The Best Con Movies Ever

Books & Movies 12 Comments »

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 :P

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Books & Movies 5 Comments »

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 :P ) 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.

illustrated_hitchhikers_guide_25th_frontThis 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. :D ) 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.

Gunda – Movie Review

Books & Movies 10 Comments »

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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. :D

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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Using the Game Theory to find MCQ answers

Books & Movies, Economics 2 Comments »

Just read this amazing post at the Freakonomics blog:

Suppose you get a question and have to select an answer with multiple choices to choose from, you can find out the right answer logically using the game theory using the Game Theory. Without even knowing the question.

And the reason I am posting this here, is that I have used a similar method myself a lot of times when I didn’t have the time, or didn’t know how to get the right answer. But I never knew it was related to the Game theory.

Example:

Which of the following is the correct answer?

a) 4π sq. inches

b) 8π sq. inches

c) 16 sq. inches

d) 16π sq. inches

e) 32π sq. inches

Answer:

The odd answer in the series is c. Since it is so different from the other answers, it is probably not right. The fact that the units are in square inches suggests an answer that has a perfect square in it, such as 4π or 16π.

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Freakonomics Book Review

Books & Movies 4 Comments »

I just happened to read this book ‘Freakonomics – A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything‘ a few days back. It was written by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner and was released in 2005. I had read a lot of reviews about it, almost all of them positive. So I gave it a try and I am very impressed.

Book: Freakonomics – A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything

Authors: Steven Levitt, Stephen Dubner

Type: Non Fiction

Year: 2005

What is it about?

It covers a wide range of seemingly weird topics – cheating school teachers, the similarities between the Ku Klux Klan and real estate agents, why most drug dealers are still poor, how the legalization of abortion radically led to the reduction in crime rates, whether sumo wrestlers cheat, whether parenting does really matter that much and how the name of a person can affect his social and economic prospects.

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