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Since you brought up Michael Caine, mobike. Here's a MUST WATCH.
Harry Brown.
This one's like a british 'Gran Torino'.
Rating: 4.5/5
YouTube - Harry Brown Official Trailer [HD]

Typical Clint Eastwood movie. Not fast paced, but not too slow. Good story, solid acting.
It's a western, by the way.

Thanks. Will check out this movie soon. I liked GT a lot.

Cool. I am surprised to see Morgan Freeman in the cast of a western movie:D

Have a busy evening, will check this movie out tomorrow.

Last night, I enjoyed watching Saving Private Ryan - a Steven Spielberg film starring Tom Hanks on Z Studio. Following the Normandy invasion in 1944, on the orders of the Army Chief of Staff, a group of the US soldiers headed by Captain John Miller [Tom Hanks] go behind enemy lines to retrieve a paratrooper whose three brothers were killed in action elsewhere.

My rating: 4/5

Not to bother watching Iron Man 2 or getting it rented. Compared to the first one, it is a big disappointment. Sure, there are more explosions, cool effects and of course, more humour. But the pacing is really bad and it feels like a rush job according to me.

Saw "Terminal" again over the weekend. Was being shown on some channel. Tom Hanks is excellent as Navorski.

This is like giving a review on Sholey. Surprised you haven't seen until yesterday. Most men wept when it lost the best film Oscar to the stupid Shakespeare in Love.:deadhorse

I didn't particularly like Saving Private Ryan. It was a typical war movie where all the soldiers are super brave, super patriotic, super selfless & super ready to sacrifice their life for their country, mate & what not.

That said, I don't like Spielberg movies much.

I hated War of the Worlds.
Found Raiders of the Lost Ark to be a B-Grade Masala movie which went on too long. Jaws I have seen & liked , but I was a kid then - don't know if I will like it now. Minority Report was probably the movie I have liked most amongst his movies & that was more because of my political views on the subject rather than the movie itself. I haven't seen Jurasic Park yet, though.

Also, I don't like War themed movies much.

+1. Even i dont like such themes much. Hollywood is known to go overboard with their patriotism theme be it drama, political thrillers or much worse---war themes

The only movie i liked from war theme was " Black Hawk Dawn" where they showed americans losing a battle which is a rare phenomena.:D

Another one was " 3 Kings" starring George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg. Loved this movie.

In reality, soldiers are probably more like the ones portrayed in "Platoon" than in "Saving Private Ryan". Not that I liked Platoon much - it was OK, but atleast it didn't show soldiers to be ones with uncommon character. "Born on the 4th of July" also showed another real portrayal of war.

To truly appreciate war movies, you need to know the historical background. I am an avid history buff, so I am familiar with the background of most major wars.

In India we have never undergone such situations recently, not even during WW-I or WW-II. We didn't have draft, our families never had to send our young people compulsorily to war. So it is hard to understand the feelings here. USA has undergone draft 4 times in last 150 years. Assuming every 30 years as one generation, that is 4 generation out the 5 had to suffer draft. They are civil war, WW-I, WW-II & Vietnam war. Pretty much every family had to send their members to war each time. Not out of bravery, but thanks to the law. So they feel like celebrating their forefathers. Platoon showed only the ugly side of war. SPR or BOB tries to see the positive side of it.

I guess you won't appreciate Band of Brothers either, it is a true story. But you will see that those people act/behave very similar to the fictional soldiers in Saving Private Ryan. It is not about being super brave, super patriotic, etc. If you have soldiers in your family, you'll know that they will do it because they are trained for it and it is their job. Behavior of people in war-torn country is very different than peace time.

Try reading some non-fictional books about world wars, then you'll realise that Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brother were not unreal.

As much as I agree with you Samurai on the realities during war-time , the different stories and emotions at play(being a world war/history buff myself), Hollywood does have a habit of going a bit overboard incase of these big banner movies.

+1 carboy, Born on the 4th of July is an excellent if a little cynical take on the Vietnam war and the problems it created for American society.

I can also recommed "Downfall" (German movie abt last few days of Hitler) and "Katyn" (Polish movie about the massacre of Polish officers by Soviet troops) - these aren't action filled war movies but definitely serious, engaging and excellent war dramas.

If you want to see a WW2 movie from another perspective (i.e. not an American one), see 'Letters from Iwo Jima', which tells the story from the Japanese perspective. It is directed by Clint Eastwood and is a companion piece to his American Perspective 'Flags of our Fathers'.

The Vietnam war was one of the ugliest period for USA, there was no nobility or greatness of sacrifice unlike the earlier wars. The American public eventually realised that they were the bad guys in this war. Most war movies made on Vietnam war overcompensated for that guilt by focusing mostly on ugly part of that war. Well, there was nothing positive about that war anyway.

Ok, let's look at some real fun movies. I'll give 5/5 to all of these.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
The Secret of my Success
Back to the Future (1985)

Some of the Hollywood movies that I felt went overboard with the patriotism thing include: Pearl Harbour, the Rambo series (not strictly war, I know, but same thing) and most of stuff made in the 50s and 60s. At the same time, "Tora, Tora, Tora" and "A Bridge too far" told of stunning defeats of the home side very well. Highly recommended.

And I detest most Bollywood movies on war - not only do they go overboard on the patriotism, but also, imho, paint a very false picture of the fight - Border being case in point. The problem for me, being an Army kid, is that by belittling the enemy and by showing stupid stunts, we demean ourselves and our soldiers. The only Bollywood war films worth mentioning are Hakeekat and Vijeta.

However, I am surprised with carboy clubbing SPR in the same league. SPR was more about American soldiers yes, but also subtly addressed the issue of using so many lives to save one. And I did not find the movie going overboard. The way the German soldiers were depicted was quite balanced. And Steven Spielberg also made "Schindler's list" which was one of the most hard hitting war time dramas I have ever seen.

On the theme of war, I would recommend that one watches the Thin Red Line as well as the couple made by Clint Eastwood - Letters from "Iwo Jima" (Japanese perspective) and "Flags of our Fathers" (American perspective). Do let me know if you are not touched by either of these movies. These movies are the most anti-war of all recent war movies I have seen.

On the Vietnam war, please do not miss Platoon and Apocalypse Now.

I would also recommend "Stalingrad" and "Das Boot", both German movies, to see the welcome way in which German film makers showed what the war meant to their soldiers.

I have heard Der Untergang ("Downfall") is a good film. Need to watch it. If you check on youtube, you can see the way one of Hitler's rants in the movie has been parodied to hit Indian news channels and IIT muggus. :)