Mid Day

?: A good dose of horror

Ekk Deewana Tha: No Spice, Not Nice

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

A Good Old Fashioned Orgy - Movie review

The Woman in Black: Entertaining old fashioned ghost story

Safe House - Movie review

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu: Sensitive and delightful film

Review:' War Horse'

Review: 'Man On A Ledge'

Review: 'Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'

Review:'Chronicle'

Review: 'Love You To Death'

Review: 'Gali Gali Chor Hai'

Haywire - Movie Review

Haywire
A; Thriller
Dir: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Gina Carano, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender
****
Director Steven Soderbergh takes his years of experience in mainstream cinema and his undying love for small budget indies and combines both to dole out his 25th film Haywire, a searing, handcrafted action thriller that is a work of bombastic, visceral power. Watching this mesmerising hybrid you barely realise that your mind is being blown.

Even with its huge star cast of Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender, Michael Douglas and Antonio Banderas, Haywire is an attention-grabbing showcase for Gina Carano, an MMA fighter who is a more talented, female version of Steven Seagal.

Like Seagal she is mostly quiet and unassertive in appearance, but unlike him Carano is gorgeous and does her stunts without wires or trick photography and simply explodes on the screen leaving you gasping for breath.

The fight scenes themselves are rather unexpected Soderbergh eschews the usual purgative frenzy of quick cutting bloody shaky cam style in favour of long, violent takes.

The only bane of Haywire is the simplistic plot the film opens somewhere in the middle and Mallory Kane (Carano) is on the run. We learn through flashbacks that Mallory, a former marine, works for a super secret black ops firm led by Kenneth (Ewan McGregor).

She had been sent on a mission to Barcelona with her associate (Channing Tatum) to rescue a whistle-blowing Chinese reporter, and then to Ireland with an international man of mystery (Michael Fassbender) but the operation was botched and she'd been betrayed by someone from Kenneth's own outfit.

Lurking in the shadows are Coblanz (Michael Douglas), a US government official who financed the missions and Europe-based Mexican top official Rodrigo (Antonio Banderas) who seems to have an agenda of his own. It's basically just a long drawn excuse for Mallory to travel to various countries and pound various men to pulp with her bare hands.

But this isn't like the Bond movies or the recent Salt; Soderbergh treats Haywire as a finely mixed cocktail of the Oceans and the Bourne films. David Holmes' soundtrack takes off where the Oceans films left, and Peter Andrews' eye popping cinematography at the Berlin and Dublin locales makes the clich �d seem new.

Soderbergh keeps the camera at a distance and lets you see every punch and kick, as opposed to most filmmakers' over-edited style where you can't tell what's going on. Haywire is a triumph of style over substance. If you're devoted to saucy action, you'll emerge from the theatre battered and bruised from the experience, and extremely satisfied. Do watch.

The Descendants: A powerful tale of loss and courage

The Descendants
Drama; U/A
Dir: Alexander Payne
Starring: George Clooney
Rating: ****1/2

Seldom do movies make the struggle to keep a dysfunctional family together seem so sobering and lucid. Beautifully shot, exquisitely written and featuring an excellent turn from George Clooney, The Descendants features a narrative that persistently subverts your expectations to almost hypnotic levels.

Alexander Payne is a gifted, thoughtful filmmaker, unafraid to tackle difficult subjects, and his latest is his most engaging, most accessible film to date and a testament to the power of cinema.

As heart wrenching as the plot is, The Descendants opts for comedy in the face of modern ruin. The film is not the least bit a gloomy existentialist diatribe on the state of modern families; it is neither a celebration nor dirge of the human condition, nor the lassitude of imminent death, but simply a cynical meditation on the ambiguous present. It moves you without resorting to melodrama and tackles the themes of personal loss with astonishing candour and depth. Quite like the cancer comedy 50/50, this film diligently avoids cinematic grandstanding and emotional manipulation in favour of extremely subtle but effective dramatisation.

The film itself is set in Hawaii - a broken paradise that makes for a fresh spring of visual wonder. Matt King (George Clooney) is a wealthy lawyer whose wife is left in a vegetative state after a boating accident. He is left to deal with his two daughters, the 10-year-old Scottie (Amara Miller) and the rebellious 17-year-old Alexandra (Shailene Woodley). King also has to handle the impending disposition of his family plot in Hawaii that his broke cousins want to sell off for a huge sum. Complicating things further, King comes to know of a secret about his comatose wife that he is simply unable to cope with. Distraught, King decides to takes his daughters on a trip to a nearby island for family bonding and to find closure about Mrs King.

There are no arthouse shots of depressing adage-expounding sermons in The Descendants as director Payne sticks to a quirky, often darkly humorous tone. There is a lovely offbeat comic allegory throughout that elevates the astuteness of Payne's humanist observations. In fact some of the jokes are downright unsettling - they evoke the sort of laughter that is uncomfortable because Payne simply refuses to sentimentalise the proceedings. The film's idiosyncratic beauty is recommendation enough, but the way the characters' personal and symbolic tensions seethe silently turn it into powerfully real drama.

One cannot let go of the cast - the performances lift The Descendants from the level of the ordinary to a special realm of storytelling. Matt King knows that simply being a human being isn't enough - he has an injunction against a world that requires him to be a hero, and he is brilliantly personified by George Clooney who renders emotions that seem almost inexpressible. Shailene Woodley is incredible in her breakthrough role as a recalcitrant teen weary of being just like her mother. Nick Krause is unforgettable as the stoner, but good-hearted friend of Alexandra, as is Robert Forster as King's father-in-law.

The Descendants is very slight, yet overflows with wisdom and emotion. Don't be surprised, if days after seeing this gem, you discover it has taken up residence in your head.

Contraband: It's least bit fun or innovative

Movie Review: Contraband
A; Thriller
Dir: Baltasar Korm kur
Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Kate Beckinsale, Ben Foster, Giovanni Ribisi |
Stars: *1/2

Hollywood loves heist flicks. Nothing says entertainment like a bunch of antiheroes with guns outrunning American policemen. In fact, the only thing Hollywood loves more than heist films is remakes. So when debutant screenwriter Aaron Guzikowski began to pen the remake of the Icelandic thriller Reykjav �k-Rotterdam, execs exalted 'A remake and a heist movie! Can we get Mark Wahlberg for this?'

Reykjav �k-Rotterdam wasn't a classic to begin with, and simply put, Contraband is a complete bastardisation of everything that was at least interesting and fun in the original. Inanely directed by Balthasar Kormakur (who starred in the original), Contraband contains a series of flabby, repetitive scenes featuring a bored Mark Wahlberg, a hammy Giovanni Ribisi and an inarticulate Ben Foster. If you were fortunate enough to have watched Reykjav �k-Rotterdam, you'll likely snooze through the remake.

The story is quite similar to the original -- Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) is a former drug smuggler who has come clean and now leads a respectable life at a security systems company along with his wife Kate (Kate Beckinsale) and kids. One day Kate's idiot brother Andy (Caleb Landry) gets mixed up with some nasty business and owes a huge debt to the sleazy drug lord Tim (Giovanni Ribisi). With his wife and brother-in-law's lives under serious threat, Chris now has no chance but to revert to his old ways and steal money to even things out. He devises a plan to get a job aboard a cargo ship sailing between Louisiana and Panama and make off with millions in counterfeited bills. Naturally, things don't go according to plan, and all kinds of mayhem happen.

Sadly, there is precious little that is memorable or even exciting in Contraband. The film only works in fits and starts as none of the cast members manage to replicate the grimy B-movie vibes of Reykjav �k- Rotterdam. Contraband comes off as extremely formulaic, totally messy with its insipid directorial style, and boasts characters so stock that we're left to just sit and wait for these guys to shake us out of our naps. Mark Wahlberg is again the exact same character he played in Planet of the Apes, Four Brothers and Shooter, and even here he seems uninterested with the proceedings. There is a twist in the second half but you can see it coming just 10 minutes into the film. There are decent amounts of bullets, explosions and expletives and Contraband does have a reasonably big budget, yet the film just fails to demand any attention whatsoever and continually proves itself to be run-of-the-mill potboiler.

Contraband is not migraine-inducingly stupid like some recent films in the genre, but neither is it the least bit fun or innovative. It is exactly what you'd expect - whether that's good or bad depends on your mood.

Agneepath - Movie Review

Agneepath
Stars: 3/5
U/A
Director: Karan Malhotra
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor

The Vijay Dinanath Chauhan of the original Agneepath, with surma in his eyes and a gruffier voice, is an act difficult to beat. And the new Vijay (Hrithik) is wise enough not to compete and that endears you to him, along with Hrithik's trademark sincerity and the art of putting his soul into a character. This new Vijay is outwardly tough and intense but ready tears waiting to stream down his blue green eyes, unlike the seemingly more in control, more menacing Amitabh Bachchan. The new Vijay is his own person, almost just as effective if I may dare say so.

Vijay is the son of an upright teacher in Mandwa. The father is killed ceremoniously by the drug lord Kancha (Sanjay Dutt) and Vijay wants to take revenge. He manages to earn the trust of the drugpin of Mumbai Rauf Lala (Rishi Kapoor) to get to Kancha. Kali (Priyanka Chopra) is his childhood sweetheart.

The good points: The new Agnipath is just what a remake should be like. Even while paying tribute to the original by retaining some of the memorable scenes, it has an independent mind of its own, which only adds to the film. Even though it is a debut by the director, some of the scenes keep you mesmerised, which is quite an achievement. In direct contrast to Vijay's bubbling vulnerability is Kancha's unabashed aggression. In one of his best performances, Sanjay Dutt goes beyond being himself and out on a limb to present him as a complex, philosophy -spewing monster. Oh, hold on. In spite of such convincing performances by Hrithik and Dutt, it is Rishi Kapoor who takes your breath away. What could be easily hailed as the best performance of Kapoor's career, this Lala manages to dominate the screen with his sheer repulsive presence. To think this man not so many months ago, played the sweet, cuddly common man in Do Dooni Char. Glad that Kapoor, always brilliant but underrated, is getting meaty roles he is so ha
ppily biting into. And of course, there is Chikni Chameli. Even though I didn't dig the desperate moves too much (blame it on my gender), this one's a big attraction and I am sure a majority of single screen tickets sold is all thanks to the Chameli. The action sequences, especially in the climax scene are worth a wolf whistle.

The insufferable points: The movie is loud, violent and just too long. Some scenes could easily have been dispensed with, making it shorter, crisper and better equipped to hold the audience interest. Howmuchever I hate to say this, but certain concepts like the big brother ready to lay down his life to protect his chhoti behan is outdated and uhm �so 90s. Priyanka Chopra is wasted. Kali's character could have been easily portrayed any of lesser actresses. A dash of homour would have helped.

But whatever said and done, if you are a Bollywood freak and readily accept all its idiosyncrasies, go for this one. Never mind the nostalgia. This one's more than a remake. And it has enough masala to last for a while.

Coriolanus: Shakespeare, revisited

Coriolanus
U/A; Drama
Dir: Ralph Fiennes
Cast: Gerard Butler, Ralph Fiennes, Jessica Chastian,
Brian Cox, Vanessa Redgrave, James Nesbitt, Ashraf Barhom, Lubna Azabal, Dragan Micanovic
***

Directed by Ralph Fiennes and based on one of the lesser known plays by William Shakespeare, Coriolanus the film, is a realistically rendered modern day tale set in war-torn Belgrade, Serbia 'a place calling itself Rome.'

The chancy setting itself renders high drama with its conflict-ridden ruins and rampant military action. The Bard's beautiful language is juxtaposed amidst macho arrogance.

A cannily orchestrated volley of bullets doesn't actually work but it's an interesting enough set-up. What follows via a dramatic volley of punchy dialogues rendered with the fullest magnificence by the extremely talented and versatile cast, is an interesting and visually intoxicating experience.

The plum central role, Gen Caius Martius Coriolanus is essayed by the director himself, Ralph Fiennes, nearly a decade after the one he rendered on stage. Coriolanus is arrogant, proud, scathing of the public and a great war hero for the country torn by strive. He

is viciously scarred, sports a shaven head and fears no one. Not even his greatest enemy Aufidius(a commanding Gerard Butler), commander of the guerrilla-like Volluscian army that is constantly devising moves to pull down Rome(read Belgrade).

Coriolanus' biggest strength is his mother's unflinching adoration of his ideals. Volumnia (Vanessa Redgrave)'s belief in her son's ability to rise to the very top stirs his desire to reach the highest position in his country.

But because of his inability to bow down to the people's wishes, a sudden burst of anger on his part and with some conniving by consular officials (James Nesbitt And Paul Jesson), Coriolanus finds himself banished from Rome.

This challenging first half exposition and set-up is aided by some prime-time news TV footage which keys in the vital details of the political maneuvers and conflicts within and from outside the city.

The plot becomes easier to read once the two allies begin their march towards Rome. After Menenius' failure to get Corialanus to see reason, Volumnia and Virgilia (Jessica Chastian), Coriolanus' wife, alongside his son, step in to appeal to the unbending hero. The pulsating drama that unfolds amidst the barrage of prideful verse is a sight to behold.

The final confrontation between Volumnia and Coriolanus is in fact the highlight of the film. Both Dame Vanessa Redgrave and Ralph Fiennes come out with all guns blazing to imprint their considerable skills on the characters they essay so beautifully.

Jessica Chastian as the wife who has to live in the shadow of the hero and his commanding mother gives a splendid turn. Gerard Butler has a commanding presence and is adequate enough but not quite in the Shakespeare mold.

Fiennes tries to keep make the challenge of deciphering Shakespeare an easy one and he succeeds up to a point. The dramatic conflicts, the warn-torn imagery, the TV footage highlighting crucial events, are all top-notch.

Despite John Logan's effort to cut short the elongated verses from the original, there still appears a disconnect. If you are not on high alert, it's going to be tough to be in the thick of things as Fiennes orchestrates it.
Nevertheless, if you are game for a new experience, this one is worth a try!

J. Edgar: Totally lacklustre

J. Edgar
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Armie Hammer and Naomi Watts
Director: Clint Eastwood
A; Drama
Rating: ** (Out of 5)

When director Clint Eastwood was filling J Edgar with pitch perfect makeup, costumes and other accurate artwork, he forgot to add a story that would interest the audience or even keep them awake. This film is not the thrilling, incendiary biography of a great man, but is mostly ponderous and dull, with absolutely nothing to say in its two hours twenty minutes runtime.

J Edgar is a rambling and monotonous look at someone whom millions think of as an idol. The movie is supposed to be about J Edgar Hoover, the first director of the FBI, the legend who revolutionised crime fighting, but we don't learn a thing about him other than the fact that he was gay. Eastwood just tosses together randomly chosen events from Hoover's life and gives us a series of fickle illustrations cobbled together by a slack narrative. To say the script is meandering is putting it mildly - writer Dustin Lance Black (Milk) seems more intent on constantly shoving Hoover's sexual orientation down our throats than telling his life story. And the effort to almost completely ignore Hoover's achievements results in a film whose ideology is little more than pedestrian.

A great deal happens on the screen right from the opening scene, but very little of it makes sense as far as story or character development goes. The film fumbles along from chapter to chapter, forgoing necessary chronology and continuity in favour of past-present flitting.

Majority of the film focuses on the dynamics between Hoover and Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). There are all too brief mentions of John Dillinger and Melvin Purvis, a half-baked retelling of the 'crime of the century' in which Charles Lindberg's baby was murdered. The second half drags along to an ending that is as dreary as all that came before it. Hoover spent five decades indulging in controversies, which is longer than this film, although not by as much as you might hope. In a criminal waste of opportunity,

Hoover's issues of racism and solitary life are barely touched upon, nor is the Venona Project, which he called as one of America's greatest counterintelligence secrets, locked in his office.

Eastwood surrounds himself with top-notch technicians - including cinematographer Tom Stern who has shot every Eastwood film since Blood Work. The production clearly involved months of research and meticulous design, and it is frustrating to note that the story of J Edgar is shrunk to a comparatively miniscule scale. Sian Grigg, the makeup artist does an extraordinary job as Leo DiCaprio turns into a dead ringer for Hoover, except for the familiar eyes. In every movie since 2002's Catch Me if you Can,

Leo has been demonstrating his ability to completely ingratiate himself with the viewer. Naomi Watts as Hoover's secretary Helen Gandy, on the other hand, wears a shroud of imitation throughout and never shows any real emotion. Armie Hammer is decent but when in the prosthetics there is little to his character aside from being jarringly schmaltzy.

Edgar Hoover deserved a comprehensive full-length biography. It's a shame that the film is such a mess when it could've thrown light on a most controversial figure, during a most interesting, transitional era in criminology and forensic science.

Underworld Awakening: Won't keep you awake

Underworld Awakening
Stars: Kate Backinsale, Stephen Rea
Dir: Mans Marlind & Bjorn Stein
A; Action/Fantasy
Rating: * (Out of 5)

The audience is forced to choose one of the two realities in Underworld: Awakening, both of which are extremely hideous - either writer/creator Len Wiseman is a cash-grabbing deluded buffoon or he's constantly making more Underworld movies to prove to the world that mediocrity makes you rich.

I'd vote for the latter, because Underworld: Awakening is a movie that clearly loathes its audience and laughs at those who write essays about how shamelessly Hollywood milks cash cows. If it were something like Fast 5, then the newest Underworld film would have had a leg to stand on. As it stands, Len Wiseman, his wife and star Kate Beckinsale and everyone at Lakeshore Entertainment are simply shovelling muck and wasting everyone's time. I laughed a dozen times during the film, mostly at the lame philosophical commentary where humans, and not vampires or werewolves are described as the real destructive species. It does work as an unintentional comedy, but the real joke is on anyone who pays the premium to see it in the eyeball- maiming 3D.

Like Fast 5 proved so well, fourth or fifth installments of sagging franchises can be fun - there is always potential for something interesting, but directors Mans Marlind and Bjorn Stein's lack of interest in entertaining us at any point in the film makes Underworld: Awakening a mostly unbearable watch. The film opens a few months after the events of Underworld: Evolution. Vampires and Lycans (werewolves) are still war against each other on earth. Selene (Kate Beckinsale) loses her lover and is captured by humans who have discovered the existence of vampires and lycans and are exercising a global pest control operation. What follows are a series of events so predictable and repetitive that it makes the Mortal Kombat movies feel wholesome. And seeing Stephen Rea as an antagonistic scientist, squandering his talent and wasting his time with this migrainefest is a real shame.

Kate Beckinsale as usual looks mouthwatering in jet-black leather, but mostly emotes and behaves as if her brain had been instantaneously replaced with gajar ka halwa. Neither does she kick butt nor does she carry the film on her shoulders.

None of the previous Underworld films had smart dialogues, and Underworld: Awakening takes the exact same route - there's not a trace of wit or imagination in the entire film. The movie even fails when it comes to the action, which is frustrating because the least it should've done was to create a fun rapport between Seline and outsize machine guns. Majority of the CGI set pieces are frequently tedious, loud and insipid as Selene just keeps pulling the trigger in the vague direction of the werewolves.

Underworld: Awakening is a tiring, pointless fourth installment that annoys thanks to its horrid script, unexciting vampire-lycan thumbwrestling, laughable characters, a complete absence of intelligence and the nonexistence of anything even remotely resembling a plot. Watch it if you're an acute insomniac, you'll snooze so peacefully even the constant lycan roars won't get you awakening.