Chronicle

I guess we have had way too many movies now which have been shot – in layman terms – using a normal recording camera. The kind of stuff which gives you the effect of it having been recorded by someone like you and me. I guess Josh Trank – yet another director who is moving from a single TV series to mainstream cinema – doesn’t quite agree with me that it is passé. From the looks of it (read – scores on imdb) people are lapping it up as it is being served. Chronicle is currently scoring nearly 8 on 10 on the imdb rankings. Not on my scale though. Don’t get me wrong. I think don’t think it is a bad movie at all. Just not good enough to come close to 8 that’s all.
Whats different about those video cam recorded movies from Chronicle is a slightly different story. Most of the stuff that I have seen are either about the end of the world or some random ghost story which went on to make zillions in the BO. Yawn. Not so much the case here though.

I would hate to be Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan). Why would anyone want to be Andy. How many people get ragged in their senior year by all and sundry? And if that is not sufficient, get beaten up by Sr. Detmer (Michael Kelly) every nite for any reason whatsoever. Like because your door is locked. Matt Garetty (Alex Russell) is the only friend of sorts that Andy has. But Matt doesn’t qualify since he is Andy’s cousin and happens to be a senior as well. To make matters worse – Andy’s mother is terminally ill and is on constant medication which the family can barely afford. Did I mention that Andy has this fetish of shooting (on camera) everything that he sees? There is a video cam constantly between Andy and the rest of the world. That’s the chronicle that he is making – arbit no? It gets more arbit when a chance encounter with a UFO without the F so UO in a cave during a party gets Andy, Matt and front runner for class president – Steve Montgomery (Michael B Jordan) special powers of telekinesis which eventually gets Andy completely ballistic.

The message that Josh Trank has tried to give through the movie is that age old adage which goes something like this – Power Corrupts. And Absolute Power corrupts Absolutely. The performances are quite good actually. Dane DeHaan looks like the nerdy fellow who has something sinister inside him – quite errie actually. Alex Russell and the wanna B Jersey #23 are also pretty decent in their performances. For a first timer, Trank also makes the cut. So there is a future for a lot of people involved with this movie in Hollywood. Just bored with the Video Cam look and a story that kind of goes haywire towards the end. 6 on 10 I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2464325145/

Man On A Ledge

Asger Leth – quite a different name right? He is new to this business with the exception of one arbit TV Series which sounds half French very honestly. Ghosts of Cité Soleil. That’s what it is called. Sounds weird right. But let me tell you that Asger Leth knows how to direct a thriller. I was slowly but surely taken into Man On A Ledge. The trailers seemed interesting enough and the movie turned out to be even better. Asger seems to be one who understands the genre of Thriller movies better than most new directors.

The essence of a Thriller being to begin slowly but surely. Set up the tempo by giving the audience a background of what exactly has happened. Also give the audience a sneak peek into what could happen. Throw in a couple of twists and turns in between this entire shebang to throw the audience just that little bit off track. And then again get them back just as they are about to give up on what is happening. And finish off in style with an ending that the audience could have predicted but yet couldn’t have because of the twists that you have thrown in. That is what one would call great narration. And Asger Leth seems to have been taught by someone who really knows how to create a thriller. All credit to Asger that he has been able to convert what he has learnt into very solid execution.

What helps Asger is also very good support from a cast which is made up of reasonably well known names but no huge stars with the exception of one Ed Harris who plays a negative role – probably the first time after The Rock (which was more of an anti hero). But he sure does deliver. He does have the strongest screen presence of the cast undeniably. Sam Worthington is quite solid as well as the protagonist. Does get over shadowed by Harris in the few scenes that they are with each other but that’s Harris’s experience which gets the better of Worthington.

Elizabeth Banks is probably the only weak link in the entire movie. She has performed reasonably well but in some scenes, where she is unable to pull off a convincing scene. Like when she tries to get a fingerprint off Nick Cassidy by pretending to be a smoker – oops scene very honestly. Doesn’t come off well at all. And a dialogue or 2 where the intensity just doesn’t come through. Other notable performances from Jamie Bell as Nick’s brother Joey and the sizzling Genesis Rodriguez as Angie. Genesis actually shows that there is some acting talent other than just sizzling hot looks.

Net net, Worth spending time and hard earned money for this 6.5 on 10. Deducted half a point for some basic consistency errors. But don’t worry. Most people will not get the errors. Worth watching.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4159021337/

War Horse

Very rarely has a Spielberg movie been ignored for the Oscars. Of the 27 full length features that the master has directed, only 4 have not received a nomination of any kind. They are Sugarland Express, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Firelight & Always. Even movies which have not really upto the mark such as Minority Report and the atrocious The War of The Worlds have been nominated at least. So when you have a very good movie such as War Horse, it is not very surprising that it has received 6 nominations including Best Picture.

Spielberg continues to weave his magic in this adaptation of a book by Michael Morpurgo and the stage play of the same name which has run to full houses across the world (wonder how they would get a horse on stage though). However, the silver screen doesn’t limit the master by any length and ergo he has created some magic. I have, as I tweeted earlier, always loved movies that feature animals – the serious ones like Sea Biscuit and not the ridiculous ones like Shaggidy. Surprisingly the well made movies featuring animals have all been those with horses. It was only a matter of time that Spielberg found a story that caught his interest.

War Horse traverses the life of a colt born in Devon and bought by a stubborn self respecting farmer who goes by the name of Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) for the princely sum of 30 guineas in a head to head auction against his landlord. The horse although not cut out for farm work builds a strong relationship with Ted’s son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) who names the horse Joey and eventually gets Joey to do the impossible – plough the fields. However, with misfortune befalling the Narracott family, Ted is forced to sell the well bred horse to the Army just when World War I breaks out. The horse then moves from Devon to France with the Brits. He then moves onto the German Army, a French girl, back to the German Army, the British Army and then finally back to Albert over time. The story of how he goes about this and the spirit that is so often shown by animals is just stunningly portrayed by the master.

While I would not say that War Horse is the best movie of the year, it isn’t surprising that it is in the top 10 movies of 2011 for certain. I cannot claim to know much about Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Art Direction but I can say for certain that Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography continues to come upto the standards that he has set for himself over his past 4 nominations, 2 of which converted to Oscars (Schindler’s List & Saving Private Ryan). War Horse’s cinematography is quite similar to the 2 movies which have won this for Kaminski in the past. Plus the fact that he has won it every alternate time he has been nominated must be playing on his mind as well.

War Horse is a typical serious slow Spielberg movie but it does enough to keep your interest alive all through. Do I think it will win the Oscar for best movie? Nopes. But should it be in your “must watch” list for 2011 – HELL YES!!! 7.5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3969097241/

A Few Best Men

So the fact is that I was supposed to watch the Charlize Theron RomCom titled “Young Adult” and realized that mistakes in online schedules are not characteristic of India at all. For 2 days in a row, I experienced a gaffe in show timings at the local theatre in Adelaide called Wallis Cinemas @ Mitcham Mall. Firstly, The Iron Lady was called out as the 1205 show and turned out to be the 1235 show – lucky I say. But not so lucky when The Young Adult was called out as the 1830 show and turned out to be the 1710 show. So now what? I wasn’t going to go back without watching a movie. So I picked up the 1910 show of A Few Best Men which not only resulted in 90 minutes of acute pain but also in missing the first minute or 2 of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. I am not sure what pissed me off more – watching the movie or missing the first couple of minutes of the next one. I guess it was both!!!!


AFBM turned out to be an excruciatingly painful example of British Slapstick – yes there is a genre of comedy called British slapstick because I just experienced it and it sucks!!!! While I didn’t expect a stunning example of classic comedy – the posters were quite obvious about it – I didn’t expect the latest form of British torture. Indeed MI5 would be seriously considering putting those serious terrorists who refuse to break, through the likes of AFBM. Spill out the secrets that you have hidden from us or else we will force you to watch AFBM.

From the first frame it becomes quite obvious that you are in for a tough time. Mia Ramme (Laura Brent) meets David Locking (Xavier Samuel) during a random vacation in Tuvalu (a Polynesian island for those who are unaware) and they fall in love over 10 days and decide to get married. Now Mia is Aussie. And David is well …. British. So it comes as no surprise when David’s mates back home turn out to be a bunch of idiots – Tom (Kris Marshall), Graham (Kevin Bishop) and Luke (Tim Draxl). By this time you are quite certain that u r in for a more than tough time!!!!

The pain gets excruciating when the actual facts start falling out of the cupboard. Mia is a Senator in waiting. Her dad is the current Senator and is rich like nearly nothing else. David is a nitwit. His friends get pally with a dope runner as soon as they get to Oz. They are even bigger nitwits. Mia’s sister is twice her size and pretending to be a lesbian. Her mother is a frustrated wife of a senator. 4 snorts of lethal cocaine doesn’t kill someone it just makes them extremely happy and go blabbering all over the place. The list is endless.

To cut a long story short, Stephan Elliott (Priscilla Queen of the Desert) cannot direct to save his life. The cast cannot act to save theirs. The dialogues suck. The comedy is non existant unless u are a sucker for slapstick (not to mention severe pain). And even if this is playing on an in-flight, which it will starting a month or two, you should avoid it like the plague I say. 3 on 10 for some decent moments that enable you to survive this crap.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lf4aaxIH-nQ

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (English)

Obviously by now, you would have already read the book. For those who haven’t, you have about 10 more days to do so coz this one is going to hit the screens in India on the 10th Feb 2012 (hopefully). PVR has started advance booking for the same. You can pre-book your tickets on the PVR Cinemas website. For those who are unaware, here is the link. http://www.pvrcinemas.com/movie/pre-book-form.aspx?pid=8N/SGuOj9j8=&movieid=rDJnnCx7F1KWUI4/ffc0hg==

This is the review for the English version. Just happened to catch up with it in Adelaide. Could not have waited till I got back to India because the damn teasing was getting too much to handle. It was to be released about 2 months back and I have no clue why the distributors were taking so long. Plus, how could I have missed an opportunity to post a review a full 10 days before my primary audience can watch it. Will post the link again a couple of days before the actual release in India if you would like me to that is.

David Fincher has been one of my favourite directors of all time. Starting from the spine chilling Se7en (not including Alien3) all the way to the exceptionally well directed Social Network that got him his second nomination (other than The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) at the Oscars. So you could have imagined my happiness when I realized that TGWTDT was to be directed by him in English. But my happiness has been for the first time ever so slightly belied by Mr. Fincher. Through the movie, there are small instances of deviating from the actual storyline that was written by Stieg Larsson. But it keeps building up to a point where you actually get a little peeved because he changes the ending which is supposed to take Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) to Australia and closes it at London instead. Left me quite perplexed as to why he would make so many changes. And then there are consistency errors – can you believe that about Fincher. I couldn’t myself so I think I will watch the movie once again to reconfirm the same.

However, Fincher continues to score on all the other aspects. The Casting was impeccable. Rooney Mara well and truly deserves her nomination. A pity she will lose it to either Meryl Streep or Viola Davis. Craig as Blomkvist and Plummer as Henrik Vanger were brilliant. The Editing had Fincher’s direction all over it to say the least. Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall who won it for Social Network continue to give their best here as well. Great camera work especially in some scenes which are outstanding like after Lisbeth tattoos Nils Bjurman on his chest and camera moves right over her. Simply stunning.

I did however think that a lot was overdone. Like the emphasis on the physical relationship between Blomkvist and Salander. The siphoning of Wennerstorm’s funds. And the last few pages of the book which show Salander losing out on love yet again. To name a few, these were the sections which need not have been addressed at all. And therefore, important parts such as Salander’s father and the exciting build up to finding out the murderer of Harriet Vanger get compromised. To Fincher’s credit, he has given the right importance to aspects such as the relationship with Erika Berger which was downplayed in the Swedish version. Overall, not upto Fincher’s standards. But definitely well made. No surprise though that the Oscars have ignored this one. 7 on 10 is what I say.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3830160409/

The Iron Lady

Two dialogues which completely personify the spirit of The Baroness Thatcher’s biopic would be, “It used to be about trying to DO SOMETHING but nowadays it is about trying to BE SOMEONE”. That is what the young baroness stated when she was contemplating running for Parliament way back in the 1950s. The basic desire to make a difference i.e. stop fussing and if you CAN do something about the issue then DO IT and not keep sitting on your backsides personifies the reason why The Baroness got the pseudonym of The Iron Lady. The other one being, "The sad part about today is the people are more concerned about "feelings" and not as much concerned about "thoughts"".
Shown as a flashback of her life, The Iron Lady, shows the Baroness as someone who is a really old and forgotten figure today striving to come to terms with her husband’s death. Dennis Thatcher (Jim Broadbent) who is vastly believed to be one of the few men “behind a successful woman” (understatement of the millennium) continues to hound The Baroness – she still believes that he is around her; hallucinations of sort. And as she is trying to get him out of her life for good, she reminisces about how it all started as Margaret Hilda Roberts in the 1940s where she drew inspiration from her father to join politics. Never been one to walk the beaten path, she fights her way through to being elected into parliament and then eventually goes on to become the first woman Prime Minister of The United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland). The movie traverses, her life from being the MP of Finchley in 1959 to the Secretary of Education where she earned the name “Milk Snatcher”, Leader of the Conservative Party, the Prime Minister, The Falklands War, The IRA Attacks during her time as PM, sorting out the cold war, falling out of favour of her loyalists and eventually her resignation from office in late 1990 to make way for John Major.

While I haven’t seen Albert Nobbs, My Week with Marilyn & The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and while I have a lot of respect for Glen Close, Michelle Williams and Rooney Mara respectively, I think the Oscars this time around are a 2 horse race only. Meryl Streep OR Viola Davis. Knowing the academy, they would give it to Viola Davis. But in my books, Meryl Streep has once again proved why she is probably the best actress after Katherine Hepburn and why she is probably best placed to beat Hepburn and go onto win 5 Oscars. Her ability to portray a variety of characters is quite unparalleled. Leo DiCaprio could learn a thing or 2 about getting into characters and more importantly selecting character roles from her. For my money’s worth, she should have got 5 by now. Regretably, she has only 2 out of the 16 nominations ( record in itself).

However, take nothing away from director Phyllida Lloyd and the support cast led Jim Broadbent who have do equally well in executing their respective roles. Lloyd in her 2nd movie leaves quite a solid impression and while she doesn’t get a nomination @ the Oscars, she has definitely done enough to give us a movie that is not only well made but is worth watching as well. I am going to go out on a limb as say this - A much better job than Eastwood did with J Edgar. A very watchable biopic – like a documentary in parts and could have lost a few minutes in between but still very good. A nomination in make up was just too logical. 7.5 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1047305753/

Agneepath (2012)

The one thing that I have always believed in when I go to watch a remake is to cancel out everything in my head about the previous movie. Luckily the original to this one was made 22 years back and the memories aren’t that strong. Unlike quite a few that I am acquainted with who swear by the original. But how can I blame them for not being able to shut out the magic created by an aging Big B on his comeback along with a director who India was unlucky to have seen only a little bit of i.e. Mukul Anand. It would be difficult to find too many people from my time (aged between 10 and 20 in 1990) who wouldn’t have seen – “Vijay Dinanath Chavan…. Poora Naam (Full name)”. And who can possible forget, “Hawa tez chal raha hai Dinkar Rao. Topi Sambhalo” (Take care of your hat Dinkar Rao… there is a strong breeze blowing).
First time director Karan Malhotra and Hritik Roshan would have been extremely familiar with the challenges of filling the huge shoes that was left by the Mukul Anand – Big B. But to the credit of Karan Malhotra, he has managed to hold his own. At least for over 2 hours in this nearly 3 hour long attempt to come close to the original. He however, completely loses the plot in the last 30 to 45 minutes. The other thing that doesn’t come up to the original is the calm and composed nature of the original VDC (Big B) as against the VDC (Hritik Roshan) shown in this one who is more angry and out for revenge that he cannot but stop gritting his teeth every time he sees Kancha Cheena (Sanjay Dutt) or thinks about getting Mandwa back.

The story is also ever so slightly different with the introductions of Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor), the Dongri ka Don who VDC uses to climb up the mafia ladder and get to a position where he can challenge Kancha Cheena. And the entire aura of M A Krishnan Iyer Nariyal Paani Waala (Mithun Da) has been eliminated. Instead we find a bunch of eunuchs and prostitutes who swear by VDC and are part of the chawl that VDC comes to when Master Dinanath Chavan is killed by Kancha Cheena and the villagers to make way for the Cocaine Trade.

On paper it seems weird but the end result is not really that bad. The story flows smoothly scene by scene and doesn’t seem to get into a rut of sorts ever till much later. The music is average and I have no clue why there is one Ganapati Song in every damn movie which involves a chawl these days. Get over festivals for crying out loud!!!! There can be movies without them and songs which have an aarti. Chikni Chameli of course rocks and it is amusing when u see the “Cigarette Smoking is injurious to helath” warning in Australia. All in all, this one is entertaining enough. Nowhere close to the intensity of the 1990 version. But worth a dekko. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1FKVW3QHZY

The Descendants

It was definitely on my “must watch” list on my trip down under. With the Oscars and the Golden Globes hullabaloo I would have been rank stupid to miss an opportunity to watch it. Needless to say I am extremely glad that I took some time off early in the morning to catch up with a show of The Descendants. In an era where we are seriously challenged in terms of creativity and originality across the board (Hollywood & Bollywood), Alexander Payne (of Sideways & Abouth Schmidt fame) not only directs but has also written the screenplay for this really simple and yet different movie which will leave you with a bitter sweet feeling at the end of it all. More sweet than bitter is what I can assure you. Payne’s direction has always been refreshingly different in my experience. Although I thought About Schmidt was different, he does experiment a lot with a genre that is quite simple and straightforward cinema. When you experience Sideways, you are quite certain that there is a genre of movies that can be labeled Alexander Payne. The Descendants probably goes one more step in the direction of cementing this status. Simple, funny, straight forward cinema is so difficult to find.

And Payne’s casting is near impeccable in this case. Geroge Clooney – take a bow. People may argue that Clooney is the most good looking guy with a single expression, and they maybe right as well – believe me there has been many a time that I have wondered whether he is angry or plain indifferent. But in case of The Descendants, the role of Matt King demanded the ice cold nature that Clooney would typically be associated with. How else do you play the character of a Realtor in Hawaii? And one who owns 25000 acres of heaven on earth would make you ice cool I would imagine. But all that’s come crashing down (in a manner of speaking) because his wife, Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), has an accident that puts her into a coma. Matt, now has to take care of a 10 year old daughter – Scottie (Amara Miller) & a 17 year old terror Alexandra (Shailene Woodley) to take care of. A concept that he has been extremely alien to. Because like most marriages, that was Elizabeth’s department. And to make things worse, Alexandra has a new male friend who seems to have the IQ of a chair – Sid (Nick Krause). I am not going to give away anything more coz that would kinda ruin the movie for you guys. Figure it out as the movie unravels itself layer by layer.

Stunning performances from most of the cast is the hallmark of The Descendants apart from the very interesting and different storyline. The only weak performance, if any, would have been from the 10 year old but I guess Payne got her to do what he could get out of her. We don’t have an Anna Paquin or an Abigail Breslin in the making here for sure. Add this movie to your must must must watch list. 8 on 10. I beg Indian houses to release Hollywood movies at the same time in India as it is abroad (if not earlier). We are a huge market and don’t need to be requesting for this anymore.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1849990169/

Life As We Know It

This one is a cute RomCom. As cute as it can get I guess. But mind you the operative word is cute. Not good. Cute as defined in the OED and not as we define it these days. OED stands for the Oxford English Dictionary. And you can look up the definition of cute in the OED for further clarification. OK let me save you to pain and the torture of digging up the definition. Cute as defined in the OED is ugly but tolerable. You don’t believe me? Well now you are free to look it up. Google it. OED it. Do whatever pleases you. The definition is not going to change.
So Life As We Know It (LAWKI) is a cute RomCom. Boy and Girl are being set up by best friends. Boy lands up at girl’s place about an hour late and obviously scores a few 100 negative points. Next, he hasn’t shaved. Looks unkempt. And possibly even stinking. A few 1000 negative points. The graph isn’t looking very good at all. No. there seems to be no hope left. But the girl is magnanimous enough to walk out with him and realizes that he has got his bike and not a car – bad idea when the girl is dressed in a hot dress and cannot sit on a bike. Girl suggests that they should take her new smart car. Boy agrees. Boy gets phone call. Takes it coz girl insists. Turns out to be a booty call. Agrees to meet booty @ 2300 hrs…. wait 2230 hrs…. and the graphs goes negative. Girl suggests that the date was a mistake and that they should call it off. To girl’s surprise boy says she is right. Date ends. Mind you boy and girl are best friends with respective married boy and girl who set them up. A few years later, friends pass away in sudden road accident. All this while boy and girl have been bumping into each other and can barely tolerate each other. In their will, friends have left custody of their only daughter to boy and girl!!!! Aaaaaaaargh!!!!! Now what???? Watch to find out.

I will at the risk of sounding like a stuck record again say this. LAWKI is a cute movie. It is a sizzling movie thanks to Katherine Heigl who I am simply in love with and would probably keel over and die for if she were to ask. It falls back to being nearly ugly for the really bad looking and badly behaved Josh Duhamel. And some amount of sanity is restored by the civilized and well behaved Josh Lucas. There is not much left in terms of the support cast which is not quite there. The script is barely manageable. The story is different but then elements of the story are vastly predictable. Some of the scenes like baby diaper changing or eventually landing up in bed with each other despite girl seeing other guy who is much better settled than boy etc. etc. etc. all make up for a predictable but cute mixture. Enjoyable definitely. Worth a dekko for certain. 6 on 10 for this cute RomCom.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi2623997721/

Flypaper

Rob Minkoff directed the best animation movie of all time – The Lion King. I somehow find it hard to believe that. Primarily because in Flypaper he kind of forgets a few basic tenets of good story telling. Firstly, ensure that it doesn’t get too predictable. No matter how hard you try to confuse the you know what about every single person who is sitting in the auditorium, you have to give credit to the audience’s intelligence that they can and will put 2 and 2 together to come up with the answer before you tell them the answer. And if the audience’s answers match yours then you are out of business. Therefore it is best to build the intrigue slowly but surely and not go about at a frenetic pace in an attempt to really build the tempo up and keep the excitement levels and adrenaline levels as high as you possibly can through a 90 minute session.

Next, if you indeed want to keep the frenetic pace up through the 90 minutes then you need people who can be associated with the frenetic pace and can keep themselves calm, cool and composed during the time. Ashely Judd – fair enough. Patrick Dempsey – no way. Bad casting mate. What you get at the end of it is an effort which borders on the other side of overacting and not as much as an expression of someone who has a borderline case of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Thirdly, get your support cast to contribute and not look like a bunch of idiots. Give them roles which have some meaning at least. And roles which are not put into this mish mash because there is a requirement of a support staff. And once you have done that, please ensure that you get them to put in the effort that is expected of them to get the end result to meet the mark. Not just hang in there for the sake of hanging in there. Surprising that Minkoff got all of this and more right in the Lion King and then went about unlearning every single thing that he did right to give us a mish mash which is neither an action movie nor a robbery movie nor a drama and not even a comedy. It just has a little bit of everything. And the ground rule to be followed is that you cannot try to be everything to everyone. Just be great at one thing for some people.

Nevertheless, Minkoff’s effort cannot be dissed completely. It does have its good points with the likes of Ashley Judd as mentioned before and the fact that he does attempt to give us some excitement. You will not fall asleep during the movie for certain – mind you I was totally jet lagged and hadn’t slept in a while but still managed to sit through quite comfortably. Just that it seems a bit inane after a while. Still give it 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi4287863833/