Monday, May 7, 2007

Spiderman 3 - Rocking!!!


Title: Spiderman 3 (I will call it S-3)
Director: Sam Raimi
Starring: Toby McGuire , Kirsten Dunst , James Franco
Story: The story of the web-slinger continues.
Bottomline: Makes "Superman Returns" look like Noddy's Toytown.

I have been wanting to write a blog for the previous Spidey movies. But alas never got the time. So here I start off with the first two movies to brush up your memories. So those of you who remember the first two movies skip to paragraph 3.

Spiderman:
A bite from a irradiated spider gives high school teenager and geek Peter Parker (Toby McGuire) spider-like abilities. A series of events leads to Peter having an indirect hand in his uncle, Ben’s death. With his new found powers he decides to fight for justice and faces his first adversary The Green Goblin a.k.a Norman Osborne (played brilliantly by William Defoe), who is ironically the father of Harry Osborne (James Franco) Peter’s best friend. The first movie was a lot about Spiderman discovering himself as a superhero how he uses those powers for the good of mankind. He also makes a choice of not to express his love to his childhood sweetheart Mary Jane(Kirsten Dunst).A superb popcorn movie!!

Spiderman 2:
Life has never been worse for Peter Parker as he juggles his two lives, that of Peter Parker, college student whose grades are declining, loses his part-time job and doesn’t even remember his birthday and the other of Spiderman who is haunted by bad press propagated by Daily Bugle editor Jonah Jameson ( a very lovable character played JK Simmons) where Peter works as a part-time photographer. In the meantime a nuclear fusion test in the city goes horribly wrong when the head scientist Dr Otto Octavius (played superbly by Alfred Molina I thought he would get a supporting actor nomination) attached to robotic arms which starts to control him. Enraged at his failure he decides to reconstruct his machine by robbing banks. Peter Parker meanwhile loses his girl to astronaut John Jameson, who is now dating Mary Jane. Irritated by his failure in life, he starts to lose his powers and makes a choice to become Spiderman no more. Unlike the first movie the second movie was more about Peter Parker rather than Spiderman. Spiderman in the lift scene and the fight in the train with Doctor Octavius is one of the best visual effects scene of that time. In this movie Harry Osborne, Mary Jane discover the identity of Spiderman. The movie ends on the note that Harry finds out his father was Green Goblin and decides to step into his shoes and Mary Jane breaks her engagement with John Jameson and joins with Peter Parker once again. I thought the movie would get an Best Film Oscar Nomination at least.

Spiderman 3:

First of all let me tell you where I saw this movie At the renovated and rocking new Sathyam cinema hall. The hall has been upgraded to a more snazzier look and looks a lot abstract in appearance with weirdly shaped ceiling lights.

Ok now to the movie. Spiderman 3 just as the previous movies continues the story of Peter Parker (for the first time superbly played by Toby McGuire). In S-3 Spiderman has everything he wanted, he’s got his girl Mary Jane, stands first in college and best of all is loved by the people of New York as Spiderman. All this popularity gets into his head and he sort of inflates his ego. At this a meteor shower in NY results in the arrival of symbiote from space, an ugly goo monster which has an uncanny resemblance to a Spider in the shadows. In a accident involving a crane atop a skyscraper ( a must-see action sequence) Spidey saves a Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) Peter’s lab partner and classmate. To complicate things he even receives a grateful kiss from her much to astonishment of Mary Jane in a ceremony conducted to honor Spiderman ( a very humorous sequence). The alien symbiote then clings onto Spidey’s outfit and results in the formation of a rocking black Spidey outfit.The new outfit amplifies Spidey’s more darker personality. Peter Parker then discovers that the actual killer of his uncle is Flint Marko aka The Sandman(Thomas Haden Church) who robs money from the bank to save his sick daughter.

Consumed by his thirst for revenge he attacks Sandman, and this shows in his character as admirably changes from a nerdy , timid guy to a flirty, hot blooded youngster(that club sequence where he dances is simply awesome and humorous). Later in the storyline comes Venom who is actually Eddie Brock(Topher Grace) a competition to Peter in the newspaper photographer.

The story suggestatively shows that Peter and Eddie live parallel lives and Venom is Spidey’s opposite or his anti.

Other than this is Harry Osborne (James Franco in a brilliant finale to his character) who is out revenge and steps into his father’s shoes as The New Goblin .

Loaded in this complex movie are some heart-stopping action sequences especially the climax. The editing looks sloppy in places. The movie is much more humorous. A welcome change indeed. The movie could have been good with a little less number of villains and little less complexity. The movie is complex certainly, and that shows in the mixed critical reaction the movie has received. Overall a rocking movie and which is a must-watch movie for your summer. Can’t wait for Spiderman 4(if it has the same cast).

Rating: 7.8/10

Wednesday, May 2, 2007

Review: Unnale Unnale - Battle of the sexes


Film Name: Unnale Unnale
Director: Jeeva
Starring: Vinay, Sada , Tanisha Mukherji
Story: Karthik and Jhansi, two diametrically opposite people, fall in love but does their love succeed.
Bottom Line: Men are from mars, Women are from Venus.

"Men were the first to be born on this planet because god himself was a man", quips the male narrator to thunderous applause from the men in the cinema hall. "Men were born imperfect and that is why women who are perfect were created by god next" quips the female narrator to applause from the females. The battle lines are drawn in the movie and so are they drawn in the hall. Men clap and whistle to dialogues praising men and women shout and scream to dialogues that praise them. This somewhat sums up UU.

The Movie stands on three legs: Cinematography, dialogues and some very good acting from the cast.

The breathtaking locales in Melbourne have been used to the fullest in this movie. But the locations remind you a lot other movies shot there, like "Salaam Namaste" and "Nala Damayanthi".

The film opens with Karthik(Vinay) and Jhansi(Sada) quarrelling for something that Karthik had apparently done that finally ends in their break-up. Then Karthik gets a job at Melbourne where he meets Deepika (Tanisha), a bubbly young enthusiastic girl who wants to live life every moment. Where Jhansi is an introvert, Karthik is a skirt chaser who is very open and frank with everybody. Jhansi is prone to jealousy and that leads to the break-up. Deepika tries to re-join them once again, but in a twist of irony, she herself falls in love with Karthik. Who gets Karthik is what is told in an interesting manner and ended by an “out of the blue” climax.

What ensues is a "Battle of sexes" where men tell the minuses of the women psychology and women tell minuses of the other sex?

Thankfully you don’t have a separate comedy track with Vivek or Vadivelu pulling of gags in Melbourne. But rather humor beautifully blends into the movie through witty dialogues and some excellent comic timing from actors like Raju Sundaram. Sad, this guy rarely gets a chance.

Special mention to the costumes for the leading ladies. They are chic and stylish and are not too glamorous as well.

Vinay has to improve his dancing and his lip sync in the dubbing part. The sync doesnt match at many instances. Whereas Tanisha , a north Indian has perfect lip sync. The flashback in the movie is a big too long and could have been crisper.


Harris Jeyaraj's songs are already a hit but the picturisation of "June Pona" disappoints. Whereas the picturisation of "Vaigasi Nilave" heightens the melody of the song, all other songs are good and shot in perfect "Karan Johar" style. Special mention to Harris's re-recording.

The biggest strength of UU is that there are no tear jerking scenes and the film shines in every moment. So if some light hearted romantic movies are to your liking UU is next on your movie list!


Rating: (out of ten) 6.3/10 (watch it without any apprehension you will enjoy it!)