Oldboy (2013) (English)

Oldboy started in 1996 as a Manga written by Garon Tsuchiya and illustrated by Nobuaki Minegishi.  There were 8 volumes released over 2 years.  South Korean filmmaker Park Chan Wook made this into a trilogy that I am desperate to get my hands on - Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), and Sympathy for Lady Vengeance (2005) – Themes of Revenge, Violence and Salvation respectively.

Gangster Squad

Do you like Gangster Movies? Of the likes of say The Untouchables, Bonnie & Clyde a True Story etc.? You get my drift right? One that has a lead villain who you want to get into screen and kill yourself or at least put behind bars if you could. One that has one or a few good cops who are more intent in putting the gangster behind bars.

Men In Black 3

Now this franchise is 15 years old… or should I say 15 years young!!!! 1997 is the first time we were saved from the scum of the universe. 15 years and a sequel later, we have the same team – and that to me is THE most surprising part of MIB III – the same team, coming back to save us from some more scum. Now how is that for a benchmark of commitment towards consistency? Take a bow people. Take a bow!!!

And Barry Sonnenfeld doesn’t disappoint. The director of other hits such as RV and Wild Wild West, teams up with his favourite star – Will Smith – once again to give us some vintage MIB stuff. All with upto date techniques of visual effects. Add to that some really good Alien Effects from Rick Baker – in a movie like this it deserved to be called out separately in the credits. What you get at the end of the day is the MIB essence which people in my age bracket have grown up with. But you also get a product that will appeal to the “children” of today ;) (notice the evident sarcasm).

J (Will Smith) and K (Tommy Lee Jones) are going about their business as usual saving the earth and reporting to their new boss O (Emma Thompson). But on the last 2 stake outs, J starts noticing something out of place and is not the most comfortable with K informing him that it is above his pay grade. Some more investigation and he finds out that Boris The Animal (Jemaine Clement) who has recently escaped the world’s most secure prison has something to do with this.

Boris, with the help of his hot aide, escapes the Lunar prison and using a time machine goes back to alter the course of the universe. He kills K – and that’s only because K didn’t kill him the previous time – and now J finds himself craving for chocolate milk. Are you confused already? Don’t be. Coz all of the above has been done really well in the movie. And rest assured you will not be as twisted around as you are now.

The essence of MIB is retained all through with the quirky dialogues which may make little or no sense to the young and uninitiated. But fear not – coz they have nothing to do with the movie . What has improved dramatically is the quality of visual effects and the emphasis on the aliens. The story line is as always very straightforward but complicated with the use of unpronounceable galaxies and species.

I read this in another review and I quote, “That old canard is right: comedy is not easy. Science fiction comedy is even less easy”. I cannot agree more. 7 on 10 for certain.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3916407065/

Hollow Man

It has been 11 years since Hollow Man released. I should have managed to see it a lot earlier right? Definitely a lot earlier than last evening. But then there are loads of movies that I haven’t seen as soon as they have released. This year itself, I would have missed about 20-25 movies already. And hold your horses. I had not seen Deewar till about 3 years back. OK I can already feel the brickbats coming in. *sigh* what can I say. Deprived childhood  (grinning simultaneously at silly joke).

One thing I can say for certain though is that I don’t think I missed much by delaying Hollow Man by 11 years. Maybe it would have been a different reaction 11 years earlier for certain considering the amount of special effects used in that day and age would make it a great attempt and that the likes of Inception and Avatar would make Hollow Man seem pale in comparison. Yes, there would be a bias to that extent. But even if I were to eliminate the bias and look at the concept and the way it has been fleshed out and executed, it leaves a hell of a lot to be desired. The absolute casual manner in which genetic changes are discussed and played around with makes the experience of the movie exactly that – casual. Actually one could have expected a director like Paul Verhoeven to deliver exactly this considering. His previous sci fi movies were good, in fact great at effects but not too great at execution – Total Recall and Robocop being good cases in point. Guess Mr. Verhoeven did not learn much. Got swayed with his experience in Basic Instinct – but not every movie has a Sharon Stone that will distract people’s attention right Paul Sir?

What Paul Verhoeven has done right though is to show the negative side of having the gift of invisibility and how much one can misuse it. The transition of Dr. Sebastian Caine (Bacon) from being obsessed with being the first person to crack the code of invisibility to going insane with the power of his very creation has been shown quite well I must admit. If only the passion of the character was transalted into the passion of movie making by coming closer to perfection and not giving a half baked product. Forgive me for the repeated comparison with the likes of Christopher Nolan but I guess that’s what differentiates decent directors from great directors. The complete focus on attention to detail and thereby getting an end product that is super memorable.

Cannot say much about the casting either. Kevin Bacon, Josh Brolin and Elizabeth Shue would have made for a solid combination for certain. But all seem quite listless. The only person who seems to have given close to a 100% is Kevin Bacon who is quite intense through the entire movie. Overall, a barely OK watch. Would have been great in its time but did not stand the test of time for certain. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hI4uJec4qHc

True Grit

Its been quite a while since I have seen an authentic western. And after Jeff Bridges got his 2nd nomination for the Oscars in as many years, I was even more keen to watch True Grit. Add to it the fact that it has been directed by Joel & Ethan Coen who have very rarely put a foot wrong in most of the movies that they have given us. The combination was sufficient to get me up @ 7 am on a Saturday morning and make it to the 9 am show @ PVR Phoenix (no they are not paying me for this…. Although I do wish they would). I have to confess that I owe all of you an apology for not having posted a review in a while. Have been bitten by the cricket bug myself and didn’t go the distance to make time for putting my thoughts down for the past 4 days. Having said that, I have finally managed to and intend to get it back on track.


It is 1880 in the WWW – Wild Wild West for the un-initiated . Mattie Ross (Hailee Steinfeld) is a fourteen year old who finds herself in a position that most of us would not want to. Her father has just been murdered and she has to collect the body. She may be fourteen, but she is extremely strong minded and not willing to go back till she gets to the bottom of all of this. She packs her father’s body off back home on the train with a message to her mother that she will be back soon. On finding out that her father was killed over a petty fight by a wanted outlaw Tom Chaney (Josh Brolin) who is out scott free, she decides to seek justice. And justice in the WWW follows only one pattern – an eye for an eye. But she also knows that the law will take its own course. If she needs a quick decision, then she needs to find a bounty hunter or a marshall who would do it for some more money (structured corruption makes it legal ). But she doesn’t have any money left with her and so has to use her intelligent ways to wriggle her late father out of a deal that he had made with a local business man and gets enough to hire the services of Reuben J “Rooster” Cogburn (Jeff Bridges) who is said to be a marshall who has “True Grit”. Someone who really doesn’t care much about Outlaws and would rather the world is rid of them. He has to date taken care of 23 of them and is coincidentally being tried for them in a court of law – the WWW version of dealing with Human Rights Violation. He is quite surprised when a spirited fourteen year old approaches him with an offer of a princely sum of $50 – a lot of money at that time – and reluctantly agrees to take up the search for Tom Chaney. The kid wants to join but Rooster gives her the slip and takes off with a Texas Ranger La Beouf (Matt Damon) who is also on the lookout for Chaney for shooting a senator in Texas.

True Grit is about strong performances. You would need to listen to the dialogues extremely closely since they are all in an extremely Southern accent – any further south and it would be Spanish. For most of us, it would be extremely difficult to pick up the heavily accented speech. So listen very carefully or better still watch it somewhere that has sub titles. That however doesn’t change the fact that Jeff Bridges, Matt Daman and Hailee Steinfeld have all come up with scintillating performances to say the least. And most of all Steinfeld, who with an Oscar nomination for her performance as Mattie Ross has come into Hollywood with a bang to say the least. The confidence with which she holds her own in front of two of the best actors of our time is eerie to say the least. What a way to debut I say!!! Jeff Bridges would have picked up the Oscar this time if not for one Colin Firth and another Javier Bardem. That True Grit returned home empty handed from the Oscars can be only explained by the fact that it is a damn good movie but not the best in the 10 categories that it was nominated in. But 7.5 on 10 it is an absolutely must watch.  Just watch out for the accents and the pace that could be perceived as slow by some of us.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1984862489/

Wall Street : Money Never Sleeps

Nearly 2 decades back, Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas) proudly proclaimed, “Greed is good”. After spending 8 years in prison for various crimes including insider trading, he comes out of jail to the coldest possible reception. Every other inmate who is released with him has someone or the other to receive him. He takes a step towards a black limousine which pulls up only to find out that it was meant for someone else. Left with no choice, he gets into a plain city cab to make his way back into New York and start rebuilding his life. 7 years further down, he is now a successful professor / lecturer and author of a best seller titled – no points for guessing – GREED IS GOOD. He makes his living by encouraging the audience to keep in mind just 3 words which are the secret to getting rich – READ MY BOOK .

Jacob "Jake" Moore (Shia Lebouf) is a successful trader at a well known financial services firm called Keller Zebel investments. He strongly believes in the power of alternate energy options such as fusion and has been pushing the board to invest their monies behind it but not so successfully yet. He is seeing Winnie (Carey Mulligan) who doesn’t really believe in marriage thanks to her parents who she doesn’t hold in high regard. Did I mention Winnie’s last name was Gekko? Jake is in complete awe and respect for his mentor, Lewis Zebel (Frank Langella) who heads up Keller Zebel and considers Jake to be his protégé. So much that he gives him a bonus of $1.5 million and pushes him to get married soon. Jake senses that there is something wrong but Zebel doesn’t reveal much. He hears some rumours about KZ going under but brushes them off. Even Lewis stalls him and doesn’t reveal much but says, “The question is not whether KZ is going under. The question should be who is not”?

The next day, Keller Zebel crashes despite Lewis’ best efforts with the chairmen of the US Treasury at the Federal Reserve, thanks to Bretton James (Josh Brolin) effectively blocking him out. James offers Lewis a best price of $3 per share agains the $75 peak that it was trading at a week before. Not able to handle to crash, Lewis kills himself by jumping in front of a train. A shattered by calm Jake decides to get to the bottom of the entire incident by joining hands with the master himself. He gets into a deal with Gekko wherein Gekko will help him get to the bottom of the Lewis Zebel suicide and why KZ failed. In return, Jake would help him get closer to his daughter who otherwise would have nothing to do with him.

Wall Street Money Never Sleeps once again stamps the authority of on Oliver Stone as a director. Is it his best to date. Not by a country mile. But even an out of form Stone has more class than tons of directors put together. Like most Oliver Stone movies this one too is extremely dialogue intensive and to make it worse for a financially dyslexic moron like me, it was a complete nightmare trying to keep up. But I managed somehow. Knowing Stone, and having watched the first edition, I was kind of prepared for it. Michael Douglas even Josh Brolin are both fascinatingly cruel and cold. Shia LeBouf seems to be making his transition like a Leo DiCaprio did nearly a decade ago from chocolate boy hero to more intense, meaningful roles and is doing a great job out of it as now. But the outstanding performance comes from an actor who I have begun to admire since Frost/Nixon. Frank Langella is simply brilliant in the less than 5 minutes of screen time that he has. His sheer presence makes the screen come alive.

To sign off with a line from Gekko, “I once said that Greed is Good… but now seems it has turned legal”. Definitely an 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi875627545/

In the Valley of Elah

Hank (Tommy Lee Jones) and Joan (Susan Sarandon) Deefield are an elderly couple who have lost one of their sons to war. Their second son Mike (Johnatan Tucker) also joins the army, much to the disappointment of his mother. He returns to the US and surprisingly goes AWOL - Absent Without Leave for those who are unfamiliar with Army parlance. Its very unlike Mike not to have called.



After waiting for a couple of days, Hank who is a retired Military Police Sergeant decides to follow up with the MP and people at the base. A two day drive gets him there but most of them prove largely unhelpful. Other than expressing their concern and surprise, no one is able to give any leads. The officer leading the investigation Lt. Kirklander (Jason Patric) stonewalls any questions that Hank may have.


Luckily, when Hank visits Mike’s quarters, he manages to squeeze out his old mobile phone – illegitimately of course. A local phone / computer geek offers to help Hank with the images / videos that are stored in the phone which is in badly damaged condition. With no choice left, Hank accepts the offer and leaves the phone there. Maybe…just maybe it may have some evidence that would lead him to Mike.


Not happy with the progress @ the base, Hank decides to go to the local police where he meets Detective Emily Sanders (Charlize Theron). Unfortunately, since the case involves the army, the only people who are authorized to investigate are the MP. Sanders and the other detectives refuse to help.


Coincidentally, that very night, the local police is called to investigate a badly burnt body that was found close to the military base. Before further investigations can take place, the army intervenes and claims the property to be theirs and hence out of local police jurisdiction. The local police is more than glad to give up. Kirklander then calls Hank over to the base to identify the body which they have placed as Mike, thanks to a partial fingerprint. The MP now believes that Mike was involved with some drug dealers and was a mule for them and the Drug Dealers were responsible for the murder. The investigation strongly takes shape towards this theory.


Unconvinced and obviously not to pleased that the MP is handling the case, Hank hounds Sanders till she takes him to the spot of the crime. Sanders and Hank then come together using Hank’s experience as an MP and Sanders’ intent of proving a point that she is as capable of being a detective in a male dominated job.


Paul Haggis has in each of his attempts created a super movie. Although ITVOE does not have the concept of parallel story lines that Crash had, it is equally layered and explores the myriad of emotions that people go through. How do old parents feel when they are informed that their only son is no more and no one knows why? What goes through the mind of an up and coming woman in a man’s world when she is continuously ridiculed and questioned on her way up? How does an officer in the army put duty before the truth so that the army does not have to face the brunt of it?


Could not have thought of anyone better to execute the role of Hank and Joan Deerfield. Tommy Lee Jones’ intensity on screen is incomparable. I probably use the word “intensity” too often in my reviews but isn’t that what acting is all about. Susan Sarandon is simply brilliant in what could probably be the smallest role that she has played in her life. And then there is Charlize Theron who cannot but give her best to every single role that she does.


Paul Haggis has successfully portrayed the pressures that defence personnel go through. The day to day experiences of an average private in the US Army OR for that matter a Jawan in the Indian Army have severe repercussions both physically and psychologically. It handles the sensitive topic of Post Traumatic Stress in as bold a manner as possible.


In the Valley of Elah was nominated for the Best Movie in the 2008 Academy Awards. Cant quite remember who it lost out to. But it ought to have been brilliant enough. Else Paul Haggis would have got his 2nd oscar for sure. Surprisingly, Katherine Bigelow made it with the Hurt Locker that handles a similar issue albeit in a with a different perspective.


Definitely a 8 on 10 in my books. However be forewarned that the pace is quite slow and the movie is dialogue intensive.