Finding Character

Finding oneself is a journey, and even Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds) hides low self-esteem and ADHD behind layers and layers of trash talk. A used car salesman with all of nine people in his life – Deadpool gets transported to a different timeline to find the Anchor Being (Wolverine (Hugh Jackman)) – however the instance of the multiverse where this rather tenuous association between Deadpool and Wolverine is to be is called the Void – a Mad Max-esque (with credits) world where one Cassandra Nova (Emma Corrin) turns out to be the arch-villain. With many other characters such as X23 (Dafne Keen), Elektra (Jennifer Garner), The Human Torch (Chris Evans) and Gambit (Channing Tatum) in tow. Adequately entertaining, with a reasonable storyline and engaging renditions of 70’s and 80’s music (think Like a Prayer to Time of Your Life), this is saving the hackneyed Marvel franchise – for now. As with the multiverse and our timeline in the story. High marks for energy

15.5/20

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

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

Puncturing Lives

A needle stick is a regular occurrence across US hospitals – health workers getting accidentally pricked with patient needles – and diseases like AIDS and Hepatitis B spreading as a result. In addition, continued use of plastic, as opposed to glass, syringes, meant that re-use without sterilization was also leading to a large number of needless deaths especially in the poorer countries. So when Mike Weiss (Chris Evans) and Paul Danziger (Mark Kassen) and their small Texas-based personal-liability focused law firm take up the cause of scientist Jefferey Dancort (Marshall Bell) and his safety needle, their case, at the outset, seems to be quite in the clear. What the duo and their client have not reckoned with are the brute forces of the organized healthcare industry, and their deep reach into both the political and legal systems. With their law firm virtually on the brink of bankruptcy, and a somewhat wearied Paul increasingly pitted against an unrelenting Mike, does the duo actually manage to pull off a David-vs-Goliath? Post The Lincoln Lawyer, Puncture is the best law movie that I have come across, and in the nature of those (movies) that suffer without an exalted cast and special effects, vastly under-rated

14/20