Genre Shifter

 No blog about 2025 movies would be complete without Dhurandhar (Hindi). This is the movie that cannot seem to stop its victory run at theaters, and largely deservedly so, as this recasts the Indo-Pakistani spy thriller from a world of honey traps and hyperbole to gritty execution (no pun intended) – largely on the mean streets of Karachi. Hamza Ali (a buffed up Ranveer Singh) is a faceless Baloch, rescued from hoodlums who finds his way into the ranks of the formidable Rehman Dakait (Akshaye Khanna). And these are just two of the memorable characters in a movie that includes the formidable SP Choudhury Aslam (Sanjay Dutt), Major Iqbal (Arjun Rampal), Yalina (Sara Arjun), and the aggrieved Ajit Sanyal/ Doval (R Madhavan) who set it all in motion. Dhurandhar has multiple dimensions – the high stakes gangster totem pole in Karachi, the army ISI politicians and organized gangsters in cahoots in Pakistan, and that not all incursions can be stopped but revenge can present its opportunities nonetheless. I would suggest watching this movie for sure – but you already have haven’t you now

16.5/20

Shelter in place

 Is it just me or is there an overarching metaphor in the post apocalyptic dystopian thriller 40 Acres - where the Blacks and the Native American live off the land they have inherited over generations - they neither help nor hurt anyone - while the White people essentially become predators - cannibals who will eat their kin to survive.  Protagonist Hailey (Danielle Deadwyler) along with Native American husband Galen (Michael Greyeyes), along with their children - notably son Emanuel (Kataem O'Connor) and daughter Raine (Leenah Robinson) - fight it out on the homestead against prefatory people and the inevitable final showdown against overwhelming odds. Rather well executed with uniformly believable performances and realistic action sequences

15.5/20

Humanity transcends all

 While the concept of a hellscape with fiendish creatures and a kill or be killed trope is hardly new (Alien, Monster Hunters et al), Predator Badlands takes the quintessential predator Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) - beloved of his brother and scorned by his father - and casts him into a coming of age story and humanizes him. Trawling the planet Genna on the hunt of the infinitely regenerative Kalisk, Dek finds an unlikely ally in the (also all too human) Weyland-Yutani synth Thia (Elle Fanning). And Dek imbibes the leadership model of the wolf of the Earth - protector of the clan rather than mere scorekeeper. Anthropomorphism and Predator mellowing aside, the compelling visuals and taut storytelling make this one an Imax treat rather than a thoughtful watch

15.5/20

It is our programming, not our purpose

I guess even Turing would say hats off to the above as a test for sentience. Tron - Ares surprises on the upside considerably. Julian (Evan Peters) who's the son of Ed Dillinger of ENCOM, seeks the  Permanence Code – the elixir that will allow the constructs (3D printed AI manifestations in the real world) to last for more than a fleeting 29 minutes. In the interim ENCOM CEO Eve (Grace Lee) driven by somewhat more altruistic considerations finds a way to the code and has to stake her life to protect it from nefarious ends. Julian creates Tron Ares (Jared Leto) the super soldier – devoid of emotion and a slave to its programming – or is it. Eve somehow gets Tron Ares to recognize empathy and work against its programming. And for the greater good. Which is perhaps the one true test of achieving not just sentience but some modicum of humanity. Interesting characters such as the architect Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), the Indian origin CTO Ajay (Hasan Minhaj), and the long suffering Elisabeth, mother of Julian (Gillian Anderson), make the movie not only replete with dazzling visuals but also interesting personalities that work hard at their roles. I would give this one a strong thumbs up - very recommended viewing. At least for sci-fi aficionados. The only caveat – caught some of Megan 2.0 (Horror + AI/ sentience), The Woman in Cabin 10 (Drama/ Thriller – AI Facial recognition). Let us hope that Hollywood go the way of US equity markets and become one secular bet on AI

16/20

Calling upon a Void

A father - William Russell (Bill Skadsgard) - returns from the Solomon Islands, World War 2, traumatized by the experience of killing, out of necessity, a comrade. Sets up a family with a waitress (Charlotte (Haley Bennett)). The devout Will finds his prayers unanswered - his son gets bullied and the wife (in spite of a "dog sacrifice") dies of cancer. And Will in his implacable devoutness takes his life. This begins the life of Arvin Russell (Tom Holland) in the movie The Devil all the Time.. almost a.satire that taunts evangelical faith at every turn. Then there is the serial killer couple (Carl (Jason Clarke) and Sandy (Riley Kelough ) with the protagonist admitting he feels God only when he kills after an act of depravity is committed upon his wife..And then there is Rev. Preston (Robert Pattinson) perhaps the most exploitative of all in the name of faith. these are some of the key characters in this gripping.black drama that'll shake your faith from the roots and make you wonder what dark belief system the creators are actually trying to convey. Gripping, unpredictable, and disturbing

17.5/20

Mechanical is Unhealthy too

Of course, many years have elapsed since the making of this movie. The thought process behind tis one, however - the legendary A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick and Tony Burgess - is ever so relevant in today's world.. One Alex - social misfit - a kind of Patrick Bateman roaming the streets at night looting and pillaging - gets conditioned in rehab. Post teh same he is expected to make his way back to society as a chastised and essentially a "good" person.

As time passes, it becomes eminently clear that he is not in a position to take judgment calls in terms of basic self preservation, and rudimentary good versus evil choices.

A Clockwork Orange shows that.The pervasiveness of, And the error in lunging to extremes. Just as extreme violence.Is a societal curse, extreme compliance turns us into, well, Clockwork Oranges

15.5/20

Colonizers

In the tragic hilarious and eminently watchable movie Mickey 17 the invasion of a planet and the attack on the superintelligent native species (dismissively labelled "critters") is best exemplified by the capture of a baby critter by the humans. The curiosity for interspecies understanding is limited to, well, cutting off the tail of the said critter, putting it in a blender, and then saying "what sauce does this best go with?"

Irreverent, wildly unpredictable, and in the end hopefully, Mickey 17 is an original movie that traverses sci fi, humour, dystopia - and holds well

16/20

Looper

 A random Youtube video profiling bizarre mind-bending movies (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0K0d0BTRJ9M&t=595s) brought me to The Triangle (2009) – which in turn I watched on an “unconventional” URL (https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9iu0zq). Clearly the OTT masters of the universe consider us intellectually incapable of processing such fare. In the story of Sisyphus, the protagonist pushes a boulder up a hill in an endless temporal loop. In The Triangle, Jessie (Melissa George), mother of an autistic child, goes on a boat trip in the Bermuda Triangle with her friends. Their boat hits the doldrums, and the deserted ship Aeolus is where they take refuge. Soon after coming on board a sinister sequence of events ensues – things are not what they seem at all – and friends are injured and dying, and Jess and the castaways are heavily looping in time. A mindbender that is likely to stay in the mind for a while in a sea of cinematic monotony

16/20

Intentionally Blank

Pole star

Reviewing a Hindi movie, and that too squarely in the romantic genre, is not the vein of this site at all. When I watched Saiyaara in Infiniti mall, it was because I was choosing between commuting in the rain and whiling some time in a theater that is a stone's throw from my place. Sometimes perhaps you are surprised in the positive - Karan Kapoor (Aahan Pandey) and Vani (Aneet Padda) have some pretty compelling screen chemistry, bring a fair amount of intensity, and in a movie that is not all giggles and dance sequences - pull off a pretty convincing execution of a rather simple storyline. Karan is the wannabe rockstar looking for a break and superstardom, the once betrayed Vani, who also suffers from Alzheimer's, is his rock - well, at least as long as she can hold on to her memory. Pretty good work

15/20

Rinse (with the Mososaur), Repeat

 It is the present day, and people have lost interest in the dinosaurs; the apathy could not be more apparent as an ageing brontosaurus is removed from the streets of Manhattan. But money hasn't lost its draw unlike the dinosaurs, and a team led by Martin Krebs (Rupert Friend), a man of dubious morals, joins hands with Zora (Scarlett Johansson), Dr Henry Loomis (Jonathan Bailey) and others to seek samples from the aquatic Mosasaurus, terrestrial Titanosaurus, and avian Quetzalcoatlus, in order to find a lucrative cure to a heart disease. On the way their paths cross with the Delgado family – father Reuben, daughters Teresa (Luna Blaise) and Isabella (Audrina Miranda), and Xavier (David Iacono), who are on an unlikely Trans-Atlantic voyage on their summer break. With adventures over land and water, and on the high cliffs of the equatorial island, Jurassic World – Rebirth makes specific effort to draw on the  memories of the franchise – children below overturned means of transportation, T-rex drawn away with flares, the inevitable raptors vs children in a dark room. But all said and done it's executed well without monotony – perhaps the strength of the movie is in its excellent casting – memories with new energy and freshness

16/20

Memento Amoris

Remember you must love. Perhaps not the predominant emotion in a remote island in the quarantined British Isles, but Spike (Alfie Williams) shows affection, and how. While the first half is about Spike and his father Jamie (Aaron Taylor Johnson) sussing out the mainland in a coming of age for the former, the second half is a far more emotional story of Spike getting is mother Isla (Jodie Comer) her deliverance. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland dont miss a beat in 28 Years Later. Spectacular work by Alfie. Unmissable for the apocalypse fans, with character arcs instead of pitched battles with violent hordes

16.5/20

Swan Lake grace

Eva Macarro (Ana de Armas) is orphaned early in life - and finds herself at the Continental Hotel and trained to be a assassin in Ballerina. Several slick but predictable assassin sequences later, Eva finds the mark of her father's killers on one assassin - which loops somehow to Baba Yaga (Keanu Reeves) and the Ruska Roma. Ana de Armas lacks the extreme physicality of Keanu Reeves and the smoldering rage, but covers some decent ground with litheness and improvisation. All in all a good watch but not necessarily unmissable

15/20