I have seen few new and few not-so-new movies recently (I had to make up for the 1 month I lost) so here’s my short review of each:

• United 93: Its the first American movie I’ve seen about 9/11 and it is pretty good. The fact that the cast is relatively unknown makes the movie more credible. There are lots of characters and yet you feel connected to all of them. I think that’s one of the movie’s main strengths.
• Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna: I had heard, seen and read so many bad reviews of the movie that I was expecting a disaster and thus was kinda surprised to find that it wasn’t all that bad. I would still like to challenge KJ to make a movie in which no one (and especially SRK) has to cry.
• The Killer: I’ve been told that its a copy of Collateral but since I haven’t seen the original (cos it had Tom Cruise), I found the movie to be okay. Also, I saw it while cleaning up my closet so it served as the perfect movie for multitasking.
• Krrish: I and Lucio watched it cos we wanted to know how some people actually liked it. Even though we didn’t get the answer to our question, we had a great time laughing and ripping the movie apart.
• Lage Raho Munnabhai: Again, I had heard so many positive reviews that I was sure it would fall short of my expectations but it actually surpassed it. I really enjoyed the movie. It brought a wide smile on the faces of everyone in the theatre. I liked it a li’l more than the original Munnabhai.
• Scary Movie 4: What can I say about it? Just like its predecessors, Its also hilariously funny. Especially the scenes from The Village. Also, there’s a great scene where two characters pretend to talk in Japanese when they are actually just naming Japanese brands. Oh, and there’s a spoof of Tom Cruise’s infamous appearance on Oprah at the end which is a must watch.
• Omkara: Simply fabulous! Vishal Bharadwaj has done a great job in creating the feel of Rural western UP. Konkona Sen Sharma and Saif Ali Khan are superb. Even Kareena Kapoor makes her character very believable. I really liked the track “Namak” too. However, I laughed really hard when Bipasha Basu spoke her first line. I had to rewind twice to understand what she was saying. What I liked about the DVD was that the English subtitles weren’t literal translations which can be laughable at times.

A long weekend starts today and there’s Bangalore bandh next week which means that I’ll be watching more movies. So watch out for more mini-reviews.

And wish you all a Happy Dussehra and Gandhi Jayanti!

• I wanted a change in my life and given the limited control I actually have on things, I decided to make my life a little more fun by buying a brand new TV, a new DVD player and to top it all, I got digital cable. Basically, few things I wanted for a long time now. The result is that I can now watch Family Guy whenever I want to and I don’t have to worry about bad cable reception.
• I strongly believe that it should be illegal to talk on the cellphone while in the toilet. Seriously, do these people who talk on the phone while on the toilet tell the caller about where they are? And how do they explain the flush sound to the caller? And believe me, the other people in the bathroom don’t need to hear someone in the toilet stalls talking on the phone either. And unless there’s a law against it, people will continue doing it. So it must be made illegal. Now!
• I was a little surprised to see John Mayer’s new album, Continuum, in the new releases section at Planet M last Sunday. I didn’t expect it to be released in India so soon. Needless to say, I bought it. I can completely relate to the opening song, “Waiting on the World to Change”. Take a look at the lyrics. I think most of us would agree with the viewpoint of the song. Its a nice song. And the rest of the album is good too.
• I’ve seen quite a few movies recently but I think I will save my short reviews for the next post. The post frequency has been dropping rather drastically as it is.
• Oh, and this post has been written using Windows Live Writer. Its a great tool. A must for all bloggers.

In my last post, I mentioned my life’s rules and just yesterday, I received a forward from a friend titled “Life’s Little Instruction Book”. Now, I don’t know how popular this forward is or if everyone knows about it but I thought I would share some of the points. My comments are in italics.

Points that I agree with and practice:

• Always accept an outstretched hand.
• Be brave. Even if you’re not, pretend to be. No one can tell the difference.
• Give people a second chance, but not a third.
• Don’t allow the phone to interrupt important moments. It’s there for your convenience, not the caller’s.
• Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.
• When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go. – Of course, otherwise it gets awkward.
• Take charge of your attitude. Don’t let someone else choose it for you. – Absolutely
• Once in a while, take the scenic route. – I do this as often as possible.
• Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on your ability to deal with people.
• Wave at the children on a school bus.

Points that I don’t agree with or can’t practice:

• Whistle. – I’ve tried, I can’t.
• Avoid sarcastic remarks. – Oh come on, I might as well stop talking altogether.
• Never deprive someone of hope; it might be all that they have. – I think false hope is just not worth it.
• When playing games with children, let them win. – Why? Nobody let me win when I was a kid.
• Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born. – Not gonna happen.
• Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them. – Its difficult for some people.

Points that are very interesting or I might want to try:

• Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.
• Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know. – I think I might be that already.
• Begin each day with some of your favorite music. – I try to.
• Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.- I know I should but some people themselves make it hard to respect them
• Become someone’s hero. – Who knows, I might already be someone’s hero.

Moving on, I’m sure everyone must have heard those people on TV going all nuts about the new superman movie. Apparently, they would explode into thousand pieces of Kryptonite if they see anyone other than Christopher Reeve playing the title role. I mean, it’s been a long time since then and I didn’t see any of those movies so who cares! I saw Superman Returns last Saturday and it was pretty good. I honestly never expected it to be that good given all the okayish reviews. Brandon Routh is excellent as Superman. There’s James Marsden aka Cyclops in the movie too. Kate Bosworth though is not very good. She looks more like an overworked mother than a fiery journalist. Or maybe I’m too used to watching Teri Hatcher play Lois Lane. But the movie was awesome. It made me take a superhero seriously for the first time and that’s not a joke even though I am laughing and it sounds totally ridiculous.

It’s been a long time since I wrote my favorite kind of post, the one with an unordered list. So here it is.

• I used to get a lot of spam 2-3 years back when hotmail didn’t have a spam detection engine. Most of these mails claimed that I had pre-approved credit cards and loans waiting for me. Of course, it was a lie. But last week, I got a real mail from Citibank telling me that I had a gold credit card waiting for me and I just had to login to their site, click on a button and it would be delivered to me. Now, I know it’s no big deal and I already have the card they are offering me so I won’t even be taking it but still it felt really good to be “pre-approved”.

• Last weekend, I watched The Omen and Chup Chup Ke. The Omen was supposed to be a horror movie but it wasn’t too scary. Of course, there were scenes when the women in the audience got scared and shouted and I laughed but the movie was just okay. Also, I could clearly see the boom in at least three scenes. Chup Chup Ke was supposed to be a comedy, on the other hand, which it was in the first half but in the second half it became a cheap family melodrama where both the main actresses (Kareena Kapoor and Sushma Reddy) wanted the actor to marry the other one and the actor (Shahid Kapoor) just moved from side to side like a puppet. It was difficult to sit in the theatre for the last 30 minutes of the movie. On the whole, it was an average movie.

• My training is finally over. It feels so good to sit in a cubicle again instead of a training room. And it’s a pretty nice and big cubicle so I like it here.

Last Sunday, I decided it was high time that I finished reading the fifth novel of my life that I started reading few months and gave up on after the fourth chapter. So I got dressed and went to INOX to watch “The Da Vinci Code”. Unfortunately, it was completely sold out so I decided to go try my luck at PVR even though it is a little too far. I reached the ticket window at 12.54 pm and the next show was at 1 pm so I had very slim chance of getting a ticket but just then a guy stepped in front of me and said something to the ticket window guy who then picked up a mic and made an announcement that there was 1 last ticket available for the 1 pm show. Cud I’ve been any luckier? I quickly gestured that I wanted it. The ticket window guy pointed towards the other guy and I bought the ticket from him. Turns out that he was supposed to watch the movie with his girlfriend but she couldn’t. He wanted to sell both the tickets but she wanted him to watch the movie and then tell her all about it. So anyhow, I finally got in.

Just fifteen minutes into the movie, I realized that I had stopped reading the book just before it got interesting. How sad!

Now the movie is long, even longer than most Bollywood movies. But its okay. Neither good nor bad. Since I’d not read the book, I didn’t know what was going to happen next so it was a little fun. And I’ve been a fan of Audrey Tautou even since I saw Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain a.k.a. Amelie. But Tom Hanks looked bored and boring. And I think the movie was easy enough for even the people who haven’t read the book to understand.

Once I got home, I quickly took the book out of the cupboard and turned over to the last page and read it. There, that’s how I finished reading my fifth book.