Movie Review: Special 26

This weekend we decided to watch movie "Special 26". The reviews were quite favorable and it had been some time since we had seen movie in theater.
We prefer going on an early morning show because the movie ticket rates are one third of the regular afternoon or evening show (Rs 90 only for Platinum seat at E-Square multiplex at University Road in morning).
The main actors of this movie are Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Manoj Bajpai and Jimmy Shergil.
It is based on the life of con-men who duped several people and business person during the 1980s. They posed as fake CBI agents or Income Tax Officials.
The movie is decently paced and has good elements of comedy to make you laugh. I liked the scene where applicant answers - "Milke ukharenge Sir. Kuchh Hum. Kuchh Aap.".
Even though Akshay Kumar is the lead actor, i will say the movie revolves more around Anupam Kher and Manoj Bajpai. They have done superb acting.
There are some loose ends in the story (the story of Jimmy Shergil is not that convincing and the love interest of lead actor seems unnecessary.) However it is worth watching for a good relaxing time.

Movie Review : Nothing But The Truth

"Nothing But The Truth" is a very gritting story about a journalist and her conviction to not name the source no matter how hard is the choice.

Story begins with a conversation in school bus where our main character is sitting with her son. Later she prints a story about how government has ignored the right intelligence (hint of Iraq attack by US). Later the journalist is prosecuted by government and jailed for not obeying the court order of revealing her source. Now slowly her life disintegrates. Her marriage is falling apart and there is no end of her hardships. Despite this she stays true to her conviction.

In the end it is shown that she is going for a 2 year jail term and there she remembers the conversation in school bus and thus viewer are told about who is the first hand source.

It is a very well directed movie. Story moves at a reasonably well pace. End is the icing on cake.

Movie Review : War Horse (2011)

When i was watching this movie, i didn't know that Steven Spielberg has directed this movie. Thus there was no prejudgement.
This movie is the story of a horse and a boy during first world war time. It is a drama movie. Story revolves around the theme that "How horse has touched the lifes of many people around him." Overall a very decent film. I will not put it in the league of "Saving Private Ryan" and "Catch Me If You Can", but definitely worth watching with your family over a relaxed saturday evening.

There is one scene in which horse is scared of the tank and bombs and becomes deeply entangled himself in barbed wires. English army sees it and one soldier is brave enough to go out in no-man's land to free horse. English soldier is met by a German soldier and they together cut the wires and set horse free. The decision of who will take the horse is settled by tossing a coin instead of a gun battle.

This scene is very touching and teaches us that we should have common sense and human decency even in worst of the situations.

Movie Review : Carnage (2011)

Few days ago i got a chance to watch movie "Carnage". It is directed by Roman Polanski (of "The Pianist" fame). The actors in this movie are    Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz.

It is based on the theme that two boys started fighting in a local park with the end result of which one boy hits other in mouth with a stick. So the parents (Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz) of the boy (who hit with stick) goes to the parents Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly) of the other kid (who was stuck) to settle this issue in a friendly way.

Now follows a series of conversation which is very fascinating to watch and listen. The couples discuss the issue related to their sons which gets edgy at times. And it also brings out the problems they are facing in their marriage and psychology of all 4 individuals. How the story progresses and how the characters react to different conversation themes are very entertaining.

If you like this kind of movie and had liked movies "Before sunset", "Before sunrise" then this is a movie for you. Enjoy!!!

Movie Review : Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Yesterday i got a chance to watch "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" (starring James Franco directed by Rupert Wyatt), which was premiered on Star Movies as Movie of the Month.

I had seen the 2001 movie "Planet of the Apess" (starring Mark Wahlberg and directed by Tim Burton). Now this is a true entertaining movie. The movie is fast paced and keeps you thoroughly entertained.

In this sequel, i was hoping that they will continue from the point where Mark crashed in the distant future of planet of apes, where apes had become sophisticated and had simply replaced humans in  the modern world.
But in this movie it has no correlation with the previous movie. Rather it starts with current world where a scientist is trying to discover high potential cure for brain diseases (which incidentally his father is also suffering). The drugs get tested on a chimpanzee who was pregnant at that time and gives birth to a very smart chimpanzee whom he had to bring home due to unavoidable circumstances.
Well now rest of the story is not too brilliantly new. You keep such pet at home and trouble will arise. So this smart chimpanzee gets transferred to a government facility where he is mistreated and kept with many other chimpanzees. Now you can imagine what will happen. Of course he will hate the bad behavior of humans and organize his chimpanzee army. So that was the rise of the apes.

The actors have done an OK job, neither too great nor too shabby. The movie lacks in speed. Sometimes it get little boring when they try to push the emotions of the apes to a little extreme.

My overall rating is 3/5

Movie Review : Real Steel

Yesterday movie Real Steel was on TV. I had seen promos of it for last few days and was determined to see it. I liked it very much and thus decided to write a blog entry for it.

Well it is a movie on Robot and set in little distant future (2018), where Robots take the place in boxing ring. So if boxing and robots are not of your interest you can simply skip/ignore whatever i have to say next.

Man characters of this movie are Charlie (Hugh Jackman  remember X-Men series), Max (Dakota Goyo a new kid whom i haven't seen before), the good robot (ATOM), the bad robot or the robot on bad side (ZEUS)

In summary the movie is about father son bonding, realizing what is really important and yeah robots killing other robots. Dakota Goyo has done a superb job. The fight sequences are worth watching. Dialogues are crisp and don't bore you.

So my recommendation is to watch it if you like this genre of movie. My rating 4/5.

For more details goto

Real Steel (2011)