Monday, October 12, 2009

Inglourious Basterds

Inglourious Basterds (2009) on IMDb
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Note 1: As enough cannot be said about Inglourious Basterds, it is not too late for this post.

Note 2: Caution! I will try not to give any spoilers, still, in my excitement, I just might.
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Tarantino is NOT a director, it is a genre, and like any other genre, either you will love it or you will hate it. And if you hate it, you are losing out on so much. Inglourious Basterds is one of the best movies in the genre called Tarantino.

5 things to look for in the movie:


1. The soundtrackYou are sitting on a comfortable chair in a multiplex, and Nick Perito's 'Green leaves of summer' starts playing as the movie begins. The moment you hear the strings playing, you know you are in for a real treat and about to get back more than your money's worth. Needless to say, like in every other Tarantino movie, the soundtrack is amazing.


2. Col. Hans Landa (played by Christopher Waltz) - "The Jew Hunter".

This guy doesn't need an academy award to justify the magnificent work he has done in this movie. You really feel the chills this guy gives to the characters of the movie. You begin to loathe his character, yet, you love him, respect him, and admire him.


3. Shosanna Dreyfus (played by Mélanie Laurent) - "...because Marcel, my sweet, We're going to make a movie, just for the Nazi's".

You cannot help but be smitten by her, and during the movie, when someone says, "Oh he his just smitten by her", you begin to wonder if they are talking about you. Her make-up, her costumes, her grace (Well, she's French. It had to be so). Your heart might skip a beat or two when you see her dress up to execute her masterplan. Too bad her role became similar to Uma Thurman in Kill Bill, and Tarantino had to cut out a major part from her role, she just might have outshone Thurman.


4. The Basterds - "I sure as hell didn't come down from the goddamn Smoky mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, jump out of an air-o-plane, fight my way through half of Sicily, to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazi's ain't got no humanity. That's why every soldier we find wearin' a Nazi uniform, they're going to die."

The basterds ain't in the prisoner taking business. They are into Nazi killing business. And that is a boomin'.

That is exactly what they do. The basterds are the kick-ass bad-asses you love. They spread fear and terror among the Nazis (which is ironic :D ), and they do it right. The dialogues are amazing, the delivery is amazing, the characters are amazing. The basterds are...well they are just the basterds.


5. The climax

The feeling you get watching the theatre scene IN a theatre is out of this world. And, I will not spoil the moment for anybody who has not seen. Watch it. Enjoy it. Love it. It is probably the best climax that any Tarantino movie has ever seen.


You can hear Tarantino speaking for himself through Lt. Aldo Raine when he says at the end, "I think this might just be my masterpiece."

The Inglourious Basterds...

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Icing for your Firefox

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Note 1: This is my first "geeky" post. Pre-requisites for reading this post - you should be aware of what 'Mozilla Firefox' is. If you are not, please close this page RIGHT NOW, you are embarrassing me. :P

Note 2: The list below is only suggestive and for the "normal" junta. Certified geeks need not read it (and hence I save myself from curses from some campus junta through this disclaimer. Phew!)
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You've reached thus far. Congratulations! You've heard what Mozilla Firefox is. But probably you need to know a little more to exploit what Firefox really is. Even if you are aware of the so called 'plug-ins', the list below might help you a lot in enhancing your browsing experience.

Some plug-ins, which I think everybody wants to use, does not because they are not aware, and will get addicted to once they get used to it:



1. Video DownloadHelper

Ever visited youtube.com, or for that matter any site that offers video streaming capabilities, and you pulled your hair off your head because you were unable to download it.

Head straight to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3006

After installing the plug-in, just visit the site you want to extract video from, click on the DownloadHelper icon, and Voila!



2. Screengrab

Ever visited the profile of someone hot on orkut.com or facebook.com and felt frustrated because you couldn't save the picture on your desktop for later viewing pleasure (because your right-click doesn't work)? :D Ok, I am not very sure if this blog enjoys a female audience, still, this plug-in works both ways. :D

Now, screengrab can help you capture any part of the web page you've opened in a jiffy. (Yes, jiffy is really a unit of time, it is about 1 ms :P )

Where to get it? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1146
Surfing orkut or facebook will never be the same anymore. :D



3. TinEye Reverse Image Search

Yup! You read that right. Always wondered what that image was? Try reverse searching the image on the web through this plug-in. Try it. Its amazing. Was looking for something like this for a long long time. This would help you figure a lot about the mysterious image that you had all along.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/8922



4. EchoFon

Just registered for a twitter account? But it is a pain logging into it every time to check for updates? Well, there's a plug-in for it. If you keep your browser open all the time (as we like to do), this would help you keep a track of your tweets, and post tweets as well, right from Firefox.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5081



5. Personas for Firefox

And finally, whats Firefox to you if it isn't you own. Head on to http://www.getpersonas.com/ to get a cool new look for your window to the internet, and make it your own. Check out the cool gallery on http://www.getpersonas.com/en-US/gallery/All/Popular


So, that's all folks! Until some other time, when I feel "geeky" enough to make a geeky post.
And by the way, I use some cooler plug-ins too, but they are too nerdy to write about here. If you are interested, let me know in the comments.


PS: For those who in the dark about 'plug-ins', you've got to INSTALL them to use them. :P


Icing for your Firefox...