Monday, April 30, 2007

Hot Fuzz

Directed by: Edgar Wright.
Written by: Simon Pegg.

- release 2007.

An absolute english humor relief. Not much effort involved behind the story and the acting. But a well written script that keeps the movie moving, get it.
Simon Pegg himself plays the lead role and along with Nick Frost makes the movie a total riot. The team up once again as they did in 'Shaun of the dead' and try to repeat their success from their last venture which I should say they did.
Simon Pegg plays Angel, a police officer who seems to know "right from wrong" and Nick Frost who plays his official sidekick, Danny, an not so stupid officer who lives in a dream with Keanu Reeves from Point break and Will Smith from Bad boys two play his Ideal cop. He even enacts a couple of scenes from those two movies at one point in this movie.
The story is about a uptight cop, Angel who is transferred to a small village thought to be devoid of any crime and discovers a cohort of crazy old people driven by an obsession to keep the city a safe place (by all means possible) for the greater good. And from there the story just unveils.

A good movie if you want to take a break from exhaustion or overwork.

Rating: 7.5/10.


Saturday, April 28, 2007

Pita sandwich - filling and dressing.

Prep time: 10 min.
Total Time: 30 min.

Ingredients :


1. Pita Bread.
2. For the Filling:
i. Onions - 1/2 medium sized.
ii. Tomato - 1 ripe and fresh small sized.
iii. Green, red, yellow pepper - 1/2 each.
iv. salt, pepper and lime.
3. For the dressing:
i. onions - 1 small sized. (cut finely)
ii. Tomatoes - 3 small sized. (diced)
iii. Red kidney beans - one cup. (pre-boiled)
iv. ginger - small stem.
v. Garlic - one clove.
vi. cinnamon power, cardamom.
vii. salt, paprika, cumin powder and lime.

Preperation:

1. Start with making the Dressing.
a) In a blender, put in onions, tomatoes and the red kidney beans and blend well along with some lime extract. Add at least a cup of water or more to bring it to constancy
b) Once it is evenly blended and is in a puree form, put it in a saucepan and allow it to come to boiling, then add the spices kept aside and salt, paprika to taste.
c) Once the flavor of the spices have infused into the puree, set the saucepan aside. The dressing is done.

2. For the filling.
mix the cut onions, tomatoes, and the peppers together with a tea spoon of salt and pepper.
And squeeze half a lime on top of the mix. And stir once.

3. Cut the pita bread in half and Heat the Pita bread on top of a pan. Once the Pita is soft, open the Pita, carefully (a lot of steam accumulates inside).
4. Apply some butter onto one side of the pita bread insides and cover the bottom side of the insides with a layer of the Pita dressing. Fill with the FIlling to your content and enjoy a nice snack.
:)

You can store the Filling and the dressing in your refrigerator.

Aloo Gobi..

Prep Time: 10 min.
Total time:
45 min.

Ingredients:
1. Oil - Canola, sunflower, Olive.
2. Onions - 1 medium sized.
3. cumin seeds - 1tea spoon.
4. Tomato - 2 small sized.
5. Green Chilli's - 4 nice and fresh one.
6. Potato's - 4 medium sized. (diced well and square shaped)
7. Cauliflower - 1 medium sized. (cut in small florets)
8. Turmeric power - 1 tea spoon.
9. Salt and Paprika to taste.
10. Ginger - a small stem.
11. Garlic - 2 small cloves.
12. Garam malasa and cumin malasa.

Procedure:

a) Heat the oil and add cumin seeds to it till it becomes golden brown.
b) Add onions and cook till translucent.
c) Add the chili's and the turmeric powder and salt and Paprika. (salt and paprike can be added later to adjust the taste)
d) Add nicely diced, fresh tomato's and allow it to become well mashed and almost puree like.
e) Add mashed ginger and garlic to this and mix well.
f) Add the diced potato's to the puree and mix well. Add a cup of water, enough to cover the potato's. Cover the lid and let it Boil for 10 minutes and then add the florets of cauliflower to it. Mix well. Allow it to boil for an additional 10 minutes after covering the lid again.
g) Mix well again and add garam masala and cumin power to season. Adjust salt and paprika level. And keep the vessel on low flame till you get the consistency you need.
h) Garnish with fresh Cilantro sprigs.

Comes out real good.
Try it out some time.



Thursday, April 26, 2007

Ichi "The Killer" - 1

Directed by - Takashi Miike
- some time in 2001

The very first of Miike's movie I have seen and he has sent a very very difficult standard. "The gold standard for goriness". My god, it makes me wonder what in god's name he was thinking when he made the movie.
A movie totally based on
masochism... for further clarification, people in this movie actually enjoy getting beaten up or having their hands, legs, tongue, eyes, and well private parts pulled or cut out or even getting killed for that matter. (eyyyyucckkkk) sorry only expression I could pull out from my known dictionary. Well I have always been interested in Japanese films, but this one.. pushed the limits.. of Sanity.
The story is not very complex, a simple story starting off with this perverted guy who gets excited when killing or hitting other people. And a group of people who use him as a tool to kill. Whats more annoying than the story itself, can be describe as the gang leader (Kikihara), who has this weird fetish for piercings. I don't want to explain more (use your imagination) he tries to pierce a guy to death. And has a weird mouth to top it off. His mouth opens as wide as a freaking shit-pot.
Not many scenes that is worth remembering.
Anyways not the greatest movie's but one with some good directing and editing.

Rating: Normal People - 6/10.
Wierd people sense - 8/10.

Mozhi

Directed by : Radha Mohan.
Music By: Vidhyasagar.
- Feb, 2007.

One of greatest movies I have seen after a really long time. And once, any normal person watching the movie realizes that a movie where not so much effort is been put into the movie by individual effort can still make an amazing piece. Let it be the usually overacting PrakashRaj (Vijay), or usually not so great Swarnamalya (Sheela), or Jyothika (Archana) (though recently her acting has been really brilliant). Each playing a subtle role for once. And even the small players like the professor (a character) and the apartment manager play a important role in holding the movie together.
Prithwiraj (Karthik) plays his role like wearing a pair of trousers (i meant as casual as that). Though I must say; on one or two situations he overacts and it strays a little away from what is needed. Come on no man is so perfect. -- In the scene where the Professor barges in with the situation of Indira Gandhi being shot when Karthik is like pleading to Archana, I mean any normal human would make a face and get angry and not that he is totally passive person as well cause, in this other scene after a few roles, in the restaurant after his proposal with Archana and all, he shouts on top of his voice and with lots of anger in it. Its really contradictory.
Well anyways. The story line is very very simple. A nice romantic comedy to start of with and then maintains the comedy part a little towards the later end thanks to Prakash raj. Prakash Raj for all his acclaimed acting abilities hadn't done much justice to his acting recently. But this movie should be an eye-opener not only to film critics but also to him. He should start realizing that acting is not about shouting and making weird faces. Hats off to him for this role.
Swarnamalya can take a few things from this movie back home, I might say. Not many supporting actresses in Tamil industry do a good role. But Swanamalya fit in perfectly and does an amazing job.
Jyothika as Archana, played her part with panache, carrying it to the end. No way faltering it in the end as one might expect. The part where she appreciates music by her eye coordination and feeling the vibrations may be a little over exaggerated but hell I am not a non-biased judge for that am I.
All said and done, you don't see a movie like this one coming by every year. I hadn't watched this movie till recently. Not until my Mom (a little about her,,, firstly she never watches movies, even more she never says any movie is worth watching ever, I mean EVER) said this movie was great. That sums it up, doesn't it?
Finally, something that puts all of these factors together is the music, not heavy at any point. I mean - I don't get to blast my eardrums out for once, the music in itself is poetry. And yes, they use tamil in the songs; FINALLY .. he he. Even the background score is subtle and melodious... no head banging music. SPB sings a song in quite a while and as ever his voice is as smooth.
When you get a chance, a must watch movie according to me.


Rating: 8.5/10.