The Resident

Cinema houses should actually start watching movies before they classify them under a specific genre. With a truck load of confidence they classified the Hilary Swank – Jeffrey Dean Morgan starrer The Resident as HORROR. 10 minutes into the movie, you are quite excited since the aura or mystery around the entire concept of the house is building up slowly but steadily. 20 minutes in and you are still rooted to the screen thanks to some great camera work and some brilliant use of sound as well as light by Finnish director Antti Jokinen who seems to be a great find – has done quite a good job for his first English movie (his previous works were some random science fiction pieces, short videos and TV documentaries all of them probably for TV Finland or something). 30 minutes into the movie, you start wondering when the alleged horror is about to start. Another 10 minutes and you are quite convinced that there is something missing out here and that there is no horror. 50 minutes in and you want to scream out, “Paisa Wapas”!!!! (I want my money back). At the end of the hour you are quite certain that this is not horror flick by a country mile. It is a random sex offender thriller which involves the so called villain watching the heroine through peep holes and one way mirrors and making out with her in the night when he has drugged her enough. What starts off quite promisingly completely loses steam mid way through and of course leaves you with a feeling of a wasted 2 hours.

Juliet Devereau (Hilary Swank) is a nurse at a local hospital. A complete workaholic, she finds her boyfriend Jack (Lee Pace) in bed with another woman – in THEIR bed!!!! Like most sensible women she walks out of the relationship (although you would be surprised at the number of women who are willing to accept their partners cheating on them) and starts her search for a new place to live in. But with her kind of budget in New York City, one can get a pigeon hole at best. So she goes from pigeon hole to pigeon hole till she finally finds a place which is ….. hello…. As good as a mansion – it is a bit away from the city and has the railroad running close by and some signal problems but for the price that is being asked it is a steal to say the least. It is owned by an extremely good looking young landlord, Max (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his grandfather August (Christopher Lee). The place has a very eerie feel to it but Juliet lets her desperation get the better of her and takes the place. Needless to say, there is a spark that builds into a fire between Juliet and Max. But will Jack be too thrilled about it?

As the risk of repeating myself – great start but doesn’t sustain the momentum. Antti could have done a much better job. Swank and Morgan come up with significantly below par performances. Disappointing overall. 5 on 10 at best. Actually missable.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4101347865/

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/

Shanghai

Sincerest of apologies to my half a dozen followers. I had seen this one a week ago but for some reason completely missed out posting the review. I assure you that such lapses will not occur in the future.

The year is 1941. Most of china has been taken over by Japan. But for a small sea port towards the south east of China – Shanghai - A cosmopolitan pot pourri which hosts people from several nationalities. America has not yet entered the war. Paul Soames (John Cusack) comes into Shanghai looking for his close friend Connor (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Soames is an undercover spy who poses as a journalist who would be working for the Shanghai Herald. To add to his cover, he writes articles that also provide readers the counter point of view – a softer stand in favour of the German position in the war. Most people don’t like his stand but the Germans aren’t complaining. It helps Soames get into several parties hosted by Germans.

By the time Soames gets into Shanghai, he has made friends with Mrs. Meuller (Franka Potente) who has moved to Shanghai with her husband who is a Naval Engineer. But he doesn’t land up in time to prevent Connor from being murdered in a dark alley. Soames is positive that Connor has stumbled upon something which is of great importance but didn’t have complete concrete evidence of the same. He tries hard to convince his boss about it but without proof it falls flat. So he sets off on his own little adventure to uncover what Connor knew.

Now Shanghai is controlled by Anthony Lan Ting (Chow Yun Fat), a gangster who is married to Anna (Gong Li) – the daughter of the leader of the resistance in China at that time. Knowing fully well that it will be difficult to swim against the tide, Anthony bites the bullet and does key odd jobs for Tanaka (Ken Watanabe) who is a Japanese colonel based in Shanghai. Soames knows that for him to make any headway to uncover Connor’s killer, he has to get through to Anthony

It has been a really long time since a quality war movie has been made. The last one would have been the double header that we were treated to from Mr. Clint Eastwood. I guess the wait will have to continue. But then Shanghai cannot be termed as a war movie in the true sense of the word. Its got a heavy dose of romance and loads of espionage also thrown in for good measure. Although Mikael Kalstrom’s direction is just about at par, what takes this movie to the next level is the absolutely amazing screen presence and execution by our Asian Stars. Ken Watanabe has been and continues to be one of my favourite actors. And Chow Yun Fat has come a really long way from his days of Kung Fu. Gong Li in her role of the distraught daughter of the slain resistance leader is simple magnificient. Not to mention that she looks ethereal. John Cusack suddenly pales in comparison to these phenomenal actors. And mind you, Cusack is no push over when it comes to the acting department.

The rest of the cast is quite passé. Nothing else really stands out in the entire movie. I was a tad disappointed. The edge of the seat excitement is definitely missing. The story winds as much as the yellow river I am sure – for a little under two hours. What makes it worse is the predictability of the entire plot. Doesn’t take more than 20 minutes into the movie to figure out what and how its going to end. Full credit, however, to the art director. The sets were superb!!! That, unfortunately cannot carry the entire movie on its own. Shanghai gets a 5 on 10 from my end.