Now You See Me (2013)

 

Genre: Crime/Mystery/Action

 

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Morgan Freeman, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco, Isla Fisher, Melanie Laurent, Michael Caine

 

Magic is the art of manipulation of sight and nothing else. It is due to this very art of manipulation, 4 magicians are brought together to become the ultimate magic troupe in history. J. Daniel Atlas aka The Lovers (Eisenberg), Merritt McKinley aka The Hermit (Harrelson), Henley Reeves aka The High Priestess (Fisher) and Jack Wilder aka Death (Fisher) come together to form the Four Horsemen. The four travel throughout the country, thrilling audiences when suddenly during a show in Las Vegas they announce that they are going to rob a bank standing right there on stage. The troupe's antics and success in pulling off the stunt shakes the police force but are unable to pin anything against the Four Horseman on the basis of lack of logical proof. Dylan Rhodes (Ruffalo) is assigned the task to crack the case and assisted by Alma Dray (Laurent) from Interpol but no matter what Dylan does, the horseman are always 2 steps ahead of him. The movie is an example of when the trailer is far better than the actual movie in itself. The way magic looks marvellous at first sight but when you dig deeper you realise things are not all that great, this movie too follows a similar path. It is visually enticing and can keep you glued but the story itself is extremely shaky and is built upon co-incidents, assumptions, unrealistic occurrences and unresolved mysteries. The flaws in the story are pretty much endless and don't be surprised if you get up in the end scratching your head. The idea of a heist movie with magicians is definitely unique, but the movie lacked the strong story to support this thought.

 

Thumbs up: Visually delighting

Thumbs down: Flawed story with too many gaping loopholes

Trance (2013)

Rating : 6/10
Release Date : March, 2013
Time : 101 minutes
Director : Danny Boyle; Writers : Joe Ahearne, John Hodge; Music : Rick Smith
Starring : James McAvoy, Vincent Cassel, Rosario Dawson, Danny Sapani, Matt Cross, Wahab Sheikh

 

James McAvoy and Vincent Cassel make the film watchable, but only just…

There is a daring theft of a painting from an art gallery, with James McAvoy as an insider, part of the gang which has stolen it. Only problem is he has forgotten where its hidden. And with conventional medicine proving inadequate (a bit too quickly), hypno-therapy with the delectable Rosario Dawson is tried out. With some unexpected effects.

There is a bit too much mumbo-jumbo, the film goes completely off-track in the middle, becoming unrealistic and keeping viewers attention only by resorting to some nudity and sex. Vincent Cassel is excellent as always, James adds life to the proceedings (kind of like his role in Wanted) and the others do their job decently. Rosario is probably the weakest link – pouts a bit too much, looks old, haggard in parts…

The painting itself, Francisco Goya’s 1798 Oil on canvas ‘Witches in the Air’, the one that’s stolen, is stunning…one can understand why everyone goes to such lengths to get it back. That and its multi-million pound price tag…

About Time (2013)

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : 11th October, 2013
Time : 123 minutes
Director & Writer: Richard Curtis; Music : Nick Laird-Clowes
Starring : Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams, Bill Nighy, Lydia Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Richard Cordery, Joshua McGuire, Margot Robbie, Tom Hollander, Tom Hughes

One of the alternate taglines for my book, Eighteen Plus, was ‘Romantic Comedies. With sex’, before we chose to go with the much classier ‘Bedtime Stories. For Grown-Ups’. The reason I bring that up is that the tagline for this movie could just as easily have been ‘Romantic Comedy. With Time Travel’ or even ‘A Father-Son relationship. With a touch of Science Fiction’

 

The men in Bill Nighy’s family have always had a secret. After they turn twenty one, they can travel back in time. Only back in their own lives, as Bill Nighy explains to his bewildered son, Domhnall, “You cant kill Hitler or shag Helen of Troy” but you can travel, quite easily, back and forth, by simply visualizing the moment you want to be transported to. Key question now confronting the gob-smacked Dom is, what do you do with such a gift ? He and his father attempt to find out what they (and anyone else) should want out of life, with or without such an ability…

I love British humour and this film is no exception, especially coming from Richard Curtis and starring the lovely Rachel McAdams (as Domnhall’s love interest), who continues to endear herself to me in every role I see her in. Domhnall, who revels in his lead role bringing the right amount of bewilderment and confidence to his character and most importantly, Bill Nighy, who steals the show with his fantastic turn as the father, combining humour and life’s lessons with effortless ease…

 

The bizarre walks to the beach in Cornwall, the movie sessions, the ping pong games, the early, sweet crush on Margot Robbie, the eccentric sister, Lydia, the brusque mother, Lindsay, the impeccably dressed uncle, Richard, the walks in and out of the tube station with Rachel, the importance of Kate Moss, the crazy playwright, Tom and the gentle humour permeating every scene make it really enjoyable.

 

The pace, never too nippy ever, does flag a bit, especially in the second half. The time travel thing does seem like a little bit of a bolt on – and you do wonder, if someone had that gift, would he solely use it to chase love, as Dom seems to, without ever getting tempted to go for money, fame or power ?

However, the end does come together nicely. Important lessons to most of us, who seem too absorbed in building for the future to be able to take our days, calmly, one at a time, stopping ever so often to reflect, smell the coffee and the roses around us, to revel in what we do have rather than forever hanker for what we don’t. Happiness, after all, doesn’t need to be postponed for tomorrow but can be enjoyed everyday…

Elysium (2013)

Rating : 7/10
Release Date : August, 2013
Time : 109 minutes
Director & Writer : Neil Blomkamp; Music : Ryan Amon
Starring : Matt Damon, Jodie Foster, Sharlto Copley, Alice Braga, Emma Tremblay, Diego Luna, Wagner Moura, Richard Fichtner, Faran Tahir

 

Its about rich, well-connected people building walls to keep the riff-raff out, creating a utopia with the best of facilities, while the rest have to make do with sub-standard medical care, pollution etc…the revolt against this, obviously, is never too far off…

Elysium was set up in space to combat over-crowding on Earth. The unending settlements (think Mumbai slums, the favelas of Rio or the township of Soweto and apply everywhere) are teeming with people while the giant space station of Elysium has plush houses, manicured lawns, king sized pools. Jodie Foster is the ball-busting Secretary of Elysium, who is very clear that she will keep illegal immigrants from Earth, out using any means…And Matt Damon, after an accident in the factory he works in on Earth, is now equally determined to get in…Sharlto Copley is the muscle Jodie illegally employs on Earth to keep the people out…And Alice Braga is a nurse and childhood friend of Matt’s, who gets caught up in the mess, and also has a vested interest as her daughter, Emma, can only be cured on Elysium…

Not all things make complete sense but there is an unmistakable larger point being made here (nice to see a Mr Patel as President of Elysium too!). The film is pacy, the action doesn’t stop for a single minute and the intrigue is sustained right through, though the end is predictable. Matt Damon is good but the film works primarily on Jodie Foster’s feisty turn and Sharlto’s menacing role as the enforcer. Diego Luna and Wagner Moura also lend colour as people helping Matt get on to Elysium.

If you think about it, the rich, famous and connected the world over (the more socialistically inclined Europe being a possible exception) live exactly in the same manner. Most of us live in cosy, gated communities, with some form of security or the other, designed to keep the lower classes away, living a life they can never afford to attain, with facilities (medical, pools, schools, food) they can never have. 

Runner Runner (2013)

 

 

 

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 4th October, 2013
Time : 91 minutes
Director : Brad Furman; Writers : Brian Koppelman, David Levien; Music : Christophe Beck
Starring : Justin Timberlake, Ben Affleck, Gemma Arterton, Anthony Mackie, Yul Vasquez, Christian George, Michael Esper, Oliver Cooper, John Heard

 

When things are too good to be true…

Justin, studying for his Princeton Masters, is a maths whiz and successful Wall-Street broker who lost his money in the bust. His tuition fee is in jeopardy so he does what most sane blokes do, gambles it all on an online gaming site. And loses. Realizes he’s been cheated so does what most sane guys do – not complain on internet forums but flies to Costa Rica to seek out the owner of the gambling site, Ben Affleck. As luck would have it, he even manages to meet the billionaire. And starts working for him. And realizes there’s more to things than meet the eye…including the gorgeous Gemma, who works for Ben…

There are two problems with the film – it doesn’t make sense and its too pat / too simple / too predictable – the events of the second half would have even lower odds than, to use a quote from the film, someone getting a flush in a game of Texas Hold-Em. You keep watching just because it moves along at a nice pace and is populated by good-looking people who act decently (not great but good enough to keep you interested). The locales are nice…Costa Rica with its bars, beaches and brothels…

The end especially doesn’t work at all (in terms of logic) but then you would be fair to point out most movie watchers should’ve abandoned logic shortly into the film…the makers try just too hard to give us a happy ending, even when a lot of what they make the characters do doesn’t make sense… 

Holy Smoke! (1999)

 

 

 

Drama

 

Starring: Kate Winslet, Harvey Keitel, Sophie Lee, Dan Wylie, Paul Goddard

 

India has long been known as the land of snake charmers, exotic lifestyle and enlightenment. People travel the world to meet babas and follow cults that at times might turn out to be a little extreme. Ruth Barron (Winslet) travelled to India with a friend on vacation but soon got mesmerised by a Baba who might have drugged her and psychologically convinced her to be a part of his cult. Her concerned parents, back in Australia, manage to convince her to return home on the false pretext that her father was ill. They hire P.J. Waters (Keiter) an American exit counsellor who specialises in making people leave cults in just 3 days. Ruth and Waters are sent to live in isolation in the Outback where Waters must now convince her to forget about Baba and go back to her life with her parents in Australia. A very interesting story and which builds up in the initial half an hour well, but somehow fails to progress in the same manner throughout. One expects to get involved in the entire cult exiting procedure but progression from day 1 to day 2 does not happen in the linear fashion and you don't quite understand why and how something has happened. Kate Winslet has done good justice to her role and has performed well, however, she has been the only performer with more or less the entire movie resting on her shoulders. A movie to watch out only for Kate Winslet and nothing else.

 

 

Mickey Virus (2013)

 

 

Starring: Manish Paul, Elli Avram, Manish Choudhary, Varun Badola, Puja Gupta, Nitesh Pandey

 

Today's youth is extremely tech-savvy and most of them would not get lost within all the technology and gadgets that are floating around these days. Mickey Virus (Paul) is one such techie youngster who, along with his friends, solve IT issues, create viruses, hack into peoples accounts and a lot more for money. ACP Siddharth (Choudhary) of the New Delhi police, gets wind of Mickey and his accomplishments and persuades him to do some good work for the police force and help them round up hackers who are carrying out illegal activities. Mickey and his friends are developing a game called Kung Fu Chameli and ironically, he meets his real life Chameli who resembles her in almost every way. Mickey falls in love with Kamayani (Avram) but he later realises that her love costed him a lot when one fine morning he is charged with murder and money laundering, something he never actually did. The movie tries to target the young guns and toady's lifestyle and mix that with a crime story. Manish Paul is known for his comedy acts and he has skilfully carried them forward to the movie. The plot and movie progression is smooth and linear but what actually gave everything away is the climax. The movie fails to open in an exciting manner, and instead becomes a narration of the entire plot and lands up being one big joke. It was a good attempt with almost everything correct, but the ultimate suspense is what gave this movie away. An interesting watch just for one time, but do not expect too much.