Movies to Watch in 2007

2007 seems to be a good year for all the movie lovers as we have already seen some great movies and a few more still to come by the end of this year. Most of the big movies of the year were sequels though, and some of them being the third of the series. A total of seven movies are said to have crossed the$500 million mark with four of them being sequels. The success of these movies seems to trigger more sequels in the coming years, but this year also saw some movies on the top, which never deserved to be hits. Here, the upcoming and the already released movies are included, and its once again an interview here.

Dracula: Oh! Not again. I thought that you were dead and buried. As I haven't seen any human coming this way for a long time, I thought that you race is already extinct like the dinosaurs. Your fang isn't even good for making a nice mark on the throat, so its time your primitive race become history. I will adjust with the blood supply from the other creatures. I think that you are here to hear something about my greatness this time, aren't you? Now don't say that you are going to write something on those ugly zombies again.

Diver: Oh not at all sir, I am here to talk about this year's Hollywood movies, and the bad news is that you don't have a role to play in any of them, not even in a few vampire movies being released. I thought that you would atleast have a supporting role to a villian. It is really hard to see the great Count Dracula not given a chance.

Dracula:(Drinking the whole bottle of blood) Yeah, its a very sad thing, and I really wished to have a part in the movie Transformers or atleast get that Chevy car so that I can hunt some humans in it. I just read somewhere that the movie's World Wide Box Office gross is$701, 935, 735 and it is the highest for a non-sequel. Those robots don't have blood and that may be the only reason why they do great action. Those robots transforming into cars and fighting with those advanced weapons is good, but there should have been blood, and they should have added my vampire bat in the movie too, as it can be the side-kick of that Deception robot Megatron who should have taken over the planet and proved his supremacy.

Diver: Transformers was one of the best movies I have ever seen and its sad that it took a long time to release in India. The fight between the two groups of robots, autobots and deceptions is shown in the best way by the director Michael Bay. They have made the cartoon series look stupid. Hope they include more robots from the toyline next time, and also you. So here is the first movie to watch in 2007, and do you have any other options for the common people? What do you have to say about Resident Evil: Extinction?

Dracula: Oh here we go back to the zombies again and this time there is even more blood and gore involved. When I thought about it first, I didn't like the idea of zombies getting all the blood and there is no vampire in the movie. But if we think about it in detail, its all about that girl Alice, played by Milla Jovovich who gets all the attention. She does her job well, but I prefer the previous movie. This one is also good, and all the Resident Evil fans should be directed that way, and watching it on the big screen is going to be great. Its time they start a theatre here in my castle. That reminds me of Epic Movie which is one of those movies which could even make a vampire laugh. The way they made fun of Harry Potter, X-men and the Pirates was one of the best.

Diver: What about The Hills Have Eyes 2? That is really a very long name to sound like a good movie, but doesn't that movie match your tastes? There are lots of interesting creatures in the movie who can provide a horror fest.

Dracula: Interesting creatures? The mutants in that movie could have been scarier. There are some interesting scenes in that movie of gore and violence, but you know that nothing matches Hostel 2 with those scenes of torture and all that can satisy the wicked minds. The movie just makes me love Slovakia, and I love the scene in which those kids play football with the head, why don't you contribute your head so that they don't ever have to buy football again?

Diver:(with rolling eyes) Thats a bad idea, because I am not interested in getting into the movies even if I am to act with the whole body. I didn't know that you had a heart for torture too. Some people thought that the Hostel was huge, and now they just need to take a look into Hostel 2 to see how brutal it can really be. But Hostel 2 didn't seem to have as much hype as the Saw series, but both almost seems to belong to the same class. But I think that we are forgetting Rise of the Silver Surfer, which proved to be a better superhero movie of the year.

Dracula: That Silver Surfer guy is really boring, but the movie was good, and a lot better than the original Fantastic Four. They had four super heroes last time and now they have one more weird guy who travels on a board. I could have done better things by standing on my vampire bat, and you know that I am way cooler and smarter than him. And Jessica Alba does a great job in the movie and its time she become a vampire.

Diver: Then what about the movies which are to come, like Beowulf, I know that it is not some kind of werewolf story, but it still sounds interesting, doesn't it? Its a fantasy story and its based on an Anglo-Saxon epic poem and got some dragons in there.

Dracula:(Thinking) Forget the dragons, they got some bad breath. Think about The Mist is supposed to come this 21st and I am sure that it is not going to disappoint. After all, its based on the Stephen King novel of the same name. There may be some lobsters, spiders, giant dragonflies, scorpions and giant squids - sounds good right? May be the only thing missing is a vampire bat. Next time I will ask them to show this one in Discovery channel or Animal Planet too.

Diver: That sounds good on screen, but I am more interested in Hitman based on the video game of the same name. The silent assassin who shows no remorse and does his job without any mistake is now back in a movie. The actor doesn't look like Hitman from any angle though. May be Jason Statham from Transporter or Vin Diesel could have done a better job atleast with the looks. Still the movie is going to rock though. It was to release on October 12, but now it is fixed on this 21st.

Dracula: That guy looks less vampirical, so I would go for Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem and the aliens and the predators fight again with lots of green and red blood all around. This is going to be more interesting than it sounds. There is also going to be a Predalien who ca create more chaos all around. Glad that the aliens havnen't attacked a vampire yet.

-> The 7500 character limit exceeded once again, so off to the comments section.

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Spring is here. St. Valentine's day is knocking on the door. So while 2007 has some good movies in the offing, perhaps "Music & Lyrics" is a warm and lovely way to start the show. Infact there never could’ve been an aptly named and well timed movie this valentine’s season. Amid the gore. horror and seriousness of some other good flicks, this is a light hearted one.

Meet the adorable Alex Fletcher(Grant). A throwback pop star from the 80s who’s no longer in demand. Fletcher somewhat manages to earn his loaf doing the odd show here and there for the older crowd. It is survival by the thread and the artist in him yearns for more acclaim. He gets his much awaited breakthrough when reigning music queen Cora Corman(Bennet) ropes him in to write and record a duet with her. Soon an ecstatic Alex recalls he might be good with music, but as a lyricist he’s a deadbeat and hasn’t written a song in years. Now he has a deadline to meet!

Weighed down by this hit or miss opportunity of a lifetime, Fletcher gets help from unexpected quarters: His pretty florist Sophie(Drew) has a knack for words and gladly agrees to do her part for whom she believes to be a talented but unsung hero. And you realize why they say “Behind every successful man is a woman.” Magnificent!

Romance and realization blooms between the twosome as he teaches her how to sing and she weaves the magic of words for him. So hello to warm love as Fletcher instructs a crooning Sophie—“Oh please try a bit louder. It’s intended for humans after all!” But time is short and there are promises to be fulfilled. Fletcher has seen the bottom of the life pile and understandably wants to climb out fast. Sophie, having broken up with her fiancé is still going through a lot of emotional turmoil as she gets more and more involved with her new man.

This movie may not be in the same league of “Four weddings”, “Love actually” or a “Notting Hill” but it’s no lesser either. A witty, humorous, well scripted, beautiful plot and agreeable character portrayal are some of the many assets observed in this delightful movie. Even better, it never moves focus away from “realism”.

Fabulous performance again from Grant. He’s such a talented and natural actor that you never realize he’s acting! Yes they don’t come any better than him. Though Barrymore does her part and ensures the onscreen chemistry is perfect between the pair, she still is a below average actor. I’m sure someone else should have played Sophie—someone who does justice to Hugh Grant! Yet, I’m not complaining.

Great warm funny romantic movie & enjoyable to the core. That, if you don’t have a cannonball where your heart should be:)

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I ought to warn you that this review is not on new upcoming movies, but oldies those that I plan to catch on TV channels in the near future. You will be surprised at the no. of quality offeringsthat we take for granted and go unnoticed. There's definitely more to the TV-scape than the likes of The Mummy and ConAir.

After a hectic period of workaholism and life in the fast lane, it was frustrating at first for me to be inactive following an accident. However as recovery progressed, I am managing to make the most of my idle status. This involves catching upon studies / reading and plain relaxing. Most of the time is spent on books and music and occassionally the TV. Not much, just one or two movies a day!.

Being a movie afficionado, its been a blessing in disguise to catch up on some of the classic as well as obscure gems on the CRT screen. The ones that I have managed to chance upon this past month include classic oldieslike Magnificient Seven, To Sir with love, Lawrence of Arabia well as cult favoriteslike The Doors, Get Shorty, Usual Suspects, Being John Malkovich and Hollywood biggieslike Cape Fear, Hellboy, Oceans 12 etc. Not to forget pulp movieslike Jeepers Creepers, From dusk till dawn and Dracula 2000.

However it can be frustrating if you miss out on some really good movies, mostly due to not being aware of the telecast at all. And more than once, I was caught watching barely sufferable flicks for the n'th time even as something more worthy played out on another channel. The schedules given out in the dailies can be misleading, and after missing out on more than a few good movies, I resolved to make my decisions more informed.

So this is what I do now.

Directly from the Horse's mouth

Major movie channels put out their schedules in advance, and you can even have the monthly schedules. However nothing's cut and dry, and occassionally changes do take place at very short notice. The daily schedules are more dependable. Anyway, the links relevant to those in India are given below.

HBO https://hbosouthasia.com/southasia/schedule

Sony PIX https://pixtelevision.com/schedules/Schedule_main.php

Star Movies https://app.indya.com/epg/asp/displaySchedules.asp?ddChannelName=starmovies

ZEE Studio https://zeestudio.tv/ProgrammeGuide.aspx?PageId=2

Casting the net wide.

After finding out which movies are on, I head to allmovie.com for more info. Though not in the scale of siblingallmusic, the site is useful for plot synopsis and a general overview. It also throws up occasional nuggets and trivia.{ did you know that bothQuentin Tarantino and our ownRam Gopal Varma **learnt their craft while being clerks in Video Stores?! *}

If I still need to know more, I can head out to rottentomatoes.com(the premier website which collates and hosts reviews by the most reputed reviewers on the web.) They have an excellent tomatometer rating system which seldom fails you.

If I like a movie, and want to know more of the cast / crew and related projects there's nothing more useful than the good old internet movie database **imdb.com

So this way I dont channel surfneedlessly and am looking forward to bone up on a lot of good movies before returning to the humdrum existence of the never ending rat race.

Cheerio! Have to leave now. "A hard day's night" is on Zee soon. Catch you guys later.

Others to watch in the coming days:

Curse of the Jade Scorpion(Woody Allen, Helen Hunt & Dan Arkoyd)

Tailor of Panama(based on Le Carre's novel, *ing Brosnan, Rush & Jamie Lee Curtis)

Taxi Driver(Dir: Martin Scorcese, *ing Robert De Niro & Jodie Foster)

13 conversations(McConnaughey, Turturro & Amy Irving)

The Big White(Robin Williams & Giovanni Ribisi)

Blow Out(Dir: Brian De Palma, * John Travolta)

Suggest you do the same., if possible:-)

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Movies to watch out in 2007: Welcome to 2007. This year promises some exciting movies. These are some of the English releases I am looking forward to this year. 'Zodiac' Release Date: March 2007 Jake Gyllenhaal had no major release last year, and he did a great job in ‘Jarhead’. Plus, the director is David Fincher who takes a shot at a serial-killer thriller for the first time since 'SE7EN.' Let the sickness begin!!! 'Grindhouse' Release Date: April 2007This is a Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino movie for the price of one. It also has Rose McGowan with a machine gun to her stump.

The visual spectacle and the bloodshed, well I think it will be worth the wait. Being a fan of Tarantino, I am hoping this will be another cult classic. 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End' Release Date: May 2007 Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. Need I say more!!!!'Ocean's 13' Release Date: June 2007 Never been a huge fan of the ‘Ocean’ series, but this one promises to be better, as Andy Garcia befriends George Clooney, Brad Pitt & his buddies. Guess who the bad guy is – A screaming ‘Al Pacino’. Would not want to miss it for the casting coup. 'The Bourne Ultimatum' Release Date: Aug. 2007Matt Damon in the third installment of the Bourne Series.

Expect high tech gadgets and more car chases. Sounds exciting. As a Matt Damon fan, I am looking forward for this movie. 'American Gangster' Release Date: Nov. 2007Expect an amalgamation of L.A. Confidential & Training Day, as Russell Crowe and Denzel lock horns as a NYPD Detective and a Harlem drug kingpin (Superfly). This movie is set in the 70’s, and directed by Ridley Scott. Russell is the tough NYPD Cop, and Denzel is the urban drug-lord ‘Superfly’. The Script versions were known also known as True Blue, etc. I cannot wait for November, 2007. The combination – Denzel + Russell Crowe + Ridley Scott – Let the fireworks begin.

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