The Legend of Hercules

Lauri Mauritz Harjola is better known as Renny Harlin.  Why do we know Renny Harlin? It is because he gave us movies like Die Hard 2, Cliffhanger and Long Kiss Goodnight.  Were any of them stunning award winning movies? Not at all.  But they were really solid entertainment and very good for their times.  I would not find it difficult to watch any of these movies once again.

Yaariyan

Famous Last Words – “The toughest job in the world is being a mother.  One of the most difficult things to do is directing a movie.  I did both together” – Divya Khosla Kumar, Director, Yaariyan (read “Probably the worst movie of 2014).

Dedh Ishqiya

Pick the same director - check

Pick the same lead cast - check

Add 2-3 brilliant actors as seasoning – check

Retain some of the "characters" from the first edition – check

Pick yet another rustic premise / story – check

Add flavour with the tongue of The Nawabs – check

Make sure that the music is acceptable if not brilliant – check

Get a great cinematographer to create some gorgeous shots  - check

Get a location that connects with both rural and urban India – check

Hire a set designer who can make that location look even more beautiful - check

Grudge Match

One look at Peter Segal’s filmography and you would never think that he could run a movie that is not a comedy – Anger Management, The Longest Yard, Get Smart, Naked Gun 33 1/3 – all of them more comic than serious.  Maybe that is the reason imdb lists Grudge Match as a Sports Comedy.  What I can tell you is that any element of comedy was ersatz, more often than not.

Autumn Blood (Austria)

Log onto www.imdb.com and search for Autumn Blood – well, lemme save you the trouble - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085752/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1.  Notice the roles against each member of the cast.  It gets as simple as that to make a movie right? The Girl, The Boy, The Butcher, The Mayor, The Hunter, The Friend, The Social Worker – how cool is that!!!! Who needs names right?

The Selfish Giant

Statutory Warning – If you don’t understand the way upcountry Brits speak  English then The Selfish Giant is a movie you should watch with subtitles only.  I am not an expert in language and cannot tell you what the exact accent was but it would suffice to say that I was struggling to keep up with what the cast was speaking.  Sadly, the MAMI team didn’t think it worthwhile to keep them on; TSG is a really good movie.

Inside Llewyn Davis

All Coen Brothers fans in the house raise your hands!!!! And once you have done that, check your list of movies to confirm that you have seen Inside Llewyn Davis.  A few of us (about a 500 I am guessing) were lucky enough to see the movie at the Mumbai International Film Festival.  For the rest, PVR Director’s Rare has been kind enough to release it after several delays – 10^th January 2014 is the day.

TimePass (TP) (Marathi)

Ravi Jadhav is one of the reasons for Marathi cinema seeing a renaissance of sorts over the past few years.  From Natarang to Balak Palak (BP) and now TimePass (TP).  He has clearly indicated repeatedly that it doesn’t take mainstream “commercially” acceptable cinema to be commercially viable.  More power to him I say because this is the kind of cinema that audiences should be exposed to and not slapstick sleazy cinema.

Mr Joe B. Carvalho

I write this review with no prejudice whatsoever to anyone or anything.  In fact let me clarify at the outset that I love Arshad Warsi and Soha Ali Khan.  I have been a fan of Javed Jaffrey as well for decades now.  And needless to say Vijay Raaz is one of the finest actors that India has produced in a long long time – one with a superb voice as well.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

And it is turning out to be a great start to Hollywood in India for 2014 – much like last year.  But I guess that’s what happens when you release movies made in 2013 in the first month of the year.  So to that extent it doesn’t count.  What counts however is that for the first time I have seen Ben Stiller executing a role that doesn’t involve any slapstick comedy.