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The Birds , a review by Dragonfire

The Birds



Nothing equals THE BIRDS for sheer terror when Alfred Hitchcock unleashes his foul friends in one of his most shocking and memorable masterpieces. As beautiful blonde Melanie Daniels ('Tippi' Hedren) rolls into Bodega Bay in pursuit of eligible bachelor Mitch Brenner (Rod Taylor), she is inexplicably attacked by a seagull. Suddenly thousands of birds are flocking into town, preying on schoolchildren and residents in a terrifying series of attacks. Soon Mitch and Melanie are fighting for their lives against a deadly force that can't be explained and can't be stopped in one of Hollywood's most horrific films of nature gone berserk.

My Thoughts

I do enjoy this one, though a few things that happen don't make as much sense.  It does seem a bit odd that Melanie would go to so much trouble to give the love birds to Mitch's sister, someone she doesn't even know.  Melanie manages to find out all sorts of information about Mitch after getting to Bodega Bay even though she is a stranger.  People weren't as careful about that sort of thing then, though it does seem a little odd that Melanie is accepted so quickly, especially by Annie.

The pacing is a bit slower for a while, though that changes once the birds start attacking.  The scenes with the bird attacks are done well and are believably scary.  I think the fact that the explanation for the attacks wasn't given makes that part of the movie scarier.  There are a few somewhat gruesome things shown, though nothing is extremely explicit.  Suspense is in a few scenes, though the movie isn't as suspenseful as some of Hitchcock's others.

Melanie is a nice enough character, though like I mentioned, her motivation for taking the love birds to begin with does seem a little..odd.  That is an awful lot of trouble for her to go to.  It also doesn't make the most sense for Mitch to act like he does when they first meet in the pet shop.  It is fairly clear that they aren't getting along that well at that point, but in no time they seem to have changed their minds.  That relationship does develop fast.  Melanie does do something that is rather stupid at one point and I still haven't figured out why she did it.  The cast does well with their parts and the characters are likable overall.

The movie does have a few issues, but it is still very entertaining and deserves to be seen.



I did post a review at Epinions a few years ago.

The Birds


(From Alfred Hitchcock Marathon on August 1st, 2010)

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, a review by Tom

Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008/India) IMDb | Wikipedia Alive, Rapid Eye Movies (Germany) Director: Aditya Chopra Writing: Aditya Chopra (Story By), Aditya Chopra (Screenwriter) Length: 164 min. Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35 Audio: German: Dolby Digital 5.1, Hindi: Dolby Digital 5.1 Subtitles: German

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Stars:
Shahrukh Khan as Surinder/Raj
Anushka Sharma as Taani
Vinay Pathak as Bobby
Singers
* Sonu Nigaam as (voice)
* Sukhwinder Singh as (voice)

Plot:
You might have a love story to tell?

Maybe not! How can an ordinary man have a breathtaking, goose flesh igniting, awe inspiring love story of all things to tell?

But guess what - love does not differentiate between the ordinary and exceptional, the uninteresting and interesting, the unattractive and attractive. Because love knows no distinction. It can happen to anyone and once it does it engulfs us into it completely and gives us those miraculous experiences that only love can yield.

This is what happened to Surinder Sahni (Shahrukh Khan) - a simple, clean hearted, honest man working for Punjab Power, leading a humdrum life, when he meets his total opposite and finds love in the flamboyant, fun-loving, vivacious - Taani (Anushka Sharma) for whom the whole world is her canvas and she paints her own life with the colours of rainbow all until unforeseen circumstances changes it all and brings them together.

What follows is a journey filled with laughter, tears, joy, pain, music, dance and a lot of love. A journey that makes us believe that there is an extraordinary love story in every ordinary jodi.

Awards:
Won:

Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Male Playback Award ("Haule Haule": Sukhwinder Singh)
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Scene of the Year

Nominated:

Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Actor Award (Shah Rukh Khan)
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Actress Award (Anushka Sharma)
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Director Award (Aditya Chopra)
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Female Playback Award ("Dance Pe Chance": Sunidhi Chauhan)
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Lyricist Award ("Haule Haule": Jaideep Sahni)
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Movie Award
Filmfare Awards (2009)		Best Supporting Actor Award (Vinay Pathak)

Extras:

• Deleted Scenes
• Featurettes
• Interviews
• Scene Access
• Trailers

I had the urge to watch this movie again. This is slowly becoming one of my favorite movies. Everything just fits in this film. It has a great love story, great music, great choreography and wonderful chemistry between the cast. It is really a feel good movie. It is nice that I can still encounter movies which I can enjoy again and again. As a matter of fact I had to keep myself from watching it again multiple times, because I kept saying to myself, that I have to watch some movies on my unwatched pile instead of the same movie over and over again. As a matter of fact I kicked off another unwatched movie in my Alphabet marathon list, just to be able to watch this one now.

It is another Shah Rukh Khan (star)/ Aditya Chopra (writer/producer/director) collaboration. Those mostly are above average Bollywood movies. This one is no exception. I really enjoyed it. Newcomer Anushka Sharma also was a joy as Taani.
Quiet and meek Surinder takes on the task of disguising himself as the hyper and fun Raj to cheer up his new wife after a tragedy.
Many scenes are reminiscent of superhero movies where Surinder and has alter ego Raj are concerned.

As I said, I really enjoyed the music in this one. There was not a song which I didn't like. Also the score is very fitting.
I have had made a listing of the songs here and how they work together with the story.

Rating:

(From Tom's Alphabet Marathon Reviews on July 4th, 2010)

Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews, a review by Tom

Star Trek
2.26 Assignment: Earth
Writer: Art Wallace (Screenwriter), Gene Roddenberry (Original Material By), Art Wallace (Original Material By), Gene Roddenberry (Original Characters By)
Director: Marc Daniels
Cast: William Shatner (Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), Robert Lansing (Mister Seven), Terri Garr (Roberta Lincoln), James Doohan (Scott), George Takei (Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Don Keefer (Cromwell), Lincoln Demyan (Sergeant), Morgan Jones (Col. Nesvig), Bruce Mars (First Policeman), Ted Gehring (Second Policeman), Paul Baxley (Security Chief)

This is an interesting case. It's a back-door pilot for a series which was never picked up. It's strange that Star Trek serves for introducing/spinning of a series, which is set in the present day (1968). Even though the Enterprise and crew play a minor role in this episode, I enjoyed it. I am a little curious how this series would have turned out. But I am not really surprised that it was not picked up.
This is also the first (and I think the only time), that the Enterprise travels through time just for fun (or as they say, for historical research).

Rating:

(From Tom's Random Star Trek Reviews on October 28th, 2011)