Penguins of Madagascar

When you have Skipper (Tom McGrath), Kowalski (Chris Miller), Private (Christopher Knights) and Rico (Conrad Vernon) as the lead characters in a movie, you can be assured that there will be no shortage of excitement.  The cute looking but aggressive Penguins from the Madagascar series finally get an entire movie to themselves. Long awaited and well deserved indeed.

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.

The Zookeeper

Not sure how many of you like Kevin James but every time I see him, I am reminded of The King of Queens. I am also encouraged and immensely thrilled at the end of a not so believable movie or an even more unbelievable episode of any serial that he is part of. Now how else do you think us wide at the centre folks would generate any hope of finding the woman of our dreams and all that crap that people keep giving us stories about . So we generate inspiration in a manner of speaking from watching the likes of Kevin James making a complete and utter fool of himself in front of hotties such as Leslie Bibb who in her right sense of mind would not have given a second glance to the likes of a James but then this is Hollywood and this is the movies. They are meant to show the impossible to provide us with – as I mentioned earlier – LARGE DOSES OF HOPE.

And as if the ego boosters and the hope were not sufficient with one girl in the frame, director Frank Coraci gets in the angle of a second woman played by Rosario Dawson – who I must say was a complete revelation. I haven’t seen her look as good as she did half way down The Zookeeper. Enough to make me change my priorities from wanting to get back my ex-girlfriend of 5 years back who dumped me on a beach when I proposed to her saying, “I don’t think I want to be with a Zookeeper for the rest of my life”. Now why would one go back to exactly the same girl? But unfortunately, it is the truth as I see so often around me. What is it that they say about the known devil? So anyways, our hero is suckered into the known devil and doesn’t notice the absolute goddess that is standing right in front of him with her arms open because she doesn’t look like much of goddess when she is playing the vet in the zoo right (Sigh!!! Men with always be men). All of this after the animals in the zoo decide to gang up and teach him how to attract the female of the species in their own animalistic manner. Cute eh? Not really. Starts getting on your nerves after a bit.

Zookeeper is a weak comedy and if that wasn’t enough, it is also slapstick. There is nothing much to write home about the direction, acting, screenplay, editing or whatever it is that makes a good movie. It is an all out average movie with all the departments coming up only to a base level score of 4 on 10. Some sequences of the animals talking are reasonably shot but that’s about it. Really nothing to look forward to. 4 on 10 as declared a couple of lines back. Easy to give a miss.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi593927449/

All About Steve

Quiz question – Who or what is a cruciverbalist? Its not a random tongue twister that I am teasing you with on an average Friday. It is someone who makes crosswords for a living. I am serious. Newspapers pay serious monies to the people who make those black and white checkerboards with clues around them that make you go completely insane. So what would a cruciverbalist be like. Someone who is very good with words right? And someone who would be extremely good with information which can be twisted along with words to give you amazingly warped clues. In short someone who in most parlances is referred to as – A NERD. Sigh!!! The story of life. If you know lots of stuff they call u a nerd. If you don’t then they call you daft.

Nevertheless, one such nice looking lady cruciverbalist is Mary Horowitz (Sandra Bullock). She works for the Sacramento Herald. She wears Red Boots that stand out like a neon sign. And she is nerd personified. She is single and stays with her parents under the pretext that her house is getting fumigated. Despite the best efforts of her parents and friends, she avoids meeting any guys. However, things change when she goes the local school for career day to explain what she does. The kids are first of all surprised to hear that people get paid for doing crossword puzzles. They also mock her when she mentions her residential status and salary. So she changes her mind about the blind date that her parents have set up for her that evening. Hoping to find someone who is reasonable she is elated to find the gorgeous cameraman for CCN Steve (Bradley Cooper).

Now Mary has a problem other than the fact that she is a nerd. She is a really talkative nerd. Talkative enough to drive most people up the wall. More importantly she hasn’t been laid for quite a while now. Once in the confines of his truck / station wagon, her enthusiasm gets the better of her and she is all over Steve – right outside her house if I may add. Now Steve maybe good looking but he is severely taken aback with the enthusiasm. Not to mention the Verbal Diarrhoea. In the immense pressure, he fakes an official emergency and scoots off. However, he does make the cardinal error of telling Mary that he would have loved to take her along with him to Boston but unfortunately Mary has work to attend. Smitten by Steve, Mary spends the whole night making her crossword which turns out to be “All about Steve”. Steve’s eye colour, hair colour, his job, his shirt etc. etc. etc. In short, she gets fired for being unprofessional. But Mary takes this as a sign to hit the road with Steve. En route she meets Elizabeth (Katy Mixon) and Howard (DJ Qualls) who help her in the chase for Steve.

AAS takes a look into 2 broad topics. Firstly the nonsense that the media covers these days and the extent to which anchors are willing to go to “generate” saleable news. The other more important aspect is the search for the answer to the eternal question – what should I look for in my partner? Who is normal? It aptly finishes by asking people “To find your own normal” and not change who you are for anyone. After all if you have to stalk someone then what is the point really? The narration is tight and doesn’t go all over the place. Director Phil Traill has kept the movie short and crisp with nothing that you can call unnecessary or force fitted. Sandra Bullock essay’s the role of the nerdy Mary Horowitz extremely well but her age definitely showed. I am sure there are better makeup artists in Hollywood. Never been a huge fan of Brad Cooper and he doesn’t give me enough reason to change my stance. AAS is definitely an entertaining RomCom. I give it 5 on 10.