Doomsday (2008)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Science-fiction/Thriller

Starring: Rhona Mitra, Bob Hoskins, Adrian Lester, David O'Hara, Craig Conway

A disease can break-out anytime, anywhere and to anyone. It gives no warning and it gives no reason. Glasgow, Scotland, 2008, one such deadly virus erupted in this bustling city which quickly spread throughout Scotland like wild fire. The British government built a huge impenetrable wall covering the Scottish borders all around. Scotland was put under quarantine and all its inhabitants were left there to die. London, 2035, the deadly Scottish virus reaches the city of London. 3 years ago the government stumbled upon evidence which showed human survivors in Scotland but did nothing about it. With London under threat, the government finally decides to send a team of soldiers to make their way through Scotland and come back with a cure within 48 hours. Major Eden Sinclair (Mitra) has been chosen to lead the team into what is possibly a wild, carnivorous and deadly territory. At first glance, the movie hugely reminds you of the Will Smith starrer, I Am Legend, with the basic outline being more or less the same. The movie feels dragged, predictable and boring on multiple occasions and seems like a very patchy and a last minute job. Poor performances does not help much in uplifting this movie any further. Could have been better, but only slightly.

Thumbs up: Action, but vaguely

Thumbs down: Performances, plot execution

Rating: 5.9/10

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Action, Adventure, Average Movies, Science-fiction, Thriller,

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The Big Lebowski (1998)

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama

Starring: Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, Julianne Moore, Steve Buscemi, David Huddleston

How many problems can a rug and your last name give you? A bit too many, as Jeff 'The Dude' Lebowski (Bridges) later learns. Two thugs decide to break into The Dude's house and urinate on his rug for not paying their debt, something of which he has no idea about. He later learns that the thugs had mistaken him for the other Jeff Lebowski, The Big Lebowski (Huddleston) who is a retired millionaire. The Dude decides to pay The Big Lebowski a visit to ask for compensation for a new rug but instead gets assigned to carry out an errand for him. The Big Lebowski's young mistress, Bunny, has been kidnapped and he needs to pay $1 million as ransom and he wants The Dude to deliver the money. The Dude agrees, but things get horribly wrong when Walter (Goodman) The Dude's bowling partner and good friend, starts thinking that the kidnapping is a scam where Bunny simply wants to make a lot of money. He tries to help The Dude but things only get worse when a bit too many people start getting involved, leaving The Dude to bear the brunt. The entire movie rests on the shoulder of one and only one man, Jeff Bridges. The man has put on an outstanding performance to make this movie a wonderful watch. There is no outright humour but more of punchy lines and good acting that brings a grin across your face. The movie gets a bit mystic with a lot of dreamy sequences, which personally, I find highly irritating, but then again is an entirely subjective view. May not be to every ones liking but a good watch nonetheless.

Thumbs up: Jeff 'The Dude' Bridges

Thumbs down: The dreamy sequences

Rating: 7.3/10

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Comedy, Crime, Drama, Good Movies,

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Due Date (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Adventure/Drama

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis, Michelle Monaghan

Bad days will always be bad, no matter how hard you try to make them good. Peter Highman (Downey Jr.) got shot with a rubber bullet by an Air Marshall, and was put on the no-flying list with no baggage or money. He was forced to travel from the east coast to the west coast with a certain Ethan Tremblay (Galifianakis) an aspiring Hollywood actor, whose mannerisms suggest he is gay who also turns out to be the very man responsible for putting Peter in this situation. Two end up having a disastrous road trip where they crash their car, break some bones and get high on pot. The movie comes from the director of The Hangover and seems like a bad attempt at trying to generate the same popularity. Galifianakis also plays a very similar role to what he did in The Hangover which doesn't really help the movie in any way. The movie looks and sounds very promising but sadly doesn't deliver. The movie lacked any kind of good laughable humour although there was some good scope for the same. It's definitely a DVD movie.

Thumbs up: Performances

Thumbs down: Bad humour, not a very exciting plot

Rating: 6.2/10

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Adventure, Average Movies, Comedy, Drama,

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Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)

Genre: Crime/Action/Drama

Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, Billie Bird, David Graf, Bobcat Goldthwait, George Gaynes, G.W. Bailey, Leslie Easterbrook, Lance Kinsey, Sharon Stone

Commandant Eric Lasssard (Gaynes) has a brilliant new idea called 'Citizens on Patrol (COP)'. He aims to train and develop ordinary citizens who would help the police in fighting crime. COP gains a lot of acclaim from senior police officials and the idea is enforced. Whilst Commandant Lassard is away on a conference to England, Captain Harris (Bailey) is put temporarily in charge of the academy. Harris despises COP and all of Lassard's officers, and has a special hatred for Sgt. Carey Mahoney (Guttenberg). Mahoney along with the other officers, try to execute the COP programme whereas Harris tries every trick in the book to put it down. The movie has a very unoriginal plot and after having three movies before it, there should have been something new for the audience. The movie is low on the humour aspect too and lacks the punch that it should have had. It is entertaining, but not entertaining enough.

Thumbs up: Good attempt, could be better

Thumbs down: Lack of humour, cliched plot

Rating: 5.4/10

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Action, Average Movies, Crime, Drama,

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The Infidel (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Archie Panjabi, Omid Djalili, Richard Schiff, Yigal Naor, Amit Shah

A British-Muslim man, Mahmud Nasir (Djalili) is about to get one of the rudest shocks of his life. He is Jewish. His birth parents are Jewish and he was adopted by a Muslim family. This secret was kept hidden from him until he found his adoption certificate after his mother died. Meanwhile, Mahmud's son Rashid (Shah) wants to marry a Muslim girl he loves, the only problem being that her step-father is Arshad El Masri (Naor) a hard-line Muslim leader who stubs the western culture at any given chance. Mahmud must prove to Arshad that he is a good and pure Muslim and at the same time prove to the Rabbi that he knows enough about being a Jew so that he may meet his dying birth-father. The former may not be very hard but for the latter he seeks the help of Lenny Goldberg (Schiff) a Jewish, drunk cab-driver whose very sight used to make his blood boil. The movie doesn't have the kind of humour to make you roll over in splits, but has enough to keep your interest alive. There are those one or two funny moments but that's about it. An interesting multi-cultural movie that is very relevant in today's society where each one of us are trying to carve our own identity with respect to religion.

Thumbs up: Interesting plot

Thumbs down: Nothing exemplary

Rating: 7.2/10

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Comedy, Drama, Good Movies,

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Golmaal 3 (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Action

Starring: Ajay Devgan, Kareena Kapoor, Tusshar Kapoor, Arshad Warsi, Kunal Khemu, Shreyas Talpade, Johnny Lever, Mithun Chakraborty, Ratna Pathak

Golmaal is back again to eat your brains, waste your money and make you regret all your life why you dedicated 2 precious hours to watch such nonsense. Well, not really. The movie is far better than the second part and almost as good (or bad) as the first. Gopal (Devgan), Laxman (Talpade) and Gopal's girlfriend Daboo (Kareena Kapoor) run a jet-ski business in Goa. On the other hand, three useless brothers, Madhav (Warsi), Laxman (Khemu) and Lucky (Tusshar Kapoor) are struggling to make a living and decide to start a jet-ski business too. Each of the sides are financed by some small time crook. Puppy (Lever) the crook who finances Madhav and his team, has stolen the queens necklace and has an uncanny habit of forgetting who and what he is doing every few minutes. Madhav and Gopal get into a tussle over who has the right to run the same business on the same beach and both sides swear enmity against the other and seek an opportunity to fight. Pritam (Chakraborty) has adopted Madhav and the boys but they don't know that they are adopted. Same goes for Gopal and Laxman who are adopted by Geeta (Pathak). Geeta and Pritam once loved each other but fate had its way and separated them for many years until they finally see each other in Goa. Will the boys dissolve their hatred to make their parents happy? The movie thankfully does not have the very typical cliched comedy that Bollywood is known to have. Punchy and hilarious dialogues are scattered across the movie which make it a fun watch. The movie spoofs on multiple movies and Indian personalities which makes it an even better entertainer. Even though the lines were good enough to make you laugh, it somehow seemed as if they weren't used to their full potential. Its a no-brainer which you might enjoy, but don't expect too much either.

Thumbs up: Fantastic dialogues, Johnny Lever

Thumbs down: Some boring bits

Rating: 6.4/10

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Action, Average Movies, Bollywood, Comedy, Drama,

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Wedding Crashers (2005)

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance

Starring: Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, Cristopher Walkin, Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper

Two good friends, John (Wilson) and Jeremy (Vaughn) are professional wedding crashers. Their sole objective is to meet new women and sleep with them. They learn of Treasury Secretary William Cleary (Walkin) whose daughter is getting married and plan to crash the biggest wedding of the country. They meet the other Cleary sisters, Claire (McAdams) and Gloria (Fisher). John falls for Claire but later learns that she is engaged to Zachary (Cooper) and Jeremy gets Gloria, the young sex-hungry teenager. John and Jeremy get invited to spend some time with the family over the weekend which simply brings John and Claire closer, perhaps a bit too close. The movie is outright predictable and is no different from the thousands of other movies that come out on similar lines. It lacks any kind of outright humour and the story seems to develop at its own leisurely pace. It did get a bit more interesting towards the end, but not too much. Everything about it is quite average, nothing great.

Thumbs up: The concept of having 'wedding crashers'

Thumbs down: Boring, quite average in most aspects

Rating: 5.8/10

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Average Movies, Comedy, Drama, Romance, Sex Comedy,

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