Be Real

Sitting with Rikk sleeping on my lap, on a Sunday evening, I wished for my very own six-year old that he always remains Divergent – at least all of Erudite, Dauntless and Abnegate. And this is where this piece of teen fiction-turned-movie is a winner for me. It has a core thesis – a rarity and a great find – and some great acting in terms of a very central lead Beatrice Prior (Shailene Woodley), who, with the weight of being a Divergent, has to find an acceptable path for herself, her affections, and her world. Well-paced, reasonably authentic, somewhat gripping, a must-watch

15/20

GI makeover

The all-American franchise quickly dumps Duke (Channing Tatum) in the wild wastes of Pakistan, and the Rock takes over from there. In their biggest challenge yet, surviving Joes Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Flint (DJ Cotrona) and Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) team up with Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Jinx (Elodie Yung) and unexpectedly Storm Shadow (Byung-hun Lee), to take out the threat of Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) and an impostor US President (Jonathan Pryce), bent on doling out annihilation – nuclear or otherwise. The Nuclear Summit involving all key heads of state becomes the battleground for the final showdown between good and evil, with much noise and fanfare and pump-up music. Oh, and an honorable mention to General Joseph Colton (Bruce Willis), apparently the founding father of the Joes. Watch GI Joe: Retaliation for nothing in particular besides well-executed action sequences

12/20

Bring Home the Book

Eli (Denzel Washington) is a lonely man in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. He hunts his own food, and works his way westwards across the wasteland that America has become. Also, he carries a King James Bible – The Book of Eli – and through many readings of it comes to know of its power to motivate, and it becomes his purpose to hand the book to that which lies west. On the way he reaches a hick-town dominated by one tyrant – Carnegie (Gary Oldman) – who is in search of the book himself, as he looks for a means to control the minds of people. On threat of much pain to the mother (Jennifer Beals) he sends daughter Solara (Mila Kunis) on an errand to find out more about Eli. Eli and Solara end up destroying the little evil empire of Carnegie, and deliver the Book into safe hands that hopefully hold the key to humanity. Very clearly a very Catholic movie for the God-fearing kind, the morality tale does not fall through because it never is pretentious nor pompous, but continues in the even dark backdrop and, adjusted for our general cynicism with all things religious, leaves us with a spattering of hope

12.5/20