Movie#54 Vaaranam Aayiram ( Tamil- India)

A true celebration of life. I can't find the correct superlatives to judge this work. It is such an awesome experience that could only be conveyed through viewing it. Never expected such a classic and dedicated work from tamil, for I always thought tamil movies were filled with stereotypes. The movie has so much impact to a viewer that it could linger for days, in freshness, as though it was viewed only moments away.
It stars Suriya, Simran, Divya Spandana and Sameera Reddy. Suriya does a double act as father and son. An upcoming youngster from south India, Suriya in my opinion has arrived. With this work he has surpassed the so called greats who never acknowledge their old age, namely, Mammootty, Mohanlal, Rajnikanth, Kamal Hassan etc etc. Clubbed with Suriya are Prithviraj, Naran, Indrajeet, Kunchacko Boban, Jayasuriya etc etc but Suriya, in my opinion, is a step above all. If I have to dig out some negatives of this movie, then I should point out the make up of his 'father' character and the feeling of 'passage of time' in the movie. Time seems to fly like a finger snap and Suriya seems to enjoy lot of comfort with his limited pocket money. But all those negatives cover itself in this beautiful story. Editing does it's magic also. Every screen has an importance to the progress of the movie. The songs are melodious and music is catchy.
A father–  son relationship is well brought out. It may be contested as hypothetical but this is what every son dreams of from his father. Simran, surprisingly, shrugged off her glamour and fit nicely into the mother role. The same with Sameera Reddy, no glamour. Divya personifies sweetness but a strong person with well formed ideas. The movie brings out the idea of love at first sight and how romance blossoms. The emotional scenes need special mention too. It also tells us how 'life goes on' from tragedy to hope. The end is so emotional but it brings out the element of hope yet again. Just beautiful!!!
Watch it, whoever get a chance. The movie runs almost 2 hours and 30 mins, maybe more. But you will never feel the time passing. My personal rating is 4.5 out of 5…

Movie#53 Operation Endgame

A work which is no work at all, in my opinion. I think that the director lost the direction of plot after the first 10 minutes. This stars Joe Anderson, Rob Corddry, Ellen Barkin, Maggie Q, Adam Scott and Emelie De Ravin. Barring a couple of them, all the rest are very unknown to me.
The starting of the movie made an impression of a spy thriller. After the introduction of characters, I thought it was a spy comedy. The setting of the movie looked identical to the 'umbrella corporation' of Resident Evil. When the action broke out, it seemed like an action movie. Then the gruesome killings started, which made me think in lines of a horror interspersed with wry humour. Then at the end, it turned out to be a spy–  thriller–  mystery. All in all, I became an emotional bag of sh**. I hope that those of you, who cared to read my posts got what I wanted to convey.
An unassuming guy gets a call to join a very secret organization led by the Devil (no no, not the devil from hell–  worse than that–  a human). The organization is divided into two competing teams, the alpha and omega. Each team have agents almost with identical skills. One team is always causing disequilibrium in the world order (not the new world order of secret societies of the world) and the other team's agenda is to bring about equilibrium from chaos. The new agent, then finds himself in a battle to death between the teams, on the very day he decided to join. The devil, to prevent the leakage of secret to the outside world authorizes a location lockdown and self destruct timer–  Operation Endgame. The new agent has other ideas and orders. The story thus unfolds.
Too much filth and abusive language makes this a no-no for family. No clear cut plan of action makes this a 'no movie' at all. The rest in my case is a history, I had to watch and bear with the rubbish since I paid for it.
My personal rating is 1 out of 5…

Movie#52 Death at a Funeral

Warning to those of you who haven't seen it yet–  Don't waste your money on this. If you still want to watch the story, watch the original. I guess it was released in 2007 or so…not sure, check in imdb.com
I took this from the store because of the awesome star cast. Naming a few who have acted in this are Danny Glover, Martin Lawrence (ML), Chris Rock (CR), Zoe Saldana (ZS), Luke Wilson (LW) and James Marsden. There are a lot more but I guess they are not that well known, at least in my opinion. This impressive line–  up and a tried and successful story line, I thought it would make my evening a happy one. But it turned out to be a dull, boring, drag affair. I just wanted to get it over with and hit the sack. One of the reason I might have felt like that could be because I had watched the original. So the expectation level was high. Then it starred some of my favourite comedians such as M. Lawrence and C. Rock. I now learned a valuable lesson, never rent movies out of impulse. Read the review before going for some unplanned ones.
The story is almost the same as the original. I didn't find anything novel in this. Then why did the director go for such a venture? Was it a charity act by these actors? Well lot of questions remain unanswered. Everyone of them put their reputation at stake and came out burned. ML and CR tried their best to bring out the humour but it just wouldn't connect as the original. LW has had a forgettable outing. He could have been avoided to same production cost.
My personal rating will be 2 out of 5…

Movie#51 Hot Tub Time Machine

A comedy starring John Cusack, Clark Duke, Craig Robinson and Rob Corddry. It is about 4 adult guys, bored with their life and on the verge of being labeled losers, decide to visit a hotel which was the 'it' place during their hey days, the 80's. The four guys comprise of 3 'adults' and a young geek (if geeks are losers). The geek is related to one of the 3 'adults' as his nephew.
Let me warn you at the onset, this is not a laugh riot. But a silly movie to make you smile for the rest of the week end. I can be watched with the family except if you don't mind the constant usage of f*** and occasional mammary show. I guess I watched the unrated version then. The comedy lies in the dialogues and not in the actions on majority of the times, so watch that out. Else watch it with subtitles.
About the setting and special effects, there is nothing to comment about as there are none. I was reading the review of this movie at imdb and there it has got 6+ rating from almost 20000+ votes. I should say, after watching this, that I have had watched better comedy than this one, especially in my mother language.
My personal rating is 2.5 out of 5…

Movie#50 Keralotsavam Mission 2009 ( Malayalam- India)

An average work by director Shankar Panicker with actors Vinu Mohan, Nedumudi Venu, Kalabhavan Mani and Vishnupriya. The movie seems to be made with the idea to foster Indian unity and denounce communalism. The idea and theme are very good and have good intent but it is the movie that was disappointing.
The summary is that a festival was planned by the Kerala govt named Keralotsavam. The supervision of the festival's cultural programme fell on the character played by Nedumudi Venu. He is ably supported by his daughter, character played by Vishnupriya. While doing the casting for Kalari ( martial arts), they meet a simple man, character played by Vinu Mohan, who in turn has a dark past and agenda. It is how these events roll out that was depicted in this work.
Vinu Mohan is a good actor with potential. His ability is under utilized in the movie by the director. Nedumudi Venu shines in character. As a veteran, he should be. Vishnupriya has a character role that talked too much to the point of viewers' irritation. Kalabhavan Mani did me a favour by choosing a role which had less importance, hence more appreciative. The director had put songs at odd positions to drag the movie. He might have been banking on the audio sale in case the movie did not click with the audience. In a way he is right…
Personal rating is 2 out of 5…

Movie#49 Predators

Oh! wow! I found this one without takers in the rental store. With the hype built around this one, I decided to watch it with my friends. We got ourselves the snacks for the night and watched it without a break.
First, it stars Adrien Brody, Alice Braga, Danny Trejo, Oleg Taktarov, Topher Grace and cameo by Laurence Fishburne. Second point to note is that the hype around the movie was just a hype. I find that the film did not live up to my expectations. So much was expected from this one as it was advertised as the original sequel from the Predator part one. And finally the third point is that the fight sequences lacked the 'oomph!' factor. The absence of catchy music was missing. Just the predator growl was not enough.
The gist of the movie is that a group of trained warriors were brought to a unknown place and were hunted by the predators in a game. Each warrior falls from the sky, it is during the fall that they woke up to their senses, into this unknown place. They are then picked off one by one, the same way as all predator series. The setting and the shooting location are excellent. The location is the same area as Valhalla Rising movie ( exception–  this movie is understandable than that one). Laurence Fishburne has a cameo role only, maybe because he is more distracted by what is happening in his daughter's life.
A satisfactory weekend watch but don't raise your expectations. My personal rating is 2.5 out of 5…

Movie#48 Extraordinary Measures

A true story–  drama starring Brendan Fraser, Harrison Ford and Keri Russell. It depicts the struggle of a mid level executive in a multi national drug firm and his wife in their quest for a enzyme treatment for their two children with Pompe disease.
A family in their quest for the treatment of their two children with a rare genetic disorder, which causes accumulation of glycogen in vital organs leading to enlargement and then failure. Faced with life changing decision, the family sacrifices and take risk in their journey. The film brought up two main factors, one is the public awareness of such a genetic disorder and second is the family struggle due to the same.
Harrison Ford characterizes an eccentric scientist with a break through idea for a cure for Pompe disease but without adequate to proceed. He has his own problems in life due to his eccentricities, mainly, short temper. In this movie, it shows how all these factors and personalities culminate together to a hope filled ending
Special mention to the two kids who acted as the sufferers of Pompe disease. It looked so natural as I first thought that they were real sufferers who lent support to act in a movie to raise awareness. But not so and it showed their superb acting skill.
My personal rating is 3 out of 5