Jim Boeven Movies
- 2008
The life of one of India's most acclaimed artists inspired this period drama from writer and director Ketan Mehta. In the late 19th Century, Raja Ravi Varma (Randeep Hooda) is a famous but controversial painter who is celebrated by critics for his warm, earthy realism and condemned by Hindu clerics for his nude studies and portraits of deities personified as beautiful women. Varma's favorite model and greatest source of inspiration is Sugandha (Nandana Sen), a beautiful woman who gives him love and support, and his celebration of her beauty has helped to make his work popular with the masses, who eagerly buy reproductions of his works. But Varma's popularity has not earned him any favor with authorities, who have declared some of his nudes obscene, or the religious figures who consider his canvases blasphemous; a framing story set in the 21st Century finds his work still generating strong opinions in the present day. Adapted from a book by Ranjit Desai, Rang Rasiya (aka Colours of Passion) also stars Paresh Rawal, Rachna hah and Jim Boeven. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paresh Rawal, Nandana Sen, (more)
- 2007
An Iraqi terrorist plotting a deadly training bombing in Germany recruits a collection of radicalized students to carry out his nefarious bidding in this topical drama from filmmaker Bijan Benjamin. To the average outsider, Tariq is your typical Iraqi student studying in Germany: He's soft spoken, studious, and entirely committed to his education. Inside, however, Tariq is a simmering cauldron of radicalized rage. After hatching a plan to bomb an underground train, Traiq recruits troubled Islanic convert Marc, financially strapped Turkish taxi driver Mesuit, traumatized Bosnian Sarajevo, and secretive Turk Levent in order to help make his explosive dream a horrifying reality. As all of the pieces begin to fall into place, however, the German police catch wind of the plot, forcing Tariq and his co-conspirators to flee while they still can. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yunus Cumartpay, Erkan Gunduz, (more)
Based on the novel by John Katzenbach, author of Just Cause (1995), this prison camp drama combines elements of A Soldier's Story (1984) and the classic Stalag 17 (1953). Colin Farrell stars as Lt. Tommy Hart, a second-year Harvard Law School student who enlists to fight in World War II but ends up being taken prisoner by the Germans. When a murder at the Nazi-run Stalag Luft 13 leaves a black Tuskegee airman named Lt. Lincoln Scott (Terrence Dashon Howard) accused of the crime, high-ranking prisoner (and fourth-generation war hero) Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis) persuades camp commandant Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures) to allow the prisoners to hold their own trial. Hart is recruited to defend his fellow officer, but as he reluctantly investigates, he discovers that not all of his fellow allied soldiers are fighting the same war and that his "client" may well have been framed. In the meantime, it becomes apparent that McNamara is using events to mask his true intent, a mission to destroy a nearby munitions plant that he still intends to carry out despite his incarceration. Hart's War (2002) co-stars Vicellous Shannon, Cole Hauser, Rory Cochrane, and Jonathan Brandis. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, (more)
