Having said that, there is overwhelming evidence that cigarettes are dangerous and unless you think it is a great idea to commit suicide (which is illegal in many parts of the world and generally condemned by most socities), they should not be consumed.

But people die in many different ways. Close to a million people actually die from prescription drugs, either because they are just dangerous and their side effects are not known until many years after they have been on the market (think Vioxx, Celebrex, and Bextra) or due to abuse or mistakes. And it is also known that harmless products like corn syrup or butter or meats, if consumed excessively cause numerous health problems and deaths.

With this context, it will be fun to watch “Thank You For Smoking.” Smart people can keep arguing endlessly if cigarettes should be banned or if they should have pictures of skulls or if they should be sold like chocolates, but such proposals often assume that consumers are idiots and they need to be spoon-fed. The reality is that even if a voice announced “You will die if you smoke this cigarette,” some people will still smoke. And then there are people like me who can’t even stand to be in a place with smokers.

The movie is a must watch for anyone interested in marketing, advertising, and business strategy. Nick Naylor (played so well by Aaron Eckhart) is the spokesperson for Academy of Tobacco Studies, an organization whose sole purpose is to conduct so-called research to prove that there is no link between cigarette and cancer. We now know that there are thousands of research institutes, think tanks, and experts/consultants who will do and say anything (and even distort the facts or fudge the data) to prove whatever their clients (mostly corporations that need statements like “According to independent research conducted by…” in their press releases) want and are ready to pay for it.

If you want to get a good understanding of how corporations will do anything to make a buck and will find the help they need from spin-masters and other facilitators, this is a must-watch.

Unfortunately, not all lies are harmless. Some lies have serious consequences and can literally change the course of history. That is what the movie “Atonement” is all about in which a little girl (Briony Tallis played by Saoirse Ronan) tells a lie because she is selfish and naive, but does not realize that it meant jail for an innocent man and separation from the woman he loved.

Briefly, Briony misjudges Robbie Turner (played James McAvoy) as some kind of an aggressive maniac and misinterprets his relationship with her sister Cecilia (played by Keira Knightley) as if it were based on abuse. In reality the two liked each other and were simply not sure of their feelings. When a family member is raped, Briony insists that the rapist was Robbie because he was the only person who could do such a heinous thing. Robbie is convicted and sent to jail instead of joining medical school. He is able to come out of jail with the stipulation that he enlist to fight in the Second World War. During the course of the war, Robbie and Cecilia are able to reunite briefly but they both eventually die tragic deaths. Brioni grows up to be a writer and writes the book Atonement to tell the story and as a way to atone for her horrible action that robbed her sister from being with the man she loved.

As always, Keira Knightley does a remarkable job and so does James McAvoy. It is a film with a slow-pace, but emotionally very engaging.

So next time you lie, think if it is a harmless one or if it can change the course of history.

The movie is an adaptation of Oil!, a novel by Upton Sinclair. What is interesting is that the book that documents the ruthlessness of people in the oil business about a 100 years ago is still valid today. More than ever, the fight for oil is intense and it will only get ugly as this precious natural resource gradually disappears, leaving us largely unprepared with a replacement.

While the story is so much about oil, it is easy to forget that it is as much about people, relationships, communities, and religion.

Daniel Plainview (played by Daniel Day-Lewis) is not only a motivated businessman, he is also ready to do what it takes to achieve its ambition. He also does not like competitors, has no need for God in his life, and that is what he dislikes in Eli Sunday, a pastor at the local Evangelical church, who is always telling him how God could do things right for him. And when God doesn’t (cure his son’s hearing problem), he blames Eli. He almost kills Eli once and the movie ends with Daniel brutally killing Eli, when he comes begging to him for money after his investments went bad.

The movie is very intense and has very little “entertainment.” It must be watched to understand how the world of business works and why entrepreneurs and even preachers can become so heartless in their greed for money. It is a great work of art but do not expect to be entertained in the traditional sense.

Similarly, we can look at many other societies and it turns out that at a given point in time someone is discriminating against someone else and if that discrimination is outlawed, human beings figure out something else to use as an excuse for discrimination.

So what will happen if mutants were to start living in our society and to make things even more complicated they will have more powers than the rest of the mortals? The first reaction will be discrimination. And that is exactly what X-Men: The Last Stand is about. When a pharmaceutical company wants to categorize a normal human condition as a disease (that sounds rather familiar), the mutant population is divided into two camps. Some want to take the medicine and become human while the others want to maintain their identity. In the second camp, though, some want to coexist with humans peacefully, but others want to fight the humans.

The movie is full of amazing digital effects and is a delight to watch if you are a sci-fi fan.

It turns out that the Indian petrochemical giant Reliance now wants to partner with Hollywood to what the Times put as “a new genre of crossover cinema with talent from India and abroad.”

Guess what? I was recently helping a group of investors decide exactly that and they provided me with samples of two films.

The first DVD was a film called The Namesake, based on a novel of the name by Jhumpa Lahiri and directed by a crossover director Mira Nair. It had a cast of Hollywood (Jacinda Barrett and Zuleikha Robinson) and actors of Indian origin (I have no idea if there were Indian-Americans or Indians). It was very obvious from the movie that it would appeal only to people of Indian origin or those Americans who are in a romantic relationship with an Indian. I am guessing that it might be of interest to Indians living in India, particularly those who have a family member in the US. The movie thrives on stereotyping, and unless you have very strong reasons to study the lives of Indians in the United States, it is an awful movie to watch.

The other movie that was recommended to me was The Mistress of Spices, a movie based on a novel by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. It stars Dylan McDermott and Aishwarya Rai (apparently she won an international beauty pageant and became an instant celebrity in India with movie and modeling roles). This movie is so bad (the only thing I liked was the beautiful spice shop) that I can’t imagine who can watch it. There is no plot and McDermott struggles to connect with Rai, who is a terrible actress (my understanding is that beauty pageants look at things like looks and likability and acting is not a requirement).

My recommendation to the investors was to stay away from such investments because of the tiny market for such films. A major barrier is that the crossover market has not really reached a point where you can be entertained by cultures that are vastly different. How many Indians in India will enjoy watching Stephen Colbert with what we think are great jokes? And how many of us can tolerate a woman in a sari trying to sell spices in California to cure all the ills of our lives?

The Virgin Suicides was completely off my radar screen until it ended up on my coffee table in the living room. The plot is somewhat difficult to believe (all five daughter of what appears to be a fairly stable, loving family in a beautiful town in Michigan). Now remember that I am writing this review as a man, and as Cecilia Lisbon (Hanna R Hall) plainly told a doctor, I know nothing about what troubles a 13-year old girl.

Ronald (James Woods) and Sara Lisbon (Kathleen Turner) are parents of five daughters, aged 13-17. They seem to have good intentions but like many overprotective parents (and we see them growing in numbers these days with the emergence of parents who home-school their kids completely cutting them off from the real world), the children are isolated and their lives revolve around their family. Obviously, the neighborhood kids are fascinated by them and the film runs as a story seen through their eyes (assisted by telescopes and binoculars exactly like the kind used in the Monster House movie).

Cecilia is the first one to commit suicide but the Lisbons try to go on with their lives, including letting their daughters attend the homecoming dance. Lux Lisbon (Kirsten Dunst) has a romantic relationship with Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett), the hottest guy in school (there is a very funny scene in the movie in which when he walks the hallways, girls in Catholic school uniforms literally rotate their heads like they were some kind of Stepford Wives). Things do not go so well after the party when the couple make love on the grass in the football field and Lux shows up at home only the next morning. The parents (as The Nanny Diaries shows, some couples should simply not become parents) lock them up inside the house and the only way the children communicate with people of their age is by telephone and listening to music from The Beatles.

The end is even more tragic: all the girls commit suicide, but no one ever finds out why. The neighborhood boys simply look at all the things of the Lisbons that they have bought in the yard sale after the couple simply disappears. A very intriguing movie and strongly recommended for parents, particularly if you think that you love your children a lot and want to give them the perfect life by closing their eyes and senses to the real world.