World War Z....... Reviews....

World War Z........ Reviews.......

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Brad Pitt, Mireille Enos, Daniella Kertesz

Direction: Marc Forster

Genre: Thriller

Duration: 1 hour 55 minutes

Story: A zombie pandemic strikes the globe. Former UN investigator Gerry Lane attempts to find the virus' origin. Can he survive the catastrophe, protect his family and save the world from the zombie apocalypse?

Review: Hollywood has always been obsessed with pandemics and zombies. Marc Forster takes the obsession a notch higher as he merges the two to give you an epic-scaled, fast-paced zombie invasion movie that is extremely gripping and thoroughly entertaining. It has everything you could possibly expect from a zombie blockbuster.

On the flipside, the film's not just about the outbreak of the virus but its origin, after-effects, destruction caused, investigation involved to curtail the global crisis and measures taken to prevent further damage. At some point, you do feel Forster's biting off more than he can chew. The climax which was re-shot, though brilliantly executed, falls a tad flat and seems incoherent.

The filmmaker's attempt at blending reality and philosophy with science fiction is not smooth either as the segments look disjointed. The family track in the film seems futile. Also, how can a former UN crime investigator know everything about medicines and scientific research! Nevertheless, flaws in construction and certain loose ends of the plot do not affect the tension-filled, anxiety-inducing impact of this spectacularly shot zombie thriller.

Brad Pitt (as a former UN investigator) is understated, yet convincing in a film that revolves around 'zombies'! The film has fantastic special effects, especially in scenes involving aerial views of zombies flooding the roads, crawling on top of each other to climb walls or attack helicopters and chase down Gerry and his family. The suspenseful opening sequence will send shivers down your spine.

The film moves at breakneck speed throughout, keeping you on the edge of your seat. The 3D barely makes any difference to a horror film but it works here. Cinematography is brilliant.

The film stays conventional in terms of concept. It even deviates from the novel (by Max Brooks) it's adapted from. However, if you are a fan of the genre and extreme destruction and survival get your adrenaline flowing, this one's highly engaging. Be prepared to play hide-and-seek with the terrifying undead creatures for there's no place to run, no place to hide...

Note: You may not like the film if 'zombie-action' fails to thrill you.

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Kutti Puli......Reviews...

Kutti Puli.....Reviews......

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: M Sasikumar, Lakshmi Menon, Saranya Ponvannan, Rama Prabha, Lal

Direction: M Muthaiah

Genre: Action

Duration: 2 hours 32 minutes

Synopsis: An angry young man manages to put off his mother's attempts to reform him. Until, the new girl in his neighbourhood gets attracted to him... But, can his violent past leave him in peace?

Movie Review: Kutti Puli (Sasikumar) is a do-gooder with a roguish streak and his attitude often lands him in trouble. His mother (Saranya) wants him to mend his ways and get married but Puli thwarts all her plans. Enter Bharathi ( Lakshmi Menon), who falls in love with Puli seeing his ever-helpful nature. Meanwhile, Moorthy, a local gangster is humiliated by Puli and now, he wants revenge.

M Muthaiah's Kutti Puli has everything we have seen in Sasikumar's films so far. A story set somewhere in Madurai. A brash but benevolent hero. A comely heroine. Romance in the bylanes. Montages with yesteryear songs. Preachy punch dialogues. And, most importantly, the aruva (sickle) which has come to define his films. But, unlike in his previous films, these elements don't come together as a whole. Those films used all these Sasikumar-isms but still managed to keep us engaged. Here, they stick out as the director is unable to weave a plot that brings them together in a satisfying manner. So, one moment you have a scene between Kutti Puli and his mom, the next with Bharathi followed by a scene with Moorthy. And, this pattern goes on a loop until the very end.

The film begins with a back story involving Kutti Puli's dad and the plot is actually about how his death influences the mother, her son and their relationship. But the diversions this story takes never lets us to engage with this angle. It should have been quite easy given that the director has two actors who are typecast in roles that should have endeared them instantly to us. You sense a laziness in scripting that is shocking because this is the debut film for Muthaiah.

There are a few moments that do work like the effortless companionship of Saranya and her neighbour Rama Prabha and their trip to the town to give a makeover to Kutti Puli is genuinely funny. The same cannot be said of the comedy track involving Pappu and his gang, who are the educated youth in the place and vie for Bharathi, which goes on and on in the second half. Muthiah also goes overboard with the melodrama and in his use of older songs to evoke a lighter mood and all these unnecessary padding, especially towards the end, make this Kutti Puli as fierce as a stuffed tiger.

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Mere Haule Dost.... Reviews...

Mere Haule Dost...... Reviews.......

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Anirudh Loka, Raghuvardhan Garlapati, Aadil Abedi, Rishit Samala, Kiran Gadalay, Preeti Gupta, Catherine Fallows

Direction: Nitin Raghunath

Genre: Drama

Duration: 1 hour 42 minutes

Story: Five unambitious friends plan on participating in the Himalayan bike rally for over a year. Do they make it happen?

Movie Review: Set in Hyderabad, Mere Haule Dost revolves around the daily lives of five laidback youngsters who are perpetually broke. The film begins with Bheja sharing stories of his past girlfriends with his fiance. That's how we are transported to his college days, where we meet his haule (slow or dim-witted, we suppose) friends. They are called Bong, Dada, Paisa, Mota, etc., who will have to overcome their respective problems to make it to the rally.

The film aspires to be a light-hearted, slice-of-life youth film with guy jokes and buddy chemistry. Unfortunately, none of that is achieved. The characters lack personality. They aren't likeable enough to draw your attention to them or make you identify with them.

The film has no particular story to tell and we are fine with 'nothing-ness' as long as something keeps you amused. For almost two hours, you see uninteresting characters having insignificant conversations. The result is obviously uninspiring.

The script lacks situational humour and that's the biggest drawback. When you crack private jokes with your buddies, it's expected that others won't get it, but they must at least sound funny! Nothing amuses you about the boys who paint fake burgers on the walls and try eating them or beg for pocket money from their ex-girlfriends.

College days, impromptu parties, bike rides, canteen conversations, secret crushes...in spite of incorporating it all in the film, not a single scene touches your heart or takes you down memory lane. The gang's passion for bikes is barely visible. The boys seem more besotted with silly girls who
wear terrible make-up. A rock chick keeps forcing Bheja to listen to rock music. She ends up chewing your brains more than his.

The film is as purposeless as the characters in it. The title track of the film, where you see the friends taking off on their bikes to celebrate their freedom, is probably the only good thing about this amateurish film.

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Now You See Me..... Reviews....

Now You See Me........ Reviews.....

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco, Mélanie Laurent, Morgan Freeman

Direction: Louis Leterrier

Genre: Thriller

Duration: 1 hour 56 minutes

 Story: 'Four Horsemen', a team of elite illusionists pull off heists for real during their spectacular shows. How do they do it? Is it indeed 'magic'? Who's pulling the strings and why? 

Movie Review: The convoluted case is assigned to FBI agent Dylan Rhodes ( Mark Ruffalo) and French Interpol officer Alma Dray (Melanie Laurent). Post the robberies, the gang leaves no trace. They don't steal for themselves. Their misleading actions and ambiguous motives drive Rhodes to the edge. Adding to the chaos is former magician Thaddeus Bradley ( Morgan Freeman) who thinks he knows it all. 

The film has a novel and promising premise. The gang's cat and mouse game with the FBI, their display of magic tricks, fluid stunt scenes and Mark Ruffalo's banter with co-cop Melanie Laurent keep you engaged. The film works as a crime-thriller. 

However, it's unconvincing when it comes to dissecting the magic. As the film progresses, the antics of the law-defying 'famous four' start defying logic as well. The scattered plot runs out of steam eventually. The film goes into a different tangent altogether in order to be unpredictable, leaving you more perplexed than pleased. 

Scene after scene, in order to not let you dig into the script too closely, the filmmaker adds too many plot twists, but that does not camouflage the loose ends. 

The presence of a talented cast barely holds here as the characters are thinly sketched. Jesse Eisenberg yet again plays a fast-talking-shrewd guy with negative undertones like he did in The Social Network. And what is Michael Caine doing here? 

The film has its moments, especially in the scene when the magicians teleport an audience member to France from Vegas in a few minutes. However, don't go thinking you'll have fun 'solving' the enigmatic case, as the events that follow might just be way too implausible and convenient for your liking. 

The magicians in the film constantly warn the FBI officer to 'not look too closely'. The filmmaker sends out a similar message to the audience - don't dig into every aspect of the 'tricks' and you will be entertained.

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Isakki..... Reviews.......

Isakki ...... Reviews.....

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Sharran Kumar, Aashrita, Yogiram

Direction: M Ganesan

Genre: Drama

Duration: 2 hours 16 minutes

Synopsis: Isakki (Sharran Kumar) goes to Madurai with his employer. Here, he meets Nandini (Aashrita) and falls for her. But when her over-protective father comes to know of it, he makes Isakki's life difficult.

Review: In yet another movie set in Madurai, Isakki is a story of love, family, and betrayal. The movie is a regular Madurai formula flick that has a good dose of violence and several frowning faces.

The movie's narrative is the familiar boy-meets-girl drama that has nothing new to offer to the audience. Although the movie flows along neatly, the poor screenplay gives the audience little to look forward to. Director M Ganesan, who has also wielded the pen in this effort, introduces some twists to the plot with a not-so-convincing back story about Isakki. It is here Sharran gets an opportunity to work on a second look in the movie. Yogiram does well as Mari, a womaniser who has set his eyes on Nandini. Aashrita makes a decent debut as a strong and independent woman who stands up to her father.

With little to entertain the audience, the movie turns out to be a timid effort.

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After Earth.....

After Earth...... Reviews....

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Jaden Smith, Will Smith, Sophie Okonedo, Zoë Kravitz

Direction: M. Night Shyamalan

Genre: Sci-Fi

Duration: 1 hour 40 minutes

Story: A father and son are stranded when their spaceship crash-lands on post-apocalyptic Earth. Father sends the son on a mission to get to a rescue beacon in time and beam a distress message into deep space.

Review: Will Smith is known to do films with a bang - grand movies of sweeping scale where he is the focal point of attention. Not so in this one. Here, he takes the back seat and hands Jaden the baton (obvious metaphors abound; he gives the kid his own saber at the commencement of the quest) to be the main man.

The film is set hundreds of years into the future, where mankind has been evacuated from Earth; a planet now inhabited by human-eating nasties. Cypher Raige (Smith) and his son Kitai Raige (Jaden) are forced to crash-land. The film's plot bears an uncanny resemblance to a video-game where the player has to go the distance from point 'A' to 'B' (100 km, in this case) in 'X' amount of time. Along the way he battles monsters of increasing strength. There are health packs too, like bonus points. And in the end, there is a 'boss fight' with a hideous alien critter called the Ursa. That's it, game over.

Cypher maintains a radio link with Kitai as the harsh patriarch at times and the voice of reason-cum-vendor of wisdom and encouragement at other times. Again it's like how a computer-programmed narrator is in a video-game. At some point, they lose contact and Kitai's moment of reckoning arrives. It's about Kitai having to prove himself to his dad.

The rest of the cast is inconsequential, forgettable and completely replaceable. There are menacing moments and the editing is taut but this stays in cliche territory; it's nothing you haven't seen before. The film suffers from a lack of ambition. After Earth aims for interstellar overdrive but barely manages to take off.

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Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 ....REVIEWS.......

Yamla Pagla Deewana 2...... Reviews........

Critic's Rating: 

Cast: Dharmendra, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Neha Sharma, Kristina Akheeva, Annu Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Anupam Kher

Direction: Sangeeth Sivan

Genre: Comedy

Duration: 2 hours 35 minutes

Story: Pious Paramvir's crooked father and brother, Dharam and Gajodhar, try scamming a British businessman - and his daughters. Will Param let the duo do it? 

Movie Review: Rather like one of the many people Paramvir Singh ( Sunny Deol) pummels, Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 (YPD 2) totters between GJs (good jokes) and PJs (poor jokes). The GJs are sometimes very good - as scamster Gajodhar-turned-gentleman Prem, trying to impress Reet (Akheeva) with his knowledge of art, Bobby Deol hilariously confuses Zakir Hussain ("Woh 'Wah Taj' wala - woh toh tabla bajata hai, na?") with MF Hussain. Bobby then reappears as his artist-twin 'Q' - accompanied by "Hussain sahib ki ghori, Gaja Gamini". And there's the British lady overwhelmed by a painting, calling Mark and Spencer to come see it too. 

But the GJs get flattened by the PJs, which include an over-smart orangutan called Einstein, a blond Anupam Kher as astronaut-villain Joginder Armstrong, Johnny Lever and Sucheta Khanna in un-funny 'villain' suits (including an objectionable Hiroshima-Nagasaki one), Chinese warriors, Sumo wrestlers, Annu Kapoor's accent flying from London to LA via Ludhiana (he introduces Reet as "daughter of late Lady Alizabeth Waltar Khanna") and so many more. 

Minus 30 minutes, YPD 2 could have been much funnier - and much shorter. It does have its moments - Sunny in the shower sweetly sparkles while Suit Mera Laal Rang Da will rock shaadi-season. But despite two pretty heroines, three Deols and an assortment of nutty buddies, YPD 2 frequently stumbles into blunder-land. Paramvir works for the world's most soft-hearted bank (its manager drawls, "Cheques are better late than never,"), Suman (Sharma) walks through Banaras in skimpier shorts and tighter push-up tops than what she wears in London, Reet stresses, "Thaynk you sooo much!" to everyone, while Einstein enjoys an awful 'item number'. 

On the upside, a very attractive Sunny stays this movie's brave heart - but even his dhai kilo ka haath can't fully lift YPD 2. Pity, considering how cool its 3-D(eol) could be.

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