The Hangover 3

At the outset, I would like to apologise for this delayed review of a movie that released 2 weeks back.  A friend asked me if it was similar to Hangover 2 and whether he should watch it.  I hadn’t seen HO2 and so decided that I would take this opportunity to watch HO1, 2 and 3 and then review all 3 together.

The Hangover 2

The thing about a hugely successful movie is that from a commercial perspective, a sequel is in order.  The ingredients of a successful sequel – and you are well aware of my thoughts on that – include the same director and largely the same cast.  That condition definitely checks all boxes for Hangover 2.

The Hangover

I am quite sure that a lot and more has been written about what is considered by many as probably the best comedy movie made in the past decade – Circa 2000-09.  I watched Hangover once again a few days back because I had to check it out before reviewing one of the worst movies in a long time – Hangover 3.  Just to be sure if I had my expectations ill placed or not.

Flypaper

Rob Minkoff directed the best animation movie of all time – The Lion King. I somehow find it hard to believe that. Primarily because in Flypaper he kind of forgets a few basic tenets of good story telling. Firstly, ensure that it doesn’t get too predictable. No matter how hard you try to confuse the you know what about every single person who is sitting in the auditorium, you have to give credit to the audience’s intelligence that they can and will put 2 and 2 together to come up with the answer before you tell them the answer. And if the audience’s answers match yours then you are out of business. Therefore it is best to build the intrigue slowly but surely and not go about at a frenetic pace in an attempt to really build the tempo up and keep the excitement levels and adrenaline levels as high as you possibly can through a 90 minute session.

Next, if you indeed want to keep the frenetic pace up through the 90 minutes then you need people who can be associated with the frenetic pace and can keep themselves calm, cool and composed during the time. Ashely Judd – fair enough. Patrick Dempsey – no way. Bad casting mate. What you get at the end of it is an effort which borders on the other side of overacting and not as much as an expression of someone who has a borderline case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Thirdly, get your support cast to contribute and not look like a bunch of idiots. Give them roles which have some meaning at least. And roles which are not put into this mish mash because there is a requirement of a support staff. And once you have done that, please ensure that you get them to put in the effort that is expected of them to get the end result to meet the mark. Not just hang in there for the sake of hanging in there. Surprising that Minkoff got all of this and more right in the Lion King and then went about unlearning every single thing that he did right to give us a mish mash which is neither an action movie nor a robbery movie nor a drama and not even a comedy. It just has a little bit of everything. And the ground rule to be followed is that you cannot try to be everything to everyone. Just be great at one thing for some people.

Nevertheless, Minkoff’s effort cannot be dissed completely. It does have its good points with the likes of Ashley Judd as mentioned before and the fact that he does attempt to give us some excitement. You will not fall asleep during the movie for certain – mind you I was totally jet lagged and hadn’t slept in a while but still managed to sit through quite comfortably. Just that it seems a bit inane after a while. Still give it 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4287863833/

Tangled

How many of us have heard about the story of Rapunzel? Not too many in this part of the world I am sure but its quite a staple diet for kids that are growing up across the world. But why is it that no one has thought of making it into an animation movie yet? (I maybe wrong and am free to be corrected and informed). It is such a beautiful fairy tale that has everything from “Once Upon a time….” All the way to “……. And they lived happily ever after”. And it also has all the excitement and the adventure that you can expect out of a classic fairy tale.


The baby Princess Rapunzel (Mandy Moore when she grows up) is a very lucky girl. She receives healing powers from a magical flower. The power resides in her golden blonde hair. But the magical powers are lost if someone would try to cut it and it would no longer remain golden blonde. Also, she has to sing a particular song to activate (sorry about the words) the magical powers. Knowing this, the evil Mother Gothel (Donna Murphy) kidnaps the princess and takes her away into a hidden tower. Obviously Rapunzel is not allowed to get out of the tower and spends her entire life to date and her hair has now grown long… really really long. Thanks to that, Mother Gothel has continued to remain much younger than what she is.

Rapunzel spends her time in the tower doing a variety of things that include reading, painting, brushing her hair, reading, painting, brushing her hair, reading…. Oh I have already mentioned that haven’t I? Her favourite companion is her super cute chameleon, Pascal. Everyday Mother Gothel comes over to give her food and get her to sing so that she continues to remain young. Rapunzel is about to turn 18 and wants to get out of the tower, not because she is craving to escape but because she wants to see the lanterns that go up every year on her birthday – this time in person and not from her tower window. The Mother Gothel will have nothing of it. But she obviously hasn’t prepared herself for Eugene aka Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) and the Snuggly Duckling Gang and of course the horse that behaves like a dog, Maximus.

The Director due of Nathan Greno and Byron Howard come together for the first time after Bolt which was a decent animation movie. But they seem to have come a long way together. Along with Disney they give us one of the better animation movies of the year. Oscar stuff – No. Super Enjoyable – Yes. Great music which is a hall mark of Disney and has got Tangled its only Oscar nomination this year. The makers of Gulliver’s Travels should have a dekko @ Tangled to understand how the essence of a classic is maintained despite the fact that we are in the 21st century. Trust Disney to give a classic its due. Yes, there is the odd use of the colloquial modern day language such as “Don’t freak me out”. But the essence remains unchanged. Extremely entertaining and a must watch with the kids – adults with a liking for animation would enjoy it. 6.5 on 10 is what I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi385091865/