Wild Card (2015)

Some may say that Jason Statham is cut out for only one type of role that is probably immortalized by his best performance to date i.e. Frank Martin (Transporter).  I would tend to agree with them but having said that, Statham hasn’t let the people who call him a stereotype come in the way of what has been built into a brand of action with a solid fan following from across the world.  I am one of those fans.

The Fifth Estate

And the world of exasperating Biopics was as prevalent at the Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) as anywhere else.  With the amount of publicity and talk about Julian Assange over the years, one would have expected a movie that was as good as David Fincher’s Social Network.  While there is every attempt made to look like Social Network, at the end of it all, one is left wondering what could have been instead of celebrating what was.

Hunger Games : Catching Fire

Apparently Gary Ross (Director of Hunger Games) turned down the opportunity of directing the sequels.  After approaching 8 more directors including the likes of Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity) and Joe Cornish (Star Trek 3), the opportunity landed on Francis Lawrence’s table who has then proceeded to give us a rendition that tempts me to ask him to remake Hunger Games 1.

Gambit (2012)

Gambit released in the UK towards the end of 2012.  Apparently the makers didn’t think it worthwhile to release it in the US at all.  It released in India tomorrow (27^th September 2013) nearly 1 year after its UK release.  The US date is not yet fixed.  Now why would they keep an entertaining movie like Gambit away from the screens when they are fine with unleashing a whole load of other crap on us? Beats me.

Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters

I started blogging a few months after the first installment of this very average adult fantasy series.  Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief was the first in the series by Rick Riordian that was a much awarded book but an average movie.  I am told by reliable sources that the book is readable.

Jack The Giant Slayer

It is probably the most “in” thing these days in Hollywood.  A trend that started a year or so back.  The fairy tale with a modern twist.  A story of Snow White which has the seven dwarfs but it also has elements of thrill and fear woven into it.  Or as in this case, the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Hunger Games

I was walking past Crossword in Vashi on Thursday i.e. 22nd March 2012 and I came across this 6 x 3 drop down of Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games. I honestly had no clue that it was a book and therefore had to pick it up – despite Crossword’s attempts to deny me the right to buy a book thanks to their gross mismanagement (the guy in the store had no clue to where the book was kept). They finally managed to find it in the Young Fiction section and I was wondering as to why is it that it is kept there of all places. Add to it, it’s a trilogy which I am told is in fashion today. So there is Hunger Games 2 (Catching Fire) and 3 (Mocking Jay) which are already made by the way and slotted for release in 2013 and 2015 it seems. Talk about planning.

Hunger Games starts with a quick backgrounder on how 75 years back, a whole bunch of states in the US rebelled against the government at that time. Of the 13 districts, one was obliterated and no signs of life were left. The remaining 12 now owe their life and allegiance to what is described as the Capitol. The Capitol, in an attempt to keep their memories fresh, holds the annual Hunger Games. Each District (currently based on profession) sends 1 boy and 1 girl between the ages 12 to 18 to a no holds barred fight to the death which in turn is telecast live to the entire population who now don’t have a choice but to view it.

This time around, the draw of lots picks out Primrose Everdeen (Willow Shields) who is all of 12 years old and has no clue on how to fight – leave alone one to the death. Her sister Katniss Everdeen’s (Jennifer Lawrence) on the other hand is a fighter to the core and survivor. She has been taking care of the family since her father’s passing. She loves her little sister to death. And so it isn’t surprising that she volunteers in place of her sister to be part of the 74th Hunger Games. The story is about Katniss’ fight for survival.

The book is reasonably paced I thought. Not the best of writing but quite pacy. The movie on the other hand turns out to be quite slow and stretched in parts. A bit too much of time is spent on the build up and very little on the actual action sequences. And surprisingly hardly any special effects. The movie is quite true to the book with very few liberties taken. The good part is the effort taken to show the dialogues that happen behind the scenes before the decisions are taken by the team that runs the show. And there is a sneak peek into President Snow’s (Donald Sutherland) character which is absent in the book. And why is there so little use of music? Anyways, read the book if you can before the movie. 6 on 10 overall. Not something that you will sorely miss.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1187553561/

Burlesque

Spunky is the word that first comes to mind when you watch Burlesque. First time director Steve Antin (well almost first time since his other video movie didn’t really create waves) gives us an extremely heady mix of jazz put together in a style that can only be described as Coyote Ugly meets Moulin Rouge. One could choose add a taste of Chicago to it as well but just a dash mind you. Small town girl aiming to make it to the bright arc lights of Los Angeles. Spice it up with a couple of affairs. Add to that 2 of the best voices known to man. Garnish it with a reasonable story and a feel good ending and voila you have Burlesque.

Alice Rose (the oh so sizzling Christina Aguilera), Ali for short is all starry eyed about song and dance. She has the voice to make her feel that way. But she is from Iowa where she works at a local deli. Fed up with waiting tables – one would automatically be that way if you are not paid for a while – she takes off for LA to do what she really wants to do. As she is moving from place to place to place she passes by a neon sign that says – Burlesque Lounge. Intrigued, she walks in to see what it is all about and reluctantly pays the $20 entry fee (she is really short on money right). And its love at first sight. She asks the bartender Jack (Cam Gigandet) as to who is in charge and is directed to Tess (Cher). But Tess doesn’t have the patience to meet some new wannabe starlet and brushes her off. She sends her to Sean (Stanley Tucci) the arranger who asks her to leave her name and number with Jack again. Back to square one I guess.

Not willing to give up, Ali uses her charm to get herself a job at Burlesque itself. Jack is more than willing to accommodate. At this time, I would like to clarify that Jack is a genuinely nice guy and does not give Ali the job because of the size of her hooters. A couple of days into the job, Ali comes back to see her house looted. With nowhere else to go she lands up – no points for guessing – at Jack’s place for help and Jack being the good friend he is, offers her the place for the night. Till the next morning, Ali thinks Jack is gay but is not too comfortable when she finds out otherwise and that Jack is engaged to be married to Natalie, a struggling actress who spends more time in NY than in LA. She however stays back because as I said earlier, Jack is a really good guy.

Ali’s efforts to get herself into the main act keep falling flat but her break does come in when one of the dancers, Georgia (Julianne Hough) gets knocked up. Tess is mighty impressed to see that she has learnt all the dance moves by just being a waitress. An even big break comes up when the jealous Nikki (Kirsten Bell) decides to pull the DJ plug while Ali is performing. Not wanting to waste the opportunity, Ali decides to sing and continue with the performance and before you can say Jack Daniels, the show is aligned with her as the star attraction. All this is however happening with Tess being on the verge of bankruptcy and an aggressive developer, Marcus (Eric Dane) on her back to force her to sell the bar.

If you like all the things that I mentioned earlier in this review then Burlesque is a must must watch. The soundtrack is a must have too I am definitely going to try and get my hands on it at the earliest. Cher and Aguilera are both fabulous with their voices although their acting talent can be questioned. Also, Aguilera can be questioned on her dancing capabilities with most of the supporting cast being much more talented in this aspect. If, however, you don’t like musicals, then this is definitely not the place to be. Overall, Burlesque is a well made movie. Not in the class of a Chicago or not remotely as larger than life like Moulin Rouge but an entertainer nevertheless. 6 on 10 is what I would give it. But watch it on the big screen to feel the experience.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1405094169/

Julie & Julia

How many movies have you seen that can claim to be based on not one but two true stories? That’s probably the first thing that gets you intrigued about Julie & Julia (J&J). Julia Child’s book, My Life in France and Julie Child’s book of the same name as the movie are beautifully blended by director Norah Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle / You’ve Got Mail) to give a complete feeling of, what can be best described in three letters, Joy. The very essence of the movie is the Joy that one feels in doing something that s/he has an absolute passion for. Something that you are so much in love with that you take every single opportunity to do it or better still make opportunities. I keep telling people that the most difficult thing to find out is that one thing. Julia Child and Julie Powell both went through enough and more pangs of doubt and exasperation before they found at that one thing in their life – Cooking.

Julia Child (Merly Streep) is thrilled to bits about being in Paris, thanks to her husband, Paul (Stanley Tucci) who works in the Foreign Ministry. She likes everything French. Right from the way people speak and behave to French food to the houses, the streets etc. Most of all, she loves to eat. Not knowing what she would like to do with her free time, she starts doing odd courses here and there like making hats but doesn’t really find anything that pleases her. Till she of course lands up taking a small cooking course for French Housewives. Upset with her first class – boiling an egg – she asks for an advanced course instead. The instructor, Madame Brassart (Joan Juliet Buck), mocks the idea but allows her to take up the course for professionals, where she is the only woman. While she is doing the course, she meets Simone Beck (Linda Emond) and Louisette Bertholle (Helen Carey) who ask her to collaborate with them on a cook book for “The Servantless American Housewife”. The Legend of Julia Child is about to be written

Cut to over 50 years later – Julie Powell (Amy Adams) is almost 30 years old. She works in a government agency that helps victims of 9/11 cope up with the after effects and also with stuff like their insurance claims. Not the most pleasant job in the world especially when you have people screaming at you first thing in the morning – and they are justified in doing so. But she gets her release every day when she comes back home to the “surety” of cooking dinner for herself and husband Eric Powell (Chriss Messina). In a ritual meeting with her very well off friends, one of them Annabelle (Jillian Bach) mentions that she blogs about her life in general and her experiences. Intrigued, she asks Eric about what blogging is all about. After a quick debate on what she can blog about, she decides to take up the challenge of cooking each one of Julia’s recipes over 365 days i.e. over 500 recipes in exactly a year. That marks the beginning of the Julie / Julia Project.

J&J marks the coming together of Meryl Streep and Amy Adams once again (Doubt being the other instance) but they don’t share screen time unfortunately. That, however, doesn’t deprive the audience of the complete joy of watching 2 absolutely brilliant actresses. Amy Adams, in what has been her best performance to date along with Doubt – add to the list folks – actors who have come of age. News is she is going to play Janis Joplin in an eponymously titled movie about “The Girl” which will release next year. And although Meryl Streep won her 2 Oscars for movies over 3 decades back, I think her best performances have come in movies with Amy Adams. Why she lost out to Sandra Bullock (not that Sandra Bullock did a lousy job) will remain one of the biggest unsolved mysteries of our time. Coming to the easiest job in the movie – direction – Norah Ephron has this knack of getting her casting so right that she probably doesn’t have to do anything after that. The actors manage it themselves. But she keeps the movie going like nothing she has done before. So well that I was tempted to classify this movie as a comedy – the humour is seriously good . In summation, a must watch for young and old alike. 8 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi77595161/

Easy A

High School is probably the toughest time in anyone’s life – I don’t say that. Its those blokes from Hollywood go to significant extents to re-emphasize on that point time and over again with the string of chick flicks / RomComs that they come up with based on someone’s life and the pressures of High School. Now the case may not be similar in India but from what I hear, whatever is shown on screen is pretty close to the real deal in the West and in some cases probably made to look better. I can’t begin to imagine the pains that parents would be going through day after day. I wonder what I would do if I had kids. Tip my hat to the parents of most teenagers – especially those with teenage daughters. Cannot claim to understand your pains and fears but honestly, I wouldn’t want to be in your position – not even as close as a country mile and a half.


Did you know that my name is an anagrame for “I Love”? That’s what Olive Penderghast (Emma Stone) asks of the boyfriend of her best friend, Rhiannon (as Alyson Michalka). That too in her sultriest possible way http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3453552153/. She has waltzed into school wearing a black corset with the letter A sewed onto her left breast, black skin tight jeans (and she is really really skinny), black sunglasses, the reddest of lipsticks – in short, looking at her sluttiest best if it could be called that. Most of the guys in class have their jaws on the floor and drool all over. Needless to say Rhiannon is not very thrilled about the entire episode and she promptly declares her friendship “OVER”. Not that Olive cares – anymore that is.

It all starts off when Olive excuses herself from a weekend with Rhiannon’s parents. She lies about a date that she has over the weekend. But she spends the weekend only listening to “Pocket full of sunshine” by Natasha Bedingfield. Olive is basically your average ordinary everyday girl. A nobody @ school. With only one friend i.e. Rhiannon. So when Rhiannon repeatedly asks her how her weekend was and whether “something happened”, she takes recourse to lying once again and says that she got laid. Bad news that the overly enthusiastic “Christian”, Marianne (Amanda Bynes) is in the loo during this conversation. And The Times of Marianne goes to work immediately after that. Before one can say, Jack Daniels, Olive becomes the high school slut. Someone who gives in very easily and is available. Olive takes this in her stride and actually decides its good for her image. So when the gay boy in school, Brandon (Dan Byrd) asks her to lie about having had sex with him, she decides to play along.

Easy A tracks the life of a kid whose attempt to gain popularity just goes that little bit out of control. But the fact that she has trusting parents helps. Probably a good class for parents struggling with teenage kids at home and needless to say, for teenage kids on what should be done and what not. Emma Stone seems to be someone with talent and probably waiting for her big break of sorts. I think she is capable of it. The rest of the cast are atypical chick flick cast with the exception of Patricia Clarkson & Stanley Tucci who play the role of Olive’s parents. Directed by the young looking Will Gluck (nothing much to write home about currently) it is a decent watch. Reasonably entertaining chick flick. 5.5 on 10 from my side.

Trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1057359641/