Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 5:55 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Thriller/Mystery
Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Prateik Babbar, Rana Daggubati, Aditya Pancholi, Govind Namdeo, Muzammil S. Qureshi
Goa, India, the land of sun and sand, bikinis and babes, hippies and druggies and crime and murder. People from around the world come here to party and get high, but the party is just about to get disrupted by one big party-pooper. Lorsa Biscuta (Pancholi) is the drug lord of Goa. ACP Vishnu Kamath (Bachchan) is a corrupt cop in the anti-narcotics division. One day when his family dies in a car accident due to a drug-infused driver, his life changes forever and he swears to clean the streets of Goa. Laurence Edwardo Gomes aka Lorry (Babbar) is the average Goan youth who aspires to go to USA to study, along with his girlfriend. His dreams, however, come crashing down when his financial aid does not get approved but his girlfriends' does who has to leave him to pursue her academic career. A local drug peddler hears about Lorry's sob story and agrees to pay off his fees provided he carry some cocaine with him to the US. In an act of desperation, Lorry agrees much to his later regret. Meanwhile, ACP Kamath is cracking a whip on the party scene and Biscuta stashes his dope with a mysterious Michael Barbossa. In each part of Goa he is known by a different name. Nobody knows him, nobody has seen him and Kamath is out to search for him. Joki (Daggubati) is Lorry's well-wisher who is trying to prevent him from doing what he is about to do. His ex-girlfriend Zoe (Basu) went through the entire phase that Lorry is about to go through now and he doesn't want to lose another friend. The stories eventually merge to bring out a possibly predictable outcome. If you actually put your head to it its not hard for some people to figure the mystery out. Rohan Sippy's movies were always something and this movie too aspires to be different. Abhishek Bachchan and Prateik Babbar put together a fabulous performance, although Bachchan always seemed over-aggressive and too enthusiastic, it suited the role he was trying to play. The only flaw in the otherwise decent movie was the extended run-time. Bollywood is notorious for stretched movies and this one is no different. Possibly if the plot developed slightly faster with a more twisted climax, the movie would have been far more interesting. Great watch with some nice foot-tapping numbers.
Thumbs up: Good performances, nice plot
Thumbs down: A bit stretched
Rating: 7.8/10
Bollywood,
Crime,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Mystery,
Romance,
Thriller,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:39 AM
Genre: Action/Crime
Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Matt Schluze, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, Elsa Pataky, Joaquim de Almeida
The Fast and Furious saga started of as movie with adrenaline rushing racing, crazy cars and hot babes. The past few movies (including this one) have, sadly, shifted their focus and cars have been quickly replaced by crime. Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is sentenced to prison for his crime in the previous movie but escapes shortly with the help of Brian O'Conner (Walker) and his sister Mia (Brewster). Before the police can get to them, the trio drive their way down all the way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and meet up with Dominic's old accomplice Vince (Schulze). Reyes (Almeida) is Rio's biggest crime lord and Mia, Brian, Dom and Vince do a job with Reyes and his men. The job goes wrong and they attract enough heat to get FBI Agent Hobbs (Johnson) to come all the way down to Rio and sort business out. Dom wants to do one last job before they quit the business forever, one job where they take Reyes down for good. The movie did have some really amazing action and hugely destructive action sequences, yet the plot did not live up to the brands reputation. Whatever cars and racing was there, it seemed to be forced rather than blend with the movies plot. Two masterminds assembling a team for one big robbery, ever heard of Oceans Eleven? Amongst other faults, the attribute for which each team member was selected by Dom and Brian did not reflect in the movie. It is entertaining, no doubt, but not the Fast and Furious kind of entertainment. Felt more like a heist movie on steroids.
Thumbs up: Great mind-bogging action
Thumbs down: No racing, not too much of cars
Rating: 6.2/10
Action,
Average Movies,
Crime,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 3:33 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Starring: Akshay Kumar,Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Celina Jaitley, Rimi Sen
The million dollar question, what is Bollywoods one and only formula to create a comedy movie? Answer; Akshay Kumar + a foreign location + tons of skimpy clad woman + husband-wife complications. Been there, seen it and done that. Raj (Deol), Yogi (Shetty) and Vikram (Khan) are three friends who do business together and who regularly cheat on their wives and have loads of other mistresses. To avoid getting caught, they watch out for each other and have a ball of a time. Raj's wife Sanjana (Kapoor) loves her husband to no end and refuses to agree upon the fact that he might be cheating on her. Yogi and Vikrams' wives, Maya (Jaitley) and Shivani (Sen) introduce her to detective Kishan (Kumar) who specialises in conducting sting operations against cheating husbands/wives. Meanwhile, Raj, Vikram and Yogi suspect that there is someone trying to bring out their secret to their wives and hence they too hire Kishan to find out who is uncovering their secrets. The usual confusion, mix-up and stupidity follows which gives you a week-long hangover. The plot is utterly ridiculous and the melodrama and unwanted craziness is just too much to digest. My condolences to everyone who had to bear the brunt of this movie and my sincere apologies for not posting this review early enough.
Thumbs up: Hmm, probably the tons of bikini-clad woman will win this one
Thumbs down: Everything, literally
Rating: 4.2/10
Bollywood,
Comedy,
Drama,
Pathetic Movies,
Romance,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 5:56 AM
Genre: Science-fiction/Action/Drama/Romance
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaall, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright
Yep, another unbelievable American science-fiction movie. Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) is a US Army soldier who has been assigned in a new research project undertaken by the government. The device, developed by Dr. Rutledge (Wright), is capable of extracting the memory of a dead person limited to the last 8 minutes before death. A passenger train in Chicago was bombed and many more such attacks are to follow. Colter Stevens is asked to assume the identity of a passenger on the train whose memory has been extracted. He has 8 minutes to go back in time and assume the identity of the person and find the bomber, if the 8 minutes run out, he is reset back in the same scenario over and over again until his mission is completed, however, each reset means that the bomber in reality is slowly approaching his next target and Colter has very little time. He meets Christina (Monoghan) on the train who is an associate of the man whose identity he has assumed and falls in love with her. Apart from just deactivating the bomb, he wants to save the lives of every other person on the train, including Christina. In order to understand the format of the movie in more simpler terms, simply imagine yourself playing a PC game where each unsuccessful mission makes you reset the game and you try a different tactic. The movie gets boring with the same scenarios occurring over and over again with a very weak climax. The romance bit too didn't help too much but just made it a bigger bore.
Thumbs up: Nothing in particular
Thumbs down: Boring plot and story
Rating: 6.0/10
Action,
Average Movies,
Crime,
Romance,
Science-fiction,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:25 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Sports
Starring: Sean William Scott, Randy Quaid, Brando Eaton, Emilee Wallace, A.D. Miles
Most sex-comedies try to make a living out of the same limited objectives; show some stupidity along with unwanted nudity and this movie is no different. Gary Houseman (Scott) used to love the game of tennis but he felt that tennis never really loved him back and hence swore to give up the sport. After a failed tennis career, he became a high school janitor where he once again rubbed shoulders with his estranged sport which sparked his love once more. The tennis team was failing and wasn't getting anywhere and the tennis coach, Lew Tuttle (Quaid) appointed Gary to be the assistant coach after seeing his skills. With the subsequent death of Coach Tuttle, faculty member Steve Pimble (Miles) volunteered to head the tennis team although he knew nothing about the game. Gary and Steve now have the astronomical task on their heads to coach the tennis team and make them win the state champions, just as Coach Tuttle had set out to do. The sad part about the movie is that it had the enormous scope of being fun, but stupid jokes, scenes that don't contribute to the plot and tacky editing made sure that your fun time turns out to be not-so-fun. Sean William Scott and his acting was probably the only saving grace in the movie, had it been anyone else it would have been just worse. An average movie and don't expect fireworks.
Thumbs up: Sean William Scott
Thumbs down: Bad plot execution
Rating: 5.4/10
Average Movies,
Comedy,
Drama,
Sex Comedy,
Sports,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 12:50 PM
Genre: Science-fiction/Crime/Drama
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, Abbie Cornish, Andrew Howard
Another druggie movie? Maybe, maybe not. Eddie Morra (Cooper) is a low-life, aspiring writer who lacks inspiration and words to fulfill his book contract. His girlfriend Lindy (Cornish) dumps him because he cant support himself and his life is not going where he wants it to go. He meets his ex-girlfriends brother on the streets one day who used to be a drug peddler and now claims to be a consultant for a pharmaceutical company. He shows him a new drug called NZT which is due to be made legal in the market that enhances the brains efficiency and improves the persons working capacity. Eddie suddenly receives a shower of enlightenment and is able to write a book in four days and accomplish multiple tasks he couldn't do earlier. He realises that book writing is not going to make him filthy rich so he starts trading on the stock market and quickly gets employed in a stock broking company. He develops an algorithm which makes him determine which way the stock market is going and ends up making millions of dollars. Enter Carl Van Loon (De Niro) a business tycoon who wants to use Eddie's knowledge in helping him improve takeover deals and make him more money. Like any other drug, NZT too has its side-effects whose knowledge and consequences Eddie is unaware of. To answer the very question, yes this is just another drug movie with nothing real to offer. The only good part about the movie is the unique twists in the storyline. Even these twists aren't all that great but somehow manage to improve the movies overall impact and make it more interesting. A decent watch which could have been better.
Thumbs up: Decent improvements to the storyline
Thumbs down: Another run-of-the-mill drug movie
Rating: 6.2/10
Average Movies,
Crime,
Drama,
Science-fiction,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 8:31 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Science-fiction/Fantasy/Adventure/Action
Starring: Tim Allen, Courteney Cox, Chevy Chase, Spencer Breslin, Kate Mara, Michael Cassidy, Ryan Newman
The Zenith Team was a team of super-heroes led by Zoom (Allen) many years ago. The team collapsed when the government tried to artificially enhance their powers which turned Zoom's brother Concussion onto the evil side who subsequently killed all the team members except Zoom, who simply lost his powers. Concussion was presumed dead and now the government has information that he will return in less than 10 days. Zoom is now a demoralised aging man who doesn't believe in super-heroes anymore and is recruited by the government to initiate a training programme where people with unique powers are to be recruited and trained by Zoom. A new team is formed consisting of Tucker aka Mega-Boy (Breslin) who can inflate any part of his body, Summer aka Wonder (Mara) who can control objects with her mind, Dylan aka Houdini (Cassidy) who can become invisible and Cindy aka Princess (Newman) who has super-strength. Time is slowly ticking by and the new team is far from ready. With Zoom not having any amount of faith in the children, his demoralising and uninterested attitude don't help things too much. The movie tries to blend every possible genre known to movie-making and makes a big mess of things. Multiple lose strings, scenes added without having anything to do with the storyline and unexplained parts plague the entire movie. The movie might just vaguely appeal to the average 7-year-old but still needs a lot to work on. Highly avoidable.
Thumbs up: Nothing at all
Thumbs down: Bad story, poor acting
Rating: 4.9/10
Action,
Adventure,
Comedy,
Drama,
Fantasy,
Pathetic Movies,
Science-fiction,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 2:26 PM
Genre: Drama/Biogrpahy/History
Starring: Hillary Swank, Patrick Dempsey, Scott Glenn, Imelda Staunton, April L. Hernandez, Mario, Jason Finn
The 1992 Los Angeles riots and gang wars created a deeper racist divide amongst people than it already was. The city got divided into territories and young teenagers who should be in school were instead carrying guns and were thirsty for the blood of rival gang members. Erin Gruwell (Swank) is newly appointed English teacher at the Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach. The school was once a very prestigious institute which has now been downgraded because of the recent integration. Teenagers who come from criminal backgrounds and from juvenile jails are forced to attend school or face going back to prison. Erin realises that teaching them is not as easy as she thought it would be, especially when the students are not interested in learning from her and fights break out every now and then. The head of department Margaret Campbell (Staunton) refuses to allocate school resources to her because she thinks it would be a waste and the students would get nothing out of it. Gruwell goes against the tide to give her students a better life and tries to teach them beyond what she set out to teach in the classroom. Hillary Swank has always been known to put on a fabulous performance and this movie is no different. Along with a very good support cast, the movie shines out tremendously and keeps you gripped in your seat for a very long time. A highly recommended watch for everyone.
Thumbs up: Brilliant performances
Thumbs down: Flawless
Rating: 8.4/10
Amazing Movies,
Biography,
Drama,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 10:45 AM
Genre: Biography/History/Drama
Starring: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce
Britain, 1925, King George V is on his death-bed and the evaluation of the heirs begins. David, The Prince of Wales (Pearce) is the obvious choice for the throne since he is the elder son. However, David has never involved himself in assisting his father in political administration and has hence learnt nothing. He wishes to marry an American socialite who is twice divorced, an act prohibited for the King. Prince Albert (Firth) David's younger brother is more suitable for the throne but the only thorn being that he suffers from a stammering problem. With the growth of wireless radio technology, the number of speeches given by the King are increasing and if the King cant talk, he cant be King. Princess Elizabeth (Carter) Prince Albert's wife, introduces him to a speech therapist Lionel Logue (Rush) whose unconventional and crazy methods of therapy don't go down well with the Prince. However, after much convincing, Logue becomes the Prince's speech therapist who helps him in perfecting his speech and be made ready to become king. Its not everyday that a movie that seems to have a bland and uninspiring outlook manages to entice audiences to such a level. Colin Firth puts on a marvelous performance, something which everybody cant do for such a difficult role. A very gripping and inspiring story and each and every one of those Academy Awards are well-deserved.
Thumbs up: Colin Firth and other performances
Thumbs down: None
Rating: 8.4/10
Amazing Movies,
Biography,
Drama,
Historical Event,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 6:49 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Starring: Simon Pegg, Megan Fox, Kirsten Dunst, Jeff Bridges
A good-for-nothing British journalist, Sydney Young (Pegg) is trying desperately to get into the lives of celebrities and run his own gossip magazine, The Post Modern Review. He ends up making a joke of himself in a post-BAFTA party, posing with a pig whom he claims played the role of Babe. The editor of the internationally renowned Sharps magazine, Clayton Harding (Bridges) is amused by Young's stupidity and decides to recruit him to work with Sharps. He meets Alison (Dunst) who works with him in the same department, who tries very hard to teach him the tricks of the trade. Sophie Maes (Fox) is the new upcoming hot starlet whom Young cant seem to get his eyes off. Just when things seem to be going down for him, his life changes, but is it for the good? The first thing about the movie that would spark your interest to watch it would be the title itself. The second aspect of the movie that is appealing is Simon Pegg and his sense of humour. He managed to put up a good performance, enough to make you laugh now and then but nothing that you would roll over on the floor. A decent comedy to watch and enjoy once without having any serious expectations.
Thumbs up: Simon Pegg
Thumbs down: Cliched ending
Rating: 7.0/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 7:23 AM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Mystery/Crime/Thriller
Starring: Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan Khan, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah, Vivaan Shah, Konkana Sen Sharma
The story of a young and beautiful girl, Susanna (Chopra) who marries 7 men and murders each and every one of them. Major Edwin Rodriques (Mukesh) murdered for being overtly jealous, inhuman and proud. Jimmy Stetson (Abraham) murdered for being a drug-addicted rock star. Wasiullah Khan (Khan) a Muslim revolutionist, murdered for being a wife-beater. Nicoli Vronsky (Dyachenko) a Russian scientist, murdered for cheating and keeping two wives. Keemat Lal (Kapoor) a police officer, who knew about Susanna's crime and murdered for demanding too much sex in exchange for keeping her out of prison. Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Shah) a well-versatile scientist, murdered for wanting Susanna's money to pull him out of bankruptcy. The biggest flaw and question mark on the movie is the last and final husband, which was weird, stupid and somehow didn't make any sense and felt as if it was a consequence of pure boredom. Vishal Bhardwaj has been known to make some truly fabulous movies but yet this time he seems to have gotten the formula wrong. The entire murder mystery aspect did not come out as well as it could have or at least as it was intended too. A pretty much predictable and boring movie overall which does not live up to its standards.
Thumbs up: Priyanka Chopra
Thumbs down: Awkward ending
Rating: 6.1/10
Average Movies,
Bollywood,
Crime,
Drama,
Mystery,
Romance,
Thriller,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:24 AM
Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance
Starring: Luke Wilson, Will Ferrell, Vince Vaughn, Jeremy Piven, Ellen Pompeo
Three friends are hating their age and want to get back to their wild and youthful days. Mitch (Wilson) broke up with his girlfriend when he came to know that she was having sex with random people. Frank (Ferrell) recently got married and cant handle the new responsibility and Beanie (Vaughn) just simply hates his life. Mitch moves into a new house on a college campus but the new Dean of Students, Dean Pritchard (Piven) holds a long grudge against the three of them and tries to get them evicted. In order to be legally allowed to stay on campus, Beanie decides to start a fraternity of misfits and makes Mitch the fraternity godfather. From 18 year-olds to 89 year-olds, everyone wants to be a part of this new wild fraternity, much to the dislike of Dean Pritchard. There are thousands of ways of doing a sex-comedy wrong and only a few methods to get it right. Thankfully, this movie has followed the correct path to produce a hilarious and entertaining movie, just like what the doctor ordered.
Thumbs up: Great comedy, good fun
Thumbs down: Should have left out the romance bit
Rating: 7.0/10
Comedy,
Drama,
Good Movies,
Romance,
Sex Comedy,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 6:07 AM
Genre: Biography/Action
Starring: Denzel Washington, Chris Pine, Rosario Dawson
Ohio, USA in the year 2001. An unmanned, half-a-mile long train went on the lose due to an error on part of a hostler who jumped off the train to realign the tracks but the trains brakes malfunctioned and the locomotive picks up speed on full throttle. Unstoppable is based on this true-life incident, although exaggerated, when one such train in Pennsylvania, carrying toxic chemicals, escapes from the yard and hits the main line at the speed of 70mph. A veteran engineer Frank (Washington) and a rookie conductor Will (Pine) come to the rescue when Franks experience tells him that the only way to stop such a train is to grab it by the tail and apply the brakes. When all chances of derailment and slowing the train fail, Frank and Will link up with the train and attempt to slow it down. The movie has some very good high-intensive action which makes it into a very interesting watch for the action-lover. The overall plot was exaggerated than the actual events which were more sober and low-key. The trailer gives out the entire movie along with the climax, yet the movie is worth a watch simply for its phenomenal action sequences.
Thumbs up: Great action
Thumbs down: Predictable plot
Rating: 7.4/10
Action,
Biography,
Good Movies,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:38 PM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Biography
Starring: Chris Cooper, Ryan Phillipe, Laura Linney
FBI agent Robert Hanssen (Cooper) was suspected of selling US military secrets to the Soviet Union which caused heavy damages to American national security and compromised American allies. Along with that, he was also suspected of creating and uploading pornographic content on the internet. Eric O'Neil (Phillipe) an FBI computer specialist with little field experience, is assigned the special task to become Hanssen's assistant and to gather evidence so that the FBI can take him down. During the course of this task, Eric learns to respect Robert for all the special and unique abilities he holds to the point that he thinks that he is innocent. He realises that things are not as easy as they seem to be when it starts disrupting his marriage and is quickly running out of time. The movie is a fictionalised story based on a true-life event and Hanssens deeds have been said to be the biggest breach in US intelligence. The movie is quite slow and there are points where it can get very boring. It lacks complete suspense and most of the movie revolves around the relationship between Hanssen and O'Neil. The movie needed to be spiced up with some thrills and suspense in order to become more enjoyable. A good movie which could have been better.
Thumbs up: Decent plot
Thumbs down: Slow, needs more enthusiasm
Rating: 6.5/10
Average Movies,
Biography,
Crime,
Drama,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 12:37 PM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Mystery
Starring: George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Leland Orser, Toby Maguire
Post World War II, the Allies convened at Berlin to decide the fate of Germany and her allies. Berlin was divided into four sectors, each belonging to USA, Russia, France and Britain. Tully (Maguire) was an American soldier who used to smuggle supplies onto the Russian side for money. Tully was assigned to be the driver for Jake Geismer (Clooney), an American soldier born and brought up in Berlin, who was on his way home after the end of the war. Tully's girlfriend, Lena Brandt (Blanchett) is a prostitute who wants to escape from Germany and is taking Tully's help in doing so. Tully learns that Lena's dead husband is wanted by the Russians and he decides to strike a deal with them, intending to escape with the money without delivering Emil Brandt. Tully's dead body is subsequently found on Russian territory and Geismer smells a rat. He decides to dig a bit deeper and find out why Tully was shot, by whom and why do the Russians and the Ameriancs want Emil Brandt so much. The film was shot in black and white and was made to depict the film noir of the 1940's. The very typical drama and acting from that era adorn the film throughout. There really is no visible reason why such a style was given to the film since it does more to destroy and little to enhance the overall effect of the movie. The 40's style may not go down well with audiences of today and possibly if the movie was made in the regular manner sans the melodrama, it might have been a much better watch. A good attempt at being innovative yet, in the end, it is a love it or hate it film.
Thumbs up: Decent murder mystery plot
Thumbs down: 40's style and melodrama may not go down well with everyone
Rating: 6.3/10
Average Movies,
Crime,
Drama,
Mystery,
Thriller,
{[['
']]}
Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 1:45 PM
Genre: Drama/Romance/Comedy
Starring: Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd
Lisa (Witherspoon) an aspiring softball player doesn't make it to the final team which makes her frustrated and depressed. She gets caught between two men; Matty (Wilson) the self-obsessed and ignorant baseball player and George (Rudd) a Wall Street executive who has a federal charge against him. George's father Charles (Nicholson) framed George for inappropriate business dealings since Charles himself feared going to prison if caught. George's life comes crashing when his girlfriend leaves him and his fathers companies' board of directors refuse to pay his legal fees. He finds solace in Lisa who is already in love with Matty but is unsure if she is doing the right thing. The movie is a plain-jane love saga with nothing exceptional to offer. Apart from the few giggles and laughs that the movie manages to conjure, it is more or less a complete waste of any ones time and money. Makes you wonder why any sane-minded person would make such movies.
Thumbs up: The few and scattered humour
Thumbs down: Boring, cliched
Rating: 5.8/10
Average Movies,
Comedy,
Drama,
Romance,
{[['
']]}
