Dum Maaro Dum (2011)

Genre: Crime/Drama/Romance/Thriller/Mystery

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Bipasha Basu, Prateik Babbar, Rana Daggubati, Aditya Pancholi, Govind Namdeo, Muzammil S. Qureshi

Goa, India, the land of sun and sand, bikinis and babes, hippies and druggies, crime and murder. People from around the world come here to party and get high, but the party is just about to get disrupted by one big party-pooper. Lorsa Biscuta (Pancholi) is the drug lord of Goa. If there is anything at all going on in the drug world, he would be the first to know. ACP Vishnu Kamath (Bachchan) is a corrupt cop in the narcotics division. One day when his family dies in a car accident due to a druggie, his life changes forever and he swears to clean the streets of Goa. Laurence Edwardo Gomes aka Lorry (Babbar) is the average Goan youth who aspired to go to USA to study, along with his girlfriend. His dreams, however, come crashing down when his financial aid does not get approved but his girlfriends does who has to leave him to pursue her academic career. A local drug peddler hears about Lorry's sob story and agrees to pay off his fees provided he carry some cocaine with him to the US. In an act of desperation, Lorry agrees much to his later regret. Meanwhile, ACP Kamath is cracking a whip on the party scene and Biscuta stashes his dope with a mysterious Michael Barbossa. In each part of Goa he is known by a different name, nobody knows him, nobody has seen him and Kamath is out to search for him. Joki (Daggubati) is Lorry's well-wisher who is trying to prevent him from doing what he is about to do. His ex-girlfriend Zoe (Basu) went through the entire phase that Lorry is about to go through now and he doesn't want to lose another friend. The stories eventually merge to bring out a possibly predictable outcome. If you actually put your head to it its not hard for some people to figure the mystery out. Rohan Sippy's movies were always something and this movie too aspires to be different. Abhishek Bachchan and Prateik Babbar put together a fabulous performance, although Bachchan always seemed over-aggressive and too enthusiastic, it suited the role he was trying to play. The only flaw in the otherwise decent movie was the extended run-time. Bollywood is notorious for stretched movies and this one is no different. Possibly if the plot developed slightly faster with a more twisted climax, the movie would have been far more interesting. Great watch with some nice foot-tapping numbers.

Thumbs up: Good performances, nice plot

Thumbs down: A bit stretched

Rating: 7.8/10

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Fast Five (2011)

Genre: Action/Crime

Starring: Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster, Tyrese Gibson, Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges, Matt Schluze, Gal Gadot, Dwayne Johnson, Elsa Pataky, Joaquim de Almeida

The Fast and Furious saga started of as movie with adrenaline rushing racing, crazy cars and hot babes. The past two movies (including this one) have, sadly, shifted their focus and cars have been quickly replaced by crime. Dominic Toretto (Diesel) is sentenced to prison for his crime in the previous movie but escapes shortly with the help of Brian O'Conner (Walker) and his sister Mia (Brewster). Before the police can get to them, the trio drive their way down all the way to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and meet up with Dominic's old accomplice Vince (Schulze). Reyes (Almeida) is Rio's biggest crime lord and Mia, Brian, Dom and Vince do a job with Reyes and his men. The job goes wrong, three federal agents and they attract enough heat to get FBI Agent Hobbs (Johnson) to come all the way down to Rio and sort business out. Dom wants to do one last job before they quit the business forever, one job where they take Reyes down for good. The movie did have some really amazing action and hugely destructive action sequences, yet the plot did not live up to the brands reputation. Whatever cars and racing was there, it seemed to be forced rather than with the movies plot. Two masterminds assembling a team for one big robbery, ever heard of Oceans Eleven? Amongst other faults, the attribute for which each team member was selected by Dom and Brian did not reflect in the movie. It is entertaining, no doubt, but not the Fast and Furious kind of entertainment. Felt more like a heist movie on steroids.

Thumbs up: Great mind-bogging action

Thumbs down: No racing, not too much of cars

Rating: 6.2/10

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RAGING BULL

Written by Paul Schrader and Mardik Martin

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Cathy Moriarty

Jake LaMotta: Hey Ray! Never went down man. You never got me down, Ray.

When Martin Scorsese’s RAGING BULL was released theatrically in 1980, it was actually not as well received as you might think. Scorsese’s sixth feature film is generally today considered to be one of the best American films ever made but at the time, it was a bit much for many. Today, we are accustomed to unlikable protagonists. In 1980, to kick back and enjoy a film about Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro), a boxer who fights just as hard with himself, and the people in his life, as he does with his opponents in the ring, was likely just as jarring as any given boxing match would be for a non-boxing enthusiast. Shot in stunning black and white, Scorsese does not pull any punches with RAGING BULL, allowing all the abuse, violence and overall paranoia that consumed LaMotta’s life to take center stage on screen. After 10 crazy rounds, its hard not feel knocked out.

Jake LaMotta is a Bronx born fighter. He began his professional boxing career at the age of 19 and would go on to win the middleweight championship before retiring in the 1950’s. After leaving boxing behind him because of injuries, he went on to a life as a nightclub owner and moonlighted as an actor and comedian. In his entire life, he has been married six times and has four children. In RAGING BULL, his first marriage is essentially glossed over, allowing the majority of the focus to be placed on his second wife, Vikki (Cathy Moriarty) and their tumultuous time together during Jake’s boxing years. The film also focuses heavily on Jake’s relationship with his brother, Joey (Joe Pesci), whose character is essentially an amalgamation of Jake’s brother and his best friend, Pete, for simplicity purposes. While it may be based in truth, adapted from LaMotta’s own memoirs, it is definitely not a biopic in any traditional sense.

Scorsese has credited RAGING BULL and De Niro in the past for saving his life. It was De Niro who convinced Scorsese that he needed to kick the cocaine habit that had put him in the hospital in the late 1970’s after an overdose. It was also De Niro who convinced Scorsese that RAGING BULL was the perfect project to return to filmmaking with. And while Scorsese’s direction in the film is certainly some of his finest ever, in many ways, RAGING BULL is more De Niro’s triumph than anyone else’s. De Niro had wanted to make the picture ever since he read LaMotta’s book while making THE GODFATHER PART II and it is easy to see why. By playing a character as complex as LaMotta, De Niro is able to explore every facet of human emotion, from love and anger to pride and humiliation. He wears LaMotta’s demons like a second skin, even going so far as to put on sixty pounds to portray LaMotta in his later years. His passion for the project, which also included casting influence and uncredited work on the script, certainly paid off, as he took home the Oscar for Best Actor for his performance.

Of course Scorsese and De Niro were a team back then; RAGING BULL was their fourth picture together. (They would go on to make seven in total.) As good as De Niro is in the film, it is Scorsese’s deliberate filmmaking choices that frame the brilliant performance and make it into an iconic one. While Scorsese must have known the film would stand out just based on the violent nature of it’s subject matter, he chose to film it in black and white in order to further differentiate it from other boxing films in production at the time. The lack of colour is also more appropriate for the period and tones down the blood in the fight sequences. Scorsese also plays with the speed of the film at times, slowing down certain moments as if they are being burnt in LaMotta’s brain for all eternity. These moments range from a close-up of Vikki’s feet splashing in a pool the first time he sees her to the gloved fist of another fighter coming down on him during a pivotal match. The skill with which Scorsese brings this chaotic story to its close is unmatched by many even to this day and you can feel him fighting for it just as hard as LaMotta does at all times.

As unnerving as RAGING BULL is, it is a far more quiet and introspective experience than one would expect it to be. And as much as it is a boxing movie (albeit there is only truly ten minutes of actual fight footage), it is much more of a character study, and an unforgettable one at that. LaMotta, or at least his screen incarnation, is a small-minded man, afraid that he will go through life without getting his supposed due. He fights for notice and when he has it, he doesn’t know how to hold on to it without crushing it or fully abusing it. He wants to do everything on his own and, in doing so, ends up completely alone. And once a bull has stopped seeing red and finished running everyone out of the streets he has always known, what is he meant to do with all that pent up rage?

(Courtesy 20th Century Fox)

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Best of Black Sheep: RABBIT HOLE

Written by David Lindsay-Abaire

Directed by John Cameron Mitchell

Starring Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest and Sandra Oh

Becca: I like that thought. Somewhere out there, I'm having a good time.

There are times in our lives where we all find ourselves falling down a hole we didn’t see coming. We are just merrily making our way through the world we know when suddenly, and when we’re not necessarily paying attention, we find ourselves plummeting. While falling alone can be horrifying enough, tumbling down the same hole with your partner can be incredibly difficult and alienating. Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play parents who have recently lost their young son, Danny, to a car accident, in the delicate drama, RABBIT HOLE. Fortunately for them, director John Cameron Mitchell is there to catch them before they hit the ground.

Mitchell made a name for himself when he first wrote, directed and starred in the film adaptation of his own Off-Broadway show, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH (click title for review). His exploration of the marginally sexual not only continued its prevalence in his second feature, SHORTBUS, but it would go places most would never dare. In his third and decidedly most accessible work to date, RABBIT HOLE, Mitchell almost abandons sexuality entirely and turns his focus on grief and loss. I use the word, “accessible” loosely, as there is nothing easy about going down this particular hole. David Lindsay-Abaire’s adaptation of his Pulitzer Prize-winning stage play, looks at a couple suffering the unbearable loss of their only child, a story that we have seen a number of times before, and makes it feel like the individual experience it has to be.

Joining Kidman and Eckhart along their journey towards catharsis feels like a privilege, like we don’t really have the right to be there. Each of their experiences is so separate from the other’s, but you can always feel that they are fighting somewhere deep underneath their own hardship to find their way back to each other. Eckhart is strong as a husband who is struggling with doing everything he can not to forget but Kidman is just plain unforgettable. She is doing everything she can to heal, including reaching out to the young boy who was driving the car that killed her son, but she can’t tell if anything is actually working. After all, what level of sadness is needed to let go and see the world the way it once was? That’s the thing about rabbit holes though, both in metaphoric terms and in regards to this film, you’re not the same for having gone down them.

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Thank You (2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Akshay Kumar,Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Suniel Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Celina Jaitley, Rimi Sen

The million dollar question, what is Bollywoods one and only formula to create a comedy movie? Answer; Akshay Kumar + a foreign location + tons of skimpy clad woman + husband-wife complications. Been there, seen it, done that. Raj (Deol), Yogi (Shetty) and Vikram (Khan) are three friends conducting business together who regularly cheat on their wives and have loads of other mistresses. To avoid getting caught, they watch out for each other and have a ball of a time. Raj's wife Sanjana (Kapoor) loves her husband to no end and refuses to agree upon the fact that he might be cheating on her. Yogi and Vikrams' wives, Maya (Jaitley) and Shivani (Sen) introduce her to detective Kishan (Kumar) who specialises in conducting sting operations against cheating husbands/wives. He tries to collect evidence to prove to Sanjana that there is indeed an affair going on with Raj and some other woman. Meanwhile, Raj, Vikram and Yogi suspect that there is someone trying to bring out their secret to their wives and hence they too hire Kishan to find out who is uncovering their secrets. The usual confusion, mix-up and stupidity follows which gives you a week-long hangover. The plot is utterly ridiculous and the melodrama and unwanted craziness is just too much to digest. My condolences to everyone who had to bear the brunt of this movie and my sincere apologies for not posting this review early enough.

Thumbs up: Hmm, probably the tons of bikini-clad woman will win this one

Thumbs down: Everything, literally

Rating: 4.2/10

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Source Code (2011)

Genre: Science-fiction/Action/Drama/Romance

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaall, Michelle Monaghan, Vera Farmiga, Jeffrey Wright

Yep, another unbelievable American science-fiction movie. Colter Stevens (Gyllenhaal) is a US Army soldier who has been assigned a task in a new research project undertaken by the government. The device, developed by Dr. Rutledge (Wright), is capable of extracting the memory of a dead person limited to the last 8 minutes before death. A passenger train in Chicago was bombed and many more such attacks are to follow. Colter Stevens is asked to assume the identity of a passenger on the train whose memory has been extracted. He has 8 minutes to go back in time and assume the identity of the person and find the bomber, if the 8 minutes run out, he is reset back in the same scenario over and over again until his mission is completed, however, each reset means that the bomber in reality is slowly approaching his and Colter has very little time. He meets Christina (Monoghan) on the train who is an associate of the man whose identity he has assumed and falls in love with her. Apart from just deactivating the bomb, he wants to save the lives of every other person on the train, including Christina. In order to understand the format of the movie in more simpler terms, simply imagine yourself playing a computer game where each unsuccessful mission makes you reset the game and you try a different tactic. The movie gets boring with the same scenarios occurring over and over again with a very weak climax. The romance bit too didn't help too much but just made it a bigger bore. 

Thumbs up: Nothing in particular

Thumbs down: Boring plot and story

Rating: 6.0/10

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SCREAM 4

Written by Kevin Williamson

Directed by Wes Craven

Starring Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette

Rachel: These sequels don't know when to stop.

Fifteen years after director, Wes Craven, and original writer, Kevin Williamson, scared the crap out of unsuspecting moviegoers initially, they have finally reunited to resurrect the SCREAM franchise. Original cast members, Neve Campbell, Courtney Cox and David Arquette have returned for SCREAM 4 as well and are joined by fresh faces, Emma Roberts and Hayden Panettiere, to name just a couple. With all this pedigree to back it up, this sequel / reboot / remake has a lot to lose and expectations going in will not be high considering how disappointing the third installment was. This might work to their advantage though because no one will ever expect SCREAM 4 to be anywhere near as good as it actually is.

There is no real need to divulge too much plot here; the element of surprise is key as you well know. I will say though that, a decade later, good old tortured Sidney Prescott (Campbell) – who for some reason still answers her phone – has finally turned her life around and published a book about no longer being a victim. Her promo tour finds her back in her hometown of Woodsboro, just in time for the anniversary of the original massacre. And you know Ghostface is not going to just let an anniversary go by without slicing up a few more fast-talking, movie-loving teenagers. The return to Ghostface’s home turf is certainly a welcome one. Not only does it allow for plenty of bloody nostalgia but it also removes the focus from the “Stab” film series, a film-within-a-film device that was taking all the serrated edge out of the actual series. Besides, all of Williamson’s delicious nods and winks to the original make SCREAM 4 an actual film within another, without obviously trying so hard.

Perhaps the most impressive thing about SCREAM 4 is that it actually exists. Craven began shooting on SCREAM 4 without a finished script because Williamson and producer, Bob Weinstein, couldn’t agree on some of the major plot elements. Before they were able to come to any conclusive agreement, Williamson had to return to honour his contract as a story developer on TV’s The Vampire Diaries. SCREAM 3 screenwriter, Ehran Kruger, was called in to smooth over the rough edges in Williamson’s script and even in the weeks approaching the release of the new film, Williamson had yet to even see the finished version. Still, all parties involved insist that the drama in no way took away from their support for the project. After all, SCREAM made Williamson a hot commodity, reinvigorated Craven’s career and put Miramax on the map.

The SCREAM series has always been about the rules, from honouring them to completely circumventing them. They now have an even bigger challenge – to reinvent the rules. Society has gotten a lot more violent and a lot more digital in the last decade and SCREAM has to keep up with the times. By incorporating more modern elements like video streaming and cyber-stalking into Ghostface’s bag of tricks, SCREAM 4 feels relevant and revitalized, like it needed to be made. How’s that for a new rule then? A successful horror franchise should only come back if there is actually fresh blood to be drawn instead of just to bleed it dry. Fortunately for SCREAM fans everywhere, the crimson corn syrup continues to flow freely from Ghostface’s blade.

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