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Reviews
Mortdecai (2015)
"And what, pray tell, might you be doing whilst I'm engaged in thus heroics?"
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Hilarious from the first scene to the last! The dialogues were superb, acting was great, and the plot unpredictable!
Ignore the naysayers; neither does the film project itself as an Oscar winning magnum opus, nor should it be judged in that manner. A goofy slapstick comedy, treat it like one.
In it's own little genre comprising the likes of Johnny English, Pink Panther etc., it's an illustrious 9/10. In the grand scheme of things, I'd say 6.5.
Mirzapur (2018)
S2 drags down the whole franchise.
S1 ending did set up the story perfectly for it to continue. Instead, what we get in season 2 is a flat story for 10 episodes marred by love stories all across the board, eventually ending up where it is expected to.
The whole of season 2 is a tale of people falling in love which is what drives it forward. I mean seriously?! A show primary based on how politics is played out and businesses are conducted in most states of India (unfortunately) relies on love.
1- Golu-Shatrugan angle which leads to the drug dealings and the subsequent income for Guddu to come up with any sort of plan.
2- Robin-Dimpy angle which ends up giving Mr. Pandit access to Guddu's dealings and the eventual raid at Lala's mansion. Robin was the second most annoying guy on the show after Muttonhead Guddu.
3- Guddu-Shabnam angle which erupted out of nowhere. I thought both of them were in grieving. And how foolish is it to annoy the very guy who has housed you in his mansion and supplied drugs to you.
4- Munna-Madhuri angle which finally made him grow a pair and stand up to his father AFTER she became the CM.
It takes a while for the story to be up and running as the initial episodes take their sweet time to set the premise. After that, it's an endless cocktail of romance, lies, random villages across UP, tinged with violence. Madhuri Yadav, Sharad Shukla, Maqbool could have been handled better. At the end of it all, you realise Beena is the one who sets the ball rolling and thus is the smartest of the lot.
Acting is top notch, especially by Pankaj Tripathi (Akhandanand), Divyendu Sharma (Munna), Rasika Duggal (Beena), Vijay Varma (Tyagi twins) . Golu's transition from an innocent nerdy character to a ruthless businesswoman has been portrayed beautifully by Shweta Tripathi.
Ali Fazal is the only blemish in what are excellent performances. I'd rather have seen him shot dead in the end and Golu take up Mirzapur's throne. At least we would not have seen any more of his acting in S3.
Season 1 was great, 8/10. Season 2 is worth 4/10, and that's generous. Hopefully the producers take note and wrap it up here than drag this endlessly for a few more years.
The Lie (2018)
I don't know honestly
This movie is one of those which either gets a high or a low rating depending on the viewer.
It's a slow burner, with a few surprising elements punctuated by dull phases. It has its plot holes, but somehow you carry on with the movie.
The ending is something which most of us might have seen coming, but NOT the reason which the the girl gave. It was utterly disbelieving that a pair of teenagers could go to such lengths for something so trivial.
Apply adult logic, and you'll see the movie fall apart in a moment. Apply young teenage love logic, and it might just make sense.
Zodiac (2007)
Starts off well, then loses the plot
Robert Downey Jr, Mark Ruffalo, Jake Gyllenhaal, and an IMDb 7.7 rating; what could go wrong? As it turned out, pretty much everything.
The movie starts off strong, and the quick sequence of murders, cyphers to the police in the first 30-40 mins of the film had me hooked. But everything went downhill from there onwards. The random time stamps soon had me confused as to what was happening when and where.
The movie is unnecessarily lengthy. Paul Avery's initial obsession with the Zodiac and his eventual downward spiral is well captured, only to be treated with Robert Graysmith's similiar obsession with the Zodiac which starts quite late in the film and can be a movie in itself. Toschi's character and the sedate pace of the law enforcement has been portrayed well by Mark Ruffalo.
I get it, the real investigation took years to reach anywhere and the film tries to do justice to it. But to take the audience on a similar jounrey of frustration and closed ends as the cops is a step too far. In the end, there's no proper conclusion. I sat through 150 mins hoping the ending would make up for the lost time, alas I was disappointed.
If Something Happens (2018)
Okayish
This had the potential to become a really good movie. It has a decent plot, but been executed poorly...I don't know what to say of the dubbing though. The ending made up very little for what was a complete snoozefest.
Adding a star for the background score, which was captivating.