Invictus - Morgan Freeman shines in Clint Eastwood's solid drama

I just completed one of the movies which I’ll never forget watching. I had great expectation from this movie and this is one of those movies which exceeded my expectations.

I heard about Invictus during last year’s Oscar nomination as Morgan Freeman was nominated for the best performance in a leading role (male). Even though, Morgan Freeman didn’t win the Oscar for his performance but this performance adds to his, already big, list of great and memorable performances.

Cast


Morgan Freeman, I have not seen much of Al Pachino’s movies but for me Morgan Freeman is the greatest actor I have ever seen on the big screen. He tops my list. I now have seen over 10 Morgan Freeman’s movie and haven’t been disappointed by a single one of them. Nowadays, I’m trying to get some of his earlier movies I mean the movies he did in the 70’s-80 because all of his movies I have seen are the recent one; Shawshank Redemption being the oldest.

Matt Damon, he is also one of my safest bet. I read somewhere that Matt Damon is also a producers best bets. His choices of scripts and movies are the best among his contemporaries. I have seen many of Matt’s movies also. Matt has experimented with all kind of characters may it be comedy, action or any other. His “Bourne” series is one of my favorite action movie series which includes Bruce Willis’s “Die Hard” series.


Clint Eastwood, well, who doesn’t love his movies. He needs no introduction. His movies speak for him. He is one of the all time best directors for me, internationally, though I admit I don’t know all of them. This is the 6th Clint Eastwood movie I have seen and loved plus I recently saw one of his soon to be released movies which I’m eagerly waiting for.

Plot

The movie is based in Africa (after Apartheid) when Nelson Mendela wins the election and takes up as the President of South Africa. Nelson Mendela (Morgan Freeman) wants to unite the whole country that is still divided among whites and blacks. Even though, the apartheid is lifted but the attitude of the people for other color is still the same.

After taking over, he realizes how the country is divided over Rugby. The black Africans hate Springboks, their national side because they believe Springboks is a symbol of Apartheid. But the white Africans love Springboks because Rugby is their favorite game. Mandela seems this opportunity as a political opportunity to bring the two sides together.


Mandela grabs the opportunity and with the help of François Pienaar (Matt Damon) he tries to bring together two sides of Africa and to bring the rainbow nation together.

How this historic event took place is described in the movie.

Good Things

Everything is good about the movie. The performances, the perfect cast, the perfect director and a great story dealt with great importance.

I applaud Morgan Freeman’s performance as Mandela. He delivered a convincing and credible performance. Same for Matt Damon too.

Applause for the camera man and the technical team for capturing all the rugby match sequences beautifully and with great details.

I loved the back ground score of the music with complements the story so well.

PS:- I simply loved the poem “Invictus” included in the movie.

8/10 from me.

Julie and Julia - Writer to Reader

One Oscar Nomination - Meryl Streep (Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role)
 Julie and Julia is a blogger's dream. Julie who has lost everything till now but not her loving and encouraging and SAINT husband. Julie started as a writer, which is also her dream to be a big big writer with lots of money, but now she is working as a call center executive. So, encouraged by her husband, she starts blogging. At start, she goes through the same, what to write when she finds her passion of cooking. She goes through her favorite book "Mastering The Art Of French Cooking". She picks it up and decides to cook and blog about the 524 recipe. She wants to complete this thing as she thinks she hasn't completed anything which she started.

On the other hand, the movie also shows, in parallel, the life of Julia Child's. Julia child, who is forced to move to Paris, France when her husband was transferred to France. She goes through a lot of different activities or hobbies so that she can remain occupied but nothing works out. So, she starts cooking and learning French Cooking. She meets different people who liked her cooking. She also finds friends or colleauges and inspiration to write a book so that Americans can also learn french cooking. So after 8 years of stuggle and wait she finally publishes the best seller's of all time cook books.

The movie boasts of Meryl Steep "the best actress" for me atleast. No need to say that you should look for Meryl Streep, cause she stands out from the other cast. Amy adams has done a brilliant work to keep up with Meryl Streep though both of them aren't sharing screen space.

Watch this movie and you'll be a fan of Meryl Streep, if in case you were not till now.

Precious -- My Precious

Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (6 Oscar Nominations)

Ok, i haven't read the book but the day i saw the promo of this movie on youtube, i was stuck hard by the content. The promos were very much descriptive of what you can expect from the movie but they didn't reveal much about how good the actors will be in the movie.

Easily this movie can be categorized as the movie where everybody in the cast was trying to outperform each other like all scenes were Monique and Gabourey Sidibe were on screen, you can't pick your favorite among them. No wonder both of them got nominations for their excellent performances. Not to forget Paula Patton and Mariah Carey, it was just their bad that Monique and Gabourey Sidibe who stole the whole show but still both of them very good. The whole cast did a commendable job.

About the movie, this story shows the dark story, which seems to be so true, of an Black American Girl. The movie open with Precious is pregnant with her second child and hasn't even completed her school. Precious is 16 and pregnant second time, already a mother. It's a really sad story. Precious also facing home violence with her mother beating and cursing her for everything little thing getting wrong. Her mother blames her for everything gone wrong in her life. Precious is expelled from the school and offered a course in alternative school. The movie is about how Precious fights to live a normal life.

Best things about the movie......watch out for all scenes between precious and her mother especially the one where Monique, the mother explains why she never stood against her husband who was physically and sexually harassing her own girl child.

Go Watch this movie.
My prediction.....though Gabourey Sidibe faces tough competition with Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep competing in the same category of Best Female actor Oscar but Monique is sure shot to win Oscar for the Best Supporting Actor Female.


Watch out for the coming posts about more Oscar Nominated movies.