JURASSIC WORLD (2015)

Jurassic World directed by Colin Trevorrow is officially the fourth installment of the famous dino franchise that started in 1993 by the master auteur Steven Spielberg who had, in turn, adopted it from the best selling novel of sci-fi author Michael Chrichton. When Spielberg presented his pioneering movie, as an adventure 65 million years in the making, it proved to be a defining moment in movie history - an early triumph of movie magic concocted from CGI and animatronics wizardry - which redefined the possibilities and consequently, the paradigm of popular cinema. It left a firm imprint (a la T-Rex's footprint) on the minds of its viewers like me with its vivid imagery - be it the tiny ripples in the water accompanied by the thuds of the approaching creature, the chilling chase sequence of T Rex hounding a speeding jeep, the nail biter of a pantry sequence involving the two kids and a bunch of raptors as well as the sequence where kids trapped in the car are confronted by the mighty T Rex in a rampaging mode.

However, as with most such mega movies, the franchise soon became a victim of its own momentous success. Dino movies, just like their dinosaurs, soon got relegated to a prehistoric era in the minds of the movie goers as subsequent summer blockbusters have continued to grow and hone their CGI wizardry to create bigger, meaner and scarier monsters which pile up the scale of mayhem with each passing year. However, the enduring value of the original movie was reinforced when Universal Studios released the reworked 3D version of Jurassic Park in 2013 to mark the twentieth anniversary of its release which proved successful across the globe. 

The present movie is set in Isla Nublar after 22 years from the timeline of the the first movie and ignores the story arcs of its sub-par sequels (1994 by Spielberg and 2001 by Joe Johnston). John Hammond's dream is finally a reality with his successor Mesrani (Irrfan Khan) having set up a hugely popular, luxury dino theme park called Jurassic World spanning the entire island of Isla Nublar. The park is headed by a control seeking, very formal - "I am all business" - park manager, Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard). Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) is an ex-navy officer-cum-animal expert, working in the park and is involved in a study on training velociraptors. As the movie opens, Claire is forced to play host to her school going nephews, Zach and Gray, who are sent by their parents for a fun weekend while they consider an impending divorce.

The park itself has been a successful venture for several years now with steady growth of visitors from across the world. The influx of the visitors is spiked periodically by introducing a new species every few years to sustain the waning interests. The tourists' fatigue of older attractions is succinctly captured in a sequence where Zach, in his observatory, prefers to remain glued to his smart phone and ignores a T-Rex (no less), quite literally, devouring a scapegoat (a key element in the first movie). So, when mother nature is incapable of dishing out attractions that could sustain such volatile attention spans, the corporation running Jurassic World decides to take matters in its own hands to bolster the sagging growth curve of footfalls in the park. They cook up a new dino attraction  - read bigger, louder, smarter dinosaur with more teeth - called Indominus rex, by concocting a genetic cocktail of DNA sourced from multiple dinosaurs and other species. Predictably, as dictated by the template of such genre movies, the dino escapes its confinement to go on a killing frenzy, unleashing mayhem on the unsuspecting tourists as well as other dinosaurs. 

Off the cast, Chris Pratt (Guardians of the Galaxy) continues to charm with his performance and one gets a feeling that he might well be the right guy for an Indiana Jones reboot. He shares an interesting chemistry with Howard who is competent and brings in the necessary intensity in the second half. The rest of the cast including Irrfan and the two kids are merely for functional aspects - to stage an action sequence, mouth something vaguely philosophical or become feast for the predators - with limited scope to perform as is the norm in such monster movies.

Director Colin Trevorrow who had impressed with his indie time travel comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed, on his debut, is filling some VERY BIG shoes for his second feature and has managed to ace his first try at the summer blockbuster genre. Trevorrow's execution manifests his brilliance in marshaling the resources at hand to craft a sure-fire winner that packs in the right dose of spectacle to shock and awe the viewers. He stages the action sequences with commendable clarity and fluid camera work which herald him as a maker who is confident of his craft and can leave his mark despite several imprints of Spielberg (Executive Producer here) that permeate the movie. Trevorrow also doffs his hat at Spielberg's original as well as earlier works more than once as in the case of using Mr. DNA animation, statue of Hammond, using the dilapidated site of the earlier park to stage an action sequence or even in the spectacular sequence of feeding a great white shark to an aquatic dinosaur (Mosasaurus). 

Besides being the big bang blockbuster, Trevorrow and his co-writers supplement the regular fare of faulting human hubris in playing God to include multiple elements of self-referencing all through the movie by flagging the never-ending saga of our times - the interplay of consumerism and capitalism wherein we, the consumers (even as audiences) are constantly seeking the next BIGGER, BETTER experience and the capitalists seeking to continuously stoke this innate, insatiable instincts of the consumer and milk the same for more and more moolah. 

On the flip side, the movie could be definitely held guilty for doing such self referencing a tad too much as well as for playing up the ancient gender archetypes, multitude of conspicuous product placements and some pretty hollow characterisations. Yet, it redeems itself by delivering solidly on its promise of bringing the scares through BIGGER, LOUDER & MORE TEETH which translates into popcorn munching fun, fear and wonderment. While clearly not surpassing Spielberg's original, Trevorrow's energetic movie is mighty successful in replicating much of the awe and is clearly a worthy successor that ups the benchmark of spectacle value for future movies which could well make it the biggest winner of this summer.   

A MUST WATCH !! (preferably, in IMAX 3D, if you can !!)

RATING - 4/5

MAD MAX : FURY ROAD (2015)

 
 

Three decades (1971-85) after presenting the Mad Max trilogy which enjoys a cult status among action movie aficionados, Australian writer-director George Miller has returned with a fourth film seeking to reboot the series with Mad Max - Fury Road.

Set in a post-apocalyptic desolate desert-lands of a dystopian future, this movie find the protagonist Max (Tom Hardy), an ex-cop and road warrior, trying to survive the feral forces controlled by the tyrannical warlord, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) who controls the precious resources of water, fuel and blood. He joins forces with renegade warrior Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who is trying to escape the clutches of Joe with five of his slave wives. What follows is a long chase where Joe with his army of warriors in monster trucks and myriad malevolent contraptions try to hunt down Max and Furiosa.

While it is true that story line is wafer thin and the characters lack any semblance of depth, Miller is successful in using them to create a powder keg of an action package which brims with raw energy and is sure to blow the mind of the viewers. Miller mounts humongous adrenaline rushing action set-pieces which are highly original and chaotic in wreaking their hyper-kinetic havoc by seamlessly melding the old world action elements with contemporary CGI wizardry.

While a noisy thumping heavy metal score that elevates the impact of the action set pieces to a level unprecedented in recent times, brilliant cinematography captures the desolate desert-scapes in beguiling beauty and the well mounted action spectacles with rare clarity which is amiss in junkyard jamborees like Transformers series as well as several superhero movies. Charlize Theron, the real hero of the movie, is in kickass form as Furiosa and Tom Hardy does justice in reprising the gritty titular role of Max with a quiet intensity. 

While I've never been a fan of loud music or mindless mayhem, Miller brings them together in an hypnotic concoction that would engross the viewers as never before. There is craft in the chaos of these jaw-dropping stunt sequences which set the bar for action movies high and could teach a lesson or two to the Michael Bays who pride themselves as makers of mighty blockbusters.

A veritable treat for action and auto junkies that could be best enjoyed on the BIG screen with 3D (IMAX 3D, if possible) !!

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3/5

WILD TALES (aka RELATOS SALVAJES) (SPANISH) (2014)

"When poison expires, does it get more or less dangerous ?", muses a character in Wild Tales, Argentinian writer-director Damián Szifron's brilliant black comedy, co-produced by the great Almodovar. It is an anthology consisting of six individual pieces themed on rage and revenge. Anthologies, in general, are helmed by two or more directors who contribute individual pieces to the final movie and by this very structure, there is a loss of congruence among the individual pieces. However, Wild Tales, is a rare exception to the aforesaid pitfall as Damián Szifron, who has written and directed each of the six shorts, strikes a fine balance among them and has pruned off almost all flab from the proceedings which engross the viewer in their taut storylines.

The movie begins with Pasternak, where a model boards an air plane and finds, through a casual conversation with another passenger, that she shares a connection with all her co-passengers in the form of her ex-boyfriend, Gabriel Pasternak. This is the shortest piece among the ensemble and precedes the title credits and packs a wicked punch in its tail that would leave a lasting impact. 

The Rats (Spanish - Las Ratas) is set in a rainy night on deserted diner, wherein the waitress finds that the lone grumpy customer stepping in is, in fact, the loan shark who had driven her father to suicide and ruined her family.  While she is inclined to insult him verbally, she finds herself caught in a bind of a fledgling moral compass, when the cook - an ex-jailbird herself - suggests mixing rat poison in his food. 

In The Strongest (Spanish - El más fuerte), a suave corporate honcho is driving in his swanky premium car through a remote highway when he encounters a driver in a shabby truck who frustrates him by blocking the path with his crawling pace. He verbally abuses the truck driver and shows him the finger when he ultimately manages to overtake the truck. However, things escalate into a catastrophic case of road rage - a la Spielberg's "Duel", albeit in an ultra-violent version - when the honcho's swanky car has a flat tire and finds that the truck driver is the first to arrive on the scene . 

In "Little Bomb" (Spanish - Bombita), a demolitions expert (Ricardo Darin - "The Secret in their Eyes"), trying to reach home to be in time for his daughter's birthday party, stops to buy her a cake and finds that his car was towed away despite the absence of any markings on the parking space as tow-away zone. He is driven into a righteous rage and his quest to seek justice from the corrupt system pushes him into a downward spiral resulting in him losing his money, his job and even his fragile family. His response to this unfolding turmoil transforms him into an unlikely popular hero.

The Deal (Spanish - "La Propuesta") finds a rich manipulative businessman trying to salvage a situation when he finds that his son is involved in a hit and run accident which has resulted in the death of a pregnant woman. He contacts his lawyer, a long time associate and together they cook up a plan to convince the poor gardener to become the fall guy in lieu of a suitable compensation to his family. But, when the lawyer and the investigating cop start demanding their own pound of flesh for the cover-up, the rich man finds himself in familiar territory of being a hard nosed negotiator in a high stakes game. 

The final piece, Until death do us part (Spanish - "Hasta que la muerte nos separe") takes place in a boisterous wedding reception which descends into an unbridled chaotic see-saw finale when the bride, Romina (an electric Erica Rivas) discovers that the groom was sleeping with one of the guests. 

Seen as a whole, while Bombita and La Propuesta might seem a few shades darker in comparison to the other four stories, they stand out for their gravitas and social commentary.

While at the apparent level there is no connection between the six stories, Szifron weaves them in the same thematic thread where he pushes his leads to their breaking point in a narrative that sparkles with fluency and visual flair. He also manages to transcend the vicious violence in these stories to present his views on the social decay that festers in the form of corruption, inequality and injustice that permeate Argentina at every level. Each of his stories is a resplendent exposition of Szifron's consummate skills as a writer-director, where his stories immerse the viewers in an intense roulette of role reversals, set to a lively pace, packed with oodles of wicked dark humour and horror in equal measures right till their twisted denouement. 

Wild Tales was a final nominee for the award for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards where it lost to the Polish movie, Ida. It has also received wide critical as well as popular acclaim across several international film festivals where it was screened. 


A MUST WATCH !!

RATING - 4/5

BIG BAD WOLVES (aka MI MEFAKHED MEHAZE'EV HARA) HEBREW) (2013)

When Quentin Tarantino picks a film as the "Best film of the year", one does expect a lot from the movie. And, as one would expect, this movie has several elements and quirks that we have come to identify as the imprints of that master auteur himself.

The movie begins with the kidnapping of a little girl by an unknown assailant when she is playing with her mates somewhere near the woods. A few days later, a phone call directs the police to the headless body of the girl with signs of physical abuse. She is the latest in a series of such gruesome crimes by a twisted serial killer who also appears to be a pedophile. Our protagonist Micki, who heads the team of cops is convinced that Dror, a shy schoolteacher, is the perpetrator of these evil deeds. However, in the absence of any material evidence to prove his instincts, he picks up Dror with his team and interrogates him quite brutally in a secluded location. While his colleagues remain uncomfortable with the interrogation per se as well as the methods employed by him,  Micki who is convinced of Dror's guilt is desperate to make Dror confess to the crimes irrespective of the means employed by him. However, when another kid playing in the vicinity captures the interrogation on video and uploads it on YouTube, Micki is shunted out of the force. 

Nevertheless, a undeterred Micki, intrigued by Dror and convinced of Dror's guilt, plans to extract a confession from Dror to clear his name and vindicate his instincts. Micki abducts Dror and in an unexpected twist, both Micki and Dror are, in turn, abducted by Gidi, an ex-serviceman and the father of the latest victim. Gidi takes Dror and Micki to a secluded cabin in the woods where he aims to extract a confession from the schoolteacher and also to deliver some painful vigilante justice. In the basement of the secluded cabin, Gidi and Micki begin torturing Dror to make him confess to his crimes and to identify the place where he has secreted the head of Gidi's daughter as the same is essential for the final rites as per Jewish customs which mandate that a Jew is to be buried as born - complete with all his limbs and organs. Some distance into the bloody interrogation, when Micki starts to doubt of Dror's involvement in the crime, an unwavering Gidi, chains Micki and continues with his interrogation. 

The trio are also joined by the Gidi's father, another army veteran, who arrives at the cabin to check on him and upon finding the two captives in the basement, decides to help his son in his mission. The rest of the narrative unfolds in a series of bloody, violent and quirky twists laced with black humour and shifting alliances to a finale that stumps the viewer.

While the movie works well as a first rate psycho-thriller which is tense and unpredictable, the director-duo Navot Papushado and Aharon Kashales deserve kudos for the way they have smartly structured their narrative in a morally ambiguous space wherein the actions of each of the leads appear to oscillate between morally correct and blatantly inhuman. This challenges the moral compass of the viewer and sows seeds of doubt in their minds as the movie brings into sharp relief the hidden animal in each of its characters through the unfolding events which seem to blur the the lines that would differentiate between the predator and the prey. 

Overall, this is an excellently staged, entertaining, darkly comic, blood-soaked, psycho-thriller which is highly recommended for the fans of Tarantino and Park Chan-Wook and definitely not for the weak of heart. 

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3/5

AIB - Another Imbecile Bollywood project

Thank You AIB for putting profanity on such a high pedestal which makes it sound almost profound.. So profound that people didn't mind paying good money to pay for the tickets.. (Oops.. It goes for charity .. you see..)

Thanks for educating us that it is indeed SUPERCOOL to punctuate every sentence with multiple profanities & one can even go a step further, if one can vandalize their vocabulary to such an extent that sentences are populated more by profanities than by proper words.

Yes.. Thanks to the Constitution, we are blessed with a right for free speech which includes the right to offend and insult, especially when it is consensual and even be liberal with one's profanities. 

Yes.. Humour is highly subjective.. What is funny to some could be totally unfunny or even abusive to others..

&

Yes.. Insult, Abuse, Raunchy and even Profanities could certainly be counted as categories of comedy

But..

Personally, I felt while there were some genuinely funny moments strewn around the whole episode, the entire theme of couching everything in a canvas flooded with expletives appeared utterly hollow and trying too hard to appear cool.

Yes.. The viewer has the choice to choose to ignore it or view it on his/her own volition and having watched the same, cannot react as if the contents were forced down their throats. 

And.. there is no gainsaying that the ability to laugh at one self is an essential component of maturity. But, if this is to be considered as your/Bollywood's attempt to mimic maturity, it seemed as hollow as most of the regular tepid fare that Bollywood dishes out on a weekly basis. 

And, it is utterly unsurprising considering the fact that it was anchored by none other than (KKK)Karan Johar - the heartthrob/poster-boy of all things hollow & a master of vacuous fluff which pass off as blockbusters in the largely silly universe that goes by the name of Bollywood.

CONFESSION OF MURDER (aka NAE-GA SAL-IN-BEOM-I-DA) (KOREAN) (2012)

Choi Hyeong-goo, a cop was on the trail of a serial killer who has killed 10 women. After fifteen long years of fruitless pursuit, the statute of limitations kicks in shutting the door on the investigation. Knowing that there can be no conviction beyond the period of limitations, Lee Doo-seok surfaces and confesses as the serial killer who committed those murders. What's more..? He pens a book detailing each of those murders and becomes an instant celebrity and media darling adored by the mindless masses. The appearance of Lee and his public confession also leads to the coming together of few of his victims' kin who seek to avenge their dead beloveds by bringing Lee to vigilante justice. Coincidentally, the media spotlight also falls on Choi who had investigated the case who refuses to accept Lee as the killer and pursues his investigation, albeit at a low key. Choi is also personally interested to solve the case as the last victim happened to be his lover and he hoped she is not dead yet as her body is yet be found. The media organises a debate on live TV between Lee and Choi to clear the confusion. However, in an unexpected twist, a caller to the show, identifying himself as J, claims himself as the real killer. 

Who is this mysterious caller J ? Is he the real killer ? Would Choi solve the crimes ? What happened to his lover ? Is she still alive ? Is the charming and enigmatic Lee the real killer ? If he is an impostor, why did he confess to such gruesome crimes ? Could the band of victims' kin avenge for the killing of their beloveds ? The rest of the movie answers these and more in a pacy roller-coaster narrative where the tables are turned continuously and the momentum oscillates continuously from one side to the other.

Confession of Murder is another notable addition to the genre of racy thrillers emerging from the realm of Korean cinema which dishes them out at regular intervals. The movie sticks to the tried and tested template of the genre and is replete with its standard ingredients like stylish leads, brilliant action set pieces, bloody violence, suspense, intriguing twists, brisk editing and racy screenplay which doesn't let the viewers to exercise their grey matter too much. Besides the thriller element, the movie also serves a reflection on the rot in a society sozzled in sensation-seeking media ever craving for the next big scoop, reality TV and 24-hour news reporting that could morph even ruthless murderers as celebrity rock stars even as it breeds a growing insensitivity to the agony and anguish of the voiceless victims and their kin.

A VERY GOOD WATCH !!

RATING - 3/5

I (aka MANOHARUDU) (TAMIL/TELUGU/HINDI) (2015)

Shankar, the showman of the current generation, has presented a personal revenge story set in the glamorous world of modelling in his latest venture. While he continues his trend of pushing boundaries in terms of budget of regional movies, capturing hitherto unexplored exquisite locales (this time in China), cutting edge special effects, he has moved away from his usual social message embedded narrative featuring a lone hero/vigilante fighting societal evils.

Keeping with the theme of the movie, I is the cinematic equivalent of that lavishly made, well picturised attention grabbing commercial which captivates you for the first viewing, but remains/means little else thereafter. Whether that spells success/otherwise of its maker Shankar is the big question.

Speaking for myself, despite its several shortcomings - including its length of 189 minutes, a paper-thin plot lacking depth and further beset with several crater-esque perforations, cardboard-cut characters, indulgent action set pieces that lack the zing and overstay their welcome - I liked it for the way Shankar has managed to package it as an engaging entertainer with P.C. Sreeram's visual brilliance showcasing a montage of vivid and rich imagery, WETA's magic in creating very real pro(ae)sthetics, Rahman's numbers (Ennodu Nee Irundhal, Pookkale & Mersal) and above all, for the towering brilliance of its leading man,vIkram whose performance and transformations through the film are simply SUPERB.

A GOOD (ONE-TIME) Watch !!

RATING - 2.5/5