Batman (1989)

Genre: Science-fiction/Action/Crime

Starring: Jack Nicholson, Michael Keaton, Kim Basinger, Robert Wuhl, Michael Gough

The rich billionaire who is an antique dealer by day goes by the name of Batman at night. He prowls the city and gets rid of all the scum and filth and wipes the streets of Gotham City clean. Few people know the truth about Bruce Wayne (Keaton). Not just about Batman but also about his personal life and past. He leads a very quiet and secretive life and before long the beautiful and charming photographer, Vicki Vale (Basinger) enters his life and manages to change everything. Jack Napier (Nicholson) is a criminal mastermind of Gotham City who has an unfortunate chemical reaction which leaves him with an altered appearance and the knack of laughing all the time, hence he is now known as the Joker. The Joker blames Batman for his appearance and seeks revenge and his revenge will  be the lives of one and all of Gotham City. His threat is about to turn into reality only if Batman can stop him and bring him to justice. The movie is a very typical superhero movie with the good winning over the bad and the usual damsel in distress who needs to be rescued from the hands of the good for nothing villain. Apart from Nicholson's exceptional performance, the movie is the average entertainer. It marks the start of a long line of Batman movies which live up to this very day.

Thumbs up: Jack Nicholson

Thumbs down: Average story, nothing exceptional

Rating: 6.3/10

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Action/Adventure/Drama/Romance

Starring: Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, John Alexander, James Dodd, Seth MacFarlane, Luke Goss, Anna Walton, Jeffrey Tambor

In continuation to the previous Hellboy but at the same time adapting a different storyline, the second movie narrates the story of the Golden Army. King Balor is the ruler of the elves who clashed with the humans and fought long and bloody battles with no result. One of the elves builds him a Golden Army, an army of machines that are indestructible and can win any war. With this power he squashed the humans, but the bloodshed gave him a change of heart and he broke the crown that controls the army into three pieces. He made piece with the humans and gave them a piece of the crown and kept two to himself. Only if the three pieces would come together would the Golden Army once again rise. Balor's son, Prince Nuada (Goss) was against his fathers doings and has decided to return from exile and awaken the Golden Army and take the Earth as his. Hellboy (Perlman) is still fighting crime and other paranormal beings with his colleagues Abe Sapien (Jones) a psychic human-fish, Liz Sherman (Blair) his lover who can control fire and Johann Krauss (Alexander & Dodd, MacFarlene (voice)) an ectoplasmic creature and the team leader. They must come together and fight Nuada and not allow him to awaken the army as it will squash the Earth and bring doom to all. The movie is an improvement from the previous version on many fronts by making it more lively and entertaining. The romance between Liz and Hellboy and Abe and Princess Nuala (Walton) might seem to alter the stories speed and continuity but it adds character and makes it feel more wholesome. A sure watch for some good action, a huge helping of beasts and demons and the fair bit of drama.

Thumbs up: Good overall package

Thumbs down: Romance kills the flow

Rating: 6.8/10

The Avengers (3D) (2012)

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Action/Adventure

Starring: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Tom Hiddleston, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson

Marvel, finally having run out of ingenious ideas to create more bizarre super heroes, has decided to mhx all the ingredients into one huge pot and just boil, stir, simmer and serve. The amalgamation includes Thor (Hemsworth) from Thor, Tony Stark (Downey Jr.) from Iron Man, Dr. Bruce Banner (Ruffalo) from Hulk and Steve Rogers (Evans) from  Captain America. The movie is in continuation to Thor with Loki (Hiddleston) seeking revenge from his brother which he intends to do so by destroying Earth and obtaining Tesseract, an unknown self-sufficient energy source with powers unlimited. With Tesseract gone missing, Dr. Banner is recruited by the Black Widow (Johansson) a smooth-talker, to help develop a way to locate it. Captain America has recently been woken up after being frozen for almost half a century and Tony Stark is just simply summoned to make his presence felt. Thor drops from the sky in search of his brother and hence they together form The Avengers, a team of heroes out to save the planet for sure death and destruction. The plot has absolutely nothing attached to it except for the usual good over evil tale with predictable climaxes and outcomes. Many of the more popular characters of Marvel were left out of this series, perhaps due to storyline or marketing purposes. The movie does expect its audiences to have seen the respective movies of all the characters at least once just so that they are in sync with their background and history. Even if you haven't, you wont miss out on too much but its helpful simply to understand the more finer details of every character. All in all, the movie is pure entertainment and does not intend to do anything else apart from that.

Thumbs up: Special effects, action and entertainment

Thumbs down: Bland plot, not as exciting as it sounds

Rating: 6.8/10

Barb Wire (1996)

Genre: Action/Crime/Drama/Science-fiction

Starring: Pamela Anderson, Victoria Rowell, Steve Railsback, Temuera Morrison, Jack Noseworthy

Have you watched a movie with the lead performer being someone who should never actually be in that role? Like an industrialist, a sports persons wife, an ex-politician or in this case, a porn star. The year 2017, the entire United States is engulfed in a civil war with Steel Harbour being the only free city in the country. Barb Wire (Anderson) is a mercenary and the owner of a bar in Steel Harbor. She struts her stuff, shows too much cleavage, has her legs exposed at all times, flaunts a 17" waist and can perform insane stunts wearing skin-hugging tight leather outfits. And there is something about a pair of German contraband contact lenses that can allow anyone wearing them to pass through a retina scan without any problem and a whole bunch of people trying to get their hands on it for a variety of reasons. There is too much skin show, in case I forgot to mention that, with everyone speaking in loud whispers with a thick, seductive and I'm-too-sexy touch added to it, especially Miss Anderson. The movie is a complete washout and although I would like to say that the movie is good enough at least to ogle at Pam, that too does not quite happen. The plot is badly glued together, randomly evolving and does not quite get to you even after pausing the movie and thinking about it for half a day. Is there enough already to suggest this is avoidable?

Thumbs up: HAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHA

Thumbs down: I'll write a blog post about that

Rating: 3.6/10

Armageddon (1998)

Genre: Science-fiction/Adventure/Action/Drama

Starring: Bruce Willis, Ben Affleck, Billy Bob Thornton, Liv Tyler, Will Patton, Steve Buscemi, William Fichtner, Owen Wilson, Michael Clarke Duncan, Peter Stormare, Ken Hudson Campbell, Jessica Steen

World catastrophe movies are not new but somehow Armageddon stands out from the crowd. Harry (Willis) is a business tycoon who has made a fortune from drilling oil. His hands-on approach and close involvement in his rigs has given him the title of being the world’s most experienced and accomplished driller. He and his team have drilled on every possible location and situation that Earth could throw up to him and this time he faces a new situation, something even beyond Earth. A huge asteroid, the size of Texas, is heading towards Earth which would most likely result in the extinction of all life forms on Earth. NASA has a limited time frame and tries all possible options to put Earth out of harms way and the only solution appears to be to land a team of astronauts on the asteroid, drill a hole 800 feet deep and plant a nuclear bomb within it. Who else than the accomplished Harry Stamper to do the job? The movie seems very far-fetched in most ways. Firstly, the whole concept of landing on an Asteroid and drilling through it is too outlandish for anyone’s likings. The action is very typically Michael Bay with random and incoherent explosions which are over-dramatised. The only commendable aspect of the entire movie is the method in which the audience tends to fuse with the characters and share the emotions and bonds of love and death. The drama adds tremendous value to the movie and without it, the movie would probably be a complete washout.

Thumbs up: Great mix of action and emotion

Thumbs down: Too outlandish and bizarre

Rating: 7.3/10