Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part I – Movie Review

Starring: Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson
Director: David Yates

Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows - Part I

David Yates is credited for having pushed the Harry Potter franchise down a shallow gutter. The last 2 movies in the series were an average fare compared to the previous versions, but with the new Harry Potter movie, he manages to push it all behind, and he might have just brought the franchise back to its glory again.
But be warned, if you proceed to watch this movie without having followed the previous movies, or atleast have failed to read the books, then this movie will be clear to you as a person who has just been cast the ‘Obliviate’ spell (which in HP terms, purges a person’s memory). Another piece of advice, this movie is much more mature and darker than the previous movies. What started out as a fantasy for kids has moved to the next level and taken over the mantle of a wholesome movie for all the fans of the franchisee.

As usual, the movie starts with the the group trying to get Harry Potter to safety by flying him out of the Godric’s Hollow out of reach of Voldemort and his gang of Death-Eaters. Some breathtaking scenes follow it up where he is escorted to the Burrows with the Death-Eaters and Voldemort trying to take him out. The rest of the movie deals with Harry, Ron and Hermione trying to solve the riddle of finding and destroying the Horcruxes.

The first part of the seventh movie definitely is a bit slow but caters out well as the movie progresses. The action scenes have been perfectly orchestrated, and some of the scenes have been shot extremely well. The first half does well to keep the movie audiences well attended. There is rarely a dull moment, but the problem arises after the interval, when the trio spend most of their time in a tent in the wilderness. This is where the movie starts to drag a little and there are long unnecessary stretches which could have been cut out of the movie to eliminate the extra minutes. But it never fails to let the viewer go with its interesting moments that occur at regular intervals. At 2 hours and 26 minutes, you might feel the movie is a bit long, and yes it is indeed. But its worth it. The screenplay is extremely well handled by Steve Kloves. The best part is how Yates plays with the viewer’s emotions, especially during the climax where a thrilling part of the movie takes a wild turn and engulfs you with the other side of emotion that you would have never expected. Nonetheless, the high point of this movie is how well it is set-up for the launch of Part-II of the Deathly Hallows and an exceptionally well done animated sequence about a story of three brothers. Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson who started out as kids, have grown out of the shell, and have probably given their best performance yet. (Especially Emma and Rupert). A special mention to Peter Mullan who portrays Yaxley, has a very small part, but plays it out extremely well. There are definitely the let-down moments, but the lead-up to the big finale is definitely exciting.

Rating: 7.5/10

The Theory of Intelligence

Quoted by Cliff Clavin (John Ratzenberger) in an episode of “Cheers“

‘Well you see, Norm, it’s like this . . . A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo. And when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells.
Now, as we know, excessive intake of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers.’

K’naan – Wavin’ Flag (Official Song of FIFA 2010 World Cup)

Lyrics:

Ooooooh Wooooooh

Give me freedom, give me fire, give me reason, take me higher
See the champions, take the field now, you define us, make us feel proud
In the streets our heads are lifting, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration its around us, every nations, all around us

Singing forever young, singing songs underneath that sun

Lets rejoice in the beautiful game.

And together at the end of the day.

WE ALL SAY

When I get older I will be stronger

They’ll call me freedom Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes

When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes

Oooooooooooooh woooooooooohh hohoho

Give you freedom, give you fire, give you reason, take you higher
See the champions, take the field now, you define us, make us feel proud
In the streets our heads are lifting, as we lose our inhibition,
Celebration, its around us, every nations, all around us

Singing forever young, singing songs underneath that sun

Lets rejoice in the beautiful game.

And together at the end of the day.

WE ALL SAY

When I get older, I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes

When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes

Wooooooooo Ohohohoooooooo ! OOOoooooh Wooooooooo

WE ALL SAY !

When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes

When I get older I will be stronger
They’ll call me freedom
Just like a wavin’ flag

And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes back
And then it goes

Wooo hooooo hohohohoooooo

And everybody will be singing it

Wooooooooo ohohohooooo

And we are all singing it……!

Leave your E-Mail addresses in the comments section to obtain the MP3 version of the song.

3 Idiots – Movie Review

The movie starts of well with excellent wit and moves along a pretty good pace that sets up the rest of the movie. 3 Idiots is all about 3 friends – Rancho, Raju and Farhan (Aamir Khan, Sharman Joshi and R Madhavan respectively) who have been accepted into a prestigious institute and set about to pursue their dreams.

The three lead actors share excellent chemistry, along with the authoritarian principal Viru Sahastrabuddhe (Boman Irani) and the ever competing bookworm Chatur Ramalingam (portrayed by Omi Vaidya) in an excellent role that gives life to the movie. The humor is pretty good in the movie. And the way the director has managed to intertwine both comedy and sentiments subtly is applaudable.

Going to the negative aspects, I felt that some of the humor has been taken up shrewdly from the internet, the scenes which include Rancho pawning the campus director after his speech about his acclaimed astronaut pen, and then there’s the scene where Rancho mixes up their exam papers among the pile of papers of other students. These jokes have been doing rounds on the internet for years now.

Then there’s the need to insert a love story into the movie in the most conventional way possible. The usual bollywood type love story, the girl (Pia played by Kareena Kapoor) doesn’t like the guy at first. And then the hero manages to weave magic (Chamatkaar or Balatkaar, choose for yourself) around her which leaves her intoxicated enough to fall for our irresistible Rancho.

Hirani also manages to push the limits a li’l far with some scenes, there is a scene wherein Rancho tries to extract a baby using a vacuum cleaner which he manages to assemble all and well within a few mins when our woman is in deep pain (literally), and then there is the succeeding scene where the baby isn’t breathing. However, it comes to life when everyone starts chanting the tagline ‘Aal izz well’… (really???)

The rest of the movie is well done which still makes it a full paisa vasool movie despite the flaws. Well written and most importantly surpassed by better acting by the actors who make up the movie. It would have been awesome if the the writer had managed to come up with some more original ideas. But still 3 idiots is one of the better Hindi cinemas this year. This is definitely not Hirani’s best work, but one of the better one’s indeed!!!

Rating – 7.5/10

However 7.5 is in no way a bad rating at all. There will always be talk about how movies aren’t supposed to be taken too seriously, which is absolutely true. But in the end, its the feeling that you walk out with, that will define your contentment.
If you read this review, you will find most of it is filled with negative aspects. The reason being, the rest of the movie is truly excellent, laced with sentiment and humor, which is a definite watch. Watch it!!

Avatar – Movie Review

Statutory Warning: This film is to be watched in 3D under all circumstances.

Leave it to James Cameron to pull off the most amazing movie this year, by taking it to a whole new level. With Avatar, he recreates the magic that he did with the Terminator movies and Titanic in the previous decades.

The movie is set in the year 2154 on a distant planet called Pandora where the humans (known as Sky People to the Na’vi’s) have set foot to obtain a rare mineral that could help solve the energy crisis back on Earth. However the armed forces find themselves an obstacle – the Pandora’s population, the Na’vi, who are a set of tall, nature loving people. The scientists have devised a plan to recreate the Humans to Na’vi’s called as Avatars.

The main character Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is crippled. He signs up for the program because his Avatar enables him to walk. During his mission as a spy, he meets the the general’s daughter Neyitri (Zoe Saldana), and inevitably falls in love with her. In his alternative world, he is forced by Col. Miles Quatrich (Stephen Lang) to force the people to move from their habitats so as to pave the way for the mining to proceed. Sully has a sudden change of heart when he learns that their civilization will be destroyed in order for the mission to succeed. He teams up with Dr. Grace (Sigourney Weaver) and some other members and forms his own army to fight back the Humans.

Cameron introduces technology in a whole new light that leaves you in a trance wondering whether that you are on Earth anymore or on Pandora. The visual delights – The Na’vi people, the mountains, the recreated animals, the scenery and the whole planet itself, leave you nothing short of speechless. Cameron has taken pain not to eliminate a single detail, the minutest of visuals are a delight to watch and a feast to the eyes. The sound effects is pretty good. But it will take years again to come up with what Cameron just succeeded in creating. Cameron uses technology that is light years ahead of us. His dream of 15 years doesn’t go to waste.

The only shortfall of this movie is it doesn’t have that great of a storyline and the ending is predictable. And there’s also a villain who just refuses to die. But whatever downfalls, the movie makes it up with its breathtaking graphics and SFX, and when you come out of the cinema hall, you will be nothing short of mesmerized. The movie is almost 3 hours (162 minutes, to be precise), but it doesn’t seem so at even a single point.

OUT-OF-THE-WORLD-EXPERIENCE (Literally too)!!!

Rating: 9/10

My Wishlist:

Want to watch a film that is directed together by James Cameron, Christopher Nolan, Peter Jackson, Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich.

Google DNS

Google recently launched their own DNS service, which they proclaim will make web surfing faster, safer and more reliable than the present Open DNS service.

Generally, the DNS server is maintained by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), but now Google has introduced this feature by which you can instruct your computer to use the Google’s DNS server instead of your Open DNS.

So for those of whom are keenly waiting to experience this new service, follow the below mentioned steps to make a switch to Google DNS.

1. Open Control Panel and go to Network Connections

2. Open Local Area Connection and go to Internet Protocol properties.

3.

Change the preferred DNS server address to 8.8.8.8
Change the alternate DNS server address to 8.8.4.4

4. Click on Ok and close the window.

To test the Google DNS server:

1. Open command prompt window.

2. Type ipconfig /flushdns

3. Type nslookup www.msn.com

If the details are displayed correctly, your DNS server is up and running and you are good to go

Teorex Inpaint v1.0

Inpaint reconstructs the selected image area from the pixel near the area boundary. Inpaint may be used to remove undesirable objects from still images.

Delete any unwanted object from your photo, such as extra power-line, people, text… The program will automatically inpaint the selected area to erase it.

If some unexpected object spoils an otherwise good photograph, Inpaint may be used to remove it. Simply select the object. No need for fiddly messing about with the clone tool!

It is alarmingly simple to use. Draw a selection around the object you wish to remove from the picture, and run smart remove selection. Inpaint will fill the selection area with intelligently generated texture drawn from the surrounding image data. really magic function you should try it!

Give it a shot, and you can find amazing results !!

(You can also find this software in my Orkut community.)

http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#CommMsgs?cmm=24368873&tid=5278762952848484512&na=2&nst=37

Download Link:

http://rapidshare.com/files/180178977/Teorex.Inpaint.v1.0-hardal.rar

Attitude –> Winner

Apart from my introduction post, this is my first ‘Snip‘  in this blog. Recently, while browsing the web, i found this interesting video on Youtube.

And what better way to start off my blog, than on a positive note. Watch this video and watch what a real winner in life is. It’s all in the right “ATTITUDE“.

John Carpenter became the first millionaire on the United States version of the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire on November 19, 1999.

Carpenter is from Hamden, Connecticut. He graduated from Rutgers University in 1990 with a degree in economics. At the time of his appearance on Millionaire, he was 31 years old and worked as a collections agent (revenue officer) for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. When he revealed his profession as an IRS officer on Millionaire, Carpenter was booed playfully by the audience.

Watch the video, for what happened during the deciding question. Check out his confidence and winning attitude. Don’t miss it!!

Hello World!!

Hello,

First of all let me welcome you to my blog.

My mind is an overload of information, totally in turmoil. I feel like there is all kind of useful, junk, confidential, important, sad, happy and (insert all kind of things that come to your mind) information stored inside my head. The only way i am going to feel better is let it flow from my mind to this blog.

Of course, other than these things, i have a bundle of useful stuff to share with everyone, mostly technical.

To be frank, the fact of the matter is , usually, there are only two phases in my daily life. Either am outside the house, or else if I’m prevalent in the house, 90% of my time will be spent either on the Internet or watching movies on my computer.

So, i had this trifling brainwave, why not post my interesting finds into a blog, and let the information find its way into other peers minds. And so, Here I Am.. Lol …

Well, this is my first post here, and you might be finding some rather useful updates (and yeah, of course, some junk information as well) in the future.  So kindly mind to keep updated with the blog. Who knows, you might just be browsing this blog, and suddenly, these words might pop out of your mouth  “Oh!! Wow.. This is some cool shit. It might come in handy”.

I will be signing off for now. Have a great day people. Please do not forget to bookmark this for later use …  Ciao!!

P.S. : Please feel free to leave any comments. ( In fact, i hope that you people leave a comment.)