Saturday, April 17, 2010

How To Train Your Dragon

Well, to be honest i became crazy about these animated flicks these days. I fell in love for the first time when I watched "The Lion King" some ten years ago. Then watched the toy story series, Shrek series, Ratatouille, Wall E , Up and now this " How to train your dragon". And the fun gets doubled now with the 3d effects incorporation.

Hiccup a small Viking Kid always wants to go for a raid on the dragons in their locality. But his father didn't allow to do so. One day, he wins over a mysterious night fury dragon with his invention. He calls it toothless and as expected a great friendship has begun. Hiccup understands dragons are not dangerous as they thought and he wants to show his people the truth. But fate plays the other way leading the dragons to attack them. How he befriends the other dragons and how they win the battle with the help of toothless is the story which is so beautiful to see.

These animation cinema works only when it has a great plot to back it up. Here it has and works like a charm. Technology and style don't win over the script, which is hard to perceive these days. Though it comes with a tag of 3d, deliberately nothing was shot to utilize only the technology. The effects are minimal however when required, its done with a knack to surprise us. The background score is another important aspect of an animation flick. Remember the Lion king's one? And here its amazing.

This is a simple story told with interesting characters and stunning visuals. The CG is growing leaps and bounds and the result we see in the screen. Animated flicks are no more children movies, it has more to offer with substance as well as with its visuals.

4/5- 3d,witty,stunning visuals - What else you need? grab your popcorn and hit the theater.





Up In The Air



The director of Juno comes with another exhilarating and touching message with "Up in the air". I wish more and more flicks of this kind to be made in the coming days to make watching movies a pleasant and pleasing experience.

Okey, enough of my wishes and the story goes like this. Clooney's (Ryan)job is to fly to his office's different locations and start firing the people. And he has to tackle the situtaion and keep it cool. He is not so young, giving motivational speeches and believes in not getting committed and live a smooth life. Natalie joins him in the firing job with him, however couldn't cope up with it. She finds her struggling with the job every now and then where once to her it seemed cool to fire someone. Meanwhile Ryan gets along with a 30+ Alex(Farmiga) and as time goes by he finds her irresistible. Moving away from his own principles, Ryan goes to meet Alex and the director opens a cool twist. And the movie ends with introspection of the protagonist which is nothing but perfect.


Clooney in a very different role here shines. He carries the role of a lone man with all ease, whose only wish to fly miles and enjoying in the suites offered. Farmiga deserves the oscar which she got. She is looking mysterious, beautiful, sexy and what else, she acts well.
She as the 30+ woman is the best in the flick when it comes to performances. I cant believe myself to see the same woman who got so bettered from "The Departed".
The cinematography is brilliant and has lot of scope to shoot picturesque locations from the plane and it looks great in screen. This is one of the finest movie I have seen in the recent past. This would have got the academy awards for best picture. Dialogues are witty and meaningful when required and when backed up with great on screen performance, it culminates to be a great flick to cherish.

You may not feel how strong the flick is ,however if you think after sometime, it shall sound to be a satirical note on relationships, jobs and everything else. And that's the strength of it. It just shows how small things are valued more where real relationships are not. And it's true in everyone's life. Ain't it?

Up in the Air - Time to question ourselves on how honest we are to our own principles.

Brilliantly directed movie with a story to tell and thoughts to retrospect. 5/5

This Is It


Just heard some tracks of MJ and just known a very little about him, I started
watching this flick and needless to say I am blown away. This is a very good film on
just showing the last training performance of Mj for his final concert. This doesn't show
any hard feelings or not even a word about the tragedy happened. And I think, that's the
power of the flick.

Can you make an approximate 2 hrs flick to be interesting? Yes, why not if MJ is there
performing his best. I could see, how much effort they had put in it and how much different it
would have been if it has happened in real. This is nothing to be reviewed regarding this flick.
Because no body thought or devised a script for it. And as by the old saying " Truth is stranger
than fiction" goes, the movie is a perfect example.

For MJ fans this is a flick which reads "This is it" but in real, that's not it. The glory MJ has left upon
shall still remain. For others, atleast if not a great flick, this will remain as an example on
how much effort goes behind a live concert. Period.

Rating - 3.5/5 - Indeed an offbeat flick.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

The Shutter Island

Scorsese takes us to the Shutter Island, with a help of ferry in the first scene itself coupled with the haunting background score which sets the mood for next few hours. And needless to say the mood he creates is haunting, creepy and gloomy.

Ted is a US Marshall, served in second World war with his partner arrives at Shutter Island to investigate the whereabouts of a missing patient. When he starts investigating, he finds the case to be rather strange to know the missing patient Rachel just vanished without a clue. Scorsese explains this through one of his characters as " its like she just evaporated in the cell". Ted starts investigating the inmates of the mental asylum, however he finds no clue. Meanwhile he starts suffering from migraines and different type of hallucinations which he is scared of. Scorsese unfolds the story in a complicated manner, which indeed adds more and more mystery as he expected. Why he suffers hallucinations? Did he find the missing patient? Scorsese explains all these with surreal, dramatic and valiant sequences to make us accept what has really happened and to a certain extent, he did convince us.

If you think about the movies Scorsese made oflate and watch this, you would be disappointed. Having said that, if you want to see a gripping mystery unfolds in the screen with great direction. this is the one you should be looking at. Di caprio as usual excels as expected. Ben Kingsley as the chief doctor, lived his role.The movie has quite a handful of other characters, however writing about them will be spilling the beans. The cinematography is splendid, and the editing being marvelous specially in the dream sequences and the hallucinations. As i mentioned earlier, the BGM is bang on target and creates the eerie effect with ease.

On the downside, towards the end I felt though the twists and turns acceptable, it seemed too much to me. Other than that, Scorsese wins hands down in holding the suspense till the end and reveals with panache. Three Cheers for Scorsese for his innate ability to deliver with substance and style in a totally different genre this time.

Rating : 4/5 - A very clever movie indeed , gets better in multiple viewings

Friday, April 2, 2010

Paiyaa Movie Review


I never considered Lingusami as a good director in coming up with a good story line or something fresh. Its just screenplay does the trick for him. Here its a yes and no. Initially seems fresh, though wades towards the end.


Story: Without any interest in anything Karthick leads a life where his friends try to fit him into a job. On the day of interview, he sees Tamanna and fall in love with her. (Love at first sight season, I believe). Needless to say, he misses the interview and his friends start scolding him. One fine morning he goes to railway station to pick one of his friend in the car. He sees Tamanna and a person asking him to drop them on Chennai. And the story begins. He goes ahead and Lingusaami looses the knot one by one which makes interesting. A group to get Tamanna follows them and another group to finish Karthi follows them at the same time. At one point of the movie, both the group joins together and why they follow, watch it in the screen if you really want to see the flick after reading the next few passages.

Karthi and Tamanna gives a youthful feel to the movie and alas it didn't continue for a long. Karthi impresses with his performance while Tamanna is still in her kinder garden when it comes to acting! Karthi, has to grow up a lot in dance, though he tried a lot, his brawny looks make it sound awkward at times. Miland Soman though looks stylish has nothing to offer as an actor. Wasted completely.

Songs are very well penned and soothing to here. When you need a peppy number the movie offers it. However not with some intelligence, but for offering sake you are provided with a song. All the songs stand out of place with the movie. And it feels childish, whenever Karthi starts singing with lot of expressions. I don't know how long this saga of singing songs will continue.
Yuvan's BGM sounds good when there is a love sequence but damages your ears when somebody is fighting.

Mathi's cinematography feels good and gels with the movie. But too many closeup shots of almost everyone is painful to see at times except Tamanna's! Even am a guy :)Anthony fits the bill in editing.Action- Kannal Kannan sir, If you think if someone is hit with a metal rod for umpteen times and still he can fight, teach me that magic ! I wanna really beat some baddies..

Lingusami as usual tries to potray almost the same story he told in Run, Sandaokozhi with a car and a different cast. But he fails big time, in fitting a story into it, though the screenplay is somewhat paced. Paiyaa has its moments and that's it. Many times, you cant stop getting stumbled upon many of his own movies in the way it told starting from costume, name, art and what else story. That makes Paiyaa the same run of the mill. Lingusami thinks he can give a movie with a decent cinematography, good songs and few intense scenes and that's what people need, sorry sir its is not. What it basically lacks is a script and a strong screenplay to back it up. Paiyaa fails in both the cases.

Verdict: Paiyaa - Starts with a refreshment, wades in the middle slowly and ends with a sigh.