X2 (2003)

Genre: Action/Science-fiction/Drama

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Halle Berry, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Anna Paquin, Rebecca Romijn, Brian Cox, Alan Cumming

Continuing from X-Men, Magneto (McKellen) is locked up in an all-plastic prison. Mystique (Romijn) is Magneto's only surviving aide who frees him. William Stryker (Cox) a retired military scientist was largely involved in creating Wolverine (Jackman). Prof Xavier (Stewart) runs a school for mutant children where he teaches them to control their power. Stryker's son once attended Xavier's school but Stryker was not happy with the results. Fed up with mutants, he decides to take the law in his own hands. He builds a replica of Cerebro, the machine which allows the user to communicate with every mutant on the planet. Prof. Xavier is kidnapped and is hypnotised to control Cerebro and destroy all mutants. The X-Men have to come together with Magneto if they wish to save their own lives. The movie is still saving the planet mantra and is not very different from its previous version. Lack of serious action and predictable outcomes are still major flaws with the movie.

Thumbs up: Nice performances and special effects
Thumbs down: Not a very exciting plot

Rating: 6.0/10

The Blind Side (2009)

Genre: Biography/Drama/Sport

Starring: Sandra Bullock, Quinton Aaron, Jae Head, Tim McGraw, Lily Collins, Ray McKinnon

If a homeless black young man is spotted on the streets, many white people would run for cover. Leigh Anne Tuohy (Bullock) took pity on Michael Oher aka Big Mike (Aaron) when she found him walking in the rain on a cold night. One night under the roof of the rich Tuohy family and Michael became a family favourite. Michael goes to a Christian school along with his new siblings SJ (Head) and Collins (Collins). His abnormally large size and athletic skills soon put him on the field. His career in football was almost certain, except for his grades. Leigh Ann and her husband Sean (McGraw) saw to each of Michael's wishes and took all the efforts to make sure his grades were up so that he could continue football. The movie hints on the miserable condition of certain black folks living in the United States and the fear that white people have for them. The movie does a splendid job to bring these emotions out. Amazing performances by Quinton Aaron and Sandra Bullock and she does look absolutely ravishing in the movie. 2009 NFL Draft, Michael Oher gets drafted by the Baltimore Ravens.

Thumbs up: Performances and execution of the plot
Thumbs down: Lets not commit a crime

Rating: 8.6/10

Watchmen (2009)

Genre: Drama/Science-fiction/History/Action/Mystery/Crime

Starring: Malin Akerman, Billy Crudup, Matthew Goode, Jackie Earle Haley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Patrick Wilson,

In the 1940's, there lived a masked crime fighting team known as the Minutemen. The Minutemen dissolved, which in turn gave birth to the Watchmen. The Watchmen team members each emulated one Minutemen team member. Very soon even the Watchmen were removed from public service following public opposition. The Watchmen altered the course of history including the assassination of Kennedy and the Vietnam War. New York, 1985, a member of Watchmen known as The Comedian aka Edward Blake (Morgan) is murdered. Rorschach aka Walter Kovacs (Haley) learns of the crime and senses a conspiracy to eliminate the Watchmen. He informs all his previous team members including Dr.Manhattan (Crudup), Silk Sceptre II (Akerman) Ozymandias (Goode) and Nite Owl II (Wilson). Dr Manhattan aka Jon Osterman was genetically mutated by a scientific accident to give him supernatural powers like looking in the past and the future. His girlfriend, Silk Sceptre II aka Laurie Jupiter is fed up of his inhuman behaviour and leaves him toand joins Nite Owl II aka Dan Dreiberg. Meanwhile, Rorschach is investigating The Comedian's murder and gets framed for killing a witness and is sent to jail. The alteration of the course of history by the Watchmen has brought the world to the brink of a nuclear World War III between USA and Russia. The Watchmen want to stop it but have no means to do so. The movie is quite complicated from the start, apparent by the text you have just read. Being a super-hero movie, the movie does not show fighting crime but instead shows the psychological pressure and thoughts that such a crime-fighter undergoes. The lack of enough twists, action and an extra long plot don't help in improving the movies appeal. The plot is definitely new and fresh but still misses out on a lot of things which makes in unappealing. It tries to work on the lines of The Dark Knight but sadly does not come even close in doing so.

Thumbs up: Intresting plot and characters
Thumbs down: Too long, lacks interest and good twists

Rating: 6.5/10

Striker (2010)

Genre: Drama/Thriller/Crime/History

Starring: Siddharth Narayan, Aditya Pancholi, Ankur Vikal, Anupam Kher, Padmapriya, Vidya Malwade, Anoop Soni

The story of the underdog and the 1992 Mumbai riots. A young lad Suryakant (Narayan) grew up in Malvani, Mumbai, a north-west suburb of the city. His brother Chandrakant (Soni) was an ace carrom player and he taught his younger brother the tricks of the game. As Surya grew up his carrom playing skills brought him a lot of reputation. Like any other youth, he had ambitions to get big and thus left playing carrom and dreamt of a job in Dubai. His Dubai dream job shattered when the agency shut-shop and his money went in the hands of local goon, Jaleel (Pancholi). Jaleel had heard about his carrom skills and challenged him to play against one of his men. Surya defeated everyone that Jaleel threw at him and Jaleel was highly impressed. Surya's best friend, Zaid (Vikal) was a drug dealer cum police informer. A new commissioner Farooq (Kher) vowed to clean the streets of Mumbai and was on the lookout for Jaleel. Zaid was a close confidant of Jaleel but he wanted to bail out. The riots take place and the once Hindu-Muslim brothers are now thirsty for each others blood. The movie has an amazing plot which it uses quite well, however, it goes a little too far with the carrom-gambling and it seemed a little over-stretched. The end is not all that climaxing with the beginning and middle being much better to absorb. Entire star cast shines with their performance, especially Pancholi and Narayan. May not be to the liking of the typical Hindi-movie audience but definitely worth a watch for the others.

Thumbs up: Fabulous performances, good story
Thumbs down: Boring end, Stretched story

Rating: 7.7/10

X-Men (2000)

Genre: Action/Science-fiction

Starring: Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Famke Janssen, James Marsden, Halle Berry, Anna Paquin, Tyler Mane, Ray Park, Rebecca Romijn

Mankind has always known to evolve and adapt within his environment. Humans are due for another evolution which slowly starts taking place. A handful of people from around the world are experiencing a mutation in their genes which gives them special powers, each person having something different. The mutants are divided in two groups, the more peaceful one headed by Professor Xavier (Stewart) who believes in teaching mutants how to control their power and make it more useful as opposed to another force headed by Magneto (McKellan) who believe in taking a more aggressive stand against normal humans. The US government wishes to impose a new act which would force mutants to come under control. Magneto has developed a device which would convert normal humans into mutants which he wishes to use against the world. Xavier has a new recruit known as Wolverine aka Logan (Jackman) who has an alloy made skeletal system with sharp extended claws. He, along with the other X-Men need to destroy Magneto's device before he can unleash it on the world. The movie's plot is like any other super-hero story of saving the world and doesn't harp of anything new. Yet, in spite of this the movie does a lot to hold interest and makes it worth a watch. The initial few moments are boring and lack interest but the movie finally picks up pace to end at a high note.

Thumbs up: Interesting characters
Thumbs down: Slow and boring beginning

Rating: 6.7/10

Apocalypto (2006)

Genre: Action/Drama/Adventure

Starring: Rudy Youngblood, Dalia Hernandez, Jonathann Brewer, Carlos Emilios Baez, Raoul Trujillo, Gerardo Taracena

Mel Gibson's most hailed movie, Apocalypto narrates the story of a peaceful tribe from the South American Amazon forest. The tribe finds its peace hampered when a Mayan army invades it and ravages the village. Many are kidnapped and the rest are mercilessly killed. Jaguar Paw (Youngblood) is the son of the village chief and is captured by the Mayan's. Before being caught, he hides his pregnant wife Seven (Hernandez) and his young son, Turtles Run (Baez) in a dry well. The Mayan's take them to the heart of their empire, where greed, filth and poverty prevail. The woman are sold as slaves and men are taken for a human sacrifice to placate the disturbed son god. Jaguar Paw is saved from the sacrifice and manages to escape from his captives and makes his way home but not before killing the Mayan Generals son. The Mayan General, Zero Wolf (Trujillo) is enraged and chases Jaguar Paw all the way back to his village along with his soldiers. The sole reason why the movie shines out is due to the real-life feel that it brings out. The characters seem to have been hand-picked from nomadic tribes rather than swank movie studios. The action is very gruesome and gory but perhaps without this the movie might have lost its effect. Make sure your not eating while you watch this else you might just throw up on your screen.

Thumbs up: Fantastic acting, amazing depiction
Thumbs down: Too gory for some

Rating: 8.7/10

Wild Things: Diamonds in the Rough (2005)

Genre: Crime/Myster/Drama/Thriller

Starring: Sarah Laine, Dina Meyer, Sandra McCoy, Linden Ashby, Michael Mantell, Brad Johnson

What is the point in making three movies, near identical to each other? The third installment of Wild Things, is an amalgamation of the earlier two parts to create an equally boring third one. Marie Clifton (Laine) along with her step-father Jay (Johnson) have inherited a pair of priceless diamonds from Marie's deceased mother. They both cant do anything to the diamond until either one of them permits the other to do so or one of them dies. Marie's classmate Elena (McCoy) accuses Jay of rape and sends him to prison. Unkown the Jay, Marie and Elena have hatched the plan together and blackmail Jay to hand over the diamonds to Marie or spend the rest of his life in jail. Detective Morisson (Ashby) and his assistant Kristin (Meyer) dont buy the story and try digging deeper. There is no point in watching the movie if you have seen the previous two stories, however, the movie is not an all together replica with the climax scene being a tad different but not altogether a whole new plot. The movie still oozes of sex with Sarah Laine wearing close to nothing throughout the movie.

Thumbs up: Slightly different plot from previous movies
Thumbs down: Still a long way to go

Rating: 5.5/10

Rann (2010)

Genre: Crime/Drama

Starring: Amitabah Bachchan, Mohnish Behl, Ritesh Deshmukh, Rajat Kapoor, Sudeep, Paresh Rawal

It is common knowledge that the media is the primary source of all our knowledge. News media in particular is one such form where truth prevails and it plays a vital role in shaping our perception. Rann tries to impress on the fact that when politics and media come together, news is artificially created and money is made. Vijay Harshvardhan Malik (Bachchan) is one of the most reputed newsmen in the country and heads the news channel India 24x7. He lives by his morals to serve the people with truthful content and stays away from news manipulation. His channels TRP's are falling and in a desperate bid to improve them, his son Jai (Sudeep) telecasts false news which goes in the favour of politician Mohan Pandey (Rawal) and blames an honest politician for an act of violence which he never did. Vijay is unaware of the authenticity of the news and takes it to be true and supports it. New recruit at India 24x7, Purab Shastri (Deshmukh) smells a rat and his investigations reveal Jai's mischief and the ugly game of politics and money. The movie is very typically Ram Gopal Varma right from the word go and a lot of bits and pieces have been picked up from his previous sensation Sarkar. Amitabh Bachchan talks and does little for majority of the movie, but when he does he proves why he is the god of Hindi cinema. Ritesh Deshmukh sheds his goofy comic role to don a character more suitable for him, whereas Paresh Rawal goes back to the evil politician that he was a decade ago. Fascinating and beautifully entertaining is all I can come up with.

Thumbs up: Performances
Thumbs down: Should have left the twist for the end

Rating: 8.4/10

Coraline (2009)

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy/Animation/Mystery

Starring (voice): Dakota Fanning, Teri Hatcher, John Hodgman, Robert Bailey Jr., Keith David

The name is Coraline (Fanning) and not Caroline. Young Coraline's parents recently moved in to a new town. They write nature articles for a living and are too busy to pay any attention to her. She makes a new friend Whybie (Bailey Jr.) who has a strange black cat (David). She snoops around her new house and comes across a small hidden door. The door leads to a whole new world where her parents love her, where people have buttons for eyes and all her wishes come true. Everyone from her town is there in the other world and are different from their actual self. Whybie's cat too is present and can talk in the other world. The cat warns her that everything is not what it seems like and her other mother (Hatcher) is up to something evil. The movie has a very exciting plot attached to it, which is not only for young children but might appeal to a more mature audience. Unlike other animation movies, the graphics do not try to replicate reality and give it a cartoon-like feel. The suspense is fascinating and it completely absorbs you into it which makes you wish to not let go.

Thumbs up: Great plot, fantastic climax
Thumbs down: The presence of some light humour was missed

Rating: 8.3/10

Ishqiya (2010)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance

Starring: Arshad Warsi, Vidya Balan, Naseeruddin Shah

Two casanova Islamic friends Babban (Warsi) and Khalujaan (Shah) wander around north India doing things that usual good-for-nothing people do. Escaping from their creditors, they move from town-to-town and finally end up at Gorakhpur. They wished to escape to Nepal with the help of an old friend, Verma, who unknown to them died in a bomb blast some time back. Krishna (Balan) Verma's wife, provides the duo shelter and takes them in. Babban and Khalujaan fall in love with Krishna and try to win her heart. Krishna, however, wants them to kidnap a rich steel magnate by which the two can pay off their debts and live their life and Krishna can continue hers. Things, however, do not go as planned when Babban and Khalujaan went against each other when it came to Krishna. The movie boasts of a good star cast, Arshad Warsi who has shed his slap-stick comedy character and took on a more serious role. The dialogues are well written and are typical north Indian slang which would make the familiar laugh. The movie sadly does not live up to its expectations with the climax ending on a dead note. Can be watched out of curiosity but don't expect things to go far.

Thumbs up: All performances
Thumbs down: Poor ending

Rating: 6.5/10