dumpingGroundForMovieReviews

[disparatewatcher]

Vikram Vedha

This is not a great movie. I had heard some good reviews about it and hence wanted to see it. It is available on youtube, so I watched it in my leisure time. 50% of the time the movie seems like a typical south Indian movie. Performances of R. Madhvan and Vijay Sethupathi are good, but that's about it, rest of the cast looks typical. The movie has some good surprises and twist sequences but the direction of the movie is not that good. The character of Vikram's wife, Priya played by Shraddha Srinath also seemed a bit dragged to make it look important. The communications between Priya and Vedha, also seemed pale or dry to me. I watched it with breaks, over a couple of weeks whenever I got time. Maybe that's why I didn't find it as effective as it would be. The movie does seem made for masses, but I wonder why it received so much appreciation from critics as well. Overall, watch this movie only if you have some time to kill.

[disparatewatcher]

Sleepless in Seattle

After watching Bareily ki Barfi, I wanted to see more of love stories, and I had heard that this one is a good movie. So I decided to watch it, and I don't regret it at all. This Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan starrer is an emotional ride. It's an interesting tale of how some events bring the two people staying far away from each other. I did feel at times that the pace of the movie is little slow, however I reminded myself that it's a movie more than 25 years old. It has its own pace and it takes its time to convince the viewers with the belief of Annie (Meg Ryan's character) about believing in something unseen, about BELIEVING, which is what the whole movie stands upon. The movie does walk on a thin line where Annie's character could be written off by viewers if they don't connect with her mindset. That's why I think Meg Ryan's character was more challenging than Tom Hanks' and she has done full justice to it. This movie needs to be watched with heart, with emotions and with sensibility, only then you will have a special place for it in your heart. Otherwise, one can simply disregard the movie as unbelievable and unrealistic.

[disparatewatcher]

Bareily ki Barfi

I had partly watched this movie when it aired on TV and I enjoyed it a lot, so I watched it again when I was travelling in a plane. This is one of the coolest movies where the story and characters are from a small city and their world doesn't deal much with the things outside the city. It's a love triangle of different kind, it's unique. Not only the direction, but dialogues of the movie are simple and great. The simplicity of the characters, the city, the dialogues and the overall story make you connect with the movie. You laugh, you smile, you wink, you get shocked and you sigh during this movie. Do watch it for its simplicity, the performances of all actors, dialogues and for forgetting your worries.

[disparatewatcher]

Incredibles 2

Too much of copy-paste of X-Men series is what I felt about the movie. It's like X-Men for kids. The plot is good in some ways, you see the elasti-girl doing some action while Mr. Incredible tries the impossible to handle kids. Some of the surprises are good too, but the whole superhero thing keeps you reminding of X-Men.The whole no-more-hiding thing as well as some of the superpowers look taken straight out of the Marvel movies. I watched it because I had liked the first part, but this one is not worth spending time.

[disparatewatcher]

Shaadi me jaroor aana

I watched this movie because someone told me that it is a good movie which failed to work on box office. I also wanted to watch it because I had loved the songs in it. And... ( yes there is one more reason)  I was tired of watching action movies on a plane, I just wanted to watch something light-hearted. But, this is not a light-hearted movie. This is a different kind of love story, but still seems like it has missed the release date by almost a decade. Now that there are movies like Queen, Tanu Weds Manu, Bareily ki Barfi, Manmarziyaan made in India very frequently where not only girls, but the whole family is shown very progressive, forward thinking and cool about girls being independent, it is tough to relate with families where the adults are against of  not only girls getting higher education but also girls doing jobs. The movie's backdrop would have connected with more people almost a decade ago, but nowadays the situation is not that bad. Also there are some idiotic dialogues of some characters where they say how being in officer is much more better than being a clerk,  reason... because it is more luxurious life where you have government car and house for consumption!!! Having said that, the movie's direction is not very bad and movie does take some surprising twists. The movie (if its flaws are ignored), keeps you engaged for some time. Watch it only if you have some time to kill.

[disparatewatcher]

Ocean's eight

I watched this movie because of Anne Hathway and Sandra Bullock, Kate Blanchette. I obviously compared to (although I shouldn't) the George Clooney's Ocean movies and hence I didn't like it. The humor was missed the most and the coolness as well, I mean of course no one can compete with George Clooney, Brad Pitt et al. there. (I think I made it clear in the first place that this whole comparison thing I am doing is wrong.) Anyways, I did like a couple of surprises in the movie, but most of them were predictable.Overall I enjoyed the movie only in parts, and I wouldn't recommend it.

[disparatewatcher]

Mission impossible 6 the fallout

This one, was available for watching on a plane, so I jumped on right away because of the one and only Tom Cruise. Now it's more than a week and I don't remember much of the movie, it's story, suspense etc.However I do remember the stunts, the chases and close encounters of the Ethan Hunt and team with failures. And that's what MI movies are all about. Yes, they have suspenses, surprises, but above all it's always an extraordinary story of the extraordinary agent, the Ethan Hunt. This is a must watch for all Tom Cruise, action, adventure movie fans.

[disparatewatcher]

Mother

Mother is a 2017 movie by Darren Aronofsky who has written and directed it. I watched it because it has big names like Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem.And I now regret it, I regret a lot for wasting 2 hours of my time.

The movie starts with a couple, of which we don’t get to know the names, staying somewhere in a quiet place, a huge house. Their privacy keeps on getting breached by the visitors now and then and how the lady (Jennifer L) copes with it is also given a lot of showcase. The man is more open to the outsiders and is very much willing to help, but the lady is very much against it. She wants very few people or just only her and her husband in her life.

I read the description of the movie on amazon prime as psychological thriller, which I haven’t seen in a while and also because of the big names involved in it, I decided to watch it. Throughout the movie I was waiting for some suspense to reveal why the Jenifer Lawrence’s character behaves in particular way, or if the character is having some psychic disease or having some illusions or hallucinations etc., but there is none! The movie just plainly unbelievable.

How in today’s era can so many people enter the house of a couple so easily and go on vandalising? I read some of the reviews and explanations, where it is said that it’s all symbolical, like how the earth is formed again and destroyed by human beings etc. etc. If there is symbolism, it has to stand through out the movie, not just for the last 30 odd minutes when there are just unbelievable sequences of vandalism, a poor lady trying to control them, delivering a baby in between and again losing her new born to the evil doers etc. If by some analogy, the lady is Eve, the house is earth, the man is Adam etc. then what about the blood stains she keeps seeing around the house, what about her obsession to keep the house clean, what about that talk of having/not having children etc? What about the random couple entering their house as fans and their sons fighting with each other? What about the talk between two ladies about sex?

There are so many scenes in the movie which were not making any sense at all, and I was hoping that at some point it will all link to something meaningful or sensible, but it never did. If you want to say something symbolically on this large scale, a couple of mistakes, loose ends are fine, but this is either like an experiment gone massively wrong or the director started with something else in the mind and ended up stretching it too far to loose the track.

I find the movie as a massive disappointment and wouldn’t recommend anyone to watch it.

[disparatewatcher]

Shahid

Shahid is a must watch for everyone. Although it’s a movie not made for masses.

I think every one can get something out of it, because it will make everybody think.

The movie begins with some great quotes which tell the philosophy of the movie and the main character Shahid Azmi played by Rajkumar Rao. The dialogues of the movie are also in simple language and convey the point in exact words.

The movie raises a lot of valid question about legal system in the India as well as it shows the biased minds of people in India, who disbelieve some people just because they belong to a certain religion. The movie also shows the rise of Shahid Azmi from ashes to the height of becoming saviour for many muslims who live unjust life because they don’t have the means to fight for justice. The liberal, open attitude of Shahid and his family is also shown with simple scenes and dialogues.

I think there are some drawbacks in the movie as well, for example, it is hard to believe why Shahid doesn’t lodge a police complaint against the constant threats he gets for the cases he is fighting. If he believes in being part of the system to change the system, then why he also believes that a police complaint won’t do much.

Rajkumar Rao delivers a remarkable performance and the supporting cast is also perfect. The direction of the movie is also good and it is evident that movie is made with simplicity in mind and the message is conveyed is exact words, there is drama in the movie but it never gets over the top.

Every Indian should watch it.

[disparatewatcher]

आणि ... डॉ. काशिनाथ घाणेकर

बऱ्याच दिवसांनी एखादा मराठी चित्रपट थेटरात जाऊन बघितला. whatsapp च्या पोस्ट्स ला बळी पडून नव्हे. तर चित्रपटाच्या ट्रेलर ला भुलून.

एखाद्या कलावंताचं आयुष्य पडद्यावर आणणारा हा काही पहिला चित्रपट नाही आणि शेवटचा पण नसेल. पण हा चित्रपट लक्षात राहणारा मात्र नक्कीच आहे.

एका दंतवैद्याची नाट्यक्षेत्रात काम करण्यासाठीची धडपड दाखवत चित्रपट सुरु होतो. त्यानंतर मग कष्टानं मिळवलेलं यश, पण त्या यशाची चढलेली नशा, नाट्यक्षेत्रातले प्रतिस्पर्धी, मित्र, व्यक्तिगत जीवनातले चढउतार, अपयशाची परत एकदा भेट, लोकप्रियतेची लागलेली चटक, व्यसनाधीनता अशा कितीतरी वळणावळणाच्या वाटेवरून हा प्रवास पुढे पुढे सरकत राहतो. आणि महत्वाचं म्हणजे प्रेक्षक देखील तितकाच गुंतून जातो, प्रेक्षक त्या प्रवासाचा एक भाग नक्कीच बनून जातो.

त्यामुळंच जेव्हा काशिनाथच्या अभिनयासाठी चित्रपटात टाळ्या किंवा शिट्ट्या पडतात, तेव्हा त्या आपल्याला पण वाजवाव्याशा वाटतात, आणि काशिनाथ जेव्हा चुकीचं वागतो तेव्हा त्याचा तितकाच राग  देखील येतो, आणि हेच या चित्रपटाचं यश आहे. अर्थात त्या यशात सिंहाचा वाटा हा सुबोध भावेचा आहे, डॉक्टरांची भूमिका त्यानं खरंच जिवंत केली आहे. बाकीच्या अभिनेत्यांनी दिलेली साथ तितकीच मोलाची आहे, पण चित्रपटभर व्यापून राहणं आणि नंतरही उरणं म्हणजे काय ते सुबोधचा अभिनय बघून लक्षात येतं.

एका अर्थानं बघायला गेलं तर डॉ काशिनाथ घाणेकर हे मराठी नाट्यभूमीतले 'संजू' होते असं म्हणायला हरकत नाही. त्यांचं आयुष्य (आणि मृत्यूही) हे तितकंच नाट्यमय होतं, त्यात कष्ट, यश-अपयश, चढउतार, व्यसनं, प्रेम प्रकरणं असा सगळा मसाला खरं  तर ठासून भरला आहे. पण लेखक-दिग्दर्शकानं हा फक्त मसाला चित्रपट म्हणून मांडलेला नाही, तर एखादा कलावंत जेव्हा आपलं आयुष्य जगत असतो तेव्हा त्याला कोणकोणत्या पातळीवर संघर्ष करावा लागतो, आणि तो संघर्ष करणारा शेवटी तोहि एक माणूसच असतो हे दाखवण्याचा स्तुत्य प्रयत्न केला आहे. कलावंतांच्या वैयक्तिक जीवनातले चढ उतार व्यावसायिक जीवनात कसे प्रभावी किंवा धोकादायी ठरू शकतात यावर देखील चित्रपट प्रकाश टाकतो.

एकंदरीतच अभिनय, लेखन, दिग्दर्शन, संवाद अशा सर्वच गोष्टींसाठी आणि मराठी रंगभूमीच्या इतिहासातलं एक सोनेरी म्हणता येणार नाही, पण 'रसरसतं-धगधगतं' पान वाचण्यासाठी हा चित्रपट नक्कीच बघितला पाहिजे.

[disparatewatcher]

John Wick

During the Diwali holidays, I had been watching rom-com TV series for quite some time and was feeling tired of it. So I wanted to see an action movie as a change and John Wick was a saviour. 

Once in every 2-3 years, an action movie strikes a right chord with the audience, even if it has a familiar story. People kind of know what they are going to get and are satisfied with the content.

I think John Wick came at such right time. 

This Keanu Reeves starrer is also like an old wine in new bottle. The story is about how a retired hitman has to go back to what he was known-best-for to take revenge from a gangster’s son. 

It is a gangster movie, but the movie doesn’t have sequences where a plan is detailed out or where 2 protagonists discuss the future and past or their rivalry or some restaurant scenes where silence is also a speaker, but instead it is full of action sequences and gun fights. There are some walking shots, telephone conversations which are just to show the attitudes of characters, but there are some twists, some suspense and catchy dialogues along the way which stand out. 

Chad Stahelski and David Leitch as directors, Derek Solstad the writer and the whole cast have created an action movie that has its own identity and now a franchise.

If you are looking for an action movie/s, add John Wick to your list.

[disparatewatcher]

Baywatch

Baywatch is an average movie, made with no intentions other than to entertain viewers.

The movie, as promised, has good-looking guys and girls. There are roped-in jokes to fill time because there is a need to have some element of fun in this movie and there are eye-rolling action scenes just to show that actors are Heroes here. There is also suspense which is somewhat predictable.

Dwayne Johnson plays the role of lifeguard Mitch Bucannon and Zac Effron joins his team as a new recruit (because he has good looks and physique, 2 gold medals in swimming and some attitude issues!!). Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach are also part of the team (because they are good looking and can swim fine), and Jon Bass also gets to join the team although he is not in perfect shape, because he is a tech-guy and has a don’t-give-up attitude (!!). Ilfenesh Hadera is already part of the team and like a second lead after Dwayne Johnson (not in the movie, but only in the team). She goes almost unnoticed in the movie except a couple of scenes.

This lifeguard team consisting of 2 good-looking females, 2 perfect-physique males along with a technology-guy who is funny at times, meet a challenge of drugs being found on the bay, some mysterious murders and danger to the future of the bay due to politics from the villain Victoria Leeds (played by Priyanka Chopra). How the lifeguards work as a team and save the bitch is what the movie is about. Priyanka Chopra doesn’t have much to do, but gets a couple of powerful scenes with punch lines and she does justice to her role.

If you just keep in mind that this movie is made just for entertainment, you might enjoy it, otherwise it is just a waste of time.

[disparatewatcher]

Naked

Naked is a light heart, comedy movie made for fun, but it’s not funny. It’s not a sci-fi movie, but it has a time machine or time-elevator element in it.

The movie is about a young guy who is very much careless, but he loves her girlfriend with all hist heart. How he gets into trouble on his way to get married to his girlfriend, how he deals with the problems is what the movie is all about.

Marlon Wayans has played the central character of Rob Anderson and he is not enjoyable. There are efforts to make people smile in some of the scenes, however anything hardly sounds funny in this movie, courtesy Marlon’s poor acting and the writers’ poor writing. The other supporting characters played by Regina Hall, Dennis Haysbert are okay and they have acted fine. But because the focus keeps shifting to Rob, which is played by Marlon, who fails to impress completely, you keep waiting for the movie to reach the end.

The movie has very few watchable elements and first 30 minutes seem a little more dragged than needed. The movie fails to make you laugh and states the same old love-family-philosophy over the time. No need to spend any time at all on this movie.

[disparatewatcher]

Silence

I watched Silence, because it is directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s a long movie, and I was getting mentally tired, exhausted again and again while watching it.

Perhaps because the subject is such, it needs deeper involvement of the viewer into characters and the troubles they go through.

The movie is about 2 priests from Portuguese, who have strong faith in the christianity, who take on a journey to Japan during 17th century with specific goals in their mind and with full awareness of what is waiting for them. The times are hard for Christians and priests in Japan, because the rulers of the land are determined to destroy the christianity completely with its roots in Japan. The 2 priests decide to enter such land, to help the christianity and christians in Japan.

The movie shows the natural beauty of Japan as well, but the poverty and fear, in which christian people are shown living or surviving, that keeps echoing in your mind. The major takeaway from the movie, for me, is if you believe in something with all your heart, then the oppression makes your faith only stronger, no matter how powerful the opposition is. It makes the mind mightier than the body.

Andrew Garfield, Adam Driver look convincing in the roles of priests and Liam Nesson also impresses in the very short screen time he gets. The story and direction keep you engaged but there will be times, when you feel exhausted and may say ‘it’s enough now’.

I feel that this is not a movie for everyone, but if you watch it, be ready to enter some dark tunnels of emotions.

[disparatewatcher]

Manmarziyaan

For me a good love-story-movie is the one which makes you fall in love again, either be it with your family or with your wife or girlfriend or even an ex. Manmarziyaan did that. 

It emphasizes the fact that, if something like love is meant to be yours, it will BE yours, you don't need to grab or hold it tight. This is a movie for those who have loved someone with all their heart and I think people in arranged marriage will relate more to the story. It beautifully shows the process of how two people agreeing to do arranged marriage get to know each other, how they become friends first and then lovers. Although the basis of the story can be framed as a love triangle, direction/screenplay of the story bring the novelty, kudos to Anurag and Kanika for that! The movie needs to be watched for the intensity of the emotions of main characters and for the pitch-perfect use of music. 

Abhishek Bachchan speaks a volume through his eyes and owns the movie. Tapsee fits the role effortlessly and Vicky Kaushal impresses with his 100% effort as usual.

[disparatewatcher]

Red Sparrow

Red Sparrow is a very thrilling movie, the suspense and drama keeps you engaged till the end.

Jennifer Lawrence has proven that she is an oscar worthy performer. Joel Edgerton also has a nice supporting role. I watched a spy movie after a long time and really enjoyed it. The suspense-pendulum keeps swinging until the end in this movie. The Director Francis Lawrence and writers of the movie have done a great job and this is definitely one of the must watch movies of 2018.

[disparatewatcher]

12 Strong

It's must watch movie for war-movie lovers.

It revolves around the first special force team sent to Afghanistan after 9-11 attacks.

The movie is directed nicely and it is entertaining to watch the negotiation, survival and war skills of a young captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) being put to test. Chris Hemsworth does complete justice to the role and Michael Shannon, Michael Pena also fit perfectly in their roles. Navid Negahban leaves the impact as General Dostum. This story of horse soldiers is worth telling and worth watching.