Movie Analysis : The Adam Project (Netflix)

Directed by : Shawn Levy

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2463208/

When a bad idea is the only idea, it becomes a great idea. 

Adam Reed (Ryan Reynolds), a pilot who time travels from the future into 2022 accidentally meets his younger 12 year old self (Walker Scobell) who is still mourning the loss of his father Louis Reed (Mark Ruffalo) having lost him in an accident a year ago. Adam wants to travel to 2018 and find what happened to his wife Laura (Zoe Saldana). In his way is an obstacle of Maya Sorian (Catherine Keener) who was once partner of Louis at work but in the future she became greedy to be in total control of Time-Travel.

Having directed some of the episodes of 'Stranger Things' and also 'The Free Guy' that I enjoyed a lot, have to say this movie turned out to be a little disappointment. The whole time-travel plot I understand wasn't meant to be complex and rather used in entertaining way, yet it never appeals or draws me towards the storyline. 

Some of the scenes that actually worked were the non-comedy ones like Adam's interaction with her mother Ellie Reed (Jennifer Garner) at the pub, or younger Adam giving advice to Adam about their dad, or Louis just pondering over if his busy professional life has lead to very less time given to his own son.

The entire romantic angle of Adam-Laura felt too rushed to my liking, it would have actually worked lot better had they kept Laura completely out of story and just introduced her in the last when that story Adam told his younger self happens again. 

The Adam Project with a weak core story and irritating villain ends to be quite a bore despite some good performances and the usual Ryan Reynolds laughs. 

My Rating : 4.5/10

Movie Analysis : Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 (Netflix)

Directed by : Anees Bazmee

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6455162/

Mere ghar ka toh phone na tring tring nahi karta, conjuring conjuring karta hai.

Spoilers ahead... 

Two strangers, Reet Rathore (Kiara Advani) and Ruhaan Randhawa (Kartik Aaryan) meet at a bus stop, they visit a music festival and become so friendly that Reet asks for a favor from Ruhaan to come along to her hometown in Rajasthan while she pretends to be dead to her family so that her fiance gets married to her sister. The only issue is they decide to hide in that very abandoned mansion that was shut down 18 years ago with the spirit of Manjulika trapped inside a room. 

Watching the movie I was wondering if forced humor is the new norm and do today's youth enjoy this in name of entertainment? What happened to the genuine laughs we would get over films a decade or so ago. The original directed by Priyadarshan and starring Akshay Kumar, Vidya Balan was miles better than this. 

Anees Bazmee films have in past worked for me, even that guilty pleasure movie 'Mubarakan'. But here, I kept searching for the moments when I would really say 'Oh yea, this was a very good punchline'. There are so many un-necessary parts that if edited out would atleast had made for a shorter movie even if it wouldn't still have made any difference to the poor humor thanks to the writing team. For instance, both the tracks involving Reet and Ruhaan, firstly does nothing to narrative, and secondly they were so average to listen to. Then that entire 'RoohBaba' angle was not required, complete waste of time it was.

There's Bade Pandit (Sanjay Mishra) who keeps using yester year movies songs/dialogues to talk while having an hearing issue. Normally, Sanjay Mishra would be very reliable but here even he felt so irritable, very few scenes worked like the one where he asks Manjulika to translate in hindi as his bengali is as poor as french. Both Rajesh Sharma and Govind Namdeo are under utilised. Ashwini Kalsekar was good, and the Rajpal Yadav 'Big Boss' dialogue was hilarious. 

The best part of the movie was Tabu, in the double role she was so good. There's a scene where she kills her dad, the way she behaves there slightly reminded of 'AndhaDhun'. The flashback scene telling the story of Manjulika, the entire black magic and then the twist at the end was very well done. 

Kartik Aaryan's comic timing is pretty good which is a reason he was able to get some laughs out of silly moments or poor writing too. I also liked his dance over the male version of 'Ami je tomar'. While Kiara did really nothing except being a glamour element, and I was really happy that they didn't go the route of Manjulika possessing her body because that prank scene where she mimicked Manjulika was extremely poor acting. 

In the end, Bhool Bhulaiyaa 2 falls way short when compared to Akshay's movie in 2007, is it watchable for Tabu's performance alone ? Not really. 

My Rating : 4.5/10 

Movie Analysis : Enola Holmes 2 (Netflix)

Directed by : Harry Bradbeer

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14641788/

No matter how lost you feel, if you stay true to yourself, the path will always find you again.

Spoilers ahead.. 

Opening up her own Detective Agency in London, Enola Holmes (Millie Bobby Brown) is super excited only to find no clients at all as her age and the fact that she is sister of Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) often comes in way of her getting new cases. Just when she is about to close the agency, a little girl Bessie Chapman (Serrana Su-Ling Bliss) comes for help to find her missing sister Sarah Chapman (Hannah Dodd). Enola soon learns about a matchstick factory where Sarah worked and there the girls were dying from Typhus disease as she tries to dig deeper into the case.  On other hand, Sherlock Holmes  himself is busy in a case involving corruption soon realizing he is against a very clever rival named Moriarty.  The question is, are both the cases interlinked ? 

Its a much better film than the 1st one (Enola Holmes), the pacing is good, very less meaningless interactions (already introduced characters before, helps in that regards) and we get lot more of Sherlock in this part in a supporting way making sure it still stays Enola's story. The use of breaking the 4th wall is again done exceptionally well without overdoing it, the feminism angle is still there but at the core the movie focusses very well on how Enola solves a new case with all the difficulties she faces. Liked how the nepotism angle is subtly played out where Enola is frustrated to be in the shadows of her brother Sherlock, while trying to create her own identity. Also, a lovely scene involving her mother telling her that its not compulsory to be great on your own, she can still accomplish a lot by seeking help of the ones that are close to her. 

I however still did not like Henry Cavill as Sherlock, for the same reasons.. just hard to see anyone else in this role other than Benedict or Robert, even though he does a fairly decent job. 

The star of the movie is Millie Bobby Brown who is delightful and perfectly suited in this character full of energy, ready to take on the world and even her own brother. I would love to see her get a tougher next case to solve. Special mention to David Thewlis (playing Grail) who is efficient in a negative role. Other cast involving Louis Partridge, Sharon Duncan-Brewster and Hannah Dodd also chip in with good performances. There's a end credits scene involving the introduction of Dr Watson, slightly skeptical about it but hoping the actor chosen would be good in this role. 

I would have personally loved next part to have Sherlock and Enola together solve a case from the very start. But the scene where Enola refuses the offer of 'Holmes and Holmes' from Sherlock probably suggests we may again get them on different cases and meeting each other's paths along the way. 

Even though the case may not look that complex, Enola Holmes 2 screenplay holds itself very well and turns out to be a pretty good entertainer full of adventures.

My Rating : 6.5/10 

Also, DO READ - Mini Review : Enola Holmes (Netflix)

Movie Analysis : Dhokha Round D Corner (Netflix)

Directed by : Kookie Gulati

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10644708/

Main farebi nahi hoon Gul, aazmaa ke dekh lo.

Spoilers ahead..

Yathaarth Sinha (Madhavan) at work catches a glimpse of a news running on tv describing a terrorist Haq Riyaaz Gul (Aparshakti Khurana) in Springshine Aparments and soon realizes its his own house he is hiding where his wife Saanchi Sinha (Khushali Kumar) would be all alone. ACP Harishchandra Malik (Darshan Kumaar) has the whole building sealed trying to negotiate with Haq Gul. But, none of these 4 main characters could be trusted as we keep on getting their perspective stories one by one over what happened in past. 

Usually a film like this that keeps testing your brain is an immediate thumbs up for me, but here the issue is that firstly it tries to overdo it as a result it gets so much tangled that you no longer care who is telling the truth until everything is revealed in the climax. And then there's little hard to believe scenarios happening specially how Haq Gul having got betrayed by Saanchi, still falls for her 2nd time around. Thats too much even if at that time you are willing to trust his story on being innocent regarding the alleged hostel blast attack.

Also, having a talented actor like Madhavan and keeping him in more of a supporting role wasn't really a good idea. Having said that it was a delight to watch Aparshakti Khurana in a non-comedy role even if he had to go through a very below average writing and cringy situations at many places. Khushali Kumar too does a decent debut job as a housewife trying to seduce and having a personality disorder that makes the whole situation a deeper mess.

There's 2 really laughable moments (not sure if intentional or not).. first is when Haq Gul is so frustrated that he can't understand who the real Saanchi is, he directly asks her 'Tum goli (medicine) se pehle wali asli ho ya phir goli ke baad wali.' And then there's a spoof on Arnab Goswami, who actually in entire film gets trolled a lot but this one was unmissable as it was a direct take on that famous clip 'mujhe drugs do, drugs do' if you seen it.. its cringeworthy but hard to not laugh at. 

Talking of the twists, there are many.. most of them you would be able to guess, except for the last one that actually is good because that negates those scenes where I felt why the hell is ACP Malik all the time chilling with Yathaarth, having cups of tea or smoking like he is so sure nothing is gonna happen.

A dark ending always makes me happy but in this case, it didn't really move me which was more to do with how mediocre the 2nd Act was, that it made me run out of the patience to know what happens to all these 4 main characters.

In a way this is unofficial adaptation of Ittefaq with many additions done, if only it was tightly edited and the feeling of repetitivity didn't come after a while. Still an okay one-time watch!

My Ratings : 5/10 

Movie Analysis : The Gray Man (Netflix)

Directed by : Anthony Russo and Joe Russo

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1649418/

Six is an odd name.

Just, 007 was taken, so.

Spoilers ahead...

Six (Ryan Gosling) signs a deal with Fitzroy (Billy Bob Thornton) to work  for CIA in exchange for freedom from the prison for the murder sentence he was in for. Its been 18 years now, Fitzroy retired and his position taken up by Denny Carmichael (Rege Jean Page). On a mission given by Denny, Six comes across another guy named Four from the same program who reveals some dark secrets and hands him an encrypted drive having all the information. Denny hires Lloyd Hansen (Chris Evans) who is known for his sadistic methods to eliminate Six, while Six has very little time to uncover the truth behind the drive with suitable help from colleague Dani Miranda (Ana de Armas). 

The movie has everything you would expect from a spy thriller, lots of international locales, action set pieces (that rail tram sequence was amazing), attempt to not let a valuable drive go into wrong hands, an all out negative character and a foreign actor cameo which in this case is Dhanush (very well done action scene, and its good to see him not die). There's not much dull moments, the pacing is very good, even with very less character developments and a predictable plot, the film achieved to keep me engaged. The issue is when you have Russo Brothers and starcast of Ryan, Chris and Ana involved, just keeping you interested isn't enough, you are expecting lot of 'wow' moments which are very few here. 

Can't deny it was so fun watching Chris Evans in this negative role, total opposite of what he did as Captain America, all the bad mouthing and plus way he is acting it feels like how much he was enjoying playing this character, I do wish he had some better dialogue lines. On other hand, not that I find Ryan not suitable for these roles, just I personally prefer him lot more in comedy or romantic roles. His best parts actually are the conversations he has with either Fitzroy niece Claire (Julia Butters), that Bond 007 name reference,  or with Dani Miranda, specially the feeling ego hurt scene or handing her unloaded gun. Ana De Armas I felt was a very weakly written role, she still gets 1-2 scenes to shine through. 

The Gray Man is one of those films that despite being underwhelming is likeable and most likely I would be re-watching on tv to pass my time. 

My Rating : 6/10 

Movie Analysis : Ek Villain Returns (Netflix)

Directed by : Mohit Suri 

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11947158/

Marna chalega, haarna nahi...

Spoilers ahead.. 

A famous singer Aarvi Malhotra (Tara Sutaria) gets attacked at her flat and her ex boyfriend Gautam Mehra (Arjun Kapoor) becomes the prime suspect. One of the last people who called Aarvi before the attack was a cab driver Bhairav Purohit (John Abraham), who also has a past story with a salesgirl Rasika Mapuskar (Disha Patani). The plot deals with how these 4 get involved in each others life leading to very nasty situations. 

The movie is full of issues, goofups and silly acts (which I won't even waste my time to talk on). The two positives that I could somehow find were, firstly the music is very good even though it still falls short of the awesomeness 'Ek Villain' album was. My personal fav was 'Shaamat'. And then I loved that final twist, the whole idea of Bhairav falling into the belief that Rasika is the one telling him to do things was a very good one. Its however not original, reminded of Bates Motel a lot. I wish they used this twist at the interval and explored more on it post that, it surely would have made atleast one character more enjoyable i.e Bhairav. I don't know how did he survive that tiger attack but it does give a very nice final scene with special guest appearance of Riteish Deshmukh. 

Both stories of the couples told through 2 flashbacks was neither engaging nor likeable. I am not even sure if this got to do with poor casting or poor writing or combination of both. Just Tara Sutaria looks part of the film to some extent and also I like her voice in the songs she sang herself. Disha is hamming all the while, if not for that final twist you would even question why she behaves like that. I don't think John could had done anything more, too much limited scope with the role he has, while Arjun is lets say not that unbearable that I usually find him. 

Could had easily done away with the character of J.D.Chakravathi who basically does nothing but to inform us the audience the very basics of how serial killers work and he likes to call them 'Villain'. 

Overall, Ek Villain Returns looked like a really bad movie from the trailer so much that I wasn't planning to watch it, so in that regards I feel it was okay enough to sit through, its still a very below average movie. Do watch at your own risk.

My Rating : 4/10

Mini Review : The Big Bull (Hotstar) and Dhamaka (Netflix)

The Big Bull

Directed by : Kookie Gulati

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9614452/

Aadmi unchai ki taraf dekh raha ho toh usse tokna nahi chahiye.

Based on real events involving Harshad Mehta (whose name and all other characters related to him are changed here, I am guessing copywrites issue or plain laziness). 

If you had seen the trailer, then all the problems you could notice in it are present in the entire movie too. There is the obvious comparison you would do with Scam1992, but I personally knew there's no way The Big Bull or any film in future could do what that series did. Its like you read an excellent novel and hope its movie adaptation does 70% justice to it because that's the scope it will have at the best. Unfortunately, The Big Bull falls way short of that mark, one issue is the fact that its trying to include a lot of things, the main problem however is that the unwanted changes or directions it takes, for instance Hemant Shah (Abhishek Bachchan) greed is given a personal reason wanting money so he could stop marriage of the girl he loves Priya Patel Shah (Nikita Dutta). Hemant's brother Viren Shah (Sohum Shah) is also someone who needs help from Hemant, again leading to Hemant needing urgent money. Meera Rao (Ileana D'Cruz) the journalist who goes after Hemant, is easily the most poorly written character of all. Then there's scenes where we see Hemant continously laugh in an evil manner, for no apparant reason. 

Abhishek Bachchan at some places will remind you of his Guru performance, but apart from that he does his very best and is the main reason I managed to keep my interest in the movie. On one hand we had a series where each character was used perfectly, and here we get to see all the characters apart  from Abhishek getting wasted, specially Supriya Pathak and Saurabh Shukla.. In the end, its a one-time watch movie if you haven't seen Scam1992, and if you have then skipping this would do no harm at all. 

My Rating : 4/10 

Dhamaka 

Directed by : Ram Madhvani

Imdb link -> https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13510660/

Anchor kya hota hai ? Anchor actor hota hai.

Actor ko kya chahiye ? Actor ko audience chahiye. 

Audience ko kya chahiye ? Audience ko drama chahiye 

Unofficial remake of Korean movie 'The Terror Live', story is about Arjun Pathak (Kartik Aaryan) who one morning gets a call on his radio show from a person who says he would blast the sea link of Mumbai. Once Arjun realizes its not a prank call, he sees a wonderful opportunity in this moment of crisis, something that could get him his TV anchor job back. 

The whole angle of news channels hungry for TRP, news sold as masala rather than facts and how easily viewers fall for these fake news is very well captured atleast initially. Where the movie falls apart is the character of Arjun Pathak, that felt too greyish to my liking and it was a clear struggle for Kartik to play this part at many of the key scenes. Also, the entire terrorist plot didn't really kept me engaged or feel worried for people stuck at sea link, again part of it has to do with how inhuman Arjun Pathak character is. 

I myself hate news people to the core, but watching the film specially in 2nd and 3rd act, almost felt like they were treated like super villains specially the boss of TRTV played by Amruta Subhash. There are some good moments, like when she tells what news anchors are, or the initial montage covering the entire personal life of Arjun Pathak minus that irritating style of singing by Prateek Kuhad. Overall, Dhamaka promised a lot through its trailer but delivered very little. 

My Rating : 5/10 

Also, DO READ - Series Analysis : Scam 1992 (SonyLiv)