The Village(2004) - English

 

The Village is an interesting suspense thriller movie directed by Manoj Night Shyamalan. It tells the story of a village where people live in constant fear of some nameless monsters which are supposed to inhabit in the surrounding forests. They had the borders of the village lined with oil lamps and nobody dared to cross the limits. They see skinned animal bodies which makes the children frightned and it is also seen that the adults keep some secrets from their own children. Story is centred on Lucius Hunt, a young man who seeks permision of the adults to go to the city to get medicines from there. But he is not permitted. When the story evolves, Lucius met with a mishap and get injured badly. Then Ivy, a blind girl who loves Lucius, at last decides to cross the forest to bring medicine from city. This venture of hers unreveals the key suspense of the movie.

The way of story telling of Shyamalan is very catching and background score needs special mention in it. Its a movie worth spending time for.

Dead Poets Society(1989) - English

This is a fantastic movie starring Robbin Williams as John Keating and a group of young boys. Keating comes to an orthodox preparatory boys school as an English teacher. He has unorthodox teaching methods and he inspires each boy in his class to bring out the best in them. The students like him a lot, and they become confident to chase their dreams. But, as can be expected, the authorities and parents cannot cope with this and this leads to some touching sequences in the story. This movie is full of positive energy which can lift your spirits.
If you want to know how such a marvelous story can be destroyed, see Fazil's Malayalam movie 'Life is Beautiful'

Philadelphia(1993) -English

Phialdelphia casts two of my most favorite actors, Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, in the lead. This is an inspiring movie which tells the story of Andrew Becket( Hanks), an attorney who is fired from a law firm for being careless. But Andrew knows that carelessness is just an excuse but actually they fired him because he had AIDS. He decides to fight against this discrimination and  seeks help from many lawyers. Most of them refused to help an HIV positive person. At last Joe Miller (Denzel) decides to help him and after a series of legal fights, they win.
This movie is based on an actual story which was the first reported case against HIV/AIDS related discrimination. Performance of Tom Hanks is awesome as an HIV positive man.

Invictus(2009) -English

It is one of the most inspirational true story I have seen. It tells the story of South Africa just after the election of Nelson Mandela as the president. As a newly elected president, Mandela (played by Morgan Freeman) has to face problems everywhere, the major one being the colour discrimination spread into the nation. The national rugby team, called the springboks, which had all white players and were facing failure in all matches, were hated by the people. There was a strong demand to dissolve the team. But Mandela realizes that the springboks were an efficient tool to unite the nation. He inspires the team captain Faracois (played by Matt Damon) and makes a strategy for winning. The film portrays an inspiring sequence of how a game and its spirit can be used to unite a nation and bulid greatness. The victorian peom Invictus by William Earnest Henly is highlighted as it was a source of inspiration to Mandela during the 27 years he spent in jail.
After watching this movie, I became a fan of Nelson Mandela. The music needs special mention in this movie.

The Bucket List(2007) - English

 

The Bucket list is an excellent movie starring two of my most favourite actors on screen, Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson. It tells the story of two old men Mr. Chambers(Freeman) and Mr. Cole(Nicholson) who meet in a hospital, both being terminal cancer patients. Although Cole finds Chambers a dull man at first, he becomes friends with him. Chambers is a mechanic, but he is an expert in history. Cole is a business magnate, having nothing else than money. Chambers tells about a 'bucket list', a childhood fancy, which is a list of things he wished to do before death. Cole says it is not just a childhood fantasy,but can also be materialized in their present age also and they set out a road trip to fulfill the things in the "Bucket list". The rest is an inspirational portrayal of how they find meaning in life from each other.

It is a must-watch movie.

The Sixth Sense(1999) - English

 

Another Night Syamalan touch on the screen. Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osmant add attraction to this wonderfully picturized thriller movie. Dr. Malcome(Willis) is a children psychologist who keeps a regret for being unable to help a boy, Vincent, with hallucinations. Also he finds that his profession caused a distance between him and his wife Anna. After a long time of rest, he meets another boy, Cole(Haley) whose condition is much similar to that of Vincent. He decides to help Cole and thereby satisfying his regret for Vincent. Cole reveals to him that he can communicate with dead people. On Malcome's advice Cole helps a lot of ghosts to fulfill their desires. The end of the movie is really marvellous. Syamalan's style to keep such suspense upto the end is really something!

A must-watch movie.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest(1975) - English

 

The movie centred on a Mental Hospital tells the story of Randal McMurphy(Jack Nicholson) who is brought there for evaluation after he has been arrested for crime many times. McMurphy is very peculiar and kind of a rebel. He becomes favourite of the other patients there and his different attitudes help in the progress of them also. He outsmarts the oppressive nurse Miss Ratched who was a dictator there. He could inspire others also and help them acquire a self-esteem. One such man is Chief Bromden, who is ending the story in very touching manner. Performance of Nicholson as McMurphy is stunning and no wonder he bagged Oscar for it.

Priyadarshan's താളവട്ടം seems to be a remake of this classic movie, with added comedy and Keralite sentiments.

Field of Dreams(1989) - English

 

This is a drama-sports-fantasy movie telling the story of a farmer Ray. While walking through his corn field, Ray once hears a voice telling "If you build it, he will come" and he visualizes a base ball field. He decides to obey the voice and so he ploughs his corn field and builds a baseball court. Neighbors laugh at him for this, but he goes on with his field. One day, to his surprise, he finds a player in the field whom he identifies to be Shoeless Jackson, an old dead player. Later number of players in the field increases, all of them being passed away classic players in their youth. Ray continues to hear voices and he sets out in search of their meanings. After meeting so many people, going through so many situations, at last Ray finds his father among the players. He remembers how he used to resent his father for his craze for base ball and feels so happy and emotional to see his father.

The movie is so beautifully cinematographed and the storytelling is very impressive. It is a movie worth watching.

The Silence of the Lambs(1991) - English

This is one one of my most favorite horror-crime thriller movies. A young lady police officer, Ms Starling is assigned to investigate a murder series where the killer is just known as Buffalo Bill. No one knows anything more about him. Ms. Starling decides to seek the help of an imprisoned cannibalistic killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter(Antony Hopkins) who was a brilliant psychiatrist too. Dr. Lecter agrees to help her if he is moved away from the prison  where he is now and where he dislikes. But Lecter is so dangerous a man and a transfer of him is very risky. Starling takes the risk. Now there are two equally dangerous people she has to take care of. 

This is one of the top five thrillers ever made. The sole role of Antony Hopkins as  'Hannibal the Cannibal' made me a fan of him.

Saving Private Ryan(1998) - English

 

I have two prime attractions to point out here, Tom Hanks and Spielberg! This is one of the best war movies I have ever seen. While preparing letters to the family of the soldiers killed in the World War, the clerk notices that three of the letters are addressed to the same lady. It gives them a shock to realize that that lady lost her three sons in the war and her fourth son is still in war front. So they decides to bring the fourth person back from war and send him home with the news of his brothers' death. But that fourth man, Private Ryan is missing and no one knows whether he is alive or not. So a mission is constituted to find Ryan, save him and to send him home. Captain Miller (Hanks) is leading the team. They have to struggle a lot to save Private Ryan.

The picturisation of war fronts and the emotional sequences of the soldiers are stunning. It is a must-watch movie.