The Dark Knight Rises - Review

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES - A fast paced movie with the same dark tones that we have gotten used to with the first two movies. A fitting end to a fantastic trilogy, a must watch for anyone who likes superheroes.

Before I start this blog, I want to take a moment to remember the people who lost their lives in the mindless shooting that took place at the midnight screening @ Aurora, Colorado. There are really no words that will help make any sense of what happened we can just hope that all the families of the people who lost their lives and the ones who were injured are able to cope with this tragedy.

But as they say in show business, the show must go on. And when you show up for the movie two hours before it starts and you are the 75th person in line, that tells you how much people are anticipating a fantastic finish. It was an amazing experience to hear the guys at the theater come up and say, "Hey Guys, the movie will start exactly at 3.50 PM and there will be no trailers". The movie was in IMAX on the big 70mm screen on which despite not being 3-D made the entire experience so much larger than usual from the first frame all the way to the last.

I have always felt that the first movie in the series (Batman Begins) was the best in the series and I don't think this movie changes that, but it's close, with this movie showing a much more human side to Batman, than The Dark Knight. There is no doubt now, that this series will top my list of best super hero movies, but here's my review anyway.

The movie picks up where the last movie left off, with the city honoring the death of Harvey Dent by launching the Dent Act to clean up the city and the Batman taking the fall for all of Dent's deeds. Christian Bale's portrayal of Bruce Wayne makes you see the man and his personality all the time even when he is behind the mask. But in this movie, just like the previous one he was matched by a brilliant performance by the antagonist, Tom Hardy as Bane and supported by a cast of fabulous actors.

Every word from Bane sends shivers down your back as you see the total incongruity between a big muscle man with a sophisticated and mechanical voice that brings in so much dread. It's Bane's character that makes you feel the humanity in the Batman. And the caped crusader's relationship with Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) also takes the edge of the hero making him seem more human as he looks for the best in the Catwoman.

There's not much else to say about this movie without giving away too much of the story line. All I can really say is that it's the perfect end to the trilogy and a must watch for any fan.

My Rating - 4.5 on 5.

Rahul

The Amazing Spiderman IMAX Review

THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN - "A younger, dark, slick and funny re-incarnation of the franchise. With it's quick wit, fresh take and special effects, it's definitely a hit."

After three Spider-man movies in the recent times, one may have thought one more movie that tries to re-start the franchise would be just another re-make. But I guess any movie that is made well and with the right elements can click. I guess that's what happened with this movie.

Andrew Garfield's take on this masked superhero is different from Tobey Maguire's portrayal that he makes the character his own. This Spider-man is really a teenager with an amazing intellect and camera skills, but he's not just some geeky boy with glasses who gets stung by a spider, this guy has a personal story to his evolution into Spider-man.

The introduction of his parents into the story adds a very slick layer of complexity which helps marry his story with genetics and his curiosity to to unravel his history and of course a chance to show him grow from just the teenager into a guy who realizes his responsibility. But as usual, Uncle Ben had to die for Peter Parker to become Spider-man, but this movie added a lot more depth to his character, to show where he gets his morals and what drives him down the road he goes. The bad guy in this movie is also bears a notable mention - the Lizard, who's fights and spars with Spidey provide a sense of reality to something that is so deep in science fiction that it could never be real.

What's the one thing that takes away points from this movie? Well that would be Irrfan Khan's portrayal of the Oscorp flunkie who wants to test out the miracle cure on the world. In the entire movie, it was only his performance that was flat and bereft of any emotion or connection to any of the other characters.

But eventually, the big question is if this movie worked? I think it went beyond worked, it surpassed the previous version and has created for itself an opportunity to sit right below the Dark Knight in terms of super hero movies, but all that depends on how they follow this movie up.

My Rating - 4 on 5




- Rahul

Prometheus - Movie Review IMAX

PROMETHEUS - "A powerful Sci-Fi concept that has been used to great effect in the past, but falls flat in this case. It's slow movie with lacklustre acting and storyline"

The movie is set in some 75 years in the future, with a pair of archeologists looking at a 35,000 year old cave painting which depicts ancient humans pointing to a celestial systems light years away. They find that this same system has been noticed in many different civilizations across the globe. They set out on an expedition with a team of scientists, explorers and a very life like robot.The movie then basically surrounds their experience on the planet, looking for the aliens they called "The Engineers" the people who they believed brought humaity to earth.

As you'd expect from the trailer, things don't go as planned and some strange things happen that cause people to start dying. The action continues throughout the movie with the story culiminating in the team realizing that they were not on the home of their ancestors but rather at a place of death.

The movie really does not explain a lot of the topics that it picks up on, Who are these Engineers? How did our ancestors know about them? What's with the alien in the last scene? It centers too much on the action then on the actual story and is a real let down. On the whole I would not really recommend going to the movies to watch this movie. Wait for the movie on TV, it's fine for a bored sunday afternoon when you don't have anything else to watch.

What would I rate this movie? Well, it would be 2 on 5.

Rahul

Avengers - IMAX 3D Movie Review

Avengers IMAX 3D - "Action packed super hero movie with all the characters putting in stellar performaces mixed in with brilliant special effects and 3D sequences. Definately worth a watch in IMAX"

 It's been a long time since I posted a movie review. I have seen quite a few movies since then but none of them have been momorable enough to review. So after a gap of 5 months, reviews are back due to popular demand (you know who you are!!!).

I had been waiting to watch this movie for a long time, but I was not expecting too much from the movie, because I thought that a movie with so many big names and big superhero characters in their own right may not be able to co-exist in one movie. It was a really plesant surprise that all the characters bounced each others characters off the others and made the entire movie look really coheisve and cool. In the lead up to the movie the standalone movies introducing each of the characters had a combination of hits and misses. The Iron Man franchise has been strong, Captain America was good & Thor was dissapointing. The Hulk has had 2 incarnations in the last decade with Edward Norton's incarnation being far and away the better one. But this movie introduced a new actor for the Hullk in Mark Ruffalo, who played an incarnation quite similar to the one Edward Norton had played in The Incredible Hulk (2008) and brought Bruce Banner and Hulk much closer to each other.

The movie picks up right where the Captain America & Thor movies left off, with S.H.E.I.L.D trying to analyze and build power source and weapons from the Tesseract, the blue cube that Hydra used in the Captain America movie to build all those weapons. Loki arrives and steals the Tesseract as it can be used to create wormholes to other dimensions and Chintauri promise him the Earth in exchange for it. After this most of the movie is basically self explanatory, Nick Fury brings these characters together to save the world from this threat.

The movie combines very witty dialogue with brilliant action sequences keeping you hooked throughout. The last 30 minutes of the movie has a lot of 3D scenes which makes the experience even more interesting. If you have not yet seen  the movie, go watch it. What are you waiting for?

The bottom line, this movie is a 4 on 5 for any superhero movie fan.

Rahul

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).

Captain America - The First Avenger - Review

Captain America - "It's what you expect from the movie. It's a lead up to the Avengers movie. But on it's own it's just a good action movie and nothing more."


This movie begins with a bunch of scientists finding the frozen red, white & blue shield under ice. (For the uninitiated, The Avengers are Iron Man, Hulk, Captain America, Thor and many others. The premise of the  Avengers is that the Captain was frozen for a number of years before he was found by the Avengers whom he joins to become of the Avengers). Now that we got done with bringing the Captain into current day Marvel myth, the movie can concentrate on telling his story.

Set in 1942 during WWII, the movie introduces "Hydra" the technological & supernatural arm of the Nazi war machine. The movie shows Hydra branch out and try and dominate the world on their own. Steve Rogers is a puny young guy who stands up from himself no matter what. He wants to enlist to fight for his country but has got every known condition known to man. After trying multiple times and being rejected, he gets an opportunity to become the first super soldier. A new breed. But as you will eventually realize, he's the only one who becomes a super soldier, before everything goes crazy. The movie also introduces Howard Stark, Iron Man's dad, who plays a major role in creating Captain America.

For superhero nuts like me, the movie was good fun (better than Thor atleast). This movie is 3 on 5.

But here's my ranking, for some of the superhero movies made in the Marvel Franchise thus far.

Only Marvel Superheros (Batman is miles ahead in the entire list)
1. X-Men First Class
2. The other X-Men movies
3. Spider-man
4. The Incredible Hulk (the second version with Edward Norton, not the first one)
5. Iron Man (part 2 was better than 1, and Robert Downey's version of the character is cool)
6. Captain America
7. Thor (having a tough time deciding the bottom two, they are both awful)
8. The Fantastic Four (they were watchable only for the special effects and nothing more)

Rahul.

Delhi Belly - Review

Delhi Belly - "Laugh out loud funny. A crazy comedy, when they say S#!T HAPPENS.. they mean it. Throughly enjoyable... A must watch if you can handle the S#!T"


Aamir Khan productions. I've started getting my expectations up when I see a movie with this banner on it. It's a bit dangerous to get your hopes up on one production house. It's been putting out some really good movies. When I first saw the trailer for Delhi Belly a couple of months back, I was not very interested to watch it. It seemed too dumb. I really couldn't make out what it was about. And yesterday, all I saw was one sentence "Shit Happens & it's funny" I decided to go watch the movie. Damn it was good.

I've not seen a Bollywood English movie that's been this good for a long time. Imran Khan plays a journalist who lives with his roommates Vir Das a cartoonist and Kunaal Roy Kapur a photographer. The movie is Imran's best performance to date.

About two minutes after the movie starts, you hear everyone around you breakout into laughs and you don't really stop till Aamir's item number before the credits roll. It takes a lot of the stupid cliches in hindi movies and takes it over the top. I'd say if you are open to a movie with foul language and insanely funny laughs go watch Delhi Belly.

I'd give it 4.5 on 5.

Rahul.

X-Men : First Class - Review

X-Men : First Class - "Slick, Fun, Definitely worth a watch. The best movie in the X-Men series by a mile"


Every movie, cartoon & comic with Professor Xavier & Magneto has always eluded a friendship. A long history between them, a fork in the the road where they went down different paths. What were they before they became the Professor and Magneto? Why did one turn against humanity & one decide to stand up for it?

After 4 movies from the franchise, there was a danger that this one would not really add much to it. The trailers did not leave me breathless to watch the movie. But nonetheless, I decided to watch it. And oh boy was it fun. It feels like a re-invention of sorts. Going back to where it all started. Charles Xavier, a boy who grows up in the lap of luxury, but has a secret & Erik Lensherr a polish boy in a Nazi concentration camps with a deadly power. The movie shows how their lives were molded by circumstance & choice.

The movie uses it's own artistic licence of course, it does not stick some of the known histories of the characters.  It introduces Sebastian Shaw as the main antagonist, a man bent on.... Oh well you'll find out in the movie. I'm not going to spoil it. The movie shows some of the classic X-Men characters like Mystique, Dr. Henry McCoy & Emma Frost in much more detail.

The movie was really brilliant. Of course the special effects were good. It's a superhero flick after all. But it's aided by a terrific cast. James McAvoy portrays a young Xavier so well that you can actually imagine him growing into Patrick Stewart's character over time. And the same can be said for Michael Fassbender's Magneto. The scenes involving the two of them are fantastic, especially when they go out into the world to find their team using Cerebro.

You walk away from the movie with a smile on your face, when you see the last few scenes. For a fan who has seen all the movies. It feels like full circle. And for the uninitiated it makes you want to watch the next 3 movies on DVD.

I'll say a definite 4 on 5 for X-Men First Class. The name says it all.

Rahul.

The Conspirator - Review

The Conspirator - "A very delicately crafted movie about life at the end of the American civil war. A very educational, emotional and entertaining movie"


The movie tells the story of a young lawyer, Frederick Aiken who fought as a Captain for the Union on the civil war and was tasked with the job of defending a Southern woman, Mary Surratt, charged with conspiring to kill the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State.


The movie is not a fast paced thriller, but is like a slowly crafted story that takes you through the lives of the people who lived in that time. The chaos that the assassination caused and the aftermath is the center of the story. In a country that was literally split in half the movie goes on to show how clearly the lines were drawn between "us & them". It's this feeling that give the story so much of it's heart. Aiken, a northerner, a man who fought for the Union during the war, defending a Confederate woman accused of a heinous crime. As the movie goes through the first 30 minutes to an hour you see Aiken go from a man who shows contempt & disdain in defending a woman whom he feels is completely guilty to someone who is unsure of her innocence or guilt. He gets the feeling that she's being used as a scapegoat or as bait to catch her son John Surratt, who is known to have conspired with John Wilkes Booth and the rest in the assassination. The ambiguity of the characters, Mary Surratt, Anna Surratt & Frederick Aiken provide the story with a compelling story.


At the end of the movie, you want to know more about what happened 150 years ago. But the more you read about it, the more difficult it is to reach an opinion. That's not really the intent though. It's a well crafted movie & if you are a history buff (I am) then you should enjoy the movie.


A few stunning performances give this movie a rating of 3 on 5.


Rahul. 

Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides - Review

Pirates of the Caribbean on Stranger tides - Glad I decided to watch it. Unlike what most reviews say, is actually a lot of fun.

When you decide to go watch a movie with Captain Jack Sparrow what are you expecting to see? A deep thrilling adventure with a convoluted story and swashbuckling adventures. Not really. You are going to watch the movie because you expect a bunch of crazy laughs with swashbuckling adventures & a funny story thrown in for good measure. And that's exactly what you get this time around as well.

If you are honest with yourself. The first time you saw The Curse of the Black Pearl, it was something new and you really loved it. And that made you go see The Dead man's chest. Whether or not you liked the second movie you really did not have an option. It left the story hanging and made you go back for At the World's End. To credit to the series they finished it off well. Jack where he started, on his own looking for his next loot, Turner becomes the captain of the Flying Dutchman & Barbossa is the captain of the Black Pearl.

So did we really need another one in the series? Especially considering most of the main characters were gone. One got the feeling that they were trying to milk one more out of the cash cow. It would be a movie that should not have happened. One that gave a forgettable end to the franchise.

Not if the writers of the latest movie have anything to say about it. The series is still awesome. Jack Sparrow is still really funny & you still love to hate Barbossa.  So what if Turner, Elizabeth Swan  and the rest of the English Navy is gone. Bring on Black-beard, Angelica & the mermaids.

So they are after the Fountain of Youth this time. Go join them in the adventure. I am quite sure you will enjoy it if you liked any of the last 3 movies. It's a bunch of stupid laughs but that's what we watch this movies for anyway.

It's a 4 on 5.

Rahul.

PS.: So that means, at least according to me, it's another one that RT got wrong. Come on this movie deserves a lot more than 34%. But the audience rating on this movie is about right

THOR - 3D - Review

THOR 3D - "Blah!! Not like I was expecting a story anyway. Good Special effects, a fun way to spend an hour and half."

First off - if you want to watch the movie. Don't watch it in 3D. There's hardly any 3D scenes to talk about. A couple of weeks ago, when I saw the trailers, I had made up my mind to watch it on DVD. But then the tomato-meter was at 78% for 2 weeks. That's  quite good for a super-hero movie. And then a couple of long weeks at work. THOR seemed like a pretty good way to relax. But my first instinct was correct.

I'll give MARVEL this much. They are trying to build up to the Avengers movies with all their stories. And if you are a super hero geek like me, that may be one of the only reasons to watch the movie. But really, is he really a super hero? He's a Norse God.  Not a super hero.

The action sequences are quite cool. But some of the scenes with Natalie Portman could have been cut and replaced with a few more action sequences.

Conceptually, the idea of 9 realms and a worm hold bridge connecting them is cool. Stargate like concept. Any hey, if someone has seen SG-1, you are going to think of the small grey alien when you think of THOR or the Asgard.

What's next for the Avengers franchise? Captain America. There was a trailer at the movie yesterday. It looks like one I'd actually want to watch. Here's hoping it's better than THOR - God of Thunder.

My Rating: 3 on 5 (hey and that's being generous - just because I'm a sci-fi geek.)

Rahul..

Source Code - Review

SOURCE CODE - "Blah!" 8 minutes over and over again. Don't bother, just wait and watch it on DVD if you really want to see it. 


86% on Rotten Tomatoes really threw me off. Normally that means are really entertaining movie. Given that it was a thriller, I was expecting a cliffhanger. Instead what I saw was a really run of the mill movie with a terrible ending.


It's about a guy that wakes up on a train in another man's body and is really confused what's going on. After 8 minutes, there is an explosion on the train killing everybody. The guy (Capt.Colter Stevens - Jake Gyllenhall) wakes up to find that he's in some closed room and was in the mind of a dead man trying to find the bomber on the train. He's sent back so many times (I lost count) to find the bomber. The movie has a good flow and keeps you watching but that's until they tell you what's actually going on.

On the whole the movie is not one I would recommend. I'll say 2.5/5.

Rahul.

PAUL - Review

PAUL - "Good for a few dumb laughs... Fun way to send a couple of hours if you have nothing better to do.."


PAUL was just what I expected it to be. I wanted to go today and watch a movie just for the dumb laughs, not some serious story with amazing acting or  awesome action movie.

The movie started off slow with the 2 British nerds (sci-fi geeks) at COMIC-CON looking to experience the science fiction landmarks of the US. But the moment Paul enters the scene, the movie picks up steam. The graphics on Paul's character really rocks. He has the standard Martian look but looks really realistic and eyes have some tremendous depth. Seth Rogan's voice acting really carries the character and makes him really funny.

You get a few laughs every 5 to 10 minutes or so when something ridiculous happens.Hey, it was fun. If you are bored, go watch it. Not a classic so 3 on 5

Rahul.. 

The King's Speech - Review

The King's Speech - STUPENDOUS! A wonderfully crafted movie which captivates you throughout. (no wonder it won so many Oscars)


The King's Speech is such a simple story, but the way it's told leaves you filled with all the compassion, admiration and respect for King George VI.

The Duke of York, the son of the then King George V, had a severe speech impediment that caused him to stutter in any public conversation. Multiple attempts with various doctors did no good to him, until his wife found a common man, Lionel Logue with a reputation for unconventional methods to treat his patients. You also see the shackles that royalty puts on the family, the constraints of role, the detachment from the common man and you see how different the two worlds really are. But, at the end of the day it's about the relationship between two men, the Duke of York and Lionel Logue his speech therapist.

The movie takes a good 15 minutes or so to sink it's teeth into you. It does not let go after that. You are riveted. I guess it's the scene during their first encounter, when he makes the Duke read a passage from Shakespeare that you realize this is going to be good. Over the course of the story you see the friendship between the soon to be King and this common man develop and the King fight to overcome his impediment to a great extent.

It's a fantastic movie, Colin Firth & Geoffrey Rush. Hat's Off.
I'll say 4.5/5. Please watch it - you are guaranteed to enjoy it. 

Rahul.

No One Killed Jessica - Review

No One Killed Jessica - A movie that deserves a watch because of the subject matter. Not the over the top acting.


The Jessica Lal murder case was one of the biggest stories in the Indian media in 2006, because of the unjust verdict that was delivered the first time around. The story shows the fights that the family, her sister Sabrina in particular had to endure to secure justice for Jessica. The media reports that followed the initial verdict went on to show the miscarriages of justice, the changes to the truth. It showed the common Indian try and get her justice. The media took it upon themselves to get the case re-opened. It's a sad story, which showed India at it's worst and best.

The story deserved to be immortalized in a movie so that the story would be told through the years. Maybe it would shake a few consciences (?). But I really don't think the movie needed to be so, "Bollywood". The story was there and the way Jessica's story and eventual death & Sabrina's fight was portrayed in the first half was very tasteful, touching and made you feel for the family. Especially because you knew what was coming (every Indian knows the story). But in the second half, the media character portrayed by Rani Mukerji stands out as very "filmi", it takes the seriousness out the story and takes away a bit from the story. They told the story with all honesty, but if not for the fluff, it would have been a wonderful homage to Jessica and a salute to her sister and the Indian media in general.

Watch the movie. It'll touch you despite the tamasha that it has thrown in.
It's 3/5 for this one...

Rahul