The Adventures of TINTIN - Review

The Adventures of TINTIN - "Seeing the comic come to life in with such amazing graphics is good, but not great. The movie disappoints with it's changes from the original and a poor finish"


I must admit it's been almost 15 years since I last saw a TINTIN comic. But some of the most fun I had as a kid was reading these comics by Herge. This Steven Spielberg movie tries to take 3  books that introduce of Captain Haddock and the Unicorn's legacy.



The Crab with the Golden Claws
The Secret of the Unicorn
Red Rackham's Treasure


But to really have done justice to the books in this one movie, there was real artistic licence needed where elements from the 3 books were borrowed and tried to mesh into one book. The movie concentrates on Tintin meeting Haddock and their adventures in finding the secrets of the Unicorn. But Haddock did not meet Tintin while trying to uncover the Unicorn's secrets, he met him 2 books earlier, so they had to take part from the earlier book (Carb with the Golden Claw). All the way through the movie all you can do is make comparisons to the books and that's it's pitfall unfortunately. Too many changes to the story and an effort to combine 80% of Red Rackham's treasure into 10 minutes, created a very disappointing ending to the movie.

When you leave the movie theater, if you think about the movie in isolation, I'll say it was an average movie with really good graphics. In terms of the Tintin comics, the movie was a disappointment.

My Rating. 2.5/5.

happy new year,
Rahul.

Don 2 - Review

DON 2 - "Traditional Action, Music & Bollywood Masala, with a incredibly slow first half and a good second half. Nothing to write home about, but fun at the movies nevertheless."

The Return of the King, That's the tag line the movie set out with and it's also the legend it had to live up to. I don't think anyone ever claimed that the first Don movie or it's subsequent remakes were classic movies with fantastic plots twists. But the first movie was an Amitabh Bachchan, angry young man classic with song and dance and fight sequences and Shah Rukh Kahn's re-interpretation was a stylized movie with a brilliant plot twist at the end at left most of us really thrilled that we saw something other than just a re-make. But what the movie did more than anything was left the door open for this one. Don 2.

For those that have not seen the first movie, please remember this is a sequel, and does not make much sense without the first one, but anyway it was a fast paced movie that slowed down along the way but picked up steam at the end, but was full of good music, car chases and fight sequences throughout. Good old masala. So anyone expecting anything more would be disappointed.

Let's get to the point. How was Part 2? Well to be honest if I had left during the intermission I would have gladly said the movie is horrible. The first half of the movie is long drawn out and boring, the acting by all actors in the movie is terrible, with not one of them showing an ounce of emotion. Kareena Kapoor showed more emotion in the one song that she came in the first movie than all of them did in this movie put together. But the movie does compensate with a good second half where they actually get into the job of storytelling and the twist at the end though expected, makes you leave the theater with a smile on your face. Does the movie shamelessly borrow sequences from Mission Impossible, sure and you are going to see the similarity all the time. But you will enjoy it.

So my rating? 2.5 would be it. Not good or bad.

A review is not going to make you go watch or avoid this movie, somewhere along the way you will watch it. The action is really good, the car chases are fun and you do recognize the music from the first movie, so like I said before it's Good old masala.

Rahul

Ra.One - Review

Ra.One - "A Bollywood superhero flick with a lot of promise and an excellent first half, got bogged down by too much song & dance, masala and a lackluster story in the second half. But after Endhiran, this is the best special effects I have seen in an Indian movie. And for that reason alone, worth a watch at the theater"

When you decide to watch a superhero flick, there are certain things that should be left at the door. The first one being Logic. We watch these movies to have a good time, for a few laughs and some dramatic action sequences. To a large extend all these rules apply to Ra.One as well. Shahrukh Khan plays Shekar Subramaniam, a video game developer in London, who has a young son Prateek (played by Arman Verma) and tried to live up to his son's expectations of a bad ass game. His son tells him that Villains are cool and that his father should create the toughest super villain in the world. And thus from this wish comes Ra.One (a pseudonym for Raavan). As expected things go out of hand, and Ra.One comes into the real world and creates havoc. It's actually a good premise for a superhero movie, a super villain that's next to impossible to destroy and the hero, G.One created with all the good in Shekar's heart to vanquish him.

I tried imagining the movie without the song & dance routines that showed up every 10 to 15 minutes or so. The movie would have been 2 hours long at the maximum, they might have been able to keep the audience attention for that long and the shoddy ending may have been glossed over and to say make a hindi movie without the songs is not unheard of today. The second half of the movie adds not even half as much to the movie as the first half and as expected Kareena Kapoor is the movie as eye candy and to play the damsel in distress and does not really contribute much to the story, but then to do her justice, it's really a father and son story with G.One taking the place of Prateek's dad.

All in all not a great movie. It's just timepass and a good action & adventure movie.

My Rating: 3 on 5.

Rahul.

Real Steel - Movie Review

REAL STEEL - "It's a feel good movie that provides a couple of hours of laughs and entertainment. Hey, Robot Boxing is action packed fun!"


Sometime in the near future, boxing goes out of style and Robot Boxing is the name of the game. Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) is a former boxer who now fights in the ring using the robots, but times have changed and he can't really keep up. After a fight he is approached by some guys who tell him that his ex-girlfriend has died and certain things happen that his son Max Kenton (Dakota Gayo) comes to live with him and travel on the road as he fights this robots. Along the way they find ATOM a robot in a junkyard and they brush him up for the ring.

The movie is really a father-son story of endearment and a little guy taking on the the big guns kind of story. Dakota Gayo puts in a really wonderful performance as Max Kenton, that really makes you connect with the character and cheer the robot along. Hugh Jackman's chemistry with him really is what makes the movie worth a watch.

 The only real reason to watch the movie on the big screen is the Robots, the boxing matches were actually a lot of fun. I'd give the movie an average rating of about 3 on 5.

Rahul

The Lion King - Not Really a Review

The Lion King 3D (2011) - "It's interesting how a movie re-launched 17 years after is was first released tops the box office and is still as entertaining as ever. It's a wonderful family movie, kids will love it & 20 somethings that saw the movie as kids may find the movie nostalgic."


It's funny that we actually decided to go watch the Lion King at the theater. The TV has been filled with advertisements on it's DVD re-launch and I guess it was more of just a funny yearning to watch the movie again after all these years. 3D was just a good excuse to watch it again. We walk into the theater and there was one couple other than us there, every other family that was there were with kids. But hey I enjoyed the movie just as much as the rest of them.

But this is the real question, should the movie studios really consider re-launching some of the classics that did well in the past, Maybe digitally re-master some of them or maybe just even re-release them. Or was the only reason The Lion King did well was because it was targeted at children for whom The Lion King is a brand new experience and they would have ensured their parents take them for the movie. If some classic movies (not gonna list them) are released, I may actually go to the theater to watch them. Think about this, before the Star Wars prequels came out, the original 3 movies were re-mastered and re-released and were watched by quite a few people. I guess if there is already a definite fan following, it's without much risk.

Coming back to The Lion King, the first time I saw it, I must have been 10 years old. I remembered some funny things while watching the movie this time. Aposter I had in my bedroom, the Hakunamatta t-shirt I had & the really addictive music in the movie. The sound track of The Lion King is foot tapping good. It's uplifting and makes you smile.

Hey this is not a movie am going to recommending watching to anyone, that'll be silly. Watch it if you really want to, it is what it is, it's fun for an hour and half. No strong performances, just good ol' morals & fun.

I think it be unfair for me to rate this movie considering am not really the target audience. So am going give the movie 2 ratings. One that I normally give, and one that I think a child might give. :)

My Rating: 3 on 5
If I was still a kid: 4.5 on 5

Rahul.

THE DEBT - Review

THE DEBT - Every Secret Comes with a price.  - "A gritty fast paced movie, with excellent chemistry between the characters. Definitely worth a watch."


The movie set in two time lines. One in late 90's in Israel and the other in the 60's in East Berlin. It's about 3 Mossad agents, Rachel Singer, David Peretz and Stefan Gould who have been  sent to east Berlin to extract a Nazi war criminal, Dieter Vogel (The Surgeon of Birkenau) who is accused of crimes against the Jews. They want to bring him back to Israel to stand trial for his crimes.

In the late 90's the 3 of them are heroes in their country and Rachel's daughter has written a book chronicling their bravery in East Berlin. But as the story of their bravery is being chronicled you start to realize that the story that the 3 of them have told the world of what happened 30 years ago in Germany may not be the entire truth and the ghosts of their pasts have come to haunt their present.

The character of Rachel Singer portrayed by Helen Mirren & Jessica Chastain, is at the core of the story, being the link between all four characters in that operation in 1966. What ties the two ladies together is the scar on their faces. Faces that tell so much of the story. One with a world of possibilities ahead and the other burdened with the horrors of what happened in the past.

It's quite a long movie, but you don't feel bored at any point during the story. I would definitely recommend this movie for anyone who wants to watch a good story and be entertained.

My Rating: 4 on 5.

Rahul.

For such a good movie, this was one of the stranger ones I've seen in the theater. Just 4 people in the entire theater and half way though, the other couple left (I guess it was getting late for them).