Expendables 2 – A waste of heavy resources

Working in an IT company I feel a lot of times that my company is paying the senior guys too much and they don’t deserve that much of salary for their work. I feel the same watching Expendables 2. What is the use of Arnold, Willis when you have to use them for 5 minute of total bombshell shit?

Expendables 2 starts promisingly, the excitement is back as the team go on full Rampage to save a Chinese someone that doesn’t mattered for the rest of the movie. Big combat trucks are thrown at us and Lee (Statham) is taking shots from his machine gun as we remember in Rambo 4, full bloody hell. They save Chinese and also Arnold, who was trapped there.

Bill the Kid (Hemsworth), a very sharp Sniper is introduced then who helps the Expendables escaping a giant water rush after saving the Chinese. And from here they are in there usual plane with Barney as t heir pilot, Jet Lee is gone after an initial burst and never returns in the movie. So his fans don’t go for the movie.

Church comes into picture, yes Mr. Willis looks good on screen but there is nothing he is supposed to be doing in this movie. Expendables have a new assignment and they are screwed, Bill gets killed, Barney is back in his emotional revenge mood. Lee gets someone to screw like Steve Austin in 1^st part. Maggie, yes we have a female character too, who doesn’t impress you.

Boom bang next. Yes it was worth a wait I would say as the full team go on hunting the bad guys. This movie is not a modern day techie war James bond movie with lot of gadgets and all. It’s an old school movie of bullets and knives and combat skills and tanks and choppers and blood.

Don’t go looking for a plot, forget story and enjoy all these big heavyweights together fighting, who knows till when we are seeing them as they rightly said in last “We three should be in museum”.

Step Up Revolutions – Great entertainment but nothing you will remember for long

Step Up movies have always been highly entertaining because of the dance, there is a lot of dance and story is molded around it. This one is no different, but the movie lacks one other basic ingredient the competition. We know they have been competing for an online competition but against whom we have no idea.

Who is the “MOB”-the Mob is all of us trying to say to the world that we exist. A group of local dancers try to steal the limelight by their dancing sequence at abstract places trying to have maximum hits on youtube.

For the pros of the movies, dancing is good, more than dancing it’s the creativity of the makers as they did sequences from a crowded street to art gallery, in restaurant etc. The sequence in Art gallery was a major high, directed perfectly with amazing costumes and light effects. The final show was even better with all the stunts performed by the artists.

For the Cons the movie lacks some originality, in the first scene itself we have been exposed to the dancing sequence and after some time we got to know some characters but we never see how they developed into a team, who their competitors are. It’s a one dimensional risk that the makers took. And mostly it paid off.

The romantic mood of the movie doesn’t step up at all till the very end, but that is acceptable. We have Mooze in the final sequence and he is lovable as he was in the 3^rd edition.

The story is very normal. Personal issues and problems, misunderstanding, love, personal ambitions, business, politics all come into picture. Not anything incredible here as I mentioned this movie is for dance. 

Well go for fun, electric, stunt based dancing and enjoy the moves in 3D. The location of Miami has been perfect for the mood of the movie. 

Step-Up producers have to dig in deep if they want to make a next movie, the movies are entertaining and may be commercial success, but we are certainly losing interest in these.

Ratings-

Entertainment – 9/10

Dancing – 10/10

Story – 5/10

Overall 6.5/10

The Dark Knight Rises – A climax that was needed

The most anticipated movie of this decade doesn’t leave you disappointed and doesn’t leave you wanting for more.  It’s a top effort from Nolan and company creating a very fine cinematic piece and an end that the series needed.  

As movie starts we can feel the tension in the air, yes we have waited for this for so long and it started where it ended. The city has Gotham has moved on in 8 years, making Harvey Dent a hero and Batman as a villain. Bruce Wayne is in tatters, he has become old and weak barely standing on his feet, hasn’t been to public gatherings, official meetings in years. Rachael has left a big hole in his life. As he says there is nothing out there for him.

We have some notable new characters in the movie. The first one is Bane, well Tom Hardy has a great screen presence but the mask has definitely stolen his on screen charisma, and the voice modulation is also very shrill, sometimes to blank. Ahh.. yes we have a worthy enemy for Batman. “Too big for you”.

A young cop played by Levitt plays an important part as Gordon is given rest for most of the movie, but the show stealer is definitely Hathaway. She is smart as Mr. Wayne admits, she is fast and she is greedy. She becomes a perfect bright spot in a movie which sets in a dull city. Perfectly opposite to Batman.

The regulars have done their jobs perfectly. Freeman as Fox is witty as ever, Caine almost makes you cry for his beloved Master, and Oldman has a lot to do in the end as the cops are trapped in the sewers.

The action scenes are superb. Batman has been missing a lot from the movie so his entry is superb and enjoyable. The launch of “The Bat” that comes in Black is legendary. The tone is set for a perfect finale battle as Bane overpowers Gotham and Batman.  Capture him to the darkest prison of all somewhere in Jodhpur, India leaving him to see his city rot with terror. And we wait for him to come back its all drama in that hour of movie with Bane creating havoc, Gordon and Blake trying to gather their limited resources and city living on edge of a nuclear explosion that is inevitable.

And yes batman rises for one last time for one of the best climax of modern cinema, the one on one with Bane was always coming, but Nolan always have some cards unopened till the end. I will write no more, don’t look for spoiler reviews, just go and watch the movie. But as I mentioned it will leave user not wanting for more as it shuts down any possibility of batman returning to save Gotham, but Robin that’s another story.

The Amazing Spiderman - not so amazing after all

The Amazing SpiderMan

This review contains some spoilers.

The most anticipated movie of summer just behind “The Dark Knight Rises” amazes but in patches.

Spider-Man is back and this time he is cuter, smarter and meaner. The biggest challenge for the makers was to bring out a movie which was different from the old Spider-man and I guess they failed.

The whole movie you feel you have been here. They start with Peter’s parents leaving him to his uncle and aunt and never coming back.  The poor kid grows into a very bright student, a boy who loves photography, is good at heart and got some beating by fellow mate. He turns into Spidey enjoys his skills, watches his uncle die because of him, fights a monster to save the city, and then sacrifice his love.

Peter Parker gets clue about his father work and he tries to track his former partner a biochemical scientist, a man who has lost his right arm and from years is trying to find the formula for regeneration of cells.

His encounter with Spider was more dramatic and satisfying. And what transpired was enjoyable. The kid flexes his muscles, enjoys his skate rides, beats people by mistake in train, humiliate his college mate. And he gets the girl.

Andrew Garfield is a good successor of Tobey, he does justice to his character and Emma Stone definitely scores bigger than Kirsten. The web Peter casts in the movie to swing and attack is artificial. He made a device and attach to his wrists to get it going. That was on thing in movie I guess that was unexpected, the other one was how easily his identity has been disclosed to his girlfriend Gwen.

The normal routine starts as Peter handles his father’s algorithm to his former partner just to watch him turn into a monster. Finally the movie begins.

The last hour of movie gives you everything you came for. Most of it you have seen in trailers though. 3D has made this movie enjoyable in the last half. The Spiderman looks amazing in 3D as he swings from building to building in NYC. And like every time he saves the city from the havoc of monster.

And in the Spiderman tricks they have used his web to great use. He uses his both hands webs and sticks it to something and turns them into Slingshot various times, the fall of Oscorp building in 3D was awesome.

The movie scores big in visual graphics, but scores poor in storyline. The cop father of the girl is a wasted character until he made Spiderman promise not to date his girl. Irfaan khan is not used at all, maybe we can see him in the next installment as we know it will come from the credits at the end. The bad guy is not much intimidating.

The whole movie was termed to be Spiderman looking for his parent’s clue and he came no close. They have saved it for the next part or who knows for the 3^rd part.

Go and enjoy a nice ride in 3D, but you won’t come back with any new memories of spiderman.

Rating - 3/5

"Dark Knight"

The “Dark Knight Rises” releases this July. I was wondering is it just the Batman or the genius of Nolan that makes these movies what they are. So I followed back to the old original batmen series, just to compare and see what really makes these movies click.

The first two batman movies were created by Tim Burton. Like Nolan, Tim is a genius, his movies are of some different genre that only he can make. The Batman movies were into the right and able hands. It is hard to compare the series then with all the technology we have now. But if you have watched Burton’s Batman, you will definitely know how Nolan has used his brilliance to keep the audience loving this character.

The first “Batman” (1989) was a classical work. The setting of a dark city and the gloominess in the environment make it perfect for a Batman. The performances of actors were good. Not much of us know Michael Keaton but he did a commanding job as a Batman, and off course Jack Nicholson as Joker was great. Many of us may find it stupid what he has done in the movie, but believe me he was a complete psycho. It’s always the city the batman is saving, and the villain somehow is notoriously capable to destroy the whole city. The movie is enjoyable, and batman gadgets don’t disappoint. The car looks awesome, may be even better than the modern one. And we have a personal plane also, which batman uses to throw out the poisonous balloons out of city’s environment. And in the end they set up the Batman halogen to call their savior. Also if we see on a personal side Bruce Wayne is more social, he attends functions, go to parties. He is romantic, tries dating a girl and wants to tell her the truth.

“Batman Returns” (1992) was a strange movie, somewhere I can’t decide whether to like it or not to like it. The Penguin man performed by Danny DeVito is not as powerful character as Joker, but he was no less a psycho. A man with physical disorder abandoned into the sewage of Gotham where penguins took him and he came back becoming a crazy man. The movie promises too much but fails to deliver the charm of a Batman movie, the villain is dangerous but you never feel this guy can do something and there is CatWoman, who is again a weird character. The movie has the basic ingredient of Gotam turning into a disaster place but the characters are weak. The BatCar is same and in the last part of movie yes we can see that it can turn into a BatPod which was a good show. Here again Bruce Wayne is fed up of his mask and wants to live a normal life.

Coming back to where it started, how Nolan has made his movies into classics?

The Beginning, how batman was made, how he suffered his parents’ loss turning into an angry young man and how he comes back to Gotham to turn his fears into his advantage. The story makes the audience love him, Bruce becomes the real hero.

Gordon, the Batman (1989) has Gordon, but he is role is very short lived, very passive. Nolan gives us the guy who became Batman ally in the beginning, a guy who Batman can trust, a brave officer who faces the turmoil in Gotham. Another character we love.

Mr. Fox, seriously it’s not very hard to convince yourself that Fox is a central character in the movie, the source of Batman’s technology, the source of his ultimate vehicle, a faithful employee of his firm who is played by a powerful actor “Morgan Freeman”.

Rachael, superheroes and there love interest can never be underestimated. It is a trump card to bring out the emotional aspect of a superhero, to portray how he suffers to serve others; how his life is abnormal so that he can keep lives of others normal. It was a disappointment though that they have to change the actress in the 2^nd installment.  

Can’t finish this without mentioning Christian Bale, he has given a powerful touch to the batman like he has done for many years in his movies. He is a fantastic actor and he delivers exactly what is required of him.

Christopher Nolan has strung these characters so beautifully that it’s impossible not to like them. In one month’s time “The Dark Knight” rises will hit the theatre, and as we have seen in the trailers it is going to be one heck of an experience. “Bane” will be screened first time in a batman movie, and we have seen a private plane for Batman. Anticipations are high, Nolan is coming after Inception. Don’t know how much it will deliver but my mind says, ‘this movie is going to break all the box office records ever’.