To Rome With Love Review

Director:

Woody Allen

Producer:

Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum, Giampaolo Letta, Faruk Alatan

Cast:

Antonio Albanese as Luca Salta

Woody Allen as Jerry

Roberto Benigni as Leopoldo

Penélope Cruz as Anna

Alec Baldwin as John

Judy Davis as Phyllis

Jesse Eisenberg as Jack

Greta Gerwig as Sally

Ellen Page as Monica

Fabio Armiliato as Giancarlo

Alessandra Mastronardi as Milly

Ornella Muti as Pia Fusari

Alison Pill as Hayley

Riccardo Scamarcio as Hotel Thief

Alessandro Tiberi as Antonio

Marta Zoffoli as Marisa Raguso

Story:

Set in the romantic city of Rome. The intertwining stories of a worker who wakes up to find himself a celebrity, an architect who takes a trip back to the street he lived on as a student, a young couple on their honeymoon, and a frustrated opera director who has a talent for discovering talented singers.

Review:

A nice comedy movie after long.

The movie has four different story lines all taking place in Rome, Italy. There is Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg Alec Baldwin, Ellen Page, Alison Pill, Woody Allen and many others. This movie is also Woody’s first acting gig since Scoop in 2006. Woody Allen is an awesome writer and director. The movie has some great comedic moments.

This movie has the perfect blend of Comedy and Romantics.  Its funny at the times that its needed to be and Romantic at the times it is required. The acting was marvelous.  But the thing I didn’t like was that the beautiful Penelope didn’t get enough screen time. The many story line were also very good. Unlike other Rom-Coms, the stories don’t intertwine and ruin it. The separate trips of Milly and Antonio, where Milly gets lost and Antonio get Anna, a prostitute, who pretends to be his wife and teaches him about love. Jesse Eisenberg, plays Jack, who seems to live in the same place as Alec Baldwin’s character.

Woody plays Alison’s father and gets her fiancee’s father to become an Opera singer in the most hilarious circumstances. All in all the entire movie was fun. There were some very funny moments. Though part of it was in Italian, it was quite fun. The music was also nicely paired with the setting of the scenes.

Woody Allen has this wonderful timing for comedy in his movies, and his acting was very good too.  He has chosen one of the most beautiful places in the world to shoot the movie in. He has shown off the beauty of Rome through his movie.

Final Verdict:

7.5/10

Ek Tha Tiger Movie Review

 

Director:

Kabir Khan

Producer:

Aditya Chopra

Music:

Original songs:
Sohail Sen
Guest Composers:
Sajid-Wajid
Background Score :
Julius Packiam

Cast:

Salman Khan as Tiger

Katrina Kaif as Zoya

Ranvir Shorey as Gopi

Girish Karnad as Shenoy

Story:

It revolves around Raw Agent Tiger, who is sent to Dublin to investigate a professor who is suspected of selling his secrets to other scientists. There he fallins in love with his caretaker Zoya.

Review:

Ek Tha Tiger is a decent hindi movie. There were number of visible flaws in the movie, but surprisingly it had some type of story, though it was weak.

The movie starts with a monologue, giving us some information on India’s Raw and Pakistan’s ISI. After the monologue we go to Northern Iraq where we see a hill, on which, there is a flag, but when we return to the same hill the flag is missing. We then see a man who gets scared by Salman’s ugly face (Who wouldn’t). After a short chase sequence, he tells Salman that everything is a game. That instant, I was reminded of Game of Thrones dialogue. Then Salman runs around the area being bullet proof He jumps from rooftops, and surprisingly make a shot form a very long distance, which even Hawkeye couldn’t have made. And this was only the first 15 minutes.

After that we see Salman back at the RAW office talking about him not wanting to take a day off. He is then sent on a mission to Dublin. He has to OBSERVE and not kill, a professor who had created the anti-missile tech for India. Once he is there he falls in love with his care taker Zoya and some terrible jokes are exchanged. During this time, he completely forgets about his mission and goes around trying to get Zoya. Later, just few minutes before the interval, we find out that Zoya is an ISI agent and was trying to get the professor’s information on the anti-missile tech. He shoots something, which we all know isn’t Zoya.

After the interval, the story falls through and becomes quite boring. Tiger requests his boss to allow him to accompany him to the UN Peace summit in Istanbul, where apparently Zoya would also be. From there they elope and run around various continents blowing up things. At the very end, we see Salman being shot in the back. If I remember correct, if something happens to your spine, you wouldn’t be able to walk let alone jump. But apparently the the anatomy of Salman is very different form that of normal human beings. The Trigeminal Neuralgia surgery could have changed his anatomy. He then surprisingly jumps on a plane, with a bullet wound to his back and holds on to it in mid air. And once they are on an island which looks deserted, he finds a phone booth and calls his boss and tells him everything.

The movie, as I said before, was decent. The acting was obviously terrible. Katrina Kaif can’t speak hindi or even act for that matter. The songs in the movie were terrible. They were very irritating songs. The action in the movie looked very fake. The jokes were cheesy and the dialogue too. But at the end of the day, it is a hindi movie, you have to look past certain flaws. I don’t know why they called it ‘Ek Tha Tiger’. They could have found a better title for the movie.

Final Verdict:

4/10

Cocktail Movie Review

Director:

Homi Adajania

Producer:

Saif Ali Khan, Dinesh Vijan

Writer:

Imtiaz Ali, Sajid Ali

Cast:

Saif Ali Khan as Gautam Kapoor

Deepika Padukone as Veronica D’Costa

Diana Penty as Meera Gupta

Dimple Kapadia as Kavita Kapoor

Boman Irani as Randhir “Randy” Kapoor

Randeep Hooda as Kunal Ahuja

Music:

Pritam

Story:

The story follows Gautam, Veronica and Meera as they live together.

Review:

Cocktail, is an interesting movie. It was much better than I expected it to be. I thought that this movie was going to be horrible. The movie reminded me of Vicky Cristina Barcelona. The movie felt modern and didn’t at all feel like a hindi movie. Though the premise isn’t anything new, two girls falling in love with the same man and he falling in love with both of them and he gradually loves the second one more and the first is desperate for his love.

But the modern fell, made the movie new. It was completely set in England and South Africa, and only 5 minutes in the end was in Delhi. The 3 main actors, acted marvelously especially Deepika. Diana Penty’s acting was pretty good for her first movie. Randeep Hooda’s role was useless and quite boring. Boman Irani and Dimple Kapadia also acted nicely. The music was wonderful. I especially like Tumhi Ho Bandhu, Daaru Desi and Second-Hand Jawani.

All in all the movie was enjoyable and pretty good for a Bollywood Rom-Com.

Final Verdict:

6.5/10.

Movie Review: Teri Meri Kahaani

Director:

Kunal Kohli

Screenplay:

Robin Bhatt

Producer:

Kunal Kohli, Vicky Bahri, Sunil Lulla

Cast:

Shahid Kapoor as Javed/Govind/Krish

Priyanka Chopra as Aradhana/Rukhsar/Radha

Prachi Desai as Maahi

Neha Sharma as Meera

Music:

Sajid-Wajid

Story:

NONE WHATSOEVER!

Review:

I’ve got to stop going for such movies! I don’t think I have ever come out of a movie feeling like I want to kill my self (Except Agent Vinod!). It’s people like Kunal Kholi that should be arrested for Mental Toruture!. The tagline says ‘Thrice Upon a Love Story’. Fair Enough. I can understand the dumb tagline. The movie is about two people falling in love over the three different eras. It’s basically three love stories. The movie showcases three different love stories BUT NO STORY!!!!! I am dumbfounded! How can there be no story. Or did i miss it by any chance?

The acting was HORRIBLE! The worst acting I have ever seen. The songs were good. But the choreography was just disastrous.  The dance for ‘Humse Pyaar Karle Tu’ was just horrible! The only thing the song makes people realize is that they didn’t have itch guard in 1910. The dialogues were less than funny. The acting was horrible and no story!

I’m still wondering how could they make a movie without any point or aim! Seriously! The bollywood film industry has to make some decent movie. The only good movie was Kahaani. And other than that most of the movies were horrible.

 

Final Verdict:

3/10

Titanic 3D (1997)

Rose: [letting go of Jack’s hand] I’ll never let go, Jack. I promise.

Director:

James Cameron

Producer:

James Cameron, & Jon Landau

Cast:

Leonardo DiCaprio as Jack Dawson

Kate Winslet as Rose DeWitt Bukater/Dawson

Billy Zane as Caledon Nathan “Cal” Hockley

Frances Fisher as Ruth DeWitt Bukater

Gloria Stuart as Rose Dawson Calvert

Bill Paxton as Brock Lovett

Suzy Amis as Lizzy Calvert

Danny Nucci as Fabrizio De Rossi

David Warner as Spicer Lovejoy

Jason Barry as Thomas “Tommy” Ryan

Kathy Bates as Margaret “Molly” Brown

Victor Garber as Thomas Andrews

Bernard Hill as Captain Edward John Smith

Jonathan Hyde as Joseph Bruce Ismay

Eric Braeden as Colonel John Jacob Astor IV

Bernard Fox as Colonel Archibald Gracie IV

Michael Ensign as Benjamin Guggenheim

Jonathan Evans-Jones as Wallace Hartley

Ewan Stewart as First Officer William Murdoch

Music:

James Horner

Story:

84 years later, a 101-year-old woman named Rose DeWitt Bukater tells the story to her granddaughter Lizzy Calvert, Brock Lovett, Lewis Bodine, Bobby Buell and Anatoly Mikailavich on the Keldysh about her life set in April 10th 1912, on a ship called Titanic when young Rose boards the departing ship with the upper-class passengers and her mother, Ruth DeWitt Bukater, and her fiancé, Caledon Hockley. Meanwhile, a drifter and artist named Jack Dawson and his best friend Fabrizio De Rossi win third-class tickets to the ship in a game. And she explains the whole story from departure until the death of Titanic on its first and last voyage April 15th, 1912 at 2:20 in the morning.

Review:

The movie is wonderful. One of the best romantic movies I’ve ever seen. The movie doesn’t go overboard with useless comedy. James Cameron is a genius. While watching it, the movie being melodramatic would be the last thing on your mind.

It’s a timeless classic which does not loose its grandeur, how many times you see it. The visual and background score was  grand. ‘My Heart Will Go On’ by Celine Dion is beautiful song. Of all the movies that have been re-released in 3D, Titanic seems to be the most logical and best choice, for its sheer brilliance. Watching the movie in 3D wasn’t a waste of money at all.

I had never seen Titanic before this time. And the 3D kept me captivated in the wonderful story. Gloria Stuart acted very well as the old Rose and Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio as Rose and Jack Dawson (respectively) acted awesomely.

Final Verdict:

Titanic in another epic movie like E.T. .. 9/10

Quote:

Jack: You jump, I jump.

3 (Tamil Movie) Spoiler Filled Review

*This Review contains spoilers.*

Director:

Aishwarya R. Dhanush

Producer:

K. Vimalageetha

Cast:

Dhanush as Ram

Shruti Haasan as Janani

Sunder Ramu as Senthil

Prabhu as Ram’s father

Bhanupriya as Ram’s mother

Rohini as Janani’s mother

Gabriella as Janani’s sister

Music:

Anirudh Ravichander

The Story:

The story revolves around Ram and Janani love for each other and the troubles they face as their relationship matures.

The Review:

First and foremost Shruti Hassan CAN’T ACT AS IF SHE IS CRYING, CAN’T ACT AS IS SHE IS ANGRY OR FRUSTRATED & SHE CAN’T SPEAK TAMIL OR HINDI. BASICALLY SHE CAN’T ACT. SHE CAN ONLY SING. 

The first half of the movie is good. It has story, and some good songs too. “Kannazhaga – The Kiss of Love”  is among my favorite songs in the movie. The movie builds up to a horrible end. I was surprised that a daughter of Rajnikanth made such a horrible movie. The acting of Shruti was also terrible. Towards the end, Dhanush’s acting seemed to have been influenced by his co-star. It too was bad towards the end.

My theory is that- The reason Dhanush’s character, Ram, killed himself, not because of his bi-polar thing, bu because he saw the second half of the movie.

I have seen enough CSI, NCIS, Dexter etc.. to know about blood spatter pattern and how blood settles after people are killed. I brought up that topic for a reason. The reason is that finally I get a chance to play detective. When we get to see the room where Ram had died, there are blood stains on the chair, where the back is supposed to be. And also on the wall at the side. Now, you’d think that he was shot in the stomach, leading to the blood stains in the chair and then in the head from the side, leading to the blood stains on the walls. But no such thing happened. He killed him self by slitting his throat.

Heres what happened (I’ve been waiting soo long to say this.. *Monk reference*): Ram slits his throat and normally blood should pour down his neck and even if it went from behind his neck, there would be distinctive blood stains on the chair. Thus, the blood stains, as shown in the scene, should not exist. But they do. This is because of poor set design and even poorer attention to detail.

The choreography of the dance for the hit song “Why this Kolaveri di” was also terrible. This just ruins the effect of the song. I thought  that the song wouldn’t even be featured in the movie. For the tone of the movie is quite different form the tone of the song.

I also didn’t get why they named the movie ‘3’.

Final Verdict: 

Not a very good movie… 4/10..

Drive

Driver: [on phone] There’s a hundred-thousand streets in this city. You don’t need to know the route. You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you’re on your own. Do you understand?

Director:

Nicholas Winding Refn

Producer:

Gigi Pritzker, Adam Siegel, Michel Litvak & John Palermo

Cast:

Ryan Gosling as The Driver

Carey Mulligan as Irene

Bryan Cranston as Bernie Rose

Oscar Issac as Standard Gabriel

Ron Perlman as Nino

Kaden Leos as Benicio

James Biberi as Cook

Music:

Cliff Martinez

Based on the novel of the same name by James Sallis

The Story:

A mysterious Hollywood stuntman, mechanic and getaway driver lands himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbour.

The Review:

The movie had slow start, but slowly it built up to an awesome story, Ryan Gosling acted very well, though he didn’t have much of a speaking part in the movie. The background score was also amazing. It suited the movie perfectly. The movie had some Quentin Tarantino-ish styles. The movie also payed homage to Taxi Driver. I thought the movie was wonderfully made with an awesome ending. Apparently the sequel book ‘Driven’ is being released soon, after which, it probably would be made into a movie.

Final Verdict:

Enjoyable movie. 7.75/10.

Another quote I loved from the movie:

Shannon: I know a lot of guys who mess around with married women, but you’re the only one I know who robs a place to pay back the husband.

London, Paris, New York

DIRECTOR:

Anu Menon

PRODUCER:

Goldie Behl, Shrishti Arya

CAST:

Ali Zafar as Nikhil

Aditi Rao Hyadari as Lalitha Krishnan

MUSIC:

Ali Zafar

THE PLOT:

Capturing the angst of the young twenties London Paris New York is the story of Nikhil and Lalitha two completely different individuals who are drawn to each other in spite of their differences or perhaps because of it. The film follows their journey of love as they meet in London, Paris and New York for a night in each city. The film is a coming of age love story mirroring 3 states of love and brings back wit into Bollywood’s romantic comedies.

— Wkikpedia

THE REVIEW:

The movie, like most other Hindi Movies, isn’t very good. The story is weak. But the acting of Ali Zafar and Aditi Rao Hyadari was good. But there were many flaws in the movie.
Much like other Hindi movies, it lacks a good story and the songs are just put in the movie for the heck of it.
So the movie isn’t very good. Many flaws. My question Is that – aren’t there people in London? Because apparently when they are roaming in London, no one is on the streets.

FINAL VERDICT:
So not a very good movie. But watchable. 5&1/2 /10

The Artist

DIRECTOR:

Michael Hazanavicius

PRODUCER:

Thomas Langmann

CAST:

Jean Durjadin as George Valentine

Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller

Uggie as Jack The Dog

James Cromwell as Clifton

John Goodman as Al Zimmer

Penelope Ann Miller as Doris

MUSIC:

Ludovic Bource

THE PLOT:
Hollywood, 1927: As silent movie star George Valentin wonders if the arrival of talking pictures will cause him to fade into oblivion, he sparks with Peppy Miller, a young dancer set for a big break.

THE REVIEW:
The movie was just brilliant. The background score was just awesome. It’s only the second Silent movie I’ve seen, the other being the Sci-fi Masterpiece “Metropolis” by Fritz Lang.
I’m ready to see it a few more times. As Natalie Portman said while revealing the nominees for the Oscar for Best Actor for Jean Durjadin (which he won), thought Jean spoke only two words throughout the movie, George Valentine spoke volumes through his marvellous acting. And the dog. What a dog! Uggie should have been nominated for best supporting actor. The acting of Bérénice Bejo was also just beautiful.
The director has done a fantastic job.
The movie won the following Oscars:
Best Actor for Jean Durjadin
Best Costume Design for Mark Bridges for The Artist
Best Director for Michael Hazanavicius
Best Background Score for Ludovic Bource
Best Movie for The Artist.
It truly deserved all these awards.
Apparently it’s the only silent movie to win an award for best movie.

FINAL VERDICT:
A phenomenal movie. 9/10.

New Year’s Eve

New Year's Eve

Director: Garry Marshall.

Cast:

Halle Berry as Nurse Aimee

Jessica Beil as Tess Bryne

Seth Meyers as Griffin Bryne

Jon Bon Jovi as Jensen

Abigail Breslin as Hailey

Chris “Ludacris” Bridges as Brendan

Robert De Niro as Stan Harris

Josh Duhamel as Sam

Zac Efron as Paul

Hector Elizondo as Kominsky

Katherine Heigl as Laura

Ashton Kutcher as Randy

Lea Michele as Elise

Sarah Jessica Parker as Kim

Michelle Pfeiffer as Ingrid

Til Schwieger as James Schwab

Hilary Swank as Claire Morgan

Sofia Vergara as Ava.

(Phew! 18 cast members. And these were just the main ones.)

Summary:

The lives of several couples and singles in New York intertwine over the course of New Year’s Eve. Like his previous movie Valentines Day this also depicts a series of holiday vignettes of the state of several romances.

Review:

The movie was quite good. The actors and Ashton Kutcher did their job well. The director converges all the plot  lines(Almost all) together. Lea Michele/ Elise got her first big role in a movie. She got to sing. Which is a great achievement for her. After the success of Glee she was bound to get a major role. But I wish Julia Roberts was in the movie instead of Michelle Pfeiffer or SJP or any other. Ashton didn’t have to act much, but what ever little part he got, he did it well. I really don’t understand why “The Others”* gave it such bad reviews. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 7% on the Tomatometer (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/new_years_eve_2011/) and IMDb gave it a 4.9/10(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1598822/).

Final Verdict:

Overall the movie was good. It can be watched twice or thrice, Not more. 7/10

*The Others are the other people who review the movie.