Welcome to the Planet

Man of Steel owes its excellent execution of a hackneyed genre to some spot-on casting, and a Superman that cuts across a wide swath of dramatic turns - from saving cities and counterattacking aliens in space, to being mama's boy in a remote corner in Kansas. Superman/Clark Kent/ Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is supported particularly well by one Lois Lane (Amy Adams) of insatiable curiosity, and father Jor-El (Russell Crowe) who lives on in spirit - and as an uploaded intelligence over time. The story begins with Jor-El defying usurper General Zod (Michael Shannon) and transporting Kal-El through space to Earth. The same Earth, that becomes the target for Zod as he resurrects himself, and tries to terraform Earth into a Krypton-like world, and wipe out the human race in the process. Hopefully, Kal-El will find the humanity to bridge the races rather than have one survive at the expense of the other. Excellent rendition of a copybook franchise, and a near-unmissable summer entertainer

14.5/20

Dark Horses

Four magicians - Daniel (Jesse Eisenberg), Henley (Isla Fisher), Jack (Dave Franco) and Merritt (Woody Harrelson) - get a mysterious summons that is later found to be from one Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine). The four maricians form the Four Horsemen - who put up a show in Vegas that unbelievably has a man from teh audience rob a bank in Paris, and distribute the largesse to the attendees. The act of crime, however benevolent, does not go unnoticed, and the quartet soon find tenacious detectives Dylan (Mark Ruffalo) and Alma (Melanie Laurent) hot on their trail. But is that really an accurate picture of the goings-on, or, in the true nature of magic, are we seeing less the closer we get? Now you See Me is no The Prestige, but what it lacks in dark noir intensity, it more than makes up in a never-a-dull-moment script with a cops-and-robbers sequence interspersed by some pretty spectacular magic shows

14/20

The Destructive Side

The likes of Robin Cook have continually explored the thin line between going the extra mile for patients versus the pressures of big medicine. When Emily Taylor (Rooney Mara), a depressive patient, is prescribed a new anti-depressant medication on advise of her psychiatrist Jonathan Banks (Jude Law), the consequences are devastating for Emily and her husband Martin (Channing Tatum). As Emily ostensibly grieves over her murdered husband, Jonathan tries to piece together facts that have derailed a promising career, especially the role of Victoria (Catherine Zeta-Jones), Emily’s previous psychiatrist. Side Effects is less about the side effects of medication, that the side effects of all-pervasive and destructive ambition within the medical fraternity

13/20

Future Shock

Even as the world has not quite gotten over Shyamalan-bashing, Shyamalan himself has moved on to a reasonably good piece of work in After Earth. The Pursuit of Happyness showed the intense father-son pairing of Will Smith and Jaden Smith. After Earth takes us to the same pairing. A spaceship carying the duo crash-lands on a (now abandoned by humans) Earth. With lead Will Smith (Cypher Paige) incapacitated, son Jaden Smith (Kitai Paige) is entrusted with a perilous mission to cross a hundred kilometers of hostile terrain to activate an emergency beacon. With an Earth that is perhaps labeled a tad more hostile than the way it has evolved, and friends and enemies alike in nature, Kitai has to battle a plethora of calamities and a paucity of resources, and draws upon generous doses of inspirational pep talk to get to his objective. A movie that has, at the time of writing, faced the harshness of (clearly undeserved) extreme reviews

13/20