Forests, Friends and Foes

In this faithful-to-Kipling adaptation, The Jungle Book shows the true color (in the anthropomorphic animals) of the denizens of the forest. The friendly and collaborative bears and panthers, need to face up to the manipulative monkeys and the power-hungry tiger. Highest grossing movie (and that includes Hindi movies) for the year till date

16/20

Edge of Learning

The greatest of mathematical talents – S Ramanujan (Dev Patel) – needs the greatest of mentors – Hardy (Jeremy Irons) to have his supreme mathematical talent showcased to an extraordinarily talented and skeptical Cambridge fraternity. The genius and intuitive nature of Ramanujan’s approach coupled with the insistence of mathematical rigor by Hardy leads to much lasting and formal success. The Man who Knew Infinity is an unmissable movie and left me emotionally involved

17/20

We the Children

We the children continue to enjoy the great Kung Fu Panda series and give Kung Fu Panda 3 a resounding thumbs up. From saving multifarious species, Po’s attention this time around is dedicated to saving his own kith and kin. A great entertainer

15.5/20

DC has answered

You need to be called Martha for all of Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to save the world from Lex Luther (Jesse Eisenberg) and Kryptonian forces far beyond the capability of Earthly powers to fight. Batman vs Superman – Dawn of Justice begins with the dark overtones that we love in the Batman franchise, but degenerates into the relentless sfx and fighting sequences that typify the franchise. Incoherent entertainment

13.5/20

Eye on Horror

In war, as Eye in the Sky quotes at the outset, truth is the first casualty. In order to stop an Al Shabab suicide bomber, a little girl may have to lose her life – symbolic of all collateral damage in the course of war. Focusing in on the morality play and bureaucracy around a single drone strike, Eye in the Sky breaks it down into an easily understandable situation – do we go for the greatest good for the greatest number even when we perpetrate an act of terror ourselves? Reasonably thought-provoking

13.5/20

Hopping victory

It is a time when all animals – predator and prey – have learnt to live in perfect harmony. Or have they? Rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) passes up a carrot farming future for her true calling – being in the Zootopia police force. What begins as a less-than-promising career punching parking tickets soon takes an interesting turn as Judy Hopps’ relentless burrowing unearths more than what Zootopia has bargained for. Even if animals find peace among themselves, I guess they are not discarding human nature anytime soon

15.5/20

Racing spirit

Great innuendo on the title “Race”. Great execution by Disney – the studio, like Jesse Owens (Stephan James), cuts no corners on its way to four gold medals. Simplistic to a fault, because the underlying story itself is so shockingly compelling/ inspiring. Kudos all round

15.5/20

Joy to watch

Another JLaw stunner. Could have been called Determination. Theatrics do not detract from magnitude of core achievement of the one and only Joy (Jennifer Lawrence), succeeding against all odds with bringing the most basic of inventions to market, against all the retrograde forces of doubting family and marketeers, and ruthless competition in the course of business. A must-watch

16/20

Asterix the Mansions of the Gods

14/20. Bookmarked for review later

The Finest Hours

With overtones of barely believable dramatics, and depictions of natural disaster that would put an alien planet to shame, The Finest Hours, it must me remembered, comes from the Disney stable. And Disney shows – as always – how the impossible is achieved with true panache. Bernie (Chris Pine) seeks to resurrect his rather patchy coast guarding history with heroics beyond all belief, that we are told closely approximate true events.

13/20

Half past Dead

Deadpool has a decibel of trash talk that most Indian viewers will not empathize with. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) is the average Joe, falls in love with Vanessa (Morena Baccarin) and very soon after the idyllic existence is shattered – he has terminal cancer and must undergo a transmogrification to superhero to justify his existence. And that leads to a face-off with the evil scientist Francis aka Ajax (Ed Skrein) – entertaining, and the hackneyed action interspersed with the dark humor is definitely a shade badass, but not quite a stuff-of-legends-franchise-creator for me

13.5/20

Shootout

Its pretty simple. Private security and ex-Marine Jake Carter (Mike The Miz Mizanin) needs to protect whistleblower Olivia Liv Tanis (Melissa Roxburgh) against the relentless attacks of one Simon Vogel (Josh Blacker), and perhaps one or more insiders from the Department of Justice. Marine 4: Moving Target is popcorn stuff, the sound of gunfire is one unrelenting rat-tat-rat through the length of the movie

12/20

As Harsh as it gets

The Revenant will kindle (or rekindle) your interest in the frontiersman, the American a couple of centuries ago living off the land and working at the frontier between the familiar and the utter wilderness. Hugh Glass (Leonardo DiCaprio) gets mauled by a bear and gets abandoned by his furrier mates. He finds his way through utter desolation, battling man and nature, to make it back to habitation and sanity. One is left to ponder which is edgier – the relationship between man and nature, or between men – Indians, Frenchmen and Americans – at war with one another

16.5/20