The Girlfriend Experience (2009)

Genre: Drama

Starring: Sasha Grey, Chris Santos

Chelsea (Grey) a super-premium Manhattan call girl chronicles her life with her clients and the experiences that she has with them. She offers a 'girlfriend' experience by going out on dates, talking to them and feel like they are being loved and have someone to offer love to. Her live-in boyfriend, Chris (Santos) has accepted her profession since it is a source of income and understands that she is only doing it for the money. With the build up to the 2008 presidential elections and the inevitable financial crisis looming ahead, she starts to see a drop in business and her clients spend less money on her services. They constantly talk to her about their financial problems and seem to be getting extremely worried. A journalist gets interested in her experiences and findings and wants to understand everything that she has been exposed to. The movie is an amalgamation of a lot of situations and moments and does not seem to follow any chronological order. Yes, it does come across to be a little slow but don't let that aspect fool you. A steady build up in the story makes it a reasonably interesting watch. Coming from the directorial stable of Steven Soderberg, the movie has a huge reputation riding on it and it does deliver to an extent. It is very different from his previous movies in a large way and seems to be more of an attempt to link the prostitution industry with financial markets. A good movie to watch but one really needs to settle down to fully absorb it and enjoy it.

Thumbs up: Interesting story

Thumbs down: Can get a little too slow or dragged for some

Rating: 7.0/10

New Year's Eve (2011)

Genre: Romance/Comedy/Drama

Starring: Michelle Pfeiffer, Zac Efron, Robert De Niro, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Seth Meyers, Sarah Paulson, Til Schweiger, Carla Gugino, Katherine Heigl, Jon Bon Jovi, Sofia Vergara, Russell Peters, Ashton Kutcher, Lea Michelle, Sarah Jessica Parker, Abigail Breslin, Josh Duhamel, Hillary Swank, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Hector Elizondo

From the makers of Valentine's Day, comes another movie with an ensemble cast with short stories of various situations on a special day. It is New Year's Eve in New York and various set of people have a different way of celebrating it. Claire Morgan (Swank) is the vice-president of the Times Square Alliance whose job is to ensure that the Times Square ball drop goes off smoothly with they help of her friend, Brendan (Bridges), a New York Police Officer. The ball gets stuck on it's way to the top and Claire needs to find a way to fix it or go down in history as the only time the ball did not drop in Times Square. Ingrid (Pfeiffer), a secretary of Ahern Records, quits her job after her pushy boss does not seem to have any consideration for her. She has a New Year Resolution list that she wishes to complete from last year before the new year begins and takes the help of Paul (Efron) a random courier boy who comes to office to deliver a package. Randy (Kutcher) a cartoonist and also Paul's flatmate hates New Year's Eve and New York and gets stuck with Elise (Michelle), a backup vocalist, in an elevator. Elise needs to get to famous singer Jensen's (Bon Jovi) performance at Times Square where she would be performing with him. Jensen wishes to get back to his ex-girlfriend, Laura (Heigl) whom he walked out on a year ago and wants to make up to that mistake. Stan Harris (DeNiro) is an aging man whose dying wish is to see the ball drop from the hospital terrace. His doctor refuses to comply and he is left with Nurse Aimee (Berry) to spend the New Year on his hospital bed. Kim (Parkar) is an over-protective mother who can't seem to get herself to allow her teenage daughter (Breslin) to go to Time Square and meet her boyfriend there. Sam (Duhamel) needs to reach New York in time for his big company speech but when his car crashes and there is no way to repair it, he has no choice but to hitch-hike his way with a pastor and his family. A hospital is giving out a special prize for this first child that is born in the New Year. The Byrne family and Schwab family, both have the prize on their mind and the two couples battle it out to see who wins the prize. Almost all of the situations are related to each other and more or less culminate at Times Square during the ball drop. The movie is only good for it's mediocre entertainment value and nothing else. Neither any of the stories nor the climax has anything exceptional about it to make you appreciate it. If you expect something on the lines of Love Actually then you would be greatly disappointed. Probably best enjoyed by the drama and romance fanatic.

Thumbs up: Good star cast selection

Thumbs down: Nothing exceptional

Rating: 5.8/10

RoboCop (1987)

Genre: Action/Crime/Science-fiction

Starring: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox, Miguel Ferrer, Kurtwood Smith

In future Detroit, the government is collapsing due to a financial crunch and has decided to offer Omni Consumer Products (OCP) to run the underfunded police department and take all law and order in their hands. A senior member of the OCP, Dick Jones (Cox), demonstrates a futuristic robot to the OCP board, however, the demo goes badly wrong and the Chairman is infuriated with him. A younger employee, Bob Morton (Ferrer) tells the Chairman about his RoboCop concept which instantly gains him the Chairmans trust and favor. A police officer Alex Murphy (Weller) gets mercilessly killed by Clarence Boddicker (Smith), a ruthless villain, and hence becomes the perfect candidate to get a new lease of life via RoboCop. Murphy starts patrolling the streets as RoboCop having no recollection of his previous life apart from the occasional flashes of memory. In a bid to understand this, RoboCop is on a hunt to find out what happened to him and is hungry for revenge. On first glance, the movie comes across as another hi-tech movie showing robots replacing humans in fighting crime but RoboCop takes another interesting angle his search for his earlier life. It is not simply focused on fighting bad guys and blowing up cars and is far more than just that. A good interesting action movie with a twist in the tale.

Thumbs up: Good story

Thumbs down: A weak ending to the movie

Rating: 7.7/10

Escape from Alcatraz (1979)

Genre: Crime/Biography

Starring: Clint Eastwood, Jack Thibeau, Fred Ward, Larry Hankin, Patrick McGoohan, Paul Benjamin

The Island of Alcatraz, off the coast of San Fransisco, was known for harboring some of the most deadly American criminals. It was one of the most closely guarded prisons in USA and it had a record of nobody being able to escape from it. People either got killed, caught or re-captured but nobody ever managed to escape. Frank Morris (Eastwood) is a new inmate at Alcatraz and has arrived here after escaping various other prisons in the past. Morris slowly and steadily starts blending with the other inmates, making some friends and some enemies. Morris discovers a damp cement patch around the ventilator grills and soon realised that it could be a way for him to get out. With some help from 3 other inmates, the 4 start planning their escape. They become the only people to have ever successfully escaped from Alcatraz although whether or not they made it across the water is still something that is not ascertained yet. They either drowned or made it across, no one is sure till date. The best thing about the movie, which could also be it's biggest drawback, is the bland and vanilla manner in which the story is narrated. There are no over-dramatic bits, no parallel stories that would steal your attention from the main plot line and no unnecessary fancy bits. Due to all of this, the movie is not amazing in any aspect but is still a very interesting watch. The movie seems to have an uncanny resemblance to The Shawshank Redemption with numerous similarities. One might easily ascertain Shawshank to be a modern remake of this movie, although that is not officially declared so.

Thumbs up: Good precise story

Thumbs down: Perhaps a little too direct

Rating: 7.3/10

Lego Batman: The Movie - DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)

Genre: Animation/Action/Comedy/Adventure

Starring (voice): Clancy Brown, Troy Baker, Christopher Corey Smith, Travis Willingham, Laura Bailey, Charlie Schlatter, Brian Bloom, Steven Blum, Cam Clarke

After doing adaptations of many mainstream movies, the people at Lego turned to DC comics to make a spoof movie of all DC heroes and villains in one screen. Lex Luthor (Brown) wants to run for president but has realised that his poll figures are extremely weak. He invents a toxic gas that would cajole voters into voting for him but he would have to get rid of Batman (Baker) and Superman (Willingham) if he wishes to succeed. Luthor also needs Kryptonite and learns that The Joker (Corey Smith) can help him get some. Batman is having an ego clash with Superman who seems to be able to do almost everything better than him. He refuses to give in to his superior abilities and is averse to partnering with him. With Luthor joining hands with The Joker and a host of other villains, Batman cannot fight this battle alone and must find support somewhere and somehow. The entire movie is animated out of Lego pieces and the city, weapons and cars, all seemed to be built completely out of Lego blocks. The different animation style is genuinely fun to watch and having 'the Lego angle' to everything is particularly interesting. Although the movie spoofs on super-heroes, it lacks in outright humour and can get a bit dragged at times. An over-load of characters who do nothing substantial and a cliched story does not quite help the movie in keeping interest alive. A good movie to watch if you're a DC fan and want to see your favourite characters in a different avatar, else can be avoided.

Thumbs up: Great Lego animation

Thumbs down: Not funny enough

Rating: 6.4/10

Khosla ka Ghosla (2006)

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Drama

Starring: Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Kiran Juneja, Rajendra Sethi, Parvin Dabas, Tara Sharma, Ranvir Shorey, Rupam Bajwa, Vinod Nagpal, Vinay Pathak, Navin Nischol, Nitesh Pandey

A middle-class Delhi family is excited about their new South Delhi house that they are going to move into. Well at least Mr. Kamal Kishore Khosla (Kher), the senior-most member of the family, is extremely excited. He has used all of his life's savings in purchasing the plot and is now preparing to build the palace of his dreams. On one family excursion to the plot, they discover a huge fence bearing the name of 'Khurrana House' standing at the place where their plot is supposed to be. On further probing they are informed that Kishan Khurrana (Irani) is a well-known scamster who usurps property illegally and then tries to make money by re-selling it. Unfortunately, Mr. K. K. Khosla has become a victim to Khurrana and must somehow pay him an additional sum of money if he wishes to get his plot back. Khosla's younger son, Chiraunji Lal Khosla aka Cherry (Dabas) takes no interest in the family matters and wants to move to the US and start a new life there, much to the disappointment of K. K. Khosla. With his plot falling into problems on one hand and his son's issues on the other, Khosla is in a mess and he needs some miracle if he needs to get out clean. Anupam Kher is one fine actor who knows how to deliver and there are very few of his movies that you could go wrong with. This movie is not the kinds that you would fall off your seats laughing but it has bursts of subtle humour. A good story and good performances is what you would definitely get, although some more twists, humour and an overall increase in excitement is what the movie desperately needs. It feels like a pasta that tastes really good but doesn't look like it should.

Thumbs up: Great acting

Thumbs down: Needs more humour and some overall entertainment

Rating: 7.2/10

National Lampoon's Barely Legal (2003)

Genre: Comedy/Romance/Drama

Starring: Erik von Detten, Tony Denman, Daniel Farber, Amy Smart, Sarah-Jane Potts

High school is the time to experiment and learn new things. Not just educationally but also otherwise. Three teenagers, Deacon (Detten), Fred (Denman) and Matt (Farber) do not seem to be getting any kind of attention from the fairer sex and this is upsetting them, a lot. Deacon gets the idea of making a porno movie but not just any other porno movie. There probably are a lot of kids like them all over the world who are virgins, are not able to approach girls and have all kinds of sexual fantasies. If they can make a movie that fulfills their dreams, they can make a lot of money. However, three teenagers making a porno cannot be easy and Deacon, Matt and Fred learn this the hard way. Most of the movie focuses on their antics in movie making and the end outcome. Although the story is well-made, it faults on the lack of good outright humour that should have been easy to come buy but sadly, does not. An easy way to kill time buy watching a cheesy entertainer is what this movie is and it probably would not do too much harm if you do not expect too much out of it.

Thumbs up: A mildly innovative story

Thumbs down: Not very great at what it does

Rating: 5.8/10