New Moon (2009)

Genre: Romance/Drama/Fantasy

Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattison, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Michael Sheen

The Twilight saga continues into its second installment, New Moon. Bella Swan (Stewart) is madly in love with the vampire Edward Cullan (Pattison) and she realises that Edward will remain the way he is for all his life. However, Bella being a mortal will age and eventually die. Bella and Edward both realise this shortfall in their relationship and Edward decides to move out of Bella's life before things can get worse. Heart-broken, Bella starts confiding in Jacob (Lautner) who secretly loves her but never confessed it. Bella is torn if she should love Jacob back or crave for Edward the rest of her life. The movie is a great improvement when it comes to the plot from the previous movie. The romance is nothing great and whatever little fights scenes exist have been toned down to fit better in the movie, which sadly doesn't have the expected impact. Performance are nothing to talk about and the movie gets slow and boring on multiple occasions. Might appeal to the romantic teenage girl but definitely not to anyone else. Seriously, what is all the hype on Robert Pattison and Taylor Lautner all about?

Thumbs up: Improvement from the previous movie

Thumbs down: Slow and boring

Rating: 5.4/10

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Average Movies, Drama, Fantasy, Romance,

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Omkara (2006)

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Romance

Starring: Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Konkona Sen Sharma, Naseeruddin Shah, Bipasha Basu, Deepak Dobriyal

Set in rural north India, an area where corrupt police officers, outlaws and politicians rule the land. Dolly (Kapoor) a young beautiful girl elopes with one such outlaw, Omkara (Devgan). Omkara supports the local politician Bhaisaab (Shah) and manages to trounce his opponent for the upcoming parliamentary elections. Happy with his work, Bhaisaab promotes Omkara as the candidate for the next state elections and Omkara promotes his aide Kesu Firangi (Oberoi) as Bahubali, or general, who would soon take his place. Omkara's faithful sidekick Langda Tyagi (Khan) is hurt that he wasn't made Bahubali and plans to topple Kesu as a form of revenge. He teams up with Raju (Dobriyal) who too is seeking revenge from Omkara for stealing Dolly, his would-be wife from under his nose. What ensues is the most rotten politics, all for the lust of power and money. The movie is plagued with rural slang and abuses which is loaded with sarcasm and vulgar humour. If the language is hard to get by you, the movie's true essence might be lost. What makes the movie shine is not the plot but the phenomenal acting. The extra efforts of the entire crew can be seen but Saif Ali Khan is exceptionally brilliant. The manner in which he delivers the dialogues in the perfect manner and the precise expression make you wish for more. The biggest let down though is the stretched plot which gets slow around the half-way mark. The climax is fabulous and can easily run a chill down your spine and leave you awestruck. A fabulous work of art with a cult following in Bollywood. Vishal Bhardwaj's adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello.

Thumbs up: Fabulous acting, Saif Ali Khan in particular

Thumbs down: Slow and lengthy plot

Rating: 7.2/10

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Action, Bollywood, Crime, Drama, Good Movies, Romance,

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X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Action

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Leiv Schreiber, Danny Huston, Lynn Collins, Taylor Kitsch

The origination of Wolverine (Jackman) was a well-kept secret, even from Logan himself. Logan had an elder brother Victor (Schreiber) who was also a mutant like him and had similar powers. The brothers enlist themselves in the army and take on a secret mission under Colonel William Stryker (Huston). Victor slowly loses his humanity and becomes more animal day-by-day whereas Logan tries to refrain himself from becoming a creature. Logan does not like the way the mission is going and quits to lead a quiet country life with his girlfriend Kayla (Collins). Logan's past comes back to haunt him with Victor going on a killing spree and Col. Stryker offering him help to get even with his brother. The movie plot is different from what we have previously been seeing in the X-Men movies but its still not completely different. Although the movie tries to shed the super-hero image and look more like a conspiracy, it still looks like a super-hero movie and would always look like one. Thankfully, one doesn't really have to be familiar with any of the previous movies to get a hold of the story of this one.

Thumbs up: Good action, interesting plot
Thumbs down: Poor climax

Rating: 7.2/10

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Action, Fantasy, Good Movies, Science-fiction,

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The Killing Fields (1984)

Genre: History/Drama/War

Starring: Sam Waterson, John Malkovich, Haing S. Ngor, Julian Sands

The Vietnam War spilled over its boarders and reached the neighbouring countries of Cambodia and Laos. New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (Waterson) is sent to Cambodia to cover the war. A Cambodian journalist Dith Pran (Ngor) is appointed as his interpreter and assistant. The communist rebels known as the Khymer Rouge are invading the city. Sydney, Dith, Rockoff (Malkovich) and a British journalist Jon Swain (Sands) take refuge in the French embassy. The Khymer Rouge threaten to bomb the embassy if all Cambodian nationals are not surrendered to them. Dith, who was posing as a British national is compromised and sent out of the embassy. Sydney returns to America and looks after Dith's family but is unable to locate Dith himself. Dith, meanwhile, is being held in a Khymer Rouge labour camp where he is been made to do rough and barbaric labour. As per history, the Khymer Rouge killed almost 2 million educated Cambodians, deeming them as 'unwanted civilians' and went about propagating 'Year Zero' and brain-washed young children to make them future communist leaders. The movie explores a good piece of history and would appeal to those who like to watch historically accurate movies. On the flip side, the movie is slow and drags on and tries to encompass too many things making it a little too lengthy. Perhaps if the plot focuses only on one aspect of the war, it would have been far more interesting and not as heavy. Fantastic performances by Ngor and Waterson and a cult classic.

Thumbs up: Amazing performances
Thumbs down: Slow and lengthy

Rating: 7.4/10

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Drama, Good Movies, Historical Event, War,

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How to Train Your Dragon (2010)

Genre: Animation/Fantasy/Action/Adventure/Comedy

Starring (voice): Jay Baruchel, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera

Welcome to the Viking village of Berk. Most villages have mosquito's and houseflies as pests to deal with but the people have Berk have dragons. The dragons burn down the village and steal the sheep's and the villagers desperately try to get rid of them. Hiccup (Baruchel) is the son of the Viking chief Stoik (Butler) and wants to try his hand at killing a dragon. However, Hiccup is too young and doesn't have the physical fitness of a normal Viking and is hence kept away from the line of action. A particularly dangerous dragon known as the Night Fury has never been seen by any living person because it moves too fast and is too dangerous. Out of sheer luck, Hiccup manages to capture the Night Fury and when he tries to kill it, he realises he doesn't have the heart to do so. The Night Fury is injured and cant fly and Hiccup starts nursing him. Slowly the two become the best of friends and Hiccup realises that the dragons need not be killed but can instead by trained. He now has to simply convince this to his father before he goes on a killing spree and kills every one of the dragons. The movie is different and thrilling right from the word go. A fresh and highly entertaining plot is just what the doctor ordered. Most animation movies try to improvise on graphics and make them come as close to reality as possible. Thankfully, the movie doesn't look too realistic and it feels like an animation movie and not a movie that tries to be life-like. Its not just for the young but appeals to people of all ages. A must watch with the entire family.

Thumbs up: Thrilling and entertaining
Thumbs down: Some more humour perhaps?

Rating: 8.4/10

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Action, Adventure, Amazing Movies, Animation, Comedy, Fantasy,

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Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy/Mystery

Starring: Harrison Ford, Sean Connery, Denholm Elliot, Alison Doody, John-Rhys Davies, Julian Glover

Archaeologist, Dr. Indiana Jones (Ford) believes in fact and not fiction. His father, Henry Jones (Connery) researches the Holy Grail, something which Indiana does not believe in. Walter Donavan (Glover) is an antique collector who believes in the Holy Grail and employed Henry Jones to find it. Henry goes missing and Indiana needs to go and rescue his father. He has Marcus (Elliot) to accompany him and meets his fathers associate Dr. Schneider (Doody) in Venice. Indiana's father mailed him Dr. Schneider his secret diary, a diary which contains maps and mysteries and any information that Indiana would possibly need. The Nazi's are searching for the diary and wish to get to the Holy Grail before anyone else does. The Holy Grail is supposed to grant the drinker immortality and Hitler wants just that. The movie is a huge improvement from the previous two versions. Sean Connery's mere presence takes the movies to an absolutely new level and he knows when to be funny at just the right time. The perfect movie for someone looking for adventures and mysteries.

Thumbs up: Sean Connery
Thumbs down: The fantasy aspect could have been left out

Rating: 8.2/10

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Action, Adventure, Amazing Movies, Fantasy, Mystery,

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Zombieland (2009)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Thriller/Drama/Comedy/Fantasy

Starring: Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, Abigail Breslin

The mad cow disease evolved to effect human beings, which turned them into zombies. One fateful bite and the infection gets transferred. The virus spreads, consuming the world with only a handful of human survivors left. Columbus (Eisenberg) a 20-something youth, abides by a self-created set of rules which has managed to keep him human. He is making his way half-way across the country to make sure his parents are still alive and comes across Tallahasse (Harrelson), a Twinkie-loving cowboy who gains sadistic pleasure from killing zombies. Wichita (Stone) and her kid sister, Little Rock (Breslin) are successful con-artists who dupe Columbus and Tallahasse of their vehicle and weapons on more than one occasion. Realising that the four still need each others company if they wish to survive, they make their way to an amusement park in Los Angeles. The movie seems to be inspired from the Will Smith starrer I Am Legend, the only difference being is that this movie has a comedy aspect attached to it. Woody Harrelson puts on an amazing performance and is someone you have to watch out for. The story is interesting but gets slow and boring around the half-way mark. Its the climax that is the perhaps the highlight of the entire movie. Some parts are gory but that doesn't mean the movie is not watchable.

Thumbs up: Great Climax
Thumbs down: Gets a bit slow and uninteresting at times

Rating: 6.3/10

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Action, Adventure, Average Movies, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy, Thriller,

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RocketMan (1997)

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Adventure/Science-fiction

Starring: Harland Williams, Jessica Lundy, William Sadler, Jeffrey DeMunn, Beau Bridges

A goofy, geeky, immature and over-enthusiastic computer programmer Fred Randall (Williams) lands himself the opportunity to be on the crew of the first manned flight to Mars. Although he is highly eccentric and comes across as a complete lunatic, he manages to break all astronaut test records and NASA has no option but to finalise him. Along with astronaut Julie Ford (Lundy), flight commander Will Overbeck (Sadler) and a chimpanzee, they launch for Mars. His senselessness doesn't end even when he is aboard and he somehow doesn't fall asleep during the 8 month hyper-sleep mode. With nothing to do, Fred tries to 'utilise' his time by doing insensible tasks which also end up consuming the space ships valuable resources. The only sensible act that he does is to observe the weather patterns on Mars and realises that a dust storm is brewing which could be fateful to their mission. The movie is corny but yet laugh-out-loud hilarious. Although Harland Williams' acting is pretty lame, he does a good job in making you laugh. The plot is simple and very basic and its the jokes that you have to watch out for. Best watched with family and your kid sibling for a better experience.

Thumbs up: Great laughs
Thumbs down: It's fine just the way it is

Rating: 7.5/10

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Adventure, Comedy, Crime, Good Movies, Science-fiction,

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Iron Man 2 (2010)

Genre: Action/Science-fiction/Drama

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow, Cam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Clark Gregg

Iron Man went on to become the popular super-hero of Earth, bringing about peace in parts of the world where others failed. Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) the man who pilots the Iron Man, started getting a lot of fame and attention which he too is enjoying. The US government though is not happy with Tony Stark and want him to hand over the suit for military purposes, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, in central Russia, Ivan Vanko (Rourke) creates a suit similar to the Iron Man and attacks Tony Stark at Monaco. Apparently Ivan and Tony's fathers knew each other and Ivan blames Tony's father for his family's demise and seeks revenge. With the world realising that terrorists could have gotten hold of the technology earlier than predicted, the Iron Man becomes a threat to society. Additionally, the palladium used to power Tony's heart is poisoning his body and he cannot develop the antidote for it. Realising that he is going to die very soon, he appoints his secretary Pepper (Paltrow) in charge of the company and tries to enjoy life to the fullest, something which can have disastrous results. The movie is a vast improvement from what we had seen in the earlier version with a different and unconventional plot which comes as a big relief. What it missed out on was some serious and highly destructive action, which came only towards the end and which actually wasn't up to the mark. It would have been great fun if the movie had come out in 3D. Don't leave your seats too soon cause there is an Easter egg for you to see after the credits get over.

Thumbs up: Fresh plot, an improvement from the first movie
Thumbs down: Bland action for a movie of its kind

Rating: 7.2/10

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Action, Drama, Good Movies, Science-fiction,

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Road Trip (2000)

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance/Adventure

Starring: Breckinn Meyer, Sean William Scott, Amy Smart, Paulo Costanzo, DJ Qualls, Tom Green, Rachal Blanchard

Childhood friends and lovers, Josh (Meyer) and Tiffany (Blanchard) have a track record of being honest and faithful to each other. They both go to separate High School Universities and Josh feels Tiffany is cheating on her. He ends up in bed with Beth (Smart) and video tapes their activity. Josh later realises that Tiffany did not cheat on him and feels bad for what he did. He compiles a tape for her but his friend Rubin (Costanzo) accidentally mails the sex tape instead to Tiffany. Josh needs to get to Austin, Texas before the courier does and along with E.L (Scott), Kyle (Qualls) and Rubin as company, they set out on a road trip for a travel against time. The story has a nice fresh plot and some really hilarious bits. There is a good balance of sex and humour and the movie is a fun and entertaining watch. Best seen with a bottle of beer.

Thumbs up: Great plot
Thumbs down: Some more jokes

Rating: 6.5/10

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Adventure, Comedy, Drama, Good Movies, Romance, Sex Comedy,

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Body of Lies (2008)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Action

Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, Mark Strong, Goldshifteh Farahani, Vince Colosimo, Ali Sulaiman, Alon Aboutbol

A CIA spy, Roger Ferris (DiCaprio) is posted in the middle-east and his task is to gather as much information as possible about terrorist activities and pass them on to his superior, Ed Hoffman (Crowe). A video of Al-Saleem (Aboutbol) the head of a terrorist organisation gets intercepted by Ferris who learns that Saleem plans to carry out a series of bombings across Europe and the America's. Following the lead, he learns of Al-Saleem's safe house in Amman, Jordan and approaches Hani Salaam (Strong) the head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Department (GID) for assistance. Hani tells Ferris that one of his own men is posted in the organisation who could assist Ferris in the operation. Hoffman wants to take Hani's operative in custody and question him, which Hani does not allow. Hoffman tries to conduct a side operation with Ferris' aide Skip (Colosimo) without either Hani or Ferris knowing about it. The movie has a spectacular plot, just what the doctor ordered. Fabulous performances by both DiCaprio and Mark Strong takes the entire movie to a whole new level which makes it even better. The first half has a lot of activity and hence seems a little lengthy and slow but as the movie progresses towards the climax it only gets better. A simply amazing movie and I particularly love Leonardo's beard style.

Thumbs up: Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Strong
Thumbs down: A slightly slow first half

Rating: 8.3/10

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Action, Amazing Movies, Crime, Drama, Thriller,

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Badmaash Company (2010)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance

Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Meiyang Chang, Vir Das, Pawan Malhotra

Mumbai, oops, Bombay, 1994. A genius boy with big ambitions but no money. The boy is young Karan Kapoor (Kapoor) who has all the brains and doesn't want to do a respectful but low-paying job like his father. Instead he has big plans, huge ones. He takes help from his friends Zing (Chang), Chandu (Das) and Bulbul (Sharma) and they start exploiting loopholes in government policies to make easy money. Their first venture involved importing Reebok shoes which attracted heavy import duties. He purposely imported all the left legs at one port and the right legs at another but did not accept the consignments by terming them as faulty. The goods eventually gets auctioned by the customs where no one demands for single shoes and they pick them dirt cheap. Everything legitimate but with no duties. With liberalisation taking place, all their doors in India get closed and they head for USA, where Karan's uncle, Jazz Mama (Malhotra) helps them. They swiftly start duping people once again using their old techniques and start getting accustomed to the life of the rich and famous. As usual, ego and greed gets into the way of friendship which slowly starts souring steadily over a period of time. It was a fairly good attempt at making a heist movie but the attempt was half-hearted. A predictable plot and the movie lacked certain features which made it feel incomplete. It somehow seems a little awkward when a movie goes the extra step by explaining the plot to the audience using narrations. Such movies are best left to the audience to interpret and understand. The average urban audience might like it but this one is not for the movie buff.

Thumbs up: Amazing con-tricks
Thumbs down: Seems incomplete and lacks finesse

Rating: 5.5/10

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Average Movies, Bollywood, Crime, Drama, Romance,

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Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Science-fiction/Fantasy

Starring: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, David Prowse, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, Frank Oz (voice)

After successfully destroying the Death Star, Luke (Hamill), Princess Leah (Fisher) and Han Solo (Ford) have established the rebel base on a remote frigid planet. Darth Vader (Prowse) of the Evil Galactic Empire finds them and attempts to destroy them. Luke along with R2-D2 (Baker) escape to another planet to find Yoda (Oz) the Jedi Master from whom he seeks training to become a Jedi warrior. Meanwhile, Han and Leah are being pursued by the empire and are looking at ways to put them off. Han decides to visit an old friend Lando (Williams) and take his assistance in getting his spaceship repaired and getting the empire of his tail. The movie does not have any story to build up on but yet makes the movie quite interesting. It feels like a small but vital piece of a larger story and makes you wish for more. The special effects are amazing for a movie of its era and are indeed path-breaking. Overall, a superb show and an amazing movie.

Thumbs up: Special effects, good plot execution
Thumbs down: Needs more hardcore action

Rating: 8.1/10

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

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Ninja Assassin (2009)

Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller/Crime

Starring: Rain, Naomie Harris, Sho Kosugi, Ben Miles

For 1000 years, Chinese clans have been training young orphans to become deadly ninjas and supply them to armies and governments to carry out assassinations. Raizo (Rain) is one such orphan who was raised by the Ozunu clan by Lord Ozunu (Kosugi) and soon grew up to become one of the most deadly ninja in the world. He hated Ozunu for killing his true love at a very young age and escaped from the clan, barely surviving. Europol agent Mika (Harris) investigates into the murders by the Ozunu ninjas and who is helped in cracking this case by her superior, Ryan (Miles). When Mika stumbles upon a lead, Ozunu-clan ninja try to assassinate her. Coming from the stable of the makers of Matrix the movie is different from what we have been seeing. Amazing action sequences, although a bit gory, fill the most of the movie run-time. The fight moves get a little repetitive and stretched and some variations would have been appreciated. The plot is simple and probably a deeper insight into the conspiracy would have helped improve things. A fabulous thriller but stay away if you don't like blood splatting all over your screen.

Thumbs up: Amazing action, although a bit too gory
Thumbs down: Repetitive fight moves

Rating: 7.7/10

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Action, Crime, Drama, Good Movies, Thriller,

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Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire (2009)

 
Genre: Drama

Starring: Gabourey Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Mariah Carey, Paula Patton

Based in the year of 1987, a 16-year old black girl gets raped and impregnated by her father, for the second time. Her unemployed mother, Mary (Mo'Nique) abuses and tortures her and accuses her of seducing her husband. Precious (Sidibe) blames her physical appearance and lack of proper education to her inability to stand for herself and hence get pushed around. Precious' high school principle recommends her to alternative school where she would have better chances of learning which would also motivate her. With the motivation of her new teacher, Ms Rain (Patton) Precious learns to read and gains self-confidence. She starts meeting a social worker Mrs. Weiss (Carey) who learns of her rape and her mothers abuses and tries to help her. The story is touching and reflects upon the hardships some children around the world face and how difficult life can get for them. The performances of Sidibe and Mo'Nique were phenomenal and deserve acclaim. The movie is slow to progress and can get a little boring at times. The plot seems slightly repetitive and the lack of constant new developments were missing.

Thumbs up: Performances
Thumbs down: Plot felt repetitive and a bit too slow

Rating: 7.0/10

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Drama, Good Movies,

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Housefull (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Boman Irani, Arjun Rampal, Jiah Khan, Lilette Dubey, Randhir Kapoor

Arush (Kumar) is a born loser. Wherever he goes, bad luck follows and casino owners use him and his bad luck to make people lose money. Fed up, he goes to London to stay with his childhood friend Bob (Deshmukh) only to find him happily married with Heetal (Dutta). The duo get Arush married to their boss, Kishore's (Kapoor) daughter, Devika (Khan) and send them off for a honeymoon. Arush later learns from Devika that she loves someone else and on hearing this tries to commit suicide. He gets rescued by Sandy (Padukone) and the two fall head over heels for each other. Heetal's father (Irani) is rich farsan-baron in Gujarat, India and Heetal lies to him that she is happily married with a multi-millionaire with a son. Meanwhile, Sandy tells her over-possesive brother Major Krishna Rao (Rampal) about Arush and seeks his approval for their marriage. Both brother and father land up together to separate the truth from the lies and learn about exactly what is happening in the house full of idiots. The movie sadly doesn't deliver what it promises. One expects roll-over-the-seat laughter but you will get none. What you would definitely get is a pathetic headache and the urge break into the ticket window and demand a refund. The over-acting of Akshay Kumar and most of the star cast is highly annoying and Boman Irani is the only saving grace when it comes to some serious laughter. Chunky Pandey and his small role too is effective which could have been taken forward for the rest of the movie. The unnecessary song sequences showing the actresses in sexy bikini's sizzling the screen gives more frustration than respite. A complete washout, avoid at all costs.

Thumbs up: Boman Irani
Thumbs down: Bad acting, worse humour

Rating: 4.8/10

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Bollywood, Comedy, Drama, Pathetic Movies, Romance,

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