A very-very special post..

It's the leap day today afterall, wont be Feb 29th for another 4 years... And my first time writing a blog on LEAP DAY.... For whatever day you maybe celebrating today.. Congratulations & Happy "*" day!!

Oscars, Academy Awards 2012

Academy Awards 2012 were held today & the results were:

1. Best Film: The Artist - I was surprised a little, cuz I thought it could/should be Hugo. Similar concept but grander execution & stunningly beautiful.
2. Best Director: Michel Hazanivicius - Could've been Marty but thsi was well deserved. Making a silent likable movie is quite a task.
3. Best Actor: Jean Dujardin (The Artist) - Very surprising actually. I thought it would be George Clooney or Brad Pitt or someone. A french guy with no dialogues to say except 2 words. But he was definitely very good in the movie & deserved it I guess..
4. Best Actress: Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) - She's so damn beautiful even now. I haven't seen the movie but with 17 nominations and 3rd win, I am not sure that she deserved it for thi smovie or not, but good she got it.
5. Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer (Beginners) - I remember him from Girl with Dragon Tattoo & haven't sene this but dunno.. must be good or just got it cuz he's 82?
6. Best Supporting Actress: Ocatvia Spencer (The Help) - I haven't seen this movie or her. Did she get it cuz she's black woman? Just kidding.. I think she probably is very good and didn't have Meryl for competition
7. Best Original Screenplay: Woody Allen (Midnight in Paris) - I have not been able to see this movie inspite of my multiple attempts through Netflix. I got the disc but it didn't play, got 2 more but they didn't play sound, getting a dvd now. Anyways, I like Woody Allen a lot and waiting to watch this awesome movie.
8. Best Animation feature: Rango - That's the only animation I had seen out of all nominees & it won.. not fair, but it happens.

You can see the other results which were mostly swept by Hugo I think, nobody seems to care much about the other technical categories but they are important and contribute heavily in making a good movie (although we find it boring & that's why I am skipping talking about them). AR Rahman was orchestrating the music I think, i did see him playing which was cool. I didn't like Billy Crystal's hosting, but much better than last year. But Jon Stewart was much better, or even NPH at Tonys (NPH should get to host Oscars!!).

I also watched two movies: 2001 a Space Odyssey (8/10) was pretty cool but I wasn't blown away by it. Although, I enjoyed the extras much more. Tells you how it was so awesome for that time. The visual effects, the imagination, the execution etc and the music is all just AWESOME. I didn't get the plot a lot initially & didn't make lot of sense but I kinda get it now. Stanley is definitely a filmmaker's filmmaker, a great guy. I also watched Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (7/10), which I thought was a rip-off of What Happens in Vegas; but it was not. It's a good movie with ok performance by Imran Khan (he sometimes seems dead-ish, cinema should be more cinematic I think), decent performance by Kareena (she suits these kind of crazy roles) and good plot, interesting ending and great name of the lead guy.. RAHUL!!

Happy Birthday Sister!!

Om Namah Shivay.. MahaShivRatri!!

Happy MahaShivRatri to all Shivabhaktas... Har-Har-Har Mahadev, Jai Shiva Shankar!!

Trip to Providence RI = AWESOME

What an awesome weekend, with a totally awesome trip to Providence, RI. Its around 200 miles from Jersey City, driving on I-95 N. We started Saturday morning & the drive was nice with two Cracker Barrels & lots of Mcdonalds on both sides. The stay in Marriott Courtyard Providence Downtown was great, its right in center of the city, walking distance to everything. So walk around downtown Providence in the evening was fun - visit/walk in Brown University (another Ivy League conquered!!) to Prospect Terrace Park (surprisingly nice view of the city & all that) & walk on Benefit Street (maybe it was just time of the day, but BORING).. Most of the time was spent in the hotel having FUN. I got a free upgrade to a room with whirlpool/jacuzzi (those can get real dirty after use, glad I am not the one who had to clean it) and nice view. Thoroughly enjoyed the gym (worked out twice), swimming pool (tried to swim once) & spa at the hotel. Also ordered "stuffed" pizza in room for dinner, while watching Russel Peters.. REALLY NICE!! 

Next day after more hotel fun (same stuff, but still fun) we decided to go to Warwick, RI. First stop the Warwick Light House which was not easy to locate (drive straight on Warwick Neck Av. till dead end) was closed doors, 4 cars had to turn back. Then 5 mins drive to Oakland Beach, which is nice small rocky beach. Then to Apponaug Village (where was it? is it real??), right next to famous City Hall, Public Library & Art Museum etc. Surprisingly enough, everything but a Walgreens store & a Chinese Restaurant was closed, everything... So drove straight back, stopping in Stamford, CT for dinner at a nice Italian Place called ZaZa (best Italian food I have ever had!!). Then back home in time to watch Scarface (8/10), quite a movie... Quite an awesome weekend!!

P.S. Quite a great foodie weekend too - Not just the best Italian food with various tapas', pasta & crushed cannoli; great "stuffed" pizza; nice Korean lunch (in Providence); delicious burritos & quesadillas (in NYC).. I also enjoyed some "delicious" home made Lava Cake this weekend, really memorble with long lasting effects :)

12 02/2012

What's that? Today's date in Indian/European style, 12 February 2012. Or in US, 02/12/2012. Nice date huh? It's not bad for sure.. Anyways, this weekend's been mostly a cleanup weekend for bedroom floor, kitchen counter-top & living room area. Which was nice & quite an accomplishment. Also watched 2 movies, again.. The Artist (8/10) which is a great film (here in US, we make movies, american movies.. leave the films to french) with nice performances, good story line, great visuals & great dialogues.. oops, almost no dialogues but I could feel them & felt nice. It's almost a silent movie with mostly soundtrack only. & it's black & white. Still lot of fun to watch, great job for sure!! Also watched Woman in Black  (6/10) starring our good old Dan the Harry Potter. Well, he's older now, playing a widower dad.. and he does quite well. But I do not really appreciate horor movies who just try to scare you with shock value & loud sounds but nothing really scary to arouse your fear from inside. That's what this does mostly so not super-impressed. But if you are a fan of horror genre or dan, you can go & watch it for once. Also went to this decent diner next to water in Edgewater, NJ (apparently, Whitney's mom lives here) and had this nice Banana Split.. YUM!!!!

Sad news for many, Whiteny Houston died yesterday... RestInPeace Whitney!!

Annie Hall (10/10)

La-dee-da, la-dee-daa... I just watched Annie Hall, one of the most wonderful, entertaining & fun movies I have seen. Yeah.. I am giving it 10/10, cuz I loved it so much. It's funny, it's neurotic, it's crazy, it's silly, its smart & it's AWESOME!! It's my kinda movie, like my style... Woody Allen is so smart with his dialogues, his ideas, his actors, & everything... His frequent breaking of fourth wall is so nice (same as I talk to U guys.. U think he copied me?). Watching of past events live, very well used. Great concept & thinking behind the movie too. It's story of a neurotic jew comedian, born & brought up in Brooklyn & living in Manhattan. He meets Annie (beautiful & wonderful Diane Keaton, really great), he dates annie, they break up, they get together, they breakup & all that. Lot of stuff happens in between.. in New York and some in "LA, the city where only cultural advantage is being able to make right turn on red light", LOL. Just watch the movie & you'll love it.... Congratulations & Kudos Woody Allen (I know it means a lot to you & you've been waiting for this)!!

NY Giants WON Superbowl

That's the biggest news of the weekend of course. Second news is I went to Metropolitan Museum of Art which is not just an Art Museum as I thought or people may expect but has lots of awesome artistic & historic & cultural artifacts including, sculptures, paintings, crafts, designs and lot of awesome stuff from all over the world. I saw some Egyptian & Indian stuff only with little Japanese & American/European paintings etc. It's really huge too, I probably saw just 10% of it. Third news is, I saw Tree of Life (5/10). One of most boring movies I have seen in a while. Good performances & great imagery but BS movie. Overall, it was a nice weekend!!

Agneepath (8/10) & Underworld 4 (5/10)

After last "Quite a Weekend", I watched 2 movies today.. Agneepath is definitely a great movie.. very well acted, very well presented & very well done. As most of you may know that it's remake of 1990 movie of same name with Amitabh Bachchan in lead role & directed by Mukul S Anand. I honestly do not remember a lot from the movie except Amitabh's introduction as Vijay Deenanath Cahuhan, his white suits, some fights & the climax scene (spoiler) where he dies in his mother's arms. I do remember Mithun da as Krishna Iyer MA, which role has been completely eliminated from this movie. But Karan Malhotra has added Rauf Lala played by Rishi Kapoor in negative role, which is most definitely one of his greatest performance & highlight of the movie. Rishi is menacing, mean, crooked, fierce & BAD.. & most definitely REAL. Unlike Kancha Cheena played by Sanjay Dutt, which is definitely a great performance by him, but seems quite unrealistic & out of place for the movie. He has this semi-devil kinda role which would be great in a mythology or fantasy or some crazy movie, but does not seesms to fit in well in this movie.. which in turn make the Scene with Sanjay Dutt not as fantastic.. which in turn makes the whole climax scene in Mandwa, not as awesome as you would expect. Because movie has got you in high wits and emotional state by 2/3rd of the movie with all the things going on, some great scenes between Hrithik (who's at his usual best, nothing exceptional but very good) & Priyanka (who's really good in the movie), mother-son scenes & ofcourse Scenes with Rishi. Regardless, it's a fantastic movie with great visuals, background score, music, dialogues & performances. Definitely a must watch great movie!!

Underworld Awakening on the other side was quite a bore.. or maybe not. Wasn't horrible, it was just what you expect. But definitely not as good as first two movies. It's very low on content & high on action. 3D is again a misuse and just seems the money making scam. It was a an okay/kinda-fun watch.. If you are an Underworld or Vampire franchise  fan.. then go ahead!!