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.