Sunday 29 April 2012

21 Jump Street

The confidence that the makers of 21 Jump Street had about its success can be measured by the fact that Michael Bacall (Project X, Scott Pilgrim v/s the world), who has written the screenplay has already been identified as the writer for sequel to be released next year. Erm… how in the blazes did they think that a run of the mill slapstick attempt at remaking a reasonably successful TV serious from the late 80s/ early 90s starring Johnny Depp would be a success?

Something that my limited intelligence is able to fathom at this stage but then numbers do the talking and I would guess the numbers tell a different story for 21JS. Well, I have been surprised before and I continue to be surprised at what works in the movie business. Guess one has to stop thinking too hard and look at it from the heart as many of my friends have advised me of late. Be assured that all these fundas aren’t going to help you out when you are watching this pathetic attempt at comedy.

21JS is the story of Schmitt (a very slimmed down version of Johan Hill) and Jenko (I still cannot act too well Channing Tatum). Schmitt is the complete loser that one sees in most high school movies. One who cannot achieve much in life but for being an expert at nerdism. His nemesis is the college hottie Jenko. Whose sole purpose in life is to remind Schmitt about his loser status. As luck would have it, they both find themselves in the police force about 7 years after high school. They soon go on to become best friends because of their complimentary nature – Schmitt is the brain and Jenko the brawn.

They may be complimentary but they are definitely a recipe for disaster which definitely gets them into more trouble than required. As a punishment they are designated to 21 Jump Street where the qualifying criteria is that one has to look like they are high school students. 21JS is a programme to work under cover in high school.

Phil Lord & Chris Miller are in their 2nd movie – the first movie being an animation effort which I haven’t seen yet. But 21JS does not inspire much confidence in me to watch Cloudy with a chance of Meatballs. They are definitely set back a few notches by some really disgusting (pardon my lack of vocabulary but I really could not find any other words to describe it) screenplay.

The attempt at humour falls as flat on its face like tom falls prey to one of jerry’s antics. The story doesn’t even begin for over 30 minutes into the movie. That the cast cannot quite act is an added egg on the face. Jonah Hill left his acting prowess in Moneyball and Channing Tatum I cannot comment about. The only one who comes close would be Ice Cube who embodies the frustration of a police chief like very few others could.

In short, 21 Jump Street is one of THE most avoidable flicks released in the recent past. I took a wrong call and picked this over Mirror Mirror. Now I have to catch up with that as well. 3 on 10 would be liberal for 21JS. Sorry for the late review and if you have already fallen prey to it I assure you that my endeavour is to always publish on time. But then this is a hobby and not a full time profession. Appreciate your understanding.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1681366553/

North by Northwest

I wasn’t aware that North by Northwest was nominated for 3 oscars. And I must say that embarrassingly so, my research finally revealed that Ben-Hur actually never lost an Oscar in editing (despite the infamous red or white Mercedes). So all this while I have been led to believe that my favourite question in a quiz never existed. Damn. This is embarrassing. And what led me to this revalation is that George Tomasini – one of Hitchcock’s favourite editors (Psycho, Vertigo & Birds to his credit) – was nominated for North by North West and lost it to Ben-Hur. And my embarrassment suddenly hit an all time high. I cannot even recollect the number of times I have asked that question only to be told several years later that the question didn’t exist. Damn! Damn!! Damn!!!

Well we need to move to the crux of the matter which revolves around successful advertising executive Roger O Thornhill (Cary Grant). Now Roger finds himself in a club for a meeting when the bell hop goes around calling for George Kaplan. Roger, inadvertently bumps into the bell hop for different reasons completely but a couple of suspicious looking bystanders mistake Roger to be Kaplan and kidnap him @ gun point. They take him to the residence of one Mr. Townsend (James Mason) where he is grilled to no end and then force fed a bottle of bourbon in an attempt to make his death appear like a car accident under the influence of alcohol. Little do they know that Roger can hold a drink better than most people.

Whats worse – Roger is now determined to prove his innocence to the police. A determination that leads him into a web of high level espionage that involves organizations and people that Roger cannot even imagine being involved with. But the romance with the mysterious and gorgeous Eve Kendall (Eva Marie Saint) keeps him in the hunt for the truth and gives us a heady concoction that one can expect only from the great Alfred Hitchcock’s table.

Now who am I but a mere mortal to comment on the #37 in the imdb’s top 250 list. North by Northwest was an absolute hit in its time and over 50 years since its making continues to be rated as one of the best movies of all time. Thanks to wonderful cuts from Tomasini and a tight screenplay with very little wastage from Ernest Lehman (The Sound of Music, Sabrina, West Side Story, King and I, Hello Dolly).

Hitchcock’s direction is unquestionably brilliant. Especially in the cult sequences of the aircraft chasing Roger over the Prarie grasslands and the most spoken about climax on Mount Rushmore. A movie in which the technical aspects far outshine the performances, North by Northwest will forever find itself in the list of best Hollywood movies of all time. The only thing I would change in hind sight would be the undue emphasis on the romance between Eve and Roger. But then it sold in 1959 and I guess it would sell even today. 8 on 10 for certain.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi473956889/

Seven Pounds

There is a terminal heart patient who answers to the call of Emily Posa (Rosario Dawson). She runs a pressed wedding card business – the one that used to be run in the days of old. The one which had to be worked upon manually to set the print or the one that is semi automatic. Machines which are over 50 years old at least. She is weak but by her own claim – and I must agree to it – used to be – unauditably hot.

Then there is a a blind man who is called Ezra (Woody Harrelson). He works at a call centre for a meat packing business but is a vegan by choice and a virgin by chance. Quite a weird combination right? And an unfortunate combination which one has to accept I guess. He likes the local waitress at a café a lot but has never gotten around to tell her that in as many words. Just doesn’t have the courage.

There is a middle aged woman who has two children – a boy and a girl. She is called Connie Tepos (Elpidia Carrillo). She is a Spanish immigrant – a legal one thought. Divorced. Her current boyfriend is a no good person. He beats her up quite often. And despite the best efforts of people close to her, she refuses to report it to the cops and get her boyfriend behind bars. Sigh. The vagaries of the female mind.

What connects these three to Ben (Will Smith) who seems to be a man on the verge of a suicide and has a past that keeps flashing through his head? Is it the car crash which seems to be a fatal one? One that obviously involving 7 people whose names he keeps calling out in absolute angst. Ben visits each one of these people, representing the Internal Revenue Services, and tries to help them in some way or the other. Connie Tepos gets his house. Emily gets a relief for her tax payments. And Ezra gets a gentle push towards that waitress of his after receiving a very rude earful from Ben.

Written by Grant Nieporte, Seven Pounds is the kind of movie I should have seen at the time of release itself. And I have no clue to how I missed it. The screenplay is written extremely well to figure out the story only towards the end. While one gets reasonable clues as regards the past, one doesn’t really get clarity on the reason for Ben’s actions till the very end. The editing by Hughes Winborne and the music by Angelo Milli create an extremely haunting aura around the movie.

Full credit to director Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness) for giving us another poignant and heart wrenching story that has been executed to near perfection. But be forewarned that Seven Pounds could result in a lot of exercise for the lachrymal glands. That one of the best actors of our time – Will Smith – leads the cast is just an added reason to watch the movie. I have never seen Woody Harrelson in such a helpless role ever in the recent or distant past. Everyone in the cast seems to have given the movie a 100%. Even the poor Hotel owner who has to endure Ben’s nuances and the horse (read great Dane) that Ben gets along with him for a day or 2 when Emily is at the hospital. Seven Pounds easily makes the cut to anyone’s must watch list. 7.5 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/

Sunday 22 April 2012

Seeta Aur Geeta

I started watching Seeta Aur Geeta a few days back about 5 minutes into the movie. After both of them have grown old and have found their respective homes. Seeta in her father’s home and Geeta in her foster home. I think I may have missed out one song as well I am not sure. But with nothing else playing on TV on a lazy Sunday morning in Goa, we decided to indulge in some good old 1972 Salim-Javed masala movie which can easily come into any of these top 100 list of all time and definitely one of the best movies made in that year.

Ramesh Sippy follows his hit debut Andaz (1970) with a formula based movie of twins separated at birth. Seeta (Hema Malini) Aur Geeta (Hema Malini again). One not so fine day a couple expecting their child finds themselves trapped in severe rain and use the services of a way side home for the delivery. Seeing twins, the lady of the house who cannot have children decides to keep one of the kids unbeknownst to the parents. Seeta grows up in her biological parents home only to find herself ill treated by an evil aunt (Manorama) and her brother Ranjit (Roopesh Kumar). Geeta on the other hand grows up in a poor family into an electric street smart young woman. Along with Raka (Dharmendra) she makes a living with tight rope walking – Raka of course picks pockets while all this is happening. Fate gets the sisters swapped and the fun begins.

Seeta Aur Geeta is an absolute formula movie from the 1970s. This was when “separated at birth” was totally in fad and there were a dime a dozen movies released around the theme. Some with twins. Others with just siblings. Salim-Javed has only capitalized on the trend and added another such movie to their repertoire.

The movie is replete with some really good performances by the lead cast with Hema Malini shuttling between the demure and scary Seeta to the complete pataka (firecracker) Geeta. A true compliment to her talent. Dharam Paaji and Sanjeev Kumar are as calm and composed on the screen. But the outstanding performances come from Manorama and Roopesh Kumar who play the negative roles so well that your blood curls when they come on screen and essay their dialogues.

It seems Dibakar Banerjee is remaking Seeta Aur Geeta and that too with Katrina in the lead. Dibakar is definitely one of the better movie makers of our time. But will he be able to do justice to this classic? Time will tell I guess.

I Could not find the trailers on line and therefore I have given the link for the movie itself. Watch it!!! http://www.videosurf.com/seeta-aur-geeta-87197. 7 on 10.

Four Weddings and a Funeral

How many movies would you know wherein the 3rd dialogue of the movie would be “Fuck” and then the next few words would be the same hallowed F word that we so regularly use in our day to day lives. Now don’t mention Good Fellas here where the average time between an explitive as per an urban legend, less than 10 seconds. I am as of now referring to one of the finest romantic comedies ever made to date.

And not only that but also an example of fine British Screenplay from Richard Curtis (Notting Hill, Bridget Jones Diary). One which strikes a phenomenal balance between splendid British humour and the serious parts of people’s lives. With lines such as the one Gareth (Simon Callow) says in the true spirit of urging his friends to get married, “A toast before we go into battle. True love. In whatever shape or form it may come. May we all in our dotage be proud to say, "I was adored once too."”.

Or the lines by W H Auden at Gareth’s funeral which drive you to the brink of tears if not completely break you down. It is not for any random reason that I was confused between RomCom and Drama as the genre for Four Weddings and a Funeral. I decided to go with the former because despite the poignant funeral sequence, at his heart and I am quite certain that Gareth would not want it to be called Drama.

Some of the other adorable lines from the movie can be found in the links given below
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109831/quotes
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Four_Weddings_and_a_Funeral

Four Weddings and a Funeral traces the lives of Charles (Hugh Grant) and his circle of friends which include Gareth, Fiona (Kirsten Scott Thomas), (John Hannah) and his absolutely cute in the truest form of the word sister Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman). Charles bumps into Carrie (Andie MacDowell) at a wedding and over the next 3 weddings with a funeral in between, falls in love with Carrie, expresses his love to her only to see her get married to a rich Scotsman – all in extremely hilarious circumstances.

What adds to the superb screenplay and cinematography are the picture perfect performances of every single person of the cast including the lesser significant parts of the cast such as Bernard (David Haig) and Lydia (Sophie Thompson). A movie that must not only be on your must watch list but also on your must buy soundtrack list for its absolutely brilliant use of songs from the likes of Elton John to Carpenters to Gloria Gaynor.

All of this sewn up beautifully by Mike Newell (Notting Hill, Mona Lisa Smile). If you haven’t watched it, you must must must pick up this 1994 classic at the earliest. One movie that I will remember most fondly from my growing up days. 8 on 10 is what I say.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi665321753/

Battleship

Now now Mr. Peter Berg. You definitely gave us an exceptionally good story with The Kingdom some time back but we also distinctly remember one of the worst super hero movies made of all time which came from your table – Hancock. Now instead of gaining back the credibility that you had during your Kingdom days, you have gone right ahead and dabbled with a genre that I have been forced to create because of the severe glut of movies which are talking about the End of the World thanks to alien attacks.

I must however give you credit for getting into attack mode through a medium that has never ever been used before in the history of cinema before – We now have aliens coming to attack us through the ocean. And therefore we now have the US Navy which is led by an admiral played by Liam Neeson (why oh why) whose primary worry is very soon going to be creatures which seem more mechanical than the humanoids that they seem to look like. With technology which makes us look like Neanderthals. And all because some geek from NASA actually sent a signal out which was picked up by these creatures from a different galaxy far far away.

Of course what is going to bother the admiral, who is in between a war exercise, is also his only daughter (Brooklyn Decker) who can do very little to hide her assets (if you know what I mean) even if she wants to. She is in love with Lieutenant Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) who is not doing much to keep himself set in the Navy with his rebellious attitude and short fuse. Even his elder brother (Alexander Skarsgård) cannot do much to prevent the eventuality. But then an alien attack with help Hopper retain his place in the navy.

Har! Har!! Har!!! Har!!!! Har!!!! – ROTFL

My respect for Erich Hoeber & Jon Hoeber who wrote RED (purely for the story) has come crashing down thanks to the apathy that they have shown with the screenplay in Battleship. Will need a lot of effort to gain that back. The partial saving grace comes in the form of excellent special effects in the form of some new creatures which have not been thought of before. Do not look towards the acting for any inspiration if you are thinking about it. Rihanna hasn’t done her career in the movies much good with her insipid attempt. The same analysis applies to the entire cast including the much revered Liam Neeson who will take this mistake to his grave.

And yes, of course there was the music which liberally used AC/DC which gave a fan like me some high points. Overall very passable only because you will miss the effects on the small screen. And this adaptation of the video game is not good enough to spend a few hundred bucks and watch in a theatre. 4 on 10. Would have been marginally better if there was a 3D version.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4081754393/

Hate Story

Paoli Dam’s controversy before the release of Hate Story and the extreme emphasis on the sexual nature of the movie probably gave it enough impetus to go through the first weekend. The smart marketer probably thought that even if the movie bombs eventually, I may as well take advantage of the initial excitement created by a semi naked poster – believe me the corny one liner definitely did not create any impact whatsoever (He took her soul – now her body seeks revenge). And the smart marketer was right I guess. Hate Story was running quite full. At least on the Friday that it released.

But that does not at any time give any credence to Vivek Agnihotri who still sucks at directing. Yep. Apologies for the use of the word. But SUCKS is the operative word when it comes to Agnihotri. There is absolutely nothing that he does in Hate Story that tempts me to change my opinion of him. The part that I am trying to figure out is which movie was Hate Story copied from. Chocolate was Agnihotri’s first and it was a rip off of my favourite movie – Usual Suspects. His 2nd was Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal which was inspired by several Hollywood sports movies. So brownie points to someone who is able to tell me the inspiration for Hate Story. Would love to know it.

Paoli Dam is actually very confident on the screen. Why she has to resort to shedding clothes at the drop of a hat is beyond me. It is definitely an art – shedding clothes that is – an entire industry has spawned thanks to the same. Dam gives a reasonable performance but she does have a long way to go. The crowds are definitely going to love her because she is definitely the hottest actress to have hit the screen in a long time. The rest of the cast – if you do manage to see them – has no one worth mentioning with the exception of Gulshan Devaiah. Devaiah continues from where he left off in Shaitan. His performances in front of his father with his stammering is very good indeed. No one else comes close to worth a mention.

The story is good and adds to the list of disappointments in Bollywood because there is so much that could have been achieved. Instead it is relegated to a B Grade soft porn movie. Kaavya Krishna (Paoli Dam) is a journalist who gets a scandal involving Cementec Infra out in the open and therefore rubs its director Siddharth Dhanrajgir (Gulshan Devaiah) the wrong way. Sid is anyways on a weak wicket with his father to whom the 1000 crore ($200 million) business is just one of the small fish in his empire. He therefore resorts to ruining Kaavya by romancing her and then eventually dumping her when she is pregnant. What follows is a ping pong of stupidity where each person tries to get the better of the other. Watch it if you have nothing better to do. 4 on 10.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wyAIdYRTPg

Vicky Donor

There was an aura of “cheap slapstick” in the promos of Vicky Donor. It didn’t quite indicate anything about the content except that it had to do with donating sperm. Well it was about a guy who takes to donating sperm but there is much more in Vicky Donor. A cue that a lot of trailer makers can take to ensure that one needs to communicate more about the movie in a trailer. I agree with the mini skirt analogy for a trailer as well but with Vicky Donor it was more like a maxi.

John Abraham’s first home production is about Vicky Arora (Ayushmann Khurana) who is a twenty five year old young Punjabi boy from Lajpat Nagar, New Delhi. He lives with his mother Dolly (Dolly Ahluwalia) and his grandmother (Kamlesh Gill) in a barsati in an atypical house of Lajpat Nagar. Dolly runs a beauty parlour downstairs and does well enough to keep the three of them alive. But she worries about her son who is doing nothing as of now. Vicky doesn’t want to join Dolly’s brother clothing business and is struggling to find the right thing to do.

Cut to Dr. Baldev Chopra (Annu Kapoor) who runs a fertility clinic which is not doing too well because of good quality sperm. That is where he has a chance encounter with Vicky who picks up a small argument with someone close to Chopra’s place. Gut tells Chopra that Vicky will make the best sperm donor that he could have found. Therefore the first part of the movie concentrates on getting Vicky convinced to donate. All of this is peppered with a love story that builds between Vicky and Ashima Roy (Yaami Gautam) who is an executive at a local bank.

The highlight of Vicky Donor has to be the lovely use of Delhi or should I say Dilli humour. The average Dilli wala is enough of a character and speaks in a manner that is unique enough to build memorable characters. Vicky Donor utilizes this characteristic to maximum effect. Right from the lead character who gives his best to get the Lajpat Nagar effect all the way to the Bengali father-in-law played by Jayanta Das, the peculiarities of the typical Delhiite have been captured beautifully.

Kudos as well to the script by Juhi Chaturvedi a first timer in the movie business. The humour is very good and flirts with the slapstick. It however retains a clean nature. One cannot help but laugh through most of the movie. Even in its serious parts. Even more importantly, it is clean and can be seen by most of the family. Just be prepared for some innocent questions about sperm if you have kids around. Shoojit Sircar comes back to the screen after what was a critically acclaimed movie called Yahaan from over 7 years back. Maybe he was waiting for something as good as Vicky Donor to come by his way. This is a must see for those who haven’t seen it yet. 7 on 10 in my books for certain

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2872812313/

Friday 6 April 2012

Housefull 2

Amongst the so called Dirty Dozen, I have been wondering all the way during the build up to what I was quite confident would be yet another appalling effort from Sajid Khan, about 4 people. Of these 4, one Randhir Kapoor, I have never been too much in awe of but why would Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty and Boman Irani find themselves signing a Sajid Khan movie? Is there so much dearth of good quality movies around for these great names who have done so much for Indian cinema and really have nothing much to prove. Money talks I guess.

Amongst the younger breed, I can completely understand the reason for an Akshay Kumar and John Abraham being present here. There is not much of acting talent there and comic timing has betrayed AK a long time back. So anything that comes their way is good enough I guess. Shreyas Talpade is again a victim of “Money Talks”. Ritesh Deshmukh – sincere as always but I guess this is what he will continue to get as offers and this is what he will take.

The slapstick story (I know I know I am stating the obvious) of Housefull 2 has nothing to do with the first part if that’s any solace. This time around, we have Sunny (AK) & Max (John) who are the crooks from college and sworn enemies thanks to a misunderstanding involving a woman. On the other hand we have close friends Jai (Talpade) and Jolly (Ritesh) who are sons of rich folks – Jolly being the son of the super rich business tycoon JD (Mithun Da). Jai’s father gets insulted by Kapoor & Real Son (Rishi) when they visit him to ask for the kapoor daughter’s hand in marriage. Jai’s father suffers a heart attack and is in coma. Jai seeks revenge and pays Max 50K pounds to pose as Jolly and then dump the daughter at the last minute. One Jolly leads to another and before you know we have 4 Jollys and a minor headache.

There is not much acting or directing or screenplay or dialogues or editing or anything that would go into making a movie that is on display in Housefull 2. It is once again a self obsessed effort from a man who listens to very few as they say – Sajid Khan. I guess the fact that none of his movies have truly flopped and the fact that there were enough morons in the hall laughing their guts out indicates that there is enough of a fan following for his brand of ridiculously painful comedy. More power to the guys like Sajid Khan I say who listen to their smart brains more than the call to make quality cinema. My rating will hold little or no bearing on the success of the movie. 2 on 10 is what I would give on a good day.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LCQ2suUSUw

Bumboo

François Pignon is your every day loser with a capital l. There can be no one else who can really get to your nerves as much as Pignon can. He is a shirt salesman and was created by a French gentleman called Francis Veber in a novel way back in the 1971 called Le Contrat (The Contract – my friends who are familiar with French can correct me) and then adapted into a movie called L'emmerdeur (which I can only imagine translates into The Murderer).

Pignon is depressed about his wife leaving him for a doctor and is trying to actually figure out innovative ways to give up his life. He cannot come to terms with the fact that his seriously hot looking wife has left him for an apparently reasonably successful doctor. He believes that his purpose in life is actually over. He doesn’t really know that occupying the room next to him is a contract killer who is has been paid a fortune to stop a particular witness from giving his testimony against a very influential gang. Pignon leaves the contract killer totally frustrated and actually wanting to kill himself in the bargain and not the witness.

Jagdish Rajpurohit obviously found the story extremely entertaining and the concept good enough to be remade into Hindi. And what you have is a slapstick comedy that stars Kavin Dave in the lead role of Suresh Sudhakar aka SuSu. Kavin doesn’t really do his reputation any good or any bad. It is just the way he has always been and will continue to be. It is the niche that Dave occupies in Indian cinema and for those who have liked him in previous movies such as I Hate Luv Storys, you will find him tolerable here as well. I for one found him way over the top.

The rest of the cast that included the likes of Sharat Saxena, Sudhir Pandey and Sanjay Mishra who are dependable usually continue to hold their own but I wonder why they have to succumb to roles like these. Surely there are better roles out there for the taking.

Jagdish Rajpurohit was wondering whether I liked the movie or not when he tweeted back to a post of mine which asked my followers to wish me some luck. Well Jagdishji with all due respect, I know it takes a lot of courage to make movies but it also takes a lot of courage to accept that you haven’t made the cut by a country mile. Its your first one but you know there is lot of hope in Bollywood and some sucker will definitely give you another chance.

Bumboo is a completely “watch at your own risk” movie. There will be many who may like it but I don’t fall in that category. I thought it was really bad. 3 on 10 because I have seen much worse.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JkkCfjjoqo