Reviews

Nobody is black or white, in more ways than one. What a beautiful metaphor. Interesting movie but too many coincidences

i have never really heard of the four seasons, or their songs really ; the only one i could identify was "i love you baby " and i didn't know it was them. but to be fair i do end up liking most movies with music as the backdrop. so, you need to take my review with a slight pinch of salt. let me offset that by saying that i saw that on a plane; and i think i ended up abandoning my last 10-15 movies on a plane in the first half hour or so ( its so easy to switch if you;re not enjoying yourself). so it is a very well made movie, and holds you right till the end. i am impressed by clint eastwood pulling off this different genre. the acting is good all round, and vincent piazza is just great ! the music is a bonus indeed ! there is a lesson hidden in the movie, or maybe i saw one. its how success takes its price, and you end up thinking if its really worth it. really, what do you get out of being successful , an ego massage with millions worshipping you ; but you lose everything else. anybody would i guess !

well, it was a movie i watched till the end, so it wasn't horrible. and i had gone fully prepared to abandon it midway, but i guess i didn't. and i don't like romantic comedies to begin with, so there i have my disclaimers out of the way. basically its a slow paced movie, and not very well made so it just trudges along predictably, while making fun of other such predictable movies. saif is the centrepiece of the movie, and he does hold it together ; but we've seen similar performances from him before. his alter ego is quite annoying though. elena is a total miscast, seems like she is in a daze. govinda has been one of my favourites, and its sad to see him having aged and playing second fiddle. preity zinta is also a mistake i think; should have had a fresh face. why do we need to see her ageing ? and in such an inconsequential role too. ranveer shourey also does not add much to the movie. apart from saif i guess none of the characters have any depth. the dialogues are quite predictable ; and i can see a new trend of having the characters speak in an American way. the only thing i liked was the ending where they preserved some of the story's integrity.

the movie is really one of those where they have an interesting concept, but really no concrete storyline. i guess even the concept is not novel and is stolen from the old shaukeen. so, anyway, the movie starts with a concept, plays with it till the interval, and then you can see it is running out of steam; so then they complete change it and go in a totally different direction. i liked the first half, it had some good laughs, and some witty dialogues. you can't call it a well made movie, but if you go with friends and are willing to let your hair down, i guess you can unwind a bit. my wife liked the second half much more. annu kapoor gives a good performance; anupam kher is really too overexposed and overacts. the third shaukeen i have seen for the first time, but he does a good job too. akshay kumar's willingness to make fun of himself is refreshing. lisa hayden looks good but her character is not a convincing one.

well, i don't complete every movie i start, and i did complete this one. so, there's something going for it. but i cannot deny that the woody allen touch was completely missing from this movie. i am a big fan of his movies, and if you have seen the earlier ones such as manhattan, you know what a talented filmmaker he is. i gave up on vicky cristina barcelona after 15 minutes; so i knew something has changed. but anyway, colin firth carries the movie on his shoulders, and the female lead does a good job too. the storyline is quite predictable finally, though midway there is a slightly unexpected twist. the story is simply told, and there is no woody allen touch at all in the way the movie is handled. the story is catchy, photography good. i think its a good movie to watch on a plane, if you want to watch something light. but i miss my woody allen of old

the movie starts very well, you like the overall feel. a nice ensemble of actors ( mostly) has been arranged. however, there is a minimal and predictable storyline which soon becomes evident. The individual scenes and dialogues fail to engage you, and the overall movie lacks an integrity of purpose. it looks like homi adajania started with some ulterior motives which became bigger than the overall movie. the photography is quite beautiful and goa is captured in all its old world charm. pankaj kapoor does a great job at an eccentric painter. arjun kapoor looks miscast. the rest of the crew does well, though naseer does tend to overact towards the end. he always looks too sophisticated for a postman. in fact most of the cast doesn't look the part, and when they do, it seems a little contrived. deepika's listening to an iPod an old world town looks quite incongruous. the first half is extremely boring, but the second half is tolerable.

i am always fond of biopics, and this one didn't let me down either. it was a little different from what one expects, and did not really show how the brand was created. but that does not matter, its a story well told. and its a period movie, so it totally takes you back in time. and you are really living the movie with them. the performances are good all round. the music is good, and one of the songs still is playing in my head. my wife never follows my recommendations but i suggested very strongly to her that she watch, and for once she was happy following what i asked her. its more a women's movie, which i don't usually watch, but it didn't really matter. a movie well made is well made, no matter what its about. the french really know how to make their movies

i am not sure if this movie deserves a review or not, since the intent does not seem to have been to make something coherent. the first half is not too bad, some of the humour is good, some of it escapes you a bit. if you try you can will yourself not to find logic in the movie, and try to go along with whatever they are showing. salman khan is trying to be the new rajnikant, larger than life, and i guess the intent is for the movie to success purely on that. but just to be on the safe side, they rope in mithun ( to get the bengali eyeballs ? ) and steal some scenes from krish3, dhoom3 and jab tak hai jaan ( maybe not direct copies, but you get a lot of deja vu). the second half takes a plunge, and you reach the climax and are happy, its time to go home; but wait, its not over till the fat lady sings. so, now the sequel begins ( one presumes) and the ordeal ( yes by now it is an ordeal) goes on for another half an hour. you come out totally battered

This is one of the rare movies where as you watch you wonder if you're really liking it or not. you don't think of walking out midway, and you enjoy the fantastic photography and good music, but its not gripping stuff. yet, when you walk out of the hall, you end up feeling, wow that was a great movie. i guess thats what they mean when they say the whole is the sum of the parts. all the individual scenes make sense when the movie is over, and they add to the overall effect. its an unusual story very well told by imtiaz ali, with no clichés. alia bhatt has shown what a brilliant actor she is, and one scene close to the end had me totally spellbound for about ten minutes. she plays her part very well. there is a dance sequence by her which just comes out of the blue and is a total show stealer. randeep hooda is okay in his part, and his cleaner ( assistant ) in the truck plays a wonderful cameo

I had heard some negative things about the movie, but finally ended up seeing it on a flight. its a long movie but doesn't feel like one. dicaprio acts brilliantly yet again. the movie is a true story of a wall street guy, and depicts his journey to the top; its a telling commentary on human greed. the fact that it was a true story somehow made a bigger impact on me. a valuable insight i got from the movie was how most of us are suckers as far as aggressive salespeople are concerned. they can cheat us, and yet keep selling to us again and again ! such is our greed and meekness ! scorcese is great at making biopics