The Amazing Spiderman 2

One of the secrets / essentials of making the sequel better than its predecessor would be to first retain the director.  Nothing spurs a director (or so I would assume) more than the desire to better her/his previous work.  Of course, this may not be a guarantee but it is definitely a key to raising the probability of success.  Marc Webb sure comes from the earlier school of thought in this part of The Amazing Spiderman.  Amazing indeed.

Saving Mr. Banks

John Lee Hancock is a very choosy person.  How did I deduce that? Well, in 54 years, Hancock has made 7 movies and written 9 screenplays.  Of these 16 pieces of work, 4 overlap leaving us with a total of 12 assignments.  In a career spanning over 20 years, that’s being choosy.  But that’s also being a stickler for perfection – The Rookie, Alamo and The Blind Side are 3 of Hancock’s recent works.

12 Years A Slave

My first experience with Steve McQueen (the director not the actor) was with a movie titled Shame that I saw nearly 2 years back during my trip down under.  I was a novice at reviewing (marginally better now) and didn’t quite take too kindly to the bold moves that McQueen confronted us with (http://kartikr.blogspot.in/2012/02/shame.html) and of course his favourite actor – Michael Fassbender.

Turbo

The Snail is fast

The Snail is fast

The Snail is fast, fast, fast, fast, fast
Just one of the songs created exclusively to promote Turbo the superfast snail

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.

Rock of Ages

It has been a really long time since we have got the opportunity to watch a musical in the purest sense of the word. And whats more, I cannot reemeber the last time I saw a musical which was based solely on Rock!!! School of Rock technically was a Rock movie but not really a musical all the way. Rock of Ages addresses that gap – and does it quite well I must say.

Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) is an aspiring musician who has found his way to the most sought after night spot on the famous or should we say infamous “strip” @ Los Angeles. Its called The Bourbon. A place that has been the launch pad for many an artist of the past few years. Chief amongst them being the lead singer of a band called “Arsenal” – Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise). A rock star par excellence. A star whose fame precedes him like nothing else. A fame that makes women throw themselves at him and give up every single piece of their honour and self respect like no one else can. But even Jaxx has his nuances and is going through a really rough patch.

Coming into the scene early on is Sherrie Christian who comes to LA to make a name for herself in the music world and of course the Bourbon is the place she would ideally like to start off with. However, the small town girl gets robbed of all her records on the strip. And guess what – as luck would have it – right in front of the Bourbon. And right when Drew is on the other side of the road. Drew finds her a job @ the Bourbon despite the resistance from Bourbon’s owner – Dennis Dupree (Alec Baldwin).

On the other side, there is the recently elected mayor Mike Whitmore (Bryan Cranston) whose campaign mantra has been cleaning the city of everything that can be harmful to their kids. And chief among the clean up targets is the strip. He is not only supported but also leading the charge is his wife Patricia (Catherine Zeta Jones) who seems to be obsessed with shutting The Bourbon down.

One of the better musicals in recent times and definitely one worth watching, Rock of Ages show cases some really good talent in mixing new age lyrics with some totally classic rock. Don’t look much at direction or acting talent per se. Although there is sufficient amounts of the latter. Nothing much that Adam Shankman could have got to the table per se. But he is definitely saved with some solid performances from the entire cast. I particularly liked Baldwin and Russel Brand. I give it 6.5 on 10. Watch it.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi956080153/

The Ides of March

I am a huge fan of movies direted by George Clooney. Many of you may have read my review of “Good Night and Good Luck” which was a runaway success both commercially and at the Oscars. Of course, with GNGL he had a stellar performance from David Strathairn to prop up the movie but then Clooney has always been one to pick up his cast with utmost precision. And The Ides of March is no exception. Other than himself (surprisingly in a dark role), he picks the vastly under rated Ryan Gosling, the always bankable Paul Giamatti and the truly versatile Philip Seymour Hoffman as the lead male cast. Not much of a role for the women in TIOM with the exception of the bit part given to Marisa Tomei which I thought was a waste of one of the most talented and capable actresses of our time. One could argue that the role was pivotal but the screen time was too little – 3 scenes if I remember it correctly.

But despite the strong cast and some stunning performances, I still believe that The Ides of March was a below par delivery from an otherwise very capable director. One expects George Clooney movies to be a bit slow and intense which TIOM is. So don’t get me wrong here. I believe all aspects of movie making were covered exceptionally well in our man’s 4th attempt at direction. All aspects but for the story – honestly that left me stumped completely. The build up in the first few minutes of the campaign of Governor Mike Morris (Clooney) in the primaries was superb and leaves you gasping for more. And just as you believe that the dominoes are all falling in place for a strong finish in the 2nd half, Clooney decides that the movie is just going to peter off into a damp squib. Somewhat like a question – “What? You expected some kind of a twist or something? Sorry mate. That’s not going to happen”. Maybe there was some larger than life reason or greater good at stake in this political drama or something that I am not familiar with but really TIOM didn’t cut much ice with me.

What you could watch the movie for would be the fantastic performances that I spoke about from each member of the cast, some superb cinematography and excellent editing. Clooney pretty much gets everything else bang on. Can easily be used as a bench mark for the technical aspects of movie making. I had a sense of déjà vu. The same incomplete feeling that I got from Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion earlier this year. So I guess Clooney has just added credence to the hypothesis that the most important part of a movie is the story and not the star cast. I give The Ides of March 5 on 10. I know most people are raving about the movie but I don’t think most of India is going to resonate with it. Hope to see a stunning come back from George Clooney.

Watch the Trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1103731737/

Shoot 'Em Up

Are you in the mood for TNA (Total Nonstop Action for the not so educated with wrestling as a sport). But the TNA that I am talking about now has nothing to do with wrestling. Just a TLA (Three Letter Abbreviation) that I wanted to use for a long long time. But then the movie that I saw around 2 pm this afternoon was a heavy load of TNA in the style of Clive Owen. It had guns, guns and loads of guns. It had a chase or a fight sequence every 38.37 seconds. And for most part, you will be wondering as to why are these fights happening in the first place? Thankfully you will not need to wait for too long to find out. Thankfully. The pace of the movie is fast enough through its 86 minutes – 80 minutes thanks to the editing that has been done on Warner Brothers Movie Channel – and you will reach the levels of understanding that you want to reach sooner than later.


Smith (Clive Owen) is waiting at a bus stand in the middle of the night (or so I assume) when he sees a woman (Ramona Pringle) in a bright yellow coat walking past holding her stomach and crying out in pain. Yes – she is pregnant but doesn’t really seem like she is about to deliver immediately. A few seconds later, she is followed by a villainous looking man with a gun. She runs into a warehouse of sorts and the man follows, obviously with an intent to relieve her of her life and the life that she is carrying. Smith, obviously cannot look the other way and mind his own business. Only cowards do that right. So he follows the 2 into the warehouse and just as the man is going to kill the mother to be, Smith stops him and follows it up by killing 10-15 other men while simultaneously helping the woman in the yellow coat deliver her baby. Once the baby is delivered, he is confronted with another bunch of shooters, this time led by the lead villain, Hertz (Paul Giamatti) who is after the girl and her new born. This time around, hero not only manages to keep the bad guys away but does it with the woman and baby in tow – in his arms – after a point of time, you check the screen again to see if its Clive Owen or Rajani Saar. So when they show the woman with a bullet in her head – our hero is unable to save her – you are reassured that Rajani Saar is still in India.

A few more bullets and a few more car chases later, you are more clear on what the entire story is about. Expected a bit better from Clive Owen – in his choice of movies that is. This one is more like a mindless Vin Diesel movie and not one for Clive Owen. Clive Owen is a bit more classy than this. And what the hell is Paul Giamatti doing here? Taking his new found love to be a villain a bit too seriously? Hello – both of you – stick to roles that demand a bit more of you. And if you are running short of money then the find yourself an investment consultant soon. But don’t stoop down to these levels. The silver lining in the movie – and this has nothing to do with good movie making – is luscious eye candy in the form of Monica Bellucci – red hot furniture (a term I have used previously with Eva Mendes in The Other Guys). The direction is average at best. And I would not put too much of money on Michael Davis henceforth if I was a producer. But, if you like action movies of the mindless Vin Diesel, as mentioned yesterday, variety then this one is definitely for you. As a movie – 5 on 10 is what I can give this on my best days. Today isn’t. So it will be a 4 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi2256994585/

Duplicity

How many movies have you seen where the good guys finish last. I mean, in real life they always do. Which is probably why most of us are suckers for the feel good finish in reel life (like me :P). If, you come from that school of thought and are rigid about it (unlike me) then I would suggest you avoid Duplicity. Its not a sad finish. Just different.
Garsick (Paul Giamatti) and Tully (Tom Wilkinson) are rival CEOs in a supremely competitive FMCG world. Given a choice, they would tear not only the other organization but also themselves apart to shreds. Their rivalry is one for the record books in a manner of speaking.
Claire (Julia Roberts) and Ray (Clive Owen) are rival secret agents. They work for the CIA and MI5 respectively. They are both distinctively attracted to each other but share a bitter sweet relationship. Ray is typically left feeling bitter more often that not 
Work fatigue catches up with both Ray and Claire and they get their minds together on how to break away from their respective agencies and go off on their own. After all the best person to work for is oneself right? The target is to make $40 million between the two and then retire in peace. That’s how they get together into the wonderful world of Industrial Espionage. Does something like that exist in the first place in the real world? Are organizations really as competitive as shown, that they go to almost every extent as possible to achieve their goals?
However, Claire and Ray do not quite get off on the right foot. Their intrinsic tendency to doubt, thanks to years with the agency, is obviously not good for any enterprise. As luck would have it, both land up separate assignments and break the first rule of keeping the other person informed. They pan through the next 5 years of constant doubt only to land up with a situation where Claire comes across an opportunity to seed Ray into Garsick’s team of spies. Claire herself is part of Tully’security team but working undercover for Garsick to uncover any interesting developments @ Tully’s end.
Director Tony Gilroy has about 15 movies under is belt as of now as a writer. But his previous and only directorial venture was another brilliant movie called Michael Clayton. In Duplicity he does recreate some of the magic. But is unable to exceed the previous benchmark. The narration is quite intense and keeps you on the look out for the “what next” but is not the most gripping of movies.
Clive Owen is as always ice cool. Julia Roberts, I have for the first time seen, as a secret agent. Not something that I would have associated with Ms. Roberts. But she does quite a good job out of it. Paul Giamatti has always been one of the actors that I have admired. He plays the role of the power hungry sinister CEO to near perfection. Lastly there is Tom Wilkinson. One of the few actors who I believe gives a 110% almost every single time he gets in front of the camera. A Director’s dream come true.
Duplicity is an exciting movie to watch. Keeps you quite engaged. And also explores an otherwise not so experimented with topic of Industrial Espionage and the dangerous nature of the concept. Its not just about transferring information from one organization to the other. I liked the movie. I am quite sure you guys will. This ones a 6 on 10.