Rajamanikyam

Ivan puliyanu, ketta! A must-see movie for anyone who has spent at least a week in Thironthoram. Take Mammootty out and you don't have anything in the picture, but why would anyone take Mammootty out?

Miller's Crossing

One of the Coen Brothers' best films. Brilliant story, awesomely cool characters and a great background score. How did I miss this?

Crash

Crash is one of those people-keep-bumping-into-each-other-thereby-forming-a-plot movies. That said, it is well made and each character is etched out quite nicely. No one is in black and white, heh heh. Yup, worth a watch.

Quills

Starts off very well, but meanders towards the end. Rush hams it up quite well, Joaquin Phoenix and Michael Caine are good as always and Kate Winslett is very, very, pretty.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

The book was better. The book was better. The better the book. Whatever.

Dogma

Funny, but not wickedly funny. Entertaining, but not edge-of-the-seat. Good, but not great. A could-have-been film.

Does anyone ever read these subject lines?

There comes a moment every year in a man's life when he looks back upon the year that passed and dwells on the lessons learnt, thereby becoming a better person.

This is not one of those moments.

I started off 2005 by keeping a log of all the movies I watched. I grew weary of this after a few months; blogging became a chore. So now when I look back and try to remember the best movies of the year, I am at a loss. Very few linger in my mind, truth be told. Miller's Crossing is one for sure. Revenge of the Sith is another. Rajamanikyam, perhaps. A History of Violence, definitely. Also Before Sunset, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Black and Crash. Best of the lot? I'd say it's a tie between Miller's Crossing and A History of Violence.

Books read have been few and far between. My reading has really dropped off the past year, what with the new job and the travel. In fact, I can't remember a single new book that I read and liked enough to talk about here. Oh, maybe The Half-Blood Prince, what the hell.

I'm looking forward to some better reading in the new year though, after a few purchases I made recently - Dom de Lillo's Underworld, Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomincon, Akira Kurosawa's Something Like An Autobiography, Woody Allen's Collected Works, Samit Basu's The Manticore's Secret (not yet purchased, but consider it done) and John Updike's Bech: A Book.

On a different note, Rachu's favourite song these days (apart from her eternal #1, the song from Shrek, I'm A Believer) is a medly of two popular tunes. It goes:

Santa Claus is coming to town
Laughing all the way.

Indeed. Hope you all had a Merry Christmas.

Just watched <i>Miller's Crossing</i>

I think I'm in love with the Coen Brothers.

Awesome theme score too.

Akira

Entertaining film that brought anime to the world. Nothing compared to Miyazaki's stuff, but worth a watch nevertheless.