One in a Million (or at least in a few dozen..)

Albert (Seth McFarlane) is the quintessential misfit in the harsh Wild West – a well-read polished gentleman who tries to reason his way out of gunfights, much to the chagrin of bemused on-lookers who have come for a day’s entertainment i.e. watching one of the duelers die. Sheep farmer by profession, and spurned by gold digging girlfriend Louise (Amanda SeyFreid), Albert loses his heart to Anna (Charlize Theron), and almost his life to her husband – notorious outlaw Clinch (Liam Neeson). Hilarious in parts, crass in a few, eminently watchable and an unexpected winner overall – A Million Ways to Die in the West does not fail to remind you often enough that the Wild West really sucked..

14/20

Stop

The featureless Non-Stop reminds one of a dozen similar movies, keeps you waiting for the /breakway feature that never materializes. The one-great and now-shunned Air Marshal (Liam Neeson) needs to find a serial killer on board a plane. He does so eventually, after some knocking around of all of the passengers and crew. Truly non-descript

10.5/20

No Child’s Play

The Lego Movie does some extraordinary execution of the story of a child’s imagination. There is the simple guy – Emmet (Chris Pratt) – a construction worker whom no one notices. Emmet gets thrown into a chain of events that need him to become the Special – to find the Piece of Resistance and stop the Kragle, a weapon unleashed by Lord Business – and save the various realms of Lego world. With more than one innuendo, all of which unravel by the end of the movie, this one has more positive surprises than the "average" adult would think at the outset

14/20

Once more into the Fray…

 

 

In times when one’s existence in the real world is troubled, one watches a movie like The Grey. Simplicity itself. Ottway (Liam Neeson) leads six survivors of a plane crash – a rough and tough oil drilling crew – across the wilderness of Alaska towards possible safety. One by one, the grey wolves pick on them, decimating their numbers, apparently unmitigated by little heroic acts of bravery. So does man trump wolf or vice versa? The Grey simply suggests that it perhaps does not matter – “Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I'll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day” – authored by none other than the director of the movie (Joe Carnahan). Yes, live and die on this day. Based on the novel “Ghost Walker” by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers, The Grey is a stunning movie, elemental and stark. Like life at present – stark and elemental, and live and die on this day ergo, the rest of one's life

 

14.5/20

Lost and Found

A movie that is easy to explain! Here comes retired CIA Agent Brian Mills (Liam Neeson) with wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter Kim (Maggie Grace). In come the mafia – and after some accelerated sightseeing of the bazaars of Istanbul – take the wife and daughter hostage. Needless to say, the CIA will trump Albanian rouges no matter how well-trained the latter might be. It is only interesting that the same could possibly include grenades merrily thrown across rooftops in densely populated areas. I recall being mildly entertained while Taken 2 was on, but not much else.

 

10.5/20

Crosses and Nuts

Battleship Review #2:

Have you played Battleship sitting in a classroom, oblivious to some excruciatingly boring monotone? So, I have emotional attachments to Battleship, and when Hasbro’s eponymous game is turned into a movie, that for me is something to watch. While Alex Hopper (Taylor Kitsch) makes lieutenant and dates the beautiful Samantha (Brooklyn Decker), the latter is the daughter of Admiral Shane (Liam Neeson) and holds Alex in anything but high regard. The stage is set off the coast of Hawaii for Alex to prove himself, with an alien invasion in response to a terrestrial signal. So, Battleship is about impenetrable force fields and naval set-pieces and one lieutenant finally finding his feet and the courage to pop the question. And Battleship is fun to watch

13/20

Battle Stations

I saw the reviews of Battleship and was duly turned off. The movie turned me back on. In a sentence, I would describe this movie as a light take on alien invasion. The corvettes and destroyers are there aplenty, and the US and Japanese fleets show exemplary celluloid solidarity in seeking to destroy a near-impregnable alien fleet. There is all the Hollywood science in measured doses, but most of the movie just consists of Marine bravado, and much heavy air strikes and shelling. Battleship is an easy watch, and meant to be so. And, with the heavy metal soundtrack overlay and all, one leaves the hall suitably fulfilled by the popcorn fare

13/20

Better than a Life of Despair..

Deadbeat professor John Brennan (Russell Crowe) steps out for dinner with wife Lara (Elizabeth Banks), where the latter has a face-off with her boss. The next thing he knows – the boss is found murdered, and all the evidence points to his wife. Facing life imprisonment with stoic acceptance, Lara has not reckoned with the resourcefulness of her husband. After failing with lawyers and the right side of the law, John obsesses with getting Lara out of prison – and the country – by any means possible. The next few months are a blur of delirious effort, the horror of near-misses coupled with near-penury, and finally - when something is required by The Next Three Days, a breakthrough. But breaking out of prison is one matter – will the couple be able to re-unite with their child and find their way out of the United States? The extraordinary movie slows towards the middle to let the viewer soak in the consequences upon a family of justice denied, and then switches to a dramatic conclusion. Paul Haggis of Crash, Million Dollar Baby and Casino Royale fame pulls off an extraordinary movie –the extent of improbability of the escape cannot be better captured than by the quote from Don Quixote used in the movie – “'If we choose to exist in our own reality, are we insane? And if we are, isn't that better than a life of despair?'”. And Russell Crowe on his part shows all of the quiet resolve that made the likes of Cinderella Man and A Beautiful Mind such extraordinary movies

16.5/20

Titanic ask, passable effort

Perseus (Sam Worthington), son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), finds himself in a family of fishermen, and the latter are annihilated on the periphery of a battle of the kingdom of Argos with the Gods. The Gods have held sway over men for too long, and King Cepheus of Argos launches a campaign to destroy their all-pervasive influence. Faced by the destructive forces of Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and the Kraken, the king calls upon Perseus. Perseus with a band of remarkable men (the Titans) makes a perilous journey to the Stygian Witches, and based upon their advice, slays the Medusa and uses her head to destroy the Kraken and save Argos – not without some help from his father along the way – in the epic Clash of the Titans. Hades’ covert agenda is foiled and Perseus lives on as the hero of Argos. Like all other adaptations of Greek and Roman history and mythology, held to a very high standard, the movie does not make the cut. Notwithstanding the fact that all the characters play their parts admirably, and even the graphics hold together, the movie lacks emotional appeal – moving quickly through the milieu of characters and events. To be fair to the creators, the attempt has been to showcase the character of Perseus herein, rather than attempt a magnum opus. A decent watch, but not quite in the league of the timeless, as all heroes and their eulogies, be they mythology or movie, ought to be

12.5/20

Men without Women

Peter (Liam Neeson) has the perfect – or not quite so perfect – marriage with Lisa (Laura Linney) and Lisa is dying. All of a sudden, Peter has to contend with the trauma of the revealation that his wife’s various business trips were cover up for a raging 10-year long affair. Investigations lead to Ralph (Antonio Banderas) and what follows is a cat-and-mouse game where Peter tries to draw in his quarry to the final confession. It takes the eventual demise of Laura and subsequent vignettes, to uncover the fact that The Other Man was no other man at all. Intense exchanges between Neeson and Banderas – watch this movie if for no other reason than a study in the emoting ability of two great stars

12.5/20