Journey, Too

Vernians – fans of Jules Verne who believe in the Nautilius, the Mysterious Island, Atlantis and the like – have been squarely relegated to the children’s section of the action-adventure genre. Hank (Dwayne Johnson) and stepson Sean (Josh Hutcherson) share a terse relationship – and finally manage to find a connect by finding references to a mysterious island that links the works of no less than RL Stevenson, Jonathan Swift, and (of course) Jules Verne. With a hop step and jump to Pulau, with the blessings of mom Liz (Kristn Davis) of course, the duo find help in helicopter operator Gabato (Luis Guzman) and his delectable daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens). Journey 2 – The Mysterious Island - turns out to be a source of much death-defying adventure – all of it incredulous, and, after a point, none of it interesting. By the time the lot gets off the island, one may be faulted for thinking its not a moment too soon

10/20

Punched Down

If I interpret Sucker Punch as the generally mindless action entertainment genre, full of innuendo and game-like action sequences, the movie is a pretty solid achievement. On the other hand, if the movie was meant to be an insight into the overly imaginative workings of a girl’s mind, who is the victim of just about all the abuse and mis-accusations that a human can bear, this movie makes a mockery of Baby Doll’s (Emily Browning’s) condition. So, staying on middle ground, if the movie is simply an uncomplicated meshing of erotic action genre meets loosely scripted morality tale, this movie is a reasonably entertaining watch. Babydoll is institutionalized by her stepfather, in a mental institution. While in real life she mesmerizes audiences with a particularly erotic dance routine, behind the scenes she and a small band of fellow inmates plot an escape. Every stage of the execution of the plan is depicted as a clichéd action sequence played out in Babydoll’s overly active imagination. Zack Snyder unfortunately does not quite pull off this one into 300 and Watchmen-class exceptional category 12/20