Stand by Me (1986) Rating 3.5/5

Can you remember your childhood? What am I asking who does not! Isn’t it filled with amazing memories which you hardly come across as an adult? Remember how crazy we were and how much fun we had by taking risks that we never would now? We were foolish but we were happy more than anyone on the planet. And we had the best friends. Stand by Me is a movie that filled with the joy of being foolish children. Children, who are forever curious, find humor in silly things, poke each other for no reason, bully others for the fun of it and most importantly stand for one another no matter what. When you watch this there will be moments you definitely find yourself engaged in at some point of your vibrant childhood. And it will make you forget your age and think like a mischievous kid you once were. I would call this movie an endless classic which will be valid for generations after generations because the way we live might change time to time but life in general does not. 

Stand by Me (1986) Rating 3.5/5

Blue Velvet (1986) Rating -3/5

The David Lynch style of movie making is clearly visible in this piece as well. However it is a question if the movie was effective as much as his proclaimed piece Mulholland Drive. If someone like me expected to see a mind twisting movie like the Mulholland Drive can be somewhat disappointed at the end of this one. But when talking of having moderate expectations Blue Velvet can create some serious ripples in the mind. The story is knitted carefully with a style of mystery right from the beginning. There are visible clues, spooky camera angles, and long moments of silence that all sums up to creating a solid mystery thriller that the viewer would eagerly wait to see how it will conclude, and waiting for that big twist to happen. The letdown is that there is no big twist! However the mind get badly screwed and even after you realize that the story was what it was you still try hard to find out if there was some other meaning to it. This maybe some might call as an empty cinema.  I will not totally go in to that conclusion. But come to think of it the huge drama and hard to witness scenes of the movie sums up to nothing. All in all it has powerful cinematography, wonderful set of songs and strong performances that lets you forget the unexpected ending.

Blue Velvet (1986) Rating -3/5

Platoon (1986)

Platoon (1986)

Action | Drama| War

There are many movies made based on war and soldiers. Most of them are dedicated to show the bravery of the ones involved and how they cope up with their battle working as a team. But Platoon is different for many reasons. It shows the ugliness of the war coupled with the real bitterness that soldiers go through. Not only hardships that comes from outside but the battles within. It shows how the different individuals try to cope up each other just to stay alive but become enemies in the process. Platoon is violent and gruesome. The details are well made and it has a good production quality considering the time of its making. And it leaves you without being too judgmental about any of the characters or the war. It just shows you some shocking moments of a soldier’s year on the battlefield and let you to decide who’s wrong and who’s not.

යුධ තේමාවන් රැගත් බොහෝ චිත්‍රපට වල යටි අරමුණ වන්නේ සෙබලා සහ ඔහුගේ වීරත්වය සහ ඔවුන්ගේ සාමුහික ප්‍රයත්නයන් උලුප්පා පෙන්වීම. නමුත් Platoon එයට සැබවින්ම වෙනස් තේමාවක් රැගත් යුධ චිත්‍රපටියක්. යුධයේ ඇති අති බිහිසුණු බව සහ සෙබලා විසින් යුධ බිමේදී මුහුණ දෙන බියකරු එමෙන්ම සිත් සසල කරවන සිදුවීම් මෙහි තිබෙනවා. එමෙන්ම එකිනෙකාට වෙනස් මිනිසුන් තමන්ගේ වෙනස් කම් මැද උවත් කණ්ඩායමක් සේ ක්‍රියා කලත් ඒ යටින් දිවෙන ඔවු නොවුන් අතර පවතින ගැටුම් ද මෙහි  පෙන්වනවා. එමෙන්ම මානුෂිකත්වය අමතකවී නොමිනිසුන් බවට පත්වන සෙබළුන් විසින් කෙරෙන අපරාධ වලින්ද මෙහි අඩුවක් නැහැ. මේ සියල්ල තුලින් Platoon ප්‍රේක්ෂකයා මධ්‍යස්ත ස්ථානයක තබාගෙන ඔහුට හොඳ නරක තීරණය කිරීම අවකාශ සලසනවා. අසුව දශකයේ බිහිවූ චිත්‍රපටියක් උවද උසස් නිෂ්පාදන වටිනාකමක් මෙහි ඇත.

4/5

-Priyantha Bandara

Synopsis: A young recruit in Vietnam faces a moral crisis when confronted with the horrors of war and the duality of man. (IMDB)