sleepy and all of the sudden Sanjay is released from prison and I thought that now it will become interesting again. But as soon as Sanjay bumps into a gorgeous female cab drive (Indian some more), I started to get bad feelings about the rest of the movie. My feelings turned in to reality when Sanjay started to taste fried Wontons every where. What are the odds that those prison people will get wontons from same place for last 14 years and the person will be there wearing the same shoes that he was wearing 14 years back :) Not to mention the probability that he will find it in the first place. The rest of the movie was a complete disappointment with stupid fight scenes, non sense dialogs and idiotic sequence of events. In summary, the movie proved to be a complete disappointment.
Doom (2005)
Agree with observation that it was actually "Resident Evit In Mars"
I completely agree with one of the comment about feeling that you are watching another part of Resident evil. I felt the same thing. Apart from few action shots and FPS clipping, the whole movie was a disappointing one. I thing I never understood that how come only John was the one who became super human after doom viral infection (or whatever) and all the other people were turned in to zombies.
The performance of Rock was also so so and do was the Bond Girl who looked very stiff and strict in the movie. But again it was a good effort to finally put one of the most played FPS game on the big screen. If you happen to see it on a half-ticket day then its not so bad and can be quite fun to watch.
Phenomenon (1996)
Excellent Romantic and Light Movie
When I started seeing movie and was in the very first scene in which a rabbit is running in George's garden and the music which was playing in back i guessed that it'll be a classic one. As I progressed with the movie it just touched me in heart and the touch of such emotional and little details like in one scene Lace was waiting for George and the way she was looking at her dress as she was going somewhere important.I mean it was excellent piece of directorship. In the end it was a sad story in which George didn't last long to endure his love of life and Lace was left hiding her pains and love that she unavoidably started to had for George.