Boys Dont Cry (1999)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Biography

Starring: Hilary Swank, Chloe Sevigny, Peter Sarsgaard, Brendan Sexton III, Alicia Goranson, Jeannetta Arnette

A young girl, Teena Brandon (Swank) has a sexual identity crisis and although she has all the sexual organs of a female, she behaves like a boy and is attracted to women. She flirts with Candace (Goranson) a woman she meets at a bar and later gets acquainted to Candace's sister, Lana (Sevigny). Teena is attracted to Lana and flirts with her and the duo eventually fall in love. John (Sarsgaard) and Tom (Sexton III) are friends of Lana and Lana's mother (Arnette) all of whom regularly go out for a night of revelry. Teena manages to gel well with the family, Tom and John and feels that she is leading a whole new life. Teena has a shady background and is wanted back home for stealing cars. Her legal summons come back to haunt her and its not long that her true sexual identity starts coming out for everyone to see. The most outstanding feature of this movie are the performances, especially that of Hilary Swank. Being able to carry such a difficult role with such finesse gave her the Oscar she truly deserved. Other supporting performances of Sarsgaard and Sevigny added positively to the movie and made it a better watch. The only downside in the movie are the middle forty-five minutes which get a bit slow and boring, but it give it some time and it would throw up a fabulous climax. The movie is a critics delight but an average audiences nightmare.

Thumbs up: Hilary Swank and other performances

Thumbs down: It has its own slow and boring moments

Rating: 7.2/10

Little Fockers (2010)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro, Owen Wilson, Dustin Hoffman, Barbara Streisand, Blythe Danner, Teri Polo, Jessica Alba

The third installment of the comic epic continues to narrate the life and lies of Greg aka Gaylord Focker (Stiller) and his father-in-law Jack Byrnes (De Niro). Gay is happily married to Jack's daughter Pam (Polo) but Jack continuously interferes with Gay's family life and tries to dictate terms on family management and parenting. Jack fears that his death clock is ticking and his time is coming. He wants someone to continue the Byrne family history in the same manner in which it was held high for so many centuries. In order to do this, Gay must fulfill Jack's standards and Jack only keeps on dictating and judging Gay's moves. Meanwhile, a drug sales agent, Andi Garcia (Alba) is trying to convince Gay to become the spokesperson for the drug to get a higher salary. Unknown to him, his and Andi's meetings have been interpreted wrongly by Jack who thinks his family needs a 'course correction'. The first thing anyone would notice is that the movie has unnecessarily pulled ahead the previous movies storyline thinking that the audience would still enjoy it. Sadly, the first half of the movie is a complete waste and its only right towards the end that the humour seems to get a bit better but not altogether amazing. If you enjoyed the first two movies, this one would never live up to your expectations. Stiller and De Niro could have done much better.

Thumbs up: Different humour which had scope for improvement but only towards the end

Thumbs down: Tries to bask in the glory of the previous movies

Rating: 5.8/10