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Avengers: Endgame (2019)
Predictable and Mediocre
As a story teller sometimes you just gotta be un-apologetically creative. When Arthur Conan Doyle brought back Sherlock Holmes from dead after his 'The Final Problem.' His last stories were still good but something was missing.
I totally understand that the hype and expectation from this movie might have weighed it down a bit, but there is no denying this one could be tad better or shall I say better.
Come' on we are talking about the Movie which has probably the most huge star cast ever and which is arguably wrapping up all 21 movies of it's franchise.
What made 'Infinity War' a better movie is it's unpredictability. Here everyone knows Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans are cutting ties with Marvel, maybe Black Widow's death is bit unpredictable, but let's be honest, she isn't really a central character.
The messed up part is the time travel, this part could be so much interesting yet the directors served a dead dud. I know it's not typically a time travel sci fi movie but it's entire story-line is based on it. And we viewers knew it as the characters died in Infinity War would not stay dead after all.
I think Directors could have been a bit more brave and kill a few more characters or kept a few characters stay dead. Thanos's children or disciples are underutilized.
And I was really really really hoping of an entry of a new Superhero or Supervillain, like Adam Warlock or Galactus, and my hopes were really high as Thanos died early in the movie. But they all ended up in disappointment.
I can say that, this one is a good movie, maybe a great movie. But movie of the decade!! Nah. It was simply simply not that GREAT!!
Bãhubali 2: The Conclusion (2017)
Very predictable.. Not worth the hype
To be frank, I was not so keen to watch the movie on the first day, but as my friends' comments and reviews were pouring in, I decided to catch the matinée show today, the first day.
And as I have anticipated, the movie is not up to the mark, at least surely not as much as it flashed all around.There are good movies, there are great movies. But good movies hyped as great movies actually always fall short of expectations and become average movies, that's what exactly happened here.
The movie started with the stories of flashback, we see Bahubali moving out of Mahismati with Katappa, ending up finding his lady love, as usual romance, entering Bhallaldev and playing all dirty politics to keep his step brother away from the throne. Big brother happily left his deserving throne and marry his lady love, then more conspiracy by the jealous brother who's now the king and at last successful killing Bahubali and prison his wife. From here it's the continuation of the first part.
Acting is good, at least by all the central characters, especially Sathyaraj who had the lion's share of screen presence. Anushka and Prabhas did a good job. Rana stood out though had limited opportunities. Actually, He was the only one who looked authentic.
Now the biggest part of the movie, "Why Katappa killed Bahubali?", we movie goers who can analyze stories have figured it out long back, right after the first part. Hint: The same reason why Bhishma though fond of Pandavas and supported them, fought against them. There was no surprise at all actually.
We have seen many such movies, An honest upright warrior, and prince about to be the king, a badass villain who's also his brother conspire against him and get him killed. Then his son comes back for a revenge. A very clichéd effort.
The graphics are so so, though I am not very convinced. The movie almost looks like an animation movie. I really felt director should have concentrated on the story more, at least there should be some twists and turns, there could be breakout villain. but it was very plain and simple.
In the end in a lighter note, there's a hidden lesson for married men. It shows what happens when you let your mom and wife gets into a fight and you end up supporting your wife, but then, if support your mom you are a Momma's boy and if you support your wife you are a wife's puppet. Horn of Dilemma of course.... :D :D
Conclusion: One-time watch as per me.
Mohenjo Daro (2016)
A valiant effort in vain
First of all I must applaud Ashutosh Gowariker for being brave to choose odd historical topics which are buried deep in our history books and hardly surfaced when History or National Geography channel decide to make documentaries on them (Like 'Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey' was made on brave martyr Surya Sen but it fell flat.)
But this time it is about Mohenjo Daro, the Indus valley civilisation which goes 5000 years back, considered one of the earliest civilisation came into existence in earth. So it is sure deserves a better treatment , at least a better presentation.
The story is a big let down. A brave and popular village boy everyday dream of the nearby big city Mohenjo Daro and a unicorn hence he travelled to the city only to find he was there before but can't remember how. He became the rebel and mass leader by supporting the city dwellers and opposing the city chief who's an evil man with an murderous son. He also fell in love with the priest daughter who is already betrothed to chief's son. And he gradually come to know he was the son of the earlier chief of the city who was framed by the villain and killed.
It became a love story with a revenge saga and later a rescue mission and the whole Indus valley civilisation became just a backdrop.
The climax is cinematic and thought provoking, though the end of Mohenjo Daro Harappa civilisation is a matter of much speculation, one can't deny that ancient cities and civilisations were been destroyed by natural calamities mostly. As most of them were grown next to legendary rivers, the city-less inhabitants finding their new life line next to another great bank of river is truly fascinating.
In my opinion it doesn't deserve 5/10 and a one time watch.
Udta Punjab (2016)
All about drug abuse and its after effects
It's a dark, depressing, delicious drama that Abhishek Chaubey served hot at the table. The unseen, hidden face of Punjab province which is known for different reputation.
When I heard all the noises about Producers of the movie and Censor board locking horns, I thought it might just be another publicity gimmick. Boy! I was wrong, it indeed left the state leaders and the administration red faced, even if this may not the picture of the entire state of Punjab.The unholy nexus between drug lords, politicians and administration is shown here.
Alia Bhatt may be low on GK but high on acting, she proved that again after 'Highway', Shahid Kapoor as an eccentric Punjabi pop star was believable. After a long time Kareena Kapoor is in a powerful role and really did a good job. But the surprise package is for sure 'Diljit Dosanjh' who stood out with his awesome performance., A popular face in Punjab film industry but lesser known in Bollywood did an awesome job, we definitely want see more of him in upcoming flicks.
The only drawback is probably the length of the movie which felt stretched at few places.
In short this is everything from the director of 'Ishqiya' and 'Dedh Ishqiya' you would expect. Don't miss it........
X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
En Sabah Nur – The ancient mutant
At last I am happy, X-Men Apocalypse is all I wanted to see and Bryan Singer just delivered the same. I know a lot of people will disagree with me but after a long time it was a straight forward Good vs Evil fight. This was the 4th in line most anticipated superhero movie after 'Batman Vs Superman', 'Deadpool' and 'Captain America:Civil War'.
Being a Superman fan I never took it kindly the defeat and death of Superman, Deadpool isn't my kind of superhero and as I have mentioned in my previous review that Cap wasn't so righteous in that movie which I always liked in him.
Anyway the starting of the movie and introduction of En Sabah Noor in ancient Egypt back in 3600 BC was really cool. I wish they could prolong that part as it quickly ended with him getting buried under the enamours pyramid.
The whole idea of projecting Mystic as some kind of hero (or heroine) is beyond me as the first 2 prequels showed her in a complete different light and there was no indication about her volatile and complex relation with Magneto. She was always shown a very loyal subordinate of Magneto. Not sure if it is because of Jenifer Lawrence is playing as Mystic/Raven.
James McAvoy as Professor Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Erik / Magneto are fantastic. Nicholas Hoult as Hank McCoy / Beast and Sophie Turner aka Sansa Stark as Jean Grey were cute, Jenifer Lawrence as Mystic maybe hot but not so engaging. Actually Olivia Munn as Psylocke looked hot and better than her. Quicksilver and Nightcrawler provided the much-needed humour in this saga.
The only regret I have is that my favourite villain Apocalypse aka En Sabah Nur did not get as much as screen share as he supposed to have. I am always fascinated with the idea of a Villain being all powerful (Like Galactus in Silver Surfer or Ming the Merciless from Flash Gordon). They should have shown him more powerful, but I am not skeptical about how Jean in the end got the better off him. As Professor always believe Jean's powers can't be measured and always should be in check for greater good.
I would rate this one as 7.5/10 and will advise all the movie buff to watch.
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
The Captain America not so righteous and Iron Man out for vengeance.
(Do not read the review if you haven't seen the movie and planning to watch it without any spoiler. )
So I went to watch one of the most anticipated movie of this year and as always I am disappointed with another Avengers movie. Yes, though the title is all about Captain America it's actually one of those good old Avengers movie with few added characters and a surprise package.
Frankly when all my friends are going gaga over the realistic characterization of superheroes and their so called ego clashes and moral complexity, I sheerly judged the movie on the basis of partiality and stupidity of the characters. The secretary of states decided Avengers are too dangerous to act without a supervision so they decided to clip their wings by bringing them under the UN panel. Tony Stark who already going through a relationship crisis with Pepper Potts suddenly has got his conscious awaken by one of the mother who lost her child in Sokovia incident (Avengers: Age of Ultron).
The outcome, Tony Stark and few others like Black Widow, Vision and few decided to sign and join under the UN panel. Captain and his trusted men revolted back and We have a civil war of Superheroes.
The entire movie is all about Captain America trying to save his childhood buddy Bucky Barns aka Winter Soldier thus inflicting the anger of Tony Stark as he gradually getting p***** by Winter Soldier starting from trying to kill him, his best buddy Rhodes gets injured in
all these mess and in end finding out that Barns actually killed his parents. I mean though his brain was fried by HYDRA and he did it under the brain dead situation, still I feel he should be the one be in the confinement cell where Stark and his boys tried to put him.
So starting from saving his fugitive buddy to making out with his ex's niece Peggy, to me everything look so immoral at least to standard of Steve Rogers/Captain America. We learned more about the childhood issues of Tony Stark and also that Vision have emotion too.
The only character shined in them is surprisingly Black Panther/T'Challa, he was a truly a breath of fresh air.
All I want to see a good old-fashioned comic book heroes taking on the bad guys, not always fighting among themselves which slowly turning into a cliché.
Oh and honorary mention of Spiderman making an official entry to Marvel and Ant-Man joining Captain America's team.
The Revenant (2015)
It's all about survival for revenge
Leonardo Dicaprio keep appearing in powerful movies with his impacting acting but keep denied to take home the academy award. This time I guess he will make it.
About the movie, it's a movie based on real life explorer Hugh Glass, about how he survived in his expedition while attacked and wounded by a grizzly and abandoned by his mates.
In the my opinion the movie is stretched about half an hour too much but still it wasn't a boring survival movie we witness normally. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu kept it pacey and eventful. The only cheers come from the audience is actually the last 15 minutes of the movie.
Dicaprio as usual at his best, he is just perfect for the movies set up in 18th and early 19th century.
Tom Hardy makes delicious villain here,to be honest I was never fan of Hardy even when he appeared in 'Dark Knight Rises', but in this one he really sparked. A true old fashioned villain who justifies his wrong doing, from stealing to killing.
And you can see Will Poulter in a completely different avatar if you still remember him from 'We're The Millers'
It was a real treat to watch if you like the movies from the American civil war era. If you are up for that, I would say you don't miss it.
Rajkahini (2015)
Brave, thought provoking and disturbing
First of all, I am proud that Bengal film industry is still the boldest and bravest regional film industry of this country and no doubt another feather in the crown of director Srijit Mukherji. There is an amount of hue and cry among the so called intellectual movie critics who think this movie did not live upto its expectation, I humbly disagree with all of them. To my knowledge there is no other director has his way of choosing the plots and themes.
The plot is all about a brothel house with handful of sex workers and their mistress Begum Jaan brilliantly played by Rituparna Sengupta. Their world came crashing down as they come to know their house will be demolished as the border of India and East Pakistan falls right on that and there will be check posts built in that area. Begum Jaan tried to get help from local Nawab who is one of her renowned client and reason to keep law and police at bay, but he too gives in saying he can't help her against the recently Independent Indian government. Fuming Begum took the matter in her own hands and from there two influential member of Congress and Muslim league who are also happened to be childhood friends and witnessed the horror of partition, started having the violent tussle, Which ends horrifyingly.
Rituparna is like old wine, she is only getting better with her age. Sudipta Chakraborty, Joya Ahsan, Sayani Ghosh, Sohini Sarkar, Priyanka Sarkar, Ridhima Ghosh, Lily Chakravarty, Ena Saha are all fantastic in their roles. Parno Mitra as Golaap played a gullible prostitute. Abir Chatterjee is a break out villain, Jisshu Sengupta as Kabir was a true scary one. Rudraneel Ghosh played a short and pivotal role and his sad end will surely make your heart twitch. Ditipriya Roy also played another small but very important role of the teen daughter of a prostitute as she innocently asked if there's any difference killing a Hindu and a Muslim during a conversation. Her last appearance in the climax will nudge your very soul. Koushik Sen as Mohommad Ilias and Saswata Chatterjee as Prafulla Sen played the member of Muslim league and congress party as as usual intense and best. Nigel Akara as Saleem Mirza also played his role beautifully.
Rajkahini is a must watch movie for all the true movie lovers, people who don't know Bengali, I urge them to go and watch it with subtitles. It sure deserves 4.5 out of 5 in my mind.
The Walk (2015)
A story of a crazy dream and it's accomplishment
It's been a while that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is up in the order of my chart of most talented actor. I noticed him in Inception and from there let is be 'Dark Knight Rises' of 'Premium Rush' he is just so incredible. He is very much in the queue of being one of best actor of the century.
'The Walk' is a true story about Philippe Petit and his accomplices, who actually walked on a wire hanging in between the twin towers in the New York city back in 1974. the first half of the movie is bit slow as it was most about the introduction of Philippe and his friends and how they met. But the real delight breaks out in the last 30 mins of the movie. The predictable climax isn't so predictable.
Charlotte Le Bon as Philippe's girlfriend Annie is real cute. Ben Kingsley played Papa Rudy flawlessly, the mentor. Clément Sibony, James Badge Dale and César Domboy played the loyal friends and accomplices and played them well.
People who have Acrophobia or the fear of height may think twice before going in, but nonetheless in my list this one is a must. Don't miss it!!!
The Intern (2015)
Oldies are goldies
A lazy Saturday night with nothing to do, with a box of popcorn and cappuccino, ideal way to watch the movie 'The Intern'.
Never liked Anne Hathaway, never will like her probably. She and her fashion diva type role really sucks. And I can never dislike Robert De Niro. So basically this movie is about my most liked actor and most disliked actress.
To be honest the day was saved by De Niro and Rene Russo, who by the still looks stunning even in her 60's. They kept the movie going till the end and actually created some genuine laughs.
The movie is the same old concept of old people catching up with new generation including the idea of stay at home husband to opening an account in Facebook. While the younger generation is learning about gentleman-ship and Chivalry.Nothing new to offer really
So if you are a fan of feel-good flicks, this might be your cup of tea.
The Martian (2015)
A good space flick, not a great one
The human fascination about the 'Red planet' is not young. The fourth planet of our solar system always stood out as the best chance of human race migrating to any other planet nearby other than earth. Now as the scientists claim they found the water fountains in there, the fascination in coming years will only grow.
Coming back to the movie, 'The Martian', to be honest I am little disappointed, though all the other reviews I heard or read went gaga over it. I mean after all it's a Ridley Scott movie with Matt Damon in it. But in the end it felt like just a feel good space flick where everything falls back into pieces, eventually as all optimistic audiences will speculate. Personally I felt it's like Apollo 13 meets Gravity with a happy ending. I have nothing against happy endings but there must be a limit of optimism. Another movie to glorify NASA and makes people think that they are still pretty much into business and soon as Matt Damon said, Humans will grow crops in Mars and eventually colonized it.
About the actors in this movie, Matt Damon, in present days, arguably the most complete actor of Hollywood and he did not let you down as far as the acting is concerned. Always a fan of Sean Bean form the days of 'Golden Eye', in short and pivotal role he as well proved his worth. Jeff Daniels as the director of NASA and Jessica Chastain (Interstellar fame) as the captain of the spaceship were outstanding. Never liked Kate Mara and Michael Pena, so as usual they are disappointing. Chiwetel Ejiofor played Vincent Kapoor, a Indian origin NASA scientist for unknown reason as any other Indian actor could play that role, especially when there are lots of Indians working in NASA, an Indian face would have been good.
Last but not the least; I heard lots of people are comparing Interstellar with this one. Let me tell you guys, these 2 are completely different movies. May be a few of the star cast is repeated in this movie but this one is just about space travel not about time & space travel. My rating is 2-1/2 out of 5. See if you must, but for me it's a good movie but not a great one.
Black Mass (2015)
Watch it for Johnny Depp.... and others.....
Well, I am one of the biggest fan of John Christopher Depp II. So When I was about to watch his next after the disaster 'Transcendence', i was overwhelmed. Little did I know that the star cast is consists of, Benedict Cumberbatch, Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon, Peter Sarsgaard and Corey Stoll.
In a word the movie is fantastico. The way Hollywood keep coming with movies about true stories is a example for the world cinema.
About the story, it's all about how a psychopath small time criminal claimed the ladder to the highest star simply cause FBI let him, especially his childhood friend in FBI played brilliantly by Joel Edgerton. To my opinion, Kevin Becon and Peter Sarsgaard are wasted in the role of FBI chief and small time hit-man respectively.
As for Benedict Cumberbatch, he played his role perfectly as the brother or crook and yet a senator of the states.
At the end, I don't think anybody could play 'James 'Whitey' Bulger' like Johnny Depp did. He is truly a living legend.
So if you like crime drama and if you liked 'Public Enemies' of John, you should be watching this...... Highly recommended.
Phoring (2013)
A coming age story of a grasshopper....
This movies, as it's named after the pet name of the main protagonist, 'Phoring' aka Grasshopper in Bengali. Rightfully so, as this is a story of an wanderer, a naive restless soul.
So it's all about a village boy from north Bengal standing odd out in his school, in his class, flunking in his exams, a laughing stock for his mates. Entering a smart young history teacher from Kolkata recently transferred, who took fancy on this little boy as she saw something different in him.
As always, a shy, introvert yet imaginative adolescent kid fell for the charm of his sweet and kind teacher who only tries to guide him.
Also the little boy hears two imaginary voice, a male and female, who taunts him, advise him, speak to him.
But it ain't a sweet story of a boy falling for his teacher, as he accidental discovered her mysterious male friend is actually a extremist and smuggling in weapons in his village. He confronts his teacher only to know she is also deeply involved as they flew the very next morning.
The next of the story is all about Phoring travelling to Kolkata to find his teacher. And finally he finds her when police arrested her.
For me the climax stood out as it is disclosed that the voice he hears every now and then in his head is actually the imaginary voice of God, in both male and female perspective and in the end he snubbed the male voice saying not to talk what he does not understand.
Sohini Sarkar as the teacher was cute and brilliant and Akash Adhikari as Phoring was phenomenal.
A must watch for all the story and movie lovers
Badlapur (2015)
It's about revenge, all about revenge.
It's good to see the Indian cinema is actually getting matured. I mean really, it is coming out of it puberty and stepping towards the adulthood.
Revenge drama, anti-hero, realistic story telling and gory bloodshed. Nothing of them is new in Indian cinema, in fact our very own SRK actually made them as his stepping stones towards success. No nothing is new except the way this story is told, in a typical Neo-Noir style.
If the strength of this movie is Nawaz and all the other female actors (Huma Qureshi, Radhika Apte, Divya Dutt and Yami Gautam) the weakness is definitely Varun Dhawan. May be he has the best screen presence comparing to every other actors in this film but he is totally misplaced and miscast in this revenge saga.
Now about the story, it's about murder, revenge murder, revenge sex, revengeful mind-games and manipulation, which is of-course backed up by some gory brutality and blood-spill. A young man loses his wife and kid when 2 bank robbers car-jacked them after a bank robbery. One of the robber kills them in cold blood by pushing the kid out of the car and then shooting the wife. Now as I've already ticked the box of 'Contains Spoiler', I can tell you, when the main antagonist confess killing them saying he wasn't thinking straight, I begged to differ.
Rest is about how the vengeful husband takes his revenge pretty much on everybody who's involved, including the NGO worker who tried to free the antagonist.No he didn't kill her.
Please go and watch this movie if you like Revenge Drama and have a stomach for gory violence; Caution: The violence in it is not only physical it is psychological also.