Red Lights (2012) - Thriller

While watching a French movie of the same name – I came across this one and was shocked to a movie with two of my favorite actors – Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver totally went unnoticed by me for so long. I must praise Cillian Murphy for an outstanding performance as Assistant to Sigourney Weaver in the movie, this must be his career best performance and would definitely get noticed big time by people. A damn good movie which I would put somewhere in between a perfect thriller and horror, it has those shocking “Jump out of your seat” moments too with solid background score thrown in. Robert De Niro again in a terrific role although not too impressive from his standards but still quite a good to say the least. I am sure the two scenes of him taking off his dark glasses will give you Goosebumps like they did to me. I wonder how dashing Sigourney looks in this one – she is one of those females who impress me with every movie she does. Last we saw her was in a damn good role in “Avatar” and now in this one – she has an equally good role – unfortunately how I craved to see both of them together in one shot but guess that wasn’t the agenda with the Director. Check it out guys – it’s a must watch for De Niro fans for sure and Cillian Murphy is sure to impress you big time in this one. Even otherwise it works as a damn good thriller at least if nothing else. Surely not to be missed.

The Movie: It has a very interesting premise – the one that I totally love with Sigourney Weaver as a University Academic also working as a Paranormal Investigator assisted by a superb Cillian Murphy in both the areas. They are highly against the idea of someone with super or paranormal healing powers and all. How they keep uncovering those people in the initial opening of the movie is too good, it give you a pretty good idea of what you should be looking forward to in coming hour or so. Sigourney is too good – even at that age – she does everything in a style that you just can’t help but love her totally – she still looks damn good to me at least. They keep investigating all the psychics and paranormal activities but she isn’t interested in investigating only one man and his powers and that happens to be Simon Silver (Robert De Niro) as they have a past – because of that she tells Cillian Murphy that the guy is dangerous and they should not be investigating his case. Simon Silver vanishes from public performances for decades before he hits back and as the day of his another public appearance comes close – the audience are totally hooked and look forward to uncover the truth behind his so called powers – right then the story takes an awesome turn by suspicious death of Sigourney Weaver. I felt so sad as I was actually looking forward to some action between them but what happens next and how Cillian Murphy takes it all on himself to uncover Simon Silver is simply outstanding and superb action.

Elizabeth Olsen and Sigourney Weaver

Robert De Niro – He comes in the movie almost after the half time but the little snippets of him here and there with those dangerous eyes are too good to keep your interest alive in the movie – he looks terrific – I am sure I will never forget those dangerous looks of him ever. The antics that he does in the movie are simply stunning and mind-blowing. How the investigation proceeds and Cillian uncovers the truth behind is powers are a thrilling ride. I have never seen this guy in that kind of a character ever – here and there he had impressed me in small roles as a villain but none comes close to the one he has done in this one – totally superb. I am sure he is going to get his due with this movie and will definitely get noticed for his superb work. I love those shocks that the movie gives you – this one reminded me of “I know what you did last summer” a lot as every now and then you get a shock. Like those typical sudden knocking on the car window, weird looking people, terrific background score, car screeching to a halt right before hitting another vehicle, dark rooms, calling ghosts and spirits – it had everything to make it a perfect thriller. Unfortunately, I am sure it did not do too well on the box office as it never came to my notice for last six months of its release. Anyways, I found it pretty good and will definitely recommend it to everyone who likes thrillers.

What to expect, when you're expecting (2012) - Drama

 

It may not be the best on the subject but it certainly was a heart warming experience for us. Worked big time like a time machine and sent us back by 7 years when we were expecting our daughter. We smiled, laughed, agreed, disagreed and enjoyed those moments lived on screen with a couple of our own favorite actors. I wasn't looking forward to this one after reading quite a few negative reviews but still couldn't resist the movie with Jennifer Lopez, Cameron Diaz, Brooklyn Decker (Battleship), Chris Rock and Dennis Quaid. Also, it is full of cameos from a lot of other lesser known celebrities from TV and stuff. As a parent of a 6 year old kid – it was all been there done that stuff for us but can be a great learning experience and eye opener for would be parents. A funny take on how life changes but for good once you become a parent or on the verge of becoming one. It was a great time pass and a fundoo one time watch for sure. 

Jennifer Lopez

The Movie: As the name suggests – story revolves around the lives of 5 couple expecting their first babies. They are all related to each in one way or the other and its hilarious to see the situations change so fast and how it all ends – its quite comically timed. Our favorite will always be the story of Jennifer Lopez as Holly the photographer with a husband in music business and her emotional story, since she couldn't conceive in normal circumstances. They have no option but to adopt a kid and even to do that – they have to prepare themselves for the baby's arrival with new house etc. The second best was obviously Cameron Diaz as a celebrity dance show contestant and a host of a fitness weight loss show with her husband. I guess Cameron is a good dance and she always looks forward to a dance item in all her movies – here too it starts with a small dance number from her and its hilarious to see how it ends. The third great one was Elizabeth Banks who was Wendy Cooper wife of Gary played by Ben Falcone. As they break their story of expecting a baby to his father – they get shocking news that even his father played by my favorite Dennis Quaid and his wife hottie Brooklyn Decker too were expecting their first kid. The father and son relationship is too good and their scenes are one of the high points of the movie. Super Rich dad with a mansion and a golf course of his own, simply superb, Dennis Quaid at his hilarious best.

Brooklyn Decker

The Mothers

The Gang of Guys: Walking in the part with their babies in the strollers is too good. I mean it's amazing to see how life changes for a couple after marriage first and then after they become parents. How every one adjusts into their new roles without panicking and you see every new guy who is yet to be a parent having those panic attacks. It reminded us of our own memories not so long ago when one fine Sunday morning my wife broke the news that she was pregnant. I can never forget the way I reacted “What??? Are you serious? How could that be? I mean, are you sure???” It was great news yet we weren’t expecting it that sooner and we are way too glad today to have a baby like the one that we have, it’s a blessed feeling to have a kid at the end of the day. All the couples have their own ups and downs too like the way Jennifer loses her contract because of cost cutting and goes job less. Cameron Diaz’s husband couldn’t continue his dance show anymore because she is alone at home and he needs to be there with her, the way he sacrifices his positions by faking a fall on the dance floor, is totally awesome. There is another story of a young couple, the girl becomes pregnant right after a one night stand with a guy and they part ways because of confusion, although she loses the baby too, yet she loves the guy and looks forward to be with him, how their story moves and ends is heart warming. We found the movie pretty good than an average fare, it was hilarious in parts but all in all a nice one time watch for sure.

The Good, The Bad and The Weird (2008) - Korean Comedy / Action

Korea’s reply to western “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” and what a movie it was – I must say. Although no ways – it can be compared with Sergio Leone’s original but it stands out on its own in being a damn good entertainer. Like all the other Korean movies are – over the top and fully loaded with mind blowing action, comedy, drama and lots of blood / gore too. This movie’s USP big time is its cinematography – I mean – I must have seen close to 250 movies this year and none comes close to this one’s camera work – totally OUTSTANDING. You’ve got to see it to believe it and if you have already seen it – I am sure you will agree with me. Right from the very first shot till the very end – it’s an amazing visual treat, almost 2 hours and a little longer – it’s a total treat. If you know what Korean movies stand for – you can’t miss this one at any cost. I am going with a good 3 thumbs up for this one. It’s certainly a great one time watch at least.

The Good

The Movie: As I mentioned earlier and if you have seen the original – you exactly know where this movie is going and how it all is going to end. But the question is again how? And that’s the best part about this movie – the way they have shot the whole story with so many characters thrown in between all fighting first for the same map and then to locate the treasure and dig it out. Visually it’s a stunning movie right from the very start – we were hooked to its cinematography right from the first aerial shot of a flying eagle picking up a dead bird from a train track as the train passes by – totally awesome shot. Then the camera shifts first to the left then to the right of the track before entering inside with a train robbery by two different groups being attempted. Here we are introduced to the good (Jung Woo-sung) and the weird (Song Kang-ho) followed by the final and the best character of the movie the bad (Lee Byung-hun). The fighting sequences and the robbery is shot in such a fiery pace that its just amazing to see so much going in such a short span of time. Before even you realize where it’s going and how its going to end the bad guy takes over.

The Bad

The fighting sequences are done so well and are so stunning that I have not seen something like that this year. So many laugh out loud moments with the weird guy doing all kinds of weird stuff as he is famous for. Even the guy that they picked up I guess is a master of comedy in Korean movies – I remember I saw another movie with him in lead couple of weeks back and there too – he did a commendable job of making us laugh big time with his histrionics. Although the good guy never comes close to our own Clint Eastwood in Sergio Leone’s movie but still he holds it pretty good. As per me – the full credit goes to the guy who plays “The Bad” – he is damn good, in his facial expressions, fighting sequences, his hair style, the way he does all his stunts etc. His best movie to date will be “I Saw the Devil” and he was excellent in that one. Initial one hour the fight is for the Map between the good, bad and the weird. Once the map is set with good and weird joining hands for a joint operation followed by bad, we are up for a thrilling chase between all the gangs.

And The Weird

The Finale: Between The Good, The Weird, followed by further more Manchurian Bandits, Japanese army and The Bad man’s gang – is an awesome watch, totally hooking stuff with so much of going on that too in such a style that its hard to keep a track yet its simply outstanding job on screen. The ending as we already know is classic too with the treasure and final fights between all of them. That’s one movie which deserves a proper Blue Ray viewing with a good home theater to say the least. I am up for a damn good print and couple of more future viewings for sure.

Premium Rush (2012) - Thriller

After a long time we get to see a damn good intelligent thriller on bicycles, the last it reminded me of was made in 1986 (Rad) that too on BMX bikes and it was a grand success – at least for us on VHS at that time. We loved it so much and saw it so many times back to back, even this one – undoubtedly turns out to be an edge of the seat thriller right from the very start and mind it – it does deserves your attention and intelligence. The movies fiery pace never lets you take rest and there are so many and I actually mean so many moments that you just go “WOW”, “Holy Shit”, “Oh My God”, one amazing watch – not to be missed at any cost by thriller lovers especially those who love movies with fantastic bike chases – this should be called one of the best of the recent times. Joseph Gordon Levitt proves yet again that he is one hell of an actor and Michael Shannon as the bad ass cop makes you hate him some more. A delivery boy with an important packet being chased by a cop, what’s in the packet and why he is being chased that badly is the movie all about? I seriously couldn’t watch sitting straight on my chair as it had so many shocking moments – do not miss it guys, I am actually waiting for its big screen release in our part of the world – I am sure it will be a fantastic watch.  

Joseph Gordon Levitt

About the Director: He is the same guy who earlier made a fantastic movie called “The Trigger Effect” and even “Secret Window”. Both of them were damn good thrillers which I saw so many times on Star Movies. He wrote so many other damn good movies like Mission Impossible, Spider Man, Panic Room etc. This is his 5^th movie as a Director and I am sure this one is good enough to establish him as a good Director now.

Dania Ramirez

The Movie: The super fast paced thriller is based on a couple of hours in the life of a Bicycle messenger Wilee (Joseph Gordon Levitt) as he delivers a package from one place to another in busy New York City traffic on his bike with no gears and no brake. His fundaa is pretty clear that brakes will kill someone someday hence he uses an age old bike with none of them and is super fast in the whole gang of biker messengers. They claim New York has 1500 of guys like him doing this job everyday. Its simply superb to watch him do his job day in day out, one hell of a biker he is that you understand right after he delivers the first package of the day in super fast speed with his mind working in all the permutation and combinations to use the safest and yet the fastest path to do his job. One fine afternoon he picks up an urgent envelop from an office which has to be delivered by 7 PM at a specified address. The problem starts when he is being chased by a cop who wants that envelop back as he has a doubt that it holds a ticket to some illegal money transfer. The movie is running backwards with the final scene shown to us in advance and it keeps going back by half an hour to 45 minutes. Audience need to be attentive to keep in mind what they saw and what happened earlier, that was so damn good to see in reality. The background of the cop too is shown that he loses some money in gambling and needs this ticket to pay off his debts.

Michael Shannon the Cop

Wilee has no idea of the content of the envelop and his job is to just get it delivered at any cost. How he does that after being chased by this cop is the rest of the story. How he delivers the package with the help of his girl friend and friends is just amazing. They are being chased by a cop (Michael Shannon) who wants that packet at any cost and by another cop on bicycle himself chasing Wilee big time right from the very start of the movie. The USP of the movie is the fantastic sequences shot in bicycles in the busy streets of New York. I have never seen something like that earlier – we all have seen car and bike chases but none on bicycles so far. The sub plots too are developed in a great pace and quite convincing but the cake is taken by Joseph Gordon and Michael Shannon – how it all ends is a damn good watch. It isn’t that easy as it looks like as Wilee has a competitor in house too who takes the package later in confusion and goes to deliver it right to the bad ass cop. He gets out of one situation only to enter into another troublesome one shortly. Its hilarious to see one problem popping up right after another and that too all hell breaks lose just in 91 minutes of running time. We had to follow the timeline closely as what happened when to keep a track of time and activity going on a fiery pace. I and my wife argued on couple of scenes and we had to rewind the whole movie to see it right from the very start – this time we kept taking in stock all the scenes and activities going on. It was actually fun to watch. Go ahead – check it out – do not miss it at any cost. If you have already seen it – let me know how you like it.

Heroine (2012) - Drama

After watching “Heroine”, I can definitely say that Madhur Bhandarkar has lost it big time and is right now walking on the footsteps of Ram Gopal Varma. After winning four national awards for some of his great movies – this is what he ends up making on a subject which he should know like back of his hands. Right from the moment “Go” this one is full of clichés, so many and so much that it looks pointless to even point out now. What we were expecting and how it turns out to be is way too different – in the final product the only reason why one should watch this is “Kareena” only. No ways, he has shown us anything that we do not know already. It does makes you smile and laugh at times on the references. My full sympathies to one of my favorite actor Randeep Hooda again as even this one doesn’t works for him and makes him shine, the last one was a laughable “Jism 2”. None of the characters other than Mahi (Kareena) had any scope of development – they just keep coming, playing their part and get lost in the movie somewhere. I guess Madhur tried too hard with this one hence the outcome – he should stick to the reality formula that worked in the past for him and get away with that “Commercial” stuff. It looks too fake, forced and been there done that stuff. Give it a miss if you haven’t seen it – rather download its songs and watch them – they are way too better than the whole movie and that’s where you see the hottie Kareena rest of the movie is just a passé. 

Hottie Kareena Kapoor

The Movie: As it was supposed to be – it is based on the life of an Indian Actress (Fictional) Mahi Arora played by one of the best Actresses of her own times Kareena Kapoor – she is one hottie that we have. Suffering from a bipolar disorder and changing times, how she copes with sudden success followed by someone else replacing her in the industry gradually and by being thrown out of movies. Getting in and out of the lives of her co-stars and cricketers who she cannot marry cause of her flourishing career and what not she does to achieve stardom is the movie all about. Unfortunately the handling and what is being show to us is so mediocre and been there done that feel that it hardly shocks you. As Madhur Bhandarkar is famous for shocking the audience with on your face truth – that typical Madhur touch is seriously missing in this one and it looks out and out a movie made to make money and nothing else. Which indeed it has made in the first week itself and the producer’s investments have fetched good returns already. I felt cheated specially cause it has no entertainment value whatsoever – the only good thing about it is gorgeous Kareena Kapoor and some scenes which does bring smile to your face. That’s about it.

Different Avatars Kareena Kapoor

A Guy, who has given us wonderful movies like “Chandni Bar”, “Satta”, “Page 3” and “Traffic Signal” – for whom he got National Award as Best Director followed by couple of damn good ones like “Fashion” and even his last outing a good comedy “Dil to bachcha hai ji” was a great time pass. I felt there is something wrong with him, he seriously ran out of thoughts and idea to put this one up. The less I should talk about the glaring mistakes is better like throughout the movie’s timeline you see Kareena using a iPhone, I wonder she never changes her phone throughout the years she is shown on screen. There are so many mistakes and goof ups – the ones that you least expect in a Madhur movie at least. So many celebrity references and incidents picked up and beaten to death in the movie. Medial and PR agencies doing whatever it takes to bring them to news and make them famous.  The typical party goof ups with girl friend meeting celeb wives and misbehaving. Going down to their knees to land a perfect role which can make or break their career. Actress hooking up with upcoming cricketer. Doing art movies to call themselves Actors and what not. So many things feel so tacky, like the award ceremony and the trophy that they made – feels so sad – I mean that’s the best they could do for their movie? C’mon – it says they made this movie with 30 Crore – where did all that money go? Unfortunately it never works for the audience as there is nothing new in all that and we have already seen it so many times earlier. This would go down in the history of bollywood as the worst movie of Madhur Bhandarkar – it may work out well on the box office commercially but will never be called as one which did justice to the subject it picked up.