Castle-d it

There are two kinds of people for whom how to kill a person is a constant ponderable. The first is the psycopaths, and that is the kind that Rick Castle (Nathan Fiillion) and Kate Beckett (Stana Katic) – the latter of the New York homicide squad – are after. The second category is the mystery writer – the category to which Rick Castle belongs. Years of writing murder mysteries has lent Castle an unusually fertile imagination that the New York police, after initial unbridled skepticism, find extremely useful in actually solving the unlikeliest of cases. With the set pieces and whodunits of the typical detective genre, interspersed with some hotly denied romantic fellow-feeling between the lead pair, Castle (TV Series) is a pleasure to watch, as light as it is sensible, if not quite dripping with macabre realism

13.5/20

Crosses and Nuts

Battleship Review #2:

Have you played Battleship sitting in a classroom, oblivious to some excruciatingly boring monotone? So, I have emotional attachments to Battleship, and when Hasbro’s eponymous game is turned into a movie, that for me is something to watch. While Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) makes lieutenant and dates the beautiful Samantha (Brooklyn Decker), the latter is the daughter of Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson) and holds Alex in anything but high regard. The stage is set off the coast of Hawaii for Alex to prove himself, with an alien invasion in response to a terrestrial signal. So, Battleship is about impenetrable force fields and naval set-pieces and one lieutenant finally finding his feet and the courage to pop the question. And Battleship is fun to watch

13/20

Moving to Chaos

Telekinetics – not a word that you come across every day. It refers to the ability to move things at a distance. When the much-disturbed Seattle teenager Andrew Detmer (Dane DeHaan) visits cousin Matt (Alex Russell) and Steve (Michael Jordan) for a rave party, the trio stumble upon a strange blue object in a crevice. Soon thereafter, they discover that their visit to this object has lent them telekinetic abilities. However, do the trio limit themselves to using the same for some well-meaning harmless fun? Well, two of them are in agreement on that, but not Andrew. Bearing much pent-up frustration at a decrepit domestic life including a dying mother and an incessantly abusive father, there is no end to the extent that Andrew will go to, to vent his ire at a world that he feels is decidedly unfair, and, in that vein, any punishment meted upon the world at large through Andrew’s new-found powers is justly deserved. And how does all of this end? Chronicle is one of the few instances where found-film footage, now a hackneyed genre, really comes through well to create a twisted, captivating spectacle of amplified teenage angst

14/20

Sprinter turned Sinner

What an interesting if offbeat movie! Paan Singh Tomar is a dreaded wanted criminal. His antecedents have nothing to do with the same. Here is an erstwhile regular family man who used to be a faithful soldier of the Indian republic and a champion long distance runner, who comes back from war to find that there is a serious land dispute involving his property. The hapless man heads off to the police – and finds them utterly unwelcoming and dismissive of his many sporting exploits. Thus starts a transition from a champion middle distance runner to dacoit – and ruling the Chambals thereafter. But does Paan Singh Tomar eventually escape a highly warped and unfair police  system? Watch this movie, with a sterling performance by the protagonist (Irfaan Khan), to find out.

12/20

Battle Stations

I saw the reviews of Battleship and was duly turned off. The movie turned me back on. In a sentence, I would describe this movie as a light take on alien invasion. The corvettes and destroyers are there aplenty, and the US and Japanese fleets show exemplary celluloid solidarity in seeking to destroy a near-impregnable alien fleet. There is all the Hollywood science in measured doses, but most of the movie just consists of Marine bravado, and much heavy air strikes and shelling. Battleship is an easy watch, and meant to be so. And, with the heavy metal soundtrack overlay and all, one leaves the hall suitably fulfilled by the popcorn fare

13/20

Mellow Drama

With (a few) digs at the Punjabi race, and (many) digs at the Bengali race, Vicky Donor does not impress me, and just serves to irritate, in its reinforcement of stereotypes. Deep down beneath the clichés, there is possibly a meaningful story of some sort – the Delhi boy coerced by a well-meaning head of a fertility clinic to become a sperm donor, the Bengali beauty who works in a bank and gets duly wooed by and wedded to the Punjabi dude, the childless couple in stark contrast to the dozens and dozens of couples that Vicky Arora (Ayushmann Khurrana) aka Vicky Donor has managed to bless with a progeny. But one needs to acknowledge that the movie does bring out successfully the plight of the sperm donor – feted by a few couples who finally see the light of day in parenthood, while derided by immediate family and friends as the pursuer of a vocation that they deeply abhor being associated with socially. But, in the end, for me, the stereotypes predominate – I do not like them and I find them demeaning. And, someday, the very act of portraying stereotypes in Bollywood movies must end

10/20

Heinous

Governess Victoria Winters (Bella Heathcote) arrives in Collinsport, Maine, to attend to the anything-but-usual Collins family – particularly David (Gulliver McGrath) the disturbed young ‘un in the family. The Collins family has a long and illustrious history in Maine – that has been systemically driven to ruins. Enter Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) – long deceased and vampire-at-large. Even as he apologetically quenches his thirst for blood by taking out construction workers, hippies, and unscrupulous resident doctors, the efforts at defeating the enterprise of arch-rival Angelique Bouchard (Eva Green) look like they will come to naught – not least because of the ties that bind Barnabas  and Angelique. So even as Barnabas dalliances between Angelique and Victoria, the new-found strength in the Collins business looks like its demise shall be as meteoric as its resurgence. Or, is it that Josette (Josephine Butler), mother of David and resident ghost of the family, can bring her not inconsiderable supernatural powers to bear? Dark Shadows is an awful movie, does discredit to the likes of Johnny Depp and Eva Green as actors, and one that you definitely do not look forward to viewing

9/20