Times of Peace (Tempos de Paz) : Review

Tempos de Paz is a Brazilian film set in the time of the Second World War. The story is about the interrogation of a Polish ex-theater actor who finds himself mistaken for a Nazi by a violence loving Customs official at the Immigrations office in Brazil.
The customs officer, an ex-torturer for the political police, makes a deal with the actor that if he could make him cry within the ten minutes remaining for his ship to leave, then he would grant him the Brazilian Visa.
The Polish actor starts off by narrating his experiences of the War but soon realizes that violence is the very thing that thrills the Customs officer. But in the heart of hearts he too is a man full of sorrow for what he has done.
So the actor narrates to him a verse from a play by a Spanish author and makes him cry, finally.
The movie is moving. You feel that even you can't cry but it fills up your eyes with tears. The vagaries of violence and the lost freedom of the human soul hits one hard. The performances by Tony Ramos as the customs officer and Dan Stulbach as the wacky actor are superb. The last narration of the play is a tearjerker.
Watch it for its clear message about the inner conscience of the human mind. I give it a 4 on 5 rating!

Avatar: Review

When someone has waited 15 years to make a dream come true then one can assume that this dream would be a spectacle. Avatar is James Cameron's epic adventure, almost ten years after his last blockbuster, Titanic. This man has a knack of churning out blockbusters even with a modest storyline and Avatar is no less different.
A completely fictional and fantastic new world is created by Cameron using advanced technology filming with Imax cameras and animated figures. The background is just superimposed on the animations. But what a spectacle! The landscapes of Pandora, the distant moon where the story is set will just take your senses to a new level. The Na' vi tribe, extraordinary beasts, the plants, not to mention the dragon like creatures and the Hallelujah mountains are simply mindblowing.
Add to it the superb performances of a modest cast including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana and the evil Colonel played by Stephen Lang bring across the fact that Cameron doesn't just want to thrill us with his visual eye poppers.
The story is pretty straight forward but then Cameron is not known for twisting and turning plots. But inspite of that the director brings forth every possible kind of emotion be it love, anger, spirituality, greed and power with panache. It is hard to stem the sadness which fills you while watching the innocent aliens perish under the raw greed of human ambitions. The message sent out by Cameron against war and greed rings loud and clear.
Finally, the last one hour focuses on the battle between the Na' vi and the humans which I had expected to be the best part of the film. But that is the director's magic that the awesome beauty of nature shown in the film just fills your senses unwilling to be riddled with bullets and missiles.
James Horner's score is brilliant as always and falls completely in sync with the mood of the film which was all evident in its trailer itself. The picturisation and the SFX are needless to say fantabulous!
Avatar is a wonderful dream which has been realized. And it is my urge for all those who can watch it to go and watch it in 3D for that's how its supposed to be. I went and saw it in Imax! I give it a 5 on 5 and if I had my way then I would have given it even higher! Truly, Pandora is heaven!