Go Joes!

Expect the usual blend of high quality special effects and hand to hand physicality from GI Joe - The Rise of Cobra. A circumspect Duke (Channing Tatum) is on a mission to deliver certain warheads, runs into a skirmish with the “Joes” and ends up joining them, an enemy mission with former flame Ana (the Baroness, ie Sienna Miller) steals back the warheads, and a race against time ensues to save the worls from destruction. The series sees the creation of the GI Joe core team as well as their arch villains (Destro and Cobra). This is straight-up unbridled action without the morality tales of the Marvel comics superheroes that held our breath all of 2008. Good entertainment without appearing too gizmo-laden for comfort

14/20

Laying Down, the Law

Rarely do you find a TV series that brings together panache, endless style, and in the same breath cold logic and quality of debate that at moments can leave you breathless. Boston Legal's little caselets seem to veer in one of two distinct directions. The first set throw really unexpected surprises, sometimes a trifle contrived, that nonetheless keep the viewer engaged. The second are the real piece-de-resistance - the cases where there is a slam dunk logical argument presented, where all the facts of the case, dear viewer, were available to you, and you were nowhere close to working it out. And it is this second set that completely distinguishes the serial - at times I fould myself pausing the DVD and asking myself - "What could he possibly say next? What could extricate him from this hole?" A serial focused on litigation sanitizes law, takes away the dust and grime of endless hours of grunt work, and displays the smooth polished surface of glamour and confrontational argumentation. This is a TV series that is near perfectly casted and scripted. Near impossible to better (till the next one comes along, I suppose!)

18/20

Vile Fare

Is Borat degenerate? Is it a bit too over the top? What has the movie tried to depict anyway? Has it poked fun at a particular community because they are the way they are? Or has it picked a community at random and gone over the top? What sense do some of the sequences make, anyway? You Dont Mess with The Zohan is a refined version of some Eastern-Europe bashing, that I happened to see some time before I saw Borat. And Zohan was reasonably entertaining without being offensive. But I come back to the original question - what is the purpose of this movie? What is the reason, notwithstanding all disclaimers, that the sundry communities who are denigrated in this movie, will not find the movie offensive? Sorry, but I tried to laugh right through, but somewhere down the line, felt that this was really tasteless fare

7.5/20

Alas!

Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner) is the sheet anchor central role in Alias. Without her tantalizing mix of emoting and physicality, this is a TV series that would simply fall apart. Consider the weaknesses in the plot. Do you seriously believe that something like the SD-6 is proliferant in the US in terms of the scale and scope? Are you expected to believe that it occurred to none of SD6's inmates that they have never been to, and never deal directly with, Langley (including to Sydney, for a period of (hold your breath - seven years))? Father and daughter, two double agents living under a knife, and their CIA handler, meet on an almost daily basis and even speak on the phone and exchange messages. And what on earth are the artifacts of Milo Rambaldi and the Nazi - allusion justifications of seeking the occult becoming a matter of national security? If it were not for Jennifer Garner, we would never have heard of this series. Having said that, one has to give some weightage I suppose to the sheer entertainment value of the series. The episodes, standalone, are engaging and if one simply skirts the complicity of believability, Alias is as good a timepass as any

10.5/20

Enemies of an Ineffectual State

Public Enemies tests the thespian skills of Johnny Depp and Christian Bale, but hardly to their limits. John Dillinger, hardened Depression-era bank robber pulls off audacious heists right under the noses of the law, and follows up with equally audacious escapes across state lines. The latter prompts the then head of the police forces, J Edgar Hoover, to set up a law enforcement organization that cuts across state lines called – what else – the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The romance with Marion Cotillard arouses a (on hindsight) misplaced twinge of sympathy for a hardened criminal. The movie is about the chase and how John’s world is slowly decimated, not only in the face of concerted legal action, but also on account of the return to prosperity of America that takes away several of his partners in crime. An interesting movie, but could have had a lot more to offer

13/20

Stalking and Entering

Mickey Rourke continues where he left off with The Wrestler, and in the tradition of gracefully ageing Hollywood stars, to deliver quiet menace as a cold blooded murderer in Killshot. Diane Lane and Thomas Jane (the Colsons) are witness to a crime, enter witness protection, and then are hunted down by Armand “The Blackbird” Degas (Mickey Rourke) and the hare-brained violence-prone character of Richie Nix (Joseph Gordon-Levitt). The performances are hard, the pace engaging, the outcome uncertain till the last minute. This is the return of the unadulterated thriller. Best watched in a movie hall, though. What next from Mickey Rourke I wonder? Or from John Madden (the class that brought you Captain Corelli’s Mandolin and Proof clearly shining through)

14.5/20

Echelons of the Inquisitive State

What is the Echelon Conspiracy? Max Peterson (Shane West) can hardly believe his luck as he receives phone messages from an unknown source – the first saves his life from a plane crash, the second makes him a lot of money in a casino. The gravy train abruptly ends and Max finds himself in the custody of the FBI trying to help track down the “sender” of the messages. Nothing is quite what it seems, and the messages are discovered to come from a wholly unexpected source on the lookout for an “upgrade” denied to it by Congress. A fast-paced movie with a somewhat lame ending. Shane West would have a future in thrillers, though

14/20

Faith Cures All

A modern day fairy tale, a heartwarming drama with a positive ending, a man with a terminal disease and sundry others cured, the power of prayer. It would be touching if it was not a trifle trite. A movie like Henry Poole Is here panders to a certain type of gallery. While I have all respect for faith, I cannot condone movies that take self-renewal to a level beyond believability. But then, I suppose that a movie like this is meant to be low on realism and high on faith. Whatever happened to Bucket List style pragmatism and courage in the face of adversity? Why the recourse to such easy ways out? But do listen in to the soundtrack

9.5/20

Four of Five was Enough

With twists that start about fifteen minutes into the movie and end in the last fifth, Five Fingers is an engaging drama that brings out the nuances of the war on terror and throws up questions on aspects of interrogation technique. On the surface, Ryan Philippe is this Dutchman with a Moroccan girlfriend and a happy idealistic life, a job at a bank and a passion for working with an aid program for “the children of the Rif mountains”. Scratch the surface and nothing is what it seems, and the twists in this movie and the cat and mouse game between Ryan Philippe and Laurence Fishburne will leave you spellbound. Once you figure out the context of the movie, I have no doubt that you will rank this among the best on the war on terror – the element of surprise taking it to a league above the likes of Body of Lies

16.5/20