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Recently watched, Zodiac [2007; Netflix] and Spotlight [2015; Sony Liv].

Both the movies are based on real-life heinous crimes and how a bunch of journalists/cops relentlessly pursued the criminals. The drama and screenplay is fantastic relying purely on dialogues and the acting of the leads, and not on action sequences/gore/creepiness.

I have become a fan of Mark Ruffalo's understated and effortless acting after watching these movies.

Zodiac might feel a tad long, but otherwise both of them are a great watch : 4/5

Suicide Squad 2021:

Couldn't hold my attention and i just finished watching it just for completion's sake. Stallone as the shark king was ok but everything else was just meh.

2/5

F9:

Rounding off the action movie watch on a Sunday was the 9th installment of the lucrative F&F franchise.

Family, Family and more Family! :D

2.5/5

Watched The Courier last night on Prime.

A real-life story of a British salesman recruited to spy for MI6/CIA, who helped diffuse the Cuba missile crisis.

An interesting watch, it's like a crisp version of The Spy.

4/5

The Little Things (2021 Amazon Prime Original movie) - starring Denzel Washington, Rami Malek & Jared Leto

This is an offbeat movie. That's an apt description for it.

You get to see Denzel put us through the paces of the movie through his protagonist's role. His acting is great and he spares us his shenanigans; maybe he actually listened to the director, or perhaps the director told him that he doesn't want Denzel to portray Denzel on the screen! Anyhow, Denzel plays the role of a troubled cop with a history at the department (yawn, I know!)

You have Rami Malek ("The Pacific", "Bohemian Rhapsody" etc.) doing what Rami Malek does best - stare at objects askance, with those bulging eyelids of his. He portrays an up and coming Detective.

You have Jared Leto conveying glimpses of evil with his every shred of being in the movie. His has to be the best part in the whole movie.

Where you will have trouble with the movie is its realistic portrayal of law enforcement and crime investigations. It is accurate in its depiction of how things go down in the real world, but the only question in my mind is - does it do cinematic justice to its viewers or not?

I don't know - I streamed it well past Friday midnight and I loved the movie in some ways (it immersed me into the world of Denzel and Rami as they strove to catch the bad guy); it also however left me feeling that there was something missing. I don't want to spoil the movie for you, so I can't say anymore - so do try it out if you have nothing else to do.

Jungle cruise
Anything with Rock is atleast watchable. This was good fun. Although CGI in some places was bad and screen time was a little long as it should have been a little shorter. Emily blunt was charming and story was engaging. I like adventure movies and this didn't disappoint.
Rating - 3.5/5

The Suicide Squad
Maybe my expectations were a bit higher after reading good reviews but this one was just ok. Better than previous Suicide squad definitely. Idris Elba was good but show stealer was Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. And I don't get how John Cena keep getting roles when he can't act and has a face set in stone.
Rating - 3/5

FF9
Good for sound effects otherwise bad story line, some scenes defeat law of physics which makes us laugh at times as if we are watching a old bollywood movie
Rating 2/5

Jungle Cruise
Rock means entertainment, good story line, captive scenes, loved it very much
must watch for sure
Rating 4.5/5

Thanks a lot for recommending this, watched it and loved it so much that Genoa is now on the must visit list :D

We started watching it about a month back but my son didn't like something ( I don't want to divulge the details). We liked it and will be completing in a few days. It's a good one. :thumbs up

Interestingly, my 5 year old daughter felt scared by the movie, so much so that we gave up trying to watch it together as a family.

My 4 year son felt the same so we didn't continue. Will watch it some other time.

Saw Virtuosity recently (shared by a friend who know that I like Denzel Washington) in which Denzel, a cop, is hunting a cloned killer - played by Russel Crowe. One of Denzel's arms is prosthetic (which is needed for the climax).

Rate it 3/5.

Not an engaging storyline - seems to be inspired by Stallone's "Demolition Man" (Sly - a cop - is brought back from a frozen state to hunt down a ruthless criminal Phoenix (Wesley Snipes) who has escaped; a futuristic movie where criminals are frozen and society is crime and violence free. Sandra Bullock plays a goody cop of the future with Sly from the past, who does what a cop does!)

Incidentally both the movies date to early 90s, I guess (still have some left over CDs in my collection and they work!)

But, the background score was of Virtuosity was superb. Any idea whether background scores are separately available (would like to listen during my drives!)?

Speaking of cliche'd movie tropes, here's Collegehumor's take on 21 ingredients to make an Oscar winning movie. You'll love it, I'm sure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSNwudFGUOU

The movie is actually based on the fishing village of Cinque Terre

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinque_Terre

I saw this really minimalistic movie. Less talk and more space.

This is one of my all time favorite movie. After this, I liked Arrival and Interstellar in the space sci-fi genre.

Didnt know it was a novel from Carl Sagan.