''Brief Encounter'' and ''Warm Bodies''- Movie reviews

Brief Encounter (1945 movie)- Review

Directed by: David Lean
Released: 1945
Country: United Kingdom

Cast: Celia Johnson, Trevor Howard, Cyril Raymond, Everley Gregg

Genre: Romantic drama

Rating: 5 out of 5

Review

Brief Encounter is a beautiful and touching film about, as the title refers to, a brief encounter. Celia Johnson gives a breathtaking performance, and the film is a deeply moving story of love, pain and guilt.

The first scene of the film takes place at a refreshment room of a train station. The protagonist of the film, Laura, is sitting with a man. A typical small town gossip lady, Dolly, arrives and starts trying to strike up a conversation with Laura. Laura introduces the man as Dr Alec Harvey. Alec leaves the refreshment room as his train has arrived, and some time later, Laura and Dolly also get into their train. It is evident that Laura is troubled and worried.

Upon reaching home, Laura and her husband, Fred, sit in their library. Laura looks at her husband, and then starts thinking about the pain she is in. Just a few weeks ago, her life had been perfect, free from any kind of troubles. But now... a lot has happen in the past few weeks. Laura starts to think of all the incidences that happened in the past weeks.

Every Thursday, Laura goes to shopping and for watching movies, to Milford. One such Thursday, while sitting at the refreshment room of the railway station, she had come across Dr Alec Harvey. Something had gotten into her eyes, and Alec helped her to clean that up. It didn't seem a very memorable incidence, but over the next Thursdays, she and Alec come across each other repeatedly. They go to movies, they take lunch together, they drive around together. As both admit that they are in love, they are both struck with grief because they know that all these cannot last long. They both are married, both have happy families, and Laura feels terrible guilt, knowing that she is cheating on her husband.

Brief Encounter is a painful and emotionally intense film. Celia Johnson is just amazing. Her narration throughout the film makes the film more intense; her description of her sufferings, her pains, her guilt- are all so very memorable. Trevor Howard as Dr Alec Harvey is just as amazing. There are some very memorable scenes, like the scenes where they go for driving. Brief Encounter is the story of a brief encounter, an affair that is destined to end one day because of the people involved in it. It is an excellently acted and directed motion picture.

5 out of 5



Warm Bodies (2013 movie)

Directed by: Jonathan Levine
Released: 2013
Country: United States

Genres: Horror comedy, Romance

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, Dave Franco, Aneleigh Tipton, John Malkovich

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review

Warm Bodies is the love story between a human and a paranormal creature. Oh, don't worry, it's not Twilight. Warm Bodies is set at a time when there are so many zombies... the number of the zombies have increased and humans have been forced to abandon the beautiful world where they once lived. They now have to live in special enclaves to remain safe from the zombies.

Our protagonist is a zombie, who doesn't remember his name. He just remembers that his name used to start with an 'R'. He lives a life without any fun or enjoyment, in an abandoned airport, with other zombies. He is the narrator throughout the film, though he can hardly speak.

One day, zombies attack some humans, and R saves one of the humans, Julie. R protects Julie, keeping her in the airplane which he uses as a home. Julie eventually starts to trust R and understands that it is not safe to try to run away now. However soon the other zombies get to know about Julie's presence. They try to attack her, but the sweet relation between R and Julie, brings a strange but wonderful result: the zombies begin getting back life once again.

Now, there are two groups between the zombies: human-like zombies and the skeleton-like zombies, called ''bonies''. The bonies attack the human-like zombies as they are starting to get back life. The human-like zombies realize that they need to team up with the humans to defeat the bonies and make the world peaceful once again. But the humans won't easily understand that they (the human-like zombies) are good. How will Julie and her friend Nora convince the humans that teaming up with the zombies is the only way to defeat the bonies and make the world peaceful once again? 

Warm Bodies is a sweet film and provides smart and effective entertainment. Nicholas Hoult is really sweet as the innocent, awkward zombie protagonist. Teresa Palmer is nice as well, as the female protagonist Julie. The concept itself is very nice.  A memorable scene is the one where Julie meets R in the balcony, a scene similar to a scene of ''Romeo & Juliet''. Among the funny scenes is the scene where Julie pretends to act like a corpse to make the zombies think that she is also a zombie.

While ''Warm Bodies'' may not be an excellent film, it provides real entertainment, and is overall, sweet and worth a watch.

3.5 out of 5 


 

''ParaNorman'' and ''The 39 Steps''

ParaNorman (2012 movie)

Directed by: Sam Fell, Chris Butler
Released: 2012
Country: United States

Cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jodelle Micah Ferland, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch

Genres: Comedy horror, Adventure, Fantasy, Family

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Review

Norman is a boy with an unusual quality: he can communicate with dead people, including his late grandmother. His parents don't appreciate this quality. He is bullied at school, being called a ''freak''.  He learns in school about a person who was accused of being a witch, three centuries ago. The ''witch'' gave a terrible curse to the seven people who had accused her, causing them to become living deads (zombies).

One day, Norman comes across his elderly and strange uncle Prerderghast, who tells him that since he can communicate with dead people, only he can save the town from the zombies by keeping the curse under control. Norman is puzzled, but after the sudden death of Prenderghast, his (Prenderghast's) ghost visits him, giving him instruction about how to keep the curse under control.

How can Norman control such a terrible curse, all by himself? There follows twists, perils, revelations, and humor.

ParaNorman was a fun watch. I liked the overwhelming humor, the comedic horror elements, the twist, and the truth. The voice actors do a great job. The visuals are also great. The scene I loved most was the final confrontation between the ''witch'' and Norman. It was superbly designed, and the scene following this, the scene at the forest, was also beautiful. Overall, it was a light and refreshing film.

3.5 out of 5

The 39 Steps (1935 movie)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Released: 1935
Country: United Kingdom

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Main cast: Robert Donat, Madeleine Carroll, Lucie Mannheim, Godfrey Tearle, Peggy Ashcroft, John Laurie, Helen Haye, Wylie Watson

Rating: 4 out of 5

Review

Before he moved to Hollywood in 1939, Alfred Hitchcock, one of my favorite directors of all time, made many films in Britain, almost none of which are particularly remembered as his great movies. However, two of his British films, The 39 Steps and The Lady Vanishes, are often considered among his great films. The 39 Steps is often considered to be one of the first movies where Hitchcock showed his common elements: the excellent suspense mixed with humor, the man struggling to prove his innocence, and one of the very memorable features of his films, the blonde heroine. This is the film where Hitchcock introduced a blonde heroine who is found in many of Hitchcock films.

In the midst of the chaos that suddenly start in a music hall,  a man named Richard Hannay meets a strange and mysterious woman who looks very afraid and requ

ests Hannay to take her to his home. Hannay, though puzzled at the woman's attitude, does so. There, the woman introduces herself  as Annabella Smith demands absolute security and solitude, and tells Hannay that she is working to unravel spies who are going to smuggle a secret very valuable to the country. But because of her work, the spies are wanting to kill her. Hannay doesn't know whether to believe her or not, but nevertheless shelters her. Late at night, when he is sound asleep, Annabella rushes to him, apparently having been stabbed by the spies, and soon dies. Hannay, confused what to do, decides to go to Scotland, where Annabella was supposed to meet somebody important. Meanwhile, word gets around that it was Hannay who killed Annabella. Now Hannay can prove his innocence in only a single way: he has to expose the spies who are planning to smuggle the secret out of the country.

Alfred Hitchcock's excellently directed film really fascinated me. I hadn't watched a Hitchcock movie for a while (the last I'd watched was Notorious, back in April), so it was great to return to his movies! I liked the depth of the situation and the characters. Madeleine Carrol, who played the first ever blonde heroine in Hitchcock films, gives a very remarkable performance. Overall, it is an enjoyable, suspenseful film and one of the earliest marks of the greatness that Hitchcock would be showing in future with such great films as Vertigo, Psycho, The Birds, Strangers on a Train, and Shadow of a Doubt.

4 out of 5