Amongst the genre of Serial Killer movies, probably one of the top ranking movies would undeniable be The Bone Collector. And it could also rank at director Phillip Noyce’s best work over the 60 odd years that he has walked the earth and over the 40 odd years that he has been in the world of direction (Can you believe that? The man directed his first when he was 19???)
Showing posts with label Queen Latifah. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Queen Latifah. Show all posts
Monday, 14 January 2013
Wednesday, 8 August 2012
Ice Age 4 Continental Drift
The biggest problem with blogger is the limitation of character tags. So when you have a movie like Ice Age 4 Continental Drift which has 36 people doing voice overs of as many characters, one can pick up only 10 to be called out in the tag list. It is just too unfair that this post will not be revealed in a search for the role Nicki Minaj or Rebel Wilson or Kunal Nayyar played in a movie that was an outright laugh riot from the time Scrat the Sabre Toothed Squirrel (Chris Wedge) comes into frame one searching for a place to hide is notorious acorn.
Our family – which has grown since the first edition of this phenomenal franchise – of Manny the Woolly Mammoth (Ray Romano), Ellie the Mammoth wife (Queen Latifah), Peaches the baby Mammoth (Keke Palmer) Sid the Ground Sloth (John Leguizamo – and I have always been in awe of this man’s talent in terms of voice overs) and Diego the Smilodon (Denis Leary) have settled down peacefully. However, their peace is about to be disturbed thanks to Scrat, who has managed to create the entire concept of the Continental Drift just by shoving his acorn in the wrong place.
A sudden movement of plates causes the land mass to move gradually and eat away into the home of our family who along with the other species start their trudge towards the land bridge – which is the only way to get across to safety. All of this only after a massive quake traps our heroes onto a berg of ice and cracks it away from the mainland. Over the din, Manny promises – as always – to come back to save his family. But to do that he has to fight the crew of Captain Gutt the Gigantopithecus (Peter Dinklage) – a high sea pirate who rules the unknown waters – and his right hand woman Shira the Smilodon (Jennifer Lopez).
Superb characterization and great voice over has been the highlight of all Ice Age editions to date. A franchise that has improved over the past decade like very few others can claim. Probably one of the few movies where the sequels are as good as the first part if not better. Continental Drift is not different. In fact the 3D quality is actually one of the better ones in recent times.
The competiton for Uncle Oscar in the category has thrown up 3 clear leaders. As of now, very difficult to choose between Ice Age, Madagascar and Brave. I strongly believe Brave is leading the charts as of now. We will know for sure in about 6 months. In the meantime it is a 7.5 on 10 for Ice Age. Watch it for certain.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2524815897/
Our family – which has grown since the first edition of this phenomenal franchise – of Manny the Woolly Mammoth (Ray Romano), Ellie the Mammoth wife (Queen Latifah), Peaches the baby Mammoth (Keke Palmer) Sid the Ground Sloth (John Leguizamo – and I have always been in awe of this man’s talent in terms of voice overs) and Diego the Smilodon (Denis Leary) have settled down peacefully. However, their peace is about to be disturbed thanks to Scrat, who has managed to create the entire concept of the Continental Drift just by shoving his acorn in the wrong place.
A sudden movement of plates causes the land mass to move gradually and eat away into the home of our family who along with the other species start their trudge towards the land bridge – which is the only way to get across to safety. All of this only after a massive quake traps our heroes onto a berg of ice and cracks it away from the mainland. Over the din, Manny promises – as always – to come back to save his family. But to do that he has to fight the crew of Captain Gutt the Gigantopithecus (Peter Dinklage) – a high sea pirate who rules the unknown waters – and his right hand woman Shira the Smilodon (Jennifer Lopez).
Superb characterization and great voice over has been the highlight of all Ice Age editions to date. A franchise that has improved over the past decade like very few others can claim. Probably one of the few movies where the sequels are as good as the first part if not better. Continental Drift is not different. In fact the 3D quality is actually one of the better ones in recent times.
The competiton for Uncle Oscar in the category has thrown up 3 clear leaders. As of now, very difficult to choose between Ice Age, Madagascar and Brave. I strongly believe Brave is leading the charts as of now. We will know for sure in about 6 months. In the meantime it is a 7.5 on 10 for Ice Age. Watch it for certain.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2524815897/
Saturday, 31 December 2011
What Happens in Vegas
Several corny dialogues dot this RomCom that stars the vastly over rated Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Lets see if I can remember some. Go get your future ex-ex-wife OR you are so lame that your father would not want to hire you. So screenplay as you can imagine is nowhere close to being reasonably entertaining. But then one has begin to expect that from a movie starring Kutcher. That too nearly 4 years back when he was far from being a reasonable actor that he is these days. And the number of movies that Diaz has definitely acted in can be counted on one maybe two fingers :D. But I am not going to ever take this away from her that she looks stunning and will continue to look gorgeous till her dying day. And lets see – is What Happens in Vegas any different from the other movies that we have seen which feature these 2 pieces of eye candy (together or independent of each other) – NO. It is just a normal run of the mill each and every day kind of RomCom at best really.
Joy McNally and Jack Fuller pick the best day in their lives to get hitched. They get smash drunk in Las Vegas after Joy is dumped by her fiancé. Joy has always had this feeling that she is not good enough for the man and takes this as an opportunity to really forget herself. Jack on the other hand is a victim of a perfectionist father who cannot find anything right in what Jack does. Joy is a stock broker by profession with a boss who is a prick to put it lightly. With a name like Richard Banger, what else can you expect (now you know what I mean by corny). Jack would like to take up his family business which is making furniture. Mind you he is quite good at it but not good enuf for his dad. So when these 2 naïve young creatures wake up the next morning, they have only one thing on their mind – how do we get out of this mess (read marriage) that we have gotten ourselves into. Simple – tell each other and get it over and done with right? Wrong. Wrong when you have just won yourselves $3 million!!!!
“What Happens in Vegas” was not really worth it for me to have put some other work that I had to do on hold. But I didn’t take much time to figure it out and hence focused my energies in getting a few of my long pending reviews out of the way. It is the kind of easy viewing movies that you can watch like any other RomCom. Like you would on a Saturday afternoon cuddled up with a special someone idly flicking the remote in the breaks and maybe even having enough time to do something else on the side. Not a movie that you desperately need to see. Definitely not the kind of movie that I would have liked to finish the year on but well what the heck. 5 on 10 for this average chick flick. Happy New Year 2012 folks. See you on the other side on this year.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2092040473/
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Stranger Than Fiction
“As Harold took a bite of Bavarian Sugar Cookie he finally felt as if everything was going to be OK. Sometimes when we lose ourselves in fear & despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness & tragedy – we can thank god for Bavaraian sugar cookies. And fortunately when there aren’t any cookies we can find reassurance in a familiar hand on our skin or a kind and loving gesture or a subtle encouragement or a loving embrace or an offer of comfort. Not to mention hospital gurneys and nose plugs, an uneaten Danish and soft spoken secrets and Fender Stratocasters and maybe the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things – the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties – which we assume only accessorise our days are for a much larger and nobler cause - They are here to save our lives. I know the idea seems strange. But I also know that it so happens to be true” – Zack Helm, Writer
Quite a long way to start off a review. I know. But definitely a line worth sharing. Written by Zack Helm, Stranger than Fiction, is about Harold Crick – someone who would auto qualify for the “World’s Biggest Nerd” contest. He may in fact go on to win it. What with his capabilities of being able to multiply 11503 x 3486 on the fly (don’t hold me to the numbers please)? He is single. He counts the number of strokes he takes to brush his teeth every morning after he wakes up at exactly 7:13 am. He goes through the same routine diligently every morning before he gets to work by the 8:17 Metropolitan Bus. Now wait a minute – the worst is yet to come – He works for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS for short) – HE IS A TAXMAN!!!!!
All is seemingly fine in Harold’s life until one Wednesday morning he begins to hear a voice in his head describing everything that he is doing. A first Harold ignores it but after a few minutes it begins to get really irritating. Nothing that he does seems to get the voice out of his head. His structured days start going for a toss. As the constant narration gets to him, he has no other option but to see a shrink, Dr. Mittag Leffer (Linda Hunt) who diagnoses it as schizophrenia. Harold would hear nothing of it. His constant denial gets the good doc to guide him to Prof. Jules Hilbert who is an expert in Literature – since the Voice (Emma Thompson) is extremely eloquent and speaks in proper English. Adding to the spice, in a manner of speaking, is Ms. Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhall) who is a rebellious civilian who has not paid part of her taxes the previous year due to her objection to the money in which the taxes are being used.
The essence of STF is captured in the first paragraph of this review. However the core twist in the tale, the USP has to be seen to be believed. It is truly Stranger than Fiction to say the least. Zack Helm’s writing is superb and the narration is extremely tight. One may say that it gets slow in parts but that was absolutely required. Anything faster and we could have lost the plot. I have never been a huge fan of Will Ferrel but he has come up with an outstanding performance here. Probably his best to date. He is supported ably by Maggie Gyllenhaal who is definitely not THE most talented actress these days but can definitely act. Add to the fact that she looks normal which gets her to look just that bit sexier as well. I like her.
Add to this the extremely super talented troika of Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman. Emma plays the role of the voice and that of acclaimed author, Karen Eiffel who is stuck with the task of finishing her novel but is unable to do so since the lead character has to be killed. She is as always effortless in her acting. And that voice – so calm and composed and soothing to the ears. Rounding off the acting talent on display with Queen Latifah who plays Karen’s assistant and the oh so 60+ but yet cool and confident and still baby faced Dustin Hoffman. Marc Forster is indeed extremely lucky to have worked on a concept like STF with the cast that was on offer. STF is indeed a “different” movie – but even different movies have to be well executed. Very clearly a 7 on 10 minimum.
Quite a long way to start off a review. I know. But definitely a line worth sharing. Written by Zack Helm, Stranger than Fiction, is about Harold Crick – someone who would auto qualify for the “World’s Biggest Nerd” contest. He may in fact go on to win it. What with his capabilities of being able to multiply 11503 x 3486 on the fly (don’t hold me to the numbers please)? He is single. He counts the number of strokes he takes to brush his teeth every morning after he wakes up at exactly 7:13 am. He goes through the same routine diligently every morning before he gets to work by the 8:17 Metropolitan Bus. Now wait a minute – the worst is yet to come – He works for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS for short) – HE IS A TAXMAN!!!!!
All is seemingly fine in Harold’s life until one Wednesday morning he begins to hear a voice in his head describing everything that he is doing. A first Harold ignores it but after a few minutes it begins to get really irritating. Nothing that he does seems to get the voice out of his head. His structured days start going for a toss. As the constant narration gets to him, he has no other option but to see a shrink, Dr. Mittag Leffer (Linda Hunt) who diagnoses it as schizophrenia. Harold would hear nothing of it. His constant denial gets the good doc to guide him to Prof. Jules Hilbert who is an expert in Literature – since the Voice (Emma Thompson) is extremely eloquent and speaks in proper English. Adding to the spice, in a manner of speaking, is Ms. Ana Pascal (Maggie Gyllenhall) who is a rebellious civilian who has not paid part of her taxes the previous year due to her objection to the money in which the taxes are being used.
The essence of STF is captured in the first paragraph of this review. However the core twist in the tale, the USP has to be seen to be believed. It is truly Stranger than Fiction to say the least. Zack Helm’s writing is superb and the narration is extremely tight. One may say that it gets slow in parts but that was absolutely required. Anything faster and we could have lost the plot. I have never been a huge fan of Will Ferrel but he has come up with an outstanding performance here. Probably his best to date. He is supported ably by Maggie Gyllenhaal who is definitely not THE most talented actress these days but can definitely act. Add to the fact that she looks normal which gets her to look just that bit sexier as well. I like her.
Add to this the extremely super talented troika of Emma Thompson, Queen Latifah and Dustin Hoffman. Emma plays the role of the voice and that of acclaimed author, Karen Eiffel who is stuck with the task of finishing her novel but is unable to do so since the lead character has to be killed. She is as always effortless in her acting. And that voice – so calm and composed and soothing to the ears. Rounding off the acting talent on display with Queen Latifah who plays Karen’s assistant and the oh so 60+ but yet cool and confident and still baby faced Dustin Hoffman. Marc Forster is indeed extremely lucky to have worked on a concept like STF with the cast that was on offer. STF is indeed a “different” movie – but even different movies have to be well executed. Very clearly a 7 on 10 minimum.
Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Valentines Day
Here’s one of those extremely feel good romantic comedies. An out and out chick flick. Minor tear jerker. But what it does give you is a slightly different perspective. The idea of course being what happens on Valentines Day. But with a slight twist. What happens when u get dumped or find out that the love of your life has cheated on you or that the love of your life is actually old enough to be your mother or you have no clue why you are in love with the person but you still are or you realize that your current boyfriend is married with 2 kids or you meet the one meant for you doing something that you really don’t want to be doing…. 6 such stories intertwined form the basic premise of Valentines Day.
Now I am a self confessed romantic and missed out on the movie when it released about 6 months back. But got myself the DVD anyways as soon as it released a couple of weeks back.
The story begins with Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) who in typical V Day style starts off his day by proposing to Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba) who says yes. Reed is a florist who has his own reasonable size hand me down business from his granddad and is one of the few people in the world who is always happy. Obviously Morley says yes but much to the surprise of most people who know Reed for reasons best known to them. It is very typical of most of your friends who don’t tell you in as many words that the woman who u think is the one is probably not actually THE ONE.
Reed's best friend is Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) who is currently dating Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey). Julia’s close friend is Kara (Jessica Biel) who is a PR specialist for NFL player Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) and is having a tough time deciding whether to continue with his career or not. Kara does not believe in V Day and spends it each time throwing a “I Hate Valentines Day” party. Julia also teaches at a school where Edison (Bryce Robinson) is a primary school student. Edison stays with his grandparents Edgar (Hector Elizondo) and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) who spend V Day every year by watching a movie @ a Cemetery which is actually top draw on V Day. Edison’s baby sitter Grace (Emma Roberts) believes she has found her THE ONE and is planning to lose her virginity on the same day to Alex (Carter Jenkins). Grace’s best friend is Felicia (Taylor Swift) an 18 year old bimbette who is totally in love with the school’s star athlete Willy (Taylor Lautner) for purely superficial reasons.
Sean’s agent is Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah) who portrays herself as a self confessed class A bitch of a boss. But her stand in secretary Liz (Anne Hathaway) finds out that beneath that tough exterior is actually a soft person. Liz moonlights as an Adult “Remote Entertainer” (Phone Sex operator ) and has recently met Jason (Topher Grace – Christopher for short… gah!!!!) who is a mail delivery man in Kara’s office.
Kara’s business associate is another self confessed “player” Kelvin Moore(Jamie Foxx) who is the 2nd best correspondent of the local sports station and avoids doing the rounds on V Day coz he is secretly waiting for THE ONE (yet again).
Lastly, Sean’s best friend Holden (Bradley Cooper) is a stinking rich man who is on a flight back home and is seated next to Capt. Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts)
Phew… I believe I have managed to successfully cover all characters in the movie for sure. No point in explaining what happens in this melee of relationships. Its upto you to find out. If u are not the rom com kinds then avoid this like the plague. If you are then u will definitely like to see this once. Can watch on the tube whenever a movie channel decides to play it. No need to really own it despite the fact that Garry Marshall has directed it. Not really up with his best movies like Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, The Other Sister, Raising Helen etc. Garry Marshall is a specialist in Rom Coms for sure but this one is not his stand out performance by far. Long way to go to catch up with the likes of Nancy Meyers who gives us amazing rom coms every single time.
The casting, however, is probably perfect. The likes of Kathy Bates who is the only person not shown as romantically inclined (Kelvin’s boss) have a screen time of less than 2 mins and leaves a powerful impact. What has helped Marshall is that each actor is on her/his own quite wonderful and therefore gives their best.
Good movie to get your valentine to see. Especially if you would like to get brownie points. But overall 5 on 10 for this one.
Now I am a self confessed romantic and missed out on the movie when it released about 6 months back. But got myself the DVD anyways as soon as it released a couple of weeks back.
The story begins with Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) who in typical V Day style starts off his day by proposing to Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba) who says yes. Reed is a florist who has his own reasonable size hand me down business from his granddad and is one of the few people in the world who is always happy. Obviously Morley says yes but much to the surprise of most people who know Reed for reasons best known to them. It is very typical of most of your friends who don’t tell you in as many words that the woman who u think is the one is probably not actually THE ONE.
Reed's best friend is Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) who is currently dating Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey). Julia’s close friend is Kara (Jessica Biel) who is a PR specialist for NFL player Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) and is having a tough time deciding whether to continue with his career or not. Kara does not believe in V Day and spends it each time throwing a “I Hate Valentines Day” party. Julia also teaches at a school where Edison (Bryce Robinson) is a primary school student. Edison stays with his grandparents Edgar (Hector Elizondo) and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) who spend V Day every year by watching a movie @ a Cemetery which is actually top draw on V Day. Edison’s baby sitter Grace (Emma Roberts) believes she has found her THE ONE and is planning to lose her virginity on the same day to Alex (Carter Jenkins). Grace’s best friend is Felicia (Taylor Swift) an 18 year old bimbette who is totally in love with the school’s star athlete Willy (Taylor Lautner) for purely superficial reasons.
Sean’s agent is Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah) who portrays herself as a self confessed class A bitch of a boss. But her stand in secretary Liz (Anne Hathaway) finds out that beneath that tough exterior is actually a soft person. Liz moonlights as an Adult “Remote Entertainer” (Phone Sex operator ) and has recently met Jason (Topher Grace – Christopher for short… gah!!!!) who is a mail delivery man in Kara’s office.
Kara’s business associate is another self confessed “player” Kelvin Moore(Jamie Foxx) who is the 2nd best correspondent of the local sports station and avoids doing the rounds on V Day coz he is secretly waiting for THE ONE (yet again).
Lastly, Sean’s best friend Holden (Bradley Cooper) is a stinking rich man who is on a flight back home and is seated next to Capt. Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts)
Phew… I believe I have managed to successfully cover all characters in the movie for sure. No point in explaining what happens in this melee of relationships. Its upto you to find out. If u are not the rom com kinds then avoid this like the plague. If you are then u will definitely like to see this once. Can watch on the tube whenever a movie channel decides to play it. No need to really own it despite the fact that Garry Marshall has directed it. Not really up with his best movies like Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, The Other Sister, Raising Helen etc. Garry Marshall is a specialist in Rom Coms for sure but this one is not his stand out performance by far. Long way to go to catch up with the likes of Nancy Meyers who gives us amazing rom coms every single time.
The casting, however, is probably perfect. The likes of Kathy Bates who is the only person not shown as romantically inclined (Kelvin’s boss) have a screen time of less than 2 mins and leaves a powerful impact. What has helped Marshall is that each actor is on her/his own quite wonderful and therefore gives their best.
Good movie to get your valentine to see. Especially if you would like to get brownie points. But overall 5 on 10 for this one.
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