Have been quite busy all this week....I am moving out of wipro..so had a lot of formalities...to complete...but nevertheless...I did what I love the most...watch a movie...and here I am with my opinion of the movie!!! Return of the Superman...:-)
A long awaited movie...sure...has the elements of Fantasy stories...to take it far into the levels of X-men and Spiderman...but somewhere in between lacks the killer punch that would star-bolt such movies to famedom....
Yeah...I was kind of disappointed after the movie...no strong script presence...and it rains super heroistic scenes in Superman Returns at regular intervals...and thats it to marvel about in the movie....
I am still wondering and cant come to an understanding for all the logical reasoning that I learnt!!!...why on earth hollywood movies are trying to be bollywood-ish, while all our life-time we want to emulate hollywood-ish style of making superlative movies....
Its just not about Superman...even MI 3 gave more than a subtle hint of this stance...."too much of a sentiment" is not a safe ingredient for such action movies....because the protagonist starts acting according to his feeling instead of acting according to his thinking.... which hampers whatever left-over logic in the script
Superman Returns also suffers due to this predicament....why on earth do u want so much of dialogue in a superman movie....I am sorry...I felt the movie lacked direction in the literal sense....there is so much of potential for such movies to provide over-the-earth entertainment...and I am at dismay when they say 100 crores is the cost for the movie which had at the most 10 powerful fantasy scenes....why????
Brandon Routh defintely looks alike Christopher Reeve...but the Kent character was grossly under-developed....which was sad...:-(...
Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor was the only saving grace for the movie....on the acting front I should say...he was "magnificent"...if I should use only one word...:-)...real refresher of a role...after a long time...the big baddie is also a baldie in the movie...that adds the excitement to the sketch...:-)
the computer graphics really looked childish at places...according to Hollywood standards....particularly the scenes when Lex Luthor would launch a piece of Kryptonite onto the ocean aboard a ship looked unprofessionally graphical for a hollywood movie....what happened to the CGI we see in Hollywood movies??? I felt sorry for the movie....it was like watching an Indian movie...considering and giving due respects to the budgetary shackles for an Indian film....:-)
All these cribbing apart..did the movie have anything worthy..??? if that's what is ur next question....u have an answer....YES...the movie has some bright moments as well....the sound effects and the excitement in the fantasy scenes are too good...and just super-enjoyable....thats what one goes for in a superman movie....so please provide more of those...from now on atleast...:-)
Over all verdict would be : Superman doesn't do the Krrish act!!! KRRISH was much better on the merit of a better script and story to tell....I wonder what Krrish could have achieved with all the bucks that are at the disposal of a Hollywood director....will we ever graduate there???
Friday, June 30, 2006
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Krrish - A movie review
Just came back after watching Krrish (First Day First Show) !!!
One Liner - Krrish 2 should come to satiate the half-filled expectations...
Krrish is a very very good movie...a clean movie in Indian standards...can even be called a cross-over movie...in the true sense...the huge bucks that have been invested haven't gone waste...:-)..yes...the technical brilliance of the movie is a cornerstone...though the visual effects were cartoonish at a couple of places!!
The Rakesh Roshan family has clicked the third time in a row...I should say!!! Krrish is a clean sequel to Koi Mil Gaya....
The biggest drawback of the movie...could be the fact that....KRRISH was touted to be a superman-ish character.....a fantasy one...but the movie doesn't do the needed justice to establish his credentials...as staunch as a hollywood movie would do....Agreed there are many scenes were he saves lifes and does hara-kiri...but the plot is more sentimental than fantasy material....thats one place where people will get disappointed...not for what it offers...but what people wanted it to offer.....but on account of pure merit of what the movie offers....it is bound to succeed with Indian audiences. Atleast the movie still seems Indian..which is its strong point I would say!!!
Onto the plot...
Krishna Mehra is the prodigy child of Rohit Mehra (from Koi Mil Gaya), who seems to have inherited supernatural powers from his father....albeit looking normal (unlike his father)...lives in isolation mainly due to the precaution taken by his grandmother Rekha (also from KMG). Dashes onto save Priyanka Chopra(Priya) on her Indian holiday....and befriends her and also promptly falls for her charm....which is returned from Priyanka Chopra as well...and the plot moves onto Singapore, where Priya resides...not before Rekha dusts the past - of what happened after the movie Koi Mil Gaya and before Krrish - before us and Krishna....and he vows not to use his powers lest his identity be revealed.....Come Singapore and his supreme powers are wanted at various places...and he becomes KRRISH, the masked saviour...(which has to be the way out in such movies)....some interesting scenes in this build-up of the character... and in comes the badman- akin to Hollywood movies...Naseerudin Shah...and his wicked plans to be the saviour of the world....which are leaked out by his security officer...which lead to some interesting scenes and to the climax, when Krrish flexes his muscles...and all ends well...
So how does the movie fare??? Actually very well done ...screenplay ...very natural at places... music gels well with the movie...direction...as much as is required...could have been better was the reaction at places...character sketches are ample and well developed and everything is natural for this fantasy film...which is very surprsing...doesn't look like a contorted story line trying to drive in some crazy facts...with unbelievable sick screenplay.....so in sum...a very good film for the family audience...
On to the characters....
Hritik Roshan as the protagonist of the movie...gets FULL MARKS for his emoting...action sequences..dance...all in all one of the most worthy hero material currently in Indian cinema...would love to see such movies of hritik like the hollywood flicks....the naiveness and the controlled emotions he shows in India and singapore...are really well captured by the director...the flying stunts he does gel well with physique...which is a great plus...for the movie...Dance...ahhh...hritik is godly at this...it comes so naturally to him...it looks like Prabhu Deva in hritik's physique...amazing movements..which makes the group dancers pale in comparison..which is a rarity for heros..:-)
Priyanka Chopra does her role perfectly as required...but infact has some acting to do...which she manages well....but she looks gorgoeus on screen..a major plus for the movie...:-)
Naseerudin Shah looks classy and perfectly fits the witty villian role...much like the baddies of Hollywood...I really enjoyed his performance...every bit of his nonchalant acting...Great!!!
Rekha - she ceases to amaze...and does what is required of her....
other characters dont drag and are short and crisp....
No major logical flaws in such a fantasy movie...is a creditable task in itself!!! The movie seems to be stuck between Hollywood and Bollywood...and it is evident that there has been some confusion in the mind of the director..to go which way....coz the movie has the liberty to go the hollywood way..but risking away from bollywood ways maybe suicidal for the success of the movie..which is bound to happen for any experimental cinema...and Krrish passes the experimental phase...and is bound to succeed according to me...if you remove the superman-expectations out of the movie...You have SUPERMAN that RETURNS next week (30th June) to the theatres!!!!
I would preferably expect KRRISH 2, to see the exploits of Krishna Mehra in saving the world(remember Neo does things effortlessly once he comes THE ONE in part 2...something like that..!!)...which would definetely be welcomed by Indian audiences....Are the ROSHANS hearing????
VERDICT : 4 out of 5 (coz KRRISH 2 is awaited)
One Liner - Krrish 2 should come to satiate the half-filled expectations...
Krrish is a very very good movie...a clean movie in Indian standards...can even be called a cross-over movie...in the true sense...the huge bucks that have been invested haven't gone waste...:-)..yes...the technical brilliance of the movie is a cornerstone...though the visual effects were cartoonish at a couple of places!!
The Rakesh Roshan family has clicked the third time in a row...I should say!!! Krrish is a clean sequel to Koi Mil Gaya....
The biggest drawback of the movie...could be the fact that....KRRISH was touted to be a superman-ish character.....a fantasy one...but the movie doesn't do the needed justice to establish his credentials...as staunch as a hollywood movie would do....Agreed there are many scenes were he saves lifes and does hara-kiri...but the plot is more sentimental than fantasy material....thats one place where people will get disappointed...not for what it offers...but what people wanted it to offer.....but on account of pure merit of what the movie offers....it is bound to succeed with Indian audiences. Atleast the movie still seems Indian..which is its strong point I would say!!!
Onto the plot...
Krishna Mehra is the prodigy child of Rohit Mehra (from Koi Mil Gaya), who seems to have inherited supernatural powers from his father....albeit looking normal (unlike his father)...lives in isolation mainly due to the precaution taken by his grandmother Rekha (also from KMG). Dashes onto save Priyanka Chopra(Priya) on her Indian holiday....and befriends her and also promptly falls for her charm....which is returned from Priyanka Chopra as well...and the plot moves onto Singapore, where Priya resides...not before Rekha dusts the past - of what happened after the movie Koi Mil Gaya and before Krrish - before us and Krishna....and he vows not to use his powers lest his identity be revealed.....Come Singapore and his supreme powers are wanted at various places...and he becomes KRRISH, the masked saviour...(which has to be the way out in such movies)....some interesting scenes in this build-up of the character... and in comes the badman- akin to Hollywood movies...Naseerudin Shah...and his wicked plans to be the saviour of the world....which are leaked out by his security officer...which lead to some interesting scenes and to the climax, when Krrish flexes his muscles...and all ends well...
So how does the movie fare??? Actually very well done ...screenplay ...very natural at places... music gels well with the movie...direction...as much as is required...could have been better was the reaction at places...character sketches are ample and well developed and everything is natural for this fantasy film...which is very surprsing...doesn't look like a contorted story line trying to drive in some crazy facts...with unbelievable sick screenplay.....so in sum...a very good film for the family audience...
On to the characters....
Hritik Roshan as the protagonist of the movie...gets FULL MARKS for his emoting...action sequences..dance...all in all one of the most worthy hero material currently in Indian cinema...would love to see such movies of hritik like the hollywood flicks....the naiveness and the controlled emotions he shows in India and singapore...are really well captured by the director...the flying stunts he does gel well with physique...which is a great plus...for the movie...Dance...ahhh...hritik is godly at this...it comes so naturally to him...it looks like Prabhu Deva in hritik's physique...amazing movements..which makes the group dancers pale in comparison..which is a rarity for heros..:-)
Priyanka Chopra does her role perfectly as required...but infact has some acting to do...which she manages well....but she looks gorgoeus on screen..a major plus for the movie...:-)
Naseerudin Shah looks classy and perfectly fits the witty villian role...much like the baddies of Hollywood...I really enjoyed his performance...every bit of his nonchalant acting...Great!!!
Rekha - she ceases to amaze...and does what is required of her....
other characters dont drag and are short and crisp....
No major logical flaws in such a fantasy movie...is a creditable task in itself!!! The movie seems to be stuck between Hollywood and Bollywood...and it is evident that there has been some confusion in the mind of the director..to go which way....coz the movie has the liberty to go the hollywood way..but risking away from bollywood ways maybe suicidal for the success of the movie..which is bound to happen for any experimental cinema...and Krrish passes the experimental phase...and is bound to succeed according to me...if you remove the superman-expectations out of the movie...You have SUPERMAN that RETURNS next week (30th June) to the theatres!!!!
I would preferably expect KRRISH 2, to see the exploits of Krishna Mehra in saving the world(remember Neo does things effortlessly once he comes THE ONE in part 2...something like that..!!)...which would definetely be welcomed by Indian audiences....Are the ROSHANS hearing????
VERDICT : 4 out of 5 (coz KRRISH 2 is awaited)
Friday, June 23, 2006
The career called Modelling
I just finished reading this helluva weblog....it is about models and the nemesis of drugs...and other related problems....I found it enlightening and worth sharing with others...who might not have read this!!! So here it is..jus follow the link..and u shd be enlightened!!!
Rashmi Bansal - Behind Pretty Pictures
Rashmi Bansal - Behind Pretty Pictures
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Open Source obsession
People around me, know this better...my interests in writing are on par with my obsession with anything that can be called - Open Source - in the true sense...
Open Source - what it means to me and how it emanates from the Analytical Reasoning section of my brain reads as follows....just to clear the misconception (that they have never doubted) people have about open source !!!
"a whole new approach to transparent and clean source code development which is *free* to use/modify/publish and when one means free, it is free as in 'free'dom. There is a very smart licensing mechanism to safeguard the interests and foster faith in people who are into this aspect of software development. This makes a very interesting proposition for people to move to this domain, free from the shackles of proprietary domain. One does not necessarily *code* to get into this world....there are a wide range of things one can choose to contribute as. In this open world...every single person is an important entity in this system. From the end-user who embraces and evangelizes open source, to the people who contribute to the development of the open source movement in one way or the other form a focal point hard to ignore...and the astounding aspect is that every person out of this system gets recognized and credited for the contribution, which makes one crave for more contribution....It is a win-win situation for every one around...such an ideal world is hard to believe but harder to live without.... particularily when the propreitary world's threat is consuming monstrous proportions for both business & personal users alike"
ok...I am not sure if one can follow that...not that it is too abstract...just that it was too wordy according to me...so try taking these in the place of the above one...
"A world where one gets to use software applications free of cost and one can change the way things work with the software, if one wills to and give it back to the society and help build a better world to live in"
And this bug bit me three years back and I got hooked on to opensource as a part of my work...when I started to use Linux as the OS of choice...and my colleagues though they were aware of the open source aspects of Linux...weren't too interested in this avenue...they saw Linux more as a powerful way to combat Microsoft....but then I went on to understand that Linux was just the tip of the iceberg called Open Source...there are so many things that open source consists of. Just that Linux acts as the most popular pupil of this talented master..!!!
More than getting into Linux, and becoming a geek, I was more interested in this Open source aspect of this thingy....and started exploring this and was pleasantly surprised to find that there are so many things to Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), than just Linux...and that's what interested me most....
Coupled with the forceful nature of my other workplace..to use M$ software....I went further against the advocacy of the Redmond based Software giant's products.... and am still tuned to this...
so get to the end of this with this tag-line...(just reproducing some popular quote...definetely not credited to me!!!!)
"Get Liberated!! Reach the Source !!!"
Doesn't it sound philosophical and MATRIX-ian...yeah that's the beauty of open source...it syncs with so many other ideological things other than just source code!!!!
Open Source - what it means to me and how it emanates from the Analytical Reasoning section of my brain reads as follows....just to clear the misconception (that they have never doubted) people have about open source !!!
"a whole new approach to transparent and clean source code development which is *free* to use/modify/publish and when one means free, it is free as in 'free'dom. There is a very smart licensing mechanism to safeguard the interests and foster faith in people who are into this aspect of software development. This makes a very interesting proposition for people to move to this domain, free from the shackles of proprietary domain. One does not necessarily *code* to get into this world....there are a wide range of things one can choose to contribute as. In this open world...every single person is an important entity in this system. From the end-user who embraces and evangelizes open source, to the people who contribute to the development of the open source movement in one way or the other form a focal point hard to ignore...and the astounding aspect is that every person out of this system gets recognized and credited for the contribution, which makes one crave for more contribution....It is a win-win situation for every one around...such an ideal world is hard to believe but harder to live without.... particularily when the propreitary world's threat is consuming monstrous proportions for both business & personal users alike"
ok...I am not sure if one can follow that...not that it is too abstract...just that it was too wordy according to me...so try taking these in the place of the above one...
"A world where one gets to use software applications free of cost and one can change the way things work with the software, if one wills to and give it back to the society and help build a better world to live in"
And this bug bit me three years back and I got hooked on to opensource as a part of my work...when I started to use Linux as the OS of choice...and my colleagues though they were aware of the open source aspects of Linux...weren't too interested in this avenue...they saw Linux more as a powerful way to combat Microsoft....but then I went on to understand that Linux was just the tip of the iceberg called Open Source...there are so many things that open source consists of. Just that Linux acts as the most popular pupil of this talented master..!!!
More than getting into Linux, and becoming a geek, I was more interested in this Open source aspect of this thingy....and started exploring this and was pleasantly surprised to find that there are so many things to Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS), than just Linux...and that's what interested me most....
Coupled with the forceful nature of my other workplace..to use M$ software....I went further against the advocacy of the Redmond based Software giant's products.... and am still tuned to this...
so get to the end of this with this tag-line...(just reproducing some popular quote...definetely not credited to me!!!!)
"Get Liberated!! Reach the Source !!!"
Doesn't it sound philosophical and MATRIX-ian...yeah that's the beauty of open source...it syncs with so many other ideological things other than just source code!!!!
A new Me - the alter blogger
Yes...I should call this post that way only....!!! This blog has been online since december 2004 and I started this outlet system only to satiate my other interests than work....and have been pretty faithful with that ideology( I have never mixed my mainstream life with this exciting life) until today morning...when things seemed to have changed suddenly in a couple of hours!!!!
I have never written about my professional life, nor what I do other than blogging and reviewing movies...!!!! I *work*...as a software professional....a 'grist of the mill' stuff that I produce......nothing great!!! but nevertheless I can contribute something and have already - to the fraternity that I am part of....I wish to share that part of me as well, beginning from today...so you should be able to see a mixed bag of things that I will write on ...something relating to the IT fraternity as well, that I belong to...bread-and-butter stuff for me!!!
I have never written about my professional life, nor what I do other than blogging and reviewing movies...!!!! I *work*...as a software professional....a 'grist of the mill' stuff that I produce......nothing great!!! but nevertheless I can contribute something and have already - to the fraternity that I am part of....I wish to share that part of me as well, beginning from today...so you should be able to see a mixed bag of things that I will write on ...something relating to the IT fraternity as well, that I belong to...bread-and-butter stuff for me!!!
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Krrish - A Curtain Raiser
One of the most eagerly awaited Indian movies of 2006, this Krrish. Yep...as you would have heard by now, this is a sequel to the runaway hit "Koi Mil Gaya". Hritik Roshan sports the superman-ish character that one usually associates with Hollywood...and supposedly this is India's answer to Superman/Spiderman series...and I believe, if this succeeds (which I hope it should)...dont be surprised if you see sequels to this guy...like Krrish -2 !!!...because, if this fantasy is to the liking of the people of India...there is no reason such things shd not continue...and all that depends on the technical wizardy the movie can offer...coz...though Indian in the make, we would always match this movie with its hollywood brothers...as there is no benchmark Indian film for comparing this!!!..so hopes run high for this film...
last week I saw a spot on Vijay TV's MTP (Mathan's Thirai Parvai)...some exclusive shots of the movie's shoots in Singapore...they are looking cool and pep up the interest in the movie...Songs have become Hits already...so there's national interest in the movie I should say...(Tamil and Telugu versions are also getting released simultaneously)...
atleast I am ready for the movie...much like I expect any Shankar movie...this one's generated tremendous interest in me/public....
I hope for a super hit for Hritik...for the poor guy has put his heart and soul into the character...and seems to have paid off...he certainly looks like a super hero...when we can accept a petite, Toby Maguire as Spiderman...Hritik will definitely sell as Krissh....:-)
last week I saw a spot on Vijay TV's MTP (Mathan's Thirai Parvai)...some exclusive shots of the movie's shoots in Singapore...they are looking cool and pep up the interest in the movie...Songs have become Hits already...so there's national interest in the movie I should say...(Tamil and Telugu versions are also getting released simultaneously)...
atleast I am ready for the movie...much like I expect any Shankar movie...this one's generated tremendous interest in me/public....
I hope for a super hit for Hritik...for the poor guy has put his heart and soul into the character...and seems to have paid off...he certainly looks like a super hero...when we can accept a petite, Toby Maguire as Spiderman...Hritik will definitely sell as Krissh....:-)
Thursday, June 15, 2006
1000 Hits!!!
My Blog hit the coveted landmark of 1000 HITS just moments ago...and you know what my blog is listed as the first hit against my "name" search in google...which wasn't the case till sometime back..:-)...
So these two events have made my day!!!!....today
Thanks for everyone who visited my blog!!...I am not sure if anybody reads everything...except me...:-D...but atleast they visit...and know the existence of such a thing!!!....to begin with I am happy!!!...
Thanks again!!!!
So these two events have made my day!!!!....today
Thanks for everyone who visited my blog!!...I am not sure if anybody reads everything...except me...:-D...but atleast they visit...and know the existence of such a thing!!!....to begin with I am happy!!!...
Thanks again!!!!
Mission : Impossible : III - A Movie Review
ok...another MI movie....in 12 years...yes MI movies are made once in 6 years...:-)...just that much for the movie's credit...
You could be crazy to expect great storyline kinda stuff in such sequels...and as Murphy's SSS law states..."Sequels Seldom Succeed"....this one would cling on to word "Seldom" ...and will succeed, though not great in MI terms..:-)...
The movie...opens up with a clever screenplay of showing the climax and pepping up the audience...good... Philip Seymour Hoffman...is non-chalant in his ruthlessness...which is a great, great addition to the thrill factor in all the interrogation scenes between tom and the big baddie....actually, philip looks more "Ashish Vidyarthi-ish" ...than like a hollywood character....!!!
The familiar MI tune, is orchestrated very well...but I felt some variance to the tune, would have pepped up the background score...I wonder, what majic AR Rahman could have done to the solid base of the MI tune....I was disappointed at places with the background score...:-(..definetely ARR fares better...!!!
The story: Ethan Hunt is about to get married, and inbetween, he has to go to berlin to rescue a Intelligence agent of their group...takes off in a troupe of 4 people...a helluva techie gizmos and fundas intact...they trace the whereabouts and enter into the building without a problem!!!! and almost rescue the agent, alas...they find that she is injected with a detonator...and amidst a Helicopter chasing sequence, she dies...:-)...looks familiar for any bollywood, kollywood fan!!!... then he comes back home, marries his love, offbeat, and he finds a parcel for him from the dead agent, which reveals blatant secrets that his higher office is behind saving the baddie... and he travels to Rome to kidnap the baddie...does that to perfection...and enroute... the echelons of power take away the baddie typical to bollywood fashion and then Ethan Hunt is led to China...where his wife is kept as hostage...the baddie gives him a time race of getting the coveted target lest his wife gets killed...akin to our Vijayakanth's movies.....and it is a sentimental-cum-duty thing that he must accomplish...and guess what he accomplishes after some hungama in the climax...much like our kollywood heros....and SUBHAM at the end...:-)
So every indian knows and has seen hundreds of cop movies of this sort..and infact..if this was given to some Perarasu / KS Ravikumar, the movie would be much, much better....the only cushion this director had was, he was directing a big-time hollywood movie...and millions of bucks to back him up!!!! Pathetic is the word I can find for a ploy in the screenplay at the following instant "Just to say Tom Cruise can do efficient lip-reading during an important point of the movie...Inserted was a scene to tell people that he could lip-read, intruding in a Womens-only small talk by lip-reading over the glass window" This is schoolboyish screenplay, not expected/acceptable in hollywood movies of this big a stature...There are hundreds of subtler ways to tug in this info into the movie plot. There are too many drag scenes between Tom and his girl friend/wife..which is unwarranted for MI movies but needed for the senti-part of the movie...this is where you can figure out why Hollywood movies always outshine Indian movies...whenever indian movies harp on sentiment, a drag is imminent in the plot, which MI-3 couldn't avert, because it was much like an Indian Masala...:-)
....All said and done, the captain of this MI3 hasn't been unbearable...there were moments of brilliance and swift action...which definetely needs appreciation....particularily the vatican episode...was fantastic...the least to say...the screenplay was beautiful and crisp...every scene asthetically shot...I loved every moment of it...the berlin scenes were good...very good excitement...adrenalin starts rising in those scenes...but the same can't be associated with the Shangai scenes except for the tower-to-tower swinging!!!!...wow...what excitement it was...:-). The climax for such a built-up movie...should have been more exciting...thats the rule for such movies...and then both the baddies were knocked off in the most uncharacteristic fashion...TOM CRUISE not involved in both!!! Not acceptable!!!
On to the cast....
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the baddie has done justice to whatever has been offered to him...just a few scenes....the same as Lawrence Fishburne...both of these star actors have been grossly under utilized and their characters could have been better developed....no fault of theirs!!!The heroine of the movie was "yuck"...no real character depth, nor screen presence for the actor...I was unimpressed by the selection for the top-babe....but Maggie Q and the other agent in Berlin were much better...and their roles and emotion were far better...:-) Ving Rhames was seriously funny at times...out of this, there isn't much of any real character worth mentioning...!!
Overall Verdict would : Good..but could have been much, much better if the plot was lil less sentimental...there's the lesson Cruise/Wagner production should learn from...:-(
You could be crazy to expect great storyline kinda stuff in such sequels...and as Murphy's SSS law states..."Sequels Seldom Succeed"....this one would cling on to word "Seldom" ...and will succeed, though not great in MI terms..:-)...
The movie...opens up with a clever screenplay of showing the climax and pepping up the audience...good... Philip Seymour Hoffman...is non-chalant in his ruthlessness...which is a great, great addition to the thrill factor in all the interrogation scenes between tom and the big baddie....actually, philip looks more "Ashish Vidyarthi-ish" ...than like a hollywood character....!!!
The familiar MI tune, is orchestrated very well...but I felt some variance to the tune, would have pepped up the background score...I wonder, what majic AR Rahman could have done to the solid base of the MI tune....I was disappointed at places with the background score...:-(..definetely ARR fares better...!!!
The story: Ethan Hunt is about to get married, and inbetween, he has to go to berlin to rescue a Intelligence agent of their group...takes off in a troupe of 4 people...a helluva techie gizmos and fundas intact...they trace the whereabouts and enter into the building without a problem!!!! and almost rescue the agent, alas...they find that she is injected with a detonator...and amidst a Helicopter chasing sequence, she dies...:-)...looks familiar for any bollywood, kollywood fan!!!... then he comes back home, marries his love, offbeat, and he finds a parcel for him from the dead agent, which reveals blatant secrets that his higher office is behind saving the baddie... and he travels to Rome to kidnap the baddie...does that to perfection...and enroute... the echelons of power take away the baddie typical to bollywood fashion and then Ethan Hunt is led to China...where his wife is kept as hostage...the baddie gives him a time race of getting the coveted target lest his wife gets killed...akin to our Vijayakanth's movies.....and it is a sentimental-cum-duty thing that he must accomplish...and guess what he accomplishes after some hungama in the climax...much like our kollywood heros....and SUBHAM at the end...:-)
So every indian knows and has seen hundreds of cop movies of this sort..and infact..if this was given to some Perarasu / KS Ravikumar, the movie would be much, much better....the only cushion this director had was, he was directing a big-time hollywood movie...and millions of bucks to back him up!!!! Pathetic is the word I can find for a ploy in the screenplay at the following instant "Just to say Tom Cruise can do efficient lip-reading during an important point of the movie...Inserted was a scene to tell people that he could lip-read, intruding in a Womens-only small talk by lip-reading over the glass window" This is schoolboyish screenplay, not expected/acceptable in hollywood movies of this big a stature...There are hundreds of subtler ways to tug in this info into the movie plot. There are too many drag scenes between Tom and his girl friend/wife..which is unwarranted for MI movies but needed for the senti-part of the movie...this is where you can figure out why Hollywood movies always outshine Indian movies...whenever indian movies harp on sentiment, a drag is imminent in the plot, which MI-3 couldn't avert, because it was much like an Indian Masala...:-)
....All said and done, the captain of this MI3 hasn't been unbearable...there were moments of brilliance and swift action...which definetely needs appreciation....particularily the vatican episode...was fantastic...the least to say...the screenplay was beautiful and crisp...every scene asthetically shot...I loved every moment of it...the berlin scenes were good...very good excitement...adrenalin starts rising in those scenes...but the same can't be associated with the Shangai scenes except for the tower-to-tower swinging!!!!...wow...what excitement it was...:-). The climax for such a built-up movie...should have been more exciting...thats the rule for such movies...and then both the baddies were knocked off in the most uncharacteristic fashion...TOM CRUISE not involved in both!!! Not acceptable!!!
On to the cast....
Philip Seymour Hoffman as the baddie has done justice to whatever has been offered to him...just a few scenes....the same as Lawrence Fishburne...both of these star actors have been grossly under utilized and their characters could have been better developed....no fault of theirs!!!The heroine of the movie was "yuck"...no real character depth, nor screen presence for the actor...I was unimpressed by the selection for the top-babe....but Maggie Q and the other agent in Berlin were much better...and their roles and emotion were far better...:-) Ving Rhames was seriously funny at times...out of this, there isn't much of any real character worth mentioning...!!
Overall Verdict would : Good..but could have been much, much better if the plot was lil less sentimental...there's the lesson Cruise/Wagner production should learn from...:-(
Monday, June 12, 2006
Eventful June till now!!
June first week - This went off for me in movies on all alternate days!!! (fri, sun, tue, thur).... davinci code a couple of times, X-Men 3 and Pudhupettai all in PVR...plus a friend's farewell, so nothing else could I think off...
June second week - My sister's wedding, the first major function in my family!! Me, was the most important person in the wedding after the bride and bridegroom ( because of the rituals we have in our religion) so was completely busy the whole week!!!....It went off very well...and we are happy with the way the week passed off...a very eventful week and a very memorable one at that!!!!..will never forget the week in my life time!!...
June third week - just now clearing the backlog of all the blogs that I usuallly read...and some more orkutting... and some work if time permits....so my week is full!!!....
Lets see what's in store for the Fourth Week of June - I will complete 3 years of work officially during this week....I am getting older...my receeding hair line is a proof for that!!!...
June second week - My sister's wedding, the first major function in my family!! Me, was the most important person in the wedding after the bride and bridegroom ( because of the rituals we have in our religion) so was completely busy the whole week!!!....It went off very well...and we are happy with the way the week passed off...a very eventful week and a very memorable one at that!!!!..will never forget the week in my life time!!...
June third week - just now clearing the backlog of all the blogs that I usuallly read...and some more orkutting... and some work if time permits....so my week is full!!!....
Lets see what's in store for the Fourth Week of June - I will complete 3 years of work officially during this week....I am getting older...my receeding hair line is a proof for that!!!...
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