Pensieve 2.0

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This is going to be a movie review…No…Not a movie review, but a chain of movie reviews.

The reason for several in one shot is simple. I saw all of them in one sitting.
There are 5 movies in all. All are radically different in genre.

• Amelie (French)
• The Shawshank Redemption (After so many years of yearning to watch it)
• Run Lola Run (German)
• Sin City
• Banlieue 13 (French)

Each review will be a different post. I will interleave each with my ongoing story, just to avoid monotony. I will start from the last one.

For those who are fed up with CGI effects-based “pseudo-action” movies, this movie is just for you.

Banlieue 13 is a French action movie which was released in 2004. As the saying goes, leave your mind outside the room/theater if you are watching this movie. There is no story, but the movie is really worth watching; that too, several times.

Banlieue 13 is, in simple words, a ride. Don’t go looking for depth in storyline. But it is loaded with action which is simply stunning.
The stunts of David Belle are a treat for the eyes. Belle’s intro is impressive. It gives a terrific first impression of the movie in the 1st minute itself, as Leito (Belle) leads a mob of gangsters on a chase over, under, beside and through several high rise buildings. I’m not kidding. This guy jumps from building to building, down one floor, through a narrow window and all. The movie features several parkour moves by David Belle. And Belle happens to be the inventor of this extreme sport. The stunts by Cyril Rafaelli, the other hero, is also great. (But not as much a treat to the eyes as David Belle’s)

Here is the youtube video of the opening stunt sequence. (Low quality)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkNqlSGwI7I

For those who wonder what parkour is, (and haven’t checked wikipedia yet) you have seen it before. Remember the beginning chase scene in Casino Royale? That rubber-bodied guy named Mollaka? How he runs? That’s exactly what parkour is.

The final verdict is: Forget the story, even skip forward to each stunt. Witness some of the coolest stunts you have seen in screen. No wires, No visual effects. That adds to the thrill.

I read that book yesterday, and all I could say was “Its brilliant…an anachronism”.
Written in 1889, this hilarious misadventure tells the story of three men and a dog who are “scandalously” lazy.

You cannot but enjoy the book from end to end (there should be more emoticons for body language, because I just made a “point-to-right-then-point-to-left” gesture when I said end to end) in the jocund company of Jerome K. Jerome, George, Harris and Montmorency, the plucky fox terrier.

The reason that made this book a classic in my mind was two of its chapters which we had to study as English Text during school. Yes…I still remember that. One seldom forgets such classics like “Montmorency and the Tomcat”, “Cheeses from Liverpool” and “The Luncheon”. The first two stories are from “Three men in a boat”. The last one is written by another of my favorite authors– Somerset Maugham.
So, naturally, I bought this book the moment it caught my sight in Landmark, Bangalore.

The highlights of the book are normal, but very witty language and of course the world-weary Montmorency.
Jerome finds himself having all the symptoms of a liver disease, the most significant being “a general disinclination towards work of any kind”. Now, I wonder I too have that disease.
Everybody is having some problem. So they decide they want some rest and set out on an idyllic cruise along Thames. Poor Montmorency has to join them having lost the votes 3 to 1. But what they find in their boat-ride is anything other than rest, should I say a hapless series of cataclysms!

The reason for me calling this book an anachronism is that I could relate most of it to myself. Not that it gives some lessons in life or is philosophical. Not at all!! It is a pure entertainer, a must-read.