It came as a total shocker to me when I realized that The Tourist is directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Guess what? Donnersmarck has also directed a German movie called Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) which deservedly won the Oscar for the best movie in the category of Foreign Films. An extremely powerful movie which had barely any flaws. So to expect something as drab and lifeless as The Tourist from his table was even more disappointing than the pain of waiting for the movie to end. God, I have, very infrequently so wanted a movie to end.
Elise Clifton Ward (Angelina Jolie) is being watched by the Interpol, led by Inspector John Acheson (Paul Bettany) of Scotland Yard. They are in search of Alexander Pierce who owes the British Government a princely sum of 744 million pounds. A great figure to throw at someone in an story of grand larceny I guess. Elise is spending her time in a plush five star in Paris and makes her way to what I can only imagine is her evening cuppa – I would be very surprised if she were to be dressed up so well around 7 in the morning. She is well aware that she is being watched coz she is Pierce’s girl. She was seeing him during the time Pierce was swindling Underworld Don Reginald Shaw (Steven Berkoff) of 2.5 billion pounds – another fantastic figure to throw at the audience. But Alex decides to take off and leave Elise stranded without any money for nearly 2 years now. And the Interpol has been desperately searching for him for a much longer period of time. Funnily, no one has seen Pierce. With the exception of Shaw.
As Elise is having her usual snack, she gets a courier delivered to her. No surprise that it is engraved with the letters AP. AP apologises, through the letter, and asks her to take the 8:22 to Venice and instructs her to find someone who is about the same height as his own and strike up a conversation so that the cops are thrown off the trail. For someone who is a gilted lover, Elise surely takes off quickly without a thought – after burning the letter though. She does exactly what is instructed of her and finds herself with Frank Tupelo (Johnny Depp) on the train to Venice. Frank is a math teacher from Wisconsin and therefore – The Tourist.
What follows is one of the slowest crime capers that I have ever seen. Lives of Others was slow alright Florian but it was also extremely intense and gripping. Just because a movie is slow doesn’t make it good. Surprisingly large number of inconsistencies like the 8:22 to Venice – was it a morning train or an evening one. If morning then why was Jolie decked up @ 7 am? If evening then how in the blazes does she get to Venice when its all bright and sunny? Does it take 15 minutes to get to Venice from Paris? Not sure but worth a dekko. Performances from Johnny Depp and Jolie would easily rate amongst their worst to date. Paul Bettany was probably the only actor who tried to make an impact. Classic case of “never judge a book by its cover and therefore a movie by its trailer or its poster for that matter”. 4 on 10 from my side and I think I am being generous.
Friday, 31 December 2010
Little Fockers
They are definitely back with the next edition of hair ripping mayhem. But this time, somehow the humour is a bit more tasteful than usual. Having said that, don’t get your hopes up too high when u dare to watch Little Fockers. I say dare because that is what it would take to watch Ben Stiller’s inanities on screen. The surprising fact though is that the franchise manages to get back together some of the best actors that this world has ever seen – all multiple Oscar winners. I cannot even begin to imagine the pain that they would be going through when they have to share screen space with Ben Stiller. But then again, I cannot think of anyone else either, who could do a better job at their roles than Robert De Niro, Dustin Hoffman and Barbara Striessand. Casting is one aspect that you probably cannot question the Focker Franchise with. They do manage to get the best people for the roles. And the fact that the audiences seem to enjoy it and that this brand of comedy gets the big bucks at the BO should probably count for calling it a successful idea. I know I have never liked the series but hand on my heart, if it is making money then it should be good I guess.
Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is a satisfied man. He has spent the better part of the past 10 years building a family that is stable and a marriage that is quite enviable. He has twins – Samantha (Daisy Tahan) and Henry (Colin Baiocchi) who were born 3 minutes apart and are about to turn 5 (although Samantha seems more like 10 – probably the only casting error in the movie). And obviously keeping the family together and strongly grounded is Pam (Teri Polo). Greg has come a long way over the past 2 years. He is now heading the department at the hospital – kind of like a Head Nurse and in a position that gets him a more than decent pay packet and also some power – including meeting medical reps and screening them before taking calls on the medication.
The gorgeous, but very conrny, Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba) meets him as the medical rep for the new drug for erectile disfunction and smooth talks her way into speaking at a conference about the drug. He tries his best to avoid it but then feels a sense of pride in the opportunity and takes it up eventually. In between all of this, his plans for getting his new house done up before the kids 5th birthday are not on track with contractor Randy (Harvey Kietel) taking his own sweet time. To add to the mess is the legendary Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) who is smarting on how he took his eye of the ball off his other son in law who cheats on his wife i.e. Pam’s sister. Now that he doesn’t have an heir to the Byrnes family, he pitches the concept to Greg who is obviously flattered and considers it to be a huge boost to his ego. Not understanding that it will eventually land him into a lot of trouble.
All this mish mash comes together with the chaos created by Grandpa Jack when he starts doubting that Greg is having an affair with Andi. Matters aren’t helped with Kevin Rawley (Owen Wilson) coming back into the scene. To cut a long story short, utter chaos as is expected from the Focker Series. I genuinely hope to God that this is the last in the series. Anyways, most of the actors are fast getting older and need to spend most of their time in making more quality movies. Time to put an end to the slapstick I say. Also, I was left wondering why is it that it is called “Little Fockers”. There was hardly any focus on the kids. Rounding it up with the added surprise that this was directed by Paul Wietz who did start with American Pie but unbelievably also directed a fabulous movie called About A Boy (Hugh Grant) which was probably his magnum opus. The narration and execution is quite average at best. I don’t like the franchise. So in my books it is a 4 on 10. But if u liked the previous ones, this one is probably the best of the lot.
Greg Focker (Ben Stiller) is a satisfied man. He has spent the better part of the past 10 years building a family that is stable and a marriage that is quite enviable. He has twins – Samantha (Daisy Tahan) and Henry (Colin Baiocchi) who were born 3 minutes apart and are about to turn 5 (although Samantha seems more like 10 – probably the only casting error in the movie). And obviously keeping the family together and strongly grounded is Pam (Teri Polo). Greg has come a long way over the past 2 years. He is now heading the department at the hospital – kind of like a Head Nurse and in a position that gets him a more than decent pay packet and also some power – including meeting medical reps and screening them before taking calls on the medication.
The gorgeous, but very conrny, Andi Garcia (Jessica Alba) meets him as the medical rep for the new drug for erectile disfunction and smooth talks her way into speaking at a conference about the drug. He tries his best to avoid it but then feels a sense of pride in the opportunity and takes it up eventually. In between all of this, his plans for getting his new house done up before the kids 5th birthday are not on track with contractor Randy (Harvey Kietel) taking his own sweet time. To add to the mess is the legendary Jack Byrnes (Robert De Niro) who is smarting on how he took his eye of the ball off his other son in law who cheats on his wife i.e. Pam’s sister. Now that he doesn’t have an heir to the Byrnes family, he pitches the concept to Greg who is obviously flattered and considers it to be a huge boost to his ego. Not understanding that it will eventually land him into a lot of trouble.
All this mish mash comes together with the chaos created by Grandpa Jack when he starts doubting that Greg is having an affair with Andi. Matters aren’t helped with Kevin Rawley (Owen Wilson) coming back into the scene. To cut a long story short, utter chaos as is expected from the Focker Series. I genuinely hope to God that this is the last in the series. Anyways, most of the actors are fast getting older and need to spend most of their time in making more quality movies. Time to put an end to the slapstick I say. Also, I was left wondering why is it that it is called “Little Fockers”. There was hardly any focus on the kids. Rounding it up with the added surprise that this was directed by Paul Wietz who did start with American Pie but unbelievably also directed a fabulous movie called About A Boy (Hugh Grant) which was probably his magnum opus. The narration and execution is quite average at best. I don’t like the franchise. So in my books it is a 4 on 10. But if u liked the previous ones, this one is probably the best of the lot.
Fair Game
Add one more to the list of movies on Iraq. How many more movies would need to be made to get the world aware that the entire issue in Iraq was nothing but a sham. Are we actually expecting some justice to be delivered in probably the largest case of genocide after Hitler and Vietnam? What would take for the world to realize that there is no point in taking on “the most powerful people in the world”? I tip my hat to the patience that people have in churning out movies after movies on how the entire effort of “THE War against terror” was all made up. Now, sustained effort should hopefully get justice but as Nixon proudly proclaimed after Watergate, “The President is the Law”. Now how does one expect to get around that? Is the legal system in the land of the free so strong that it can give any immunity to anyone who thinks can take on the system or will we just see movie after movie getting the so called truth out and makes it look eventually like just a political propaganda that the Democrats are running against the Republicans?
Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) is a CIA Operative. She finished top of her class during the training period and the Agency obviously has a lot of faith on her. She has nearly 10 covert operations running simultaneously in different parts of the world from South East Asia to the Middle East and even parts of Europe. She works under various under cover names and is quite successful in most of her efforts in generating information and getting things done. She is married to Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) who is the ex Ambassador of the United States to Iraq and some countries in Africa as well. Her operations lead her to a chemical’s dealer in Kuala Lumpur and then eventually they team stumbles upon some information on shipments of a large quantity (500 Tons) of “Yellow Cake” a.k.a. Uranium Ore from Africa, specifically Niger (pronounced Ni-j-er) to Iraq.
Knowing that Joe has spent a lot of time in Africa, she recommends his name to the panel and Joe agrees to help with a reccee of sorts. Using his best contacts, Joe does get out as much information as possible and comes to the conclusion that it is just not possible to have sent out so much of Uranium without a whole trail of paper work. He reports the information accordingly and considers his job done. But when people in power want something badly, they go out and get it. Reports start trickling in that loads of Uranium have been shipped out from Africa, specifically Niger to aid the manufacture of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Joe doesn’t take this too lightly and shoots off a note to the newspapers about how the entire thing is a sham and there is no proof etc.etc. etc. That begins the downfall of Valerie and Joe and what follows is the story of how the two of them try and take on the system.
Fair Game doesn’t give you too much to look forward to. It is an extremely convoluted movie like most movies about Iraq have to be – consciously I guess. There are just too many conspiracy theories running around and one doesn’t really know what to believe. If spy thrillers which get more dirt out on George Bush and the entire Iraq war is your thesis topic for your Ph.D. then Fair Game is worth a watch. It is pretty much like Green Zone meets Hurt Locker meets Farenheit 9/11 meets the dime a dozen other Iraq oriented movies which are supposed to give us that “slightly different” perspective. Difficult to sustain attention coz after a point of time your heading is screaming out – GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW GUYS!!!! Doug Liman not the best director in the block and after his debacle with Mr. & Mrs. Smith, he doesn’t seem to have made too much of progress. Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are the only saving grace for the otherwise quite average movie. I give it 5 on 10.
Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) is a CIA Operative. She finished top of her class during the training period and the Agency obviously has a lot of faith on her. She has nearly 10 covert operations running simultaneously in different parts of the world from South East Asia to the Middle East and even parts of Europe. She works under various under cover names and is quite successful in most of her efforts in generating information and getting things done. She is married to Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) who is the ex Ambassador of the United States to Iraq and some countries in Africa as well. Her operations lead her to a chemical’s dealer in Kuala Lumpur and then eventually they team stumbles upon some information on shipments of a large quantity (500 Tons) of “Yellow Cake” a.k.a. Uranium Ore from Africa, specifically Niger (pronounced Ni-j-er) to Iraq.
Knowing that Joe has spent a lot of time in Africa, she recommends his name to the panel and Joe agrees to help with a reccee of sorts. Using his best contacts, Joe does get out as much information as possible and comes to the conclusion that it is just not possible to have sent out so much of Uranium without a whole trail of paper work. He reports the information accordingly and considers his job done. But when people in power want something badly, they go out and get it. Reports start trickling in that loads of Uranium have been shipped out from Africa, specifically Niger to aid the manufacture of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. Joe doesn’t take this too lightly and shoots off a note to the newspapers about how the entire thing is a sham and there is no proof etc.etc. etc. That begins the downfall of Valerie and Joe and what follows is the story of how the two of them try and take on the system.
Fair Game doesn’t give you too much to look forward to. It is an extremely convoluted movie like most movies about Iraq have to be – consciously I guess. There are just too many conspiracy theories running around and one doesn’t really know what to believe. If spy thrillers which get more dirt out on George Bush and the entire Iraq war is your thesis topic for your Ph.D. then Fair Game is worth a watch. It is pretty much like Green Zone meets Hurt Locker meets Farenheit 9/11 meets the dime a dozen other Iraq oriented movies which are supposed to give us that “slightly different” perspective. Difficult to sustain attention coz after a point of time your heading is screaming out – GIVE ME SOMETHING NEW GUYS!!!! Doug Liman not the best director in the block and after his debacle with Mr. & Mrs. Smith, he doesn’t seem to have made too much of progress. Naomi Watts and Sean Penn are the only saving grace for the otherwise quite average movie. I give it 5 on 10.
The King's Speech
There are so many movies that just don’t see the light of the day in India. Sadly, some of them are works of sheer brilliance. And I am not sure if it is sheer coincidence but most of these movies are British. I had the good fortune of seeing one such movie 2 days back – The King’s Speech.
Prince Albert Fredrick Arthur Geroge (Colin Firth) in 1925 goes onto become King George VI in the late 30s. But he has a problem of public speaking and stammering in general. Something that cannot get him a long way if he has to lead a country. His first attempt at speaking in public ends in a complete disaster when he is supposed to speak at the closing ceremony of the Annual Empire Exhibition – the first time any public address was to be broadcast on radio. Quite an embarrassing situation to be in and something that forces him and Princess Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) to seek medical help. A variety of doctors try their best to make things work but the Prince’s temper and inability to cope with the weird methods don’t really help. Nine years go by.
In 1934, On the advise of an acquaintance, the Princess, posing as a Mrs. Johnson (the name used by the Prince during the First World War) contacts Lionel Logue (Sir Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist of high repute. Lionel works in a place which is definitely not suited for royalty and that too without a receptionist – sacrilegious!!! He is an Australian by birth but moves to England post the war to make the most of his skill to get people over speech defects. He is willing to take on the assignment but wants “The patient” to come over to his clinic. Even after knowing, quite embarrassingly, that he is conversing with the Duchess of York and the would be Queen of England. My Castle, My Rules as he proudly proclaims. After a bit of deliberation and much against his wishes, the Prince agrees to go through one final attempt at therapy. The attempt doesn’t have a great start but Logue does hand over a recording of a paragraph from Hamlet that he gets the Prince to read while he is listening to loud music over headphones – the latest technology at that time. It is only much later, after yet another debacle that the Prince actually listens to the recording and is quite shocked to hear himself speak so well. He returns to Logue to be treated.
The King’s Speech traces the friendship that King George VI and Lionel Logue build over their experience of ridding the King of his disability. It is garnished with fabulous British humour and most importantly, splendid performances from Colin Firth, Sir Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter – all three of which are in line for nominations at this year’s Oscars. Even the piece meal performances from Jennifer Ehle as the wife of Lionel Logue and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill are absolutely outstanding. This one is a movie for demonstrating acting talent from some of the best known names in the industry. Director Tom Hooper must be a very fortunate man to have worked with some of the most natural actors possible. Also notable is the outstanding effort in editing from Tariq Anwar. All in all one of the best movies of the year. Hope it releases in India soon – I hadn’t seen the trailers before I left. 8 on 10 for sure.
Prince Albert Fredrick Arthur Geroge (Colin Firth) in 1925 goes onto become King George VI in the late 30s. But he has a problem of public speaking and stammering in general. Something that cannot get him a long way if he has to lead a country. His first attempt at speaking in public ends in a complete disaster when he is supposed to speak at the closing ceremony of the Annual Empire Exhibition – the first time any public address was to be broadcast on radio. Quite an embarrassing situation to be in and something that forces him and Princess Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) to seek medical help. A variety of doctors try their best to make things work but the Prince’s temper and inability to cope with the weird methods don’t really help. Nine years go by.
In 1934, On the advise of an acquaintance, the Princess, posing as a Mrs. Johnson (the name used by the Prince during the First World War) contacts Lionel Logue (Sir Geoffrey Rush), a speech therapist of high repute. Lionel works in a place which is definitely not suited for royalty and that too without a receptionist – sacrilegious!!! He is an Australian by birth but moves to England post the war to make the most of his skill to get people over speech defects. He is willing to take on the assignment but wants “The patient” to come over to his clinic. Even after knowing, quite embarrassingly, that he is conversing with the Duchess of York and the would be Queen of England. My Castle, My Rules as he proudly proclaims. After a bit of deliberation and much against his wishes, the Prince agrees to go through one final attempt at therapy. The attempt doesn’t have a great start but Logue does hand over a recording of a paragraph from Hamlet that he gets the Prince to read while he is listening to loud music over headphones – the latest technology at that time. It is only much later, after yet another debacle that the Prince actually listens to the recording and is quite shocked to hear himself speak so well. He returns to Logue to be treated.
The King’s Speech traces the friendship that King George VI and Lionel Logue build over their experience of ridding the King of his disability. It is garnished with fabulous British humour and most importantly, splendid performances from Colin Firth, Sir Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter – all three of which are in line for nominations at this year’s Oscars. Even the piece meal performances from Jennifer Ehle as the wife of Lionel Logue and Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill are absolutely outstanding. This one is a movie for demonstrating acting talent from some of the best known names in the industry. Director Tom Hooper must be a very fortunate man to have worked with some of the most natural actors possible. Also notable is the outstanding effort in editing from Tariq Anwar. All in all one of the best movies of the year. Hope it releases in India soon – I hadn’t seen the trailers before I left. 8 on 10 for sure.
Tomcats
The worry about staying down under is that cable is very expensive. With a practical brother, who doesn’t waste any money on things that are of no use to him, one is resigned to making do with the 12.365 channels that are on air. Some of the things which are much better back home. And the consequences include watching anything that is being played on the tube especially when you have nothing better to do during the day. Now you may argue that Melbourne is a huge city and there should be loads of stuff to do etc. But not after you have returned from a lovely trip of the Great Ocean Road and are lazing around at home with nothing to do. That’s when you fall victim to movies like Tomcats. And these chick flicks have an uncanny knack of baiting you to spend over 120 minutes peppered with ads. But then I was always aware of the hazard that I had in being an amateur movie critic. So no complaints but warnings galore for all my followers / readers out there.
Michael Delany (Jerry O’Connell) and 5 of his other mates are at a wedding. One of them is an ace at investments. In the excitement of the moment, they all make a pact that they would put aside small sums of money every month for an unplanned amount of time with just one condition – the person who is left unmarried will take the entire amount left over. Obviously those who get married would have to forfeit their monies. Interesting game I say – especially for our extra horny friend, Michael and the extremely creepy sex maniac, Kyle Brenner (Jake Busey). You see Michael is a cartoonist with heart and Kyle is some rich kid who apparently doesn’t have one – a heart that is. Wonder how there is a difference since both of them appear as excruciatingly horny as the other.
Now Mike finds himself in Vegas for some reason which I cannot remember (shows how riveting the movie was) and very soon with a hot chick who would be interested only in guys with big bucks. For my money’s worth she seems like the one who is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that no one goes back home with money in their pockets. And with Mike desperately wanting to get her into bed, it is the easiest job on the planet. By the time the extremely hot Tricia (Jaime Pressly) and her husbad Steve (Horatio Sanz) get around to stopping him, he has lost $51,000!!!! And casino owners do not give up their moneys usually. Mike is given 30 days to return the money. After a lot of thinking, he is left with only one option, to get $500K from the “marriage fund” by getting Kyle married. This gets him to catch up with Natalie Parker (Shannon Elizabeth), a friend of Tricia, who has her own personal score to settle with Kyle. Kyle was responsible for taking Natalie’s virginity and then dropping him off like a hot cake on the highway with a little more than a few cents to get back home.
Tomcats is Gregory Poirier’s first effort at direction. And thankfully has last for a long time. Nothing else has come in from Poirier’s table since TomCats and it will be 10 years soon. I hope he doesn’t think of coming out with a 10th anniversary special with Tomcats 2 or something. Even writing stories doesn’t seem to be up his alley with just one reasonable attempt with National Treaure – Book of Secrets. The acting is obviously a compilation of wannabe B Grade actors who probably went on to become great porn stars or were already porn stars when the movie was made. I may sound very rude and don’t mean to hurt their sentiments but I guess that the fact that none of them ever landed up making a name for themselves in movies of any kind would be reasonably indicative of their capabilities. 2 on 10 for this one from my end.
Michael Delany (Jerry O’Connell) and 5 of his other mates are at a wedding. One of them is an ace at investments. In the excitement of the moment, they all make a pact that they would put aside small sums of money every month for an unplanned amount of time with just one condition – the person who is left unmarried will take the entire amount left over. Obviously those who get married would have to forfeit their monies. Interesting game I say – especially for our extra horny friend, Michael and the extremely creepy sex maniac, Kyle Brenner (Jake Busey). You see Michael is a cartoonist with heart and Kyle is some rich kid who apparently doesn’t have one – a heart that is. Wonder how there is a difference since both of them appear as excruciatingly horny as the other.
Now Mike finds himself in Vegas for some reason which I cannot remember (shows how riveting the movie was) and very soon with a hot chick who would be interested only in guys with big bucks. For my money’s worth she seems like the one who is entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring that no one goes back home with money in their pockets. And with Mike desperately wanting to get her into bed, it is the easiest job on the planet. By the time the extremely hot Tricia (Jaime Pressly) and her husbad Steve (Horatio Sanz) get around to stopping him, he has lost $51,000!!!! And casino owners do not give up their moneys usually. Mike is given 30 days to return the money. After a lot of thinking, he is left with only one option, to get $500K from the “marriage fund” by getting Kyle married. This gets him to catch up with Natalie Parker (Shannon Elizabeth), a friend of Tricia, who has her own personal score to settle with Kyle. Kyle was responsible for taking Natalie’s virginity and then dropping him off like a hot cake on the highway with a little more than a few cents to get back home.
Tomcats is Gregory Poirier’s first effort at direction. And thankfully has last for a long time. Nothing else has come in from Poirier’s table since TomCats and it will be 10 years soon. I hope he doesn’t think of coming out with a 10th anniversary special with Tomcats 2 or something. Even writing stories doesn’t seem to be up his alley with just one reasonable attempt with National Treaure – Book of Secrets. The acting is obviously a compilation of wannabe B Grade actors who probably went on to become great porn stars or were already porn stars when the movie was made. I may sound very rude and don’t mean to hurt their sentiments but I guess that the fact that none of them ever landed up making a name for themselves in movies of any kind would be reasonably indicative of their capabilities. 2 on 10 for this one from my end.
Love and Other Drugs
Every once in a while, you come across a love story that is not really a love story but kind of gets the message across much better than most mushy ones do. Its an art mastered by very few or just plain luck that you arrive at your moment of truth in an unplanned manner. Now with Edward Zwick, its not the latter but just sheer class. Now the list of movies that Mr. Zwick has give us will prove that point – Glory (got Denzel his first Oscar), Legends of the Fall (if you haven’t seen this one you must must), Courage under Fire, The Siege, The Last Samurai and last but not the least – Blood Diamond. With all of these under his belt, I guess Eddie boy had only one more genre of movies to play with – Romance. Now, Edward would probably argue with me when he says that there is a fair amount of comedy involved in Love and Other Drugs and I would have to agree with him on that count. However, it is not your average run of the mill comedy. There is a lot of class in the humour and at the end of the day, the story is one which would appeal to your heart more than your sense of humour.
Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhall) can be described in only two words – Smooth Operator. One could probably make it three words by adding the prefix – Extra. He is a man who can sell ice to an Eskimo and the concept of himself to a woman better than the best can. A total ladies man, he is a sale guy at a local electronic store who gets thrown out – thanks to screwing with the owners girlfriend. As his younger brother Josh (Josh Gad) says, “If you were given money for fucking, you would be a billionaire by now” – now wouldn’t most of us like to be like Jamie???? I meant the billionaire aspect – obviously ;)
Now Jamie, is without a job and Josh decides to help out by introducing him to a friend in the pharmaceutical business. Much against his wishes to be a medical rep, Jamie agrees – may as well do something he says. So he goes ahead and joins Pfizer. Gets inducted in Chicago and sent back to where he came from – into upcountry United States. He gets tagged to Bruce Winston (Oliver Platt) – med rep par excellence. Bruce is married with 2 kids who live in Chicago along with his wife. Bruce knows that he is onto a gold mine with Jamie and does his best to paint a picture about how the ultimate goal for the med rep should be to get to Chicago coz that’s where the big bucks are. And to get to Chicago, he needs to break Dr. Stan Knight (Hank Azaria) who doesn’t believe in Pfizer thanks to the exceptionally “good work” put in by Terry Hannigan (Gabriel Macht). So off goes our hero, using his charming ways with every single receptionist in his way and makes it within striking distance of Dr. Knight. And as things are going from horrid to great, in waltzes Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a twenty something free spirited woman suffering from 1st stage of Parkinson’s disease.
The entire concept of the movie is probably encapsulated by the last line – Every once in a while, you meet someone who changes your life for ever. Sounds corny but I must admit, that it is true and that I am not sure that these were the lines verbatim ;P. Love and Other Drugs is worth spending nearly 2 hours on, not just due to the fabulous direction of Edward Zwick but also because of a truly superb performance by Anne Hathaway as a young woman who is degenerating with Parkinsons. And I don’t say this only because she is naked most of the time but because The Princess Diary star has added to the list of chick flick actors / actresses who really can act. The movie gets up close and personal with the disease and the travails that one goes through thanks to the disease which somehow doesn’t have a cure. So much for all the progress that we have made. Superb effort by the entire cast and loads of naked bodies (don’t think any of it will be shown back home but that’s the advantage of watching movie down under :D) make Love and Other Drugs a must watch. Anne Hathaway for a nomination at the Oscars is my call. 7 on 10 for the movie.
Jamie Randall (Jake Gyllenhall) can be described in only two words – Smooth Operator. One could probably make it three words by adding the prefix – Extra. He is a man who can sell ice to an Eskimo and the concept of himself to a woman better than the best can. A total ladies man, he is a sale guy at a local electronic store who gets thrown out – thanks to screwing with the owners girlfriend. As his younger brother Josh (Josh Gad) says, “If you were given money for fucking, you would be a billionaire by now” – now wouldn’t most of us like to be like Jamie???? I meant the billionaire aspect – obviously ;)
Now Jamie, is without a job and Josh decides to help out by introducing him to a friend in the pharmaceutical business. Much against his wishes to be a medical rep, Jamie agrees – may as well do something he says. So he goes ahead and joins Pfizer. Gets inducted in Chicago and sent back to where he came from – into upcountry United States. He gets tagged to Bruce Winston (Oliver Platt) – med rep par excellence. Bruce is married with 2 kids who live in Chicago along with his wife. Bruce knows that he is onto a gold mine with Jamie and does his best to paint a picture about how the ultimate goal for the med rep should be to get to Chicago coz that’s where the big bucks are. And to get to Chicago, he needs to break Dr. Stan Knight (Hank Azaria) who doesn’t believe in Pfizer thanks to the exceptionally “good work” put in by Terry Hannigan (Gabriel Macht). So off goes our hero, using his charming ways with every single receptionist in his way and makes it within striking distance of Dr. Knight. And as things are going from horrid to great, in waltzes Maggie Murdock (Anne Hathaway), a twenty something free spirited woman suffering from 1st stage of Parkinson’s disease.
The entire concept of the movie is probably encapsulated by the last line – Every once in a while, you meet someone who changes your life for ever. Sounds corny but I must admit, that it is true and that I am not sure that these were the lines verbatim ;P. Love and Other Drugs is worth spending nearly 2 hours on, not just due to the fabulous direction of Edward Zwick but also because of a truly superb performance by Anne Hathaway as a young woman who is degenerating with Parkinsons. And I don’t say this only because she is naked most of the time but because The Princess Diary star has added to the list of chick flick actors / actresses who really can act. The movie gets up close and personal with the disease and the travails that one goes through thanks to the disease which somehow doesn’t have a cure. So much for all the progress that we have made. Superb effort by the entire cast and loads of naked bodies (don’t think any of it will be shown back home but that’s the advantage of watching movie down under :D) make Love and Other Drugs a must watch. Anne Hathaway for a nomination at the Oscars is my call. 7 on 10 for the movie.
Thursday, 23 December 2010
Tees Maar Khan
I have always been a Farah Khan fan. I loved Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om. The latter in fact is still one of my all time favourites – strictly from a perspective of providing wholesome entertainment. What I like about Farah is that she doesn’t make any bones about each one of her movies being “different”. She is quite cut and dry. So, when Tees Maar Khan was announced a while back, I was quite excited despite the controversy that surrounded it. Most pundits challenged the mother of triplets when she decided to go ahead with Akshay instead of Shah Rukh as the lead for her latest venture. In hind sight, which is a virtue all of us have, Shah Rukh probably could not have pulled of the role. It demanded someone with a better sense of comic timing and therefore clearly cut out for someone like Akshay Kumar. However, Mrs. Kunder would now have realized the importance of a good luck charm. TMK flatters to deceive. A disappointment spread over a little more than 2 hours.
Tabrez Mirza a.k.a. Tees Maar Khan (Akshay Kumar) started very early in his life as a con artiste. His mother (Apara Mehta) would watch age old Chor Police (Cops and Robbers) movies that would invariably have the Chor (Robber) in the lead role. In a manner of speaking, Tabrez was – Well Inducted. And he starts off by pinching the docs watch and nurse’s chain as soon as he pops out. And no points for guessing that he eventually grows up to reach the “Most Wanted” list not only @ home but also by large organizations such as the Interpol. He has been caught 11 times to date and has escaped 24 times – don’t ask me how the math works here – and before the end of the movie also manages to escape two more times. As he proudly proclaims, “Tawaif ki Lut ti hui izzat ko bachana aur TMK ko Qaid karna – dono hi bekaar hai” (It’s a waste of time to save a harlot’s honour or to imprison TMK).
The world famous Johri Brothers (Raghu Ram) are a pair of identical conjoint twins who are leaders in their own field of work – Smuggling of Antiques. They have just been relieved of 10000 kgs of Antiques worth Rs.500 crores (Rs.5 billion / $110 million). The cops have not been able to capture them and are therefore convinced that they would attempt to get back what they believe is rightfully theirs. However, there are only 3 people in the world who can pull of a stunt of stealing that amount of valuables from a moving train. 2 of them are safely behind bars. The third is obviously our hero.
Farah Khan tries to stick to what she is good at. A movie that is primarily a comedy peppered with action sequences that are sufficient to keep people excited. However, this time she kind of comes a cropper post the declaration of, “Is mission mein hum kamyaab honge ya nahin dekhenge after Intermission” (We will see if we are going to succeed in our mission after the Intermission). Kind of corny and seems forced. Things build up quite well in the first half and then somewhere the movie loses steam and becomes kind of repetitive. Maybe it was time for her to actually do something “different”. Just when one thinks that Akshay Kumar is making a comeback he peters of like a deflated balloon back to where he has been over the past 2 years. Forced effort and complete lack of comic timing. Much better in parts but overall no improvement whatsoever. TMKs sidekicks are played by Vijay Maurya, Dharampal and Ashish Asgar who seem to have better comic timing that AK.
And they definitely have much more screen presence than Katrina Kaif who is totally stunning furniture with barely any role to write home about. The only saving grace for her is the absolutely amazing, “Sheela Ki Jawani” (Sheila’s Killer Youth as the subtitles in the Aussie version proclaimed – I definitely have an opportunity to be a subtitler coz they were absolutely atrocious in parts and extremely funny). The music is very good – a combination of songs by Vishal Shekhar and background by the husband Kunder. The choreography is also extremely well done. Full points for Farah Khan there for making Kats dance like the way she has. Someone finally taught her some serious jhatkas!!! Overall, a decent entertainer for the family on Christmas weekend. But don’t go with too much of hope. I give it 4 on 10 in the festive spirit and my liking for Farah Khan as a director. Watch at own risk.
Bheja Fry
Yet another advantage of visiting your friends abroad. You get them DVDs that they have always wanted to have and more so with friends down under coz they don’t get most of our Desi Titles and even if they do, it is horrendously expensive. The best part is that they have probably not watched an all out hilarious movie like Bheja Fry and a maniac like me was only looking for the next available excuse to watch it. So on a not so warm evening around 8 kms away from a place called Margaret River in Western Australia, I seized the opportunity to watch one of India’s finest comedies to date with my close friends Shilpa and Parikshit. And for those who were wondering what I was doing watching desi movies on vacation – do come down to wine country and try to find some place open after 7. Would love to know J
Ranjit Thadani (Rajat Kapoor) is a successful music producer. He is married to Sheetal (Sarika – and does she look gorgeous still – wonder why Kamal Hassan left her – the vagaries of the world I say). Their marriage is going through troubled times. Ranjit cares more about his work than what Sheetal does. Sheetal is a reasonably successful singer in her own right and was actually seeing a music director, Anant Ghoshal (Milind Soman) when she met Ranjit, who promptly steals her under Anant’s nose. Ranjit and his friends have a fetish. A fetish to have fun at the expense of unsuspecting folk who think that they are searching for new talent (helped by the fact that they are in the music business). Every Friday, the gang meets up to “unearth” fresh talent. Stuff like people a guy who genuinely believes he has talent because he can spit a really long distance – Ugh!!! Whats worse is that the group actually believes that the entire process is a great stress buster for all of them.
It would be Ranjit’s turn the next Friday to introduce the next talent to the gang. And he is quickly running out of time. But a close friend, Jagdish Varma (Ikhlaque Khan) bumps into a genuine “talent” on his way to Pune. Someone who actually believes that he was born to do only one thing – sing. Meet Bharat Bhushan (Vinay Pathak). He is not only under the illusion of being a good singer, but also goes that extra mile to convince people that he really can sing. He doesn’t waste a single opportunity to sing. And he is a leech to the core. One doesn’t have much of a choice but to hear him out. Complete chaos ensues when Bharat Bhushan enters the scene. And very shortly, you would be holding on to your stomachs in pain – thanks to some amazing comedy that will come your way.
Bheja Fry is the kind of movie that comes every once in a while to reaffirm our faith in quality comedy. Director Sagar Ballary is far from being a superb director considering the number of inconsistencies that existed in the movie and the editing that was definitely below standard. But these gaffes are more than masked by the superb performances of everyone in the cast. Everyone but for Milind Soman who for my money’s worth should realize by now that acting is not up his alley. He should stick to modeling which he can continue with for the next 10 years plus – he still looks absolutely stunning and is a huge role model for us 30+ paunchy folks who have resigned to not looking smart and fit coz it is all too late. People are going to remember the performances of Vinay Pathak and Ranvir Shorey for a long time to come. And Bhairavi Goswami will be talked about till eternity for her classic dialogue as Suman Rao, “Ranjit, Jaane se pehle mujhe ek baat bata doh. Yeh “Tharki” kya hota hai”? Complete Master Card moment I say!!!! Long Live Comedy. 7 on 10 for this one.
Well Done Abba
When Shyam Benegal released Welcome to Sajjanpur, most scorned @ the concept and all but wrote him off. But as they say, form is temporary and class is permanent. With Well Done Abba (WDA) Shyam Benegal proves once again that he was, is and will be one of the best directors India has ever had and can expect to have – this time with a not so intense but very pointed take on the corruption food chain.
Arman Ali (Boman Irani) is in trouble. He has returned back to work as a driver to Rohan Kapoor (Rahul Singh) in Mumbai after 3 months. The trouble is that he had taken leave for only a month. Obviously Rohan doesn’t want to have him back. And it is not the first time that Arman Ali has decided to take off for a few extra days. But this time around, Arman has an extremely genuine reason. But not one that can be explained over the phone or a 5 minute conversation. The complexities of the issue that Arman had faced over the past 3 months can be only understood if one were to give him an uninterrupted listen. Rohan is in a rush and needs to get to Pune. Seizing the opportunity, Arman Ali offers to drive him down and explain the issue en route. Luckily for him, Rohan says OK.
Arman Ali reaches Chikatpally, a village close to Hyderabad. All this thanks to a panic telegram from his brother Rahman Ali (Boman Irani) stating that his daughter, Muskaan (Minisha Lamba), has come of age and that he needs to be more attentive – a very polite way to say that its time to get her married off. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever progress. I mean whats the point of getting a girl married @ 17???? Nevertheless, when Arman gets back, he finds that there are larger worries that bother the village. Chief amongst them being a severe water shortage. However, he also finds out that the government is working towards building wells for the truly needy – those below the poverty line (BPL). So starts Arman’s effort to procure his own “Bavdi” (A Well that has water in it for those unfamiliar with the local lingo in Andhra.
Well Done Abba is one of the most educational movies that I have ever seen. It is a movie with a purpose unlike most others which try to do so but fall flat as prey to just simple entertainment. Now I don’t mean to say that other movies do not try to send a message across. Its just that the message gets lost in the overall idea of giving the audience an entertaining couple of hours and does not really provoke thought. That doe not make them bad movies per se. In sharp contrast, Shyam Benegal has courageously tried to expose the gangrene that has set in the system and how government officials eat away most of the tax payer’s money. I am given to understand that the movie is an adaptation of a Marathi play. Would love to get and opportunity to watch it. Other than the core issue at hand it also sends strong messages for the development of the girl child, moving away from the archaic caste system and also touches upon the issue of “bride sales”. All of this very interestingly but noticeably woven into the overall message of standing up against corruption at the grass root levels and how each one of us can make a difference.
The Winning Season
There are sports movies and there are sports movies that are anything but what they were intended to be. They start out with a genuine intent of creating excitement leading to a gripping finale but a few minutes after the start, one starts wondering whether it is really a sports movie or a mere excuse. The Winning Season is a classic example of one such movie where director James C Strouse (a veteran of 1 movie as a director and 3 as a writer) goes through the classic convoluted method of trying to build a basketball movie and lands up mixing up too many issues in the bargain. At the end of all of it, you have the Hungarian Goulash of all movies.
Bill (Sam Rockwell) has problems. Chief among them being a drinking habit. He is divorced and can meet his daughter Abby (Emma Roberts) once a week. And he will let nothing come in the way of his weekly meetings. He will get there even if he is drunk. He is currently biding his time as a waiter at a local joint but has a strong background in Basketball coz he was part of the only team at school who went onto play the state championship. So, when an opportunity presents itself, the school principle, Terry (Rob Corddry) is only too pleased to hand out a lease of life to our hero. However, it is not the most enviable coaching assignment that one can look at. Bill has to take the responsibility of coaching the school’s Girls team. After a bit of thought, he accepts the assignment – always better to have a secure job as a coach than waiting tables eh Bill?
However, when he gets to his first day as coach, he realizes that there are all of 6 girls in the team – Molly (Shana Dowdeswell), Lisa (Shareeka Epps), Tamra (Meaghan Witri), Kathy (Emily Rios), Mindy (Melanie Hinkle) and Wendy (Rooney Mara). And to make matters worse, one of them has her foot on a cast (for those who don’t know basketball, there are 5 players a side and typically at least 7 to 10 people on the bench with a rolling substitution rule). After a while another girl joins in – Flor (Vanessa Gordillo) taking the bench strength to all of 1!!! Shaken, Bill takes a few seconds to compose himself and gets down to business – the uphill task of training the girls to first start thinking basketball and then go through the effort of playing it and lastly playing it well enough to get through to a respectable season finish.
Charlie St. Cloud
The in-flight schedule screamed out, “Zac Efron as never been seen before”. It went on to describe how this was Efron’s first attempt @ a serious sort of a movie and not the usual Chick Flick & Musical stuff that we are used to seeing from him. Now I am no Zac Efron fan but I must admit that I was quite intrigued with the strong write up. Most importantly, I have, in the recent past, seen other chocolate boy heroes of the likes of Joseph Gordon Levitt (Inception, 500 Days of Summer) make a successful transition to what could be termed as quality movies. Add to that, the summary of the movie seemed quite interesting and I was very keen to see if Efron could really pull off a role that would need significantly higher levels of intensity and emotions and not just preening around in the dreams of girls – something that Efron is really good at – and I mean that in a really positive way.
Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron) is around 18. He is the eldest of 2 brothers. Samuel (Charlie Tahan) is the younger of the two. They are being bought up by their single mom Claire (Kim Bassinger) who is a nurse at a local hospital and works a double shift more often than not. She needs to save money to put Sam through school and Charlie through to Stanford which he should make it through with a Sailing scholarship (I mean when will stuff like this ever come to India????). Charlie is an ace sailor and teams up with Sam to win the local championship in grand style by a hair’s breadth, much to the joy of most people and the disappointment of his competition. Charlie is about to celebrate the victory that evening but is told by Claire that he is on Sam duty coz she has to run her 2nd shift. So Charlie spends time with Sam for a bit. But his youth gets the better of him and he decides to play truant. As he tries to sneak away, Sam catches up with him and insists that he should go along. Disgruntingly Charlie agrees. As they are driving through the town and playing the fool while driving, they crash into a truck. The paramedic, Florio Fiorentte (Ray Liotta) refuses to give up and in the process revives Charlie. But is unable to save Sam. Now Charlie has to live with the thought of being responsible for Sam’s untimely death.
CSC is a movie that runs extremely high on emotions. It deals with the extremely sensitive topic of responsibility for someone’s death. It is hard enough to live with the thought leave along having to deal with it personally. And how does one deal with it if its your own kid brother? God knows none of us want to be in Charlie’s place. Having said that, director Burr Steers still had to get the concept to life. His previous attempts would not have inspired too much confidence in anyone. His only directorial effort before this was again with Zac Efron in that RomCom called 17 Again. However, he does show that there is talent lurking somewhere in him. Most scenes are handled very sensitively and effectively. And surprise surprise – turns out that Zac Efron is NOT a one trick pony. He plays the lead role of Charlie quite well and is able to emote very well in most situations. The support cast is nothing to be too excited about. Anyways it is a movie centred around a single character and I guess Mr. Efron has proven himself to the extent that he can be considered for future, more serious projects ala Joseph Gordon Levitt. Although it must be said that Mr. Levitt far supersedes Mr. Efron in acting talent. Yet another one not released in the motherland. Should have been. Would have done reasonably well I would guess. 6 on 10 from my side.
High Fidelity
Aah the pleasures of inflight entertainment on an international flight!!! There are so many movies that don’t see the light of day back home. And I wonder why? During the flight to down under, I happened to see 2 such movies. High Fidelity is a funny RomCom with some serious acting talent on display.
Rob Gordon (John Cusack) is a loser of sorts. He has the opportunity to make it big but is too darn lazy to move his ass in a positive direction. He drops out of college and keeps doing odd jobs till he finally lands up doing something that he really wants to but doesn’t pay him enough to keep up with the rent and expenses. He owns a music store along with his friends Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black). Dick is a diminutive, reserved kind of a person who barely speaks but has a supreme command over music. Barry on the other hand is a riot. He is reckless and has a huge liking for rock / cult music which is different and not run of the mill. So much so that he would refuse to sell stuff to people who he believes don’t have the right taste in music. The trio struggles through life but have that one thing that binds them together – music.
However, Rob’s life is turned a bit topsy turvy when his girlfriend of two years, Laura (Iben Hjejle) decides to dump him. A distraught Rob tries his best to stop her but she is not willing to go through this anymore. Rob is even more crushed when he realizes that she has temporarily moved in with the guy next door, Ian ‘Ray’ Raymond (Tim Robbins), a karate expert and a weirdo. Unable to figure out the reason for this sudden turn of events, he tries to wind the clock on all his previous relationships which have failed and boils down to his top 5 break ups starting from a passing high school romance that lasted for a few hours but left him completely shattered.
High Fidelity is a dark RomCom – if there is room for any such classification. Director Stephen Frears has been around for over 40 years now (30 at the time of making HF). He spent a better part of the first half of his career on Television – primarily with short films and TV movies. But he kind of burst into the silver screen with the 1988 block buster – Dangerous Liaisons. His last known work was the Oscar nominated “The Queen”. One cannot help but notice that his movies are studded with supremely strong actors. A trait that he uses in HF as well – very successfully. John Cusack’s portrayal of the loser character of Rob Gordon is simply superb. He is not just ably but wonderfully supported by one of the best comic actors of our time – Jack Black. Together they completely light up the screen on what could be otherwise considered as a not so strong script or story line. The supporting cast is also superb – so is it kudos to direction or just that Mr. Frears picks his actors very carefully? Doesn’t really matter I say. The output is a very strong movie which could probably have been pushed to the next level with a stronger script. 7 on 10 from my side for HF. Watch it if you are a lover of Dark Comedy.
Time Traveller's Wife
Its funny when you are reading a book and the movie that is showing on the in flight entertainment system is the same one. In fact, I have been wanting to see Time Traveler’s Wife ever since I started reading the book and more importantly ever since a friend of mine said, “Massive movie buff eh. And you had no idea that the book was already made into a movie”? Now that’s what you call a little embarrassing. Not terribly embarrassing but just a little bit. I was now caught between a situation where the movie would reveal to me the end of an quite well written book where I could not help but picturise how it would look on the big screen. But my curiosity got the better of me and I went right ahead with the movie instead. A reasonably well spent couple of hours I must say although it came at the expense of ruining the suspense.
Henry DeTamble (Eric Bana) has a genetic disorder. It enables him to travel through time. Yep. You heard me right. The disorder manifests itself in times of acute stress and is magnified if he has been “under the influence” i.e. has a higher probability of occurance. The disorder first came to the fore when Henry was 6 years old. He was traveling with his mother, Anette DeTamble (Michelle Nolden) on Christmas Eve. Anette is a famed singer. Unexpectedly, an accident occurs that takes away Anette’s life but in the excitement, Henry finds himself in a totally unknown place - naked and mighty cold. And in the next few minutes he is back to the scene of the accident in the same state but not in the car but on the sidewalk watching in horror as his mother’s body is pulled out of the mangled remains of the car. Which is why Henry never celebrates Christmas like most people do – understandably so.
Clarie Abshire (Rachel MacAdams) is Henry’s wife - in the future. Henry’s illness typically takes him to places or people that is he most familiar with. And the first time he meets Claire is when she is a 6 year old @ the meadow close to her house. He appears out of nowhere and a curious Claire thinks that aliens have landed. Henry manages to convince her that it is no such thing and introduces himself to her. This marks the beginning of a friendship that will eventually, as mentioned earlier, turn into marriage. Remember that at the time Claire is 6, the true Henry is only about 14 and somewhere else in the world. The Henry that meets Claire is 30+.
Yeah, it all sounds extremely confusing I know. And hence a word of advise – read the book before you see the movie if you can. Director Robert Schwentke is known for movies such as FlightPlan and RED (which I missed last week) – both apparently as convoluted as his family name. TTW is no different. I guess he has a knack of looking for difficult topics to convert into a movie. In his attempt to recreate Audrey Niffenegger’s novel, he has not been able to bring to life some points – especially the times when Henry finds himself in a different era. The movie doesn’t portray the pain that he goes through at all. It also rushes through several portions of the process of building the friendship with Claire through the early years – a fact that is very crucial to the overall construction of the relationship between the two. Schwentke was probably more eager to get the movie done in under 2 hours rather than do justice to the entire topic.
Friday, 17 December 2010
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!!!!
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!!!!
Sunday, 12 December 2010
Band Baaja Baaraat
Bittoo Sharma (Ranveer Singh) is in his final year in college. He is your atypical hostelite and “Dilli Ka Chhora” – loads of attitude, lukkha, street smart, can hardly speak a word of English, but still thinks he is God’s gift to style and mankind in general. He is also quite sure that he would do anything but become a farmer like his father. He doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life in the sugarcane fields. Quite the popular one in college thanks to his effective contact base of the right people which helps them gate crash weddings quite frequently.
However, at one such wedding, he does get caught in the act by Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma) who is assisting a small time wedding planner. Complete moo-phat (outspoken), she is smart enough to differentiate between an actual guest and a wedding crasher. Bittoo manages to wriggle himself out of the situation but is quite taken in by her charm. He spends the rest of the evening shooting the wedding which is primarily Madam Shruti doing her jhatkas. Our street smart hero is quick to find out relevant details that anyone would want to know. He introduces himself the next day to her under the pretext of giving her the recording of the previous nite. All he wants is “frandship” (read friendship – a la Dilli style). “Yeah right” says Shruti (smart woman I say). Not willing to give up with the snub, Bittoo uses his charm to break the ice. But when he realizes that Shruti is a ambitious 20 year old with a single minded focus to get into the wedding planning business, he loses interest as quickly as he gained it.
The twist in the tale happens when Bittoo’s father comes to collect him. Not wanting to go back to the sugar cane fields, he tells his father that he has decided to get into a partnership for a wedding planning business. Now that he has got himself into trouble, he has no other choice but to go back to Shruti and beg her to take him in. Shruti flatly refuses, but by a stroke of luck, Bittoo helps her get into an “internship” with the #1 wedding planner in Delhi. When things sour @ her internship, the 2 of them decide to go ahead with their partnership and form “Shaadi Mubarak” along with a florist Maqsood Bhai (Neeraj Sood), a caterer Rajinder Singh (Manmeet Singh) and a DJ – Santy (Revant Shergill).
BBB is a nice movie. Not technically perfect. Several inconsistencies. But leaves you feeling “nice”. Director Maneesh Sharma’s first full directorial attempt seems to be a very sincere one. His previous movies were as asst. director on YRFs Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi & Fanaa. Guess it helped. Anushka Sharma is lively and continues to have the best smile that this industry has. But tends to overact just a bit more than required. Our debutante, Ranveer Singh is not one to be written off. He has done just about enough to make the cut. Could do with a good shave every now and then. But I believe there is potential there. Lastly, the music makes BBB even more enjoyable. Avaiyen Avaiyen is going to be doing its rounds for some time. Salim Sulieman has done a great job with it and so has Vaibhavi Merchant with the choreography.
This is wrtier Habib Faisal's 2nd movie that i have reviewed this year, the previous one being Do Dooni Chaar. Both of them based in Delhi. Both of them being well written. Solid future prospect. Also, the movement of movies to a background of Delhi seems to be catching up. This year has seen at least 3 such movies now. Do Dooni Chaar, Aisha and not BBB. Maybe more but I cant remember them off hand. Good to see that. Overall, a decent movie to watch. Much better than what I expected. 5.5 on 10.
However, at one such wedding, he does get caught in the act by Shruti Kakkar (Anushka Sharma) who is assisting a small time wedding planner. Complete moo-phat (outspoken), she is smart enough to differentiate between an actual guest and a wedding crasher. Bittoo manages to wriggle himself out of the situation but is quite taken in by her charm. He spends the rest of the evening shooting the wedding which is primarily Madam Shruti doing her jhatkas. Our street smart hero is quick to find out relevant details that anyone would want to know. He introduces himself the next day to her under the pretext of giving her the recording of the previous nite. All he wants is “frandship” (read friendship – a la Dilli style). “Yeah right” says Shruti (smart woman I say). Not willing to give up with the snub, Bittoo uses his charm to break the ice. But when he realizes that Shruti is a ambitious 20 year old with a single minded focus to get into the wedding planning business, he loses interest as quickly as he gained it.
The twist in the tale happens when Bittoo’s father comes to collect him. Not wanting to go back to the sugar cane fields, he tells his father that he has decided to get into a partnership for a wedding planning business. Now that he has got himself into trouble, he has no other choice but to go back to Shruti and beg her to take him in. Shruti flatly refuses, but by a stroke of luck, Bittoo helps her get into an “internship” with the #1 wedding planner in Delhi. When things sour @ her internship, the 2 of them decide to go ahead with their partnership and form “Shaadi Mubarak” along with a florist Maqsood Bhai (Neeraj Sood), a caterer Rajinder Singh (Manmeet Singh) and a DJ – Santy (Revant Shergill).
BBB is a nice movie. Not technically perfect. Several inconsistencies. But leaves you feeling “nice”. Director Maneesh Sharma’s first full directorial attempt seems to be a very sincere one. His previous movies were as asst. director on YRFs Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi & Fanaa. Guess it helped. Anushka Sharma is lively and continues to have the best smile that this industry has. But tends to overact just a bit more than required. Our debutante, Ranveer Singh is not one to be written off. He has done just about enough to make the cut. Could do with a good shave every now and then. But I believe there is potential there. Lastly, the music makes BBB even more enjoyable. Avaiyen Avaiyen is going to be doing its rounds for some time. Salim Sulieman has done a great job with it and so has Vaibhavi Merchant with the choreography.
This is wrtier Habib Faisal's 2nd movie that i have reviewed this year, the previous one being Do Dooni Chaar. Both of them based in Delhi. Both of them being well written. Solid future prospect. Also, the movement of movies to a background of Delhi seems to be catching up. This year has seen at least 3 such movies now. Do Dooni Chaar, Aisha and not BBB. Maybe more but I cant remember them off hand. Good to see that. Overall, a decent movie to watch. Much better than what I expected. 5.5 on 10.
Wednesday, 8 December 2010
Phas Gaye Re Obama
Comedy is still alive!!!! And the low budget comedy which goes onto make big bucks @ the Box Office is definitely here to stay. To the entire bunch of people who were inspired by that work of art called “Bheja Fry” – More power to you I say!!!! Keep them coming!!!! You are the reason why the semblance of faith in the movies still exists. And I thank you from the bottom of my heart for that.
Om Shastri (Rajat Kapoor) is in trouble. He has been a victim of the R word which for some reason did not hit India with the vengeance that it hit the land of the free. It has eaten up his life slowly but surely. First his outlets, then offices and now his house. The so called millionaire has pretty much been reduced to rags. He is now faced with the possibility of losing his house to the bank unless he pays up dues of $100K to retain ownership. Not left with much of a choice, he has to make the arduous trip back home to sell his ancestral property.
Armed with loads of hope and a one way ticket (he has no money to take a return trip) he lands up in the hinterland of the most populous state in the country after 7 years. He is pleasantly surprised to see a welcome party of almost everyone that he knows back home. But he is not very pleasantly surprised when he realizes that they have come over not to receive him but are themselves not in the best of shape and have made the Haveli their residence for good. And the caretaker, Om’s Chachaji (Paternal Uncle) doesn’t have the heart to ask them to leave.
Simultaneously we see the gang of Bhaisaheb (Sanjay Mishra) rueing their fate of being in the kidnapping business. Business is slow and people are not willing to give as much money as they used to for their Phirauti (return). One of the gang members, Anni, has always been in awe of the US. Now that Om is in town, Anni is not going to lose a golden opportunity. In atypical UP ishtyle, he begs and pleads Om to take him to the US. Slowly but surely, the rest of the town also gets to know that Om is visiting. And the person most excited is Bhaisaheb who looks at this as an opportunity to get a few crores of Phirauti. A plot is hatched, much to Anni’s disgust, to kidnap Om.
Phas Gaye Re Obama (PGRO) is a satire on the kidnapping “business” in UP and its presence all way upto the top. It is packed with tasteful humour which has you in splits most of the time. A welcome change from the crappy slapstick humour that gets dished out to us day in day out. In several ways, it is like Tere Bin Laden and kind of takes off from where TBL left – in terms of humour that is. Director Subhash Kapoor has done a fabulous job of handling a bunch of theatre artistes and very few star value actors. Rajat Kapoor is as calm as ever in his role of Om Shastri. Sanjay Mishra is simple superb as Bhaisaheb and so is Amol Gupte as the evil politican. The most surprising performance comes from Neha Dhupia as the notorious Munni. Subhash Kapoor must have talent if he can get someone like Dhupia to perform with a commitment that I have never seen before. Most importantly, for the first time, she shows that she CAN act. The icing on the cake are the brilliant performances of the support cast of Devendra Choudhary, Brijendra Kala & Sumeet Nijhawan.
Fantastic movie for any day of the week. The only reason I would give it 7 on 10 is due to some minor inconsistencies which could have been avoided. Without that it would have easily got an 8. Don’t miss it.
Om Shastri (Rajat Kapoor) is in trouble. He has been a victim of the R word which for some reason did not hit India with the vengeance that it hit the land of the free. It has eaten up his life slowly but surely. First his outlets, then offices and now his house. The so called millionaire has pretty much been reduced to rags. He is now faced with the possibility of losing his house to the bank unless he pays up dues of $100K to retain ownership. Not left with much of a choice, he has to make the arduous trip back home to sell his ancestral property.
Armed with loads of hope and a one way ticket (he has no money to take a return trip) he lands up in the hinterland of the most populous state in the country after 7 years. He is pleasantly surprised to see a welcome party of almost everyone that he knows back home. But he is not very pleasantly surprised when he realizes that they have come over not to receive him but are themselves not in the best of shape and have made the Haveli their residence for good. And the caretaker, Om’s Chachaji (Paternal Uncle) doesn’t have the heart to ask them to leave.
Simultaneously we see the gang of Bhaisaheb (Sanjay Mishra) rueing their fate of being in the kidnapping business. Business is slow and people are not willing to give as much money as they used to for their Phirauti (return). One of the gang members, Anni, has always been in awe of the US. Now that Om is in town, Anni is not going to lose a golden opportunity. In atypical UP ishtyle, he begs and pleads Om to take him to the US. Slowly but surely, the rest of the town also gets to know that Om is visiting. And the person most excited is Bhaisaheb who looks at this as an opportunity to get a few crores of Phirauti. A plot is hatched, much to Anni’s disgust, to kidnap Om.
Phas Gaye Re Obama (PGRO) is a satire on the kidnapping “business” in UP and its presence all way upto the top. It is packed with tasteful humour which has you in splits most of the time. A welcome change from the crappy slapstick humour that gets dished out to us day in day out. In several ways, it is like Tere Bin Laden and kind of takes off from where TBL left – in terms of humour that is. Director Subhash Kapoor has done a fabulous job of handling a bunch of theatre artistes and very few star value actors. Rajat Kapoor is as calm as ever in his role of Om Shastri. Sanjay Mishra is simple superb as Bhaisaheb and so is Amol Gupte as the evil politican. The most surprising performance comes from Neha Dhupia as the notorious Munni. Subhash Kapoor must have talent if he can get someone like Dhupia to perform with a commitment that I have never seen before. Most importantly, for the first time, she shows that she CAN act. The icing on the cake are the brilliant performances of the support cast of Devendra Choudhary, Brijendra Kala & Sumeet Nijhawan.
Fantastic movie for any day of the week. The only reason I would give it 7 on 10 is due to some minor inconsistencies which could have been avoided. Without that it would have easily got an 8. Don’t miss it.
Sunday, 5 December 2010
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Sometime back, I had written about what defines a successful movie franchise. The operative word I had used there was that it should be SCALEABLE. If anyone had told C S Lewis in the early part of the previous century that his serial fantasy would be converted to even one movie I am sure he would have laughed at the idea. But I am also quite sure that, secretly, Mr. Lewis would have been visualizing the same in his extremely fertile mind. Very few have come close to the term “fantasia” as CS. And very few movie makers can say that they have done justice to a book. The trio of Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely & Michael Petroni has done a super job of converting CS’s masterpiece to the silver screen. Add to that the class of director Michael Apted and you have the 3rd in this wonderful series of Fantasia.
This edition of the Chronicles starts with the younger Pevensie’s – Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) – who find themselves at their uncles home for a little while since their return from Narnia. Their cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) doesn’t quite like this arrangement and makes it quite obvious in the flesh and more so in his diary. He actually wishes that he could treat his 2 cousins like insects by putting them in a jar. Needless to say, he doesn’t believe a single word of their experiences at Narnia. But he is about to get a crash course in the terms “faith” and “belief” when an obscure painting on the wall actually comes to life and takes the 3 children back into the blue waters of Narnia where Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) rescues them. Eustace is obviously not pleased with this new development and makes his displeasure evident when Reepicheep (the voice of Simon Pegg) welcomes him on board. But he just cant take it anymore when he bumps into a talking minotaur.
Caspian informs the supreme heads of Narnia that all is well and Narnia is finally at peace. He is on a voyage on the Dawn Treader in search of his father’s 7 most trusted aides – The 7 Lords of Narnia. The journey would take him first to the Lone Islands where the Lords escaped to when Narnia fell into wrong hands. On their way they realize that the search for the Lords would also lead them on a mission to secure the seven swords – one for each lord – which have to be collected together and placed @ Aslan’s table. This would ensure that the forces of evil which are slowly getting stronger would be put to rest.
This edition of the Chronicles sees a slight change of guard. We move on to director Michael Apted – most well known for his direction of Gorillas in the Mist and The World is not enough. As mentioned earlier, Apted does a wonderful job of getting the book onto the screen. Like the previous 3 editions, this one continues to make full use of Computer Graphics with creations such as the transparent mermaids, Sea Serpents, Dragons and most importantly the Dawn Treader itself. Apted is ably supported by the cast who continue to get their charm and innocence on screen. All in all, this edition of the Chronicles clearly continues from where it left off and is a complete treat for the family as a whole. Kids are surely going to love this one. 7 on 10 in my books for sure. Maybe more for you Narnia fans.
This edition of the Chronicles starts with the younger Pevensie’s – Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) – who find themselves at their uncles home for a little while since their return from Narnia. Their cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) doesn’t quite like this arrangement and makes it quite obvious in the flesh and more so in his diary. He actually wishes that he could treat his 2 cousins like insects by putting them in a jar. Needless to say, he doesn’t believe a single word of their experiences at Narnia. But he is about to get a crash course in the terms “faith” and “belief” when an obscure painting on the wall actually comes to life and takes the 3 children back into the blue waters of Narnia where Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) rescues them. Eustace is obviously not pleased with this new development and makes his displeasure evident when Reepicheep (the voice of Simon Pegg) welcomes him on board. But he just cant take it anymore when he bumps into a talking minotaur.
Caspian informs the supreme heads of Narnia that all is well and Narnia is finally at peace. He is on a voyage on the Dawn Treader in search of his father’s 7 most trusted aides – The 7 Lords of Narnia. The journey would take him first to the Lone Islands where the Lords escaped to when Narnia fell into wrong hands. On their way they realize that the search for the Lords would also lead them on a mission to secure the seven swords – one for each lord – which have to be collected together and placed @ Aslan’s table. This would ensure that the forces of evil which are slowly getting stronger would be put to rest.
This edition of the Chronicles sees a slight change of guard. We move on to director Michael Apted – most well known for his direction of Gorillas in the Mist and The World is not enough. As mentioned earlier, Apted does a wonderful job of getting the book onto the screen. Like the previous 3 editions, this one continues to make full use of Computer Graphics with creations such as the transparent mermaids, Sea Serpents, Dragons and most importantly the Dawn Treader itself. Apted is ably supported by the cast who continue to get their charm and innocence on screen. All in all, this edition of the Chronicles clearly continues from where it left off and is a complete treat for the family as a whole. Kids are surely going to love this one. 7 on 10 in my books for sure. Maybe more for you Narnia fans.
Saturday, 4 December 2010
KHELEIN HUM JEE JAAN SEY
Very little or nothing has been written or made about some of the smaller instances of the Indian Freedom struggle. Surely it would not have been possible without the small but significant and heart rendering contributions from the unknown citizens of this country. Who spent their blood, tears, toil and sweat to give us a freedom that we probably don’t value as much – or at least that’s what most of the people in the movie hall, watching Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey (KHJJS) felt – coz they found a lot of the stuff in the movie quite funny to say the least. I wonder why. Considering that the movie, as most of you would be aware of by now, is about the armed resistance in Chittagong (or Chattagram / Chottogram) between 1930-34. One of the several small but extremely concentrated efforts by the average Indian.
They year is 1930. Surjya Sen (Abhishekh Bachchan) is a school teacher in Chottogram (now known as Chittagong – Bangladesh). He is approached by a whole bunch of teenagers thanks to being famous as a freedom fighter. Their playground has been taken away from them by the British Army and they now have nowhere else to play football. Exasperated, they approach Surjya to help out. Surjya has over the years since the loss of his wife rallied a few people who are committed to the struggle for freedom. Nirmal Sen (Sikander Kher), Ananta Singh (Maninder Singh), Ambika Chakroborthy (Shreyas Pandit), Ganesh Ghosh (Samrat Mukherjee), Tarakeshwar & Lokenath Bal (Feroze Wahid Khan). They are a small bunch of people but willing to rally around Surjya, to start a movement which they hope will be the spark the nation has been waiting for – like most other freedom fighters of their time surely.
Nirmal is also in a romantic relationship with Pritilata Wadedar (Vishakha Singh) and has just returned from spending a few nights in prison for good measure. Pritilata is close friends with Kalpana Dutta (Deepika Padukone). Both of them are quite taken in by the concept of the freedom struggle and are extremely keen to make a difference. Their request to join Surjya Sen’s movement is accepted, albeit reluctantly. Hot on their heels, a small incident leads the teenagers to also enlist themselves in the movement. Now this is a tricky situation for Surjya but he is convinced that the kids have the right fire in the belly to really make a difference. This, in fact pushes him to recruit a whole bunch of fresh teenagers also. Once the troops are ready they go about planning a small but very pivotal uprising in the freedom struggle. The idea is very simple actually. Hit the Brits where it hurts them the most – The Telegraph Office, The Nangalkote Railway Line, Police HQ, The Cantonment and European Club – All at the same time.
KHJJS is yet another attempt by Ashutosh Gowariker to regain the credibility that he had kind of lost with the masses after the debacles of Jodha Akbar and Whats your Rashee? But well – he doesn’t come too close honestly. I mean there is an improvement but nothing that really inspires a huge amount of confidence. This is a Gowarikar that comes nowhere in the thinking vicinity of the expertise that he showed with a movie like Swades which I believe is one of the best movies made in this decade. But the story is strong enough to strike a chord with the viewers. Anything that is about the freedom struggle should logically right. I was quite disappointed though to see some 8-10 people who walked out. I mean what do you expect from Gowarikar – as the recent joke goes – even if he were to make a movie on premature ejaculation it would go for 4 hours. This one finished in under 3. Have come to expect the pregnant pauses and stretch in his movies in an attempt probably to pay attention to detail but falls woefully short.
KHJJS was above my expectations. I expected a complete flop but turned out to be average. Nothing too great very honestly but just about makes the cut. Performances were decent all over. AB Junior is still in the shadow of Yuva and cannot come upto the level that he is capable of. Deepika continues with her confidence on screen but is below par. Vishakha Singh seems to be an earnest actress. So does Sikander Kher. Most of the support cast comes out with a sincere performance. The teenagers actually stand out the most with their attempt – at times overshadowing the lead actors. The actor playing Subodh Rai stands out the most for my money’s worth. Pity I don’t know short hand and could not take down the names in the credits as they were running.
The sad part though is the complete lack towards consistency. Freedom fighters in crisp white shirts, random shots of Deepika @ yoga, hard bound books on the Russian and irish revolution which don’t seem like they are from 1930 at all, revolutionaries having canvas shoes etc. just don’t add up for a director of the class of Gowarikar. Guess there is not much of class there. Some poignant scenes and decent music round off KHJJS for me. Not terribly disappointing. Worth a dekko I guess. 5 on 10.
They year is 1930. Surjya Sen (Abhishekh Bachchan) is a school teacher in Chottogram (now known as Chittagong – Bangladesh). He is approached by a whole bunch of teenagers thanks to being famous as a freedom fighter. Their playground has been taken away from them by the British Army and they now have nowhere else to play football. Exasperated, they approach Surjya to help out. Surjya has over the years since the loss of his wife rallied a few people who are committed to the struggle for freedom. Nirmal Sen (Sikander Kher), Ananta Singh (Maninder Singh), Ambika Chakroborthy (Shreyas Pandit), Ganesh Ghosh (Samrat Mukherjee), Tarakeshwar & Lokenath Bal (Feroze Wahid Khan). They are a small bunch of people but willing to rally around Surjya, to start a movement which they hope will be the spark the nation has been waiting for – like most other freedom fighters of their time surely.
Nirmal is also in a romantic relationship with Pritilata Wadedar (Vishakha Singh) and has just returned from spending a few nights in prison for good measure. Pritilata is close friends with Kalpana Dutta (Deepika Padukone). Both of them are quite taken in by the concept of the freedom struggle and are extremely keen to make a difference. Their request to join Surjya Sen’s movement is accepted, albeit reluctantly. Hot on their heels, a small incident leads the teenagers to also enlist themselves in the movement. Now this is a tricky situation for Surjya but he is convinced that the kids have the right fire in the belly to really make a difference. This, in fact pushes him to recruit a whole bunch of fresh teenagers also. Once the troops are ready they go about planning a small but very pivotal uprising in the freedom struggle. The idea is very simple actually. Hit the Brits where it hurts them the most – The Telegraph Office, The Nangalkote Railway Line, Police HQ, The Cantonment and European Club – All at the same time.
KHJJS is yet another attempt by Ashutosh Gowariker to regain the credibility that he had kind of lost with the masses after the debacles of Jodha Akbar and Whats your Rashee? But well – he doesn’t come too close honestly. I mean there is an improvement but nothing that really inspires a huge amount of confidence. This is a Gowarikar that comes nowhere in the thinking vicinity of the expertise that he showed with a movie like Swades which I believe is one of the best movies made in this decade. But the story is strong enough to strike a chord with the viewers. Anything that is about the freedom struggle should logically right. I was quite disappointed though to see some 8-10 people who walked out. I mean what do you expect from Gowarikar – as the recent joke goes – even if he were to make a movie on premature ejaculation it would go for 4 hours. This one finished in under 3. Have come to expect the pregnant pauses and stretch in his movies in an attempt probably to pay attention to detail but falls woefully short.
KHJJS was above my expectations. I expected a complete flop but turned out to be average. Nothing too great very honestly but just about makes the cut. Performances were decent all over. AB Junior is still in the shadow of Yuva and cannot come upto the level that he is capable of. Deepika continues with her confidence on screen but is below par. Vishakha Singh seems to be an earnest actress. So does Sikander Kher. Most of the support cast comes out with a sincere performance. The teenagers actually stand out the most with their attempt – at times overshadowing the lead actors. The actor playing Subodh Rai stands out the most for my money’s worth. Pity I don’t know short hand and could not take down the names in the credits as they were running.
The sad part though is the complete lack towards consistency. Freedom fighters in crisp white shirts, random shots of Deepika @ yoga, hard bound books on the Russian and irish revolution which don’t seem like they are from 1930 at all, revolutionaries having canvas shoes etc. just don’t add up for a director of the class of Gowarikar. Guess there is not much of class there. Some poignant scenes and decent music round off KHJJS for me. Not terribly disappointing. Worth a dekko I guess. 5 on 10.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
Secretariat
The year is 1969. Penny Chenery Tweedy (Diane Lane) is a happy woman. She is married to Jack Tweedy (Dylan Walsh) and is blessed with 4 wonderful children Sarah (Carissa Capobianco), Kate (Amanda Michalka), Chris (Sean Michael Cunningham) and John (Jacob Rhodes). They live in Denver. As a child, Penny was extremely into horses. Her father Chris (Scot Glen) owns a stud farm and is extremely well known in the business. It is a difficult business to be in but he has seen it through its several ups and downs. But of late, he has been suffering from dementia and has made some decisions which have almost cost them the farm. However, thanks to Penny’s mother, they have managed to stay afloat so far. As a child, Penny grew up on the farm with a special liking for the equine. Under her father’s tutelage she learnt pretty much everything there was to know about the business. But with marriage and starting a family, she was forced to put her familial responsibilities before her and let her first love take a back seat.
However, a strange and sad twist of events gets her back to what she completely loves doing. Penny loses her mother and has no choice but to go back home for the funeral. After the last rites are completed, she quickly realizes that her father is not quite capable of running the business on his own. Her brother Hollis (Dylan Baker) is of the opinion is that they should start looking at selling of a few of the horses and maybe even the farm in the long run. But something tells Penny that this is the opportunity she was waiting for. At the funeral, she meets Bull Hancock (Fred Dalton Thompson), her father’s close friend and financial associate who offers to help her out with anything that she needs.
Now Penny is no mug with respect to horses. And she quickly starts sending the message out that she is here and she means business. She starts with firing her trainer who has been making utmost use of her father’s illness to short change the Chenerys of a few million dollars on the sale of some of their best horses. Then will the support of her father’s secretary, Ms. Ham (Margon Martindale) and Bull, she tries to put things back together. Firstly there is a small matter of the Toss. Chris Chenery Sr. may seem to be not business minded but has taken some really good decisions in his life. Where everyone was investing in studs, he also understood the importance of mares and has invested in a few solid ones during his life time. Two of his mares are due now thanks to the efforts of a leading stud owned by the then richest man in America, Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell). However, since Ogden owns the stud, he gets to choose which foal to pick up. As luck would have it, Penny loses the toss but gets to keep the foal that she wanted in the first place. That is the story of the birth of “Secretariat”.
Secretariat is Randal Wallace’s 3rd attempt @ direction. He is best known for directing the Man in the Iron Mask and writing cult movies such as Brave Heart and Pearl Harbour. With Secretariat, he also proves that his direction capabilities are not just a flash in the pan. It is most difficult to direct movies when you are working with animals. The unpredictability makes it even more exciting. And Wallace comes out of this effort not just much richer in experience but also has not done any damage to his credibility. I may be downplaying the quality of movie making but Wallace did miss a thing or two. Firstly, the movie is extremely slow. It meanders along its way and slowly builds up pace. But doesn’t really reach an extreme peak till the last few minutes. The change of gears, if any, goes unnoticed. As if one has moved from 1st to 6th gear and then comes to a stand still. Therefore the movie doesn’t qualify as the most compactly made one to date. However, the editing and cinematography is very good to say the least. Lovely use of camera angles to get the right measure of the situation that is being shown.
The acting, however was just about adequate. But for a superb performance from John Malkovich as the trainer Lucien Laurin, there is nothing really worth writing home about. Malkovich, however comes trumps in his role of the eccentric but honest trainer who helps turn around the fortunes of the Chenery family business. He is effortless and takes away the screen presence factor from everyone in the movie. Diane Lane is also very good with the role of Penny but not at her best. Secretariat is based on the true story of the horse which goes onto become America’s most successful one to date. It has its moments of thrills but is also significantly about one woman’s fight to make her mark in what is otherwise considered to be a man’s world. Overall a good solid effort. To put it in a sentence – If you loved Sea Biscuit, you will like Secretariat. To me Sea Biscuit is an 8 on 10 – a movie worthy of its Oscar nomination. Secretariat doesn’t come close but is reasonably entertaining. 6 on 10.
However, a strange and sad twist of events gets her back to what she completely loves doing. Penny loses her mother and has no choice but to go back home for the funeral. After the last rites are completed, she quickly realizes that her father is not quite capable of running the business on his own. Her brother Hollis (Dylan Baker) is of the opinion is that they should start looking at selling of a few of the horses and maybe even the farm in the long run. But something tells Penny that this is the opportunity she was waiting for. At the funeral, she meets Bull Hancock (Fred Dalton Thompson), her father’s close friend and financial associate who offers to help her out with anything that she needs.
Now Penny is no mug with respect to horses. And she quickly starts sending the message out that she is here and she means business. She starts with firing her trainer who has been making utmost use of her father’s illness to short change the Chenerys of a few million dollars on the sale of some of their best horses. Then will the support of her father’s secretary, Ms. Ham (Margon Martindale) and Bull, she tries to put things back together. Firstly there is a small matter of the Toss. Chris Chenery Sr. may seem to be not business minded but has taken some really good decisions in his life. Where everyone was investing in studs, he also understood the importance of mares and has invested in a few solid ones during his life time. Two of his mares are due now thanks to the efforts of a leading stud owned by the then richest man in America, Ogden Phipps (James Cromwell). However, since Ogden owns the stud, he gets to choose which foal to pick up. As luck would have it, Penny loses the toss but gets to keep the foal that she wanted in the first place. That is the story of the birth of “Secretariat”.
Secretariat is Randal Wallace’s 3rd attempt @ direction. He is best known for directing the Man in the Iron Mask and writing cult movies such as Brave Heart and Pearl Harbour. With Secretariat, he also proves that his direction capabilities are not just a flash in the pan. It is most difficult to direct movies when you are working with animals. The unpredictability makes it even more exciting. And Wallace comes out of this effort not just much richer in experience but also has not done any damage to his credibility. I may be downplaying the quality of movie making but Wallace did miss a thing or two. Firstly, the movie is extremely slow. It meanders along its way and slowly builds up pace. But doesn’t really reach an extreme peak till the last few minutes. The change of gears, if any, goes unnoticed. As if one has moved from 1st to 6th gear and then comes to a stand still. Therefore the movie doesn’t qualify as the most compactly made one to date. However, the editing and cinematography is very good to say the least. Lovely use of camera angles to get the right measure of the situation that is being shown.
The acting, however was just about adequate. But for a superb performance from John Malkovich as the trainer Lucien Laurin, there is nothing really worth writing home about. Malkovich, however comes trumps in his role of the eccentric but honest trainer who helps turn around the fortunes of the Chenery family business. He is effortless and takes away the screen presence factor from everyone in the movie. Diane Lane is also very good with the role of Penny but not at her best. Secretariat is based on the true story of the horse which goes onto become America’s most successful one to date. It has its moments of thrills but is also significantly about one woman’s fight to make her mark in what is otherwise considered to be a man’s world. Overall a good solid effort. To put it in a sentence – If you loved Sea Biscuit, you will like Secretariat. To me Sea Biscuit is an 8 on 10 – a movie worthy of its Oscar nomination. Secretariat doesn’t come close but is reasonably entertaining. 6 on 10.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Unstoppable
Frank Barnes (Denzel Washington) has lost his job. He is serving out is notice period with NWVR, a railroad company and is in his last 3 weeks now. All this after 28 years of committed work for the organization. He is an engine motorman. Several older personnel in the organization are being replaced with younger blood. Many of his close friends particularly Judd Stewart (David Warshofsky) have also been victim of this sudden move by the organization. Whats worse, they get only half the benefits that they are eligible for (Sometimes I feel it is so much better to work in India than anywhere else ). Frank has lost his wife about 4 years back to cancer. He has 2 daughters aged 18 and 19 - Maya (Meagan Tandy) and Nicole (Elizabeth Mathis). They are working their way through college by waiting tables @ Hooters – not the most respectable job one can have but not one that they keep their father in the dark about. All in all they seem to be one small happy family with the regular father daughter fights etc.
With the jobs being lost around, it is no surprise that when Will Colson (Chris Pine) joins the company as a conductor, he is given an ice cold welcome on the first day itself. But Chris has problems of his own and does his best to ignore the cold vibes. His wife, Darcy (Jessy Schram) has served a restraining order against him thanks to a very close cop friend. Story goes that Will suspected something fishy between Mrs. Colson and her cop friend and gets a little harsh with her – no beating up or physical abuse but just some pushing and shoving. To make matters worse, he leaves home that very instant and goes to the cop’s place to give him a piece of his mind and surprise surprise – pulls a gun on him – I mean what kind of a nit wit would pull a gun on a cop???? Not Mr. Colson’s proudest moment especially when he realizes that Darcy was only messaging her sister – the message was the core reason for the fight to start and then finish with a restraining order. What a waste!!!!
Nevertheless, fate provides both Frank and Will an opportunity to become heroes when Train 777 turns into what is termed in railroad parlance as a COASTER. A Coaster is a train that has an unmanned engine running on auto, usually at low speeds say under 10 miles per hour. Gileece (T J Lewis) and Dewey (Ethan Suplee) are 2 employees who are charged with the responsibility of pulling out a half a mile long goods train to make way for kids coming for a field trip. Since it’s a small job, they don’t put the air brakes on. Worse still, the not so slim Dewey gets off the train to manually switch tracks but slips in the bargain. The train picks up speed and Dewey is unable to get back onto it (must remember to start working out sooner than later or may land up like Dewey). And worse still, the throttle was @ the max level – so my friends we now have a super coaster. So fasten your seat belts and let the excitement begin.
Unstoppable is based on a true story it would seem. Not sure about the extent of the truth though. But one thing is for certain, it is far from famed director Tony Scott’s best to date. For a guy who has given us – hold on to your horses – Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, SPY GAME (what a movie!!!), Man on Fire, Déjà vu and Taking of Pelham 123 he seems to have kind of lost his edge. Maybe he got so carried away by Taking of Pelham that he decided to extend his love for trains and move onto creating Unstoppable. Not pointing fingers at direction out here. But just the content didn’t seem sufficient for it to seem like a Tony Scott movie. It starts off slowly but picks up pace and before you know it, it is done. But in that limited period of time, he does show that there is a huge action director talent who has given us some of the best movies that we grew up with. Its compact for certain. Editing is very slick. But the really edge of the seat moments are few and far between.
Denzel Washington seems to be the director’s favourite and does full justice to the role but is quite wasted. Chris Pine seems more constipated than troubled. The rest of the cast has only bit parts with the exception of Rosario Dawson who plays the role of Connie who co-ordinates the entire effort of train 1206 to successfully stop 777. Overall nothing great. Also nothing you would miss if u see it on DVD. I give it 5 on 10.
With the jobs being lost around, it is no surprise that when Will Colson (Chris Pine) joins the company as a conductor, he is given an ice cold welcome on the first day itself. But Chris has problems of his own and does his best to ignore the cold vibes. His wife, Darcy (Jessy Schram) has served a restraining order against him thanks to a very close cop friend. Story goes that Will suspected something fishy between Mrs. Colson and her cop friend and gets a little harsh with her – no beating up or physical abuse but just some pushing and shoving. To make matters worse, he leaves home that very instant and goes to the cop’s place to give him a piece of his mind and surprise surprise – pulls a gun on him – I mean what kind of a nit wit would pull a gun on a cop???? Not Mr. Colson’s proudest moment especially when he realizes that Darcy was only messaging her sister – the message was the core reason for the fight to start and then finish with a restraining order. What a waste!!!!
Nevertheless, fate provides both Frank and Will an opportunity to become heroes when Train 777 turns into what is termed in railroad parlance as a COASTER. A Coaster is a train that has an unmanned engine running on auto, usually at low speeds say under 10 miles per hour. Gileece (T J Lewis) and Dewey (Ethan Suplee) are 2 employees who are charged with the responsibility of pulling out a half a mile long goods train to make way for kids coming for a field trip. Since it’s a small job, they don’t put the air brakes on. Worse still, the not so slim Dewey gets off the train to manually switch tracks but slips in the bargain. The train picks up speed and Dewey is unable to get back onto it (must remember to start working out sooner than later or may land up like Dewey). And worse still, the throttle was @ the max level – so my friends we now have a super coaster. So fasten your seat belts and let the excitement begin.
Unstoppable is based on a true story it would seem. Not sure about the extent of the truth though. But one thing is for certain, it is far from famed director Tony Scott’s best to date. For a guy who has given us – hold on to your horses – Top Gun, Beverly Hills Cop, Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, Enemy of the State, SPY GAME (what a movie!!!), Man on Fire, Déjà vu and Taking of Pelham 123 he seems to have kind of lost his edge. Maybe he got so carried away by Taking of Pelham that he decided to extend his love for trains and move onto creating Unstoppable. Not pointing fingers at direction out here. But just the content didn’t seem sufficient for it to seem like a Tony Scott movie. It starts off slowly but picks up pace and before you know it, it is done. But in that limited period of time, he does show that there is a huge action director talent who has given us some of the best movies that we grew up with. Its compact for certain. Editing is very slick. But the really edge of the seat moments are few and far between.
Denzel Washington seems to be the director’s favourite and does full justice to the role but is quite wasted. Chris Pine seems more constipated than troubled. The rest of the cast has only bit parts with the exception of Rosario Dawson who plays the role of Connie who co-ordinates the entire effort of train 1206 to successfully stop 777. Overall nothing great. Also nothing you would miss if u see it on DVD. I give it 5 on 10.
Monday, 29 November 2010
Allah Ke Bandey
The trailers were mightly impressive. The cast – extremely strong to say the least. The story seemed to have been inspired from the 1996 movie by Barry Levinson – Sleepers. The reviews on twitter were very positive. And I was hoping to see the next 7 on 10 movie of the year. But it was not to be I guess. Never judge a book by its cover or a movie by its trailer.
Vijay Kamble (Sharman Joshi) & Yakub Ansari (Faruk Kabir) are a couple of 12 year olds living in Bhool Bhulaiyya, a Chor Bazaar. They live with their aging and dying mother (Suhasini Mulay). She is Vijay’s biological mother and has adopted Yakub since his parents died in a train accident. Bhool Bhulaiyya is controlled primarily by Mafkaan Yeda and his right hand man, Nana. The kids understand that if they have to get anywhere within the place, the best way out would be to join the gang. They start running drugs and doing small time “Bhaigiri”. But these petty crimes aren’t going to get them into the big league. When their mother is diagnosed with an extremely weak liver and has no other choice but to be operated upon, the kids decide it is time to take the next step. They approach Mafkaan with a plan to rob a local jewelry store. Nana doubts them but Mafkaan is impressed with their spunk and gives them the green. The boys commit their first serious crime. When they are done with the job, they are about to run off with all the spoils without giving Mafkaan his share of 50%. But Mafkaan lands up. A scuffle ensues and Yakub shoots Mafkaan.
It only takes the cops a couple of days to track them down thanks to the detailed description given by Nana. But most importantly, Nana has taken advantage of the situation and shot Mafkaan already. So when the kids get rounded up they get charged with multiple counts and eventually find themselves in juvenile prison. This is the beginning of their worst nightmare. The Jailor (Nasseeruddin Shah) and KT the in house gangster use most of the kids for their own pleasure. And also run a drug racket within the premises. Our enterprising duo soon find themselves in trouble in an attempt to take on the system. When they get violated for the first time, Vijay decides its time to play it cool and strike when the moment is right which they soon do and take control of the situation instead of succumbing to it.
AKB is not a complete take off on Sleepers. It seems to be inspired in bits and pieces though. There are streaks of almost every slum movie that has been made in the past few years from the likes of Slumdog Millionaire to City of God. Somewhere it doesn’t seem original. Faruk Kabir as an actor looked like a good prospect in the rushes but eventually turns out to be a damp squib. The support cast is average with Zakir Hussain playing the lead duo’s trusted lieutenant – Ramesh Bhai. One wonders why Anjana Sukhani and Rukhsar were ever involved in the entire movie. Even the sex scene that Anjana Sukhani is part of is fairly insipid to say the least. They were both furniture and not even the best looking furniture one can expect. The saddest part is that a fabulous talent like Atul Kulkarni is all but wasted with barely a few minutes of screen time. There is nothing that Nasseruddin Shah has to prove anymore. His execution of the nasty warden is almost flawless. Sharman Joshi proves once again that he is definitely one of the best that we have on the block currently. And lastly but not the least – the child artistes – who I believe were very good in parts but not completely awesome. I hate to say this about kids and don’t mean to be a dampner but seriously there have been better performances by children on screen even if it was required to be as raw as AKB. Having said that, there is tremendous potential in both. And if someone can help me out with their names it would be great.
Marginally above Average direction and decent editing + cinematography make AKB worth a watch. But it doesn’t do justice to the power packed cast. Yet, it’s one of the better movies released of late. I am only disappointed because it could have been so much better. Watch it for the supporting role from Nasser and a strong lead performance from Sharman. I give it 6 on 10.
Vijay Kamble (Sharman Joshi) & Yakub Ansari (Faruk Kabir) are a couple of 12 year olds living in Bhool Bhulaiyya, a Chor Bazaar. They live with their aging and dying mother (Suhasini Mulay). She is Vijay’s biological mother and has adopted Yakub since his parents died in a train accident. Bhool Bhulaiyya is controlled primarily by Mafkaan Yeda and his right hand man, Nana. The kids understand that if they have to get anywhere within the place, the best way out would be to join the gang. They start running drugs and doing small time “Bhaigiri”. But these petty crimes aren’t going to get them into the big league. When their mother is diagnosed with an extremely weak liver and has no other choice but to be operated upon, the kids decide it is time to take the next step. They approach Mafkaan with a plan to rob a local jewelry store. Nana doubts them but Mafkaan is impressed with their spunk and gives them the green. The boys commit their first serious crime. When they are done with the job, they are about to run off with all the spoils without giving Mafkaan his share of 50%. But Mafkaan lands up. A scuffle ensues and Yakub shoots Mafkaan.
It only takes the cops a couple of days to track them down thanks to the detailed description given by Nana. But most importantly, Nana has taken advantage of the situation and shot Mafkaan already. So when the kids get rounded up they get charged with multiple counts and eventually find themselves in juvenile prison. This is the beginning of their worst nightmare. The Jailor (Nasseeruddin Shah) and KT the in house gangster use most of the kids for their own pleasure. And also run a drug racket within the premises. Our enterprising duo soon find themselves in trouble in an attempt to take on the system. When they get violated for the first time, Vijay decides its time to play it cool and strike when the moment is right which they soon do and take control of the situation instead of succumbing to it.
AKB is not a complete take off on Sleepers. It seems to be inspired in bits and pieces though. There are streaks of almost every slum movie that has been made in the past few years from the likes of Slumdog Millionaire to City of God. Somewhere it doesn’t seem original. Faruk Kabir as an actor looked like a good prospect in the rushes but eventually turns out to be a damp squib. The support cast is average with Zakir Hussain playing the lead duo’s trusted lieutenant – Ramesh Bhai. One wonders why Anjana Sukhani and Rukhsar were ever involved in the entire movie. Even the sex scene that Anjana Sukhani is part of is fairly insipid to say the least. They were both furniture and not even the best looking furniture one can expect. The saddest part is that a fabulous talent like Atul Kulkarni is all but wasted with barely a few minutes of screen time. There is nothing that Nasseruddin Shah has to prove anymore. His execution of the nasty warden is almost flawless. Sharman Joshi proves once again that he is definitely one of the best that we have on the block currently. And lastly but not the least – the child artistes – who I believe were very good in parts but not completely awesome. I hate to say this about kids and don’t mean to be a dampner but seriously there have been better performances by children on screen even if it was required to be as raw as AKB. Having said that, there is tremendous potential in both. And if someone can help me out with their names it would be great.
Marginally above Average direction and decent editing + cinematography make AKB worth a watch. But it doesn’t do justice to the power packed cast. Yet, it’s one of the better movies released of late. I am only disappointed because it could have been so much better. Watch it for the supporting role from Nasser and a strong lead performance from Sharman. I give it 6 on 10.
Friday, 26 November 2010
Break Ke Baad
I had predicted 2 successful flops for Deepika in the current week with Break Ke Baad (BKB) and then next week with Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se (KHJJS). The rushes didn’t enthuse any confidence in me. But I am pleasantly surprised and happy to have been proven wrong in the case of BKB. But in the same breath, I wasn’t too far off. Its not a very good movie but it isn’t too bad either. And this doesn’t come from the soft spot I have for RomComs.
Aaliya Khan (Deepika Padukone) is a rebel without a cause. Her core motive in life seems to be to do something that the world doesn’t want her to do. OR not to do what the world expects her to. As a child she doesn’t do her homework and actually convinces her teachers that she cannot because her actor mother, Ayesha (Sharmila Tagore – Coincidentally Ayesha is Mrs. Pataudi’s name after marriage), doesn’t have the time to pack her lunch box. She is more into movies than anything else and her only dream is to be an actor one day. Always on tenterhooks and living life on the edge, her pillar of support is Abhay Gulati a.k.a. Gulati a.k.a Gelato who is her exact opposite. Calm, composed, stable head on his shoulders, petrified of adventure sports and 100% dependable. Although he doesn’t quite know what he really really wants to do in life, he is currently biding his time helping in his father’s business as Vice President of Jeet Cinemas. No points for guessing that Abhay’s father is Jeet Gulati (Naveen Nischol)
All seems to be going well other than the fact that for a couple who has been seeing each other for nearly 10 years and has known each other for over 10 years before that, there seems to be little or no chemistry between them. I mean the only kiss they share is also very bland. But as expected, there has to be a break. I mean whats the point in calling the movie BKB if there is none right. Aaliya decides to pursue her acting ambition through a University in Australia. But has disguised it as a course in Mass Communication instead. However, mum is smarter and sees through the ploy. All hell seems to break lose. But with the Gelato’s support, she makes her way to Oz under the condition that she will focus only on mass com. Now how does a couple manage a long distance relationship. They go about it under the garb of just a break from each other and not a break up. Easier said than done as our leading couple finds out soon enough.
BKB is Danish Aslam’s first directorial venture. There is definitely some talent there but there are also some obvious faux pas. Like Mr. India and Tezaab seemingly released in the same year. Or if it is around midnight in India, it cannot be broad daylight in Australia. And how in the blazes does one get to Australia overnight – has getting a visa become that easy or is Oz Visa on arrival (I hope so considering I am travelling next month). Obvious to the movie buff like me but may not be for the not so particular right? Although Danish keeps it fairly compact throughout it does drag towards the end quite a bit. Luckily the movie is under 2 hours and the drag lasts for only about 10-15 mins.
The support cast is fairly decent. Shahana Goswami (Nadia) continues where she left off from Rock On. Strong performance but again a very cynical role. Sharmila Tagore is as ethereal as ever. Pleasantly surprised to see Navin Nischol back on screen doing what he does best – play understanding daddy. DJ Yudi plays the role of the over excited, promiscuous Cyrus (Nadia’s brother) and should probably stick to only VJing. But even there he would be too old for it. The star of the support cast is however Lilette Dubey who plays Pammi Gulati and gives a 100% to her role as the supporting Aunt for our hero and has excellent crude and crass dialogues to back her up as well – chief among them includes referring to our heroine as a “Chudail” (Witch for those who are unfamiliar with the local lingo). The music is way below Vishal Shekhar’s best. Just about makes par. The timing of the songs also is fairly awry. Something that young Danish can look at. But overall BKB is an average movie. Average Songs, Average Story, Average Direction, Great Titling, Average acting from the lead cast, some strong performances from the support cast, Decent editing – AVERAGE – 5 on 10.
Aaliya Khan (Deepika Padukone) is a rebel without a cause. Her core motive in life seems to be to do something that the world doesn’t want her to do. OR not to do what the world expects her to. As a child she doesn’t do her homework and actually convinces her teachers that she cannot because her actor mother, Ayesha (Sharmila Tagore – Coincidentally Ayesha is Mrs. Pataudi’s name after marriage), doesn’t have the time to pack her lunch box. She is more into movies than anything else and her only dream is to be an actor one day. Always on tenterhooks and living life on the edge, her pillar of support is Abhay Gulati a.k.a. Gulati a.k.a Gelato who is her exact opposite. Calm, composed, stable head on his shoulders, petrified of adventure sports and 100% dependable. Although he doesn’t quite know what he really really wants to do in life, he is currently biding his time helping in his father’s business as Vice President of Jeet Cinemas. No points for guessing that Abhay’s father is Jeet Gulati (Naveen Nischol)
All seems to be going well other than the fact that for a couple who has been seeing each other for nearly 10 years and has known each other for over 10 years before that, there seems to be little or no chemistry between them. I mean the only kiss they share is also very bland. But as expected, there has to be a break. I mean whats the point in calling the movie BKB if there is none right. Aaliya decides to pursue her acting ambition through a University in Australia. But has disguised it as a course in Mass Communication instead. However, mum is smarter and sees through the ploy. All hell seems to break lose. But with the Gelato’s support, she makes her way to Oz under the condition that she will focus only on mass com. Now how does a couple manage a long distance relationship. They go about it under the garb of just a break from each other and not a break up. Easier said than done as our leading couple finds out soon enough.
BKB is Danish Aslam’s first directorial venture. There is definitely some talent there but there are also some obvious faux pas. Like Mr. India and Tezaab seemingly released in the same year. Or if it is around midnight in India, it cannot be broad daylight in Australia. And how in the blazes does one get to Australia overnight – has getting a visa become that easy or is Oz Visa on arrival (I hope so considering I am travelling next month). Obvious to the movie buff like me but may not be for the not so particular right? Although Danish keeps it fairly compact throughout it does drag towards the end quite a bit. Luckily the movie is under 2 hours and the drag lasts for only about 10-15 mins.
The support cast is fairly decent. Shahana Goswami (Nadia) continues where she left off from Rock On. Strong performance but again a very cynical role. Sharmila Tagore is as ethereal as ever. Pleasantly surprised to see Navin Nischol back on screen doing what he does best – play understanding daddy. DJ Yudi plays the role of the over excited, promiscuous Cyrus (Nadia’s brother) and should probably stick to only VJing. But even there he would be too old for it. The star of the support cast is however Lilette Dubey who plays Pammi Gulati and gives a 100% to her role as the supporting Aunt for our hero and has excellent crude and crass dialogues to back her up as well – chief among them includes referring to our heroine as a “Chudail” (Witch for those who are unfamiliar with the local lingo). The music is way below Vishal Shekhar’s best. Just about makes par. The timing of the songs also is fairly awry. Something that young Danish can look at. But overall BKB is an average movie. Average Songs, Average Story, Average Direction, Great Titling, Average acting from the lead cast, some strong performances from the support cast, Decent editing – AVERAGE – 5 on 10.
Monday, 22 November 2010
Meet Bill
How many movies can you name that have been single handedly taken to a whole new level thanks to the performance of just one person – typically the lead role. Take for e.g. 300 – thanks to Gerard Butler – no one else worth speaking about right? Erin Brockovich a.k.a. The Julia Roberts show Part 1. Gladiator – Totally Russel Crowe. Raging Bull – Robert De Niro all the way to the end. Get the drift right? If it weren’t for these performances, the movie in itself would not be anywhere close to what it landed up being. Also, these are the kind of actors who can hold a movie together no matter how weak the subject matter is. One such actor who is amongst my all time favourites and unfortunately one who I have been introduced to only in the past couple of years is Aaron Eckhart. When I think of Aaron Eckhart I can think of 2 words – Simply Superb!!! His performances in super satirical movies like “Thank You for Smoking” or as Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight or as Nick in No Reservations – S-I-M-P-L-Y S-U-P-E-R-B!!!! And Meet Bill is no different from the rest.
Bill (Eckhart) is the executive vice president @ Freedom First Bank which is primarily owned by Mr. Jacoby (Holmes Osborne) and is Bill’s father in law. Completing the troika is John Jr. (Todd Louiso) – Bill’s Brother in Law – an irritable guy to the core, whose only thrill in life is to make Bill feel like the scum of the earth. Bill pretty much believes that he has a position simply because he is married to Jessie (Elizabeth Banks) and is desperate to make something out of his life on his own terms. But all is not well @ home as Bill discovers accidentally about Jessica having an affair with the local micro celebrity, Chip Johnson (Timothy Olyphant). When the men go out on a hunting trip (which is not something Bill is very excited about), he sets up a handycam in their bedroom and finds out that his fears are indeed a reality. An obviously upset Bill beats up Chip and gets himself infamous across the town thanks to being on live TV for the wrong reasons. Worse still, the video finds its way to the Internet.
Now Bill is an Alumnus of Tate High which is the most prestigious institute in the area and also part of a mentorship programme which involves him spending 5 hours a week with a student. In the bargain he gets assigned to him a character who through the movie is referred to only as The Kid (Logan Lerman). The Kid is probably the most promiscuous and wild character you can ever meet. Barely 16, he is always smoking up or flirting with as many women as he can and he is quite good at it as well. Now the kid likes Bill a lot but one cant say the feeling is mutual. So in an effort to build confidence with Bill, The Kid decides to help him get his wife back. He takes the help of Lucy (Jessica Alba) a lingerie store assistant to pretend to be having an affair with Bill and use the jealousy card with Jessica (the wife not the actress). What follows is a serious attempt from Bill to win back the love of his life through various ways from putting in several laps in the pool to even shaving off his chest hair (Ouch!!!!).
Meet Bill is a fabulous way to spend 2 hours if you have that available in your itinerary. Bernie Goldman is primarily a producer but does a reasonable job in his only directorial venture to date. Assisted by another debutante Melissa Wallack, also the writer, and add the solid performances of the rest of the cast and you have a very entertaining comedy to say the least. Wonder why it never made the big screen in India. There seem to be so many of these movies that don’t seem to see the light of the day. Definitely a 7 on 10. Playing these days on Zee Studio. Watch it.
Bill (Eckhart) is the executive vice president @ Freedom First Bank which is primarily owned by Mr. Jacoby (Holmes Osborne) and is Bill’s father in law. Completing the troika is John Jr. (Todd Louiso) – Bill’s Brother in Law – an irritable guy to the core, whose only thrill in life is to make Bill feel like the scum of the earth. Bill pretty much believes that he has a position simply because he is married to Jessie (Elizabeth Banks) and is desperate to make something out of his life on his own terms. But all is not well @ home as Bill discovers accidentally about Jessica having an affair with the local micro celebrity, Chip Johnson (Timothy Olyphant). When the men go out on a hunting trip (which is not something Bill is very excited about), he sets up a handycam in their bedroom and finds out that his fears are indeed a reality. An obviously upset Bill beats up Chip and gets himself infamous across the town thanks to being on live TV for the wrong reasons. Worse still, the video finds its way to the Internet.
Now Bill is an Alumnus of Tate High which is the most prestigious institute in the area and also part of a mentorship programme which involves him spending 5 hours a week with a student. In the bargain he gets assigned to him a character who through the movie is referred to only as The Kid (Logan Lerman). The Kid is probably the most promiscuous and wild character you can ever meet. Barely 16, he is always smoking up or flirting with as many women as he can and he is quite good at it as well. Now the kid likes Bill a lot but one cant say the feeling is mutual. So in an effort to build confidence with Bill, The Kid decides to help him get his wife back. He takes the help of Lucy (Jessica Alba) a lingerie store assistant to pretend to be having an affair with Bill and use the jealousy card with Jessica (the wife not the actress). What follows is a serious attempt from Bill to win back the love of his life through various ways from putting in several laps in the pool to even shaving off his chest hair (Ouch!!!!).
Meet Bill is a fabulous way to spend 2 hours if you have that available in your itinerary. Bernie Goldman is primarily a producer but does a reasonable job in his only directorial venture to date. Assisted by another debutante Melissa Wallack, also the writer, and add the solid performances of the rest of the cast and you have a very entertaining comedy to say the least. Wonder why it never made the big screen in India. There seem to be so many of these movies that don’t seem to see the light of the day. Definitely a 7 on 10. Playing these days on Zee Studio. Watch it.
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