Troy: Immortality Awaits - In This World Or The Next!

Title: Troy (R)

Year: 2004

"If they ever tell my story, let them say I walked with giants. Men rise & fall like the winter weeds, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, taming the forces. Let them say - I Lived, In The Time Of Achilles"
 - Achilles

King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) of Mycenae wants to rule over the world. He has already conquered most of Greece, forming them into a fragile alliance and the only kingdom powerful enough to rival the Greek nation is the kingdom of Troy, with whom they have made a peace pact. Achilles (Brad Pitt), considered the greatest warrior ever born on the face of the planet fights for the Greek army. But his disdain for Agamemnon's rule threatens to break apart the fragile alliance. In Thessaly, Greece, Agememnon challenges the King of the land to fight the war in the old fashioned way, the best fighter of each side fighting one another and deciding the result. Of course, Agamemnon calls forth Achilles, whom he hates from the bottom of his heart. Achilles finishes the fight in one move and both the armies are confounded by his superior battle skills. He has many myths surrounding him; his mother being an eternal Goddess, his immortality even in the toughest and fiercest of battles, to name a few. His only aim in life is to immortalize and etch his name into the minds of men and history books for ages to come. When his bones will be dust , he wants to be remembered as being the greatest warrior in the the time of Achilles. Paris (Orlando Bloom) is smitten by Helen (Diane Kruger) who happens to be Agamemnon's brother's young wife. They both run away from Sparta along with his brother, Hector (Eric Bana), the Prince of Troy. Having got his reason for a war with Troy, Agamemnon gets his troops and marches his massive fleet across the great seas in hopes of bringing down Troy's unbreachable walls and defeating Troy to become the greatest Emperor.

The greatest of fights are always fought because of a woman, look at Mahabharatha and Ramayana from our Indian myths (cannot say its completely a myth, proof is being uncovered that it all happened). Brad Pitt has probably immortalized Achilles much more than the real Achilles had ever anticipated or hoped for. Brad Pitt is like an incarnate of Achilles' ferocity, love, beauty, strength, agility, prowess, his defiance, his supreme confidence. I was left in awe of this man's performance, he is such a good actor. And everybody in the film complement him with some wonderful, fine method performances. Achilles gives a short speech when approaching the beach of Troy, saying immortality awaits beyond the horizon. He takes the beach of Troy with only 50 men, defying Agamemnon's orders! I had read the story of Troy and knew how it ended, most would also guess given the ending involves a certain 'Trojan Horse'. Well, here is how the name 'trojan' stuck to a virus. Agamemnon is really a back-stabbing, lying, cheating bastard whom I hated from the bottom of my heart. In that respect, Brian Cox was awesome as Agamemnon.

Wolfgang Peterson has brought the story of Troy to life in this superb movie. Everything about this movie screams of a tale of epic proportions; love, betrayal, valour, justice, evil; and the movie is filled with testosterone filled six pack hunks to satisfy the viewer. Orlando Bloom plays the role of the scared younger brother of the heroic Hector to perfection. Other than Achilles, I loved Hector. He is like a Trojan (A man of Troy) version of our own Yudhishtira, the brave, kind and righteous king. I loved Bana's performance, I was hoping against hope he would win his fight against Achilles. The women in the movie, though having very less screen time, give amazing performances. The fight scenes are amazing even with the cgi effects, which you will rarely notice. The story is pretty authentic and the director has made a good effort to stay true to the story and make it entertaining. Give this movie a try if you haven't seen it yet and I promise you, you will be glad you saw it.

My rating: ****1/2 out of *****

Knight & Day: "I shot the pilot, who accidentally shot the second pilot! Its just one of those things!"

Knight And Day

Title: Knight And Day (PG-13)

Year: 2010

You cannot go into this type of movie without suspending your logic and belief about gravity and many other improbable things. But you know what? Cameron Diaz has one of the best grins and Tom Cruise is still a hunk and a charmer, they make us enjoy the movie, with all its stupid contrived plots and overwhelming action sequences. Me and my friends all loved the movie. I didn't know its genre and hadn't seen the trailers for the movie, but went to see it as I am a fan of both Cruise and Diaz. After the dramatic Valkyrie (which was in 2008, took a full 2 years for Tom to make another movie!), it was good to see Tom back in a mindless action movie. Diaz and Tom team up again after a long time. In 'Vanilla Sky' they didn't have enough screen time together. Director James Mangold knows that this isn't a movie which has to be taken seriously and has made the actors have fun with it. The cgi effects are quite well done (obviously) and the cinematography is excellent. Most of the locations are just so grand and beautiful. Not to forget, the excellent bull chase sequence in Spain which was awesome.

Carrying a bagful of metal junk to repair her father's old car, June Havens (Cameron Diaz) is on her way to her sister's wedding when she accidentally bumps into Roy Miller (Tom Cruise), a charming and handsome man. After repeatedly bumping into each other at the airport and finally finding out that they are on the same flight, they just flirt with each other. She finds out during the course of a rather entertaining flight that Roy is a rogue FBI agent, whose intentions is not exactly clear in the beginning. She is smack in the middle of all the chaos just because she happens to be a witness to something called the Zephyr, a perpetual energy source. June has to figure out who she can trust in this crazy situation; the FBI or Roy? During the course of the story, June and Roy travel all over the globe (Massachusetts, California, Austria, Jamaican Islands, Illinois, Spain among others) to keep the Zephyr away from the bad guys. The FBI and many others are after Roy and the Zephyr, but it turns out that Roy is being framed by his former partner who wants to sell the Zephyr to terrorists. Will June and Roy make it out of this mess in one piece?

There is also a sub-plot involving Roy Miller's parents. They think that their son is dead, but they don't know that Roy is keeping an eye on his parents for their safety. That was done just to give a background story on Roy's character. There are a couple of scenes which were definitely more suited for some other genre; Roy disappears from a room when the SWAT team is coming from all the exits of the room and a moment later we are shown him running across the roof top of the opposite building at full speed. That was a scene more suited for the supernatural genre. Well, he is more like Superman than an ordinary person here anyway, so I can forgive that.

Tom Cruise is definitely ageing gracefully; he has lost some of his famous boyish looks, but his acting still packs a punch. Cameron Diaz looks gorgeous and still has her comedic timing intact. There are a few scenes where she looks old and haggard at times, but it is understandable as she isn't exactly the new kid on the block. The movie has equal amounts of non-stop banter between Miller and June, romantic tension and an overdose of extremely well choreographed action sequences. Plot wise, Knight & Day doesn't offer anything new, nor do we expect it to be anything new. It is a tried and tested plot of an agent out to protect something, and in this case the thing happens to be a source of infinite energy which could solve the energy crisis around the world. Do we really care about this Zephyr? Not a chance, because it could have been anything and still we wouldn't care about it in the least bit. All we want to see is Tom and Diaz create their magic on screen. One scene I really loved is when there is a chase scene and Roy jumps off from a motorbike and lands on the FBI car and tells calmly to June that her dress is beautiful, while killing off all the agents! The ex-boyfriend scenes were also very funny. Tom Cruise still creates the magic and you have to watch this if you are a hardcore Cruise fan, the comedy and action provides wholesome entertainment.

My Rating: ***1/2 out of *****