Reviews

Here we are again, the seventh part of a franchise running for more than 20 years. This one has got all the usual stuff we have all come to expect from this series; weapons of mass destruction, crazy set pieces and Cruise doing impossible things. The plot borrows a bit from MI 1 but the twists and turns keep things interesting. Im not gonna lie, I loved Fallout more than this one; the whole story here is a key that supposedly unlocks the world's greatest AI and Cruise has to fight off four different groups of bad guys to get it. I liked it, it was serious enough but was missing the grit that Fallout had (there is no single scene here that outdoes the bathroom scene from Fallout).

There is some truly eye opening stuff in here about mass tourism destroying local communities, biodiversity and a lack of trickle down economics when it comes to rich people coming to poor areas. But all of this is laid moot by focus on things that have nothing to do with tourism; people in South America talking about weaving? Nope, not needed. It is detours like these that destroy the momentum of the film and there are moments where a perfect cresendo of visual montages coupled with destructive effects of mass tourism is absolutely demolished by these illogical detours. Also, the doc could have been shorter by 10-15 minutes as well. Overall, a good effort but needs another go in the editing room to make it more effective.

Nothing groundbreaking in the film whatsoever as all the reviews have us believe. A carbon copy of the first film but with some more emotion rolled in. The faceless enemy is another downer and the russian Su-57 is disrespected severely. Not better than a 7/10.

With big names such as Jason Clarke and Joel Courtney attached, Black Site is an above average action thriller that will entertain and enthrall you for its entire runtime. With so many twists and turns, the film goes in unexpected places; resulting in a thrilling finale that will leave you satisfied. 9/10 from me!

Directed by Bradley Charlton, Fading Petals finds a young woman (played by Charlotte Reidie) arrive at the house of an older woman (played by Melanie Revill) to assist her. As the two women bond, secrets are revealed that simmer tension to a boiling point. As the situation spirals out of control, an explosive finale lies awaiting.

Anchored by fantastic performances and a hypnotic visual flair, Fading Petals explores the relationship between two vulnerable women perfectly. Charlton explores the narrative with a deft hand, ensuring exposition is kept to a bare minimum as the audience is nudged to discover the underlying truths. Patience is key to this slow burn drama as the 94 minute runtime never feels like a minute too long. One of the film's greatest strengths is how hauntingly beautiful it looks and sounds, the cinematographer and sound editors having done a fantastic job in this regard. The lingering shots of the main characters' faces amplifies the agony whilst providing the actors ample space to showcase the depth of their talents.

A deftly made drama that hits all the right notes, Fading Petals is nothing short of a strong debut by filmmaker Bradley Charlton.

Written and directed by Seth Alan Jacobs, Stony Hollow tells the story of two friends as they stumble upon a demonic entity in their quest to do one last hurrah before one of them becomes a father.

Truth be told, in spite of its budgetary limitations, this is a scary film. The atmosphere is spooky, the music adds to the tension and there are plenty of jump scares peppered throughout the runtime of the story. The only clunky bit from the entire production is the dialogue which I think could have benefited from some polishing. Other than this, this low budget short fires on all cylinders which is a testament to the visual and creative prowess of its makers. In addition, the final twist comes out of nowhere and even though I have seen hundreds of horror films, I could not see it coming.

Brief and making apt use of its low budget, Stony Hollow is a potent horror short that will scare the crap out of you. Making deft use of various cliches of the horror genre, the film is an obvious labor of love to the genre by its creators.

Quirky, full of heart and featuring a diverse cast, The Miseducation of Bindu puts us right into the shoes of an Indian girl Bindu, played by the talented Megan Suri, as she navigates her local high school after her mom remarries. Starring the Scream franchise's David Arquette as her stepfather Bill and Priyanka Bose as her mother Kasturi, The Miseducation of Bindu is a sweet and heartwarming story about a teen who finds her true calling amidst the trials and tribulations of fitting into her new high school. The pot smoking sequence that leads to a very unexpected dance number is the highlight of the entire story and Megan Suri's fantastic acting is a sight to behold. With fantastic characters, energetic music and a story perfectly in line with the multicultural America of today, The Miseducation of Bindu soars above and beyond, delivering an emotionally poignant adventure that will win you over by the end.

A powerful tale of grit and inspiration, The Petrichor is anchored by a terrific lead performance from Olga Korsak coupled with deft visual storytelling from Junga Song. The film hits all the right notes, firing on all cylinders in this tale of the underdog persevering almost insurmountable obstacles to achieve greatness. Song has made a potent film, one that does not shy away from putting the audience into the mind of its protagonist whose tragic past holds the key to her prosperous future.

Song pulls a double duty as both writer and director here and she perfectly balances the nuances of the script with its more emotional bits. Considerable praise is also due to the cinematographer Ismail Atiev whose eye for the visual matches the kinetic nature of both the sport and the story. The soundtrack adds a further layer of depth to the story as well. All in all, The Petrichor is a powerful sports drama that hits it out of the park, a tour de force from a visionary director that will echo terrifically with audiences everywhere.

Directed by Lalit Bhusal, Crushed Wings showcases a powerful tale of fighting against the odds and against culture to do what is right. Taking inspiration from millions of women around the world forced to undergo FGM, Crushed Wings develops a protagonist forced to undergo the same procedure, only to empower her to chart a dangerous journey in a deeply patriarchal society to save her two sisters from the same fate that beset her.

Doing double duty as both writer and director, Bhusal weaves a complex yet intimate portrayal of a sensitive issue. Using a moving script and powerful yet nuanced performances, Bhusal puts the audience right into the protagonist's shoes, making a bold and daring statement about a practice that the world has been so far unable to eradicate.

Moving and poignant, Lalit Bhusal's feature about the horrific practice successfully holds up the mirror to society, moving its audiences everywhere to redouble their efforts to bring an end to FGM. Anchored by terrific performances and an emotional story at its core, Crushed Wings will definitely breathe a new life into the movement to end FGM and is bound to make much deserved waves at upcoming festival screenings.

Directed by Martin Ponferrada, Everything is Upstream (2018) is a tour de force in brilliant storytelling. Ponferrada takes us on a sprawling journey into the minds of the Buddhist monks as they explain the images in their subconscious minds with utmost detail. The whole episode is fascinating to experience as we are made privy to the deepest thoughts in these unique souls without filter or censorship. Ponferrada brings the images of the dreams alive through detailed rotoscope giving the viewer a unique perspective that is both hard to describe and mesmerizing to experience. What makes the documentary stand out is the sheer narrative power that the interviews bring out. Coupled with vivid imagery, Everything is Upstream (2018) is thus unique and powerful enough to warrant a closer look. Ponferrada has created a masterpiece, one that will appeal and speak to a variety of different demographics.

This film is a fast paced thrill ride from start to end. Loved the action, loved the characters and loved everything in between. From a technical standpoint, the film is sound; its visuals are crisp and its sound design is better than most films released today. The characters are not mere pawns in the service of the story; they are genuine parts of the narrative and go through character development to make us care about them. I would recommend the film to everyone.

With gangsters, guns and plenty of violence, Bekir Kulozu has created a violent homage to the mafia genre with his incredibly entertaining Circle (2019). The plot is simple; a group of mafia bosses come together to play poker in a secret location while some of their subordinates plan to rob the game dry. Predictably, the narrative soon descends into an orgy of carnage and death as trigger happy gangsters blow each other apart with wanton abandon.

Kulozu keeps the story grounded, filling up his film with quirky characters who you know are going to bite the dust sooner or later. There is the head honcho Brando, played to perfection by Dominick Mancino while Ratnesh Dubey plays a random pizza delivery man who turns out to have a recurring but hysterical role throughout the whole story. Talented genius, Katrina Lenk, a 2018 Tony Award Best Actress winner, also illustrates her incredible talent in the film. Playing the disgruntled girlfriend of a mafia boss, Lenk brings depth and emotion to the role, easily becoming the most memorable part of the film. Lenk is a talented singer as well and several of her original songs are showcased in the film as well.

Kulozu does well to take his audience into the seedy New York underworld where one wrong move can get your head blown off. The violence is sudden but intense, the wit is sharp and there is an unending sense of dread about who eventually will turn up victorious and end up with the dirty money that everyone seems to have their eye on.

With fantastic performances, a good script that perfectly balances levity with violence and an assured director who knows where to take the story, Circle is as inspired by Martin Scorsese's and Guy Ritchie's works as it is by Quentin Tarantino's wit and violence. Kulozu has made a pretty neat picture, one that will resonate as well with the fans of the genre as with the casual moviegoers.

I was blown away by this work. Loved how the director focused equally on China's and America's responses to the virus and how both administrative systems failed to contain the virus. This documentary needs to be seen by more people.

Funny, charming and above all, heartwarming; Joshua M. Lester's About Pie perfectly sums up one man's odyssey of romance while cultivating and nurturing his love for pies at the same time. Lester himself stars as the titular character and gives a commanding yet poignant performance of a 30 something, single male living life without worries and indulging his passions as he sees fit. As Lester meets several women along the way, one thing remains consistent; his undeniable and incontestable love for pie. The direction, also by Lester, gets high marks for capturing the essence of the story while exploring the main character's inclinations at the same time. The cinematography is crisp and the costume and set design perfectly captures the post modern architecture that is rife in places frequently occupied by millenials. With effective use of low key humor, likable characters and a persistent theme of pie love throughout the narrative, About Pie will most definitely surprise you as the feel good movie of the year. Running at a brisk 86 minutes, About Pie is the perfect film for a slow evening to watch with your significant other.

Directed by Andrew Arguello and MJ Palo, The Target List is a 2021 short action film produced by Mad Wife Productions. With Palo and John Riezer lending their writing credits to the endeavor, the film stars Jessica Culaciati, Dan Bailey and Naomi Plasterer.

Running at a brisk length of ten minutes, The Target List charts the journey of survival of a couple of scientists who have just invented a miracle cure for cancer. With large-scale implications of such cutting edge research becoming evident, particularly for big pharma who would see a hit to their profits if such a drug found its way to the masses, an assassin is dispatched to get rid of the scientists to doom their research forever. However, fate, it seems, has other plans as two of the scientists manage to escape. With their life and research on the line, the two scientists will do everything they can to survive and thwart the plans of the evil conglomerate that is conspiring to prevent the medicine from getting into the hands of the public.

The first thing noticeable about the whole production is that the casting is damn near perfect with every character fully embracing the outlandish narrative and what the script expects them to do. Jessica Culaciati is terrific as Donna while Dan Bailey as Bruno also manages to impress. Combining witty commentary with a constant threat to life, script writers Palo and Riezer develop a narrative that is funny and charming while losing none of the thrill and danger in the process. Developing Big Pharma as the overarching bad guy out to stop a cancer cure might be considered dumb in the real world. However, the power of the creative talent in the screenwriters is visible in the fact that they manage to take this very outlandish idea and transform it into a ten minute action film that will satisfy even the most ardent of action fans.

Another great aspect about the movie is its crisp cinematography. Andrew Arguello manages to capture the action well, using shaky cam to a minimum. Not only is the lighting properly done but the colors and hues give the whole film an expensive look. This will undoubtedly help with the marketing of the short to the masses. In addition, the sound editors behind the project also deserve a special shoutout. Kudos to the sound and stunt team for making the gunfights and knife play look and feel authentic and interesting. The pulsating soundtrack, in particular, adds to the tension during tense moments.

The only gripe that I have with the film is that some setpieces need a bit of polishing over in regards to the CGI. The subpar CGI is most noticeable in bullet holes and in the burning car. While this may be due to the limited budget, the subpar CGI in no way distracts from what is, in essence, a terrifically entertaining film. However, if this particular aspect were improved, an already appealing film would become even better.

Tightly paced and full of action and thrills, The Target List is a potent short film that manages to squeeze so much into its short running time. While some special effects shots do require a bit of polishing over, the creative talent and technical prowess evident in the production cannot be dismissed. At its core, The Target List embraces its outlandish idea wholeheartedly and moves to have terrific fun with its premise. With both the cast and the crew seemingly having a good time, the film is thus a win for everyone involved in its making.

Available to rent or buy on several streaming platforms, The Target List gets four out of five stars from this reviewer.

Let me just start by saying that the host of this documentary does not know the basics of Islam. She tries to argue with village elders on the topic of covering for women and falsely says that there is no saying in Islam regarding the covering of women. This is false. Quran 33:59 says:

O Prophet! Enjoin your wives, your daughters, and the wives of true believers that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): That is most convenient, that they may be distinguished and not be harassed.

It is clear that the documentary host has never read the Quran and the entire purpose of this documentary is to erroneously claim that Islamist are stupid and secular people are the future.

The case of Palestine is baffling; the US (which claims moral superiority around the globe) has literally continued financing the Israeli terror machine for the last 50 years to kill and maim and steal Palestinian lives. Around 80,000 palestinian civilains have been murdered by Israel in this conflict and still, the world media and US politicians etc have a hard time calling Israel out for its crimes. This documentary (and the controversy it generated) hopes to end this preferential treatment of the fascist Israeli state and is in a step in the right direction. The documentary is an emotional and moving ride as it accurately shows the desperate situations of several Gazans longing to survive.

This show fails on every level. The acting is stiff, the costumes are cheesy and the CGI is awful. The drama, or the lack thereof, is so poorly done that it makes sitting through the show boring. Regarding Lockjaw, the CGI is poorly done which makes the character stick out and thus makes him not believable. Overall, the show is a big miss. 2/10.

I cant believe all the negative reviews here, Lorax was a good film. The animation is top notch, fun to look at and lively. The animals (bears and the fish) are cute and the film has a powerful message.

This is not a comedy film as i was expecting it to be (as nearly all the animated films released these days have quite a bit of comedy ). the tone of the film is actually sad ( its about environmentalism and cutting down trees and their impact on the ecosystem).

Surely the villain and his scheme is a little bit silly and the voice acting is so-so (except for the girl which i later found to be voiced by Taylor swift) and the film gets a little boring at times, the film overall is very good.

A 7/10 from me.

Wooooosh.Finally saw the TDKR yesterday. The wait for this movie was unrelenting and i would've seen it earlier but due to the month of Ramazan, the film opened late in our part of the world.

Ummmmmm, how to describe it? The most emotional and engrossing movie of the year so far. The movie opens slowly but builds up to fitting finale. There are quite a few surprises here and there . The use of nuclear bomb as a plot device has been done countless times before. Batman's apparent death in taking the bomb out of the city in a flying machine (Angels and Demons....anyone? ) but where Nolan succeeds is in the seriousness of the situation and its potentially harrowing consequences. I truly believed the bomb would go off and the city would perish.

Amazing performances from all the case but two of the actors deserve special praise here. Tom Hardy and Michael Cane. Also, Catwoman was good but looked a little cheesy. Nevertheless, Anne Hathaway pulled it off.

The score?...Amazing as always. Cinematography?...Top Notch.

So it is better than TDK? Is it a cinematic masterpiece? Is it the best trilogy of ALL TIME ?

Only time will tell.

What happened? What the hell did i just watch? This is not the movie i expected and saw in the trailers.......

Acting 3/10 ( Each of the cast members including the Japanese was horrible in their dialogue delivery)

Story 5/10

Special Effects 7/10

This is the first time i have been disappointed by Peter Berg. Useless sub plots,, corny lines, horrible blunders of logic, crappy looking cgi aliens, the list could go on and on. Even the epic soundtrack composed by Steve jablonsky is under used.The director tries to copy Michael Bay's signature style but fails miserably. The action is the only thing that's OK. After John Carter, this is the second big-budget movie to disappoint me this year.

Very Disappointed.

With all the hate going about this movie, let me tell you that the story of this movie is not good, the dialogue for the most part is clichéd and in the beginning the talking cat,the talking egg and the talking whatnot's do not fit into the environment. BUT, what is movie does have is loads of fun,wits and entertainment. If you are tired after a hard day of work and are looking to relax,this movie is perfect for you(like it was for me!)....the animation is top-notch and some moments are so magical and some action sequences so good that you lose yourself in them.........a perfect family film....AND TO ALL THE HATERS: this movie was nominated for an Oscar...,enough said....

A solid 8/10.

After getting tired of the crap that had been coming out of Hollywood for a past year or so,I decided to give old movies a chance. I thoroughly enjoyed the Matrix and Lord of the rings trilogies.Then,I stumbled upon Fight Club.The thought of two men starting a club to help vent male aggression didn't impress me much. After all,what could possibly be special about this to give this movie a rating of 8.8 on IMDb. I dimmed the lights and cranked the volume up.From the beginning,something felt right. There was an indescribable feeling in Edward Norton's voice over that agreed with me. Like his character, I too was tired of the day to day routine,the same crap that we do everyday and the petty things that we are made to run after in everyday life. Like him,I too despised that are minds were controlled through commercials and advertisements by corporations to keep us buying crap that we probably don't ever need. Another thing came poring over through me and that was the supposed significance of having names like Calvin Klein, Armani etc on your garments. A shirt should be a shirt whether it has cK written on it should not make a difference. As the movie progressed, feelings of rebellion grew in me. I wanted to leave everything and fight against the present system. Fighting against these urges ,I controlled myself with great difficulty. I didn't care much about the end, as the film had delivered beyond my wildest expectations This movie made me a fan of David Fincher. Also Brad Pitt,who I thought was successful due to just his pretty face, elevated in respect in my mind. One of the top 3 films as far as I'm concerned

All i can say is wow.....a beautiful film relating to superman and a satire to current superhero movies.From the beginning i was so engrossed in this movie that i had not being able to,in animated movies,for a long long time.There are comedic scenes......there are emotional scenes...the battles are intense.....basically THIS FILM HAS GOT IT ALL..................and when you think you've seen it all.....there is an OH MY GOD moment at the end......although i will admit that the chick here looks a lot like the chick from MonstersVSaliens............still,I RECOMMEND THIS MOVIE TO EVERYONE..........10/10....enjoy this heartwarming movie......cheers.

WOW...............just came back from the x-men premiere and gotta say it was FLAWLESS and CONFLICTING at the same time....Brilliant Ending...Extraordianry acting by MichaelFasbender as MAgneto....but it lacked that Final touch that makes a movie brilliant.....the action was bigger and badder than the previous four....michaelfasbender and James mcavoy had brilliant chemistry............Azazel was great too but lacked depth...i think Brian singer shudve directed it...he made X2 almost extraordinary................in the end...Great movie if you are looking for drama at the end and brilliantly directed action sequence....8 out of 10!