Sunday 9 December 2012

Life of Pi- The visually damning film struggles a bit in the writing.

Life Of Pi Review

***

Based on Yann Martel's Booker Prize winning novel was in the development hell for the last 10 years and has seen numerous director changes form M. Night Shyamalam (Signs, The Sixth Sense) to Alsonso Cuaron (Children of Men, Harry Potter and the Prisoner Of Azkaban) to Jenne-Pierre Jenuet (Alien Ressurection, Amelie) to finally Ang Lee( Brokeback Mountain, Lust Caution). The book , considered to be unfilmable and unfathomable, proved to be a good read.
                     




The film begins with a reporter (Rafe Spall) taking an interview with Piscine Molitor Patel or Pi, the adult version played by Irrfan Khan, who tells his story. Piscine got his name after a swimming pool in France but became a laughing stock of his classmates who called him Pissing Patel. He changed his name to Pi, the irrational number which is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to the diameter. The name somewhat signifies the irrationality of the protagonist  Born as a Hindu, Pi juggled one religion with another and finally accepting bits of part of all religion. His father worked as a zookeeper and when he turns 16, his father decides to transfer all the animals and zoo to Canada

The real story does not begin until about an hour when the ship he and his animals are going to Canada shipwrecks. Pi jumps on a lifeboat with three other animals:- A wounded Zebra, an Orangutan , a Hyena and finally Richard Parker, a Bengal Tiger. After the hyena kill the zebra and orangutan. Richard bludgeons the hyena to his death. All that is left is Pi and Richard Parker.

 The film is a visual marvel and is a must watch in 3D. I found the movie similar to last year's Hugo. The 3D was well used, not only to throw things at you but also to give depth . Richard Parker which was part CGI and part real was excellent but the real flaw is the script written by David Mague. The film takes a lot of time to reach the shipwreck and also gives a feeling of distraught right in the middle act.

Overall the film deserves a better script, and I deem it as atleast one time watch and in 3D.
I'll go with 3 stars out of a possible 4.

Friday 2 November 2012

Looper review- Oh Why? Oh Why

Looper review


*

The trailers were so amazing and the reviews declared this mindbending thriller as this generation's Matrix but the end result seemed to me a convoluted mess and makes the highly underwhelming final installment of The Matrix Trilogy, Citizen Kane in comparison.

The basic plot is that In 2044 there are hired guns called Loopers who have to report to a certain location where they have to wait for someone who has been zapped from the future and kill them in exchange of silver. Your loop completes when you kill your future self. But for Joe(Joseph Gordon Levitt and Bruce Willis), his loop or his future self escapes when he is zapped and then trouble comes to Joe's doorstep literally.

Sound's ice, doesn't it????
The film was one of the projects which looked great on paper but the execution was bad.( I am looking at you, The Island)

The film is slow and when I say slow, my pet turtle could overtake the pace of the movie and mind you, he hibernates for almost all the time and for a second or so he comes out of the shell to say that I'm alive.

The film was marketed as action in the vein of Inception but except of a scene in the club which doesn't come untill the final act, the film does not have any action

The concept of the movie is nice and throw in the mix some T.K.(Telekinesis), but the film just does not give justice to a very strong concept.

Kudos to the make-up artist to make Joseph look like a younger self of Bruce.

Did I forgot to mention that there is a plot involving Emily Blunt as a single mother with an unstable child. I might have dozed off while writing this review.

The three words that came in my mind after seeing the movie and that was WTF.

Skip It



I am going with one star out of four

Coming up is the review of "Looper"- My Inspiration for writing the blog.
Coming soon:- Review of Season premiere of Castle, How I Met Your Mother and Homeland.

Skyfall review-Best Bond featuring in the Not Best Bond Movie

SKYFALL REVIEW

**1/2

As promised my first review will be of the recently released "Skyfall".

Skyfall is the 23rd installment of the super spying series featuring MI-6 agent James Bond. The film is directed by Sam Mendes and features Daniel Craig as the spy Bond,James Bond, who is returning as the suave and super spy for the third time after the spectacular "Casino Royale" and the just average "Quantum Of Solace". Dame Judi Dench returns as M for the ninth time. Joining her are a slew of new characters or a new variation of old characters like Ralph Fiennes as Garreth Mallory, Ben Whisaw as the new Q. The baddie is the awesome as always Javier Bardem as Roul Silva, who has some past with M. Bond Girl duty is taken by Naomie Harris as Eve and Berencie Marlohe as Severine.



The film begins with Bond and Eve trying to retrieve a hard disk which contains confidential information about sleeper and undercover MI-6 agents. What follows is a beautifully shot chase sequences in the ever-gorgues Istanbul and following a great sequence in the rooftop of a moving train. The scene ends with Bond getting shot and the hardisk MIA.

The disk falls in the hand of Roul Silva who is a computer genius and a madman who has a vendetta against M, and he makes the confidential information viral and ends every attack with the lien "Think on your sins".

The first hour features a blast in the MI-6 headquaters and Bond going to Shanghai but apart from the sequence in Shanghai and the above mentioned opening sequence nothing exciting happens. The slow first hour leads to a better second hour.

The climatic battle sequence is easily worth the price admission

Now coming to bad points.............................
The film itself does not feature any larger than life situations where Bond is saving the world but here it is more of a personal statement which underwhelm the personality of Bond. 
The build up is slow and the exciting sequence comes only in bits and pieces.
The bond girls are totally wasted here. They are not even for glamour, and forget about acting
The story too seems a bit stretched. Javier Bardem's Soul tries to be menacing as Joker but fails to do so.

The good thing were the one liners shared between Bond and M.
Daniel Craig is the best bond in my opinion and the he is supported by well acted M and Q.

Overall Skyfall is definitely better than Quantam of Solace but definitely not the best bond movie, that will be Casino Royale.

I will give ot 2 1/2 stars out of 4
 

My First Post

I am a big movie and television buff and became very frustrated when many critics give some movie a great review and it turns out to be just average.
From now onwards, I will be posting reviews of movies, TV shows which i watch. . So please do share and comment.
My first review will be of  SKYFALL- the 23rd movie in the  James Bond franchise which was released here on 1/11/12.