The Five-Year Engagement

The posters and trailers of The Five-Year Engagement were all over the place for a while early last year.  The trailers seemed intriguing enough and so did the posters.  But if my memory serves me right, 5 Year Engagement never saw the light of day in this country.  I have always wondered why.

World War Z

I am going to start with a very different observation this time around.  The importance that our sovereign socialist republic has gained over this century cannot be more magnified.  A forced but very obvious integration in a $200 million movie is proof enough.  Gerry Lane (Brad Pitt) has to consider a stop-over in India to evaluate whether the source of the latest deadly virus has some roots in India.

Raanjhanaa

I must admit that my initial thoughts about Raanjhanaa were not the most positive.  That Dhanush was part of the movie was one of the prime reasons.  I really didn’t see the reason for picking up a one song wonder as a lead actor.  I wasn’t aware that he was a National Award Winner (Aadukalam – 2011).  Needless to say, the 30 year old, Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja aka Dhanush has made most critics (including this amateur one) eat humble pie.

Enemmy (Law and Disorder)

A gangster's truck load of cash is intercepted by just 2 people in black masks.  So you have one peeved gangster– Mukhtar (Zakir Hussain). His crony and associated family bite the dust. He launches a full scale offensive on all gangs. The cops led by Ekalvya Karmarkar (Suniel Shetty) have to intervene and lock him up. Ekalavya has Eric Colaco (Johnny Lever), Madhav Sinha (Mahaakshay) and Naeem Shaikh (Kay Kay Menon) by his side.

Shortcut Romeo

Consider a husband who has a 13000 crore business believes in meditating in front of a wall size picture of a bearded swami baba. After that, he doesn't quite bother about his sex-starved wife - one that is described by our hero Suraj (Neil Nitin Mukesh) as Makkan jaisi jawaani (crudely translated as sizzling hot). Usually the result is infidelity of some kinds. No?

Monster's University

Just the other day, I was lamenting about how 2013 has been a watershed – pretty much – for the animation segment.  There were hardly any good movies that were released to date.  And one could have only hoped through the trailers that Tarzan was good.  But coming up before Tarzan to put a smile on my face – Monsters University!!!

A Little Bit of Heaven

Star World seems to be on a Kate Hudson spree for their segment called Movie Magic.  Sometime back it was Fools Gold.  The week before last we saw that RomCom titled Something Borrowed.  And last week it was this Romance / RomCom movie called A Little Bit of Heaven.

Ankur Arora Murder Case

It isn’t for no reason that people say of those who pass away that they have gone to a better place.  If a certain Sidney Lumet was alive today he would have been pushed to the brink of suicide.  But that would definitely not prevent him from rolling in his grave and desperately wanting to get out and murder Suhail Tatari.

Something Borrowed

Something Borrowed released a couple of years back and lasted for just a week at the cinemas.  I was quite eager to watch it because it has one of my favourite RomCom actresses – Ginnifer Goodwin (He's Just Not That Into You / Once Upon a Time).  So I wasn’t about to let the opportunity pass up when I played on Star World last weekend (if I remember it right).

Fukrey

Dilip Singh aka Choocha (Varun Sharma) & Vikas Gulati aka Hunny (Pulkit Sharma) are fraands (read friends) for life.  They have grown up together and have failed their senior high school exams for the past 2 years.  They are well on course to flunking again.  Laali (Manjot Singh) is desperate to get a transfer into a college where his childhood love Shalu is studying and is quickly eliminating Laali from her life.

Lakeer Ke Fakeer

Let us look at the ironies involved in this low budget movie that released on Friday, 14^th June 2013.  It has been produced by a company that calls itself “Garbage Productions” – Does that entitle you to actually put out stuff that is the closest thing to Garbage on the silver screen?

Man of Steel

"In my world it is not an "S". It is a symbol of hope" – Kal El (Henry Cavill) to Lois Lane (Amy Adams). And from this day on, it will stay as hope for everyone. But the timeless symbol will never cease to mean what it has meant to billions across the world for 74 years to date. It will always remain the symbol for - SUPERMAN. Zack Snyder has only added more reason to the symbol and I doff my hat to him.

The Hangover 3

At the outset, I would like to apologise for this delayed review of a movie that released 2 weeks back.  A friend asked me if it was similar to Hangover 2 and whether he should watch it.  I hadn’t seen HO2 and so decided that I would take this opportunity to watch HO1, 2 and 3 and then review all 3 together.

The Hangover 2

The thing about a hugely successful movie is that from a commercial perspective, a sequel is in order.  The ingredients of a successful sequel – and you are well aware of my thoughts on that – include the same director and largely the same cast.  That condition definitely checks all boxes for Hangover 2.

The Hangover

I am quite sure that a lot and more has been written about what is considered by many as probably the best comedy movie made in the past decade – Circa 2000-09.  I watched Hangover once again a few days back because I had to check it out before reviewing one of the worst movies in a long time – Hangover 3.  Just to be sure if I had my expectations ill placed or not.

A Time To Kill

One way to get a near perfect rendition of a book into a movie is to get the casting correct.  And most directors have a favourite casting director.  With Joel Schumacher it would be one Mali Finn.  Finn has most JS movies to his credit and other big names such as The Untouchables and Hot Shots to his credit.  He had also done The Client (John Grisham) with JS before this one.

The Verdict

The Verdict is the 1982 classic by one of Hollywood’s best directors – Sidney Lumet.  It was nominated for five Academy awards – Best Actor in a Leading Role (Paul Newman), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (James Mason), Best Director (Sidney Lumet), Best Picture and Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (David Mamet). Sadly it won none primarily because of Gandhi.

Now You See Me

The dictionary defines magic as the art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature. Now if that doesn’t confuse you then you have a tremendous command over the language.

After Earth

I think it is official now.  If there is a movie maker who is slower than a snail it has to be M Night Shyamalan.  With After Earth, Shyamalan has cleared any other challenge that one could have thrown his way.  He has made a slow Science Fiction movie.  I am sure the snails would love him for it – finally something that matches their pace!!!!

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2

Sangeeth Sivan takes over from Sameer Karnik, 2 years after the latter gave us a movie that was in terms of quality, nothing worth writing home about.  However, there were some moments attributed to the lead trio which ensured that the movie didn’t flop.  YPD2 is no different.