Returned 42 results for 'Monthly Archives: November, 2011'
Movie Ratings and Reviews: The Thing - It’s Not Human Yet
Saturday, November 19th, 2011
Movie: The Thing
Year: 2011
Genre: Horror/Sci-Fi
Director: Matthijs van Heijningen Jr.
Stars: Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton and Ulrich Thomsen
Snapshot of Story:
The movie is a recreation of the 1982 horror sci-fi by John Carpenter where an alien being terrorizes a group of explorers in the Antarctica.
Movie Ratings and Reviews: The Thing - It's Not Human Yet
Storyline:
It is a tall order to recreate the monumental movie of its time ‘The Thing’ in 1982 directed by John Carpenter. However, the movie does have it’s moments but unfortunately does not quite live up to the previous showing where Kurt Russel’s brilliant performance coupled with John Carpenter’s directing adds great depth and realism to the whole story.
The new main star played by a woman Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Kate Lloyd) may not have been a good choice as the person to take the lead role when comparing like for like roles (ie. Kurt Russel) in the last movie.
Although the story has good twists and turns, it does not quite gel together to make it a worthy movie to remember. The lack of coherency in the storyline despite some very good special effects brings it down.
There were some sensational scenes where the bodies mutate into disturbingly contorted figures that were very life-like. At parts also there is great tension amongst the team which was well portrayed and the clever part of the ‘teeth fillings’ which could not be replicated by the alien. Often directors miss essential points in the movie that adds realism to the whole story telling and this is what separates some great movie directors of our time. The parts can be so minuscule but adds to the overall credibility and realism to the movie and many a times directors with vision surpass the limitations of current technology and philosophy of cinema making and is able to come up with something great.
Final Thoughts:
The movie is a satisfactory rendition of the original but the towering performance of Kurt Russell and the brilliant directing of John Carpenter cannot be beat in the original version. Although today the modern aspects of movie making are far superior to that of 20-30 years ago, ultimately the storyline has to be on par to have an effective overall movie that can be appreciated by everyone. Take the examples of the movie series ‘Paranormal Activity’ where a good story telling with some special effects brings the movies together into something very watchable and almost addictive.
Rating:
6.5/10
Tags: Joel Edgerton, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Movie Ratings and Reviews, Movie Ratings and Reviews: The Thing - It's Not Human Yet, movie review of The Thing, sci-fi by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., Ulrich Thomsen
Review of Salman Khan’s Action Movie: Wanted
Friday, November 18th, 2011
Movie: Wanted
Director: Prabhu Deva
Time: 2009
Stars: Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia and Vinod Khanna
Snapshot of the story
Wanted is a story of an under cover cop played by Salman Khan in hunt for a gangster that made life in the city like hell even during daylight. Corrupt cops are also mixed with then making the situation worse. Salman Khan works for Gani bhai ( Prakash Raj) and will kill any one for money.
Theme of Story
There not much sense in the story and it is just for pure entertainment masala movie. There are many other movies made by Salman Khan and Wanted is one of them. Wanted is the remake of Tamil film Pokiri directed by Prabhu Deva which is also not an original concept and inspired from a Telugu film. Wanted from the beginning has the high action drama and shows Salman Khan doing the action scene across the city. Bullets firing, head smashing in the windows and Salman coming out of smoke fires put Salman Khan’s Dabangg on screen and off screen image. In all there action scenes Salman falls in love with sweet girls Jhanvi (played by Ayesha Takia) who works in a call center. Wanted is fast paced movie and if you are a action movie lover then this one is full of entertainment for the viewer. Released on the eve of EID, it contributed to it’s grand opening of the movie worldwide. Salman has made lot of effort with this release and in the marketing of the movie. Music of the movie is good and the song like “Mera Hi Jalwa” was the popular dance number used in many dance reality shows.
Review of Salman Khan's Action Movie: Wanted
On Screen Chemistry
Salman Khan was outstanding and as I said earlier the film does not make any real sense. Vinod Khanna as Salman’s Father and ex-policemen was good in his short performance. Music was not the highlight of this movie despite the one off hit of ‘Mera Hi Jalwa’.
Rating
I would give this 6 out of 10 for a powerhouse performance by Salman, the cuteness of Ayesha Takia and good choreography by Pradhu Deva on “Tera Hi Jalwa” that features Govinda and Anil Kapoor.
Tags: Ayesha Takia, movie rating and reviews, review of action movie wanted, Review of Salman Khan's Action Movie: Wanted, Salman Khan
Ratings and Reviews of Singham
Thursday, November 17th, 2011
Movie: Singham
Director: Rohit Shetty
Time: 2009
Stars: Ajay Devgan, Kajal Agrawal and Prakash Raj
Snapshot of the story
Rohit Shetty has made good action movies as a small town cop Singham (Ajay Devgan) who is honest, likes to help all and can not tolerate injustice (in short a perfect cop) gets entangled with a gangster who uses his political power to make his life a mysery. It is a face paced story showing how he overcomes these challenges.
Ratings and Reviews of Singham
Storyline
Ajay Devgan is an honest cop living in a small town who believes in helping people. Because of the small locality every one knows each other. Every thing goes smoothly until the day when Singham wants a local high profile goon Jaykant Shikre (Prakash Raj) to see him in police custody. He tries to avoid this by using his influence which did not work and he needs to visit the police station. With revenge in his mind of this humiliation Jaykant Shikre uses his political power and Singham gets transferred to this locality and then starts the cat and mouse game between them.
This is the most interesting part of the movie as the goon Jaykant Shikre and Singham try to have an upper hand with each other and this is the part of movie where action, drama and love follows. The role of Singham suits very well with Ajay Devgan. The movie has some strong dialogues and larger than life image of an Indian hero. There are some action scenes where we defy the laws of gravity and is entertaining to watch.
In this high action drama director Rohit Shetty has introduced a moving story. Debutant Kajal Agrawal looked beautiful and very impressive in her first movie. Singham finds plenty of convolution in the story and it was good to see how entire police department stands against the goon and overpowers them.
On Screen Chemistry
The charismatic appearance of Ajay Devgan’s steals the show, romance is not the theme of the movie and could be the reason it has not been showcased as well. This is typical of the movie where there is fight over good and bad and one may think if one never gets tired of such stories? Singham does not have a strong storyline but fast paced movie which this is, keeps the audience interested.
Rating
Singham score 6.5 out of 10 for good performance of every actor especially Ajay Devgan and Prakash Raj. Action scenes were good but did not have freshness which we expected.
Tags: Ajay Devgan, Movie Ratings and Reviews, Review and Rating of Singham, review of indian movies, Rohit Shetty
Superhit Crime Thriller: Scarface
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Movie: Scarface
Year: 1983
Genre: Crime/Thriller
Director: Brian De Palma
Stars: Al Pacino, Michelle Pfeiffer and Steven Bauer
Snapshot of Story:
Tony Montana played by Al Pachino is a refugee from Cuba who has dreams of making it big in the USA. He enters the world of high drugs and crimelords and is unable to steer the life he wants in this pulsating movie by director Brian De Palma.
Superhit Crime Thriller Scarface
Storyline:
This is one of the most popular movie that is often found on the shelves of many homes, a timeless piece that is still very watchable today.
Tony Montana along with his best friend Manny Ribera come to Florida as refugees and immediately enter the life of drugs and brutal killings. The beginning of the movie is quite entertaining as they both get used to a new culture and clumsily and often comically find their way around town.
Tony has big dreams and is itching for those dreams to materialize soon and manages to connect with the right people to enter into the world of drugs. His quick thinking and his talent for spotting trouble quickly makes him a close buddy of one of the top drug lords in his area. However, he yearns for more and from a bloody duel with his long standing boss becomes the new drug and crimelord of the area. As Tony yearns for more power he also becomes very protective and isolates himself in a highly secure mansion in a very desirable area. His desire for more power and shrugging authority, soon brings in the fists of the other drug lords of the country. Along with his rapid rise, he also becomes more suspicious of his close comrades and in one scene he shoots his best friend.
Al Pachino gives a brilliant performance as an ambitiuous calculating Cuban who uses his wits to get to the very top of the drug empire. Unfortunately, the story has a tragic ending where a bloody shoot out at his house results in his demise.
Final Thoughts
The movie has all the traits of an authentic story telling and has been brilliantly directed by Brian De Palma which makes it a classic and one for the hall of fame. As you watch this movie at different periods in your life you can almost connect with all of the characters and their inner thoughts. This gives it the wide appeal and a timeless classic that is still enjoyed today.
Rating:
9/10
Tags: Al Pacino, Moview reviews and Ratings, Superhit Crime Thriller: Scarface
Top Indian Romantic Movie: Kal Ho Naa Ho
Wednesday, November 16th, 2011
Movie: Kal Ho Naa Ho
Director: Nikhil Advani
Time: 2003
Stars: Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Preity Zinta
Snapshot of the story
Kal Ho Naa Ho is an emotional love story as Aman (Shah Rukh Khan) loves Naina (Preity Zinta) but he has health problems and would not live for too long. Rohit Patel, son of a rich gujju business man played by Saif Ali Khan attends MBA classes with Preity Zinta and loves him a lot but afraid of sharing his feelings thinking that he might lose a good friend.
Storyline
Preity Zinta lives in New York with her famil. Her mother played by Jaya Bhachchan, runs a restaurant which is not able to generate sufficient profit and able to pay the bank loans. Shah Rukh Khan comes to US for his treatment on his falling health and becomes their neighbor. Preity Zinta has many family problems thanks to her grand mother and her life is a total mess. Like a good neighbor Shah Rukh Khan tries to help in her problems but Preity Zinta wants to tackle this by herself. She shares all her problems with Saif Ali Khan but Saif Ali Khan is after girls and tries dating several girls and mature females but is unsuccessful in love. Shah Rukh Khan by his jolly good nature and enters into Priety Zinta’s family to rescue their non-profitable restaurant. In the plot both SRK and Preity Zinta generate feeling for each other but does not share this with each other. This is time when love is in the air and romance all over the place. Shah Rukha Khan knows about his falling health and does not express his feeling as he can give her better future and want to find love for Preity Zinta. For this he chooses Saif Ali Khan as he though her best friend can become his life partner. He makes a plan which he names as “6 din ladki in” to generate love in 6 days in the heart of Priety Zinta for Saif Ali Khan. This entire plot gets exposed to Priety Zinta and she breaks all relationships with both of them.
Top Indian Romantic Movie: Kal Ho Naa Ho
Twist in the Tale
Kal Ho Naa Ho takes the tragic note until SRK becomes so ill and doctor advise him to a complete rest as he has only a few days left in his life. SRK wants both of them to patch and tie the knot. Movie has the sad end with the death of SRK. The theme of the movie is well portrayed that how a man who know that he is going to die but still teaches us a lesson to enjoy every bit of the life as there may not be a tomorrow.
On Screen Chemistry
Shah Rukh Khan was as good as ever but the emotional scenes leave the traces of overacting. Priety Zinta was gorgeous but Saif Ali Khan was wasted with a few dialogs. Some gay scenes in the movie and humor made audiences laugh a bit. Movie is one time watch.
Rating
I will give 7 out of 10 to Kal Ho Naa Ho for it’s romantic music, strong performance from SRK, fluent story telling. It does not have the strong storyline and they also did not reveal what life threatening disease Shah Rukh Khan had.
Tags: Preity Zinta, Saif Ali Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Top Indian Romantic Movie: Kal Ho Naa Ho
