Kingsman: The Secret Service

I love Matthew Vaughn movies – Layer Cake, Stardust, Kick Ass, X Men – First Class and now Kingsman Secret Service.  I have seen them all and I have realy loved watching each and every one of them.  And therefore this review may just be a tad biased towards one of my favourite directors from Hollywood.

Imitation Game

The toughest movies to review are those that leave you enamoured.  I saw Imitation Game last Saturday and over the past 6 days I have been thinking about whether I was blown away by the person called Alan Turing or the actor called Benedict Cumberbatch or was it the story and the narrative that eventually turned into an end product called The Imitation Game.

John Carter

We are actually looking at a character that was created 100 years back!!! Would you believe it??? By one of the leading authors / creators of our time. By an person who gave us one of the most memorable characters to ever be born – Tarzan. Yes. John Carter is also a child of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ imagination. He was created in 1912 and the Disney picked up a fine time to hit the screens. 100 years!!! And that too with a character that carries the name of the maker. How cool is that.

But one cannot help but wonder as to why did anyone take 100 years to come up with John Carter the Movie? From the looks of the trailer, it seems like a movie that would not be remotely short on entertainment value. The stunts seem to be miraculous to say the least. The characters are very Star Warish for lack of any other word – ergo the possibility of a fan following is huge to say the least (don’t even think that I am for once indicating that Star Wars in replaceable in any manner). Then why would it take 100 years for any production house to pick the story of John Carter and explode it onto the silver screen? Lucky for Disney that no one else did it to date.

Andrew Stanton had the backing of Finding Nemo and Wall E – 2 Animation movies that would get into the top 10 list for Animation – Any Given Sunday. And therefore, the expectations from his side were not ill placed at all. To say that he has disappointed would be unfair. But he hasn’t come upto the levels that one would have expected.

A lot of work has been done with the special effects to spruce up the movie but the screenplay and the narration get a tad complicated for the average audience as the movie moves at a brisk pace. One could not fault the audience if they were to get too confused between Tars Tarkas (Willem Dafoe) and Tal Hajus (Thomas Haden Church) and Dejah Thoris (Lynn Collins) and Tardos Mors (Ciarán Hinds) and Matai Shang (Mark Strong). Kinda difficult to keep up unless you have read the books and are familiar with the story. Very Star Warish as mentioned earlier. And capable of gaining cult status like Star Wars also.

What Stanton does well though is to keep the story alive through the 130+ minutes. Gives us great quality of action sequences. Gets the near plebian star cast (except Hinds and Strong) to act a bit. And he is supported with the voices of the reliable Willem Dafoe and Thomas Haden Church. He has also left enough of a window to go into a sequel/s. And most importantly finishes off with a nice little twist. Watch out for it. Well done Mr.Stanton & more importantly Mr. Burroughs.

John Carter is a movie that can be seen by people from all walks of life and all ages. There is nothing offensive in the least. Trust Disney to make clean family movies. Definitely on your must watch list for the weekend. 7 on 10. Big screen entertainer.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2340397337/

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Did you know that Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (with commas) was a 1979 TV Series starring Alec Guiness? It ran for a full 7 episodes it would seem. I tried my best to get my hands on the book before I saw the movie but sadly could not find it . Will keep the search on for a while – not just for academic interest but because the movie is so heavy and slow that ironically you find it difficult to keep pace with it. Funny right. But one has to read the book before you can understand the movie completely. I guess you will experience it when you watch it. It is difficult to explain it in words. I will now add the mini-series search to the list of must watches as well.

Tomas Alfredson peels out the story layer by layer by layer and that too in a very disjointed manner. That’s what I would call giving exceptional credit to the audience’s intelligence. Sometimes it backfires like it did with Tree of Life. At other times it comes out exceptionally well like in the case of Pulp Fiction. And then there are really good movies such as TTSS which kind of lose it in an attempt to increase the intrigue.

TTSS is an espionage movie that forces you to concentrate. Despite its slow pace, you could actually miss the plot if you miss a few seconds – like I did. The good news though is that it allows you to catch up unlike a lot of other movies which don’t. It traces the story of British Intelligence which suspects a Russian mole in its highest ranks. The task of unearthing the same is given to George Smiley (Gary Oldman) who builds his own mini team of sorts and starts the arduous task of figuring out who is the actual culprit – Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) OR Bill Haydon (Colin Firth) OR Percy Alleline (Toby Jones) OR Roy Bland (Ciarán Hinds). They are code named – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Spy – not respectively.

TTSS has some really solid performances by the entire cast. Little known names such as David Dencik and the vastly under-rated Ciarán Hinds have come up with really solid performances. The movie has some outstanding editing and cinematography which is apparent within the first few frames. The use of light and colour is quite stunning. The only thing, if any, which could have been in doubt were the costumes. Not sure if there were some errors on that count – pardon me for not being familiar with the kind of clothes which were worn in the 70s. Cannot comment on the screenplay either because I haven’t read the book. However, independent of the book, the screenplay would be OK in my books. Overall, one of the better movies of the year. 7 on 10. Must watch again to be totally sure of the concept – willing to do it too.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3394673689/

Kick Ass

This is the 3rd Matthew Vaughn movie that I am reviewing. That would leave me with a RomCom titled Stardust. It would be interesting to note that Vaughn is not a uni-dimensional director by any mean standards. I thought his work in X Men First Class was average but that was more to do with the fact that X Men should have been directed by Bryan Singer always to maintain consistency. With L4yer Cake, which was his debut movie, Vaughn did quite a solid job of a fast paced action packed drug dealer movie. He then moved into fantasia with Stardust which I still have to see. And last year with Kick Ass, he joins the Super Hero genre. Next up from his table is the sequel to Kick Ass which is aptly titled Kick-Ass 2: Balls to the Wall. I must say though Vaughn has done a commendable job with Kick Ass as well. It was called out by many as a very solid movie and that I must see it. I was more than glad to stay awake till late in the night to finish watching a very entertaining flick and with the exception of the incessant advertisement breaks (which really really get to you every 10 minutes) it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Vaughn’s capabilities to pay attention to detail in a movie that would have otherwise been completed just as a random super hero movie, is quite commendable.

The only weak point in Kick Ass would be the presence of my favouritest actor of all time – Mr. Constipated or Mr. I have been recently dumped by my past 3 girl friends – you got it right – Nicholas Cage. I mean in what frame of mind did Vaughn decide to pick up Cage for the role of Big Daddy / Damon Macready an ex cop who is set up by the local drug lord Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong) and has to spend a few years in prison. His wife is distraught with the turn of events and decides to take her life. However, the excessive sleeping pills fail to kill the baby that she is carrying and leaves Damon to take care of Mindy Macready (Chloe Moretz) who will then go on to become Hit Girl – replete with purple hair, purple costumes and an HG belt as well.

But in this entire scheme of things who or what is Kick Ass??? Kick Ass aka Dave Lizewski (Aaron Johnson) is this loser boy, the average nerd in high school who no one gives a second look, the absolutely ignored soul or whatever else you would like to call him. Now Dave has always wondered as to why is it that no normal human being has ever taken inspiration from comic book super heroes and gone on a super hero spree in regular life. Like fighting crime on a day to day basis and ensuring that the streets are kept as clean as possible of crime. Not the easiest job in the world because you consistently get beaten up and get back home bloody and sometimes land up in the hospital. But Dave keeps at it and eventually gets into cohorts with Big Daddy and Hit Girl in the noble intent of putting an end to the D’Amico legacy. It’s a totally fun journey I assure you. You will be kept entertained all the way. Safe bet – 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1572603673/

The Eagle

Yes this is yet another one of those Gladiator kind movies. But this time in Anno Domini. 140 AD to be precise. Around the time when the Roman conquest had reached the northern part of Britain. Marcus Aquilla (Channing Tatum) asks to be posted as a commander in Britain much to the surprise of the legion. Rome’s conquest of Britain is not going too well with the spirited Northerners pushing the Romans back. This led to the creation of what we know today as the Hadrian’s Wall which runs right through the centre of Great Britain. In times like these, it is indeed surprising to see a young man who could have been posted anywhere to specifically ask for Britain. The previous commander doesn’t even wait to be formally relieved by Marcus and takes off. Marcus, however is quick to earn the respect of his soldiers when he commands an ambush on a local tribe that is after Roman blood. The respect for Marcus only increases manifold when during a second fight, he shows exemplary valour in standing up and facing near certain death.


It is only around this time that it becomes a bit clear as to what is his driving force of moving to Britain. His father was the commander of the ninth when the legion’s golden emblem was taken away in an ambush. His father lost his life in the bargain and could not save The Eagle. Now there are way too many old mother’s tales doing their rounds about what exactly happened and Marcus wants to know the truth and put an end to all the speculation. His plans are set back significantly thanks to a very bad leg – remember he stood up and faced death. He loses consciousness and almost his leg. We he does come around, he finds himself at his Uncle’s (Donald Sutherland) place somewhere in Britain. During his recovery, he saves a local boy from being killed in a regular fight against a gladiator. Esca (Jamie Bell) becomes his slave in return for saving his life. Things come to head when a couple of politicians come to visit his uncle and talk loosely about his father and how the loss of The Eagle was an insult to Rome. Having said that, they are still not willing to do anything about it. Marcus decides to take matters into his own hands and crippled leg and takes off with Esca to find The Eagle.

The Eagle exposes director Kevin MacDonald’s inability to produce a solid movie like his previous attempts in the absence of a good cast. For that matter, any director with a cast like this one would have struggled to give a decent end product. In that context, I tip my hat to Kevin Saar. Although the movie tends to be a drab in parts and MacDonald fails to hold your attention throughout, the end product would have been much worse with someone else if I were to hazard a guess. The sheer incompetence of Channing Tatum to emote on screen is not only very obvious but also gets onto your nerves after a point in time. And Jamie Bell doesn’t help too much either. What stands out is that in a movie like this – all Gladiator – Spartacus type is the absence of a woman and therefore thankfully the movie doesn’t drop to being soppy. One of the few saving graces. Needless to say, I don’t have anything against actresses and all of you would be very familiar with my stance on the fairer sex. Its just that I have always strived to find a reason to have an actress and unnecessarily up the romance / glamour quotient in a movie about the Roman Legion. On that hopefully “not perceived as sexist” note, I give this movie a 5 on 10. Kevin MacDonald – better luck next time with the casting.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2014091801/

The Way Back

Based on a true story on which a book has been written, The Way Back, is the story of a few mad men (that’s the only way I can describe them) who would have rather died free in the cold of Siberia than in a prison camp where they were being held. Not many (in fact I cant think of any) movies have been made on the not so fair calls taken by Stalin in the build up to the World War. Maybe it would be fair to say that Josep found himself on the right side of Roosevelt. The book used for the screenplay was called The Long Walk (you bet it was long!!!! – 4000 miles long!!!) by Sławomir Rawicz. But no one said that when you make a movie from a book with the word Long in the title, you have the right to get the movie to associate with the same adjective. Director Peter Weir (Truman Show, Master and Commander) seems to have got it wrong this time around with clichés such as unnecessary long shots of 6 people walking down the desert and arid plains of Mongolia or with his complete lack of continuity between several shots. Unless of course the print that was sent across to India wasn’t the final cut.


Nevertheless, getting on with it. The Way Back is the story of 8 people who are locked up by Stalin in a prison camp in Siberia. Its around 1939 and Hitler has occupied one part of Poland and Stalin the other. The Polish are however stuck right in the middle and are obviously not too pleased with it. This is when Janusz (Jim Sturgess) gets imprisoned for anti Stalin activities. Here he meets an American who has gone as cold as the weather in Siberia and goes by the name of Smith (Ed Harris) and a first name of Mister. He also gets acquainted with five other men – Valka (Colin Farrell) a hardened Russian Criminal, Tomasz (Alexandru Potocean) an artist who survives at the camp by making erotic sketches, Kazik (Sebastian Urzendowsky) a young boy who suffers from night blindness, Voss (Gustaf Skarsgård) a Latvian Priest and Zoran (Dragos Bucur) an accountant from the erstwhile Yugoslavia. And then there is an actor, Khabarov (Mark Strong) whose only way of surviving in the madness of the prison is to weave fantasies about how it is possible to escape from the camp. But then he meets Janusz who takes the concept too seriously and when he finds an opportunity, the 8 of them decide to take advantage of a blizzard to escape. And so begins the long long walk which they plan to take from Siberia to Mongolia. Along the way, they also pick up Irena (Saoirse Ronan) who claims to have run away from another camp after her parents were murdered by Russians.

The Way Back is an extremely poignant and slow tale of how 9 human beings challenge their limits and walk through Siberia, along Lake Baikal onto the plains of Russia, Mongolia, Tibet and eventually into India. Most of the scenes are of course not shot on location with Bulgaria and Morocco taking up most of the shooting with a small portion towards the end being shot in India. Not that I am taking away any points from the team for choice of location but most of the build up didn’t seem to be finished too well. For e.g., towards the end of the movie, the accents start dropping distinctly and most of the actors of different nationalities start moving towards their natural accents. I was also surprised to learn that the movie had been nominated for an Oscar for Make Up. It was good alright but good enough for an Oscar nomination? Debatable. Or maybe I need to really take that movie appreciation course that I have been putting off for a long long time. The performances by most of the cast are however quite strong with Ed Harris leading the way as the reserved Mr. Smith. Saoirse (pronounced Seer Sha) Ronan stands out again and she is only helped along the way by being the only woman in the group of nine. On the whole, you can watch it if you are fine with watching an extremely slow tear jerker. I give this 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1465030937/