The Amazing Spiderman 2

One of the secrets / essentials of making the sequel better than its predecessor would be to first retain the director.  Nothing spurs a director (or so I would assume) more than the desire to better her/his previous work.  Of course, this may not be a guarantee but it is definitely a key to raising the probability of success.  Marc Webb sure comes from the earlier school of thought in this part of The Amazing Spiderman.  Amazing indeed.

Rio 2

I am at the outset going to make a candid confession.  I didn’t like Rio too much.  I found it to be too much of an avian fantasy.  It seemed force fitted into one of the most gorgeous places on earth and that didn’t go too well with me.  I found a lot of characters to be over the top and frankly the concept was nowhere close to animations like Lion King or Finding Nemo or even Shrek (not one of my favourites).

White House Down

There are bad movies and there are bad movies.  And if that is not sufficient then there are even more horrible movies.  What gets to your nerves is when otherwise excellent directors such as Roland Emmerich suddenly decide to tell you that you were wrong about them all this while.

Django Unchained

Meet Dr. King Schultz (Christoph Waltz).  A gentleman of German descent who has made The US of A his home for a little over 4 years.  He is a dentist by profession but of late, he has been using his fine motor skills and reflexes for something far more profitable.  He is a Bounty Hunter.

Rio

And we finally get to one of the more expected animation movies of the year. Phew!!! That was one long wait. Over 4 months since I saw the trailer for the first time, Rio hit screens in India last weekend (pardon me for the delay in putting up the review but it has seriously been super hectic). And I almost lost all hope that it would get there in the first place. I mean, what is with production houses that release the trailer some 6 months before the movie and then keep you waiting for time immemorial. After a while it gets to your nerves a bit too much and does nothing to build up the excitement in anyways. I would hazard a guess that anything more than 3 months and it gets to be really boring. Trailer Life Cycle hypothesis is what I would like to call it.


Lets move onto the more relevant point of discussion - the 7th release in the Animation genre from movie power house Twentieth Century Fox (TCF). That they have released only 7 to date should give TCF a good enough indication that they are not really cut out best to play around much in this genre. Other than the Ice Age series, the rest of the lot have been quite average and in fact not worth mentioning. Rio probably makes it to the list that can just about claim to have made the cut with nothing terribly brilliant about it nor was it horrendously made to say it wasn’t worth a dekko. TCFs favourite animation director would have to be Carlos Saldanah who has given them their most successful franchise to date. But somehow the namesake of the Jackal isn’t able to re-create the magic of Ice Age. One may argue that it is unfair to compare previous works and treat this in isolation. On both counts, Rio falls just that tad bit short of being a superb animation movie in the league of Up or Finding Nemo or for that matter even Cars. Pixar needn’t quite worry for now with the quality of work that they are giving us.

Rio is the story of Blue (Jesse Eisenberg) who finds himself caught by a trapper in the jungles right outside the famed Samba City and then traded as an exotic species of bird – the Blue Macaw. And that too when the poor baby is just about excited about the concept of flying. Pretty soon he finds himself in the other hemisphere in the extremely cold state of Milwaukee. By chance, he is found by Linda (Leslie Mann) who takes care of him like her best friend. A few years later, Tulio (Rodrigo Santoro) arrives at Linda’s doorstep and gives her the news that Blue is the last of its species (do macaws live upto 15-20 years coz that’s the amount of time that seems to have passed between Linda finding Blue and today). Now here’s a nerdy girl who has probably not been on a date and a Macaw who doesn’t know how to fly and find themselves travelling to Rio where their little adventure sees Blue trying to make an impression on Jewel (Anne Hathaway). In between all of that is an avian villain, a parakeet who goes by the name of Nigel (Jemaine Clement) and some avian friends – a Toucan called Rafael (George Lopez). Keeping them company are Pedro (Will i Am ) and Nico (Jamie Foxx). A reasonable adventure but a bit short of being really good. The Animation is not outstanding in anyways. 3D and the music are quite weak with nothing to get too excited about. The voice overs are quite well done though. Overall a 6 on 10. The kids will definitely love it. But not meant for all ages.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi470260249/

Due Date

Peter Highman (Robert Downey Jr.) is a successful executive expecting his first child. He is in Atlanta and needs to get home i.e. Los Angeles by Friday because his wife, Sarah (Michelle Monaghan) is having a C Section. He wakes up to take his flight on Tuesday morning after a slightly disturbing dream. He is about to get out of the car when a random car cuts in from the right and crashes into the car door. Thankfully no one is hurt. But out walks a visibly stoned / drunk Ethan Tremblay (Zach Galifianakis) who as nonchalantly as possible asks Peter if he is fine and then moves on to board his flight.

Peter is visibly shaken but is more preoccupied with the thought of his first born and proceeds to board the flight. As he is moving through security, he realizes that one of the packages has been exchanged with Ethan. The worse news is that he is now carrying a marijuana pipe. Nevertheless, he manages to wriggle himself out of the sticky situation. But his troubles have just about begun. As luck would have it, Ethan is on the same flight and has been bumped upto first class and is now seated behind Peter much to Peter’s chagrin.

Some random conversation about terrorists ensues and it prompts a US Marshall to pull out a firearm on Peter and shoot him. Thankfully with a rubber bullet. Both Peter and Ethan are off loaded. Things seem to be going only downhill. As luck would have it, all of this wasn’t enough. Both of them are put onto a “No Fly” list. So they have no choice but to drive down to LA. In the melee, Peter couldn’t pick up his bags and wallet from the aircraft and finds himself without any money or id. Out of a lack of choice, he accepts Ethan’s offer to take him along.

Todd Philips’ 6th full length feature film to date. Considering that he made the likes of a Starsky and Hutch, the not so slick (but not so slapstick either) humour should have been expected I guess. But then, the same guy also gave us one of the best comedies made to date – The Hangover. But then Todd – one is only as good as his last movie. So the Hangover from The Hangover seems to have sailed you through Due Date as well. There were enough and more in the audience who were extremely thrilled with the movie and went out feeling satisfied – if that makes you feel better. But from my side, this was way below par. Especially after you have set the bar so high with The Hangover.

Robert Downey Jr. is as usual ice cold with his performance. Very smartly executed role from his end. And Zach “Tounge Twister” Galifianakis is superb with his performance as the aspirational Hollywood actor with a fondness for Two and a Half Men & is carrying his Dad’s ashes in a coffee tin because he thinks it is still vacuum sealed. No one else actually has a role in the movie. Jamie Foxx is wasted in his 3.5 mins of screen time. So is Juliette Lewis. Due Date is definitely entertaining but nowhere close to The Hangover. So don’t go expecting the quality of humour or execution that you saw there. Overall a 6 on 10. Definitely the best movie over the weekend.

Valentines Day

Here’s one of those extremely feel good romantic comedies. An out and out chick flick. Minor tear jerker. But what it does give you is a slightly different perspective. The idea of course being what happens on Valentines Day. But with a slight twist. What happens when u get dumped or find out that the love of your life has cheated on you or that the love of your life is actually old enough to be your mother or you have no clue why you are in love with the person but you still are or you realize that your current boyfriend is married with 2 kids or you meet the one meant for you doing something that you really don’t want to be doing…. 6 such stories intertwined form the basic premise of Valentines Day.


Now I am a self confessed romantic and missed out on the movie when it released about 6 months back. But got myself the DVD anyways as soon as it released a couple of weeks back.

The story begins with Reed Bennett (Ashton Kutcher) who in typical V Day style starts off his day by proposing to Morley Clarkson (Jessica Alba) who says yes. Reed is a florist who has his own reasonable size hand me down business from his granddad and is one of the few people in the world who is always happy. Obviously Morley says yes but much to the surprise of most people who know Reed for reasons best known to them. It is very typical of most of your friends who don’t tell you in as many words that the woman who u think is the one is probably not actually THE ONE.

Reed's best friend is Julia Fitzpatrick (Jennifer Garner) who is currently dating Dr. Harrison Copeland (Patrick Dempsey). Julia’s close friend is Kara (Jessica Biel) who is a PR specialist for NFL player Sean Jackson (Eric Dane) and is having a tough time deciding whether to continue with his career or not. Kara does not believe in V Day and spends it each time throwing a “I Hate Valentines Day” party. Julia also teaches at a school where Edison (Bryce Robinson) is a primary school student. Edison stays with his grandparents Edgar (Hector Elizondo) and Estelle (Shirley MacLaine) who spend V Day every year by watching a movie @ a Cemetery which is actually top draw on V Day. Edison’s baby sitter Grace (Emma Roberts) believes she has found her THE ONE and is planning to lose her virginity on the same day to Alex (Carter Jenkins). Grace’s best friend is Felicia (Taylor Swift) an 18 year old bimbette who is totally in love with the school’s star athlete Willy (Taylor Lautner) for purely superficial reasons.

Sean’s agent is Paula Thomas (Queen Latifah) who portrays herself as a self confessed class A bitch of a boss. But her stand in secretary Liz (Anne Hathaway) finds out that beneath that tough exterior is actually a soft person. Liz moonlights as an Adult “Remote Entertainer” (Phone Sex operator ) and has recently met Jason (Topher Grace – Christopher for short… gah!!!!) who is a mail delivery man in Kara’s office.

Kara’s business associate is another self confessed “player” Kelvin Moore(Jamie Foxx) who is the 2nd best correspondent of the local sports station and avoids doing the rounds on V Day coz he is secretly waiting for THE ONE (yet again).

Lastly, Sean’s best friend Holden (Bradley Cooper) is a stinking rich man who is on a flight back home and is seated next to Capt. Kate Hazeltine (Julia Roberts)

Phew… I believe I have managed to successfully cover all characters in the movie for sure. No point in explaining what happens in this melee of relationships. Its upto you to find out. If u are not the rom com kinds then avoid this like the plague. If you are then u will definitely like to see this once. Can watch on the tube whenever a movie channel decides to play it. No need to really own it despite the fact that Garry Marshall has directed it. Not really up with his best movies like Pretty Woman, Frankie and Johnny, The Other Sister, Raising Helen etc. Garry Marshall is a specialist in Rom Coms for sure but this one is not his stand out performance by far. Long way to go to catch up with the likes of Nancy Meyers who gives us amazing rom coms every single time.

The casting, however, is probably perfect. The likes of Kathy Bates who is the only person not shown as romantically inclined (Kelvin’s boss) have a screen time of less than 2 mins and leaves a powerful impact. What has helped Marshall is that each actor is on her/his own quite wonderful and therefore gives their best.

Good movie to get your valentine to see. Especially if you would like to get brownie points. But overall 5 on 10 for this one.