Lady in the Water(2006) - English

This guy M. Night Shyamalan has got a unique skill in writing strange and different stories. Take any of his films, it will have a unique thread which no one else has ever tried.
Lady in the Water is another such movie that tells the story of a man Mr. Heeps who is a maintenance man in an apartment. One day he discovers a young lady in the swimming pool of the apartment. He learns that she is actually a water nymph who wants to return to her blue world in water. But she is threatened by a vicious animal that tries to kill her at any cost. Heeps learns from a Chinese woman in the apartment that there are people, who are yet to be identified, in the apartment who can save the life of the nymph. Mr. Heeps tries to identify those people and at last sends the sea lady to her world.
I must tell that the movie is boring at some points. But still it is worth spending a little time for.

Insomnia(2002) -English

Insomnia is another Christopher Nolan film starring Al Pacino, Robbin Williams and Hilary Swank. It a crime thriller telling the story of a Los Angels police officer Dormer (Al Pacino) who comes to a small town in Alaska for the investigation of the murder of a teenage girl. During a chase of the murderer Dormer accidentally kills his partner. Since there could be reasons for him to kill him deliberately, he conceals this fact from the public fearing public disbelief. But the guilt haunts Dormer, he loses sleep and the intellectual activity in the investigation gets very challenging. But he still chases the murderer and finally solves the case.
This movie is truly thrilling and it is interesting to see the midnight-sun phenomenon in Alaska incorporated with the story. The shooting locations will also catch your attention

I am Sam(2001) -English

This is a very beautiful movie starring Sean Penn and Dakota Fanning in the lead. Sam (Penn) is a mentally retarded man having only the IQ of a seven year old. All his friends are similarly having disabilities. Soon after the birth of a baby, his wife left him. He brings up that baby, Lucy (Fanning), alone. When her friends began to tease Lucy in the name of her father, she felt it embarrassing to accept that she is more mature than her father. But when the girl is seven year old, the state tries to separate the child from Sam saying he is not able to parent a child who has more IQ than him. What follows is a legal fight between the state and Sam for Lucy. The film beautifully portrays the efforts of a retarded man and his friends who know only to love.
Performance of Sean Penn as Sam is really stunning, especially during the scenes where he is unable to answer the complex questions of the lawyers.
It is heard that the Tamil movie starring Vikram named 'Daiva Thirumahan' is a remake of this movie.

The Happening(2008) - English

 

This is another catching Manoj Shyamalan film that tells the story of a mysterious natural disaster that all of a sudden starts spreading from a park. Some neurotoxin is unknowingly given out into the air which affects the minds of the people and they start committing suicide. There arises many theories on what actually is happening. At first it is thought that it is some kind of bioterrorist attack using some airborne chemical. Later speculations give way to frantic efforts to escape from the toxin. The story evolves around a science teacher, his wife and the daughter of his best friend who committed suicide after being infected by the neurotoxin. The movie goes along the mass hysteria spread among the public and the picturization of it is very impressive. It is a movie worth watching

The Prestige(2006) - English

This is a mystery-thriller which tells the story of two rival stage magicians, Angiers and Borden, of the 19th century. They both were assistants of a famous magician and later they split up and try to outwit each other as independent magicians. This blind competiton and rivalry leads into tragic results. The famous scientist, Nikola Tesla is portrayed in this story as the scientist who helps Angiers to perform teleportation on stage. The direction of this movie is marvellous and it is difficult to summarize the story in a few lines. I may have to tell scene by scene. Story takes sudden and frequent twists. The overall suspense is kept all along upto the climax.

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.