Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:48 PM
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Starring: Logan Lerman, Brandon T. Jackson, Alexandra Daddario, Sean Bean, Kevin McKidd, Catherine Keener
The Greek Gods are not a figment of our imagination as some would believe but are in fact existing and controlling the earth to this day. The lightning bolt of Zeus (Bean) is the most powerful weapon on Earth and it has been stolen. Zeus suspects his brother Poseidon's (McKidd) involvement in the theft and blames his son, Percy Jackson (Lerman) of being the lightning thief. The Greek Gods are often known to come down on Earth and mate with Earthlings to leave behind off springs that are half-god and half-human and thus known as demi-gods. Poseidon once fell in love with Sally (Keener) who gave birth to Percy. Poseidon started neglecting his duties and paid more attention to his new family which made Zeus pass a new law which forbid the gods from meeting their family members on Earth. Word soon gets around the gods that Zeus' bolt is stolen and everyone is in pursuit of Percy to get their hands on the bolt and become the most powerful being on the planet. Haedes holds Sally as ransom for the bolt and in order to save his mother he goes searching for an object he never stole. He has Grover (Johnson) a satyr, meaning half-human and half-goat to protect him at all times and Annabeth (Daddario) the daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war strategy. The movie does explore a very interesting plot but still the fundamental outline is still very cliched. A boy discovering his unknown powers and eventually using it to save the world. Been there, done that. Adapted from a book with the same title, expect a sequel to it very soon.
Thumbs up: Greek Gods in the modern world
Thumbs down: Fundamental outline is too cliched
Rating: 7.2/10
Action,
Adventure,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:52 AM
Genre: Action/Thriller/Science-fiction/Fantasy/Drama
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Chandler Canterbury, Rose Byrne, Lara Robinson
In 1959, a schoolgirl predicted the outcome of natural disasters and major global catastrophes by writing a complex numerical chart and putting it in a fifty year time capsule. 2009, the capsule is opened and the prediction falls in the hands of young Caleb Koestler (Canterbury). Caleb's father, John (Cage) is an MIT professor who manages to decipher the code and learns about the details of life-taking accidents yet to occur. He starts investigating and wants to get to the bottom of the entire mystery and meets Diana (Byrne) the daughter of the girl who wrote the prophesy. As John keeps getting deeper into the mystery, he realises there is much more to it than he can imagine. The movie is a true thriller and Nicolas Cage is his amazing self as always. The movie explores a unique and interesting plot, but kills the entire show by the larger-than-life and unrealistic end. Probably a more sane and acceptable climax would have made the movie an even better watch
Thumbs up: Nicolas Cage, plot
Thumbs down: Unrealistic ending
Rating: 7.6/10
Action,
Drama,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
Science-fiction,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:30 PM
Genre: Drama
Starring: Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams
Set in 1964, a Catholic school in Bronx, New York. is run by Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Streep). Being the school principal, the students are afraid of her and she is a strict follower of discipline. Her way of life knows no fun and joy and only strict discipline and adherence to the rules. On the contrary, the church priest, Father Flynn (Hoffman) is fun-loving and knows how to balance work and play together. Sister Aloysius is a very suspicious being and always doubts peoples actions and their motives behind it. She doubts Father Flynn and his attitude towards the school boys and manages to get school teacher, Sister James (Adams) to spy on him. They suspect Father Flynn's behaviour with a boy as not as that of love and care but of other non-acceptable motives. Even though there is no firm evidence pointing towards the accusation, Sister Aloysius is banking upon her own beliefs of right against wrong and wishes to fight with the Father on these precise thoughts. The movie has an amazing star cast and each of them put on healthy performances. The movie has an interesting plot that it builds up upon but has an extremely abrupt ending. It shows how many of our beliefs of reality are actually centred not upon facts but suspicion which turns into faith and later a fact. Meryl Streep in particular, shines above the rest.
Thumbs up: Performances
Thumbs down: Abrupt end
Rating: 7.4/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:20 AM
Genre: Drama/Comedy/Science-fiction/Adventure
Starring: Martin Freeman, Mos Def, Sam Rockwell, Zooey Deschanel, Bill Nighy, Alan Rickman (voice), Warwick Davis
Planet Earth has been destroyed. British national Arthur Dent (Freeman) never knew his true friend, Ford (Def) was an alien belonging to a planet which is in the vicinity of planet Betelgeuse . Ford rescues Arthur from the destruction of Earth by hitchhiking onto a Vogon spaceship. The Vogon's apparently destroyed Earth to create a hyperspace expressway and they resent hitchhikers. Due to an extremely rare co-incidence they get rescued by the galaxy President, Zaphod Beeblebrox (Rockwell) a man who became President for the fame and money and doesn't give two hoots about the galaxy. Arthur finds on board the ship his long-lost love, Trillian (Deschanel) along with a highly-depressed robot, Marvin (voiced by Rickman and acted out by Davis). Zaphod wants to know the ultimate question which would answer the problems of life and gets on an inter-galactic adventure to hunt for it. The movie is plagued with irrelevant psychological and scientific thoughts along with funny one-liners. Although the movie does make you laugh on more than one occasion, the story seemed to have lacked a structure and seems flimsy. The screenplay has been adapted from a book of the same name written by Douglas Adams.
Thumbs up: Humour and graphics
Thumbs down: Unstructured story
Rating: 6.7/10
Adventure,
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Science-fiction,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:37 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Biography/History/Mystery
Starring: Angelina Jolie, John Malkovich, Jeffrey Donovan, Michael Kelly, Jason Butler Harner, Gattlin Griffith
Changeling by definition, is a mythical creature left behind in place of a human child. A true life story of Christine Collins (Joile) whose son, Walter (Griffith) abruptly goes missing while she was at work. The LAPD has repeatedly been pronounced as corrupt and incompetent by the citizens of Los Angeles. After several months of searching, Captain J.J. Jones of the LAPD finds Walter and hands him over to Christine. Christine, however, claims that the child been brought to her is not Walter and there has been a mistake. The police refuse to buy her story and give her various medical reasons for the change in Walters appearance, memory, height and other features. Christine gains the support of Reverend Gustav Briegleb (Malkovich) who helps her to find Walter. Christine is declared mentally unfit by the LAPD and is sent to an asylum. An absolutely astounding story and something one can expect from the stable of Clint Eastwood. One of the most fantastic performances put on by Angelina Jolie till date and I cannot think of any actress who can come even close in matching her performance. A movie worth watching right till the very end, absolutely flawless. I don't think I have ever sung so many praises for any movie.
Thumbs up: Angelina Jolie all the way
Thumbs done: None whatsoever
Rating: 8.8/10
Amazing Movies,
Biography,
Crime,
Drama,
Mystery,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:14 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Sacha Baron Cohen, Gustaf Hammarsten
From the makers of Borat comes another stupidly mindless comedy, Bruno. Bruno (Cohen) is an Austrian fashion-designer, who like all other designers is gay. Due to an incident he loses his reputation and decides to go to Los Angeles to become famous. Repeated attempts at becoming famous miserably fail. Be it acting in a movie, starting his own talk show or doing charity, nothing helps Bruno in becoming a star. His side-kick Lutz (Hammarsten) is crazily in love with Bruno, but Bruno doesn't pay any attention to his advances. The movie is similar to Borat in some ways. The same immigrant with a companion coming to the United States. Sex-filled, stupid, mindless jokes that disgust you more than making you laugh are carried forward from its predecessor. If you liked Borat then only should you dare to watch this movie, else its better left alone.
Thumbs up: Sacha Baron Cohen's guts to do something like this
Thumbs down: Jokes, similar to Borat
Rating: 3.0/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Pathetic Movies,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 12:30 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Anne Hathway, Rosemarie DeWitt, Bill Irwin, Tunde Adebimpe
Kym (Hathway) a drug addict, is out of rehabilitation and rejoins her family. She was responsible for her kid brothers death, which happened cause she was driving while she was still high on drugs and their car drove off the bridge and she drowned. Kym's elder sister, Rachel (DeWitt) is all set to get married to Sidney (Adebimpe). Kym realises that she is finding it hard to get back into the family, with everyone either being overtly overprotective or despising her for her past. Her relationship with her sister starts to sour, when Rachel accuses her of trying to seek too much attention and still holds Kym responsible for their brothers death. Kym, in turn feels that her family fails to understand the situation she is in and the life she underwent and are doing little to help her. Majority of the movie revolves either on the family tension or on the wedding preparations. Rachel's wedding is a dream wedding for many and seems just so perfect. The movie gets monotonous and boring and the weak plot doesn't help things either. Decent performances and being a typical family movie one can expect something better.
Thumbs up: The wedding
Thumbs down: Average plot, performances
Rating: 6.5/10
Average Movies,
Drama,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:56 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/War
Starring: Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson, Samantha Morton
For regular civilians, the army has always been about guns and bloodshed. US Army Staff Sergeant Will Montogomery (Foster) has been reassigned to the Casualty Notification Team, after being injured during war in Iraq. His job requires him to notify the death of a soldier to their families even though he doesn't have any prior training in that field. He has Captain Tony Stone (Harrelson) for company, an alcoholic and sex-obsessed soldier who has never been on the battlefield. Will sees that going up to the front porch and giving bad news to families is not the easiest task in the world, although it may sound so. He suddenly finds himself attracted to Olivia Pitterson (Morton) a lady to whom he had notified her husbands death. He finds himself facing an ethical dilemma whether to seduce the wife of a fellow soldier or respect her feelings and stay away from the relationship. For a change this movie explores a different side of the army, relatively unknown to regular people and does a decent job. The movie doesn't have any plot to build up on and most of the movie shows the duo notifying families and the hardship of their job. Woody Harrelson puts on an amazing performance but that is probably the only highlight of the movie.
Thumbs up: Woody Harrelson
Thumbs down: Slow and repetitive
Rating: 6.4/10
Average Movies,
Drama,
Romance,
War,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:44 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/History
Starring: Kate Winslet, Ralf Fiennes, David Kross
Set in post World War II Germany, a young man, Michael Berg (Kross) falls in love with a much elder woman, Hanna Schmitz (Winslet). Hanna is a tram ticket collector in Neustadt and responds to his love with equal passion. They set a routine wherein Michael would read her books and later make love to Hanna. Their romance continues for a considerable period of time when due to a disagreement, Hanna leaves Michael and leaves Neustadt too. Years later, Michael sees Hanna undergoing a trial for working as a guard at Aushwitz, a German concentration camp for Jews during World War II. She along with other guards, are held responsible for the death of many and sentenced to imprisonment. Their relationship has deeply affected Michale's life and years later, a much elder Michael (Fiennes) is still finding it hard to forget his past love. Kate Winslet puts on one of her best performances to date and although the story is slightly cliched, she doesn't let you give you that feel. Shes not the dazzling seductress from Titanic but the old simple ticket collector, a role tailor made for her. Her outstanding performance gave her a well-deserved Oscar and any amounts of praise is not enough. Its only now that I realised how old shes actually become.
Thumbs up: Kate Winslet all the way
Thumbs down: A bit slow at some parts
Rating: 7.8/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:22 AM
Genre: Drama/Thriller/Crime/Mystery/Fantasy
Starring: Rachel Weisz, Mark Wahlberg, Stanley Tucci, Saoirse Ronan, Rose McIver, Susan Sarandon, Michael Imperioli
Set in the 1970's, a happy average American family faces one of the most disastrous crimes of society. Young 14-year-old Susie Salmon (Ronan) is murdered by her rapist, paedophile neighbour, George Harvey (Tucci). Her father Jack (Wahlberg) and mother Abigail (Weisz) get into a desperate search for the rapist and for months altogether are left without a trail. The family finds it hard to get over the loss and cracks in their relation start to appear. Meanwhile, Harvey is busy planning his next victim. The movie has an extremely strong and emotional plot, but plays too much on Susie's afterlife. The constant transition between reality and heaven goes a bit too far and the movie would be an absolutely fantastic watch if it wasn't this aspect. Stanley Tucci has put on a fine piece of acting which simply steals the entire show away.
Thumbs up: Stanley Tucci, plot
Thumbs down: Susie's afterlife story
Rating: 7.3/10
Crime,
Drama,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
Mystery,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:18 AM
Genre: Action/Drama/Science-fiction/Thriller
Starring: Christian Bale, Sean Bean, William Fichtner, Taye Diggs, Emily Watson, Angus MacFayden
A third world war in the early 21st century, threatens to bring mankind to extinction. Realising that war rises out of human emotion, a clan of people develop a medicine, Prozium, which subdues human emotion and makes them robotic and hence curbing war. They belong to Libria. The Tetragammaton Council governs Libria and its law enforcement agencies' only task is to hunt down people who don't take Prozium at regular intervals and hence are termed as 'sense offenders'. John Preston (Bale) is a Cleric of the highest class and is a master of combat. His partner, Errol Partridge (Bean) stopped taking Prozium and was killed by Preston for the crime. Somehow Preston himself stops taking the drug and over a period of time gets convinced that the natural life is the way to live and not the robotic one that he has been leading for so long. The movie has a decent start but becomes hopelessly slow until the end where it once again picks up pace and ends on a high note. The action is definitely Matrix material but becomes a bit too repetitive and does not do much to improve the movies slow pace. Worth watching for the climax, the rest is a long bore.
Thumbs up: Action, climax scene
Thumbs down: Slow
Rating: 6.4/10
Action,
Average Movies,
Drama,
Science-fiction,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 12:15 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Peter Capaldi, Tom Hollander, Gina McKee, Chris Addison, Mimi Kennedy, James Gandolfini, Anna Chlumsky
The United States President and the United Kingdom Prime Minister fancy a war on the Middle-East. UK Minister for International Development, Simon Foster (Hollander) makes a statement on radio that the war is 'unforeseeable'. This statement causes an uproar in countries on both sides of the Atlantic with some supporting it and some against it. The Prime Minister's foul-mouthed communications chief, Malcolm Tucker (Capaldi) lets his tongue lose on any soul who dares cross him or support Simon and his statement. New recruit Toby (Addison) is not sure on which side does he belong and tags along with Simon on a trip to the United States. Simon just doesn't know when to speak and when not to, due to which he lands up in more than one embarrassing situation. Not to mention that a garden wall in Simon's constituency is threatening to collapse and it has gained enough momentum to reach the top brass in the government. The movie is a spin-off of a famous British television series and mocks the behind-the-scenes run-up to the Iraq war. There is no roll-over-the-floor humour here but sarcastic one-liners that one may find a little hard to catch. You need to pay hard attention to the dialogues if anything should be understood of the movie and the only saving grace is Peter Capaldi and his innovative abuses. Nice, but not good enough.
Thumbs up: Peter Capaldi and Tom Hollander
Thumbs down: Lack of laughable humour
Rating: 6.9/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 2:43 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Musical
Starring: Daniel-Day Lewis, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard, Judi Dench
Coming from the director of Chicago, this musical entertainer promises to live up to the name of its predecessor. Rome, 1965, famous director Guido Contini (Day-Lewis) has announced a new movie. Contini is finding it increasingly difficult to come up some inspiration for this movie, and although the film exists on paper, it does not in the maestro's head. To make things worse, his married life with a once famous actress Luisa (Cotillard) is on flimsy grounds and he seeks sexual respite with Carla (Cruz). Everything coupled together make his life one big mess, as if it wasn't already from the beginning. The movie somehow fails to bring out the song and dance the way Chicago did and fails in more than one aspect. It has some nice dance moves and a huge sex-appeal but that's about it. The performances were indeed good, but not enough to cover up for the movies flaws. Daniel-Day Lewis looks amazingly different from his previous hit There Will Be Blood and his brilliant performance does little to make the movie more appealing. An average entertainer which could have been much better
Thumbs up: Performances
Thumbs down: Storyline not good enough
Rating: 6.0/10
Average Movies,
Drama,
Musical,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:52 AM
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Starring: Will Ferrell, Chris Kattan, Gigi Rice, Elisa Donovan, Molly Shannon
Two very stupid and annoying brothers, Steve (Ferrell) and Doug (Kattan) Butabi go club-hopping in big hopes to find some good girls to flirt with and get laid. Their over-enthusiastic attitudes coupled with a stupid dressing sense doesn't get them anything except slaps and kicks. They have a huge ambition to start a nightclub of their own which would allow people like them to gain free access without standing in lines. Their brotherhood breaks over a disagreement and both their lives go for a toss. A pretty lame attempt at trying to make the audience laugh at stupidity which lacks any aspect of humour. The entire getup of Ferrel and Kattan are enough to put one off from watching the movie and any sane person should entirely stay away from this one.
Thumbs up: Tough to figure this one out
Thumbs down: Almost everything
4.1/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Pathetic Movies,
Sex Comedy,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:43 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Musical
Starring: Jeff Bridges, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jack Nation
An alcoholic veteran country singer, Bad Blake (Bridges) has taken the road, performing at various towns and cities. Cigarette's and whisky being his only companion, he befriends and later falls in love with a young Santa Fe journalist, Jean (Gyllenhaal). Bad's friendship extends to Jean's son Buddy (Nation) and the three are all set to become a nice happy family. Bad's affinity for alcohol gets the better of him and circumstances give Bad and Jean a new outlook on how things have happened over the past few months. The story has nothing which makes you want to sit right till the end or wait to see what happens. Its simple and sober, apart from Bad and Jeff Bridges' phenomenal acting makes him a deserving recipient for the Oscar. The country music played in the movie may not be to the liking of all and hence puts the movie on dicey grounds. A good watch but not an entertainer.
Thumbs up: Jeff Bridges
Thumbs down: Slow, music not to everyone's liking
Rating: 7.0/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Musical,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 3:14 AM
Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller/ Fantasy
Starring: Harrison Ford, Amrish Puri, Kate Capshaw, Jonathan Ke Quan
The great American archaeologist, Dr. Indiana Jones (Ford) is doing business in China when things turn out to be terrible wrong. Along with showgirl Wilhelmina (Capshaw) and a young Chinese boy Short Round (Quan), he soon finds himself in the jungles of India. The nearby villagers help him and believe that he has been sent by Lord Shiva to remove their worries. The villagers believe that the king of the nearby Pankot Palace has stolen their sacred stone which gives them power along with their children. They request him to bring back the stone and the kids. On arriving at the Palace, despite multiple assurances that the villagers claim is untrue, Indiana stumbles upon a secret passage which leads him right to a Thuggee ceremony, led by the high priest Mola Ram (Puri). There were originally five sacred stones of the Thuggee cult out which three exist and two are buried under the palace. Mola Ram has kidnapped the children to dig and excavate the remaining two stones. The movie is quite typical of the series with astonishing stunts and a highly predictable plot. The movie doesn't harp of anything different and its simply the action and thrilling stunts that make this movie a classic favourite.
Thumbs up: Stunts and action
Thumbs down: Predictable outcome, poor depiction of India
Rating: 6.7/10
Action,
Adventure,
Fantasy,
Good Movies,
Thriller,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:53 PM
Genre: Action/Science-fiction/Drama
Starring: Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, Anna Paquin, Shawn Ashmore, Patrick Stewart
A human scientist develops a cure for the mutants. All mutants would become human if they inject themselves with the new medicine. The cure in-turn has been developed by the help of a young mutant boy whose mere presence would make mutants temporarily human. Magneto (McKellen) along with his followers are against this cure and are lobbying to withdraw it. Meanwhile, Jean (Janssen) who is supposedly dead, has been found alive but with a psychic imbalance. She has grown stronger but has lost control over her power and gets manipulated to join Magneto. With Charles Xavier (Stewart) dead and with Jean by his side, Magento wishes to destroy anyone in support of the cure. Wolverine (Jackman) and Storm (Berry) are the only X-Men left and they have to assimilate a new army to fight Magneto. Although the movie still sings the 'saving the world' tune, it has gone a long way in showing something different from what we have been seeing in the previous movies. The mutant powers were explored with more depth which makes the movie all the more interesting. Astounding action sequences only makes this movie more desirable.
Thumbs up: Mutant powers, action
Thumbs down: Still saving the world
Rating: 7.0/10
Action,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Science-fiction,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:23 PM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Carey Mulligan, Peter Sarsgaard, Rosamund Pike, Dominic Cooper, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour
Set in 1970's London, a young 16-year-old Jenny (Mulligan) finds herself seduced by David (Sarsgaard) a man twice her age. Her father, Jack (Molina) is adamant that she gets admitted to Oxford for her graduation and doesn't allow her any social life. David and Jenny start lying to Jenny's parents about David's contacts with famous writers in a bid to go out with each other. Her father is so overwhelmed by David that he soon forgets that his daughter needs to go to Oxford and accepts Jenny and David's relationship. David's actual occupation is to make black people move in next door to white people who are scared of them and then to buy their houses cheap and re-selling them. Along with his friend Danny (Cooper) they also steal valuable artifacts from the purchased houses and sell them at astronomical prices. Jenny is initially shocked when she learns of David's occupation but she finds the her new life so glamorous, she chooses to ignore the dark side. She is completely convinced that education is not a necessity but merely something that world thinks you require it and slowly moves away from her academic career. Although the movie seems to be on the slower side, it actually manages to maintain a steady pace along with audience interest from start to end. The movie has some fine performances and those little cliched parts turn into well-discovered niches. Carey Mulligan's fabulous performance steals the show throughout.
Thumbs up: Carey Mulligan and well-executed plot
Thumbs down: A little dull climax
Rating: 7.7/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
{[['
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:03 PM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Musical/Thriller
Starring: Johnny Depp, Helene Bonham Carter, Alan Rickman, Timothy Spall, Ed Sanders, Jayne Wisener
19th century, Fleet Street, London. Benjamin Barker (Depp) is a happily married barber with a prosperous business. The corrupt Judge Turpin (Rickman) has his eyes on Benjamin's wife and puts Benjamin in prison in an attempt to seduce her. Once out of prison, Benajmin takes on the name of Sweeney Todd and returns to his old residence. His neighbour, Mrs Lovett (Carter) tells him that his wife consumed poison and his daughter Johanna (Wisener) is being kept locked in Judge Turpin's house. He wants to seek revenge for his family and decides to lure Judge Turpin to his saloon to get a shave and cut his neck open. One would realise that most of the characters in the movie are common with Harry Potter but it is merely a coincidence and nothing more. The musical narration of the story was better explored in Chicago which used dance and background music more effectively, something which lacked in this movie. The Lyrics, however, are worth reading with subtitles on and takes on a nice rhythmic motion. Watching Johnny Depp and the other cast singing is not quite bad and their efforts should be appreciated. The movie doesn't have a very strong plot to narrate but Johnny Depp's mere presence take it to new levels.
Thumbs up: Johnny Depp and other performances
Thumbs down: Songs could have been used more effectively, slightly weak plot
Rating: 7.2/10
Crime,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Musical,
Romance,
Thriller,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:46 AM
Genre: Drama/Comedy
Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus
Set in the 1970's, simpleton Prof. Lawrence Gopnik (Stuhlbarg) is a Jewish man living in America. He can easily get lost in the crowd of average people and he likes it that way. His average life gets disrupted when his wife Judith (Lennick) wants to divorce him to marry Sy Ableman (Melamed) one of Lawrence's acquaintance. One of Lawrence's students bribes him to pass him in his exam and on Larry's refusal he threatens to disrupt his career. Lawrence's brother Arthur (Kind) is staying with him and is proving to be a burden to the family. Lawrence's son Danny (Wolff) is secretly purchasing gramophone records without his knowledge which are costing him a bomb. These are just a few things that haunt Lawrence's life which make it anything close to being average. The movie is a regular life and lies of an American immigrant. The Jewish aspect might be a nice addition but wasn't played into very deep. It has a very ambiguous end and the movie on a whole is nothing really entertaining. Watchable, but yet avoidable.
Thumbs up: Michael Stuhlbarg
Thumbs down: Boring plot
Rating: 6.2/10
Average Movies,
Comedy,
Drama,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:25 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Starring: Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts, Vincent Cassel, Armin Mueller-Stahl
A Russian crime syndicate by the name Vory V Zakone, is based in London is and headed by Semyon (Mueller-Stahl). Anna (Watts) is a young nurse working at a hospital whose father was Russian. A young 14 year old girl dies in her hospital giving birth to a baby girl. The girl entrusts Anna with a diary, which tells Anna the secrets of why she is in such a condition. Not knowing Russian, she approaches Semyon, whose visiting card was there inside the diary, to interpret the diary. She meets Semyon's son Kirill (Cassel) and his chauffeur Nikolai (Mortensen) and half realises that they are in some way responsible for the condition of the young pregnant woman. Nikolai develops a soft-corner for her and tries to do whatever he can within his control to help her. Things get from bad to worse and Anna soon realises that she is stuck deep with the Russian mafia. The movie puts on an average show which has a lot of scope for further improvement. Better performances, barring Viggo Mortensen and some better plot execution could have helped the movie a lot. The movie proudly states 'from the director of A History of Violence' and I'm not sure if that is a good idea.
Thumbs up: Viggo Mortensen without a doubt
Thumbs down: Weak plot execution
Rating: 6.1/10
Average Movies,
Crime,
Drama,
Thriller,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:11 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Comedy
Starring: George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick
How does it feel to have a fortune of money but yet no home? Ryan Bingham (Clooney) is just that kind of guy and he loves his life. His house is up, up in the air in an aeroplane. Travelling 323 days in a year is no joke but he loves his well-synchronised routine and cant ask for anything better. He fires people for a living on behalf of company bosses who don't have the guts to do it. His own boss has a new MBA recruit who wants to cut down on the costs agents such as Ryan incur with all their travelling and proposes to conduct the lay-offs via video conferencing. Ryan is disappointed with Natalie's (Kendrick) proposal and feels as if he has been kicked out of his home, which in a way he has. He wants to prove that Natalie is wrong and people cannot be fired over the Internet and hence decides to take her along in his nation-wide tour. Ryan has a very mechanical lifestyle and prefers to stay away from relationships of any kind, be it family or love. He hooks up with Alex (Farmiga) whose life is similar to his and they both spend the night together whenever they are in the same city. Natalie and Ryan spend a lot of time together and get know each other. Each one shares delicate aspects of their lives with the other and they slowly watch their life transform in front of them. Although the movie may sound very typical, it is difficult to judge the outcome. The movie starts off on the right foot and somewhere before the half-way mark it loses focus which it only regains towards the end. The performances are stunning with George Clooney being the spectacular person that he is. The movie does feel a little slow and longer than its actual run time, but is a good watch overall and is not to be missed.
Thumbs up: Mr. Clooney
Thumbs down: The middle 45-odd minutes being slow
Rating: 7.7/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:54 AM
Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller/Drama/Mystery
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Jon Voight, Ed Harris, Justin Bartha, Diane Kruger, Helen Mirren
Continuing on the success of National Treasure, Ben Gates (Cage) is once again determined to break down priceless pieces of historical art to hunt for hidden treasures. Ben's great-grandfather was accused of conspiring in the murder of Abraham Lincoln by Mitch Wilkinson (Harris), something which Ben does not believe in and is determined to prove wrong. His determination to prove his ancestor innocent, puts him on the trail of the City of Lost Gold, a supposedly fictitious place which has a huge stockpile of gold. Along with his friends from the previous movie, Abigail (Kruger) and Riley (Bartha) and accompanied by his father Patrick (Voight) and mother Emily (Mirren) they search for mind-boggling clues that can lead them to this treasure. Breaking into the Tower of London, searching for clues in the White House Oval Office and kidnapping the United States president, their adventure is not what someone can call, a smooth ride. If you like the previous version than this one does not give you any reason to hate. However, if the first installment didn't go down your throat, this one wont either. The movie gives an interesting perspective towards popular historical artifacts which gives you the urge to personally examine them to see if what the movie says is genuinely true. The light inputs of humour are a relief and help make the movie more watchable.
Thumbs up: Gripping adventurous story
Thumbs down: On almost similar lines as the previous movie
Rating: 7.2/10
Action,
Adventure,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Mystery,
Thriller,
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:19 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams, James Marsden, Joan Allen, James Garner, Gena Rowlands
Romance movies have a very typical and cliched story lines with a happy ending. Once a while there comes a movie which goes beyond the convention to give us something we fall in love with all our life. Noah (Gosling) is a poor young lad from the country who falls in love with Allie (McAdams) a girl from an affluent family who has come to the country on a vacation. Her mother Anne (Allen) despises this relationship and takes Allie back to New York, and disrupts all forms of communication between them. Years later, Allie enlists herself as an army nurse and soon falls in love with Lon Hammond (Marsden) and is all set to marry him. It has been years since Noah and Allie have not met and they each think that their love for each other is long dead, but an instance makes Allie remember Noah and this time she finds it very hard to forget him. One fateful visit changes everything in their life. An undead love suddenly jumps back to life, a crazy childish love that they both thought never existed. The movie would typically appeal to young girls in particular who would go 'awww...' with every passing moment. The story has a beautiful and enchanting climax, which could have been slightly better but is not actually bad the way it is. A must watch for stupidly in love couples and gives the guys some nice ideas to woe your loved ones.
Thumbs up: Amazing story
Thumbs down: A bit improved climax
Rating: 7.5/10
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
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