Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is good but very uninviting at times

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is that amazing spy movie which got lost in the shuffle with the other big spy movie that was Mission Impossible 4, it is suitably set in the cold war era when "spy warfare" was at its peak and popular in media as well (James Bond owes it popularity to cold war). The movie revolves around a fictional secret service agency based in Britain called the Circus. The boss of circus is tipped off that one of his most trusted men is a mole for the Russian Secret Service, after a lot of deliberation he narrows down on Tinker, Tailor, Soldier and Spy. Its established early on that Spy is not the rat/mole and steps in to find the traitor in the agency after the boss dies untimely. The whole story has a lot of twists and turns where Spy has reasons to believe that all have something to hide and when Spy finally catches the rat, its most satisfying.

That being said the film does suffer from some weaknesses it tries too hard to be a puzzle and not a movie, it deliberately tries to keep viewer in the dark throws in too many characters haphazardly and some scenes instead of adding tension are downright boring and slow. The director seems to have knowingly made a film which just isn't audience friendly. I am an avid fan of suspense genre but even I had to do some research after the film was over to understand the nitty gritties. Anyways folks all I would like to say is that DON'T MISS THIS FILM. Its good to see Gary Oldman playing lead after more than a decade and Colin Firth continues proving why he deserved the Oscar for King's Speech last year. Please watch this in cinema halls as its the final week this film will be in rotation in New Delhi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPKhWXhiMSw

Warrior so underrated.....

Warrior is an underrated small film which is so bloody good I can't believe I and most of the people missed this, making this a huge box office failure in fall of 2011. The story revolves around two estranged brothers and their father thrown in the world of MMA (mixed martial arts for non combat sport enthusiasts). All in all there is this big tournament and the brothers who already have some anger and frustration towards one another find themselves in the finals against each other. The film does a great job of providing ample time to both the brothers forcing the viewer to chose which brother to root for, is it gonna be the family man? so he can use the money to pay off the bank for the sake of his wife and kids or is it gonna be the younger more tortured sibling who has led a hard lonely life and has a noble cause of his own. Academy award nominee, Nick Nolte also shines as the father of the two. Is this film accurate presentation of MMA? NO. Is it gonna be nominated for academy awards? YES but it ain't gonna win, it can't compete with the likes of Tree of Life, Hugo and other heavyweights.

P.S. - The climax was one of the most beautiful, heart wrenching and moving scene I have seen in recent memory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54vrgCP5nlc

After Inception in 2012

"An idea is like a virus, resilient, highly contagious".

A year and a half later Inception still feels so cutting edge and fresh. Its sad that though 2011 gave us good films, it was the year dominated by big yawnfest franchises - Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, Twilight (!), Mission Impossible, Planet of the Apes, Sherlock Holmes etc. etc.

RIP Dev Anand

RIP Dev Anand, second only to Guru Dutt and Dilip Kumar. He was brilliant in Guide, Baazi, Kaala Paani, Johnny Mera Naam, Jewel Thief and so many more films. Guide was I think one of the first, if not the first hindi film to have a protagonist with shades of grey.

Tintin shines through the weaknesses

Tintin 3D is a colorful, bright, charming movie which will undoubtedly please its loyal fanbase. Also for us Tintin fans you HAVE to watch this movie, the story is a strong point in here its a completely original work with colorful Tintin Characters and a dastardly new villain thrown in as well. The story has a hint of Secret of Unicorn, Red Rakham's treasure and a LOT of Crab with the golden claws (surprisingly). The film has some of the best action sequences I have ever seen which shows Spielberg's penchant for action cinema, this guy could take Michael Bay and Justin Ling to school. The Francis Haddock flashbacks has better action than the entirety of Pirates 4. The other action sequences are charming and have that parkour, street feeling all of Tintin books are famous for.

That being said, Tintin's screenplay is clustered with too many events and adventures, the movie should have slowed down a little and let the plot settle for a while before jumping to the next sequence. Captain Haddock has always been my favorite character and as awesome as Andy Serkis is, I feel more could be done for him. This is a great first step and completely original story, The Secret of the Unicorn had mediocre antagonists and this film really steps it up with a complete badass antagonist played by Daniel Craig. This film will please all but will make us Tintin fans even more happy because its a marriage of so many of our favorite books and characters we never thought could be possible. More importantly this film made me dust off my 15 year old Secret of the Unicorn copy which reminded me how detailed the comics were, the movie falters a bit in this department but just a bit. I can't wait for the next installment, Spielberg has done a good job in capturing the pulse of the series and I am sure his grip would only improve in the next film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=op3w_ICK4us

Ides of March is very very good but could have been great

Ides of March is written, directed and starred in by George Clooney that itself speaks for the pedigree of this film. The film is a talk movie just like The Social Network and Thank You for Smoking i.e. actors are always speaking, tons of time is spent in delivery of dialogues, I love these movies where actors actually have to memorize a lot of content and still act well in scene after scene. Speaking of acting, this film has GREAT acting and is a very solid movie through and through. However it falls short of both previously mentioned short films because of a cliched moral lesson - "Don't fuck the intern". LOL a political thriller where presidential candidate fucked an intern? Really? This is almost 20 years late man!

A special mention regarding the lead, Ryan Gosling who has put Hollywood on notice, delivering quality films year after year with Drive and Blue Valentine. Good to see a talented actor step up from mediocrity (The Notebook). Yes Notebook fans, its cliched and mediocre get over it and watch a real romantic film like Gosling's Blue Valentine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McCt-_yYLpo

Twilight still sucks

Breaking Dawn's Huge Debut Just Shy of 'Twilight' Record

http://www.imdb.com/news/ni18417747/

WTF!!!! I was forced to watch the trailer while seeing Ides of March yesterday. Even the trailer was pathetic, Kristen Stewart has an expressionless face and can't act even if her life depended on it. The wolves had one of the worst CGI rendering I have seen in the past five years. Badly rendered CGI wolves engaging dialogues is one of the most laughable sequences in history of cinema.

Say what you will about Michael Bay,  at least the guy makes his movies look good.