A Walk Among The Tombstones

The good news is that Liam Neeson is back again. The better news is that this time around he isn’t chasing his tail in a predictable script that involves finding someone who has been kidnapped within 24 hours.  Or for that matter trying to save an aircraft full of passengers from impending doom.

Need For Speed (2014 English)

Stuntmen turning directors is apparently not an alien concept in Hollywood (http://www.hollywoodstuntcoordinator.com/blog-post/stuntmen-turning-directors-in-hollywood/).  The Waugh family has a notable mention with father and sons both finding mention in this article.  Closer home, our very own Veeru Devgn has also directed Hindustan Ki Kasam (1999) after choreographing stunts for nearly 150 movies.

3 Days to Kill

“Kevin Costner seems to be making a comeback into mainstream cinema”. That’s what a fellow writer / critic said at the preview of 3 Days to Kill.  My response was that legends like Costner really don’t need to make a “comeback”.  They will always have age appropriate roles available for them – if they want to give it a shot.

Robocop (2014)

Let’s face it.  Remakes are going to be part of our lives.  Organisations have rights to the movies and they are bound to maximize the opportunity.  After all, the fact that a movie is being remade is proof that it was good in the first place.  I for one, have been a huge fan of remakes.  The secret, I have found, albeit a very difficult one, is to try and purge your mind of any memories of the original.

The Fifth Estate

And the world of exasperating Biopics was as prevalent at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) as anywhere else.  With the amount of publicity and talk about Julian Assange over the years, one would have expected a movie that was as good as David Fincher’s Social Network.  While there is every attempt made to look like Social Network, at the end of it all, one is left wondering what could have been instead of celebrating what was.

Mandela : Long Walk To Freedom

There are great biopics (Lincoln, Gandhi).  There are really bad ones (Bhaag Milkha Bhaag).  And there are the ones that leave you hanging because the impression that you had about the person was just so much bigger that what the movie portrays her/him to be.  For e.g. there was Jobs from 2013 which was closer to bad.  And now we have Mandela – Long Walk To Freedom.

Jack Ryan : Shadow Recruit

It all started way back in 1990 when Alec Baldwin essayed the role of Commander Dr. John Patrick Ryan aka Jack (because Tom Clancy felt he was a Jack of almost everything) in Clancy’s Hunt for Red October.  People remember that one more for Captain Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) than for Ryan.  That anomaly was rectified when Hollywood’s most bankable star (read Harrison Ford) took over the role in the next 2 movies.   Ben Affleck wasn’t too bad as the young Ryan.

47 Ronin

A Samurai without a master or one who has lost his master’s privilege was as good as one without a home i.e. a wandering man.  Loosely translated, in Japanese, it meant “wave man” or Ronin – How's that for a piece of trivia to begin 2014 with.  Although I ended 2013 with the preview of 47 Ronin, you will be able to catch up with it only from the 3^rd January 2014.  A decent watch I must say.

Bullett Raja

Tigmanshu Dhulia is associated with hard hitting intense movies that have really solid dialogues and more importantly a really solid story.  Bullett Raja ticks most of the boxes but at the end of the day it is nothing we haven’t seen before.  The narration, the overall feel of the story, the performances and even the music had “seen that” written all over it from frame 1 (technically frame 1 + 10 mins coz I came in late) to finish.

Escape Plan

Now tell me the truth.  How many of you have been desperately waiting for Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger sharing a significant amount of screen time together.  Not just an excuse with a corny dialogue thrown in (read Expendables) but one where these two cult figures have major lead roles.  So much that the Tamil remake is being called “Kedi Rambo Killaadi Arnold” – I couldn’t stop laughing!!!

Prague (Hindi 2013)

There are various ways to tell a story and it is upto the director to decide which way a story is going to be narrated.  Should I keep it simple so that the junta (general public) can understand it and appeal to the masses? Or should I make it into a complicated one that has so many layers that the audience is left to decipher the story.  Ashish R Shukla chooses the latter approach for his first full length feature.

Gambit (2012)

Gambit released in the UK towards the end of 2012.  Apparently the makers didn’t think it worthwhile to release it in the US at all.  It released in India tomorrow (27^th September 2013) nearly 1 year after its UK release.  The US date is not yet fixed.  Now why would they keep an entertaining movie like Gambit away from the screens when they are fine with unleashing a whole load of other crap on us? Beats me.

The Frozen Ground

The posters claimed with a lot of conviction that this is the best serial killer movie since Se7en.  A wise man once said, “Never judge a movie by its poster” – I am quite certain he was a victim of many an experience like The Frozen Ground.  I was looking forward to a serial killer movie that would blow my pants off for a really long time.  But it will take much more than TFG to displace the likes of Se7en.

D-Day (Hindi) (2013)

Nikhil Advani’s rap sheet in Bollywood is not the most attractive to begin with.  Salaam E Ishq was too long, Chandni Chowk to China was horrible, Delhi Safari was an animation disaster.  He was tolerable in Patiala House.  But with D-Day he seems to have learnt the fine art of Bollywood cinema – doesn’t say too much about him though. Because it is still B Town.  Not H Town.

Lootera

O Henry’s stories have been an inspiration for many a story on screen.  Closer to home, Raincoat (Aishwarya Rai, Ajay Devgn) was an adaptation of “Gift of the Magi”.  Only a matter of time before another one was used as inspiration.  This time around it is the turn of “The Last Leaf”.  Vikramaditya Motwane pays homage to O Henry with his adaptation of this classic short – with a little bit of Indian spice thrown in for taste.

The Place Beyond The Pines

I had seen Blue Valentine when it released a couple of years back and was quite wary about The Place Beyond The Pines.  Derek Cianfrance gave me the impression of being an arty farty director in his previous outing.  Michelle Williams of course did a fine job in that movie one and earned herself a nomination.

David

It is 1975 and the setting is the city of the Big Ben.  We have a special group of Indian services personnel who are in a conversation with someone who seems quite influential.  The common thread – Iqbal Ghani – a renowned gangster who has complete control over the South Asian community in that part of the world.  He is also wanted for activities that India deem “not safe”.  The group of people are plotting his death.  The only way that is possible is if they get through to one man.

 

Cut to 1999.  Maximum City.  A reverend – Father Noel (Nasser) is addressing a group of people in an attempt to get them to contribute towards helping people who have been impacted by a suburban fire.  He is being supported by his daughters Alice (Shweta Pandit) and Sussannah (Shweta Menon).  But when the water truck makes its appearance, the crowd disappears equally quick.  His son, a musician, walks in at the end of it all and mocks his father’s attempts.

 

Cut once again.  To a place that is considered to be paradise by most people on the west coast.  And I am not talking about God’s Own Country (some may argue that this is the original version of GOC).  A well-built man is getting drunk in a shack by mixing whiskey and soda through a funnel.  He is being mocked by most around him as the unluckiest man on the planet because of his runaway bride.  The result – most at the bar (including a woman) finds herself sore and on the floor.

 

What connects these 3? DAVID.  That’s what their parents named them.  But how do their lives come together? It is 3^rd February in the respective years.  By 3^rd March, they will all be faced with a huge choice that they need to make and will impact their lives significantly. 

 

I loved Shaitan – and I think I am a small portion of the audience.  And I was expecting at least as good from Bejoy Nambiar.  In terms of the way the movie was made, absolutely no debate that he has lived upto his reputation.  But where he probably gets it wrong this time around is the story.  You are left waiting forever to figure out why there are 3 storylines in the first place.

 

Also, the casting could have done with at least one change.  Chiyaan Vikram was a disaster.  I am quite certain that if there was more effort put in, we could have found someone closer home.  The music was again quite different. While I liked the version of Dama Dum Mast Kalandar, I could not quite understand the reason for its positioning in the movie.

 

At the end of day, David is not meant for the masses for sure.  It is a very well made movie but how many people will be able to sustain the 140 minutes of semi-commercial cinema remains to be seen.  In my books, the best movie this year to date.  6.5 on 10.

 

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/user/bigpictures?v=fmOBx6jS3Fc

The Bourne Legacy

So firstly lets get some facts absolutely straight.
1. The Bourne Legacy was and is NOT part of the Bourne series
2. The Bourne Legacy was written by a guy called Eric Van Lustbader in 2004.
3. There are 6 more novels in the series – Betrayal, Sanction, Deception, Objective, Dominion and Imperative
4. The movie has nothing to do with the novel or any of the 6 novels released thence.
5. Robert Ludlum has nothing to do with the novels of Lustbader. He has just permitted him to use the character. He has also been credited as the inspiration for the movie but that’s where it all ends.

First Doug Liman, then Paul Greengrass and now Tony Gilroy joins the list of directors who have been involved in Bourne Movies to date. Liman kick started it all and Greengrass was responsible for the 2 sequels that followed and are rated by many as the best in the series. Greengrass has nothing much to fear after the release of Legacy. Not because Gilroy is a bad director by any stretch of imagination. But more because if Matt Damon is not in a Bourne movie then it has probably lost half its sheen.

Thankfully, Jeremy Renner doesn’t play Bourne. The character of Bourne as shown in a few pics and rushes from the previous movies is played by Damon. But 13.839 seconds of screen time is all he gets. Renner plays the role of Aaron Cross who is part of a programme called Outcome which is being run in parallel to Operation Blackbriar and Treadstone. It is spearheaded by Eric Byer (Edward Norton).

With the shit hitting the roof after Pamela Landy’s (Joan Allen) exposé on Blackbriar, all so called “patriotic agencies” start dismantling their respective programmes. Outcome is part of this initiative. For the un-initiated, dismantling would mean doing away with – leaving no proof – incinerating all evidence – killing everyone remotely associated with the programme.

And so each and every field agent is done away with from Karachi to Seoul to back home. Aaron Cross is however, in a training exercise in Alaska and manages to evade extermination. He heads straight across to the only person who also miraculously survives these attempts to eliminate - Dr. Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz). And the story that follows is like most other Bourne movies.

Credit to Gilroy – who has also written the previous ones – for ensuring the consistency in the story line and little or no gaps. But then, he has also not come up with anything spectacular or new. So if you have seen the previous ones you may be a tad disappointed. But if you haven’t then you may miss out on certain key connections that are important. More importantly – where were you when all the excitement was happening?

Bourne Legacy is a must watch for self confessed Bourne fans. The final chase sequence is very good and edge of the seat material. The build up towards the finalé is however quite slow with just a couple of exciting moments such as when Martha and Aaron meet for the first time after they escape being killed. Overall a well made movie. But not so important to watch on the big screen. Good performances overall. 6.5 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1065461017/

Ferrari Ki Sawaari

It is a pity that the association of Parsis with the game of cricket has actually come down to levels where the only representation at an international level is through one umpire – Shahvir Tarapore. The last Parsi cricketer to play for India was our stylish wicket keeper batsman called Farookh Engineer. There were some illustrious names before that but of late there is not one person of Parsi origin who is even in a Ranji team. As I said – a pity because they get so much character to the field – any field that they get themselves into.

But Kayoze Rustom Deboo (Ritwik Sahore) hasn’t really heard of the big names in Parsi cricket. He has been bought up in the world of someone who most of India refers to as God and goes by the human name of Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Kayo in fact has no idea about how famous his Mota Papa (grandfather) Behram Deboo (Boman Irani) was in his hey days. And how he was actually deprived of a chance to play for India thanks to the devious ways of one Dilip Dharmadhikari (Paresh Rawal) who was actually his best friend when they were growing up.

Now Kayo is a brilliant #3 and is rated by many as one of the best school players in the city. He gets a chance to visit the mecca of cricket (read Lords) but Rustom (Sharman Joshi), Kayo’s father, needs to cough up Rs.1.5 lacs ($3000 approx) to send him. Now they may be staying in South Bombay (like most parsees) but they are not rich (like most parsees). A normal honest clerk @ the local Road Transport Office cannot afford this kind of money. But when Babbo Didi (Seema Bhargava) asks him to help in borrowing God’s Ferrari for a couple of days, the temptation of making Rs.1.5 lacs is too difficult for Rustom to resist.

The bitter-sweet story that follows is extremely endearing – like most movies that involve Vidhu Vinod Chopra movies. But what makes Ferrari Ki Sawaari a really good watch is the cast and screenplay. Nothing over the top whatsoever. No fancy dialogues – just simple and really funny ones thrown in for good measure. And a tremendous amount of consistency. For e.g. when God’s Ferrari gets towed away, from Mount Mary, it comes to the Bandra Towing area under the bridge and not some random place.

The performances are superb and more importantly sincere. I tweeted last night and I say this again. Is there any actor who is more versatile than Boman Irani in India today? The most entertaining performances came actually from the support cast in pairs. Akash Dabhade & Deepak Shirke as the servant and guard @ God’s home are hilarious. Seema Bhargava, Vijay Nikam and Nilesh Divekar give us some more funny moments as the wedding planner and the wedding party.

All in all, a true family entertainer and a movie that you will walk out of, feeling very good. The only flaw – stretch, stretcher and strechest – at least 45 mins could have been cut from the movie to make it really crisp. Out of the 45 minutes would be 5 minutes of an absolutely wasted view of Vidya Balan’s midriff. But then this is what sells I guess. Wonder why VVC was getting so worked up about Rowdy Rathore’s success? 6.5 on 10 and definitely worth it not just for the family entertainment but also notably shows the plight of even cricketers who have played the highest level in India but don’t seem to have existed. Well done Rajesh Mapuskar for a debut movie - very well done.

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyU34nS9Ztw

Rock of Ages

It has been a really long time since we have got the opportunity to watch a musical in the purest sense of the word. And whats more, I cannot reemeber the last time I saw a musical which was based solely on Rock!!! School of Rock technically was a Rock movie but not really a musical all the way. Rock of Ages addresses that gap – and does it quite well I must say.

Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) is an aspiring musician who has found his way to the most sought after night spot on the famous or should we say infamous “strip” @ Los Angeles. Its called The Bourbon. A place that has been the launch pad for many an artist of the past few years. Chief amongst them being the lead singer of a band called “Arsenal” – Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise). A rock star par excellence. A star whose fame precedes him like nothing else. A fame that makes women throw themselves at him and give up every single piece of their honour and self respect like no one else can. But even Jaxx has his nuances and is going through a really rough patch.

Coming into the scene early on is Sherrie Christian who comes to LA to make a name for herself in the music world and of course the Bourbon is the place she would ideally like to start off with. However, the small town girl gets robbed of all her records on the strip. And guess what – as luck would have it – right in front of the Bourbon. And right when Drew is on the other side of the road. Drew finds her a job @ the Bourbon despite the resistance from Bourbon’s owner – Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin).

On the other side, there is the recently elected mayor Mike Whitmore (Bryan Cranston) whose campaign mantra has been cleaning the city of everything that can be harmful to their kids. And chief among the clean up targets is the strip. He is not only supported but also leading the charge is his wife Patricia (Catherine Zeta Jones) who seems to be obsessed with shutting The Bourbon down.

One of the better musicals in recent times and definitely one worth watching, Rock of Ages show cases some really good talent in mixing new age lyrics with some totally classic rock. Don’t look much at direction or acting talent per se. Although there is sufficient amounts of the latter. Nothing much that Adam Shankman could have got to the table per se. But he is definitely saved with some solid performances from the entire cast. I particularly liked Baldwin and Russel Brand. I give it 6.5 on 10. Watch it.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi956080153/