Rush (English 2013)

It will be quite easy to list down the things that Ron Howard did wrong with RUSH.  A full day of research after being swept away by RUSH, I could find 5 mistakes. Nothing more

1. An F1 Car doesn’t fly over a hill when it is trying to catch up especially when it is a driver as safe as Niki Lauda
2. Not sure if Hunt beat up a reporter for asking Lauda a question about his wife accepting him after half his face had burnt off
3. Nürburgring was not known as the Graveyard.  It was called Green Hell.
4. Howard has chosen not to cover the aspect that Hunt & Lauda were friends who actually stayed together when in London.
5. The penalty to Hunt for the Brands Hatch race resulting in disqualification wasn’t covered.  This was actually a very pivotal point in the season.

The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

What makes your feel exhilarated when you see a magic trick? Is it the surprising aspect of something that you did not expect? Or is it the actual showmanship that the magician gets to the table? Or is it just the awe of seeing something that is so difficult to believe that you start believing that anything is possible?

In Time

It is the year 2026 and the global currency is not longer dollars or euros or pounds or dinars or rupees. It is time. In seconds, minutes, hours, days, months and years. So if you want to travel by bus for a journey that takes 2 hours to walk, then you need to pay 2 hours as the fare for your ticket. Interesting right? You are born with a time frame of 25 years in your bank. Beyond 25 you don’t age a day. But you start eating away into the 1 hour that is provided for you in your account. For anything more, you need to work. And work really hard. Needless to say, you are paid in time. All of this is recorded in a chip that is built into your left arm which starts counting down from the instance that you complete 25 years of age. It is as if a bolt of energy passes through you and your clock suddenly starts counting down from 1 year.


In all of this, there are the good guys and the bad guys. The good guys are of course poor and stay in Zone 12 and have to work their way upwards to the Greenwich Zone or something like that. Those are the rich guys and ergo the bad guys. Sounds familiar right? Same old story really. Just that the currency has been changed to time and the standard policeman has been replaced by a time keeper. No points for really guessing the story and how it will finish in about 15 minutes into the movie. So I am not really going to waste my time or your time in describing the rest of the story.

Directed by Andrew Niccol (Gattaca / Lord of War), In Time is probably a serious waste of precious time – as ironic as it may seem. It lacks anything innovative despite a track record that Niccol has of giving us reasonably interesting movies. He does give us some interesting chase sequences but nothing which is brilliant and makes you want to sit upright in your seat. Just the same old boring stuff.

He doesn’t have much of support from the cast either. Never been a Justin Timberlake fan. Guess he is a director’s actor only. Been a fan of Amanda Seyfried but she surprisingly fails miserably in this one. I wonder if this years Razzies had these 2 performances which are outstandingly bad very honestly. The support cast including the otherwise decent Cillian Murphy is significantly below par.

Overall quite a disaster of a movie which would explain why it didn’t do too well across the board. I for one managed to sit through it. But couldn’t find anything great. Therefore 4 on 10. One doesn’t need to push for an opportunity to watch it – seriously.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi775265305/

The Next Three Days

How often have you watched a movie in 3 installments? I had the good fortune of experiencing this last month over 3 flights of Jet Airways. Actually over 2 months. What started as an excited opportunity to watch Paul Haggis’s (Crash) last movie to be released soon turned out to be an endeavor or an ordeal of sorts. The movie is not available on DVD anywhere (in Mumbai at least) and therefore you have to go through the pains of hoping that the next Jet Airways flight you take has in-flight entertainment and therefore an opportunity to finish off the rest of the movie. My past experiences on the Jet Airways Mumbai Bangalore sector have taught me that it is next to impossible to finish a movie in the flight itself. So I was mentally prepared to split any movie into 2 but the cheapskates these days don’t start in flight till well into the flight and are quite prompt to shut it down a good 15 minutes before landing. And in such cases, the 2nd flight becomes excruciatingly painful because they have shut off the entertainment some 10 minutes before the climax!!!! How cruel is that!!!!

Anyways, Paul Haggis comes back after a hiatus of sorts of about 3 years. His last release was the much nominated “In the Valley of Elah” starring Tommy Lee Jones and Charlize Theron. Haggis continues with the magic that he started with Crash in 2004 (technically his first full length was a movie called Red Hot that released in 1993) – one of the few people to have made a successful transition from the small screen to the silver one. The intensity of The Next Three Days can only be described as Haggisesque. It’s a slow, throbbing kind of feeling that you get in the first few minutes when suddenly something slaps you straight across your face followed by the same throbbing kind of feeling which is extremely slow and keeps you rooted to the screen till eventually the movie climaxes beautifully and sometimes in an expected manner – with a little bit of a twist. Haggis keeps his audiences engaged at all times with narration that is so tight that it could put a 17th Century Corset to shame.

That he has the good fortune of working with the likes of a Russel Crowe who can translate the pain felt by a father of a 6 year old who is immensely in love with his wife but finds himself helpless when his wife is arrested and convicted for murder. I have a new found respect for Elizabeth Banks who I believe is quite under rated as an actress but is genuinely one of the most versatile actresses around today. Fantastic editing and just the right music have always been the hallmark of a Haggis movie and you will continue to see that here as well. Watching it over 3 flights was the only regret that I could have. This one must be seen straight through. Did it release in India last year? No clue to how I could have missed a Haggis movie. 8 on 10 for certain. Get your hands on this one.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2143750425/

Tron Legacy

6 months ago, I saw the trailer of Tron Legacy and was mighty intrigued to say the least. As the months went by, I kept seeing the trailer over and over again and was quite exasperated with the goddam never ending wait. Finally, a couple of weeks back, the release date was announced as 17th December 2010 - coincidentally the same date, Avatar was released last year - coincidence I am sure. But Walt Disney recreates magic once again!!! The wait was well worth it I say.


Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges) is a geek. A young geek in 1989 who has thought of the concept of WiFi way back in 1985. He is the founder of Emcon, a gaming company that has created many a wave over the past few years. Most importantly, he is the reason the organisation has fallen back on track and is a huge hit with the shareholders. Sadly, he loses his wife in suddenly and is survived by his only son Sam (Garret Hedlund) who he loves very very dearly. He now lives with his son and parents who are his support system. He also owns a gaming arcade that is called - surprise surprise - Flynn's . How predictable I say!!! Corny. But sweet. On a regular night, Flynn Senior, after putting Sam to bed, decides to go to the Arcade to check something out. He has promised Sam that he would unravel a particular mystery the next day. But he never returns. The mysterious disappearance doesn't go too well with the markets and Emcon stocks start to tumble. More importantly, Sam turns violent and then slowly but steadily into a recluse. Much to the disappointment of his father's closest aide – Alan Bradley (Bruce Boxleitner) - who is unable to explain the reason why Sam's father is not back home.

Twenty years down the line, Sam has grown up to be the major share holder of Emcon but least interested in who is running the company or where it is headed. He is a rebel without a cause. A loose cannonball whose single thrill in life is to make the people who are turning his organization into a money spinning machine look like jokers. And he does that quite successfully and quite frequently. After one such stunt, he returns home to his ever faithful mutt Marvin, only to find that Alan has made himself comfortable. He informs Sam about a page that he received from the Arcade. Surprisingly the arcade has been shut for 20 years. Sam pretends not to care but he cannot hold himself back. He gets there and finds a door that he didn’t know existed. A door that is about to open a Pandora’s Box in a manner of speaking. Fasten your seat belts at this stage for what is undeniably the ride of the year.

Super special effects, amazing make up and brilliant use of Computer Graphics make Tron Legacy a heady concoction not only for the fans of the game or the older movie but for anyone who get their thrills from action movies. Light Jets, Light Bikes ala Star War Light Sabres. The works. Have a joint before you walk into the theatre and you can be assured of the best trips in your lifetime. This has been a year for first time directors all the way and Joseph Kosinski joins the gang although he could do with a crash course on consistency. Like how can everything electronic at the arcade work perfectly after 20 years? A bit far fetched I say. What is surprising is that otherwise there is a level of attention to detail like the best directors would. Some obvious gaffes mar an otherwise nearly flawless execution of a classic.

Tron Legacy is Disney’s next franchise. I would refuse to believe that there are no sequels planned. It would be a waste of a fabulous idea. Don’t miss this one. Clearly a 7 on 10.

Signing off with best wishes – Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all my readers!!!! You may not hear from me for the next month as I embark on my one month vacation starting in under 3 hours from now. I just had to ensure that the Tron Legacy review is put up before I leave. And I will do my best to get a dekko @ TMK in Oz Time which would be ahead by about 4.5 hours from India and u may just about get the review on time. Will keep you posted on that one. Till then – keep watching movies!!!! Have a blast folks!!!!