Dinesh Kamath's review of movie 'From Paris With Love' published in Newsband

From Paris with Love is an action film starring John Travolta and Jonathan Rhys Meyers and directed by Pierre Morel. The screenplay was co-written by Luc Besson.
The plot of the film is interesting. James Reese (Jonathan Rhys Meyers) is a personal aide to the U.S. Ambassador in France. He leads an enviable life in Paris. He has a beautiful French girlfriend. But his real passion is his side-job as a low-level operative for the CIA. He is assigned partner to special agent Charlie Wax (John Travolta). First, Reese has to have Wax released from airport detention by the French Customs. Wax does not want to surrender the cans of his favourite energy drink to the Customs. Wax even verbally abuses French Customs. But Reeve places a Diplomatic Mail sticker on Wax's luggage containing the energy drink and this makes Wax immune from Customs and Quarantine requirements. The tins actually contain pieces of Wax's personal stainless steel pistol. He has been sent to Paris to investigate a drug ring, as the result of an overdose of a niece of the Secretary of Defense. During the investigation, Wax reveals that there was no overdose and that his goal is to trace the money back to a circle of Pakistani terrorists. Evidence leads them to the terrorists. There is an armed confrontation in which most of the terrorists are killed. Wax and Reese learn that the terrorists plan to infiltrate the US Embassy with explosives hidden beneath their burqas. Reese learns that the terrorists are targeting a summit. He also discovers that his fiancée, Caroline (Kasia Smutniak) is a sleeper, assigned to live with him. When Caroline is confronted, she shoots Reese, hitting his shoulder, and escapes through a window. The last remaining terrorist tries to attack a US motorcade and Wax destroys the vehicle with an AT4 rocket launcher. Reese finds Caroline at the summit. She attempts to detonate her vest, forcing Reese to shoot her in the forehead, killing her. As Wax leaves Paris, Reese escorts him to his plane. Wax offers a full-time partnership. The two then play a game of chess.
The best thing about the film is John Travolta's endearingly over-the-top performance. Everything's fast and furious, the good guys rarely miss, and the bad guys rarely hit. The romance between Rhys-Meyers and Kasia Smutniak is effective. After only a couple of scenes you get convinced that these two are lovers. The film has John Travolta doing a slightly different version of his character from the film The Taking of Pelham 123. The character Wax is shown as a wild man. He doesn't follow protocol and gets thing done in his own way. Reece, on the other hand, is uncomfortable. He's not a man of action. He is a thinker. He likes chess.
Thus From Paris With Love is an action movie, in which a realistic secret agent, whose job consists mostly of planting bugs and maintaining his cover as a personal assistant at the US embassy in Paris, teams up with a secret agent whose job consists mostly of killing dozens of people a day and getting laid.
The movie depicts Reece as orthodox while Wax is shown as a liberal man. Wax appears like a rogue agent and it appears as if there is a method to his madness. Reece is made to follow Wax's crazy orders and sacrifice his principles and also the love of his life. He doesn't jeopardize his career by trusting his conservative instincts. Both Wax and Reece form a perfect pair of crime fighters. The film shifts admirably from Reece's calculated world of leisurely-paced moderation in the first act to Wax's shoot-'em-up lifestyle in the second. Their contrasting methodologies are perfectly illustrated. In the beginning there is conflict between the two heroes. But gradually there is no conflict since Wax is right and Reece is mostly wrong.
Thus From Paris with Love is a film which has a plot-line involving drug dealers and terrorists who are tackled by two terrific heroes, one of whom is orthodox while the other is liberal. The movie is interesting and hence deserves to be watched. So don't give the film a miss. Do watch it!

Dinesh Kamath's review of film 'Letters To Juliet' published in Newsband

Letters to Juliet is an American romantic comedy film starring Amanda Seyfried, Chris Egan, Vanessa Redgrave, Gad Garcia Bernal and Franco Nero. The film is directed by Gary Winick.
Who doesn't know Shakespeare's Juliet? She's a girl who killed herself at the age of 13 over a boy she had known for a matter of weeks. Her story cautions the lovers of today and teaches them as to what can happen if the love goes wrong. Writing letters to Juliet is a good idea. The film depicts characters who write letters to Juliet who doesn't fail to given them romantic advice in return. Young Sophie played by Amanda Seyfried and elderly Claire played by Vanessa Redgrave are two characters in the film who share interest in writing letters to Juliet. They are two major characters in the film.
The film depicts New York where Sophie is a fact checker for the magazine called The New Yorker and is engaged to hot chef Victor played by mega-hot Gael Garcia Bernad. He is a wrong guy for Sophie. The two travel to Verona as a pre-honeymoon. At Verona, Victor starts searching for new Italian food supplier. Sophie moves around 'Juliet's balcony' and watches lovelorn women writing letters to Juliet. Here she happens to get her hand at a 50-year-old letter written by Claire in which she talked about how heartbroken she was for jilting the Italian man who was her one true love.
Sophie then contacts Claire. The two then drive around the Italian countryside. They have Claire's grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan) too accompanying them. Charlie doesn't like Claire's idea of searching for a man whom she hasn't seen for last 50 years. The name of the man is Lorenzo (Franco Nero). Charlie wonders whether Lorenzo even remembers Claire. But the two females treat him with total scorn and continue with their search. But Sophie and Charlie fall for each other while Claire finds her Lorenzo.
Now I'll write a few words about the characters of the film. Amanda Seyfried as Sophie Hall is great. It is she who finds 'Juliet's House' with weeping women writing letters and leaving them there. She follows a young woman who takes the letters, and while helping her the next day, she finds a 50-year-old letter and decides to write back, leading her to meet Claire, the woman who had written the letter. She then embarks on a journey with Claire and her grandson Charlie to find Claire's long lost love. Claire not only finds her love, but Sophie too becomes Charlie's love interest. Chris Egan as Charlie Wyman, Claire's unpleasant grandson, has also done a good job. He appears grumpy. He claims to have a good heart, like his father. Charlie soon develops a relationship with Sophie, and he becomes her love interest. Vanessa Redgrave as Claire Smith-Wyman, the girl who wrote the letter to Juliet 50 years before, is another lead character. Sophie meets her. Claire is a kind woman and develops a close friendship with Sophie as they search for her Lorenzo, her long lost love whom she fell in love with when they were fifteen. Her parents did not approve of him, and they separated. Franco Nero plays Lorenzo Bartolini, Claire's love interest and long lost love. He met her when they were fifteen years old, in Verona. Claire's parents did not approve of him, and soon they were separated. His son and grandson are both named Lorenzo Bartolini, and they work at a grape vineyard. Nero, for your information, is Redgrave's real life husband and the love story between their characters is nearly autobiographical. Gael Garcia Bernad plays Victor, Sophie's chef fiancé. He is constantly busy and barely has time for Sophie. Most of the time during their visit to Verona, he is away in some other town while Sophie helps Claire and Charlie. He is even interested in Juliet's secretaries' kitchen recipes. The film also has Lidia Biondi as Donatella, one of Juliet's secretaries, Daniel Baldock as Lorenzo Jr., the older one of Lorenzo's sons, Milena Vukotic as Maria, one of Juliet's secretaries, Luisa Ranieri as Secretary, one of the four original Juliet's secretaries, Marina Massironi as Francesca, another one of Juliet's secretaries, Ashley Lilley as Patricia, Charlie's cousin who has the same name as his ex-girlfriend and Oliver Platt as New York magazine editor.
The film Letters to Juliet features plenty of beautiful Italian scenery and food. It is a romantic comedy set in a beautiful location. In the movie, Sophie and Claire are shown as gazing up at the stars or moaning about what misery life without love could be. If you are this kind of person, then you should certainly watch the movie which will release on 22 October 2010. It is just meant for you!