The Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont, loosely based on the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption

Review:
Tim Robbins stars as Andy Dufresne, a successful young banker who is sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Andy is sent to Shawshank prison, a dour and depressing place where brutality from both guards and other prisoners is commonplace. Andy makes friends with Ellis Boyd “Red” Redding (Morgan Freeman), a lifer who has already spent many years inside. Red specialises in smuggling items into the prison for the other prisoners. Red soon discovers that Andy is a most unusual prisoner, although at first it seems to do him little good – he is brutalised by other prisoners.
He starts to get both other prisoners and guards on his side when he offers to help one of the most notorious guards with a tax problem in exchange for bottles of chilled beer for everyone in his work party. From then on, Andy always seems to be working on one thing or another. He improves the prison’s tiny library, and helps those prisoners who want to study. He also handles the guards’ tax returns, and even helps the swindling Warden (Bob Gunton) cook the books. Over the years, he gains the respect of most of the other prisoners and guards. More importantly, he never loses hope for the future – a hope he tries to pass on to the other prisoners. He never stops believing in life’s possibilities, but to make the most of them he needs to be free.
Both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman do a fine job in terms of making their roles genuine and appealing, and also in the way they work so well together. The production values throughout are outstanding, but this is not a “fancy” film. Rather, it sticks to the story it is telling without resorting to flashy tricks to grab the audience’s attention. Although there is violence, some of it extreme, it is necessary to show the kind of place the prison is and is certainly not gratuitous. The main theme is hope, not despair, and the violence serves only as a backdrop to that message.

Cast:
Directed by: Frank Darabont
Actors: Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman, William Sadler, Bob Gunton
Writers: Stephen King (short story "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption")
Frank Darabont (screenplay)
Release date: 1994
Rating: 9.5/10
Genre: Drama Thriller
Duration: 142 minutes
Country: United States

Casablanca

Casablanca is a 1942 American romantic drama film directed by Michael Curtiz, starring Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman and Paul Henreid and featuring Claude Rains, Conrad Beidt, Sydney Green Street and Peter Lorre. Set during World War II, it focuses on a man torn between, in the words of one character, love and virtue. He must choose between his love for a woman and helping her and her Resistance leader husband escape from the Vichy- controlled from the Vichy-controlled Moroccan city of Casablanca to continue his fight against the Nazis.

Review:
Bogart is wonderful as the mysterious café owner with a past, set up in the nightclub business with his long time friend and piano player, Sam (Dooley Wilson). As we meet his employees, we see Rick’s not quite the cynic he pretends to be. All are clearly refugees under his protection. The emotional Russian bartender, the polished French croupier, the grandfatherly German waiter and Sam at the keyboard make Rick’s café the only place to be.
His haven is disrupted when his one-time love Ilsa (the luminous Ingrid Bergman) arrives in the company of a world-renowned resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), whom the Nazis would very much like to get their hands on. She’s looking for safe passage, first from Rick, who believes she jilted him for Laszlo, and then from the marvelously sinister Sydney Greenstreet as Signor Ferrari, owner of the rival Blue Parrot club.
Claude Rains nearly steals the movie as Captain Renault, the deliciously corrupt prefect of police, who accepts money and the favors of especially lovely refugees to arrange escapes. Peter Lorre(Ugarte) runs a cut-rate smuggling trade, and Conrad veidt is a first-rate Nazi villain.
Bogart and Bergman shine in their only screen pairing, but it’s the flawless direction and ensemble cast that make this movie, from the nameless pickpocket in the opening sequence to the elderly Jewish couple earnestly fracturing English phrases as they prepare for the passage to America. With a few spare lines of dialog, a glimpsed gesture, a few moments on screen, all the characters are fully sketched, and Rick’s café seems very real.

Cast:
Cast: Humphrey Bogard,
Ingrid Bergman,
Paul Henreid,
Claude Rains,
Conrad Veidt,
Sydney Greenstreet,
Peter Lorre,
Dooley Wilson

Director: Michael Curtiz

Producer: Hal B. Wallis

Screenplay: Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, and Howard Koch based on the play "Everybody Comes to Rick's" by Murray Burnett and Joan Alison

Cinematography: Arthur Edeson

Music: Max Steiner

U.S. Distributor: Warner Brothers

Goodfellas

Goodfellas is a released in 1990 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorese. It is based on the non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film with Scorsese. The film follows the rise and fall of three gangsters, spanning three decades.

Review:
The basis comes from the true-life story of Hill (played by Ray Liotta), who grew up with dreams of becoming a gangster, skipping school for months at a time to work for the cab service across the street run by mob boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino). The way of life for a mobster, as seen through young Henry's impressionable eyes, is the ultimate way of life He's like the kid in the candy store, only this time, stealing is the only way to get what he wants, with no fear of penance. As a man of 21, and very much acquainted with the underworkings of the "family," Henry knows more connections and has more money than most people have in a lifetime, all through heists, thefts, and criminal operations kept quiet by the higher-ups. We get a real sense of the mafia's inner workings from this film, as Scorsese lays out an intricate map of loyalties and alliances, bonds and relationships, all walking a tightrope that revolves around one thing and one thing alone: money

I think Scorsese's choice to include the voice-over of the Hill character is his smartest move in the film. There's so much that we learn about the criminal profession through his explanations of life in the mob: for instance, when he recalls that "Paulie might have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody," we have a complete sense of Paul as a brooding mob boss, and all in less than two words. Scorsese, and his co-writer Nicholas Pileggi there's Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), one of the most feared men in the entire city, and then there's Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), the fast-talking, short-tempered hot-head who tends to speak (and shoot) before he thinks. These are men who have no inhibitions about their occupations: if it means killing someone to keep others from getting "pinched," then that's it, That's all there is to it. Even Henry's wife, Karen (Lorraine Bracco), soon becomes accustomed to life with a gangster: when he asks her to hide the gun he just used to beat someone's face in with, a voice-over regails Scorsese makes them into all-out despicable criminals that form an entirely different concept. As the story progresses, we see the rise and fall of each of the characters, each coming to their downfall at an unexpected point, none ever realizing or acknowledging the possible consequences of their actions. They have been blinded by the mob life for so long, wrapped up in the protective blanket of their camaraderie and influence, that they feel as if nothing can bring them down. The events that lead to the outcome of the story ultimately proves otherwise: where there's crime, there's almost always a comeuppance.

The usual Scorsese trademarks are back in fine form here. There's a scene in which a bartender rebukes one of his remarks with a derogatory comment. Tommy sits there, stunned, as his pals cheer the bartender on; then, without warning, he empties his gun into the poor S.O.B. Even Lorraine Bracco is powerful as the wife, a once virtuous woman now transformed into a tool for her husband's shady dealings. More than any other film I've seen, I think "Goodfellas" captures most significantly the fact that the mafia isn't solely a bunch of guys sitting around, arguing in Italian, and shooting one another, though we do get a taste of all these things. There's more to it than that: outside sources can include everyone from cops, lawyers, judges, even employees of intended targets hoping to get in on the action. "We ran everything," says Henry. "Everyone had their hands out. Everything was for the taking." That Scorsese broadens his canvas to include the outside influences as well as the inner sanctum of the family is what makes his film so hardhitting and true; "Goodfellas" is the best Scorsese picture to date, the work of someone driven by the music of his story, his characters, and the meaning behind it all.

Cast:

Directed : Martin Scorsese
Produced : Irwin Winkler
Written by Screenplay : Nicholas Pileggi Martin Scorsese
Book : Nicholas Pileggi
Narrated: Ray Liotta Lorraine Bracco
Starring :

Ray Liotta

Robert De Niro

Joe Pesci

Lorraine Bracco

Paul Sorvino

Cinematography: Michael

Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by Warner Bros.

Release date(s) September 21, 1990
Running time 146 minutes
Language: English

Godfather I

The Godfather is a 1972 American drama film based on the 1969 novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola from a screenplay by Puzo, Coppola, and Robert Towne, who was not credited. The story spans ten years from 1945 to 1955 and chronicles the fictional Italian-American Corleone crime family. Two sequels followed: The Godfather Part II in 1974, and The Godfather Part III in 1990.

Review:
Marlon Brando is Vito Corleone, also known as “The Godfather”, who is head of one of the most powerful mafia families in America. Don Vito is a fair but ruthless man who runs much of his business by doing favours and expecting favours in return. The Corleone family are drawn into a bitter and violent war with other mafia families over their refusal to participate in the lucrative but dangerous drug trade. Don Vito is shot but the attempt on his life does not succeed – he is seriously injured rather than killed. While Don Vito is in hospital, control of the family passes to his eldest son Sonny (James Caan). Sonny is a hot-head, and with his contributions the war continues to escalate.
Don Vito's youngest son is Michael (Al Pacino). He has stayed outside the family business, and his father had aspirations of him holding some legitimate position of power, perhaps through politics. When Don Vito is shot, however, Michael returns home to do what he can to help the family through the crisis. He protects his father against the killers trying to finish what they have started. Michael starts to show promise in this violent world. He takes his revenge against those trying to kill his father, shooting them during a meeting at a restaurant. Ultimately, Sonny is shot and now it is Michael who finds himself with all the responsibility.
It may not be possible for a film to be faultless, but this certainly comes close. The ensemble cast are wholly convincing, and there are a string of well-known names involved who weren't at all familiar until this film. The story progresses at perfectly measured pace, moving almost gently between moments of calculated violence. The cinematography and direction are picture-perfect, with immaculate attention to detail. Every aspect of life in those turbulent times is faithfully recreated with great accuracy. “The Godfather” is a credit to all involved.

Link:-

http://www.movie-gazette.com/cinereviews/242

Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden, John Cazale

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Producer: Albert S. Ruddy

Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo based on the novel by Mario Puzo Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Music: Nino Rota

U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Godfather II

The Godfather Part II was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Robert De Niro, and has been selected for preservation in the U.S. National Film Registry.

Review:

The film opens in the study of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), the Godfather, who is holding court. It is the wedding of his daughter Connie (Talia Shire), and no Sicilian can refuse a request on that day. So the supplicants come, each wanting something different - revenge, a husband for their daughter, a part in a movie.
The family has gathered for the event. Michael (Al Pacino), Don Vito's youngest son and a Second World War hero, is back home in the company of a new girlfriend (Diane Keaton). The two older boys, Sonny (James Caan) and Fredo (John Cazale), are there as well, along with their "adopted" brother, Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), the don's right-hand man.
Don Vito's refusal to do business with Sollozzo strikes the first sparks of a war that will last for years and cost many lives. Each of the five major mob families in New York will be gouged by the bloodshed, and a new order will emerge. Betrayals will take place, and the Corleone family will be shaken to its roots by treachery from both within and without.
Although the issues presented in The Godfather are universal in scope, the characters and setting are decidedly ethnic. Even to this day, there is an odd romanticism associated with New York's Italian crime families. The word "Mafia" conjures up images of the sinister and mysterious - scenes of the sort where Luca Brasi meets his fate. Francis Ford Coppola has tapped into this fascination and woven it as yet another element of the many that make his motion picture a compelling experience.
We come to The Godfather like Kay Adams - outsiders uncertain in our expectations - but it doesn't take long for us to be captivated by this intricate, violent world. The film can be viewed on many levels, with equal satisfaction awaiting those who just want a good story, and those who demand much more. The Godfather is long, yes - but it is one-hundred seventy minutes well-spent. When the closing credits roll, only a portion of the story has been told. Yet that last haunting image coupled with Nino Rota's mournful score, leaves a crater-like impression that The Godfather Part II only deepens.

If you want more details u can find this link..

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm3950681344/tt0071562

Cast:
Cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton, Talia Shire, Al Lettieri, Sterling Hayden, John Cazale

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Producer: Albert S. Ruddy

Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola and Mario Puzo based on the novel by Mario Puzo Cinematography: Gordon Willis

Music: Nino Rota

U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Running Length: 2:51

Godfather III

Part III is a 1990 American Thriller film written by Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola, and directed by Coppola. It completes the story of Micheal Corleone, a Mafia kingpin who tries to legitimize his criminal empire. The movie also weaves into its plot a fictionalized account of real-life events – the 1978 death of Pope John Paul I and the Papal banking scandal of 1981-1982 – and links them with each other and with the affairs of Michael Corleone. Coppola mentions that The Godfather series in fact two sequels, and Part III is the epilogue.

http://www.fdr9.com/

Review:

The characters that carry over from the earlier films bear little resemblance to themselves the dread curve of Michael Corleone's life, which provided a dramatic spine for the family saga has lost its sinister bend. At the beginning of "Part III," Michael has come very close to realizing his dream of a completely legitimate family business. At a ceremony in his New York penthouse, he receives the Order of St. Sebastian from the Catholic Church, a lofty honor that may be connected to the $100 million donation given to the church by the Vito Corleone Foundation, a charity run by Michael's daughter Mary (Sofia Coppola). Michael is a businessman now, and in divesting himself of his criminal interests he has lost what made him interesting, his murderous darkness.

It loses its moral dimension and becomes just another mob story. The two main plot threads concern the Corleone family's dealing with the Vatican, and Vincent's emergence as Michael's successor. The motives for Garcia's Vincent aren't split, the way Michael's have been. Violence is natural to him. He suffers no pangs of conscience when he takes revenge on his family's behalf, and in this he is supposed to be strong in the uncomplicated way Don Vito Corleone was. Garcia, as a result, seems to be the only actor in the film who knows what he's playing, the only one with a clear mission, and he gives a thrilling, feral performance. It's the film's strongest.

Even though she is authoritative in the role, Keaton suffers tremendously from having no real function except to nag Michael for his past sins. Eli Wallach has a few hammy moments as Don Altabello, an old mob friend who turns out to be an enemy. Bridget Fonda, who plays a journalist, has only two small scenes that contribute nothing whatsoever, and George Hamilton contributes a few atrocious moments as the family's PR man. Talia Shire's part as Michael's sister, Connie, She's a screaming crackpot and the next a power-hungry behind-the-scenes plotter.

Mary, Sofia Coppola is hopelessly amateurish. Still, the part is a relatively small one, and her failure -- contrary to much that has already been written -- contributes very little to what is actually wrong with the film. It may be that Coppola was right to put off filing this last instalment all these years; from the evidence here, he had nothing more to say. As an epic metaphor for the American dream, the first two "Godfather" films are nearly perfect. The connections they made go deep into the story of this country, deep into our sense of our-selves and the contradictions in our lives. As a generational story, they had the richness and scope of Shakespeare. But the man who made those two masterpieces is not the man who has given us this failed final chapter. Though he reassembled many of the members of his old team -- his actors, Puzo, cinematographer Gordon Willis and production designer Dean Tavoularis -- his talent for filmmaking is eclipsed now by his gift for self-destruction. If that great earlier artist ever had a chance of resurfacing, it was here. But he didn't and you can't help but see "The Godfather Part III" as his headstone.

Cast:
Directed and Produced: Francis Ford Coppola
Writer: Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Alpacino Diane Keaton Diane Keaton Talia Shire Talia Shire Andy Garcia Music: Carmine Coppola Theme: Nino Rotta
Cinematography: Gordon willis
Editing: Lisa Fruchtman, Jane Jenkins, Roger Mussenden
Studio: American Zoetrope
Distributed: Paramount Pictures
Release date: December 25,1990
Running time: 170 minutes
Language: English, Sicilian

Movie review: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099674/

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film tells the story of Forrest Gump's epic journey through life meeting historical figures, influencing popular culture, and experiencing firsthand historic events of the late 20th century while being largely unaware of their significance, owing to his borderline mental retardation.

http://www.moviemarket.com/Forrest_Gump__T101487

Review:

Forrest Gump (Hanks), named after a civil war hero, grows up in Greenbow, Alabama, where his mother (Sally Field) runs a boarding house. Although Forrest is a little "slow" (his IQ is 75, 5 below the state's definition of "normal"), his mental impairment doesn't seem to bother him, his mother, or his best (and only) friend, Jenny Curran (played as an adult by Robin Wright). In fact, the naivete that comes through a limited understanding of the world around him gives Forrest a uniquely. On his first day of school, he meets a girl named Jenny Curran, whose life is followed in parallel to Forrest's at times. Despite his below-average intelligence quotient (IQ), his ability to run at great speed gets him into college on a football scholarship. After his college graduation, he enlists in the army, where he makes friends with a black man named Bubba, who convinces Forrest to go into the shrimping business with him when the war is over. They are sent to Vietnam, , and during an ambush, Bubba is killed in action. Forrest ends up saving much of his platoon, including his platoon leader, Second Lieutenant Dan Taylor, who loses both his legs as a result of injuries. Forrest is awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroism. While Forrest is in recovery for a shot to his buttocks, he discovers his uncanny ability for ping-pong, eventually gaining popularity and rising to celebrity status, later playing ping-pong competitively against Chinese teams in ping-pong diplomacy. He is subsequently promoted to sergeant. At an anti-war rally in Washington, D.C., now Sergeant Gump is reunited with Jenny, who has been living a hippie counterculture lifestyle.

Returning home, Forrest endorses a company that makes ping-pong paddles, earning himself $25,000, which he uses to buy a shrimping boat, fulfilling his promise to Bubba. Dan joins Forrest, and although they initially have little success, after finding their boat the only surviving one in the area after Huricane Carmen, they begin to pull in huge amounts of shrimp. They use their income to buy an entire fleet of shrimp boats. Dan invests the money in Apple Computer and Forrest is financially secure for the rest of his life, and also donates a large portion of money to Bubba's family. He returns home to see his mother's last days. One day, Jenny returns to visit Forrest and he proposes marriage to her. She declines, though feels obliged to prove her love to him by having sex with him. She leaves early the next morning. On a whim, Forrest elects to go for a run. Seemingly capriciously, he decides to keep running across the country several times, over three and a half years, becoming famous in the process. In present-day, Forrest reveals that he is waiting at the bus stop because he received a letter from Jenny who, having seen him run on television, asks him to visit her. Once he is reunited with Jenny, she introduces him to his son, also named Forrest. Jenny tells Forrest she is suffering from a virus (probably HIV, though this is never definitively stated). Together the three move back to Greenbow, Alabama. Jenny and Forrest finally marry but she dies soon afterwards.The film ends with father and son waiting for the school bus on little Forrest's first day of school. Opening the book his son is taking to school, the white feather from the beginning of the film is caught on a breeze and drifts skyward.

Link:-
http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Forrest_Gump/Links/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/digg/the-curious-case-of-forrest-gump







Video:-


Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcOt6mfjxeA
Cast:
Cast: Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, Sally Field
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Producers: Wendy Finerman, Steve Tisch, and Steve Starkey
Screenplay: Eric Roth based on the novel by Winston Groom
Cinematography: Don Burgess
Music: Alan Silvestri
Languague:English
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Languague: English