MOVIE REVIEW - Inception

The biggest blockbuster of the summer is released this weekend, and it’s not even the best movie released this weekend (that would be The Kids Are All Right, my favorite of the year). Since Inception was 2 ½ hours long, I figure I can write a slightly longer review.

There are so many things about this film I’d like to cover. Director Christopher Nolan spent $160 million on this, and you can see every bit of that on screen. It’s surprising the studio let him run with this. After all, it’s not like his expensive Dark Knight. Since that’s a Batman film, it was a safe bet. I enjoyed Nolan’s Dark Knight, but I didn’t care for Insomnia.

And I thought Memento (the movie that plays backwards) brilliant. This guy can obviously write and direct interesting stuff. But the king of the $150 million budgets, James Cameron, did a movie called Strange Days which tackles a few of these similar themes (and is better in many ways).

In fact, a lot of the movies I thought about, I liked more than Inception. Dreamscape, with Dennis Quaid, had a better story and great visuals. Dark City, an underrated sci-fi picture with a mumbling Keifer Sutherland, was better than this (there were a few similarities as you watch buildings being constructed in front of your eyes, and confusion with characters that wake up).

There’s a little Matrix here, Eternal Sunshine there. A guy next to me said “This is just like Total Recall.” That’s one of the few films I never thought of during this, but… I did think of James Bond many times; especially during a skiing shoot-out.

But as I told a few people, there’s something about seeing shootings and stunts that you know are in a dream, that makes them less exciting than when Bond is dodging bullets and blowing up vehicles. It’s weird logic on my part, because it’s all actors and stuntmen and none of it is real. But when you’re watching a movie and you know it’s the dream/imagination of a character, it doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat the way you’d otherwise be invested in the protagonists safety.

I didn’t care for the casting of this film at all. Leonardo DiCaprio, in the first movie I’ve seen him in where he doesn’t look 14-years-old, does a fine job. My problem with him being cast in this is that it’s virtually the same character he played in Shutter Island, down to dreams of his wife and kids, confusion, anger, and especially – wonderful dreams that quickly become nightmares. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who went from 3rd Rock to the Sun to becoming a great screen presence (I loved him in Brick, The Lookout, and 500 Days of Summer). In this, his character made me think of Keanue Reeves in Matrix. He had slicked back hair and tries to talk in a deep voice that he just doesn’t pull off.

Marion Cotillard, as DiCaprio’s wife, is just beautiful and haunting on screen. She won a well-deserved Oscar playing Edith Piaf a few years ago, and I was happy I didn’t think once about that character. Oh, that is…until Nolan thought it would be clever to play a Piaf song in a pivotal scene. It totally took me out of the film, but it’s something I’m guessing nobody else will be bothered by. (on the subject of music, the films score by Hans Zimmer is excellent)

There’s Juno’s Ellen Page, looking like she’s 12 and not fitting in at all. Dileep Rao is carving a niche for himself in movies. He was a scientist in Avatar, a voodoo expert in Drag Me to Hell, and he’s a scientist that deals with potions in this (it’s helpful when you need a person to stay asleep so you can jump into their dreams). Tom Hardy is great as the master of disguise (he was better in Bronson from last year; how he didn’t get nominated for an Oscar in that is beyond me).

Tom Berenger (side note: where the hell has he been?) is great in a small role, as is Michael Caine. Of course with Caine, spouting off wisdom to the young and troubled DiCaprio, reminds us of his butler character in the Batman films.

So, here’s the premise, since the movie trailers (purposely) don’t tell you much. People can get into dreams and steal secrets from you. DiCaprio is in a bit of a jam and is forced to take a risky job that is nearly impossible. It’s not to steal the dream of a high powered businessman, but to plant a seed in his mind to split up the company. By doing this, he has to get in this guy's dream, and take him to a different level where it’s a dream within a dream. The reason behind this is explained, and don’t believe anyone that tells you you’ll be confused. You won’t be. With the pesky Page as the new member of the team, she often asks questions that help fill us in on how things are done and what we’re seeing. Although Nolan does films that aren’t very flawed, you’ll obviously find a few things that logically don’t make sense – but I’m willing to let that stuff slide in a sci-fi film.

I get more upset with the little things. DiCaprio calling his wife “Mal” just sounded weird. Oh, and his name – Dom Cobb. It sounds like a corn-flavored champagne. The shots of Tokyo, Morocco, and Canada are beautifully done. I also enjoyed the rules the movie presents for dreams. If you die in a dream, you don’t die in real life (like in Dreamscape). Instead, you wake up.

So when characters are running through a dream trying to get information they need to steal, they don’t want to be killed for that reason. And it’s not just guns that can kill you. If the people in the dream (the projections) start to realize it’s a dream, they end up doing wacky things (like attacking you). You get the usual clichés spit out: “one last job,” “I just wanna return home,” and “assemble your team!” But just as I did with Avatar, I can let some lame dialogue go when I’m being so visually stimulated by what’s on the screen.

And after all, isn’t that what movies are about? There’s a fight scene in a hotel with zero gravity that is a thing of beauty. The guy behind me that hated the movie thought it was stupid and didn’t understand why they were floating. I said, “It’s because they’re in a dream, and don’t you sometimes do that when you dream?” It wasn’t until I got home that I realized, the characters sleeping at that time were in a van that was going off a bridge. This gave them a free fall, which was then immediately incorporated into the dream.

When you think about a movie at home and come up with stuff, that’s a good sign you have a hit on your hands. Of course, I’m beginning to think this is what Nolan loves doing, to get people coming back to see his films multiple times.

I thought the last 15 minutes and the ending were very predictable and didn’t have me on the edge of my seat the way they intended. It’s not nearly as clever as Nolan thinks it is. A woman got offended when I said I would only recommend this to sci-fi fans and men, because most women would be bored. She said she loved it and was planning to see it again.

I still contend, women will enjoy The Kids Are All Right so much more (maybe I need to turn in my man card, because I did, too). Let the husbands/boyfriends go see Inception, and everyone will be happier for it. I’m giving this a B.

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Movie review - The Sorcerer's Apprentice

Having seen "The Last Airbender" bring in untold millions at the box office despite the worst reviews in many a year, I confess myself discouraged at the prospect of reviewing "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." This is a much better film than "Airbender," which is faint praise, but it's becoming clear that every weekend brings another heavily marketed action "comedy" that pounds tens of millions out of consumers before evaporating.

I use the word "consumer" deliberately. This genre doesn't require an audience in the traditional sense. It attracts children and young teenagers with the promise of cinematic fast food: It's all sugar and caffeine, no nutrition. In place of a plot there's a premise, in place of carefully crafted action there are stupefying exercises in computer-generated imagery, and in place of an ending there's a hook for the sequel and, if all goes well, a new franchise.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is in small part inspired by the famous sequence in Walt Disney's "Fantasia" (1940) where Mickey Mouse does battle with bewitched brooms and buckets while Leopold Stokowski conducts the famous music by Paul Dukas. Here there's an amusing sequence involving enchanted mops and such, with music that shares most of the same notes as Dukas but none of Stokowski's conducting flair. No matter. Most consumers have likely never heard of the music — or of "Fantasia," for that matter. Even this shadow of the original is more charming than Nicolas Cage is the star, playing Balthazar, a good magician who has long held captive the forces of magical evil. A prologue explains how, 1,300 years ago, the Arthurian magician Merlin (James A. Stephens) warred with the evil magicians Morgana (Alice Krige) and Horvath (Alfred Molina). Merlin sealed them and their despicable minions in the deepest interior of a nested doll. Mankind will be safe as long as they stay there. If Morgana and Horvath escape, the planet will be doomed. They're as bad as BP.

As the story opens, 10-year-old Dave (Jake Cherry) chases a stray love note as it blows through the mail slot of an ancient curiosity shop in New York. This shop is chockablock with weird gimcracks, and presided over by Balthazar, who instantly intuits that young Dave may have the potential to become the long-awaited Prime Merlinian — the great magician who can vanquish Morgana's forces for once and all.

The purpose of this sequence is crystal clear: It's to establish the protagonist as a kid, before he grows for 10 years and becomes the movie's hero (Jay Baruchel). That way grade-schoolers will identify with 20-year-old Dave. Others can identify with Balthazar, who is played by Cage with his usual admirable energy. It gets a chuckle early in the movie when Young Dave asks Balthazar how he knows something, and Cage spins and snarls: "Because I can read minds!" Next question?

There's a needless subplot involving Dave's crush on the fragrant Becky Barnes (Teresa Palmer), who in grade school all those many years ago was the intended recipient of the love note. Balthazar informs Dave he is The One and commands mighty magical powers. Balthazar then has to leave his shop briefly and asks Dave to guard the Prison Doll with care. Naturally, Dave manages to open it and release the evil magicians. Balthazar should know better than to ever tell the hero of a Jerry Bruckheimer movie about the one thing he should never, never, ever, ever do.

That's it for the story setup. The rest is all centered on special effects. The director, Jon Turteltaub ("National Treasure") and his several writers devise some clever set pieces, such as a dragon in a Chinatown parade that starts breathing smoke and fire, and it's up to Balthazar and Dave to vanquish the villains. I also liked it when Balthazar brought to life a steel eagle on top of the Chrysler Building and flew around on its back.

Cute Becky Barnes, now a college student, takes it pretty well that this Dave guy who wants to date her is a sorcerer's apprentice. I kept waiting for her to tell Dave she would still be there waiting for him after he finished annihilating the fiends, so maybe he should focus on saving the planet instead of putting the moves on her.

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" is a perfectly typical example of its type, professionally made and competently acted. Imagine a graph with one line indicating the consumer's age and the other line representing his degree of enjoyment. These lines would intersect at about the age of Young Dave.

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Movie Review - The Last Airbender

Director M. Night Shyamalan has made a name for himself for coming up with small-scale-yet-interesting thrillers, often with twist endings. Some are pretty awful ("The Happening" and "The Village"), yet some I feel are simply fantastic ("Unbreakable" and "Signs"), while one, "The Sixth Sense," has become a cultural juggernaut. After all, How many times have you heard "I see dead people"?

His latest film, "The Last Airbender," is the first film he has made based off of a previous source material, and considering the main problem Shyamalan has is that he isn't very good at writing, I was reasonably excited for "The Last Airbender."

Sure, he's made big movies before, but this is his first summer-tentpole blockbuster film, and I was interested to see how the guy would handle an action-fantasy movie. This is why I am very disappointed to say that "The Last Airbender" is certainly the worst film of Shyamalan's career and probably the worst film so far this summer.

"The Last Airbender" is based on the popular albeit short-lived Nickelodeon TV show in which a young boy, Aang, used his ability to manipulate the four elements (earth, wind, fire and water) to unite the war-torn world.

The show was divided into "Books," with each book representing a season of the show. "The Last Airbender" adapts the first of three books, so the basic plot is Aang coming into his own, and harnessing his powers to save the Earth from the evil Fire Nation.

Let's begin with the acting for this film. Shyamalan hired a relative unknown, Noah Ringer, to play the young boy, Aang. Ringer turns in one of the most lifeless, charmless, zombie-like performances I have ever seen. The kid simply sleepwalks through the whole film. And considering the film is entirely about his character, the whole film is about is dreary and bland as he is.

Dev Patel (yes, the Dev Patel who was so fantastic in "Slumdog Millionaire") plays the villain, Prince Zuko, leader of the Fire Nation. Although Patel is way over-the-top in the first few scenes of the film, he soon finds his footing and ends up being perhaps one of the most redeeming qualities of the film. It's quite unfortunate that in this film, the villain is far more likable than the protagonist.

The main problem I have with "The Last Airbender" is that it all seems somewhat joyless and mechanical. It doesn't once feel as if anyone in the film really has their heart in it, and the result is a boring, middling film that runs 105 minutes and feels 200. I mean, come on. This is a $150 million summer movie about a young boy who can manipulate fire, and there is not a single moment where you feel any joy, or satisfaction, or anything at all. It feels like a chore to sit all the way through this film.

The film's marketing revolves almost entirely around its special effects and action. Sadly, the effects look simply terrible. Come on, Hollywood! The special effects from 1991's "Terminator 2" look more convincing and real than this. And the action is solely in the last 20 minutes or so, interestingly enough the trailers have pretty much only drawn footage from these 20 minutes.

Also, another curious fault this film has is it can't seem to keep a consistent sense of location. For example, in one of the moments of the film, a character is in a rowboat, about two miles off shore. In a scene that's meant to take place minutes after that one, the same character is in a temple. This occurs really often and goes to prove just how little effort was really put into this film.

Another large gripe I hold with this film is that there is a ton of exposition and back story. Yes, the film is set in an alternate universe with lots of new creatures and powers and such, so some back story is necessary, but literally half of the film is devoted to explaining the world of the film, thus preventing the film from really beginning. It feels like the film is simply a prelude to a larger pay-off that never comes around.

This is likely because this is the first film in a suggested franchise -- that all depends on the film's financial success -- and to quote a certain conservative radio host, "I hope it fails."

The most abysmal 2010 release this side of "The Human Centipede" gets 1/2 star out of four.

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Welcome - Movie Review

Cast: Vincent Lindon, Firat Ayverdi Director: Philippe Loiret Welcome is a film which will have you thinking long after the credits roll.

It's the story of Kurdish refugee Bilal (underplayed with quiet resolve by Firat Ayverdi) who is determined to make it to England to see his recently emigrated girlfriend and to get a better life.

So, initially he tries to get through the French border in a lorry along with a group of fellow refugees - and it's all going well until they hit Calais and Bilal, wearing a plastic bag on his head, has a panic attack and they're all busted.Suddenly Bilal finds himself in France and one day upon seeing the white cliffs of Dover decides that he can swim for freedom and for a new life.

And that's how he meets Simon (a gruff Vincent Lindon) as he seeks swimming lessons from him. Gradually a friendship is formed and Simon tries to do what he can to help Bilal...but will it be enough? Welcome is an at times gritty and desperate affair, accurately recording the routine degradations and desperations of the refugee community. The sight of them with bags on their heads in the lorry as they head to Calais is depressing and claustrophobic; and as they converge on Bilal's swimming pool to shower and get thrown out of supermarkets it's a sad indictment of what our world's coming to.

Lindon's Simon undergoes a subtle change of character - initially gruff and with his head in the sand to the plight of the refugees, he gradually warms to the very quiet and determined Bilal and risks everything to help - including the wrath of the police who are hunting clandestines. Welcome is a film about humanity and hope - and you may leave the cinema feeling initially depressed and saddened, but ultimately it's a provocatively underplayed affair which will haunt you.

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Love Ranch Movie Review

What can’t Helen Mirren do? Her brilliantly chameleon-like abilities are apparently limitless. There’s a joke in the film when someone asks her crippled Nevada brothel owner character Grace ‘Who do you think you are? The Queen of England?” And of course, she is that too.

Mirren brings all of her luminous beauty, not disguised under her rather sedate seventies wardrobe, with soulfulness we wouldn’t expect from a woman in her job but of course, must expect. People are unexpected and Mirren epitomises it.

Sergio Peris-Mencheta, a Spanish actor who plays Bruza her young lover, is a find. He is a boxer Grace’s husband (Joe Pesci) has taken under his wing, has animal magnetism, something we haven’t seen lately, plus heart, sweetness and tenderness mixed with the violence of his calling.

Bruza falls utterly, selflessly in love with Grace, which is dangerous to his health as Charlie (Pesci) is a brutally violent, selfish man, and criminal. He neglects Grace until he discovers she has interests elsewhere and his ‘love’ turns to jealous ferocity. Who does ferocity better than Pesci? His all consuming evil contrasts well with Bruza’s warm-hearted innocence.

Love Ranch is a character study, Grace’s story; an older woman resigned to a loveless marriage and proscribed life, who has a shot at new life with a hot young Mexican fighter. It is exciting, romantic and incredibly moving. The kicker is that its tragedy unfolds and resonates right down to South America, where Bruza was a hero.

There’s a lot going on in this loosely fact-based film on the proprieters of the first legal brothel in Nevada. It is a fascinating and dangerous world, sleazy and compelling. Gina Gershon, Tary Manning and Bai Ling are their girls, who not only enjoy their job but also adore their boss Grace. Charlie describes them as “psychotic whores”, and has affairs with them. It’s a life cobbled out of lawlessness, control and mob connections but there is underlying humanity.

Charlie’s the only fly in the ointment and in Pesci’s talented hands, he is unforgettable. He’s sociopathic, involved in shady mob and government dealings, sure of his power and influence, believing himself innocent of murder and sinned against. Yet another muscular performance from the king of mean.

It’s an amazing story of brothel owners who not only fought to legalise prostitution in Nevada but also opened the first and made a go of it for a long while. Strangely, for a film about a brothel, there is surprising little sex or salaciousness.

Hackford knows how to make a story get under our skin; his sensitivity and efforts have paid off. Love Ranch is certain to be remembered during awards season and could land the big prizes. It’s Hackford’s best film and deserves a wide release, although at this moment, it isn’t getting one.

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MOVIE REVIEW - Cyrus

A movie opening this weekend I wanted to like so much. After seeing the trailers months ago, I was eagerly anticipating its arrival. And you won’t find four more talented people in a movie all year (Jonah Hill, Marisa Tomei, John C. Reilly, and Catherine Keener). And the studio even set me up with an interview with Tomei. Nothing like sitting in a cabana near a swimming pool, talking to a woman I loved in so many films, and wanting to ask her “Why wasn’t this movie better?”

The movie opens with the clichéd scene of the pathetic, lonely man. He’s caught taking care of himself (for some reason, he does that with rap music blaring in the living room, and heavy metal blaring from his headphones in the bedroom…and with an ex-wife that conveniently shows up and has a key to his house).

What takes down this amazing cast, are two brothers – Jay and Mark Duplass, who wrote and directed this film.The gave us Baghead (What? You missed that one?) and this genre called “mumblecore.” Nothing more annoying than when you have to spend a review explaining a new genre of film, so I’ll skip that. Let’s just say…they get to do a lot of improvising with the script. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t (just ask Christopher Guest). Here, it sometimes does, but usually doesn’t.

And that’s a lot more frustrating than a movie that’s just horrible all the way through.

Like Greenberg from a few months ago, this movie has its moments.

When Jonah Hill asks Reilly if he’s had sex with his mother, or Reilly gets angry at Hill for wanting to borrow a tie for a wedding…these are moments that seem real. They’re awkward, they’re funny, and entertaining to watch.

Other scenes, like Hill stealing Reilly’s shoes after he spends the night, are just bizarre. Nothing is interesting about that, and…would Reilly really leave the house without his shoes? And when he later finds the shoes in the closet, would his mom really not do anything about it? At that point, you just think these guys are all so dysfunctional, you stop caring.

I asked Tomei about the dysfunction, and she said, “Who isn’t dysfunctional?” I wasn’t sure what she meant and she said, “Aren’t we all dysfunctional?” I replied, “Uh…I guess, to some degree.” But the fact is, I don’t think everyone is dysfunctional.

This movie has some interesting themes it deals with – empty nest, Oedipus, loneliness, clinginess – yet there just isn’t enough witty banter to carry this. It’s shooting for being both a dark comedy and serious drama. Yet it does neither of those things very good.

I thought Reilly was going to get into a battle with Hill reminiscent of Step Brothers, but that never happens. Instead, we have Jonah Hill standing in his underwear, with a huge knife at 2 a.m., demanding that Reilly come into the kitchen (to offer him a sandwich, of course). How is that interesting or edgy?

Other times Hill makes me laugh with his deadpan delivery. He has to correct Reilly when he incorrectly mentions how many synthesizers he has, or when he says a song sounds like Steve Miller (“No it doesn’t!”). And we’ve all be in that situation Reilly is in – trying to be nice to a kid we can’t stand. I’ve actually been in a very similar situation – I went on a few dates with a woman that had a 5th grade son. When she invited me over for pizza, the boy asked, “Is Josh spending the night?” She told him, “Yes, but we aren’t going to do anything.”

When the boy went up to his room later, I asked why she thought any of that was appropriate conversation to have with a child. Of course, it became a big argument, and…we didn’t do anything. And I chose never to see her again.

Yet in this movie, well…it’s easy to see why Reilly would put up with a lot to keep seeing Tomei. And when people always say in movies like this, “What would she be doing with him?” Never has that been more true. We see how pathetic he is at the first party he goes to. He becomes a drunken mess who can’t say the right thing, pees in the bushes, but is saved by Tomei, who compliments him on his…uh, penis. They then sing a cute duet of Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me.”

I asked Tomei if she was intimidating singing with the guy that sounded so great belting out a tune in Chicago. She replied, “Not really. We were supposed to be drunk in that scene, so…”When I first saw the movie Rushmore in the theatres, I wondered why the critics were praising it so much. I thought it was cute, but not great. I’ve since seen so many other movies try to tackle love triangles badly, that I’m now starting to think Rushmore was better than I initially gave it credit for.

This movie just meanders a bit too much for my tastes, and there just isn’t clever enough stuff going on. Again, it has great concepts. Especially when we realize, as clingy as the mom and son are, so is Reilly with his ex-wife Keener.

One scene I thought was interesting involved Keener going to check out the mother-son relationship, per her ex-husbands request. You’re wondering if Hill will be on his best behavior and leave Reilly looking like a paranoid nut. Instead, the mother-son do what they always do. They act affectionate with each other, they wrestle and giggle, and it’s awkward. Yet, Keener likes them and only begrudgingly admits it was a “bit odd.

Since I never took a film class in my life, I don’t look for little things other filmmakers might be looking at when they watch a movie. That’s why I find it baffling that certain techniques the Duplass brothers used were noticeable and odd. I was constantly seeing close-ups that didn’t appear to be for any reason. The camera was often shaky for no reason. I wondered if they were still doing an indie film at times, or had never heard of tripods.

Tomei told me she ran into Jonah Hill right after she saw Knocked Up, and told him how great he was in it. This has him telling people, “Marisa Tomei was one of my first fans.” I asked her how hard it was to keep a straight face around him. She smiled and said, “I was cracking up so much.”

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I Hate Luv Storys Movie Review

Classic Bollywood love stories have created clichés that we have come to adore. Now when any star runs through a meadow of yellow sunflowers, you immediately think Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

And of course, you can't imagine any snowy Swiss mountain without a chiffon sari-cladded actress and turtle-necked sweater-on-shoulders Shah Rukh Khan in his signature arms-wide-open pose.

As much as we now yawn at these use and abused formulas, ultimately this is what we, the audience, had once in time appreciated, and enough so for them to become a part of Bollywood norm.

But we all know, this is far from reality. That is exactly what debutant Punit Malhotra film I Hate Luv Storys is all about: love in Bollywood versus love in reality. Is there a difference? And to help him out, he has Bollywood's favorite chocolate hero, Imran Khan and the desperately-in-need-of-a-hit Sonam Kapoor. Oh, and add Karan Johar, the producer of the film and voila! You have yourself a winning combination…or I think at least. I walked into the First Day First Show of the film with my entourage consisting of six young students. One came because of her undying love for Imran Khan, another because everyone else was and the rest had various reasons. My solo male student forewarned me, "Roshni if it's boring, I'm walking out!" And so this became my prime concern. Would I Hate Luv Storys be entertaining enough for him to sit glued? You're about to find out. Enter Jay Dhingra aka J (Imran Khan), Assistant Director to Veer Kapoor (Samir Soni), director of cheesy Hindi love stories (read: Karan Johar?). Oh before you ask why Jay prefers being referred to as J? Apparently, and we are told this numerous times, he finds his name very uncool. Preferring to date and have fun, J doesn't believe in love or the movies Kapoor makes, he is in the business to add credibility to his resume and has no bones in admitting it. On the flip side, there is Simran Sharma (Sonam Kapoor). Happy in her perfect world, as the perfect Art Director, dating the perfect investment banker Raj (Sameer Dattani). Life couldn't be better for Simran and Raj (yes, this is intentional). Hell breaks loose when J and Simran meet by chance while watching a film. And while they believed their paths would never cross again, fate has other plans for them. Simran lands up being the Art Director on Kapoor's next film. J lands up having to work closely with Simran. Before you know it, Simran has fallen for Mr. Wrong. However, J doesn't feel the same way only to realize later that he too has been hit by a bug he has been avoiding oh so carefully: the love bug.

Alright, so for a film that attempts to defy Bollywood love stories, it sure does begin with one! Check out the main cast and crew: Imran Khan, nephew to Aamir Khan; Sonam Kapoor, daughter of Anil Kapoor and director Punit Malhotra, nephew to Manish Malhotra (who has done a fab job of dressing the cast; they all wear some great stuff!) And while some of the clichéd scenes were required to demonstrate Kapoor's "dedication, if you choose to call it that, to Bollywood love stories, after a while, it got tedious. The re-enactment of famous love scenes became far too monotonous. The problem with IHLS is that it does not engage the audience. For starters, the music which is beyond fantastic, complete power to Vishal-Shekhar, has not been utilized correctly. In fact, they have been clamped so close to one another that before one ends, the other one begins. There was a point in the film where a viewer behind me actually exclaimed, "Not again!" Ouch. Once again, Imran finds himself in an airport at the end of the film where he finally decides to declare his undying love for his heroine. Yawn. Punit, have you seen Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na?

The film in itself is a fresh attempt by Punit Malhotra however, has Karan Johar written all over it. Honestly, it looks feels and sounds like Johar himself has directed the film. Good first try for sure! The dialogues are fun and honestly, there are scenes which have you in splits. Watch out for the "vagera-vagera" portion as well as the ones where Imran is given a number of signs that point him in the direction of love. A lot of the film has been derived or borrowed from other popular films. For example, Dattani's constant daily flower offering to Sonam is derived from a similar situation in Dil Chahta Hai. And that is just one of many!

Imran Khan is actually pretty decent in IHLS or rather he tries super hard. As an actor, he has moved up the charts and he works as the Casanova in the film. That said, he does tend to ham in a number of scenes. He looks hot and dances well in the title song. In fact, however clichéd this sounds put (pun intended), he rocked the song! Sonam Kapoor is average. She is better now than she has been in her previous films and so A for effort. But beyond that, there has to be an acting gene in the girl somewhere. She needs to find it desperately. Okay here is the problem: there is zero chemistry between Imran and Sonam and their pairing should not be repeated again. They looked like friends and that its: just friends. I couldn't for the life of me, find a spark that made me go YES! They could potentially light up the screen together. They lack the SRK-Kajol, Aamir-Juhi, Akshay-Raveena sparkle. It just wasn't there. The supporting cast lends good support to the film. Samir Soni is great as the exaggerated director. Samir Dattani is average and after a while becomes a bore.

So here's the deal. My sixteen-year-old male student didn't walk out of the film. And so, that tells you one thing: I Hate Luv Storys is definitely catered for the younger crowds who will aw and gush over the cuteness it harbors. And it has buckets full of it! As a complete package, I Hate Luv Storys is nothing short of a cheesy chick flick which manages to entertain. It doesn't aim to make a difference in Hindi cinema and it doesn't. You will not walk out feeling gooey inside nor will you walk out feeling inspired. You should watch IHLS if you are an ardent Imran Khan fan, this film is his shining glory or if you are a Sonam Kapoor fan because she looks phenomenal. Hate it or love it, sorry luv it, I Hate Luv Storys is simply put, paisa vasool.

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