Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Fallout

Falls in place, almost always!

We get to the story right from scene one, there isn’t a thrilling sequence like the previous films. In fact there is more drama in the film than the other. We see Ethan thinking about his wife and then goes on mission. It’s like someone who goes to office for their daily work. Everyone is relaxed. Which makes even us relaxed. We think that there is going to be some normal sequence from where the next part of story would be got. When the plutonium core which they try to get, gets lost, happens because of drama too. Trying to save Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames). So we get to know that there is going to be lot of emotion in the film.

Because of his failure, an August Walker (an irritating Henry Cavill) joins Hunt in investigation. His role absolutely didn’t work for me. He looked like an Amul Baby villain from Dhanush movie. Especially during the climax sequences. It didn’t feel like he’s even a threat for IMF or Hunt. The White Widow sequences were a lull but I liked the way she looked and her makeup. Her characterization and her acting was top notch. Wish there were more typical MI moments in the film involving her.

The mid action sequence where Hunt tries to save Lane was not up to the mark of previous installments because of possible MI elements not being there in the movie. Nevertheless it still was thrilling. But I loved the scene where IMF plays double bluff to know that August Walker is indeed Lark, was good. But the problem for me is that I found that it’d be the double bluff. Even the first scene when the plutonium core lies in the middle of the escape road I thought it’d be taken and so it was. On top of it, the scene was not convincing.

But every scene from the movie till then gets overcome by the great grand finale. The last two minutes or so with Hunt and Helicopters on top of Nubra Valley was shot terrifically well. This film’s approach was more traditional than the other MI films where it’d be sequenced in its own way. But here everything was built for a grand climax. Not that I complain but when I look back it feels different than the other MI films.

If the film had a better villain for August Walker, may be I’d have loved it even more. Like I said before the drama extends even in the climax with Hunt’s wife being in the picture. Sometime before, there is even an emotional scene where Luther tells about Hunt’s wife to Ilsa. I loved the way Ilsa reacts to that scene as well as in the climax where she accolades her defusing the bomb along with Luther.

May be I’d have liked the film a lot better if I had not watched it along with Rogue Nation. Because many of the moments would be similar in a sequel. Even though the structure of this film is different than that of Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation, the similarity still is striking and not in stark contrast.

Movie Review – Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation

Hunt for Hunt

Ever since I watched the trailer of the film with Hunt hanging from a plane and asking Benji (Simon Pegg) to open the door I wanted to watch this film. It was in fact one of the best trailers that year for an action film. A film which I missed in theatres and wanted to watch ever since then, finally became true this time. I binged on the remaining part of this film series on a fine day. I felt that by indulging in a compulsive binge I spoilt little fun of it, otherwise it’d have been a terrific adventure. Apart from it I’ve watched bits and pieces of this film in TV whenever possible on my guilty watch Fridays. If not for these two factors, this would have been even more thrilling. But with Mission Impossible series, even if you know the story it still feels good to watch, thanks to terrific moments in film. Every film would have quite a few great moments in the film. My favorite moment would definitely be the Burj Khalifa scene. With part 4 the whole look of MI series got revived completely.

Rogue Doctor starts off with Hunt in some sort of torture chamber trying to escape out of it by different means. He gets an aid from some unknown person to escape. On another side IMF is disbanded and there is a hunt for Hunt. Quite unsurprisingly he doesn’t get caught and leads the people following him to the warehouse where he gives clues about Syndicate which the CIA fails to believe. He recruits his usual aids for the secret mission.

The first big moment of the film is a highly tense opera program which has few edge of the seat scenes. The movement of Rebecca Ferguson who was brilliant as Ilsa Faust is so fluidic that you’ll fall in love with this assassin instantly. Meanwhile there are other snipers too trying to kill the prime minister, who eventually gets killed. Anyways we don’t bother about him because all we want is high octane action which happens nonchalantly.

The relationship between Ilsa Faust and Ethan Hunt evolves beautifully. It’s not a Bond type relationship but something which both are longing. They are not really happy that they’re working for their agency because they can’t really have a life. Much like how Hunt is always apologetic about his ex-wife. Whenever Faust says, “we’re all the same” we see so much pain in her eyes and those scenes are shot quite beautifully too with absolute silence and close up.

The next big moment is the stealing of data from Casablanca. In fact that is The Moment, the MI moment of the film. Last time they dangled in the air so this time it was in water. It doesn’t match the Burj Khalifa scene but I don’t think it could be matched in any future films too. Still the Casablanca scene was shot very well. When he jumps into water, we could feel our heart skip a beat for a moment. And it’s also good that this time he fails and gets help from Ilsa. In fact this is the film where Hunt fails the maximum time and gets helped by others. Being more human. The extended chase scene and the lead to it is also terrific. The way he grabs the sunglasses before getting into the bike which ends meekly just to avoid hitting Ilsa. It was Ilsa dangling with his emotion.

The climax or the pre climax where the CIA lead is tricked the believe is hilarious and engaging but the scene post it with Benji in it wasn’t as action packed as I expected. Generally MI films follows a different template apart from another film. Here the focus is mainly on the mid film action sequence which ends up to be the most thrilling part of the film.

The beauty of films like these is there are so many scenes which work on its own. You don’t need to know the plot line or something. Just watching it while in break too feels good.

Movie Review – Ten Canoes

Strikingly different and wholesomely funny

Generally films in fest would mostly be very heavy movies, difficult to watch and introspect. Even if I could get some learning it’d always be coming out with a headache. Thanks to back to back movies, that’s another disadvantage. It feels more like muscling through the movie when I do so, forcing your brain to concentrate, running the last lap in marathon because you trained so hard till then. I know it’s difficult to understand for many but ask your friend who has been to film festivals and try to grasp as much as possible as if a movie apocalypse is going to happen.

The movie talks about aboriginal people of Australia, something we’ve not heard about. Australian history in fact is known very little. Maximum concentration of early people would center about red Indians, Africans and Mexican people but Australia as far I’ve read have been known as a modern city. How it became so we don’t know. Ten canoes was in fact part of a film festival by Australian Consulate, primarily to educate about Australian culture and its people. Was it educative? Yes. Was it preachy? A definite No. That’s why the film was a treat to watch.

I knew the film was doing rounds some time back as part of some festival and now because it was a NAIDOC (National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee) week. But mostly people don’t criticize a great movie and just tell that they’re awed by it even if they are not so. There are definitely great films which are not to be awed. I thought Ten Canoes would be one such boring drama. I knew it’d definitely not be like Apocalypto because, then it’d have definitely come up in the film circle. Another mistake that I made was I thought that it was a very recent movie but only off late got to know that it was made way back in 2006. Not really way back for my standard but if a movie which is not made in recent past is taken up for discussion it meant that it’s competing with a whole universe and not just movies from past year. That speaks for itself.

Within few minutes I understood that Ten Canoes is going to be docu drama without any violence or anything. It has frontal nudity, a bit of blood and violence but nothing like a carefully choreographed action sequence, in fact you don’t even feel that you’re seeing a community who’re naked on screen. You rather feel that you’re just learning about another community, not thinking of their clothing but only culture. That was the first point the director establishes. Second thing is the narrator, David Gulpilil, seems a famous personality. I haven’t watched any work of his but boy was he brilliant.

Gulpili keeps us intrigued in the movie throughout, through the story he tells to Dayindi. The cut back and forth are excellent. Just when it gets interesting and we want to hear the rest of the story he cuts to another story. Performed by the same actors. That’s another great filmmaking technique, a great idea executed to perfection. I remember a story which I wrote long back, ‘The girl who sat next to me’. Where I employed a great back and forth story.

Even though we want to know what happens in the story, the directors (Rolf de Heer and Peter Djigirr) silently achieve what they want. We get to know their culture, way of living without even our knowledge. Especially the making of canoes, their food habit, marriage etc. What would have been boring if made as a documentary. The film also has interesting characters, especially the honey crazy Birrinbirrin (Richard Birrinbirrin) and poor Dayindi (Jamie Gulpilil). Even the very thought of Birrinbirrin is making me smile and the climax or may I say anticlimax of Dayindi laugh out loud. I’d not like to delve much on the story. It’s a typical day in the life of the tribe. There were stories similar to ours and people similar to everywhere but the making what makes the movie highly entertaining.

It’s not usual to see so many people laugh during a foreign film screening. So to see the movie end with a collective cheer was so much fun. And as there were few who shared their experiences about aboriginal people and their interaction with it. That was really educative, like travel itself.

Movie Review – Eega

E-man and the masters of the universe

One film which I almost went to the theatre and came back. Those were the glorious days of Rs. 10 ticket and I wanted to watch it as night show but as tickets were over, couldn’t go. Could have gone for Rs. 120 tickets but something didn’t let me do it. I thought this film was not worth the money.

My opinion about the movie went stronger and stronger by days went. I hadn’t seen Magadheera back then but knew that it was quite a rage so people were thronging theatres for this movie. That’s the main reason I wanted to watch. But as I was very picky on the films that I used to watch I safely negated it that time. Next came Baahubali and again the thoughts of Naan Ee came to my mind with critics describing how Eega was the precursor of making a big budget film like Baahubali. I wish I had seen the film as Naan Ee instead of Eega.

The film begins with a voice over of a kid asking for a story from his father. It was an interesting way to begin because it’s a fantasy movie. But if it had not been that way may be it’d have been more serious, more believable. It ended in the same way too, in a funny note. Not that I complain because by the end of it I liked it that way.

The story is about a young man Nani (Nani) who falls in love with Bindu (Samantha), a micro artist who eventually gets killed by Sudeep, a business tycoon playboy billionaire. How he resurfaces as a fly and takes revenge, forms the crux of the story. How silly would it have been sounded on paper, but the way it was treated elevates the film to different level.

The attention to detail is brilliant. Even in the songs. When Samantha struggles to find a design, Nani in the final verse of the song says something about heart in heart and she gets the design right. That’s how brilliant the film is written. She being a micro artist gets to help Nani at the later stage with all the armory.

First person who should be appreciated for the film is Nani, for accepting a role which is so little. And having an impact even after his death. Whenever we see the fly we think that it is Nani himself. That too without the fly having a voice. That’s Rajamouli’s brilliance. Second person is Sudeep, to have acted brilliantly as a villain. The comic villainy works only because of him. He’s the one person who made the fly looked menacing. Samantha needless to say is cute as hell and does her role effectively. She hardly has any romantic or any glamorous sequence to show off.

Above all the main credit should definitely go to Rajamouli for his vision. To have believed that this story would work, giving a human treatment to the fly. Whenever Eega appears it’s like a mass superstar film. Especially in the climax when a glass breaks and you see so many flies reflection in the glass. That was like a mass scene from a superstar film and the beauty is it works like a mass scene in superstar film. That’s his brilliance. In the final scene when the fly tries to burn itself to make the bullet pass, it was again a brilliant scene where everyone could totally connect with it. While watching all these sequences the only thing I could think of is how great it’d have been if I had witnessed it on screen.

Movie Review – Pan’s Labyrinth

A fairytale with a twist

Even though I knew this movie was rated quite high by critics as well as audience, I was quite skeptical to watch the film. Mainly because of the poster. The poster was too cluttered, much to my annoyance. If there are too much details in the poster I safely omit looking at it and finding out what’s in there. In that way I didn’t like the poster. Much recently “Thor: Ragnarok” is another poster which I hated. Thanks to so much characters, so much cluttering in there.

But my assumption about the movie proved to be wrong, right from the scene one to film end. It was so gripping that may be this is the best film I’ve watched this year. What sets aside this film from that of others is that, the way it employs fantasy. It’s not just breaking away from monotony. It’s horrific either wise.

The setup is quite brilliant. This movie could have happened even in present day but it doesn’t. It happens in 1944 Spain. There are already a lot of tension there and that alone could be a standalone movie. But the way fantasy was woven into it was brilliant. In fact, knowing and watching it as a fantasy movie, the intriguing part is the additional story line apart from fantasy which is thrilling enough to keep you interested. Thus when both the parts work in tandem it becomes a double whammy.

There were various stereotypes which were broken and the fairy tale angle of the whole movie is beautiful. Right from scene one when a young Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) sets sight of an insect looking like a caterpillar, my initial reaction was annoyance. But she seemed to have like it. That may be due to the fact that she seems good in everything. May be her life is so hopeless that anything she looks she gets hope out of it. The same theory would apply when she follows the insect. A normal child who doesn’t read those fairytales wouldn’t have dared to go inside the labyrinth but she does. On top of it, she meets faun there who is ugly and scary unlike fairies from Disney movies. That’s how del Toro sets the whole tone of the movie. Keeping it eerie and getting us engaged.

The same thing applies for the whole movie. The tasks, medicine, happiness, sorrow etc. everything has a certain bit of eeriness to it. Nothing of it is beautiful but Ofelia bravely dares to do those tasks. Even in the second task, Ofelia was asked not to do only one thing, to not eat anything out there. She yields to the temptation. But it’s the same girl who protects her brother, even willing to be killed for his sake. How beautifully written about children as well as her childlike innocence.

The best thing to happen is in the climax. This is a kind of movie which will make us feel good when any bad situations happens to us. Like how we always want to escape to Hogwarts. If we are stuck in the middle of nowhere and get lost in some bushes we would want something like this movie to happen to our lives. So in the climax when the captain (Sergi López) shoots Ofelia, even though we know that the captain would be killed, we think that Ofelia would be saved. After all it’s a fairy tale but that doesn’t happen here. Unlike any other fairy tale, the main character is killed and no one on the mortal world knows that she has gone as princess in underworld. I too expected something like splitting of souls or any other gimmick to keep her alive because we loved her too much but that doesn’t happen. So the climax leaves you in a kind of dilemma, whether to be happy for her or sad that she died. And that’s the best feeling about the movie. That’s why the thought of the movie always resonates in us, even much time after we had watched the movie.

This movie has made me a fan of Guillermo del Toro and interested me in watching other films of his.

Movie Review – All About Eve

All about Ego

What I thought to be jolly good black and white film ended up to be an intense drama. Feel good films are best when it’s black and white. I feel that there is no superficiality between us and the screen when the movie is in black and white. Other things that might work would be noir and comedy. In the same order. But ‘All About Eve’ was not like the films that I had watched before. It grows on you and is a very hectic watch.

The film starts with a funny voice over about giving awards. At that point I thought it would be a comedy but not caper. Then it slowly shifts focus to the actors which revealed that it’s going to be a drama. I thought that the drama would be larger than life. In straight lines. But only when we watch the film, more than half of it we get to know how much we’ve got immersed in the film. So much so that there is no turning back. That’s a pretty dangerous zone, I tell you. You feel as if you’re strangled by your own hands but can’t release it, much like the characters in the movie where they all have choice but they don’t take it.

The film follows the story of Margo Channing (Bette Davis) initially and her stage life. Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) being her huge follower and admirer. The way how Eve gets into the skin of Margo and how they react form the story. Needless to say Bette Davis is brilliant, though her character reminds a lot Sunset Boulevard, she sets her own style and does it with élan. Surprise factor here is Anne Baxter. She fits the bill perfectly as Eve but the point where Eve becomes evil is where she loses it to Bette. She couldn’t become what Bette was for the initial part of the movie. When Bette says, “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night” whoa, I wanted to stand up and shout, “Thalaivi…” That’s how much I loved her performance.

The film is like quick sand, you’re not aware of the danger even when you are on it. You follow an innocent Eve and love the way she gets on with Margo. When initially Margo’s help points out of how Eve is becoming Margo’s mind, voice and Margo herself, we get angry on the help and support Eve. We feel bad for her. Even at a point where she does her part for fun and excels in it we still feel bad for her. Then the great transformation happens, she become cringe worthy within a matter of moments.

Her initial conversation with Addision Dewitt (George Sanders) whom I understood as Addision The Wit, is such a curious one. Her initial signs of villainy come up then.  We are not sure whether the whole time Eve was acting to get the right moment or the sudden shot to stardom has made her so. When we get to know that Addision would have twisted her to say such things we believe that, we don’t want Eve to be a bad person. On the other hand when Addision tells her and us the flashback we understand how Eve was such a farce, it breaks both her and us. What have you become Eve?

Then the film’s final scene, as well as the opening scene where Eve makes the speech. She’s beyond repair now. May be she’ll be next Margro Channing, she’ll rise and fall just like her. But the speech, the speech says a lot, even though throughout the speech she appreciates people about how good they were, we get irritated by here. Was it a pun or are we understanding it as a pun, we don’t know. By now we’ve started hating Eve so much so that even if she does anything good we’ll think that, even that would be part of some bigger plan. What a horrifying tale this film ended out to be, ‘All About Eve’. Sigh.

Movie Review – Downfall

On the familiar front

It’s becoming difficult to write with two war movies in close succession. I’ve always found it difficult to write about war movies. Until and unless it’s a psychological movie like Apocalypse Now, I don’t see any difference. It’s like how my friend described a boxing movie. A poor guy, a helpful friend, a family struggle, a match day niggle and bang goes the winner. War movies are the same, just with less emotion and more explosion. Platoon, Fury, Paths of Glory, it’s all the same. It’s all the same. I know a section of people are going to comment that I don’t know the difference between Idly and Masala Dosa, like how they commented on my review on Zomato. But who cares, it’s all made up with same batter.

German films, especially the ones depicting World War 2 and Nazi periods have been numerous. Most of them are anti-Nazi movies with very few talking about the war and pre-war. There are movies on the breakage of Berlin wall too and in stark contrast, the period before berlin wall. The last one was the most different of the lot. ‘Downfall’ explores another part of war, the point where the loss becomes inevitable for Hitler and how he and other succumb to it.

Even though we already hate Hitler enough, this movie wasn’t asserting on the fact enough. Yes, it’s an anti-Nazi film but when there were so many people who think Hitler as God made me stop and think, what if one of our warriors, the people whom we support had failed, would history had been twisted in such a way that we hate that person. I don’t know why it occurred to me but there were period of stillness in the film when my mind wavered a lot. There are certain points of the movie where you feel the director has manipulated you. I guess that’s the success of movie. That’s what left me with an unsettling feel.

This movie is different in a way to see how there were lot of people who had disobeyed his commands. All we know of Hitler is how Himmler has been associated with him and how SS are a group. When we know that there had been marked difference in the SS, it was something different to see it on screen. It was also different to see how paranoid Hitler was, how cleverly he twisted the facts to give people medals, or maybe he really thought that he could win the war. How totally unsympathetic he was and how short tempered and silly he behaved at times.

It offered great acting scope to Bruno Ganz who was brilliant as Adolf Hitler and Alexandra Maria Lura was beautiful as Traudl Junge. She exhibits so much charm in whatever scenes she appears. Apart from it I couldn’t get greatly involved in the movie, much like any other movie it too was a fairly intimidating one.

Movie Review – Burma

Joy Ride

I watched this only because of Rangan’s review. I in fact knew about this film only because of him. He’s one of those reviewers whose opinion is similar to mine so I knew that I would like the film. Did I like the film? Yes. Did I like the film as much as I wanted it to be liked? No. The reason for liking is Rangan because I wouldn’t have watched it otherwise. If my dad, who has the habit of selecting worst movie on late afternoons during weekend when more interesting film happens to be there in another channel and also a cricket match involving India, was watching this film I’d have gladly pulled the remote and changed the channel for being a bore. So in that way I’m thankful to Rangan. But why I didn’t like the film is because it’s a Rangan recommendation. I start expecting excellence in every single scene which didn’t happen, even though there were no mistakes in the film.

‘Burma’ has a great Robin Hood style of opening, the aerial shot reminding me very much of ‘Se7en’ climax. But it was not one of the movies which looked like the director wanted to tribute the scene from ‘Se7en’. It was more organic, more original. It also had an interesting title cards to begin with. What amazed me more is the actors who were original too. Except for a comic sidekick and slapstick villains, the main actors looked lovely. The lead, Burma (Michael Thangadurai) who looked like Vikram in parts and Kalpana (Reshmi Menon) who somewhat resembled Samantha were very good together and even otherwise. Michael’s acting was very true. He hardly looked like a novice and Reshmi Menon was really good in her scenes. Charming and jovial. If the songs had been done away the film would have looked even better.

The film adopts an effortless Guy Ritchie style with tongue in cheek scenes and some brilliant car lifts. It’s not high on action. The director Dharani Dharan has invested more on the logical aspect than that of chase sequences. That’s a good move as it reduces the cost of production and also if it’s not well done, it looks amateurish. I liked the Scorpio car lift by mimicking the original as well as the BMW scene towards the climax. I read that BMW makers were impressed with the script and agreed to lend a car for them. May be they wanted a white but got silver grey, that’s why it’s said so in the movie?

The film even though nice and racy gets marred with needless songs and at the end doesn’t give a wholesome feel. What doesn’t work with the film is, all the other stories which doesn’t involve Burma are loosely intertwined and doesn’t get registered. It doesn’t look like a style employed by the director but looks like something which got missed. Especially the scene where Guna (Sampath) steals the BMW. Questions like how he stole it, what happened to the body etc. remains unanswered question. That being the important twist in the movie, should have been explained properly. Similarly the other stories of heist, Easter egg etc. didn’t give out the LOL moments like how it should have.

It’d have been a great movie if discovered accidentally, but if planned, the movie ends up to be just a good time pass movie.