Horrible Bosses (2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Crime

Starring: Jason Bateman, Kevin Spacey, Charlie Day, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Sudeikis, Collin Farrell, Jamie Foxx

Remember that dinner with friends where someone throws a completely stupid idea and everyone plays along and agrees to doing it knowing full well that its just a stupid joke? And remember the next morning when you wake up and you actually think you might want to after all execute that thought that randomly came up over yesterdays dinner? Three friends, Nick (Bateman), Kurt (Sudeikis) and Dayle (Day) contemplated over the thought of killing their bosses and after a few days that thought started moulding into a real thought. Nick's boss, Dave Harken (Spacey) is a maniac who squeezes every drop out of his employees and treats them like slaves. Bobby Pellitt (Farrell) is Kurt's coke addicted boss who has no interest in the company or anyone's welfare and simply wants to have one big party all the time. Dale's boss is the super-hot and sexy Dr. Julia (Aniston) who is a sex maniac and is trying to get Dale to sleep with her. That may not seem all that bad for most people but Dayle is due to get married and he fears being disloyal to his fiance. The trio decide to kill the three bosses and make their life better and approach the first black shady man they meet, Mr. Motherfu***r Jones (Foxx). The movie is cleverly set against the backdrop of the global recession with dwindling job opportunities and showing people doing almost anything to earn some money. Its got a different edge to it and is definitely a good fun watch. A lot of working folk might associate themselves with the feeling of killing their bosses and this movie captures that exact moment. Its not laugh out loud funny but its definitely worth the entertainment.

Thumbs up: Great fun, good plot

Thumbs down: Would have been a repeat watch if it was crazy funny

Rating: 7.1/10

Dial M for Murder (1954)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery

Starring: Ray Milland, Grace Kelly, Robert Cummings, John Williams, Anthony Dawson

Alfred Hitchcock, murder and crime in the same sentence go very well together. His movies have spearheaded the crime and murder investigation genre and had put a heavy focus on detectives. Tony Wendice (Milland) is a reasonably well to do, married and middle aged man who used to love to play tennis. He married Margot (Kelly) who didn't want him to pursue the sport for whom he was forced to give it up. Margot had an affair with an American crime novelist Mark Halliday (Cummings) about whom Tony later learnt about. His regret for leaving tennis for his wife and now she leaving him for another man pushed him to the edge where he started plotting her murder. His carefully crafted plan involved C. J. Swan aka Captain Lesgate (Dawson) who was to execute the plan and murder his wife. Yet the most well-crafted plan always has a flaw, the most obvious flaw that is undetectable but yet too obvious. The movie crafts a perfect mystery and the character of Tony Wendice, the smart and thoughtful man who thinks far and thinks well and does justice to the plot. The only chink in the erstwhile formidable armour is in the plot itself. The entire crime scene is revealed early on in the movie with the murder itself taking place. Now that you know exactly what happened, its only a matter of solving it. This leaves little room for a climax and stunning end and the audience is more or less prepared for the outcome. A great murder mystery nonetheless which is simple and sweet, to the point and does not have any complicated parallel stories to lose focus of the main plot.

Thumbs up: Great performances and good crime scene

Thumbs down: Not a very strong climax

Rating: 7.6/10

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

Mulholland Dr. (2001)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Thriller/Mystery

Starring: Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Justin Theroux

Pronounced and read as: Mulholland Drive. Profound and deep movies with layered meanings and multiple interpretations are always a difficult watch for the average audience and appeals only to critics, movie fanatics and visitors of film festivals. Betty Elms (Watts) is a struggling actor who has arrived in Los Angeles to become a movie star. Her aunt is a veteran actor who is currently on vacation and has hence decided to lease her massive house to Betty to stay in. Meanwhile, a failed murder attempt inside a limousine sees the victim (Harring) escaping from the crime scene and sneaking into Betty's' aunts house without any one's knowledge. The victim cannot seem to remember her name and assumes the name of Rita. Betty at first thinks she is her aunts friend but later learns of the true story. Betty's childish detective instincts come to life and she tries to unravel Rita's mystery and find out who she exactly is. Meanwhile, a movie director, Adam Kesher (Theroux) is threatened by the mafia to cast a girl of their choice for the lead role in his upcoming movie rather than the actress that he selected. The two major plots are flanked by multiple irrelevant smaller stories that do not make any sense or add up during the initial stages but some culminate right towards the end. The movie is ridiculously long, slow and heavy. Right till the very end the average viewer would have no idea what the past two and a half hours were all about. One would probably need to Google interpretations and meanings of this movie just to simply come to terms with what they just saw. The performances are fabulous, no doubt, but the movie is strictly for minorities and not for the masses. That aside, the thought process that might have gone into this movie to create is an achievement in itself and much praise goes out to director David Lynch. Watch only with a lot of time and an aspirin in case your not prepared for it.

Thumbs up: Brilliant plot conception, good performances

Thumbs down: Too deep, profound, sow and heavy

Rating: 7.3/10

Vicky Donor (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama

Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Anu Kapoor, Yami Gautam, Dolly Alhuwalia, Kamlesh Gill

Conservative families, social issues and lack of acceptance of modern ideologies is a sure shot formula for a Bollywood movies success. Vicky Donor explores the preconceptions of sperm donation that prevail within the conservative Indian society and revealing its true intentions. Vicky Arora (Khurrana) is jobless and lazy and has no motivation or direction in life. His widowed mother runs a beauty parlor and is fed up of Vicky's high cost of living and no income. Dr. Chaddha (Kapoor) is an infertility specialist who cant seem to find the right sperm donor to fulfill the demands of his high profile clients. All his advertisements for sperm donors bear no fruit since the more healthy and versatile people look down upon sperm donation and the only ones who come forward are penniless and jobless people looking to make some easy money. One fine day, Dr. Chaddha spots Vicky and his sixth sense tells him that he is the man he is looking for. A sperm test reveals that his mojo is in top order and after a lot of persuasion and nagging, Vicky becomes a sperm donor. He soon realises that he can make a whole lot of money out of it and makes it his profession. Vicky eventually falls in love with banker Ashima Roy (Gautam) and wishes to marry her, much to the despise of Dr. Chaddha who sees Vicky as his only source of income. The story touches upon the social stigma in a humorous and fun manner but suffers from having a conventional foundation. Initial success, problems arise, the downfall and the eventual happy ending are all very predictable. Its an outline that almost every movie on the planet works on which makes it lose its traction and interest and hence is not unique inn itself. John Abraham has managed to produce a good entertainer with above average performances but still needs to work hard if it needs to make a sounding impact at the box office.

Thumbs up: Performances, humour and an all-round urban entertainer

Thumbs down: Predictable plot outline, gets a tad boring at places

Rating: 7.3/10

Iron Maiden: Flight 666 (2009)

Genre: Documentary/Musical/Drama/Adventure

Starring: Bruce Dickinson, Steve Harris, Nicko McBrain, Dave Murray, Adrian Smith

Band tours are very typical in the manner in which they are executed and so are the concert movies that are made thereafter. Tour locations, clippings of performances, behind the scenes footage and interviews with various persons is the norm. Iron Maiden's Somewhere Back In Time World Tour in 2008 was special, not because of the locations or the style but because of the manner in which they were going to execute it. Bands usually have to pay huge travel bills on world tours for carrying the huge necessary cargo along with the long line of essential crew members that need to be present. Iron Maiden decided to innovate and combine the two by modifying a Boeing 757 which could carry both the crew and the cargo on one airline with lead vocalist Bruce Dickinson piloting the plane.The band toured 4 continents, 12 countries and 21 cities which took 45 days and thousands of miles to cover. The band covered remote cities that other mainstream bands can never even think of. From large metros like Los Angeles, Tokyo and Mumbai to Bogota, San Jose and Moneterry, the band covered a wide array of locations unheard of and unimaginable. They toured almost every South American country in its first leg and later went to tour USA, Western Canada, Europe, parts of Asia and once again toured the countries of South America that they previously left behind. This documentary focuses on the first leg of the tour, before they began the USA tour. The movie starts off on an interesting note, highlighting their attempts at fulfilling this landmark achievement. As the movie progress, it becomes hugely repetitive with similar footage in every city, showing crazy fans and head banging maniacs with excerpts from band members. Its a great watch for maiden-heads and rock fans, whilst others can still attempt at watching it and realise the marvels of the rock and roll circuit. Irons up!

Thumbs up: Fantastic footage, adrenaline rushing performances

Thumbs down: Repetitive format that gets to you after a while

Rating: 7.1/10

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

True Grit (2010)

Genre: Western/Drama/Action/Adventure

Starring: Matt Damon, Jeff Bridges, Hailee Steinfeld, Josh Brolin

The second movie adaptation based on a novel, the movie charts the adventure of Matie Ross (Steinfeld) who is out to avenge the death of her father by the notorious criminal Tom Chaney (Brolin). Tom double-crossed her father when he had hired him for an assignment and fled with his gold after killing him. Matie, a young and determined 14-year-old has more sense and guts than an adult twice her age and decides to hire the best gunslinger her money can buy and get him to track and arrest Chaney for his crime, somebody who has true grit. U.S. Marshall Rooster Cockburn (Bridges) agrees to offer but not after Matie had to pester and nag him once too many times. Matie insisted on coming along with him for the journey much to his despise. En route, they meet Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (Damon) who is also hunting for Tom Chaney for another crime. Not being familiar with the land of Arkansas, he approaches Cockburn for a partnership where they both capture Chaney and share the rewards. Nominated for 10 Oscar awards, the movie is not for everyone and demands a whole lot of patience and understanding. Its slow to start and slow to progress and that is where you tend to lose interest. Its only towards the very end that the movie gets some meaning and momentum and where you start appreciating the movie completely. Fabulous performances especially by the young Hailee Steinfeld.

Thumbs up: Great performances

Thumbs down: Slow plot but matures well

Rating: 7.4/10

The Iron Lady (2011)

Genre: Drama/Biography/History

Starring: Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Alexandra Roach

Based on the life of Britain's first female Prime Minister and the person to hold the office longest in the 20th Century, Margaret Thatcher (Streep) is often known to have been responsible for changing the face of British economy. Thatcher was elected from the conservative party and was elected at a time when unemployment, high demands of trade unions and fiscal deficit was ho unding the British government. With her agressive stance and conservative policy-making, Thatcher soon transformed the country into a profit-making economy and went to war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands. The movie transits between 2008 Thatcher and Thatcher back during her active political days. Margaret is now old and often hallucinates about her dead husband Dennis (Broadbent) and talks to him, imagining him being present all the time. The movie is extremely slow and takes its own time to move and develop. The first quarter is impatient and you want the movie to progress from showing an old Thatcher to showing her active days and move onto something that the audience want to watch and the movie promised to show. Perhaps if the movie focussed more on Margaret then and had little of Margaret now, the movie would have been widely acclaimed by all. Streep has put on a fabulous performance, one of her best in the past few years but sadly the slow pace of the movie, doesnt support her effort in a manner it should to make it an exceptional work of art.

Thumbs up: Meryl Streep's fabulous performance

Thumbs down: Slow, very slow

Rating: 7.0/10

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (1988)

 

Genre: Crime/Drama/Mystery

Starring: Steve Martin, Michael Caine, Glenne Headley, Anton Rodgers, Ian McDiarmid

A nice, enjoyable movie with some mystery, humour, twists and a sprinkle of fun is always a good watch. Some recipes never go bad. Lawrence Jameison (Caine) is a suave and sleek Englishman who makes a living out of tricking rich woman off their money. He is English in every aspect that you can imagine and has a very methodological, well-planned and characteristic form of executing his cons. Freddy Benson (Martin) is as American as anyone can be and is Lawrence's counterpart from across the Atlantic. They both meet in a small French town which is Lawrence's home turf that Freddy is threatening to overtake. Freddy's raw, unsystematic and shabby style of working fails to impress Lawrence who underestimates his skill. The duo decide to have a face-off where they both would try to con the same lady of the same amount of money and the winner takes it all. The movie is a brilliant spectacle of fine performances from two very accomplished artists and is a delight to watch. The half-way mark feels a drag with slow developments but once you get past the poor patch, its a thrilling climax for an astounding twist of events.

Thumbs up: Great performances, fun watch

Thumbs down: Can get boring and dragged in some bits

Rating: 7.0/10