The Linguist

Here is the rarest of rare opportunities for linguist Louise (Amy Adams) to show her consummate skills in interpreting cephalopod alien language. With some assistance from Ian (Jeremmy Renner), army physicist, Louise gets going on the path to preventing global catastrophe, finding love, and perhaps seeing the future. Somewhere down the line Arrival loses the script in terms of delivering a true emotional connect, Perhaps it is a lot less overwhelming than critics are currently making of it. In a genre that is increasingly taking off, this is no The Martian nor Interstellar

13.5/20

Action Unlimited

Do we really need to get into the script here? The irrepressible Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr) with his equally irrepressible one-liners. Captain America (Chris Evans) and The Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) shoulder to shoulder in their fight against evil – well, at least till and when the Hulk is is one of his moods. The irrepressible Thor (Chris Helmsworth) and the gorgeous Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) round off the superhero set. The mission – to stop Loki (Tom Hiddleston) in his tracks as he hunts for the Tesseract – a source of great and dangerous power. Never a dull moment (would have been a travesty with this cast), and an all-out commercial entertainer, The Avengers, needless to say, was a resounding success of 2012

13/20

Another Mission Possible

Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) begins Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol with a little help from his friends in getting out of a Russian prison. However, on a subsequent routine if difficult assignment in Russia, things go awry, and the IMF suddenly finds itself under Ghost Protocol – disavowed at the best of times, they are now on their own and behind enemy lines. Under the circumstances, the prospect of thwarting a warmonger’s evil plans to trigger a nuclear apocalypse seem remote indeed. Something that will necessitate a trip to Dubai and – hold your breath – Mumbai – to get things moving. This MI edition will stick in your memory for two distinct reasons. One is the Burj Khalifa – the tallest building in the world – and some rather unforgettable feats related to the same. The other is our very own Anil Kapoor in a meaningful if comic role. Overall, in the copybook thriller mould, Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol does not disappoint, but does not attempt any transmogrification of the genre either 13.5/20

No Way Out

Is there a way out of a lifetime of crime? Not in Charlestown, Boston, it appears. DougMacRay (Ben Affleck), longtime crook, leads a successful heist on a local bank, and then another, in The Town. But, life gets complicated as Doug gets romantically involved with one former heist hostage - bank manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall). An uncertain relationship with an imprisoned father who never quite reveals the truth about why his mother left, and then the ghost of old relationships with people with whom he would rather not associate with any longer, further complicate Doug’s existence. In the meantime, the FBI have their quarry, but continually want for evidence. Unremarkable fare albeit well-executed, with fairly standard treatment of the subject matter

12/20

Bombs, Away

Like Enemy at the Gates (snipers), The Hurt Locker focuses on a single war-zone (Iraq, circa today) and one category of soldier (bomb detection squads). Unlike the morality tales like Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom and Body of Lies, there is no lesson purported to be delivered herein. This is about the intensity, and the role of each of the members of an elite bomb detection squad, in the heat of combat. Unavoidably, the groups gets embroiled in other aspects of war that is strictly not their domain, such as sniping across vast expanses of desert, or giving chase to bombers across dark urban alleyways in the dead of the night. The spirit of the group is epitomized by Sgt Matt Thompson – who returns injured and cussing from the epicenter of battle to home and family, and then in an epiphanic moment in a supermarket, decides to return to the Bravo Company for another 365 day stint at what he really loves doing. Great “action” sequences delivered with a deliberate lack of melodrama

14.5/20