The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)

Genre: Fantasy/Action/Adventure/War

Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Bernard Hill, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Orlando Bloom, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Andy Serkis, John Noble

The third and final movie sees the ultimate journey of Frodo Baggins (Wood) and Sam Gamjee (Astin) to the depths of Mordor to the destroy the One Ring. With King Theoden (Hill) finally revived and once again the King of Rohan, the fellowship turn their attention to Gondor at whose throne Aragon (Mortensen) must ascend and command the army of men to the black gates of Mordor. It is the final battle for Men and humanity to save the world from the black evil of Sauron. As with the previous movie, this too focuses on the battle against evil and culmination of all races to fight for a common purpose. The movie leaves you with an uplifted and inspired feeling and is an improvement over the previous movies. This would be the best of three movies and has done good justice to the book. All the movies have been a fabulous attempt at recreating the book to the finest detail but the third movie has truly lived to the splendour of The Lord of the Rings. J.R.R. Tolkien would be proud if he were to watch these movies today. A movie that demands your time and patience but will reward you with pure entertainment.

Thumbs up: Fabulous performances and truly gripping

Thumbs down: None

Rating: 9.0/10

Jobs (2013)

Genre: Biography/Drama

Starring: Ashton Kutcher, Dermot Mulroney, Josh Gad, Lukas Haas, Matthew Modine, J.K. Simmons, Ron Eldard

Steve Jobs was an inspiring figure, not only for the technology industry but also for all of humanity. His thoughts and ideas may not have agreed with everyone but it pushed us all to take that one more step to raise the bar and help technology develop. If it wasn't for him, we might be living a life ten years behind what we currently have. Steve Jobs (Kutcher) grew up with a simple life at Reeds College where he was adopted by the Jobs family who raised him as their own. Whilst working for Atari, he kept insisting on doing something different but the people around him were limiting his thoughts and ideas. When Atari offered him a project on his own, he took it up but hit a stumbling block with the computer board of which Jobs had very little knowledge. It was then that his good friend, Steve Wozniak (Gad) came to his rescue and helped him develop a path-breaking board. From their on, there was no end to Steve and Wozniak's alliance. They started Apple Computers and started selling the Apple I. With the help of a venture capitalist Mike Markulla (Mulroney), they managed to get some much needed money in the business and from there on there was no turning back. His ideas and 'go-different' thoughts even got him sacked from his own company. Although Steve was an inspiring figure for a lot of us, the movie sadly isn't. It does not feel like a biopic of an individual of high stature but a mere narration of his life events all put together in a two hour movie. Perhaps if the movie focused on one aspect of his life rather than everything that ever happened with him, the movie would have been far better. The movie doesn't leave you with a sense of pride, motivation or you don't even remember the iconic figure-head once you get up. It feels far too average and normal and does not raise the bar of movie-making unlike his inventions.

Thumbs up: Ashton Kutcher for being able to step into Jobs' role pretty decently

Thumbs down: Uninspiring, far too much information crammed in a short span of time.

Rating: 6.4/10

American Reunion (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Adventure/Romance

Starring: Jason Biggs, Alyson Hannigan, Chris Klien, Thomas Ian Nicholas, Tara Reid, Seann William Scott, Mena Suvari, Eddie Kaye Thomas, John Cho, Jennifer Coolidge, Eugene Levy, Katrina Bowden, Ali Cobrin, Dania Ramirez, Chuck Hittinger, Vik Sahay, Jay Harrington

The American Pie series played a very large role in bringing sex-comedy in mainline cinema and poking fun at college life. Ever since then, many spin-offs and versions were formed but nothing seemed to do justice like the first 3 movies did with their original star cast. With the original cast now grown up in reality, the movie tries to build upon that by reuniting them and making it a movie of growing old versus the new generation. Jim (Biggs) and Michelle (Hannigan) now have a baby boy and are leading the typical married life. Their sex life is not going too well and both of them are not very happy about it. The class of '99 is reuniting at East Great Falls and Jim, Michelle along with their son plan on meeting Jim's dad (Levy) and meeting the old gang once more. Kevin (Nicholas) is happily married to his wife, Oz (Klien) is a sportscaster on a TV news channel, Finch (Thomas) is an adventurer and traveller and Stiffler (Scott) works as a temp at an investment firm. Jim bumps into Kara (Cobrin), the girl next door whom he used to babysit, who holds a secret desire to lose her virginity to Jim. Kevin meets Vicky (Reid) and finds all his previous emotions towards her coming back to life which he does not know how to control. Oz is dating a sex-hungry super model Mia (Bowden) but realises he still loves Heather (Suvari). The movie comes across as a breathe of fresh air amongst other movies who seem to only focus on sex and nudity and not bother too much about humour. This movie, instead, focuses on trying to make you laugh and everything else is a means to an end. The audience of the original movie would have grown over the years too and hence can also relate to the older life as against the college days. The movie showcases maturity very well, although there are some moments with too much emotion and dialogues and pulls away from the humour, but all in all if you have enjoyed the movies of the original cast then this movie would never let you down.

Thumbs up: LOL funny and a good improvement from the original movie

Thumbs down: Those few emotional moments that could be avoided

Rating: 7.1/10

Awake (2007)

Genre: Drama/Crime/Romance

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Jessica Alba, Terrence Howard, Lena Olin

Anesthesia is usually delivered to help ease the pain during surgeries so that they patient drifts away into a slumber and does not experience the operation in any way. Anesthesia awareness is the rare occurrence where the anesthetic only paralyses the body but the patient is able to witness the entire operation to the extent of feeling everything. Clay Beresford (Christensen) is the heir to a billion dollar business when his father died in an accident and has become the company CEO at a young age. His affair with his mothers secretary, Sam (Alba) has gone unnoticed to his mother since he fears her reaction when she finds out. Sam also needs a heart transplant and his rare blood type only makes it more difficult to find the correct organ. Dr. Jack Harper (Howard) is a close friend of Clay and has agreed to operate on him the moment they find a donor, much to the disagreement of Clay's mother (Olin). With a donor heart found, Clay realises that he has anesthesia awareness when he can feel the entire operation and can hear all the doctors talking. The operation turns out to be a nightmare for Clay but also a blessing in disguise. Although the movie explores a new area of medicine and tries to build a story around it, the story itself is quite pointless and the movie does not seem to be achieving anything. Every movie is made with an objective and this movie seemed very objective-less. It is a very casual watch with nothing to great or too bad to talk about.

Thumbs up: A decently interesting twist

Thumbs down: An otherwise average watch

Rating: 5.9/10

The Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers (2002)

Genre: Fantasy/Action/Adventure/War

Starring: Elijah Wood, Ian McKellen, Liv Tyler, Viggo Mortensen, Sean Astin, John Rhys-Davies, Orlando Bloom, Bernard Hill, Christopher Lee, Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Hugo Weaving, Miranda Otto, David Wenham, Andy Serkis

The second installation of The Lord of the Rings saga sees multiple developments in the tale along with Frodo (Wood) and Sam's (Astin) onward journey to Mordor. The Fellowship gets divided with the Death of Gandalf and Boromir and Frodo and Sam's decision to go onward by themselves. Merry (Boyd) and Pippin (Monaghan) are kidnapped by a team of Orcs and are being taken to Saruman assuming that they are the ring-bearers. Aragon (Mortensen) along with Gimli (Rhys-Davies) and Legolas (Bloom) need to make their way to Rohan and persuade King Theoden (Hill) to join in the war against Mordor and fight for the lands and for the race of Men. The story takes a drastic turn with multiple war developments and the fight for freedom. The first movie was a journey but the second movie has transcended into a fight for freedom and has more aggression. Where the first movie had the scope of appearing to be slow, this one is far more fast paced and will never allow your attention to divert. A brilliant watch and you won't realise how the 4-odd hours have passed.

Thumbs up: Great story-telling

Thumbs down: None, whatsoever

Rating: 8.5/10

The Conjuring (2013)

Genre: Horror/Drama/Fantasy/Biography/Mystery

Starring: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Lili Taylor, Ron Livingston, Shanley Caswell, Hayley McFarland, Joey King, Mackenzie Foy, Kyla Deaver

Paranormal activities and true-life stories are a little hard to digest, especially for someone who does not believe in the after life and other superstitions.The Perron family have just moved in to their new Rhode Island house and everyone is extremely excited. Their excitement, however, is short-lived when they find their pet dog dead in the front lawn, with Carolyn (Taylor) developing bruise marks everyday and the general aura of fear lingering around the house. Lorraine (Farmiga) and Ed Warren (Wilson) are two paranormal investigators who are asked to have a look around their house and see as to why these occurrences are happening. An investigation leads to startling facts, such as the mysterious death of the previous tenants and a very dark and dangerous past. The story of the movie is quite gripping and develops in a good manner. The fact that the movie keeps reminding you that this is based on true life incidents, increases the thrill factor and makes the movie a far more enjoyable watch. I am personally not a fan of horrors but the movie is good enough to freak you out but I have been made to believe it is still not there.

Thumbs up: Good story

Thumbs down: Could have done a far better job of scaring the audience

Rating: 7.1/10

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

Genre: Fantasy/Adventure/Action

Starring: Elijah Wood, Sean Astin, Sean Bean, Cate Blanchett, Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd, Christopher Lee, Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen, John Rhys-Davies, Dominic Monaghan, Hugo Weaving, Andy Serkis

An adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's famous fantasy adventure novel, the movie narrates the story of a young Hobbit, Frodo Baggins (Wood). Frodo's guardian and father-figure, Bilbo Baggins, had gotten a Ring in his earlier quests and has decided to pass it on to Frodo when he wishes to retire from his normal life. Gandalf the Grey (McKellen) a Wizard and a close friend of both the Baggins' tells Frodo the story and the powers of the One Ring. The Ring holds many an evil powers and must be destroyed in the depths of Mordor to prevent the evil Sauron from getting his hands to it and bringing death and destruction to all of Middle Earth. For this, a fellowship is formed, a group of nine people who would travel the lands and face all perils and dangers in order to ensure that the Ring is destroyed for good. Medieval, fantasy movies are usually notorious for being either too childish or having an extremely cliched plot line. The Lord of the Rings was a phenomenal book to read, with minute and intricate detailing being given to the slightest of things. As a lover of the original book, I am glad that the movie has given full justice to it and has brought forward the story and the characters in the correct manner and as they should be. A fabulous watch for those who are serious on Fantasy movies but it requires your undivided attention and patience in order to completely understand everything.

Thumbs up: Fabulous CGI and good execution of the original story

Thumbs down: A little too long but then again necessary to justify the movie

Rating: 8.0/10

Ship of Theseus (2012)

Genre: Drama

Starring: Aida Elkashef, Neeraj Kabi, Sohum Shah, Faraz Khan, Sameer Khurana, Vinay Shukla

Bollywood has always been known to churn out entertainers and never been able to come up with serious movies with being technically sound and have wide critical acclaim. Ship of Theseus has been one of those rare gems that Bollywood has removed that has been revered world-wide. Aaliya Kamal (Elkashef) is an Arabic girl who is visually impaired but yet a highly celebrated photographer residing in Mumbai, India. She is dependent on her boyfriend, Vinay (Khan) to interpret her images and help her in her career. Maitreya (Kabi) is a monk who is fighting the large corporates in court against animal testing. When diagnosed with liver cirrhosis, he has to take medication from those very same people he is against if he wishes to survive. Navin (Shah) is a stock broker whose ailing mother tries to motivate him to do something good that impacts society and not simply chase money. He learns of a bricklayer whose kidney has been stolen when he underwent an appendix operation and feared that his own kidney might have belonged to him. Along with his friend Mannu (Khurana) he takes it upon himself to track down the theft and find the bricklayers kidney. The movie talks about organ transplant and how individuals have been affected by it. The movie is slow and takes it's own time to develop with very long shots. Having been shot with non-professional equipment, the movie gives the feel of something low-budget and amateurish but yet spectacular. A good movie to watch, but you need to be patient. If intellectual art movies are not your thing then forget about it, else it is lovely for the rest.

Thumbs up: Fabulous story and performances

Thumbs down: A bit too long and some unwanted long shots

Rating: 7.7/10