Reviews

Y E L L O W S T O N E This is one the finest TV shows that I have seen and thoroughly enjoyed. One of the most cinematic TV shows ever with superbly gorgeous cinematography; smooth and gentle pacing; amazing performances and some of the best romantic stories ever.

This show makes you fall in love with it and the geography it is set in.

Montana in America is beautiful and you too end up wanting the same for it as does John Dutton and his ilk. The traditional life they are showing in this show is so warm and desirable; I certainly would love to have similar life. Simple and grounded; of course it is a lot of hard work but the reward that is to wake up everyday and witness the natural beauty of the lovely mountainous region and the lovely forests and the lovely meadows with streams flowing through them and of course the wildlife; I certainly wouldn't mind it at all.

Barring season 4 it is a great tv show.

I am so looking forward to S5.2.

My ratings: 9/10 ********* Must watch!!! Highly recommended!!!

Just wanted to share my excitement with you all.

Excitement of having watched a super-lovely for the first time last night.

'MOHAN JOSHI HAZIR HO!' (1984) Although it was a terrible print on YouTube; once I started the lovely film directed by Saeed Akhtar Mirza, I couldn't stop it.

It is written in such an awesome manner by the likes of Sudhir Mishra sir, Yusuf Mehta and Saeed sir himself; all the characters are so relate-able and realistic.

And of course what a wonderful cast it had. And it is edited in such a crisp manner. I loved it! I learned from it!

I think all us 'wannabee' filmmakers must start our learning with watching all these Indian 'parallel' classics.

My rating: 9/10 ********* M U S T . W A T C H . F I L M.

OPPENHEIMER 2023 'Oppenheimer' is Christopher Nolan's best film since 'The Dark Knight'. In some ways these two films are his best work ever!

I'd rate it 10/10!

Full marks for the Music, Cinematography, pacing and storytelling and the performances! Loved it thoroughly!

Won't waste all yours' time trying to explain!

It is just one of the most CINEMATIC film I have watched in a long, long time! It is pure cinema!

10/10 ********** MUST-MUST-MUST WATCH!

And on top Im just so glad that I got to watch it with my super engineer friend Aditya!

Also this film has one of the best BACKGROUND SCORE EVER!!!!

Sonakshi Sinha's 'Anjali Bhaati' is a way, way more impressive a performance than Priyanka Chopra's 'Nadia Sinh'.

I am comparing these two because both are leading Bollywood ladies in central roles in a series on OTT.

'Dahaad' is definitely a far more superior a product. Of course obviously influenced quite a bit by American content and sensibilities at time; it is a great watch however. Short, crispy and deliciously pungent.

Absolutely loved Gulshan Devaiah's realistic and grounded performance.

Vijay Verma's performance too is utterly believable and convincing.

The makers should feel absolute proud about it.

My ratings: 8/10 Guys do watch it.

'S A H I B B I BI A U R G H U L AM' (1962)

Guru Dutt ji's 'Bhootnath' and Meena Kumari ji's 'Choti Bahu' together in this film make the best platonic relationship ever! Much more so than my extremely favourite Bill Murray's 'Bob Harris' and Scarlett Johansson's 'Charlotte'. To be honest there is no comparison between these friendships but I thought Id mention it because I love that film too!

Bhootnath is mesmerized by Choti Bahu the first time he saw her; much like us the audience would have in general I imagine! At least I was!

At my tender age of almost hopefully half my life, I finally watched this great classic of a film and it blew my mind! It literally blew my mind. The crap experience I had after 'Shamshera', I needed to restore my mental balance and faith in cinema. And this film did just that!

I cannot emphasize enough how good Meena Kumari ji and Waheed Rehman ji were and to almost an equal extent the late great Guru Dutt Saheb. What a wonderful film!!!! What a super wonderful film!!!! I found myself rewinding a few scenes a few times just to watch them, experience them, enjoy them again!

Meena Kumari ji were outstanding with her 'love-lorn' perofance. The only other two similar performances by Indian female actors I can remember were Late Smita Patil ji in 'Bhumika'and Rekha ji in 'Umrao Jaan'! But Meena ji's performance is far more superior and impressive keeping in mind the period this film was made. 1962!

Her's can be taken as one of the most impressive, deep, heartfelt, honest, realistic and touching performance by any Indian actor. Every expression, every ada, every single utterance of her's felt real and directly from the the deepest emotional depth. Her pain and agony and angst was the most realistic portrayal by any female actor ever I would say! She was just freaking brilliant!

Then there is the oh-so-super-lovely-young-fresh-breezy-sweet Waheed Rehman ji! Her appearance, her simple, mere presence on screen has a gravitation effect; she just grabs your eye balls and force you to just look at her, stare at her, watch her perform! I don't there would have been then or now or even in future who wouldn't fall in love with her and her character. She is spunky and bright, cheerful and teasing, genuine and honest! She is young at heart and mature in mind! What a lovely combination! She was, is also bloody awesome, awesome in this film!

And there is the character 'Bhootnath' played amazingly by Guru Dutt saheb! Honestly there were times when I felt he was over acting. But then again that was there makers' idea of how to show the character's naivety and innocence. He did it so beautifully! I won't say I was blown away with his performance but it is nothing short of a masterpiece. He was somewhat consistent but overall managed to stay true to the graph of his character.

One has to make, must make and inclusion, a mention of the great cinematography and lighting by the DOP V. K. Murthy ji and the at time the sweet, crisp, brilliant editing by Y. G. Chawan ji.

There are a couple of things about the story, narrative and the screenplay I would have left out but it is what it is! And I think this is gem of a film! It is cinema at its best! As they the heart, the mind and soul, the film touches all! I was left in tears and with sadness at the end revelation of the film!

Meena Kumari ji was indeed rightly known as the Tragedy Queen of Indian cinema and this film proves it 2000%!

My ratings: 8/10 ******** Must Watch for anyone who loves cinema, stories and meaningfulness in life!

'SHAMSHERA' The obvious, overt anti-Hindu characters and narrative is still acceptable as a story; as the thought process of a central character it is still fine! But the problem of this film lies with the sensibilities of the makers.

Surely it is a perfectly, decently made film with somewhat less than perfect VFX and everything; it is the 'sensibility' and the 'presentation' of the characters and their motivations that are just weak and weird.

The preparation of the meal being served is wonderful, hygienic, fresh but it is the weird combination of the ingredients!

We as filmmakers need to work on our "aesthetics" of our perceptions of our sensibilities in our story telling.

With the exception of some really nice cinematography; it is sadly a very bad film. So disappointing.

😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔😔

Also btw this is the first pre-Independence period film where the colonializing British are shown as the good guys and the victims; the sole baddy is a an 'upper caste Hindu'!

Simply amazing!{****please sense the sarcasm!!!!***}

My ratings: 2/10 ** The '2 stars' are for Sanjay Dutt's performance mainly and Ranbeer's brilliant efforts!

This film is just NOT ENTERTAINING at all! AT ALL!!!

'DASVI' - 2022 The title refers to 10th standard or Matriculation level of education in India; it is a film about a some what corrupt politician making it an ego issue for himself when he is taunted at for being uneducated. He has been sent to the prison which is headed by much shorter and cuter female superintendent in front of whom Abhishek Bachchan's character seems literally like a towering figure; he finds himself insulted by her.

In order to escape the rigors of being in prison, at first he decides to take up studying to avoid the hard work but eventually the real bug bites him.

It is a very simple, cute, endearing film with all the characters being some what sweet and light. It IS a masala-type-ish film but it IS very different in its treatment.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. It even succeeded in making me tearful at one moment.

My ratings: 8/10 ********

Not taking anything away from the heroic story and courage of our hero legendary Captain Vikram Batra and the great efforts made by the filmmakers, I felt not so satisfied at the end of the film.

Don't get me wrong, it is shot beautifully, army is depicted quite marvellously, action is very good but I wish the film had more about the struggles of the jawans as they went up. For me it felt very rushed; their hardwork and efforts and risk-taking was painted rather loosely. I wish these sequences were executed in more details and more grit.

Siddharth Malhotra performed very nicely and this is the second performance of his that I have liked after 'Hasee Top Phasee'.

One major dislike I have about this film is the spoken Punjabi. It was simply terrible and a bit cringy. But I can ignore that cos most of the audience won't feel it.

My major problem with this film is that it needed more time to develop and showcase all the hardships our soldiers, our boys went through. At times the film felt a bit cliched; same old Madhuri Dixit bit, Pakistanis were the typical caricatures.

The best thing about this film is the depiction and look-costume-feel of the armed forces; very seemingly authentic. And the telling of this legendary story that is needed to be told again and again.

My ratings: 6/10 ****** Definitely worth watching at least once. I wish it was so much more.

S H E R N I (2021) A must watch film for any one with even basic IQ levels, empathy and common sense!

A beautiful film about India's idiosyncrasies at various levels and the struggle of a few to do the right thing.

Animal-Wild life conservation and preservation is not a subject one would expect or imagine any Indian filmmaker to make a film about. But they did!

Director Amit Masurkar's film is an infuriating one and it makes you angry for all the right reasons!

Although bit of a slow burner (I love that!!!) but the narrative is an impressive one and it keeps you on the edge. What helps to propagate this feeling is the beautiful cinematography by Rakesh Haridas who I suspect is going to get a ton of calls for work from tomorrow onwards!

Beautiful! Poignant! Thought provoking! Infuriating!

A must watch!

My ratings: 9/10 ********* Watch it if you have brains and a heart!

A N O T H E R . R O U N D (2020)

A simple, small, petite film by Thomas Vinterberg is a must watch film!

Especially for anyone with a mind and thoughts.

Its a film about humans and their sadness and how it can or cannot affect their lives. Essentially a film about a bunch of men experimenting with themselves as a group with continuous inebriation to see how it can perhaps bring some joy or improvement in their lives.

The results of this intake of alcohol at regular levels are different for each of them. The 2nd half of the film is pretty much about that. And it is done BEAUTIFULLY!

You can see and feel how the characters feel after they have all been introduced in the beginning of the film.

The magic of the film is not about some beautiful, technicality or something but it is the simplicity with which it is shot and how the narrative is progressed. The emphasis is all on the characters and their quiet, beautiful Danish environments. There are few really good and joyful sequences in this otherwise slow burner of a film but it is the climax that you leave with in the end.

The central character played Mads Mikkelsen is left 'open-minded-ended' in the end and it leads you to believe a variety of emotions on his behalf.

My rating: 9/10 ********* A must watch film!!!!

ANGAAR (1992) Although rated 6.2/10 on IMDB for obvious reasons, the main one being overall terrible execution; 'Angaar' is a film which could have been an epic great. The story and the performances had the potential but the film is terribly let down by the editing and foley.

The bad editing is the result of the some terrible shot taking but I must admit that I loved some of the master shots of each new scene. Some of the cinematography was absolutely stunning while at other times it was terrible shitty! The sound design is absolutely horrendous. But I still liked the film! I like the film for it's conviction and self belief. It almost reminded my of early films of Brian De Palma. If it had better technicians and technology this film could have been a classic.

Jackie Shroff, Dimple Kapadia, Nana Patekar, Kiran Kumar and Kader Khan, all performed so beautifully. It felt like they all really believed in their characters and it showed in their performances.

The film needed a bity of 'stay' and 'thairaav'. It needed some breathing but the terrible editing for one reason or the other totally spoiled it!

I loved the basic plat; it is very 90s. The angry young, unemployed man against the system and the prevalent criminality all around him; he struggles with his ideals and innocent yet brash philosophy of life. He fights and he fought back and suppressed. Suppressed so much that he eventually bursts!

I was surprised to see the climax which reminded of 'Fight Club' and 'Shool'; both of which are my fav films! I would recommend that all the fans of Dimple Kapadia, Nana Patekar and Kader Khan should watch this film!

My ratings: 7/10 ******* Do watch it if you love cinema! Traditional cinema!

'G A N P A T . B H O S A L E' Manoj Bajpayee sir's performance as this character is one of the finest performance by any Indian actor ever. I can't believe I had missed it for this long.

This film is a visual essay with the soul of real 'Marathi Maanoos' played by Mano sir. I won't say it's seemingly an effortless performance cos such performances don't effortlessly; they require a lot internalization and mental prep. To be able to continuously be in that character and in 'his' mind wouldn't have been an easy thing to do and on to portray what was going in the character's mind without being much vocal and verbose requires a next level of talent which we all know dear Manoj sir for anyway. But still this is an extra ordinary performance by him.

I would congratulate him from the bottom of my heart for giving us all a great piece of cinema.

The film's director had crystal clear vision in how he saw the 'Ganpat' the character as. 'Ganpat' was...is Lord Ganpati himself! A man of hard work and honor. The director clearly wanted to make a statement about how the traditionally proud Marathi 'man' of honor is being led into the dirty politics of the present day. He is trying to show how some of us are getting dragged into the 'murky' politics of the 'regional-ism' but the true Marathi, the true Maharashtrian, the real descendants of Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj wouldn't really want to be associated with. And that breed of decent 'people' are slowly dying away! And they therefore thus need to do something impactful before they vanish!

A lovely film; a lovely visual essay about integrity and real 'man-hood' and being human. My ratings: 9/10 ********* A MUST WATCH FILM!!!!!!

...but I guess the makers had to make a choice and they made it.

I didn't like the approach they took with the camerawork. I wish they didn't have any cuts in any given sequence. From a sequence to sequence of course you's need to cut but they shouldn't have while shooting a particular sequence.

But I suppose this film is so 'hatke' already that it doesn't really matter. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Yeah maybe the end was too much of a spoon feed but then again it added to the product in its own way.

Definitely worth watching at least once!

This is a technically well made movie with a superb performance by Sanjay Dutt with a terrible screenplay and script. It is extremely outdated a concept; it should have been made right after Sadak which came in 94 I think.

The cinematography by Jay I. Patel is beautiful; he has done what was expected of him superbly.

Alia Bhatt tried her best to perform as good as she could and Jishu Sengupta did the same. But the basic premise of the film is just not acceptable anymore. It is not even that actually; the premise is not really that irrelevant but it is the treatment that is extremely dull and outdated. The narrative is extremenly contrived and unrealistic. The VFX, the fake owl, the world outside through the windows, the Kailash parbat in the end, all were terribly executed VFX shots.

The characters were not given enough time to develop and the lack of this time hinders the audience from connecting with them. For what could have been an epic sort of a road film it felt extremely restricted and bound. The openness and the freshness that was desired or that could have been achieved was totally missing.

I am seriously disappointed with this film especially because I am a big fan of Mahesh Bhatt sir. He has been an institution and a legendary filmmaker. If this happens to be his last directorial venture then its a great tragedy of a film.

Overall a major, major, MAJOR disappointment!4 Stars for only Sanjay Dutt's performance, Alia's efforts and lovely cinematography

C A R G O For the cutest astronaut ever played by Shweta Tripathi just watch this exciting and encouraging Mythological-Sci-Fi film. She is supported equally brilliantly by Vikrant Massey who plays her senior. The story revolves around these two main characters.

Absolutely brilliantly designed space ship by Mayur Sharma is made even more believable by the atmosphere and ambiance created with a great sound design by Anish John.

Having grown up on 'Star Trek', ' Star Wars', 'Alien', 'Lost in Space', 'The Twilight Zone' and many other Sci-Fi tv shows and films, to watch an Indian Sci-Fi film brought me great delight and pleasure.

The filmmakers of this film should be congratulated for making this super risk of a film that it would have been for the Indian audiences. Hopefully it will inspire the Indian filmmakers to explore the realms of narrative universe or 'Brahmand' as we call it in Indian culture just like Starship Enterprise did. This film is a perfect example of how Sci-Fi genre can be merged with Indian stories and sensibilities and made palatable for the Indian audiences. We can have our quirky 'space chudails' and 'Daayans' and 'Rakshasa' and 'Daatiyas' and 'Daanavs' and 'Asuras'. The scope is endless. All we need is a cocktail of little inspiration and some imagination.

This film is one small step for India and a one giant leap for Indian cinema. My ratings: 6 (for the slow pacing) + 2 (1 each for the concept and the music in end credits!)

So..... 8/10 ******** WATCH IT!

The idea of a Hindi-desi film about ED was awesome to think of. It started nice, both the main characters were relate-able and believable. But just as the 1st act is finishing the film turns towards unrealistic dialogues and situations. Post interval its worse.

To my utter shock, scenes, situations, moments come as the part of the narrative that are utterly unrealistic and unbelievable and basic 'potty'.

What the hell were they thinking!!!! Super disappointed!!! :(

The X-Files season 11 is nothing but pure garbage! A badly compiled semi-flushed residue of excrement in a public toilet facility. What the hell are they thinking? Where is the logic?

'The Place Beyond The Pines' This 2012 film is one of the best films ever. Totally cinematic with characters to love and die for, its a roller coaster ride of emotions and my favourite 'stay'. I love the 'slow' pace of it and the characters taking their time to react. They don't just say the lines, the become the characters. Maybe I am sadist but this was just my type of a slow and hyper-emotional films where the characters are fighting with inner conflicts. In fact every single character is fighting his own battle.

'Luke''s life takes a turn when he finds out he has a baby he didn't know about. He choses to swap his life of somewhat fame and easy money and carelessness for an opportunity to be with his son and the mother of his son who is now with another man. His guilt of not being their for his mother takes precedence. As a result he chose a life of crime. To be his honest his character is somewhat unstable that loses the path of life and head for the wrong direction. 'Romina' the mother of the child too has a conflict, her's is about her duty as a mother towards his child for which she choses to be with another man, another 'stable' man and for a stable life for herself and her child; her conflict is that she might still be in love with Luke but for the sake of her child's life she decides not to be with Luke.

'Avery' the cop is riddled with his own dilemma; he has his friends and colleagues on one side but on the other is his fight with his conscience which forces him to 'rat' these corrupt cops out. This is compounded by his every present guilt of killing 'Luke' by mistake. Even after years, Avery feels a sense of responsibility towards Romina and her child and tries to help them in whatever way he can.

It is simply an amazing film with amazing performances. I would certainly reccomend it to anyone who loves cinema and storytelling. Amazing shot with a sense of melancholy and with lovely music this is a must watch film. BTW this is the 2nd time I have watched it and I watched it cos I remembered how awesome it felt the first time I watched it.

My ratings: 9/10 ********* MUST WATCH!!! Its a complete film!!!!

T U B E L I G H T (2017)

To begin with I'd like to inform and encourage everyone to ignore the detractors of this film. This is a wonderful film. It is an emotional roller coaster of a story. DO NOT listen to people who tell you that it is bad film or that Salman hasn't performed well and so on.

It is a simple beautiful story of a child like man who starts 'believing' that his belief can bring back his brother. Salman as 'Lakshman the Tubelight' is spot on with his performance. Wonderfully supported by Late Om Puri ji, little child actor from Arunachal Pradesh, Matin Rey Tangu is a delight to watch. His mother played by beautiful Zhu Zhu is amazing too, although they messed up with her dubbing. Sohail Khan has tried very well too and the couple of scenes he had, he is very efficient an effective.

Superbly, beautifully shot by Aseem Mishra, Tubelight is film that relies of Salman Khan's emotions which I personally feel he has managed to communicate perfectly and very sweetly with his performance. I heard, read somewhere that this is his 'worst performance', I totally disagree. On surface level it might seem a bit silly but when you watch the film you feel the conviction with which it has been delivered.

This film is a very relevant for India right now. It touches on many social issues and debates that we all need to think about.

Racism against minorities, Patriotism, Empathy for Disabled people, the language wars, Alcoholism, Spirituality, pain and loss of loved ones, martyrdoms of our soldiers, it is an amazing film. One of the best aspect of the film is how the 1962 war with China is depicted. Wonderfully shot and directed, the battle scenes are very, very believable. Another aspect of the film that I really loved is that the film did not bash Chinese. Even Chinese soldiers are talked about with respect as India soldiers, except by a couple of characters who are really angry with China but who also by end have change of hearts of sorts.

One of the most important reason that you should watch this film is Om Puri ji This is his last performance and it is wonderful as ever. He was as natural and a delight to watch as ever! Propagating the messages of Gandhi ji, his character and look is perfect and looks the part.

The main message of the film is to have 'Self Belief'. With it one literally move mountains!

Highly moving, highly emotional, highly fun and entertaining and highly satisfying, this is a must watch!

Hats off to Kabir Khan for making such a lovely film.

My ratings:: 8/10 (Deducting 2 for bad CGI at couple of places!)

'BADRINATH KI DULHANIA' (2017)

So just finished watching this film and found it thoroughly satisfying, entertaining and with a very, very special and an important message. Varun Dhawan is easily one of the most talented male actors in the country at the moment and I feel he will only get better with time. Same can be said about lovely Alia Bhatt. She is a delight to watch, sheer cuteness with great performance.

Shot beautifully, full of romance and emotions, BKD is easily one of the best Hindi film I have seen in recent times.

Loved it. It raises a few issues, one the most important one I feel is the 'concept of happiness' which is often depended on personal aspirations and dreams of people.

Can one really be happy for rest of the life if one's dreams are left unfulfilled for any reason? I don't think so. Therefore I totally agree with Alia's character's actions that she takes. One must live for him or herself too. We all the Right, the duty to do what we want, what we must do to be happy in life. I don't know what I am trying to say. I liked the film!

My ratings: 8.5/10 ******** MUST WATCH!!! J.M.D. JAI MATA DI :)

T 2 . T R A I N S P O T T I N G (2017)

The sequel to the original masterpiece of a film 'Trainspotting' (1996) by master filmmaker Danny Boyle, this is a great film too. Full of nostalgia, surrealism, awesome-awesome music and 'masterclass' performances by all the actor. This is a MUST WATCH film.

I do not know why but I kept getting emotional and teary eyed watching this film. Set literally in a small part of the world in Scotland, it is full of human emotions that chokes you. 'Spud' trying to commit suicide really did me! How empty and hopeless he was feeling was superbly conveyed by Ewen Bremmer, his expressions, his body language, his eyes, the odd way he spoke, everything about his performance is out of the world.

'Begbie' played by Robert Carlyle is the 2nd most amazing performance in the film according to me. 'Begbie' is a beast, you look at him and you get scared. Even if he is in a good mood, you'd be scared. And this is because of how he is played by Robert. But then in the pre- climax we suddenly see him in a totally different light for say a minute and you are suddenly drawn to his insecurities and inferiority complexes, you realise, you come to know why he is the way he is. His last interaction with his son makes you understand and makes you believe that there is still a little bit of a human being alive in this beast. Amazing, amazing performance!

Ewan McGregor as 'Renton' and Logan Gillies as 'Simon' really didn't have much to do, they were efficient in what they did. Their characters were quite simple and not much was required from them 'performance wise'.

Anjela Nedyalkova as 'Veornica' was a delight to watch and she was also very efficient with her performance. Again she didn't have much to do!

Danny Boyle on the other hand has everything to do with this film. He has managed to create magic in this film. Cinematic Magic with touching human emotions and a warm, fuzzy feeling of nostalgia. For some reason I was really able to relate with all the characters, I could understand and see their angst and psychology and see the reasons and logics for their actions perfectly. And all of it made sense.

I loved how Danny used surrealism in this film, he did the same and much better in the first film, but still the magic was there. Great music, great cinematography and superb editing has made this one of my most fav films immediately.

My ratings: 9/10 ********* MUST WATCH!!!!

Y O U . O N L Y . L I V E . T W I C E (1967) - Living this film once is enough to be honest - - James Bond is dick! -

!!!!There are couple of spoilers!!!!

One can argue that they did it all the prevent a nuclear world war. But it is just sad to see super dedicated footsoldiers of SPECTRE and in this film's case, the 100 'modern ninja warriors' die like they didn't matter. The SPECTRE chaps are always so dedicated in defending the evil deeds set by their masters, especially after they,the masters have ran away leaving the SPECTRE chaps to continue to fight and die and fall like flies. I wonder whether SPECTRE pays anything to their families. Some kind of compensation. I hope they do. Respect to the fallen 100 'modern ninjas' too in this case. Now lets talk about the film. Sean Connery is at it again, on 'Her Majesty's Secret Service' which incidentally is the name of the next film in the series. He plays 'James Bond' again with codename 007. I think James Bond is a bit of a dick!

At 1:16:05 Aki dies but at 1:17:50, the dickhead 'James Bond' is already trying to figure out how ugly or pretty is 'fake-mission' wife is going to be! You look at his expressions and you just want to slap him with a wet slipper on face!

I think Bond is just an asshole who gets lucky every time. He happens to be there to meet Mr. Henderson when he is assassinated. Bond, being Lucky yet again to be there now chases the assassin and kills him and pretends to be him. In doing so, he manages to get to baddies' headquarters which is actually a 'front' for SPECTRE. And the story begins. What if the assassin had killed Mr.Henderson before Bond had arrived to meet him? Then? There won't be this story. There are few other 'Lucky happenings' that happen to happen just when Bond is there. And this is a pattern that is there in all the Bond films. I hate it.

Let's talk about screenplay and the story. Can somebody please tell me why the hell was Bond carrying knee and hand suction pads? Why? Where was he carrying them under the kimono? And why was he carrying them? He had not yet found the hidden volcano lair? Total Bullshit!

I just hate the typical formulaic pre-climatic fight between Bond and a strong baddie who is always the villain's sidekick, 'Hans' in this film. A tall, lanky, bulky chap who is shown only twice in the entire film, he is brought to fight Bond even when his masters have died or left. Why would you fight like that? What for? I can give myself a counter argument which would be that he is one of those super dedicated SPECTRE chaps! But it is a bit unrealistic. Its formula!

Can some one please also tell me why would 'Number 11' take the hassles of pretending to be a traitor to Mr.Osanto and SPECTRE by escaping with Bond from the Osanto headquarters to an airport or airstrip somewhere, to get where they would have had to drive, find a plane, refuel it, check it for safety and then fly it to the middle of nowhere so that 'Number 11' could deceive Bond and try to kill him by leaving him stranded and stuck in the plane as 'Number 11' jumps out with a parachute! Why? Why go to all this trouble to kill him like this? Why? When you already had Bond in front of you, tied to a chair at place where 'Number 11' would be safe and have backup baddies! Why?

SIMPLY RETARDED!

The only saving grace for me in this film were the pretty Japanese girls, a few beautiful cinematic shot and the music which starts in the beginning. I happen to like this theme the most and it was absolute pleasure to hear it every now and then.

A mediocre film with crappy sensibilities. All I can say is that the plot of the film, the concept, the idea that SPECTRE would somehow cause a nuclear war between US and USSR by deceiving them both is amazing, it the execution and the filmmakers' sensibilities that lets this film down big time.

My ratings: 5/10 *****

Watch it if you are not too bored!!!

I must add that I loved the hidden-under-volcano set! Loved the grand scale of it and how it was designed.