Contagion - Touchy!

       Director Steven Soderbergh has an impressive CV. What stands out is his audacity to try different genres and subjects in every new project of his. Good directors often do that.

This time around he has delivered a movie on an epidemic that creates mass hysteria. Its a unique subject material and Soderbergh is more than capable of doing a good job at it.

The story revolves around how the people and global health organisations cope with an epidemic that threatens to wipe out a major chunk of the population on this planet. The movie dwells into psyche of common people and at the same time gives us the picture of how intelligence agencies and government health agencies react to this uncontrollable phenomenon.

To garner public attention, director has casted hollywood heavyweights like Gwyneth Paltrow, Matt Damon, Jude Law, Marion Cottilard, Kate Winslet and Laurence Fishburne. But, the director doesn't get startstruck and ensures that he does not give more attention to any character more than what the story dictates. Each of these stars have done a good job at what they have been asked to do.

This movie works because of various things. For me, the best aspects were the narration, camera work and background score. Camera lingers on certain objects every now and then to magnify the effect that object would hold on the spreading of the epidemic. Director uses this effect among others to create a thriller out of a story of how a disease takes lives and baffles everyone.

The first and last 10 mins of the movie have fewer dialogues and are brilliantly executed.Director plays with the pace of the story telling almost faultlessly.

The only part of the movie that could have been better is the story track of Jude Law for the first half of the movie and kinda pull the intensity down. But, director makes it up but by adding extra meat to that track and giving it an important place in the narration.

Watch this movie for its unconventional take on a subject that itself has not been tried many times.Watch it for stars who turn into mere characters. Watch it to know how the 'controlling groups' of the society go about their affairs in situations like this.Watch it to witness how common people like us become hooligans for the sake of survival.

Don't be afraid of the dark - A disappointment!

        I think its the imperative that horror movies should contain few horror elements that can give some 'scary' moments to the audience and make the movie worth watching. This movie fails miserably at that.

This is a story of a kid(Bailee Madison) who moves into her father's(Guy Pearce) house battered by distancing herself from her mother. She also has to adapt living with a step mother(Katie Holmes) at the same time.

The mansion they live in has an unpleasant past attached and the kid discovers those elements and the story is then about how those elements affect the family and their efforts in coming out of this situation.

The story unfolds at a leisurely pace and the director has good hold on the proceedings. He has been let down by a weak script and forced to work in a limited space.

The best parts of the movie are the ones that show the uncomfortable interaction between Bailee and Katie. 

There are no good reasons for me to recommend this movie to anyone. Give it a miss and you won't be sad about doing so!!

Final destination 5 - Same old BS!

      Every time a Final destination movie releases, it divides the audience into 2 groups - the ones who don't mind watching newer ways of getting killed and others who don't!

I skipped watching FD 4 because I knew that it would be same old shit and wouldn't really excite me as an audience. I wasn't wrong in that, based on what I heard from my friends.

FD 5 gets unwrapped in the similar structure as the earlier movies. A group of co-workers set out on an outing in a bus. They have to pass through a bridge that is under construction. A central character gets a premonition about a tragedy on that bridge and he then saves the lives of his colleagues from it.

Death now has to strike back and take lives of these people and it does it in its own style by coming up with hilarious ways of killing them.

Same old shit!

3D effects were average and were too desperate. Not the best effort, I must say. The plot was as thin as it could ever be and nothing new was offered.

I still can't figure it out as to what made me watch FD 5 in theatre. Was it the trailer ? 3D ? a hope that it would be better this time ? Don't know! I'll just stop thinking about it.

All in all, a movie worth watching if one is a fan of the franchisee. A definite miss otherwise!

Captain America - Immensely entertaining!

       

        It was an ambitious attempt by Marvel studios to make movies about each of their Avengers superheroes and then culminate in a grand movie putting all these fellas on the same stage. Iron Man started it and impressed the audience and critics instantly. Iron Man 2 disappointed in comparison but still kept the franchisee going. Thor was the first big release of Marvel this summer and it made an honest attempt to introduce the character and made its mark.

So, the stage was set for the final superhero launch before the big Avengers movie. Here is Captain America, the first Avenger. He is the first member of the Superhero team put together by S.H.I.E.L.D. 

The story revolves around Chris Evans(Steve Rogers/Captain America) who wants to join the military and contribute his bit in helping the nation to win the World War 2. But, his lean and small built doesn’t give him a great chance in making his dream come true. But, his honesty, goodness and determination impress the right people and he gets chosen for a secret project of the military. This project involves making a normal person gain super-humanly powers by undergoing a scientific experiment. The experiment works and lean,weak Steve Rogers becomes a strong, tall Captain America. The story is then about how Captain America fights against Hugo Weaving(Johann Schmidt/Red Skull) , a nazi with intentions of taking control of the whole world. 

The story is simple and narrated very well. The script is potent enough to keep the momentum up for most of the parts. But, its the dialogue that takes the cake. The lines are clever and induce smiles every now and then.The director Joe Johnston works with a script that ensures the proceedings are entertaining and there are very few 'could have been avoided' moments.

Performances by all the leading actors and supporting characters is very good. Tommy Lee Jones stands out with his quirky lines. Hayley Atwell does justice to her role of a stern military commander and few moments when she turns into love interest of Chris Evans. Hugo Weaving makes his bad guy performance stand head to head with the saviour's. 

Chris Evans looks every bit of Captain America. He doesn't look out of sorts and seems like he was destined to play this role one day. He does well as the bullied and battered Steve Rogers and equally well as dominating and heroic Cap America.

Only problems I see with this movie are that it could have been shorter by chopping off few scenes. Also, the ending seemed a bit dull and let the momentum down. It wasn't a fitting climax to what the story played out till then. But, what followed the climax did bring a smile back.

Captain America will team up with Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Hawk Eye to fight against the baddies!! Marvel now has a huge opportunity in hand with the big Avengers movie next summer. Lets hope that they don't get star struck by putting so many superheroes and superstars on the same screen.

Captain America has few glitches but is surely entertaining through out. Go and get introduced to the first avenger! Watch it!

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Mantal Buuwwwoys

The year was 2001 and the movie was Dil Chahta Hai. It spoke about male bonding like not many other movies had attempted before. The movie did not go on to become a box office hit but it gained a cult following for all the break-the-cliches attempts it made.  Countless movies since then have tried to implement the same logic and have failed dismally. 

Back to the present day, another movie from the same production house using the same concept of male bonding between 3 friends. Just that this time, they are on a road trip and in the beautiful country of Spain instead of homely beaches of Goa.

So, is this movie a remake or a sequel or ‘insert a similar word here’ of DCH ? No, sorry to disappoint everyone but it isn’t. The plot could sound similar but that’s where the comparison should end. ZNMD commands its own space and should in no way be neglected for its merits because of few similarities with DCH.

ZNMD is a story of three friends Abhay, Hritik and Farhan who set out on a bachelor road trip being a few months away from Abhay’s marriage with Kalki. They meet Katrina on their journey and she becomes part of their gang for the rest of it. Each of the lead characters have their inner turmoil to overcome that they are reminded at every step of the journey and the story is then about how they deal with those issues.

So, is this a good enough plot to hold the viewers’ attention for 2.5 hours ? Well, not quite. But then the movie packs enough punch in the treatment and narration. Zoya Akhtar makes most of the script written by herself and Reema Kagti. She shows tremendous control over the pacing of the movie for most of it. She ensures that none of characters emerge shallow enough to be discarded as artificial. The treatment is fresh and doesn’t abide by the clichés.  

What makes the ride more enjoyable are the dialogues by Farhan that are top notch. The dialogues seem real and appear straight out of our daily conversations albeit with more humour. Give me realistic humour and dialogues of ZNMD over so called ‘closer-to-life’ dialogues in Delhi Belly, any day!!

The road trip introduces us to the beautiful locales of Spain that we may have not seen in many movies before. The camera work is very good and doesn’t go overboard trying to highlight the locales.

Music is the lowest point for me in this movie. Apart from Senorita, there are not many songs that remain etched in our minds. SEL have done a better job than few of their recent attempts but still seem totally lost when compared to their initial promise.  

I would have wanted to see more of Abhay in the important sequences of the movie. Farhan and Hritik loom large and this in a sense pushes Abhay back which means that the director has definitely not made most of his talent. 

This movie dares to push the boundaries of mainstream cinema and attempts at covering all the emotional aspects of the characters without making it a regular boring drama. It succeeds in what it tried to convey and I’m pretty sure that the audience gets the point. Leave the past behind, make most of today and live for the moment. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara!!

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