PK bolo PK

Intro

PK is about an Alien dude who lands in India. He discovers language, he discovers religion or religions, he discovers the contradictions, he discovers India in it's true form. Being an Alien he questions everything and ends up being chased around for it.

Good

This movie is a moment of enlightenment in the collective Indian consciousness. Who are we? Well... an alien who drops from the sky asks us this question. As PK wanders from the desert of Rajasthan to the urban jungle of New Delhi, he holds our collective hand and leads the way. Entertaining us with our own contradictions. This movie will have conservatives, orthodox folks and extremists whimper with displeasure regardless of their race, caste or religion. It is a hit which will become a super hit with violent protests and bans propelling it to popularity unknown to Bollywood. #BoycottPK is actually #WeSupportPK in disguise.

The movie does this hand holding of the Indian identity with excellent acting, an amazing script, crazy ass camerawork and of course the wit and timing of Maestro Rajkumar Hirani's edit/direction.

Bad

I really wished that the shot of PK landing on earth was not the exact same one of Arnold time warping in the Terminator. It is a sort of a crane up from the crouching Amir's calf to his full facade which is clothed by an opportune cloud as he stands and walks away. That one shot plants the suspicion that the movie's making is very influenced heavily by hollywood. 

Ugly

This section is dedicated to our hypocritical religious and political leaders of all sects, who boink in their dancing cars, demand that their sensitive religious beliefs- that get hurt every time someone flushes the loo- be protected because they represent the sentiments of the people. Well go take a chill pill for the movie is against the wrong calls, made by superstitious and regressive beliefs, not against religion itself. The religion of hate, the religion of making gullible people pay through their nose, the religion of fear- is what is discussed in this movie. Watch and laugh, do not watch and organise a religious rally for what you will do is further popularise an epic movie. If you are a religious extremist- do yourself and your friends a favour- stay in your dancing car.  

John Wick made me Sick

Intro

I lost count of the people who got shot in this movie. I am not against glorifying violence (I did'nt mind 'Game of Thrones' for heaven sake). But this pointless shoot fest, was irritating! IMDB and rottentomatoes have rated this movie as above average, in their custom scale. Not only is this poorly directed film- below average, it sucks. Please read my blog if you want accurate reviews in the   future :P

The Good

Some of the...hmmm... a couple of 'shoot them all' sequences were really cool...

The Bad

...the rest of them were bad. I was rolling my eyes, again and again, with every other bullet that got fired and with very other rock music interlude where Keanu

Reeves struts about like a clumsy Rajini Kant. These sequences passed through my brain like a bullet- this side in and that side out. The movie is about this ex-hitman, who get enraged cause a bunch of punks kill his dog. This happens five minutes into the movie. No time for the audience to feel the love between the puppy and Wick. How is the puppy helping him grieve his dead wife, no one knows.  But it is dead, five minutes into the film and the killing starts. Dishkum dishkum... movie over.

The Ugly

My mom used to say- "Why do you watch these hollywood action movies? they are no better than the Tamil action movies." Either, she does not understand the sophistication required to make fight sequences realistic, or she does not care. Either way- John Hick- proves to be a brilliant case study to illustrate her point. And audiences want something more these days, bad guys get killed in the end by good guy, after a lot of violence, just does not cut it. The dog subtext, simply does not matter.  

Verdict

I will take a swift death by a John Wick bullet, than watch that movie again. 3/10 #avoidable.

An Interstellar experience

Intro

The world is coming to an end. While schools and people in general have become disillusioned about space travel, one man gets an inexplicable message through a gravitational anomaly (which is inexplicable) that he must go into space looking for a new slum. Just watch the movie! I cannot describe this indescribable genius.

The Good

The movie is an experience. It was later that I realised that the script has a lot of holes, the black hole just being one them. But when watching the movie I never thought twice. I was totally immersed. I was the father who was worried about his kids, the daughter who was worried about her father, the astronaut who was worried about his mission, and the astronaut who cared only for his survival instincts all in one! If I typed out the plot twists though- it sounds very silly. To pull such a script off with visual brilliance is the magic of Nolan.

The Bad

The script had holes. I was thinking of these holes, and was wondering if they were necessary evils. But I think that something could have been done... I do not know what it is, I can only wonder for I am not a Nolanian wizard. Secondly, I sort of guessed the ending, because of Nolan choosing to explain too many details through long drawn out dialogues. An excuse that Nolan might give would be- Machan I am targetting mass! Mass audiences need explanations!

The Ugly

I am a Nolan freak. So I will assume the movie is good even before I watch it. And so will producers of hollywood. He walks in with a script, he walks out with 200 million USD. That is 600 crore INR. I am going to let that sink in a bit. The last film I reviewed was a Tamil film that cost less than 1 crore rupees to make. So Interstellar = 1 awesome hollywood movie = 600 awesome tamil movies. Freaking frogs of froggasia....

Verdict

Experience! Do not think too much. Cry with that father, as he watches his children grow up- from afar! Marks-  8/10 Pass with distinction. 

The Dark Knight Rises like brilliantly baked bread

Intro

The epic conclusion or epic failure? 'Batman Begins' set the tone to one of the best movies ever made- The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan sets the bar so freaking high with that movie and then leaps over it with 'Inception.' But what has he done with the 'Dark Knight Rises?'

Synopsis

Eight years after going into hiding, for crimes he did not commit, Batman comes out of retirement because Bane has risen an army of anarchists from under the sewers. They have infused dynamite in a lot of the city's  and put the entire city under hostage with a moving nuclear bomb. Will the Batman rise to this challenge that might be his last one?

Good

The usual Nolan ingredients have been mixed so generously in the base of the movie. Some outrageous action scenes, if the Joker wanted to see the World Burn then Bane wanted to pressure cook it into submission and destruction. Stunning dialogues and dialogue delivery infused with intricate plot lines which you will not miss but will not digest entirely the first time of viewing. Yes I have seen it twice now and hope to see it again. The complexity of all this yet the simplicity of the taste or the experience delivers on a platter an absolute stunner of a dish.

Bad

Unfortunately there are some cracks in this pastry. I think a movie this big and this good should not have let these cracks to appear and the chef should be blamed for this. I think the primary reason for the cracks is that there are too many characters and unlike in the Dark Knight 'I' the viewer am not allowed to sink into and experience each character enough like I did the Joker, Harvey two face and ultimately the Batman.

Why have so many characters? He should have done away with either the detective (the guy from inception) or the cat woman. He should have perhaps trifled with making the core ingredients the king and queen of this desert so that the taste remains for longer. 

Then there is the unforgivable shallowness of the fight scenes. Some of my friends compared it to Vijay Kanth the Tamil action hero. And I forgive them (being a harcore Nolan Disciple that I am) because there were certain scenes where the anarchists chose to wait for Batman to hit them them with his bare hands before making a move on him with the bloody gun they are using. Catwoman has a point when she complains of Batman's 'no guns rule.' So in which case the fight scenes should have reflected the deception and speed the batman employed in the first two movie. Instead unfortunately he moved like a Vijay Kanth. I am the hero of this movie and these men shall fall!

I am leaving out the problems with the screenplay because we have a strict 'no spoilers' philosophy at mamatamtan :)

Ugly

I would like to clarify here as to what is the 'Ugly' part of my reviews. It is is not what is horribly wrong with the movie, but it is my reflections on what this movie means to my life, to this world and to various cultures notably Indian Tamil Mallu cultures. It is a deeper meaning to all this chaos that we usually encounter in a movie or anything for that matter in the media!

Having got that out of the way, I would like to discuss what Nolan might have wanted to show with the anarchist 'Bane.' More than the obvious references or seeming reference to a violent version of the occupy movement. 'What will happen if you live so large and leave so little for the rest of us' leads to the fact that Batman himself is an anarchist but one who tries to restore the order or 'Hegemony' that already exists and the only reason it is justified is because he does not 'kill' (no guns policy). He does lead and army of cops in the end 'the symbols of oppressions. ' 

This is further deeply engrained when the batman from a priviledged class fights bane the one who rose from suffering and from hell. Well, all I can say is that this leaves a bitter sweet taste for http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/

Marks

Watch only if you have seen the first two parts, and watch twice if you wanted digest this heavy meal.

7.5/10 

Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (How to mess it up in 'love')

Intro

The most refreshing love story ever told in the Tamil film medium. Because of the lack of tragedy our tamil (and mallu) audiences might not give it cult status like the films 'Johnny' or 
Guna.' Question is will our audiences digest a refreshing romantic comedy that for the first time looks at a realistic portrayal of love, although a slightly optimistic one...  

Synopsis

Why is love such a hard subject to deal with? After a fallout with the love of his life, Arun (Siddharth) reflects on 'what went wrong.' The narrative shifts constantly between what happened before the fallout (in the past) and what is happening now as his close friends are in transition- one of them about to marry another just about fell in love (the present). 


The above line might be hard to understand, as the sentence formation might be flawed, but the narrative in the film is so flawless that you hardly ever get confused - why you don't even think about it.  

Good 

A romantic comedy which keeps it really really real. A guy who messed it up so bad that his lover throws a glass at him. A friend who has fallen in love and another friend who loves giving cheap advice which gets you into more trouble. The movie takes you into the stages of a romantic relationship. The initial stages of intense romance, the middle stage of taking each other for granted and finally the final stage of it all falling to pieces because of circumstances that expose the second stage of indifference.... 


It's a sort of a men are from Mars, women are from Venus. But with a comical twist that will send chills down your spine if you have ever been through a breakup and laughter down your belly if you have ever watched idiot couples breaking up for silly reasons.   


An excellent movie that uses modern narrative techniques like 'mocumentary' where the artists give a documentary type interview within the film. And the non linear narrative which is seamless as mentioned in the intro keeps the audience thoroughly engaged... 


The movie is for everyone... because even though it does not dumb down audiences as out Tamil serials do, it keep everyone laughing and the closeness of the script to everyday occurrences will surely make it a 'super hit.'

Bad

The second half started with a rather boring note where the sub plot of the marrying friend takes over for like ten minutes. But 10 minutes of boredom is engulfed by 2 hours of good story telling so its negligible. 


The music is a little distracting at times...

Ugly 


Are we living in a breakup culture? The underlying angle in this film is that communication (or lack of it or mis-communication)  is the primary reason for breakups and that this is largely due to male female dissimilarities. There are also skewered expectations of money and time... 


This film reflects how as a culture we are so ill prepared to deal with these... As a culture we don't teach our young as top how to deal with this and so we (Indian's) either break up or lead a dysfunctional married life.

Marks- 8/10.No cult status, but definitely the best romantic comedy the tamil film goer has ever seen.


                                        

Johnny English Reborn

Intro

The funniest man alive is back in a sequel to Johnny English. Rowan Atkinson is a can of slapstick, satire and absurdly funny facial expressions all put together for mass consumption. The can has been carefully preserved for many a years, for us common folk to consume once in a while- on sick days or such days when we feel horribly low. If Atkinson cannot make you laugh, then no one can. 

Synopsis

The bungling secret agent is back and will now have to fight a mysterious assassin organization called the vortex. Not only has he recovered and learnt from a horrible mistake he committed in Mozambique, but he also has stronger balls from training with the Tibetian monks. 

Good 

Its a funny movie that will make even conservative pricks laugh out in childish joy. This man can make you laugh by controlling his facial muscles and making them twitch like never done or seen before. Now those of you who are wondering, if this is is a tribute to Mr.Atkinson or a review for Johnny English Reborn beware. It is impossible to separate the man from his movies for he is in every frame (not technically verified) every dialogue and every laughter or the heart attack resulting from it.


The plot points are very good and this movie does not solely depend on Mr.Atkinson's god given talents (If you have watched his satirical sketches then devil given talents). This movie's story, though far from being legendary, keeps a good pace and accommodates the legendary comedian's antics very well indeed.  

Bad

The ending as rather bad. Not going to give it away, but after working meticulously on the script the script writer has slacked majorly when it came to writing the last few scenes.


And the movie was only 80% as funny as the 1st part. The sequel failed to exceed the first one by about half a mile.

Ugly 


The ugliness of human nature is revealed in this movie as we laugh at another's misery. My mom always resented 'Tom and Jerry' for the same reason. But she did not stop her children from watching the cartoon and neither did she prevent herself from laughing out loud. Atkinson head locks two old women (in different scenes) and hits them repeatedly on the head with a food tray. One of the women is the Queen of England herself. He mistook them for a Chinese assassin who is an old lady in disguise. You can see why this can be very funny. Hysterically even...


Perhaps a more seasoned psychologist can throw light on this phenomenon.

Marks- 7/10. Rowan Atkinson, Rowan Atkinson, Rowan Atkinson (the bottom line goes on like this...)

Contagion- Not that contagious

Intro

It is a Soderbergh film. Traffic and Syriana type, not the Ocean 11, 12 type.

Synopsis

MEV-1 Virus versus all of humankind. The virus spreads and mutates...the WHO and the CDC look for ways to contain, quarantine and vaccinate the world's population. We don't want to lose 1 % of our population like in 1918 when the Spanish flu ate 3% of us.

Good 

It is another Soderbergh film. I could have finished this part of the review with that line, but I will say more in another small paragraph which follows...

Incredibly well researched but very simply put... This is a docu- drama of sorts for every one. I for one feel well educated about how a pandemic starts and spreads. What is an R-0 (R-Nought)? How do diseases cross borders. And how do these new viruses get formed. The thrifty editing and no nonsense story progression keeps the audience well engaged, though in an indifferent way.... Which takes us to the next section.   

Bad

I will not stop short of calling the script boring by saying the following-

• The different plot lines don't connect
• Some parts of the script are rather forgettable and not needed - for instance Gwyneth Paltrow cheating on her husband Matt Damon
• The parts of the whole do not sink in and causes indifference even as a million people die on screen - for instance after the movie was done, a friend asked me if Kate Winslet was dead or alive at the end of the whole thing

Ugly

This pandemic thing is real- I have a friend who worked in a government hospital when the whole swine flu thing broke out and she told me how one of the doctors had died during the whole thing. I worried for her own safety a lot and I can only imagine the mental agony she must have had dealing with - indifferent nurses, dying colleagues, personal safety, dying people and public anger.

Watch this movie if you want to educate yourself stay home if you want entertainment. 

Marks- 6/10. A Soderbergh movie which is not as good as Traffic.  

The American- Clooney is hollywood's Rajini

Intro- Slow, gentle caresses of long round slippery...barrels...its guns not whatever you were thinking. Subtlety in everything- dialogues, visuals, music. Its hollywood's very own superstar- George Timothy Clooney.  America's obsession with guns, fantasy of being a lonely mysterious stranger who boinks (its the new f* word) beautiful women, psychological thrillers with attempts at many layers.

Good- Though not a big fan of slow movies I could immerse myself in the whole experience, though only to a certain extent. Because this type of plot has been reproduced a million times like the McChicken burger, its hard to enjoy the flavour as you chew on it.

But as it goes down your throat, you think well maybe it has the nutrition of a vegetarian sub.  The cinematography is great, treatment screams I am a digital offbeat, serious, world cinema. The medicine had very little sugar. Mary poppins is going to be very disappointed.

Bad- At this point you are thinking I am not revealing too much about the movie. But there is nothing to reveal. I could tell you the story in 5 lines and you would be angry with me if you were a Clooney fan and you wanted to see the movie. For the rest of you, the movie in five lines-

Line 1- George Clooney and his character progression (layer 1)
Line 2- George Clooney with a dangerous girl
Line 3- George Clooney with another girl who...(suspense and build up)
Line 4- George Clooney with a spiritual dude hence adding a layer
Line 5- George Clooney with an close to extinct butterfly adding another

Don't watch the movie if you are not a Clooney fan.

Ugly- My cultural analysis is this. Like Mr. Rajini Kant and all he stands for in our culture (nobody degrade it or tamil tantrums will sock you where it hurts most) is a paralel to Mr. Clooney and all he stands for in the American culture. Style here subtly there. Punch dialogues here, no dialogues there. I think our brand of cool is so much cooler, because there is recklessness about it. It's maddness and we don't pretent otherwise. I am a big fan of Clooney but this movie is way too pretentious. As Baba is to Rajini, The American is to Clooney.


Marks- 4/10 Just passed

Eat, Pray, Love- Ate, Prayed (for this movie to end), Slept!

Intro

If ‘The American’ represents the sick male fantasy of males in the US of A, this movie reeks of sick female fantasy of females in the US of A or is it just Julia Robert’s sick fantasy. In the light of her converting to a Hindu and embracing travel as a religion, I think we can call this Julia’s autobiographical portrayal of her mid life crisis. Who the boink wants to see that?

Good

This movie made me hungry. The visual depiction of food is absolutely stunning. Do not watch this movie on an empty stomach, because the only thing good about this movie will become torturous. A good use of the visual medium in small portions of the film- The parallel edit, when Julia tries to put on new jeans along with a café full of Italian supporters cheering the national team is the icing on this small cupcake.

Bad

This movie is horribly slow and horribly dependant on long philosophical dialogues and very so cliché at times that you wonder why would Julia subject the world to her contorted views on how life should be, or how a woman’s life should be. It is a moral lesson, not a story which weaves the colours of all the beautiful locations. Instead it leaps into the pressure cooker of stereo types- Italians are like this, Indians like that and people from south east asia exist to cater to all of Julia’s needs. By the way- where the boinkers did Julia get so much money to embark on such an expensive trip anyway. She is a professional zero in this trip and when she has no money in the US of A how can she just stay in what looks like expensive resorts where ever she goes?

Ugly

 Why must Indian arranged marriages get dragged into this movie? Another Indian wedding, where the girl’s stands around with sadness on her face telling the western woman how she covets her freedom. I think Julia gets a huge kick out of deep frying all the handsome male character’s hearts, and she does not bother the contrast of their handsomeness with her ugly ass self! Just like Vijay Kanth has no qualms about acting with women half his size and twice his out-worldly beauty. If you are a Julia Roberts fan, stay away from this movie, if you are not- you can yell cheap shots all through the movie. Julia bares herself for ridicule and I appreciate her flabby guts!

Marks

 1/10- Watch the 1^st half hour and get out after the eating.

Just eat and leave!

Adurs- The others

It's a Telugu movie with Junior NTR. Forced to watch this movie while taking a bus from Vizak Andhra Pradesh to Chennai. The movie is like the food there- sets your stomach on fire, wash it down with some curd. Our neighbors like an overdose of colour, dialogues, dance sets, dance moves, sound effects, fight scenes of Matrixian proportions, visual effects!

Good

Excellent effects and excellent effects and excellent effects. Every transition from shot to shot will leave the best compositor in Chennai going- 'what.' This while film lovers go 'Why.' Jatang lighting for...well...come to think of it every thing.

Jn. NTR dances really well. I was wondering what is with our films and dancing? Vijay, Hrithik Roshan, Prabhu Deva and now Jn.NTR, know not how to act but can do some cool dance moves. I think we Indians get the wrong idea, that dancing around like a monkey with fits will attract girls, because of these onscreen idiots.

Bad

Oh my god, where do I even begin. Thank god the DVD got stuck as the bus went through a bad patch of roads, I did not watch the entire movie but after half an hour I guessed the ending. Why? Here is the structure of the movie-

Scene 1

Intro- Hero twin 1 the comic relief. Some funny scenes.

Scene 2

Intro- Hero twin 2 the hero heeeeeero. Beats up 50 guys with guns using nothing but his bare hands

Scene 3

Hero1 dances with heroine 2 song sequence 1. 3 crore worth dance set 1.

Scene 4

Same as scene 3 switch hero and heroine numbers

Scene 5

Father held by villainous villain who catches Hero 2 to bring to the father who will not construct weapon of mass destruction (seems like patriot missiles) unless he sees his son. What the boinkers!

Scene 6

Hero1 dances with heroine 2 song sequence 2. 3 crore worth dance set 2.

Scene7

Same as scene 6 switch hero and heroine numbers

Skipping to scene 80

Hero2 with the help of Hero1 kills Villainous Villain and saves father. There is no way this prediction could go wrong. It's Jn.NTR and there will be riots in Andhra if the hero fails(not the Telengana parts)

Don't ask me why there had to be twins in this film. If you did I will slap your face and tell you- 'So the compositors can have more work'. I think the Hyderbad film industry is nothing but an ensemble of expensive dance sets where the art director goes- 'glassu, tallu blue glassu, shortu redu glassu, riveru of goldu through the middlu, yellow lightsu, lessu clothes on the girlsu, even lesser on the heroinu'. Then there are expensive post production studios where the director goes- 'effectu, special effectu, special special effectu.'

Ugly

How long must South Indian Audiences endure the same story with convoluted plot ideas like this. The movie also has a comedian who has nothing to contribute to the overall story line. How long...I am literally crying. I can not take this song and dance no more. Thank God for bad roads!

Marks- 2/10 Brain Damaggu

Endhiran – Entertaining yet Dismissing

Rajinikanth’s new movie Endhiran directed by shankar, is a definite superhit but a movie with such a big budget and high level technicians could have done better. The graphics is really good for tamil cinema but I guess an overdose of anything is bad. Before going into details on this movie I will say this, if you’re a true rajinikanth fan you will love it and you will enjoy every thing that comes on screen, if you’re the kind who goes "it’s tamil cinema that’s how it is" then you will like it too but if you are a general movie fan who likes to watch all kinds of movies this one will fall flat as it really had the chance to be so much better.

 

Synopsis: Dr. Vaseengaran aka Vasi (Rajinikanth) builds a robot Chitti (Rajinikanth) which looks like him and is programmed to help humans and his basic idea was to donate his creation to the military and stop the loss of human lives. Chitti is programmed to know all languages and arts forms known to man, he can cook, dance and fight to protect people on requirement. When Dr. Vasi tries to get it Patented and certified Dr. Bohra ( Danny Denzongpa) manages to make the robot to almost stab Dr. Vasi and hence denying the patent, following a series of unfortunate events Dr. Vasi decides to give the robot human emotions so that it can decide between right and wrong but this in turn makes the robot to fall in love with Dr. Vasi’s Fiancé Sana ( Aishwarya Rai) and it wantedly fails an evaluation of the Indian army this causes Dr. Vasi to get angry and chops Chiti to pieces and throws him into the scrap. The movie goes further on how Chiti reconstructs himself and becomes bad on the addition of a red chip into his system by Dr. Bohra and then attempths to kill Dr. Vasi and get Sana for himself, will the Evil Chiti succeed or will Dr. Vasi be able to save the day I don’t want to spoil the movie for the rest of you so watch the movie to know what happens next.

 
The Good - Rajini does not have any of his usual entry song sequence. The Differentiation in the three different characters  played by Rajini is clear and has been differentiated  very well. The graphic sequences  is really cool I must say that its one the best for an Indian movie till date, Rajini is really cool in the negative shade. The part were Rajini pulls all the iron objects towards him and stands like Kali is totally cool.

The Bad -  The song sequences in between were really annoying for a sci fi movie. I did mention the graphics was good in this movie but in certain places it was overdone and tends to get annoying (for eg. the formation sequence) certain sequences  tend to defy logic completely (for eg. the  car chase sequence where the evil chitty abducts sana and the cops chasing them sequence), the problem is not that it defies logic, The real  problem is that there  is not even an attempt in certain places to make it look real.

The Ugly - The Sequence where chitti talks to the mosquito is all weird considering the fact that chitty is programmed all the languages in the world but when was he programmed mosquito language and its not a cartoon flick where animals talk and stuff, places like this its like as if the director seems to have added scenes without logic thinking the audience will accept anything put forward at them. Another place which I find weird is the part where chitti is fighting with all the rogues and villains but no body is surprised of his super human abilities etc, its not like a robot  is a common thing amongst us.

 

Overall the movie will be a hit with the local audience but sadly the director had the opportunity and the money to make a movie which could have reached out to a wider audience. Rajini has delivered once again well am sure this movie would not have got the same pull if another actor had acted in it. Wish the song sequences were cut on screen and the director had used even that money on the Graphics.Over all every hardcore Rajini fan will love this movie to the core and for the rest i think its worth watching once at least for the graphics.

 

Marks- 5/10 (Average)