Abandoned or Alone?

Mary (Brittany Murphy) heads to the hospital for her boyfriend Kevin’s (Dean Cain) orthopaedic surgery. Directed to a wing that’s under renovation, she leaves him off for the operation – and hours later, is unable to find any trace of him. A frantic series of enquiries with nurses, the reception, and the hospital authorities as to his whereabouts is to no avail. Eventually her searches draw the wrong kind of attention – her behavioral patterns are questioned, and she is on the verge of being labeled as depressive and her behavior hallucinatory. But is that the truth? Or is something much more sinister at play? While you will not be surprised at the overall outcome in Abandoned, you may well be at the degree of depravity that it portrays. A strictly B Grader and timepass movie, good for home DVD, not quite the stuff you will want a full blown outing around. The movie trails off with a tribute to Brittany Murphy, who died tragically last year at the tender age of 32

10/20

Of Ghosts and Political Intrigue

Never expected an ordinary movie from Roman Polanski. Got as close to one as he has ever made. Based on the novel by Robert Harris, The Ghost Writer (Ewan McGregor) picks up an assignment to write the memoirs of the former British Prime Minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan), a character based, by Robert Harris’ self-admission, on Tony Blair. The Ghost, though somewhat shaken by the fact that his predecessor on the assignment died under somewhat mysterious circumstances, embarks on his intrepid enquires to get to the bottom of the mysteries in Adam Lang’s life. The search for the truth is made more intriguing by the Ghost’s possession of his predecessor’s manuscript – and the several obvious attempts that unknown people are making to dispossess him of the same. Adam Lang, in terms of political affiliation, was indistinguishable from the US in terms of political ideology – but was there more to that aspect than met the eye? And who else was involved in the same? Travel bleak landscapes and sinister people in the Ghost’s search for the truth

12/20

Lights Camera and All Action

If The Expendables were to be renamed, An Ode to Action may well suit. Sylvester Stallone pulls together a panoply of stars – some current (Jason Statham) others of yesteryears (Dolph Lundgren) – all from the world of action. The overlay is a deliberately loose storyline – opening with a quick sequence on nailing a band of Somali pirates, and then getting down to the business of ending a dictatorship and the dealings of a rogue CIA agent, in an island country in South America. While Barney Ross (Stallone) and Lee Christmas (Statham) form the lead pair, the cast and crew of good guys – Yang (Jet Li), Toll Road (Randy Couture), tattooman Tool (Mickey Rourke) and cameos from Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger – is only matched by the evil bunch of Gunner (Dolph Lundgren), James Munroe (Eric Roberts) and Paine (Steve Austin). Fans will remember the movie for the one-man (or few-man) army sequences that have been missing since Rambo took a breather in Afghanistan. Sharp action, wholesome entertainment, and largely interesting dialogue – while Mickey Rourke is not quite his impactful self, Dolph Lundgren with “Insect..” was interesting. Don’t miss this little milestone in action movie history from a living legend

13.5/20

Smokin’ Good

Smokin’ Aces 2 – Assassins Ball is PJ Pesce’s (PJ who?) attempt at Tarantino. While PJ does not pull that one off (phew!), he does manage to put together a rockin’ good movie. Walter Weed (Tom Berenger) is a nondescript paper pusher in the FBI and the latter discover a bounty on his head – with a sell-by date. Led by the intrepid Agent Baker (Clayne Clawford), will the duo manage to keep out a set of remarkable assassins – The Tremor family, Tommy Flanagan (Lazlo Soot) and Martha Higareda (Ariella) among others? Be prepared for over-the-top stylized action sequences through this one... and what makes the movie somewhat above the mundane genre replicator, is the genuine effort to showcase the gradual unraveling of a background – why is there a bounty on the head of a desk clerk? More to it than meets the eye

13.5/20

Out of this World… ?!

Ex Pianist (Adrien Brody) is paratrooped into an alien world, and soon finds himself in the company of the earth equivalent of Predators – cannot help quoting from Gladiator – “ferocious mercenaries and warriors from all brute nations”. They decide to work together – and soon find to their consternation that they are not on a terrestrial forest as they might have imagined. The plot thickens with predator dogs, rogue humans and traps of many descriptions. In the end human morality is called into question – and questions answered. And, as in all previous installments, there are many engaging action scenes, and some but not many survivors. With generous credits to the original throughout the movie through a vast (all?) number of “inspired” scenes and characters, this is a reasonably entertaining movie, but difficult to identify a single feature or character that was truly striking. On to a hopefully better next edition

10.5/20

Not Eclipsed Yet

Like vampires, this series refuses to die. In The Twilight Saga – Eclipse, Bella Swan (Kristin Stewart) has figured that she does want to be a vampire – after graduation of course – to be together evermore with her one (of two true loves) – Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). This is taken none too kindly by Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) who makes no secret of his love, and his intentions of thwarting the above alliance. In the meantime, rogue newborns (new vampires) run amok in Seattle, and it takes the full power and might of a token skirmish to bring law and order back to the world. I have been informed that there is a fourth installment on its way, and have promised myself to avoid it under all circumstances. But this is the issue with sequels – they are so smartly spaced out, that you sometimes forget how pathetic the previous edition was..

7/20

Salt It.

Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie)’s talent for the action heroine is obvious, her choice of plot is two decades too late. Evelyn Salt is at the very least a double agent, but is she a triple agent? It is distressing that every aspect of the plot seems to have been drawn from some currently irrelevant Cold War cliché, and, in spite of the same, some of the sequences are barely believable. Cut to the story. An interrogation of a Russian defector reveals that the CIA interrogator – Evelyn – is possibly a double agent (why he gives this information voluntarily to the CIA at large is but one of the faux pas of the movie). In any case, Evelyn performs her dubious role admirably in battling the forces of law and order while fulfilling her near-impossible assassination missions through various decent to good action sequences, and suffice to say that many realities are stretched. When you have finished yawning through the Defcon II and suicide bomber and Universal Soldier-like sequences, the movie trails off rather ambitiously in the quest for a sequel. All the best on that one, Evelyn

10/20

Racy Romance

Racy script full of, well, races. Beautiful locales - Azores, Seville, some Americana, Salzburg.. good looking cast of Roy Miller (Tom Cruise) and June Havens (Cameron Diaz). Knight and Day is at heart basically a romance built through successive action sequences. So where does it all start. June,on her way home to her sister's wedding, meets Roy at the airport and as co-passenger in a flight that... crashes. June's simple life becomes somewhat complicated as she first works at shaking off Roy and the associated baggage of villians, and then works at survival with him in tow. Entertaining, simple, not much to be said of it besides.. a simple movie for a rainy Saturday evening with hotdogs at the movies and baby in bed

12/20

Character Assassins

With brushstrokes that occasionally border on the noir in the unlikeliest of settings for the same, Assassination of A High School President profiles the socially inept Bobby Funke (Reece Thompson) as the unlikely protagonist as a wannabe journalist – looking for a breakthrough article for the school paper, Funke embarks on an investigation centered around stolen SAT papers, and zeroes in on Paul Moore (Patrick Taylor) as the culprit. But things are not quite what they seem, and with heightened suspicions, not least caused by the behavior of Paul’s girlfriend Francesca (Mischa Barton) and stepbrother Marlon (Luke Grimes), a plot is unearthed that is considerably larger than anticipated, and leads Funke into personal danger followed by adulation. An unlikely candidate for an interesting movie – do not expect a teen flick here – and in case you have a compelling need to watch movies with star power only, Bruce Willis as Principal Kirkpatrick plays a significant if not central role in the movie

14/20

Play, United

The World Cup of Football just got over, and, for the moment, the world does not doubt the capability of sport to unite nations in a shared passion. However, uniting a nation – South Africa - in the midst of cataclysmic change – through sport is another matter altogether. With an insecure and newly disenfranchised white population, and a newly liberated but deeply suspicious black population, Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) turns to the captain of the national rugby team – Francois Piennar (Matt Damon) with a mission – win the world cup of rugby. A victory would unite a nation torn by decades of deep-rooted animosity, in a manner that no change in law or governance could possibly accomplish. Another brilliant and award-winning film by Clint Eastwood, and moving like only sports movies can be – the spirit of the movie (and its name) is no better captured than by William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus – No matter how straight the gate/ or charged with adventures the scroll/ I am the master of my fate/ I am the captain of my soul

15.5/20

Dream Merchants

Leonardo DiCaprio (Cobb) continues his winning streak with Inception – a taut sci-fi thriller about men that construct dreams and through them seek to prise out the secrets of their fellow men. Lured by Saito’s (Ken Watanabe) promise of being re-united with his children, Cobb embarks on a mission fraught with danger – the inception of an idea in Saito’s arch-rival Robert Fischer Jr (Cillian Murphy) – to break up the latter’s business empire. Aided by a core team including architect Ardiane (Ellen Page), Cobb and his team must travel successive levels of dreams to seed the idea – and see the fruition of the same in the real world. However, the memories of Mal (Marion Cotillard), the ex-wife of Cobb, cloud Cobb’s presence and his dream, and imperil the success of the mission. With the slightest hint of the Matrix, and of Shutter Island (the movie trails off in a fashion where the eventual truth is unclear), this is a carefully crafted movie with moments of brilliance, and sterling performances all round. But good enough to be cult?.. as in Matrix/ Dark Knight class? Didnt think so.

14.5/20

Iron Age - Part II

Director Jon Favreau clearly realizes that he has a good (read lucrative) thing going, and wants to keep his powder dry for later installments, as far as Iron Man 2– the second installment of the irrepressible Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark aka Iron Man, is concerned. This superhero clearly differentiates himself from the rest of the save-the-world pack on two counts (a) his identity is out in the open (b) he is singularly immodest. With a cast that clearly “trades up” from the first installment, Iron Man II runs through Tony’s idiosyncratic jaunts, in particular handing over the Stark empire to Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) on what appears to be a whim, and an impulsive participation in the Monaco GP that reveals potential supervillian Ivan Vanko (Mickey Rourke). Lt Col James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) brings the voice of reason, the Hammer empire headed by the unscrupulous Justin Hammer (Sam Rockwell) is all about bare-knuckles corporate rivalry, and Natalie Rushman (Scarlett Johansson) ups the glamour quotient substantially. Endnote – this movie keeps you wholesomely entertained, and waiting for more from Tony Stark. Mission accomplished for now
13/20

Universal quandaries, Irish soul

I caught this movie on a flight, and then had a hard time tracking it down – the unknown cast, and the fact that no one I know has come close to watching this movie, did not help. In Happy Ever Afters, a wedding reception brings two couples close – one is re-marrying the same guy on somewhat dubious grounds, the other is a single mother in an unlikely pairing with an African American for purely commercial (read, legit immigration) reasons. Through a series of faux-pas and misunderstandings, the weddings both culminate in an unlikely turn of events. In the process, each of the cast gets to know the others a lot better, and finally come to terms with who they are and what they really want. A rare comedy that is hilarious nearly in full, while delving deep into believable characters, all delightfully Irish, and carefully develops their interrelationships and the eventual outcome. You could watch this movie for laughs, for understanding marriages, or for a hilarious take on the Irish, and be none the worse for it. If it was not for the utterly unknown cast, this should have been a must-release in India

14.5/20

Get that Marriage Right

Remember Tina Fey? The woman who rocked the world by her hilarious impersonations of Sarah Palin? Well, here is Tina Fey as Claire Foster, in a quiet New Jersey existence with husband Phil Foster (Steve Carrell). A humdrum daily routine, quiet careers, a book club, and a Date Night every week make up their existence. This movie is about one date night that does not quite go as planned. Driven by an irrepressible desire to try something different, the couple head off to New York for a dinner at the super-exclusive “Claw” and pose as the Tripplehorns (?) in order to get a table. Accosted by two perfect strangers who believe that they are actually the Tripplehorns, Phil and Claire find themselves running for their lives across New York at night. Diving headlong into adventure, and with a little help from security expert Holbrooke Grant (Mark Wahlberg), the couple end up heroes in an unlikely adventure that, while unraveling intrigue at the highest levels in the big city, more importantly, rekindles their romance. This movie would have been a forgettable popcorn flick except for the universally recognizable nuances thrown in, about marriages and why stress arises in them, and how couples who want to make it work, well, can. Have fun with this one

13/20

Body of Lies II

Chief Warrant officer Roy Miller (Matt Damon) finds himself stonewalled when repeated missions to unearth weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in post-war Baghdad draw a blank, in the Green Zone. An impassionate representation to that effect to his superiors falls on deaf ears – well, almost. CIA officer Martin Brown (Brendan Gleeson) lets Roy know that his hunch (about WMDs or the absence of them) is right, and a related tip-off by an Iraqi national leads Roy to the formidable Al-Rawi (Yigal Naor) of the Republican Guards. Fast-paced chases ensue – the murky truth behind the very core of why America went to war against Iraq is unearthed. Loosely based on true events, Matt Damon again pulls off an anchor role with effortless panache. The movie continues a series of takes on the dubious warmongering by America in Iraq/ Middle East on the lines of The Kingdom, Lions for Lambs, and others – and could perhaps have been titled Body of Lies were there not another movie of the same name on the same subject. The stirring honesty in America’s immediacy in soul-searching on the war in Iraq is a well explored theme now – which does not take away from sterling performances and a fast paced action thriller. Eminently watchable

14/20

Timeless De Niro

Take a family of four children dispersed across America – of blue collar origins, but now a successful (?) quartet – one a part-owner of an ad agency, one an artist (as opposed to a painter), one a composer (or is it a drummer), and one a dancer (in Las Vegas? And perhaps a lesbian?). Now throw in Frank Goode (Robert De Niro) as their father, a man of blue collar origins who pushed his children hard, to get to where they are, and ostensibly Everybody’s Fine. So what does one expect when, seeing that the children are too busy in their careers for a reunion, the ailing father sets out across America – by road – to catch up with his children individually. And finds the truths of their individual realities. And while all does not end well – what remains of the family is re-united, with their realities out in the open, and accepted. Even as De Niro just keeps adding to the roster of why he is a living legend, the all-star cast takes the movie to a different plane. A movie about paternal authority and the demands of career, and the varying reactions to the same, and the eventual result of acceptance all round, reminding us yet again that while success matters, in the end its all about the family. Miss this one and you miss something vital about valuing the ties that bind family

15.5/20

Family, Heaven, Anger, Love

A few weeks back there was Shutter Island. Now comes another movie - this time from none less than Peter Jackson - that is truly enthralling in its scope, brilliant in its execution, poignant to the core, and genuinely moving. Susie Salmon (Saoirse Ronan), teenage daughter of Jack and Abigail Salmon (Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz), is brutally murdered by George Harvey (Stanley Tucci), and finds herself in the afterlife, in a zone between earth and heaven, in The Lovely Bones. With the power to influence the emptions of her parents and siblings, the anger in her heart against her murderer, the love for her classmate Ray Singh (Reese Ritchie) unrequited, and the call from those in the afterlife to her to cross over to heaven, Susie must face the full complement of her emotions, while allowing her family to move on from the tragedy. I felt weak watching the depiction of a father’s love for his daughter, the great anger of Susie and the humble contrition as her anger leads her father into danger in the real world, and the quiet revealation and eventual poetic justice in respect of her captor. A movie to cherish for a long long time, beautifully woven, not a hint of superfluousness, on human relationships, coping with personal loss, and eventually moving on

17.5/20

Bruce Willis = Funny Cop

Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) and Paul Hodges (Tracy Morgan) are longtime partners in the NYPD, and the former is on the verge of selling his rare baseball card to pay for his daughter’s wedding. A heist at the shop lands the card in the hands of a drug cartel, and after a long chase with much setbacks and hilarity thrown in for good measure, the goal is attained and all live happily ever after. Cop Out is Bruce Willis in an out and out comedy, that is strictly popcorn fare, that does not fall apart

12/20

Titanic ask, passable effort

Perseus (Sam Worthington), son of Zeus (Liam Neeson), finds himself in a family of fishermen, and the latter are annihilated on the periphery of a battle of the kingdom of Argos with the Gods. The Gods have held sway over men for too long, and King Cepheus of Argos launches a campaign to destroy their all-pervasive influence. Faced by the destructive forces of Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and the Kraken, the king calls upon Perseus. Perseus with a band of remarkable men (the Titans) makes a perilous journey to the Stygian Witches, and based upon their advice, slays the Medusa and uses her head to destroy the Kraken and save Argos – not without some help from his father along the way – in the epic Clash of the Titans. Hades’ covert agenda is foiled and Perseus lives on as the hero of Argos. Like all other adaptations of Greek and Roman history and mythology, held to a very high standard, the movie does not make the cut. Notwithstanding the fact that all the characters play their parts admirably, and even the graphics hold together, the movie lacks emotional appeal – moving quickly through the milieu of characters and events. To be fair to the creators, the attempt has been to showcase the character of Perseus herein, rather than attempt a magnum opus. A decent watch, but not quite in the league of the timeless, as all heroes and their eulogies, be they mythology or movie, ought to be

12.5/20

Talent will Out

The Damned United centers around Brian Clough (Martin Sheen), the irrepressible coach of Derby Country and fierce vocal critic of Leeds United and their playing tactics under Don Revie (Colin Meaney), and in a twist of fate, asked to take over Leeds as coach. Cut to the past and Derby United, where Brian, against all odds and far in excess of expectations, takes the club from the bottom of the third division to champions of the League Championship and the European Cup semi-finals. The same brings Brian the opportunity to run Leeds United – an effort that is a disaster from the word go – fierce loyalists of Don and brute football, the team never gets round to Brian’s philosophy, and after a series of disasters, Brian is sacked and takes over at relative newcomer Nottingham Forest, where he again metamorphoses a marginal team to a barely believable two European Club wins. The film is memorable for the roles of Brian and his assistant Peter Taylor (Timothy Spall), and their differences and eventual realization that they are indeed the perfect complememts for each other. An interesting movie, that showcases Martin Sheen well in a highly successful yet barely likeable character’s role, and a must-watch for football fans in particular

13/20