Not your Average Game

Andrew Ender Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) is blessed (?) with the right quotient of aggression that could wipe the Formics off the face of the universe and once and for all avenge the pogrom they unleashed upon mankind. A series of trials (in near earth space in zero gravity) create the atmosphere for somewhat incongruous preparations for a final assault. And in the latter, the line between fiction and reality becomes increasingly blurred in Ender’s Game. While mildly interesting, clearly did not bowl me over unlike all the hype

13/20

True Colours

Pet chameleon Rango falls off his owner’s vehicle in the middle of the desert, and finds his thespian skills – well, all skills – tested to the hilt in the obscure desert town of Dirt. A series of serendipitous circumstances make the denizens of Dirt believe that they have a hero in Rango, who will solve their water problem and save the town. However, while Rango’s first few lucky exploits reinforce his reputation, luck soon runs out and he has to find his true calling – aided by the Spirit of the West – a Man with No Name (a spoof on Clint Eastwood and the likes and a moment of much hilarity among many in the movie), Rango returns to much distrust. But will Rango help provide not just water, but unravel the machinations of the unscrupulous as well? An all-star cast (albeit only in voice-over), hilarious characters (with the piece de resistance being the out-of-the-world hombre owl band - see above pix), laugh-a-minute jokes, and some serious storytelling included – this one is quite the exceptional animation movie. Too bad it is trailing Rio in the 2011 summer animation release sweepstakes

14.5/20

Fun with the Dead

Zombieland is a horror-comedy on America becoming a land of zombies, and four survivors coming together in the unlikeliest of circumstances. The protagonist, Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a self-confessed loner and survivor of many encounters with the zombies through a set of rules that he has made for himself, meets Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a trigger happy zombie killer on his quest for hometown, Twinkies, and the erasing of the memories of a lost son. They meet two sisters Wichita and Little Rock (Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin), whose survival strategy happens to be conning the last few survivors (which includes Columbus and Tallahassee), and whose objective is to find their way to Pacific Playland, an amusement park. Through deepening ties in the face of mistrust, and faux pas’ such as killing Bill Murray by accident, the movie ends with a scene of climactic encounters at the amusement park, and the realization all round that without life’s little pleasures, and people you can call family, perhaps we would rather all be zombies. But this is no morality tale, this is an interesting little movie taking the hackneyed zombie theme and bringing it all together rather nicely. Expect Planet Terror style gutwrenching visuals, and moments of genuine human emotion

13.5/20