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.

Pacific Rim

Lets begin by picking out what was right about Pacific Rim.  Quite a few things actually.  Loads of refreshing angles.  For one, The aliens have invaded all of earth and not just the United States of America.  In fact, the final show down of the movie happens off the coast of Hong Kong and not in Los Angeles or New York as the case is usually.

Prometheus

3 movies released this weekend and I got the chance to watch all 3 of them. The one I picked last night was Ridley Scott’s much awaited multi starrer – Prometheus. Once again it was an opportunity to see a master director with a style that’s clearly differentiated from any other director. You will not find it too difficult to identify a movie from Ridley Scott if you are in a quiz. He has maintained the same style over the past 30 plus years.

Whether it was Blade Runner or Aliens in the Sci Fi genre or the more serious American Gangster, there is an attention to detail that would amaze most people. In the Sci Fi genre where Ridley Scott seems most comfortable with, the quality of the effects have gone sky rocketing with the increase of technology available. However, the basic essence of slowly building up tempo to a stunning crescendo and leaving enough room to build a franchise at the end of the day. Prometheus is no different.

Prometheus revolves around the basic question that has dogged mankind for eons as of now – Where did it all begin? Where did we come from? Do we blindly accept 200 years of Darwinism or do we look upon it with the skepticism that we have always looked at things around us? All it takes is Dr. Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Dr. Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) to stumble upon some interesting murals dated back to over 3000 years in Scotland in the year 2098 to raise questions. A pattern clearly emerges around murals discovered across the world that points to a galaxy trillions of miles away.

It takes a very rich man – Peter Weyland puts his financial muscle behind Shaw and Holloway. A space mission over a 2 year period on a shuttle called Prometheus finds itself in the same planet indicated by the patterns. The planet is extremely similar to earth and could actually give us answers that we have been searching for.

Prometheus is, as always an extremely well made Ridley Scott movie. The emphasis on the alien beings is again – as always – very high. The detailing of every single feature is stunning. And therefore, the fear of what the being is capable of is supreme. Right from the small and insignificant looking worm to a gory octopus like being or the thing that is left behind at the end of it all that looks like the alien from Scott’s earlier movie of the same name – everything has the stamp of Ridley Scott on it. Now all you need to do, is to find your way to the IMAX Screen to maximize the impact. 7.5 on 10 again. Superb.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2405016345/

Ghost Rider : Spirit of Vengeance

The concept of the Ghost Rider remains pretty much the same. The only difference being that this time around the Rider knows that he is one and it doesn’t come as a surprise to him. But the rest of the cast has changed hands and the story is obviously a new one. The special effects team, I would guess has remained unchanged considering the quality and the end product. The look and feel doesn’t seem vastly different. So for those who found the build up to the Ghost Rider series (that released 3 years back if memory serves me right) to be good, you are bound to enjoy this one as well.

For those who didn’t think that the first one was remotely good movie making – avoid this one even if someone were to pay you watch it. The Devil this time under the garb of Roarke (Ciarán Hinds) has continued with his attempts to generate more and more souls. And in the bargain, he has also bought out the soul of Nadya (Violante Placido) in return for a child that he bears off her. This child is the only one who can defeat the devil and has therefore assumed paramount importance. The only one who can keep the child away is the Rider (Nicholas Cage). And helping him this time is a monk, Moreau (Idris Elba) who has more alcohol than blood in his stream at all times.

Ghost Rider : Spirit of Vengeance is the 4th movie made by the director duo of Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor who have movies like Gamer and the Crank series to their credit. I have seen the 2nd part in the crank series and found it quite literally out of this world i.e. from a different planet (not in the positive sense). The earlier and current Ghost Rider though are very much from this planet luckily. There is, as mentioned earlier little difference in the special effects this time around. The nicer part being that the rider doesn’t leave a trail of destruction with his bike and has learnt to control it a bit more. I somehow found the effects and story of the first part a tad better in fact.

In movies of this genre one cannot really expect too much of acting talent on display. My not so favouritest of actors in the lead once again comes up with some really constipated expressions. I really cannot fault him at this skill set. It is an art that he has mastered better than most people. Nowadays all his expressions seem a bit constipated to me. Now please understand that for some reason he hasn’t impressed me to date and I am biased in my opinion. So sorry Mr.Cage. this is not personal. I am sure you are a wonderful human being but I don’t quite like your acting  for some inexplicable reason.

There is nothing much to write about so I will not drag this review any further, Lest it turns out to be as watchable as the movie. 5 on 10 from my side for this one. Not as good as the first part. Watch if you have nothing better to do. You may like the effects.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2284953881/

Thor

When I first saw the trailer of THOR, what excited me more than the concept of yet another Marvel comic being converted to a movie was the fact that Natalie Portman was part of the movie. So here is probably my first disclaimer – I thought I was but now I am completely sure about this. I know I will be joining a very long queue of people in the world. I also know of a few friends in my life who are in the same boat as me chief amongst them being Sumantra Mukherjee (sorry Sumo – your competition just increased by 0.001%). I also know that one Benjamin Millepied is probably feeling insecure and yet smirking under that smile of his that he currently holds the principle rights to Ms. Portman. So without much ado here goes – I AM IN LOVE WITH NATALIE PORTMAN. So it is going to be extremely difficult to keep this movie review unbiased. However, I am trying my best to do so. In case there are any differences of opinion then it can be attributed to the state of mind that I am in currently which concerns one of the lead actors in the movie.


Now let me try and get you back to the review. Thor (Chris Helmsworth) is an arrogant young man. Along with his friends Volstagg (Ray Stevenson), Hogun (Tadanobu Asano), Fandrall (Josh Dallas) and Sir (Jaimie Alexander) have fought many a conquest to protect and to extend the rule of Asgard. He is the first born of Odin (Anthony Hopkins) and Frigga (Rene Russo) – The King and The Queen of Asgard. He believes that his father is not being fair when he refuses to attack their worn enemies – The Frost Giants of Yodenhime. He decides to take his father head on thanks to the instigation from his brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who secretly harbours the thought of becoming king after Odin. Thor attacks Yodenhime on his own and barely manages to get back alive. But Odin doesn’t take too kindly and banishes him to Earth and takes away all his powers. He also banishes Thor’s hammer along with him with a caveat that only a worthy person would be able to pick it up and then gain all of Thor’s powers. That’s when our hero crashes into astro physicist Jane Foster’s (Natalie Portman) car who is trying to investigate some strange but gorgeous Aurora which seem to be appearing at regular intervals of late.

I had no clue that Kenneth Branagh has a directing side to him as well. I have always known him to be a solid actor. In his first movie after Sleuth (starring Michael Caine and Jude Law) Branagh uses truck loads of special effects. Some action sequences especially the first attack on Yodenhime by Thor and Co are visual treats to say the least. I guess Branagh had to up the ante on that count. He must have tried his best to make Chris Hemsworth act. But the fine specimen of humanity that Hemsworth is, proves it once again that acting talent is inversely proportional to good looks. Long way to go for Hemsworth to make a mark of any sort. That he will continue to be Thor in the sequel i.e. The Avengers (stay till the end of the credits to have the first look) is good news for him I say. My inputs on Natalie Portman will obviously be coloured and hence I will refrain from any comment. So to round it off, Thor is an average superhero movie with great special effects and not too much acting on display. But its definitely a big screen movie and not one for the idiot box. So watch it on the big screen while it still lasts. I give it 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1431476761/

The Losers

From August 2003 to March 2006, 32 issues of a comic book series were published by DC Comics. They were titled “The Losers”. Now 32 issues is quite long in the life of a comic book. Surely there are a few that have crossed a much higher number but the number 32 and a couple of awards won were considered good enough by director Sylvain White to attempt getting the comic book to the silver screen. Or maybe Sylvain was just following the tracks of several graphic novels / comics / TV series that have been remade onto the big screen over the past few years. Some of them successfully and others not as lucky. Well, I am sure he tried his best to not land up like the title and maybe also emulate what the comic book got in terms of awards. Unfortunately, Sylvain has still to mature as a director and has probably lost an opportunity to build a solid franchise. The comic book had 32 issues and the concept of The Losers had tremendous potential of getting at least 2, maybe even 3 more sequels but I guess it will take a lot of courage and a crazy investor to have the courage to put the money onto the table now.

Lt. Col. Franklin Clay (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is the leader of a small strike team into Bolivia to seek and destroy an operation run by a local gangster / rebel called Fadhil (Peter Francis James). Clay is supported in his efforts by Capt. Jake Jensen (Chris Evans), Capt. William Roque (Idris Elba), Sgt. Lingwood “Pooch” Porteus (Columbus Short) and Sgt. Carlos “Cougar” Alvarez (Oscar Jaenada) – each one with his own set of responsibilities. As they are about to make the strike, they notice a whole bunch of kids being taken into the hamlet and Clay wants to call the operation off. But the CIA operative behind the mission, Max (Jason Patric) doesn’t allow it. Clay, however, decides to go right ahead and save the children in the under 8 minutes that they have for the air strike to take place. In the process, they also manage to kill Fadhil.

But the sinister Max, who the team hasn’t seen as of now, has other ideas. He blows up the chopper that picks up the kids. Disgusted by this, the strike team decides that they are not going to have anything to do with the army any more and junks their dog tags in the debris. All this works out conveniently for Max since no one is there to refute his sinister role in the entire activity. The team then moves on to take odd jobs in Bolivia / South America but desperately want to track down Max. Enter Aisha (Zoe Saldanah) who joins The Losers under the commitment that she will lead them to Max. The entire team but for Roque is excited at the prospect – of tracking down Max not Aisha (corrupt minded people I say) and so the adventure begins.

In a year that saw the release of the likes of A Team and Expendables (which in itself was not upto the mark), I am appalled at the courage that the makers of The Losers had to release the movie in the first place. A really badly made movie, it was no surprise that it lasted in India for less than a week. And I was wondering why all this while. Jeffrey Dean Morgan should restrict himself to the rugged romantic movies like Gerard Butler deals in. Just coz Gerard Butler can act in action movies and just because Morgan starred with Butler in PS I Love you doesn’t mean that Morgan can act in action movies. It’s a different league Jeffrey dear. Way out of yours. At least Jeffrey Morgan tries to act. The rest of the cast, regrettably, doesn’t even make a meek attempt. Quite a sad result from what could have been a successful trilogy or even a quadrology. 3 on 10

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi894043161/