Title: Madagascar 2- Escape 2 Africa
Director: Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath
Cast: Ben Stiller, Jada Pinkett Smith, David Schwimmer, Alec Baldwin, Chris Rock and the "late" Bernie Mac, and Sacha Baron Cohen...
Plot: The "Freaks of New York" try to reach home but crash land in Africa
Bottom-line: Cant wait for the penguins spin-off.....
Madagascar is a special movie for me in terms of nostalgia. It was the first time in a long long time that i went and watched the movie in Sathyam in its splendid RDX format. Me and dad had a real laugh especially the antics of King Julian (brilliantly voiced by Sacha Baron Cohen) and the penguin quartet of Skipper, Kowalski, Private and Mason. For me the USP were these side-characters.
Watching Madagascar 2, I was initially a bit apprehensive that these characters would be a bit side-lined to accommodate other characters. But fortunately that was not the case.
The story follows the gang's journey to africa where they are united with respective herds. The film follows their exploits. Although there is a "Lion King"ish tone to this movie, one would think the creators are trying to spoof the classic. But if that were the case then that is the film's only weak point.
Schiwmmer as the hypochondriac Melman gets an extension of his role as the madly-in-love guy which he is so good at. Needless to say Sacha Baron Cohen is brilliant. Even though the lead characters are not that funny,the others characters bring down the roof.
So see this movie and enjoy because its just 90 minutes of sheer delight... Long live animation movies....
Rating: 3/5
The Penguins of madagascar rocks... Btw there is a spin-off series of these characters on Nick... cant wait to see that.. Im downloading it as i am writing this blog.....
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Saturday, July 4, 2009
Terminator Salvation- Nothing to Salvage, Please Terminate
Title: Terminator Salvation
Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard
Director: McG
Plot: Set a decade after judgement day, John Connor is trying to fulfill his destiny by trying to put an end to the war.
Bottom-line: Just when you thought franchise reloads were good...
Franchise reloads are good. Look what happened to the Batman series. The James "bond" grew stronger with casino royale. Reloads are good because it allows filmmakers to come with a whole new dimension to the story by bringing their own flavour to the table rather than sticking to the previous version's style. Its good as long as the original series has gone stale. But James Cameroon action flick which revolutionised "wham-bham" movies has had such a good foundation behind it that while watching T4, this blogger saw so much scope where the writers could have added a bit more blood and skin to the movie. Instead they chose to reinforce it with adamantine shell.
T4's plot is absolutely contrived. Its not even like you are watching a terminator flick. When towards the end of the movie John Connor (played so intensely by Christian Bale) turns back to his wife Katie and says "I'll be back", it took 10 minutes for the nostalgia to kick in, you know the movie has failed on all fronts.
But then different is good. Who wants to see the same old terminator from the future (forgive the oxymoron) chasing a hapless teenager and his mother and another one sent from the future mouthing "asta la vista, baby" and shooting the crap out of people? Surely i didnt. But then who thought i would see some hunky dude trying to be arnie jumping from one plane to another without so much as getting a scratch on his arm but is completely shocked to know that he is not human but some stealth machine trying to steal screen time from the lead character and acting as a tumour in this rotten script. Please gimme my money back..
Only saving grace of this film is Christian Bale. For an actor of his stature, he is given as much screen time as if Arnie was in this movie. Have the writers forgotten that?? Dudes, Arnie has retired and he is not acting in this movie, so he cant save your sorry arse this time. Well i guess they will realize that when this movie is panned by critics all over.
What T4 lacks is just that nothing happens in the movie. Some dude wanders all over the place for 2 hours and blows up a lot of stuff and then BHAMM..... huge explosion and THE END.
T3 was worse but it had Arnie and that-hot-chick-whose-name-we-will-never-remember-except-that-she-was-hot. But it had a good ending and set a solid beginning for a sequel. But the writers have gone around trying to make an anti-thesis of the previous versions. First thing this has no Arnie (dont worry this phrase will be repeated a lot more times). It has no cool villain. It has no hot chick. And it has no Arnie.
However hard-core Terminator fans are in for a sweet surprise at the end of this movie. But sadly it doesnt last long....
I dont know why Bryce Dallas Howard is in this movie (playing John's wife Katie). She could have been eliminated for the sheer convenience of eliminating her. If its a reload why still stick to the original story then?
I give it one thumbs down and one up for the patchy and decently predictable action set pieces and the post-apocalyptic tone of the movie. All dust and bones is the tone of this movie. All dust and bones is what this movie will become.
Rating: 2/5
PS: This is the one-year anniversary of my last blog. lol....
Sam worthington is the biggest culprit. To think he is a villain in a tamil movie now doesnt require great imagination on my part. It comes naturally to him. "Just stand there, with no expression and the rest we will take care with CGI and dubbing" will be the first instruction that he will get from his director.
Cast: Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard
Director: McG
Plot: Set a decade after judgement day, John Connor is trying to fulfill his destiny by trying to put an end to the war.
Bottom-line: Just when you thought franchise reloads were good...
Franchise reloads are good. Look what happened to the Batman series. The James "bond" grew stronger with casino royale. Reloads are good because it allows filmmakers to come with a whole new dimension to the story by bringing their own flavour to the table rather than sticking to the previous version's style. Its good as long as the original series has gone stale. But James Cameroon action flick which revolutionised "wham-bham" movies has had such a good foundation behind it that while watching T4, this blogger saw so much scope where the writers could have added a bit more blood and skin to the movie. Instead they chose to reinforce it with adamantine shell.
T4's plot is absolutely contrived. Its not even like you are watching a terminator flick. When towards the end of the movie John Connor (played so intensely by Christian Bale) turns back to his wife Katie and says "I'll be back", it took 10 minutes for the nostalgia to kick in, you know the movie has failed on all fronts.
But then different is good. Who wants to see the same old terminator from the future (forgive the oxymoron) chasing a hapless teenager and his mother and another one sent from the future mouthing "asta la vista, baby" and shooting the crap out of people? Surely i didnt. But then who thought i would see some hunky dude trying to be arnie jumping from one plane to another without so much as getting a scratch on his arm but is completely shocked to know that he is not human but some stealth machine trying to steal screen time from the lead character and acting as a tumour in this rotten script. Please gimme my money back..
Only saving grace of this film is Christian Bale. For an actor of his stature, he is given as much screen time as if Arnie was in this movie. Have the writers forgotten that?? Dudes, Arnie has retired and he is not acting in this movie, so he cant save your sorry arse this time. Well i guess they will realize that when this movie is panned by critics all over.
What T4 lacks is just that nothing happens in the movie. Some dude wanders all over the place for 2 hours and blows up a lot of stuff and then BHAMM..... huge explosion and THE END.
T3 was worse but it had Arnie and that-hot-chick-whose-name-we-will-never-remember-except-that-she-was-hot. But it had a good ending and set a solid beginning for a sequel. But the writers have gone around trying to make an anti-thesis of the previous versions. First thing this has no Arnie (dont worry this phrase will be repeated a lot more times). It has no cool villain. It has no hot chick. And it has no Arnie.
However hard-core Terminator fans are in for a sweet surprise at the end of this movie. But sadly it doesnt last long....
I dont know why Bryce Dallas Howard is in this movie (playing John's wife Katie). She could have been eliminated for the sheer convenience of eliminating her. If its a reload why still stick to the original story then?
I give it one thumbs down and one up for the patchy and decently predictable action set pieces and the post-apocalyptic tone of the movie. All dust and bones is the tone of this movie. All dust and bones is what this movie will become.
Rating: 2/5
PS: This is the one-year anniversary of my last blog. lol....
Sam worthington is the biggest culprit. To think he is a villain in a tamil movie now doesnt require great imagination on my part. It comes naturally to him. "Just stand there, with no expression and the rest we will take care with CGI and dubbing" will be the first instruction that he will get from his director.
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