Honeymoon in Vegas

Most of you are aware of my sentiments as regards a certain relative of Francis Ford Coppola.  This is one of his earlier movies. A Romantic Comedy where he plays a role that he is actually cut out for.  Or should I say comes naturally to him.  That of a loser detective who doesn’t know to choose between poker and his wife to be.

Stolen

2 movies from Simon West in about the same number of months and in both of them he comes kind of a cropper. Expendables 2 did not have anything worth writing home about at all. Stolen, again, doesn’t give too much to look forward to. I wonder when it will start turning around North for West (that was really corny wasn’t it? :-p).

Written by David Guggenheim (as if it matters to anyone – I just picked out the name because Guggenheim sounded exotic :-p. Geez this review is getting cornier by the sentence. Just like the movie), Stolen is Nicholas Cage’s answer to Liam Neeson. It is as if Cage has decided that if Neeson (who is 60) can search out his daughter in 72 hours in Paris then he can do better. As if that wasn’t bad enough for Cage (who is 48), Neeson does it again and this time faster.

So Cage says, lets make a movie where my daughter (in the movie) gets kidnapped by a friend who is also an ex-con like me. OK hang on. Lets spice things up a bit. Lets make Nicholas Cage the best bank robber in all of the US. Lets give him a name – Will Montogomery aka Gom. He is being sought by the FBI for multiple robberies in New Orleans. And is responsible for many a sleepless night for Tim Harlend (Danny Huston) who is the FBI lead on the case.

A tip-off to Harlend and Gom who has planned a heist with Vincent (Josh Lucas – what the hell is a gorgeous RomCom lead actor doing here?). 2 other people in the heist – The absolutely gorgeous Riley Jeffers (Malin Åkerman) & the utterly misbehaved and ugly Hoyt (M C Gainey). When Vincent decides to do away with an innocent bystander – a janitor – after the heist, Gom stops him and in the process, Vincent gets his leg blown off – figuratively of course.

The three stooges make away but Gom gets left behind. A chase sequence that reminds you, why Gone in 60 Seconds is one of the best car chase movies ever made, ensues. Gom gets captured but before that happens, he burns $10 million of hard cash. Yep. He burns it. So he doesn’t get 18 years. But gets away with 8 years in the slammer. But that’s when the party begins. On the day of his release, One-legged-Vince, now has kidnapped his daughter Alison (Sami Gayle). He wants $10 million.

While Stolen has its moments, overall, it is a yawn feast. Thankfully, it is only about an hour and a half short. And the fact that I am not a Nicholas Cage fan didn’t quite help much. Thank God for the brief period of time that Malin Åkerman comes onto the screen. Helps have some eye candy. Quite avoidable. And if you have seen Taken then immensely avoidable. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3234440473/

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/

The Season of the Witch

All actors have to keep themselves busy. Some more than the rest. And Nicholas Cage falls in the former (more) category. The Season of the Witch is Cage’s desperate attempt to tell the rest of the world that he is still around and still acting. So what if he is pushing 50 and has acted in over 50 movies in his 30 year career? He released only 2 movies last year as compared to the 4 in ‘09 and 4 in ‘07 (only 1 in ‘08). And so what if he has 6 other movies on the table that are going to be released over the next 24 months. Man’s got to act to make money right. Maybe the bank balance has dwindled too much eh Mr.Cage?


Continuing with the fantasy genre of movies that he left with The Sorcerer’s Apprentice last year, Cage now plays the role of Behmen, a 14th Century Knight who has enlisted himself in the service of God, to rid the world of all pagans far and wide. He is a crusader and along with Felson (Ron Perlman) has been responsible for killing hundreds of such outcasts who have sinned. All of this in the name of the Church. After a few years of mindless killing, he is severely upset for the first time when one such crusade results in the killing of innocent women and children. He questions the religious leader of the crusade and on not getting a satisfactory answer decides that he cannot serve the purpose anymore. He and Felson are now outlaws for defecting and therefore are charged with treason effective immediately.

They manage to survive for a while on their own and finally land up around a hut where they find the owners dead for a reason they will find out soon enough - Plague. Soon enough, they find themselves in front of a town that Felson wisely recommends that they avoid since they are outlaws. But they need horses and don’t have a choice but to go into the town to buy some. No points for guessing that they get caught and presented in front of the cardinal (Christopher Lee) who has himself been struck by the plague. News is that the church has captured a witch (Claire Foy), who has confessed to being one (Yeah Right!!!) and now needs to transport her to the Monastery @ Severac where Monks will read from the only copy of “The Book of Solomon” that is left and rid her of the witch craft that seemingly has possessed her.

The Season of the Witch is yet another random story about the Devil with special effects thrown in for impact. Nothing that we have not seen before. But what is surprising is that it is directed by Dominic Sena who is best known for his slick thrillers of the likes of Swordfish and Gone in 60 seconds. How he got conned into directing this below average flick is beyond me. Nicholas Cage is as constipated as ever and Ron Perlman provides him with the support that barely keeps acting alive in the movie. Claire Foy doesn’t have much to do since most of her expressions are controlled clearly by a computer. Acting – Lead of supporting – is not the hallmark of this movie. A bit of interesting SFX and some reasonable fight sequences get this movie to the 4 on 10 mark. Not going to miss much if you don’t see it though.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3830683929/

The Sorcerers Apprentice

Veronica (Belluci), Balthazar (Cage) and Horvath (Molina) are the 3 closest aides of Merlin the lord of all Magicians way back in 740 AD. Merlin’s sworn enemy is Morgana who is the lord of the dead. Horvath betrays Merlin and joins hands with Morgana. Merlin dies but in the attempt to protect Balthazar, Veronica casts a spell through which she consumes Morgana into her mortal self and Balthazar in turn traps both of them in a Grimhold – a doll that looks like those Matryoshka Russian 9 in one dolls  takes u back to your childhood. Balthazar also traps Horvath in one of those. Before he dies, Merlin hands over his ring, a dragon, to Balthazar. The ring will find its true owner who would be the Prime Merlinian (true descendant of Merlin). It is only the Prime Merlinian who can eliminate Morgana.


The story then moves to Y2K in NY where David, all of 10 years, is totally smitten by Becky, his class mate. On a school trip he gives Becky a note in which he asks her whether she would like to be his friend or girlfriend. Now, Becky does write the answer down but the wind blows it half way across the block to an antique store called Arcana Cabana. No points for guessing who runs the place – our long lost friend Balthazar . Balthazar senses that this is no coincidence and shows David the dragon ring which quickly crawls onto his palm and wraps itself around the finger of its rightful owner. But, David does not heed to the warning given by Balthazar of not touching anything and inadvertently frees Horvath from his Grimhold. A fight ensues between Balthazar and Horvath resulting in both of them getting trapped inside a 10th century Ming vase inside which they spend the next 10 years. David on the other hand gets out of the store and is ridiculed by his classmates coz they think he has lost it.

In the meantime, David (Jay Baruchel) has grown up to being a 20 year old Physics geek. And he bumps into his classmate – no points for guessing again – Becky (Teresa Palmer). The Ming Vase has found its way into a Russian household in NY and our hero and villain reappear and continue their search for David. Horvath finds David but is unable to locate the Grimhold coz even David does not know where it is. Balthazar arrives just in time to save David and uses his Grimhold Tracking Device ( yes everything is possible in a fantasy) to find out where the Grimhold is.

David agrees to helping Balthazar and his training begins. Parallely a relationship with Becky also develops which Balthazar is quite wary of. Horvath in the meantime has also found an apprentice of his own, Drake Stone.

The Sorcerers Apprentice takes you through a phenomenal fantasy world of what sorcery could do. Plasma Bolts, Fire Bolts, Hungarian Mirror Traps, Reverse World, Persian Quick Rugs et al. The graphics and special effects are very well done. One does not expect anything less from a Disney Production. John Turtletaub uses all his experience from his previous 2 Disney Block Busters – National Treasure and National Treasure –Book of Secrets and his 9 other movies as director to give us a nicely finished fantasy. One which does justice to the Disney brand association.

Nicholas Cage is his usual confused self. I have never quite managed to figure out how he made it this big. I am sure people love the fact that he is confused. Yet to see a movie in which he has not looked as if he didn’t know what hit him. But consistency does deserve points I guess. Monica Belluci in her 3 minutes of screen time looks luscious as ever. I wonder how these nearly 50 year olds manage to look so hot. Jay Baruchel will be loved by most of the girls who watch this movie coz he does look true to the definition of cute – ugly but tolerable. Teresa Palmer is probably just furniture. But the pick of the lot is one of my favouritest and versatile actors of all time. Alfred Molina. What cant Molina portray is a question that I have always asked myself. I keep coming up with the same answer – Molina can play any role that you give him. Versatality is probably his middle name. Although the kids would not like Horvath but when they grow up to understand the finer nuances of acting, Molina will be up there in their books. Truly a super star!!!!

All in all, The Sorcerers Apprentice is a wonderful treat for the family. It is definitely not the best movie ever made by Disney but is worth a dekko for sure but then Disney’s average movies are far superior to any other in their genre or otherwise. I give it 5 on 10.