I’ve watched 7 movies over the last 4 weeks. A quick thought post on them. As a movie watcher, I look purely for entertainment. Logic and realism don’t matter to me, unless it’s outrageously stupid or completely unnecessary!!
1. Pirates of the Caribbean – At World’s End:
a. +ves – Great Effects; Sword duel between Sparrow and Jones; Depp hilarity
b. –ves – Calypso’s “Dude where’s my car monster girl” act; the story was confusing until I read it on Wikipedia after watching the movie!!
c. X factor – Chow Yun Fat in a different role, haven’t seen much of him but always associated him with being Hong Kong’s Vijayakanth!! Not quite Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee but up there
d. My Entertainment Score: 3/5
2. Ocean’s 13:
a. +ves – Same relaxed atmosphere as 11 and 12; the “see you when I see you” joke right at the end
b. –ves – not nearly as funny as 11; for a monster villain, Al Pacino was defeated too easily
c. X factor – Ellen Barkin, I had a huge crush on her when I was 15 after seeing her in The Big Easy. She’s 53 now!!! You could never tell looking at her in the movie.
d. My Entertainment Score: 2.5/5
3. Jhoom Barabar Jhoom:
a. +ves – Lara Dutta
b. –ves – Everything else in the movie. Preity is theoretically a 16 year old girl who falls in love with modern DVD and human trafficking pirate Abhishek because he is oh sooo romantic, and the Usual Suspects’ climatic “everything becomes clear” rip off was hilarious (meant in a completely derisive manner)
c. X factor – Again, Lara Dutta pulled off the French girl act so very naturally…surprisingly…definitely much better than IIISAAA JADOOO DAAALLLaAA RAYYYYYYY
d. My Entertainment Score: -0.5/5 (yes, negative)
4. Shrek The Third:
a. +ves – Puss in Boots, Pinocchio’s long winding dialogue
b. –ves – not as entertaining as 1 and 2
c. X factor – It’s the Shrek franchise…the concept never gets old on me
d. My Entertainment Score: 3/5
5. Cheeni Kum:
a. +ves – Great movie, the little girl, Tabu-Amitabh
b. –ves – Lot of people felt the second half was too melodramatic to justify the first, but I found it quite ok actually…so no real negatives
c. X factor – Ilaiyaraaja’s BGM, he is truly the master. I had the opportunity to listen to Balki(the director), when he was still an ad-man, at IIMK a couple of years ago, it was then that I knew he was a huge fan of Ilaiyaraaja. Then when I heard “Mandram Vandha” in Hindi for a movie named Cheeni Kum, the dots seemed to connect and it all lit up when I saw the name of the director in the poster
d. My Entertainment Score: 3.5/5
6. Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer:
a. +ves – Totally relaxed movie with fantastic effects, perfect movie to have fun and only have a smile and no other feelings at the end of it all; The small segment with Stan Lee not being allowed to attend the wedding was funny
b. –ves – nothing!!
c. X factor – Comic book flicks are always a delight for me
d. My Entertainment Score: 4/5
7. Die Hard 4.0:
a. +ves – McClane’s the man!!! Awesome action movie after such a long time
b. –ves – The movie was not as funny as the first 3 parts, but I guess this was due to the censorship of the expletives…nothing beats McClane mouthing sarcastic four letter words to the money mad lunatics who can only be stopped by…John McClane!!
c. X factor – Everything about it blew me away!!
d. My Entertainment Score: 4.5/5
