The Hangover Part II (2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Adventure/Mystery

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha, Ken Jeong, Mason Lee, Jamie Chung

When a legendary movie tries to make a come back with a second edition, many people are sceptical about the success of the re-attempt and fear that the legend would be damaged forever. I, was a part of this clan and now I stand corrected. In every way, the part II is in every way same as the first movie with only two changes, the location and mess-ups. Stu (Helms) is getting married to Lauren (Chung) in Thailand accompanied by his friends Alan (Galifianakis) Phil (Cooper) Doug (Bartha) and Lauren's younger brother Teddy (Lee). Stu did not want a bachelor party and a few harmless drinks by a bonfire on the beach led to a similar outcome as last time. Doug, apparently, is at the hotel cause he went back to bed quite early. Phil, Stu and Aaron are in another dingy hotel, hundreds of miles away in Bangkok along with Chow (Jeong). They have no idea how Chow got here, Teddy is missing and only his chopped finger is what remains on the floor. The movie has some really good laughs and although the entire fundamentals of the movie is exactly the same as the previous one, the movie is equally unpredictable and very funny. Its not a great improvement over the previous movie, but it is more or less there. Performances are top-notch and almost flawless. Hats-off to the entire crew but I would still be wary if they try to make a third part.

Thumbs up: Performances, hugely funny

Thumbs down: None whatsoever

Rating: 8.0/10

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Adventure, Amazing Movies, Comedy, Drama, Mystery,

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Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Comedy/Drama

Starring: Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Geoffrey Rush, Ian McShane, Kevin McNally

The ever famous Captain Jack Sparrow returns once again in the fourth edition of the Pirates of the Caribbean series of movies. It was rumoured that Captain Jack Sparrow has visited the Fountain of Youth and with the Spanish searching for the fountain, the English want to get there first. Captain Barbossa (Rush) has joined alliance with the Crown and wants Jack to be first mate and get him to the Fountain of Youth. Jack, ever fond of his pre-fix 'Captain', refuses to play second fiddle and escapes, only to encounter his long lost love from Spain, Angelica (Cruz). Angelica reveals herself to be the daughter of the pirate Blackbeard (McShane) who has been prophesied to be killed by Barbossa in a fortnight. Fearing his life, Blackbeard wants to get to the fountain before the prophesy can turn out to be true and Captain Sparrow will be the one to get him there. The movie is a massive let down to all Jack Sparrow fans with a whole lot of 'new' changes which have spoilt the fun and feel of the previous movies. The movie is a reboot from the previous story with a fresh adventure and hence the demand for some new characters. The movie misses out on the Jack Sparrow charisma and humour which made the movie different from the conventional. Nonetheless, Johnny Depp has taken the show away and done a fabulous performance just like what one can expect it to be. I just hope Disney does not make a fifth one and ruin the entire series.

Thumbs up: Johnny Depp

Thumbs down: New star cast, new story, new director

Rating: 6.6/10

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Action, Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Good Movies,

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Toy Story (2010)

Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Drama

Starring (voice): Tim Allen, Tom Hanks, Joan Cusack, Ned Beatty, Don Rickles, Michael Keaton

The third installment of the very famous Toy Story series finally comes after almost a decade after the release of the second movie. The Toy Story movies were known for their unique plot and high-quality animation which, thankfully, the second movie has continued. Woody (Hanks) is a toy cowboy who was once Andy's favourite. Andy has now grown up and is all ready to go to college and does not play with his toys anymore, much to the disappointment of Woody and his friends. Andy intended to put his toys away in the attic but they accidentally find themselves being donated away to a daycare centre. Woody wants to stay back with Andy but the other toys feel Andy doesn't care for them any longer and should move on. The toys at the daycare centre follow the orders of an evil bear, Lotso (Beatty), who puts all the new toys to the toddler rooms since he knows they will get beaten up and misused, something that none of the other toys want to go through. Woody manages to escape from the daycare but comes back when he learns of the cruelty that all his friends are suffering and needs to find a way to rescue them. The audience of the original movies was much different who have now grown up and the new younger generation are not familiar with the character and movie background. Nonetheless, the movie is an easy and entertaining watch that will appeal to all, young and old. It excels at what it was created to do and anything beyond that would be asking for too much.

Thumbs up: Great animation, good plot

Thumbs down: Some more humour maybe

Rating: 7.8/10

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Adventure, Animation, Comedy, Drama, Good Movies,

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Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Genre: War/Drama/History/Action/Crime

Starring: Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, Kevyn Major Howard, Arliss Howard, R. Lee Ermey

A group of young boys decide to take the boldest decision of their life, to join the US Marine Corps. Their drill instructor Gny. Sgt. Hartman (Ermey) has sworn to make their life as miserable as he could. he recruits get names according to their nature and behaviour. The funny person was called Pvt. Joker (Modine), the fat person was called Pvt. Pyle (Baldwin) and so on. The movie is more or less narrated with the perspective of Pvt. Joker and his experiences during military training and the subsequent deployment in Vietnam. He became a war correspondent for the army by interviewing soldiers and covering stories from the battle field. The journalists craved to pull the trigger of their guns at least once in battle and when the time finally came, everybody wished it never did. The movie does not have any objective or something in particular to bring out from the movie. Its a simple narration of a soldiers life from scratch till war. The performances in the movie were good and well supported. Although this movie cannot be classified as an outright comedy, it has the satire and hidden humour that would definitely bring out those unintentional giggles. Although the movie more or less tries to focus on overcoming your fears, the end of objective may not be clear to all. Perhaps a more structured and objective plot might have helped in the movie reaching out to a wider audience. Nonetheless, a great war movie.

Thumbs up: Brilliant acting

Thumbs down: Plot is a simple narration

Rating: 7.8/10

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Action, Crime, Drama, Good Movies, Historical Event, War,

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Ben-Hur (1959)

Genre: Drama/Romance/History/Biography/Adventure

Starring: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Martha Scott, Cathy O'Donnell, Jack Hawkins

The tales of Jesus Christ, infused with the story of the Jewish Prince, Judah Ben-Hur (Heston) who got betrayed by his Roman childhood friend Messala (Boyd) for Judah supported the Jewish cause over the Roman one. Judah and his family, his sister Tirza (O'Donnell) and mother Miriam (Scott), were sent to the gallows by Messala to rot and die. Judah, in all his determination, vows to return and take Messala's life. He then gets thrown in a journey of slavery and travels to Jerusalem where he once again encounters Messala and decides to stub the Roman arrogance out of him, once and for all. The movie is well renowned and popular, however, the entire storyline, in isolation, is quite simple and nothing out of the ordinary. Friendship that turned sour and revenge that was sworn. The attribute that made the movie better was the Roman-Jewish setup along with the background of Jesus Christ. Although the movie proclaims to be the tale of Jesus Christ, there is very little of him which majorly comes only towards the end. The movie is a lovely watch, with some very phenomenal performances. The movie has a unique blend of film noir along with some more contemporary performances which makes it even better.

Thumbs up: Great performances, good plot outline

Thumbs down: Stretched and long

Rating: 7.7/10

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Adventure, Biography, Drama, Good Movies, Historical Event, Romance,

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