Mutant Series Goes Back in Flashback with X-Men: First Class
Movie: X-Men: First Class
Year: 2011
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action/Drama
Director: Matthew Vaughn
Stars: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence
Snapshot of Story:
This helping of the popular X-Men movie series goes back in time to 1962 when mutants were brought together by the United State government to thwart an evil dictator from starting world war III.
Movie Reviews and Ratings X-Men: First Class
Storyline:
The movie follows the early lives of Charles Xavier played by James McAvoy and Erik Lehnsherr played by Michael Fassbender. They are well known in current the present time as Professor Xavier and Magento respectively.
The movie does well to portray a very natural progression of the plight of the mutants from the early years to the mutants of today from the previous X-Men movie showings. In particular, the portrayal of Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr was very interesting and entertaining to watch as we watch the youthful young men blossom into the mature adults we know today. The shaping of their characters are especially intriguing since the two deviate away from being close friends to becoming rival enemies.
There is much action in the movie to keep everyone engaged but what is more appealing is the way that the movie comes together as complete and very satisfying and you actually look forward to the next sequel. The acting of the entire cast and the direction were exceptional for a movie of this type and the engaging storyline disengages itself from many movies that purely focus on hap-hazard action.
Kevin Bacon who plays the evil dictator Sebastian Shaw does a fine job of a sadistic human whose only enjoyment is power and greed. The end of the movie is very good to watch where we see the mutants work together to bring down the tyrant and see the special might of Magento who is able to levitate huge metal structures. In the ensuing battle Xavier is crippled which puts him in the confinements of the wheelchair for the remainder of his life.
Final Thoughts:
The movie has much fluidity and thought provoking scenes to keep even the most hardened movie-goers happy. The balance of action, story-telling, fine acting by the entire crew and of course the super direction of Matthew Vaughn will surely keep this movie franchise going on for many years to come.
Rating:
8/10
Michael Fassbender and Zoe Kravits spotted together, Dating?
Tags: James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender, Movie reviews and ratings of X Men: First Class, Mutant Series Goes Back in Flashback with X-Men: First Class
Zoe Saldana in Crime Drama in Colombiana
Movie: Colombiana
Year: 2011
Genre: Action/Drama/Thriller
Director: Olivier Megaton
Stars: Zoe Saldana, Michael Vartan and Callum Blue
Snapshot of Story:
A young girl witnesses the murder of her family in Bogota by the drug criminals and escapes to the US only to grow up to be a cold-blooded assassin.
Movie Reviews and Ratings of Colombiana
Storyline:
Cataleya is played by Zoe Saldana who becomes the sole survivor after witnessing the brutal murder of her family and enters US through a custody program but escapes to live with her uncle in New York. She is so shocked by the deaths and vows to take revenge on the people responsible for her family’s deaths. Her uncle Marco played by Jordi Molla is not impressed by the initial reaction of the girl’s and takes her to a nearby school where he randomly shoots close to a crowd but avoids hitting any civilians. The idea was to inject into Cataleya that shooting and killing is an art form with skills that need to be acquired through schooling.
Fast forward many years and we see Cataleya become the perfect killing machine as she takes on crime syndicate jobs provided by Marco. In between jobs, Cataleya has an affair with a man who is an artist and seeks solace and comfort through his company. The tension between the couple arises as Cataleya is unable to express her own true lifestyle and speaks very little of her past.
In one of the jobs, we see Cataleya plan a job where she cleverly infiltrates a cell in one of the police offices to eliminate a crime pundit. However, Cataleya has a bigger mission outside of this where she tries to hunt down her past killers who murdered her family. The investigator at the killing scene is at odds at how the killing took place and tries to piece together the evidence he has on tape.
Cataleya eventually comes face to face with the gang she has been trying to seek and in an explosive, fast paced scene towards the end of the movie, she finally fulfills her wish.
Final Thoughts:
The movie was a disappointing watch from start to finish, it almost felt that the director was very new to the subject of making crime thrillers. The actual scenes portrayed seemed to have little credibility with the audience such as the random shooting of Marco to teach Cataleya a lesson. Most of the scenes appeared to be contrived and does not convey an engaging plot for which this movie stood for and hence lacked any flow or consistency. This disconnect of the whole movie, though with some good action scenes does leave a good impression with the movie-goers. Even the relationship between Cataleya and her lover leaves the viewer’s wanting more.
Rating:
5.5/10
Tags: Callum Blue, Michael Vartan, Movie review of Colombiana, Zoe Saldana, Zoe Saldana in Crime Drama in Colombiana
Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Action/Adventure - Knight and Day
Movie: Knight & Day
Year: 2010
Genre: Action/Adventure
Director: James Mangold
Stars:Tom Cruise, Cameron Diaz and Peter Sarsgaard
Snapshot of Story:
A unsuspecting woman becomes entangled with a secret agent who is being hunted by crooked undercover agents.
Movie Reviews and Ratings on Knight and Day
Storyline:
Cameron Diaz plays June Havens who accidentally bumps into the wrong person at the airport and thus propelling her into a deep undercover action/thriller that is sure to bring plenty of smiles to the audience. The man she bumps into is Roy Miller played by Tom Cruise who is wanted by the secret agents for harboring highly classified information.
Although the story is not that original, the movie is nevertheless a fun watch with the two main characters immersed in high speed chases and thrilling near death action scenes. Their first encounter with each other leads them boarding a Jumbo 747 where the entire crew is destabilized by Roy Miller leaving June Havens dazed and unable to comprehend the events happening around her.
The acting performances of the two prime characters are as expected of star quality and are exactly what makes this movie very entertaining to watch. Cameron Diaz with her almost child-like innocence and personality works well with Tom Cruise’s fast and furious lifestyle. The director has done well to blend these two characters into their respective roles with highly amusing and often comical events. In one scene June is having coffee with an old boy-friend when Miller comes into the scene and whisks away June with supreme confidence and speed. This only highlighted his quick-witted thinking that came about through years of training as a secret agent. If one saw Tom Cruise’s old movie ‘Collateral Damage’, one can see a completely different persona to the character in this movie.
There are times when the movie becomes hardly believable in some of the action scenes, but the movie was made purely to entertain and something which it does well. June Havens gradually picks up the lingo of undercover secret agent talk and is able to shoot a gun, hoodwink the agents and get out of sticky situations, quite a feat in such a short space of time. In another scene, we find that the agent Roy overlooks the locked ‘grid-system’ in a remote island where their whereabouts was revealed by a simple call to June’s cell-phone. A pretty bad omission in my mind for someone who is skilled in the art of war and communications technology.
Final Thoughts:
Knight and Day is a fun movie to watch with two of the most renowned actors in Hollywood bringing their magic to the big screen. It has the plot of a ‘James Bond’ movie but the thrilling action and chases coupled with the polarized characters of the two main stars makes it quite an enjoyable movie to watch.
Rating:
7/10
Tags: Cameron Diaz, James Mangold, Movie review of Knight and Day, Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz in Action/Adventure - Knight and Day
Ayasha Takia and Abhay Deol in Young Love Story - Socha Na Tha
Movie: Socha Na Tha (Unexpected)
Director: Imtiaz Ali
Year: 2005
Stars: Abhay Deol, Ayesha Takia and Apoorva Jha
Snapshot of the story
Socha Na Tha is a story of a guy who is going to marry a girl selected by his parents but rejects her and wants to marry his Catholic girlfriend which is unacceptable to his parents. While he is trying to convince his parents to let him marry her, he finds himself in love with the girl his parents chose for him. Story takes a sweet and funny twist as it finally reaches it’s climax.
Movie Reviews and Ratings of Socha Na Tha
Storyline
Viren (played by Abhay Deol) is going to marry Aditi (played by Ayesha Takia), a girl selected by his parents being their friends daughter. But Viren is in love with a Catholic girl named Karen (played by Apoorva Jha) and wants to marry her. He confides with Aditi and both of them arrive at a pact that Viren would refuse the marriage proposal with Aditi.
The rejection by Viren creates a rift between the two families which triggers a war of words. At the same time Viren continues to date Karen and proposes her for marriage, the response of which is positive. Then he meets Karen’s parents and they also agree, but when they go for the permission from his parents they disapprove the match.
In the ensuing chaos, Viren also continues to meet Aditi, even though there are no strings attached. Both of them feel free to talk and share their feelings with each other. Then there’s a dramatic turnaround in the story when Viren realizes that his heart is now beating for Aditi. On the other side another dramatic turnaround takes place and his parents agree to make Karen their daughter–in–law. Now Viren is in another mess, for now he wants to marry Aditi and not Karen.
Final Thoughts
Socha Na Tha is small budget movie and show that it does not need to be the big budget movie to be a block buster hit. The movie gets its appeal just because of the unpredictable situations woven with a good story narrated by Imtiaz Ali. Socha Na Tha is good in the screenplay and all the actors give off their best. Credit goes to Imtiaz Ali for making a simple story very compelling. Climax of the movie was a bit predictable which can be ignored sijnce the movie overall was much fun to watch. Music is not the selling point for this movie and also not really needed because of the brilliant direction of Imtiaz Ali.
Rating
Socha Na Tha scores 7 out of 10 for its simple but engaging story. Both Ayesh Takia and Abhay Deol was a newcomer and did a fantastic job. We would like to add 1 more star just for their outstanding performance making the rating 8 out of 10.
Tags: Abhay Deol, Ayasha Takia, Ayasha Takia and Abhay Deol in Young Love Story - Socha Na Tha, Imtiaz Ali, movie review of Socha Na Tha, movie reviews and ratings
Subhash Ghai’s Musical Love Story - Taal
Movie: Taal (Rhythm)
Director: Subhash Ghai
Year: 1999
Stars: Anil Kapoor, Akshaye Khanna and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan
Snapshot of the story
Taal is a love triangle between Mansi, Manav and Vikrant. Mansi (played by Aishwarya Rai) lives in a small town of Champa with her father Tarababu, who is a classical singer and dancer. Due to business dealings Manav comes to Chamba and falls in love with Mansi. Taal takes you through a roller caster ride until it reaches its climax.
Storyline
Mansi (played by Aishwarya Rai) is daughter of classical singer and dancer Tarababu. Mansi is also a good singer and with good looks. Manav (played by Akshaye Khanna) is son of a businessman and find Mansi on his business trip and both fall in love at first sight. Manav flies over to the city promising Mansi to marry her. But Manav’s foreign-bred aunt creates trouble in the love story and opposes their relationship.
The first hour of the movie is good as Aishwarya steals the show with her beauty and charming performance. Akshaye Khanna’s acting did not full-fill everyone’s expectation. Taal becomes an exiting movie to watch as Anil Kapoor enters the scene. Anil Kapoor plays the role of Vikrant. Vikrant is a well known music director and encourages young talent. Mansi joins the group and taste success and in this journey she loses Manav’s company and the audience starts to ignore Manav and starts liking Vikrant.
This tussle is good to watch as Vikrant deliberately annoys Manav and this gives lot of comical moments in the movie. The entire plot loses its grip and becomes predictable as the story progresses. Subhash Ghai has made excellent movies in the past like Ram Lakhan and Pardes and naturally the expectation were high but Taal disappoints in the storyline.
Final Thoughts
Taal fails to engage the audience with the movie which has been the success mantra for Subhash Ghai in the past. Music of the movie is good and has topped the charts for months. Oscar award winner A.R. Rahman was versatile with his music. Anil Kapoor won the Filmfare- Best supporting actor role for the role of Vikrant.
Rating
Taal scores 6 out of 10 which is an average score for Sughash Ghai movie. Storyline has nothing fresh to offer and the movie is entertaining in patches.
Tags: Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Akshaye Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Movie review of Taal, Mukta Arts, Subhash Ghai, Subhash Ghai's Musical Love Story - Taal
