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
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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
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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
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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
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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,
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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
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 9:18 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama
Starring: Russell Crowe, Elizabeth Banks, Ty Simpkins
The life of a happily married couple gets disrupted when Lara (Banks) gets arrested for the murder of her boss which she apparently did in a fit of rage. John (Crowe) is convinced that his wife was not responsible for the murder and is finding it hard to live with the truth that she has been sentenced for a life term in prison. He decides to break into prison, free his wife and escape from the country. However, breaking into and getting out of prison is not as easy as John thinks it is. The movie tries a decent concept but it gets too slow and boring. Some unnecessary parts were over-stretched and the lack of good thrills and suspense completely killed the show for this movie. The only good part was the last half an hour and probably if the entire movie was like the last bit, it would have been so much better to watch. Being a Russell Crowe movie, I tried hard to appreciate and understand it, but it seems the movie doesn't take too kindly to people liking it.
Thumbs up: Last half an hour
Thumbs down: Slow and boring plot, Russell Crowe's presence didn't help the movie too much
Rating: 5.8/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 6:19 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Comedy
Starring: Keanu Reaves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Peter Stormare
What happens when you go to jail for a crime you never committed? Henry (Reaves) found himself in that position when he unintentionally became the getaway driver for a bank robbery he never knew he was a part of. After getting out on parole, he thought he might as well rob the bank, now that he has already served the prison sentence for it. He learns of an underground passage which leads from the bank vault to a theatre on the other side. He manages to convince his prison friend Max (Caan) to get out on parole and aid him in the job. In order to have regular access to the theatre, Henry gets friendly with Julie (Farmiga) the lead actress of a play whom he first meets when she ran him down on the streets and later during the play rehearsals. He later manages to secure himself a role in the play which allowed him to dig up the tunnel and get to the bank vault. What he doesn't realise is that the harmless friendship soon blossomed into something he never wanted to happen. The movie is a very typical open and shut romance movie with the most obvious ending. In spite of flaunting a decent star cast, the performances were no good which made for quite a boring watch. The humour aspect of the movie is almost non-existent and manages to throw up less than a handful of small snickers. Wait for the DVD if you really want to watch it.
Thumbs up: Nothing
Thumbs down: Plot and performances
Rating: 5.8/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 6:55 AM
Genre: Biography/Drama/Crime
Starring: Vidya Balan, Rani Mukerji, Myra Karn, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub
The sensational Jessica Lal murder case rocked the Indian society back in 1999 and put a question mark on the countries judiciary, political and law enforcement system. Jessica (Karn) was an average Delhi girl and aspiring model who gets shot one night by Manish Bhardwaj (Ayub) simply because she refused to serve him a drink after the bar shut down. There were over 300 people who witnessed the cold-blooded murder and Manish, along with his two friends, was subsequently arrested for the murder of Jessica Lall. Manish's father was an influential politician who used his power and money to bribe each and every witness to retract his/her statement and manipulate every possible evidence to point that Manish is innocent. Sabrina (Balan) Jessica's younger sister, aggressively pursues the case for seven long years when ultimately in Winter of 2006, the court lets Manish walk free. The decision shook the foundations of society and left the entire nation aghast. Meera (Mukerji) a renowned journalist was amazed by the outcome of the case and she too, like the million other Indians, knew that Manish was not innocent and what was happening is not justice. The movie has managed to recreate the events quite nicely but Bollywood still needs to learn some lessons from Hollywood on portraying real life stories. Many names and incidents were changed or altered in order to be politically correct but it is an aspect that destroys good cinema. The movie is powerful with some good performances by Vidya Balan and Rani Mukerji. The soundtrack too helps in keeping the powerful and aggressive spirit of the movie alive and would leave you with a good feeling after its over. A good watch which sends out a clear message to the audience to never give up and stand up against injustice and wrong-doing.
Thumbs up: Good performances and a nice aggressive feeling
Thumbs down: Stretched movie with some slow bits
Rating: 8.1/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 4:32 PM
Genre: Adventure/Biography/Drama
Starring: James Franco, Clemence Poesy
A mountaineer and adventurer, Aron Ralston (Franco) goes on a canyoneering trip to Blue John Canyon, Utah, where he slips and falls into a crevice and gets his arm stuck between a boulder and the canyon wall. In the middle of nowhere and with scanty resources, he has little chances of survival. His every attempt at rescuing himself does not work and in the end he needs to resort to desperate measures. Whilst being a hostage to the canyon, Aron revisits all his life's memories, regrets his mistakes and apologises to people he hurt. The movies title denotes the number of hours Aron spent trapped in the crevice before finally being rescued. The story is based on a true life incident which occurred in April, 2003, subsequently after which Aron's story gained national coverage. The movie is quite slow but thankfully Danny Boyle has managed to make it a little less boring then it could have normally been. The movie is a simple narration of the actual incident and there really isn't too much to the plot. Probably if the movie was made like a documentary with in-between footage of Aron's actual recordings and photographs, the movie might have just been a bit different, might. If your expecting any of the Slumdog Millionarie drama and energy then you would be sorely depressed. Good but nothing fantastic.
Thumbs up: James Franco delivers the role with perfection
Thumbs down: Slow and some gory and graphic scenes
Rating: 7.4/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 12:11 PM
Genre: Comedy/Documentary/Action
Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Bam Margera, Ryan Dunn, Steve-o, Jason 'Wee Man' Acuna, Chris Pontius, Preston Lacy, Dave England, Ehren McGhehey, Phil Margera
Would you walk on a tightrope across an alligator pool with raw meet attached to your underpants? Would you play dashing cars with golf carts? Would you go deep-sea diving between sharks with shrimps in your underwear? Would you roll across a room filled with mouse traps almost naked? If you answered yes to any of the above questions then your probably one of the above mentioned persons starring in the movie, in case you said no then welcome to the world of Jackass. Jackass is an MTV TV show which telecasts mostly the above mentioned actors performing insane stunts. The show garnered a huge fan following in the United States and hence a compilation of these stunts got together to form the first Jackass movie. If you have never seen one of their episodes or have no idea how insane they truly are, my advice, watch one TV show before venturing into this 90 minute torture. The movie is plagued with ridiculous insanity which would appeal only to those who are fanatics of the show. There are some really funny moments but many parts are utterly gross and completely unwatchable.
Thumbs up: Some really funny and 'sane' stunts
Thumbs down: Other completely ridiculous and horrible stunts
Rating: 5.7/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 2:51 PM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller
Starring: Ben Whishaw, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Dustin Hoffman, Alan Rickman
Gifted with an extremely powerful sense of smell, Jean-Baptise Grenouille (Whishaw) knew that his life would be something out of the ordinary. He grew up in an orphanage and quickly realised his ability and its powers behind it. He could recognise a scent from miles away which gave him the ability to know and do more than anyone else. One night he smelt a girl so lovely that he could not resist her and his mind lost all control. After murdering her he smelt her as much as he could but quickly realised that he couldn't preserve the smell forever. Craving for the knowledge to preserve smell, he encountered Giuseppe Baldini (Hoffman) the once renowned perfumer of Paris who has now lost his touch. Jean-Baptise worked for him and hence learnt all that he could in the art of distilling and preserving smells and all that he wished to know on making the perfect perfume. With all that knowledge and skill within him, Jean-Baptise sought to make the worlds finest perfume, something which no one would have every smelt or imagined. The movie has a very interesting story line to it but it has its own set of flaws which bring it down. The first and most obvious dislike with the movie is its length due to which a lot of parts become a bit slow. After a while the movie feels stretched and you wish you could urge it to move on. Dustin Hoffman did not seem to fit into the role, although he did put up a good performance. His American accent and style did not allow him to be a fine Italian perfumer that he was supposed to be. The movie also has a lot of graphic scenes, although its not gory, but yet it might be unwatchable to some. All in all a brilliant movie with some fabulous performances, but with a nip and a tuck here in there, it could be much better.
Thumbs up: Great performances, good plot
Thumbs down: Length
Rating: 7.0/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 10:09 AM
Genre: Action/Crime/Comedy/Drama/Romance
Starring: Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Arbaaz Khan, Vinod Khanna, Dimple Kapadia, Sonu Sood
Salman Khan has managed to create an atrociously huge fan following who praise and worship him each day. His movies are made keeping his fans and mind and would appeal only to them. Chulbul Pandey (Salman Khan) is the local cop who has a style and attitude of his own. His step-father Prajapati Pandey (Khanna) has no affection for him and Chulbul hates his step-brother Makkhi (Arbaaz Khan) since he receives all the attention in spite of being a dimwit. The local politician, Chedi Singh (Sood) runs multiple illegal businesses which Chulbul is trying to put an end to. Singh tries to get even with Chulbul by attacking his family and turning his step-brother against him. Its the ultimate test to win back the faith of the family and put an end to Singh and his evilness. Like I mentioned before, the movie has the very cliched Salman Khan antics which entertains only a Salman Khan fanatic audience. Over the top and extra-dramatic action sequences adorn the movie which can be entertaining but not for long. Sharp and attitude-ridden dialogue delivery comes free with Salman Khan. Although these are elements that might gross out critics and the average consumer, its actually quite fun to watch and forget. You can find multiple faults in everything the movie does, but it was meant to be that way. There really is nothing to watch out for in the movie except to sit back, point and laugh at the craziness and forget about it.
Thumbs up: Different from the lot
Thumbs down: Over-dramatic, over done and would not appeal to all
Rating: 6.3/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 10:19 AM
Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Biography
Starring: Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Jeannetta Arnette
A young girl, Teena Brandon (Swank) has a sexual identity crisis and although she has all the sexual organs of a female, she behaves like a boy and is attracted to women. She flirts with Candace (Goranson) a woman she meets at a bar and later gets acquainted to Candace's sister, Lana (Sevigny). Teena is attracted to Lana and flirts with her and the duo eventually fall in love. John (Sarsgaard) and Tom (Sexton III) are friends of Lana and Lana's mother (Arnette) all of whom regularly go out for a night of revelry. Teena manages to gel well with the family, Tom and John and feels that she is leading a whole new life. Teena has a shady background and is wanted back home for stealing cars. Her legal summons come back to haunt her and its not long that her true sexual identity starts coming out for everyone to see. The most outstanding feature of this movie are the performances, especially that of Hilary Swank. Being able to carry such a difficult role with such finesse gave her the Oscar she truly deserved. Other supporting performances of Sarsgaard and Sevigny added positively to the movie and made it a better watch. The only downside in the movie are the middle forty-five minutes which get a bit slow and boring, but it give it some time and it would throw up a fabulous climax. The movie is a critics delight but an average audiences nightmare.
Thumbs up: Hilary Swank and other performances
Thumbs down: It has its own slow and boring moments
Rating: 7.2/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 5:39 PM
Genre: Comedy/Drama
Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba
The third installment of the comic epic continues to narrate the life and lies of Greg aka Gaylord Focker (Stiller) and his father-in-law Jack Byrnes (De Niro). Gay is happily married to Jack's daughter Pam (Polo) but Jack continuously interferes with Gay's family life and tries to dictate terms on family management and parenting. Jack fears that his death clock is ticking and his time is coming. He wants someone to continue the Byrne family history in the same manner in which it was held high for so many centuries. In order to do this, Gay must fulfill Jack's standards and Jack only keeps on dictating and judging Gay's moves. Meanwhile, a drug sales agent, Andi Garcia (Alba) is trying to convince Gay to become the spokesperson for the drug to get a higher salary. Unknown to him, his and Andi's meetings have been interpreted wrongly by Jack who thinks his family needs a 'course correction'. The first thing anyone would notice is that the movie has unnecessarily pulled ahead the previous movies storyline thinking that the audience would still enjoy it. Sadly, the first half of the movie is a complete waste and its only right towards the end that the humour seems to get a bit better but not altogether amazing. If you enjoyed the first two movies, this one would never live up to your expectations. Stiller and De Niro could have done much better.
Thumbs up: Different humour which had scope for improvement but only towards the end
Thumbs down: Tries to bask in the glory of the previous movies
Rating: 5.8/10
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Posted by Bell Mattew
Posted on 7:44 AM
Genre: Science-fiction/Fantasy/Drama/Action/Romance/Thriller
Starring: Ron Perlman, John Hurt, Selma Blair, Rupert Evans, Karel Roden
Towards the end of World War II, Adolf Hitler attempts at opening a dimensional portal and to free the Ogdru Jahad, a beast from another dimension in order to destroy the Allies. Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin (Roden) succeeds in opening the portal but their attempt is stubbed by an Allied attack on the portal, led by Prof. Trevor Broom (Hurt). Although the Nazi's attempt fails, a creature from the portal manages to pass through which the Allies adopt and name Hellboy (Perlman). Sixty years later, Hellboy grows up with Prof. Broom and does good for the world rather than evil. FBI agent John Meyers (Evans) is recruited by Broom to aid him in his Bureau and look after Hellboy. Rasputin's followers resurrect him and unleash a fearsome beast on the world which multiplies each time it dies. Its finally up to Hellboy to put a stop to Rasputin and prevent him from re-opening the portal. The movie does a very good job of mixing various elements together, yet the romance element does not seem to suit the movie and it makes it a tad boring. Probably if the focus was on the usual action and trying to solve the mystery, the movie would have been a less of a bore. The movie leaves behind a lot of lose and unanswered strings which make you wonder what really is going on. Probably they would get answered in upcoming sequences, yet the audience needs to have a basic understanding of the plot if one expects them to enjoy the subsequent parts. Its not something entirely new, but not something completely boring either.
Thumbs up: Good thrills and action
Thumbs down: Unanswered and messy plot
Rating: 6.4/10
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