Rear Window

Movie: Rear Window
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Starring: James Stewart,Grace Kelly
Running Time : 112 Minutes
Genre : Thriller
Released : 1954

Released in 1954, the movie “Rear window” tells you the story of Jefferey (James Stewart) who has broken a leg and is confined to his wheel chair. As he recuperates, he uses his binocular to view the activities of his neighbors who have kept their window open. He happens to take interest in a salesman who has a bed ridden wife. Jeff observes repeated late night trips by this salesman in the pouring rain and also notices that he is washing a hand knife and a saw. He also notices a large trunk with heavy rope being moved out of the apartment. He discusses his observations with his girlfriend Lisa ( Grace Kelly) and his home-care nurse stella (Thelma Ritter) and they all believe that the salesman murdered his
wife. How Jefferey managed to nab the salesman forms the second half of the story after a very slow start to the proceedings. Considering the story was released in 1954 and has a very interesting premise, the movie is too slow for modern day viewers and even the climax turns out to be unintentionally funny. This movie has lot of modern day renditions too.
Strictly, an one time watch.

2 out of 5 stars

Righteous Kill

Movie : Righteous Kill
Director: Jon Avnet
Starring: Robert De Niro,Al Pacino,Curtis (50 Cent) Jackson, Carla Gugino, Donnie Wahlberg, John Leguizamo
Running Time : 100 minutes
Genre : Thriller Crime
Released : 2008

Have you ever heard of a serial Killer who is a cop? Pretty interesting…uh!!!.
Turk (Robert De Niro) and Rooster (Al Pacino), two aging NYPD detectives and partners, are hunting a serial killer who kills criminals, leaves a poetry behind at the crime scene and is popularly known as “Poetry Boy”. There is also a younger investigating team Perez (John Leguizamo) and Riley (Donnie Wahlberg) who have reasons to believe that Poetry Boy is a cop and have their doubts, their eyes on Turk. Turk is now living with Perez’s ex-girlfriend (Carla Gugino), also a homicide detective.  Now, if poetry boy was the cop who was within this team, who was he/she then?
I read a lot of negative reviews and was surprised that was movie was even inducted in “worst films” category. I found the movie to be pretty interesting and engaging. If you actually don’t know the story and watch this movie, this movie will surely catch you off-guard and has a big,clever twist in the end waiting to unravel.
To sum it up, Robert De Niro died in the movie “Heat”. In this movie, he gives it back to Al Pacino. Scores are settled. Forget the negative reviews, watch it for the legendary actors and the clever little twist at the end.

3 out of 5 stars

Additional Trivia:

In the first movie where Al Pacino and Robert De Niro starred together, The Godfather: Part II (1974), they both played gangsters. In their second movie Heat (1995), Pacino was a cop, and DeNiro was a gangster. In this, their third movie together, they are both cops.

HEAT

Movie : Heat
Director: Michael Mann
Starring: Al Pacino,Robert De Niro,Tom Sizemore,Ashley Judd,
Jon Voight,Val Kilmer, Natalie Portman
Running Time : 170 minutes
Genre : Action Crime
Released : 1995

Have you played Cop Robber in your younger days and if you had liked it, this one is the movie to watch. Robert De Niro (Neil McCauley) is a professional criminal and Al Pacino is Lt. Vincent Hanna, the strict cop. Val Kilmer is Chris Shiheralis and is a partner-in-crime for De Niro. The movie is a little slow at 170 minutes, but that’s the beauty of this movie. This allows Director Michael Mann to work on the characters and set them beautifully.
The story of De Niro and Al Pacino can be considered as a linear examination of life on both sides of the law. There is a very  neatly choreographed bank heist job that is elaborately done by De Niro and team While Al Pacino and team have a tough time to restore peace. The movie might be a little down in action, but makes it up as it allows us to understand the shaky, vulnerable life of a Robber (played elegantly by De Niro) and the challenging, tough life of a cop (played stylishly by Al Pacino). I have never seen a movie with such a big star cast. Val Kilmer does executes his action scenes and plays the honest aid quite well. The movie ends as expected. Al Pacino has a big 1-1 with Robert De Niro and guns him down outside a freight terminal and holds his hand as he dies. As a big fan of Robert De Niro, it was sad to see my hero gunned down, but not many criminals make you proud.
Robert De Niro is simply astounding.
The movie does have a sentimental angle and would probably demand a second closer look. This is for strictly Robert De Niro – Al Pacino fans and will not disappoint.

3.5 out of 5 Stars

Additional Trivia:

Director Michael Mann developed a 180-Page draft of Heat in 1979. He rewrote the script in 1981. The movie was made and released in 1995. Heat was ranked the #25 highest-grossing film of 1995.

Hearts of Glass

Book name: Hearts of Glass
Author : Nicole Jeffords
Publisher : Ivy Books
Published date : 1992
Pages : 324

Decent read!!! The story centers around 3 ladies who end up friends in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and share their secrets.

a) Charlie Gallagher – the chic wife of a politically ambitious congressman (Neil). Had an affair in the past with a guy called Gil. Gil dies in a horrible accident. Neil is aware of this. Charlie also attends painting lessons where he ends up having an affair with painter called Dennis. Has two kids in Petra (girl) and Colin (boy).

b) Musette – Glamorous model turning actress. Had an affair with Neil in the past. Wants to reclaim Neil now by getting friendly with Charlie in AA and then using blackmail to get back Neil. The real villain, but a lot vulnerable.

c) Gwen Thomas – a celebrated black novelist. She wrote a novel called “Homegirl” and is in talks with Musette to make the novel a movie.

The story is well written with the 3 ladies stamping on each other feet, revealing their past secrets, mess up their present lives, consume lot of liquor and go to AA to change themselves. The story is interestingly presented, but there are too many subplots, too many characters who show up and disappear that unnecessarily drags proceedings. I felt Gwen’s character itself was unnecessary that it was getting in between Charlie and Musette.  With so many affairs,  the reader can expect lot of intimate scenes …They do appear at the drop of a hat.   The climax lacks the necessary firework as Charlie and Neil join hands to fight back against the evil Neil which is actually rushed.
They win eventually.

3 out of 5 stars