How often do you find a movie getting awards both from the Academy awards and also a Razzie award? Well, “The Ghost and the Darkness” is a movie that got both these awards, an Academy award for Sound Editing, as well as a Razzie award (for Val Kilmer for Best Supporting Actor). The movie got critical praise and was well received, although there were some differences between the book (The Man-Eaters Of Tsavo, by J. H. Patterson) and the movie, especially around the character of the hunter, Charles Remington (played by Michael Douglas). The concept is that since Douglas also stepped in to part-produce the movie, he decided to enhance the role of Remington from the original role that was supposed to be much more mysterious. In the process, this also reduced the scope of the character of Col. John Henry Patterson (the hunter who is brought into the project to bring it back to schedule, played by Val Kilmer), given that it was Patterson who killed 3 lions, including the 2 monster ones who killed a large number of workers at the site.

There is some dispute over the number of workers killed by the lions, with Patterson claiming that there were 135 workers killed, while new research claimed that there were around 35 workers killed. The actual lions who were killed by Patterson can now be seen on display at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois, and these are magnificent specimens, worthy of scaring workers.
The movie centers around a railroad project in Tsavo, Africa, where the project is running behind schedule. Col. Patterson is sent to take command of things and reaches the site. There he starts on his mission, killing a lion quickly, but then unable to prevent the lions from killing off the workers one by one. To everybody’s surprise, 2 lions attack the camp, and lions never attack in a group, but are single hunters. This is seen as a bad sign. Then a famous hunter Remington is sent in to help, and in the meantime, the workers are not willing to stay. The lions are a tough hunt, especially when they don’t fall for a ruse and attack a new hospital, killing all the inmates and the camp doctor. Patterson finally manages to kill one lion, but the other one manages to kill Remington. In a final stand-off, Patterson finally manages to kill the remaining lion, and the bridge gets built.

It has happened many times that a movie was a box-office disaster when it was released, panned by critics, and having a negative effect on the careers of people involved; and then, over a period of time, the movie was re-evaluated and got more fame over a period of time. One of the movies that is a prominent member of this category is called ‘Bringing up Baby’, released in 1938. The movie, set as a screwball comedy (at a time when not too many people knew this term) involving a scientist needing a final item to complete his dinosaur skeleton (and needing a donation of 1 million dollars from a wealthy lady) gets involved into a series of mis-steps involving a jaguar called ‘Baby’ being shepherded by the lovely heiress Katherine Hepburn (also the niece of the rich lady).

The movie was based on a story by Hagar Wilde (and adopted into a screenplay by Dudley Nichols and Hagar Wilde), directed by Howard Hawks. At that time, the effect of the disaster was such that Hawks was fired from the next movie that he was supposed to direct; similarly Katherine Hepburn was also affected by this disaster. Now, of course, the movie is considered a classic, generating money, and earmarked among several of the top 100 movie lists.
The movie is about this paleontologist called David Huxley (Cary Grant). He is other mind-mannered with one passion, he has been trying to assemble the skeleton of a Brontosaurus, and is now just one bone short. He is also supposed to get married to another boring colleague; and most of all, he is expecting a donation of 1 million dollars for his museum from a rich lady called Mrs. Random. And then he meets Susan (played by Katherine Hepburn) one day before his wedding. Katherine is free, vivacious, spirited, who also happens to be the niece of the rich Mrs. Random (although David does not know this).
Katherine has been sent a pet jaguar called Baby by her brother for passing onto her aunt. Susan has the belief that David is actually a zoologist and can help her in the matter of Baby. When David is there with her, she starts loving him, and trying to get ways to keep him there in order to avoid him leaving to marry his colleague. In addition to this situation, there are more complications in the shape of a dog who steals the last bone and buries it, Mrs. Random arrives, Baby runs off (and they mistakenly release another jaguar from the nearby circus, who is certainly not tame). These 2 must now resolve all these issues, while ensuring that the million dollar donation is still on track, Baby is retrieved; a major complication is that the local bumbling policeman has put them in the local jail.
This is a must watch movie for the fast dialog delivery, the utter comedy, the situations that seem totally improbable, and the excellent timing.

Shark Tale is a great animation movie, a continuation of the animation movie series from Dreamworks SKG (earlier movies being Shrek, Antz, Chicken Run, etc). The movie is centered around the tale of a mellow young shark (who does not want to be the feared killer) and a loser fish Oscar. The movie’s story of the shark family has a strong resemblance to the Godfather (with a Marlon Brando type father running the show), combined with the additional elements of a love triangle for Oscar and his debt problems / loan sharks. Given that the Godfather is an old movie and rated R, and the other elements of the story are also not exactly children related issues (unlike other animation movies such as Toy Story, Shrek (based on an interpretation of a fairy tale), Finding Nemo), there is a perception that Shark Tale is not exactly a movie for children.

Putting these issues aside, Shark Tale is a delightful movie. The voices of the actors used in the movie seem to portray the characters much more realistically; the actors who lent their voices to the movie are: Will Smith, Jack Black, Renée Zellweger, Angelina Jolie, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro. The movie was nominated for the Academy awards for Best Animated Picture. Shark Tales got a mixed review critically, and was a much bigger commercial success, picking up approx $357 million worldwide in the year of release.
The movie is about 2 water-dwellers, a fish named Oscar and a young shark called Lenny. Oscar is a perennial loser who works in a Whalewash, and owes money to his boss Mr. Sykes. When Oscar makes another mistake on the job, he is called by his boss and asked to pay up by the next day. His best friend Angie offers him the way to pay back his debt by pawning a pearl necklace, but he uses this money to play the races, loses, and is doomed.
In the meantimes, the shark family head Don Liro is bemoaning the fact that one of his sons Lenny is not exactly the picture of the fearsome killer shark, and decides that another son, far more the picture of a killer, Frankie, must teach him. The 2 separate stories merge when Frankie spots the 2 jellyfish (Ernie and Bernie, henchmen of Mr. Sykes) electrocuting Oscar and decides that this is a good place for Lenny to attack. However, Lenny does not do any of that, telling Oscar that he will not eat him; seeing this dawdling by his brother, Frankie gets impatient. However, in a stroke of the luck that changes fortunes, Frankie gets killed by an anchor, and since Oscar is the one closest to the incident, he gets all the credit and sees this as an opportunity to become a hero.
Things change for Oscar. For one, Lenny now tags along with him. He also gets very famous, and attracts the attention of a gold-digger Lola, and becomes more distant from Angie. And then the Don wants revenge, and plans an attack. Eventually Oscar manages to lure the sharks into a trap; he also turns a leaf and reveals the truth, marries Angie and makes peace with the sharks. Eventually the Don also makes his peace his son Lenny.

It is in the last 1-2 decades that animation movies have come into their own. And Pixar has had a great deal to do with making them more life-like, more enjoyable, and able to appeal to an adult audience as well. Finding Nemo was made by Pixar and released by Walt Disney Pictures and Buena Vista Distribution in 2003; it was the fifth such combined effort by Pixar and Disney, and was incredibly successful. The movie, surprisingly for an animation movie, has been voted in many of the top 100 films, and been incredibly successful financially. Even though the movie cost in the range of around $95 million to make, it made over $860 worldwide, and is probably the most sold DVD, selling more than 40 million copies.

Finding Nemo was nominated for 4 awards, and won 1.
* Best Animated Film – Won
* Best Original Score – Thomas Newman (Nominated)
* Best Sound Editing (Nominated)
* Best Screenplay – Original – Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson & David Reynolds (Nominated)
The movie was rated as not just a children’s movie, but a movie that appealed to teens as well as adults. For a start, Finding Nemo has some great animation. It has been pretty hard to make an animation that shows water naturally, and imagine a movie that was all about water; yet the effects were well applauded and the water, whether it be in the water of the Australian Great Barrier Reef or the smallness of a aquarium, always seemed realistic.
The movie also impresses in terms of its story. The elements of an over-protective father, a rebellious son, and the tensions surrounding such a relationship all are a basic part of life, and the movie presented this in a very warm, appealing way. The movie is also very funny, and you can be pretty sure to be laughing at many points of the movie. Also, for parents who watch Finding Nemo, the concept of losing a child, and the desperate effort to find the lost child is something that all parents can identify with.
What makes the movie even more special are the characters, all of whom have their own character, with many of them fighting their own personal battles. Some of the actors who have lent their voices and made the characters so more lovable are Albert Brooks, Ellen DeGeneres, Alexander Gould, Willem Dafoe, Brad Garrett, Allison Janney, Austin Pendleton, Stephen Root and Geoffrey Rush.
The movie, about the clownfish, Marlin, is about him losing his wife and children (save one) to a barracuda. Marlin promises that the one safe child will always be safe. And hence, as Nemo starts to grow up, Marlin tries to live upto that promise and becomes an over-protective father, to the extent that Nemo is embarrassed by Marlin. When Marlin warns Nemo against the dangers of the open ocean, Nemo in defiance, goes to the ocean to demonstrate that there are no dangers against him; and thus starts the adventure. Nemo is captured by a scuba-diving dentist. Marlin soon loses the boat of the dentist, but picks up a blue tang named Dory who offers to help him search for his son (and is also a hindrance many times). They soon are able to figure out that Nemo has been taken to Sydney.
Nemo is now in a fish tank, waiting to be given as a birthday present to a young girl named Darla. The other fish in the fish tank are all enthusiastic about trying to escape, and a fish named Gil suggests jamming the filter (so that the dentist will take the fish out while cleaning the tank).
Marlin and Dory meet a number of creatures on the way, such as the shark who wants to love fish and not be seen as a fish-eating machine, a very old sea turtle totally young at heart, and then a pelican named Nigel who offers some incredible help by taking them to the dentist’s office. Nemo in the meantime pretends to be dead, and is sent down the toilet to reach the ocean. In between Nemo meets up with Marlin and Dory, and then Dory is caught in a net. In order to save Dory, Marlin has to allow Nemo to go back on his own while Marlin saves Dory.