Movie Review – TOSS – A FLIP DESTINY

Knox Entertainment’s first film TOSS – A FLIP DESTINY is directed by Ramesh Khatkar and stars Rannvijay of MTV Roadies fame, Hardik Sangani, South Indian actress Madhureema Banerjee and others. Sandesh Shandilya has composed the music while the lyrics are the result of joint efforts of Kumaar, Sudhir Nema and Irshaad Kamil.

The story of a few friends who chance upon trunk loads of cash and a dead body in a ditch. Royal dreams follow and so do the cops. The plot thickens as the human tendencies kick in. Greed, jealousy, mistrust and deception set in. Friendship, unity and faith are long lost. One is ready to kill the other and all for Money Honey! A game ensues. Let destiny decide the winner.

Name of the game – TOSS – A Flip Destiny. Survival of the fittest to be the richest!

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Movie Review – London Dreams

London Dreams an upcoming Bollywood musical film has Asin Thottumkal as the female lead with Salman Khan and Ajay Devgan playing central characters. Directed by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the music for the film was rumoured to be composed by A.R. Rahman, but in the end the Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy team did the honours. Adding value are Rannvijay Singh and Brinda Parekh essaying key roles in the project.

Slated for release on 30th of October, 2009, London Dreams is like an emotional love song. Two childhood friends dream of making it big in the music industry someday. The film follows them as they mature, struggle, form their own band and call it ‘London Dreams’. And as the two friends, the lead singers of ‘London Dreams’ harbor romantic feelings for a dancer in their band our story continues…


A must watch for all those who have a hard life, yet believe in dreams! Read Full Entry

Movie Review – Wake Up Sid

Debutant director Ayaan Mukherjee admits his Wake Up Sid is about a younger man dating an older woman but he is appalled by rumours that it revolves around a handsome guy and a not-so-good looking girl.

A few months ago, a nineteen year old Ayan Mukherjee approached Karan Johar with a short and simple script that he might have written during his college classes. Karan Johar was sold on the freshness and youth quotient of the script and catapulted a young boy to the director of ‘Wake Up Sid’. The story revolves around a lazy, unmotivated Mumbaikar Siddharth Mehra ( Ranbir Kapoor ). Sid lives a carefree, responsibility less, superficial life until he bumps into an aspiring writer from Kolkata, Aisha Bannerjee (Konkona Sen Sharma).

With Ayan’s unusual yet peppy pairing of Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona, the film aspires to spread the charm of Youngistan in Bollywood. Such a young star cast and director also ensures that the film is high on energy and entertainment.

With exciting and very relatable trailers ‘Wake Up Sid’ is already showing signs of becoming a rage with the young and promises to be a grosser at the box office too.

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HALLOWEEN 2 (2009) Movie Review

Being the reviewer of the film on the site, I hate that I'm not raving about it. I wanted to like this film so bad! I really enjoyed Rob Zombie's original remake, too.

Let me give it some praise before I get into what I didn't care for: It starts with a bang, and keeps the tension up throughout the entire film.

I can not say that I got bored at all, and the movie moved along really quickly. It also looked good. Say what you will about Rob Zombie, but I think he's got a distinct style that is pleasing to the eye.

Having said that, however, let me slide into my first complaint: This is Rob Zombie-ville. Where Haddonfield the first time around seemed like a middle class white neighborhood, this time it looks like a backwoods village that hasn't had running water in a month.

I don't know why, but Zombie makes all of the characters greasy, dirty, and just really unattractive. Laurie this time around looks like shit run over twice throughout the film, (understandable considering), and everyone around her just looks...gross.

Secondly, I really didn't give two shits about any of the characters this time. Laurie bumbles her way through, either screaming hysterically or sobbing uncontrollably; her friend Annie is back, but to no effect; and most disappointing is Dr. Loomis. First time around, he was portrayed as a generally likeable guy with a questionable moral compass. This time he's just an asshole. When he's not yelling at someone, he's screaming profanities to himself. I really disliked his character this time. VERY disappointing.

Then there were the kills. The excessive blood didn't bother me, nor did the body count. What drove me crazy were the sound effects. The stabbing, slicing, crunching, snapping noises were so ridiculously loud and over the top, that I felt like they should have just taken the Batman route and had giant cartoon letters on the screen that yelled SPLAT! CRACK! It was one of those things that once you notice it, you realize how ridiculous it gets.

And finally, my biggest gripe is surely going to be the most controversial one. This film is not a Halloween film. If it weren't for the William Shatner mask, I wouldn't have ever known this was in the Halloween family of films. We complain with remakes at times because we feel like the remake served no purpose - that the filmmakers didn't take it in a new direction or add anything new to the mythology. Well, Rob Zombie can never be accused of that. He certainly puts his own spin on the story. We are in Michael's head for the first time...and I think it ruins part of the mythology. I personally hated the whole "Kill for Mommy" idea. I saw it in the trailer, and had hoped it was just one scene. Well, it's not. It's basically the driving force.

For a character that was referred to in the original script in 1978 as "THE SHAPE," this Michael sure has got a lot of backstory. He's Michael, for God's sake! We don't have to know why he kills, or see that he's got mommy issues and some weird, warped sense of family! While Zombie dabbled in the ethos of Michael in the first film, he dives in head first into it this time around.

I can appreciate the fact that they were trying to make a horror film with substance, that had deeper meanings and symbolism, really, I can, but to me, Halloween 2 comes off as an akward, unsuccessful attempt at experimental film. There's flashing images and bizarre dreams, and a white horse, and Michael as a boy (played by a different kid than in the first, and he must be related to Zombie, because there's no way a kid that is that completely awful at acting would ever get a gig on his own. Honestly painful to watch.)

I have other problems with the film, (like how Michael does a lot of grunting when he's stabbing people, and the absence of even a note of John Carpenter's classic theme song until the end credits) but this is dangerously close to turning into one of those reviews where the reviewer seemingly just hates the world. I'm sorry if this dampens anybody's excitement, and obviously this is just my little opinion.

Keep in mind that I enjoyed the first, which many of you didn't, and I really dislike this one partly because it's absolutely nothing like the first. So perhaps that means if you hated the first, you'll love this one? I don't know. Still go see it, tell me what you think, disagree with me, call me an idiot, it'll be fun.

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Fifty Dead Men Walking - Movie Review

Although the ranks of great IRA films are swelling rapidly this combination of political history and mystery suspense masterwork is one of the best Writer/director Kari Skogland makes Sir Ben Kingsley look better than ever in this award winning true story from the book of the same name by Nicholas Davies and Martin McGartland.

Screen legend and multi-international award winner Kingsley (“House of Sand and Fog” (2003),”Sexy Beast” (2000), “Bugsy” (1991), “Gandhi” (1982)) is a great choice for this film. It requires a man with both ruthlessness and compassion. Few actors have shown both like Sir Ben.

Jim Sturgess starts the film out on a role as small time thief Martin McGartland hustling his latest haul from door to door. The wares to be peddled are the last things any self-respecting criminal would try to sell on the sly. Martin is as much concerned the community will find out he is trying to sell stolen clothes as the constabulary will throw him in jail.

In the course of giving the local British occupation troops the runaround martin attracts the attention of some high-up IRA operatives. These are men who stop at nothing to kill, maim and torture those who they see as enforcing the oppression of the Irish. Their most brutal wrath is saved for those who betray the confidence of the local IRA government. Their recruiting techniques are as skillful as their monitoring of those within the organization. They enforce their own laws and they carry out their own sentences in the cellars and abandoned warehouses of Northern Ireland.

Although Martin is loyal he comes to the point where he can no longer justify the murders around him. Fergus (Kingsley) keeps on him until he has secured his cooperation in this most dangerous of missions. This is a betrayal that stays with a person for life.

Ben Kingsley fans will see anything he's in without giving it a second thought but for political aficionados this film offers much more than just a dynamite performance by Sir Ben. The setting deep within the IRA ranks in Northern Ireland is more sodden with violent heartbreak and lethal drama than any other domestic conflict in the 20th century. There was betrayal and the threat of death around every corner and the next person a loyal soldier was required to kill might well be his school chum, brother, father or mother.

This film manages to capture the "troubles" with unflinching realism. It is so realistic it is scary to watch even for those of us who have seen half of it before and read about the other half in the newspapers. The lead performances by Sir Ben, Jim Sturgess and Kevin Zegers are flawless and are backed up by supporting performances by a dozen performers who work like this is the last chance they will ever get.

The cinematography is dork and foreboding and doesn't avoid the dirt, crumbling bricks and peeling walls of a place and time where hope was almost lost. The sky is always filmed as a backdrop of unfathomable grey fluid that threatens to draw everybody and everything into it.

Interior and exterior shots of the streets and buildings are literally dripping with decay and fading into long focus shots of colors that wash out to sepia tones as a person’s eyesight turns to black and white under severe stress. The combination of the flatness of the sky and land emphasize the do or die nature of life during the troubles. There is no turning back although at times people beg for death as the only escape.

The movie walks a fine line with its extensive explicit violence. Although it will be written off by some as "just another IRA film" and will be avoided due to the perception of the exploitation of graphic mayhem there is a vital story here. In the end the quality of the story and the overall production is seen to require the realism to bring forward the message of living by the sword and dying by the sword. Powerful supporting work by Cannes award winner Kevin Zegers builds a firm foundation for the master Sir Ben and the emerging lead Jim Sturgess to do some excellent work.

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Away From Her Movie Review

"Away From Her" is a touching Canadian film starring Gorden Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis and Julie Christie about the effects of Alzeihmers on an aging couple married for 44 years. Christie is terrific and gives a powerful portrayal of a woman who slowly succumbs to the effects of this dreaded disease.

Pinsent is also as effective as the helpless feeling husband who has the indistinct and difficult task of putting her into a home where he later learns that her condition is deteriating.

She begin's to not recognize him anymore and later on, it becomes more of just a friendship as opposed to being a married couple (torn by the dreaded desease).

Christie then takes up friendship with a man in the home who is also suffering from Alzeihmers and Pinsent must deal with these situations.

"Away From Her" is slow, but for a reason. A story like this (depressing and touching as it sounds) must be conveyed in a slow manner in order to get its message across effectively. Just as Alzeihmer's works slowly, so to does this move and it gets it's message across very effectively. Both, Pinsent and Christie were worthy of Oscar and Genie (Canadian version of the Oscar's) awards.

It's a compelling and touching tale (although a bit disturbing, but then again, so is Alzeihmers). If you're not into the "disease" type of movie, stay way, but if you want to learn something and enjoy touching movies like this one; then by all means watch this one; you won't be sorry and you'll be glad you did.

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Shadow Movie Review

It takes a 'brave man' with strength in his wealth to produce a film propelling him as a leading actor. It takes an even braver man to direct a film as kitsch as this.

Naseer Khan is the leading man; he is also the co-producer of SHADOW. In real life, he is also blind. The move is meant to prove that blind men can act and indulge in dare-devilry, which even guys with proper vision cannot.

Nothing wrong in that. In fact, it's a very bold and creative attempt. But how about taking some acting lessons before dumping yourself on unsuspecting audiences? Although the concept is kind of 'cute', things could have worked in favour of Naseer and the film had the cast and crew made a decent attempt to enact the scenes. At best, this is like a home video gone horribly wrong.

The story is about Naseer Khan who plays a sharp shooter Arjun Sherawat and also doubles up as a car mechanic who can fix a car just by moving his hands beneath the bonnet. As a sharp shooter, he does not miss his target, so why did his miss his first target, the person who raped his sister? Had he bumped that corrupt politician off in the first instance, we would not have been bored with this headache. But then again, if he had, there would have been no film like SHADOW. I know its mean, but don't even let your SHADOW in for this flick!

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The Time traveler's Wife Movie Review

Adapting Audrey Niffenegger's wonderfully complex novel to the screen can't have been easy, but Rubin (Ghost) has written a thoroughly engaging film. The heavy emotional tone makes it feel a bit girly, but it's still a terrific story. Henry (Bana) has time-travelled since the night his mother (Nolden) died in a car crash. He can't control his "trips", although he seems to go to places with an emotional resonance.

When he first meets Clare (McAdams), she's in her 30s and has known him since she was 6 (Proulx). As a result of this paradox, their relationship develops very differently for each of them. Eventually they find friends (Livingston and McLean) who are in on Henry's condition.

And a doctor (Tobolowsky) who may be able to help. Director Schwentke invests the film with a lush visual style that circles around the characters as they try to make sense of their life together. Subtle effects and clever editing work extremely well, even if Mychael Danna's music is a little too insistently weepy. And while the premise presents Henry's condition as something like epilepsy, the film can hardly help but start feeling like a terminal illness drama, as signs of impending tragedy start to appear. Bana is good in what's essentially a thankless role.

The script doesn't offer him much personality beyond earnestness, so Bana plays him as a nice guy just trying to muddle through. Opposite him, McAdams is a wonderful breath of fresh air, really capturing Clare's steely resolve and quiet pain.

Livingston and Tobolowsky are also extremely good in far too few scenes. There's definitely the sense that this film is edited down from a richer, more detailed novel. One problem is that Henry's ageing is far too subtle, so we're never quite sure which time he's travelling from (see Christopher Nolan's Memento or, better yet, Following, for how to do this well).

And although we notice loose threads and missing scenes, the editors have done a remarkable job of making such a fragmented tale hold together both emotionally and logically. And in the end, the film compellingly explores the nature of relationships while quietly moving us to all kinds of tears.

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Movie review: 'G-Force'

"G-Force" has been billed as producer Jerry Bruckheimer's first foray into animation, which suggests his live-action films contain something resembling "reality" and "humans."

Shrinking Bruckheimer's usual visual-effects mayhem down to rodent size, "G-Force" is centered on a elite squad of guinea pigs who resemble small(er) versions of Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible."

The guinea pigs are voiced by Sam Rockwell (Darwin), Tracy Morgan (Blaster) and Penelope Cruz (Juarez). Nicolas Cage, doing the finest voice-over work in the movie, plays Speckles, a computer specialist mole.

They are collectively (along with a voice-less, camera-wielding fly) under the tutelage of G-Force's creator, Ben. (Only the little critters are animated.) He's played by the usually unconventional comedian Zach Galifianakis ("The Hangover").

Ben's pipsqueak task force is quickly shut down by FBI special agent Kip Killian, played by Will Arnett. The group nevertheless rallies to help uncover the duplicitous dealings of industrialist Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy), whose big plans for world domination include evil coffee makers . But you don't come to see "G-Force" for the intrigue; you come for the talking guinea pigs.

If "G-Force" has a cousin, it isn't "Ratatouille" (not by a long shot), but "Alvin and the Chipmunks," the 2007 film that also married live action with furry, animated clichés. "G-Force" ultimately reveals itself as no more than a pest. In one scene, the fly zooms up Nighy's nose, which is something like the sensation of watching this talking guinea pig movie in 3-D.

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A Perfect Getaway Movie Review

Scruffy and twisty, this honeymoon-from-hell thriller kind of unravels as it goes along. But before it succumbs to the formula, the actors manage to catch our attention, so we have to see it through to what'll surely be an outrageous finale.

Cliff and Cydney (Zahn and Jovovich) are honeymooning in Kauai, where they decide to go on a two-day hike to an idyllic isolated beach, leaving just before hearing the news that there's a murderous couple on the loose. Soon they meet, and ditch, the rather shifty hitchhikers Cleo and Kale (Shelton and Hemsworth), then they decide to join another couple, Nick and Gina (Olyphant and Sanchez) for the hike.

But Cleo and Kale catch up with them. And strange things start going snap in the jungle. From the beginning, we know writer-director Twohy intends on taking us for a ride, because of his purringly seductive filmmaking style and red herrings galore. Everyone looks suspicious, they all have secrets, and we quickly realise we can't trust anyone.

Then Twohy starts layering in flashbacks to fill in the back-stories, up to an extended black and white sequence that sorts out the loose ends and sets things up for the frantic, action-charged climax. The first half of the film builds the atmosphere perfectly, establishing the characters with economy thanks to a clever script and an especially strong cast. Zahn and Jovovich are play against type effectively, and are terrific as the hapless lovebirds, while Olyplant and Sanchez are superb as their edgy new buddies.

So by the time things start going nuts, everyone can generate jolts and humour at exactly the right moments. And boy do things get nuts. Not in any inventively unhinged way, but in the standard movie style of building to impossibly big action set pieces and then twisting them slightly, pausing for half a breath and then carrying on full speed.

The gruesome, frenetic last act is utterly over-the-top, but still manages to be entertaining simply because it's so preposterous, and because we've come to like being around these characters who are now in a battle for their lives. And by the end, we've completely forgotten to care about all the gaping plot holes.

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ALY MICHALKA - MOVIE REVIEWS BANDSLAM

Critics are giving Summit Entertainment's latest effort to capture the hearts and dollars of teen moviegoers (it's the company behind the Twilight series) passing grades and polite applause. John Anderson in Newsday calls it "simultaneously shiny and retro, calibrated and uncalculated, familiar and unpredictable."

Elizabeth Weitzman in the New York Daily News writes that Vanessa Hudgens of High School Musical fame is miscast in this movie, but that given the fact that it's aimed at her HSM fans, it's "considerably cooler than it needs to be." After elaborating on Hudgens's acting shortcomings, Weitzman brings herself up short.

"There's really no reason to complain here," she writes, "After all, have you tried finding a PG-rated movie that's appropriately innocent without feeling like a Disney-fied fairy tale?" Indeed, Jason Anderson in the Toronto Star expresses surprise at how cool (for him) the movie turns out to be. "Given that Bandslam is headlined by two products of Disney's star factory [Hudgens and Aly Michalka] ... the movie's abundance of smarts and lack of sheen is a welcome surprise."

Similarly, Michael Phillips writes in the Chicago Tribune, " Bandslam is a pretty good movie, and the odds of its being a pretty bad movie were pretty steep." Likewise Roger Ebert concludes in the Chicago Sun-Times "For what it is, it's charming, and not any more innocuous than it has to be." That's not the way Amy Biancolli sees it in the San Francisco Chronicle , however. She calls Bandslam , "a mostly offbeat family movie with a mostly solid backbeat that isn't as hip as it wants to be."

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District 9 Movie Review

District 9, the original sci-fi doc-style drama by Neill Blomkamp, produced by Peter Jackson, has been building a strong following online ever since it first started to debut marketing material. The film takes place in Johannesburg, South Africa, where an alien ship arrived in the eighties loaded with over a million aimless and malnourished insect-like aliens whom humans label with the derogatory term “prawn.”

Surprisingly, District 9 is Neill Blomkamp’s first ever directorial role of a full-length feature film. Its star, Sharlto Copley is also making his acting debut, emphasizing how much faith Peter Jackson put in his chosen director and he was right to do so.

To me, District 9 was going to be the sleeper hit of the year and it easily looked like it was going to be one of my top films of the summer. I had high expectations going in, especially after being treated to a large chunk of footage at San Diego Comic-Con a few weeks back. I would say that it certainly met my high expectations and it’s something I want to see again to take it all in.

While I was worried at the beginning of the film with how the movie introduced the history of the aliens’ arrival, most of the interview and documentary segments felt real and believable, helping to set the tone of the story. I had a little trouble buying into the main character, Sharlto Copley’s Wikus Van De Merwe, in his early scenes as he came off a little too goofy, but once the main plot quickly kicked in and his character got infected with the “fluid,” the movie picked up and was flawless for me from then on.

Throughout the story, we follow Wikus on his journey of unfortunate experiences. He’s not always easy to side with because of some selfish decisions he makes out of desperation to try to save his own life and his relationship with his wife – decisions that affect others, notably the lead Prawn character, Christopher Johnson. However, we can empathize with him because of what’s happening to him and the fact that everyone is after him to harvest his body.

The cast of unrecognizable actors did a superb job of making the film feel real. My only minor gripe is with the villainous head soldier, Koobus Venter, who was a little over-the-top as the gun-loving trigger-happy alien-hating stereotype. That being said, he had his role and it played out well for the story (with a nice finish).

The best part of the film is by far the final act when the protagonist, Wikus, finally makes his choice and acts for the right (and unselfish) reasons and we are treated to an awesome action sequence involving him manning a Prawn Mechwarrior-like robot and fighting the MNU to protect his alien friend, Christopher, as he attempts to get back to the mothership hovering above in order to get help and eventually save the Prawn stuck on Earth.

This film is entirely original and it provides an enjoyable unique experience. For District 9’s low budget, it is shocking how the special effects look so amazing. It really is a testament to smart filmmaking. The movie is able to be both intense and emotional while giving viewers lots of great action - If you’re a regular moviegoer or a fan of science fiction, this is a must-see which will spread quickly through positive word-of-mouth.

The movie ends in a great way and it sets itself up perfectly for a sequel. Hopefully this movie spawns future installments that Neill Blomkamp would be willing to work on. I expect to see him lining up some solid jobs in the future after this incredible addition to his resume. It certainly makes you wonder what he and Peter Jackson could have done with the Halo film.

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Kaminey - Movie Review

It’s a bad bad world out there where there are no good or gray characters... only Kaminey. This dark crime-drama plays in two parallel narratives which, at the onset, are as unrelated as twin brothers Guddu and Charlie (Shahid Kapoor) in the film. The siblings are not separated at birth but care a damn for other after their father’s death alienates them.

But as things get mean and mad for both, each one comes for the other’s rescue. Guddu is in love with Sweety (Priyanka Chopra) who is sister of aspiring politician and fundamentalist Bhope (Amol Gupte). Charlie is entangled between chest filled of cocaine and his lure for few crores. As these two stories intersect each other, things become more intense and interesting.

On second thoughts the narrative of Kaminey dominated by gang-war and drug mafia doesn’t sound absolutely innovative. But Vishal Bharwadwaj applies a complete different language of cinema to make the film look fascinating. The writing is erratic as it enters late into every scene and makes an early exit.

The story-telling involves a multitude of characters, none of them being conventionally introduced or established. You are expected to acclimatize with each of them on your own and learn their conflicts, as the story progresses promptly.

Technically the film is crafted skillfully. The cinematography by Tassaduq Hussain keeps you riveted as the camera sprints restlessly with the characters. Editing by Meghna Sen and Sreekar Prasad is effective. Bharadwaj’s music is a major highpoint with the ‘Dhan Te Nan’ track adding good momentum to the proceedings.

Shahid Kapoor comes up with a brilliant performance in both his characters. He doesn’t go over-the-top in either of the speech defects of his impaired characters. As Charlie he lisps effortlessly and as Guddu he stutters as naturally.

Priyanka Chopra in her chatterbox Marathi character is impressive. Amol Gupte shows good potential in his negative role. Of the character artists Hrishikesh Joshi, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Shiv Subramanium and Tenzing Nima are outstanding. The second half tends to stretch with too many twists in the plot to reach a customary climax. Otherwise Kaminey is long, dark and handsome.

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