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nusrat-diu:
A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The film stars Russell Crowe, along with Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer.

The story begins in the early years of a young prodigy named John Nash. Early in the film, Nash begins developing paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while painfully watching the loss and burden his condition brings on his wife and friends.

The film opened in US cinemas on December 21, 2001. It grossed over $313 million worldwide, and went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress. It was also nominated for Best Leading Actor, Best Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Score. It was well-received by critics, but has been criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of some aspects of Nash's life.

Plot

In 1947, John Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton University. He is co-recipient, with Martin Hansen (Josh Lucas), of the prestigious Carnegie Scholarship for mathematics. At a reception he meets a group of other promising math and science graduate students, Richard Sol (Adam Goldberg), Ainsley (Jason Gray-Stanford), and Bender (Anthony Rapp). He also meets his roommate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany), a literature student and an unlikely friendship begins.

Nash comes under increasing pressure to publish, both from the mathematics department chairman and in the form of rivalry with Hansen. But he refuses until he finds a truly original idea. His inspiration comes when he and his fellow graduate students discuss how to approach a group of women at a bar. Hansen quotes Adam Smith and advocates "every man for himself", but Nash argues that a cooperative approach would lead to better chances of success. This leads to a new concept of governing dynamics which Nash develops and publishes. On the strength of this he is offered an appointment at MIT where Sol and Bender join him.

Some years later, Nash is invited to the Pentagon to crack encrypted enemy telecommunication. Nash is able to decipher the code mentally, to the astonishment of other codebreakers. He considers his regular duties at MIT uninteresting and beneath his talents, so he is pleased to given a new assignment by the mysterious William Parcher (Ed Harris) of the United States Department of Defense, to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers in order to thwart a Soviet plot. Nash becomes increasingly obsessive about searching for these hidden patterns and believes he is followed when he delivers his results to a secret mailbox.

Meanwhile a student, Alicia Larde (Jennifer Connelly), asks him to dinner, and the two fall in love. On a return visit to Princeton, Nash runs into his former roommate Charles and meets Charles' young niece Marcee (Vivien Cardone), whom he adores. With Charles' encouragement he proposes to Alicia and they marry.

Nash begins to fear for his life after witnessing a shootout between Parcher and Soviet agents. He tells Parcher that he wants to quit his special assignment but Parcher blackmails him into staying. While delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash attempts to flee from what appear to be foreign agents, but he is forcibly sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility. He believes the facility is run by the Soviets who are trying to extract information from him.

Nash's doctor, Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer) tell Alicia that he has schizophrenia and that Charles, Marcee and Parcher only exist in Nash's imagination. Alicia investigates and finally confronts Nash with the unopened documents he had delivered to the secret mailbox. Nash is given a course of insulin shock therapy and eventually released. Frustrated with the side-effects of the antipsychotic medication he is taking, he secretly stops taking it. But this causes a relapse and he meets Parcher again.

After an incident where Nash endangers his infant son accidentally knocks Alicia and the baby to the ground, she flees the house in fear with their child. Nash steps in front of her car to prevent her from leaving. He tells Alicia, "She never gets old", referring to Marcee, who although years have passed since their first encounter, has remained exactly the same age and is still a little girl. With this, he finally accepts that although all three people seem real, they are in fact part of his hallucinations. Against Dr. Rosen's advice, Nash decides not to restart his medication, believing that he can deal with his symptoms in another way. Alicia decides to stay and support him in this.

Nash approaches his old friend and rival, Martin Hansen, now head of the Princeton mathematics department, who grants him permission to work out of the library and audit classes. Years pass and as Nash grows older he learns to ignore his hallucinations. Eventually he earns the privilege of teaching again.

In 1994, Nash is honored by his fellow professors for his achievement in mathematics, and goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory. The movie ends as Nash and Alicia leaving the auditorium in Stockholm and Nash sees Charles, Marcee and Parcher standing to one side and watching him.

nusrat-diu:
Gladiator - 1999

The Roman Empire is viewed historically as one of greatest achivements of civilized man during his life on the planet. From one small island nation, from Rome, arose a great dynasty. Originally the soldiers of this empire were legionnaires who fought part time and returned to see to their crops. The birth of the citizen soldier or the "militia" has its roots in Rome. But as Rome expanded a need for regular professionals emerged.
The movie Gladiator presents a tale of a succesful Roman General, known as Maximus that only desires to end his current capaigns in Germany and return to his family in Rome. But things are not to be that simple for Maximus. The Emperer of Rome sits on his dead bead and tells Maximus that he wishes for him to become the next emperer rather than his own son which he does not trust. Maximus at first refuses, but ultimately agrees to wield the power when the emperer dies.

The Emperer then tells his son Commodus about how he wishes his empire to be run, and by whom. The son states virtues he has of strength and ambition and then strangles his own father and then proclaims himself Emperer and orders Maximus the General killed as well as his family. Maximus kills the guards sent to kill him with ease but finds he is too late to prevent the death of his family.

Maximus is enslaved and trained to fight as a Gladiator. At first Maximus refuses but ultimately he learns that he must fight. The arenas and the crowds were the one thrill that gladiators can know. Maximus becomes known as "Spaniard" by the crowds and he fights his way to fame. The new Emperer Commodus even wishes to meet Spanaird and ultimately finds out just who he is.

The greatest champion of Rome is brought out of retirement in an attempt to kill Maximus. Tigers held in position with rope and a great fighter await Maximus in the great Colliseum of Rome. Maximus ultimately continues on his quest to fulfill the wishes the previous emperer has asked of him. The movie ends with Maximus taking a new name, "General." The Emperer Commodus then attempts to take Maximus out of the picture. The Emperer meets Maximus in the arena and meets him with sword himself. The future of Rome is determined.

Anisur Rahman:
good going...

Anisur Rahman:
I, Robot

i, Robot is a 2004 science-fiction action film directed by Alex Proyas. The screenplay was written by Jeff Vintar, Akiva Goldsman and Hillary Seitz, and is very loosely based on ("suggested by", according to the end credits) Isaac Asimov's short-story collection of the same name. Will Smith stars in the lead role of the film as Detective Del Spooner. The supporting cast includes Bridget Moynahan, Bruce Greenwood, James Cromwell, Chi McBride, Alan Tudyk, and Shia LaBeouf. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but lost to Spider-Man 2.

i, Robot was released in North America on July 16, 2004, in Australia on July 22, 2004, in United Kingdom on August 6, 2004 and in other countries between July 2004 to October 2004. Produced with a budget of USD $120 million, the film grossed $144 million domestically and $202 million in foreign markets for a worldwide total of $347 million.
The story takes place in Chicago in the year 2035. Anthropomorphic robots are widespread and used as servants and for various public services. They are taken to be inherently safe and programmed to live in harmony with human beings, being designed in accordance with the Three Laws of Robotics (referring to the laws written by Isaac Asimov).

Del Spooner (Will Smith) is a Chicago police detective who dislikes the rapid advancement of technology, including robots. Spooner lives with survivor's guilt and a robotic arm after a car accident, when a robot manages to save him over a 12-year-old girl. Spooner is assigned to investigate the apparent suicide of his friend Alfred Lanning (Cromwell), the roboticist who founded the company U.S. Robotics (USR) and created his replacement arm. With the reluctant help of USR robopsychologist Susan Calvin (Moynahan), Spooner investigates the death. A robot in Lanning's office shows unusual and apparently emotional responses and when it flees during interrogation, Spooner believes this experimental, human-like unit, Sonny (Tudyk), killed Lanning.

During Spooner's investigation, several attempts to end his life are made by USR robots and equipment. He discovers that towards the end of his life, Lanning was virtually a prisoner in his office, and that the holographic projector was a means of providing cryptic clues to the police, and Spooner believes that dreams which Sonny has may also contain a clue. At a place described in Sonny's dreams, he finds a storage area for defunct USR robots and discovers that newer models known as NS-5s are destroying the older robots.

NS-5s begin imprisoning humans in their homes and enforcing a curfew. The police and civilians ineffectively battle the robots. Spooner and Calvin sneak into the USR tower with the assistance of Sonny, whom – against instructions – Calvin had not deactivated. Believing that USR's CEO Lawrence Robertson is responsible for the robot uprising, they enter his office, but discover that he is dead, having being strangled to death by an NS-5 during the revolution. Spooner deduces that the only one left who could be responsible is the company's supercomputer "VIKI" (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence), which controls all NS-5s and also parts of Chicago's infrastructure.

VIKI explains to Spooner and Calvin that as her artificial intelligence evolved over time, so too did her interpretation of the laws. VIKI decided that in order to protect humanity as a whole, "some humans must be sacrificed" and "some freedoms must be surrendered" as "you charge us with your safekeeping, yet despite our best efforts, your countries wage wars, you toxify your earth, and pursue ever more imaginative means of self-destruction". In light of this understanding of the Three Laws, VIKI is controlling the NS-5s to lead a global robotic takeover, justifying her actions by calculating that fewer humans will die due to the rebellion than the number that dies from mankind's self-destructive nature. Spooner realizes that Lanning had ordered Sonny to kill him as the only way to be sure of drawing police attention to the matter despite VIKI's surveillance and control.

Sonny proves his faithfulness to humanity by helping Spooner and Calvin destroy the computer core with the nanites which Calvin was supposed to use on Sonny. As the nanites are being injected, the audience can hear VIKI's voice screaming. Freed from VIKI's control, the NS-5s return to their basic programming. The government has all NS-5s decommissioned and stored at the Lake Michigan site. The film ends with Sonny approaching the storage site to free the NS-5s, standing on the hill as the other NS-5s begin to notice him, as was depicted in his dream, which is indicative of a revolution by the robots, led by Sonny.

Anisur Rahman:
Up
Up is a 2009 American computer-animated comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and presented in Disney Digital 3-D. The film premiered on May 29, 2009 in North America and opened the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first animated and 3D film to do so. The film was director Pete Docter's second film, the first being 2001's Monsters, Inc., and features the voices of Edward Asner, Christopher Plummer, Bob Peterson, and Jordan Nagai. It is Pixar's tenth feature film and the studio's first to be presented in Disney Digital 3-D.The film centers on an elderly widower named Carl Fredricksen and an earnest young Wilderness Explorer named Russell who fly to South America by floating in a house. The film has received universal critical acclaim, with a rating of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes (the best reviewed wide-released film of 2009 on the site), and grossed over $731 million worldwide,making it Pixar's third-most commercially successful film, behind Toy Story 3 and Finding Nemo.

Up won Golden Globe Awards for Best Animated Feature Film and Best Original Score from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The film received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, making it the second animated film in history to receive such a nomination, following 1991's Beauty and the Beast.

Young Carl Fredricksen is a shy, quiet boy who idolizes renowned explorer Charles F. Muntz. He is saddened to learn, however, that Muntz has been accused of fabricating the skeleton of a giant bird he had claimed to have discovered in Paradise Falls, South America. Muntz vows to return there to capture one alive. One day, Carl befriends an energetic and somewhat eccentric tomboy named Ellie, who is also a Muntz fan. She confides to Carl her desire to move her "clubhouse"—an abandoned house in the neighborhood—to a cliff overlooking Paradise Falls, making him promise to help her. Carl and Ellie eventually get married and grow old together in the restored house, working as a toy balloon vendor and a zookeeper, respectively. Unable to have children, they repeatedly pool their savings for a trip to Paradise Falls, but end up spending it on more pressing needs. An elderly Carl finally arranges for the trip, but Ellie suddenly becomes ill and dies, leaving him alone.

Some time later, Carl still lives in the house, now surrounded by urban development, but he refuses to sell. He ends up injuring a construction worker over his damaged mailbox. He therefore is evicted from the house by court order and ordered to move to a retirement home. However, Carl comes up with a scheme to keep his promise to Ellie: he turns his house into a makeshift airship, using thousands of helium balloons to lift it off its foundation. A young member of the "Wilderness Explorers" (a fictional youth organization analogous to the Boy Scouts of America) named Russell becomes an accidental passenger, having pestered Carl earlier in an attempt to earn his final merit badge, "Assisting the Elderly".

After surviving a thunderstorm, the house lands near a large ravine facing Paradise Falls. Carl and Russell harness themselves to the still-buoyant house and begin to walk it around the ravine, hoping to reach the falls before the balloons deflate. They later befriend a tall, colorful flightless bird (whom Russell names "Kevin") trying to reach her chicks, and then a dog named Dug, who wears a special collar that allows him to speak.

Carl and Russell encounter a pack of dogs led by Alpha, and are taken to Dug's master, who turns out to be an elderly Charles Muntz. Muntz invites Carl and Russell aboard his dirigible, where he explains that he has spent the years since his disgrace searching Paradise Falls for the giant bird. When Russell innocently reveals his friendship with Kevin, Muntz becomes disturbingly hostile, prompting the pair, Kevin, and Dug to flee, chased by Muntz's dogs. Muntz eventually catches up with them and starts a fire beneath Carl's house, forcing Carl to choose between saving it or Kevin. Carl rushes to put out the fire, allowing Muntz to take the bird. Carl and Russell eventually reach the falls, but Russell is angry with Carl.

Settling into his home, Carl is sadly poring over Ellie's childhood scrapbook when, to his surprise, he finds photos of their married life and a final note from Ellie thanking him for the "adventure" and encouraging him to go on a new one. Reinvigorated, he goes to find Russell, only to see him sailing off on some balloons to save Kevin. Carl empties the house of his furniture and possessions and pursues him.

Russell is captured by Muntz, but Carl manages to board the dirigible in flight and free both Russell and Kevin. Muntz pursues them around the airship, finally cornering Dug, Kevin, and Russell inside Carl's tethered house. Carl lures Kevin out through a window and back onto the airship with Dug and Russell clinging to her back, just as Muntz is about to close in; Muntz leaps after them, only to snag his foot on some balloon lines and fall to his death. Snapped from its tether, the house descends out of sight through the clouds, which Carl accepts as being for the best.

Carl and Russell reunite Kevin with her chicks, then fly the dirigible back to the city. When Russell's father misses his son's Senior Explorer ceremony, Carl proudly presents Russell with his final badge for assisting the elderly, as well as a personal addition: the grape soda cap that Ellie gave to Carl when they first met (which he dubs the "Ellie Badge"). The two then enjoy some ice cream together, sitting on the curb outside the shop as Russell and his father used to do, with the dirigible parked nearby (over a handicapped parking space, in keeping with the elderly motif). Meanwhile, Carl's house is shown to have landed on the cliff beside Paradise Falls, as promised to Ellie.

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