Over to the Shire

In 2001 began a journey for me, sitting in IIMB campus, with Frodo Baggins, aided by Aragorn, Legolas, the dwarves, and the one and only Gandalf. The journey ended with The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies. It is thus with a twinge of more than a little nostalgia, then, that I pen this review. Executed with the same standards of excellence that we have come to expect of the franchise, the latest movie is particularly notable for the emotional turns of Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) – the lure of gold, and the eventual return to nobility. In this edition, the five armies – dwarves, elves and men, face off against the orcs, and a fifth army joins and eventually tips the balance. Brilliant action scenes and depiction of the sheer ambiguity of alliances and their fall-outs make The Hobbit – The Battle of the Five Armies – quite exceptional. A must watch – but then if you have been with the series, that hardly needs any iteration

16/20

Frame by Frame

Not for a moment do I deny the cinematic quality, the excellent casting, the flawless special effects, and the sheer riveting spectacle that is The Hobbit - The Desolation of Smaug - the fifth installment of the LOTR/ Hobbit series. The issue is that we are perhaps too used to the excellence, and maybe the reader is left wondering just what justifiable reason could be given for stretching (by LOTR standards, a brief) novel to such lengthy proportions. Yes, it is a good watch while it is there. No, beyond a point, it is just pretty monotonous. A monotonous must-watch - a fate that i suspect that this Hollywood trend of milking franchises to the hilt will have to hear a lot more of

14.5/20

Real Motivation

It is hard going to create something relatively original in the action genre. And that is why Shawn Levy should be particularly proud. Real Steel showcases the cult of the fighting robot – from the third tier robots in bullfights, to global celebrity Zeus and its marketing and technology machine, the movie breaks something close to new ground in creating an action sub-genre. And the cast helps in no small measure – especially the now-on now-off father-son duo of Charlie (Hugh Jackman) and Max Kenton (Dakota Goyo). Charlie’s best days as a boxer – robot or otherwise – appear firmly behind him. Till Max comes back into his life, and shows him once again what it is to fight for what one believes in. Real Steel is about the old adages of how it is never too late to try, and why one should never ever give up

15.5/20

Bombs, Away

Like Enemy at the Gates (snipers), The Hurt Locker focuses on a single war-zone (Iraq, circa today) and one category of soldier (bomb detection squads). Unlike the morality tales like Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom and Body of Lies, there is no lesson purported to be delivered herein. This is about the intensity, and the role of each of the members of an elite bomb detection squad, in the heat of combat. Unavoidably, the groups gets embroiled in other aspects of war that is strictly not their domain, such as sniping across vast expanses of desert, or giving chase to bombers across dark urban alleyways in the dead of the night. The spirit of the group is epitomized by Sgt Matt Thompson – who returns injured and cussing from the epicenter of battle to home and family, and then in an epiphanic moment in a supermarket, decides to return to the Bravo Company for another 365 day stint at what he really loves doing. Great “action” sequences delivered with a deliberate lack of melodrama

14.5/20