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Hangover is hilarious!

A lot of movies line up before hangover in this genre. Yet Hangover does position itself comfortably in being one great entertainer. It’s a creative small plot that has been built cleverly and successfully keeps viewers guessing of what’s to come. Alan (Zach Galifianakis) has displays excellent acting skills and more often makes your tummy ache. Though I haven’t watched many movies of Todd Phillips, this one seems to be lot improved from his previous movies.

The first few scenes may give an impact of a serious movie to come with Phil (Bradley Cooper) makes a call with bleeding lips until we come to scene that says 2 days later and Doug has a talk with Alan. It all starts with Doug’s plan of celebrating the Bachelors party in Vegas with two of his friends and his fiancés brother. Alan shows his mark right from when they start to check into the hotel paying an extra 4500 dollars.

The song “Who let the Dogs out…” has been used in many movies for depicting more often comic situations. This one is no exception but is just hilarious. Especially when Alan tries to move his steps around for the song, sure your tummy aches. More to add are the tiger in bathroom followed by driving cop car on the platform, forgotten midnight marriage are all add-ons to the life of Hangover.

The unexpected celebrity to surprise you is Mike Tyson. Does his role as anyone would. Nice and enjoyable. Finally earning thousands of dollars trying to save a lost friend, ending up in someone unknown is all so clearly screen played with funny moments fabricated.

The director may have added more incidents and elongated the movie for unknown reasons. But he was pretty neat in arranging the scenes and cropping them as and when required not allowing viewers to wait for the completion of the scene. The movie doesn’t lose grip of the audience from beginning to end. Hangover is a creative story well told.

- Vishwa

“The Hurt Locker” – Best of Iraq War movies

I haven’t watched any of Kathryn Bigelow’s films yet. ‘The Hurt Locker” was my first and I’m impressed. This is one of the very few films that have all the ingredients of war, emotions associated with it and life, in the recent times. “The Hurt Locker” is daunting, powerful and quite suspenseful at every moment.

“The Hurt Locker" is about the chaos in Baghdad and particularly about the US army bomb squad. The story revolves around the Bravo Company’s bomb disposal unit; with US Army Staff Sergeant Will James, Sergeant Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge. The Thirty nine days of this company’s attempts with success and failure of disposing bombs around Baghdad is “The Hurt Locker”.

Jeremy Renner as SSgt. Will James is a cool, pretty experienced Bomb diffuser, who has differences with his own team Sgt. Sanborn, for his attitude makes Sanborn bothered. Jeremy Renner, with all his abilities makes the character, wonderful to watch. The movie doesn’t over-dramatize the war, as Ridley Scott’s ‘Black hawk down’ does. We know its war, and we see the chaos in front of our eyes, how everyday of life is blemished, so wretchedly.

The cinematography by Barry Ackroyd makes the movie riveting. Kathryn Bigelow’ achievement is not just in the perfect dramatization of the war, but in the few moments of the film like, when the boy who sells DVD to the soldiers, gets ripped for the body bomb or when the bombs are tied around a family man in the center of the market and Sgt.James says after his attempts to save him, says “Sorry”.

The film is very true to its subject and characterization and achieves at every level of directional perfection. “The Hurt Locker” might have to be watched out for this year’s Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and Best Cinematography. But even if it doesn’t make it there, it has already made into the list of Best War movies.

"Away we go" - Sam Mendes does dissapoint , but only a little

Sam Mendes – The director who has been quite promising right from his debut – the Academy Award winning “American Beauty”, following it up with the superb Gangster crime drama – “Road to Perdition”, then the under rated “Jarhead” and yesteryear’s “Revolutionary Road” directs “Away we go”.

“Away we go” stars John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph as Burt Farlander and Verona De Tessant , the couple who travel around the U.S. to find a perfect place to start their family while expecting their first child. The adventures and misadventures form the crux of the film. There are sometimes in life, we fall into a kind of crisis, where we really don’t know how to choose what’s good for us. The choice has to come to us. It comes through our real life experiences. “Away we go” is one such experience, albeit a tad disappointing.

Sam Mendes is a craftsman of astonishing talent. He could’ve succeeded only if he had performed the same art he did in “American Beauty”. This time his sophistication to the theme makes it now and then manipulative. Still the movie has its sparkle, emotions and colors that he sought after. There are numerous episodes in the movie, each episode in different places, Phoenix, Tuscan, Montreal...etc.

The performance of the artists, Krasinki and Maya are very much pertinent for the projection of the 30 - odd year old couple. Particularly, a few moments like when Verona tells Burt her father’s love for the orange tree and Burt’s reaction on hearing the Montreal couple’s tragic miscarriages. These are few skillfully crafted scenes in “Away we go”. The background score and the soundtracks by Alexi Murdoch are surely adorable and so is the cinematography by Ellen Kuras.

Unquestionably, the attitude of the movie is well intended and reaches the audience as crisp as it should be. Mendes succeeds there, but why it disappoints me is Mendes’ minor manipulation of the unfolding of the events. Shouldn’t he have tried for Academy Award this year? I’m definite he has that ability.

District 9 - . Dark, Horrific, Violent, Gripping and stunning

Alien movies ideally always tend to begin with an invasion moves through destruction and ends with kicking them back to their planet. This movie is a pure exception not just for the amount of creativity that has been implemented on the story but for lot of other reasons. It’s been years since I have watched a sci-fi fiction that leaves a hangover for days. Neil Blomkamp is a promising director for the next generation.

The commencing scenes would suggest something like clover field, Blair witch project or at least a documentary like 44 minutes to be experienced. District 9 starts and ends in a style much like a documentary. The drift from documentary style of movie making into actual story narration is so fine that one may never realize it. This is an edge of the seat experience and the movie holds you tight all through the movie. District 9 completely justifies the horrific and gruesome violence used in almost every scene. You see not just blood but muscle and skins splattering on the lens. Certainly not a movie for weak hearted.

District 9 begins with a video footage of a giant space ship hovering over Johannesburg with officials commenting on the current happening. 20 years in the past, aliens have settled in an area and have multiplied to a few millions. They live with humans and have become an intolerable part of their livelihood. When humans can no longer take it, they plan for eviction. Wikus Van De Merwe (Sharlto Copley) is assigned to lead the team. The Scenes of informing the aliens about the eviction are ingeniously portrayed. Visual effect is almost fabricated in every scene where aliens are seen as common as humans are. There can be no complaints of any detailing. The slum settlement developed by aliens has been spectacularly pre conceptualized and accurately captured. The habits and behavior of an unknown species, their adaptation to humans has reached near perfection all through the movie.

As we would see in any society, there are all character aliens. There is an alien with a kid who plans to reach the mother spacecraft to get back to their planet. Wikus finds the fuel necessary to drive the ship designed by the alien to reach the mother space shuttle accidentally during the eviction process. He sprays a part of the chemical on to his face invoking the mutation of his human nature towards the alien species. There is a lot of inspiration from ‘Fly’ here. But it’s inevitable to make a movie without being influenced by benchmarks. Humans’ reaction to such a process is merged with politics, money and the darker side of the earth kind.

When Wikus is made an experimental rat and is made to shoot at pigs using alien machinery, there is more than violence and blood. We see darkness, humans treating human as a specimen. Wikus refuses to shoot a live alien and beseeches to shoot a dead pig rather. This is where we understand how the alien feels when it looks at its own species in an experimental lab while trying to retrieve the fuel cell. It stands still unaware of the bullets passing everywhere around it. This exactly how it should be pictured, emotion of an unknown kind.

Wikus escapes and tries to get the alien on the mother ship when that’s the only way to revert back the mutation process. Highly gripping narration, especially the scenes while getting back the fuel cell, Sharlto running from military, the gangster of the slums waiting to cut Wikus ‘s arm. There are many characters that bring lot of depth to the story line. The gangster is certainly one of them. Additionally goes Wikus wife and her father. The most important of these would be the son of the alien. Almost vital towards the end of the story, this character is brought to life not just with the cute behavior but with the emotional attachment it has to its father and the dreams of reaching its planet. One can feel the kids’ excitement when it asks the number of moons its planet has on looking at a holographic image of the planet. Hey! Remember we are looking at an alien creature.

District 9 has succeeded in bringing non-human characters to life as good as Gollum in LOR or Dobby in Harry potter but in a much horrific and darker way. The movie doesn’t end with a happy note or leaves a tragedy trail. It narrates a fiction story as history. That’s where it succeeds in leaving a long remaining hangover in viewers mind. A must watch.

"UP"- This is Pixar’s breathtaking and the most colorful adventure

The long and high expectation is over. The movie DOES FULFILL all the expectation and pays for the wait. Though releasing many months after it’s released on the screens in US, ‘Up’ gives you every reason for why you must wait and watch it. I took a day’s time after watching the movie to write this review since I did not want the bouncy excitement I had on watching the movie to play spoil sport in the review. I am not sure if the excitement has settled down even now.
I wasn’t much skeptical about the success of ‘Up’ when Pixar was able to blow the movie freaks mind with ‘Wall-E’ a year back. That was one movie which had many reviews expecting it to fail after successive block busters by Pixar. Pixar has certainly turned away from making the so called ‘movies of animation genre’. This is on a very serious note. When we categorize the movies from Pixar to be animated, people tend to push them for kids or at least the nominations go only for the best animation movie in academy. ‘Up’ is not just another 3d animated movie. It certainly deserves an entry in ‘Best movie’ or ‘Best Direction’ category. ‘Up’ is one of the best movies I have watched in this year.

The team at Pixar has packed their bags to set us on a journey through vast landscapes of South America, but this time on air. Jaw dropping landscapes, breathtaking colors all over the screen leaves you spell bound at the end of the movie. The movie has very little dialogues in the first 20 minutes. Feels like something that heard for ‘Wall-E’? But this time Pixar has stepped forward, the sequence does not just center round a single character doing its work but narrates a life history. Right here you understand that a master piece is on the screen. At the end of it, leaves a restless old man, Carl who has always dreamt of adventures with his spouse who has now passed away in small house surrounded by heavy construction work.

After a night when Carl reaches the heights of desperation, makes attempt to fly in his house with thousands of balloons tied to its chimney and he succeeds. This is where the most colorful adventure of his lifetime begins. He is accompanied by Russell, the young and cute kid who will trigger laughter from deep in your stomach all through the movie. Russell finds friends along the way who are not much the same for Carl. They work on moving their house to Paradise falls, the place where Carl has dreamt of living with Ellie. Then we encounter the negative character chasing a bird to prove himself to the world. Carl is driven by more adventures and ends with his realization of achieving what he always wanted.

‘Up’ is a must watch in 3D. There are no objects bouncing off the screen of birds flying around your head. The scenes of ‘Up’ are not made for 3D but the technology is used as it should be. It gives the real depth in a frame. You can feel the heights, the sense of moving into a jungle and all that which offers the into the movie experience. Particularly in the climax scenes where we are almost thousands of feet above the ground, the third dimension brings out even the speck of acrophobia one may have ever had in his life time.

The movie will always been considered as the colorful and beautiful movie of all time. Every frame has a minimum of million colors. Nothing is flashy or saturated beyond what is necessary. The bird Kevin has every color in rainbow painted over it. Who can forget the beauty of Paradise falls shown through the clearing of mist? I haven’t watched the movie without 3D. Sources say the colors are much better when watched without the 3D glasses.

Pixar has done it again. Splashing not just excellence of animation on the screen but delivering a movie of great standards which can be enjoyed by almost every age. Creativity has become an implied part of Pixar’s creation. Who can get you watching a robot cleaning dust, romancing of cars, or a dad fish finding his lost kid? ‘Up’ is not only another feather in the hat of Pixar’s but also one of the best feathers.

Rahman beats the "BLUE"

Lately Rahman has been quite busy attending ceremonies and shows felicitating him for his oscars. And it has been quite a while since he released an album. The wait is over. "Blue" -scored by "Academy Award Winner" Rahman is out in the stores.

"Blue" starring Akshay Kumar, Lara Dutta and Sanjay Dutt , is a underwater thriller and Rahman says"It's important that you dont get typecast. It's also important to give the kind of music the film requires and have fun with it". Does it really feel good to hear "Blue"? Let us see.

"Chiggy Wiggy" - The opening track proudly features Kylie Minogue. The composition opens up very well and features a very sweet voice and a mesmering tune,goes till the half way, only until Sonu Nigam jumps in. This is where the song takes a turn and goes the other way. But still highly enjoyable.

"Aaj Dil Gustakh" - This is one superb piece of composition. Sukhwinder Singh and Shreya Ghosal's voice are absolutely absorbing. The chords and bass line proves the standards set by Rahman. An absolute must listen.

"Fiqrana" - "Fiqrana" find audience immediately on the first hearing. It's part massy and part classy.Vijay Prakash sounds more like Rahman himself. Although the in between piece sounds a tad like one of Rahman's old compositions, this song is real creative work.

"Bhoola Tujhe" - The only real melody in the album, rendered with authenticity by Rashid Ali, who keeps impressing. The song is a typical of Rahman's melody track's structure, but offers everything new on hearing.

"Blue Theme" - Yes, it peppy. Has got all the sounds to make your heart pound and is just like Rahman's other Theme music, which tends to impress people, the moment they listen to it.

"Rehnuma" - Sung by Shreya Goshal and Sonu Nigam, starts off giving great hopes of being a great song, but to me, it fails a bit, which doesn't mean it doesn't impress. The interludes are nice, vocals are good, but the song is a loud.

"Yaar Mila tha" - The only conventional song of the album, but a good one. Udit's voice is a treat to hear and so is Madhusree's. "Yaar Mila tha" could impress people , who aren't impressed by the others congs of the album, coz' exactly the other way.

"BLUE" doesn't cover all the varieties,but does give you a good time of enjoyment. If you don't like it on the first couple of listens, listen again. Thats how Rahman's works on your minds.