School for Scoundrels (2006)

Genre: Drama/Romance/Comedy

Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Jon Heder, Jacinda Barrett, Michael Clarke Duncan

A depressed and lonely meter reader, Roger (Heder) lacks any form of self-esteem and pride. He is the kind of person who would, if bullied, would pay for somebody else's fines and also give away anything else he had. A friend of his recommended him to visit Dr. P (Thornton) the very same man who helped him gain some self-confidence and motivation. Roger joins the program and is shocked by the absurd tasks that Dr. P and his assistant Lesher (Duncan) make them do. However, as time progresses, the results of the classes start paying off and Roger gains a lot more confidence than he had, so much so, he even asked Amanda (Barrett), the girl he loves, out with him for dinner. Yet, all that glitters is not gold and every medication that doctor prescribes to you will have side-effects. Roger learns horrible things about Dr. P and his past and learns about the side-effects that this therapy would have. The movie shares its name with a 1960 British movie with its storyline being greatly altered. The movie feels very incomplete in many aspects. The humour is negligible, romance hardly exists and the evolution of Rogers image from being a loser to being a winner is not shown with correct progression. A very average movie with average everything else.

Thumbs up: If I think really hard, maybe the slightly interesting story

Thumbs down: Average everything

Rating: 5.8/10

Just Friends (2005)

Genre: Romance/Comedy/Drama

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Amy Smart, Anna Faris, Christopher Marquette, Chris Klein

Back in 1995, an overtly obese high school youth, Chris Brander is the best of friends with the college cutie Jamie Palamino (Smart). When every guy tries to get into pants, Chris is unable to tell Jamie his true feelings and lands up being 'just friends' rather than being 'lovers'. Fast forward to the current year and Chris decided to leave New Jearsey for LA where he has made a life for himself as a record producer. He has lost weight, looks handsome, has all the money and women in the world. He has gained a whole lot of self-confidence which has made him into something of a casanova. His boss wants him to sign Samantha James (Faris), who is the next ultra-sexy pop queen in the making that all American boys have their tongues hanging for, and take her to Paris just to make her feel happy enough to sign with his company. Samantha is sexually attracted towards Chris but the same feelings are not reciprocated by him. When the two have to do an emergency landing at New Jersey, he lands up meeting all his old friends, including Jamie. His love and affection grows for her once more and he needs to find a reason to stay back in Jersey, for just one more day maybe. The movie is not the melodramatic romance with a sprinkling of comedy, it's a comedy movie with a sprinkling of romance. Anna Faris has stereotyped herself as the dumb blonde and she continues to be that once more, just better. The humour comes solely from her with Reynolds being comedy supporter. A perfect blend of romance and comedy, only if they didn't have to mess up the end.

Thumbs up: Great humour, Awesomely hilarious Anna Faris

Thumbs down: The end seems very erratic and stupid

Rating: 7.4/10

Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

Genre: Action/Crime

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Angelina Jolie, Giovanni Ribisi, Christopher Eccelston, Robert Duvall, Chi McBride, Vinny Jones, Delroy Lindo, Timothy Olyphant, Will Patton

A remake of the 1974 movie by the same name, it tells the story of a notorious car thief that operated in Los Angeles. Memphis Raines (Cage) was the best car-jacker you could find in the city and had gained himself a reputation of sorts. He was forced to leave the business due to pressure from his mother and to prevent is younger brother in walking the same line as him. Unfortunately, Kip Raines (Ribisi) becomes exactly like his brother and gets himself in trouble with an English crime boss, Raymond Calitri (Eccelston) when he is unable to fulfill his assignment. Raymond wants to kill Kip but is willing to let him go if Memphis steals 50 cars for him in 72 hours. Failing to do so would see not only Kip killed but also Memphis and the rest of his family. The movie is perfect for car-lovers and if adrenaline-rushing chase sequences is what you crave for, this movie would more than just deliver. The last 30 minutes of the movie with the entire LAPD chasing Nicolas
Cage in '67 Mustang Shelby GT 500 easily figures in anybody's 'Best movie car chases' list. Loved by the loving, might not appeal to everyone else.

Thumbs up: Amazing cars, beautiful chase scenes

Thumbs down: The car-drama is all focused towards the end, the action is great but not amazing

Rating: 7.5/10

Eagles In The Chicken Coop (2010)

Genre: Documentary/Drama

Starring: Kathleen Quinlan, Kenny Luper, Sara Simmonds, Bruce Abbott, Dwight Ewell, Brent Florence, Chloe Snyder

Hollywood is the land of big dreams, where people from world over come to realise their life's true ambitions. However, everybody doesn't become what they set out to be, no matter how passionate you are about it. The movie traces the true-life journey of Armondo Jones (Luper) and Bill Williams (Florence) who were two good friends that set out to Hollywood to become what they always wanted to be. Like all others, they lived a life of struggle where good offers were hard to come by, but eventually their persistence paid off. Nameless Studios, is a low and medium budget movie production house who saw one of Armondo and Bill's short films and were impressed. Nameless Studio's offered Armondo and Bill to produce, write and direct their new venture, The Lone Rancher. What Nameless did not tell them was that this new venture was not the average feature film, but a late-night mature movie. It would be the kind of movie where the story hardly mattered and all that the audience was interested in is the sexual relationship between the various casts. Armondo and Bill did not believe in the prescribed formula as given to them by Nameless studios and wanted to bring out a story where the sex scene's would make sense and add to the storyline. The movie is created on a very unique concept where it can be classified as a 'documentary' on first sight, but dig a little deeper and you realise that it may not be the case. It appears as a 'making of the movie' kind of footage but in reality it is a staged 'making of the movie' and recreates the event. The movie predominantly appears to be like a documentary due to the authentic and convincing acting which gives a very 'real' feeling rather than a 'movie' feeling. Acting apart, the movie isnt the most interesting 90 minutes. It's not that bad but its not very great either.

Thumbs up: Great acting

Thumbs down: Not the most exciting

Rating: 5.3/10

Movie Sponsored by: Watchbox Media

Elizabeth (1998)

Genre: History/Biography/Drama

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccelston, Joseph Fiennes, Richard Attenborough

When King Henry VIII consummated with his mistress after his wife failed to conceive, their offspring was Queen Elizabeth (Blanchett). However, Elizabeth was third in line for the accession of the throne, of which her brother died young leaving her elder sister Mary to ascend the throne. With the death of Hency VIII, England was divided into two parts, the Catholics and the Protestants. Mary was a staunch Catholic who intended to wipe out the Protestant faith from the country. Mary died of child-birth leaving the Protestant Elizabeth to become Queen of England. Elizabeth became Queen in harsh times. The treasury was depleted, the army was short of arms, there was holy war brewing, her life was threatened by Catholics attempting to assassinate her and she was unmarried and hence did not have an heir to the throne. She fell in love with Lord Robert, the Earl of Leicester (Fiennes) but was forced to consider marriage outside England, particularly with Spain and France, for political alliances. The movie beautifully shows the early life of the Queen and all the difficult decisions and hardships she had to face. Cate Blanchett has performed with finesse and fit perfectly into the shoes of the role. Although this movie only focuses on the first half of her life, the second half is portrayed in the sequel to this movie that comes almost 10 years after.

Thumbs up: Cate Blanchett

Thumbs down: Needed more enthusiasm; felt bland

Rating: 7.1/10

Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted (3D) (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Adventure/Animation/Drama

Starring (voice): Ben Stiller, Sacha Baron Cohen, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Frances McDormand, Jessica Chastain, Bryan Cranston, Martin Short, Tom McGrath

The third, and perhaps final, episode of the four friends who ran away from their zoo enclosures to experience a better life, are finally on their way back home. When Skipper the Penguin (McGrath) and his crew decide to take their warp speed travelling aircraft to Monte Carlo to win some big money, Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Smith) sense that they may never come back to fetch them. The crew decide to find them and make them go back home to NYC with King Julien the Lemur (Baron Cohen) and his sidekicks in tow. Animal Control officer Captain Chantel DuBois (McDormand) is called after the animals wreck havoc in one of the casino's and is asked to put the creatures where the belong, on her living room wall. The movie is a perfect example of 'old wine, new bottle. The main elements for which we all loved the first movie have been collected and repackaged into this brand new offering. King Julien is the same, his song is the same and the old characters seem to be there for no reason. Even Melman had no role as the 'doctor' as he always was, Gloria wasn't shown for her 'beauty' and Marty wasn't the eccentric that we loved. Its still a watchable movie, but is far from where the original epic was made.

Thumbs up: Fabulous 3D effects

Thumbs down: No big improvements in terms of humour

Rating: 6.6/10