imeanSURAJ

A Perfect Finish Score: 8/10 The film takes colours from different films, mythologies and history.  It starts with showing how a few apes have already sided with the humans losing all hopes of winning a war against their modern weaponry. Caesar tries to keep it calm until a betrayal begins a chain of events that leads to having his family killed. The whole 140 minutes relies on Caesar’s journey to Colonel to avenge his family, their capture and a war that eventually makes the earth a planet of apes. The realism carried in the character sketch of the ideal leader Caesar, his slogan, his war keeping up the moral integrity at the same time carrying an emotionally deep understanding to his motivation is a straight reminiscent of Moses leading Israelites to freedom from slavery. Woody’s character as the colonel with a cheeky maniacal fashioned avatar talking with convincing statements on his actions reminds you of the Brando’s much more demonic and psychotic Kurtz in A...

The film doesn't really carry a full fledged narrative with a conclusion, instead it just follows the life of a little girl who wants to be a part of the dancing team where one after another everyone is having fits. She slowly feels the fear creeping in, until she finally gets the fits as well, after which she feels free. It is more of a philosophical commentary depicted in an over-simplified manner, with flawless acting.

This is possibly the most in depth stories one may have ever heard related to the expeditions of the 2 scientists who traveled the Amazon to study their culture and tribe extensively, ultimately for their selfish goals, though never getting there. Its also a beautiful study of human character, how the greed has eaten up the earth and how the lives of the tribal population can teach us a handful of lessons on how to keep in sync with the nature, at least in these times of global breaking point of the environment.

Like his previous film, uncle Bonhomee, even this carries a story telling which includes many scenes with cryptic social commentary on thai politics. This film, is like being in someone else's dream, there is an image of one guy taking a dump, now one may wonder how does that help. As Sheila puts it, "This is the potential of cinema, to show us experiences that lie beyond words. There is value in conventional narrative, and value in a good story told well. But being prescriptive about what cinema is, or what a good story needs in order to be effective, contracts the possibilities of the medium."

This film is refreshingly new, it has a fantastic mix of humour and horror. The plot keeps serving surprises until the very end when you sure are going to have a smile after all the thrills, wait did I say thrills, yeah it’s also a thriller. It’s one of the only 6 films ever to have a super high of 99% RT score (The Wizard of Oz, Metropolis, Toy Story 3, LA Confidential and Finding Nemo). The best part is, it doesn't serve a specific audience, and it serves people with any kind of taste. It was made at a meager budget of $4.5 m and went on to earn $189 m, 42 times its budget. Could I be more convincing?

The film hardly builds up anything in the 1st half, but picks up well in the 2nd especially towards the end. There aren't plenty of jokes or even as funny as 1st one, but the film still stays enjoyable with the fantastic playlist from the Sony Walkman that keeps playing in the backdrop and the baby groot which also seemed to be the focus for mischief away from Rocket this time. The over saturated palette used for the graphics could have been reduced a notch to help us realize we aren't watching a video game recording, for some scenes particularly. It's still definitely watchable.

This film only reminded me of why I should stop watching Bollywood, except for the few that come out once in a while. The film is ridden with gaping loop holes and laughable sequences of action (like when Rohit's character and Hrithik's character have a go at each other, turn by turn). The dialogues are written as if the actors are dialogue writers themselves, or they just watch a lot of Bollywood to be so cheesy to give out such punch liners even when they could shoot directly instead of fighting with dialogues after every hit. The film has very superficially etched characters and a plot line so predictable, even the girl i watched with could predict from half a mile (excuse my sexism). The usual over stylized Sanjay Gupta film. A generous 4/10 from me. Hrithik has improved in his acting, but the benchmark of a good acting is good acting, not the actor himself, after all.

The film is collection of cliches if you ask me. Plenty unnecessary scenes, very sticking out comedies which doesn't mix well in the subtlety of the story and an ending that every sports film has had, the person in the ring remembering the training session which has a lot of emotional nostalgia attached. The only thing good about it, is the wrestling choreography well executed by the actors and the overall acting. A potential good film turned into a mass movie compromising art. I am not saying its wrong, but I will only be a critic here. For me, its not as good as it has been hyped, strictly 6/10. P.S, Chak De! India is still the bloody best sports film, for its restrained acting, cutting through so many issues without steering the whole film towards that direction, editing, hockey cinematography, more authentic sports politics and no unnecessary forced humor.

A beautifully directed film by the debutante Robert Eggers, based on a script that he wrote himself. I rate it above Don't Breathe or Conjuring 2, in horror genre this year, and also above last year's debutante film from the director Joel, The Gift. This film takes time to develop its grip, which in its own way is interesting, and boy, the wait is totally worth it! One of my favorite scenes in the film is the mother breast feeding a crow thinking it’s her own dead child who's come back. Even with a plot related to witchcraft it delivers enough story to justify its credibility. The sound design, the dark sometimes dry brown shadowed cinematography is a treat to photography lovers and the end will leave you with an absolute, "WOW", moment.

Like any DC fan boy, I was waiting for this with bated breaths. But stepping in and seeing the way it starts, kills you. The film falls apart right from the beginning: The witch and her brother who come without much background, decide to go for a demolition plan, again in a massive scale without a lot of depth to their motivation to build a machine to destroy all of mankind. We have only been introduced to how the unconventional Task Force X have a difficulty getting through, against all the restrictions from the government and just when we expect to see more of a slow elation towards the build up: finally gelling together and hitting it off, they’re brought together, just like that and made to fight against the opposite forces. Harley Quin was only as good as the trailers while the Joker disappointed and don’t pin this on the benchmark Heath set, even if we see this as an independent performance, this is shallow. It is cliched beyond understanding, it almost makes you wonder w...

Score: 7/10 The film starts off strong and intense, throwing black humour along the way (Shahid's story) but it starts getting a little too unbelievable with Kareena's story after sometime, which could have been avoided, adding layers of unnecessary sweetness and convenience in their struggle. But Shahid's as well as Alia's story keeps us captured with the sometimes too gory-sometimes fun kinda roller coaster. Alia is clearly going to go places with her slow evolution towards maturity with acting, she gives almost everything possible to the role. Shahid isn't far behind as well. The cinematography is at times hallucinatory and other times the standard casual one.

Score: 8/10 The sequel of Cloverfield, surprised me with its interestingly claustrophobic plot, which now and again makes us wonder whether it (the attack) really happened or is he just weaving story of his own (may be because he is a little twisted at his head) Even after certain revelations that supposedly should remove the doubts, we are left wondering what else does he have under his sleeves. By "He", I mean the protagonist/villain/savior/mystery. The darkness of the film may deliberately irritate one, which is exactly the motive of the director. The film is well acted and well layered, I liked it much more than many mass budgeted films this year. ( www.facebook.com/groups/YouMeFilmJunkie/ )

A Masterstroke Direction Score: 9/10 Aligarh carries a sense of intellect and understanding in the way it has been directed. It doesn't try to be philosophical or engrossing in any form, It stays raw and unfiltered letting the viewers have a first hand experience of the problems that accompany ageing, whether its the loneliness or a step down of the speed in their daily mannerisms, to decide for themselves to settle on a perception. It explores in a subtle way the life of Professor Siras, his simple tastes, listening to Lata Mangeshkar classics and having a glass full of whiskey. The direction in particular is one of the finest one may have come across in the recent past, in Bollywood. Its confident and bold. Bold because it has stayed almost entirely honest to the material instead of holding itself back fearing whether it will work right for the audience, because there are places which can make people go utterly bored or sublimely orgasmic. One such scene is when Siras...

Score: 7/10 The film finely accomplishes what it set out to achieve, a light hearted tale of a misfit who is forced to leave. It doesn't offer any super wow moments neither does the 3-D amazes us the way Avatar or Life of Pie did, but the charm and variety of characters the film goes through keeps giving the tale an interesting touch keeping the audience engaged without ever being a drag or too packed. The film contains a right mix of story and dialogu es serving almost all kinds of audience in a similar manner. The themes of lush green surroundings combined with sun glares used with a lot of silhouettes have been exactly what one would have imagined while reading the Rudyard Kipling novel or watching the animated series. Now that they have already confirmed a sequel, I hope they don't ruin it going beyond the books and adding their own tales to use the brand name when it can earn them a lot of money, as this one is making. Or even if they do, they do it with a lot of c...

Score: 8/10 The film is a fantastic plot of somebody small making it in the world of biggies going against all conventional norms. It does cover a lot of issues we come across in our day to day lives, the stereotyping, the generalizing of personalities which normally breaks and discourages a lot of individuals here and there and they do this with a lot of humor. The engaging developments keep us hooked throughout though unlike Inside Out it isn't filled with constantly spurted fun elements and the theme isn't something that has not been tried before. Nevertheless, this is one of the strongest recommendations this year.

Score: 5/10 FAN is a film with glimpses of potential especially due to SRK's acting at some places but the weak direction loses the track gradually ending up nowhere. It has plenty of chases some of them unnecessarily pulled long and directed without anything to keep us engaged (read the window chase, bike and foot chase in Europe and chase in the climax etc etc). Gaurav's scene of the competition is another one that could have been easily edited without making it too l ong, because after some time it does get tedious to see SRK promoting his own self (so evident!). It has become a trend in Bollywood to kill one character when they don't know how to end it (in fact Dhoom 3 had this so similar), may be to ignite a certain sense of sympathy but it was too cliched for this one. It starts off trying to be funny with very old school out dated back ground score, then tries to be a little dramatic, then emotional and then thriller (very weirdly so, one guy trying to be the E...

Catered to Purely Comic Fan Boy Score: 7/10 I being this huge fan of DC comics was waiting with bated breaths for the film to release for 3 years at least. A joy ride it was, giving all the thrills typically etched for a comic fan I'd say, if not everyone BvS starts off giving the usual introduction of Bruce Wayne's parents' demise without adding much to it. And then it also goes about explaining how it ignited the spark in the Batman to fight Superman. Though it clearly sways away from the comics, it gets us warmed up of what we can expect. I wouldn't go into the plot so much, virtually everything should be kept away from the readers to avoid the spoilers. Zack did not do such a bad job with Man of Steel , though not even coming close to the expectations everyone had for the film especially knowing Nolan is at the helm as an executive producer. Without Nolan present for any creative decisions (not at least as much as he was involved in Man of Steel),...

Score: 7/10 The film takes its own sweet time to develop a raw premise of a family of small time robbers. All actors are near perfect in their characters and look perfect for their roles, which is typical Delhi migrated UP waale trying to make their ends meet in an odd fashion. It's clearly not going serve to everyone's taste, typical slow drama, but fantastic nevertheless. Special mention of sound mixing, it's beautiful. In other words it's an Anurag Kashyap film minus the engros sing plot but still carrying the potential to keep you hooked. Newer Older

1.  Cannibal Holocaust (1980) The director was arrested for obscenity charges Has graphic gore with several scenes of sexual violence and genuine cruelty to animals 6 Animals were actually killed for the film: A coatimundi, a large turtle, a tarantula, a snake boa constrictor, a squirrel monkey and a pig The film is banned in 53 countries even today 2.  Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom   (1975 ) Intensely graphic violence, relentless sadism, sexual deviance, and brutal murder Plot : Libertines in 1940s kidnap 18 strangers and subject them to extreme violence, sadism, and sexual and mental torture Many disturbing rape scenes, gross fetish display, force feed of feces, sodomy, dining on human feces Towards the end it has scenes of the victims being tortured and murdered through methods such as branding, hanging, scalping, burning, and having their tongues and eyes cut out 3. A Serbian Film (2010) Has a scene of woman giving birth to a newborn baby...

Much has been written and discussed about the Batman film, “ The Dark Knight ”. I watched it myself on the first weekend, but I didn’t come out so much overwhelmed as rest of the audience except for the Joker part. In fact I only felt pinched since for me there’s hardly any movie that carried such tremendous potential to be perfect in every sense of the word: technically, artistically and entertainment-wise and yet failed to utilize it to the full or even most of it. 1. Batmans : In the second act of the film after the Bank Heist by Joker, the film progresses to introduce the Batman, or batmans because this also shows how he is inspiring every other guy on the street. I don’t know how this scene was necessary because neither does it give any insight to the future developments nor does it help in giving the Batman “an-applaud-worthy” entry (the later part where the Joker kidnaps one such “inspired Batman”, could have harmlessly been the first such scene). With his slow action move...