Pathik Shah

Top 10 Animated Movies of All Time

Here’s a list of what I think are the top 10, best animated Hollywood films of all time. Though I haven’t included very old movies, just the new ones – those made in the last 10-20 years.

WALL.E

In the distant future, a small waste collecting robot – WALL.E – inadvertently embarks on a space journey that will ultimately decide the fate of mankind.

How to Train Your Dragon

A hapless young Viking who aspires to hunt dragons becomes the unlikely friend of a young dragon himself, and learns there may be more to the creatures than he assumed.

Ratatouille

Remy is a young rat in the French countryside who arrives in Paris, only to find out that his cooking idol is dead. When he makes an unusual alliance with a restaurant’s new garbage boy, the culinary and personal adventures begin despite Remy’s family’s skepticism and the rat-hating world of humans.

The Incredibles

A family of undercover superheroes, while trying to live the quiet suburban life, are forced into action to save the world.

Up

By tying thousands of balloon to his home, 78-year-old Carl Fredricksen sets out to fulfill his lifelong dream to see the wilds of South America. Right after lifting off, however, he learns he isn’t alone on his journey, since Russell, a wilderness explorer 70 years his junior, has inadvertently become a stowaway on the trip.

Finding Nemo

A father-son underwater adventure featuring Nemo, a boy clownfish, stolen from his coral reef home. His timid father must then travel to Sydney and search Sydney Harbour to find Nemo.

The Lion King

Tricked into thinking he killed his father, a guilt ridden lion cub flees into exile and abandons his identity as the future King.

Monsters, Inc.

Monsters generate their city’s power by scaring children, but they are terribly afraid themselves of being contaminated by children, so when one enters Monstropolis, top scarer Sulley finds his world disrupted.

Toy Story

A cowboy toy is profoundly threatened and jealous when a fancy spaceman toy supplants him as top toy in a boy’s room. Also see: Toy Story 2

Shrek

An ogre, in order to regain his swamp, travels along with an annoying donkey in order to bring a princess to a scheming lord, wishing himself King. Also see: Shrek 2, Shrek 3

Dork by Sidin Vadukut – Book Review

Dork by Sidin Vadukut is a book about Robin ‘Einstein’ Varghese, an MBA from WIMWI (IIM-A). The book is about his experiences at Dufresne Partners, a consulting firm where he was placed at Day Zero.

It’s a hilarious first person account of his drunken misadventures at Dufresne, the race to get promoted to Associate and the quest for love (lust, actually). Sidin Vadukut has a superb writing style and the humor (mostly self-effacing) is the type that most internet geeks are used to and will most probably like (littered with expletives), much better than the typical Chetan Bhagat stuff. Excellent read, especially for the aspiring Engineer-MBA hybrids like me.

Rating: 7.5/10

Get Dork – Sidin Vadukut from Flipkart

Here’s a list of the Top / Best / Must-Watch Con / Heist Movies I’ve come across. I haven’t seen some of them, but have heard a lot about them and plan to watch them soon.

Not all of them can be exactly categorized as con movies, but most of them come close.

Top 10 Con Movies

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The Sting – 8.4/10

In 1930s Chicago, a young con man seeking revenge for his murdered partner teams up with a master of the big con to win a fortune from a criminal banker.

The Bank Job – 7.5/10

Martine offers Terry a lead on a foolproof bank hit on London’s Baker Street. She targets a roomful of safe deposit boxes worth millions in cash and jewelry. But Terry and his crew don’t realize the boxes also contain a treasure trove of dirty secrets – secrets that will thrust them into a deadly web of corruption and illicit scandal.

Dog Day Afternoon - 8.2/10

The robbery should have taken 10 minutes. 4 hours later, the bank was like a circus sideshow. 8 hours later, it was the hottest thing on live T.V. 12 hours later, it was all history. And it’s all true

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels – 8.1/10

Four London working class stiffs pool their money to put one in a high stakes card game, but things go wrong and they end up owing half a million pounds and having one week to come up with the cash.

Snatch – 8.2/10

Unscrupulous boxing promoters, violent bookmakers, a Russian gangster, incompetent amateur robbers, and supposedly Jewish jewelers fight to track down a priceless stolen diamond.

Reservoir Dogs – 8.4/10

Seven total strangers team up for the perfect crime. They don’t know each other’s name. But they’ve got each other’s color.

Catch Me If You Can – 7.7/10

A true story about Frank Abagnale Jr. who, before his 19th birthday, successfully conned millions of dollars worth of checks as a Pan Am pilot, doctor, and legal prosecutor.

Heat – 8.3/10

A Los Angeles crime saga, “Heat” focuses on the lives of two men on opposite sides of the law – one a detective; the other a thief.

Matchstick Men – 7.4/10

A phobic con artist and his protege are on the verge of pulling off a lucrative swindle when the con artist’s teenage daughter arrives unexpectedly.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels – 7.0/10

Lawrence and Freddie are con-men; big-time and small time respectively. They unsuccessfully attempt to work together only to find that this town (on the French Mediterranean coast) aint big enough for the two of them. They agree to a “loser leaves” bet. The bet brings out the best/worse in the two.

The Spanish Prisoner – 7.3/10

An employee of a corporation with a lucrative secret process is tempted to betray it. But there’s more to it than that.

21 – 6.8/10

“21″ is the fact-based story about six MIT students who were trained to become experts in card counting and subsequently took Vegas casinos for millions in winnings.

Ocean’s Eleven – 7.0/10

Danny Ocean and his ten accomplices come together to pull off the most daring heist Las Vegas has ever known… 11 men, 3 casinos, 150 million dollars, 1 chance to pull it off.

Ocean’s Twelve – 6.0/10

Daniel Ocean recruits one more team member so he can pull off three major European heists in this sequel to Ocean’s 11.

Ocean’s Thirteen – 7.0/10

Danny Ocean rounds up the boys for a third heist, after casino owner Willy Bank double-crosses one of the original eleven, Reuben Tishkoff.

The Italian Job – 6.9/10

A group of thieves plan to pull of the heist of their lives by creating Los Angeles largest traffic jam ever.

Note:

This is in no way a complete list. I’ve yet to see many good movies so I will keep adding to it whenever I come across a good one. If you know of any good con movies I’ve missed, leave a comment.

Yea, I know it’s 16, but 16 isn’t as SEO friendly as 10

There are few things in life which change the way you look at it. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy may not be one of them (I just like that opening line a lot, so had to figure out a way to use it ) but it is definitely one of the funniest book I’ve ever read. Good sci-fi + humour is a rare combination and the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is probably the best example you can find of it. It’s a must read for any sci-fi fiction fan.

This isn’t a review, no reviewer can do the slightest bit of justice to the immeasurable awesomeness of this book. Even Deep Thought – which computed the answer to the ultimate question – the question of Life, The Universe and Everything (which, BTW is 42. ) can’t.

It’s the first in a quadrilogy by Douglas Adams which consists of

- The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
- The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Life, the Universe and Everything
- So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish

Trying to get the other three and also the original BBC Radio Show which led to this series.

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Rating – 10/10.

BTW, I also read “To Kill a Mockingbird” this weekend but didn’t find it that great. 8/10 to it.

Will update this post as soon as I read the other three.

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There are two kinds of people in the world – Those who have seen Gunda, and those who haven’t. – Some wise dude.

Today, I have transcended all intellectual, cinematic and logical boundaries to become one of the first kind.

Kanti Shah’s Gunda is very much a classic – a milestone in B Grade Indian cinema. There is a reason it has a respectable 8.3 rating on IMDB. Mithunda truly is Prabhuji and I, a believer now. The dialogues are amazing, and all of them seem to rhyme. It has everything a typical B Grade Bollywood potboiler has – dancing around trees for no apparent reason, the hero felling fierce villains in one blow, an old father and a obese (though nicely endowed) sister whose looted izzat is to be avenged, and to top it all – classic villains like Bulla, Lamboo Atta, Chutya, Ibu Hatela, Pote etc. Once you have seen this masterpiece, you will never look at movies the way you did before.

To give you a feel of the brilliantly rhyming dialogues in Gunda, these are some of the introductory dialogues by the villains.

Bulla – Mera naam hain Bulla, rakhta hoon main Khullaa.

Chutya – Mera naam hai chutya, acche accho ki khadi karta hu main khatiya.

Ibu Hatela – Mera naam Ibu Hatela, Ma meri chudail ki beti, baap mera shaitan ka chela, khayega kela?

Pote – Jo aapne baap ke bhi naheen hote.

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