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Life (2017)
Do not watch if you liked the Alien movies
If you did not like the Alien movies, then this is the movie you so richly deserve.
The movie starts very promisingly, and quickly devolves into melodrama and mayhem. A key character takes an "executive decision", and pretty much leaves the audience bereft. This also has the effect of leaving the rest of the space team unhinged, which explains the terrible decisions they take throughout the rest of the movie.
Honestly, a bunch of Boy Scouts would have handled the crisis better - said crisis consisting of an alien life-form, nicknamed Calvin, that turns out to be far less cute than the name suggests. Calvin is a bad boy who wants nothing more than to...I'm not sure, since Calvin's motivations are not spelled out here, other than to perhaps create chaos. When the strongest emotional point in a movie is the death of a white rat, you know the movie has unsolvable issues.
Calvin suffers from a bad case of CGI-itis, glaringly obvious in many scenes. The movie cast suffers from a lousy script, bad writing, and a clear aversion to actual acting. The movie in general has a strong disinclination to be nothing more than a poor rip-off of Alien and Gravity.
Logan (2017)
A fitting finale to Logan; simply the best X-Men movie ever
Logan must be the one of the best superhero movies I have seen, probably next only to The Dark Knight Rises. The last movie about the Logan character, this is a superb end-story, worthy of the character.
Logan, as played by Hugh Jackman, is now aging, with a body that has taken too much punishment and seen too many better days. Trying to escape his demons, he has now taken refuge in the bottle and seems to be punishing himself for his supposed misdeeds. He is no longer invincible, has a permanent limp and a hacking cough, and takes much longer to heal. His adamantine claws are intact though, and make periodic appearances in some of the most brutal and violent action sequences ever seen in the X-Men series. But more about that later.
In a reversal of fortune, Logan has now taken on the guardianship of Professor Xavier (played by Patrick Stewart), whose brain is deteriorating, causing him to lose control of his telepathic abilities, leading to catastrophe. A brain that was once classified as weapon of war, is now at the mercy of medication. Logan makes regular trips to the border to administer the medication - the professor is kept inside a huge empty metal tank, in the care of an albino mutant tracker named Caliban. The metal tank is needed to blunt the professor's mental outreach. In the course of one of these trips, Logan ends up taking on the responsibility of a young mutant with powers suspiciously similar to his own. This mutant is being tracked by the bad guys, and all hell breaks loose when they finally encounter her.
The action sequences in the movies are raw and realistic, highly violent and gory (decapitations and severed limbs are in abundance); the car-jacking scene, with its sudden burst of violence is especially riveting, as is the first incredibly brutal encounter between the young mutant and her pursuers. The scenes are shot so seamlessly that it's difficult to tell where the stunt ends, and CGI begins. Also, there's none of the extreme-close-up-jerky-hand-held- camera-shots, rather there's a return to classic, straight-shooting action, perfectly integrated with the rest of movie. None of the violence is just for the heck of it, rather it is essential to move the story forward.
Jackman perfectly encapsulates the slowing abilities and physical deterioration of his character, but what he does best is portray his character's emotional state - Logan is angry and desperate, wanting forgiveness and redemption, while also wanting to forget. He is giving way to mortality despite being for all purposes, immortal, and in a way, welcomes his impending mortality.
Stewart's portrayal of the old and ailing Professor Xavier is brilliant and touching - a prodigious brain, rapidly degenerating, locked in a failing body, controlled by medication, needing help for even the most mundane of activities - Stewart plays this to perfection - he may not have McAvoy's baby blues, but in talent he is unsurpassed.
This superb end-story for Logan has a solid emotional core that doesn't feel forced or manipulative, unusual for a superhero movie, and is probably the finest comic-book adaption you are going to see for while.
Spectre (2015)
Skyfall's poor cousin
Well, this is an abject lesson for me. I went for this movie thinking it was a sequel to Skyfall (only the finest James Bond movie ever made), and as it turned out, it was a sequel to probably every JB movie ever made.
Spectre begins promisingly enough. As always, the opening sequence is awe-inspiring; an almost wordless collage of action. The theme song that follows is a precursor of how quickly your expectations are going to be squashed – a squeaky, scratchy wailing that does not deserve to be in the same universe as Adele's Skyfall theme. The opening action sequence culminates in the killing of Mario Sciarra, an assassin. We find out a couple of scenes later that the former M (Judi Dench) had asked Bond to kill Sciarra in the event of her death. As usual, this is something that Bond (Daniel Craig) does outside of the limits of his job, as a result of which he is suspended from duty by the current M (Ralph Fiennes). Sounds familiar?
In spite of this suspension, he steals a car that was reserved for 009, and goes off to rescue Sciarra's widow, again on instructions from M. The widow, played by the luminous Monica Bellucci, has nothing to do, other than get seduced by Bond and provide him with info regarding the organization to which her husband belonged - Spectre. Bond goes for a Spectre meeting and there, he meets Franz Oberhauser (Christophe Waltz, playing the same character he has played in his last ten movies).
We later find out that Oberhauser is not who he says he is, and in his own words, is "the author of all your pain". The exposition scene where we find out what drives Oberhauser is probably one of the weakest scenes in JB history. For whatever reason, in the big exposition scene, Waltz's character is wearing short trousers that ride up above his calves, along with tan socks. I can't imagine anyone looking less menacing. The big reveal behind what drives Oberhauser is something that could have been cured during his childhood with a bit more parental attention, and possibly a couple of skilfully administered spankings.
Disappointment.
And yet, Spectre is fun to watch on a very basic level, probably because of Daniel Craig, who brings his usual raw physicality to this very demanding role. Gone is the aging and vulnerable Bond of Skyfall, who was more human, and had actual *gasp* feelings! The Bond of Spectre is a steely automaton who purses his lips, gazes off into the distance, and can kill while blindfolded, with his hands tied – he actually does this at one point. He is able to recover at super-human speed – watch him do his thing right after being horribly tortured. He also seems to have an inexhaustible supply of impeccably tailored bespoke suits that fit him well in all the right places. If there ever was an award for Most Glorious Man-Candy, Bond would win it, hands down.
The action sequences are topnotch, especially the car chases and the brutal fight on the train. If I haven't mentioned the second heroine Madeline Swann (Lea Seydoux), it's because she's a complete cipher, with zero personality and acting talent. Waltz coasts through the movie, using the exact same mannerisms and expressions he has been using since Inglorious Basterds. And oh, there's Andrew Scott (from Sherlock) playing a spymaster gone bad; it's evident he hasn't gotten over his Moriarty hangover. Ralph Fiennes and Ben Whishaw (playing Q) are, as always, completely impactful in their roles.
The Martian (2015)
Castaway + Gravity = immensely watchable movie
If Castaway and Gravity were to have a child, and that child had a great sense of humor and optimism, that would be The Martian.
Matt Damon is perfectly cast as the titular character, so called because he is the first to grow plants on Mars, and therefore colonize it. He plays Mark Watney, an astronaut who is left for dead by his colleagues on Mars, after a freak accident leaves him unconscious during a aborted Mars mission. Well, he is NOT dead, soon recovers and patches himself up, and then dedicates himself to the task of sustaining himself until the next rescue mission.
Mark's character is that of an intelligent optimist, with a generous sense of humor and level-headedness. All of these qualities go a long way in making sure that he does not lose hope during the time that he is on Mars, and that he takes ownership for his sustenance and eventual rescue.
There is a sense of intimacy created between the audience and Mark, since a big part of the movie consists of him talking directly to the camera (ostensibly recording vlogs). We get to see his emotions, his occasional sense of defeat as well as his sense of humor, his loneliness, his tears and his happiness, and above all, his never- say-die attitude. At times during the movie, I could hear sniffling in the audience, there was the occasional cheering and clapping - you don't generally get these reactions unless the audience is emotionally invested in the movie.
The movie belongs to Matt Damon; this doesn't take away from the fine performances of the other cast members. Jessica Chastain is in fantastic form (as always) as the commander battling with the aftermath of a decision. Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor have extremely well-written roles that are deserving of such fine actors.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Buckle up those seat belts!
Intense, visceral, perverse, brutal, exhilarating – Mad Max: Fury Road is all of these and much more!
A simple storyline without any frills or back-story, the movie grabs you right from the start and doesn't let go. Set in a dystopian future, where wars are being fought over water, the movie follows Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) as she attempts to escape from the clutches of the despotic Immortan Joe (Hugh Keys-Byrnes), taking his harem along with her. Of course, Immortan finds out, and proceeds to unleash an all-out pursuit of Furiosa and his harem of Five Wives.
So where does Mad Max come in, you may ask? Well, the fact is that the titular Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) actually plays second fiddle in this movie; it must have taken Hardy a certain amount of courage to play an iconic role that ends up being secondary to that of the female protagonist. The movie has a strong, yet non-strident feminist tone that does not detract from the rest of the action, and seems like a very natural extension of it.
The movie opens with a high-octane chase when Immortan Joe's War Boys take Max captive in the Citadel. On finding out that he is a universal blood donor, they hook him up as a blood bag to Nux (Nicholas Hoult) a War Boy afflicted by tumors and therefore running on "half-life". Max, still hooked up, is taken along in pursuit of Furiosa, during which he is able to escape. Antagonists at first, Furiosa and Max become allies in their quest for the Green Place, her homeland.
Every high-intensity chase sequence is immediately followed by a higher-intensity one. Every time you think that it can't get any better, it does. Every time you feel that you can now start breathing, something else comes along to knock the breath out of your lungs! The best part is that there is no shaky-cam or in-your- face-cam, which is what passes for action nowadays. The action sequences actually seem credible and effectively tread the fine line between glorious spectacle and complete insanity. There's actually a pretty good reason for this – it seems that the use of CGI was kept to a minimum, and stuntmen were used as far as possible.
The movie is not just high-octane action and incredible pursuit vehicles; the themes of freedom, sacrifice and redemption form a strong emotional core for the movie. Stellar performances from Theron, Hardy and Hoult elevate this to much more than a mindless action flick. Hardy's monosyllabic Max is tortured by a past he cannot forget, while Theron is splendid as Furiosa, willing to kill (and die) for a childhood utopia she can barely remember. Hoult is unexpectedly able as Nux, in a role that calls for equal amounts of viciousness and tenderness. No matter how high your expectations are, believe me, this movie will meet them all, and then some!
"What a day, what a lovely day".
Badlapur (2015)
"Revenge is a dish best savored cold"
"A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct" - a quote from Dune, by Frank Herbert.
Badlapur fulfills this most basic requirement, and how! The beginning is so normal, a street scene in Pune. People walking, a car being towed away, a woman haggling with a fruit-seller. The woman and her little son cross the road and walk back to their car. And that's when that idyllic street scene gets ripped apart. She is car-jacked by a couple of thieves who have just robbed a bank. The getaway goes horribly wrong, and both mother and son are killed. Her husband survives. This is where Badlapur actually begins.
This is not a run of the mill revenge drama, although revenge is the underlying theme of the movie. The title is a clever play on words...Badla means revenge, Badlapur is the town where the husband Raghu (played by Varun Dhawan) chooses to move to, but it could also easily refer to his state of mind, hollowed out, consumed by thoughts of revenge.
One of the bank robbers, Liak, is arrested and sentenced to 20 years in jail; he stubbornly refuses to rat on his partner. Played by the incomparable Nawazuddin Siddiqui, his character evokes our disgust and anger at first, and later on, sympathy. That is the beauty of Badlapur - nothing is what it seems, there are no black and white characters, there are the seeds of good and evil in all of us. While initially you root for Raghu, his later actions make you wonder about "revenge for revenge's sake".
There is a considerable amount of brutality and gore in Badlapur, with one memorable sequence clearly inspired by the TV series Dexter. The second half of the movie suffers a bit from some uneven editing and drags a bit. The actors are superlative - as always, Siddiqui is effortlessly riveting. Dhawan, while not in the same league, manages to hold his own, making the 15-year leap with conviction. His eyes speak volumes, whether it be the void of his current existence, or his joy, as shown in a flashback, when he realizes that he is going to be a father. A talent to watch for. The women are no less. Look out for the semi-striptease done by Huma; her eyes portray fear and disinterest, while her body moves to seduce.
This is a movie that is brutal and violent, but makes you wonder about the outcome of revenge. Is it ever worth it, and does anyone benefit? Not in this movie.
The Drop (2014)
A great story matched by a great performance
I watched this movie after having read the book by Dennis Lehane - this has got to be one of the few movies I have seen that are as good, if not better than the book.
A major reason for this is the incredibly nuanced performance by Tom Hardy. He plays Bob Saginowski, a quiet, shambling man who tends bar, along with his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini in his final role). Bob seems to be everyman, content with his quiet life, living alone, until he rescues a pit bull puppy that's been abused and abandoned. He also meets Nadia (Noomi Rapace); it's in her trash bin that he finds the dog. We also find out that his bar is actually a "drop" for illegal betting money that flows through the city; this makes it a target for a robbery that eventually goes very very wrong.
Anybody who has loved a pet will understand why Bob does what he does, when his dog is threatened. And anyone who hasn't had a pet will also understand this, because of Hardy's powerhouse portrayal of Bob and what drives him. Bob's quiet exterior hides a whole different interior life, full of secrets and sins. Hardy conveys as well as conceals this secret life effortlessly, building up the suspense, until his secrets are laid bare in one single explosive scene.
Other than Hardy, it's Gandolfini that delivers a fantastic performance as Cousin Marv, destroyed by greed. A fitting swan song. While I did not recognize the other actors, other than Rapace, they are all good and fit their roles perfectly. In any case, this is a Tom Hardy movie; it doesn't matter who else is in it!
Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014)
Visually stunning, but emotionally arid
This is going to be a short review, since the headline pretty much says it all.
THE GOOD PARTS: Christian Bale, very convincing - good acting and great physical transformation.
Amazing special effects - the scene of the cliff collapsing is breathtaking.
WHISKY TANGO FOXTROT: Lousy screenplay (FOUR writers are responsible for this mess)!!
Why does Rameses suddenly change from a moderately decent person to evil despot?
When Moses realizes who he actually is, why is his reaction is pretty much "Oh Well"?
Why do the Hebrews follow Moses, even though he hasn't done anything leader-like to inspire them? I mean, he doesn't even ask them to follow him - they just follow him on their own.
What the hell is Joshua's role in the movie, other than looking sinister and peering through trees?
Why provide a scientific explanation for some of the plagues and not for others?
What about the final plague?
The parting of the Red Sea turns out to be a case of "low tide"...AND "high disappointment".
Haider (2014)
Haider: a masterful re-imagining of Shakespeare's Hamlet
Haider is not merely a remake of Hamlet. Vishal Bhardwaj has taken the source material, re-shaped it to meet the Indian context, and has made the story his own, while at the same time remaining faithful to the original.
The story starts with Haider (Shahid Kapoor) returning to his home in insurgency-ridden Kashmir, after his father Hilaal Meer has been taken away by the army for treating an injured militant. Hilaal is a doctor, an idealist who believes in "being on the side of life, not of ideology". By the time Haider returns to his homeland, his father has joined the ranks of the "disappeared" and the home of his childhood has been destroyed. Worst of all, Haider's mother Ghazala (played by a luminous Tabu) seems to be drowning her sorrow in the arms of her brother-in-law Khurram (Kay Kay Menon).
Haider joins the ranks of those Kashmiris desperately searching for their loved ones who have disappeared - seeking his father in hospitals and morgues, turning over blood-drenched bodies in a truck, a sheaf of photocopied photos of his father in his backpack. His childhood sweetheart (Shraddha Kapoor) tries her best to be supportive, but is unable to break through his wall of depression.
His depression spirals into rage when he is contacted by a mysterious Roohdaar (Irrfan Khan) who confirms that his father has been killed because of the machinations of Khurram and Ghazala, and that his father's wish was for Haider to avenge his death. From then on, the movie descends into the depths of Haider's thirst for vengeance. The choices he makes, and the consequences of those choices drive the rest of the movie to its inevitable conclusion.
Shahid Kapoor plays Haider in the role of a lifetime. His talent, generally obscured by his pretty-boy looks, is in full force here. His eyes mirror his vulnerability and despair, his rage and brutality and eventually his madness. The movie belongs to him.
Tabu is Ghazala, glorious as ever. Described as half-widow, half- bride, she does a wonderful job of conveying forbidden obsession and desperation. Her relationship with her son, with their unexplainable passion for each other, is delicately portrayed. Kay Kay Menon is, as always, wonderful as the clownish and somewhat pathetic Khurram, gradually revealing his true face. Irrfan Khan is impressive in his small role as Roohdaar.
Vishal Bhardwaj has succeeded in capturing the desolate beauty of Kashmir, once described as "heaven on earth". The snow takes on a character of its own, and as Haider spirals into madness and destruction, the snow-filled roads and woods seem more threatening than beautiful. The movie effectively captures the struggle of an entire people, trapped by misplaced patriotism and opposing ideologies.
Not an action movie, watch it to see poetry translated to the big screen.
Edge of Tomorrow (2014)
Live. Die. Repeat. Perfect!
What I found so enjoyable about Edge of Tomorrow is that very little time is wasted on explaining the concepts on which the movie is based. This allows it to be a smart, taut and riveting action movie, pared down to its bare essentials. The basic premise of the movie is this - what if you were given multiple chances to "re-set" your life. Would you learn from your experiences and improve the direction of your life, or would you just live it over and over? Make no mistake, the movie doesn't spend time pondering this question; it just jumps right into the middle of answering it, and does so with a minimum of fuss and backstory.
Tom Cruise plays William Cage, an ad executive who's working as the media relations officer in the war between invading aliens and us earthlings. Cruise is in superb physical form in the movie, endowed with unfairly high levels of energy and charisma. He is unwillingly thrust into the battlefield (for reasons I couldn't quite grasp) and is killed off by an Alpha alien within the first 20 minutes of the movie.
Due to some of the alien blood having entered his bloodstream, Cage is now able to repeat his life...starting from the point where he is kicked awake by his soon to be commanding officer. It is to the movie's credit that this does not become repetitive, especially as we see Cage resetting and repeating more than 10-12 times, each time getting closer to understanding how to get rid of the aliens.
In the course of the resetting, he meets Rita Vartakis, played by an unbelievably muscled Emily Blunt. Rita is the army's poster girl, killer of hundreds of aliens. Having gone through the same arduous resetting process as Cage, she becomes his ally in the fight against the invaders.
The training sequences and the resetting scenes are tightly edited and are probably the best parts of the movie. There isn't much chemistry between the lead actors, although this may have been intentional. Shoehorning a romance into this movie would have killed the flow.
Oddly enough, once the resetting scenes are done, and the actual task of finding and killing the aliens is taken up, the movie starts to flag. It's almost like the movie changes directors, since the tough parts are over! It moves from smart thriller with an innovative concept, to a generic action movie. But that's just the last few minutes.
Overall, the movie is great to watch, with fine performances from Cruise and Blunt. Bill Paxton also makes an appearance as a scenery-chewing commanding officer. The battle scenes and the final showdown are executed so well, you just might stop believing in the existence of CGI! And oh, for a change, it's not an American landmark that gets decimated in the movie :)
300: Rise of an Empire (2014)
Greeks good. Persians bad. That's all you need to remember.
Yes I give this a 9/10. Because it is such an amazingly entertaining movie, and the two hours running time went by in a flash. When you feel that a movie ended too soon, that's when you know that the movie was a fun ride!
So...the movie. Six-pack abs, decapitations, buckets of blood, manly dialogue, jaw-dropping battle scenes. Plus a mortal-turned-god and a kick-ass female commander - all of this add up to one heck of a entertainer. You will notice that I do not mention artistic merit as being a factor; that's because there is NONE. And for those of you who are complaining about the lack of historical accuracy...keep in mind, this movie is based on a comic book, not a history textbook.
The lead actor Sullivan Stapleton, who plays Greek general Themistokles adds a bit more depth to his character than Gerard Butler did to his rendering of Leonidas. He has more dialogue and exposition, rather than just yelling and grunting. There may be yet potential for him in Hollywood.
The lead actress, Eva Green, who plays Artemisia, has probably one of the fiercest action female roles I have ever seen. No wai-fu here. She portrays her character as one of utter cruelty, yet cold and calculating. Physically too, she is very believable as a woman commanding a fleet of 10,000 men.
More than the actors, or the wafer-thin storyline, it is the incredible CGI that keeps you entranced. The battle scenes are probably the best I have seen - the sheer size and scope of the ships, together with the raw savagery of war, is enough to make you a believer! The battle scenes on land as well as on sea have been created with a keen eye for detail, and for maximum impact. Of course, the 3D doesn't hurt.
I haven't mentioned the other actors since none really made an impact - not even the golden-hued Xerxes, played by Rodrigo Santoro. His awkward gait, odd voice, and lack of anything to really do in the movie, made him a real disappointment. Queen Gorgo, played by Lena Headey, also suffered from having nothing to do, other than saying "no" in various tones on various occasions.
In summary, a fun movie to watch; it's not going to win any Oscars; and yes, there will be a sequel to this sidequel.
Gravity (2013)
The most visually stunning movie ever!
Gravity is unlike any movie ever told.
The plot is simple - two astronauts are adrift in space and have to a find a way to rescue themselves and get back to earth. Nothing more, nothing less. What grabs the viewer is the treatment of this simple storyline and the incredible way in which the movie depicts it.
The movie begins with these words against a black screen ""At 600 km above planet Earth, the temperature fluctuates between +258 and -148 degrees Fahrenheit. There is nothing to carry sound. No air pressure. No oxygen. Life in space is impossible." No music, no dialogue, as the screen disappears, replaced by our planet. It fills the screen and engulfs the viewer within it, so much so that you feel like you are floating, spinning along with it. And you see this spot, in the distance, to the right. The spot moves closer to you, drifting on its orbit until finally it arrives, filling the screen, blocking your view of earth, and you see the American space shuttle and a team of astronauts floating outside it. And then you are inside the movie, part of it, experiencing the same space as the astronauts, a feeling of utter weightlessness and peace.
Within the first thirty minutes, everything changes. Peace and serenity becomes utter horror. A routine repair mission becomes a disaster, with one astronaut dead, and two others drifting into space. The rest of the movie revolves around their efforts to get back to earth.
As I said, a very simple plot, and in the hands of a lesser director, or lesser actors, the movie would have been a disaster as well. As it is, Alfonso Cuaron's vision is ably supported by his lead actors Sandra Bullock (playing emotionally damaged yet strong enough to single-handedly carry the day) and George Clooney (effectively playing himself - suave and breezy as always). There are no other actors, except Ed Harris as the voice from Houston, and a couple of other voices.
The problem is that rather than dwelling on the actors' performance, exceedingly good as they are, my mind keeps going back to the special effects, the result of more than a year in post-production. There is one incredible shot that I remember - when the character of Bullock is cast adrift into space. There is dead silence punctuated only the sounds of her harsh gasps. The camera moves towards her, closer and closer, until her terrified face fills the screen, and then incredibly, suddenly, the camera is inside her helmet, and we are looking at the vast expanse of space through her eyes, and realize how awfully alone she is. And that's just one scene of the movie. Right from the utter desolation of space to the cramped confines of a rescue ship, the director's vision has imagined it all, and he has brought us into the ambit of his imagination.
Gravity is not a movie you just watch, it is a movie that you experience, it is a movie in which you get involved. Remember, in space, no one can hear you scream.
The Lunchbox (2013)
Not a movie, A slice of life
If you are looking for drama, deep emotion, towering histrionics, music, song and dance, then this is not the movie for you. In fact The Lunchbox doesn't even have an ending. It is very much like life - sweet, funny, poignant, and eternally hopeful.
There's no story to speak of; indeed what kind of a story would one weave around two main characters as simple and plain as Sajan Fernandes, a widowed claims adjuster, and Ila, a lonely housewife with no life of her own. What The Lunchbox offers us instead is a glimpse into their monotonous lives, lives that become intertwined one day, and influence each other irrevocably.
Sajan (played, no, lived by the incomparable Irfan Khan) is nearing retirement, and has an ultra-perky new hire Aslam (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) to train before he retires. Gruff, lonely and monosyllabic, he has plans of moving to Nasik once he retires. His lunch-box delivery service goofs up and he gets a lunch-box meant for Ila's (Nimrit Kaur) husband. This mix-up leads to an exchange of notes between him and Ila, a correspondence that gradually becomes tender and affectionate. Both are lonely, both are hoping for someone to share their thoughts, and both are looking for escape. A twist appears when they decide to meet, and of them is unable to take this final step. This leads to something that neither of them could have anticipated - not necessarily the happy ending we wish for them, but a chance at a happy ending, perhaps not for them together, but at least individually.
If my review seems curiously flat, it is because one can review a movie, not real life. And this is what The Lunchbox gives us - a glimpse into the lives of people we encounter everyday, without really seeing them. The movie offers acting of the highest order, so effortless that nothing seems out of place, nothing seems staged. Irfan Khan, Nimrit Kaur and Nawazuddin Siddiqui don't just play their characters, they actually inhabit them and make them come to life. The fast-paced and impersonal life in Mumbai has been captured to perfection, including travel on the local trains and interactions with the neighbors. Some scenes remain with you long after the movie is over, such as the awkward seduction scene with Ila and her husband, or Aslam's wedding photo scene, and pretty much every scene with Irfan Khan in it!
Right after I watched the movie, I was disappointed with the not-so-clear ending; surely a movie this amazing deserved an equally amazing ending too, right? But now I am convinced that there was no other way - the ending signifies hope, a new day, a new life, new possibilities for Ila and Sajan.
Madras Cafe (2013)
A story just waiting to be told...
Finally we have our own political/ espionage thriller!! Madras Cafe is about the conspiracy to kill an ex-PM of India, who is running for re-election, and is bent upon bringing peace to Sri Lanka. Yes it is about Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated by a "human bomb" while campaigning in South India. That incident was, for my generation, a turning point in Indian politics. We lost a potential leader who we felt knew the pulse of the youth, and we lost our collective innocence when we saw his butchered and torn body live on national television.
This is as good as it gets - a stark and uncompromising movie in its view of the Lanka conflict. The only indulgence that the movie pays to its Bollywood roots is that it is in the form of a flashback. There's no singing, no dancing, no wild emotional scenes, and for those of you who were hoping for a bit of romance, there is NONE. There is not even a stolen glance between the delectable Nargis Fakhri and the hunky John Abraham!! Juxtaposing the incredible natural beauty of the country with realistic scenes of brutal violence, the movie dives right into the conflict, and doesn't give us time to get bored with its documentary style of story-telling.
Abraham plays Vikram Singh, a RAW agent thrown into the thick of the Lanka conflict. Fakhri plays Jaya, a London-based journo who gets a scoop in the form of an interview with Anna Bhaskaran, the LTF leader in Jaffna, who is at the head of a brutal civil war that has decimated more than 40,000 civilians. Abraham actually "acts" in this movie - calm and understated where needed; on fire and emotional where needed. He doesn't rely on his good looks, and looks realistically tired and dishevelled for most of the movie.
The casualties of this war are many, including Singh's wife , who is killed as a warning to him to stay away. The scene where Singh discovers his dying wife, and his reactions afterwards are among the most realistic and understated scenes ever, and all the more hardhitting because of this understatement.
The other casualties of war are honor and integrity, as agents conspire for and against the country they are supposed to serve. Siddharth Basu (of Quiz Time fame) does an amazing job as the head of the R&AW, in what I think is his first acting role. As Robin Dutt aka RD, he is calm and authoritative, showing emotion only when the assassination takes place. He plays a man so fiercely devoted to serving his cause, that emotions have no place in his life, making it all the more shocking when his voice breaks as he speaks to his wife.
There are tons of other characters that inhabit the movie, all of whom play their parts to perfection. There is some confusion between the Tamil and Malayalam accents, but that is a minor quibble! Another quibble I have is with the use of the hand-held camera and the choppy editing. But these aren't deal-breakers and you forget about these, as you lose yourself in the movie. This is a must-watch movie, and a sure-fire sign that Hindi movies have finally come of age!
Iron Man Three (2013)
Man is the new superman
There's a not-so-disturbing trend in superhero mythology now...one where the superhero is unmasked and stripped of his superpowers, forced to confront his nemesis, is nearly defeated, but triumphs over evil in the end. We saw this happen in "The Dark Knight Rises" and now in "Iron Man 3". Perhaps the next Thor movie will see Thor battle evil minus the hammer...
But this is about Iron Man - the third one in the series, and what an awesome third one it is. Tony Stark the man is more in evidence here, either unarmed, or armed in bits and pieces of his prehensile iron man suit. The villain is the suitably menacing Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) who turns out to be a front for someone far more sinister. Did I say "unarmed"? That's far from the truth since Tony Stark comes armed with an endless supply of quips, ingenuity, brains, mechanical skills...and when all else fails, he gets by "with a little help from his friends". Robert Downey Jr. plays Tony Stark as though he was born to it - the physicality as well as the intellectual force is very evident. So is the brash humor...now the Stark hallmark.
All the other players in the movie - Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall - are competent and inhabit their roles completely. Ben Kingsley is incredibly good in a role that takes a sudden unexpected turn. But at the end of the day, they are all mere supporting characters for Robert Downey Jr., and the movie never lets us forget it.
The action sequences are incredible and keep you enthralled...the 3D effects have you actually cowering in your seat. The attack on the Stark mansion, and the final showdown are the best I have seen in a very long time - fantastic without being over the top, and perfect for 3D.
Watch it - you won't be disappointed.
Special Chabbis (2013)
Smart well-made thriller
Special 26 is a smart, suspenseful action thriller, albeit without any "action". Most of this movie, based on the true-life TBZ heist, takes place at a very cerebral level, and makes the audience actually think about what's going on. Too bad this is not what the average viewer wants, but missing this movie is the average viewer's loss.
The movie stars a very low-key Akshay Kumar, who perfectly inhabits the role of the suave and sophisticated Ajju, the mastermind behind many con jobs. Ajju and his accomplices pretend to be CBI investigators or income tax officers, and thus scam corrupt politicians and wily businessmen out of their ill-gotten gains. No Robin Hoods, Ajju and his gang live life extra-large! Ajju's deputy is played by Anupam Kher, finally "acting" after Saaransh. The scene where he breaks down in the face of interrogation - that alone is worth the ticket price.
What spoils an otherwise perfect movie is the absolutely unnecessary romance angle - apparently mandatory as per the Guidebook to Bollywood Movie-making. A simpering Kajal Agarwal stars as Ajju's love interest...and this takes away the impact of the movie. In addition, her youth serves to underscore Akshay Kumar's advancing age, and their romantic scenes are laughable. The movie could have done without this, and without the two attendant romantic songs as well.
The others actors, including Manoj Bajpai and Jimmy Shergill play their roles to perfection, being suitably understated and appropriate foils to the lead actors.
The fact that this is based on a true story is an added attraction, especially for those of us who are old enough to remember reading about it in the news!
David (2013)
Waste of acting talent. Waste of my time.
I went for this movie with fairly high expectations...considering that it starred Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vikram and Tabu. However this movie is a classic example of great potential being let down by a weak script and gimmicky direction.
The movie is made of 3 separate stories, each about a man called David, played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, Chiyaan Vikram and Vinay Visrmani in each of the segments. It is the style of great movies like Traffic and 21 Grams, where three seemingly disparate stories come together. But that is where the comparison ends. While Traffic and 21 Grams had some great acting and a seamless integration of stories, David is all style and no substance.
The movie begins interestingly enough, with a brief glimpse of each character near the end of their story, and then works backward. Each segment has its own distinct style, look and feel and is also set in different eras. The best segment is easily the one starring Neil Nitin Mukesh, set in London in 1975, about a powerful Muslim family with its own internal strife and secrets. NNM is a sleek and stylish actor with a very certain talent for inhabiting his character and making it his own. The same cannot be said for the other actors in the segment. Milind Soman, supposed to be reciting the Koran even while killing someone, looks like he is reciting a shopping list. He does look suitably menacing though. Monica Dogra stumbles and fumbles her way through scenes that are about as romantic as scaling a fish.
The other two segments are set in Mumbai and Goa, and star Vinay and Vikram - and are both very weakly written and directed, with the actors in those segments clearly "phoning it in". Vikram's segment especially plays to all those stereotypes about Goa - the place where everyone is perpetually drunk, wears the rosary around their neck and constantly makes the sign of the cross. Seriously??!!! Vikram is consistently terrible, not knowing where to draw the line between acting drunk, and acting like an escapee from the loony bin. Tabu, that incredible actress who gave us Maqbool, is wasted in a role completely unworthy of her talent.
The Mumbai segment had a lot of promise, but that fizzled out as well, via some cardboard acting, and some inexplicable situations that lead quickly to nothing. Lara Dutta, what are you doing in this movie and why?
The overall direction is choppy, with very haphazard editing - yes, I get it, this is new-age cinema - but it just reinforces my belief that the director felt he could get away with a crap movie by using the shaky-cam and in-your-face-cam technique everywhere possible. The dialogue in the London segment is totally studly and glorious, to the point where there must have been a collective ovary explosion in the multiplex. The rest of the movie is a big fat MEH.
Talaash (2012)
A study in loneliness
Talaash is a movie billed as a thriller, but it ends up being something more...and at the same time, something less.
The movie starts off promisingly enough, with scenes of the red-light district in Mumbai shot in a stark uncompromising light, looking startlingly beautiful, with the song "muskanein jhooti hain" playing in the background. A quiet night on the Mumbai streets is shattered by the squeal of tires on tarmac, ending with a car veering and crashing into the sea on Marine Drive. There are no survivors, just the corpse of famous film actor Something Kapoor, and no reason why the car should have crashed.
This is the mystery that Surjan Shekhawat (Aamir Khan) has to unravel. The investigation leads down many roads, most of them ending in the brothels of Kamatipura. Here Surjan encounters the pimp Shashi, his mistress Mallika, the lame gofer Taimur, and the prostitute Rosy.
A parallel track shows Surjan's unhappy home life, empty due to the death of his son. He suffers from insomnia and nightmares, and spends his nights cruising the city streets, and meeting Rosy, ostensibly to try and solve the actor's murder. His wife manages her sorrow by engaging with mediums in an effort to try and contact her dead son. All the characters have one common factor - they are desperately lonely, no matter where they are.
There are quite a few parallel tracks that all come together at the end. The movie while rather brilliant, works more as a psychological study in loneliness, than as a murder mystery. I realized that I cared more about what happens to the living characters than what had happened to the dead one! The movie is also rather slow in the second half, and downright melodramatic during the big twist, with a crazed homage to "what lies beneath" - and that was a pretty bad movie! What saves the movie are the powerhouse performances by Aamir Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The latter doesn't act, he lives his role. He IS Taimur, dreaming of changing his squalid life, but rushing towards tragedy with every limping step he takes. Kareena as Rosy...well...she slinks sexily and her clothes fit her nicely.
The movie is a mixed bag...not for everyone. Be willing to overlook the flaws, and you might end up appreciating the movie as a minor masterpiece.
Skyfall (2012)
Not a typical Bond movie...but a great movie nonetheless!
I went for the movie with some very high expectations - engendered partly by the fact that Quantum of Solace had left me miserable - and am happy to report that Skyfall more than fulfilled my expectations.
Die-hard James Bond fans might be disappointed, since this movie represents a drastic departure from the genre - Bond here is more sensitive, more given to self-deprecating humor, less prone to emphasizing his manliness, and most importantly, has a past. A past that he shares with M, and that catches up with both of them.
The movie starts with a spectacularly magnificent action sequence across the rooftops of a Turkish bazaar (India's loss, Turkey's gain), and culminates in Bond seemingly being shot and plummeting to his death. Of course, since he is Bond, he is not dead, and returns when the ghost of an ex-agent comes back to haunt MI6 and M.
The ex-agent Silva is played to great effect by Javier Bardem, uglified,for lack of a better word, with bleach-blond hair. Silva has a few bones to pick with M who he believes has betrayed him, and he has a diabolical plan to bring her and MI6 down.
While the movie differs from its predecessors also in not being an all-out action flick, mention must be made of the inventive fight sequence in a Shanghai high-rise - shot in darkness, lit by flashes of garish neon - the fight is seen mostly in silhouette, and is very realistically choreographed.
Both Bond and Silva get our sympathy - the first by his portrayal of an aging man, haunted by his past, desperately trying to prove himself in a young man's world, and the second by the trauma he has undergone for the sake of a cause he wrongly believed in. M played by Judi Dench, is the true Bond girl, forget all those bimbos you have seen over the years. She is funny, she is feisty, she is manipulative, and she will do anything to gain her own ends. Her defence at the enquiry is a masterclass in acting.
The movie ultimately belongs, as it should, to Daniel Craig, probably the finest actor to ever play Bond. He truly embodies everything that James Bond should be - a man in every sense of the word. Perhaps nothing embodies the evolution of Bond as well as Craig does - he has moved from a wise-cracking lothario to a man who is keenly aware of his failings, physical as well as psychological, and triumphs in spite of them.
Looper (2012)
One of the more original movies this year!
Having seen a lot of sci-fi movies (big fan of the genre), I went to this movie expecting a decent action thriller at the very least. I was pleasantly surprised - what i got was a movie with an original and very intelligent script, good performances, some great action, and a thought-provoking ending.
Looper is set some years in the future when time travel and telekinesis are common, with the former being outlawed, and the latter being viewed as more of a party trick. The mob (yes the future has a Mob!) use time travel as a very ingenious way of getting rid of people. They send the victim back to a pre-specified time, blind-folded with silver bars strapped to his back. When the victim appears, there's a "looper" waiting to kill him off and take the silver as payment. At some point in time, the looper is made to kill off his "older self" thus closing the loop. Sounds complicated? The whole concept of time travel is complicated - yet the movie manages to explain everything very clearly with no loose ends and not a single plot hole.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a looper Joe, going through his life stashing away a bit of his silver bar payment, doing drugs, and in general, just waiting for when he has to close his loop. When it does happen however, he hesitates, and his older self (played by an older, grayer Bruce Willis) makes an escape. Joe has already seen what happens when a loop is not closed - a friend of his is killed off horribly for the same mistake.
The rest of the movie focuses on both the Joes fighting to stay alive and also trying to find the younger self of the Rainmaker, a feared crime lord of the future who ordered the assassination of older Joe. The logic is that if the Rainmaker's younger self is eliminated, he is removed in the future as well. Of course, killing a child is always difficult, and this dilemma is what provides the movie with its emotional core.
The child playing the younger self of the Rainmaker is a talent to watch out for, switching between cuteness and menace in a heartbeat. Jeff Daniels plays the crime lord sent back from the future to ensure discipline among the loopers, while Emily Blunt excels as the single mom trying to raise a telekinetic child on the right path.
The movie of course belongs to Gordon-Levitt and Willis, both fine accomplished actors who deliver all that is expected and more. Credit is also due to the script - simple, elegant, yet intelligent to make the audience focus.
Dredd (2012)
Fans of the comic book....rejoice!
Yay for the much-needed reboot of the Judge Dredd movie. The earlier version starring Sylvester Stallone and horrifyingly enough, Rob Schneider, was a uneasy mashup of sci-fi and comedy...and pretty much bombed at the box-office, as it deserved to.
The re-boot is everything that the earlier version was not. Its dark, its gritty, its violent and brutal...and it doesn't even try to be funny. The movie is set in a dystopian vision of the future....the world has been ravaged by nuclear war, and the survivors live in mega-cities, most of which are nothing but vertically-rising slums. Law and order is managed by the Judges, who are a combination of police, judge, jury and sentencer all in one, thereby being all-powerful.
Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) is the most ruthless of all the judges, and on this particular day, is paired up with a trainee judge who is on probation. She also has psychic powers, and her career will be decided by Dredd at the end of the day. They get into a run-in with Ma-Ma, a powerful ganglord (Lena Headey), who lords it over Peachtrees, a 200-storey slum in the heart of MegaCity 1. She is the main distributor for Slo-Mo, a new drug that slows down your perception of time to 1% of real time.
How Dredd and the trainee destroy Ma-Ma and her gang is what forms the basis of the story. Set mainly inside the slum building, and punctuated by scenes of extreme brutality - beheading, skinning, torture, eye-gouging, castration - and of course, plain old exploding bodies, the movie is dark, dingy and claustrophobic. The special effects showing the slo-mo views are amazing, and the 3D is an enhancement. The design of the cities, especially that of the slum, is awesome and actually believable. The overall tone of the movie is so true and close to the spirit of the Judge Dredd comic series.
Urban is perfect as the unemotional Dredd, who may or may not be hiding an emotional core - while he does not shy away from killing criminals on the spot, he is unable to tolerate the killing of innocents. Since his face is hidden behind the helmet throughout the movie, he has to rely on his voice, raspy and reminiscent of Clint Eastwood - I AM THE LAW. Olivia Thirby is an effective rookie judge, struggling with her fears and ambitions. Headey is getting better and better at playing "bad girls" - Cersei Lannister anyone? Here she is a horribly scarred, psychotic killer, high and strung-out most of the time.
The movie was rather short (just under 2 hours) and my interest did not flag even once, considering that most of the movie is set inside one single building. For this, and for being true to the comic series, its a 7/10.
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
An epic trilogy....a magnificent conclusion...a movie that was worth the wait.
The Dark Knight finally Rises! I have been waiting for nearly a year for this movie, and it was well worth the wait. Being a huge fan of both Christopher Nolan as well as the previous two Batman installments, I was actually wondering if this movie would be able to do justice to my expectations....YES IT DID!
The movie is unusual in the sense there isn't much of Batman in the movie. Bruce Wayne the man is there (ably played by Christian Bale), carrying the burden of false accusations, injuries and advancing age. He walks with a limp, carries a cane, and has no cartilage left in his knees and shoulders. The man who saved Gotham is now seen as its biggest villain. He is forced to come out of self-imposed retirement when a new terror hits his beloved city...Bane.
Bane is played by Tom Hardy, with a raw physicality rarely seen on the big screen. Its not just his incredibly transformed body that conveys the menace that is Bane, but his voice with its swooping tones and accent. I was a bit skeptical about how his covered face would translate on screen, but Tom Hardy has taken this character and made it his own. His gestures, his eyes, even his forehead - he becomes Bane. His talent is too obvious to be hidden under a mask.
The movie is grand in scale, with numerous characters - old as well as new. Alfred (Michael Caine) gets a role that's worthy of his talents, with a more emotional core. Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) writes the book on great acting - how does one convey a character while lying immobile in a hospital bed. Lucius Fox (Morgan Freeman) is as competent as ever, with the deadpan humor and witty one-liners. Adding to the mix are some new characters - Selina Kyle aka Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) is surprisingly good in a role made famous by Michelle Pfeiffer...and infamous by Halle Berry. The surprise package is John Blake played by the yummilicious Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The cute kid from "Third Rock from the Sun" has grown up...and how! He looks good, he acts amazingly well, and he could well be part of the next Batman movie (hint, hint!).
The movie has numerous plots and sub-plots - in the hands of a lesser director, all of this could easily get confusing, or worse, make the audience lose interest. But not in this movie - director Nolan has a firm grip on the reins, and never lets go of any of the plot points. Every line has a point to it...every incident leads to a resolution...every character is needed to take the story forward. There isn't a single unnecessary character or scene in the 2.45 hour long movie. And the human element is never lost sight of, while at the same time executing sweeping and intricate plots.
There were times when I felt that Nolan hasn't just made a movie about a superhero....he has actually made a powerful commentary on our times. His plot has echoes of the global financial crisis, as well as the various "occupy" movements going on in various parts of the world. His movie seems to be a metaphor for a world in disarray and chaos, with Gotham as its disintegrating heart.
Or you could just forget about the political metaphors, and watch it for its grand spectacle, the great acting, and the incredible SFX!!
Shanghai (2012)
This is real life...it is not entertainment
After a very long time, I sat through a movie that kept me enthralled from start to finish. Astounding performances, crisp dialogues, controlled yet oh-so-real emotions, and a solid logic that doesn't require a single leap of faith.
Shanghai is set in a fictional Indian city, bearing a startling resemblance to Mumbai actually, that's all poised to "become the next Shanghai". Prosperity is just around the corner, as long as an infrastructure development MNC called IBP can come in, raze shanties and build the township of the future. A social activist opposing IBP is killed, and this is where the movie takes off. Director Dibankar Banerjee takes an uncomfortable issue and shoves it in our faces, forcing us to confront our ambivalent feelings about development (but at what cost?), without being preachy.
Shanghai boasts of a script that doesn't have a single unnecessary scene, a great background score, and dialogues that are totally true to life. Actually, they aren't dialogues, they are conversations without a single extraneous word in them. As in real life, silences, body language and facial expressions say much more than actual words. The movie is less than 2 hours long, and demands your attention every minute of that time.
And now the performances. Not a single character is out of place, all of them fit their roles with such ease they might as well BE the role. Emraan Hashmi proves his acting prowess, that he doesn't need foreign locales, or the mandatory "hands outstretched against a blue/ overcast/ dramatically colored sky" scene. As Jogi Parmar, the sleazy pornographer who gets caught up in something that's so much bigger than he is, and threatens to overwhelm him, Hashmi is a revelation. Apart from the external transformation - dirty stained teeth, flabby body, loud mismatched clothing, and sleazy voice, what really sets Hashmi apart is the way he has internalized his character. He IS Jogi Parmar, and he has you believing in him.
Another amazing character is Abhay Deol's Krishnan, the educated and high-class Tamil Brahmin IAS bureaucrat. Moving away from the clichéd "ai-aiyo" depiction that you normally find in Hindi movies, Krishna is a smooth, suave and ambitious go-getter who discovers that he has principles and is willing to pursue the truth. His character packs a powerful punch, primarily because it is down-played and subdued for most of the time, and you don't realize that underneath that calm exterior beats the heart of a Machiavelli.
If I wrote about each of the characters, and how good they are, and how amazingly well-written and well-acted they are - right from Pitobash's Bhaggu, to the actor who plays policeman Abhijeet Kadam (a two minute role) - this wouldn't be a review, it would be a book. Let's just say that each character stays in your mind for long after the movie is over.
And me? Well, I am just going to watch the movie a second time. It deserves a second, and maybe a third viewing.
Vicky Donor (2012)
Size matters....good things comes in small packages ;-)
Vicky Donor is an offbeat movie dealing with a "taboo" topic of sperm donation. Yes the movie could very easily have moved into vulgar territory, but succeeds in keeping itself light and funny for the most part.
Vicky (played effectively by newbie Ayushman) is a typical 25 year old...living for the day, wanting money, clothes, gadgets, and maybe a good job to finance all of these. The beauty parlor run by his widowed mom (Dolly) is his current source of finance, and his mom is "not amused". Vicky has a staunch ally in his grandma, a modern, forward-looking woman who loves her alcohol :) Vicky is "discovered" as a sperm donor by Dr. Chaddha (an amazingly in-character Annu Kapoor) who is an infertility specialist. Vicky, after his initial hesitation, gets into this "business" full time once he realizes how much money he can earn.
Things are going smoothly, and Vicky is soon Dr. Chaddha's biggest donor, when Vicky falls in love and gets married to Ashima (Yami) without disclosing his life as a sperm donor. And then Ashima discovers that she cannot have children, and also finds out what Vicky does for a living.
And thats when the movie starts going downhill and getting melodramatic. For a so-called modern woman, with an extremely supportive family, Ashima certainly doesn't display any of those modern traits, and becomes an entity alternating between blubbering and yelling. That was kind of irritating, and made me wish that the movie had been better edited and made shorter.
Having said that, the movie as a whole is a wonderfully funny movie, with a social message, without being preachy. Ayushman IS Vicky, he's so natural and unforced and believable. He is great at the funny scenes as well as the emotional ones. AND he sings too :). Some of the best scenes in the movie come from the interaction between the mom and the grand-mom. They don't seem to be acting, they seem to inhabit the characters. As for Yami, she's strikingly lovely, but her acting is nowhere in the league of the others. Perhaps her badly written role is responsible for that. Dr. Chaddha is probably Annu Kapoor's best role to date!! The ending is the mandatory happy ending, but it does feel like its been shoehorned in after a focus audience gave the original ending a thumbs-down.
All in all...a good movie, worth watching.
Don 2 (2011)
A slick stylish action thriller
Finally SRK has his game back :) After the debacle that was Ra.One, I'm sure there must have been many who had written him off, but he is back, and he is back in style! Don 2 is an amazingly well-crafted movie, with some good solid action-packed sequences, and also has an intelligent script that doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence. Also a plus point for people like me who haven't seen Don 1, the movie has no connection (apart from a few main characters) with its prequel.
Right from the opening scene - very reminiscent of a James Bond flick - the movie draws you in and doesn't let go. The layers of deception and deceit run deep and keep you guessing right till the end. The main characters essay their roles perfectly. SRK as the eponymous Don is perfect for the character...suave and stylish always, yet hinting of the violence that lies beneath. He plays Don with a slightly androgynous air...somehow that just adds to the menace that he exudes.
Priyanka Chopra is somewhat disappointing. None of the fire that she is capable of (remember her in Kaminey?) and she comes off as somewhat dim, mouthing inane dialogues that add nothing to her character. Boman Irani doesn't disappoint as the double-crosser (or is it triple-crosser?). Lara Dutta plays her role perfectly...its not much though.
Its not a perfect movie by any means...there are a couple of glaring plot holes. There are some corny dialogues that have no place in a movie like this. There is an unnecessary car chase that seems to have been inserted just to show that "yes, we can do car chases as well".
All in all, Don 2 is a movie worth watching. Also watch for the charming little cameo by a leading light-eyed actor :-)