A Movie Wishlist

Ever since Kavya and Karthik were born, our movie watching has been restricted to the small screen except for the high-profile Tamil releases and the occasional Hollywood release. But 'tis the season for wishing (and hopefully, getting!). So in the spirit of the season, here are 4 movies that I wish I could catch on the big screen before the year-end.

Thavamaai Thavamirundhu
Cheran's film finally made to the screens this weekend here in the Bay Area. It has received high praise all around (though my wife and my parents, who have seen it, echoed the similar opinion that it was "slow but good" but still felt that the sky-high praise was a bit too much). I have always been a fan of Cheran and absolutely loved Autograph. So no surprise that this is on top of my wishlist.

Munich
Spielberg's film, on the killing of 11 Israeli athletes at the '72 Munich Olympics and the subsequent attempts by the Israeli Secret Service to capture the Palestinian killers, is opening this Friday. Berardinelli has called it the best film of the year while it is pretty clear that Ebert's review is gonna be an eulogy too, considering that he has ranked it third on his Top 10 list for 2005. Its been awhile since I caught a Spielberg film in the theaters and this looks like a good one with which to break the streak.

King Kong
Hollywood usually reserves some of its big guns for year-end and this film seems to be the biggest gun of 'em all this year. This 2nd remake by Peter Jackson, who more than proved his skill at directing big-budget epics with the Lord of the Rings trilogy, has received uniformly good reviews all around. Ebert has it in his Top 10 list and it looks to be a surefire entry in Berardinelli's list. Based on the trailers and the desciptions of the scenes in the reviews, it looks like the small screen just wouldn't do justice to the big ape.

Thanmatra
In his past few movies, Mohanlal appeared to either follow the path of his Tamil peers by playing the larger-than-life dada or attempt to recapture the glory days of the 80s and 90s by starring in silly, slapstick comedies. Going by Sify's glowing review, he seems to be back to doing what he does best - acting - in this film. He is playing a down-to-earth, middle-class man afflicted with Alzheimer's disease and the review has called it his best performance since Vaanaprastham, for which he won the National award. The film is helmed by Blessy, who directed the critically and commercially praised Kaazhcha with Mammootty.

So my stocking's all hung up and ready!