MOVIES I LIKED IN 2006

The Departed
Probably 'The Movie' of the year.. Huge star cast.. Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Alec Baldwin.. Directed by Matrin Scorsese.. Doesn't that say everything.. The movie talks about moles in the Boston State Police and moles in the mob.. A great story (adapted though) with amazing screenplay made this movie a must watch..

Pirates Of The Caribbean : Dead Man's Chest
Marked the return of one of my favourite characters, Captain Jack Sparrow.. Savvy?? It is tough to match upto a succesfull prequel, but this one did that with effortless ease.. Hats off to the writers for bringing so much creativity on screen incorporating real life legends in reel life (Davy Jones, Flying Dutchman etc).. This was the movie i liked most in 2006.. Lots of twists and turns with a finale that made everyone sit up.. Did we just see what we think we did?? Can't wait for the third movie..

X-Men 3 : The Last Stand
Probably the most anticipated movie of 2006.. So much hype around it given the popularity of the first two movies.. What a way to wrap things up.. Amazing is not the word.. Cyclops was removed from the story and a couple of new characters added.. Wolverine and Jean Grey stole the show.. It's a pity they killed the character of Charles Xavier but that scene did take the movie to a higher level.. The last scene was the best.. Great movie, Great series..

Lucky Number Slevin
I'm not sure how many of you have even heard of this movie.. Still hasn't managed to release in India though Sathyam has had the poster there for a really long time.. Starring Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Ben Kinsley, Josh Hartnett and Lucy Liu.. This had to be the best screenplay of 2006.. Extremely funny when it needs to be and serious simultaneously.. Josh hartnett comes up with a brilliant performance.. Highly recommended..

Rang De Basanti
Indian movie of the year.. Formidable cast, Rakhesh Mehra at the helm, A.R.Rahman music.. Everything was perfect.. A movie that made every Indian realise that he/she has a voice too.. The impact was mainly due to the cast.. Aamir Khan, Atul Kulkarni, Kunal Kapoor and Sharman Joshi played their parts to perfection.. Maddy was good in a brief cameo.. The man who stole the show though was Siddarth.. A south indian making Bollywood look up to his performance (Kamal still doesn't have that hold over them) is not a simple thing.. Kudos to Siddarth.. To all of you, Rang De Basanti!!!

Lage Raho Munnabhai
Yet another sequal this year.. This year has been really good as far as sequels are concerned (atleast the popular ones).. Great movie, no two ways about it.. Extremely funny and heart warming.. If Rang De Basanti followed Subhash Chandra bose, this spoke about Gandhigiri.. I don't think anyone else could've pulled off the roles played by Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani.. Great story, excellent screenplay.. This movie would've influenced more people than any other this year..

Don
Now, this is one movie i'm sure will meet with mixed reactions.. I haven't seen the original Don, so i didn't go to the theatres wondering if SRK will be better than the Big B.. Good story, nice twists and extremely stylish.. SRK played both parts perfectly.. Wasn't too impressed with Piyanka Copra.. Boman Irani is becoming really good at negative roles.. This movie may not be highly spoken of or win any awards, but it delievered what it promised.. Entertaiment..

Pattiyal
There have been many tamizh movies talking about gangsters this year.. But this movie stood out due to it's presentation.. A story about 2 orphans and what happens when they become hired hit men.. Perfect casting was the trick.. Aarya as the perenial drunkard was fun to watch.. This was probably Bharath's best role upto date.. Playing a deaf and dumb isn't easy but he seemed to do it with great applomb.. Terrific acting.. Certainly my tamil movie of the year..

It's a pity only one tamizh movie made it into the list.. Here's hoping to another great year of movie watching..