Moving more than Real Estate Prices

Coming off the likes of The American and the Ides of March, George Clooney as the mild-mannered contemplative Matt King makes you shake your head in disbelief at the sheer breadth of his acting talent. While Matt and his cousins are inheritors of a huge fortune in Hawaii – 25,000 acres of land that the former is likely to sell off for a huge sum of money, Matt’s life is anything but picture-perfect. With deliberate incongruity against the backdrop of beautiful Hawaii, director Alexander Payne shows us Matt’s estranged daughters 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) and 17-year-old Alex (Shailene Woodley), a comatose and terminally ill wife Elizabeth (Patricia Hastie), and the overtones of a life full of myriad regrets. The Descendants is about reconnecting with family and friends, and with one’s own values, and coming to terms with one’s own failings – including coming to know that the terminally ill wife was in a relationship, and then vacillating in a whirlwind of emotions between hatred and eventually coming to terms. And that is what the movie is eventually about – coming to terms with one’s realities so that one can shoulder the responsibilities for one’s future. Eventually, this movie does not move the Hawaii real estate market, but will definitely move the viewer. Quite exceptional - the best movie I have seen in a while

16/20

Journey, Too

Vernians – fans of Jules Verne who believe in the Nautilius, the Mysterious Island, Atlantis and the like – have been squarely relegated to the children’s section of the action-adventure genre. Hank (Dwayne Johnson) and stepson Sean (Josh Hutcherson) share a terse relationship – and finally manage to find a connect by finding references to a mysterious island that links the works of no less than RL Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, and (of course) Jules Verne. With a hop step and jump to Pulau, with the blessings of mom Liz (Kristn Davis) of course, the duo find help in helicopter operator Gabato (Luis Guzman) and his delectable daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens). Journey 2 – The Mysterious Island - turns out to be a source of much death-defying adventure – all of it incredulous, and, after a point, none of it interesting. By the time the lot gets off the island, one may be faulted for thinking its not a moment too soon

10/20

Falling off, Falling Apart

Standing on a ledge in the Roosevelt Hotel and ostensibly about to plunge to his death, Nick Cassidy (Sam Worthington) is a man hellbent on making a point. While the New York mob, hungry for entertainment, periodically cheers on, and the press collect their sound-bytes, Nick – a man wrongfully charged for a crime that he did not commit – is directing brother Joey (Jamie Cassidy) and his girlfriend Angie (Genesis Rodriguez) to commit the very crime for which he was wrongfully imprisoned in the first place. Included in the cast of characters is negotiator Lydia (Elizabeth Banks) and her efforts at making sense of it all even as she tries to put her past track record behind, and businessman David Englander (Ed Harris), the man who was instrumental in sending Nick to prison in the first instance. Movies like Man on A Ledge only serve to show that actors of the caliber of Sam Worthington can hold a movie together in spite of a mediocre storyline

12/20

Lady Fighter

Beauty and.. er.. brawn mixed martial arts fighter Gina Carano gets her first break into big-ticket Hollywood with Haywire. In a movie that is rather understated even as it carries the weight of an all-star cast and pans global locales, Mallory Kane (Gina Carano) recounts a mission where ex-boyfriend Kenneth (Ewan McGregor) sends her off to Barcelona, on a mission directed by US Government agent Coblenz (Michael Douglas) and his Spanish contact Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas) to rescue a man in Barcelona. The mission is not quite what it seems – and nor is Mallory's subsequent assignment to pose as the wife of MI6 agent Paul (Michael Fassbender) in Dublin. Mallory has to rely on her own wits and do her own fact-finding in a setup laden with multiple traps. And with the audience on her side, one hopes that she get the better of the nexus in the end. A well-paced introduction to a new action heroine, who will sharpen her thespian skills even as she can clearly hold centre-stage in a tightly scripted Steven Soderbergh thriller

14/20

Weed for All

So Harold (John Cho) is now an established investment banker, married into a rather mercurial Hispanic family with Mr Perez (Danny Trejo) for a father in law. And Kumar (Kal Penn) has not been with Harold for two long years. It takes a Christmas gift to bring them together. And – surprise, surprise, it takes a Christmas tree in flames to keep them together from there on. In the middle of it all, we have babies high on acid, a Neil Patrick Harris in his version of heaven, and a Santa shot down from the skies in the line of duty. And much more besides. While A very Harold and Kumar Christmas is no doubt a one-of-a-kind Christmas movie, and very watchable, in a series of three movies, this installment comes in a reasonably distant third

13/20