Prisoners

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Paul Dano(Alex Jones),Melissa Leo(Holly Jones),David Dastmalchian(Bob Taylor),Viola Davis(Nancy Birch),Terrence Howard(Franklin Birch),Maria Bello(Grace Dover)

Director: Denis Villeneuve 

Genre: Crime, Thriller

A long boring watch, rips you off your patience only to end in a regular psychopath drama. How predictable!

I could have appreciated the movie if there werent so many flaws in it

Minuses:

• Very disappointed by the script, more than anything else. This is a work of fiction, else could have earned some sympathy at least if it was based on a true story. Very poorly written, the many flaws i could count are as below:

                      (i) None ever suspects sudden disappearance of 'Alex', no one even investigates or worries that includes his aunt 'Holly Jones'

                     (ii) An out of nowhere appearance of 'Bob Taylor' for no reason being in public, just two give the audience a second thought about someone else also being involved in this whole mystery of missing children. He was a pony and absolutely not required for the movie to progress

                    (iii) Very poor on investigations, never complete, always half verified. And with those half done efforts, 'Detective Loki' been driven mad and frustrated! Isnt he just a detective, its his job, how does he loose his cool so often

                     (iv) A big time question, can a father really turn so gruesome on someone who is apparently a 10 year old kid(Alex), when he is himself uncontrollable for a daughter of similar age group. Its insane!

                     (v) An open ending yet again! Question is, given the ability of 'Detective Loki', do you think the left pieces will ever be solved! I dont! Why does no one ever do a proper search in 'Holly's' house at the end, the clue lies right there..beyond my understanding

                     (vi) And sorry but i really didnt get the funda behind the maze thingy! It just made no sense by the end of it

• I am absolutely tired of expecting so much from over rated dumb headed movies, and then ending up writing such a huge drill down on it just to back myself with reasonings enough
• The movie is dead slow, 2 hours and 35 minutes, you may sit through first half, thanks to the performances...but second half will kill you knowing it is actually going no where, after all the wait..all you get to see is a bunch of psychopaths(as if you didnt guess it before). Very very predictable
• For gods sake, slowly built movies are meant to be attented with a lot of care and a look out on all intricacies! Not necessarily all slow movies have to be good, just because they represent some piece of art shit

Pluses:

• The director deserves applause, he does bring about some hard core drama and mental trauma very beautifully. Its only for his direction, that you dont mind sitting through the first half, even when there is hardly any content
• Hugh Jackman, awesome performance as usual! Thankfully, he is not into mere action, but he is capable of doing much more. We have seen his potential in 'Les Miserables'
• Jake Glyenhall, is a very different caricature out here, not really the way we have known him. He very well suits the role and justifies himself, though poorly written script does pull this role down by a bit

Lukewarm:

All the other actors apart from the lead duo, are just about fine, in fact...a little overdone at times




My rating: 2.5/5

Phata Poster Nikhla Hero

Cast: Shahid Kapoor,Ileana D'Cruz,Padmini Kolhapure,Darshan Jariwala,Sanjay Mishra(Guruji),Saurabh Shukla,Mukesh Tiwari

Director: Rajkumar Santoshi

Genre: Comedy, Action

Not a bad watch. I am sure the expectations are already low, and that is the key to its success :)

Pluses:

• Amongst all the serious movies this week, this is one movie which is a pure entertainer and doesnt fail to entertain. Its a complete masala movie, with all cliche stuffs, herogiri, maagiri, heroinegiri, action, songs for every typical situation, dance, item number,tamasha, drama, comedy, conspiracy..all :) It doesnt bore you provided you dont expect sky high
• Shahid Kapoor fits into movies like this, light hearted, cute and apt bollywood type hero
• Illeana was much better than i expected. She tried all too look good and glam, her  fans wont be disappointed, cant say about the entire audience :)
• Padmini Kolhapure, after a long time, susbtantial role, good stuff with all due respect :)
• The obvious choice for a comedy movie are Darshan Jariwala,Sanjay Mishra,Saurabh Shukla and Mukesh Tiwari. A perfect gang :) All of them awesome support. They hardly can ever go wrong in their roles :) Entertainment is all that it means

Lukewarm:

• Item number not very great, Nargis can not dance, period!
• Music is just about ok, thanks to all the promotions. The romantic number however was not bad, by Atif Aslam, the saving grace :)

Minuses:

• Now there sure is one thing that i didnt like, and that is the use of chemical weapon to showcase the terrorist angle. Why do the film makers infest all wrong ideas into the public is beyond my understanding. This one is anyway a light weight movie, doesnt really matter what kinda threat you are trying to show, a gas balloon threat or a fire cracker threat. Why then the use of chemical weapon here!! Every individual from the audience is equally a dangerous person to manifest such ideas. I am dead against these kind of promotions
• Yes, the movie lacks in quality, but not low on substance. Hence, i wont dig into it much! Its a movie for the Bollywood fans and masses

My rating: 3/5

Rush

Cast: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde,Alexandra Maria Lara

Director: Ron Howard 

Genre: Biography, Sport

This is easily the movie of the weekend. A must watch for all F1 lovers and a sure shot for non sport savvy's as well!

Pluses:

• This movie belongs to the two leads Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl. Beautiful re enactment of the love and hate relationship between the arch rivals from the real life heroes 'James Hunt' and 'Niki Lauda' respectively. Chris Hemsworth, an indisciplined man, a womanizer while on a contrary Daniel Bruhl playing a rather  focussed, disciplined, one woman man. Both sharing one common passion of racing
• The best part of the movie are the racing moments and the one to one exchange of words between the duo. You are at the edge everytime they are on the tracks. Beautifully shot. And you will fall in love with both the characters by the end of the movie
• Chris Hemsworth plays charismatically the role given to him, so different from how we know him as 'Thor'. Not a bulky god but chiseled hunk. He has a shade of gray, you love him or you hate him, but you cant ignore him :) While on the other hand, you will always have a support and a soft corner for Daniel Bruhl even though his character also is no less of an asshole :)
• Director gets a lot of credit in the way the movie is shot, edited. Nothing feels short of or overdone or even misplaced anywehere. One after other aspect shown crisp, not wasting too much time in detailing or dialogues. Just the right dosage of entertainment, never loosing track of the content
• My favorite scene is the last scene of the movie. Talking about 70's and there you see a lifestyle, and the level of maturity in men, only so much more to tell you, yes they belong to a developed country, then and always. Far beyond the reach of even the current mentallity our Indian film makes can only dream to share
• Alexandra Maria Lara was a patient and matured support

Lukewarm:

I didnt quite like Olivia Wilde. She was just there, no good looks nor any weight to the role

Minuses:

Nothing noticeably weird or a shortcoming. I enjoyed every bit of this biography :)





My rating: 4/5

The Lunchbox

Cast: Irrfan Khan, Nimrat Kaur, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bharati Achrekar
Director: Ritesh Batra
Genre: Drama

Not a movie to my liking. Overhyped in all respects. And expect a piece of attempted art there!

Minuses:

I am sure, everyone would have heard only good about it from the various critics, here is my perspective looking at it:

• First and foremost, this movie will but for sure hurt the sentiments of the Mumbai Dabbawallahs, they are never wrong, and such projections do infest some element of doubt on the efficacy with which they carry out their jobs
• How bout the lunch! Does it really justify the name or is it just a means for a messenger! I found the factor of food really being paid least attention to. Only the initial few minutes, they would discuss food, and the rest other days even if the lady is cooking with all her efforts, Irfan is never paying any attention to it, at a lot of times he would give the food away to Nawazuddin and on a few, he wont eat. How can you not mention the taste of the food you are eating everyday but have a mind to mention about respective neighbours! Directors fault!
• Ok, next! The character sketches didnt exactly fit into the love story drama. A middle class wife who is otherwise happy in her marriage, suddenly figures out her husband is cheating on her and she does absolutely nothing about it! I think this entire aspect was not required in the movie at all. This was never ever paid attention to! I dont think this issue was less significant in any respect. The only reason i believe they induced this angle was to justify the growing feeling of the lady towards someone out of her marriage, after all Indian woman cannot otherwise be into infidilety! :P Nonsense! And of course i cant imagine a middle class woman like her randomly thinking of Bhutan and taking it so seriously, a woman would think many times before shifting a city in such circumstances, and she there plays a childs game in moving out of the country itself, into the unknown! Kudos :P
• Again the character sketch of Irfan Khan not justified in the love story. A man who is absolutely disinterested in people and is more or less a loner, which is depicted in the movie time and again, suddenly starts speaking to a stranger without context, on whats the deal with Illa's neighbours ceiling fan! I dont get it. They should have built the conversation up more stronger and subtle to show how it progressed between the two. A sudden jump in an uninteresting and irrelevant conversation between the two and Irfan's interest in it, is rather awkward
• The movie is pretty slow, thats something one should expect. However, i count this as a minus since, being slow and a movie with a very simple concept, the director should have paid a lot of attention to the intricacies, which he clearly hasnt
• Lilette Dubey, didnt quite fit in the role of a middle class distressed mother and a wife of an ailing husband! She is glamorous and should remain so. Karan Johar, please stop casting people in unfitting roles just because they are close to you
• The biggest disappointment is the ending of the movie. Entire length of the movie, the only thing you keep waiting is to see what happens to the duo. An open ending just doesnt justify. There is absolutely nothing beyond the trailors in the movie otherwise, no content. I believe, if you are making a bold attempt in showcasing how boundary free are the relations today and dealing with aspects as sensitive as this in Indian context, you need to end it well and diplomatically. There are thousands of people waiting for an answer on what is the right thing to do when and if such thing happens. Film maker should float a right message across, and complete the responsibililty undertaken. You are not supposed to fiddle with issues like this and leave it to no where!
• The only reason for writing a such a detailed review on this movie is the disregard i have today for Karan Johar and Yash Raj movies. All of them anti marriage! All of them just fanning the already disbalanced placard of cards in our society today! Wrong messages everywhere!

Pluses:

• I cannot disregard the performances! Irfan Khan, is a sumpreme actor! Every word told and untold, very well conveyed! Least effort in remembering dialogues and more complex in terms of delivering expressions :)
• Really appreciate Nimrat Kaur. She never gives you a feeling of a debutant! Subtle and expressive
• Nawazuddin Siddiqui, my personal favorite! He is a gem of an actor! The only stainfree, critic free role, sketched properly, written properly and played flawlessly role! Three cheers to him!
• Bharati Achrekar, the voice is more than enough to appreciate this role. She doesnt get a miss, we all remember you from yesteryears and we love you :)

My rating: 2.5/5 (A movie is rated perfect 4+ or 5/5 when its loved by every audience irrespective of maturity. This certainly doesnt qualify)

Horror Story

Cast: Karan Kundra(Neel),Nishant Malkani(Achint),Ravish Desai(Maghesh),Hasan Zaidi(Samrat),Aparna Bajpai(Maggie),Radhika Menon(Neena),Nandini Vaid(Sonia)
Director: Ayush Raina
Genre: Horror

Now this one is not a bad watch. Look out more for the survival quotient than the spooky content!

Pluses:

• So finally Vikram Bhatt comes out with something which is worth a watch :) Keeping the expectations low for movies of such genres will help. However, the focus of the flick was never just horror elements, but more on how to survive the night or how to escape. You see a lot of sense in the characters of this flick which otherwise is missing in most of horror flicks
• Good logics applied, all the stupidities you always saw in other horror stuffs and would wonder, why no one ever applies some common sense! This one wont disappoint you!
• Scary elements are very much present. But since the focus is not this, you dont crticize much even if it fails to spook you, however it does time to time scare you
• What worked for me in this movie: When you start feeling yourself as one of the members stuck there, and are yourself figuring out what could be the way out, and then you see one after another strategies failing, is when it gets spooky
• The entire starcast did their jobs well! You dont have to act much apart from freaking out :D So, they freaked out quite at par :P

Lukewarm:

The climax. As usual, even after building the premise pretty good, they couldnt figure how to put an end to an otherwise seemingly impossible mission to escape. So, they simply conjured up something to end this positively

Minuses:

This movie is to enjoy, i dont want to dig into quality aspect of it

My rating: 3/5

John Day

 

 

 

 

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah,Randeep Hooda,Sharat Saxena,Vipin Sharma(Shinde),Shernaz Patel(Maria),Elena Kazan(Tabassum)
Director: Ahishor Solomon
Genre: Thriller

 

If you got low expectations and handful of patience, this aint a bad watch!

 

Pluses:

• Naseeruddin Shah goes without saying. I am glad, there are some such plots coming up in the Bollywood which doesnt always require a lead to be young and handsome. Just as the name of the movie suggests, this movie is dedicated to his role. A directors actor as he is, played well
• I personally liked the role of Sharat Saxena, a don in true sense. Loved the way first time when a bad man was getting executed
• Vipin Sharma was a good support, credited
• The take home of this movie is the end. A food for thought equivalent moral

 

Lukewarm:

• Randeep Hooda is good but nothing new! Same old flavor repeating face to face with different people. Thats all!
• The script was good, and has potential, but wish it was better
• Direction again, it wasnt bad, but could have been a lot better. I will blame it completely on the director for the lukewarm success of this flick
• Shernaz Patel didnt have much to play, otherwise she delivered well
• Elena Kazan, another Kangna Ranawat...ditto! I guess Kangna was too pricy for this role, and hence a replacement :D

 

 

Minuses:

• This movie is an average watch, it lacked the required punch that every thriller movie should have. Even with a heart rendering moral, it fails to make an impact
• The film drags at a lot of places, especially where there is Randeep Hooda in it. Absolutely unnecessary!

 

 

 

 

My rating: 2.5/5

Grand Masti

 

 

 

 

Cast: Ritesh Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani,Pradeep Rawat,Suresh Menon(Hardik) and Ladies bandwagon: Sonali Kulkarni,Manjari Fadnis(Tulsi),Karishma Tanna(Unnati),Kainaat Arora(Marlo), Maryam Zakaria(Rose), Bruna Abdullah(Mary)
Director: Indra Kumar
Genre: Comedy, Adultery

 

Not worth on the set expectations and marketting. If you still insist to give it a try, you are most welcome to add to their business :)

 

Minuses:

• 'Masti' was certainly better written, better executed than this one. Hence proved, adultery alone cannot make a successful movie, you need some content as well. Every tiny bit of thing was silly, not that you dont expect silly! But c'mon now, a limit to stuffs
• The level of humor has become not only cheap but forcefully cheap. Where we have movies like 'Grand Masti', we have 'We're the Millers' as well..cant help comparing. Guys please make some quality stuff
• Bruna Abdullah cannot act..period! She aint all that hot either, why then do we have her on screen. Are there dearth of models out there!
• Music is bad bad bad. 'Masti' had a lot better music
• Direction as lame as it can be, need not explicitly say a no brainer

 

 

Lukewarm:

 

All the actors...everyone were just about fine. No one needs stupendous acting skills to perform in such movies, and if they fail to entertain, it cannot be counted as a plus

 

Pluses:

 

Momentory bulge eyed crackles as they crack some adulterated visions here and there :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

My rating: 1.5/5