School of Rock (2003)

Genre: Musical/Drama/Comedy

Starring: Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack

Dewey Finn (Black) is a wannabe rock star who has just got voted out by his rock band. Rosalie Mullins (Cusack) is a school principal of a snobbish prep school who needs a substitute teacher. She contacts Ned Shneebly (White) who also is also Dewey's room-mate, to fill in the post. Dewey, currently unemployed, impersonates his friend and takes his job without informing him. Rock and roll being the only subject he ever learnt, he starts teaching that to the kids, citing it as a 'secret inter-school project competition', and slowly forms a band of his own to compete in the Battle of the Bands competition. A hilarious and laugh out loud comedy, Jack Black puts on an amazing performance. Although it feels a bit overdone, but that's how he is and that's what makes him amazing. Many songs featured in the movie are actually sung by Black's own band, Tenacious D. The movie has a nice outcome and is an amazing watch.

Rating: 7.0/10

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The Death and Life of Bobby Z (2007)

Genre: Action/Crime/Romance

Starring: Paul Walker, Laurence Fishburne, Olivia Wilde, J.R Villarreal

Bobby Z is an American drug lord whose now supposedly dead. Tim Kearney (Walker) is a loser of a person and is serving his fourth stint in jail. Tim, seems to have an uncanny resemblance to Bobby Z and DEA agent Tad Guzsa (Fishburne) wants to use this. He decides to make him impersonate Bobby Z and exchange him across the border with a Mexican drug dealer, Don Huertero in exchange for his former partner whose been kept hostage by the Mexicans. Tim is promised freedom once across the border, however the exchange doesn't go as planned and Huertero decides to kill Bobby because of what he did to his daughter. Tim's new life and old life gets messed up when he gets together with Bobby Z's ex-girlfriend Elizabeth (Wilde) and son Kit (Villarreal) and some old rivals from his earlier life are in hot pursuit of his life. Paul Walker does look faintly familiar to the original Bobby Z but not a look alike who can talk, walk and behave like him and expect no one from the whole wide world to recognize the change. The movie has a funny way of ending each individual character stories. They just die. Boom, boom, one dies, boom, boom, a bike gang is down, boom, boom, everyone's dead for good.

Rating: 5.8/10

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Journey to the Centre of the Earth (2008)

Genre: Adventure/Action/Science-Fiction

Starring: Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson, Anita Briem

Prof. Trevor Anderson (Fraser), a geologist, is trying to prove a volcanic theory that the world ridicules. He lost his friend Max in 1997 while he was trying to prove this very theory. Max's son Sean (Hutcherson) comes over to spend a few days with him, something Trevor is not looking forward to. When he gets hold of his old friends possesions, he discovers strange writings in Jules Verne's book The Journey to the Centre of the Earth written by Max himself. He discovers some sort of seismic activity later that day which is exactly the same to the day when Max got lost. Along with his nephew, he sets on a quest to Iceland to decipher the codes and to unlock the secret Max was pursuing. He hires a mountaineer Hannah (Briem) who is the daughter of a scientist who along with Max, belonged to a secret society that believed that the writing in Jules Verne's book was for real. The trio get lost in the deep confines of the earth, only to stumble across one of the most amazing discoveries of mankind. Although I saw the normal DVD version, many parts of this movie seem to have been created simply to give 3-D viewers thrills, which seem uncalled for. The special effects and visuals are horrible and seem to have been made over two decades ago. I really don't know if that is because of the 3-D print or not, but the overall job was quite bad. Certain parts seem to good to be true, like outrunning a T-Rex and riding a wave of lava in a dinosaur skull. Although being an adventure-fiction, it gets a bit too hard to believe at times.

Rating: 4.6/10

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The House Bunny (2008)

Genre: Drama/Romance

Starring: Anna Faris, Emma Stone

Shelly (Faris) is a playboy playmate, whose enjoyed the life of richness and luxury ever since she was young. After a sudden exit from the Playboy Mansion, she finds herself on the street with nowhere to go. She finds a sorority house of misfits, Zeta Alfa Zeta headed by Natalie (Stone) and gets inducted there. The ZAZ house might get demolished if Natalie doesn't manage to get 30 new members in their house. Shelly applies her playboy experience by converting the simple girls into stunning calendar girls which makes them gain a lot of popularity. They have to battle it out with the sorority house right across the street who is all set to take over their house if they don't have the required number of members. Anna Faris is highly irritating, trying to talk dirty and naughty all the time. Her squeaky voice and stupid talks are too much to handle. From no angle do the ZAZ girls look any more approachable than they were before their makeover. Not worth wasting one and a half hours.

Rating: 4.4/10

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Shichinin no Samurai (1954)

Genre: Action/Adventure/Drama

Starring: Takashi Shimura, Toshiro Mifune, Yoshio Inaba, Seiji Miyaguchi, Minoru Chiaki, Daisuke Kato, Isao Kimura

English Title: Seven Samurai. A small Japanese village is threatened by bandits who would steal all their crops when they are harvested. Fed up, the villagers decide to hire samurai to protect their village in return for three square meals. They finally manage to recruit Kambei Shimada (Shimura) who understands the villagers plight and agrees to fight for respect and not for the monetary benefits. He manages to find six others like-minded samurai who all agree to protect the village. The rest of the movie is predictable, but that doesn't mean its any less a good watch. A very direct, to the point and simple movie. No unnecessary nonsense, and a wonderful watch. Toshiro Mifune brings out the little humour the movie has and does an outstanding performance. Classics like these are worth collecting. It also inspired the less successful Bollywood movie China Gate. Please don't judge the movie on the basis of its Indian counterpart.

Rating: 8.2/10

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Biker Boyz (2003)

Genre: Sports/Drama

Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Derek Luke, Orlando Jones

Jalil aka Kid (Luke) is an amateur biker, whose dad is a part of the Black Knights racing gang headed by Smoke (Fishburne). Smoke holds the title of the undisputed King of Cali who has never been defeated. Kid never liked the fact that his father always had to do what Smoke wanted him to do, and vowed never to do what his dad did. When he loses his father in a freak accident, Kid decides to start a gang of his own and get a move on in life. His mom is scared that he might just end up like his father and doesn't want Kid to race. She confides in Smoke by revealing to him that Kid is actually his son and that he should take care of her when he's on track. Kid is fed up of Smoke's fatherly affections towards him and challenges him to a race. The loser quits racing for good. The movie doesn't have adrenaline rushing biking action that one would hope for. Instead there is a mother-father-son family emotional drama weaved into it. Fishburne looks to old and out of place to pull off Smoke's character. Its hard to imagine him as a biking gang lord.

Rating: 6.2/10

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The Hangover (2009)

Genre: Comedy/Drama

Starring: Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms, Zach Galifianakis, Justin Bartha

Doug (Bartha) is gonna get married. He and his friends Phil (Cooper) Stu (Helms) and Alan (Galifianakis) decide to throw him a bachelors party at Vegas. After a very crazy night, none of them can remember what happened the night before, and the worst part being, they cant find Doug. Their best buddy and groom-to-be has got lost, and they need to find him and bring him back to his wedding on time. The three friends try to re-trace their steps only to find horrifying facts of what they did the night before, of which they have absolutely no memory. The movie is a total laugh riot filled with all the nonsense one can possibly generate in this world. From stealing Mike Tysons tiger and a cop car, pulling out ones own tooth, to marrying strippers, finding babies in the closet and getting hospitalised without realising it, this movie just does it all. The movie is different from your conventional American sex-comedy movies who just focus on nudity and sex to make themselves more appealing. The bachelors party photographs at the end of the movie is a must watch. Best go watch it with a couple of good friends and some beer. Cheers!

Rating: 7.6/10

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