Thursday 31 December 2009

Terminator Salvation / Terminator 4

This is 4th instalment in this movie series. Some of the producers are the same as the previous Terminator-movies, but this time, the overconfident and hyper man, called McG, is the director.

The movie offers an interesting description of apocalyptic world, and the machines are ruling and fighting against humankind. In addition, it also has some thrilling sequences as well. However, you’ll not get attached either to the story or the movie, which happened with some people for Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Rating: 4 of 6

Tuesday 29 December 2009

Tum Mile

Tum Mile is the latest movie from Vishesh Films, which has given several successful movies with Emran Hashmi. They are also known for good music of their movies. But this time, neither was the movie that inspiring, and neither the music. This movie is also marketed as India’s first catastrophe movie, but the low budget movie couldn’t offer exciting dramatic sequences either. Just a time pass movie, which can easily be replaced by another movies.

Rating: 3 of 6

London Dreams

All right musical drama. It has couple of nice songs, but otherwise the music is uninspiring. The movie isn’t that inspiring either. The final song in the ending was nice executed.

The director, Vipul Shah, has made several blockbusters which I liked, i.e. Waqt: The Race Against Time and Namastey London, and this is the only movie which I didn’t like as much as the mentioned.

Rating: 3 of 6

Sunday 27 December 2009

Entourage – Season 1

Interesting series, with following synopsis grabbed from a DVD:

Your best friend's star is rising in Hollywood, and there's only one thing to do: join his entourage. Meet Eric, Turtle and Johnny Drama: three guys from Queens dedicated to helping their film-star buddy Vincent Chase navigate the absurdities of modern-day Hollywood - where sex, parties and super-agents rule the town.

Mark Wahlberg is one of the producers, and this show is based on some of his experiences when he came to Hollywood. However, after watching this series, where you sometimes experience too repetitive focus on girls and parties, it’ll not be easy to take all super star actors seriously as hard working and intelligent workers or citizens.

Several of well-known stars have cameos in this series in a role as themselves, i.e. Jessica Alba and Val Kilmer, or someone else in a comic role. This is a plus.

Rating: 5 of 6

3 Idiots

3 Idiots is from the makers of Munna Bhai-movies, which have been very successful. 3 Idiots also seems very funny in the trailers, so there weren’t any surprise that it started with a bang at the box office.

The story structure of 3 Idiots reminds of Munna Bhai-movies. These movies had their particular themes, i.e. medicine education and Gandhigiri, and this time it’s about engineering education. Boman Irani is also repeated in a kind of comic negative role. The Munna Bhai-movies were also known for being family movies, which you can watch easily with all members in a family. 3 idiots has moved away from this concept, and is not so family oriented anymore. Some of the ingredients you’ll find is “below the navel”-humour and a birth scene. A number of desi families are (still) not comfortable to watch such things together.

Otherwise, the movie has a number of laughter full moments to offer, and some memorable moments.

Rating: 5 of 6

Forrest Gump

Fantastic and phenomenal all time classic movie.

Rating: 5/6 of 6

Frustrerte Fruer / Desperate Housewives – Season 4

Interesting series. Actually, in the beginning of this season, it wasn’t that interesting and gave pretty much average experience. The structure of the story, the characters and success formulas used earlier reminded of the previous seasons. But it picked up dramatically afterwards, and the climax was that interesting that it eagered to start on the next season..

Rating: 5/6 of 6

Avatar (3D)

Avatar is the latest movie adventure James Cameron has to offer to the public. Some lines to put James Cameron in perspective: The guy has given us several remarkable, memorable and huge movies, i.e. The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day (T2), True Lies and Titanic. After Titanic, he has been busy with other projects than commercial movies. Several of his movies have been ground-breaking in terms of technological challenges and inventions. T2 was on its release time the most expensive movie, and the CGI effects were pioneering. Titanic was also the most expensive movie when it was released, and there were rumours that the producers of the movie weren’t that happy with the budget overruns. But the movie also turned out to be one of the most profitable in history.

With such an outstanding CV, James Cameron has to give something extraordinary in his latest adventure, so the question is, has he succeeded with it?

The story deals around that men have found an earth-like moon called Pandora, which is inhabited by a civilisation called Na’vis. Pandora and Na’vis have other set of rules than Earth and men. Men regard them as underdeveloped civilisation which live in forests in harmony with the nature and believe in other kind of religions that we are used to. However, the major reason for why men are interested in Pandora is its stock of a valuable mineral. A corporation has sent military recourses to the Pandora to help them harvest such mineral recourses. On the other hand, there is also doing research on the Pandora. On such research, there has been created so-called Avatars. Avatars are hybrid of men and Na’avis, and it looks like Na’avis, but can be controlled by men. One such Avatar has been sent to Na’avis in order to get known to them, and the rest of the story is about this Avatar and its journey into the world of Pandora and its civilisation.

The movie is a great visual and adventurous journey. The Avatars journey to get known to the planet and its civilisation is well described. The story also reminds us of Americas imperialistic agenda to gain control over the world.

When making the movie, there has also been invested a lot in development of 3D technology to give a good watching experience. The watching experience is cool in 3D. However, you notice the 3D effects in the beginning, but you’ll be busy with the story and other elements of the movie that you’ll lose focus on the 3D effects.

All in all, a cool experience.

Rating: 5 of 6

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani

Funny movie, made by Rajkumar Santoshi, who has also made several good movies earlier, i.e. Khakee, Family - Ties Of Blood and Andaz Apna Apna. The latter has also gained cult status among the publics as a comedy. Santoshi hasn’t made any comedy after that, so this movie is his first comedy after 15 years and therefore the expectations were huge.

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani is funny, and has several hilarious moments. There are used several elements from “comic books turned movie”, and actually some similar elements were also used in Andaz Apna Apna. The acting of Katrina Kaif and Ranbir Kapoor in a comic atmosphere is really good, and their face expressions are first class.

Despite the fact that the movie is funny etc, it lacks kind of soul. It provides a laughter-full journey, but is nothing you’ll remember some days later.

Rating: 4 of 6

Sunday 20 December 2009

Hancock

Funny superhero movie. Actually, I’m not that excited for superhero movies. Lots of them are too similar. Therefore, it took some time to motivate myself for this one. But this one turned out to be different from other superhero movies. The superhero in this case is an idiot and hated among people, compared to heros who are perfect and almost glorified and idolised among public in traditional superhero movies. In addition, the climax presents an interesting twist, which also is uncommon in such movies. A very enjoyable movie.

Rating: 5 of 6

Paranormal Activity

Scary horror movie. The movie is about a couple who experiences paranormal activity in their house. Katie thinks that they are haunted by a ghost, and Micah doesn’t take her that seriously. Micah buys a video camera and insists on filming every thing, also their bedroom when they are asleep. The recorded videos show some interesting stuff, which surely can’t be regarded as normal activity...
This movie is kind of based on the footages from the video recording, which are taking place in the story. This actually gives some kind of realistic feeling of the all, just like Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield.

The unique concept of the movie is a huge plus. It differentiates away from the so-called traditional horror movies with lots of blood and gore, and instead uses other fear elements. Said that, some parts of the movie are too lengthy, despite the movie’s total length of around 1 hour 30 minutes. This creates somehow boredom.

There are several versions of the movie with different endings. The ending in the Norwegian version wasn’t that bad actually.

Rating: 4 of 6

Wake Up S!d

“Wake up Sid” is an all right drama comedy about wealthy and young Sid, who enjoys his life and doesn’t care about his future. He has no ambitions about what to do other than to spend his father’s money. In fact, one scene where his father asks him what his plans are for the future, the scene reminded me of the scene from Dil Chahta Hai, where Aamir Khan’s character’s father asks him precisely same question. This is not a plus at all and is a sign of minor creativity.

The movie tells Sid’s story and consequences of his life style. The movie has some nice and memorable moments, but the overall experience was just average. The name of Karan Johar, who is the producer of the movie, doesn’t help much to raise the quality of the movie.

Rating: 4 of 6

Wednesday 16 December 2009

All the Best

Funny and hilarious movie made by Rohit Shetty who has made Sunday and Golmaal Returns among others. Ajay Devgan is the producer of the movie in addition to act in it.

The movie is full of “bongian” and the story has almost no logic, but still, this is actually what makes the movie funny and entertaining.

Rating: 4/5 of 6

Ac!d Factory

Boring thriller. The story is actually all right, but due to the loose script, the movie will give a boring experience. The movie starts with that a group of people wake up and experience that have a kind of amnesia in an acid factory. The rest is about to find out whom they are, and why they are there. The climax is just average executed.

Rating: 2/3 of 6

Den Siste Revejakta / The Last Joint Venture

All right criminal comedy. The movie is based on a novel by Ingvar Ambjørnsen with same title, and deals around two guys who live in late 70’s. Cineuropa has made following synopsis of the movie in English:

The hippie decade is coming to an end, and the eighties are approaching fast. Carl and Robert are two slacker characters who live in harmony with the world around them, and let life pass them by in a perpetual hash high. They earn a little dough on minor sales of pot, in their own opinion providing essential stimulus to a suffering population. After the worst drought of all times in the streets of Oslo, they are now ready for their last great scoop. Their dream of a hippie community in the countryside will finally become a reality! Enter Glenn, a financial backer with ambitious yuppie plans. Carl and Robert awake from their hazy harmony, and are forced to fight back. They’re about to enter a wild, dramatic and hysterically funny trip through the Oslo underworld and all the way to Finnskogen.

As mentioned earlier, the movie was all right and is descent entertainment. The best part is its style, and the makers have put lots of effort to show Oslo set in 70’s.

Rating: 4/5 of 6

Friday 11 December 2009

Arr i Sjelen / Wire in the Blood / Mord i Sinnet – Season 5

Interesting series, in line with previous seasons.

Rating: 5 of 6

Main aurr Mrs Khanna

Extremely boring movie. It begins as an interesting drama, with several strange occurrences in script. But afterwards, it turns out to be a silly comedy with drama, and mixture of drama and comedy doesn’t work at all. In addition, several of the characters are simply illogical, boring and irritating. Stay away from this one!

Rating: 2 of 6

Friday 4 December 2009

Burn After Reading

Coen brothers have given several good movies, but this time I didn’t like it that much. It is supposed to be dark comedy, but it wasn’t that funny either. Some moments were funny, but otherwise, it was a boring experience.

Rating: 3/2 of 6

Blue

A movie which desperately tries to be cool, but doesn’t achieve a position at all. The whole experience is just irritating tragic. The script is loose, and story isn’t engaging at all. It all seems like inspired by the American movie “Into the blue”, where the story dealt around finding some treasures in the ocean.

The movie is meant to be the most Bollywood expensive till date. I would in the same breath also regard this one as the largest waste of money till date.

Rating: 2/3 of 6