X-Men Origins Wolverine : Movie Review : Fascinating, feed your fun side...

Fascinating. That sums up what I felt like when I walked off the cinema. Full disclosure, I was not expecting much from the movie, in fact I expected it to be a dud. So with reduced expectations, that set me up for a real positive experience and the audience did get one. My worry going into the movie was that I had seen only one of the previous three XMen movies and I was not sure if I were missing a few pieces to the puzzle. Refreshingly, this was a prequel and it worked well for me and as I watched the movie, I thought no one needs to have watched the previous versions to understand this movie.

Its very nice to see the reports that audiences are hitting the theatres, despite the movie already being online for the past one month, I decided not to watch the movie online for 2 reasons, one I thought the audio quality wouldn’t be that good and I was not too much into this series.

Now to the movie itself, the creators of this movie have asked the audience a simple favor, don’t reason… just appreciate. The bloodline of the movie, is a select few “mutants” that have some supreme powers due to anomalies in their genes, these mutants while appear human, are not and they each have their own abnormality, and generally these abnormalities are some sort of supremely gifted ability. One mutant has the ability to fly and climb walls, while another has the ability to create a shackle, while one other mutant has giant metal claws and there is one with invisibility. Most of these mutants want to gel with normal humans, while some don’t, but for the most part they are being ignored and even mistreated. Some creative-minded humans want to use their special power for their own purpose.

Hugh Jackman plays the Wolverine/Logan, Liev Screiber plays Victor (Logan’s brother), Danny Huston (Stryker) is colonel, Lynn Collins (Logan’s girlfriend Kayla), Taylor Kitsch (Gambit) with one unique “energy generating” gift. The movie is centered on Logan, a brief interlude of how Logan teams up with his brother and their few battles along the way. Not everyone is fond of a mutant and they are at fault with the law, they are even jailed. Stryker, a colonel, who realizes the unique gifts of these mutants, is in the process of forming a special unit to combat evil forces entices Logan and Victor to join him in his endeavors. Logan and Victor join Stryker for their own purpose, one good and one to realize his real power. Logan soon falls out of line with Stryker and his ways of hurting people in the name of helping them, particularly when it costs lives, Logan walks out on Stryker but Victor stays on in the team.

Logan, carries on and leads a seemingly normal life with his girlfriend Kayla. But, even though he leaves Stryker, Stryker shows up in Logan’s life. Logan refuses to talk to Stryker, who warns that one-by-one his former team members are being killed and wiped out. Logan ignores Stryker and carries on his life, when its interrupted by Victor who is on a rampage to decimate Stryker’s former team. Victor is shown to end Kayla’a life, much to the ire of Logan. Logan, whose special mutant gift is to have natural claws pop-up from his knuckles, seethes in anger and finds Stryker. Stryker reveals that Victor had a falling out with him and that’s the reason for his anger. Logan teams up with Stryker to add some special metal to his body to make him indestructible. Logan cedes to Stryker’s research ideas with the hope of becoming powerful enough to eviscerate Victor.

Stryker has other plans and instructs his researchers to make Logan indestructible and erase his memory, so he loses his vengeful nature and stays under his command, Logan realizes Stryker’s intentions and escapes Stryker’s research island once he is made indestructible. Logan (now Wolverine) goes on a search of his other former team members with the hope of finding some clues and even warning them of Victor. Wolverine then learns about Gambit, who apparently knew where Styker’s island was and escaped from there. Wolverine was back on the hunt for Stryker as he had learned that Victor was in company with Stryker and they two were still working together. With the help of Gambit, Wolverine reaches the secret island where he confronts Stryker.

Stryker reveals that their research project was not Wolverine but the agent XI who is grown with all the singular gifts gathered from other agents and was decided to overpower even the indestructible Wolverine. Wolverine also learns that he was always monitored by Kayla, who operated as a spy, he is crushed to hear that and swears never ever to believe anyone in life again, Kayla reveals Stryker has her sister as captive and that’s why she worked for Stryker, but her love for Wolverine was true. Wolverine then goes on a rampage and how he confronts agent XI and Stryker forms the end of the story.

Since this is a prequel, they end the movie with the scene that would make sense for the original “X-Men” movie and that is “Wolverine” losing his memory.

This movie was well done and I think it really helped that my expectations were so so low after some of the whispers I had heard about this movie being an absolute dud. I ended up having a pretty good evening watching this movie, while its not a path breaking or even awe-inspiring flavor like ‘The Dark Knight’, its entertaining and worth your money. There are certain movies you have no business watching in a theatre, then there are some where you have to watch in a theatre if you decide to watch it, I would put this movie in that category. If you watch it, watch it in a cinema, its worth your money.

Good Movie, well done. Grade: B-.

Movie Review :: State of Play :: Pragmatic Scare and a Thrilling twist...

The Russell Crowe starrer is one of the better movies to have hit the screens this year. It’s subtle, suspenseful and at times thrilling. The cast is pretty good, with Crowe (Cal McAffrey) donning the lead role of a brusque, burly, veritable investigative journalist. With Helen Mirren (Cameron Lynne) as a hard nosed editor, Rachel McAdams (Della Frye) as a tough cookie blogger, Ben Affleck (Stephen Collins the congressman) as a sinful and now repentant public official and an array of cameos from some lesser names the movie has a good package of talent.

The movie starts off with a thud, when a young lead researcher, Sonia Baker, for an up-and-coming hotshot congressman (Collins) gets apparently murdered. This comes as a jolt to Collins’ professional pursuits and rocking of his personal foundation. The Congressman who leads a group of fellow like-minded colleagues is in the midst of investigating a scandal surrounding a private consultant/security/military/everything firm named ‘Pointcorp’. ‘PointCorp’ is the beneficiary of sizable military/police contracts in the middle-east and are being investigated for malpractice and corruption.

Mcaffrey the lead investigative journalist for ‘Washington Globe’ newspaper captures your eye as a smart, influential and contacts-rich journalist. He seems to have stumbled upon a couple of drive-by murders of a young black youth and a budding pizza entrepreneur. Thanks to a washed-up petty criminal McAffrey finds some interesting material linking Ms Baker and the young black murder-attempt victim. Collins is meanwhile at the eye of the storm as allegations about his extra-marital affairs surface thanks to some nosy publications. Collins, who is under relentless attack from the media tries to get some friendly cover and pays a visit to his pal McAffrey.

Collins confides about his illegal relationship with Ms Baker to McAffrey, but contends she was murdered when everyone seemed to think it was an apparent suicide. A theory about PointCorp’s involvement to marginalize Collins by linking him in a public morality stench evolves. McAffrey agrees to follow the trail of the evidence on Baker’s suicide-murder but tries to console his friend Collins on how to approach the morality onslaught. McAffrey investigates the link between the young black youth, who while recovering at a hospital is murdered, and Baker. As information flows on how the youth came into possession of Ms Baker’s whereabouts emerge, a stronger link between Baker’s and the drive-by murders of the youth and the pizza man emerge.

McAffrey enlists the help of a young and at times cocky blogger Della, they have their moments which draws a few laughter, investigate the 3 murders. As details emerge on Baker’s relationship with Collins and an apparent hitman being employed to kill Baker, the plot thickens. McAffrey keeps Collins apprised of the developments and thanks to some insider help from a whistle-blower in PointCorp, McAffrey is able to track down the hit-man and nearly gets killed. As further evidence comes to light the McAffrey team gets a break when they crack a PR firm hotshot, Dominic Foy, for PointCorp and find out more about Ms Baker. As details emerge about the background of Baker and the real intention of why she got hired by Collins, the whole plot plays out as a setup of Collins for his eventual marginalization in the PointCorp investigation.

McAffrey works tirelessly to pin more evidence and at the same time is under undue pressure to produce some headlines for their struggling newspaper. McAffrey finally seems to have caught a break when Dominic confesses on tape about the knowledge he has on Baker. There still seems to be a missing piece to the whole puzzle as McAffrey works on the finer details and evidence to link Baker’s killing with PointCorp, when he finds out a startling truth, thanks to a thinking mind and an insatiable thirst for honesty and contempt for false-truths. How and what McAffrey finds out while on his pursuit to link the murder and PointCorp is part of a predictable yet thrilling end.

The movie is thrilling and scary in not a gory sense but how pragmatic this whole plot is, the potential for outside forces to influence anything, the real role of journalism and the dire future it faces [Check this entry on Newspaper], the 24/7 tabloidish world and the presence of some real honest investigative reporters. Overall this movie is definitely worth your ticket… B-.

Movie review: 13 B Mein Sab Khairiyat Hain: Fear has a new address : Suspense and Soap come together

As concoctions and inspirations go, the movie 13 B is one of the most intriguing cocktails that confront the cine-audience. If we are to describe the movie in singular words, I will choose.. bold, novel, suspenseful (though not edge of the seat thriller stuff), rich, compact, intense. You get the idea, the movie is done pretty well. It’s not one of the great movies to hit the screens this year, but it is certainly one among the intense and certainly watchable ones out there.

Once again, kudos to the backroom team, the art direction, sets, editing, screenplay and direction are quite good and the BGM fits in nicely in most scenes. The cast is simple and effective, the characters are concise yet involved in the whole picture.

At the heart of the movie is a concept that many find hard to come terms with, the evil-ghost spirit concept. The movie is not intended to make you believe they exist, the movie does not even attempt establish the validity of such existence, it merely takes you on a ride where just like Gods and angels are assumed to care for us, evil and spirits are out there to complete unfinished business. What is different from your regular B-grade scare-crow movie is that there is a decent attempt to show civility, while there is blood its not gory, while there is fear its not unbearable, while there is an incredulity that washes your thoughts its not strong enough to not give the story a chance.

One other idea that is somewhat novel in this movie is that, the spirits use living characters as their vehicles to complete their unfinished business. So while they scare these characters they don’t put them into coma or beat them to death like other senseless movies.

The first half was no nonsense, it gets right to the story, no candies, no hulchul… a nice big family moves into the stomping grounds of a once famous mansion that has since been demolished for the monstrosity also known as apartments. The family is subjected to some special treatments along the way, getting bucket loads of good and pitchers of bad news. The lead character, Manohar (Madhavan) has done a credible job. He does what he does best, which is put in decent effort and put out the best output that he is capable of, which he has done in this character. Mannu and a bunch of his family members move into the house and immediately he faces a streak of events that make him believe some alter-force could be in effect in their apartment. A very lively participant that is not a living object in this movie is your very own idiot-box. Precisely around 1pm everyday, only in Mannu’s house a serial seems to air, the soap is eerily similar to the events that are taking place in Mannu’s life. At one point the soap overtakes and stops resembling current events in his life and starts providing future events too. And oh what a coincidence those exact events that happen in the serial seem to happen to Mannu’s family.

The only leap of faith that the director asks you to take is that, spirits and alter-egos not only exist but they are next-generation ready, that they can communicate to you, not in the typical door slamming, tree falling, car failing methods.. but through your television and mobile phones.

The eerie resemblance of events in the serial to his life, makes Manohar travel the path of an investigator and the first half ends with a nice punch. I honestly thought the movie had been on for 2 hours, but it was barely 70 mins in, credit to the director for just cutting out any non-required scenes and packing it all with suspense and thrill. The second half takes a not so typical or atypical tone, as Manohar goes on a quest to get behind the serial and its story. He has a friend in need among the cops to help him out.

Along the way, we learn about the family that may have lived in their land a few decades back and they follow the trails of a gory massacre and eventually the killer gets punished.

The movie is simple and fresh, high marks for editing, story, screenplay and direction, good performances by the cast and overall a decent venture and not a bad way to spend your money. As with any movie, you have to allow the director some leeway and if you are prepared to do that then this movie will be a good watch. Don’t expect a swush-buckler but this certainly a good movie and worth watching once. Rating : B-

Movie Review "The International" : the suspense, the concept & the scare...

“The International” is a movie that brings into visuals what we have heard/theorized/surmised and yeah feared. The great part is the ending is a concoction of realism and cinematic realism. It’s an “only in a movie” emotion with a “that makes sense” emotion. There are solid performances from Clive Owen (Louis Salinger, an Interpol detective) and Brian O’Byrne (the hired contract killer). The others have chipped in well at various points of the movie.

The movie starts with a cold killing of Louis’ Interpol partner after a meeting with an insider. This insider happens to be a key cog of a mega bank IBBC. The IBBC is the focus of the Interpol investigation, with suspicions centering on the true intentions, ideals and asset managements of the bank. The Interpol with its nosy detective Louis Salinger tries to pry open the veil of the bank, that seems to be no different than the corner Credit Union bank down the street.

As the movie rolls on, events unfold that seemed to cast the IBBC bank in less than flattering company, in terms of their association and their involvement and intentions in events that are momentous and mostly dangerous. Louis and his superior Eleanor Whitman (Naomi Watts) seem to be on an impossible pursuit. Armed with truck loads of money, assets that stretch across the continents, contacts that range from the local lieutenant to the Italian presidential hopeful, the banks tentacles seem to ensnarl almost anyone that it comes across. The director tries well to depict the bank as a well run mafia organization only globally more influential and well funded.

The movie has its share of stereotypical events, incidents that make the hunter become the hunted, as agent Salinger comes to the realization he might be fighting a hopeless cause. Agent Salinger tries his best to follow the trail and pickup any bits of information that he can get his hand on, but as pressure to curtail his investigation increases Salinger does some unconventional things to get more evidence. I think the highlight of the movie is the contract killer of the IBBC doing his psychotic acts and being very suave in getting away from them, only to finally become the hunted by the IBBC. The scene that ensues with Salinger trying to protect the contract killer he came to arrest from the IBBC is well executed.

Though Salinger loses his fight to get anything out of the contract killer, with the help of his buddies in the NYPD, he tracks down the killer’s contact and he is lead on the trail of IBBC’s chairman Jonas Skarssen. How Salinger confronts Skarssen and what ensues is the rest of the movie. What I liked about the movie is that they have played on the fears of the common man, “Can we really trust anyone?”. While there are holes in some of the theories in the movie, the whole product as such is palatable. Ever since Matrix resonated with the audience with its array of fear instigating concepts and its overall idea of the helplessness of our existence, movies of such ilk have tried to recreate fear to the best they can.

The International, has a good theory, but I am afraid it doesn’t do enough to scare you, it doesn’t do enough to make you think “you know what… that’s out of the box”. Too often you come across good concepts not treated well, while I wont call this movie as a bad effort, I do think that it’s a bad end product. The climax highlights the helplessness, even for agent Salinger, where he only ends up with the satisfaction of shooting down the messenger of IBBC and not the IBBC itself. I liked that ending, only I have a problem with how this could have been handled better. The audience could have been scared a little bit better, a solid effort but an average end result for “The International”. I would give a D+ and recommend waiting for the movie to be on the “tele” or “blockbuster”.