Racing spirit

Great innuendo on the title “Race”. Great execution by Disney – the studio, like Jesse Owens (Stephan James), cuts no corners on its way to four gold medals. Simplistic to a fault, because the underlying story itself is so shockingly compelling/ inspiring. Kudos all round

15.5/20

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

How Horrible

Nick (Jason Bateman) has a psychotic boss in Dave Harley (Kevin Spacey) – the latter promotes himself into a post that he has been holding up to his subordinate as a carrot all the while. Dental assistant (!) Dale (Charlie Day) has a man-eater of a boss in dentist Julia (Jennifer Aniston) who is out to “deflower” him and end his relationship. Lastly, Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) has an unworthy inheritor in Bobby (Colin Farrell) for a boss, who is all out to run Kurt and the business to the ground. All the three, in a fit of frustration, decide to kill their bosses. But our protagonists here are hardly the experts when it comes to crime. So while they roll out their grand plans, beginning with surveillance and moving on to actual execution, almost everything that can go wrong does. The outcome, however, is reasonably logical, while surprising. With an all-star cast (of bosses), Horrible Bosses is a lighthearted take at the all-too-familiar reality of utterly intolerable workplaces

13/20