The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a movie inspired by the 1921 short story of the same name. The film received 13 Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Brad Pitt, and Best Supporting Actress for Taraji P. Henson.
Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button tells a story of Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), a man who is born as an 86-year-old baby and grows younger each day. Taraji P. Henson plays Queenie, the "mother" who found Benjamin and decides to keep him despite his deformed look. As the people who surrounds Benjamin grows old and dies, Benjamin is left to deal with sadness which comes and goes so often. After spending 16 years at the nursing home, Benjamin leaves Queenie and everyone else behind to travel the world after meeting Captain Mike (Jared Harris). Even though, Benjamin does reconcile with Queenie and then falls in love with Daisy (Cate Blanchett), the end part is simply touching and heart-warming.
While Brad Pitt leads the movie with an ever awe-inspiring performance, actress Cate Blanchett has an equal strong performance as Daisy Fuller, the woman whom Benjamin loves all his life. Taraji P. Henson’s performance as Benjamin’s surrogate mother is simply outstanding.
Overall, even though the movie is 166 minutes long, time moves really quick, just like how Benjamin grows younger. The film is meaningful and affecting while the special effects are seamless, and the actors are just incredible. This is a masterpiece.
Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is an old man who physically ages backward. He is born an old man and ages in reverse until he becomes a baby and then finally vanishes from the earth.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is the fourth film of the series and is directed by Steven Spielberg and co-written by executive producer George Lucas. Harrison Ford stars as the older but wiser Dr. Henry Jones Jr. a.k.a. Indiana Jones.
Indiana Jones (Harrison Ford), “Mutt” Williams (Shia LaBouef) and Marion Ravenwood (Karen Allen) in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The movie opens with a group of teenagers joyrides through the Nevada desert in a vintage car, listening to deafening rock music from the radio. It is obviously the 1950’s. Indiana Jones and his friend George “Mac” McHale (Ray Winstone) have been kidnapped by the Russian military led by Irina Spalko (Cate Blanchett) and are brought to Area 51. Spalko wants Jones to locate a mysterious object in the warehouse and when they have found the box and unearthed it, it seems to be something from another world. Before long, Indy escapes after realizing his friend “Mac” works for the communists.
After surviving a nuclear test by hiding in a refrigerator, Indy’s back to the classroom teaching. While in the train, he is pursued by a young man called Mutt Williams (Shia LeBeouf) who looks like James Dean with slicked hair, motorcycle and a pocket knife. Mutt tells Indy that an old colleague, Professor Oxley (John Hurt) is going to be killed and gives him letters from Oxley. This leads them to find a crystal skull in Peru without knowing “Mac” and Spalko are following them relentlessly.
Indy and Mutt manage to find and rescue Oxley and Mario Ravenwood (Karen Allen), Indy’s love interest from Raiders of the Lost Ark who happens to be Mutt’s mom. Together, they make a daring escape not once but twice, the second time succeed after a rough topsy-turvy battle through the jungles. Along the way, Mutt displays some superb skill of swordplay and even he even swings like the monkeys and ends up in the jeep with Indy. When Indy encounters “Mac”, “Mac” tells Indy that he works for the CIA and Indy believes him as easy as a pie. Everyone runs helter-skelter after they all landed on the colony of gigantic siafu ants. Miraculously, the ants avoid crystal skull, so Indy and Colonel Dovchenko (Igor Jijikine) are able to battle it out hand-to-hand combat on the ant’s colony.
After escaping from the Russians, Indy and the gang (including “Mac”) ends up in the water when Ravenwood makes an unbelievable attempt at driving through the cliff only to land on a tree besides the cliff which safely brings Indy and the gang down to the ground. After falling through three waterfalls, everyone survive without barely a scratch (we are not talking about the normal waterfalls, these waterfalls are almost like the size of Victoria Falls). Through the final waterfall, they have discovered the entrance without knowing “Mac” has secretly dropped a tracking device for Spalko to track their location.
The Indiana Jones movies are always exhilarating and bring never-ending excitement and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is no different. Though there are flaws in the movie like none of core characters got injured, jumping jeep from the cliff and landed safely, falling and surviving waterfalls, surviving nuclear bomb in a refrigerator, we all know Indiana Jones is an action hero and Harrison Ford does it right again. Shia LeBeouf has apparently grown up from the Transformers movie into a rougher young adult while Cate Blanchett plays her role well as a Russian communist, in fact, she even speaks flawlessly in Russian accent. Besides the usual heart-pounding excitement, the movie is somewhat lightheartedly funny. Like it or hate it, the movie is put together perfectly by the brilliant Spielberg and Lucas and are played well, every bit of it.
Directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Harrison Ford and Cate Blanchett, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is bound to be one of the most anticipated films of 2008.
