The (Hopefully) Last Airbender

The irrepressible M Night Shyamalan will not be kept from bringing fables to the big screen, that somehow do not seem to click, as far as all recent attempts have gone. Aang (Noah Ringer) of the Air people, is The Last Airbender, preserved for a hundred years in ice even as his people have been decimated by the Fire People. It takes two intrepid Water People – Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) to discover Aang from under the ice, and then embark on a journey to unite the peoples, and in particular manage the military onslaught from the martial Fire People. Where the movie seems to have failed is execution. A cast that does not click as far as pretty much any and every role is concerned. Hideous acting with uninspiring central characters that chokes off any upside potential from the above-average special effects. While the Director has made no secret of seeking sequels herein, it remains to be seen whether, with this combination of cast and crew, the audience is likely to bite

10/20

Scott’s Noisy Adventures

For a movie that is somewhat hard to describe – I shall keep my review of this one brief. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is the movie adaptation of a graphic novel, and a popular game as well. Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) is a reasonably average Toronto dude, whose claim to fame is being bass guitarist for the band Sex bom-omb (!) and whose concurrent claim to infamy is dating Chinese high-school student Knives Chau. The romance gets interrupted by the entry of one Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), with whom Scott falls head-over-heels in love. Not so fast – Ramona has seven evil exes (ex-dates) in her life – and through a series of adventures, some verging on the sensible but others downright garish, but all superhuman, Scott takes on Indian dudes, vegan obsessives, popular movie stars, two Japanese brothers – and a woman – in his bid to win over Ramona. The final challenge however proves the most daunting – do all the elements of Scott’s life – the elusive record deal, the prospective girlfriend and the spurned one – come together? Watch this one for the “game” experience – but as far as graphic novel adaptations go, I found this movie a sensory overload rather than thought-provoking or nuanced
11.5/20

D’uh Border

“Stone Cold” Steve Austin hits the movies again as Jim Rhodes, an US Border Patrol Agent who keeps watch over a point proximate to the Canadian border, and one daughter Kim (Marie Avgeropoulos) who does not think too much of him, in Hunt to Kill. An unrelated heist gone wrong in a different city has the quintessential posse of villains enter Jim and Kim’s life, and take them hostage in their quest for a way across the border. Much violence (surprised?) and general cleaning-up of the riffraff expectedly ensue. Clearly not a movie to step into with exalted expectations, and nothing unexpectedly exalted to take away either . Notably, the movie re-unites Steve Austin, Gary Daniels and Eric Roberts for the first time since The Expendables

10/20

Another End of the World

Skyline is freakier than reviews have generally given it credit for. An idyllic LA party setting reminiscent of Cloverfield is suddenly turned into the hotspot for an alien attack. Elaine (Scottie Thompson) and Jarrod (Eric Balfour) have flown in to LA for friend Terry's (Donald Faison) birthday party. The night of the party, a strange alien attack – lights that draw people like moths to a flame – and then absorb them whole in spaceships – decimates the group. An attempt to escape to the boats proves futile – the group endeavors to survive in the building but does not last long. Well, almost all. The movie has a District 9 – style ending with Jarrod (or more accurately Jarrod’s brain) still retaining “human” characteristics – in particular, his protective instincts for Elaine. The movie borrows liberally – too liberally – from anything and everything from War of the Worlds (probes drawing in humans) to Independence Day (multiple-city alien landings, aerial attacks including survival of a nuclear attack) to The Matrix (intelligent probes searching for humans) – but in the end the Strause Brothers do manage to leave a sense of near-unmitigated hopelessness that is all its own

11.5/20

Dream Merchants

Welcome to the hard-driving sales culture the way only Americana can! Steve and Kate Jones (David Duchovny and Demi Moore), and children Jenn and Mick (Amber Heard and Ben Hollingsworth) form a family “unit” – the Jone$es – planted in an upmarket suburban neighborhood by their employer, a marketing company – to peddle the wares of the latter’s clients through their lifestyle. Out come the trendy furniture and designer clothes, and perfumes and cereal and golf clubs – and the sales keep rolling. But beneath all this is the undercurrent of the unit continuously questioning their vacuous existence, and the possibilities of the unit actually behaving like an actual family – spurred by the strains of a growing attachment between “husband” and “wife”. The sales culture has its casualties on both sides, and in the end, something in the cold culture does give. An entertaining if marginally over-the-top look at ways and means to create demand where none existed, and simultaneously questioning the ethics of it all

13/20

The Overseas Proposal

Anna Brady (Amy Adams) “stages apartments” in Boston – a career typical of a hard-driven city – that consists of decking up apartments that appeal to potential buyers’ fantasies, and then taking away the frills on the eve of a purchase. The ubiquitous boyfriend Jeremy (Adam Scott) is a cardiologist, who has been deferring the “M” plan for – 4 years and counting. Up comes a business trip to Ireland, and, drawn to a tradition of proposals on February 29th (only possible in a Leap Year) that apparently never get spurned, Anna lands up in Ireland. Ireland, not Dublin, because inclement weather and a series of mishaps to follow land her in faraway Dingle, two days’ journey from Dublin, that need to be necessarily traversed with a rickety car and one Declan (Matthew Goode) for company. The countryside is breathtaking, the unfortunate delays come thick and fast, and the stranger and his country grow on Anna. So how does it all end, then? Set against the backdrop of a country that is, refreshingly, not sepia-tinted-beautiful but rugged-beautiful, watch this movie if only to get an up close look at Hibernia, and have a comely romance playing along to boot

13.5/20

INTRODUCING RITU

MY CO AUTHOR...

ON TO HER FIRST POST...