Thursday, February 26, 2015

Whiplash





Cast: Miles Teller, J.K. Simmons, Paul Reiser(Father),Austin Stowell(Ryan) and Nate Lang(Carl)
Director: Damien Chazelle
Genre: Music, Drama




Hard to come across movies of such intensity. Again not a movie to appeal to all kind of audience, but the performers makes it a must watch!




You may look forward to:

  • Miles Teller puts forth his mind, body and soul to this character of 'Andrew'. Never seen him with such potential ever before. Even though he wasn't the one nominated for the Oscars, but this movie entirely is on his shoulders for its success. You cannot take your eyes off him as he plays, its so hard to believe that he is just enacting to play and not playing on the drums himself. Crazy very intense. For me, he is no less than a deserving Oscar nominee.
  • J.K. Simmons pulls it off, quite literally. You are just bound to hate this man. He can easily put MTV Roadies Judge- Raghu to shame with his whiplashes :D  The atmosphere that he creates every time he is on screen, is so morbid, it puts the audience to worry for his students. :) A very well performer, not sure about his Oscar win though :D
  • Paul Reiser is a good support  as a father to the character of 'Andrew'
  • Austin Stowell and Nate Lang, were no less good in playing or enacting on the drums :) Must have been coming from some backgrounds
  • The movie is killer for those who love and understand Jazz, unlike me :) Its very much musical with a good and simple story. The original drummer who recorded the drums deserves a hell of an applause for this one


What you can sleep over:

The experience the director tried to comprehend and depict on how the students undergo subjugation and annexation in hands of biggies in a competitive and creative field like music, is in particular the essence which is gripping, however they were far too exaggerated. This can be one of a case, but cant be generalized



The dampeners you should be aware of:

Not really a dampener, but this movie isn't made for all kind of audience, not everyone would enjoy watching it, but surely if you happen to be in the theater, you wont walk out either before movie finishes :)




My Rating: 4/5

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Badlapur






Cast:  Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Varun Dhawan, Huma Qureshi, Vinay Pathak, Divya Dutta, Radhika Apte(Kanchan) and Yami Gautam
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Genre: Crime, Drama, Thriller



It is not an all mass movie, but easily one of the best quality watch Bollywood has offered in months together!



You may look forward to:

  • Varun Dhawan has made his place in the industry with this one. Class apart performance, as against any expectations from an otherwise chocolaty boy hero. He takes you through an intense and unpredictable ride of a deteriorating mental picture of a completely sane man over a period of two decades, a perfectly normal man from a hero to a villain!
  • Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an outstanding performer as usual. A stable mind with crazy hopes and faith with the world he left outside the bars he was caged in for most of his life. He makes you laugh, empathize and as well be hated. This fellow is a living example of the fact that one need not be good looking to be an actor. Astonishingly, a villain who turns a hero by the end of the movie!
  • Huma Qureshi has a commendable role in this movie, not delving too deep in her profession, but the relation she shares with these men and her take on these men, very subtle yet very impactful
  • Vinay Pathak, Divya Dutta and Radhika Apte, are awesome supports. Every character of this movie has very well defined roles, every caricature so well written and so well played
  • What works amazingly well for the movie is its screenplay and the direction. Sriram Raghavan leaves absolutely no stone unturned in ensuring that the audience is constantly intrigued all along the movie, to keep guessing what is gonna happen next. He presents to you an entire 2 hours and 15 minutes long movie with not even a single scene predictable. The movie doesnt run on a fast pace, yet you are all the while sitting on the edge 
  • The dialogues are very well written. Amazingly not even a single joke but yet the movie has appropriately induced humor in its place, you laugh and you giggle time to time
  • Music of the movie is already doing pretty good. The numbers 'Jee Karda' and 'Jeena Jeena' are exceptionally good
  • The take away of the movie is a very subtle message that goes out where even though the role of 'Varun Dhawan' is projected that of a victim who seeks revenge, is never appreciated nor supported. The message goes out very delicately and implicitly where in the climax, Nawazuddin Siddiqui silently becomes a hero leaving Varun Dhawan wondering what has he achieved after all the 15 years and a revenge! Very strongly put across!



What you can sleep over:

Yami Gautam is wasted, she doesn't have much to do in the film




The dampeners you should be aware of:

Just one instance where i felt that the director wrongfully tried to distract the audience, where in 'Raghav' is shown getting along with 'Shobha' on a date, and you see 'Raghav' pushing through another plastic wrapped body outside the room indicating that 'Raghav' kills 'Shobha'. That particular scene was out of place and was not required



My Rating: 4/5

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Love, Rosie






Cast: Lily Collins(Rosie), Sam Claflin(Alex), Tamsin Egerton(Sally), Suki Waterhouse(Bethany), Jaime Winstone(Ruby) and Christian Cooke(Greg)
Director: Christian Ditter
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy


A complicated love story, presented in an interesting manner! You might want to give it a shot if you like romantic drama!


You may look forward to:
  • Lily Collins gives out a good performance in this movie :) She steals the lead role, and the entire story is focused on her, this story is told from the perspective of Rosie. Rosie is a character who can earn enough empathy by the end of the story, but she is one woman who stands strong beyond all uncalled for personal catastrophes in her life, well played Lily Collins
  • Sam Claflin plays the male lead, though the story is not about him, yet he is the one who completes this love story about Rosie. He is one man who is wandering about with his life, career, women, not knowing where they are all headed to until epic realizations and until taken appropriate measures :)
  • Jaime Winstone plays a beautiful support of Rosie, through her thicks and thins
  • Tamsin Egerton, Suki Waterhouse and Christian Cooke, bandwagon of accessory supporting roles, epitome doses of confusions and multiple trade offs :)
  


What you can sleep over:

Crazy amount of twists and turns in the life of Rosie. All the while you keep wondering if one needs to swivel in these many directions in one life to get things going :)



The dampeners you should be aware of:
  • You can see tit bits of directorial miss outs, which were intentionally created more or less to give some moments to Rosie-Alex, like that of airport scene :P and many more :)
  • What appears to be a dampener to me is that it lacks a strong hold on the story, apart from the many events in the life of Rosie, the drama quotient or the emotional quotient was largely missing, so is romance. You see the story keeps moving but somewhere there is a direction which is missing

  

My Rating: 3/5

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Roy





Cast: Ranbir Kapoor, Arjun Rampal, Jacqueline Fernandez, Shernaz Patel(Meera) and Anupam Kher
Director: Vikramjit Singh
Genre: Romance, Drama, Thriller


Expect least and you can save yourself from disappointments. Watchable but a bit too slow for the taste


You may look forward to:

  • Jacqueline Fernandez is the biggest plus of the movie. She is a double bonanza :) Looks very beautiful as usual, refreshing and making good style statements. She is one lady who is class apart in Bollywood, watch it for her :)
  • Arjun Rampal trying variety in roles :) He gives his best to what the script demands, cannot complain of him. He looks hot and suave and gives out a clean performance :)
  • Shernaz Patel and Anupam Kher, were pretty good for their genre of supporting roles
  • Well, from an alternate perspective, the script wasn't all that bad, yes we have seen 'Shabd' on the similar lines and that failed too. But i would still say, such scripts are meant to be psychologically thrilling, the pace of the movie fits in well with it. What went wrong with the movie is the direction
  • Music is soothing and is already in list of chartbusters




What you can sleep over:

Ranbir Kapoor looks like a dead man without a soul in the entire movie. Expressionless, and giving out dull dialogues. I wonder what intrigued him for this role. Quite hopeless!



The dampeners you should be aware of:

Talking about direction, the psychological aspect was completely missing in the movie. You keep watching it, and it feels more of Malaysia tourism endorsement than a story. The characters and their charisma is largely missing, you see the plush hotel, hear the waves, beautiful driveways and lush green scenery, but to what use! Dialogues are extremely dull and the director doesn't do much to keep up the mystery behind 'Kabir's' imagination and his association with the character of 'Roy'. It drags so bad by the end of the movie, you cant help but yawn! The mystery and the thrilling aspect of the character 'Roy' was largely missing. You can comfortably minus all the scenes of Ranbir Kapoor, and it wont harm the plot even a bit.

This is one plot if executed well,  could have resulted in a success! The Director had a good starcast, good location and a potent script, but he did not make use of it, Alas!




My Rating: 3/5 

Friday, February 13, 2015

Mr. Turner





Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson(Housekeeper), Marion Bailey(Landlady Sophia) and Paul Jesson(Father) 
Director: Mike Leigh
Genre: Biography, Art, Drama


This is a biography for very selected audience, only those who can associate with art.


You may look forward to:


  • Timothy Spall playing 'Mr. Turner', appears one to be beautifully done. Am sure seldom any can associate with what and who was Mr. Turner as a person in 18th-19th Century. Nevertheless, every countenance and every gesture looks very characteristically different and unique of an artist of his time. Worth all appreciations
  • The cinematography of the movie is astoundingly beautiful, takes you back in time, looks so real
  • Mike Leigh does a splendid job in bringing about subtle and minuscule aspects of an artist, be it art appreciation forums, or music or even a slight bit of science, in association with Mr. J.M.W Turner's personal life
  • Dorothy Atkinson is one pitiable role from that time. A woman having no identity of self, and left in a pitiable condition to rot
  • Marion Bailey has a commendable role and significant one in Mr. Turner's life, apparently she is the only one Mr. Turner remembers to have loved. And the manner in which she stays along with all her mind, body and soul till his end days, is  certainly worth appreciations
  • Paul Jesson has a short role for the period of Turner's life the director chose to present. Worth a mention!




The dampeners you should be aware of:

This is one story which sadly doesn't have much of a content to appeal to masses, for a full fledged commercial release. Mr. Turner's story is pretty much simple, not very happening, nor astoundingly renowned a personality, not many ups and downs, just a steady life of a steady painter. One requires a lot of patience and one full tub of pop corn to sit and watch it.




My Rating: 3/5 

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Jupiter Ascending





Cast: Channing Tatum, Mila Kunis, Sean Bean(Stinger), Eddie Redmayne(Balem), Douglas Booth(Titus) and Tuppence Middleton(Kalique) 
Director: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure, Fantasy


Amidst all the serious movies and tons of biographies, this certainly comes as a refresher to those who like Hollywood Sci-Fi masala flicks :)


You may look forward to:

  • Watch for nothing else but the visuals. The visuals and all the special effects were pretty catchy to the eyes. Unlike the cliche method of showcasing life on an alien planet to be based out of harsh environment and all possible dark creatures, this one comes with a bit of both, along with large scale grandeur and wealth and beauty
  • Channing Tatum never looked as edible ever before ;) He every bit looks like a tall and muscular warrior, can even try for a demi god role in his next ;) His acting and action apart, all i did throughout the movie was to DRRRROOOOOOLLL at him! :)
  • Mila Kunis doesn't have too much content in her role, but she is the one this movie is named after. While most of the time she is lost in figuring out what she is and where she is, she is omnipresent. She looks good and she does good :)
  • Eddie Redmayne was surprise to me in this role. Him as 'Stephan Hawking' is still very much fresh on my mind. His stillness was creepy and intentions evil as 'Balem'. He made for a good antagonist :)
  • Douglas Booth is young, a little too polished but a significant role as well. After all he was almost married to the owner of the Earth(Jupiter) :D
  • Sean Bean is more or less a support, worth a mention



What you can sleep over:

Tuppence Middleton is wasted. She doesn't have much of any role, against the expectations, as she was also one of the key characters from the 'Abrasax' clan. In fact, she just disappeared in the second half of the movie.



The dampeners you should be aware of:

Coming from the Wachowskis family, Jupiter Ascending surely under delivers. It qualifies for nothing more than a time pass flick. Though it had all the potential to reap out complex sci-fi thriller, but things run just too fast, giving no time for build up nor make a place in your head on the technical aspects. Sad part of it being, that it is merely reduced to an action flick, surpassing all other aspects of it.




My Rating: 3/5 

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Shamitabh





Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Dhanush and Akshara Haasan
Director: R. Balki 
Genre: Drama, Comedy


Watch it for the performances and experimental attempt on an otherwise questionable plot.


You may look forward to:

  • Amitabh Bachchan gets a very meaty role after hell long gap, tired looking upto him as an antagonist father in most of the movies. He has a clutchfree role in it and the audience gets ample opportunities and pleasure to see him act :)
  • Dhanush gives out a very convincing performance, for this one man, truly looks dont matter. There are many times when you tend to detest him with the way he looks, but the fact that he accepts it and hence puts in double the effort in his acting skills, works wonders for him. He makes you laugh, as well comfortably shows out the selfish side of the role. He looks no bit of a star, but this movie is anyway nothing close to reality howsoever :)
  • What makes this movie a good watch, are the good dialogues teamed with awesome performances. The climax where they try to salvage as much possible out of a rotten storyline. This movie is sure to leave you with many mixed emotions in head, whether to raise a green flag or a red. But yet i will call this very much a watchable movie. Give it a shot for the lead actors :)







What you can sleep over:

Akshara Haasan, yes she looks sweet, but she cant act. Simple as that. Many times it felt her voice is not natural. The dubbing is bad,and absolutely no emotions in it. And more than anything else i so wanted to cut her hair off. She keeps correcting it throughout the movie, i mean how can anyone don a hairstyle as uncomfortable as this which bars your vision to begin with. Yet she makes honest effort with significant meat in her role, hence not counting her in dampener :)



The dampeners you should be aware of:

  • The medical backdrop of the story of this movie is an absolute trash. Makes practically or technically no sense at all. I would call it crazy piece of rubbish. One could have come up with much better and apt medical/scientific explanations to the plot and create a viable dependency of 'Danish' on 'Amitabh', if that was the idea behind the movie. Why this?
  • The plot is so weak, that 2 hrs and 50 mins hurts. It should have been shortened down. If you minus out the performances from the leads in it, this movie cant even recover the money gone into making it






My Rating: 3/5 (Only for the performances)

Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Foxcatcher





Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo, Vanessa Redgrave(Mother of John) and Sienna Miller(Dave's wife)
Director: Bennett Miller
Genre: Biography, Sport, Drama


An impactful biography, however may not be a like for every audience.


You may look forward to:

  • This movie belongs to Bennett Miller. It is all about his intense presentation, slow build up and the long lasting impact that it has in your head. You carry it with you till home 
  • Stories as soft as this can as well take an ugly turn, beyond any imagination. This was a good pick for a Biography
  • Steve Carell gives out a lucid performance, cold and crazy. Rich and their tantrums. Well deserved applaud. He certainly stands out with all his quirkiness :)
  • Channing Tatum gives out a much serious show with this one. I have mostly seen him active, in action, in dancing, in comedy. But this surely marks him differently, intense!
  • Mark Ruffalo, again labelled as 'Dr. Banner', now and he didn't let that be forever :) So glad to see, labelled role players are trying things differently, and this particular role gets the best out of him, beautiful. As well all the condolences to the bereaved family of - Dave Schultz. They didn't deserve it
  • Supporting set of roles played by Vanessa Redgrave and Sienna Miller are worth a mention
  • Watch the movie for the biographical aspect of not just one person, but three renowned personalities, their individual psyches and interpretations, and most importantly the connection the trio shares with each other, only to end up in a disaster





What you can sleep over:

The pace of the movie is slow. It may irritate many in the beginning, but this build up is necessary for the conclusion. Therefore, not a minus



The dampeners you should be aware of:

  • Some aspect of 'Mark Schultz' weren't covered, from the time he left the estate of 'Mr. Du Pont', his chapter was completely wiped off
  • A few more aspects were not clearly shown, as to why and how 'Dave Schultz' accepts the offer by 'John Du Pont' in the end, when he kept saying NO from the beginning. For that matter what did 'John Du Pont' offer him after all, that 'Dave' could not refuse! Still in oblivion! 





My Rating: 3.5/5

Monday, February 9, 2015

Seventh Son






Cast: Ben Barnes, Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander(Alice), Olivia Williams(Mother), Antje Traue(Bony) and Djimon Hounsou (Radu)
Director: Sergey Bodrov 
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Action


Time pass flick, watch only if you are fond of witch stories :)


You may look forward to:

  • The only bigger plus of the movie were the locations and landscapes, breathtakingly beautiful
  • Jeff Bridges appearing after quite some time. This man carries his own style in his acting, worth compliments
  • Julianne Moore looked absolutely gorgeous, the most beautiful witch i have seen in movies so far :)
  • Olivia Williams, Antje Traue and Djimon Hounsou, the supporting cast, were fine in their own stands :)




The dampeners you should be aware of:

  • The story of the movie was just about OK. It didn't have lot of bravery triggering exercises. Things came in and went by pretty easy. You do not feel the heat
  • Ben Barnes and Alicia Vikander, as the male and female leads, were inapt choices. They didn't even look half as close to any significant bit to what they should have been. Puny little siblings like with no strong hold





My Rating: 2/5 

Friday, February 6, 2015

Birdman





Cast: Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, Zach Galifianakis,Naomi Watts, Emma Stone, Andrea Riseborough(Laura),Amy Ryan(ex-wife) and Lindsay Duncan(Dickinson)
Director: Alejandro González
Genre: Drama, Theater, Comedy


One crazy presentation, a must watch for such audience who can appreciate artistic movies!


You may look forward to:

  • Michael Keaton is the man of the movie. He is so perfect in theaters, very unconventional and a mind blowing performance. His character reminds you a lot of 'Gholum' from LOTR series :D Personified by the character he lived in, and now trying to break away amidst all his insecurities, beautifully played
  • Edward Norton is as equally important in a lead role. Every character in this movie has a unique psyche. This particular caricature is the most unpredictable and insane of all. He throws out many dominant characteristics of a personality majorly overpowered by overconfidence. Without him the story is only half done
  • Zach Galifianakis, steals my heart secretly. It took me quite sometime to sink this in, that it is him playing a serious and sensible role. His body language, his dialogue deliveries, damn are all so normal :D Steals it absolutely :)
  • Naomi Watts doles out another power packed performance within her boundaries. She even lends out some humorous erotic moments to the audience with aplomb
  • Emma Stone doesn't have much to do, nevertheless, given her limited role, she looks like an artificial barbie doll with extraordinarily big eyes :)
  • Ladies supporting bandwagon: Andrea Riseborough,Amy Ryan and Lindsay Duncan, were all worth appreciations, in their own nitty gritty roles :) 
  • The story of the movie takes the major stake away, the script and the dialogues are the soul of the movie, teamed up with class apart performances by all the actors. Content may not be much with as many twists and turns, but simplicity does the job
  • The transition from one scene to another is so perfectly executed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, that you wont get bored even for a moment during the entire duration. Some element of mystery that he left with imaginary side of 'Riggan' is for people to perceive. Huge round of applause :)




What you can sleep over:

The very last scene, after everything. You keep wondering what more do they have to show. The last 5 mins feels a little draggy, but you wont bother much as its just 5 mins of the entire lot



The dampeners you should be aware of:

Nah nothing! This is one fun movie with all the artistry just to admire and be back :)





My Rating: 4/5