Movies by mid-week

Larry Semon's "Wizard of Oz"

Guess, this has to be one of the technologically advanced movies of those times.
I didnt like the ending i.e where Prince Kynd gets to marry Princess Dorothy married.
The plot could have been lot more interesting had the scarecrow 'Larry Semon' been the rightful husband for Princess Dorothy. This silent movie was fast-paced similar to most other silent-movies I had seen, mostly Charlie Chaplin movies!

Runaway Jury

Enjoyable thriller.
I had earlier read the novel 'Runaway Jury' by John Grisham, but the movie never failed to amaze me. It is a difficult job i.e to make movies out of novels. Lots of sequences which can be found in the novel, did not get featured in the motion picture. For example, the sequences in which John Cusack gains the confidence of his fellow-jurors are mostly absent in the movie.
The best part in this movie, was the sequence where Dustin Hoffman enters into a argument with Gene Hackmann in the restroom where Dustin Hoffmann warns Gene Hackmann that 'Gene Hackmann might win this case, but someday he will lose and that day he would be alone and no one to help him'. Quick came the reply from Gene Hackmann 'It doesnt matter, I dont give a sh**'.
Guess, the best John Grisham movie has to be 'The Firm' which had Tom Cruise in the lead.

Ali G Indahouse

Ordinary comedy movie, there are better spoof-style comedy movies for sure. Guess, 'Hot Shots' and Leslie Nielsen movies are the best in this genre.
Sacha Baron Cohen's(the main man in this movie) claim to fame must be appearing on the music video 'Music' alongwith Madonna.

Paycheck

Typical John Woo classic thriller. Enjoyable fare right from the beginning.
It's a shame that Ben Affleck hardly gets any movies to show his skills. He seems to be tailor-made for the ultimate American hero characters like Bruce Wills' John McLane(Diehard) and Harrison Ford's Jack Ryan(Clear and Present Danger, Patriot Games..). His performances in 'Good will Hunting', 'Reindeer Games' and 'the sum of all fears' also made up good viewing.

Guess, Philip K Dick's "Paycheck" was originally a short-story. Guess, in a way it was easier to make movies out of short-stories rather than based on novels, because in case of short-stories the Director has the responsibility to include new plots and make the movie interesting. But in case of novels the director will get busy on how to edit the sequences and shorten the sequences to fit into a moving picture!

Gajani

Ordinary fare. The story didnt fit well into tamil masala cinema profile.
Most irritating part of the movie, is the horrible 'arabic/chinese/god-knows-what-language hymns/sloka/humming in the background during various stages in the movie'. Harris Jayaraj's chorus vocals will leave one a lot to be desired. The worst part in this chorus vocals is that it will remind you of SA Rajkumar kind of music, cause till now I thought only SA Rajkumar is capable of copying himself.

The Cat's Meow

Good movie!
The plot was simple and what appears to be a true-story made the viewing even more interesting. I could identify only the real-life character of Charlie Chaplin played by Eddie Izzard in this movie. Kristen Dunst also plays a key role in this movie.