A mixed bag of movies this weekend:
Antarctic Journal Terrific Korean film about a doomed expedition to the Antarctic. While initially there seems to be some malign beasty at work, disorienting the crew of explorers, towards the end of the film you are not really sure. It stars Song Kang-ho, possibly Korea's most talented actor who has acted in several films playing characters who are nothing like each other, as the monomaniacal irascible leader of the expedition. While always a bit of a hardass, his attitude starts to scare his companions especially as it gets closer to six months of winter and as their numbers begin to dwindle. To add another creepy WTF dimension, one of the journal members stumbles on a log maintained by a British expedition to the same neck of the woods who was never heard from again. Terrific taut film that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go.

Fanny & Alexander Dull film by Ingmar Bergman about kids from a liberal theatrical family who get an uptight religious asshole of a step-father. It could have been a good movie if it was reasonably paced but given its leisurely meandering nature with tons of details on subplots that I found profoundly dull, this was a film that I couldn't be bothered to sit through till the end.

Once Upon a Time in MumbaiAfter having watched several thousand films, I have a few ground rules on movies. There's of course no guarantee that films that meet this criteria will be great but I daresay even if they are bad, they won't be as bad as awful films that DO NOT meet these.

1. The ideal running time for a film is between 80 to a 100 minutes
2. Fast is almost always better than slow
3. Any activity shown to be done in real time - especially ones that are inherently boring like eating or walking from one place to the other - should be avoided entirely

This is a film that violates every single one of these rules and then fucks up in ways that I never thought were possible. It's an atrocious glorification of crime but makes crime and criminals look incredibly boring. I saw it in a theatre full of the chavanni athanni crowd and they lapped this shit up so maybe it's just me that finds this dull. Anyway between Kailash Kher's disgusting bleating voice, Emran Hashmi's colossal lack of talent and Ajay Devgan sleepwalking through a role he could've sleepwalked through, and Kangana Ranaut not saying BAARSCHUD even ONCE in the first half, this was not a film worth watching to the end.

finally watched Inception last evening and i liked this one.....

Predators - total suckology

Predators After a promising start that sees the protagonist regaining consciousness while spiralling towards the ground and struggling with a parachute, Predators lapses into formulaic dullness that is only relieved to some extent in the last 20 minutes or so. This is the last time I'm going to watch a remake. Definitely the absolute last time I am going to pay to watch a remake. Most of these are made by people who have absolutely NO imagination. At best, they pay slavish homage to the source material with some mild updates on the gore/special effects (Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre). At worst, they pussy out completely, have none of the setpieces that made the original worthwhile and are made only because its less of a chore making a film than it is personally mugging several 100,000 people worldwide and taking their money (Nightmare on Elm Street, Predators). Predators also sucks balls because it stars Adrien Brody. A very limited bandwidth actor (who is nevertheless good when he's playing a sensitive loser - which is all the roles he has done so far), Brody, recent time in the gym notwithstanding, looks like he's a sneeze away from bursting into tears, playing the piano or wondering why his daddy and brothers don't love him. Awful movie. Apart from the last 20 minutes and the sudden and hilarious appearance of the Burger King Laurence (Filet of) Fishburne, this is totally worthless.

Predator Having seen the turd of a remake, I decided to check out the original which I hadn't seen end to end and it kicks fierce ass. Unlike certain snobs that we all know, I believe this film has held up pretty well, right down to the visual FX. Ahrnold is fantastic, the rest of a vast galaxy of badasses (Carl Weathers, Jesse 'The Body' Ventura) at least competent and the movie is in parts suspenseful and genuinely horrific.

The Hitcher A brilliant film. Sort of like what David Lynch would make if he didn't have his head up his ass and wasn't so intent on being boring and inscrutable. Jim Halsey (C Thomas Howell) is on his way to California when, to keep himself from dropping off to sleep, he picks up hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer). Ryder wastes no time in proving himself to be more than a little south of sanity and Halsey successfully manages to evict him from the car. What follows is film that's logic, to quote Orson Welles' intro to The Trial, is one of a nightmare. Ryder stalks Halsey like some sort of an insane nemesis, butchering people with impunity. Halsey finds himself taking the fall for Ryder's crimes. Everything he does is doomed - from his attempts to flee the law to his desperate desire to surrender. Fleshing out an already strong plot is some absolutely stunning direction from Robert Harmon. Flawless.

D.A.R.Y.L. A pleasant film that claims to be science fiction but has about as much to do with sci-fi as LOTR or Star Wars. Daryl seems to be a perfect kid (almost too perfect for the comfort of his foster parents). Later it turns out that his perfection is because he is in actuality a Data Analysing Robot Youth Lifeform. Lulz. Kinda like Short Circuit and its sequels though not as entertaining.

GI Joe - The Rise of Cobra: Uhm, what was this supposed to be? A tribute to GI Joe? An action movie? If any one figures it out, do let me know.

Been watching the "Girl who..." movie trilogy, which was pretty good on the whole with caveats.

First film, Dragon Tattoo, was a detective movie in most part. Second film, Played with Fire, became an action movie with Jason Bourne like elements. Third film, Kicked The Hornet's Nest, is a courtroom drama mixed with espionage elements. Nice change of styles, and Noomi Rapace as the misandrist heroine Lisbeth is really good to watch.

The Expendables Loved it.

Vengeance Incredibly stylish Honk Kong action movie with a French hero. A family is attacked leaving the husband and children dead and wife in the hospital. The wife's dad comes to town for revenge and hires three local hit men to help him. There's a memento touch to it but overall well worth seeing.

Murder Inc. 60s movie about a true life crime syndicate in the 1930s. Some very good acting and fast paced action and this movie is quite hardboiled. Very good watch.

Near Dark Vampire tale set in small town America with Lance Henriksen leading a pack of white trash vampires on a merry path of blood and guts. This was total entertainment and some of the stuff was genuinely creepy.

Dexter Been running through episodes for a while now and finished Season 4 a couple of days ago. Pretty decent timepass overall but occasionally the show just plays out like a complete fantasy with no basis in anything real at all. Still, good fun.

Dollhouse Just started with this one and it's written by Joss Whedon and its about a company that can brainwash humans and get them to be the perfect anything for a price. Eliza's Dushku's hot and the series is a bit slow 3 episodes in but looks promising.

General Knowledge wrote:
The Expendables Loved it.

Amen to that! finally we agree on something! lol! caught this last evening and man was this an awesome watch!!!

HathyaSaiBaba wrote:




The Hitcher A brilliant film. Sort of like what David Lynch would make if he didn't have his head up his ass and wasn't so intent on being boring and inscrutable. Jim Halsey (C Thomas Howell) is on his way to California when, to keep himself from dropping off to sleep, he picks up hitchhiker John Ryder (Rutger Hauer). Ryder wastes no time in proving himself to be more than a little south of sanity and Halsey successfully manages to evict him from the car. What follows is film that's logic, to quote Orson Welles' intro to The Trial, is one of a nightmare. Ryder stalks Halsey like some sort of an insane nemesis, butchering people with impunity. Halsey finds himself taking the fall for Ryder's crimes. Everything he does is doomed - from his attempts to flee the law to his desperate desire to surrender. Fleshing out an already strong plot is some absolutely stunning direction from Robert Harmon. Flawless.

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have you watched the 2007 remake with Sean Bean in it? bloody fucking cool!

Ended up at Starcity Matunga to catch Peepli [Live]. Don't believe the hype. Its not a film that you MUST see, neither is it a film that will gauge you to ponder. At about two hours, which really feel like three or more, its production values or mis en scene (woohoo! Film school here i come!) was to me the highlight. The director, who i believe is a former journalist, captures the setting & feel of a television newsroom and the village, with its farmers, politicians and policemen spot on. I don't feel the need to go on and on about the subject, because frankly, it doesn't do anything for the cause it satires. Doesn't leave you with a lump in your throat, and neither does it impress on you an idea that needs to be talked about / discussed / buzzed / facebooked / yadda yadda. Just like Taare Zameen Par, this will be made out to be cinema with a message, which i'd rather, rather not have. A decent satire, at best.

Not seen the remake, Vikk. Will check it out sometime. Saw the Tam film that was later remade into Hathya. Sathyaraj was a TOTAL badass. Whatever happened to that guy? He's fantastic in this film which plays to all his strengths - beating people up, being sarcastic and looking weepy eyed in a relatively badass way.

yeah Sathyaraj was awesome. Even his comic scenes with Gaundamani were hilarious.

Saw Salt last night and its a Slightly disappointing action/thriller in the whole Bourne Identity, she's a double agent and her own people are after her type way. Angelina Jolie looks terrific and some of the action scenes are nicely done but most of it is boring.

Been a while since I posted so here's the stuff I watched in the interim:

The A-Team Sometimes I wonder whether I'm being too much of a snob by dismissing some popular movies that aren't too thought-provoking but good fun anyway. This isn't one of those times. Goddamn, it's bad. The fidelity to the TV series isn't relevant - this isn't a good movie on its own, and that's all that matters. Some over the top action scenes occur and that's about the only fun part. I didn't care if any of the characters lived or died (as in, they weren't even interesting enough for me to wish horrible deaths upon), and the script was abysmal. People just say shit randomly because the plot requires booting along. Actually, what was the plot? Something about counterfeiting money, it was so boring I don't remember.

Prince of Persia Better than the A-Team. Or is it? Not sure, maybe the marketing department was right, and the blatant appeals to my gamer bias actually got through. Either way, don't mistake that as a recommendation. This is a bad movie too. And at 2 hours, it's too long as well. Let's see, in the first game, the protagonist is a slave who gets tossed in the dungeon, fights his way up to the tower, kills Jaffar, finds the Princess and rap..I mean, rescues her. Here, the guy is some street urchin who the King sees and adopts after being impressed by his spunk. Was that Freudian? Maybe.

So when the princes are all grown up, the Persian army invades this holy city because the King's brother/advisor finds evidence that they are supplying weapons to their enemies. After subjugating the place, they don't find any weapons. Considering the geography, that was funny - not sure if videogame movies are the best place to get all politically metaphorical, but maybe they were just goofing around, in which case - okie dokie. Prince finds dagger of time, plot kicks in and some shit happens. SO BORING! Some of the action scenes were alright, but the fucking dialog! They obviously looked at the last few games, found the back-and-forth between the prince and Farah (was there some other girl too? I forget) and said 'Let's do that!' So the princess and the prince, they bicker clumsily and then some more things happen and at the end ... Gyllenhal doesn't have the presence to be an action lead, Ben Kingsley understandably phones it in and Alfred Molina has maybe a couple of moments as comic relief. Gemma Arterton's cute, but she can't act. Not yet, anyway. Some action scenes were passable, and the first few minutes seemed more ripped off from Assassin's Creed than PoP, down to some of the camera angles.

Salt GK got it right - this is a poor man's Bourne movie. The plot feels like they're making it up as they go along, and I doubt it'd stand up to a second viewing, since characters do some pretty senseless things in hindsight. There are several twists in the tale, with double and triple crosses, but all of them feel a result of 'we need a twist here!' decisions rather than a natural progression of the story. Plus the action is weird (though pretty competent) - it starts off pretty low-key and realistic and then goes ballistic in the third act. Maybe that was intentional, considering the plot, but still - weird. And it's just, well, loose - at very few points in the movie are you actually following a plot, you're just watching things happen. Maybe that was just me, though.

Hot Tub Time Machine Concept with potential (making fun of/reminiscing about the 80s takes a bit of time to get old), but undone by some pretty shitty scriptwriting where they don't bother to write any actual jokes, just have the characters do 'wacky' things and hope that the audience will think that's funny enough. However, this movie has boobies (at least a couple of seconds worth), so it's every so slightly redeemed. Seriously though, don't watch this.

Alice, Sweet Alice A forgotten 70s slasher that recently got a DVD upgrade, this is a surprisingly tight little film with a fair degree of tension and suspense. Alice is a young girl constantly compared to her pretty younger sister and struggling with coming to terms with puberty and largely ignored by her parents who have separated. Then her little sister is burnt to death in the church, an aunt she hates is brutally attacked with a carving knife and all fingers point to Alice. Good solid watch and recommended for a lazy weekend.