The Frozen Ground

The posters claimed with a lot of conviction that this is the best serial killer movie since Se7en.  A wise man once said, “Never judge a movie by its poster” – I am quite certain he was a victim of many an experience like The Frozen Ground.  I was looking forward to a serial killer movie that would blow my pants off for a really long time.  But it will take much more than TFG to displace the likes of Se7en.

Hot Tub Time Machine

There are slapstick comedies and there are slapstick comedies and then there are the slapstick comedies which are made for the heck of making a slapstick comedy. And if it is directed by a person who goes by the name of Steve Pink (eh?) then you can be even more certain of being given an average fare. That he has co-produced the likes of Grosse Point Blank and High Fidelity (a movie that I had reviewed sometime back) are no reflection on his directorial skills whatsoever but would definitely go a long way to reinforce his complete and utter fascination or love for John Cussack. He has one more slapstick called “Accepted” under his belt. Which would probably explain why Hot Tub Time Machine (HTTM) really did not create too many waves at the Box Office in India. Having said that the movie does have some humour which would explain why I use the term average against the words horrendous or bad while talking about HTTM. Its one of those slapsticks that are barely watchable. For once I wasn’t complaining too much coz I watched it from a copy that was put onto my hard disk by my good friend Parikshit Dalvi (PD – thanks for saving me the money. Knowing me, I would have bought it off the shelf at quite a price).


Adam (John Cusack) and Nick (Craig Robinson) are close childhood buddies who are not too thrilled about their respective lives. Adam has been unsuccessful in love for as long as he can remember and has recently been dumped by his current girlfriend (wait a minute – is that the right way to put it? If he has been dumped then it would be his ex-girlfriend right? Whatever. You guys get the point right?). His nephew, Jacob (Clarke Duke) who is a video game addict. Nick Weber is a henpecked husband who works at a dog spa and has this morbid fear that his wife is cheating on him. They also have another person who completes their circle of friends. Lou (Rob Corddry) who is pathetic at investments and has lost a truck load of money leading him to be debt ridden. He is the true wild child who would rather be a rock star than anything else. When he comes back from a drunken night, he almost dies of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car thanks to a cheap thrill of revving his engine in a closed garage. But he is saved just in time. When Nick and Adam learn of this, they come to visit him and impulsively make a plan to revisit their teenage feral days where they once made a memorable trip to the Kodiak Valley Ski Resort. A very reluctant Jacob tags along. They reach the resort to find a hot tub in their backyard with a dead dog in it. But a few hours later, they find it cleaned and filled up and the night of random partying begins. They wake up the next morning obviously with heavy hangovers but much to their disbelief and surprise – in 1986 – 20 years back. Its now upto them to find out how this happened and more importantly, how they are going to make their way back.

Interesting concept. Could have been executed in a cleaner fashion but Steve Pink is obviously not too capable a director. The acting is again quite average – desperate would be the right word. Cusack should stick to either the acidic comedy genre or the romantic comedy one. Slapstick is just not for him. The only thing us men can look forward to in the uncut version is a fair bit of nudity. In a nutshell – nothing great. I would not give it more than 4 on 10. Watch it if u are a Cusack or a slapstick fan or if you really loved the likes of American Pie.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4173726745/

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.

Shanghai

Sincerest of apologies to my half a dozen followers. I had seen this one a week ago but for some reason completely missed out posting the review. I assure you that such lapses will not occur in the future.

The year is 1941. Most of china has been taken over by Japan. But for a small sea port towards the south east of China – Shanghai - A cosmopolitan pot pourri which hosts people from several nationalities. America has not yet entered the war. Paul Soames (John Cusack) comes into Shanghai looking for his close friend Connor (Jeffrey Dean Morgan). Soames is an undercover spy who poses as a journalist who would be working for the Shanghai Herald. To add to his cover, he writes articles that also provide readers the counter point of view – a softer stand in favour of the German position in the war. Most people don’t like his stand but the Germans aren’t complaining. It helps Soames get into several parties hosted by Germans.

By the time Soames gets into Shanghai, he has made friends with Mrs. Meuller (Franka Potente) who has moved to Shanghai with her husband who is a Naval Engineer. But he doesn’t land up in time to prevent Connor from being murdered in a dark alley. Soames is positive that Connor has stumbled upon something which is of great importance but didn’t have complete concrete evidence of the same. He tries hard to convince his boss about it but without proof it falls flat. So he sets off on his own little adventure to uncover what Connor knew.

Now Shanghai is controlled by Anthony Lan Ting (Chow Yun Fat), a gangster who is married to Anna (Gong Li) – the daughter of the leader of the resistance in China at that time. Knowing fully well that it will be difficult to swim against the tide, Anthony bites the bullet and does key odd jobs for Tanaka (Ken Watanabe) who is a Japanese colonel based in Shanghai. Soames knows that for him to make any headway to uncover Connor’s killer, he has to get through to Anthony

It has been a really long time since a quality war movie has been made. The last one would have been the double header that we were treated to from Mr. Clint Eastwood. I guess the wait will have to continue. But then Shanghai cannot be termed as a war movie in the true sense of the word. Its got a heavy dose of romance and loads of espionage also thrown in for good measure. Although Mikael Kalstrom’s direction is just about at par, what takes this movie to the next level is the absolutely amazing screen presence and execution by our Asian Stars. Ken Watanabe has been and continues to be one of my favourite actors. And Chow Yun Fat has come a really long way from his days of Kung Fu. Gong Li in her role of the distraught daughter of the slain resistance leader is simple magnificient. Not to mention that she looks ethereal. John Cusack suddenly pales in comparison to these phenomenal actors. And mind you, Cusack is no push over when it comes to the acting department.

The rest of the cast is quite passé. Nothing else really stands out in the entire movie. I was a tad disappointed. The edge of the seat excitement is definitely missing. The story winds as much as the yellow river I am sure – for a little under two hours. What makes it worse is the predictability of the entire plot. Doesn’t take more than 20 minutes into the movie to figure out what and how its going to end. Full credit, however, to the art director. The sets were superb!!! That, unfortunately cannot carry the entire movie on its own. Shanghai gets a 5 on 10 from my end.

Serendipity

I keep referring to the mushy stuff that dreams are made of quite often. I have also mentioned several times that I am a sucker for RomComs. I have never made bones about accepting that even the subtlest of differences in a romantic comedy is sufficient to please me. Then why should I not return a good review for Peter Chelsom’s best effort to date and what would remain his best effort in a long time to come. Every time we go to the movies, we look for that something different. And when we watch Love Stories then we are willing to believe even the impossible because of the warm feeling it leaves in our hearts at the end. Lets face it, most of us ARE SUCKERS for that warm happy feeling and loads of men would refuse to accept it unless they are in a drunken stupor or they are in a drunken stupor.


Serendipity - The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries – as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary.
The favourite word of Sara Thomas (Kate Beckinsale) who believes, right from the bottom of her heart, that everything in this life has got to do with destiny. That if something were to happen then it eventually will irrespective of whether it happens today or years later.

Johanthan Trager (John Cusack) and Sara Thomas both reach out for the last pair of black gloves at the Bloomingdales counter at the same time. Its Christmas time in New York and both of them are in their best spirits so they let the other person have it. In between this, a random customer comes in and picks up the gloves. At this time, John and Sara together in extemporish fashion, convince the gentleman that they need the gloves more than him. There is a certain kind of chemistry that clicks between the two of them and they pursue their conversation @ a local café called Serendipity. All through, what lands up being probably the best evening they have ever spent in their lives, they have not exchanged something as basic as names. Just a click somewhere in their minds and they were off.

As the evening draws to a close, John decides to ask Sara what her name is, a question that she keeps side stepping. She eventually succumbs and gives her phone number but as luck would have it, it gets blown away in the wind. Unwilling to give up John keeps pestering but Sara writes her name and number on the first page of a book “Love in the time of Cholera” and promises to drop it off at a 2nd hand book store before she leaves New York… oops… Sara is British – apologies for not having mentioned it. She also asks John to write down his name and number on a $5 bill and spends it. Her theory being, if either of these were to make its way back into the other person’s hands, it would mean they were meant to be.

Now John is not one to give up so easily and so they land up walking into the Waldorf Astoria and checking their luck out one last time. The idea is to get into different elevators and press a random floor of their choice. If it matches then they are meant to be. both press 23 unknown to each other. But as luck would have it, John’s elevator stops mid way to pick up a passenger… a 3 foot nothing spoilt brat with any even more spoilt father who is OK with the kid pressing all the buttons in the elevator…. Ridiculous parents I say… well does the story of John and Sara end with this spoilt brat? Unlikely right?

Movie worth a watch to find out what ensues. Kate Beckinsale and John Cusack both look good on screen. Although I always thought Kate was much taller than she looked here. Turns out she is barely 5’ 3”. Quite a surprise. That’s no reflection on her acting skills whatsoever. Cusack looks as boy next door as ever and turns out a performance that is expected of him – nice. The supporting cast if vastly non existant with the exception of John’s best friend Dean Kansky (Jeremy Piven) who drives John to go after Sara and look for her. Some really sweet moments in the movie. One of them is when John’s wife to be Halley (Bridget Moynahan) gives him his present before the wedding day. It turns out to be exactly the book that Sara had written down her name and number. Direction is average again. Nothing out of this world. All in all the movie is quite a decent watch for a Sunday afternoon cuddled in bed with your boy friend – 5 on 10.