alishahmohd Reviews

The Conjuring 2 (2016)

A mesmerizing horror flick that is one of the better movie sequels in recent memory

[8/10 · 21 October 2016]

The Conjuring came out in the year 2013. It was a supernatural horror movie based on a real life incident, set in the 1970s, and it focused on the efforts of the demonologists Ed Warren and Lorraine Warren to help a distressed family get rid of an evil spirit, which had possessed one of the family members. The movie had its scary moments and was fun to watch from the start to the finish. The Conjuring received rave reviews from both critics and fans alike and was a commercial success. This left the audience craving for a sequel, and after the release of the somewhat disappointing spin-off movie called "Annabelle", the developers finally released the sequel called "The Conjuring 2" this year in 2016.

The Conjuring 2 is a very similar movie to the first movie and follows a similar plot line. The movie is set three years after the first Conjuring and once again a family in distress is haunted by an evil spirit in their place of residence in England. The family begs for help for Ed and Lorraine Warren to help them, after it is obvious that the local authorities or the priests could not control the situation. What separates this plot line from the first movie is that this particular job is more personal for Lorraine and Ed Warren.

Much like the Conjuring, this movie is based on a real life case, although it has been glorified for theatrical and dramatic reasons to engross the audience. This movie actually comes off as more scary than the first movie, because the spirit or demon in this movie seems far more powerful and dangerous than the one the prequel and there is more focus on the horror sections as compared to the first movie. The first movie did very well due to its dramatic performances from the lead actors and comparatively was not that scary.

Performance wise, the cast does really well. Vera Farmiga and Patrick Wilson are almost perfect for the role of Lorraine and Ed Warren respectively and give their best effort. Madison Wolfe who plays the possessed girl Janet, also performs very well in her role. Frances O'Connor who plays the role of the mother of the children, also does an excellent job of playing the role of a mother who is traumatized with what has happened. The rest of cast also gives a commendable effort.

The sound effects of the movie are done remarkably well as they add to the horror element of the move and intensifies the scary moments in the movie to engage and gripe the audience, and this results in many nerve-racking moments throughout the entire movie. The movie is not heavy on special effects or gimmicks, the special effects are just on point and the creepy background and demonic voices only add to the horror element of the movie.

My main problem with the movie would be with the length, the movie goes longer than 2 hours and somewhat drags by the time it reaches the climax. The movie drags on so long is because of the heavy involvement of the media in it, some people in the media were hell bent on proving that the family was faking the incident. This movie could have done without these sections.

Overall the Conjuring 2 is a great supernatural horror movie and a great follow up to its predecessor. Nowadays, movie sequels hardly deliver and are more of a cash grab that is not the case with the Conjuring as the movie is arguably almost as good as or even better than the first movie, and in many instances also creepier than the first movie. This is a must watch for anyone who likes to watch horror movie, it would be a mesmerizing experience from the start to the finish.

Airlift (2016)

A great movie which fantastically portrays the events of Kuwait Invasion

[9/10 · 27 March 2016]

Airlift is based on Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in the year 1990, which resulted in the airlift of over 1 lac Indians, who were trapped in Kuwait because of the invasion. A rescue operation of this magnitude had never taken place before and may never take place again. And this entire movie perfectly portrays these events.

We follow a business Tycoon named Katiyal, who at the start of a movie is a conniving individual, who will go to any lengths to earn a profit, he also thinks of himself in a league of own and does not really care about his subordinates or servants. Things change when the Invasion takes place, and the people start to get killed. Although the Iraqi soldiers were just killing the Kuwaitis, Indians and others were also being killed if their identities were not confirmed.

Kaityal turns over a completely new leaf and now he is not only trying to escape Kuwait himself for the safety of his own family, but he is also trying to save more than 1 lac Indians who are trapped in Kuwait. And this does not just include his employees but other Indians trapped on Kuwait, who Katiyal does not even know. Katiyal goes to great lengths to get these Indians out of Kuwait, failing many times but never giving up hope. Although Katiyal could leave himself with his family, he simply refuses to abandon his people.

Katiyal's character development throughout the movie is a huge high point, and Akshay Kumar plays his role perfectly. The other supporting characters in the movie who get screen time including Katiyal's wife and friends, Iraqi general, also stand out in their performances. the dialogue is also very well written, which leads to many memorable scenes.

However, i do wish they could have explored a little bit more on how Kuwait was before the invasion, and a little more in-depth look into Katiyal's conniving businessman character. This would have made the movie and Katiyal's character development even better.

Airlift is a fantastic, it is not your average Masala flick, but a more realistic movie based on a real life incident, with tremendous performances and acting by the cast, which will not only entertain you, but also inspire you and touch your heart.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Wazir (I) (2016)

Excellent Movie with an interesting story and brilliant performances from it's lead actors.

[9/10 · 16 January 2016]

Wazir is an Indian drama thriller starring Amitabh Bachan and Farhan Akhtar in the main lead.

Honestly with these two in the lead you can expect nothing but top notch performances when it comes to acting. Amitabh Bachan always delivers in his roles even at this age he plays his roles and characters with all his might and heart. As far as Farhan Akhtar goes, I have always considered him a good actor, his roles in Luck by Chance and Karthik Calling Karthik in particular were excellently portrayed. Here Farhan Akhtar plays the role of officer Danish exceptionally well, with brilliant acting and dialogue delivery.

However it is not just the acting of the main lead actors that makes this films. Other actors who get far less screen time perform their roles exceptionally well. Aditi Rao Hydari plays her role well as the wife of Danish (Farhan Akhtar), Manav Kaul is good in his role as Minister Yazaad Qureshi). And Neil Nitin Mukesh is just fantastic in his antagonistic role as Wazir. Sadly Neil hardly gets any screen time, but his performance in the small amount of time he got is worthy of nothing but praise. I would love to see him in a movie with him as the lead main villain, he is just so good at it.

The story is interesting and it will keep you on the edge of your seat wondering what will happen next. The plot is also not filled with a lot of complex or overly complicated aspects regarding politicians and terrorists, it just keeps things simple for the casual audiences, which is good. There is also a a lot of dialogue which is just specifically about the art of chess, this dialogue is not pointless at all, instead it is symbolic to the entire movie.

The film is also not that long in length, which also gives it a replay value, there are few good songs in between, which are not that long and suit the situation they are being played in. Songs do not take anything away from the immersion in the movie. The sound effects during the action sequences are fine. And the action sequences in particular are well shot are not overdone

If there is any criticism I can come up with, it is that this film expects us to heavily suspend our disbelief and in some instances it is not realistic at all, although the director, crew and the cast try to ensure that everything in the movie comes off as realistic. But several sections of the movie force us to suspend our disbelief taking away from the realism of the overall movie.

Overall Wazir was a fantastic drama thriller film, with brilliant acting, with many interesting twists and turns, which will have you on the edge of our seat. This is a film which any fan of Big B, Farhan Akhtar or fans of drama thrillers in general would enjoy watching.

Overall Rating: 9/10

Talvar (2015)

A good thriller based on a true murder case.

[8/10 · 13 January 2016]

I have grown up watching many different thrillers on television, that includes the Crime Patrol TV Series on Sony TV which also shows cases and investigations based on true crimes and incidents.

Talwar is a similar concept. This is a movie based on the 2008 Noida Murder case where a teenage girl and house servant were found murdered in their house and after a series of investigations by both the police officers and the CBI, the parents were convicted of the murders.

This movie tries to cover up all the aspects of the case and how the investigations were conducted by the police officers and CBI and it is done well for the most part. The carelessness of the police officers is shown at the start of the movie and how poorly it was handled resulting in the loss of crucial evidence. The investigation conducted by the CBI teams is also shown where two different teams use different approaches to handle the case. Motives of the murder by both the parents and the servant's friends were also investigated.

Although it is evident that the parents in this film are portrayed in a sympathetic light and they seem like the victims here. However, after reading about the original murder case, the parents behavior and the answers they came up with during the real investigation seemed very shady. The parents in this film feel like they were heavily victimized and the police just blamed them to cover up the botched investigations. Which is to an extent also true when it comes to the real case itself but the parents were also being very suspicious from what I read about the original case.

Regardless of this aspect, the film's direction is very good, and it kept me on the edge of my seat to see what happens next, and what other turn would this investigation take. Acting wise Konkona Sen Sharma and Neeraj Kabi perform well as the victim's parents. Irrfan Khan is excellent in his role as CBI officer and offers some humor to the film, although I feel like his side romance story with Tabu was not needed in the film. The other actors are fine, the actors who play as servants could have performed better honestly, I understand the Nepali origin of their characters but the performances seemed lacking in some cases.

The film concludes as the original case did with the parents being convicted although in the end of this film it feels like something was amiss and the wrong people were charged with the murders. Honestly we will never know, the decision has been made.

Talwar is a great film with does a good job of portraying all the angles on the Noida Murder case on screen. Any fan of crime thrillers should watch this, even ones who don't about this case will entertained for this film's entire duration.

Overall Rating: 8/10

Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip (1999 TV Movie)

A really good movie of Dexter's Laboratory

[8/10 · 25 April 2015]

I grew up as a huge fan of the Dexter's Laboratory TV series, I was a huge fan, and I was always looking forward to it's episodes on cartoon network.Boomerang cartoon were just awesome, Dexter's lab, along with Powerpuff Girls, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ed, Edd and Eddy were among my favorites. But out of all them I loved Dexter's lab the most. I loved Dexter's character and found Dee annoying, his parents were also hilarious and funny in an entertaining sort of way. Once the second season ended in 1998. The director of the TV series came up with the idea for a movie for Dexter's laboratory.

Dexter's Laboratory: Ego Trip includes most of the elements which made the TV series great, Dexter's character, Mandark, Dexter's rivalry with Mandark, Dee Dee's tendency to push buttons. Although most of this movie is focused on the rivalry between Dexter and Mandark, Dee hardly gets any screen time, Mom and Dad only appear at the start never to be seen again, that is a disappointment, along with that Ego Trip is not a full length movie, it was lasts for around 50 minutes. Which is far less time. Maybe they could have made this movie longer and had other characters make a cameo or had Dad, Mom or Dee Dee get more screen time or have dexter spend more time future time period.

I heard people saying that the movie was too dark with a lack of humor, I disagree, I found wimpy Dexter hilarious, his interactions with younger Dexter were also funny. Old Dexter was the funniest Dexter and his interactions with the other two were also hilarious. Mandark on the other hand also has his funny moments. Sadly Dee who was a major part of the series' humor does not appear a lot, but the ending scene in which she appears with all the Mandarks saying "Dee Dee" was funny.

Additionally the film is well voice acted just like the TV series, the animations are fantastic just like they were in the first two seasons of the show, the action packed scenes including Action Dexter fighting mandark's robots, and all the dexters fighting the Mandarks and his minion robots was also entertaining and the background art and animations of the cities and different time periods was presented well. the soundtrack is also great just like the TV show.

Apart from several characters not making an appearance, many not getting screen time, there is not much wrong with this movie. Although I wish it was longer, but its short length gives it tons of replay value, you may as well want to watch it just like you watch the episodes of the TV series of Dexter's Lab.

Overall Ego trip is an entertaining affair and a really good cartoon movie just just a few shortcomings, but if you were a fan of the TV show you will find this movie enjoyable. Many people consider this the last episode of Dexter's Lab as seasons 3 and 4 are not that well liked among the fans. Now I don't think seasons 3 and 4 were terrible, they had a few good episodes, but this movie is more on par with the first two seasons of Dexter's laboratory which made the series so great.

Rating: 8/10

Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)

One of the best Sci-Fi action movies ever

[10/10 · 10 December 2014]

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is easily one of the greatest Science Fiction films ever created. Almost everything about this film from top to bottom, from the start to it's finish it's perfect. The direction is fantastic and it is unbelievable that this film was shot in the 1990s when the technology was so redundant, the action scenes and affects in this film are almost unbelievable for 1991. All the scenes are shot well and are interesting to watch, and they are pinnacle for the all the Sci-Fi action films that came in the future. Many Action Sci-Fi films could learn to base their action scenes off of this movie because it's that good.

The sound affects and the music is also perfect for the times when it is played and the sound effects are loud and well orchestrated.

It is not just about the action and the direction when it comes to T2:JD, the storyline is also interesting and it will keep you on the edge of your seat and the storytelling is also top notch and you are always wondering what is going to happen next. The film is not based on mindless action it is intelligent storytelling at it's finest and the Perfect follow up to and a perfect continuation of the first terminator movie. I was always on the Edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. The dialog is also interesting at all times and all the actors are almost perfect in their roles. They are so perfect that I cannot even imagine anyone else playing their roles.

Arnold is fantastic in his role as T-101 this time playing as the savior or the good guy unlike the first movie where he played the antagonist. If you thought he did a great job as an antagonist in the first film. You will be blown away here, he is even better as a protagonist and is acting and his voice and accent are almost perfect to play a cyborg, it just works so well.

Edward Furlong who was only a teenager at the time is just fantastic in his role, his acting, facial expressions, emotions and dialog delivery are all top notch and his interactions with both Linda (Sarah Connor) and Arnold (Terminator) are fantastic and memorable scenes.

Linda Hamilton plays a different role than she did in the first movie, in the first film she was an innocent person who was victimized this movie show how her character has developed and how she has grown tougher and stronger after the first film determined to protect John and prevent the end of the world from coming. This is perfect character development in a movie and Linda does a marvelous Job. Lastly Robert Patrick who does not talk much is a great antagonist, he is silent and mysterious and cold and calculated as that serious angry expression on his face most of the time which works so well, the action scenes between him and Arnold are just a thing of beauty and perfectly shot. the rest of the supporting cast including Doctor Silverman pare also great in their roles. Almost nothing bad I can say about the acting in this film.

Overall Terminator 2: Judgement Day is not only one of the greatest Action Sci-Fi films ever made, it is one of the best films ever, it is a perfect balance of good storyline and good action which is a rarity for Hollywood nowadays. Add to that the perfect direction and brilliant casting and performances from almost the entire cast. You have got a brilliant film a one you can watch again again. This is the perfect follow up to the first Terminator Movie, the sequels to T2:JD which were Terminator 3: Rise of Machines and Terminator Salvation were alright but they did not live up to the first 2 films and were honestly not needed. The first two films completed the story they wanted to tell.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Wrong Turn 6: Last Resort (2014 Video)

Boring....

[3/10 · 21 October 2014]

I write long reviews for most movies, but for Wrong Turn 6, I will keep this short.

I highly recommend not to watch this movie, it's storyline is boring and it is mostly filled with too many out of place and at times disgusting and even cringe worthy sex scenes. Speaking of the violent scenes, there are plenty of them in this movie, but they are just ridiculous at times. Did this film scare me? Yeah a couple of times when they did the jump scares and when they showed some really gory, bloody and disgusting scenes. Believe me some scenes in this movie will make you have nightmares it's just that gory.

The storyline is nothing to write home about, it moves at a slow pace and it is just not interesting, the acting is not good but what would you expect from a group of small time actors. Near the end I was just begging for it to be over, the movie was only 90 minutes long but felt like 9 hours with its slow plot. Wrong Turn 1 was a good horror movie, but not an instant classic that spawned so many sequels.

Bottomline don't watch Wrong Turn 6, unless of-course you like to watch sex and tons of violence, but if you are looking for a good and intelligent and interesting horror movie, with nice characters, storyline , nice scares, well then this film is not for you, which is what I want when watching a movie then avoid this film at all costs you are better off spending time elsewhere.

Overall: 3/10.

The Others (2001)

A very good horror film with a spectacular conclusion

[9/10 · 23 August 2014]

When I first heard of The Others, I honestly was that not interested in watching it, it's premise seemed like a generic horror flick and the plot about a mother living with her photosensitive children alone in a large house or mansion sounded as generic as it gets. How many horror movies we have seen with families living in an abandoned Haunted mansion? The Others didn't seem that different even if the children were suffering from a rare illness or disease, it became hard for me to distinguish the Others from your average generic horror flick. All that was until I actually watched this great film was absolutely mesmerized with it.

The film starts out slow, as you are introduced to the characters and the new servants are hired to work in the house and you are introduced to the children and find out about the rare disease they suffer from. As the plot unfolds and the film moves on, events start to unfold, some weird incidents and noises start to occur in the house making the mother, the children and the servants realize that they are not alone in the house, making them believe it is haunted. The plot keeps on unfolding when the unforeseen twist occurs in the end, which I honestly did not see coming at all. It was shocking and was so well handled and executed that it is in my opinion one of the best scenes in horror films even though the scene in retrospect is not that scary but it is the shock factor that makes that scene so great to watch.

Performance wise, Nicole plays Grace, the mother of the two children perfectly, she is strict towards her children and tries to discipline them, but is also well protective of them and loves them deeply, she is also depressed about being cut off from the rest of the world due to her children's condition. Bertha Mills who plays the nanny does a fantastic job in her role as a kind old lady but there is something that always remains mysterious about her especially in the later part of the film where she behaves oddly and it seems like that she is up to something with the other servants.

The boy who plays Nicolas was actually good in his role, a kid who is scared, and is a sort of a momma's boy who is deeply attached to his mother, and he is scared about the recent haunting in the house. That brings me to Alakina Mann the girl who play's Ann. She received nominations for her performance in this film and it is very well deserved. It is a one of best performances a child artist has done in a horror film, she can be funny, she can be mysterious and creepy, and can also play a serious role. All of which she does in this film. Ann's character was extremely deep and the actress who played her did her job as perfectly as she can. The rest of the cast also performs well and serve well in their roles.

Overall, before the watched the Others, I was thinking about watching just another horror film but I was so wrong, this is a fantastic film, with several scary parts and creepy scenes, a slow but well developed plot and a spectacular twist which will leave you in awe and leave you talking about it for days, and make you watch the entire film entirely from a different perspective.

Overall Rating: 9/10.

Identity (2003)

The last act ruins what could have been a good film.

[4/10 · 3 August 2014]

The Identity had a a lot of good things going for it and before I watched it I expected a good suspense/thriller film. First of all John Cusack was in this film and he always puts on good performances in the roles that he is given, he carried the above average horror flick 1408, and made it so much more entertaining and fun to watch with his enthusiastic performance. Identity had John Cusack and also had a large cast of other actors many of which I did not know of. But the basic plot at the premise of the whole film was very appealing. I was expecting something good in the very least.

Movie was going in the right direction, not only Cusack but rest of the cast performed well, and the settings and environments seemed appealing and the film was only getting better by the minute, until the last 1/4 portion of the movie where the big twist was revealed.

Now don't get me wrong twists are not bad, sometimes they up the status of the film and may make you come back for a second viewing, leave you shocked and leave room for interpretations. Another psychological horror/thriller Sixth Sense had a great twist; another suspense/thriller film like Usual Suspects had a great twist. The Others a horror film also had a great twist. But this film goes with the terrible it was all a dream concept which ruins all the interesting characters this film was trying to make us care about throughout most of the it. This Dream concept can work if executed right but here this concept ruins everything. We come to the realization that it all in the head of a mentally unstable serial killer who has multiple personalities in his brain, each of which is portrayed by the characters in the movie, the serial killer personality is the killing off the other characters (personalities) which represent something good in the killer or a softer side to him.

I don't see this as an intelligent concept because it's premise is flawed from the start, personalities co-exist in the brain they don't try to kill each other off as portrayed in the movie, neither they are numbered in a specific order as portrayed in the movie. I thought the film was heading somewhere interesting when we found out all characters had the same birth date and had last names of countries or cities, but apparently all this was to present them as a personality in a psychopath's head.

Plus it's laughable who turns out to be the killer/evil personality at the end. We do agree to suspend our disbelief to a point when watching film but this is just unbelievable, I guess they just wanted to SHOCK us by revealing the kid as the killer, they decided to make the whole scenario take place in a psychopath's head to pass off the possibility of the kid as a killer just to SHOCK us. I wrote off the kid as a suspect the second I saw him just like anyone would, because which movie is ridiculous enough to portray a little child as a Serial Killer? I don't see how is this intelligent in anyway, it is nonsensical, ruins the characters and ruins the suspense the movie had. Why should we care Cusack's character left his police job, why should we care about the Detective being a prisoner disguised as a cop, why care about the problems the couple was having , why care about that women's condition after the car accident. Why should we care about a psychopath guy who appears for like 5 minutes in the movie and what happens in his head and why should we care about what is happening in the head of a serial killer in the first place. Why care about anything at all. This twist ruins the whole thing and reveals that caring about anything related to the backstory of the characters is pointless and is not real and represents something in the psychopath's head.

Overall, Identity had a good basic premise, good performances and a good setting , and was only getting better but it will all ruined by the film's twist, which ruins everything this film established in its first half.

Overall Rating: 4/10.

Saw (2004)

Game Over!

[9/10 · 26 July 2014]

The year 2004 was a great year for Hollywood. As this year brought many brilliant, memorable and big budget movies to Hollywood which were both critically and commercially successful. Saw was one of those films which was actually the wild card. It was an independent film with a low budget and a new entry into the survival horror and suspense/thriller genre of movies, with so many movies of the genre already out during that during time period, Saw was the dark house and it was not known whether it would be successful or not.

Saw turned out to be a such a big success that it spawned 6 sequels. I always wanted to watch this movie as I am a fan of genre, but what put me off was that there was a lot of gore in this movie. I can handle violence but after watching many films with so much pointless gore and bloodshed just for the sake of it, I did not get around to watching this movie until recently.

The film puts you right into the action two men who don't know each other are trapped in a room together with a corpse, with no idea how they got there, they find out that some serial killer coin named the Jigsaw has trapped them there and wants them to play his Game to survive, than several events unfold with the two guys attempting to find out a way out, and also trying to get to know each other knowing that these maybe their final hours. The film also switches back and forth with flashback sequences of both guys that led them to that place which adds to the suspense of the film, we also get a flashback on some of the earlier Games played by the Jigsaw. There is also an interesting side story about a cop named Dupp who is obsessed with Jigsaw.

The films starts out great and will have you hooked to your seats and it adds to the mystery that the film was not told in a chronological order but kept on switching back and forth between the present and past sequences this leaves rooms for more shocking twists and more mysteries to be revealed.

Of course there was a twist at the end and I was not able to figure it out, I was actually shocked and the idea about it did not even cross my mind. But this twist leaves some ambiguity, interpretation and some suspension of disbelief. But the twist delivered in terms of shock value and many did not see it coming as I can tell from forums online.

The film is well shot and well directed, and the violence and gore is there but not to the extreme levels I expected so I did not find it that bad. Acting is fine, Adam and Lawrance do act somewhat naturally for the situation they were put in, Lawrence's character development by the end was also handled well. The Jigsaw did not get screen time a whole a lot but his voice was just menacing and villainous, and the mystery about him just adds to his character makes the character more thrilling and scary. The actor who plays the former detective Tapp also did a fine job. Shawnee Smith as Amanda was great in her cameo she played her traumatized character very well. The acting is not Oscar worthy or anything like that but I thought it was fine and done well.

Saw is an enjoyable horror/thriller film, It had me hooked from my seat from the beginning to the end and was extremely fun to watch. Although I am a fan of the genre there are films of this genre which I find tiresome and hard to sit through and mostly find myself skipping through the scenes , Saw was the complete opposite of such films it had me glued to my seat and I was anticipated to see what happens next. The end left me in shock and after the ending I am still thinking about this movie and it's story and trying to interpret it's events. This is a great survival horror, suspense, mystery which is recommended to any fan of the genre.

Overall 9/10.

The Truman Show (1998)

Ambitious and a great thought provoking film, which is a great combination of social satire and philosophy.

[9/10 · 14 July 2014]

The Truman Show is a fantastic film, it is about a man whose entire life is a TV show, he has been monitored and been on since the day he was born all the way to his mid thirties. Although he is not aware of this fact all the people around him, his family, his relatives, neighbors and friends are all actors hired by the TV show also to monitor him.

The film starts out pretty basic and simple, you wouldn't think anything extraordinary is happening, you will just be seeing an average man going about his daily routine, things keep on going pretty basic until an unforeseen event unfolds in his life, and he becomes confused about what is going on. Some of Truman's actions do not make sense early on as well, tearing the pictures of girls from magazines. Soon after some events Truman finds out something is wrong and there are people following him and monitoring his moments, and soon after the twist is revealed in it's full form, that Truman is in a TV show only he is not aware of it and everyone he knows in that town is a hired actor and the city he lives in is also a film set.

This was a wonderful plot twist which not only makes the film so much more interesting and makes you want to re-watch the whole film again, from a different perspective, and closely watch the early scenes and listen to the dialog carefully and see how the actors are behaving around Truman. The ending was also great because it leaves it up to interpretation if Truman will be able to survive in the world out there when he has spent his entire life on the film set, the ending is not something i would call a HAPPY ENDING because it leaves it up to interpretation about Truman's future.

Performance wise this film is great, anyone who says Jim Carrey cannot do drama roles should watch this, he plays Truman at his very best, although he does bring humor to some of his scenes he is mostly playing a dramatic character and his antics, dialog delivery is all done well. Ed Harris did not get that much screen time but he played Christof spot on, he was perfect in playing a man who would go as far as he can to make his TV show a success and make sure Truman never leaves. The rest of the actors on the Truman Show did well they were all playing two roles, one of the actors in a TV shows and their characters in the TV show and it was well executed.

The direction is also fantastic there are camera which focus closely on Truman with the screen having a background which is the film's way of showing that Truman is on camera and is being watched by people around the world. The other camera angle is the one we see from out perspective. The setting is also done well, the whole island has been designed well to look like a TV set.

The music is also good, as it suits most of the scenes the film is in, the music that plays in the intro and the conclusion when Truman is talking to Christof specially suits those scenes perfectly.

The only minor issue with Truman Show would be it's slow pacing and slow start and slow development at least during your first watch, by the time the major event start to unfold and the film starts to get interesting and reveal the big twists, you may be kind of bored and may have grown restless. You may want to watch it a second time from a different perspective knowing clearly from the start that Truman is being directed the entire time, but the slow scenes may still put you off.

Regardless Truman Show is a fantastic, ambitious in-depth and thought provoking film about social satire which makes you think deeply. The film's storyline music and performances are all well done, and the fact that it's twist makes you watch it from a different perspective completely also makes this film that much better.

Overall rating: 9/10.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)

A fantastic, in-depth and though provoking film. One of the best romantic movies of the last decade.

[10/10 · 5 July 2014]

Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind is a love story about two lovers who undergo a procedure to erase each other from one another's memories, but when they meet after their memory is gone, there is something strange still drawing them together and it is also during that memory wipe that they realize how precious their relationship really was.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is one of those films where you have to pay close attention to the scenes and dialog because even the smallest bit of dialog is important in this film. Because otherwise you will be confused in your initial viewing and will soon be asking yourself what in the world is going on. This film requires close attention in the initial viewing or multiple viewings in order to fully understand it and appreciate it for what it truly is.

The film is not your basic love story, it is unique and sort of bizarre at the same time, and while it is not a suspense movie, it is filled with several shocking moments and twists, which will only increase your interest in the movie and the more you will be intrigued by it. The narrative part of the love story is also told in a reverse chronological order, which starts from the moment the lovers broke up and ends when they first met. While the present scenes are told in a normal order, the film constantantly switches back and forth between the two which may create some confusion, another one of the reasons that this film requires close attention, at first you will probably be confused about what you are seeing is the present or the past, but as the film will progress you will be able to tell them apart. The way the Narrative is similar to Mememto which also followed a reverse chronological order of storytelling. The storytelling is clever and interesting and only makes the film better and it's twists more shocking and intriguing.

Acting wise, Jim Carrey is in Truman Show mode, or probably the most serious he has ever been in a film, this is probably the most serious role he has ever done, and he shines in his role as Joel Barish and is completely into his character. Kate Winslet also performs excellently well, and her character development in both the dream sequence and the present sequence is done extremely well. The supporting cast did not get that much screen time but they are performed their roles well, Kirsten Durst and Mark Ruffalo are good but the scenes between them in the apartment are kind of drawn out and I could have done without a few of them, but Elijah Wood is really great in his role as Patrick and scenes between him and Clementine are also interesting.

The ending is also great because it leaves it completely up to the viewer to interpret what will happen next and the events that led up to the ending were also very interesting and intriguing. The soundtrack is also great and suits most of the scenes it is being played in, the opening and closing credits song is also fantastic and also wonderfully portrays the relationship between Clementine and Joel. The ice setting was not something i was fond of before watching the film but it is handled extremely well here, with the scene of Clementine and Joel laying on ice being one of the most touching and memorable moments of this film.

Overall, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, is a touching, in-depth and intriguing love story with such great plot, settings, performances and memorable moments that I can watch this film over and over again and never get bored. However you may need to watch this film multiple times to fully understand it's plot and the message it is trying to convey and appreciate it for what it truly is.

Rating: 9.5/10

The Villain (2014)

Ek Villain: A good romantic thriller

[8/10 · 28 June 2014]

This was one of the most anticipated Bollywood movies of 2014. Especially after the success of Aashiqui 2, which was also another great film by Mohit Suri. I am also a fan of Ritiesh Deshmukh, I always thought he had a a lot of talent and I mostly enjoy him in the comedy roles he is in, so I was interested in seeing how he would play the villain of the story. Siddarth did not impress me in Student of the year, but he was actually really good in Hasee toh Phasee. Sharaddha Kapoor was fantastic in Aashiqui 2 and I really liked her performance so I was already hyped up because of the main lead of the film.

First of all, let's not beat around the bush, many people are saying that this film's PLOT is inspired from or copied from 2010 Korean film, I Saw The Devil, and yes several parts are inspired from the said film, but the violence has been toned down to suit Bollywood and half of the story leads to the development of the love story, which was not there in I Saw in The Devil, they also gave the antagonist a family in this movie. And you mix that up with the Bollywood style and songs. So yes the main plot is inspired but it is not a ditto copy of the film.

Now on the movie, the plot overall was good, but was extremely slow in pace, and it took a while to get things movie and there was not a big Major Twist at the climax, perhaps if they had directed this film in a chronological order, suspense would have worked better, but that would have led to another problem, we would have only seen Shraddha in the entire first half and Ritiesh in the entire second, plus the all the action scenes and romance scenes would have been mixed up together, so the movie is broken into segments, it's current events and flashback sequences, the former deals with the suspense, and the latter deals with the love story. Which works well, but it makes the film move at a very very slow pace. Perhaps they could have toned down the number of romance sequences that would have helped the pace.

The film overall is well directed, the action sequences are shot well, the violence is toned down but not to the level of PG audiences, this movie can be really violent and bloody at times, the killing scenes and the fight scenes between the lead actors were brutal. The romantic sequences are also well shot, but very slow in pace, but the song actually complement the scenes, rather than provide a distraction, and the soundtrack overall is really good with some great songs, but in my opinion not as great as Aashiqui 2.

Performance wise, Riteish Deshmukh steals the show, he was fantastic as a villain and his acting was spot on, hopefully this opens hims up for more serious roles, comedy isn't his only talent, he can do serious roles and he proved it here by playing the deranged, frustrated and borderline psychotic serial killer. Siddarth Malhotra impresses once again in his Role as Guru, he played his part well and his character development was also well done. Shraddha Kappor is also great in her role and is the charm of the movie, yes she sort behaves like a child but that's the point she is enjoying her life because life is too short. The rest of the supporting cast was good. The actors who played Caesar and the Police Inspector did commendable jobs. Aamna Shariff was also very good in her role as the wife of Ritiesh Deshmukh, and the boy who plays Riteish's son also does a fine job.

Story wise the back-story or background of the characters was handled really well, much better than the basic plot, specially Siddarth and Riteish back-story and character development. However there are several unanswered plot points, like how Riteish's character finds his victim's places, it can be left to the interpretation of the audience but some sort of an explanation in the movie should have been provided as it only causes confusion. Additionally how long did he take to kill his victims he seemed to kill them at random what if they had a family member that showed up, that was never revealed, plus did the police not have a photograph of him once they found out he was the killer, and how did they find out he was the killer. Like I said many unexplained plot points which hurt the overall plot.

Overall Ek Villain is good Bollywood Romance-Thriller film which would be a solid one or two time watch, but it's extremely slow pace may hurt it's replay value. But if anything this movie is worth watching for the performance of the main cast, especially Riteish Deshmukh who delivers a fantastic performance and steals the show.

Rating: 8/10

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Great Sci-Fi movie and good performance from Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt

[9/10 · 14 June 2014]

Edge of Tomorrow is a really fun Sci-Fi flick, which offers both excitement, it will have you hooked to your seat from the beginning to the end and it also has good humor and many funny scenes. But that is not all this film also has some really good action sequences, along with an interesting and intriguing storyline. A guy is reliving 24 hours of his life again, again and again, because when he dies the day the resets, and he wakes up in the camp where he was 24 hours earlier having already witnessed everything before.

I am always fascinated by Sci-Fi movies which are based on around time travel, Back to the Future I is one of my favorite films ever, its sequels while not living up to the original were still fun to watch, there are also many other good films based on time travel like Groundhog Day, Source Code and Looper. There are others in which the time travel concept existed but grew tiresome or was just not that interesting, films like Peggy Sue got married, Time Machine (2002) and Midnight in Paris are films based on time travel that failed to hold my interest. Fortunately Edge of tomorrow ranks among the former not the latter and is one of the best films released in 2014 so far.

Many actions scenes are brilliantly shot, the fight scenes between the army and the mimics are really well done, the dialog has humor and also carries the plot forward. Tom Cruise is fantastic as Officer Cage, he performs many great action sequences, provides humor to the film and also helps carry the film, Blunt serving as the female lead and his Love Interest also does an excellent job. Blunt's role as Sergeant Vrataski is that of hardened female soldier, who single handedly killed many many mimics in the battle of Verdun she is not your typical female in action films who needs the hero to protect her, she is fighting soldier, Blunt also trained hard for this role and she delivered. The supporting cast is good, it was awesome to see Bill Paxton in this film and the scenes between him and Cruise were really good. The actors who played the J Squad also do a great job.

The film's premise about Cruise knowing all of his friends for hundreds of days and them barely knowing him ads a lot to the film and also made the angle between Cage and Rita Vrataski more than your average love angle and also made for some interesting interactions between them. I also applaud the attention to the detail in this movie, many scenes that are repeated are 100% accurate to the last dialog, watching these scenes unfold again and again also makes this film more intriguing. The sound effect and music is also good and suits the film.

My minor problems would be that the film starts to drag a little in the middle before Rita and Cage make it to farmhouse, the movie then once again picks up after the farmhouse scene, also seems like by the end the film started skipping many important loops, for example, Cage having already been at the farmhouse before many times, when we first saw him there, he had already been at the General's office many times, when we saw him go there with Rita. This kind of creates some ambiguity and confusion and I feel this film should have at least added some quick scenes of Page's earlier visits to the general's office and the farmhouse rather than just showing the scenes in which he actually succeeds, it would have added to the movie in my opinion.

I have a mixed opinion about the ending firstly, it kind of leaves you hanging about the relationship between Cage and Rita, leaves you hanging on the edge of the final battle between Mimics and the soldiers in France, it is also one of those cliché endings where nobody really dies, and everybody is happy, but at least they did not go all the way and have Page and Rita reunite share a passionate kiss at the end of the movie that would have been so cliché, instead they just cut to the credits at their final meeting. Perhaps Page sacrificing himself or somehow surviving and waking up in a hospital bed and being declared a hero would have been a better. But maybe thats the point of the movie to leave you hanging and thinking what is going to happen tomorrow and creating some ambiguity, leaving room for interpretations rather than providing a straightforward ending.

Overall Edge of tomorrow is a great action flick, which will keep you on the Edge of your seat from it's start to it's finish, i am shocked to see Cruise in such a great action film at this stage in his career, this is a film which offers humor, entertainment, good acting and storyline, even if you did not read the book, you will find this film entertaining. One of the best films of 2014, and a must watch.

Watch Dogs (2014 Video Game)

A good open world game that unfortunately did not live up to all the hype

[8/10 · 11 June 2014]

Watch dogs was one of my most anticipated games of this year, I am a huge fan of open world games and am also a fan of Ubisoft's Assassin Creed and Far Cry series, I was really hyped up for this game.

Watch dogs does have unique elements, you can hack everything use that to your advantage which makes for innovative game-play. You can hack grenades, steam pipes, traffic lights, cell phones and find out the names, occupation & income of all the civilians. The civilians are also extremely realistic in the activities they do in this game, and their phone conversations are always fun and interesting. The missions are fun, specially the ones which allow you to play the game anyway you want, MSG style by silent head shooting enemies or taking them them down. Or you do not even have to enter the premises just hack cameras and then hack into the place. Or obviously you can go all guns blazing where you can still make things explode around enemies and blow the grenades that are on them. The gun-play is still pretty basic but mixing it up with hacking makes it unique. And the RDR/GTA V weapon wheel is a welcome addition. Car chases can be fun with you disabling cars through blockers, steam pipes. The upgrade is system is extremely well designed and does change the game-play.

Missions however that force you to go all guns blazing or forcing you to go through it without being detected can get annoying, if you put all your points into hacking and crafting, and you end up in a obligatory gun fight you are screwed why these restrictions during certain missions? Missions overall tend to get repetitive, car chases, hideouts, enemies surrounding the area. Only a few are unique like guiding your friends to stealth past the enemies. Driving in this game is not good, it is hard to make turns and control the car specially at high speed and off-road.

The side missions are even more repetitive. Gang Hideout missions, go to a hideout, knock out the boss, just at different locations, convoys, either knock out the target or kill him. There are 40 fixer contracts with only 4 variations, same goes for crimes, all these activities start out fun but eventually get repetitive & boring. The mini-games like Poker and Chess are fun. Cash Trail and Alien invasion are OK. The Spider Tank digital trip is just fantastic, Alone is also good. The investigations also get repetitive, they had some interesting aspects like human trafficking and murder investigations but it was all squandered by forcing you into another redundant side mission at it's conclusion. For example the final mission of the human trafficking investigation is like any other convoy mission. Poorly handled.

There are also annoying restrictions like why cant you punch anyone in the game but the A.I can, that is just another mind boggling decision along with with No drive-by.

Chicago is a good looking city although some landmarks have been missed but many many hot-spots are highlighted telling you about the history of that place which is actually interesting. The city looks beautiful, attractive but unfortunately it is just too small in size. The graphics are excellent although downgraded from the E3 trailer, the animations are smooth, the character models are extremely detailed although their lip syncing needed more work, the weather environments also look good. Inooor areas have also had detail put into them along with civilians, there are transitions between game-play and cut-scenes but unfortunately there could have been more of them because loading screens really break the immersion.

The storyline had potential but it started out so slow that I lost interest, the second act was interesting and felt like that a major twist was going to be revealed, but that major twist was just cliché and poorly handled, putting a mob boss & politician at the center of everything. The characters are all actually good apart from Aiden Pearce, he has a cool look for a protagonist, thats about it, he is a hard guy to like, he just does what he wants, never listens to anyone, hardly showed a lot of emotion, plus I am confused about the moral high ground he stands on, in one mission he knocked out and killed several enemies to save someone he cared about after that he showed remorse, WHAT ABOUT ALL THE OTHER PEOPLE HE KILLED? (In Storyline Alone). That is why the ending choice also seems pointless because sparing someone is not something Aiden would actually do. Tbone is an excellent character and Damien is just a fantastic villain. Unfortunately the plot that surrounds these characters is pretty average. The voice acting is actually good, although I think Aiden's Voice actor just sounds robotic in many scenes.

The OST is good specially during missions, off mission OST is OK but the cop chase music is excellent, but the songs are poorly implemented they are not divided into radio stations like in most open world games and they are a very few of them some are flat out bad, some are repetitive, I only liked around 3-4 songs. Apparently this game hates it owns songs because they wont let you play them during any main or side missions only during free roam, another confusing decision.

Watch dogs overall is a fun open world game but was falsely advertised the the game-play in the E3 trailer is not even there plus the game has been downgraded in some ways and it feels apparent, but the game has many unique aspects going for it and does have a lot of lasting appeal and tons of things to do, even if those things will get repetitive after a while. But it is still a pretty good open world game but it just did not live up to all it's hype.

Rating: 7.5/10

Grand Theft Auto V (2013 Video Game)

A Masterpiece

[10/10 · 7 June 2014]

I have been a huge fanatic of the grand theft auto series and the open world/sandbox genre for a long time. Having played every GTA game since the release of Grand Theft Auto III. Ever since finishing 4 I was already hyped up for GTA V and I am proud to say it lived up to the hype.

There were a few things I was not sure would work,first, the idea of 3 characters was something I was not in favor of because I thought it would make the story more and more confusing and the game-play awkward and tedious. How wrong was I? The storyline works extremely well with the three characters and their relationships also develop throughout and whenever you switch between them it works like a charm.

There are many more mini games and side activities than in GTA IV although they are still less than in San Andreas. The Strangers and Freaks missions from 4 return but have been greatly expanded and there are around 50 Strangers and Freaks missions in total. You also have in- depth mini-games like Tennis and golf. GTA V is also the first game in the series to feature animals that means you can do hunting as an activity, hunting has been greatly borrowed from Red Dead and it is fun and entertaining. Darts are still here. There are also Property missions. Variety of races are there including car races, offroad races, speed jet races and triathlon, a much user friendly and less frustrating flying school also returns after making so many people rage quit in San Andreas. And there are a lot of randomly generated events, such as theft, store robbery, automobile crash, all these give life to the game. Using your phone to answer trivia online, visit fun websites and trading in the stock market are also fun.

The game is set in Los Santos, which is largely based on Los Angeles, with many landmarks bearing strong resemblances to the real LA. The city absolutely looks beautiful.

The game also looks fantastic even though it runs on a 7 year old hardware,it looks absolutely beautiful at times specially during day time, the character moving animations are crisp, the transitions between game-play and cut-scenes are beautiful. The character models are heavily detailed every thing from there face, hands, hair there is tons of details. The game also looks good in night time and far more colorful than GTA IV, my only gripe would be that in dark environments the games color starts looking weird and there are texture pop ins.

The storyline is not amazing, but it is still very good and feels like you are watching a high budget AAA Hollywood movie the way it is told. All three playable characters are great, Michael is a retired criminal who has become rich and miserable and has issue with his family, Franklin is a former gang-banger looking for opportunities and Trevor well, he is a borderline psychopath. All three guy represent a GTA player, Michael represents the player who already finished the game, Trevor represent the player who kills everyone and goes on rampages to take out his frustration. Franklin represents the player who started the game. But that is not all there is to it as the story unfold you find out more about these guys and what is their true intention what is inside their heads. The antagonists on the other hand could have been more developed and could have had a major role specially Devin Weston, additionally Franklin is left out of a lot of story. There are also 3 endings, two of which seem rushed. The third one is really good and ties up all loose ends, but the endings overall could have been better.

The missions are all fantastic and have a lot of variety unlike the repetitive missions like the ones in GTA IV there are about 69 main story missions, there are a very few that don't stand out and are kind of simple or boring, but many missions share a lot of variety and are fun to do so fun that you may want to replay them right away, in one mission your are destroying a house in the hills literally, in another mission you are infiltrating a private air strip and stealing a Jet, in another mission you are walking in a deal wrong situation, in another you are going a premiere of a movie and someone orders a hit on your family. So much variety. But it does not end there there are heist missions are of which are well laid out and you have to do set up missions for them,there are 6 heists in total,out of which three have two options,which make the missions completely different, the approaches are obvious or subtle, you can either infiltrate a bank posing as workers with forged IDs and steal,or you can steal the money upfront by shooting up the place, just wish there were more of these heists. The dialog in missions has always been the charm of GTA and it is absolutely fantastic here, the voice acting by everyone is just brilliant.

The soundtrack also has a original soundtrack which has some really good music, the radio stations are also good and in my opinion better than GTA IV's soundtrack, a lot of good songs on Radio Mirror Park, LS Rock Radio, Pop Fm, Rebel Radio etc. I honestly love the music in this game.

Overall GTA V is a fantastic game which in my opinion lived up to most of it's hype, there were a few things holding it back though, but regardless a lot of hard work dedication and thought have been put into this brilliant game, if there is any company that know top to bottom what an open world should be like it is Rockstar.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Goodfellas (1990)

Goodfellas - A Very slow paced film that has not aged well.

[6/10 · 16 May 2014]

Goodfellas is based on a book which in turn is based on a real life story of Henry Hill, a person who always wanted to be a mobster and this film tells his story about he went from being a criminal to finally turning into a rat and leaving his whole mafia life behind.

I think the overall storyline is very good, it is just the way it is told, too many filler scenes that are extremely, slow, boring and do nothing for the overall plot. In particular the Heist sequence was done so terribly, they introduce members of the heist and minutes later the heist ended and members started spending money, moments later they all end up dead. This whole angle was rushed and so poorly handled. . The love story between Henry and Karen was also slow and took too long to develop and the affair angle was so fast you blinked you misses it. When Henry was arrested the second time, they handled it with a series of jumbled up scenes, that could have been handled in half the time.

Add to that the constant and annoying narration. Scorsose likes that style of storytelling, the one with narration but it is way too much here, and occasionally they would pause certain scenes and Liotta would narrate which breaks the flow of the movie, many scenes are events are explained with narration.

Ray Liotta is decent in his protagonist but the other two protagonists De Niro and Joe Pesci. Pesci is fantastic and extremely charismatic as Tommy, his scenes are fun to watch and whenever he is on the screen he demands your attention, his lines are also pretty funny. De Niro does great with the amount of screen time he gets but he does not get a lot of it and allow his character to properly develop from a rationale person to a paranoid man who thinks everybody is going to get him arrested. Liotta was not bad he gave a decent performance but there are others who could have done better in his role, he is really good in some scenes, but in emotional scenes and even the funny scenes his poor acting clearly shows, his laugh is terrible and looks fake. Some great sequences regardless. The Tommy death scene and him killing a made man was one of the interesting parts.

Overall I don't see what is so special about Goodfellas, it is an average movie, which had a great story with potential but was told in a very average and slow manner, the narrative had tons of filler and was not handled well, the main protagonist was decent at best, leaving the other two main actors to make the most of it and carry the film and steal the show. It is definitely no Godfather.

Overall: 6/10.

Memento (2000)

Amazing concept and execution.

[10/10 · 15 May 2014]

Memento has been out for over a decade, unfortunately I never to got to see this brilliant flick until a few months ago. I had no idea what I had been missing, I had read before about this movie and the concept seemed confusing to me and I had no idea how it would work. But when I actually got around to watching, I was absolutely mesmerized and I was glued to my seat from the beginning to the end. Part of me is glad that I watched this film so late because back in 2000 I was too young to understand what this film was trying to accomplish.

Memento is an extremely unique film. When you watch a film you always are eager to see what happens next, you may have an idea about what may happen next, but you are still interested in seeing it. This film is the opposite, it makes you anticipate or interpret what had happened earlier. This movie moves in a reverse chronological order. It was done to make us see the movie from Leonard (Guy Pearce)'s perspective, as his character is suffering from Short Term Memory loss and has no idea what he is doing in a couple of minutes and has no idea what he did before. In normal films there is a room for interpretation because they are in a chronological order, this film however leaves you in a black hole and the further you get into the movie, the more you will be able to connect the missing movies.

The film has two different sequences one sequence is thew story unfolding in reverse order, the other scenes are the black and white documentary scenes which are slow but give the film a realistic feel and make you understand what is in the mind of Leonard Shelby. And by the end both these sequences intersect.

That is what is so brilliant about Memento, it makes you heavily think, invests you in the movie, makes you solve a puzzle, much like the puzzle the main character Leonard's is trying to solve. And by the end you will be able to join most of the missing pieces together. The movie also ends on a brilliant note as it leaves you thinking and leaves a lot of room for interpretation, about what happened. This will make you want to talk about this movie and thinking about it even after you have watched it.

The replay value is also good, some scenes are so fantastic that you can watch again and again mainly the Teddy scenes which have excellent and funny dialog. The movie can also be watched from different perspectives, you can watch the movie in it's normal chronological order, which is not recommended because it ruins the fun. And you can also watch this movie based on the interpretation that Leonard's is trying to solve an unsolvable puzzle and that he is deluded person trying to escape reality.

The storyline is not that amazing but it is the way it is told, like a puzzle is what makes it so great. The whole storyline remains a mystery till most of the movie unfolds. Acting wise this film is fantastic. Guy Pearce is fantastic in his role as Leonard Shellby, not only he is excellent to watch all the scenes, and he gets all the screen time and makes most of it. Leon's character was also brilliantly return how do you make a character with short term memory loss work, you give him notes photographs and tattoos to remember things so that he is not completely handicapped. Carrie Annie Moss gets little screen time but she does a great job in the amount of screen time she gets , many of her scenes with Pierce are actually fantastic. That leaves Joe Pantoliano who is fantastic in his role as teddy, his dialog delivery and humor is fantastic and he is extremely charismatic every-time he is on the screen he demands your attention. Some of his dialogs are the best in the entire movie.

The soundtrack and the music also perfectly match the neo-noir atmosphere and environment of this film

This is one of the older films of Christopher Nolan, and only shows how great his style is and how brilliant is direction. This movie which one of the earliest films Nolan made gives Nolan's other blockbuster films, the Dark Knight trilogy and Inception a great run for it's money. Do yourself a favor and watch Memento is a fantastic film and that will mesmerize, and once it is over you still be talking about and thinking about it fro a long time, that's how brilliant this film is.

Overall Rating 10/10.

Escape Plan (2013)

All hype about Stallone and Arnold being together in the main lead and nothing else.

[4/10 · 13 May 2014]

Escape Plan was all hype about Arnold and Stallone being in the main lead together and almost nothing else. Besides both men are not in the prime of their careers seeing them together in the lead in the 80s or early 90s would have been something. But this is 2013 and both men are old.

Don't get me wrong I like both Arnold and Stallone, Stallone was great in the Rocky films and Rambo and regardless of the hate Arnold gets regarding his acting he has been in some great action flicks like Raw Deal, Terminator 1 and 2, Total Recall among others. So when I saw this film I was expecting an old school action flick with two actors who were the front and center of this movie genre.

How wrong was I, what I got was a boring movie with poor action and a ambiguous plot. Only a few action scenes are good honestly, mainly the climax scene, the intro action scene was boring. And is it just me or they use too much Sci-Fi crap to explain what is going on the movie, how far should we suspend our disbelief is beyond me, because this movie expects us to do that a lot.

The plot is basically that Stallone is Ray Breslin a man writing books about designing a perfect prison, so someone pays a large sum of cash to have him gone and he ends up in a high tech prison with methods to counteract all his escape plans, there he meets Rottmayer (Arnold) who becomes his friend and together they plan to escape the prison. That's all I can tell without giving away the rest of the plot. But basically their plan involves , starting fights for no reasons at all, getting injured on purpose, getting thrown in the prison's unique hole and then Breslin comes up with a Science Magic plan to bypass security. The plot is extremely boring and all the Sci-Fi that is used in this film to explain all things is just ridiculous and doesn't help matters. While the climax action was good the twists at the end was nothing to write home about.

I don't see where this film gets all the praise from apart from a very few decent action sequences, there is almost nothing to write home about. the acting is for the most part NOT GOOD. Stallone needs a translator or subtitles, 90% of the time I can't understand what the hell he is saying, if you had a hard time understanding what the man said in the 80s, you have got another thing coming, plus he is a 60 year old man pretending to play a role of a young man in his prime, It pains me to say this but he was right to be nominated as the Worst Actor for his role in this film, because he was just bad here. Arnold apart from cliché dialogs actually does a decent job, at least you can understand what the man is saying, i was interested in his character and he is playing a more believable role according to his age. The supporting cast was nothing special, it seems like Stallone's boss was afraid of Stallone's assistant and they were trying to create humor over a serious situation. The girl who plays Stallone's love interest, is not only a misfit because she seems to young, she is also tries to be very serious throughout her screen time in the film. The doctor's character was interesting and his backstory about what led to him working in such a brutal prison would have been good to see, but we got none of that.

Jimie Caviezel however was actually very convincing in his role as the prison warden and the main antagonist, he was cold, brutal and calculated. Exactly what you need in a villain. Regardless of some silly dialogs and mannerisms, his character actually made a believable villain and he is a strong point of this film believe it or not.

I just don't see where all the praise is coming from, boring plot, mostly bad acting, outdated action scenes and too much suspension of reality, really gave me a headache after watching the Escape Plan. This film was mostly all hype about Stallone and Arnold being in the lead together. Good climax action scene, Arnold's decent acting and a believable antagonist are the only saving grace of this film.

Overall: 4/10.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Good action flick, better than it's predecessor.

[6/10 · 12 May 2014]

When the Spider-man movie franchise was rebooted, I was not in favor of it, I actually was among those people who enjoyed the Sam Raimi films, regardless of the fact that Spiderman 3 did not deliver. I was actually looking forward to Spider-man 4 till they decided they had to reboot the franchise. I thought the reboot was really unnecessary. Andrew Garfield does have the younger, college boy look, more so than Toby Maguire to be Spider-man like he is in the comics and the 1994 animated series. Plus they also added more believable elements, like he used gadgets to create webbing, just like in the comics, which was far more believable than the Sam Raimi's movies.

Unfortunately the first film had too many mysteries too many secrets about Parker's parents which were not cleared up at all by the end, they also kind of ruined the tragic Uncle Ben scene and Garfield's acting in that situation was not good. Plus the first film dragged on and on till the lizard showed up which was too late in the film, and the love story was not developed well at all like it was in the Sam Raimi's films in my honest opinion. Plus Spiderman looked really weak in the entire film, he needed way to much help to stop the lizard. What I did like was Garfield's humorous jokes as Spiderman, specially his interactions with the lizard otherwise the movie failed to impress.

The Amazing Spiderman 2 on the other hand does many things right, it first clears up what happened to Parker's parents, the reason for their sudden departure, much better scenes between Gwen and Parker. And honestly an overall interesting plot. Harry's family back-story and the Oscorp back-story is extremely interesting and I was deeply invested in his character. Jamie Fox was actually good after his TRANSFORMATION before that he just came off like an idiot or a goofy spider-man fan-boy. Electro came off as a tough and believable villain and his fight scenes against Spiderman were done very well.

Unlike it's prequel the film keeps me interested for most of it's duration mainly the scenes involving Electro and Harry, the interactions between Parker/Spidey and Harry were also done excellently. The climax was also good but unfortunately for me the ending was ruined on the net before I watched the film. But I still think this film also ended on a high note and I am actually interested in the sequel, and that is not something that came to my mind after watching the first film.

I also felt Garfield did better in the emotional scenes this time around. Emma Stone was pretty much the same like she was in the last film, Jamie Fox was great as the dangerous Electro and James De Haan was just awesome in his role. The supporting cast also did a good job.

The film's overall plot is good, but it is not what carries it strong performances from the main cast, regardless of cliché dialogs, the film also uses great high-tech graphics and CGI those action scenes are fantastic even better than the last film, all fight and action scenes were done well and were all fun to watch. Unfortunately the serious dialogs scenes were boring and kind of dragged on, dragging this movie down for me.

Overall this is a fun action that is a good watch for any Spiderman fan, but I still love the Animated Series the most.

Overall: 7/10

The Great Gatsby (2013)

Hard to watch.

[5/10 · 12 May 2014]

The Great Gatsby is based on the film in the 70s of the same name and a novel, which was mediocre to begin with so there was no reason to be highly invested in this movie. But since time has passed since the last film you expect them to learn from their mistakes and make a better movie overall.

Plus I am always eager to see a Leonardo DiCaprio film, he in my honest opinion is a thrill to watch and always puts on fantastic performances. Since he was the front and center of the Great Gatsby, I was highly anticipated to watch this movie. But unfortunately I was let down, not by his performance but the overall movie.

Leonardo actually does the best he can and plays his character well, the movie overall however is not laid out well at all in my opinion. Leon will grasp your attention and make you pay attention the scenes he is in. Toby Maguire on the other hand was OK as the narrator of the plot but he was not doing anything astounding, I actually liked him in his role in Sam Raimi's Spiderman series, but Toby as the narrator here did not do anything special. The rest of the cast was fine, Carey Mulligan was OK, I actually really liked Joel Edgerton character in a antagonistic sort of way unfortunately his role was not extended he might have uplifted this movie with his good performance.

The setting was captured well they showed how the rich people back then lived their life. It is one of the positives of this movie.

The movie starts out SO slow, and it is not until 30-40 mins that you see Leo and then things SLIGHTLY pick up from there but even after that the whole movie feels cliché and the plot/narrative still doesn't interest me much, it is a love story, of a how far a man would go for a woman, touching for some, but I was not really astounded by it, mainly because the movie has too many songs in between scenes and those songs are not really good and only distract the viewer on the narrative, they just seem filler and go on too long. What was the point of that? To add more extra time to the movie? To drag out the plot which could have been told better in half the time?

Gatsby's back-story and the mystery behind him was something i was interested in knowing and was invested in but they took SO long to reveal it that by that time I did not care.

The Great Gatsby just like the novel is a mediocre affair, if they had tweaked things in the novel to make for better cinema I would have been all for it, plus reducing the number of unnecessary dance and party could have helped the narrative a lot and would have uplifted this movie. Unfortunately what we get is a long slow and mostly boring film which is just a mediocre affair and hard to watch.

Overall Rating: 5/10.

American Hustle (2013)

Fantastic performances & settings carry an above average narrative

[9/10 · 11 May 2014]

American Hustle is a movie based in the 1970s and is about a real life operation called ABSCAM which took place during the same time period. And just like most films based on real life events this movie does not do everything in accordance to what happened in real life. For instance in the real event Bradley Cooper's character did not play such a role in the operation they were many other feds involved.

Now what this film does is that it tries to be a black comedy while also trying to be a serious movie, for me it actually works, it will make you laugh at several scenes and the serious scenes will make you understand the seriousness off the situation and grasp your attention. The movie started out excellently, with a pretty funny scene between Bale and Cooper arguing and then playing a great song from it's fantastic soundtrack, while rolling the opening credits. The beginning was done so well, that it had me hooked to the rest of film, I probably wouldn't have been interested in the slow back-story scenes that followed, if it wasn't for this great start. After this the film does some comedy scenes, some serious scenes and many songs as a routine while carrying the plot at a very very slow pace. What is a huge negative is that the film moves at an extremely slow pace and this story, which is not that interesting could have been told in a much shorter time. While I was happy with the conclusion, the overall plot/narrative was not that great, its setting, atmosphere and most importantly the performances are what carried this film.

Christian Bale, man I don't know what to say, he is extremely dedicated to any film he is in and any role he plays, he gained over 40 pounds and got a huge tummy for this movie, and this is the same guy who lost over 60 pounds for the Machinist and also lost weight for the fighter. And he is always completely into his characters. His performances in the sequels of Batman films were good but from what i have seen he has done so much better, his fans should do themselves a favor and watch his non Batman films to see how great of an actor he really is. I must say I liked his performance the best out of the cast.

Jennifer Lawrence was fantastic, I haven't seen her Hunger games film but she is extremely charismatic and keeps you interested and keeps you listening and pay attention every time she is on the screen. Amy Adams does a serviceable job, she looks good in this film and her dresses are hot, her acting and dialogs are OK, apart from some scenes where she actually is really good. Her English accent was kind of bad though but maybe that was on purpose. I never considered Bradley a good actor but he kind of impressed with his performance, some people call him a weak link, I think he did a good job, yes he acts all goofy and silly and he acts all naive sometimes, but he is playing a naive power hungry fed anyway. Plus he gives this film a good comic relief believe it or not, his facial expression at the end of the film was just hilarious. Jeremy Renner also did a good job. De Niro's was awesome in his short cameo wish he had a more expanded role. The minor characters did well.

The film does a great job of recapturing the environment of the settings with it's awesome screenplay and setting, clothes, environments, everything is done so well. Apart from the performances I just love, love this film's soundtrack every song fits the scenes and they are all nice to listen, the soundtrack is one of the highlights of this movie, I absolutely loved the songs "The Dirty Work", "Horse With No Name" and "Long Black Road".

Overall I enjoyed the American Hustle, it is a great film in my honest opinion. Does it deserve all the Oscars and praise it has gotten, debatable, but this was an enjoyable film and had the narrative been stronger, shorter and moved at a faster pace, it would have only made this film better than it already is.

Overall Rating: 8.5/10

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Great Story and a Legendary performance from DiCaprio

[9/10 · 14 January 2014]

Films on real life stories or films based on books are not really 100% accurate as the way the events are portrayed in the movie is not exactly how things turned out in real life or how things are narrated in the book. Would it be fantastic if the real life incident or book portrayed in the film is completely accurately, of course. But that does not mean that changing the way the events unfold makes the film bad. This is where the majority of criticism for this film comes for. I personally do not agree with all that criticism, I watch films as a mode of entertainment and if a film successfully entertains me, grasps my attention, makes me get engaged in the story and characters and overall premise of their film, I will enjoy the film. So whether the films follows the book r the real life story 100% accurately is not a major concern to me. Regardless according to many outlets the films mostly stays very true to the books written by Jordan Belfort.

The people who were affected by the real life incident have a right to be upset, no question. But the thing is that the developers of this film wanted to fit the real life scenario in the film in such a way that a variety of audience would enjoy it and find it entertaining, hence some changes.

The storyline follows Jordan Belfort journey, as he became a successful stock broker who made tons of money and became rich adopting a different lifestyle. Than this film shows his downfall because of the involvement of the Federal Government leading to another change in his life. That's all about I can say without giving away the whole plot. Honestly the film did not need to go 3 full hours, there were just way to many party and nude scenes, and they did slightly hurt the overall narrative. Also is it even naturally possible for someone to have so much sex and drugs without any major health issues. This film forces you to suspend your disbelief to a level to enjoy it to it's fullest.

Honestly skipping several of these sections in favor of progressing the actual story would have done wonders. I mean we get it, Rich people like to party, do drugs, go to strip clubs, drink alcohol what not, so many sections showing that was not needed. From what I know Jordan Belfort, in real life worked inside a Boiler Room office i am not sure abut him having such a large high-end office as shown in the film. However these party scenes are not a bore for several reasons, one of them being comedy, these scenes are the charm of the movie and are very amusing and will bring a smile to your face.

Regardless of this the storyline is told well, with Belfort/DiCaprio dictating his past stories and his comments are not only good at progressing the plot but they are also humorous at times. One of my worries before watching this film was that the dialogue would be too cliché but I was wrong, it was kept simple and only tell the viewers what they would easily understand they didn't go too deep in the nature of deals which is a good thing. At times DiCaprio breaks the fourth wall simply stating simple sentences rather than confusing audience with Jargons that would confuse them further. The film also maintains a balance between humor and serious storytelling.

The film has a large cast and all of them play their parts well. Leonardo perhaps gives his best performance ever Jordan Belfort, and that is saying something because he always gives a good performance. Everything from Leo's narration to his acting, everything is almost perfect, he was just natural in his role, from his dialogue delivery, voice intonation facial expressions everything was done to perfection. Leo honestly, without question deserves an Oscar for this amazing performance, anybody who says he can't act should just watch him here. Jonah Hill is cast as Leo's supporting character and he does what he does best give a comic relief bring humor t the film and he also does his part to progress the story. The rest of the cast do a serviceable jobs, there are several faces I did not recognize in the film and even they acted well.

The film like I said goes for a bit too long, it's story could have been told in a half the time honestly but even then, the 3 hours do not drag because even the filler scenes are kept entertaining with humor and will still draw a reaction out of you, while the storytelling sections are engaging and perfectly progress the plot. In the end we saw a fantastic character development and a good moral message.

I would not recommend this film to everyone, it is full f content which could be considered offensive or inappropriate, so it could not be watched with family or kids. The people looking for a 100% accurate portrayal of the Jordan Belfort story and his books perhaps should look elsewhere, as there are some different plot points in this movie, but if you can make do with that, most of the story stays true to Jordan's novels, according to Belfort himself, so those people who read the novel may also like this film. . If you want an entertaining film with a great storyline and good comedy, and great cast and performances, give it a go, you will love this film.

In conclusion, I want to say that in my opinion, The Wolf of Wall street is a fantastic film, with a great story and is extremely entertaining from start to finish, without a doubt one of the best films of 2013. Overall: 9/10

The Dark Knight (2008)

Not only the Best Batman movie, but One of the Greatest Movies Ever Made.

[9/10 · 7 January 2014]

Christopher Nolan's retake on the Batman Movie franchise was met with positive response from both the critics and the comic book fans, Batman Begins was not only a great movie, a fantastic recreation of Batman but a great achievement from Nolan. It is amazing to see the series has so much depth and thought put into it, I am amazed it actually recovered from the abomination that was Batman and Robin.

As great as Batman Begins was The Dark Knight takes everything that made that film great and makes it even better. This resulted in not only the greatest Batman movie ever made (in my opinion) and one of the best films ever made. Now there are people who have raised there grievances and voices against the Nolan trilogy and even the second entry in the series, they are entitled to their opinion, but I believe that the Nolan trilogy is a great achievement, well worthy of the Batman name and the second entry in the series "The Dark Knight is the best out of all of them.

This film has a different take from the first movie, Begins focused on the life of Bruce and how he became Batman, this movie focuses on the villain, The Joker and his mission to turn Gotham City into a madhouse proving that deep down everyone has evil inside them. The storyline is fantastic, and will keep you hooked to the edge of your seat from the beginning to the end. The movie is entertaining to watch and almost everything will hold your attention. However the cliché and overdone dialogue, and there a lot of it in this movie, specially Bruce's dialogues, that kind of dialogue does indeed get annoying and slightly hurts the movie.

Also while the first half of the film did have some unexplained points like how did Joker know that Dent was not Batman? How did Joker exactly set up for Dent and Rachel to be kidnapped after his arrest? If the viewer interprets them he can come up with a logical conclusion, however the second half has unanswered questions and plot holes which I cannot honestly draw a logical conclusion out of like How did Joker bypass Hospital Security and rigged it completely with bombs? How did Joker rig barrels in the boat with bombs, without anyone noticing? And the main question which confused me, why in the world would anyone sane want to work for someone as insane the Joker? A guy who burns money, several of his goons did seem sane in the films, like the members of the mob bosses gangs who switched sides.

I understand the ending and have nothing against it, Batman taking all the blame was necessary for Harvey's legendary image to stay and influence Gotham to permanently take a stand against crime.

Acting wise, this movie is Gold. Regardless of the cliché dialogue as Bruce, Christian Bale does an excellent job playing both Batman and Bruce Wayne and there is a fine balance of the two alter-egos in this movie, it is not like Rises where Batman takes like 45 minutes to make his first appearance in the film. I know people like to make fun of Bale's Batman voice, but he is trying to add a suitable and symbolic voice to Batman, Bale's voice as Bruce honestly would not work well IMO. Aaron does excellent as Harvery Dent, his character is well written, dialogue delivery is also off the charts, he is just natural in his role and his character shift in the second half is just brilliant. I might even say that Aaron even outshines Bale in this film. Gary Oldman and Morgan Freeman both plays their roles perfectly.

However it is Heath Ledger who steals the show as Joker with his brilliant and magnificent performance, everything from his written character, facial expression, dialogue, dialogue delivery, make up, costume and even his mission during the film all of it is done almost perfectly heard Slater did a lot of research and hard work on this role and boy did he nail it, this is an Oscar worthy performance and arguably one of the best portrayal of a villain or antagonist in a movie ever. It is a tragedy that Ledger passed away during the end of the development of TDK, but his legend will live on forever and his legendary performance in this film will be remembered for a long long time.

Music in the film is also good and fits all the scenes perfectly, there is also pure silence in scenes which do not need music and it adds to the mood. The small sound effects and the visual effects are also done well and not overused, they make the movie look good and add to the premise rather than being overused.

Some minor plot holes aside, The Dark Knight is a masterpiece, the best Batman film ever made and one of the greatest movies ever, I have watched it multiple times and still feel like going back to watch because it is not only extremely fun and entertaining to watch but is just a brilliant movie. Overall 9.5/10.

The Prestige (2006)

Great movie with some flaws.

[8/10 · 4 January 2014]

First off, I want to say that when I was young, I used to visit circus a lot and a lot of events which showcased Magic Tricks, I was even enthralled and excited at such events being held at my school. I was also interested and learning Magic Tricks and showing them to my friends and parents. There is nothing to be ashamed about in this case, a lot of people watched Magic as kids. The basic premise of the Prestige is just perfect for my taste as it is about Magic Tricks and two Magicians.

When I first heard about the Prestige, i thought it was some kind of a wizard movie with real magic, People having a reason for flying and transporting simple for no real reason other than it's REAL MAGIC. Luckily when I did more research I was glad that it was actually more realistic and based on Magic Tricks.

This movie tells you about the life of Magicians back in the late 1800s, Magic meant everything to them they were obsessed with their tricks and they felt revealing their tricks would ruin them. Secrets were everything to them. The setting of the movie mind you in fantastic, the visuals, the areas, the clothes and even the *FUNNY* accents kind of suit the setting. A rivalry between two magicians which starts as a personal one turns more into a obsessive and professional one as one gets obsessed with the secret behind the other's trick and wants to prove he is the better magician.

The plot is very good overall, but the movie can and will get confusing because the timeline is not depicted well, when you are watching the Long Past, the recent past or the present, things will get confusing and there is not text guiding you to understand which year you are in. This will cause the viewer to mix things up and he will lose attention. The story would have greatly benefited from a chronological order or at least a proper descriptions of the years. The plot also starts out extremely slow and drags out till the rivalry actually starts.

Acting wise, the film is excellent, Hugh Jackman is awesome as Angier or the Great Danton, he is just natural in his acting, Christian Bale gives a great performance, many may find his character confusing and hard to understand at first but it will all come to ahead, his fake accent is not good though. Michael Caine is great and actually has a natural accent. The rest of the cast does a great job as well.

I also feel like that an addition of such a Sci-Fi dimension kind of hurt the movie, not only it is not exactly believable if the time period is taken into consideration a more logical explanation would have worked better. The secrets of Bale and Angier serve as the twists of the movie. Angier's was disappointing whereas Bale's was something I saw coming a few minutes before it took place. After a second watch it is laughable how many clues were there, perhaps more analytic and deep thinkers would have seen it coming a mile away, and I won't be surprised if they actually did. The twists are not exactly a strong suit.

The ending however had a good, clear and true message, we do not exactly always look for the secrets behind the tricks, because doing that ruins the trick and we won't want to see it anymore, that is exactly why the secrets are a magicians life. Few flaws aside prestige should see, any Nolan fan, Bale or Jackman, movie fans or even people who used to enjoy magic tricks at various shows should watch this great movie, few minor flaws aside, you are in for a great treat. Overall 8/10.