The Next Karate Kid (1994)

Genre: Action/Drama

Starring: Pat Morita, Hilary Swank, Chris Conrad, Michael Cavalieri, Michael Ironside

A second attempt to revive the legendary movie brand, a lose remake of the 1984 movie sees some big changes than what the earlier movies showed. Julie Pierce (Swank) is a frustrated and angry high school student who lost her parents as a child and currently lives with her grandmother. Julie is unable to get along with her grandmother and when Mr. Miyagi (Morita) sees her behaviour whilst visiting their house, offers to help improve Julie. Mr. Miyagi decides to teach her karate and teach her all she needs to know to become a better person and improve her life. A member of the school security fraternity, Ned (Cavalieri) takes an evil liking for Julie and is very annoyed when she sees her getting friendly with his co-member Eric McGowen (Conrad). Just like the previous movie, this one too is focused on teaching a young American child the way of karate to ultimately defeat the enemy at the very end and reclaim their honour. The movie hugely fails to live up to the expectations of the original movie with no drastic improvements to make it any better. It tries to be different but yet fundamentally retains the same character. It seems hugely overdone and something new in this brand is seriously needed.

Thumbs up: Hilary Swank seems to be the only decent performance

Thumbs down: Slow, boring and too repetitive from the earlier movie

Rating: 5.5/10

Dirty Work (1998)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Norm MacDonald, Artie Lange, Jack Warden, Traylor Howard, Christopher McDonald, Chevy Chase

'Do what you are always best at', is a famous saying once said by some very famous person. Two good friends, Mitch (MacDonald) and Sam (Lange) intend to literally adhere to this phrase. The duo are good at nothing and have changed an infinite number of jobs but somehow cannot find anything stable. The only thing they are good at is creating mischief. The two always pulled pranks at various people in their lives and a sudden brilliant idea makes them want to cash in on this ability of theirs and earn some money. Sam's father needs a heart transplant and his doctor, Dr. Farthings (Chase) wants $50,000 for the transplant and also to pay off some bookies who are looking for him and would kill him in 9 days. The two now have to come up with $50,000, which was already an uphill task, and must now additionally earn that in an impossible nine days' time. The best thing about the movie is the unique concept and story that makes it very appealing at first sight. The reason why one must not give in to this appeal is because of the poor performances and worthless humour. The movie seems to fit the definition of the word 'lame' and lacks the excitement that it otherwise should have had.

Thumbs up: Unique concept and story

Thumbs down: Bad humour and performances

Rating: 5.5/10

Passchendaele (2008)

Genre: War/Drama/Romance/History/Action

Starring: Paul Gross, Caroline Dhavernas, Joe Dinicol

We all have heard and watched movies of American, French, British, German and Japanese involvement in the World Wars. This movie shows Canada's involvement in World War I, a war in which she was not directly involved but sent her sons since it came under the British Empire. The movie sets a love story of two separate individuals against the backdrop of the war and all the suffering and emotions that come with it. Sgt. Michael Dunne (Gross) has been asked to returned home since he was diagnosed with neurasthenia and deemed unfit to serve on the battlefield. It was here that he met nurse Sarah Mann (Dhavernas) and instantly felt attracted to her. He was assigned to recruit young men to join the army and one such recruit was Sarah's brother, David (Dinicol). David suffers from asthma and hence cannot serve on the front due to which he cannot get his girlfriends' fathers acceptance who openly ridicules him. The movie shows two men, of different ages, both having their own worries with love and war and both suffering from disorders that disallows them to fight for their country. The movie mixes war and love nicely and brings out the true heartbreak that one must face when war divides love and family. However, the time spent on the romance is slow and stretched which loses audience attention. The movie quickly recovers to offer a decent climax but not the best. The war scenes of gore and bloodshed that may not be watchable for all. A well made movie only needed a more hurtful and emotional climax.

Thumbs up: Good concept

Thumbs down: Slow and dragged at times, climax could be better.

Rating: 6.1/10

Vantage Point (2008)

Genre: Crime/Action

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Matthew Fox, Forest Whitaker, William Hurt, Eduardo Noriega, Ayelet Zurer, Said Taghmaoui, Edgar Ramirez, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Alicia Zapien

A world political summit to end terrorism is being held at Salamanca, Spain where leaders of various countries would come together to sign an agreement to end terrorism once and for all. The movie revolves around a unique plot structure where the events of a single day are shown in multiple flashbacks from different points of view of various people at the summit. The movie shows the occurrences through six vantage points, which is, a news reporter Angie (Saldana) and her producer Rex (Brooks), US Secret Service Agent Thomas Barnes (Quaid), undercover Spanish police officer Enrique (Noriega), American tourist Howard Lewis (Whitaker), US President Ashton (Hurt) and terrorist Sam aka Suarez (Taghmaoui). Although the plot layout is interesting, the start of each of the six points are similar which gets a bit annoying to see and hear the same clips and audio over and over again. The movie becomes interesting and picks up pace towards the end to quickly wrap the plot and get over with it. The story, in isolation, is very basic and short but the focus predominantly lies in the same event happening through the eyes of various individuals. Interesting movie and can be recommended for a one time watch for action and crime enthusiasts.

Thumbs up: Unique plot structure

Thumbs down: Gets a bit annoying to watch the same footage too many times, basic story

Rating: 6.5/10

The Karate Kid, Part III (1989)

Genre: Action/Drama/Sports

Starring: Pat Morita, Ralph Macchio, Robyn Lively, Thomas Ian Griffith, Martin Kove, Sean Kanan

Continuing from where the second part left behind, Mr. Miyagi (Morita) and Daniel (Macchio) return home to LA only to find that their house is being demolished and they need to move somewhere else. With Daniel's mother busy looking after his ailing uncle, Mr. Miyagi takes Daniel to his house but since the demolition of Daniel's house, he has lost his janitors job and has no source of income. Daniel persuades him to open a bonsai shop and rents a location out of his college fees. John Kreese (Kove) the trainer at the Cobra Kai, the dojo that lost against Daniel is out of business too since no one wants to train with him anymore. He visits his mentor and good friend, a billionaire and crook who helps him to revive his ailing career and promises to get even with Daniel and Miyagi. The Karate championship is coming up once again and Daniel wants to defend his title, to the disagreement of Mr. Miyagi. He doesn't believe that Karate should be used to win trophies and sticks to his view that it should only be used to defend himself in the hour of need. Disappointed, Daniel decides to get trained alone and maybe even from someone else. The movie continues to be a bore like the previous movie and does not spark the excitement that the first movie had. Ralph Macchio's performance is annoying, he looks fat and ugly and cannot act for anything in the world. The movie shows you glimpses of Karate once more and tries to replicate the first movie but fails miserably. The story is far too predictable and the only persons who might want to waste time on it is those who simply want to complete the series, like me.

Thumbs up: Zero

Thumbs down: Annoying Ralph Macchio's performance, boring and predictable

Rating: 5.5/10

Ken Park (2002)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance

Starring: James Bullard, Stephen Jasso, Maeve Quinlin, Tiffany Limos, James Ransone, Julio Oscar Mechoso, Wade Williams, Adam Chubbuck

The individual stories of 5 American youngsters and their encounters with sexuality and family life. Ken Park (Chubbuck) whose friends tease him by reversing his name to 'Krap Nek' (Crap Neck) shots himself in the middle of a skateboarding park. Shawn (Bullard) a boy who knew him, narrates his life story along with that of his friends. Shawn shares a sexual relationship with his girlfriends mother, Rhonda (Quinlin) without the knowledge of anyone else. Peaches (Limos) lives with her overtly-religious father and who has lost her mother at a very young age. Her father resents her relationship with a boy and beats him for sharing a sexual relationship with her. Claude (Rasso) needs to tolerate his drunk and violent father who believes his son is not man enough and resents his skateboarding and everything else that he does. Tate (Ransone) is an unpredictable, unstable and sadistic psychopath who lives with his grand parents. He hates his grand father because he believes he cheats in Scrabble and his grand mother whom he believes invades on his privacy. The movie's title is disconnected from the main plot and although Ken Park's suicide intentions are revealed it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the main characters apart from their common friendship. The movie is slow and is filled with a lot of extreme sexuality and nudity which comes across as being very unpleasant. It has a very deep and artistic approach to itself and is not recommended for all.

Thumbs up: Natural performances and acting

Thumbs down: Too high on sexuality, slow

Rating: 6.3/10

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Drama

Starring: Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy, Liam Neeson (voice)

Based on the famous childrens' book by C.S. Lewis, the book series become popular with the advent of Harry Potter and the revolution of magical stories for children. A string of books written on similar foundations sprung up, with Narnia being one of them. Four siblings, Lucy (Henley), Edmund (Keynes), Susan (Popplewell) and Peter (Moseley) are transported to the land of Narnia when Lucy discovers a hidden wardrobe in the spare room which leads to the gates of the magical land. The lands are ruled by the evil White Witch (Swinton) who has harboured demons and beasts and wishes to quash freedom in the land and bring only gloom and misery upon all. There lives a prophecy that four humans would come to the land and liberate them from the grips of the evil Witch and free Narnia once and for all. The army of the free people is led by the lion, Aslan (Neeson) who has mustered an army and wants Peter, prophesied to be the next king, to lead the army to victory. The plot is very fundamental and predictable and can only appeal to the mentality of an 8-year-old. The story is patchy with many unexplained bits and lacks the finesse that Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings managed to have. The four central characters are defined as distinct personalities with similar reactions to each situation. Peter; the wise and daring leader, Susan; logical, mindful and practical, Lucy; loving and caring and Edmund; stubborn and childish. The characters tend to behave exactly as they are drafted which makes there every move rather predictable and after a while, annoying. Hugely avoidable unless your aged less than 10.

Thumbs up: *Yawn*

Thumbs down: Weak special effects, patchy story, poor acting

Rating: 5.4/10

Hancock (2008)

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Will Smith, Charlize Theron, Jason Bateman, Eddie Marson

Everyone has seen the invincible super hero who brings an end to evil and saves the world, but who is gonna tell you the other side of the story? John Hancock (Smith) is man with super-human strength, can fly, can easily regenerate and is an alcoholic. Unlike the conventional super heroes, Hancock is hated by the citizens of LA for the collateral destruction he causes while trying to nab the bad guys and everyone wishes he would just leave. John is not particularly fond of the public himself and openly hates them back. Ray Embrey (Bateman) is a PR consultant who is struggling to get a good pitch across to his clients when he suddenly finds himself in a life-threatening situation and is saved at the very last minute by Hancock. Although he does also derail an entire freight train, Ray wants to thank him for saving his life and realises that if he could, as a PR consultant, change the way people look at him, he would not only repay Hancock but also give a huge boost to his struggling career. This idea does not go down well with Ray's wife Mary (Theron) and takes a little bit more than just convincing John to listen to him. The movies attempt at projecting a different super hero than what one reads in comic books is achieved to a certain degree but is still not perfect. Lose ends and some unanswered questions continue but the movie might not have been made for awards and is more focused towards pure entertainment. It does deliver action-packed performances, destructive scenes and the typical Will Smith humour and if it this that you need then that is what you will get. Don't expect anything more.

Thumbs up: Entertaining, a non-conventional super hero

Thumbs down: Lose, loses traction after a while

Rating: 6.0/10

The Baxter (2005)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Michael Showalter, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Williams, Justin Theroux

If you thought your love life is messed up, you might want to know about the story of Elliot Sherman (Showalter). Elliot calls himself a baxter, or someone who has lost their girlfriend to her ex-boyfriend who casually walks back into her life and sweeps his lady love off her feet. Not once, but twice and it just happened the third time. Elliot was to marry Caroline (Banks) until her high school crush Bradley (Theroux) arrives at the wedding and proposes to her leaving Elliot in a position he is no stranger to. The movie flashes back and goes on to tell you exactly how this awkward situation arose and what comes thereafter. Cecil (Williams) is Elliot's temporary secretary whom he grows fond of and confines his fears of getting dumped again when he is all set to marry Caroline and bring her into his life. The movie builds on an interesting concept, different than what a normal romance comedy would be and attempts at being realistic rather than being idealistic. The movie suffers with being slow and stretched and since it gives away the climax at the very beginning, you know exactly what to expect and hence one is simply expected to enjoy the journey till the end. That, sadly does not happen and your thankful the movie is over rather than getting up with a broad smile and a sense of enjoyment.

Thumbs up: Good idea to explore upon

Thumbs down: Stretched, slow and boring

Rating: 5.7/10

The Karate Kid, Part II (1986)

Genre: Action/Drama

Starring: Pat Morita, Ralph Macchio, Dany Kamekona, Tamlyn Tomita, Yuji Okumoto, Nobu McCarthy

Why is a sequel necessary? Any producer or director would give any one of the following two reasons. Firstly, the story is incomplete which needs to come to a logical conclusion, which is a perfectly acceptable reasoning, or secondly, to fully exploit a successful movies concept to extract as much juice as you can. Its the latter that causes most of the sequels to fall flat on its face with part II of The Karate Kid being no exception. Directly continuing where the movie left the last time, Daniel (Macchio) is the proud winner of the Karate tournament and is continuing his training with Mr. Miyagi (Morita). Miyagi recieves a letter from Okinawa, his village in Japan where his father is sick and is lying on his death bed. Miyagi explains that he once loved a woman called Yukie (McCarthy) who was arranged to marry his best friend Sato (Kamekona). When Miyagi announced his intentions, Sato wanted him to fight to death. Not wanting to fight Sato, Miyagi fled to the states without Yukie. Now, Miyagi has to return to Okinawa and realises that he would have to face Sato's wrath that he has curtailed for all these years. The movie is a massive deviation from the first movie and has lost its focus from Karate to become a family drama. Miyagi becomes the central character of the movie and Daniel seems to just be there because he has to. There is absolutely no training or excitement left in the movie that made its predecessor so famous. The movie is also inconsistent with respect to Daniel and Miyagi's love life and is a hugely predictable, two-hour long boring waste of time.

Thumbs up: Morita's performance

Thumbs down: Loses charm of first movie, outright boring

Rating: 5.6/10

Evan Almighty (2007)

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Fantasy

Starring: Morgan Freeman, Steve Carrell, Lauren Graham, John Goodman, Wanda Sykes, John Michael Higgins

Bruce Almighty, the predecessor to this movie, focused on Bruce and his tryst with God in the bid to outdo Evan. Now, Evan Baxter (Carrell) faces God (Freeman) when he decides to quit journalism in favour of running for Congress. His slogan, ‘Change the World’ attracts a lot of following and attention which wins him an office in Congress. Congressmen Long (Goodman) is pushing for a new land reform bill for which he wants Evans backing. Evan does the mistake, or maybe the right thing, by asking God for help in ‘Changing the World’. God instructs him to create an Ark if he wants to achieve his goal and forces him to become Noah and build a huge boat which would survive an inevitable flood that God would bring down upon the people of New York. The movie is very different from the previous movie and lacks the slapstick humour and stupidity that is often associated with Jim Carrey. Carrell tries his best at being funny, but is no Carrey. That said, the movie is far from boring and is a decent entertainment and a way to kill time but does not score very high on the 'Movies to Watch Before I Die' list.

Thumbs up: A good entertainer

Thumbs down: Could be funnier, maybe Carrey should have been around

Rating: 6.5/10

The Six Wives of Henry Lefay (2009)

Genre: Drama/Comedy

Starring: Tim Allen, Barbara Barrie, Elisha Cuthbert, Jenna Dewan-Tatum, Jenna Elfman, Andie MacDowell, S. Epatha Merkerson, Eric Christian Olsen, Lindsay Sloane, Paz Vega

The name; just read the name, again and again. The title gives away each and every little aspect of the movie but its still my duty to run you through the 90 minute piece of boredom. Henry Lefay (Allen) is a man of many women who starts dating a new one the moment he is bored of the current one. Wife No.1 Effa (Merkerson) the wife that nobody knew existed, wife No. 2 Kate (MacDowell) who thought she was the first wife all along until Effa came by, also the only wife to have borne Henry a child named Barbara (Cuthbert). Wife No. 3 & 5 Ophelia (Elfman) the sex-hungry cougar and the only one to have married Henry twice. Wife No. 4 Veronica (Vega) the Spanish beauty who stayed on with Henry as a business partner and wife No. 6 Autumn (Sloane) who is almost as old as Barbara and Sarah Jane (Dewan-Tatum) his girlfriend whom he was going to marry and divorce Autumn for. Henry dies in a para sailing accident in Mexico and Barbara needs to take care of his last rights, along with bringing all the wives together and coming to a conclusion on how the funeral/cremation should be since Henry conveniently left various instructions with different wives. The movie sounds interesting but it sadly isn't. All hopes of good humour are quickly dispelled and one is left with a boring and dragged movie that had far more potential. Performances were mediocre, some slightly humorous bits were ok and you don't need a psychic octopus to figure out where the movie is taking you. 

Thumbs up: Good story

Thumbs down: Bad execution, lack of good humour

Rating: 5.7/10

All the King's Men (2006)

Genre: Drama/Biography

Starring: Sean Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, Jackie Earle Haley

Loosely based on Huey Long, Governor of the state of Louisiana, Willie Stark (Penn) worked as a small-town lawyer and was roped by the local political muscle, Tiny Duffy (Gandolfini) to run for governor. What Stark didn't know was that he was being fooled and he wasn't supposed to win. Upon learning of Duffy's ambitions he decides to run as Governor by himself and wins by a landslide. He reached to the poor and promised to uplift them from poverty and was against well-settled city people enjoying all the benefits, much to the ire of large oil companies. Jack Burden (Law) a noted journalist from an elitist family, became Stark's advisor in spite of being advised against taking the position by everyone around him. Stark was accused of creating public services but secretly using them to rob the state of taxpayers money to keep for himself. With these accusations against him, Stark was brought forward for impeachment in the senate and wanted Jack's god-father, Judge Irwin (Hopkins) to be on his side rather than against. Sean Penn is a brilliant adaptive actor which can be seen from Milk and this movie. His role as the Governor, bringing the correct accent and character and the fabulous performances were show-stealing. Not just his but the rest of the cast, including Law, put on fabulous performances and supported his character in every way. With such a line-up its not wrong to keep expectations high but its very wrong when these expectations fall to the ground. The story and plot execution is weak, the movie is very slow and can get a bit boring at times. Mostly its Stark's heavy accent that makes it hard to grasp the developments in the movie, but other elements of storyline also come into play in downplaying the movie greatly. The amazing performances seem to have no outcome whatsoever and the slow progress makes it very dull and boring.

Thumbs up: Strong performances

Thumbs down: Very dull, too slow

Rating: 5.8/10

Cedar Rapids (2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Ed Helms, John C. Reilly, Anne Heche, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kurtwood Smith, Sigourney Weaver

An award-winning insurance agency, Brownstar, has been successful so far in winning the Two Diamonds awards given out annually to the best insurance agency. Brownstar insurance agent Tim Lippe (Helms) is selected to  represent his company this year at the awards ceremony after the agent who usually took up this task decided to move on in life. Tim has never stepped out of his home town, led a sheltered life and is very immature for his age. He has no idea on how he is supposed to live to his boss's expectations and come back winning the awards. He befriends his roommates Dean Zeigler (Reily) the very man whom his boss asked him to stay away from, and Ronald Wilkes (Whitlock Jr.). He is attraction to Joan (Heche), nervousness about winning the award, learning about independent life the hard way and getting accustomed to reality make those few days seem far longer than they were intended to be. The movie is pretty much your average run-of-the-mill comedy movie but it wont fail to entertain. Its light, funny, cheerful and uplifting and would try very hard to make you smile.

Thumbs up: Light and fun

Thumbs down: Cliched and can slow in parts

Rating: 6.5/10

Scary Movie 4 (2006)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Spoof/Adventure

Starring: Anna Faris, Regina Hall, Craig Bierko, Bill Pullman, Anthony Anderson, Leslie Nielsen, Conchita Campbell, Beau Mirchoff, Kevin Hart

The Scary Movie series of movies can be attributed with the revolution of spoof movies where the plot never really mattered and all that accounted for was the ridiculous humour derived out of current events, TV shows and mostly movies. The fourth installment of the series decides to take on The Village, The Grudge and War of the Worlds. Cindy Campbell (Farris) has taken up a job as nursing an old-aged woman and finds that her house is haunted by a Japanese child who predicts the destruction of Earth and tells Cindy that only she can stop the alien invasion. Tom Ryan (Bierko) is a divorcee who has to take care of his children Rachel (Campbell) and Robbie (Mirchoff). Tom and Cindy are new neighbours and fall in love with each other just as catastrophe strikes Earth with an deadly alien invasion. Cindy along with Brenda (Hall) and Tom must use the Japanese kids advice and stop Earth from ultimate doom. The movie has derived its core plot from a non-horror movie and hence failed to live up to the brand name to an extent. The jokes are only moderately funny and the full extent of the humour can only be absorbed if one is familiar with the movies/personalities that are being spoofed on. You can watch it but you wont miss out on anything if you chose not to.

Thumbs up: Its not easy to make good movie spoofs

Thumbs down: Not very funny

Rating: 5.6/10

Next Day Air (2009)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Comedy

Starring: Donald Faison, Mike Epps, Wood Harris, Omari Hardwick, Emilio Rivera, Darius McCary, Cisco Reyes, Yasmin Deliz, Lobo Sebastian

There are some movies that make you simply wonder, 'Why'? Why would anyone want to waste all the resources to recreate garbage? Doesn't the world create enough of that already? If you filter the trash, one would find that most of these movies feature African-American crime and comedy that hardly ever appeals to the masses. Leo (Faison) is a simple mail delivery man who delivers post after getting high. In one such instance, he drops of a box full of 10 bricks of cocaine to the wrong house. Guch (Harris) and Brody (Epps) are wannabe gangsters who have befriended a completely unknown person to rob a bank which goes hopelessly wrong. A miscommunication leads them to steal the 'tapes' instead of the 'cash' and now they're broke with no money, until there is a knock on the door and they're delivered an unknown package. Across the hallway, Jesus (Reyes) is awaiting for his coke shipment to arrive from drug lord Bodega (Rivera). The package never comes, Bodega is mad and Jesus is pissing in his pants. Guch and Brody decide to sell the stuff to Brody's cousin Shavoo (Hardwick) not knowing that the package belongs to their friendly neighbour. The movie is the average entertainer with the regular comedy that is often associated from this genre of movie. Watchable, but not commendable.

Thumbs up: Keeps you involved the entire time

Thumbs down: Unexciting and predictable

Rating: 5.8/10

A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas (3D) (2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Kal Penn, John Cho, Thomas Lennon, Amir Blumenfeld, Paula Garces, Danny Trejo

Harold (Cho) & Kumar (Penn) have entertained audiences in the past when they went to White Castle and Guantanamo Bay. The two best friends perpetually landed themselves in trouble with Harold trying to figure a more reasonable way out and Kumar chosing something more radical. The two friends have not parted ways with Harold tired of Kumar's continued immaturity and not being able to accept adulthood. He has settled down with Maria (Garces) and Maria's family decides to drop in for Christmas. Her father Carlos Perez (Trejo) is a very religious person and believes in celebrating Christmas with all his heart. Harold and him dont get along and Carlos has entrusted Harold with the task of decorating a Christmas tree that he has been growing for years for this special occassion. Kumar is still spending time like a college graduate, smoking weed all day long and finds a package with Harold's name on his doorstep. Not having seen him in all these years he decided to pay him a visht and give the package. Kumar, ever-famous for his blunders, puts Carlos' tree on fire and the two now need to look for a new tree and decorate it before he returns home. The movies have consistently focussed on the duo and their misfortunate events but what made them famous and loved was the slapstick and enjoyable humour. Penn, as usual, brings in all the sex and stupid humour which seemed to lack finesse and character. The movie doesnt have humour like the previous movies, gets extremely boring during unwanted melodramatic scenes and lacks a different plot. Fails to live up to the brands name and a big let down for fans.

Thumbs up: Very few selected scenes that have the Harld & Kumar essence

Thumbs down: Horrible humour, extremely boring at times

Rating: 5.8/10

Puss in Boots (2011)

Genre: Animation/Adventure/Comedy/Drama/Action/Fantasy/Crime

Starring (voice): Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris

The innocent, brown furred, black-eyed, Spaniard cat from Shrek gets a movie to his own name. Puss in Boots (Banderas) is an outlaw who loots and plunders, not from the innocent, but from those who deserve it, much like Robin Hood. He learns about the magic beanstalk with the Golden Goose that lives high up in the Giants castle and lays golden eggs He embarks on an adventure to find the magic beans when he crosses paths with Kitt Softpaws (Hayek) a cat much like him, out for the same objective. His adventures lead him to once again come face to face with Humpty Dumpty (Galifianakis) an old friend who started stealing from the innocent and hence parted ways. Humpty and Puss had a childhood ambition of growing the beanstalk and now Humpty knows how exactly to do it and needs Puss' help once more. The character of Puss was loved and applauded by all for his cute and suave Latino style. With the Shrek series coming to an end, Dreamworks' attempt at reviving old fairy tales and portraying them contrarty to our normal beliefs might have failed in this attempt. Shrek was loved for its humour and unique plot line, however, Puss in Boots fails on both those aspects with below average humour and an extremely predictable story. Targeted towards young kids, the movie needs heavy humour that the audience could associate with and not the rude, sarcastic and slightly sexual comedy that the movie banks upon. A let-down for people who expected the Shrek magic once more.

Thumbs up: Unique blend of various fairytale characters

Thumbs down: Boring  humour, hopeless attempt at being entertaining

Rating: 6.2/10