SIVAJI(2007)-Tamil

Starring : RAJNIKANTH,Shreya,Vivek,Suman...guest apperance Nayantara,Raghuvaran

Directed by : Shankar

Produced by : AVM Productions

Music by : A R Rahman

Storyline:

Typical rajni-shankar storyline. A 'Gentleman==Sivaji' from US who decides to help society by providing free education and constructing hospitals but his dream is not fulfilled because of corruption existing in government system and also largly influenced business tycoon Suman.As usual hero loses all his money in the first half of the story and regains his position and cleans the corruption in second half of the story with pace and twist.Shreya comes in first half and in between for dance numbers.

RE-el-VIEW:

'SIVAJI-THE BOSS'...'RAJNI THE BOSS'....'THE BOSS'.These were the headlines flashing almost in all news channels before sivaji got to hit theatres.This hype was much because of rajni-shankar-arrahman combination,offcourse they are the biggies in film industry and it's the Superstar Rajni's film. Sivaji had essential ingrediants to have an huge hype because of big budget (around 40 crores estimated ) and new looks of rajni appearing more younger than ever and never in any of his films.Finally sivaji had hit theatres with 600 prints all over world living to the hype that it had before the release.

'Rajni' makes an silent entry into the film with not much of special effects or with glamourous mass song which is disappointingto rajni fanatics.Sivaji who is well earned software architect returns to india with COOL hairstyle then he proceeds to get his dream project to be done for the sake of the society.Suman initially who seems to be sivaji's friend later he squeezes sivaji's plan and money for the sake of his own business and makes sivaji to walk on streets [scene which is common in muthu where his friend asks rajni toleave his home----and in padaiyappa where rajni's family was sent out of their own home---same old scenes].Suman gives an one rupee coin to rajni asking him to beg but our superstar uses one rupee coin efficently for the revenge.

Rajni always a superstar yet to remain for long years who appears in sivaji with charming presence in acting.First half of the movie moves at a normal speed and in second half of the movie moves beyond the speed limit.Rajini in first half is 'fun'-'loving' boss and in second half 'reformer' becomes 'terror' with a 'force'.Rajni's hairstyle looks different in both half of the movie which gives a different feel to the audience. Shreya does typical rajni movie heroine job,she looks good in songs and few scenes and she would have done much more better in lipsinking.Vivek almost comes in 50% of the movie along with rajni,he has given tremendous comedy scenes and punch dialogues.Suman looks a different villain in this movie with his appearance.




Much talked in this movie is the way rajni looks,this movie has brought old looks of rajni in 80's which is a huge treat to rajni fans.Shankar had used all his creative technics and technology to make rajni more younger offcourse rajni is the king of STYLES. Shankar has used one line usual simple known story for making powerful perfect rajni entertainer with no logic.Shankar's sivaji is a heavily packed container with loads of rajni stuffs and he has proven again as a successful director by making box office hit movie.Eventhough his scripts are usual but he brings out different feel for each movie which is never seen before. In sivaji shankar's creativity has gone to an extreme in making rajni look younger,he made rajni to look like an european in few scenes and song.For that they have worked on 6500frames matching rajni's skin tone with european girl skin tone.




After mudhalvan cinematographer K.V.Anand has worked in sivaji with shankar,the credits for making rajni younger and colorful is definetly for anand. Art director thottatharani has brought huge expensive dome and colloseum sets to look more real and colorful.Stunts by Peter hein can be appreciated only to some extent because too many special effects and not even able to get a view of single kick. Another superstar who has worked behind the screen with his musical scores is A R Rahman.The musical score that hehas made for suman entry ,rajni entry in second half and for mottaboss really awesome.

I would suggest Sivaji is a must watch film not only for diehard rajni fans it's also for all movie goers and i would alsosay that never expect logic and story just enjoy shankar-rajni extragavanzha.The production value of sivaji and the way it's doin business right now would bring remarkable change in kollywood.Eventhough it doesnt have extraORDINARY story but techinally sivaji is EXTRAORDINARY film.




Mottaboss entry is definely rocking,what a high electric performance-excellent.Atlast mottaboss steals the show.


"Worth watching MOTTABOSS...never miss mottaboss...chumma adhirum"

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Spider-Man was released in 2002 to much fan fare and excitement. One of the biggest movies of that year, it couldn't help but create a sequel which was just as popular if not more so. Spider-Man became the latest of a series of movie sequels where ticket sales were driven up by excitement over every planned sequel. Spider-Man 3, rumored to be the last in the series, will most likely make as much, if not more, than the last movie, which was, in my opinion, excellent.

However, the problem that movie series face is that eventually the series will run out of creativity and direction. Spider-Man 3 is the latest series to end not so much with a bang but with a whimper. Directors and writers can only carry an idea so far before any series becomes dry. Villains, CGI and special effects overall do not entertain if there is no solid story or plot. Spider-Man 3 shows what happens when too much is placed on eye candy and nothing truly substantial.
Spider-Man 3 opens up with the exact opposite of Spider-Man 2. Peter Parker (Toby Maguire) is enjoying the fame that Spider-Man now enjoys from New York as well as high grades at university. Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), however, is finding her acting dreams tarnished after being removed from play. Her jealousy over Peter's fame as Spider-Man only makes it worse as Peter begins to let such fame go to his head.

Harry Osborn (James Franco) plans his revenge against Peter and eventually confronts him as the New Goblin in a blurry CGI battle that ends with Harry losing his short-term memory and his hatred for Peter. Peter himself takes advantage of this and even though he saves Harry's life he has no plans on reminding him of the past hatred Harry had for him. It almost seems, for a moment, as if his old friend from high school has suddenly returned.

In the background is the rise of Sandman, aka Flint Marko (Thomas Haden Church), a petty criminal who finds himself altered after suddenly finding himself within the realm of a particle accelerator experiment. Driven to find money that would cure his daughter, Flint is later discovered to be the man responsible for the death of Uncle Ben (Cliff Robertson) and thus drives Peter on a mission of to avenge his uncle's death. Discovering that Flint now has powers of his own makes that mission even more difficult.


As if there wasn't enough conflict already, the arrival of a strange meteor releases an alien life form that later adheres to Peter during his sleep. Peter finds both his powers, and personality, changed by the life form as he goes from a mild mannered individual (as Peter Parker) and a hero (as Spder-Man) to one who is more emotionally driven and aggressive in almost every way. Peter's later rejection of the alien leads to it's takeover of Eddie Brock (Topher Grace) who was once a rival at the Daily Bugle until Peter exposes a series of false pictures that ends his short lived journalist career. Using the hatred he has for Peter, the alien transforms Eddie into Venom (although this name is never mentioned in the movie) who, as all comic book fans of Spider-Man will know, is perhaps the most famous of all Spider-Man villains and one who many wished to see in this movie.

Spider-Man 3 tries to get all of these sub-plots to end in a quick and nice way. Often, the sequences feel rushed and they lack the tension and drama that the last two Spider-Man movies had. Peter bounces from one conflict to the next but there is no real satisfactory ending to them. Sandman gives the sob story about his sick daughter before Peter forgives him for his uncle's death, Harry dies after a melodramatic scene that was almost amusing in it's absurdity, and Venom is only in the last half hour in the movie before his death which makes me ask why he was even included. These characters have so much depth built into them that the climax is a huge let down, where we have no real answer to the conflicts that had been created.

With great power comes great responsibility. But with a powerless storyline, It becomes my responsibility to sadly give this movie a quiet thumbs down.

P.S. : The humor by Bruce Campbell and J.K. Simmons is worth mentioning. These were the only parts of the movie that came as a surprise. The rest of the movie was pretty predictable.

PARUTHIVEERAN(2007) - Tamil

Starring : Karthi, Priyamani…..too many characters

Directed by : Ameer

Produced by : Studio Green

Music by : Yuvan Shankar Raja


Storyline:

Muthazagu(Priyamani) and Veeran(Karthi) from paruthiyur who know each other from childhood which happens to be a puppy love later when they grow up its one side love from muthazagu later becomes two side love. Veeran who is known for his notorious acts in his village decides to marry her and ends up in tragedy.


RE –el –VIEW:

This is the second release from Studio Green production(actor surya the producer) after ‘Silendru Oru kadhal’. This time too they failed to have a blockbuster, eventhough both the movies was not a crap but the screenplay jumps out of the track when it reaches towards the end. Ameer who is well known for his previous film ‘Ram’ disappoints the audience in ‘Paruthiveeran’. This happens when a filmmaker decides to make a different movie after a big success might go wrong because the subject he chooses which is beyond the scope of his style of film making.

Ameer has made a movie which is 30% Gud(comedy,village lifestyle,lively characters), 20% Bad(SCREENPLAY), 50%Worst (CLIMAX). Ameer has followed the footsteps of bharathiraja to make Paruthiveeran. Ameer has tried to bring whole new experience for the audience but struggles with the narration and ameer can be appreciated only for his efforts that he has put into this type of movie. In recent years after ‘Virumandi’ yet another film with violent village subject, Virumandi was different.Usually in these type of subjects for example ’16 vayathinile’ ,’Virumandi’, 'Paruthiveran’ have a common scene that leads towards the climax, the scene where heroine is molested for various reasons then the story ends. Same format is followed here with extreme level of cruelity at the end. What made ameer to have such unnecessary scenes, if he decides to have such scenes for completion then he could have dealt with gentle narration. Because of last 20 mins climax, audience forget few good memories of the movie. Each and every character in this movie brings you live experience at the same time because of too many characters it’s noisy and confusing too.

At last few good things about the movie atleast for the money that I have spent for this movie. This is the Karthi’s first film but you may not know until someone tells you, excellent performance. He has lived in this character and surprises the audience who is a MS graduate from US(fashion statement for an actor) which is unexpected. Priyamani has also proved with her acting skills and the voice modulation was good. Ramji cinematographer has done the fair job. Yuvan Shankar Raja has done excellent job in background score, definetly ilaiyaraja’s material.



‘”Worth to Skip last 20 mins”

COMING SOON

SOON THE WHOLE GALAXY WILL GET NEWS ABOUT THE ONE AND ONLY THALA.THALA POLA VARUMA.

The Prestige (US 2006 & India 2007)

“Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course... it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret... you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before. Now you're looking for the secret... but you won't find it because you're not really looking. You don't really want to know the secret...”

“You want to be fooled.”
- Cutter (Michael Caine) - excerpt from the movie

Since his inspired debut film 'Memento', British director Christopher Nolan has consistently delivered on the promise and potential he displayed in abundance with his first feature. After last years bold re-imagining of 'Batman Begins', he delivers this audacious and dark character driven thriller which delves into the murky magical practices of two aspiring magicians and fierce rivals in Victorian London. The result is a film of dizzying brilliance.

After a daring stunt involving both magicians tragically goes awry, the two men, Robert (Jackman) and Alfred (Bale) acrimoniously part company, with Robert accusing his former accomplice of a serious crime. Neither is deterred by the tragedy, and both separately pursue careers as magicians but with a difficult obstacle to overcome to find success – each other. The two become one another’s bitter nemeses, stooping to ever more devious and cruel attempts to sabotage the others stage show and reputation. As their mutual hatred intensifies, so does their determination to outwit the other, leading them to find evermore enigmatic methods which could potentially bring fame and success to the one, whilst devastating the others career and life.

Given the visual wonders modern special effects can produce, it’s a surprise that this, a film based around the theme of magic, isn’t a whiz-pop, fast pace CGI bonanza. The Prestige is something far more interesting: a medium burn, intelligent piece of work, powered by a captivating character struggle, with a cleverly constructed, confounding narrative that is spellbindingly intriguing throughout, before building to a dazzling and spectacularly twisted climax. The bold tricks pulled off by the two magicians, are overshadowed by the astounding and dumbfounding conjuring conducted by Nolan behind the lens. The director cunningly draws your attention to the cold and callous game of one-up-man-ship the two leads are engaged in; all the time concealing the assured sleight of hand direction and ultra shrewd plot turns going on in the highly sophisticated narrative. The plot undergoes more shuffles than a veteran magician’s lucky deck o’ cards, constantly shifting and morphing to perplex the audience; plot turns and story development come shrouded in mystery - veiled in secrecy, leaving you uncertain as to the true origins of the pairs magical methods - as well as doubtful as to which one of the two has the upper hand. It’s an exciting, suspenseful style that remains ambivalent until the sucker punch finale. The music throughout the movie mesmerizes the very soul and the song that begins when the credits begin to roll seems so correct, that I’m sure anyone who enjoyed this movie would be humming it for days.

Nolan’s ambition is complemented by the two leads who make the character driven plot so deeply engaging. Both Jackman and Bale give their characters multifaceted personas, remaining mesmerizing and fascinating on screen figures. Jackman - burying the horrible memories of Van Helsing – is on career best form. Robert, an American, is the more charismatic of the two magicians, and Jackman initially charms, before revealing the sinister obsessive tendencies and torment behind the onstage showmanship. Bale supplies an earthy, roguish, quintessentially British charm, disguising the characters calculated persona - as well as the bravado of his act - under a detached nonchalant demeanour. Come the final third, when the plot explodes with dramatics, the two characters have been realised with so many layers that you simply are no longer able to work out their capabilities or predict their actions – just like all good magicians. Original and inventive throughout, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige surpasses all expectations. You’ll be transfixed by the dangerous games played by the two central characters, riveted by the outstanding performances, bewildered by Nolan’s tricky, daring and imaginative plotting and, when all is finally revealed, smacked by a tense and sensational finale.

NOTE : This is a wonderful movie, but to understand it, you have to listen to the dialogue carefully. Otherwise, you might be scratching your head in the end.

RATING : 8.5/10
SPEND OR SAVE : SPEND (FOR ALL)

(The Spend or Save tag is a suggestion for all moviegoers to either spend their money on a ticket or save the money for a better movie. If the movie is to be seen by only a specific set of people who like such movies, then we mention SPEND(specific set of people). Here, I have mentioned SPEND (FOR ALL) meaning all of you should watch this movie.)

BABEL(2007) - English

Anyone expecting any kind of fast action and racy sequences might as well stay out of the movie. Neverthless its a good and a meaningful movie that would appeal to your senses. Its the story of four different set of characters, at four different places speaking four different languages. First there is this man at a Morrocan desert who buys a rifle to protect his goats. His son accidentally shoots an American tourist vacationing at Morraco. The injured tourist and her husband are taken to the nearby village to get the lady cured. The kids of the American couple are left at San Diego to be taken care by their Mexican care-taker. The care-taker has to leave to mexico to attend her son's wedding. Knowing quite well that their parents would not be coming for a few more days, the care-taker leaves to mexico with the kids. Right at the other end of the earth, at Japan, a young deaf and mute girl craves for some human contact while her widower father tries hard to communicate with her.

so moves the movie, going forth from one story to another. A connection between all the four stories is established and with all the characters experiencing grief in the form of lonliness, lonliness and more of lonliness. The care-taker faces problems while reentering the American border from Mexico with her nephew and the two kids. The police search and chase the Morrocan gun owner and his two kids and finally kills one while trying to catch them. The American couple have no words for each other while the lady is recovering from her injury in a small one roomed house with no facilities. The japanese father is being searched by the police in connection with the gun that was sold to the Morrocan man. The media blows the news of the gun shot out of proportion and declares it a terrorist attack. The entanglement of all the four stories reach an all time high as the story culminates.

The movie has got amazing performances by the lead artists. A surprisingly good performance comes from Brad Pitt, who plays the role of the American father. cate Blanchett as the American mother is just about good. The best performances though come from Adriana Barraza, playing the role of the Mexican care-taker and Rinko Kikuchi, playing the role of the young japanese girl. The scenes in which Adriana wanders with the kids and the scenes in which she is interrogated have come out wonderfully, thanks to Adriana's mindblowing performance. Rinko Kikuchi also carries her role as the deaf and mute girl brilliantly and her eyes speak volumes.

Some of the scenes are unneccesarily lengthy. The scenes keep running while you wait for something to happen, but nothing does. These scenes could have been edited which could have shortened this long movie. The scenes keep shifting from one place to another abruptly giving the whole movie as such an unended feeling. There are so many languages spoken in this movie like japaneese, Morrancon Language, Spanish, a little of english. There is this sign language too to be understood. Eventhough including so many languages provide the movie with authenticity there is a greater amount of confusion in the minds of the audience. The movie is definitely not like Crash which had a greater impact. Eventhough comparrisons with Crash seems unneccesary, halway down watching the movie, one is bound to feel the similarities to Crash, or moreover the influences of crash. The scene with the Mexicans and the border patrol reminds us of the scene with Matt Dillon and Thandie Newton in Crash and the scene also seems like a stereotype eventhough true.

The movie is handled really well technically. The background music, which is mostly the work of one guitar jells with the movie eventhough it lacks grandeur. The cinematography is handled excellently with the camera moving from one landscape to another with ease. The screenplay swifts between stories leaving scenes abruptly unended but it looks like its been done deliberately to give the movie a different kind of a feel. The director, Alejandro Gonsalez Inarritu has taken a lot of efforts to give us a good movie but he just misses it somewhere but still its a good movie to watch and to reflect at after you finish watching.

GURU(2007)-HINDI

Starring : Abhishek Bachchan , Aishwariya Rai , Mithun Chakraborty ,

Madhavan ,Vidya Balan ,Mallika Sherawat

Directed by : Mani Ratnam

Produced by : Madras Talkies

Music by : A.R.Rahman


Storyline:

Guru Kant Desai, simply called as Guru [Abhishek Bachchan], belonged to a small village called Idhar situated in Gujarat who strives for great success, against the more conservative wishes of his father and many that he meets. He starts his journey from a modest village in Gujarat to Bombay and makes his dreams come true by being a business tycoon. Nanaji(mithun chakarborhy) who runs the newspaper becomes the well wisher to gurubhai later journalist Shyam saxena(Madhavan) and Nanaji expose the irregularities in functioning style of guru. As usual Guru fights for his shareholders against the odds.


RE –el –VIEW:

This time mani ratnam has come out with a biopic( but mani says no) under his own production house with elite group of technicians. The movie starts in idhar village where gurubhai decides to go for a job in turkey.
Offcourse there is a song in turkey because this is the first time mani had decided to shoot in abroad, for his rememberence he had got the song which is an Hot item number(yeah Mallikaah) . Then the movie travels with aishwariya’s introduction then to Bombay where gurubhai steps into his dream of becoming business tycoon with aishwariya’s dowry as capital investment. No movie can be without villains here villain in the form of gurubhai’s well wisher mithun and journalist as madhavan. At the end hero wins the race by passing through the hurdles.


This is exactly the mani ratnam film who shows to the audience the quality in film making. There are different categories of film which makes everyone to enjoy but only some films makes u feel proud ,satisfied and realise that this is worth for ticket money, Guru belongs to this category. The mani has done the movie in his own style with his passion for cinema. This movie definetly brings out new subject that is not seen in Indian cinema as core subject. Guru makes u feel proud and motivates for an aspiring entrepreneur. Whenever gurubhai says “Banna chahte ho Hindusthan ki sabse badi company” and "Banna chahte ho DUNIYA ki sabse badi company" really motivating and our cinema needs this type of movies. Mani has not made great film because of few loop holes in screenplay but he has tried his best to give a gud film. Abhishek bachchan has done pretty decent job in this movie, mani has worked a lot in his character to show the changes in abhishek’s body language in ages. Even abhishek bachchan would be satisfied with his performance because of hard work that he has put in this character(extra 30 kilos in weight). Aishwariya rai was asked to accompany abhishek , no work was given to her. Madhavan looks good by shedding his fats and same vidyabalan has no job in this movie she has been asked to sit in wheelchair. Mani found difficulty in placing songs ,in first 20 minutes there are two songs. First part of the movie is good but second part fails to meet with pace. Climax is good

After ‘Bombay’ film mani has joined hands with rajiv menon and rajiv has done excellent job in this movie. Rajiv has brought different color tones in this movie. Art direction is excellent ,streets of Bombay were good. Here comes another hero A R Rahman, he has done the execellent work in re-recording and in songs. AR has given melody ,few foot tapping numbers and the song “jaage hain” is great .AR again proves to everyone that he is the master.


“Worth watching”…never miss this film