Wanted

Lead Actors: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman
Director: Timur Bekmambetov

Wesley (James McAvoy) is a guy with a dull routine job and life. One fine day an assassin, Fox (Angelina Jolie), tells him that he is the son of an assassin and a gun-fight and a car-chase with another man (who supposedly is trying to kill Wesley and/ or the assassin) ensues. After warding-off the attacker, he is taken to the location of ‘The Fraternity’ where Sloan (Morgan Freeman) tells him that Wesley’s father was an assassin who worked with them and Wesley is supposed to inherit all that his father left; weapons, money, ‘legacy’ and all. He is also told that he is one of the few people on earth who have the ability of enormous speed and extremely quick reflexes when stressed; when the heart rate increases to abnormal levels (which Wesley so far thinks are just panic attacks).

Wesley chooses his normal way of life, but when he sees his bank balance at his desk, a sudden change (probably some feeling of super-confidence and I-needn’t-do-this-stupid-job-and-take-all-this-crap-coz-I-have-all-the-money-in-the-world) comes over him and he shouts at his boss and hits his backstabbing-friend with a keyboard and walks out of his office and into ‘The Fraternity’.

Wesley learns that the persons to be murdered are chosen based on some code hidden in a piece of fabric produced by a loom! This part is really silly, they should’ve thought of a better idea for where the names of the people come from. Sloan tells Wesley that these are the people who would cause destruction soon and hence they have to be killed to prevent it.

Wesley is then trained by Fox (albeit brutally, grossly) to be a professional assassin and the cute guy at the desk turns into a cold-blooded, high-precision murderer.

A lot of twists and turns and surprises follow, which better be watched than read.

This is one movie that I watched from the beginning to end with my mouth wide open in amazement (a couple of flies did go into my mouth and they had the time to come out unscathed too, so I’m still a vegetarian :P)

The way the movie was made is awesome – dark, treacherous and so out of this world – I got a feeling that what they were doing is pretty cool and powerful! I usually hate action stunts - they look very deliberate and impossible and make me wonder if I’m watching a movie or a circus and I was impressed with the action scenes in this movie; so imagine how good and well-shot they must be. I loved the curving of the bullets, I wonder if it's really possible :D

I just love it when I watch a movie without even the slightest inkling of what it is about/ who stars in it, and end up loving it!!!

N btw, move over Tom Hanks, my fav is now James McAvoy :D :D :D

Verdict: Those who like action movies/ Angelina Jolie/ James McAvoy :P will love it!

My Rating: 4/5

3 Idiots

Lead Actors: Aamir Khan, Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor
Director: Rajkumar Hirani

A rib-tickling film on three students in an engineering college – that about sums it up.

The movie is a must-watch, the situations are so funny and the dialogues are smartly written. It’s a very enjoyable movie experience. Aamir, Madhavan and Sharman manage to look like college students and I was very impressed by that; I was spooked that I would have to watch old botox-filled faces acting as college students; a-la in the Telugu movies! :P

A majority of the scenes in the movie make you ROFL. There are some senti-scenes which I did not like - I guess Bollywood cannot do without a good dose of sentiment, and these scenes are real tear-jerkers for sensitive people.

The movie is very much based on Chetan Bhagat’s first novel ‘Five-point Someone’.

The Chetan Bhagat credit issue is turning out to be very ugly and I did not expect something like this from the makers of such a huge film. As a person who read the book, I can vouch that the movie is not just ‘inspired’, but is more than 50% from book. Throwing in a few more characters and some scenes (some were totally unnecessary, esp. the delivery scene) does not make the movie just an ‘inspiration’ of the book. Of course, normally, when film makers say they are ‘inspired’ by a movie of another language, it simple means it’s a remake! I guess this trend is ‘inspiring’ the making of movies based on novels too!

All in all, the movie is ok, but the fun of the thought of the movie is lost due to the credit issue. Crediting the author at the end is in my view in really bad taste, coz in the theatre in which I saw the movie, the credits at the end weren’t even shown.
If this is the fate of a renowned author, imagine the plight of the unknown writers!

As a parting note – It is said that if you think too much about something, you become that. So I guess that’s what happened to the people associated with the movie!

Verdict: A must-watch for the comedy.
My Rating: 2.5/5, (I would’ve given a 3.5/5, but -1 bcoz of the issue :P)

Avatar

Lead Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoë Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Sigourney Weaver

Director: James Cameron

My curiosity for this movie drove me to watching this movie in a crappy theatre;  (I watched it on the 3rd day : ( ).

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and some others are transferred into their ‘Avatars’ to convince the Na’vi of Pandora to evacuate a site, which supposedly is a source of some extremely valuable mineral. It so happens that actually it was Jake Sully’s twin who was in the mission and an Avatar was created for him, but he dies and so Jake is summoned to transform into the Avatar as the neurological structure of the created Avatar should match with the person who is being transferred into it.

Jake (in his Avatar) runs into the princess of the Na’vi (Zoë Saldaña) and the Na’vi decide to teach Jake their ways, instead of killing him. Now begins the journey of Jake (as well as the audience) into the world of the Na’vi, where they live in perfect harmony with nature.

The strong-point of the movie is most definitely the graphics – the representation of the world of Na’vi is awesome. I liked the floating mountains the most. The Avatars themselves are remarkable - their height, the strong build and the funny glowing dots on their faces, and yeah, the even more funny plait! :D

Another thing worth mentioning is that the characterization is not lost in all the graphics and story-telling and the movie manages to make the audience feel empathy for the characters. I couldn’t help but cheer out loud when a pilot, Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez), swoops into the scene firing tons of bullets to fight the baddies and when Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephan Lang) orders attacks on the Na’vi, I was so irritated at his determination to destruct their world, that at one point near the climax, I wanted to leap out at the screen and strangle him!!!

Watching the movie was a wonderful experience – even in 2D, in a stupid theatre. Can’t wait to watch it in 3D!

Verdict: Watch it for the graphics
My Rating: 4/5

P. S. - I watched the movie for the second time in 3 D and I did not find much difference between watching it in 2D and 3D. It was a real pain to watch it the second time :(

Arya 2

Lead actors: Allu Arjun, Navdeep, Kajal Aggarwal, Shradda Das
Director: Sukumar

It was really exciting for me to watch this movie on the first day of its release; it's only the second movie that I watched on the first day - the other one being 'Annavaram'. I'm the kind who would go for a movie only after trusted sources have confirmed that a movie is worth watching, so me actually going for a movie on the first  day is BIG.

The movie lives up to its name and can be called a true sequel to 'Arya'. This tale of  friendship and love has a very appealing blend of emotion, comedy and whackiness.

The first half of the movie seemed to drag, but the second half was fast paced and I did not lose interest for even a moment. And like every telugu movie, this one too has a good dose of Rayalaseema, bombs and knife-brandishing goons. And of course the father of  the 'heroine' is big and bad (in this movie hez actually sorta good) and has a big moustache.

The story is well written and has plennnty of twists and turns. In some scenes you might expect something serious to happen, but it turns out to be hilarious; surprises wait at every nook and corner of the film and have the audience in splits!

Navdeep is his usual cute self and Kajal is sweet in the movie. Allu Arjun plays his part as a weirdo cum 'Mr. Perfect' well and his dance moves are awesome, though I felt some dance moves were more like desperate attempts to show some circus feats and did not gel well with the music, I also felt as if Allu Arjun was trying to imitate Michael Jackson in some instances; in acting, attire as well as dancing ( I should've expected it - the begininning titles of the movie showed a tribute to the pop-star).

I loved the way friendship was portrayed in the film; Arya 2 is more about friendship than just a love story. The music too is good and I'm in love with the 'I love you' song.

Verdict: If you liked 'Arya' and can bear all the whackiness of Allu Arjun you will definitely like this movie.
My Rating: 3/5

Knowing

Lead actors: Nicholas Cage, Chandler Canterbury

Director: Alex Proyas

Since this movie was starring Nicholas Cage and is sci-fi, I had high expectations on it. The movie was a big disappointment; I wonder why I thought of watching it in the first place.

Throw in a bunch of characters, including some children of course (hey what’s sci-fi without at least one kid?), a freaky girl, a mysterious letter, some symbolism, a few talisman stones, a couple of disasters, a group of aliens and a horde of people to run around in the background screaming and there you have it- Knowing.

The movie begins in an elementary school in 1959 where a class of students is asked to submit their drawings, to be locked in a time capsule, scheduled to be opened 50 years later. One freaky-looking girl fills up her sheet with random numbers instead of drawing something.

50 years later, Caleb (Chandler Canterbury), son of a professor at MIT, John Koestler (Nicholas Cage), is studying in the same elementary school. At the 50th anniversary celebrations, the time capsule is opened and the drawings are distributed to the children and guess what, the sheet with the random numbers ends up with Caleb. John sees the paper, does some searching on the internet and voila - an interesting revelation - the sheet contains some startling info!

This was when I thought, ‘Awesome!’ and readied myself for some excitement! And then, and then - the movie falls flat on its face.

It’s so distressing that the concept which had a great potential was made in such a pathetic way. The characterizations are abysmal- I didn’t understand what the characters were up to and why, and after sometime I stopped caring about what they were doing and continued to watch the movie just because it involved nothing more than just staring at the screen with an absolutely blank head and of course because I had no other work :D. Nicholas Cage did not quite fit well in the role of a confused professor.

I felt that this movie was a hotchpotch of several other movies and tried to show too many things in the same story. The aliens are too similar to the ones in A.I., the freaky 1959 school girl resembled any freaky girl in a typical horror film, the portrayal of the feelings of the characters at tense moments, a-la Signs, fails miserably and some scenes remind you of those from disaster movies. With a running time of 2 hours, this movie is an ordeal to sit through- if you use your head that is. The climax is no less absurd.

The only strong point of the movie is its visual effects, though not many. Some scenes were aesthetically shot.

Verdict: Can be watched once for its visual effects.
My Rating: 1.5/5

A Beautiful Mind

Lead actors: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly

Director: Ron Howard

I watched this movie on TV, without even a slightest idea about its story. And I’m glad I did ‘coz otherwise I wouldn’t have enjoyed it as much as I did.

----The rest of the content of the blog post has spoilers and I recommend you not to read further if you don’t have an idea about the story and intend to watch the movie----

The movie begins with John Nash (Russell Crowe) arriving as a graduate student at the Princeton University. Though somewhat nerdy, he finds a best friend in his roommate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany). After graduation he is offered a job at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He later falls in love with and marries one of his students Alicia Larde (Jennifer Connelly).

One fine day, he is approached by a Pentagon agent (Ed Harris) to decipher some complex secret codes. Nash breaks the code mentally with ease and is soon absorbed by the Pentagon to act as their secret agent and decipher codes for them. He even receives a chip an implant in his arm from the Pentagon.

All’s going well until one day when Russian agents track down Nash and chase him, and even fire at him. Panic-stricken, Nash rushes home and asks his wife to leave the place and go away from the danger.

The next day as he is delivering a lecture at the Harvard University, a bunch of people sedate him and forcefully take him to a psychiatric facility. Nash cries out that the doctor is a fake and is in fact a Russian agent. The doctor speaks to Alicia and says that Nash is schizophrenic and when she finds it hard to believe, even says, “John thinks I'm a Russian spy. Is that what you think?” (I was like, ‘Of course, you ARE a Russian spy! Now leave that poor brilliant professor alone!’)

Now cut to another scene where Nash is tearing off the skin from his arm and crying, “The implant's gone. I can't find it. It's gone”. (Now it hits me hard- that John Nash is in fact schizophrenic and the Pentagon stuff was his hallucination. At this point of time, the film had me so confused, I could no longer make out what was real and what was a part of Nash’s hallucination in the movie!). As it turns out, even Nash’s best friend at Princeton, Charles, never existed!

The rest of the story traces how Nash deals with schizophrenia and works his way to achieving the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics.

The movie is based on the life of John Forbes Nash whose breakthroughs in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations are in use in many fields even today. It is said though that the story deviates a lot from the actual facts in John Nash’s life.

A Beautiful Mind explores the beauty, complexity as well as the vulnerability of the human mind. It’s an unparalleled master-piece and is my all-time favorite.

Verdict: A must-watch.

My Rating: 4.5/5

What’s your Raashee?

Lead actors: Harman Baweja, Priyanka chopra (in 12 roles)
Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Music: Sohail Sen

The film is about Yogesh Patel (played by Harman), who has to look for a suitable girl to get married to in a matter of days to get his family out of financial troubles. Having read a book on the zodiac signs, he decides to meet one girl belonging to each sign (played by Priyanka) to look for an appropriate life-partner.

Priyanka gives a commendable performance. She gets into the skin of each character and portrays them with ease. Never during the whole length of the movie did I feel that it was the same person in different attires. Priyanka more than manages to create a unique impression about each girl she represents. Harman plays his part aptly as the confused lad who is bowled over by most of the girls he meets.

Another impressive thing about the movie is that although Priyanka renders so many roles, she does not dominate the screen space and perfectly complements Harman’s role.

Of the 12 girls who were supposed to represent their zodiac signs, a couple of them were shown in poor light. This is totally justified when it comes to the script of the movie- to eliminate some probable matches for Yogesh, but it might hurt the viewers of those zodiac signs a wee bit.

The length of the movie is bothersome and some scenes involving goons and Yogesh’s uncle are hardly funny and the film could do without them.

As for the music, from the whopping number of songs in the movie (13 songs!), I found some to be mediocre, some were peppy and watch able and I was smitten by only one song- ‘Bikhri Bikhri’- which is slow and mellifluous.

Verdict: What’s your Rashee? can be watched once.
My Rating: 2/5