Movie Review: The Dark Knight - Intense but lenghty

Rating: 6.5 / 10

I would have given it an even better rating if the lenght would be around 15 minutes less. The movie is too intense and too serious to keep you gripped for 2 hours and 30 minutes. When there is so much tension in the air, you need respite, which you get from songs in Hindi movies, but in Batman, you have no such room to breathe. At some point you feel that you have had your fill, but then there is too much on the platter.

The Batman enterprise , reprised by Christopher Nolan, has truly transformed it from its Comical past ( POW, SWISH days) to an almost unbelievably brutal and realistic present. The Joker is not the wicked laughing prankster of the past. He has become a psychopathic, killer with no remorse. He kills, because he enjoys it. He is a terrorist, who has no rules, no boundaries, no reason. And our Batman, is a confused man. He wants to remove the burden of being the Knight in shining armour. He wants to give it to a man with a face ( District Attorney). He has complete faith in the new DA to put the criminals in the cell, and clense Gotham once and for all and he does not dissapoint. Just when our hero decides its time to put in his papers!! Joker strikes... And nothing would be the same, anymore....

Nolan has done an exceptional job in building the momentum in the action sequences. Rather than using a lot of noise, he has used silence. The editing in this film is phenomenal. Complex, but very well done. The gadgets, the acting is par excellance and will keep you gasping for more in a few sequences. But its too lenghty. I was losing my patience in between. There are too many plots and twists and the movie keeps going on and on. The momentum that it gathers before the interval, is not maintained post it. The slick editing does help it though....

Finally , hats off to Heath Ledger. What an awesome performance. You would simply love his performance, be it the maniacal laugh to the one liners like "Why so serious?" "Lets put a smile on that face"... 3 cheers....

Go for it, because you will get more than you pay for,, but maybe slightly a little more than you would want or need or desire.....

Movie Review : HANCOCK - Wasted opportunity...

RATING: 4 /10

Normally, I wudnt dare write a review, when Priti ji has already written one (her review). But I have made an exception because I had to say something about this movie. It has made enormous first week collections, but I think things would start going down hill from the next week onwards, cos quiet frankly this movie doesnt work. You would probably come out of the theater wondering how the hell could a director let the movie go so wayyyyy out of hand!

What an amazing plot... A detested super hero.. A Drunkard, egotistical, destructive super-hero, who saves a life of a PR agent, who in turn helps our hero improve his social image. So far so good. But then there is a twist in the story, which makes you feel, the movie is gonna go up a few notches post interval. Unfortunately, it drops to level zero.. Infact, it crash lands...

I have to try really really hard to understand in what hour of utter insanity, did the story writer come up with such a dreadful twist in the storyline! Doesnt work bro! Aboslutely not... Infact it does not even make sense.

Technically, visually the movie is amazing. Will Smith revels as John Hancock and Charlize Theron sizzles on screen. Some dialogues and the comedy in the first half is good. But the main villian of this film is its story! Also, there is no novelty left in the character after this film, so I dont see how this franchise could have a sequel. Its better if we just leave this experiment as a hopeless one and move to better things .. Like the Dark Knight or HULK and Iron man coming together! I specially am hard on this movie because it had enormous potential, with such an amazing character at hand, but they completely goofed it up!

Movie Review: Kung Fu Panda - Simply "Fat"abulous....

Genre: Animated

Rating: 7 / 10

Dreamworks..Works like a Dream. Maybe they havent had the box office success as Pixar, but their work is at par. Shrek, of Dreamworks, is amongst my top 2 animated films, after Ice Age. Its become impossible to distinguish Animated movies on their quality of animation, because these 2 studios have almost perfected their art. With the level of precision and detailing, they have virtually created an alternate - beautiful and magical universe, which seems as real as ours.

Kung Fu Panda is amazing. The animation is fantabulous, which goes without saying. What makes is even more spectacular is the storyline and the dialogues. Its funny, witty and extremely engaging. Its about this "Fat" Panda who lives in china and sells noodles, untill he is chosen as the "THE ONE" who will destroy the greatest villian alive. You got the see the fight sequences to believe them. Seriously - awesome. Our hero cant even climb 5 steps without panting, let alone do KUNG FU. Its about how he starts believing in himself and how he finally defeats his nemesis! hehehehe.. its very funny!

I suggest , log on to the website of a theater and book a ticket "Turant- fauran- abhich- now" hehehehe.. I am still laughing.. He is so cute :) Go get Po! .. I mean .. oN yOUR mARK, gET sET PO!!!!

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

Dear MovieMaker Sir,

I totally understand that making a sci-fi movie is very costly now a days. The state of art equipment, technology and graphics is a necessity in such movies and they don’t come cheap. But you still need to engage and pay a scriptwriter to write a plot for your movie.

Regards,
Disgruntled Viewer

The movie is the about journey of a scientist to the center of the earth with his nephew and a mountain guide. He has lost his brother already in such a mission.

There is nothing scientific or even logical about the movie, unlike Jurassic Park. The sequence of events is very lame. The hero directly lands in his brother’s abode in the center of the earth. And the place is calm enough for some emotions and romance, sporadic entries of flying fishes, dinosaurs, carnivorous plants do take place…but nothing to take your breath away though the hero does get to remove the sleeves of his shirt and show some muscles.

I am not sure how small is the center of the earth but may be its as big as a mall because characters seem to be meeting and getting lost at will.

The only plot of the movie that I could figure out was to show that the journey to the center of the earth is almost smooth, at your convenience/will and u get rich, so everyone should give it a shot…

HELP !! Scriptwriter!!!

My ratings: 1/5

Review: Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Naa - A decent start....

Rating : 5.5 /10



Bollywood with its new wave of cinema is making me really happy. These movies are working and hence more and more directors are being courageous and coming up with movies far from the convention. And in between all of this, Abbas Tyrewala has gone back to the basics. This movie has a story which has been milked dry by bollywood. Its about the lead couple being the best of friends, confused about their love for each other and finally they realise what fools they were , so marry. Nothing new, fresh about it. But what is fresh is the look, the treatment, the music, the actors and thats the plus point of this movie.



I am in Chennai and I went to see this film, without any hope of getting a ticket. Fortunately for me , I got a ticket in black. I must tell you, the crowd in chennai and their passion , their involvement in this movie was unbelievable. The movie is timepass, but because of the crowd my enjoyment was amplified manyfold.



Technicaly the movie is good, in most aspects. The music is specially youthful and stays true to the image of the movie. The acting is strong from the veteran's like Ratna Pathak Shah, Naseer(Cameo), Paresh Rawal etc as well as the new comer Imran and south Indian success story Genelia.



In movies where the story is simple, the emphasis is on the screen play, the dialogues, the scene sequences and Abas Tyrewala has done a decent job on all of these. Hence the movie is enjoyable.



Not very good,its cliched but its decent. But because of the songs, the performances , this movie becomes enjoyable and in addition if u get a truly involved crowd in the theater, u will have a ball! Go for it and get your moneys worth.

Get Smart

Movie is about an analyst , Maxwell Smart who yearns to be a field agent and when he is made one, in dearth of other field agents. He is not the best but saves the earth with his beautiful partner Agent 99.

It’s an action comedy which is not a spoof. There are more unpredictable scenes then of predictable ones and definitely plenty of reason for a heartfelt laugh. The scene where Max dance, the tree agent, the emotional conquering of bad guy, escape to Los Angeles and the final bow, all makes this cliché movie… special.

Steve Carell gives a great performance, by not attempting to do comedy at any point of time. Anne Hathaway looks gorgeous. Other characters like chief, Bruce, agent 23 make this movie a good comedy.

My Rating: 3.5/5 (I seldom laugh so hard in movie halls)

Hancock : Worth A Watch

A truly different superhero movie. shocked??? How different can be a superhero movie???.
This movie is about a Hancock; a superhero with a bad tongue, alcohol issues and an uncanny habit of irritating people. When he fights crime, government object to the expenses/damages and when he save lives, people tell him better ways to do it. A PR guys come into picture to get him a change of image and deserved respect….

Will Smith rocks and so does Jason Bateman and Charlize Theron. You will watch this movie not for action or laughs but just because it takes you so much by surprise. All batman, superman and spiderman seem forgettable in front of it.

Some people may despise the extra drama added towards the end of this otherwise fun movie…but definitely worth a watch.

My Rating:3/5

Wall-e

This is story of a robot on earth who diligently do it’s chore of cleaning up the mess created by a big co-operate which has turned earth into a dump yard and harbored all people into a spaceship. It then falls in love with a “probe robot”. Like a true lover it takes a on a long journey of winning its love and setting lots of things right in this course.

The movie is worth a watch for many reasons the most important being that we have seen stories of mouse and bee and fish and monsters…but this is a fairy tale of a robot. The idea conceptualization, detailing, graphics are all as per expectations from PIXER.

One thing that the movie lacks is a pace. It dwells on scenes so that people can absorb the detailing, but its takes away the zing from the movie. Also like the Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, the movie over stress on the lead couple and emotion of love.

It’s a highly imaginative piece of work which one can appreciate more than get entertained

My Rating : 2.5/5

Movie review : Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of crystal skull -- Adventure at its best

Genre: Adventure
Rating: 7.5 / 10

Boy, what a ride.... Well some hero's dont grow old, some sequels dont go bad and this one surely proves that. With a team like George Lucas - Story, Harrison Ford - Hero, Cate Blanchett - the vamp and Steven Speilberg - Director , you can hardly go wrong. Throw in a pot pouri of stunts, some amazing locales, a mind bending archeological adventure and some amazing sequences of acrobatics, pure luck and comedy - and you get a sure fire entertainer.

Sure the story wuld seem to far fetched, but thats just the goal. How you get to the goal is far more important and I must say the journey is a damn good one. So , once again the Russians are after some power beyond imagination, they are in the pursuit of knowledge far greater than any other known to mankind - knowledge of the paranormal, the supernatural and the way to get this is by finding a Crystal skull and taking it to its destined place. Mr. Henry Jones urf Indiana Jones is dragged along this twisted adventure because of his peerless knowledge. On the way he runs, leaps, punches, kicks, finds his long lost girlfriend, discovers his only son and simply rocks as only he can. There are these insane scenes of pure conincidences, of jigsaw puzzle type action sequences - where everything fits just right in the end. Indiana remains as lucky as ever, and he remains as adventurous as ever. His wife says when his son asks her "whats he gonna do now?" she replies "I dont know, even he doesnt. He doesnt plan that far!!!" .. And thats how the movie unravels - one mind bending sequence after another.

Harrison Fords rules . A big bow to him. Its sad that this might be his last Indiana Jones, but I would love it if he continues on and on for years to come by, even if he is on a wheelchair. Because he brings the character -Indiana Jones - his personality and grace. His successor is Shia LaBeouf. Though he has potential, but he has mighty big shoes to fill. He is OK along with Ford, but without him I fear he might fall flat.

Then again you can always be sure of one thing. If Steven directs it and George writes it, You will love it :)... (Spielberg, Lucas and Ford) Rock on you 3 legends of Cinema ....

Movie Reviews - NARNIA and SPEED RACER

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 5.5/10

This movie is just about watchable. The movie is a continuation of the hugely succesful first part, but does not live up to the expectations. This is mainly due to the insipid storyline. The creators probably should have added some masala into this film or should have cut down its lenght, because the product is mostly boring. The special effects, the graphics, the cinematograhy etc are exceptional, but then which hollywood film doesnt have amazing special efects? It cannot be the only reason to watch this film, you need something more - an intersting plot. A slow moving movie isnt automatically a boring one, but this one is both. Even children would lose patience after 2 hours I guess, coz this one goes on for approx 2:30 hours. Overall, its just about watchable, but not quiet good. For fantasy freaks, it would surely be a let down.

Rating: 6 / 10

I went to this movie for timepass and it surely passed that test. This movie is sprightly and it delights. The creators of Matrix bring to life this Japanese cartoon and keep alive the spirit aswell. For those who havent been initiated, Speed Racer is the name of a Car racer, who belongs to a Racing Maniac family. His brother was also a racer and lost his life during a race. His father is the manager, cum mechanic who comes builds the Cars in which he races. There are a whole bunch of delightful characters - but one's that stand out are his little brother and his monkey. Their antics are worth the money you spend on the ticket.

The movie deals with the influence of Corporates and Politics on Auto-Racing and how speed racer fights against this cartel. This movie has it all, comedy, suspense, drama and fast paced racing action. It will take you some time to swallow the Animated World that the Wachowski brothers have created but once you do, put on the speedbelt and hang on for the wonderful ride. The best part about this film is that, it is entertaining, has wonderful comedy and its pace keeps increasing untill it culminates into a crescendo. You would surely walk out happily out of this one. So enjoy....

The Movie Review - Tashan - The Bhayankar formula for disaster...

Genre : Couldnt decipher...

Rating: 2.5 /10 - yes - nothing can beat AAG.... + some good music

Tashan - the style , the good luck , the bhayankar formula.... booms Anil Kapoor urf Bhaiji ... You wonder, what style? whos good luck? apna toh bad luck hai! and bhayankar formula for what? Disaster.... Thats the only explanation I could phathom. The coaching manuals of "The DONT'S of making a film - could be written from this film alone"..The movie starts in a very Tarentino'ish style and then goes on to dizzying heights of stupidity... The only thing I liked in bits was the screenplay... After watching this movie, I didnt know how to express my feelings, so instead I interviewed the man behind the story, the screenplay, the dialogues and the direction - Mr. Vijay Krishna Acharya i.e. VKA. ( This grossly multi-un-talented person is the KARTA-DHARTA of this film - any public bashings, any dressing downs, any brickbats or any abuses should be hurled and directed solely to this man and no one else)

Me: Why did you make this film? Why oh why? And are you satisfied with it?

VKA: The movie was the culmination of years of research , hard work and perseverense and I love it as much as a father loves his child...

( For the next 5 minutes, I didnt know what to say! Urgh what an ugly baby! Years of hardwork? This guy certainly needs help. He, in the meanwhile, was thinking of his next project, which hopefully would also require years and years of research. atleast 50. Please god please...)

Me: Why do you think people are comparing this movie to the disgrace of the century - AAG?

VKA: I dont mind actually ( yeah right - mind is something , u lack buddy) In a way they are comparing me to a director who has made amazing films like SATYA, SARKAR, RANGEELA.. I am honoured... ( he surely is a beautiful mind , what optimism- ignorance and dumbness surely are bliss!!!)

Me: So how did you come up with the mind numbing storyline, the inane Dialogues, the preposterous action sequences?

VKA: Oh, thanks for the compliments ( Mind Numbing, Inane and Preposterous, were too complex for his brain to decode) But, I do have to thank a lot of people for helping me out in my dream project. I actually saw it in my dream ! ( Nightmare would be more appropriate!!) Then through my research I met some people from UP and came up with the dialogues which have the bhojpuri flavour and the credit for the action sequences lies with Peter Hein ( Jis jiske haath main khujli ho rahi ho - here's another guy you could target )

Me: How did you manage to get this amazing starcast, for this ludicrous movie?

VKA: Ludi-what?? Oh thanks again, I know you mean amazing. (Phew!!) See, Kareena was doing a diet. I told her that we were low on budget, so anyways we wont supply food to our stars, that way you would be forced to starve and have that amazing body. She jumped to the opportunity. Ofcourse Saif came like a buy one get one free offer. Then I told Akshay about hiring Peter Hein and that this was his opportunity to go back to his roots - action + Kareena wasnt charging much (just wanted diet food) and Saif was just happy having same dressing room as Kareena, so I could give Akshay their share of the money aswell... Anil kapoor was the most difficult to hire.. But I told him that his name would come before Akshay Kumar , unlike Welcome... He grabbed on this opportunity with both hands, his legs and his mouth... (Suddenly, I could see some talent... A person who can pull out this coup for such a script has to be given some credit.. )

Me: What were your intentions while making this film? Does it have any message?

VKA: Intentions? ( I told him its the motive - the reason for making the film) Oh Ok... Well, see the idea was simple, but deep. I wanted to show people the condition in the states of Bihar and UP, The lack of education - hence the terrible Hinglish, the presence of gangsters , mafia here.. Most of the people are really suffering because of this. ( You surely were succefuly in making us feel their suffering dude.. We went through a lifetime of misery in your film..)

And in that answer, I thought to myself. How wrong had I been in judging this person. He had achieved exactly what he set out to achieve... I take back my words... This guy should be given an OSCAR..... A must watch for the nobility of its intentions... Torturous but effective!!!