Before you start
reading this review, you have to first go through this link to understand the entire
genesis of the Machete series. This is a
10 minute video of forthcoming attractions that appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s
controversial movie called Grindhouse in 2007 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luFC1jxmq9c. Have a dekko.
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2010. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 November 2013
Friday, 15 November 2013
Insidious
Insidious – working
or spreading in a hidden and usually injurious way. Intended to entrap. Beguiling but harmful. The quality of being
designed to entrap. Subtle and
cumulative harmfulness (especially of a disease). These are the definitions of the name of this
horror flick that I dug out from various sources on the net.
Monday, 18 February 2013
Karthik Calling Karthik
It was only a
matter of time before I got around to writing the review for this one. Yes you can get the snide remarks started in
response to this post. Or even the corny
jokes because nothing lesser would be expected as a response. I am well aware and totally prepared for the
same.
The Kids Are All Right
Of all the
movies nominated in 2011 in the category of best movie, I had not seen this one
and Winter’s Bone. I am told the latter
is a fabulous movie. The Kids are All
Right is definitely a good movie without doubt.
But did it deserve to be in the top 10 for 2011 as called out by the
Academy? And leave out that random,
average movie called Inception? I guess I have a lot to learn about movies.
Thursday, 3 January 2013
Lalbaug Parel
Not too many movies have been made on a topic that should have actually been very near and dear to a certain segment of Mumbaikars. In fact, you could count the number of movies on one hand. Rather surprising considering that the subject is something that many a person from this city owes their current existence to.
One that would not have seen the light of the day had a certain Dr. Datta Samant succeeded in getting what he wanted for the textile mill workers around 30 years back. A time when most mills in the city started shutting shop in favour of getting into the real estate business.
One such mill forms the backdrop of Lalbaug Parel. Khaitan Mills is owned by the namesake and run by his son-in-law, Mahendra (Sameer Dharmadhikari) who can put most slime balls to shame. While the logic behind the closure could not be questioned, methods and the treatment meted out to most of the mill workers was far from being in line with Human Rights to say the least.
One such family is the Dhuri family where the father (Shashank Shende) is your atypical mill worker who works in the day and has a peg or 2 in the night. A bulk of the work at home, in fact all of it, is done by the wife (Seema Biswas). 4 grown up children @ home – Anand (Ankush Choudhary), Mohan (Vineet Kumar), Naru (Karan Patel) and Manju (Veena Jamkar) are also struggling.
The story tracks the lives of each of the characters as the mill workers go on strike. Manju’s relationship with the local shop owner’s son; Anand’s struggle to write a play in the loud circumstances of the Laxmi Chawl; Naru’s rise from being a local thug to a contract killer for the underworld; Mohan’s relationship with Mrs. Sawardekar (Kashmera Shah).
In the attempt to show truth behind Mumbai’s most unfair story, Mahesh Manjrekar has given us a very depressing story. In addition, I firmly believe he has gone over the top in many sequences. There are also unnecessary aspects to the movie like Kashmera Shah’s wardrobe which seems most out of place.
The use of Bollywood actors over probably more talented Maharashtrian actors is also a gap that I saw. Add to this the excess number of characters. Nearly 15 of them. Just too many to do justice to each one. Very few directors could have
While the story is sensitive and touches upon a topic that I would like to see more of, I personally felt it was a tad overdone. With the right cuts and fine tuning on the unnecessary aspect, we could have had a winner on our hands. Instead we have a movie that is watchable. Good. Not great. 7 on 10.
Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TrJU9SJ6hM
One that would not have seen the light of the day had a certain Dr. Datta Samant succeeded in getting what he wanted for the textile mill workers around 30 years back. A time when most mills in the city started shutting shop in favour of getting into the real estate business.
One such mill forms the backdrop of Lalbaug Parel. Khaitan Mills is owned by the namesake and run by his son-in-law, Mahendra (Sameer Dharmadhikari) who can put most slime balls to shame. While the logic behind the closure could not be questioned, methods and the treatment meted out to most of the mill workers was far from being in line with Human Rights to say the least.
One such family is the Dhuri family where the father (Shashank Shende) is your atypical mill worker who works in the day and has a peg or 2 in the night. A bulk of the work at home, in fact all of it, is done by the wife (Seema Biswas). 4 grown up children @ home – Anand (Ankush Choudhary), Mohan (Vineet Kumar), Naru (Karan Patel) and Manju (Veena Jamkar) are also struggling.
The story tracks the lives of each of the characters as the mill workers go on strike. Manju’s relationship with the local shop owner’s son; Anand’s struggle to write a play in the loud circumstances of the Laxmi Chawl; Naru’s rise from being a local thug to a contract killer for the underworld; Mohan’s relationship with Mrs. Sawardekar (Kashmera Shah).
In the attempt to show truth behind Mumbai’s most unfair story, Mahesh Manjrekar has given us a very depressing story. In addition, I firmly believe he has gone over the top in many sequences. There are also unnecessary aspects to the movie like Kashmera Shah’s wardrobe which seems most out of place.
The use of Bollywood actors over probably more talented Maharashtrian actors is also a gap that I saw. Add to this the excess number of characters. Nearly 15 of them. Just too many to do justice to each one. Very few directors could have
While the story is sensitive and touches upon a topic that I would like to see more of, I personally felt it was a tad overdone. With the right cuts and fine tuning on the unnecessary aspect, we could have had a winner on our hands. Instead we have a movie that is watchable. Good. Not great. 7 on 10.
Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TrJU9SJ6hM
Thursday, 16 February 2012
Tamara Drewe
I first saw the trailer of Tamara Drewe in 2010 on my visit down under and was so hoping that it would release before I left the country. But it wasn’t to be so. Therefore, you can imagine my surprise (actually glee) when I saw this in the discounted lot @ JB Hi-fi on my trip this time around. It was the only DVD that I picked up on my recent visit because I had consciously decided not to pick up any movies till I had finished watching all of them in my not so small collection. But an exception had to be made on this one.
Stephen Frears is another one of those directors who has an impressive CV with The Queen and Dangerous Liaisons. I have reviewed one of his movies in the past which was by the name of High Fidelity – a movie with a lot of dark British humour. Tamara Drewe is not dark at all but is British alright. But Frears seems to have not directed this with the commitment that was seen in his earlier successes. The movie is loosely held together with the lead female character who goes by the name of Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) and the happenings around her which have a rather comic tinge about them – a sexually desperate comic tinge I must say.
Tamara was the local ugly duckling in the village as she was growing up. Thanks to her conspicuously large nose. Her boyfriend at that time – yes she was ugly but had a boyfriend – Andy Cobb (Luke Evans) dumps her for nasal reasons. She is the object of pretty much everyone’s ridicule. No one is obviously willing to look beyond her nose – and the extremely graphic way in which it has been blown beyond proportion would help you understand why. It is a miracle that the camera can actually show her face with that unreal nose in the picture. Basically she is not the object of anyone’s envy.
She leaves the village after school to graduate in journalism and is now writing. She makes enough for a nose job and comes back to the village to close out some property related issues. The difference being – she now looks HOT!!!! Suddenly, the bunch of people who would look the other way have their tongues hanging down to the floor. And obviously she cares a damn and continues to walk around the village half naked and making people even more jealous and the men hot in their pants.
A very watchable movie this one. Tamara Drewe also has some decent performances from the likes of a Dominic Cooper (turns out he could act even before The Devil’s Double). Reasonably edited. Solid British Comedy screenplay with a lot of underplayed humour. Worth spending some time on. But not as good as Frears’ previous attempts. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2479556121/
Stephen Frears is another one of those directors who has an impressive CV with The Queen and Dangerous Liaisons. I have reviewed one of his movies in the past which was by the name of High Fidelity – a movie with a lot of dark British humour. Tamara Drewe is not dark at all but is British alright. But Frears seems to have not directed this with the commitment that was seen in his earlier successes. The movie is loosely held together with the lead female character who goes by the name of Tamara Drewe (Gemma Arterton) and the happenings around her which have a rather comic tinge about them – a sexually desperate comic tinge I must say.
Tamara was the local ugly duckling in the village as she was growing up. Thanks to her conspicuously large nose. Her boyfriend at that time – yes she was ugly but had a boyfriend – Andy Cobb (Luke Evans) dumps her for nasal reasons. She is the object of pretty much everyone’s ridicule. No one is obviously willing to look beyond her nose – and the extremely graphic way in which it has been blown beyond proportion would help you understand why. It is a miracle that the camera can actually show her face with that unreal nose in the picture. Basically she is not the object of anyone’s envy.
She leaves the village after school to graduate in journalism and is now writing. She makes enough for a nose job and comes back to the village to close out some property related issues. The difference being – she now looks HOT!!!! Suddenly, the bunch of people who would look the other way have their tongues hanging down to the floor. And obviously she cares a damn and continues to walk around the village half naked and making people even more jealous and the men hot in their pants.
A very watchable movie this one. Tamara Drewe also has some decent performances from the likes of a Dominic Cooper (turns out he could act even before The Devil’s Double). Reasonably edited. Solid British Comedy screenplay with a lot of underplayed humour. Worth spending some time on. But not as good as Frears’ previous attempts. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2479556121/
The Debt
Now here is a director who has successfully transitioned from the small screen to the silver variety. Afer a string of TV serials, John Madden stormed into the scene with Shakespeare in Love – and what a storm it was. Post that, he has had some low profile movies like Captain Correli’s Mandolin and The Debt which released a couple of years back. I believe he has The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel releasing this year which promises to be a laugh riot. So I guess there should be no question on Madden’s capabilities as a director right? More or less right I guess. But not the whole nine yards right unfortunately.
Firstly, I get quite peeved when directors take the path in between in case of movies which are set in a geographic region where English is not the primary language. Why then do you need to use actors / actresses whose preferred language happens to be English. To make matters worse, you get the likes of the hugely talented Dame Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson to speak with an accent which I am not sure is truly Israeli or Hebrew if you would like to call it that. In contrast, in the same movie, he has got the younger lot of Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington to speak in German. So why then would Madden not consider getting them to speak Hebrew instead of English with a forced accent? I was very disappointed within the first few minutes itself. A mark of a director who is probably not brave enough and not common sensiscal.
But the performances and the story line more than make up for this really bad call from Madden. There are 4 key characters in the entire movie. Rachel Singer, Stephan Gold & David Peretz who are Mossad agents sent to East Berlin to track, capture and bring back alive one Dieter Vogel. The 3 agents are played by Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds in the current day i.e. 1997. In 1965 which was the time of the assignment they are played by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas & Sam Worthington respectively. All 6 have performed quite exceptionally I must say. Even Jesper Christensen who playes the sinister Dieter Vogel is brilliant.
What takes the cake though is the premise of the movie which is one of an assignment that goes horribly wrong and how the 3 agents deal with the consequences of the same not only in the immediate future but over a period of 30 years. Will they get any retribution whatsoever? Or does the failure get the better of them? Mind you, Mossad doesn’t take too kindly to failure – or so we have heard. A very different spy story. Exactly the type that audiences would lap up. Put it on your must watch list @ 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1506057497/
Firstly, I get quite peeved when directors take the path in between in case of movies which are set in a geographic region where English is not the primary language. Why then do you need to use actors / actresses whose preferred language happens to be English. To make matters worse, you get the likes of the hugely talented Dame Helen Mirren and Tom Wilkinson to speak with an accent which I am not sure is truly Israeli or Hebrew if you would like to call it that. In contrast, in the same movie, he has got the younger lot of Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas and Sam Worthington to speak in German. So why then would Madden not consider getting them to speak Hebrew instead of English with a forced accent? I was very disappointed within the first few minutes itself. A mark of a director who is probably not brave enough and not common sensiscal.
But the performances and the story line more than make up for this really bad call from Madden. There are 4 key characters in the entire movie. Rachel Singer, Stephan Gold & David Peretz who are Mossad agents sent to East Berlin to track, capture and bring back alive one Dieter Vogel. The 3 agents are played by Helen Mirren, Tom Wilkinson and Ciarán Hinds in the current day i.e. 1997. In 1965 which was the time of the assignment they are played by Jessica Chastain, Marton Csokas & Sam Worthington respectively. All 6 have performed quite exceptionally I must say. Even Jesper Christensen who playes the sinister Dieter Vogel is brilliant.
What takes the cake though is the premise of the movie which is one of an assignment that goes horribly wrong and how the 3 agents deal with the consequences of the same not only in the immediate future but over a period of 30 years. Will they get any retribution whatsoever? Or does the failure get the better of them? Mind you, Mossad doesn’t take too kindly to failure – or so we have heard. A very different spy story. Exactly the type that audiences would lap up. Put it on your must watch list @ 7 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1506057497/
Thursday, 26 January 2012
Life As We Know It
This one is a cute RomCom. As cute as it can get I guess. But mind you the operative word is cute. Not good. Cute as defined in the OED and not as we define it these days. OED stands for the Oxford English Dictionary. And you can look up the definition of cute in the OED for further clarification. OK let me save you to pain and the torture of digging up the definition. Cute as defined in the OED is ugly but tolerable. You don’t believe me? Well now you are free to look it up. Google it. OED it. Do whatever pleases you. The definition is not going to change.
So Life As We Know It (LAWKI) is a cute RomCom. Boy and Girl are being set up by best friends. Boy lands up at girl’s place about an hour late and obviously scores a few 100 negative points. Next, he hasn’t shaved. Looks unkempt. And possibly even stinking. A few 1000 negative points. The graph isn’t looking very good at all. No. there seems to be no hope left. But the girl is magnanimous enough to walk out with him and realizes that he has got his bike and not a car – bad idea when the girl is dressed in a hot dress and cannot sit on a bike. Girl suggests that they should take her new smart car. Boy agrees. Boy gets phone call. Takes it coz girl insists. Turns out to be a booty call. Agrees to meet booty @ 2300 hrs…. wait 2230 hrs…. and the graphs goes negative. Girl suggests that the date was a mistake and that they should call it off. To girl’s surprise boy says she is right. Date ends. Mind you boy and girl are best friends with respective married boy and girl who set them up. A few years later, friends pass away in sudden road accident. All this while boy and girl have been bumping into each other and can barely tolerate each other. In their will, friends have left custody of their only daughter to boy and girl!!!! Aaaaaaaargh!!!!! Now what???? Watch to find out.
I will at the risk of sounding like a stuck record again say this. LAWKI is a cute movie. It is a sizzling movie thanks to Katherine Heigl who I am simply in love with and would probably keel over and die for if she were to ask. It falls back to being nearly ugly for the really bad looking and badly behaved Josh Duhamel. And some amount of sanity is restored by the civilized and well behaved Josh Lucas. There is not much left in terms of the support cast which is not quite there. The script is barely manageable. The story is different but then elements of the story are vastly predictable. Some of the scenes like baby diaper changing or eventually landing up in bed with each other despite girl seeing other guy who is much better settled than boy etc. etc. etc. all make up for a predictable but cute mixture. Enjoyable definitely. Worth a dekko for certain. 6 on 10 for this cute RomCom.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2623997721/
So Life As We Know It (LAWKI) is a cute RomCom. Boy and Girl are being set up by best friends. Boy lands up at girl’s place about an hour late and obviously scores a few 100 negative points. Next, he hasn’t shaved. Looks unkempt. And possibly even stinking. A few 1000 negative points. The graph isn’t looking very good at all. No. there seems to be no hope left. But the girl is magnanimous enough to walk out with him and realizes that he has got his bike and not a car – bad idea when the girl is dressed in a hot dress and cannot sit on a bike. Girl suggests that they should take her new smart car. Boy agrees. Boy gets phone call. Takes it coz girl insists. Turns out to be a booty call. Agrees to meet booty @ 2300 hrs…. wait 2230 hrs…. and the graphs goes negative. Girl suggests that the date was a mistake and that they should call it off. To girl’s surprise boy says she is right. Date ends. Mind you boy and girl are best friends with respective married boy and girl who set them up. A few years later, friends pass away in sudden road accident. All this while boy and girl have been bumping into each other and can barely tolerate each other. In their will, friends have left custody of their only daughter to boy and girl!!!! Aaaaaaaargh!!!!! Now what???? Watch to find out.
I will at the risk of sounding like a stuck record again say this. LAWKI is a cute movie. It is a sizzling movie thanks to Katherine Heigl who I am simply in love with and would probably keel over and die for if she were to ask. It falls back to being nearly ugly for the really bad looking and badly behaved Josh Duhamel. And some amount of sanity is restored by the civilized and well behaved Josh Lucas. There is not much left in terms of the support cast which is not quite there. The script is barely manageable. The story is different but then elements of the story are vastly predictable. Some of the scenes like baby diaper changing or eventually landing up in bed with each other despite girl seeing other guy who is much better settled than boy etc. etc. etc. all make up for a predictable but cute mixture. Enjoyable definitely. Worth a dekko for certain. 6 on 10 for this cute RomCom.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2623997721/
I am Kalam
Missed out this one when it released a year and a half back. And that’s where in-flight helps significantly. Catching up with movies released a little while back and with those which have released internationally and not made it to the screen in little known and unimportant India. Therefore Flight MH134 (if I remember correctly) was inaugurated with a Hindi movie to keep my loyalty to my roots.
Chhotu (Harsh Mayar) is an extremely bright kid who is capable of picking up and understanding almost everything that he reads. He comes from a desolate part of Rajasthan to help his uncle Bhatti (Gulshan Grover) with his tea and small eats shop which supplies food to the palace of the local but erstwhile King or Raja (Suresh Acharya) who has converted the palace to a hotel so that he can continue to have his indulgences. His wife the Queen or Rani (Garima Bharadwaj) and son or Kunwar / Prince (Hussan Saad) make up the family. There are helpers all around like royalty should rightfully have. And like most royalty, there are rules to be followed. For e.g. Treat people lower than you in terms of status well but don’t get friendly with them. Make friends only with royalty. Etc. etc. etc.
But who is to prevent 2 kids of a similar age from getting to know each other and eventually become good friends. Chhotu, inspired by the President of the country rechristens himself as Kalam. Kalam and Kunwar Sa become great friends primarily because they have no one else to talk to or interact with. Kunwar helps Kalam with English and some good clothes and books to read. Kalam helps Kunwar with Hindi and through one of the guests of the hotel (Beatrice Ordeix) with French as well. A metaphorical representation of the India of new which is slowly but surely moving towards not caring much about the differences in class, caste or creed.
I am Kalam represents the aspiration of the average child in this country. The child’s desire to go to a school. To learn. To study. To have fun like any other of their own age. Of equality in treatment in terms of having access to the facilities that any rich kid would have. Of being given an equal opportunity as anyone else to make it big in the real world. To have a shot at stepping into the shoes of arguably the most loved President that India has ever had. To walk in his footsteps and make a difference like he did. In a sense it is a dedication to Hon. APJ Abdul Kalam and his vision for the children of India. Something which has left that office with him a couple of years back.
A good first attempt from Nila Madhab Panda. Average performances overall. Really bad finishing though.especially with the foreign support cast which was relaly bad. Several inconsistencies as well. However, solid message. One that should make you ponder. 5.5 on 10. Watch it if you stumble upon it by chance. Worth a dekko definitely.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hts1peF2gc
Chhotu (Harsh Mayar) is an extremely bright kid who is capable of picking up and understanding almost everything that he reads. He comes from a desolate part of Rajasthan to help his uncle Bhatti (Gulshan Grover) with his tea and small eats shop which supplies food to the palace of the local but erstwhile King or Raja (Suresh Acharya) who has converted the palace to a hotel so that he can continue to have his indulgences. His wife the Queen or Rani (Garima Bharadwaj) and son or Kunwar / Prince (Hussan Saad) make up the family. There are helpers all around like royalty should rightfully have. And like most royalty, there are rules to be followed. For e.g. Treat people lower than you in terms of status well but don’t get friendly with them. Make friends only with royalty. Etc. etc. etc.
But who is to prevent 2 kids of a similar age from getting to know each other and eventually become good friends. Chhotu, inspired by the President of the country rechristens himself as Kalam. Kalam and Kunwar Sa become great friends primarily because they have no one else to talk to or interact with. Kunwar helps Kalam with English and some good clothes and books to read. Kalam helps Kunwar with Hindi and through one of the guests of the hotel (Beatrice Ordeix) with French as well. A metaphorical representation of the India of new which is slowly but surely moving towards not caring much about the differences in class, caste or creed.
I am Kalam represents the aspiration of the average child in this country. The child’s desire to go to a school. To learn. To study. To have fun like any other of their own age. Of equality in treatment in terms of having access to the facilities that any rich kid would have. Of being given an equal opportunity as anyone else to make it big in the real world. To have a shot at stepping into the shoes of arguably the most loved President that India has ever had. To walk in his footsteps and make a difference like he did. In a sense it is a dedication to Hon. APJ Abdul Kalam and his vision for the children of India. Something which has left that office with him a couple of years back.
A good first attempt from Nila Madhab Panda. Average performances overall. Really bad finishing though.especially with the foreign support cast which was relaly bad. Several inconsistencies as well. However, solid message. One that should make you ponder. 5.5 on 10. Watch it if you stumble upon it by chance. Worth a dekko definitely.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Hts1peF2gc
Friday, 30 December 2011
The Back-Up Plan
I know, I know this is an old movie but then I have this compulsion of reviewing everything that I have seen darlings. “So please to be bearing with me” as they would say in colloquial Ingliss for those who have already seen this not so funny RomCom. But spare a thought for those who have not seen it and may make up their minds based on the writings of “is nacheez” (this insignificant person for those who may be unfamiliar with Urdu). There are some 4-5 movies more to be reviewed which are not recent movies and with time quickly running out for me in this calendar year – a little over 30 hours to go, I thought I should quickly get this over and done with. The Back-Up Plan is playing these days on HBO if I am not mistaken – maybe any of the movie channels from 341 to 361 on Tata Sky – forgive me if I am wrong.
Jenny from the Block may not be my favourite singer by a country mile but I must say that I have always liked the fact that she picks up extremely lovable characters in most of her movies and comes up with a performance which is sincere, honest and endearing. I guess it comes very naturally to her – especially when she plays “Jenny from the block” kind of roles. In TBUP she plays the role of Zoe – a 30 something (I am assuming) young woman who runs a pet store and is not really getting the right guy to be in a relationship with – hah!!! Whats new??? With Zoe, however, there is a peculiar problem – she wants to have a child. And quickly at that. Typically that requires someone from the opposite sex or as Zoe attempted – artificial insemination. Wonder what people back home think about the concept as such? Would a woman in India today, mind being injected with the frozen sperm of some unknown donor? Anyways, as luck would have it, she gets knocked up and meets Stan (Alex O'Loughlin) on the same day and lots of love happens – sigh…. As the write ups would say when u press the information button on your Tata Sky remote – hilarity ensues – always wondered who writes these; I am betting s/he doesn’t get paid too much.
TBUP is another example of a TV directors making an unsuccessful transition to movie direction. Whenever I study film and understand the difference between the two, I am quite certainly going to be in a better position to understand why so many of them just bomb at the BO. Alan Poul has joined the list of these bombs. Is he bad. Not really. Just not up there or different in anyways. Anyone could have come up with this as the end result. Even novice directors. There is hardly any intensity that he is able to generate with the cast. The saving grace for us men is the presence of 2 really good looking women on screen – J Lo and Noureen DeWulf. For the ladies there is Alex O’Loughlin. Nothing much to write home about the humour or acting either. Overall, an average flick. Watch if you have nothing better to watch or see or do at home. 5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4230218777/
Jenny from the Block may not be my favourite singer by a country mile but I must say that I have always liked the fact that she picks up extremely lovable characters in most of her movies and comes up with a performance which is sincere, honest and endearing. I guess it comes very naturally to her – especially when she plays “Jenny from the block” kind of roles. In TBUP she plays the role of Zoe – a 30 something (I am assuming) young woman who runs a pet store and is not really getting the right guy to be in a relationship with – hah!!! Whats new??? With Zoe, however, there is a peculiar problem – she wants to have a child. And quickly at that. Typically that requires someone from the opposite sex or as Zoe attempted – artificial insemination. Wonder what people back home think about the concept as such? Would a woman in India today, mind being injected with the frozen sperm of some unknown donor? Anyways, as luck would have it, she gets knocked up and meets Stan (Alex O'Loughlin) on the same day and lots of love happens – sigh…. As the write ups would say when u press the information button on your Tata Sky remote – hilarity ensues – always wondered who writes these; I am betting s/he doesn’t get paid too much.
TBUP is another example of a TV directors making an unsuccessful transition to movie direction. Whenever I study film and understand the difference between the two, I am quite certainly going to be in a better position to understand why so many of them just bomb at the BO. Alan Poul has joined the list of these bombs. Is he bad. Not really. Just not up there or different in anyways. Anyone could have come up with this as the end result. Even novice directors. There is hardly any intensity that he is able to generate with the cast. The saving grace for us men is the presence of 2 really good looking women on screen – J Lo and Noureen DeWulf. For the ladies there is Alex O’Loughlin. Nothing much to write home about the humour or acting either. Overall, an average flick. Watch if you have nothing better to watch or see or do at home. 5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4230218777/
Monday, 19 December 2011
R.E.D
In most of my movie reviews to date, I have given you a link to the trailer at the end of the review. Just in case you need to glance at it once after reading the review to make up your mind completely before taking the plunge. Or maybe change your mind despite a scathing review from my side. In the case of R.E.D., I am breaking from practice and slotting this first up. Watch the trailer first before reading any more of my review. Especially the last 15-20 seconds of the trailer.
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2156856857/
Rajani Saar – I am really sorry. I did not mean to offend you. This John Malkovich fellow didn’t know about your existence. If I had known about the sequence, I would have seriously filed court case. But then, I thought, if John Malkovich needs a bullet to blow a bazooka bomb, Rajani Saar can turn the bomb around by just looking at it. No worries Thalaivar – John is about 45 years behind on the growth curve.
Directed by Robert Schwentke is a definite watch for those who love action flicks and performances put together. With the exception of a couple of sequences where they try to emulate God, the movie is a non stop riot from the first sequence. Frank Moses is a 50 something oldie who keeps calling up the number of the insurance company to speak to Sarah Ross under the pretext of a pension cheque that he claims to have never received despite them sending it over 40 times. But a sudden attack on his life by a bunch of guys who look like a SWAT team sends him and the movie and the audiences into a complete tizzy. 5 minutes into the movie and you are holding onto your seats for dear life.
After watching the trailer, if you do not want to watch the movie then I suggest you get yourself seriously looked at for a case of “I don’t like entertainment and would like to spend the rest of my life sulking” syndrome. R.E.D combines the best action sequences that you could have thought of. What do you want from an action movie? A combination of A Team, Expendables, Terminator, Predator, Commando, Die Hard? Well you asked for it and you will get all of it and more in R.E.D. And add to it exceptional performers who go by the names of Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss & Bruce Willis. The rest of the cast just went pale in comparison. Now why would such a bunch of super stars indulge in inane action is a question I guess only they are best equipped to answer. And who are we but lowly mortals to comment on the choices made by them. Lets just recline back (or lay back on your sofas like I did) and enjoy the ride because they are truly Retired & Extremely Dangerous. No clue how or why I missed the movie earlier this year. 5 on 10 for story. 8 on 10 on entertainment. So lets make this an average of 6.5 on 10. Playing on one of the movie channels these days. Make an effort to catch up with it. Thou shall not regret.
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2156856857/
Rajani Saar – I am really sorry. I did not mean to offend you. This John Malkovich fellow didn’t know about your existence. If I had known about the sequence, I would have seriously filed court case. But then, I thought, if John Malkovich needs a bullet to blow a bazooka bomb, Rajani Saar can turn the bomb around by just looking at it. No worries Thalaivar – John is about 45 years behind on the growth curve.
Directed by Robert Schwentke is a definite watch for those who love action flicks and performances put together. With the exception of a couple of sequences where they try to emulate God, the movie is a non stop riot from the first sequence. Frank Moses is a 50 something oldie who keeps calling up the number of the insurance company to speak to Sarah Ross under the pretext of a pension cheque that he claims to have never received despite them sending it over 40 times. But a sudden attack on his life by a bunch of guys who look like a SWAT team sends him and the movie and the audiences into a complete tizzy. 5 minutes into the movie and you are holding onto your seats for dear life.
After watching the trailer, if you do not want to watch the movie then I suggest you get yourself seriously looked at for a case of “I don’t like entertainment and would like to spend the rest of my life sulking” syndrome. R.E.D combines the best action sequences that you could have thought of. What do you want from an action movie? A combination of A Team, Expendables, Terminator, Predator, Commando, Die Hard? Well you asked for it and you will get all of it and more in R.E.D. And add to it exceptional performers who go by the names of Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, John Malkovich, Richard Dreyfuss & Bruce Willis. The rest of the cast just went pale in comparison. Now why would such a bunch of super stars indulge in inane action is a question I guess only they are best equipped to answer. And who are we but lowly mortals to comment on the choices made by them. Lets just recline back (or lay back on your sofas like I did) and enjoy the ride because they are truly Retired & Extremely Dangerous. No clue how or why I missed the movie earlier this year. 5 on 10 for story. 8 on 10 on entertainment. So lets make this an average of 6.5 on 10. Playing on one of the movie channels these days. Make an effort to catch up with it. Thou shall not regret.
Monday, 15 August 2011
Kick Ass
This is the 3rd Matthew Vaughn movie that I am reviewing. That would leave me with a RomCom titled Stardust. It would be interesting to note that Vaughn is not a uni-dimensional director by any mean standards. I thought his work in X Men First Class was average but that was more to do with the fact that X Men should have been directed by Bryan Singer always to maintain consistency. With L4yer Cake, which was his debut movie, Vaughn did quite a solid job of a fast paced action packed drug dealer movie. He then moved into fantasia with Stardust which I still have to see. And last year with Kick Ass, he joins the Super Hero genre. Next up from his table is the sequel to Kick Ass which is aptly titled Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall. I must say though Vaughn has done a commendable job with Kick Ass as well. It was called out by many as a very solid movie and that I must see it. I was more than glad to stay awake till late in the night to finish watching a very entertaining flick and with the exception of the incessant advertisement breaks (which really really get to you every 10 minutes) it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Vaughn’s capabilities to pay attention to detail in a movie that would have otherwise been completed just as a random super hero movie, is quite commendable.
The only weak point in Kick Ass would be the presence of my favouritest actor of all time – Mr. Constipated or Mr. I have been recently dumped by my past 3 girl friends – you got it right – Nicholas Cage. I mean in what frame of mind did Vaughn decide to pick up Cage for the role of Big Daddy / Damon Macready an ex cop who is set up by the local drug lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and has to spend a few years in prison. His wife is distraught with the turn of events and decides to take her life. However, the excessive sleeping pills fail to kill the baby that she is carrying and leaves Damon to take care of Mindy Macready (Chloe Moretz) who will then go on to become Hit Girl – replete with purple hair, purple costumes and an HG belt as well.
But in this entire scheme of things who or what is Kick Ass??? Kick Ass aka Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is this loser boy, the average nerd in high school who no one gives a second look, the absolutely ignored soul or whatever else you would like to call him. Now Dave has always wondered as to why is it that no normal human being has ever taken inspiration from comic book super heroes and gone on a super hero spree in regular life. Like fighting crime on a day to day basis and ensuring that the streets are kept as clean as possible of crime. Not the easiest job in the world because you consistently get beaten up and get back home bloody and sometimes land up in the hospital. But Dave keeps at it and eventually gets into cohorts with Big Daddy and Hit Girl in the noble intent of putting an end to the D’Amico legacy. It’s a totally fun journey I assure you. You will be kept entertained all the way. Safe bet – 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1572603673/
The only weak point in Kick Ass would be the presence of my favouritest actor of all time – Mr. Constipated or Mr. I have been recently dumped by my past 3 girl friends – you got it right – Nicholas Cage. I mean in what frame of mind did Vaughn decide to pick up Cage for the role of Big Daddy / Damon Macready an ex cop who is set up by the local drug lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and has to spend a few years in prison. His wife is distraught with the turn of events and decides to take her life. However, the excessive sleeping pills fail to kill the baby that she is carrying and leaves Damon to take care of Mindy Macready (Chloe Moretz) who will then go on to become Hit Girl – replete with purple hair, purple costumes and an HG belt as well.
But in this entire scheme of things who or what is Kick Ass??? Kick Ass aka Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is this loser boy, the average nerd in high school who no one gives a second look, the absolutely ignored soul or whatever else you would like to call him. Now Dave has always wondered as to why is it that no normal human being has ever taken inspiration from comic book super heroes and gone on a super hero spree in regular life. Like fighting crime on a day to day basis and ensuring that the streets are kept as clean as possible of crime. Not the easiest job in the world because you consistently get beaten up and get back home bloody and sometimes land up in the hospital. But Dave keeps at it and eventually gets into cohorts with Big Daddy and Hit Girl in the noble intent of putting an end to the D’Amico legacy. It’s a totally fun journey I assure you. You will be kept entertained all the way. Safe bet – 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1572603673/
Extraordinary Measures
Now I have to give some kind of a spoiler alert for this. OK, not a spoiler alert but an alert nevertheless about how the more emotional of you would be challenged big time to keep your tears back, a few minutes into this movie. And from then on, you would face the worry every few minutes. Yeah it is that kind of a movie. One that would go extremely well with your family on a Sunday afternoon with the kids around because there are just so many messages that the kids can take away. And it surprises me a lot (actually it should not) that this one again never saw the light of the day on the big screen in this country. Why is it that there are so many movies that are not released in India despite there being a reasonably large sized market out here? In sharp contrast, there are movies which are premiered in India along with other markets – for e.g. Avatar. Well anyways we live with what we get I guess.
I like Brendan Fraser. I think he is an under rated actor and needs to just find himself the correct roles so as to get him into the really quality league. No inputs required for the most bankable star in Hollywood and Keri Russell as the simple mother of two was also pretty good. It is indeed a very commendable effort from director Tom Vaughn to have managed to get the required emotions out from every single person of the cast. The movie is after all primarily driven by the emotions of a desperate father. I thought it was a couple of hours invested well. I am quite certain you would also find it to be the same. The TV premiere was on HBO last nite. I am quite certain it would be repeated over the next few days. Catch it if you can. 7 on 10 is what I would give it.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2237007129/
The Spy Next Door
Bob Ho (Jackie Chan) is a plumber by profession and he stays in a quiet suburb somewhere in the US. He is of Chinese origin (of course) and is single. He is an exceptionally sweet guy to say the least and helps the people of his neighbourhood at the drop of a hat. Especially if the person is Gillian (Amber Valletta) who is his next door neighbor. With Gillian he doesn’t have much of a choice honestly. He is well and truly head over heels about her. A fact that Gillian is well aware of and endorses. So much that she has already said yes to his proposal for marriage. Something that hasn’t gone too well with Gillian’s 3 kids – Farren (Madeline Carroll), Ian (Will Shadley) and Nora (Alina Foley). I would be unfair if I said that all 3 hate him. It would seem that Ian and Nora are fine but are under the influence of Farren who is Gillian’s step daughter actually. So as you can see, it is all a very complicated situation that these five people find themselves in.
Complicated? You must be kidding me. Ho is regarded as one of the best spies to ever have existed in the world and is on loan from Chinese Intelligence. In fact, he goes by the pseudonym – Super Spy Man – in most inner circles of spydom. He also has a lovely song that has been written for him like there is one for Spiderman or Fireball XL5 (if you remember). In short, he is a revered person in his circles. And he has already called out to his colleagues Colton James (Billy Ray Cyrus – I thought the only time he acted was in Hannah Montana) and Glaze (George Lopez) that he is on his last assignment which has to do with the capture of renowned world terrorist and most wanted Poldark (Magnús Scheving). After that he will retire for good and settle down with Gillian and her 3 children. He does catch Poldark in the first few minutes of the movie. But then the movie would be finished right? And as expected Poldark manages to escape!!!!
The Spy Next Door is one of the four movies of Jackie Chan that released last year. And for those who do not know, he turned 57 this April. 57!!!! And I am struggling to get to work @ 36. He does 4 movies that involved all of his antics and more in the same year???? He is indeed Super Spy Man. I have always loved Jackie Chan for his absolutely humility on and off screen that makes him an actor who is so sought after no matter what genre of movies you like. I have yet to meet anyone who really hates Jackie Chan movies. If there are any, I say – get a life guys. The man has enthralled us for nearly 50 years now. And with stunts that most people cannot even imagine. I liked The Spy Next Door since it is vintage Jackie Chan again. The rest of the cast pales in comparison. They do their jobs for certain but it is the Jackie Chan Show all the way. You will not get bored for the 90 odd minutes that the movie runs for. Director Brian Levant ensures that there are enough and more action sequences with the little master and lots of slapstick comedy also thrown in. I may not a give it a great score at 6 on 10 but I do believe that it is extremely enjoyable for both Jackie Chan fans or otherwise alike.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3031631129/
Complicated? You must be kidding me. Ho is regarded as one of the best spies to ever have existed in the world and is on loan from Chinese Intelligence. In fact, he goes by the pseudonym – Super Spy Man – in most inner circles of spydom. He also has a lovely song that has been written for him like there is one for Spiderman or Fireball XL5 (if you remember). In short, he is a revered person in his circles. And he has already called out to his colleagues Colton James (Billy Ray Cyrus – I thought the only time he acted was in Hannah Montana) and Glaze (George Lopez) that he is on his last assignment which has to do with the capture of renowned world terrorist and most wanted Poldark (Magnús Scheving). After that he will retire for good and settle down with Gillian and her 3 children. He does catch Poldark in the first few minutes of the movie. But then the movie would be finished right? And as expected Poldark manages to escape!!!!
The Spy Next Door is one of the four movies of Jackie Chan that released last year. And for those who do not know, he turned 57 this April. 57!!!! And I am struggling to get to work @ 36. He does 4 movies that involved all of his antics and more in the same year???? He is indeed Super Spy Man. I have always loved Jackie Chan for his absolutely humility on and off screen that makes him an actor who is so sought after no matter what genre of movies you like. I have yet to meet anyone who really hates Jackie Chan movies. If there are any, I say – get a life guys. The man has enthralled us for nearly 50 years now. And with stunts that most people cannot even imagine. I liked The Spy Next Door since it is vintage Jackie Chan again. The rest of the cast pales in comparison. They do their jobs for certain but it is the Jackie Chan Show all the way. You will not get bored for the 90 odd minutes that the movie runs for. Director Brian Levant ensures that there are enough and more action sequences with the little master and lots of slapstick comedy also thrown in. I may not a give it a great score at 6 on 10 but I do believe that it is extremely enjoyable for both Jackie Chan fans or otherwise alike.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3031631129/
Tuesday, 2 August 2011
She's Out of My League
There are movies that you watch because they ought to be watched. There are movies that you avoid because they ought to be avoided. And then there are movies that you watch because there is nothing better to do in life. Sitting @ home in Goa with no one around weekend before last, I had to kill time for about 30-40 minutes because Pizza was on its way and Juhi & Ashley (my friends in Goa) were out for some work. The couch potato (and u must see me these days – I look like a potato only) that I am, channel surfing took me to “She’s Out of My League” (SOML). Those who read my blog would know that I am a sucker for chick flicks. But what really got me to watch this movie was that I switched it on at just the right time – When the stunning Alice Eve makes her entry at the airport and heads turn. Jokes apart – I actually sat up and stared. Now here was a stunning beauty to say the least who had just walked into screen and I was so hoping that she doesn’t say something stupid and ruin the entire moment. Thankfully she did not. And therefore, I was resigned to watch SOML for the next 90 mins or so much to the chagrin of my hosts – my sincerest of apologies to Juhi and Ashley who are probably the nicest hosts to have tolerated my whim to watch such a lousy movie.
Because after that moment of Alice Eve’s entry, it is perfectly downhill. Kirk Kettner (Jay Baruchel - The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Tropic Thunder) is your average everyday boy next door (read LOSER). He typically spends his time with 3 of his friends who are also boy next doors (read LOSERs). Stainer (T.J. Miller), Jack (Mike Vogel) & Devon (Nate Torrence) are Kirk’s closest buddies – Chaddi Buddies type. They are your lower middle class folks for whom, getting a job is good enough. Now Kirk has the hots for Marnie (Lindsay Sloane) but she has dumped him 2 years back. The trouble is she continues to stay in his face coz Kirk’s parents think the world of her and Kirk’s elder brother and Marnie’s current are good friends. No one would have expected Kirk to get anywhere in life. That he had a job as an Airport Security person, was good enough. But that’s what gets Kirk to meet Molly (Alice Eve) and love happens along with some really bad slapstick American so called comedy.
Watch SOML only if you are suckers for punishment. If you believe American Pie was a 10 on 10 then SOML would be right up your alley. Anything lower than that and you have a problem on your hands. I am sure there is a separate genre for these kind of movies and I am quite certain that director Jim Field Smith is an expert of sort in this genre of movie making. In his first full length feature, Smith doesn’t quite leave much of a mark honestly. But I guess there is a market for crappy movies and he was just making the most of it. Why blame him. The only way you can sustain SOML is to fast forward to every scene that has Alice Eve in it – and there are lots. She is confident and awesome looking to boot. A tad short but who cares when you have a 10 on 10 otherwise. Avoid the movie like the plague cos it is playing on one of the movie channels. 3 on 10. Everything because of Alice Eve’s looks.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi870384665/
Letters to Juliet
Gary Winick is the director of chick flicks such as 13 going on 30 and Bride Wars. Both of which were movies that would barely manage to make the cut. He also did Charlotte’s Web which was more in the kiddie genre and 6 other movies that I haven’t seen or heard of. But with Letters to Juliet, he kind of gets his direction to the proverbial next level. He does get it soppy and a bit hard to believe in between but gets the movie to feel quite good overall.
The first thing he does is get the story right. Now how many of us would have heard about the Secretaries of Juliet? I know I did not know about them. I am not a shining example of knowing everything (although I would love to believe so) but it would be fair to assume that most people did not know about the concept and it was therefore a novel story in the first place. People from all over the world can send letters to Casa di Giulietta / Juliet’s House, Via Cappello, 23, Near Piazza delle Erbe, Verona, Italy and a team of volunteers sit down at the end of every day to answer each one of them. A practice that has been in place for over 70 years today.
Sophie (Amanda Seyfried) bumps into the concept and therefore into Isabella (Luisa Ranieri), Francesca (Marina Massironi), Donatella (Lidia Biondi), Maria (Milena Vukotic) & Angelina (Luisa De Santis) who have been volunteering as the secretaries of Juliet for quite some time now. Sophie is visiting Verona for a pre-honeymoon of sorts with her husband to be – Victor (Gael García Bernal) – a superb chef but a person who doesn’t really know how to take care of Sophie. Needless to say, Sophie starts drifting away from him. The secretaries offer her an avenue to take her mind off Victor and she bumps into a letter that was left in the wall 50 years back. She does take a chance to reply to the letter – just to check on what could happen. And before you know it, Claire (Vanessa Redgrave) who is pushing 70 currently, arrives in Verona with her grandson Charlie (Christopher Egan). Thus begins the search for Lorenzo Bartolini – Claires long lost love of 50 years.
Letters to Juliet is a lovely movie to catch up with on a lazy, rainy Sunday afternoon when you are all cuddled up in bed with your boyfriend. As mentioned earlier, it does get a bit soppy in between and the love story between Chris and Sophie is expected but comes in a bit too fast for my comfort. But Gary Winick, more than makes up in the other parts. There is a good bit of Italian humour thrown in and the performances are also quite good. Vanessa Redgrave is stunning in her role of Claire. And I have previously sung enough praises of Amanda Seyfried who continues to be one of the better actresses in recent times. Worth a dekko for sure. 6 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi1896810265/
Monday, 1 August 2011
Leap Year
Heard about Leap Year quite a while back and missed it when it hit the screens last year sometime I guess. But the fact that it had Amy Adams in it was sufficient for me to feel really bad about missing it the first time. And therefore the HBO premiere wasn’t to be missed for certain. I knew it was just a standard Romantic Comedy and was not expecting anything better. But then Amy Adams is Amy Adams and was a sufficient driving force to be glued to the TV for the 9 pm prime time telecast. Unfortunately it was an insipid 90 odd minutes in front of the screen and turned out to be quite disappointing eventually.
There was nothing terribly wrong with Leap Year actually. It was reasonably well made but nothing that you have never seen before. The usual questions about “what would you take with you if your house was burning down and you had only 60 seconds to take whatever you wanted”. It is an old way to get across the message of true love – but in a new movie. It is a question that has dogged a whole lot of us over the ages and which most of us are familiar with the answer to as well.
Girl and guy are apparently well and truly in love. Girl i.e. Anna Brady (Amy Adams) who is in a very unique profession of getting houses ready for sale / lease and guy Jeremy (Adam Scott) who is a cardiologist. They have been seeing each other for 4 years now but the dimwit hasn’t popped the question yet. So Madam Brady is being tested for her patience for certain. She is hoping that Jeremy will pop the question tonight but instead he gives her super expensive “Ear” rings instead. Ha ha. And then after all of it, he runs off to Ireland to attend some cardiologist meet. A frustrated Anna is surfing the net and surprise surprise – there is a weird custom in Ireland that allows a girl to propose marriage to a man on the 29th February in a Leap Year. And so madam decides to pack her Louis Vuitton suitcase and takes off to Ireland but standing in her way are a huge storm that has stopped all flights and Declan O’Callaghan (Matthew Goode) a gorgeous Irish man who runs a pub and is nursing a broken heart. The rest of the story is obviously very predictable frame by frame and therefore quite boring.
Director Anand Tucker (fancy name at that) does a reasonable job with Leap Year but the story is too darn predictable for him to really make much of a difference. Having said that, he is not the hottest property in Hollywood for certain even if he builds a niche for himself in “predictable” RomComs. Amy Adams rocks as always and this time around it is the guys who provide the eye candy. This one is a chick flick in the true sense of the word and should be watched either on DVD or on HBO when u really have nothing else to do with your lives 5 on 10 from my side.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2052654361/
There was nothing terribly wrong with Leap Year actually. It was reasonably well made but nothing that you have never seen before. The usual questions about “what would you take with you if your house was burning down and you had only 60 seconds to take whatever you wanted”. It is an old way to get across the message of true love – but in a new movie. It is a question that has dogged a whole lot of us over the ages and which most of us are familiar with the answer to as well.
Girl and guy are apparently well and truly in love. Girl i.e. Anna Brady (Amy Adams) who is in a very unique profession of getting houses ready for sale / lease and guy Jeremy (Adam Scott) who is a cardiologist. They have been seeing each other for 4 years now but the dimwit hasn’t popped the question yet. So Madam Brady is being tested for her patience for certain. She is hoping that Jeremy will pop the question tonight but instead he gives her super expensive “Ear” rings instead. Ha ha. And then after all of it, he runs off to Ireland to attend some cardiologist meet. A frustrated Anna is surfing the net and surprise surprise – there is a weird custom in Ireland that allows a girl to propose marriage to a man on the 29th February in a Leap Year. And so madam decides to pack her Louis Vuitton suitcase and takes off to Ireland but standing in her way are a huge storm that has stopped all flights and Declan O’Callaghan (Matthew Goode) a gorgeous Irish man who runs a pub and is nursing a broken heart. The rest of the story is obviously very predictable frame by frame and therefore quite boring.
Director Anand Tucker (fancy name at that) does a reasonable job with Leap Year but the story is too darn predictable for him to really make much of a difference. Having said that, he is not the hottest property in Hollywood for certain even if he builds a niche for himself in “predictable” RomComs. Amy Adams rocks as always and this time around it is the guys who provide the eye candy. This one is a chick flick in the true sense of the word and should be watched either on DVD or on HBO when u really have nothing else to do with your lives 5 on 10 from my side.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2052654361/
Saturday, 7 May 2011
I Am Afia Megha Abhimanyu Omar
I Am Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu, Omar. Not the name of one movie. Not the names of the lead characters either. But 4 different stories. Each dealing with a topic that is extremely sensitive and has been portrayed quite boldly on screen. 4 short stories with a minor extent of intertwining through the appearance of one stray character somewhere in the story who is the lead character in the other. I Am is directed by Onir, who seems to have finally got his sense of direction in place. He seemed to have lost interest in film making with Bas Ek Pal and I was dead certain that he has lost his ability to direct with Sorry Bhai!!! It would seem that our man, who coincidentally was born in Bhutan, seems to have found his groove. Now, I haven’t seen My Brother… Nikhil yet and therefore am ill equipped to comment on whether he had it in the first place. But with I Am, Onir seems to have pushed back his detractors just that little bit. In a little under 100 minutes he has been ably supported with screenplay by Urmi Juvekar of “Oye Lucky Lucky Oye” fame and Merle Kroeger.
The first story is - Afia (Nandita Das), a 30+ woman whose only goal in life seems to be motherhood. Her husband, however, isn’t ready for the concept of fatherhood. While he keeps stalling her attempts, he is also happily cheating on her with another woman. A few months after he leaves Afia, she finds him with a visibly pregnant wife – shattering her even further. That’s when she decides to take the route of artificial insemination.
Afia’s friend Megha (Juhi Chawla) is clearly against the concept. But has problems of her own. Her ancestral place in Srinagar has to be sold off and she is extremely circumspect about going there today. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, the scars of being forced out of her own land and leading a life that was far from enviable has built a sense of disgust and angst against the very people who she grew up with. She does build up the courage to fly over and complete the formalities but all through the visit, she is nothing but crabby towards Rubina (Manisha Koirala) who used to be her closest friend.
Afia’s business associate Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) is quite shocked when she asks him to donate sperm for the procedure. Abhi has been bought up in a household where his step father (Anurag Kashyap) would abuse him when his mother was away. Abhi is now bisexual and doesn’t quite value relationships as much as he should.
Abhi was involved in a minor fling at one time with Jay (Rahul Bose). Jay has been a victim of a con job at the hands of Omar (Arjun Mathur) and a cop (Abhimanyu Singh) in the days preceding amendment of Article 377.
The usually popular names – Manisha, Juhi, Nandita Das and Sanjay Suri falter with their performances all through the movie. But the dependable Rahul Bose comes up with a solid performance yet again. Ditto for Purab Kohli who is fast growing into a mature actor who can comfortably hold his own. I do hope to see more of Purab in the coming days cause I believe his best is yet to come. Rounding off the cast is probably one of India’s best actors today – Abhimanyu Singh – who yet again delivers a splendid performance in the small but pivotal role of a corrupt cop who abuses his position not just for sexual favours of a gay kind but also for extortion. What disappointed me with Juhi and Manisha – and I guess they aren’t to blame for it – was the obvious struggle to speak Kashmiri. Now I am no language expert per se but I do understand when people are struggling to speak a tongue that is not native to them.
In a nut shell, I Am is a well made movie with some good performances and definitely worth a dekko. But for certain only meant for the mature audience. I was honestly not surprised with the laughter that erupted in the hall during the stories of Abhimanyu and Omar. We live in a country of literates but not educated. Watch it if you can. Don’t know if it is still playing though. wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. 6 on 10 from my side.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWQZFFGdBA
The first story is - Afia (Nandita Das), a 30+ woman whose only goal in life seems to be motherhood. Her husband, however, isn’t ready for the concept of fatherhood. While he keeps stalling her attempts, he is also happily cheating on her with another woman. A few months after he leaves Afia, she finds him with a visibly pregnant wife – shattering her even further. That’s when she decides to take the route of artificial insemination.
Afia’s friend Megha (Juhi Chawla) is clearly against the concept. But has problems of her own. Her ancestral place in Srinagar has to be sold off and she is extremely circumspect about going there today. A Kashmiri Pandit by birth, the scars of being forced out of her own land and leading a life that was far from enviable has built a sense of disgust and angst against the very people who she grew up with. She does build up the courage to fly over and complete the formalities but all through the visit, she is nothing but crabby towards Rubina (Manisha Koirala) who used to be her closest friend.
Afia’s business associate Abhimanyu (Sanjay Suri) is quite shocked when she asks him to donate sperm for the procedure. Abhi has been bought up in a household where his step father (Anurag Kashyap) would abuse him when his mother was away. Abhi is now bisexual and doesn’t quite value relationships as much as he should.
Abhi was involved in a minor fling at one time with Jay (Rahul Bose). Jay has been a victim of a con job at the hands of Omar (Arjun Mathur) and a cop (Abhimanyu Singh) in the days preceding amendment of Article 377.
The usually popular names – Manisha, Juhi, Nandita Das and Sanjay Suri falter with their performances all through the movie. But the dependable Rahul Bose comes up with a solid performance yet again. Ditto for Purab Kohli who is fast growing into a mature actor who can comfortably hold his own. I do hope to see more of Purab in the coming days cause I believe his best is yet to come. Rounding off the cast is probably one of India’s best actors today – Abhimanyu Singh – who yet again delivers a splendid performance in the small but pivotal role of a corrupt cop who abuses his position not just for sexual favours of a gay kind but also for extortion. What disappointed me with Juhi and Manisha – and I guess they aren’t to blame for it – was the obvious struggle to speak Kashmiri. Now I am no language expert per se but I do understand when people are struggling to speak a tongue that is not native to them.
In a nut shell, I Am is a well made movie with some good performances and definitely worth a dekko. But for certain only meant for the mature audience. I was honestly not surprised with the laughter that erupted in the hall during the stories of Abhimanyu and Omar. We live in a country of literates but not educated. Watch it if you can. Don’t know if it is still playing though. wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t. 6 on 10 from my side.
Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UdWQZFFGdBA
Tuesday, 22 March 2011
The Fighter
How many boxing movies can you think of that were utter flops? Hope in hell right? Think as hard and as far back as you may want to. But the stores of the Rocky Balboas of the world and the Reuben “Hurricane” Carters of the world and the Jake La Mota’s of the world make every single hair on your body stand up and take notice. Surely there are a zillion such stories about boxing and boxers but very few which make it to the silver screen. What you can be assured of in Hollywood is that a movie with boxing is what we call here as a “Formula” movie. And so we are now presented with the story of “Irish” Mickey Ward from the small town of Lowell, Massachusetts and his road to fame from extremely backward and not just humble beginnings. True Oscar fodder. Superb use of “Formula”. But backed with tremendous execution capabilities. Lets take a quick look at the story first.
Dicky Eklund Jr. (Christian Bale – and an extremely frail Christian Bale at that) is a crack addict par excellence. His claim to fame other than being in the running for the crack champion of the world is that he once knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard. This was way back in 1978. The debate which started then, continues to date. Did Sugar Ray actually get knocked out or did he trip. There are subscribers to both versions of the story. However, when Dicky dear doesn’t make it to too far in the world of boxing, crack comes along and becomes his crutch, along with that ever faithful friend of crack called alcohol. Combining forces, they ensure that Dicky moves on his way downhill despite the best wishes of his mother Alice (Melissa Leo) who goes by the 2nd name of Ward after she married George Ward (Jack McGee). Alice has tremendous patience I must say coz after having 7 children from her first marriage, she chose to have 2 more from her 2nd. Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is Dicky’s half brother and a solid boxer at that. Both Alice and Dicky are hell bent on ensuring that Mickey makes a career out of boxing. Probably out of an unfulfilled aspiration. But as manager and trainer respectively their efforts leave a lot to be desired. When Dicky gets jailed for assaulting a cop amongst other offences, Mickey decides that it is time to move on. And so when a sponsor presents himself, he decides to go into full time training and is also persuaded by his girlfriend Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams) to not get Alice and Dicky involved anymore in his boxing.
The Fighter is yet another movie that gives us hope. Truly one which has followed the footsteps of its predecessor. Did it have it to emulate Rocky? Not really. But what it did have is the presence of either Melissa Leo or Christian Bale in almost every frame. Made me wonder half way down the movie if both of them should have been nominated for the lead role and not the supporting role. And let me tell you that if they had been nominated for the lead, Colin Firth and Natalie Portman would have been left sucking their thumbs. In what can be considered as one of THE finest examples of method acting, Bale and Leo keep the audience rooted to their seats. One begins to feel sorry for Mark Wahlberg especially because try as hard as he may, he could not and probably cannot take his performance to the level of Bale in this movie. I also felt that the character of Dicky Eklund is just so much stronger for the screen than that of Mickey Ward – with no disrespect meant to Ward in any ways. Eklund just gave Christian Bale the right fodder to take his acting status from average to superb overnight.
I haven’t spoken about one of my favourite actors yet but much as I am totally in love with Amy Adams (like I am with several other actresses) I think this was a performance that was just above her par level. Superb but not brilliant like she was in Doubt or for that matter even Julie & Julia. Maybe it was also the content and screen time that leads me to give this view. Rounding off with direction which was overall quite solid from David O Russel. Probably his best to date. But could have been cut a little better and therefore got it down to around 2 hours. Nearly 2.5 hours is a little stretch. Overall, I give this 7 on 10 but a clear 9 on 10 t both Bale and Leo. Watch it for them if not anything else.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2330986777/
Dicky Eklund Jr. (Christian Bale – and an extremely frail Christian Bale at that) is a crack addict par excellence. His claim to fame other than being in the running for the crack champion of the world is that he once knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard. This was way back in 1978. The debate which started then, continues to date. Did Sugar Ray actually get knocked out or did he trip. There are subscribers to both versions of the story. However, when Dicky dear doesn’t make it to too far in the world of boxing, crack comes along and becomes his crutch, along with that ever faithful friend of crack called alcohol. Combining forces, they ensure that Dicky moves on his way downhill despite the best wishes of his mother Alice (Melissa Leo) who goes by the 2nd name of Ward after she married George Ward (Jack McGee). Alice has tremendous patience I must say coz after having 7 children from her first marriage, she chose to have 2 more from her 2nd. Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is Dicky’s half brother and a solid boxer at that. Both Alice and Dicky are hell bent on ensuring that Mickey makes a career out of boxing. Probably out of an unfulfilled aspiration. But as manager and trainer respectively their efforts leave a lot to be desired. When Dicky gets jailed for assaulting a cop amongst other offences, Mickey decides that it is time to move on. And so when a sponsor presents himself, he decides to go into full time training and is also persuaded by his girlfriend Charlene Fleming (Amy Adams) to not get Alice and Dicky involved anymore in his boxing.
The Fighter is yet another movie that gives us hope. Truly one which has followed the footsteps of its predecessor. Did it have it to emulate Rocky? Not really. But what it did have is the presence of either Melissa Leo or Christian Bale in almost every frame. Made me wonder half way down the movie if both of them should have been nominated for the lead role and not the supporting role. And let me tell you that if they had been nominated for the lead, Colin Firth and Natalie Portman would have been left sucking their thumbs. In what can be considered as one of THE finest examples of method acting, Bale and Leo keep the audience rooted to their seats. One begins to feel sorry for Mark Wahlberg especially because try as hard as he may, he could not and probably cannot take his performance to the level of Bale in this movie. I also felt that the character of Dicky Eklund is just so much stronger for the screen than that of Mickey Ward – with no disrespect meant to Ward in any ways. Eklund just gave Christian Bale the right fodder to take his acting status from average to superb overnight.
I haven’t spoken about one of my favourite actors yet but much as I am totally in love with Amy Adams (like I am with several other actresses) I think this was a performance that was just above her par level. Superb but not brilliant like she was in Doubt or for that matter even Julie & Julia. Maybe it was also the content and screen time that leads me to give this view. Rounding off with direction which was overall quite solid from David O Russel. Probably his best to date. But could have been cut a little better and therefore got it down to around 2 hours. Nearly 2.5 hours is a little stretch. Overall, I give this 7 on 10 but a clear 9 on 10 t both Bale and Leo. Watch it for them if not anything else.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2330986777/
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Hereafter
Over a conversation with a friend, we kind of came to the conclusion that there are very few people (actors and directors specifically) in this world who can visualize the final product while shooting for a movie. More directors can do this (I mean it is their job right) and a few actors can. That’s probably what separates the great actors / directors from the good ones. One such former actor and a phenomenal director who was born way back on the 31st May 1930 goes by the name of Clinton Eastwood Jr. or Clint for short. A man who most of us admire immensely for his more known Spaghetti Westerns and not as much for his directorial ventures that came in much later. Surprisingly so since his best works in the field of entertainment have been after he turned director. And I am at no point of time saying that the Westerns were not good or not watchable. But as a director, he has moved into a different plane altogether. Having said that, Hereafter isn’t one of his best works to date.
It isn’t surprising when people have a gift which seems more like a curse to them. What if you could actually speak to the dead and be that bridge between what they want their loved ones to actually know after they have passed? Kinda gory aint it? That’s the predicament faced by George Lonegan (Matt Damon) who stopped reading because he thinks it is nothing to be thrilled about. His brother, Billy (Jay Mohr) cannot quite understand George’s aversion but resigns himself to it. That doesn’t however stop him from continuously trying to change George’s mind. Simultaneously there are two other lives that are the other dots in the puzzle that need to be connected. Marie Lelay (Cecile de France), an extremely successful French (and it is just coincidence that her last name is France) television anchor is on vacation somewhere in Indonesia with her producer boyfriend Didier (Thierry Neuvic). The year is 2004 and the tsunami hits the island really hard. The near death experience leaves Marie heavily shaken and she is not quite able to focus on her work thanks to the visions that she keeps seeing. And then there is Marcus (George McLaren) who loses his elder twin brother Jason (Frankie McLaren) in a freak accident involving some young dopeys. Their mother is a junkie herself and therefore the twins support each other. A distraught Marcus is sent to a foster home where he begins his search for someone who can help him speak to his brother.
Although the end product has Clint Eastwood written all over it, right from the first frame, it is a bit disappointingly stretched out and not really finished as well. That it was nominated for Best Visual Effects came as a surprise to me even more as the effects were nothing too great honestly. In fact the scene that shows the impact of the tsunami seems very green screen. The strong performances from Damon and France along with the McLarens don’t quite make up for the extremely slow pace of the movie. And you may be wondering now as to why I was waxing eloquent about Eastwood earlier in this review. It is simply because with the exception of the weak SFX in the first sequence, every single frame is as real as possible – exactly the way he visualized it to be. This one is a must watch if you are a fan of the Eastwood genre of movies. I give it 7 on 10. Hoping to see a 9 from your end Mr. Eastwood. Lets have another one as good as Changeling. Sooner the better.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1485637913/
It isn’t surprising when people have a gift which seems more like a curse to them. What if you could actually speak to the dead and be that bridge between what they want their loved ones to actually know after they have passed? Kinda gory aint it? That’s the predicament faced by George Lonegan (Matt Damon) who stopped reading because he thinks it is nothing to be thrilled about. His brother, Billy (Jay Mohr) cannot quite understand George’s aversion but resigns himself to it. That doesn’t however stop him from continuously trying to change George’s mind. Simultaneously there are two other lives that are the other dots in the puzzle that need to be connected. Marie Lelay (Cecile de France), an extremely successful French (and it is just coincidence that her last name is France) television anchor is on vacation somewhere in Indonesia with her producer boyfriend Didier (Thierry Neuvic). The year is 2004 and the tsunami hits the island really hard. The near death experience leaves Marie heavily shaken and she is not quite able to focus on her work thanks to the visions that she keeps seeing. And then there is Marcus (George McLaren) who loses his elder twin brother Jason (Frankie McLaren) in a freak accident involving some young dopeys. Their mother is a junkie herself and therefore the twins support each other. A distraught Marcus is sent to a foster home where he begins his search for someone who can help him speak to his brother.
Although the end product has Clint Eastwood written all over it, right from the first frame, it is a bit disappointingly stretched out and not really finished as well. That it was nominated for Best Visual Effects came as a surprise to me even more as the effects were nothing too great honestly. In fact the scene that shows the impact of the tsunami seems very green screen. The strong performances from Damon and France along with the McLarens don’t quite make up for the extremely slow pace of the movie. And you may be wondering now as to why I was waxing eloquent about Eastwood earlier in this review. It is simply because with the exception of the weak SFX in the first sequence, every single frame is as real as possible – exactly the way he visualized it to be. This one is a must watch if you are a fan of the Eastwood genre of movies. I give it 7 on 10. Hoping to see a 9 from your end Mr. Eastwood. Lets have another one as good as Changeling. Sooner the better.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1485637913/
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