The Avengers (3D) (2012)

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Action/Adventure

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson

Marvel, finally having run out of ingenious ideas to create more bizarre super heroes, has decided to mix all the ingredients into one huge pot and just boil, stir, simmer and serve. The amalgamation includes Thor (Hemsworth) from Thor, Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) from Iron Man, Dr. Bruce Banner (Ruffalo) from Hulk and Steve Rogers (Evans) from  Captain America. The movie is in continuation to Thor with Loki (Hiddleston) seeking revenge from his brother which he intends to do so by destroying Earth and obtaining Tesseract, an unknown self-sufficient energy source with powers unlimited. With Tesseract gone missing, Dr. Banner is recruited by the Black Widow (Johansson), a smooth-talker, to help develop a way to locate it. Captain America has recently been woken up after being frozen for almost half a century and Tony Stark is just simply summoned to make his presence felt. Thor drops from the sky in search of his brother and thus they come together to form The Avengers, a team of heroes out to save the planet from sure death and destruction. The plot has absolutely nothing attached to it except for the usual good over evil tale with predictable climaxes and outcomes. Many of the more popular characters of Marvel were left out of this series, perhaps due to storyline or marketing purposes. The movie does expect its audiences to have seen the respective movies of all the characters at least once just so that they are in sync with their background and history. Even if you haven't, you wont miss out on too much but its helpful simply to understand the more finer details of every character. All in all, the movie is pure entertainment and does not intend to do anything else apart from that.

Thumbs up: Special effects, action and entertainment

Thumbs down: Bland plot, not as exciting as it sounds

Rating: 6.8/10

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Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Good Movies, Science-fiction,

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Hancock (2008)

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marson

Everyone has seen the invincible super hero who brings an end to evil and saves the world, but who is gonna tell you the other side of the story? John Hancock (Smith) is a man with super-human strength, can fly, can easily regenerate and is an alcoholic. Unlike the conventional super hero, Hancock is hated by the citizens of LA for the collateral destruction he causes while trying to nab the bad guys and everyone wishes he would just leave. John is not particularly fond of the public himself and openly hates them back. Ray Embrey (Bateman) is a PR consultant who is struggling to get a good pitch across to his clients when he suddenly finds himself in a life-threatening situation and is saved at the very last minute by Hancock. Although he does also derail an entire freight train, Ray wants to thank him for saving his life and realises that if he could, as a PR consultant, change the way people look at him, he would not only repay Hancock but also give a huge boost to his struggling career. This idea does not go down well with Ray's wife Mary (Theron) and takes a little bit more than just convincing John to listen to him. The movies attempt at projecting a different super hero than what one reads in comic books is achieved to a certain degree but is still not perfect. Lose ends and some unanswered questions continue but the movie might not have been made for awards and is more focused towards pure entertainment. It does deliver action-packed performances, destructive scenes and the typical Will Smith humour and if it this that you need then that is what you will get. Don't expect anything more.

Thumbs up: Entertaining, a non-conventional super hero

Thumbs down: Lose, loses traction after a while

Rating: 6.0/10

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Action, Average Movies, Drama, Fantasy, Romance,

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The Baxter (2005)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux

If you thought your love life is messed up, you might want to know about the story of Elliot Sherman (Showalter). Elliot calls himself a baxter, or someone who has lost their girlfriend to her ex-boyfriend who casually walks back into her life and sweeps his lady love off her feet. Not once, but twice and it just happened the third time. Elliot was to marry Caroline (Banks) until her high school crush Bradley (Theroux) arrives at the wedding and proposes to her leaving Elliot in a position he is no stranger to. The movie flashes back and goes on to tell you exactly how this awkward situation arose and what comes thereafter. Cecil (Williams) is Elliot's temporary secretary whom he grows fond of and confines his fears of getting dumped again when he is all set to marry Caroline and bring her into his life. The movie builds on an interesting concept, different than what a normal romance comedy would be and attempts at being realistic rather than being idealistic. The movie suffers with being slow and stretched and since it gives away the climax at the very beginning, you know exactly what to expect.

Thumbs up: Good idea to explore upon

Thumbs down: Stretched, slow and boring

Rating: 5.7/10

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Average Movies, Comedy, Drama, Romance,

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True Grit (2010)

Genre: Western/Drama/Action/Adventure

Starring: Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin

The second movie adaptation based on a novel, the movie charts the adventure of Matie Ross (Steinfeld) who is out to avenge the death of her father by the notorious criminal Tom Chaney (Brolin). Tom double-crossed her father when he had hired him for an assignment and fled with his gold after killing him. Matie, a young and determined 14-year-old has more sense and guts than an adult twice her age and decides to hire the best gunslinger her money can buy and get him to track and arrest Chaney for his crime. She needs somebody who has true grit and U.S. Marshall Rooster Cockburn (Bridges) agrees the offer after much persuasion. En route, they meet Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Damon) who is also hunting for Tom Chaney for another crime. Not being familiar with the land of Arkansas, he approaches Cockburn for a partnership where they both capture Chaney and share the rewards. Nominated for 10 Oscar awards, the movie is not for everyone and demands a whole lot of patience and understanding. Its slow to start and slow to progress and that is where you tend to lose interest. Its only towards the very end that the movie gets some meaning and momentum and where you start appreciating the movie completely. Fabulous performances especially by the young Hailee Steinfeld.

Thumbs up: Great performances

Thumbs down: Slow plot but matures well

Rating: 7.4/10

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Action, Adventure, Drama, Good Movies, Western,

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Housefull 2 (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Shreyas Talpade, John Abraham, Zarine Khan, Shazahn Padamsee, Jacqulien Fernandes, Asin, Randhir Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Chunky Pandey, Mithun Chakraborty, Boman Irani

Bollywood comedy needs a serious lecture from Charles Darwin. It seems the theory of evolution applies to each and every entity on this planet except for the Indian film industry and especially its comedy genre. Two estranged brothers, Mr. Chintu Kapoor (Rishi Kapoor) and Daboo Kapoor (Randhir Kapoor) are looking at getting their respective daughters married. They would only get them married into prestigious households demand rich son-in-laws, perhaps maybe even the son of JD (Chakraborty). Jai's (Talpade) father is thrown out of the house by Chintu when he learns they dont live up to their standards and Jai vows revenge. Enter Jolly (Deshmukh) the son of JD who is good friends with Jai and agrees to help him get his revenge. They hire Max (Abraham) to go to Chintu as JD's son and marry their daughter Henna (Asin) and dump her before the wedding. Max ends up going to Daboo instead of Chintu and meets his daughter Bobby (Fernandes) hence the duo now hire Sunny (Kumar) to get the real job done. Jai wishes to marry his sweetheart Parul (Padamsee) and Jolly wants to marry JLo (Khan) but is too scared to talk about his true love in front of his father. The movie is a complete mess of characters with all the male leads constantly switching roles and partners to make, what could possibly be, the worlds biggest botched movie. As all Indian comedy movies, this one too thrives on a complicated and confused story, bad humour, bikini babes and too many stars. It really isn't any different from any other Hindi comedy movie that you might come across and does not even attempt at being so. Charles Darwin, I call thee to come down here and give a lesson or two to these mindless mortals!

Thumbs up: Zarine Khan looks hot, Shazahn Padamsee is hot, Asin sizzles and Jacquelin is every mans wet dream

Thumbs down: Hopeless plot, bad humour worse acting

Rating: 4.9/10

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Bollywood, Comedy, Drama, Pathetic Movies, Romance,

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The Iron Lady (2011)

Genre: Drama/Biography/History

Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach

Based on the life of Britain's first female Prime Minister and the person to hold the office longest in the 20th century, Margaret Thatcher (Streep) is often known to have been responsible for changing the face of the British economy. Thatcher was elected from the conservative party and was elected at a time when unemployment, high demands of trade unions and fiscal deficit was hounding the British government. With her aggressive stance and conservative policy-making, Thatcher soon transformed the country into a profit-making economy and went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. The movie transits between 2008 Thatcher and Thatcher back during her active political days. Margaret is now old and often hallucinates about her dead husband Dennis (Broadbent) and talks to him, imagining him being present all the time. The movie is extremely slow and takes its own time to move and develop. The first quarter is impatient and you want the movie to progress from showing an old Thatcher to showing her active days and move onto something that the audience want to watch and the movie promised to show. Perhaps if the movie focused more on Margaret then and had little of Margaret now, the movie would have been widely acclaimed by all. Streep has put on a fabulous performance, one of her best in the past few years but sadly the slow pace of the movie, doesn't support her effort in a manner it should to make it an exceptional work of art.

Thumbs up: Meryl Streep's fabulous performance

Thumbs down: Slow, very slow

Rating: 7.0/10

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Biography, Drama, Good Movies, Historical Event,

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Barb Wire (1996)

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Science-fiction

Starring: Pamela Anderson, Victoria Rowell, Steve Railsback, Temuera Morrison, Jack Noseworthy

Have you watched a movie with the lead performer being someone who should never actually be in that role? Like an industrialist, a sports persons wife, an ex-politician or in this case, a porn star. The year 2017, the entire United States is engulfed in a civil war with Steel Harbour being the only free city in the country. Barb Wire (Anderson) is a mercenary and the owner of a bar in Steel Harbor. She struts her stuff, shows too much cleavage, has her legs exposed at all times, flaunts a 17" waist and can perform insane stunts wearing skin-hugging tight leather outfits. And there is something about a pair of German contraband contact lenses that can allow anyone wearing them to pass through a retina scan without any problem and a whole bunch of people trying to get their hands on it for a variety of reasons. There is too much skin show, in case I forgot to mention that, with everyone speaking in loud whispers with a thick, seductive and I'm-too-sexy touch added to it, especially Miss Anderson. The movie is a complete washout and although I would like to say that the movie is good enough at least to ogle at Pam, that too does not quite happen. The plot is badly glued together, randomly evolving and does not quite get to you even after pausing the movie and thinking about it for half a day. Is there enough already to suggest this is avoidable?

Thumbs up: HAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA

Thumbs down: I'll write a blog post about that

Rating: 3.6/10

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Action, Crime, Drama, Pathetic Movies, Science-fiction,

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Kahaani (2012)

Genre: Drama/Thriller/Crime/Mystery

Starring: Vidya Balan, Parambrata Chatterjee, Saswata Chatterjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui,

Good performances, an enticing storyline and a superb climax is just what the doctor ordered to make a good movie. Vidya Bagchi (Balan) arrives in Kolkata from London to look for her husband who mysteriously disappeared a few days ago. Her husband, Arnab, came for an assignment to Kolkata and suddenly stopped answering telephone calls and any form of communication. A local police officer Rana (Parambrata Chatterjee) agrees to help her in her quest to seek her husband. The hotel in which she claimed her husband was staying in denied him ever checking in along with the National Data Centre (NDC) the company in which he was supposed to have been working for. Suddenly Arnab Bagchi does not exist and nobody, right from his parents address, school records, professional records do not seem to match the claims made by Vidya. What does emerge is Arnab's uncanny resemblance with Milind Damji, a man with a shady past and an obscure link with Arnab. Vidya realises that in order to get Arnab, she must find Milind but Khan (Siddiqui) the commander-in-chief of the NDC warns her to step out of it or she might lose her life. The movie is very gripping and keeps you wondering and glued to your seat right till the very end. No matter how many theories you might cook up half-way through the movie, it would all go for a toss once the climax is out. The only low points was the forced romance in a true Bollywood style, which thankfully was without any unnecessary song sequences. The movie is beautifully shot against the backdrop of the Bengali festival of Durga Pooja which adds power and aggression to the movie and a huge scoop of character. Vidya Balan has shined once more with some superb acting and has definitely made a mark for herself in the industry, if The Dirty Picture hasn't already done that.

Thumbs up: Astounding performances, gripping plot

Thumbs down: Climax might seem a bit far-fetched to few, forced romance scenes.

Rating: 8.5/10

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Amazing Movies, Bollywood, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller,

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

Genre: Drama

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Brad Dourif, Sydney Lassick, Danny DeVito, William Redfield, Christopher Lloyd, Will Sampson

Define 'A true, epic, American drama movie?', Answer; One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. If there ever can be an example to show how the most simplest of story lines can be made into something very interesting, then nothing can be a better example than this movie. Randle McMurphy (Nicholson) a mentally unstable criminal, apprehended for raping a minor is sent to a mental institution for evaluation. He does not appear to or behave in any manner that might suggest he suffers from an illness but needs to undergo treatment nonetheless. His ward is run by the strict Nurse Ratched (Fletcher) who rules rather than runs the ward like a queen and the patients her subjects. She shows indifference towards their pain and emotion and forces them to take unpleasant medication. McMurphy, being less crazy than the rest, realises the nurse's nature and tries to take steps to make his ward members' life better. From gambling with cigarettes, taking bets on escaping, hijacking the bus for a fishing trip and watching baseball on a television that is switched off, McMurphy does it all much to the displeasure of the nurse. The movie is known worldwide for being one of the few movies to have won all major Academy Awards and rightly so. The performances were outstanding, the plot is extremely simple but executed with finesse. It shows how a rapist, branded insane, could do things that even educated and sane individuals could not; he brought them joy. The movie might seem to trudge along with no objective, but believe me its worth all the effort at the very end. This blog celebrates 500 reviews with this movie. A fitting choice I must say.

Thumbs up: Outstanding in every aspect

Thumbs down: 5 major Academy Awards; this section shouldn't exist for this movie

Rating: 8.8/10

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Amazing Movies, Drama,

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