Travails on Silk Route

Dragon Blade is an ambitious "Asian" attempt at measuring up the might of an "Asian" alliance - Chinese, Indians, Huns, Parthians - against the power and might of the Roman Empire and the latter's warring factions - in a face-off to control the fate of the fabled Silk Road, during the Han Dynasty. Keeper of the Peace along the Silk Road - Huo An (Jackie Chan) - finds himself first at odds with Roman general Lucius (John Cusack) and then inseparable allies with the latter, as they join hands against the imperialist ambitions of Tiberius (Adrien Brody). Quite the entertainer, and a niche hit, with the realism of hand to hand combat being the positive highlight, that is somewhat marred by some kinks and melodrama in the storyline

14.5/20

Darjeeling?? Never mind.

This is not a 2010/ 2011 movie, but thought I would put in a little note in any case. A train that looks suspiciously like the Palace on Wheels, and travels entirely through scrubland and desert, incongruously named The Darjeeling Limited, is the focal point of the movie by the same name. The train is the meeting point of brothers Francis (Owen Wilson), Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzmann). With misunderstandings of the past, including events related to their estranged and semi-ascetic mother, and their father’s funeral, on their minds, the trio spend a few days on the Indian subcontinent, in seeking bonding and certain inner realizations available in the Indian Subcontinent to occidentals. One can watch it as an apt precursor to Slumdog Millionaire, a movie made with equally amazingly miniscule empathy with India (with due leeway for the fact that the movie in question is principally intended to be a comedy), but one that nevertheless strikes a chord with an audience that is equally ignorant

7.5/10

Species #2

Elsa (Sarah Polley) and Clive (Adrien Brody) are two brilliant genetic engineers who have created a mutant animal – product of a Splice between the DNA of two animals. Rather than being sequestered into mundane research and protein extraction from the said animal, as is the diktat of their firm, the two scientists – who are also in a relationship – go for the kill – trying to generate the product of spliced human DNA. They succeed, but the product – which carries Elsa’s DNA – is not quite what they had envisaged. Dren (Delphine Chaneac) – the product - is a highly intelligent semi-human creature, that is amphibious and carries a toxic sting. Dren evokes maternal love from Elsa, and, given her genetic antecedents, a very different kind of love from Clive, even as the two scientists struggle to conceal the results of their experiment from their company and the world at large. Eventually Dren metamorphoses into something else altogether – and the same has tragic consequences for the couple, but is an extremely profitable outcome for their company. Yet another horror story of mutation gone wrong, and not a particularly well-made story, at that

12/20

To Err (repeatedly) is Human

Newly out of work Travis (Adrien Brody) finds himself volunteering for a paid experiment, with the promise of $ 1000/ day of compensation, for a period of 14 days. The study – to play the role of one of the prisoners as part of an experiment, wherein other volunteers, notably Barris (Forest Whittaker) act as the guards. In an experiment where the only restrictions on prisoners include never speaking to guards unless spoken to, and finishing all of their food, simple transgressions take an ugly turn as the prisoners led by Travis grapple with one diabetic in their midst, the uncertain food, et al, while the guards led by Barris take increasingly violent and regressive steps to address what they see as a growing challenge to their authority. In an experiment that would ostensibly terminate on the first hint of violence, much blood is shed before the same comes to an abrupt halt, and the movie trails off with a call to justice. With overtones of America’s reality of Guantanomo Bay, and movies such as Blindness, The Experiment shows just how degenerate a regular group of humans can become in a setting that has the slightest hint of an imbalance of power. A good movie that makes for some really heavy viewing

13.5/20

Out of this World… ?!

Ex Pianist (Adrien Brody) is paratrooped into an alien world, and soon finds himself in the company of the earth equivalent of Predators – cannot help quoting from Gladiator – “ferocious mercenaries and warriors from all brute nations”. They decide to work together – and soon find to their consternation that they are not on a terrestrial forest as they might have imagined. The plot thickens with predator dogs, rogue humans and traps of many descriptions. In the end human morality is called into question – and questions answered. And, as in all previous installments, there are many engaging action scenes, and some but not many survivors. With generous credits to the original throughout the movie through a vast (all?) number of “inspired” scenes and characters, this is a reasonably entertaining movie, but difficult to identify a single feature or character that was truly striking. On to a hopefully better next edition

10.5/20