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AthulRamesh
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Leo (2023)
Lokesh Unleashed Vijay in a never seen before Avatar
'Leo' is a near-perfect commercial entertainment that will make us appreciate the theatrical moments, Lokesh has also thrown in a few shocks throughout the flick.
The first half of the movie is full of great dramatic moments which then leads to one of the best interval block that gave me such an adrenaline rush and goosebumps. The second half becomes a little more predictable and the final act becomes a little dramatic as well. The flashback of Das and his gang could have been more inventive and that is what I would call as the drawback of this film.
Lokesh's making was really good as well as the technical department also did a good job and it was Anirudh's music that took the movie to the next level.
Undoubtedly, it was Vijay who consistently steals the spotlight by giving one of the finest performance of his career, be it action scenes or emotional sequences.
Overall Leo may not be as great as most people thought it would be, but with a stellar performance by Vijay along with a great 1st half, vere level interval block and a decent 2nd half, it satisfied me and delivered a great theatrical experience despite the minor flaws.
Ghosted (2023)
A one time watchable generic action thriller
Ghosted felt like a generic gender-flipped rip-off of espionage rom-com thrillers like Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz's Knight & Day and Arnold Schwarzenegger's True Lies. Although adopting a pretty generic action narrative is OK, but it needs to be conveyed by reinventing it according to time; if they could have done so, the effect might have been better.
The outside location was immediately obvious to be entirely green screen use, similar to Netflix movies, which felt a little disappointing.
The chemistry between Chris Evans' and Ana de Armas' characters felt good, and it was the film's lone redeeming grace. They both did a fine job. All of the unexpected cameos were entertaining as well.
Resident Evil (2022)
A wannabe Walking Dead made by the CW network.
The worst series I've seen this year. The story takes place in a future overrun by zombies and from there the story progresses by time jumping every 5 minutes to 2022 and showing us the past of the protagonist and the origin of the virus. The plot was boring, the constant time jump felt disjoint & uninteresting, the soundtrack/music were horrible and the acting was just above average still Lance Reddick as Albert Wesker was good and it also had a couple of good action scenes.
Its the 8th live action adaptation of the Resident Evil games franchise and Netflix had a lot of characters and storylines to adapt from. But they doesn't seems to give any importance to that source material or characters. They didn't even care to come up with a decent plot by their own, it felt like their only concentration was making a Woke show that fits the current political atmosphere. The Paul Anderson-Milla Jovovich RE movies were far better than this mediocre show.
Overall Netflix's Resident Evil felt like a wannabe Walking Dead made by the CW network.
The Suicide Squad (2021)
Fun filled gory and crazy adventure that is bloody entertaining and worth every minute.
This soft reboot/sequel or a complete do-over pushes the boundaries in a really good way. The film's plot can probably be summed up in two sentences, but an interesting screenplay and Gunn's new vision on the characters along with a great cast and chemistry the movie is worth every minute. Every lead characters were well written and we might even feels strangely emotional to these bottom barrel villains. The movie also gives me a Game of thrones vibe since non of the characters were safe and their death is not something the way you have expected.
Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn as usual was perfect and charming and filled with a lot of fun and surprises. Idris Elba and John Cena as rival assassins were hilarious and bad ass at the same time. Joel Kinnaman as Rick Flag did a great jod. Sylvester Stallone as King Shark aka Nanaue was an absolute delight. Daniela Melchior as Ratcatcher 2 and David Dastmalchian as PolkaDot man managed to showcase the depth of their characters very well.
Overall The Suicide Squad is a fun filled gory and crazy adventure that is bloody entertaining and worth every minute.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
A good old fashioned family friendly voyage with a charismatic lead
The movie was directed by Jaume Collet-Serra who previously directed The orphan and a handful of Liam neeson led action thrillers.
The plot of the movie is as old as the period depicted in it and they are not trying to break any mould here, they are just here to show the same old mould with an updated technology and with a great star power carrying a lot of charisma. The movie have some great visual effects but some of them feels a bit outdated.
Dwayne Johnson as usual did a charismatic perfomance and Emily Blunt seems to enjoy the role of the heroic and strong Dr Lily who is somewhat a female Indiana Jones, Both the lead shares a great chemistry together(no romantic chemistry, they lack it, a lot) and it's one of the main attraction of this ride. The Jaguar was also a nice addition to the cast.
Overall Jungle Cruise is an old fashioned family friendly voyage, that manages to provide a 2 hour solid entertainment..
Batman: The Long Halloween, Part One (2021)
One of the best entry in the DC Animated Universe
The new DCAU movie is first of the two part movies based on the acclaimed limited comic book series of the same name by Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale published in the 90s.
The movie is among the few screen adaptation of the Batman that showcases his abilities as a detective. I think the movie faithfully follows the original source material while providing a fresh update to the story for modern sensibilities. The visuals share the noir-tinged sensibilities with a Gotham City and character designs that bear a more subtle inspiration to the source material.
Another highlight of the movie is the performance of Jensen Ackles, who previously voiced Jason Todd in Under the Red Hood did a wonderful job as voicing the Caped Crusader/Bruce Wayne. Josh Duhamel's Harvey Sent also requires special praise along with Naya Rivera as Catwoman and David Dastmalchian was particularly effective as the sinister Calendar Man.
Overall with an atmospheric mood punctuated by thrilling set pieces, The Long Halloween is one of the most effective DCAU movie.
With plenty of the comic story still to go, this suggests Part 2 will be even more rapidly paced, as it introduces additional players while moving towards its grand finale.
Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
By far the best movie by Snyder and one of the best superhero movie in recent time
I'm not a huge fan of Snyder's works, i hate him for what he did with the movie Batman v Superman, so when I heard he was doing the JL movie i was furious and after seeing the 2017 version i thought anything good in that movie was whedons contribution and Snyder ruined the movie. But after watching the Snyder cut i realized i was so wrong.
The Snyder cut is 4 hour long and Snyder managed to make that 4 hour pretty interesting and engaging i watched the movie twice and I did not fast forward even for a minute. The characterisation, the build up, the development of the plot, the action sequences everything was perfect. The batman charecter is much more developed and behaves more like the comic book version same with the case of flash, cyborg and wonder woman.
Overall Snyder managed to bring out his best through the ZSJL.
Greenland (2020)
A very believable portrayal of human nature.
Greenland manages to deliver a very credible portrayal of human nature in the face of danger. It is a raw, tension-filled disaster film that showcases both the good and dark sides of human nature, when everyone knows the end of the world is near.
In the movie when scientists discover that a giant comet is hurtling towards Earth, and that our planet will be destroyed in just 48 hours and Butler is an average man who does everything in his power to get his wife and son to the safety of an emergency shelter in Greenland.
Bigil (2019)
An engaging entertainer for the festival season
On the intro scene Vijay says "Happy Diwali Nanba", thats what this movie is all about, its a perfectly packed masala movie for the festival season, where the fans and family audience can have a good time in theatre with enough emotional scenes and a strong message.
The first half was a little slow compared to the second but its not gonna push you down to boredom thanks to Atlee's direction and Vijay's screen presence(especially the Rayappa charecter). The second half might remind you of another sports drama Chak de India (which deals with womens hockey team, but can't say it plagarized Chak de India) The movie also convey a strong message on women empowerment and Atlee succeeds in reaching this message to the masses.
Atlee's direction was good he proved it yet again that he indeed is the student of the master craftsman Shankar but the movie lacks the thrill offered by directors previous action movies but still manage to make the audience happy with his skill
Vijay did a spectacular perfomance as the father charecter Rayappan, a gangster, even though the character appears for a small screen time he managed to make it one of his best performances, After the portrayal of Kathiresan from Kathi it was this perfomance where we couldn't see the actor Vijay but only the charecter he is portraying. The other charecter Michael/Bigil has all the persona of some of the other charecters played by the actor in his previous movies but on the second half the charecter had a dramatic change in his persona which made the charecter and the performance to the next level.
All the other cast members also did a great job especially the football team members.
The Cinematography was rich also the VFX was far better than what they showcased on the trailer.
The BGM was a big letdown from AR Rahman, the songs were also not up to his usual level.
Overall Bigil is an engaging entertainer made for the festival season.
Murder Mystery (2019)
Not great but still an entertaining old fashion murder mystery
Murder mystery is a step up from earlier Netflix- AdamSandler collaborations this film is an attempt to spoof/pay homage to old-fashioned murder mysteries (especially movies based on the works of Agatha Christie).
The greatest strength of the movie is that it was able to showcases the comic strengths of its two stars, particularly J Aniston, who gave a great comic perfomance along with Adam Sandler, it's their chemistry that keeps this movie marching along, and helps smooth over some of the bumpier patches.
All in all murder mystery got a great cast, a decent (but clichéd) plot, some comical twist, some laughable jokes. It's not great but it's worth watching.
The Marine 6: Close Quarters (2018)
Weakest sequel
I actually like to watch all these low budget Direct-to-Video action movies and I have watched all the entries in the Marine sequels. Out of all these sequels The Marine 6: Close Quarters is easily the weakest of them all. I know no one is watching these movies excepting a great script or great acting or anything like that, still all the other Marine movies were a one time watchable action flicks which managed to entertain me with some solid action and fight scenes, whereas in this one the action and fight scenes feel quite dull and very choreographed and they also have one of the worst/dumbest twist i have ever seen. So if you like the previous Marine movies and you are a fan of the WWE and old school action movies and you have 90 mins to spare you can give this one a try otherwise just leave this one behind.
Hard Target 2 (2016)
Not a good sequel still a one time watchable flick
First of all, anyone expecting ties or similarities to Hard Target will be disappointed from this so called sequel.There are inexplicable doves flying in slow motion and some daredevil action sequences, that's about the only sequel touch we get here.
This just is a no-frills human hunt movie capitalizing on the title of the 90's hit film. On the story part there isn't anything interesting but it moves at a rapid clip and the action never really slows down.
We have to accept the fact that it is a low budget action flick meant to be enjoyed for its combative nature. Like most 'B' movies the acting is a little uneven,Although It delivers a good amount of action and Adkins does a sterling job at being the hunted hero. The film is fun once the hunt gets going, which takes a good half hour. Adkins is in top form here, getting in lots of those crazy slow motion kicks and shows us a little bit of acting.
I am not saying that its a good sequel to the JCVD film but still you can give it a try if you like to see some action and some slow motion kicks, the film won't disappoint you in that.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
Nothing much to offer but an improvement over its predecessor
Since the events of the last film, the Turtles have been content to stay in the dark, doing their good deeds. And Shredder plans of escape and with the help of mad scientist Baxter, Shredder will unleash chaos on the world in the form of the alien invader Krang.
Along the way, Shredder genetically modifies a couple of henchmen to become a formidable foe for the Turtles - giant warthog Bebop and rhino Rocksteady. And the rest of the story is how they stop all these and save the world.
Stephen Amell makes his series debut as Casey Jones and he did somewhat an OKAY job. Megan Fox was as usually hot and a pleasant for the eyes.
The action and visuals were amazing, the acting was average and the script was below average and it has nothing much to offer in case of story and dialogues.
I am not saying it is a good film, but its sure an improvement over its predecessor. Watch it if you want some mindless action, great visuals and some Megan Fox moments, In that case they won't disappoint you.
Kabali (2016)
Rajinikanth in a different dimension
Rajnikanth was in his full form as an actor rather than a superstar, he plays the role of an aged, reformed gangster Kabaleeswaran who had fought for the oppressed in Malaysia and returns from his jail stay after twenty-five years. There are hardly any scenes that pass which do not involve Rajinikanth in it, but Ranjith(Director) has made sure that he has put all his acting resources to good effect.
All the characters have been established having Rajinikanth alongside them. Rajinikanth has quite a few sentimental scenes which have come out very well.
When it comes to Kabali, more than his mass mannerisms, it is the sentimental scenes of him that will be the talking point.
On the technical side, Santhosh Narayanan's score is a major plus to the film, the editing and the costumes, especially Rajnikanth's classy suit were good and the art direction was not a promising one especially in the flash back scenes, And last but not least the direction and script, Director Ranjith has did a wonderful job as a director he showcased an entirely new Rajnikanth to the new generation audiences who saw him only in mass masala entertainers and speaking of the script which was not a tight one, it lacks speed and not thrilling enough for a Rajnikanth film .
All in all Kabali is Rajinikanth in a different dimension, but it might not work for everyone. But if you wanna see the actor in Rajnikath give it a try it won't disappoint you in that case and don't watch it expecting a Basha or Sivaji
Kaththi (2014)
Vijay and AR Murugadass entertains with a good message
Despite the overload of commercial elements, director Murugadass Kaththi brings to the fore a very critical issue.
Vijay plays two totally different characters, excelling at both. Kathiresan, the fun loving Romeo, who can dance, do comedy and effortlessly bash up the bad guys, and Jeevanandham, the sedate social activist.
AR Murugadass direction, screenplay and dialogue are the backbone of the film The musical brilliance of Anirudh Ravichander gives an extra boost to the film. All the song and background score were awesome especially the songs "Aathi" and "Selfi pule" and Vijay again proves he is a good singer with the Rockstar Samantha has nothing much to offer in the film but she was kinda cute in the romantic scenes and a great on screen pair for Vijay All in all Kaththi is a entertainer with a good message