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Reviews
The Winchesters (2022)
This is just bad filmmaking all-around
The two dimensional characters coupled with bad acting and a poorly written storyline make The Winchesters mind numbingly bad to watch. Supernatural is one of the most iconic shows of our generation compared to which this show is like a b-grade fan fiction.
I remember how much of a threat demons were in the early seasons of supernatural. As the brothers got more and more experience it felt like leveling up as they took on bigger and bigger threats. The pilot of this show opens with something resembling a PowerPoint presentation and on demons. The exposition and lack of subtext alone made me leave my room twice. The essence of supernatural is in its story and in its characters. No one can make a secuel or prequel good without focusing on these aspects.
The Midnight Club (2022)
Mediocre is most aspects bad in others
The story structure and pacing of this show is jaw droppingly bad. The story can't figure out if it's a drama, an anthology, a horror show. It tries to randomly mix and match these elements (quite poorly, I might add) in order to buy time to figure out what it wants to be and by the end becomes nothing more than a bloated trailer for season 2. Some of the shorts are good while others are hopelessly bad which is conveniently justified by the fact that the storytellers are just kids. Also many episodes are filled with setups that don't payoff at all by the end of the show. I have been a fan of Hill House, Bly manor and Midnight Mass but Midnight Club is definitely the weakest among the lot.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
A fairly disappointing film with some redeeming qualities
Thor: Love and Thunder doubles down on whatever worked for Ragnarok and in doing so fails to deliver a cohesive and heart-felt narrative to the viewers. The characters have been diluted to such an extant in order to extract humour that they have become soulless caricatures of their former selves.
The film is almost a parody of itself and other films within the MCU. Not to mention the the endless plot conveniences, plot holes and borderline obnoxious depiction of Zeus and other deities.
The only highlight for me was perhaps Christian Bale as Gorr who was an absolute delight to watch and milked every single scene he was in.
Overall if you like films of substance I would not recommend this film. If you are out for fun and are looking for a light-hearted comedy, love and thunder may just be for you.
Chehre (2021)
Ambitious but disappointing.
Pros: The film looks good. The interior design and lighting is very good. The acting by the cast is great. The 'Ready or not' like build up is quite interesting to watch. Overall a good concept.
Cons. The film clearly wants to deliver a social message. But whereas films like Pink and A Wednesday exell depicting their ideas in a way that resonates with the audiance, this film takes a overly pretentious and preachy route that feels completely shoehorned in. At one point the dialog just goes off on a tangent leaving the plot lord only knows where just to get its message accross to the audiances. Also there are numerous story inconsistencies. Early on, it is offered that the player can pick any guilt in their past as the scope for the trial. If the character had picked any crime insignificant to the plot the film would essentially not happen. Not just this but there are two or thee other narrative breaking scinarios in this film. Also do these people trap every living soul passing through that road? What happens if they drop the tree on an innocents head accidentally? Do they say oops and go about their day? I can easily wrap my head around concept of a vigilantly like Dexter taking the bad guys out but since the film tries so hard to force the characters as heros (even breaking the forth wall at a certain point) that I ended up feeling conflicted. Lastly, I believe if a man is capable enough to shoot a lock off a door from 20 feet, kill a dog mid air in a lunge and is supposed to be a "cold blooded murderer", he should easily be able to dispose of 4 old men and a help at a lonely mansion. Safe to say the climax didn't work for me as it did not feel climactic.
Over all I do believe the idea behind the film was great but the narrative choices left me conflicted and disappointed.
Bellbottom (2021)
It's good
From a technical standpoint the movie looks gorgious (cinematography, color grading, transitions, production design, wordrobe, makeup). The acting is good accross the board Akshay Kumar and Zain Khan Durrani being the highlights. The CG looks okay enough to not be a eye sour. Over all very competently helmed film. Special praise to Lara Dutta's makeup artist who is just fantastic.
Some negatives:
1. The story lacks tension. At no point I felt the hostages were in any real danger largely because the movie had no interest in developing any of the hostage characters.
2. For a Raw agent, using the cover of a storm may seem a brilliant plan but in cinema it comes off as a Deus-ex machina. The storm did so much of the heavy lifting for our heros that the climax hardly feels earned.
3. Our lead mostly stays unchanged by the end of the film. He was the best, he had no doubts, he faced a challenge, overcame the challenge, and came out as the best. Enjoyable? Could be. Forgettable? Definitely.
4. This one is subjective but in my openion Indian audiances have come to a point where songs for the sake of having songs feel wired specially if they aren't thematically aligned with the narrative.
Final thoughts:
Inspite of it's issues I enjoyed the film overall. There are plenty of bad movies out there and thankfully Bellbottom isn't one of them.