The Girl Next Door (2007)

Genre: Thriller/Drama/Crime

Starring: Daniel Manche, Blythe Auffarth, Blanche Baker, Madeline Taylor, Benjamin Ross Kaplan, Graham Patrick Martin

At times there are some movies that you wonder why anyone would want to make them. The question mark over this movies existence is not based on it being too outrageous but the mere fact that it gets far too disturbing to watch. Set in the '50's, the movie narrates the experiences of a pre-teen boy, David (Manche) and a life-changing incident that he witnessed which changed him forever. Two young girls, Meg (Auffarth) and Susan (Taylor) are sent to live with their Aunt Ruth (Baker) after the loss of their parents in a tragic car accident. Ruth and David are neighbours and David regularly spends time with Ruths' sons and the other boys in the neighborhood. David is immediately attracted towards Meg and so are all the other boys. However, there was a difference between David's attraction, which was friendship and love, and the other boys, which was purely sexual. Ruth saw Susan and Meg as a burden on her and her displeasure towards them led her to severely punish them for every small deed until the intensity of the punishments kept growing to the point of no return. The movie portrays David as being a witness to the incident and although he never agreed with what was happening, he was unable to do anything to prevent it. Although the movie builds on a good foundation, it simply gets extremely disturbing and far too graphic to be a peaceful watch. You would probably wince and turn your head on multiple occasions, so be warned before you watch.

Thumbs up: Good depiction of a single event

Thumbs down: Slow, can get extremely disturbing towards a point

Rating: 5.8/10

Push (2009)

Genre: Fantasy/Science-fiction/Action/Adventure/Crime

Starring: Chris Evans, Dakota Fanning, Camilla Belle, Djimon Hounsou, Ming-Na, Cliff Curtis

There have always been movies about another race of human beings on the planet that are unknown to us and posses special powers. What differs within these movies is how outlandish the 'other' human species can be conceived to be. There exists a breed of humans that posses super-human powers and are classified within themselves according to the power they posses. A governmental body to control their kind, called the 'division', is after a suitcase. Everything else in the movie is one big question mark leaving you with a thousand unanswered questions with the biggest one being, why is Nick Grant (Evans) and Cassie (Fanning) even involved in all of this. Although the movie tries to build upon a decent concept and has an above average ending attached to it, most of the story is a complete washout and seems to be glued together in a highly tacky manner. It does a decent job of being a fantasy movie with decent action, but that's all there is to it. Don't try bothering to figure out whats happening cause its not worth it.

Thumbs up: Decent action, a good entertainer

Thumbs down: Horrible story that doesn't make any amount of sense

Rating: 5.6/10

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure/Action/Drama

Starring: Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, Will Poulter, Ben Barnes, Simon Pegg (voice)

The Pevensie children are back in England and are leading their normal human lives. Susan and Peter are away to university, leaving Lucy (Henley) and Edmund (Keynes) to live at their cousins residence. Their cousin, Eustace (Poulter) is an extremely annoying, pampered and timid individual who does not make Lucy and Edmund's life easy. When Narnia summons them, Eustace becomes an uninvited guest to the mystery land. The three find themselves aboard the Dawn Treader, a huge ship which is led by none other than Prince Caspian (Barnes) himself. The four find themselves on an adventure to the far corners of unexplored Narnia land where they encounter evil, mysteries and demons they have never ever seen or heard of before. The movie is a huge disconnect from the previous movies with the story like just another adventure with the same cast. It might be appealing to the younger generation, but is no match for the more reputed fantasy and adventure movies known. A big let down for a Narnia fan and an average watch for everyone else.

Thumbs up: Decent adventure

Thumbs down: No link to previous stories

Rating: 5.8/10

Michael Clayton (2007)

Genre: Crime/Drama

Starring: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack

Michael (Clooney), an attorney at a prestigious New York law firm, Kenner, Bach & Ledeen, and has managed to create a niche for himself where he specialises in 'fixing' problems. Finding legal loopholes, exploiting situations, using connections and worming the client out of a situation, in short. U-North is an agricultural products manufacturing company that is facing a class action suit and is being represented by Aurthur (Wilkinson), Michael's colleague and good friend. When Aurthur starts removing his clothes in the middle of a hearing, everyone at U-North and Kenner, Bach & Ledeen are very worried. Michael is sent to fix the problem who learns of Aurthurs bipolar disorder and the fact that he has been off medication for a very long time. Karen Crowder (Swinton), the general counsel at U- North, gets hold of Aurthur's possessions and is shocked to learn that since the past three years he has been building a case against U-North rather for U-North. The movie has a beautifully sculpted story whose every moment is gripping. Sure, there was a point where things felt slow and dragged, but that was just for a very few moments until the movie rapidly picks up pace. A good complicated plot, fabulous acting by Mr. Clooney and a marvelous execution job makes this a brilliant movie to watch and debate with others, hours after it is over.

Thumbs up: George Clooney, story line

Thumbs down: Some few slow moments, everyone may not like the 'not-so-simple-to-understand' story

Rating: 8.2/10

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance/Musical

Starring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell

The genre listed above is a big personal turn-off. People frolicking around, singing and dancing with the added melodramatic romance scenes is simply not my cup of tea. The fact that this movie turned out to be far more enjoyable than I had imagined, speaks a lot for itself. Set in the year of 1927, when movies were still silent and the new trend of 'talking pictures' was classified by many to be a passing trend that doesn't hold any water. Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are a hugely successful on-screen duo who have created many famous romantic saga's. Don is a noted dancer, singer and performer whereas Lina has nothing but attractive looks. Her shrill and squeaky voice makes her a misfit for a talking picture but at the same time the studio management has a contract with her on which they cannot go back on. Kathy Selden (Reynolds) is a theatre artist who knows the challenges when it comes to acting while talking and believes that actors in movies are not true actors at all. When Don and Kathy meet at a party, they are both at disagreement over each others thoughts about acting but still find a connection between themselves which makes them fall in love. The movie is filled with energetic performances, mostly danced and sung by Gene Kelly himself. The overdose of music may not go down very well with many, like me, but there are still a few select performances where the moves are marvelous and anybody would appreciate it. Singing and dancing apart, the movie beautifully showcases the evolution of movies and the hilarious challenges that directors, producers and actors had to face alike. A good entertainer where one can easily skip the singing and dancing and move on with the movie.

Thumbs up: Good humour by O'Connor, fabulous song sequences

Thumbs down: Too many songs for the average person to enjoy

Rating: 8.0/10

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007)

Genre: Crime/Drama

Starring: Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Marisa Tomei, Ethan Hawke

When two desperate brothers are desperate for money and land up taking desperate measures to fulfill their needs, the results can be disastrous. Andy Hanson (Hoffman) is a senior finance executive of a company whose funds he has been regularly embezzling. His game plan is to steal enough money and flee with his wife Gina (Tomei) to Brazil. Having spent the money on coke and with the upcoming audit, he needs to collect enough money to flee to Rio and start a new life there. Hank Hanson (Hawke) is the under-confident younger brother of Andy who is unable to pay for child support and never has enough money to lead a regular life. The more aggressive and confident Andy takes his younger brother in confidence about stealing a jewelry store, something in which none of them have any expertise. The theft does not go well and the two brothers soon find themselves in a big, big mess, far from what any of them could imagine. The movie appears to be very slow at first glance but give the plot some time and it manages to capture your interest. The movie does not occur in a perfect chronological order and that might seem a little annoying but that actually forms the true essence of the movie. The climax is decent and reasonable and the multiple parallel plots add a lot of value to it. A decent crime and drama movie which some viewers might find slow but its not all that bad either.

Thumbs up: Great performances, a new angle to the conventional robbery

Thumbs down: Some might find it a little slow

Rating: 7.2/10

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

Genre: Fantasy/Action/War/Adventure

Starring: William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skander Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Sergio Castellitto, Pierfrancesco Favino, Damian Alcazar, Liam Neeson (voice), Peter Dinklage

1,300 years in Narnia has passed when the Pevensie siblings were living in the real world for only 1 year. Contrary to their expectations, Narnia has changed a lot from what they last knew it to be. The Telmarines are a non-magical, human race that have put the Narnians on the verge of extinction with most of them assuming that they are already extinct. A Telmarine Lord, Lord Miraz (Castellitto) is the brother of the King of Telmar whom he killed along with all his sons, save Prince Caspian (Barnes). Now that Lord Miraz has a newborn heir, he intends to get rid of Caspian and hence pronounce himself the King of Telmar. Caspian escapes Telmar and in an act of desperation, summons the Queens and Kings of Old, the Pevensie siblings. Aslan (Neeson) has not returned and the Telmarines intend to attack the Narnians and Prince Caspian and wipe them out once and for all. The movie is a large improvement from the previous movie on multiple fronts. There is far more action, adventure and anticipation than before and the useless and immature dialogues have been thrown for something more mature and needful. It's a wholesome, entertaining fantasy- war movie that young and old can enjoy and relate to alike.

Thumbs up: Fabulous special effects

Thumbs down: Being an all-rounder there isn't much one can complain about

Rating: 6.6/10

Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007)

Genre: Drama/Romance/History/Biography/War/Action

Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Jordi Molla, Samantha Morton, Abbie Cornish, Clive Owen

Queen Elizabeth I of England (Blanchett) was known in history for a string of reasons. She was a virgin queen who never married or conceived a child, the reason for which is not clear. She also stood up against the King Phillip II of Spain (Molla) who despised Elizabeth's Protestant belief as against his Catholic one. He consumed all of Europe in holy war to ensure that the Protestant belief was squashed and only England stood in the middle of his path. He built the famous Spanish Armada, a massive fleet of ships to charge against England which unfortunately crumbled under Elizabeth's shrewd and tactical war strategies. Elizabeth was also known to have expanded England's borders to the new world through the explorer, Sir Walter Raleigh (Owen) who founded the land of Virginia and named it after his virgin Queen. The movie is a sequel to the 1998 movie and focuses on the latter part of Elizabeth's life as compared to the earlier movie that looked at the accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England. The movie provides immense historical knowledge about Elizabeth but sadly focuses too much on her love life and focuses little on the matters of politics and state. The focus on drama and romance is not actually a bad choice but it makes the movie a tad boring. 

Thumbs up: Cate Blanchett's performance

Thumbs down: Boring bits, too much focus on Elizabeth's personal life

Rating: 6.3/10

Gangs of Wasseypur (2012)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Action/History

Starring: Manoj Bajpai, Jaideep Ahlawat, Richa Chadda, Reema Sen, Piyush Mishra, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Vipin Sharma, Pankaj Tripathi, Syed Khan, Jameel Khan

India's rural gangs and dacoits are a ruthless lot. Anurag Kashyap's latest venture traces the story of the coal mafia in the past century. Wasseypur is a small town in Erstwhile West Bengal, later a part of Bihar and now Jharkand. Soon after independence, the coal mines were distributed amongst businessman and a group of such mines came under the control of Ramadhir Singh (Dhulia). Ramadir recruits Shahid Khan (Ahlawat) to become his henchman and recruit workers to work in the mines. When Ramadir learns of Shahid's secret desire of controlling the mines for himself, he decides to eliminate him. Shahid's brother, Farhan (Mishra) escapes Wasseypur with Shahid's son, Sardar Khan to nearby Dhanbad. Years later, Sardar (Bajpai) grows up and vows to get rid of Ramadir once and for all, but not kill him, but to torture him and make suffer, bit by bit. The movie is raw and ruthless with a unique melange of motormouth characters, guns, swords, blood and loads of sarcastic humour. If some scenes can make you wince then there are an equal number of scenes that would give you a hearty life. The movie is made in two parts which were shot together but would release in a span of a few months. The biggest flaw in the movie is its endless and slow story that takes a yawning amount of time to evolve and move on. With an almost three hour run-time, the movie is not an easy watch and audiences are warned to brace themselves for a time of their life.

Thumbs up: Brilliant performances across the board, amazing humour and a great crime story

Thumbs down: Very slow to evolve

Rating: 8.2/10

Kill Bill: Vol.1 (2003)

Genre: Action/Drama/Crime

Starring:Uma Thurman, Lucy Liu, Vivika A. Fox, Julie Dreyfus, Sonny Chiba

Long story short, an attempted murder victim is out to hunt her assassins down. Short story long, The Bride aka Black Mamba (Thurman) was a former member of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad who was targeted by its members during her wedding reception. A blood bath occurred where everyone was presumed dead, including The Bride who got a bullet through her head. Surprisingly, the bullet does not kill her but puts her into an indefinite coma and she wakes up 4 years later. Black Mamba is now thirsty for revenge and O-Ren Ishii aka Cottonmouth (Liu) is target #1 and Vernita Green aka Jeannie Bell aka Copperhead (Fox) is target #2. The movie is very typical of Tarantino's style and character in every way. The subtle sarcasm and humour looming in the background that does not come out in your face but stays there simply adds to the movie's brilliance. The action is an all-and-out blood bath so stay away if you cant see the swish of a samurai sword and the head rolling on the floor with a red geyser emitting from the neck spraying itself all over the room. The random anime segments and the sudden black and white scenes with its non-chronological order add to the entertainment value of this amazing watch.

Thumbs up: Fabulous action, great film-making and Uma Thurman

Thumbs down: A slightly weak start, very slightly weak

Rating: 8.5/10

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