Moonrise Kingdom

My first experience with Wes Anderson was with a very quirky animation movie called The Fantastic Mr. Fox. If you haven’t seen it, then it should be on your must see list. And very soon after Mr. Fox, I encountered The Darjeeling Limited. Another fabulousl effort from Anderson – this time with music from Satyajeet Ray and Merchant Ivory movies all through. This too should be on your must watch list. Then pray, why should Moonrise Kingdom not make the cut?

It will not make the cut, if you are not into the quirky, dark satire that Anderson flirts with throughout the ninety odd minutes of the movie. You will not like Moonrise Kingdom because you do not have the patience to go through a rather slow start. You will not like Moonrise Kingdom because for about 30 minutes you would be scratching your head as to why the guy at the counter insisted that this is an “A” rated movie when all you can see is a bunch of Khaki Scouts in uniform and one twelve year old girl who comes from a rather demented family.

You will not like Moonrise Kingdom because you have not been able to, are incapable of and will not be ever in a position to sift through the finer nuances of sarcasm and irony that Anderson is such an expert at. Because you do not have a liking for comedy of the darkish variety that involves a bunch of fantastic kids taking a dig at the lives of us older people.

I must admit that I walked into the hall only because I had seen Anderson’s earlier movies and loved them. I also found it quite surprising that the distributors in India had managed to keep such a compelling and talented star cast under wraps till the date of release i.e. yesterday. Why would you not want to maximize your opportunity when you have the likes of Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand and Harvey Kietel on your rolls? Add this to the mysteries of the unexplained that comes from Reader’s Digest.

Look out for the superb, understated performances from each one in the cast particularly the two twelve year olds – Kara Hayward & Jared Gilman – who play the role of 2 kids who claim to be in love and elope at the tender age. Set in 1965 in an otherwise desolate New Panzace Island which you can reach only by ferry or a bumpy propeller powered experience, Moonrise Kingdom is as quirky as quirky can get. And yet, totally enjoyable. Don’t leave the hall till you view the final credits. The music is simply superb. 7.5 on 10 for Wes Anderson. One of the better movies of the year to date.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi562733337/

Madagascar – Europe’s Most Wanted

There is an interesting piece of trivia that I bumped across over the past few days of Madagascar advertisements on the radio. What are the team of Alex (Ben Stiller), Marty (Chris Rock), Melman (David Schwimmer) and Gloria (Jada Pinkett Smith) called collectively? If you said Zoosters then you are right. If not, then you haven’t been listening to the radio. I guess one cannot underplay the popularity of a lion, a zebra, a giraffe and a hippopotamus together on the screen. With their past 2 roaring successes, it was only obvious that a 3rd edition was around the corner. And it has only added to the previous 2 blockbusters.

Madagascar 3 – Europe’s Most Wanted is definitely going to be loved by one and all. I can assure you that I found it quite difficult to stop laughing my guts out. The Zoosters are in their natural habitat (Africa) but are severely homesick. So they decide to all head back “home” i.e. New York. But for that, they have to first find the Penguins who are in Monte Carlo blowing up all their money. Their Mission Impossible type attempt to grab the penguins turns into a public riot. And in walks their worst nightmare ever to date – Captain Chantel DuBois (Frances McDormand) of the Monte Carlo

DuBois has the reputation of having the head of almost all animals in the world on the wall. All but for the king of the jungle. And the prospect of capturing Alex is just to mouth watering for her. The chase takes the Zoosters and DuBois all through Europe’s exotic locations. En route, the gang meets up with a travelling circus which they also buy out and then go to work to repair the confidence of a bunch of animals who have not been so low in their lives.

Madagascar 3 introduces some new characters such as Vitaly (Bryan Cranston) the Russian tiger who can pass through a ring, Stefano (Martin Short) an Italian Sea Lion and the gorgeous East European cheetah Gia (Jessica Chastain) amongst others. The strike team of our 4 heroes are brilliant as they have been.

Primarily due to the consistency factor yet again. Eric Darnell & Tom McGrath who directed the earlier editions of this brilliant comic caper are joined by Conrad Vernon of Shrek2 & Monsters v Aliens fame. The 3 team up to give an awesome sequel and will definitely be back with more in the not so distant future for certain. For those who are Madagascar fans, the brilliant dialogues continue. For those who aren’t – u will be tempted to convert for certain. 7.5 on 10. That rounds up a brilliant weekend at the movies after a really long time. Three movies. Three scores of 7.5. Aaaah the joys of cinema!!!!

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1169137689/

Burn After Reading

A CIA employee with a level 3 clearance called Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) is married to an extremely painful doctor called Katie (Tilda Swinton). All Katie does 24 x 7 is question Osbourne’s existence and demean him by the minute. Also, she is having an affair with Harry Pfarrer (George Clooney) who is a US Marshall / Treasury Agent. Harry is in turn married to Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel) who is a hugely successful children’s book author. Sandy and Katie cannot see eye to eye although the families are supposed to be friends. They just hate each other – and this without knowing about the affair – wonder what would happen then.

When Osbourne gets pushed to a desk job, he gets quite peeved and decides to quit the CIA much to Katie’s chagrin. But he also starts working on his memoir. A book that will expose some of the not so pleasant secrets of the CIA – or so Osbourne believes. In between all of this, a CD with the memoir finds its way into the hands of Gym Trainer Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) who starts believing that he can make a quick buck by blackmailing Osbourne. His partner in crime – Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand) who wants to get some plastic surgery done which will set her back by quite a bit and is not covered by insurance.

Burn After Reading is a rip roaring hilarious comedy if you like the dark variety. It is not in your face slapstick or filled with smart one liners. It is just the entire story and situation that ensures that you cannot help but find it hilarious. Honestly, I could have avoided giving you guys a spoiler by narrating the broad outline but believe me, this was a difficult review to write. I couldn’t figure out where to start. Such is the layered nature of the movie – atypical of the Coen brothers.

The brothers seem to have kind of mastered the art of building up the tempo of a movie gradually, inch by inch, beat by beat through a 100 minutes. Very few who can do that. There are movie makers who can fluctuate between the fast and slow well and there are movie makers who can maintain a consistent pace and yet remain totally intense. And there are the brothers who have their own brand of movie making which is building the tempo from the extremely slow to the absolutely frenetic. Burn After Reading is no different and therefore thoroughly enjoyable.

That Brad Pitt is a phenomenal actor and not just eye candy is an aspect that hasn’t really been acknowledged by too many people. Unlike George Clooney. Both of them are superb here. But it is John Malkovich who takes the cake with his absolutely acidic brand of acting. And brilliant performances from Tilda Swinton & Frances McDormand is just the icing. You will like BAR only if u like Dark Comedy. Else avoid it. 7 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1155268889/

Transformers Dark of the Moon

Now that’s what you call a partnership!!! We are talking about Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay. And the reason I am gushing over this is because of the common sensical approach to making sequels which most people seem to have forgotten. Retain the director for all parts!!!! The same reason why an X Men turns out to be average is the reason why Transformers turns out to be executed with a significant amount of consistency. By now, Bay knows the concept of The Transformers so well that making one more would be a mechanical effort – almost robotic. One may argue that it gets boring for audiences but it would be quite contrary. A person who knows the concept inside out would be able to experiment equally well and do justice to the end product. On the other hand, someone who comes in fresh not only may struggle to do justice but also be working under the pressure of the performance of the previous movies. I take X Men as a classic example because it is just obvious. The last 3 directors have failed to get X Men upto the level that Bryan Singer took it to.

Transformers : Dark of the Moon, in all honesty has one of the corniest build ups that I have seen in cinema to date. It starts off on the premise that the mission to put man on the moon wasn’t driven by some desire to see the moon but more so because of an alien aircraft crashing into it. This was way back in the 60s. It also puts forward that the Russians could not get man on the moon but did get a camera which got some good shots of this space craft. The last corny part was that the Chernobyl disaster was caused by Aliens. Once we get these trivial parts of the build up out of the way, the movie picks up pace. And how. The space craft is actually an Autobot craft designed and piloted by the legendary Sentinel Prime (Leonard Nimoy) and the mission is initiated to retrieve the aircraft. It leads to the discovery of 5 pillars but when Sentinel awakes he informs the team that there were hundreds of these pillars. No wonder that Megatron is interested in the entire concept. Probably his last chance to take control of Earth or Cybertron.

Like the previous 2 movies, this one too is nearly 2.5 hours and the first 30 minutes is quite wasted in the long build up. As mentioned earlier, it does pick up pace but I personally believe that neither of the movies deserved more than 90 minutes of overall time. That Michael Bay can hold your attention for so long is credit to his directing capabilities. Also, I wonder what was the need to end the relationship that Sam (Shia Le Bouf) had with Mikaela (Megan Fox) and replace it with the fresh and “amazingly hot but don’t know whats wrong with her face” Rosie Huntington-Whiteley – don’t get me wrong folks, I think she is hot alright but was there a need to change the eye candy as such. Didn’t quite understand the reason. Overall, entertaining and as good as the first part, Transformers Dark of the Moon is a must watch @ 7 on 10

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi543989017/