Movie Review – San Andreas (2015) – English

Movie Review – San Andreas (2015) – English

Ok ! Here’s how the movie came into being I guess.   Some random guy with tons of money employed a writer to script a “Disaster” movie.  And this “adherence to standards” kind of a writer went about penning down or rather creating the plot and sequences.  Alrighty, for now let you and I create the story through an evolutionary “Fill in the blanks technique”.

1.              ______________ Disaster­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­___________city______________happy ending
2.              ______ disaster earthquake ______seismic zone_____California, San Fransciso, bridge collapse_________happy pending (Logic – 9 out of 10 disaster movies happen in California and the iconic bridge will have to collapse and the Hoover dam as well  you see).  Ok first the Hoover dam and then the Golden Gate bridge in that order.
3.             __________trapped family _____ disaster quake seismic zone,  California....lot of buildings will collapse.....happy ending
4.       Add several doses of emotion.  Ofcourse all disaster movies will have an estranged family.  Wife wants divorce and is seeing some other guy...husband the hero (we all need to sympathize with this poor fella), and add a son or a daughter.  If daughter then the daughter will love the Dad soooo much...but she will have a boy friend and the father does not like his cho chweet daughter to be with the boyfriend until there comes a force fit scene where the boy friends fights through challenges, doesn’t care about his life and saves the daughter.  And lo behold, the father suddenly acknowledges the boyfriends presence.  Usually in disaster movies the family will have a daughter and not a son. 
5.       Estranged trapped family with husband (the “paapam” guy), his wife who is wanting to settle with someone else, the daughter who is travelling (she has to be in a different city when disaster strikes) suddenly are struck with a disastrous earthquake.  Meanwhile, there is another nerdy professorial researcher  (in California Tech) who models quakes with a bunch of students.  He is feeling very happy first because his models are predicting the right things...but hold on a bit..there is “Oh My God”..this can’t be happening..”oMG” there is a mother of all quakes that is going to hit.  And the first quake hits.....happy ending.
6.       Estranged trapped.........the earth will split only after the heroine crosses the road or the earth will split just by the side of where the heroine is running...and after sometime the earth will shatter on the path the heroine is running ahead of her and she will have no where to go.  Aha, here comes the hero, he jumps, swims, crawls, uses his muscle to move mountains and gets his wife out of the situation...happy ending

Honey, It’s going to be alright, Honey, I will get our daughter back.  Honey, are you ok, Honey..Honey...Honey.  Suddenly, there will be lots of dialogues starting and ending with Honey, i will be right back, I love you some more honey honey honey.

Finally, after some 75% of the junta dies, the bridge collapses, the hero, heroine and daughter are ok..they are together and there is honey all around.

Easy isn’t it.  Scripting a disaster movie??.  Good, now get the SFX fellow, ask him to create some tall and very tall buildings, get them to crash and lo you have a movie.

The SFX were good, but as you would have guessed by now the banality,  (or the lack of originality) in the story I will go for a 2 * rating for this one.

Movie Review: Mission Impossible 5

Movie Review: Mission Impossible 5 - Rouge Nation: I went, I saw and I liked. Liked "why because" I understood every dialogue and the entire plot. Unlike MI 1 and others, the masks were lesser and I exactly knew who was doing what. Liked because, the stunts were good....aeroplane stunt covered check, car stunt covered check, bike stunt covered check..they missed a train stunt and a boat stunt though. I liked the background score and I lovvveddd Rebecca Ferguson (eye candy stuff she was). The plot kind of love hate story between the US intelligence and the British. Ofcourse the guy has to be from the US and the girl (Rebecca, if you will) from the Great Britain....a bit of "Don" I need the disc that has the names of....and a rogue villain who will destroy the globe. All said, I still liked MI5. Watch it in a good theatre. A definite 4 out of 5 if you like some James Bondish action..

Movie Review: Baahubali 2015 Telugu

Movie Review: Baahubali - Much has been written about this movie (and I will hence resort to brevity). It was good. The Cinematography and the scale unparalleled in Indian Cinema. Some of the stunt sequences were breathtaking. Well not too much of gravity defying stunts thankfully..I felt that the cast could have been better. For an epic movie like this, the lead actor should have a thunderous voice, should have good expressions, passion for example. Prabhas was a minus on these counts. Just having a great built is not the only qualification. Ramyakrishna definitely stood out..Rana looked good but yet to see more of him. Saw this movie in Dolby Atmos and the background score was very good. For those you have not yet watched, please do. A 3.5/5.

Trains

Easily one of my favourite pass times. A sleeper class journey gazing out of the window, feeling the wind hit the face, ears absorb the thundering rhythm, while the eyes take in visuals, the nose smells the dieseled smoke and the mind furiously calculates the speed counting the time elapsed between poles. And ofcourse the counting of the compartments.. I will never age when it comes to trains.....

Picture credit: Sruti Meher Nori

Movie Review Kick 2 (2015)

Movie Review: Kick II (Telugu) - Aug 2015
Expect the expected. It was a Ravi Teja flick. Lots of energy, lots of noise, lots of shouting, lots of fights, lots of melodrama and lots of comedy. But kind of disappointing, I must say. Ravi says he lives and wants to live in "Comfort" but add an "un" to that word and that was how I felt. Comedy went awry at times even though there was Brahmi. The drama was a bit hard to digest. The shouts a bit unbearable. Could have done with some lesser fights. A bit of Rowdy Rathore, a bit of Sholay, a bit of "the savior" will come to rid us from the Thakur...Tending towards 3 out of 5 but not there I should say.
The photo was shot before we entered the hall...we thought of taking another facing the poster and kicking it post coming out smile emoticon

Movie Review - Everest 2015

Movie Review - Everest (2015) - This is not a regular "Vertical Limit" Human vs Human but more of Human vs Mountain kind of a movie. Not really a documentary but a Movie-mentary if you will. Stunning cinematography, exquisite capture of the mountain ranges are the highlights. You feel how tiny you are in perspective. There is not much of a story though. Slow to start getting the characters in place and then rushing the adrenaline pushing part quickly. Certainly, Everest leaves you with questions on "Why at all does one take on challenges in life, knowing very well the risks it offers". There are some answers to this when the characters reason it out. But then again not too convincingly. Watching Everest on the big screen/IMAX helps magnify Everests' majesty. You will certainly have the vicarious feeling of being there, feeling dizzy, breathless and climbing by yourselves. It certainly is a substitute for the real journey...A 3.5/5.

The newspaper Boys

The News paper boys: Did you know how every morning the paper boy delivers your choice of your newspaper at exactly the same time and rarely does he err in pushing the wrong paper through your door? Did you know how the distribution works? Yes? maybe? No?
I have been witness to the events that happen from 4:30 am and let me pick the Punjagutta, Hyderabad distribution centre. Vans deliver newspapers post printing to a few very small shops in the small lane adjacent to the HDFC bank. These shops operate only until 7 am. The heads of each end newspaper distribution unit (atleast 20 such units) purchase these news papers exactly as they know how many will get consumed @ 99% accuracy levels. They get their bundles to the nearest open space (see picture attached) and the boys then get to work. They insert pamphlets at a dizzy pace and each of the boys know the exact sequence of whose house first which paper to be delivered and whose next and so on. The stacking takes place in that exact sequence. So I asked, how do you remember the sequence Pat came the reply "We just know".
Whilst, the stacking happens, a mobile chai wala makes rounds offering "shots" of chai to these boys. And then there some folks who cannot wait to read the news and they come directly pay and pick up their paper. The head boy keeps shouting to his boys to quicken the pace and get the stack ready while another kid yawns the morning away..
Go through the place by 7 am and you will not even notice traces of the flurried activity that was enacted an hour earlier.
It definitely is a treat to watch this morning industry...Easily will qualify as a 6 sigma activity much a la the dabba wallas of Mumbai..