Dark Shadows

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 11th May, 2012
Time : 113 minutes
Director : Tim Burton; Writers : Seth Grahame-Smith; John August (based on the TV Series by Dan Curtis); Music : Danny Elfman
Starring : Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, Eva Green, Chloe Grace Moretz, Helena Bonham Carter, Bella Heathcote, Jackie Earle Haley

Another film suffering from an identity crisis. Struggling between a ghost / supernatural genre vs a comedy vs an emotional drama about love and family. It has its moments but has too many ponderous parts for us to really get into it

Johnny Depp is cursed to become a vampire by Eva, who loves him but cannot accept the fact that he doesn’t love her back. Anyways, if she cant have him, she cant let anyone else get him. In other words a classic scorned woman. And so he is chained and buried alive into the ground. Only to awaken 200 years later and find the world has changed, as has his family, with only Eva, thanks to her witchcraft, remaining a constant.

It has its moments of humour, not least while showing Johnny’s bewilderment at the changes in the world. “Bring my horses” or “Mephistopheles !” or his tips on wooing from the 15 year old Chloe, probably being amongst the highlights.

But there are too many characters, too many sub plots and too many emotions thrown at us for it to make sense.

Interesting premise, great acting but a lukewarm story and lack of focus consign it to remain in the dark shadows.

This Means War

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 16th March, 2012 (India)
Time : 97 minutes
Director : McG; Writers : Timothy Dowling, Simon Kinberg; Music : Christophe Beck
Starring : Chris Pine, Tom Hardy, Reese Witherspoon, Chelsea Handler, Til Schweiger, Rosemary Harris

They’re best mates, almost the only mate each has. They fall for the same girl. Ruin their friendship. She has a really hard time making up her mind on who to go with. Despite lots of advice from her happily married, sex crazy, opinionated friend. And oh, did I mention, both the guys are secret agents ?

You know where this is heading very soon into the film. The Daniel Craig-esque Tom is the quiet one, Brit, divorced, father of a boy, safe, still waters run deep kind of guy. Chris Pine is the smooth one, multiple relationships, has a glass swimming pool, the clubbing, I know the bartender / DJ / bouncer kind of guy. She loves her work, which is to review various consumer products and soon you know everything that is possible to know about her as the two use official resources to relentlessly tap & tail her. And oh, did I mention, they are chasing / being chased by a villain seeking revenge for his younger brothers death ?

I think they forgot about the villain midway through the film. Focused too much on the romance / wooing / spoiling the others courting. It felt a bit stretched there. The dialogue is good, witty enough to keep you listening and the best moments come from the way the two ‘fight’ each other, the teams both use to tail her and the kid who circles around with a bucket over his head.

Reese looks a tad old, stretched, lacking a few sparks from what she used to be. Chris and Tom are believable in their roles and Chelsea, playing Reese’s friend, is given a character that seems to be trying too hard to be quirky / funny.

It’s a one time watch, light, easy and uncomplicated without being mindless. And oh, did I mention that the action, when it happens, is good ?

The Vow

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 9th March, 2012 (India)
Time : 104 minutes
Director : Michael Suchsy; Writers : Jason Katims, Stuart Sender; Music : Michael Brook, Rachel Portman
Starring : Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, Sam Neill, Jessica Lange, Scott Speedman, Jessica McNamee, Tatiana Maslany, Jeannane Goossen, Dillon Casey

Suppose, you got a chance to travel back in time four years of your life and restart your life from that point, without any memory of what you’ve done in those last four years. Do you think you’d end up doing the same things or take a different path ?

Our main protagonist, Rachel McAdams, is happily married to Channing, had left her parents house a few years ago (and is not on talking terms with them), has quit law school to pursue a career as a sculptor and is happy with the life she’s leading. Until an accident happens. Which erases all her memories of the past few years. When she wakes up from her coma, in her head, she is still living with her parents, still going to law school and is engaged to her childhood sweetheart, Scott.

The fact that she doesn’t remember Channing at all, that Channing has never met her parents, that her parents are rich and she & Channing aren’t, the fact that her father is dominating and clearly wants to run her life, while Channing wants her to just be, make for an interesting film.

The subtle humour and moments shown, help keep the film in non-intense territory. From their wedding vows (and ceremony), the forget-me-nots, the chocolate Russian roulette, the blueberry Mojito & sorority girl remark, the ‘you didn’t knock’ to ‘I have to be back by ten in the morning’, the jokes feel real and not the product of a scriptwriters imagination. Incidents like the one involving Channing and her father, Sam, or her fiancée Scott, came across as filmy while the one between Channing and her sisters fiancée, Dillon once about recording studios being a dying industry & then about Radiohead were just right.

Memory is an amazing thing. She remembers the way to her parents house, a conversation with Scott, her moms phone number but not her own house, the fact that she turned vegetarian or her own husband. As Channing points out, we are the sum total of all the moments we have lived. But what if, you forget everyone of those moments ? Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams give a great performance to make us believe in their predicament and keep us engaged as they figure their way out.

Sliding Doors-esque in its approach, the film raises some pertinent questions about life, the choices we make. We seem to use the word ‘chick flick’ in an almost derogatory fashion. This one is a chick flick, but with a message if you’d care to find it…

Safe House

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : 17th February, 2012 (India)
Time : 115 minutes
Director : Daniel Espinosa ; Writer : David Guggenheim; Music : Ramin Djawadi
Starring : Ryan Reynolds, Denzel Washington, Brendan Gleeson, Vera Farmiga, Sam Shepard, Ruben Blades, Nora Arnezedar, Robert Patrick

A movie which manages to keep you on knifes edge without really coming up with anything earth shattering / innovative in terms of storyline.

Ryan guards a CIA safehouse in Cape Town and thirsts for some field action. When a rogue CIA agent, Denzel, is caught and brought to the safe house, all hell seems to explode. Ryan and Denzel are the only survivors of the attack and now Ryan has to somehow keep him safe and in custody. Not an easy task as wave upon wave of attacks come their way and Denzel is quite keen to go his own way and make money by selling secrets.

The film, shot mostly around Cape Town, throws up some stunning locales (there is one aerial shot in particular of a car driving through the fields that is simply spectacular). Ryan essays his part of a rookie agent, fresh on the job pretty well and the interactions between him and the veteran Denzel are very good. Denzel does what he does best, combining a soft spoken philosphers role with some brutal sporadic action. The fine ensemble cast does justice to their parts as well and the action is quite intense and very physical.

While it tries to surprise you at different points in time, its not anything you’ve not seen before. Its old wine but packaged well, keeping you on the edge of the seat without quite bowling you over.

Ekk Deewana Tha

Rating : 2/10
Release Date : 17th February, 2012
Time : 140 minutes
Director & Writer : Gautham Menon; Music : A R Rahman
Starring : Prateik, Amy Jackson, Babu Anthony, Manu Rishi, Sachin Khedekar

A Hindi remake of Gautham Menon’s Tamil film Vinnaithandi Varuvaayaa

There was a joke in the film about Amitabh Bachchan and Mohanlal. I found that funny.

There was a conversation between father and son towards the middle, with the father, Sachin Khedekar, coming across as quite chilled out despite being a ‘Maharashtrian Brahmin’. I found that interesting.

I found the rest of the film excruciatingly painful. Flawed in terms of its storyline, the characters, the dialogues and I even found issue with the make-up…

The film is about a young boy, falling in love with his ‘neighbour’. His landlords daughter, actually, who lives upstairs. Courting her essentially by stalking her. And trying to convince her to love him back by blurting his feelings for her at the drop of a hat. He doesn’t seem to believe in things like becoming friends first. Events that unfold are much in the same vein and he even finds a willing accomplice in his mentor, a cameraman, played by Manu Rishi.

Because of the stalker hero, in the entire first half we’re treated to the sight of Amy walking either towards the camera or away from it multiple times. Sometimes, for variety, while walking away she looks back. Sometimes she just walks straight on. And they vary her clothes too, to establish that she looks good in all sorts of dresses including jeans, salwar kameez and sarees.

In a film like this, based on improbable and implausible love, what is necessary is a lead pair so charming they make you forget the flaws in the story. A boy who endears himself as a lovable rogue. A woman who bedazzles so much that we are blinded to everything else around them. Both, Prateik (was that strawberry lipstick he wore during the film ?) and Amy (who's skin colour varied from shot to shot), fall way short of the mark here.
Manu and Sachin, in fact, were the only two who came away with any credit for acting.

Locales are nice, music is nice but cannot rise above the film. Its also not converted fully into a North Indian / Hindi film, retaining a distinctly South Indian flavour & sensibility that also doesn’t work.

Love, they say, is a many splendoured thing, alive with all the colours of the rainbow. The love shown here was anything but. Plodding, indecisive, monochromatic. Instead of inspiring you to greater heights, it only made you do silly things. Unfortunately this is one remake which didn’t work at all…

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 10th February, 2012
Time : 110 minutes
Director : Shakun Batra; Writers : Shakun Batra, Ayesha Devitre; Music : Amit Trivedi
Starring : Imran Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Boman Irani, Ratna Pathak Shah, Ram Kapoor, Zenobia Shroff, Rajesh Khattar, Dana Lewis

‘Arre darna kya, just tickle his balls’

This is a film which tries to be in the cute space and suceeds to an extent but its biggest flaw is its lead pair, who, though good on their own, do not work as a pair at all. It also follows a reasonably predictable path, with a sense of déjà vu as you watch events unfold as it feels like you’ve seen it all before.

‘Baby, don’t swallow, chew your food 32 times’

Imran is dominated by his parents, hilariously played by Boman & Ratna, and leads a fairly regulated and uptight life which takes a turn for the worse when he loses his job. He meets a stranger, Kareena, who is completely the opposite, happy, bubbly, impulsive. One drunken night later they are married. And that’s when the fun begins. Or does it ?

‘Chopsticks main kya kharabi hai’

A mish mash of various films, Hollywood & Bollywood, there are some surprises, some interesting characters (Kareena’s father & grandmother, Imran’s mother), some funny dialogue but overall it remains flat. Most hilarious sequence for me was Imran’s date with the girl of his parents choice.

‘Sher se kya poochna kitni baar shikar kiya hai’

It’s a romance, its sweet, has its share of moments of fun & frothiness. However, whether he looks tiny in front of her or she looks too old for him is semantics. They don’t look like a pair & the thought of falling in love seems odd, implausible. I was in a minority in the hall but I actually liked the ending, unusual in Hindi films. With all the other trappings of Dharma Productions (the slickness, the songs, the locales), am sure it will appeal to the group that looks for entertainment around Valentines Day.