Taken 2 [Views]

Directed by : Olivier Megaton
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1397280/

If I kill you, your other sons will  come and seek revenge ? 'They will'. And I will kill them too.

There are films that are so much performance oriented, that even if its weak in rest departments, it matters very less as the movie has made a impact on you. Taken2 falls in that category for me, for the performance of Liam Neeson. I loved his performance, mind you that doesn't mean I am saying its a oscar worthy.

I haven't seen the 1st part yet, so I assume the starting 5-10 mins where Murad (Rade Serbedzija) pledges to take revenge of his son, must had been killed in last part. Retired CIA, Bryan (Liam Neeson) asks his ex-wife Lenore (Famke Janssen) and daughter, Kim (Maggie Grace) to come to Istanbul and spend some time with him, which would be a pleasant change for them too. But, he isn't aware that Murad is planning revenge not only against him but his wife and daughter too. Bryan and Lenore gets taken by Murad, but Kim escapes. Bryan insists her to go to embassy and be safe, but she has other plans as she wants to help her father and mom.

The love track between Bryan and Lenore doesn't work to me, again I am taking a guess that in part1 there would be scenes that describe how their relation failed. Maggie Grace over-acts a lot. While Rade Serbedzija never interests me, as normally the villian should be much more powerful but he never appeared to be so. The ending very much justifies that statement.

Liam Neeson is beyond brilliant, the way he uses memory when his eyes are closed to remember places on basis of voices he hears and the time it takes to reach a particular place (Reminded me of a hindi film qatl). And then later, he uses that same memory to relocate to the place where Murad is hiding. He's always one step ahead of his enemies, and the only time he misses is when his wife makes a mistake.

The action sequences are very good, they had the 'bourne series' feel, not just for the action but also the background score. Dialogues are good, especially Liam one's.


Taken2 is likeable only due to Liam Neeson, single handedly he carries the film from the start till the end.

Argo [Views]

Directed by : Ben Affleck
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1024648/

The whole country is watching you ... they just don't know it. 

The movie begins with a small history about U.S, and Iran.. and the developments taking place in those countries. Its a quick 5 minute voiceover (pretty much like Piyush Mishra opening credits description in GOW1). And the 1st shot that comes after that, is a very large amount of people gathered outside the U.S Embassy in the Iran, to protest against a leader named 'Shah' being taken in the embassy, and not killed yet. There was hatred among the people for Shah, and they broke into the embassy leaving the people present inside the embassy in total panic. Just 6 americans inside the embassy managed to escape, rest all were taken hostage. The 6 americans were kept hidden by a canadian ambassador, which was known only by a US CIA spy agency.

CIA's exfil, Tony (Ben Affleck) expert puts forward a plan of acting like a film production person, he would make a fake canadian movie that requires a certain location in Iran to be visited, and the 6 americans would be the crew of the movie, who would flew back with Tony. The problem for Tony is, not only he has less time to promote a fake movie that looks real, his own CIA people aren't pleased with the movie idea, and may anytime change the plan.

The film is based on a true story, its a history based film.. yet its full of humurous moments thanks to the part where Tony goes to meet the Hollywood people, Lester (Alan Arkin) and John (John Goodman) to help him in the fake movie idea. Both Lester and John were amazing to the extent that in what was a very serious movie, their scenes would almost always bring a laugh or two. Lester's 'Argo fuck yourself' was hillarious. And the dialogues written were funny too, 'This is the best bad idea we have Sir, by far'.

All the 6 actors playing the american characters, portrayed the dread and scared look pretty well. Kathy (Kerry Bishe), acts like a professional movie crew member, by taking the photos of the Iran market location where Tony takes all of them, only to get into unexpected kind of trouble. Cora (Clea Duvall) polite query to Tony 'Can we rehearse once again' when Tony is feeling 'all lost', and Tony telling her 'You did quite well, Cora.. have some rest now'.

Joe (Scoot Mcnairy) has two scenes of his own, one where he expresses how he has made Kathy suffer in all this revolution, but the main one where he surprises not just Tony but the audience is at the airport.

Ben Affleck brings a calmness to the character of Tony, even when there appears to be some problems in his married life which ain't given any importance understandably as per demand of the subject. The dejection on the face of Ben when he feels all preparations went waste, the surprised look when he sees the confidence in Joe to help everyone, the happy look to see Cora trying and practising so hard, and the slightest of smile he gives during one of the key scene in the movie. The reason why its easy to connect to his character is, that he keeps it simple.. never tries to be over-smart, always shows the fear that is always there in him at every checkpoints of airport, or while he is in Iran.

The airport climax sequence is without a doubt nerve wrecking, you won't be able to move out of your seat, and you wont either be able to make a guess as to whether Tony would succeed or fail, as both have equal probabilities. Special mention to the fast editing done in that sequence, that builds the tension much more.

Also, I liked the fact that the rehearsals sequence are shown very less, as the fear of the 6 americans and how much vulnerable they would be, was required to be exploited.

Excellent direction, writing and screenplay (though its very much linear), there are some cliches done in the narrative but all that just adds to the drama of the movie. Special mention to the light background score at the final shot of the movie, love when films end that way.. it increases the liking.


Argo is among the best Hollywood movies that have come out this year, probably I loved it as much as I loved The Dark Knight Rises. I have a feeling, Argo is gonna get nominations in Oscar awards. Yup.

Movie Analysis : Student of the Year

Directed by : Karan Johar
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2172071/

It takes courage to make a film with 3 newcomers as leads. Varun Dhawan (David Dhawan's son), Siddharth Malhotra (a model) and Alia Bhatt (Mahesh Bhatt's daughter). Its not these three who lets the film down, but its the script and the narration thats full of faults.

The narration style follows Barfi way, a person in hospital and the people present there narrating the story to us, with the exception that it doesn't go into flashback within flashback mode. The story then begins about Rohan (Varun Dhawan) and Shanaya (Alia Bhatt), who study at St.Teresa High School in Dehradun. Then, enters, Abhimanyu (Siddharth Malhotra) which instantly brings a fight between him and Rohan. Over the time they become good friends, while Abhimanyu starts to fall in love with Shanaya. The dean of the school, Yogendra (Rishi Kapoor) starts the routine annual competition of the school 'Student of the Year', and everyone including the 3 main leads would go to any extent to win the trophy.

To introduce the lead characters with a highly extended and total glam way was something that didn't please me. In K3G, Kareena Kapoor had such entry too but it worked because it was short and sexy. But, in this case.. it looks over-done.

Having a gay character, that is played by Rishi Kapoor.. and a dialogue between Rohan and Abhimanyu 'kiss toh nahi karega?', 'Nahi, gale bhi nahi lagunga'.. was kinda of un-necessary especially when you have got a certain kind of image as a person in the eyes of lots of people.

The treasure hunt was completely not required among the chosen categories for the competition, while Cycling was poorly directed. Or maybe Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander magic came into my eyes. The pre-climax as well as the climax scenes are so poorly handled by Karan, least expected from him. Also, what was it to show off the leads coming out of water, and posing around.. be it Varun or Siddharth or Alia... almost made me think if I have come to watch a photoshoot. While, the football match had so much similarity with 'Chak de India', remember two strong players not passing the ball.

The wedding sequence where no dialogue is kept and a plain background runs for around 2-3 mins was the one where Karan Johar touch was visible in full flow.

'Velle' was the best song in the album, and it was well picturised too. Good to see 'Kajol' in a 5-10 second cameo during 'Disco Deewane' song. How she lights up the screen even in those few seconds is unbelievable. 'Ishq wala Love' was romantically filmed, even though I don't like the lyrics but the romantic feel in the song is very much there. While 'Ratta Maar' 1st part was aptly used, what was the connection while using it 2nd time around ? 'Radha' was nice, but the mixing of 'Dafli wale' brought more life into the song visually, specially Rishi Kapoor's harkats throughout.

I liked Siddharth Malhotra the most among the 3 newcomers. He looked confident. While Varun at places reminded me of Sohail Khan, but his character certainly was more stronger therefore he did have lots of good moments to shine through, specially when he fights with his father or when he shows his will to win the competition.

Alia Bhatt was kinda of doing a extended cameo, she had less screen time. Though she looked way too cute, her acting looks shaky to say for now.

Rishi Kapoor was superb in a character that I already mentioned I would had liked not to be there in movie. Ronit Roy was good. Sana Saeed (small anjali of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai), didn't have the kind of debut she would have wanted I believe, more of a small supporting role. She was fine in her part.

Ram Kapoor was his usual, I guess Udaan was his last best role. Gautami Kapoor never gets a dialogue, probably editor went harsh over her scenes.

Kayoze Irani was decent, he highly over-acted in the scene against the dean.. though the director's at fault here. Manasi Racch was among best in the supporting characters, specially when the urge to win competition enters into her mind.

Manjot Singh was good. Farida Jalal was lovely as always. Boman Irani in a special apperance was funny.


Overall, Student of the Year ends up being too much glam and unrealistic to connect with. It entertains in parts, but the film ends up among the least enjoyed Karan Johar films for me.


Verdict : AVERAGE 

Movie Analysis : Delhi Safari

Directed by : Nikhil Advani
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1172587/

A male leopard 'Sultan' (Sunil Shetty, voiceover) dies at a jungle because the humans are cutting the trees with bulldozer and removing any animals residing there so as to use the area for construction purpose. His son, small cub 'Yuvi' (Swini Khara, voiceover) doesn't want to leave the place as her mom 'Begum' (Urmila Matondkar, voiceover) wants her to, so as to save her from being killed by humans. The monkey, Bajrangi (Govinda, voiceover) wants to go on full war with his small sena over the humans, but Bagga, bear (Boman Irani, voiceover) stops him, and says the matter should be handled peacefully by talking to the humans. Therefore, they kidnap Alex, parrot (Akshay Khanna, voiceover) as he only could speak the human language. The journey from Mumbai to Delhi begins, to reach the parliament and put forward the problems of animals. But, on the course of the journey.. a lot of further events happens, mainly due to the rivalry Bajrangi and Alex share with each other.

The animation work looks good, still not upto the level of Hollywood but improvement is visible. Plus, the story was much more interesting, only if the Dialogues were better. The screenplay is kept simple, with the length of the movie being just 90 mins.

Bajrangi and Alex characters work the most for me, both are given very nice looks.. and the tom-jerry kind of treatment they both share for major part of the movie brings in some good sequences. Govinda and Akshay Khanna have done very good job on the voiceover. Also, liked Yuvi, the cub which looks so cute, and perfectly voice-overed by small Swini Khara (sexy of cheeni kam fame). Boman Irani did nice work on Bagga too.

The songs were big road-blocks in the narration. Unless and ofcourse it was meant to be a musical animation film, I would had accepted it, but here the songs are way too many. The song which Sultan sings to manaofy Begum and the one when they meet Gujarati couple on the way to Delhi were the rightly used songs.

The bees sequence was one of the best in the movie.The intro sequence of Alex was funny, for the way it dances on the song playing on tv. And the way leopards hug each other, was nice.

The climax was good, could had got preachy but avoids it.


Overall, Delhi Safari is a decent animation movie. Has its flaws, still it provides good entertainment for most part of the movie.


Verdict : NICE 

Movie Analysis : Cocktail

Directed by : Homi Adajania
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2168910/

This is Homi Adajania's second film after 'Being Cyrus'. I haven't seen that one yet, but heard lots of applause for it which in turn meant rise of expectations from Cocktail specially with a good trailer and some very nice music. But, Cocktail doesn't live upto to it.

Veronica (Deepika Padukone) lives a carefree life in London and is a party girl. Meera (Diana Penty) has been betrayed by her husband Kunal (Randeep Hooda), and has no where to go when Veronica meets her and they eventually become roomies come friends. Gautam (Saif Ali Khan), a flirt after almost every girl becomes a guy Veronica falls for initially as a timepass but she later realizes she loves him. But, Gautam falls in love with Meera when they are on a picnic with Veronica and Gautam's mother. Meera is a simple girl who won't like betraying her best friend. It gets complicated for all the three..

The 1st half was very entertaining full of funny moments, but the 2nd half gets very melo-dramatic. Infact the final 20-30 mins were more of a torture to watch with a climax that didn't make any impact on me because I had already lost the connect with the story. The writing by Imtiaz Ali tries to avoid the cliches we see in love-triangle, as there's a scene where Gautam tells Veronica and Meera that we won't play hide and seek, and tells the truth. Still, post that scene the film falls down terribly, blame it Imtiaz who could had given something more into that part, or Saif who never looked in control playing the character, or Diana who's character tries to be too much of 'balidaan' and all.

Veronica's heartbroken sequence in the pub was one of the best scene in the movie. Also humour wise the film had lots of good scenes, like the one where Gautam dances on Sheila n other item songs with the lingerie on and her mother makes a entry. The dialogues were refreshing.

Pritam's music was very good. 'Daaru Desi' showing the love between the three friends, very well picturised. 'Tumhi Ho Bandhu' bringing the happy Meera out. And, 'main sharabi' showing the decline of Veronica. Also, 'Luttna' and 'Jugni' showing the bad phase of all the three friends.

Saif Ali Khan has done this kinda of roles in plenty, still here he looked out of touch. Maybe, the fact that Saif-Deepika did a similar based movie 'Love Aaj Kal' gave the feel of 'not fresh' to me. Some other actor could had brought more life into the Gautam character, especially the one that's split between Veronica and Meera.

Diana Penty gave a very good debut. Though, her character Meera is one that I won't like to see in real.. totally hate such girls who have a habit of crying all the time, total turn-off they are. Thats the reason, 'Tumhi ho bandhu' song clicked a lot to me, as Meera finally had some good happy faces to show. Her dubbing was well done too.

Deepika Padukone easily was the best among all in her performance. She makes Veronica look totally carefree, and a total party freak. How she slowly falls over Gautam, her hatred emerges for Meera, and then the drunk sequence along with the pub one. Or the pre-climax where she notices Gautam closely. Deepika would had got even more applause by everyone if the 2nd Half was much much better than it was in the end.

Randeep Hooda was more of a waste, in a nothing role.

Dimple Kapadia's short cameo was very entertaining, she's always a delight to watch, lovely screen presence as always. Boman Irani was decent in a supporting role.


Overall, Cocktail turns out to be a average film, despite a very good 1st half, Deepika's performance, good music, and some great moments at various places of the film. The second half just couldn't make me like the movie as a whole.


Verdict : AVERAGE

Premium Rush [Views]

Directed by : David Koepp
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1547234/

I like to ride. Fixed gear. No brakes. Can't stop. Don't want to, either.

Wilee (Joseph Gordon Levitt) has a job of delivering envelopes given to him by his boss to particular people in the city by riding fast bicycles with fixed gear and no brakes. But, one envelope causes him lot of trouble, as a cop gets after him to get it from him. The envelops contains something thats important for the cop to earn money as he has been losing a lot at gambling, while its also important for a girl Nima (Jamie Chung) who has to set her kid free by letting the envelope reach the person its meant to go to.

The film's narration is based on bicyle for major part of the movie, and yet there is lack of intense and exciting moments that one would expect in such a film. The screenplay was pretty good, the way the time is used to move back and after to tell the events of every character involved towards the envelope. That is the only reason, the film does entertain to a certain way.

Wilee vision of which path to follow when he is near to having a collision while riding bicycle, the escape from the garage and the flashmob were some great scenes in the movie.

Joseph Gordon Levitt was not impressive for me, though I doubt any other actor would had made much more out of this role either.

Micheal Shannon as the cop was very good, be it his own story of making himself lose so much money or the chase he has after Wilee.

Wole Parks irritated me a lot.


Overall, Premium Rush can be called a nice light hearted entertainer. Nothing special though.

The Bourne Legacy [Views]

Directed by : Tony Gilroy
Imdb link -> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1194173/

It was always gonna be tough for Tony-Jeremy to match the great work Greengrass-Damon had done in the previous 2 parts of the Bourne series (I quite liked 1st part also, directed  by Doug Liman).  And it proved to be that way only after I ended watching this final part of Bourne Series, unless they plan to extend it further.

One good thing they did is they invented new character for Jeremy (Aaron), instead of giving him the Bourne character. That therefore meant some new information that is linked to the Blackbriar and Treadstone, and so 'Outcome' is the program they establish.

The problem with this movie is, its just too slow to kick off. The action sequences aren't that special or exciting as Bourne series always had, though the climax bike sequence was certainly the best in the entire film. Also, the romantic plot between Aaron and Dr. Marta (Rachel Weisz) wasn't written well. And all the scenes where Aaron is on the look out about the unknown events, or the things he ain't aware of .. just doesn't thrill you like it did with Matt Damon who was constantly fighting with his search of own identity.

I felt Jeremy Renner would be total mismatch in this role, but to his credit he did a wonderful job only if he had a good script to support his performance. Special reference to sudden humour he brings in conversations especially with Dr. Marta.

Rachel Weisz leaving asides her over the top scene before Jeremy comes to her rescue, she did pretty well.

Another big disappointment in the movie was the supporting cast. With David Strathairn and Joan Allen used only as special apperances, it was important for the chosen set of actors to make a mark, but their part in the movie is so dull that I kept waiting for Jeremy sequences to enter.


Overall, The Bourne Legacy is better to be not counted in the Bourne series. Jeremy Renner gives some respite with his performance, but a dull script and not so spectacular action like one expected lets the film completely down.