Change Your Image
romessanadeem
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Don't Breathe (2016)
Don't Hold Your Breath
Don't Breathe is a film with one of the most interesting premises I've heard recently. A trio of small time thieves, Rocky, Alex and Money (I didn't come up with these names. Don't look at me) try to burgle an old blind man's house on the chance that he's keeping his inherited 300000$ hoarded somewhere inside. The Blind Guy is not entirely hospitable to the thieves who tried to gas and rob him and he quickly is revealed to be something out of a Quentin Tarantino movie. The trailer looked absolutely riveting, a surefire 1.5 hours of thrilling suspense. As it turns out though, Don't Breathe is as suspenseful as a piece of soggy bread.
Don't Breathe tries to create moments of tension and suspense and they work at times, very occasionally. But sadly the best moments, like the minor "plot twist" and a death scene, were revealed in the trailer. It's just another example of trailers showing too much too soon, much to the expense of the quality and effectiveness of the movie itself. Scenes that could have amounted to genuine nail- biting-edge-of-the-seat trembling were further dampened by the absolute idiocy of our three main leads. Rocky (Jane Levy) is given the most clichéd backstory you can think of. Money (Daniel Zovatto) tries to have a cool ghetto backstory but he's as ghetto as Iggy Azalea. And Alex (Dylan Minette) despite seeming like a well off kid likes to go around breaking and entering into houses with Rocky and Money. It's like the writers were trying to say, "They don't actually STEAL and don't use weapons. Now EMPATHIZE" But who are the bad guys in this movie? The blind guy? The lead characters? Their parents for naming them things like Rocky and Money? The only backstory that would have made sense for these three would have been a shot of them getting dropped as infants because they're about as smart as the three stooges, if not less. It's especially baffling since it seemed that they were meant to be complex and interesting characters. There's also an unnecessarily ridiculous subplot that involves a love triangle even though you don't even realize Rocky and Money are dating until it's too late to even matter.
Other minor but unignorable faults with the movie include the fact that no neighbors, no cars and no pedestrians seem to surround the area who could hear regularly recurring screams or loud gunshots. The thieves keep screaming out each other's names in front of the guy they're robbing. The blind guy despite having heightened senses (even olfactory) can't feel people nearly bump into him or feel their scared tingly twitchy sweaty presence. And out of all my eye rolls, the ending made me roll my eyes the hardest.
On the plus side, the film is visually interesting. It doesn't feel too cramped or visually boring despite majority of it taking place in the same house. The actors actually do a really great job, especially Jane Levy who gave a really convincing performance. Stephen Lang is creepy and intimidating (and strangely attractive) as a psychotic blind man (he's actually officially just The Blind Man) The premise is interesting and original and they did manage to wring out some decent substance.
Sadly the bad outweighs the good and we're left with a film in which the main characters self-sabotage their own survival by making the worst decisions possible. Maybe they have issues because their parents named them things like Rocky and Money. My advice: Don't watch the trailer. Don't expect smart characters. Don't hold your breath.
Before I Wake (2016)
What I've Come to Expect of Flanagan
Based on my thoughts on Occulus and Hush, I've come to expect a great plot and questionable execution from Flanagan's productions and he did not disappoint in this. The heavy reliance on butterflies and a woman coming to appreciate and love a child that's not her own (among other things) reminded me of a better horror movie; Mama. All this did was make me wish I was watching that instead of Before I Wake. But then again, Before I Wake isn't a horror movie and it shouldn't have been marketed as one. The film is one part fantasy, one part drama and one part horror/thriller (whatever you want to call it) but it has a difficult time balancing this out. The script and screenplay is too half-baked to advance the film to the heights it wanted to reach.
While the characters are not totally flat, it's hard to grasp their motivations exactly. The mother (Kate Bosworth) seems to be driven more by a sense of obligation to her son and later as some sort of moral obligation to herself and her husband instead of an emotional drive toward her adopted son. (This is something which was smoothed over in the last scene of the movie though.)
Throughout the film, I had no idea how it was going to end. I was confused about where the film would go but unfortunately, so were the filmmakers. Not being able to develop a screenplay which could support the aspirations of the movie as a drama/thriller/horror/fantasy film, the ending was vague and the movie itself was full of ineffective jump scares and loud noises. Cody's affliction never manifests beyond the typical horror genre clichés that Flanagan relies so heavily upon.
Despite this, the story is undoubtedly interesting and would have fared well as a stand alone fantasy film in the hands of the right director/ writer. The dream sequences are often beautiful, the closing act has a bittersweet melancholic note to it and Before I Wake does have moments that inspire some emotion in the heart of the watcher. But so many things are skimmed over and left unexplained, even in the real world the movie tries to depict (how can one bring hidden confidential files home or break into a foster home)
While it is not totally incompetently directed, it is a messy film which can't find focus. Before I Wake is entertaining enough and fairly enjoyable, but one can't deny that it is filled with clichés and certain sequences which often become flat out boring or worse, laughable.
Unfriended (2014)
What A Time to Be Alive (And Online)
I love it when horror movies try something new and original with a plot that's been recycled for a long time. Angry ghost hunting a group of teenagers isn't something new. But the concept of the presentation is what made me watch this movie and I was not disappointed.
The whole movie takes place on the computer screen of a girl named Blaire while she navigates her way through cyberspace with her friends, all of whom are being haunted by a computer ghost. The premise may sound silly and the format may sound boring but the result of this seemingly ridiculous gimmick is a thought provoking film which makes one wonder about the anonymity which people can so easily achieve and one of the curses of a technologically evolved world; cyber bullying. And it does so with several spine tingling creepy moments. Inspired by cases like Amanda Todd's, the movie succeeds in building up an unsettling realism thanks to the unorthodox way it has been crafted. It may not be as scary or terrifying as the average movie going audience is used to nor does it have demonic faces making an appearance but it does not fail to unnerve the viewer who appreciates and accepts the fact that it is a film experimenting with a new format of presentation and that it may not be as scary as it is a very realistic portrayal of the cyber world and the heartlessness of certain people who utilize the internet to harm, malign and hide.
Unfortunately though, the characters do not seem to move beyond their archetypal script. That may have been the whole point though to display the shallowness and stupidity of our "protagonists" but they come off as just a little too shallow and a little too stupid. Often the film does seem to feature just noise and screams of people in little boxes on a little screen. This, along with the way the movie was shot (which may become annoying to some viewers) may be the reason that it has not been as well received. The script isn't perfect either but it does not fail to deliver a suspenseful and thrilling act.
It's far from perfect, not very scary and flawed but it makes the most of an almost silly plot by incorporating it with an originality which does not scare but thrills, and as strange as it sounds, makes one think even after the credits have rolled.
Hush (2016)
Interesting Plot, Questionable Execution
The reason I really wanted to watch this film was the plot of it. Deaf mute woman is threatened, pursued and attacked by a crazy guy in an isolated cabin (my personal favorite in the house-invasion genre.) I had high hopes for the film and Flanagan's execution of it. I didn't much like Oculus but I was sure the plot alone would suffice and compensate for any shortcomings this movie may possess. I was wrong.
Hush begins with an introduction to the protagonist, Maddie, a deaf mute writer. We are immediately assaulted with a barrage of evidence that Maddie is in a "complicated relationship" with some dude named Craig. We then come to know that her friend worries about her due to her isolated existence (the reasons for which are never truly explained.) While Maddie writes her novel, a man breaks into her house, steals her phone and stands around for long enough to hear half the conversation she has with said concerned friend on Facetime. He then walks out as if he owns the damn place. The panic begins soon after in the form of initial menacing images of Maddie in her lounge sent to her laptop by her stolen phone. Terror ensues.
My main problem with this movie is just that; the man waltzes into her house, walks around, steals her phone and listens to her conversation with her friend? Like, damn, I know she's deaf but IS HE ALSO INVISIBLE? There are several scenes like that where the world is falling apart around our protagonist without her taking even the slightest bit of notice. One could argue that since she lost her ability to hear at the age of 13 instead of it being a birth defect, the fact that she doesn't notice a man standing literally 10 feet behind her is justifiable. But even so, for the sake of the movie, there is an immense number of cool things they could have done with her sensory defect. They could have used it to her advantage, shown how she gets the upper hand on the killer because of this problem or is just generally more aware with her other senses (vision, touch, olfactory even) and uses this to her advantage, the one thing the killer never sees coming. Instead the hearing loss is used to make her seem downright stupid in some scenes. Take a page from Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman, why don't you?
The characters and the things they did made me yell. "Pick up that knife!" "Don't go outside!" "Turn the power back on somehow!" "Pick up that DAMN KNIFE!" There were a good many situations in which Maddie could have stabbed her killer. I counted at least 2. Furthermore, in the beginning of the movie, she tells the intruder that her boyfriend is coming. But that's never really the case in home invasion films, is it? (Jennifer Hills, anyone?) How interesting would it be if instead of relying on things the audience has seen a billion times before, the boyfriend actually did show up and affected the plot somehow?
Despite this, it kept me watching and even though I was annoyed, I was eager to see how it would all turn out in the end. The finale is intense and gory. For a second, the audience really doesn't know which direction the ending might go. The issue I have with Hush is that it relies heavily on slasher film clichés. Single female, masked madman, best friend's murder, no phone/power, general stupidity of its characters, a lot of hiding and running. The one original thing the filmmakers had to offer, they forgot to utilize it to it's fullest extent. Hell, I even forgot she's deaf in some scenes! It seems more like a random fact than anything which may affect the plot of the film.
Much like Oculus, the film had an interesting premise but the filmmakers had no idea what to do with it. It could have went so many ways but instead it chose to become a poorly executed mess of a slasher film lacking depth, substance or originality.
Fitoor (2016)
Love Becomes a Beautifully Shot Cliché in Fitoor
This week's Bollywood offering to the perpetually consumeristic audience, Fitoor, attempts to explore the complexities of love, time and distance between the lover and the loved one. There's not much to tell about the story; Noor, (Aditiya Roy Kapoor) a poor yet talented boy falls for Firdaus, (Katrina Kaif) the beautiful and charismatic daughter of Begum, (Tabu) one of the richest women in town. Begum plots to have the two broken up for reasons later revealed in the movie. It should be noted that I have not read the book and the following review shall be in light of the film in itself, not in relation to the book.
Fitoor is a movie heavy in mood and symbolism. It gives the impression of having a lot to say but it seems to have no words to articulate what it wants. The narration and uneven pacing of the movie are murky and the movie blindly progresses into a world where everything is done without consequence. It seems to be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of exposition in the second half of the film and nothing is as clearly defined as it should have been, blurring what could have been a perfectly adequate narrative into an irregular sequence of events which seem to have no substantial consequences or side effects whatsoever. Love suddenly seems easier when convenience has a bigger role in the film than Lara Dutta's character.
This may not seem to have a large impact but for a film whose main purpose was to show the struggle of two star-crossed lovers torn apart by class difference and circumstance, I had a hard time buying what it was selling; events manufactured specifically to drive the plot further, a selfless best friend who knows all and forgives all and of course, the fiancé who is not entirely a nice man making the audience supportive of the blooming romance and averse to any sort of sympathy for himself. Cliché's are displayed more often in this film than Noor's unrealistically sexy peasant/artist body.
Regardless of the lack of an even narrative, the film does a brilliant job of showcasing the wonder of love through visual effects. What it cannot seem to articulate, it still seems to beautifully capture in artistic shots involving gorgeous sets, stunning scenery and intricate costumes. Metaphors also feature heavily in the movie, quite cleverly might I add. Details concerning Begum's penchant for collecting jewelry is a touch I'm grateful the filmmakers decided to add. Speaking of, Tabu gives an absolutely striking performance as the deranged and downright frightening Begum. She steals the show from Aditiya Roy Kapoor, also a delight to watch and Katrina Kaif, who suited the role well and gave one of her best performances (doesn't really say much, to be fair). While they don't much surpass average, they do have chemistry and for that, I'm grateful. The music is wonderful on its own but played during scenes featuring Mother Nature's finest creations, you can't help but fall a little bit in love as well.
Lastly, the question of whether self-identity can be found through love is one which Noor ponders over. He begs the question of whether love is self-destruction and impulsive passionate actions or an answer to an identity crisis. Is love for another human being possible without answering the crucial question, "who am I?" Fitoor explores the dynamics of this question but not wholly satisfactorily for my taste nor with the sort of script which is original or innovative.
Conclusively, I cannot deny that for some audiences, the film will seem stale and boring. That's because there isn't much to see that we haven't seen before. But if one manages to pick up on some of the more subtle themes (which granted are not as deeply explored as they should have been) and have respect for good cinematography, then they may be able to forgive the weak direction and script and watch a film which is a pretty decent effort at a book-to-movie adaptation.
Bajirao Mastani (2015)
A Work of Art
Sanjay Leela Bhansali is easily one of my favorite directors. He puts in so much work and it usually results in a passionate rendezvous, ripe with energy and color. I walked into the theater with high expectations and I was not disappointed.
When it comes to the historical aspects of the film, I can't say much about it since I know little to nothing about how any of the events depicted actually happened in real life but as told by a disclaimer at the beginning of the film, some historical inaccuracies were to be expected.
The movie begins with Bajirao (Ranveer Singh) being given the title of Shrimant Peshwa after successfully splitting a peacock feather in half using an arrow. Fast forward 10 years and we're introduced to his beautiful wife Kashibai (Priyanka Chopra) who is shown to love her husband to no end. Trouble brews though when he meets Mastani (Deepika Padukone) while traveling to Sironja. Bajirao, struck by Mastani's beauty and dignity, falls head over heels in love with her and she reciprocates the feeling. The movie progresses and tells the story of their love and the struggle and opposition it faces.
One thing to be noted is that it would have been easy for the film to transcend from the realm of good taste to the pit of tackiness but one of the things I love about Bhansali's work is that he seems to know that the line exists and he treads carefully so as not to risk tipping into gaudiness.
While the ending for me was somewhat abrupt and it began to seem a tad overdone (not regarding decoration or costume but action sequences) it compensated by showcasing alluring sets and locations, as well as delivering more than satisfactorily in all other aspects. The script, occasionally including bits of poetry, was well written and carefully crafted.
Ranveer Singh, as always was superb and pleasantly animated in the character of Bajirao. Priyanka Chopra's Kashibai was gorgeous and brimming with vivacity and while I can see a younger Madhuri Dixit or Aishwariya Rai playing Kashibai's role, I could not picture anyone but Deepika Padukone playing Mastani. For me, there is no actress who could possibly bring the bold, brazen character of Mastani to life the way she did, mostly because of her own acting chops and partly because of her charming chemistry with Ranveer Singh. Fearless and downright beautiful, Deepika Padukone is undoubtedly the star of the film and shines wonderfully in her grand surroundings. The cast synergizes effectively to produce an engaging plot.
The cinematography and direction are undeniably glamorous and the overall aesthetic of the film is absolutely stunning. A lot of the shots are pure art; magnificent and exquisite art. The music, specifically "Pinga" and "Deewani Mastani," feature impressive choreography and dance performances and may even have you singing along.
Overall, Sanjay Leela Bhansali took every single rupee of the 120 crore budget and utilized it to deliver a film of overwhelming magnificence and creating cinematic excellence of a highly outstanding quality.
Maleficent (2014)
Maleficent: Part-time Prankster, Full-time Babysitter
I didn't really hear a whole lot of good things about Maleficent and so I didn't bother watching it for quite a long time. But I figured, it's Angelina Jolie, there's going to be a dragon (seeing as how it's a remake of Sleeping Beauty) and it was 12 am on a Monday and I needed to watch something short but entertaining.
The very first thing I noticed right off the bat in the beginning of the film i.e. the fact that the movie, for lack of a better word, is childish. There's "I am Groot" like creatures and odd toad like mini ogres, swamps and marshes that apparently smell like unicorn glitter and sunshine, seeing as how there's other creatures living quite contently in it. The whole scene initially of Angelina Jolie flying about the magical land was reminiscent of something I watched in a Tinkerbell movie as a child.
The movie proceeds to tell, or rather to retell, Maleficent's story. One thing leads to another, Angelina Jolie loses something precious to her after a boy she loves betrays her in order to become king, getting us back on track to the story we grew up with, when she shows up at the King's daughter's birth to curse her. The King sends the girl, Aurora, away to live in the depths of the forest (which is in no way problematic) with three incompetent pixies. Somewhere along the way, we also find out that iron burns fairies. Well, if that's true Maleficent should disintegrate into bits by the irony of her situation.
Turns out, the Kings decision to have three retarded pixies taking care of his child is generally a poor life choice as they let an infant child cry, scream and starve. And so, (surprise surprise) an unlikely bond begins to form between Aurora and Maleficent as she begins to take care of her. Aurora grows to be an unnaturally chirpy girl and ends up trusting just about everyone and everything, whether it be a woman with horns growing out of her head or an opposite sex person with whom she should really know nothing about.
Another thing I couldn't help but notice was that the editing was far from great. It wasn't anything in particular, but telling enough for me to have made that conclusion.
Moreover some things in the movie were just poorly executed; Maleficent's abrupt domination and the woodland creatures sudden subservience, the dragon transformation, the stab at doing the whole imitation of a popular recent animated Disney film, and last but not least, the gloriously villainous Maleficent's transformation into part-time prankster and full-time babysitter.
In conclusion, Maleficent does carry some visual and dramatic impact, Angelina Jolie looks magnificent and some viewers may find the retelling of the classic charming and intriguing. It does, after all, have tremendous potential, imaginative and creative imagery, and in an ideal world, it should have been a mix between "Pan's Labyrinth" and "Alice in Wonderland." Unfortunately, Angelina Jolie's eyebrows seem better crafted than this movie itself.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 (2015)
A Flawed Finale
So, it's official: My second least favorite film from the Hunger Games franchise is Mockingjay part 2. "The Hunger Games" itself is my very least favorite. This film focuses on the second half of the Mockingjay book, which as it turns out, is also my least favorite book of the three, but this is owing to the fact that I simply enjoyed reading the previous two more instead of some actual flaw in the Mockingjay book.
I'm not here to compare the movie to the book though. Is the movie a satisfying conclusion for audiences, book readers and non-book readers alike? Yes, it is. But to what extent?
The film is ripe with drama and thrills. The graphics and effects are brilliant, with one scene in particular coming to mind concerning oil and a lot of running. On the performance front, Katniss Everdeen is as mesmerizing as ever and Julianne Moore radiates dominance as the power-addicted dictator with the remaining cast displaying convincing performances as well. The movie itself is unapologetically bold and spares no expense at thrilling the viewers with the excess of exciting scenes and grim cinematography.
But all the CGI monster villains and dystopian locations crafted specifically for further catastrophe and mayhem could not excuse the fact that the movie exchanged the display of genuine human emotion for screaming, dramatic imagery and loud bangs. The film lacked in utilizing the emotional aspects which it had already been given, which it could have built upon, that would probably emotionally rather than visually stimulate viewers. One of the best things about the franchise is the relationships, their implications on the characters and the plot and yet Katniss and Prim barely get 2 minutes of screen time together. I also expected Finncik, who spends quite a lot of time letting his inner emo out while pining for the love of his life in the previous film to exchange more than a couple of sentences with his crimson haired lover.
Moreover, the pace substantially begins lagging by the end of the film with an inordinate amount of time spent on Katniss roaming, strolling and looking around. Thankfully though, the film-makers seemed to have a struck a balance when it came to the Peeta-Katniss- Gale love triangle so as not to make it seem quite so tacky or lame enough to induce headaches.
And there you have it. While Mockingjay may be somewhat underwhelming for fans of the series such as myself, it is never boring, even when it begins to drag, and there's something for everyone in the movie, whether they be die-hard fans, action movie lovers, hopeless romantics or simply someone hoping to find a good movie to watch.