My take on movie "Crash" (2004)

Tag line: You think you know who you are.

Movie start with cars crash on LA suburbs.
Immediately movie goes back to last 24 hours of
people who met this crash and lives.
Movie got very smart & intelligent script showcases not only characters,
but real representation of real people.

Shot in the background of LA
(Where you will see white, black, Asian, spanic and French etc)
live together & their personalities and racist feeling w.r.t others & on the system.

Again movie has everything.
Right & brilliant script, good casting & apt locations & good photography etc.

Very worth watching. Dont miss it.

My failed DVD recorder hacking story

During black Friday, I purchased Liteon DVD recorder.
It is working well. Easy to setup & records favorite TV shows.
But my main objective to buy this recorder is to make a copy of costly DVDs.
My little Dhanvi sometimes handles DVDs badly. Sometime he is very quiet nice.
For his age, he is doing great in handling DVDs. He select his own title from the collection & plays. We have to see what he is doing. He is quiet perfect on this.

Idea is to backup my own DVDs. So I searched net for any hacks.
I found following discussion forum for this.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=124298&page=3&pp=25

I tried it yesterday. But my hack attempt failed.
It is not working on my model Liteon LVW-1001HC1.
What a bad-luck. What a sad ending.

Wow. "Family Guy, Vol. 2: Season 3" Boxed DVD set for $10. Hurry

Ordered "Family Guy, Vol. 2: Season 3" boxed DVD set today from www.fye.com.
Check deal of the day section.
It is very good deal. ($30-$20 rebate.)
But for $10 you really can't go wrong.
Quiet neatly produced series. Sit, relax & enjoy.

Careful with blockbuster online rentals.

Couple of days back, on their website, I searched for movie “LEON”
and search resulted in many matches.
(Basically I saw picture of the DVD cover and read Leon: the professional etc.)
I selected one & added to my queue.
Yesterday I received movie from them & played DVD around 10PM.
Guess what happened. This is a bonus disk.
Contains some experts from stars, director, some other movie previews etc.
Not the movie, not even deleted scenes from the movie.
I am very disappointed.
Later checked blockbuster website.
It was mentioned that in title that it was Bonus disk only.
I am really surprised that people do rent “Just Bonus Disk?”
My wife scolded me. Don’t you read the complete title properly?

I said why somebody rents Bonus disk for movie price?
It is a supplementary DVD right?

My theory was, if you go to shop & buy the DVD movie you will get movie + bonus disks as a package. So if I am renting, I must receive the whole package.
But my theory was dead wrong with this.

This is first time I am renting DVD movies online, so be careful with the titles.
Blockbuster ships “Bonus” disk as movie for $.
Clever business or I am not knowledgeable to understand things properly?

So next time, if you rent movie, make sure you are ordering correct one.
Else you will end up with bonus DVD.
A crazy online DVD rental experience. What about you?

Hurray. Ordered "Die Hard" Boxed DVD set.

Ordered "Die Hard" boxed DVD set today during lunch time.
It is very good deal. ($30-$20 rebate.)
I am not fan of pure action movies or popcorn movies or Bruce.
But for $10 this is worth set to own.
Waiting and searching for good deal on Night Shyamalan DVD package deal.

Bad Weather & Dull weekend

Weather is too cold (upper 10’s F). This is my 5Th year in MN. But this is one of the worst December months. Single digits are common in Jan but not before new year eve. Want to go to shopping to Bestbuy but decided not to. Looking for good External hard drive & Laptop internal DVD recorder.
Did not do much except playing with kids.
Saketh started sitting on his own & he is trying to standup on his own.
Just playing with kids for the whole day & reading the pioneer press news paper.

Click following link too see MN Weather.
http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/13332539.htm
Minnesotans awoke Monday to the state's first hard cold snap of the winter, with below-zero temperatures in many parts of the state.............

Interesting Upcoming Movies

Went to Barnes and Nobel Friday night story time with family
Dhanvi & mama went to story time,
I am with saketh reading few magazines.

Seems to be the following forth-coming movie is very interesting.

King Kong from Lord of rings director, Naomi Watts (Ring fame Rachel) etc.
Production pictures are looking very good.
Click link http://www.kingkongmovie.com/ see to more details.

Just released

Syrian
Syrian script written by Traffic movie writer.
(Traffic is one of my favorite movie. )

Friday night movie Heavenly Creatures(1994)

I don’t know why this movie in my watch list. (May be Oscar nominated)
It is story about two close girl friends story.
The friendship so close is that, when their parents try to separate them,
they plans and kills one of their mother.
It is based on a true story happened in 1950's.
Again movie has great casting, locations, photography etc.

Don't rent it.
Safely you can borrow from your public library and watch it.
It is 100% for Drama lovers.

Recent photo with saketh

Dhanvi in Halloween Dress.

My younger son "Saketh" photo

Bedtime Story "Bad Lion" for Dhanvi

This is one of the bed time stories for my elder son Dhanvi.
This is my childhood text book story. Converted slightly for young boy’s purpose.
There is one big forest & one big bad lion. It is bad because it kills all animals. Since it is strong animal, no animal can fight with him. So all animals decide & go to him & say, lion don’t kill all of them. We will make turns & per day one animal will come to your home & u can eat. No more hunting for you. Bad lion accept it. Because it don’t have to run & fight with others. So per agreement, animal makes turns.

At first “A” like alligator, “B” like bear etc…. (I will try go with alphabet sequence. For most of the alphabets, he will say the animals.) When finally it is rabbits turn. Rabbitt is small animal but it is clever animal. So rabbit thinks, thinks and finally goes to bad lion home very late.

Bad lion is very hungry and angrily says why you are so late?

Then rabbit says “I saw another lion on the ways. It took lot of time to escape from that one”
Then lion says ‘Another lion in this forest? I am the king” Show me where it is?
Then rabbit takes him to one old well & says “it is in that well”
Bad lion climbs the well wall & sees inside.
I will ask Dhanvi what bad lion will see? He say a loud, its image.
Now story continues as
“Bad lion is strong but not clear” So it think that is another lion inside well.
So it says “I am the king of the forest. So surrender me else I will kill you”
But the same words comes back.
So angrily bad lion jumps in to well & what happens to bad lion?”
Dhanvi says “bad lion chachipoyiii." (Telugu word for "killed")
I will ask him why? He says “bad lion don’t know swimming” &

he continues " But I am learning. Now I am at ell stage."

(He remembers his swimming level.)
Normally I will stress him about “alphabets and animals” You have to be clever like rabbit. Think, think etc. Later swimming stuff. It is fun.
Slowly we move to another story.

My take on Ring Two (2005) movie

I liked Ring 1 a lot. But in part 1 raises more questions than answers.
In particular girl (samara story) the video tape origination and Why now suddenly she started killing? Part 1 did not answer those questions. I watched second part with some hope on some of these questions.

Now coming to second part review , Rachel & her boy moves from Seattle to Oregon & she get job in local new paper. Hoping that they will have better life. In the next scene, again young couple watching TV, video tape & death. (Very much similar to part 1.) Next scene onwards, director shows samara alive in the new place too. Later some of Rachel’s actions make her anger too. Now samara enters in to her son’s body. (These sequences of shots are good.) Now Rachel thinks that better to end samara before it is too late. She goes to original places and investigates Samara story. i.e. where she came from. (Story revolves around before samara adoption ) & movie ends with killingor stoping of samara.
A last major dialog was I am not your fucking mummy.

Part 2 address some of questions but again raises more questions, if samara is looking for Mummy and her love. I think the step mom have already provided that stuff. (In part1, they show stopmom tries a lot for a baby then finally, she adopts samara.) Again why suddenly Samara starts her evil acts? What prompted those? Part2 shows that a video tape spreads around the country and everyone makes a copy? If so, no investigation by any?
Samara original mom dialog “listen to baby”. She says, she tried to kill samara because she asked her to do. But they show samara as infant. Samara mom dairy content is confusing.
Like this many are unanswered.

Now coming to movie, there is not much plot and not much shock like part1. Nearly five & six shots are worth scaring. Actors did good job. In particular Rachel role is too good. Other casting, locations, photography etc are good & apt. Again do not except too much in part2.

At the end, I felt it is different way of story telling with lot of questions & answers left for viewer’s imagination.

My Black Friday experience

Basically I need one good desktop for my kids. I pinned down to Best Buy’s Emachines desktop system. (Because it is flat $150. No rebates etc.) Also I planned few more items like sandisk 512MB MP player, Lite-on DVD recorder etc.
Based on the Internet discussions, hype, retailers publicity I know that I have to go to store before three hours. Initially I thought 3 AM is OK but later I thought 2AM is good.
At one point I feel it is better to go there before 1AM too. But I did not. I went to bed around 11AM. Slept for couple of hours. Woke up around 1.20 AM. Finally I started from home around 1.35 AM. Reached BB around 1.50. After parking car reached the line around 1.50 AM. More than 25+ people are already in the line with tents, blankets etc. Initially I got doubt that Will I get desktop? But I stayed in the line. No point in going back & sleeping again.
Decided to try my luck. Temperature is around 9F + it is too windy. Slowly more and more people are joining in line. One old lady (around 55+) joined the line next to me.
After first 30 mins, I started feeling cold. (My two-layer dress is not good enough.) I brought some tea to keep my self-warm. Started drinking the first cup of tea. Old lady next to me started talking. Initially I am very surprised why she is in the line. She told me that her son wants a Game cube package. (It is $100 less than retail price.) Seems to be during thanks giving dinner, he told to her. She decided immediately & seems to be she came very well prepared. With 4 layers of dresses & one think fleece blanket. Her son works in Costco, which is very opposite to BB. He is working at that time. (Around 4AM.) But I am very surprise with her decision. (For $100 saving, 3+ hours of standing in cold 9F) May be this is called true love? Or extreme love or true bargain hunter? Her son came by before going to Costco work (around 4AM), handed hot coffee to her. I was listening to songs & some times talking to other people around me. Around 4.05AM, BB folks started giving tokens to people in the line. First started with Toshiba TV, Kodak digital camera etc. Later Panasonic Camcorder. I took Panasonic token. Waiting for computers stuff. $380 Laptops are gone. Started feeling tension about desktop. Desktop tokens came. Luckily I got token for Emachine's desktop. I asked old lady to get additional token for me. (To give to my friend.) She took the token & give it to me. Time is around 4.30. Tea is over & wind is increasing & started feeling too much pain. Basically water is coming from nose continuously. Old lady offered her fleece Blanket to me. Saying that you much come with much better dressing & don’t give up. Last 30 mins is very horrible to be me. Finally store opened prompt 5AM. I went inside & took all the planned stuff & went in to checkout line. All done by 5.40 AM except desktop pickup. Separate line was created for desktop checkout. That line is too long. So I decided to go back to other stores & come back later. While returning from BB, I checked lines at circuit city & Office depot. Lines are too big. Decided not worth waiting. Started immediately & went Menards around 6.40 A.M. Struggled to get a parking spot. Finally managed a parking. Went inside & grabbed all the planned stuff & immediately went t checkout lines. All done with in 40 Mins. (Brought car seat for saketh, batteries, activity books etc. Back to home around 7.20AM. After little bit of breakfast, again went to BB to pick up desktop & camcorder & some rockeers etc. Returned home by 11 AM. It is snowing heavily. Return drive was too messy & very slow. Finally everything went smooth. Got lot of body pains later. (May be because of cold whether exposure.) Used some painkillers later. We put the desktop in the afternoon session & it was working great. Dhanvi face was glowing like a 1000-Watt bulb after seeing his new desktop. He played for couple of hours. I am very much happy after seeing his face. All pain is gone.
Later part of the day, I started thinking it is worth? May be if I buy all of them via sale prices, may be I will pay additional $400 to $500 for my stuff. So started thinking deeply about it.
it is worth going around 2AM in cold, alone? I felt is it is an good experience. In particular old women story was really touching to me. I placed myself in her position. Will I do that at her age? Still I am not sure at this point. This is my 7 th year in USA. Never went to black Friday shopping at that early. i.e. I went to stores but always after opening of the store i.e. after 5 or 6 AM. Whatever is left, I used to collect. But this year, it was whole new experience.
I saw all kind of people. (People who badly need some thing, people nice to have items, just to give the loved ones the asked stuff, and some idiots too. Who came around 5AM and trying to jump in to lines.)? Overall this black Friday is more than bargain hunting for me.
Share yours opinions too.

Swingers

by Doug Liman

I watched this movie director’s previous movie Bourne Identity.
So I put his movies in my watch list. Last week-end I watched swingers.

Overall, This movie is a one of the best teen’s comedy movie.
Coming to review part, This is story about a guy & his friends moved from NY to LS for
His Hollywood dreams after his girl friend dumps him.
Whole movie revolves around this guy & his friends.
All about real people & real incidents & their dating experiences, feelings etc.
In particular this movie ending was awesome. I liked it.

Dont watch without any expectations.
Again my credits to writer & director. Both did commanding job.

Dead Man (1996) review

Directed by: Jim Jarmusch

Nearly 5 years back. I watched this director’s movie Mystery Train.
I liked it a lot. So I purchased “DEAD MAN” DVD.
This movie theme on US Wild West 1800 time period.
Director tries to show the real facts of the Wild wild west in 2000?
I don’t know. I thought it is an adventure film but I am 100% flop on this guess.

Now review part, movie start with Johnny Depp, traveling from Cleveland to West (machines) on a train for a Job purpose. One more import point is the whole movie was shot in black & white. For first five mins, he shows different people changing but still Depp is on the train. Finally he reaches the destination & goes to the office, where he got job offer. After reaching there, he come to know that he lost the job to somebody else. In the same night, he meets a girl at the bar. He goes with the girl. Before sleeping on the bed, girls ex husband, come to the girl’s room. Boom, few arguments and some shooting. Girl & her ex. friend are dead on the spot. Depp get injured. (To save Depp, girl comes in front of Depp. Bullet goes from girl heart to Depp’s heart.) Depps escapes from the spot on a horse to wild country side. Girlfriend's ex husband father hires, three killers to shoot Depp. Now chase is on. After escaping, Depp meets a native Indian ( his name is nobody, funny). He tries to remove Depps bullet from chest. But it is too deep. Now Indian put some sprit in to Depp’s body. Now chase is on. Killers tries to kill Depp. Now movie keeps on goes on killings & funny native Indians dialogs etc.etc. drags for 70+ mins.

Ending was not interesting or good to me.
Only good thing is too good photography & absolute amazing visuals.
(In black & while, he shows the Wild West scenes too good.)
Some times background score is too exceptional. (Some times too loud & bad.)
Actor’s performance was good.

Finally I felt, I watched an American classic or Art movie or western psychic movie?
I don’t know. Not satisfied with whole movie.
(May be I am expecting adventure? Or I am not ready for two hours of black & white movie?)

Abc of DVD copy

Good one.

Heaven(2002) movie review

It is my first review. So bare with me.
Before going to the movie review, reason to watch this movie is I liked
this director’s previous movie RunLoraRun.
(Though it was inspired movie, this movie was good.)

Now coming to movie part, movie start with lady (Philippa) trying to kill a man by keeping a bomb in his office. But her attempt fails & police catches her. Now interrogation process, young police officer (acts as translator) helps her to escape from the jail. This whole sequence is escaping from police is too good. (Simple ideas & effective execution too.)
Immediately after escape, again with the help of the same young officer, she kills the bad man. (She wants to kill this man, a drug leader, because of him, her husband and other young kids die with drug over dosage.) Next 30 mins, both (Philippa & translator) tries to escape from the chasing police officers & translator expresses his love to her.)
Ending was unsatisfactory to me. (May be I did catch the director thoughts here.)
I don’t want to reveal the ending in this review.

But over all it is good movie with good action from actors, brilliant visuals & locations & quiet & simple effective dialogs.

In particular, I watched so many movies but this movie locations are simply great & awesome.

Recycle old computer

Buying a computer or laptop from dell.
Don't forget adding free recycle kit while ordering.
It is absolutely free.
I recycled my 8 year old computer freely.

good one

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http://www.woot.com/Blog/Default.aspx