Change of Heart

The despicable Gru (Steve Carell) is fast losing ground among the panoply of the world’s most despicable criminals. The likes of Vector (Jason Segel), young and aggressive, are the new poster boys of the financing giant The Bank of Evil. So Gru – along with the aid of evil genius scientist Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), and the minions, sets out on an audacious project – to shrink the moon and bring it back to Earth. Even as Vector threatens to steal a march over Gru, the latter adopts three orphaned children – ostensibly to help in the accomplishment of his nefarious objective – with unexpected consequences. With sharply defined characters, especially the Scrooge-meets-The Grinch Gru, and the young and scheming Vector, Despicable Me is a treat to watch and one of the underrated animation movies of 2010

14/20

Insuring your Moral Compass

Tim (Ed Helms) is a nondescript insurance agent for Brown Valley Insurance, the latter being an unlikely winner of the prestigious winner of the Two Diamonds awards for four years running. When the untimely demise of a colleague elevates Tim to the position of representative for his company at the ASMI convention in Cedar Rapids where these awards are given out, Tim is naturally overwhelmed – he has never even flown before! Enter the trio of the irrepressible Dean Ziegler (John C Reilly), Joan Ostrowshi-Fox (Anne Heche) and Ronald Wilkes (Isiah Whitlock Jr) and lessons in life and the real world abound for Tim. Even as he breaks off a meaningless relationship with his former schoolteacher Macy (Sigourney Weaver), Tim learns the dark secrets of his company’s unlikely previous wins, and has to do his own figuring out between right and wrong. While Tim will inevitably make his companions friends for life, will he be able to stick up for his True North? A feisty little movie for the heart and casual no-frills viewing

12/20

Of Staring Down Goats and Other Warfare

Bob Wilton (Ewan McGregor), a reporter with the Ann Arbor Daily Telegram is devastated when his wife leaves him for the newspaper's editor. A chance meeting in Kuwait with retired Special Forces member Lyn Cassidy (George Clooney) introduces Bob to the world of psychic warfare, and a story of their antecedents that sounds too ludicrous to be true. Started by US Army officer Bill Django (Jeff Bridges) during the Vietnam war on the aftermath of a curious event on the battlefield, the New Earth Movement soon had an equally strong and opposed proponent in the form of Bill’s student Larry Hooper (Kevin Spacey) – the latter not a proponent of the non-violent ways of Bill and fellow-student Lyn. While some experiences are harder to believe than others, Bob and Lyn eventually find themselves in a psychic warfare camp run by Larry, where Bill is a mere depressive inmate. With predictive abilities on coin tosses, splitting clouds, and apparently killing goats by staring at them, The Men Who Stare at Goats is a now-you-believe-it-now-you-don’t expose on psychic warfare that is tailored more for humour than for serious consumption. With deft touches, director Grant Heslov leaves you with just the facts, and your own interpretations

12.5/20

Crying Wolf.. and Again

In a village so isolated that its whereabouts itself are uncertain, the villagers have kept up a tradition of making offerings to the predatory wolf from the nearby forest, to keep the peace between man and wolf. When the peace is broken by the wolf itself, the villagers resolve to kill it – and ostensibly succeed. Enter Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), apparently a returnee to the village – with his little band of warriors, his torture device and cruel tactics – and a chilling revelation – that the village is up against more than it believes it is. But even as the needle of suspicion swings between protagonist Valerie (Red Riding Hood) (Amanda Seyfried), her grandmother who lives in the forest (Julie Christie), and her two suitors – Cesaire (Billy Burke) and Peter (Shiloh Fernandez), among others, the villagers must suffer multiple times at the hands of both the tyrant and the wolf, before the chilling truth is revealed. A movie released a while back to which critics have been unduly harsh, Red Riding Hood is a twisted and somewhat dark take on the eponymous children’s fairytale

12/20

Mega Skirmishes

Evil Megamind (Will Ferrell) and the city’s superhero Metro Man (Brad Pitt) battle for control over Metro City. While the latter seems to invariably have the upper hand, in one final skirmish, Megamind destroys (?) Metroman. Unexpectedly, the same is just the beginning of Megamind’s life sinking into purposelessness, even as Metro Man’s former flame Roxanne Ritchi (Tina Fey) first falls for him and then falls out. Megamind needs a hero to match his evil – and proceeds to create one – with markedly unexpected consequences. Well, all is well that ends well, and some of the moral leanings of the cast are somewhat altered in the end. While a decent watch, the quality of animation – especially the emoting or lack of it, and the poor soundtrack, make Megamind pale to the releases from the Pixar and even the DreamWorks stable (How to Train Your Dragon, Madagascar Series, Kung Fu Panda series) of late

12/20

Future Readjusted

Concurrent with the total collapse of his electoral campaign on the expose of some relatively trivial college event, Congressman David Norris (Matt Damon) falls for Elisa Sellas (Emily Blunt), a new York-based aspiring dancer. But, there are those who are determined that their union does not happen. As the movie progresses, the antecedents of The Adjustment Bureau come to light. But does the mere fact of the existence of a master plan mean the death of free will? And what does it mean for the potential tradeoff between career and love for David and Elisa? While the topics dealt with are deep and existential, the lack of any meaningful chemistry between the lead pair, and the rather offhand treatment of patently deep subjects means that this strange cross between sci fi and romance just scratches the surface of what it could have been

11/20

The Simple Class

After the tightly scripted introduction to Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) in 2009, the X men franchise proceeds to provide a smorgsabord account of the history of several key characters. Set in the 1940 – 1960’s cusp, X Men – First Class is inevitably intertwined with several key (mostly American) historical events of its time. The whole routine of the contemplative Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and Erik Lensherr/ Magneto (Michael Fassbender) being shaped by their experiences is rather hackneyed, and the easy re-rendition of historical facts threatens to sink this installment into the Marvel comics rather than Marvel graphic novels-genre. But there is enough going for the movie by way of straight entertainment. The highly adaptive prequel, like some of this mutant cast, swings between death camps and Nazi hunts, and the Oxford life and missile crises. Touching? No. Noir? Definitely not. This is the cookie cutter entertainer without the hint of a shade of grey. And previous installments have done enough for this one to be a natural commercial hit. All said, I preferred Wolverine

12/20

Binge East

Stu (Ed Helms) is getting married in beautiful Thailand, and the wolfpack – Phil (Bradley Cooper), the reluctantly invited Alan (Zach Galifianakis), and new addition – Teddy (Mason Lee), the wife’s brother, find themselves on the beachside with an innocuous catch-up meal of beer and marshmallows. Next morning, they wake up in a seedy Bangkok apartment – well, almost all of them - and the real party starts. The Hangover II will give more than a passing flavor of the city, with tuktuks and river cruises evenly matched with ladyboys, gangsters and monks with a vow of silence, among much else. While bursting crime rackets may be a fringe benefit of the wolfpack’s fact-finding mission on what happened the night before, the trio have the deadly serious agenda of figuring out the whereabouts of Teddy and returning in time for Stu’s wedding. While the night-before-amnesia is now par for the course for the series, Bangkok throws in enough colour if its own to rival Las Vegas. And much of it is strictly over-18 fare – no surprises there

14.5/20

More Panda More King Fu

In Kung Fu Panda II, The Kung Fu Panda quintet (Po the Panda (Jack Black), with the tigress (Angelina Jolie), monkey (Jackie Chan, viper (Lucy Liu) and mantis (Seth Rogen)) are at peace, and Po is in nostalgia mode with the goose father. In the meantime, Lord Shen (Gary Oldman), the ambitious peafowl, has a new weapon at hand, and seeks to take over China. Not if Po can help it. What starts off as a rescue mission for a single village soon erupts into an action-sequence-a-minute all out battle between good and evil. And it remains to be seen whether the sheep oracle’s (Michelle Yeoh) prophecy of the black and white warrior defeating Lord Shen will come to pass. With a galaxy of stars providing the voice-overs, Po the high-energy lovable fighting panda, can effortlessly chop and kick his way through many more sequels to come

14/20