Knife's Edge

Knives Out has celebrity detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) solves (sort of) a whodunit at a remote suburb where a family - largely underserving in spades - looks forward to an inheritance from patriarch Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) - with a cast that includes a wastrel grandson in Ransom Drysdale (Chris Evans) and a near invisible domestic help in Marta (Ana de Armas) with ponderables of her own, it is an interesting if not extraordinary feat of deductive reasoning with a touch of the copybook thriller. Worth a watch, but Andhadhun (Hindi) or Badla (Hindi) frankly do a better job...

















13/20

The Spectacle that is Spectre

James Bond (Daniel Craig) kicks off his search for the elusive secret organization Spectre in the midst of the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City. The search takes him across to Rome, where Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) engages him in a cat and mouse game that finally culminates back in London. Bond affictionados are in familiar territory (or are they?) - the title song (by Sam Smith, male), the Bond girls - Lucia Sciarra (Monica Belucci), and Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), the latter highly accomplished in medicine and hardly a wilting violet by any stretch of the imagination, the gadgetry from Q - and Bond inevitably taking some liberties with them. In the balance of things, Spectre is an understated good watch, with Daniel Craig showing clear signs of ageing though. That for me was the only point of disappointment with what was otherwise a fine movie.

15/20

A Lesser Bond

 

 

Skyfall questions the need for a 007 almost from the word go. Knocks him off a train roof – a shot gone astray, and one that goes unrepented – on the outskirts of Istanbul. Dumps him in London, with his eponymous boss M under threat, and a world of clunky gadgetry replaced with the simple elegance of tracking devices and technology. Age and a declining constitution do not help either. Bond picks up his bearings and chases his quarry – agent gone rogue Silva (Javier Bardem) – into Shanghai, and then Macau. And finally back to good old England, where M liberally borrows from Ulyysses and frankly admits that “we are not the strength that in old days moved earth and heaven…” but promises to continue to “strive to seek to find and not to yield”… even as the climactic scenes drift towards the Scottish moors and the hints of a bleak history. Skyfall is interesting – disconcerting at first, because of its deliberate eschewing of flamboyance, but in the end fairly successful at keeping the franchise relevant

 

14.5/20

Tintin’s Back!

When an animated Herge holds up a sketch of the old and familiar Tintin to his new-age avatar, the comparison between two eras of amination could not be more pronounced. First things first. The Adventures of Tintin will be an unadulterated commercial and critical success. This movie leverages off today’s animation capabilities to resurrect an iconic character. The story is a loose adaptation of The Secret of the Unicorn and while much is familiar –including the story of Red Rachkam vs Sir Francis Haddock, there is a lot else that has been introduced or tweaked in the plot including the introduction of much of the unforgettable cast of characters of the series (with the possible exception of Professor Calculus). Diehard Tintin fans will also have a field day spotting the many references and trivia in the movie in relation to other books of the series. The incendiary combination of Spielberg and Peter Jackson combine for a masterpiece, and you will relive the unabashed adventure that is the Tintin comic. Suffice to say – do not miss this one

16.5/20

Quantum of Entertainment

The James Bond movie is measured to a near impossible benchmark. Literally anything could kill the next installment – too much violence or too little, plot too weak or too abstruse, the lead too stiff or too much swagger, too little that is new or too far from the traditional Bond elements. Thankfully, Quantum of Solace, like Casino Royale and unlike the Brosnan editions, does not look like a directorial tightrope trying to manage all these elements. The story is predictable but taut and watchable. The villains are malicious without being over the top. The women are attractive without being come hither. There are two elements of the movie that I could not help noticing. First, Americans being portrayed as outright villains, which is rare. Second, the Bond girl simply takes his leave and them parting ways somewhat Western-style and not Bond-style. This is a good movie in its own right, and as long as you stop running comparatives in your head in the theater, you will do all right.