KNIGHT and DAY (a nightmare for Cruise and Diaz) -- REVIEW

STARRING: TOM CRUISE as Roy Miller

                     CAMERON DIAZ as June Havens

Knight and Day starts with tom cruise(an FBI agent) waiting for his flight to take-off. On the airport he meets Cameron Diaz who is on the same flight. Tom was escaping from FBI with a Battery which is kind of only one and very useful. He smartly uses Diaz’s luggage to carry that battery on the flight. Real stuff starts after the flight takes off with so much fight and bit of light comedy (which we have seen so many times in ‘spy movies’). The FBI , the Mafia are all behind him for that battery but he is the hero and he knows every thing right from the how to land a plane, to swim big rivers, to fight with enemy without getting wounded even once, he knows every thing without any gadget(except one I-phone). And at the end after so much running, chasing and fight FBI got to know that he was actually saving the Battery from Bad Guys. All well ends well.

What was director or producer thinking before making the movie? They might have thought that what ever the story could be Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz will save the movie. But sorry this time it’s not like that, movie falls flat on the storyline. There is nothing new in this and both lead actors are wasted on this storyline. Both leading actors gave their 100% but it didn’t work this time.

The movie had few stunts and few comic scenes, apart from this nothing special. The producers may recover the cost but the movie is not worth the money spent.

For me it’s strictly average.

RATING: 4.75 OUT OF 10

The A-Team- REVIEW

DIRECTED BY: JOE CARNAHAN

STARRING: LIAM NEESON as HANNIBAL SMITH
BRADLEY COOPER as FACE
QUINTON JACKSON as BARACUS
SHARLTO COPLEY as MURDOCK
JESSICA BEIL as SOSA

This week’s Hollywood flick A-Team is based on 80s television show of the same name. This movie is from start to end hardcore action flick.

Cal. Smith and his team are known for their bravery and to complete impossible missions. After serving for many years to country they are trapped in a mission and as a result they got court-martialed from Army and sent to prison. But nothing can stop them they flew out from prison to prove that they were trapped and to take revenge from those who were behind all that unlawful act. Meanwhile in all this process you enjoy lots and lots of mind-cracking action.

This is for hardcore action lovers and I am confident that they will enjoy it. Superb stunts and really rocking climax makes this movie a must watch. The movie is thoroughly entertaining.

The movie is high on style and looks. All five lead actors have performed their part superbly.

I highly recommend to watch this if like guns and bullets and lots of Action.

RATING: 7.5 OUT OF 10.

THE KARATE KID

STARRING: JADEN SMITH (SON OF WILL SMITH)

                      JACKIE CHAN

Last movie got released for kids before the summer vacation gets over, THE KARATE KID. This is the remake of 1984 film of the same name.

Story is of a 12 year old kid who has moved to china from USA with his mother. As soon as he reaches Beijing he finds himself in to trouble by taking the attention of school bullies. The kid gets beaten down by those bullies and finds difficult to defend himself until one day Mr.Han (Jackie Chan) comes to help him out. Here starts kid’s journey to learn kung fu and defeating those bullies in the Kung Fu tournament.

This time the lead cast (the kid and those bullies) has been kept much younger than the original movie to attract the teen audience and this will differentiate this from the 80’s movie.

Movie stars Jaden Smith (whom we have seen giving heart touching performance in PERSUIT OF HAPPYNESS with his father WILL SMITH) and Jackie Chan. These two has managed to keep the movie enjoyable till the end, even if the end was predictable. The training sessions of kung fu between these two are high point of the movie. The tournament part was also enjoyable. This time I have seen Jackie Chan in much matured way than his usual comic roles. But the one who impress the most is Jaden Smith, the kid has given a good screen time and proven to be an entertainer.

Those who have not seen the 80’s THE KARATE KID will like this one and those who have seen the original will not dislike and kids (for whom the movie is made for) will enjoy this.

All in all a good movie.

RATING: 6 OUT OF 10.

RAAJNEETI- (REVIEW) ( PPP-Power Packed Performances)

DIRECTED BY: PRAKASH JHA

STARRING: NANA PATEKAR, AJAY DEVGN, ARJUN RAMPAL, RANBIR KAPOOR, MANOJ BAJPAI, KATRINA KAIF & NASHIRUDDIN SHAH.

Looking at the Prakash Jha’s previous movies I have found one thing common that whatever the storyline, it’s the characters that lead the movie to a different level where you see the movie from the perspective of the characters only. Here In Rajneeti, I found the same thing but this time there are so many powerful characters which leads the movie.

Movie is based on modern day political environment which takes the characters of The epic Mahabharata in the backdrop and How those characters would work in present scenario.

Nana patekar is playing vital role of mentor of arjun & ranbir. He is a politician who has seen and understands the whole political system very well. Arjun rampal is emerging politician with lot of aggression, who sees himself as new face of the party which is running by his family. Manoj bajpai is also emerging politician who believes that he is the only person entitle to get the whole power. Ajay devgn on the other hand comes from minority, whose loyalty toward his leader is everything for him and can do anything for that. Katrina kaif portrays a girl who is traded off for the politics and unwontedly dragged to the dirty world of politics. Ranbir is the guy who believes that the active politics is not for him despite born in the political family but he also has to drag himself in the politics for his family and honor.

Who has read or seen Mahabharata on screen will understand the whole story and who portrays which kind of Mahabharata character. So no need of story to tell.

Performance: after a long time I have seen Manoj Bajpai in such a powerful character and portraying it with great conviction, the energy required for this character was seen in him. Arjun rampal has played his part equally well and with sincerity ( WHO SAYS ARJUN CAN’T ACT? WATCH THIS MOVIE). Katrina Kaif was good but she had not much to do. Ajay devgn was also powerful, full of energy. Though this time he has not much powerful role has he had in earlier Prakash Jha movie. Real scene stiller are Nana patekar and Ranbir Kapoor, specially Ranbir. He hass overpowered every one in the movie with solid performance(10 ON 10). Nashiruddin shah was in special appearance and did well.

All in all a worth watching movie for some superb performances and engaging storyline. Mr.Jha has done wonderful and this time his style looks more commercial. Good.

RATING: 7 OUT OF 10.

PRINCE OF PERSIA: THE SANDS OF TIME ( review)

STARRING: JACK GYLLENHALL, BEN KINGSLEY, GEMMA ARTERTON,

                      ALFRED MOLINA  

Here is a movie which is made for summer vacation especially for teen audience. The movie is based on the video game franchise of prince of Persia.  

Story evolves around a magical dagger, which has ability to take the holder of it in the past. The adopted son of king of Persia –Dastan and his two brothers attacks the holy city where he finds that dagger whose safety was responsibility of princess of the holy city. Soon Dastan gets falsely accused of murdering his father, so to prove himself innocent he just runs away from that place with princess. In the journey he finds the power of the Dagger and soon also finds how he was trapped in to his father’s murder. When he came to know that how important the dagger is for the whole humanity he and the princess goes on to save the dagger from the evil people.

This is non-stop action packed ride with so much of sword fight, running, jumping and all those high energy stuff which teen audience will surely love to watch. There is nothing to show how intense actor you are but to show how you can entertain the audience with some excellent visuals and movie makes mark in that with ALL AND ONLY PURE ENTERTAINMENT nothing else.

Jack was good with all his action sequences; Ben Kingsley and Gemma were decent. Alfred was also Ok.

All in all this is for those who loves fantasy movies like THE MUMMY franchise and those who are looking for a good time-pass with some great action. An enjoyable movie without putting pressure on your mind.

Rating: 6 out of 10

KITES : review ( which could't fly)

Well i would say that this time Mr.Hrithik Roshan could not impress the audience.The movie has turned out to be below average to average fare for so many reasons.

In a love story you need the audience to be connected with the movie,the characters but here it fails to connect with the viewer.Even the focus has only kept on two leading characters,the others come and go without any reason.Director could not convince that , even if two people dont know each others language still they can fall in love. sometimes you as audience also feel that both leading actors even if they couldn't understand still pretend to understand. The story line is not new and not so good execution.

Even if the movie is only of 120min i got bored. I don't recommend to watch this mega budget movie.

Shutter Island

Another reunion of martin scorsese and leonardo dicaprio. i would say the movie is not one of the best attempts by martin scorsese given his past legacies like The Departed, The Aviator, Raging Bull, Goodfellas, etc.

Leonardo playing a character of Federal Marshal Teddy Daniels is assigned to a mental asylum for criminally insane in order to investigate the disappearance of an inmate. He however chose to investigate the case because he believes the criminal who killed his wife is locked in the same facility. His partner Chuck Aule played by Mark Ruffalo assists him in the investigation. During the course, Teddy finds out that there is something wrong going on in the mental facility and the inmates are used for clinical experiments.

He vows to blow the lid out of the illegal activities and bring the perpetrators to task. In the process, he has to deal with resistant people working in the facility including the head Dr. Cawley played by Ben Kingsley.

The film gets more complex with each passing second making viewers scratch their heads. Regular hallucinations that teddy has also halt the storyline and are simply disgusting. As the film approaches its climax, teddy starts to doubt everything including his own sanity. The end of the movie tries to bring everything together but by that time its too late and the viewer has made up his mind that this is an average flick. The end also gives an impression that everything that was happening till now was bull shit and we were taken for a ride.

You do see martin's brilliance in flashes but not something that hits your senses. Performances are quite average too. I would say lets not have much expectations even if its a martin scorsese venture and you will find this film just fine.