Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

When you have Alejandro González Iñárritu directing a movie you can be rest assured that it has to be at least a little bit “hatke” (off the beaten path).  With movies like Amores Peres, 21 Grams, Babel and Biutiful under his belt Birdman (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) could not have been straightforward.  It would not have been Iñárritu.

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.

The Campaign

I will not lie about it. The only Will Ferrell movie that I have really enjoyed is Stranger Than Fiction. And Zach whatshisname hasn’t inspired any confidence in me since Hangover. In fact, even in Hangover, I wasn’t really thrilled about his performance. Like seriously folks – irritation and humour are not synonyms by any stretch of imagination. However, I am quite certain that there are millions out there who love both of them.

Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is a hugely successful Democrat who has won from his constituency for four consecutive terms. And the fifth term is only a matter of completing a formality. One would have assumed that he will coast into yet another unopposed win with the least of worries.

But his promoters – the Motch Brothers – Wade (Dan Aykroyd) and Glenn (John Lithgow) have other ideas. Primarily to ensure that their selfish motives of moving a huge plant for toys from China to the US. That would need a bill to be passed in the Senate and therefore a puppet who will do as s/he has been told. Enter – Marty Huggins (Galifianakis) s/o Raymond Huggins (Brian Cox).

Marty runs a not so successful domestic tour business. And he doesn’t have his father’s favour – rightfully so – thanks to his weird ways that inspire no confidence. But the Motch brothers need a fall guy – a scapegoat. So instead of Junior Huggins who would be the normal choice, they pick Marty. And what follows is an attempted comedy that falls sorely flat on its nose.

If you are a Ferrell / Zach fan – and by that I mean that you really enjoyed movies such as Due Date (Zach) or The Other Guys (Ferrell) – then The Campaign should be on your must watch list. Even the director – Jay Roach – comes from the slapstick genre. His previous exploits include the Austin Powers series and that painful series involving the most over rated actor in Hollywood who goes by the name of Ben Stiller.

There is nothing different that The Campaign has to offer in terms of entertainment. You may see Hollywood stoop to lower levels of degrading people in the name of comedy but nothing that compares or holds a candle to good healthy entertainment. Crass dialogues, really sad twists in the story and slapstick humour are all you can look forward to in this one. I didn’t quite enjoy it too much. But then it is much better than some of the other trash that’s playing these days. 5 on 10.

Watch the trailer on http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi277390617/

What Happens in Vegas

Several corny dialogues dot this RomCom that stars the vastly over rated Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. Lets see if I can remember some.  Go get your future ex-ex-wife OR you are so lame that your father would not want to hire you.  So screenplay as you can imagine is nowhere close to being reasonably entertaining. But then one has begin to expect that from a movie starring Kutcher.  That too nearly 4 years back when he was far from being a reasonable actor that he is these days.  And the number of movies that Diaz has definitely acted in can be counted on one maybe two fingers :D.  But I am not going to ever take this away from her that she looks stunning and will continue to look gorgeous till her dying day.  And lets see – is What Happens in Vegas any different from the other movies that we have seen which feature these 2 pieces of eye candy (together or independent of each other) – NO.  It is just a normal run of the mill each and every day kind of RomCom at best really.

Joy McNally and Jack Fuller pick the best day in their lives to get hitched.  They get smash drunk in Las Vegas after Joy is dumped by her fiancé. Joy has always had this feeling that she is not good enough for the man and takes this as an opportunity to really forget herself.  Jack on the other hand is a victim of a perfectionist father who cannot find anything right in what Jack does.  Joy is a stock broker by profession with a boss who is a prick to put it lightly.  With a name like Richard Banger, what else can you expect (now you know what I mean by corny).  Jack would like to take up his family business which is making furniture.  Mind you he is quite good at it but not good enuf for his dad.  So when these 2 naïve young creatures wake up the next morning, they have only one thing on their mind – how do we get out of this mess (read marriage) that we have gotten ourselves into.  Simple – tell each other and get it over and done with right? Wrong.  Wrong when you have just won yourselves $3 million!!!!

“What Happens in Vegas” was not really worth it for me to have put some other work that I had to do on hold.  But I didn’t take much time to figure it out and hence focused my energies in getting a few of my long pending reviews out of the way.  It is the kind of easy viewing movies that you can watch like any other RomCom.  Like you would on a Saturday afternoon cuddled up with a special someone idly flicking the remote in the breaks and maybe even having enough time to do something else on the side.  Not a movie that you desperately need to see.  Definitely not the kind of movie that I would have liked to finish the year on but well what the heck.  5 on 10 for this average chick flick.  Happy New Year 2012 folks.  See you on the other side on this year.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2092040473/

Puss in Boots

His best friend as a child was Humpty Alexander Dumpty (Zach Galifanakis). By the way…did you know that Humpty Dumpty had a middle name?!?!?!? It would seem he does . And it would seem he had a troubled childhood where the other children in the orphanage would boo him to near death. And trouble him and trouble him and trouble him till he would run away to his den of sorts where he stashes away the beans he has collected for the day. Thanks to his fascination with Andy Beanstalk aka Jack who killed the giant and then stashed away the magic beans somewhere no one could find it. But Humpty knew or rather knows that these beans actually exist. But no one believes him. In fact they ridicule him for believing in a fantasy. Poor Humpty had no friend at all. None till “he” showed up in a basket.

He is all of 2 ft short… oops tall (6 inches at the time of adoption). Loves his milk and doesn’t drink alocohol. He is Rebel, a lover. He makes the fairer of the species particularly weak in their knees. He was all of 2 months old when adopted. Actually abandoned and therefore adopted by his mother of today, Imelda (Constance Marie). He first made his appearance around 7 years back with our green ogre friend and created quite a sensation. This is the story of where this 2 foot swordsman came into existence and the adventure that forces him to move out of his adopted village of San Ricardo. We have been speaking about the Pocket Rocket (I am beginning to seriously like this phrase) – Presenting – Antonio Banderas in and as Puss in Boots!!!!

The race for the final 5 for the Oscars is seriously heating up. I don’t think there are any other animation movies releasing this year as far as I know. While Puss in Boots would not come close to Cars 2 or Tintin, it definitely has it in it to make it to the top 5 for the year. The other 2 being Rango and Kung Fu Panda 2. But do animation movies have 5 nominations or 3. Someone please let me know. Coz Puss In Boots definitely deserves a nomination. Chris Miller (of Shrek The Third fame) gives us a wonderful blend of a classic storyline with the latest special effects through Dreamworks Animation which is just getting better and better by the day. So Pixar is not going to be feeling too lonely at the top I can assure you.

The choice of voice overs is superb. While we were aware of Banderas doing the voice of Puss in Shrek 2, the natural choice for Kitty Softpaws cold not have been anyone other than Salma Hayek. Billy Bob Thornton and the not so well known Amy Sedaris are superb in the voices of the legendary robbers Jack and Hill. The 3D quality as always doesn’t amaze me. I am not much of a fan but then the good news is that PVR has finally cracked a lighter solution for glassed. Super relief with movies releasing so often in the format these days. Enjoyable affair this story of a maverick cat. Do catch up. 7 on 10 is my verdict.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1870831129/

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.