The Spectacle that is Spectre

James Bond (Daniel Craig) kicks off his search for the elusive secret organization Spectre in the midst of the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico City. The search takes him across to Rome, where Ernst Blofeld (Christoph Waltz) engages him in a cat and mouse game that finally culminates back in London. Bond affictionados are in familiar territory (or are they?) - the title song (by Sam Smith, male), the Bond girls - Lucia Sciarra (Monica Belucci), and Madeleine Swann (Lea Seydoux), the latter highly accomplished in medicine and hardly a wilting violet by any stretch of the imagination, the gadgetry from Q - and Bond inevitably taking some liberties with them. In the balance of things, Spectre is an understated good watch, with Daniel Craig showing clear signs of ageing though. That for me was the only point of disappointment with what was otherwise a fine movie.

15/20

Save the Forest

A dismissive Katherine (Amanda Seyfried) comes to visit her father Professor Bomba (Jason Sudeikis), who is apparently obsessed with the war between the Leaf-Men – led by Ronin (Colin Farrell) – protectors of the forest – and the Boggans – destroyers of the forest – led by Mandrake (Christoph Waltz) – all of which Katherine considers figments of her father’s imagination. The Boggans go one up on the Leaf-men by taking out the Queen of the forest (Beyonce Knowles), and it is up to a (much-diminished) Amanda and her father to bring in some timely intervention and save the trees and those that, well, protect them. Based on William Joyce’s The Leaf Men and the Brave Good Bugs, Epic is the children’s movie for the ongoing summer holidays – not breathtaking or deep, just pretty well made

13.5/20

The Strangest Resistance

Colonel Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) gives a stunning performance in Tanantino’s latest – Inglourious Basterds, - that sees alternate history as two parallel and similar plots are hatched to put an end to the Third Reich. Rather limited in the insanity quotient, and actually serious in parts, the plot revolves around the Nazi-killer team led by Lt Aldo Raine (Brad Pitt) and their encounters. Typical chapter-based Tarantino narration – the first scene about the purge and introduction to the central character of menace, the long scene and encounter wrt Bridget von Hammersmark (Diane Kruger) in the basement, the showdown between Hans Landa and the German actress, are the most memorable. The inexplicable fact of Shoshanna owning a theater in the heart of Paris explained away rather trivially, the sharpshooter Pvt Frederick Zoller (Daniel Bruhl) and his mixed emotions, the ramblings on Goebbels’ propaganda, the strange silouhette of Marcel and his giant pile of inflammable film make sure that Tarantino’s quirky touch is very much alive and kicking. A mellower, more circumspect Tarantino, but enough to keep fans engaged

15.5/20