Race - 2008

This movie has more twists and turns than a Jalebi. It is such a convoluted story with each character changing their basic character so many times that after some time it turns predictable. Double crossing turns into triple crossing turns into quadruple crossing and then i stopped counting. As all Abbas Mustan movies, it was stylishly shot in south africa with one great car race scene in the end. Saif and Akshaye Khanna are brothers, one a racehorse breeder and the other an alcoholic. Soon the alchoholic tries to kill his brother for an insurance policy from heaven. I wonder which insurance company dealt out that policy, 100 million for a 50 million policy, which then miraculously turns into 200 million. Katrina Kaif, Bipasha Basu and Sameera Reddy in a teeny role are utilised to the max. Each competing with each other to wear the most provoking, skimpiest outfit. Songs burst out of nowhere and each women tries to seduce one after another brother. Anil Kapoor as the police is his usual self. Nowadays if you transplant him from one movie to another, i doubt if anyone will notice. The same dumb, lewd jokes and swagger. 3/10

American Gangster 2007

When Denzel Washington speaks, you want to listen and you want to listen carefully. Especially when he is playing a gangster but in this movie this relatively easy task goes horribly wrong as the boom mike juts above his head in almost three fourths of the movie. Otherwise the movie somewhat delivers. The seventies look is brought out admirably.

The story follows Frank Lucas a black driver who follows his dead mafia boss's techniques (family first) and becomes the most dangerous man in New york by getting drugs from the source and using the army as carriers (during vietnam war in the coffins) Russell Crowe is the unbribable detective who discovers and consequently catches him.

I am going to give this movie a 6/10 even though it has great reviews. The main reason being Denzel and Crowe are great actors, they can carry a movie by themselves, apart from that and the 70's look there wasnt much going for the movie. The stars eclipsed the lack of anything else that was special.

But worth a watch.

The Kingdom 2007

I went to watch this movie with a very prejudiced mindset, but I was proven somewhat wrong. IMDB comments were very harsh in criticizing the movie as being 'pro moron' which i found amusing to the extreme. Curiosity and nothing to do on a friday evening prompted me to go watch and i wasnt disappointed.

The movie is not a real potrayal or doesnt even try to be a 'honest look' or anything of that sort. It is an action movie with a controversial plot that has been treated a little better than most action movies. If you watch it as such, then the movie is a pleasant surprise. Foxx is not as good as he could have been and now i know why Jennifer garner is considered a good action 'heroine'. The Arabs are potrayed as human beings and not exactly fanatics. The religious aspect touched upon but not rubbed in your face. I accept the movie is a little skewed in favor of the americans but what else could you expect from an american action movie. Frankly speaking it is handled as sensitively as you can expect from an american action script.

About a 100 american civilians and assorted Arab policemen are killed in a oil company residential compound by a terrorist bomb. The FBI is not allowed to investigate but Jamie Foxx and a team of four (including a supporting wisecracking character) somehow manage to convince the powers that be and reach there. The investigation is hampered in the usual ways but they get around it and lots of explosions and stuff (top of the mill stuff) follow and all the americans survive. The moral of the story.......we will kill them all.

go watch it for further clarifications,



7/10

Welcome 2007

I walked out of the movie before the interval. dont heed the welcome please.

2/10

live free or die hard 2007

If you have seen the previous die hard movies then its the same thing a lot bigger. more explosions, more hard macho talk and plus cos its 2007 there is some computer hacking thingys thrown in. If you havent seen The Die Hard row of movies then you are not a fan of blowing things up and men scratching, punching, biting, shooting and doing other violent things to each other. So desist.

6/10 for keeping up the same shit for so long.

Hairspray 2007

Its a very cute movie. A musical about integration in 1960's america and accepting differences. The main heroine is a short, fat but cute tracy who loves dancing and the corny collins show. Its a dance show sponsored by a hairspray company. Then the usual bitchy counterparts and songs and dances and all...and ofcourse John Travolta in a dress to spoil it all. I hated him, the girl playing Tracy was great and so were the other characters including Michelle Pfiefer,Christopher Walken and Amanda Bynes,but Travolta was an uncomfortable misfit. Queen Latifah does what she does best but could have been a little better (the smiles didnt actually reach her eyes.) The songs are nice although some are a bit too long and the dances (very very) energetic. helped me spend a very very boring afternoon in office.

8/10

The Simpsons (2007)

Well Im a die hard fan, but for the past few seasons wasnt exactly happy with the way the series was. A little repititive, a little trying too hard and over all a little too dumb. The series has dumbed down considerably (maybe just like the country its "made" in - apparently its just the writers and producers who are real americans, the rest of it is done in south east asian countries which i think goes totally against what the show stands for, or maybe its supposed to be ironic) Anyways back to the film- its lackluster performance all through, the usual one liners are missing, bart wants to have a dad like Flanders!!! yes i know i will never forgive him for that! Lisa is more pathetic than usual and Maggie can be glimpsed only in a few scenes. The usual characters that we love have been sidelined for Homer. I like Homer, but it was his interaction with the rest of Springfield that made it worth watching. The rest of Springfield just like in the movie- is nowhere and amounts to nothing. The story revolves around Homer who f@#ks up everything like usual and Springfield suffers. This time it is to be vaporised. So to escape he moves to Alaska. Then he comes back to save the day blah blah blah. and top it all the ending - believe it or not Homer and Marge ride off into the sunset swapping saliva with Maggie in their lap..blech!! I wanted the Simpsons i got something that Meg Ryan and some Amul Baby would star in. 3/10