The Grinch-Who Failed to Steal Christmas!!

I don't really know how many of you'll would remember this, but much before the movie actually came out in 2000, on Cartoon Network we had the animated movie of 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' which was absolutely spectacular. As a matter of fact that very same movie is present in one of the scenes of Home Alone 2. This movie is based on the same book by Dr. Seuss with of course certain liberties of it's own, and the classic character of The Grinch is played none other than the man of many green faces-Jim Carrey.
Now This story is a children's Christmas classic. And the combination of Jim's magical wit and the fact that he can emote so well even as the Grinch just pushes this movie to a different level altogether.
The Story is about The Grinch and the people of Whoville. For reasons we find out in the movie, he somehow prefers being alone and wallowing in self pity all the time, and absolutely loathes and hates Christmas. He gives it a shot thanks to Cindy Loo of Whoville who has little faith in Christmas herself, but old rivalries and feelings resurface and he plans to 'Steal' Christmas away so that it cannot be celebrated. But how do you steal Christmas???By stealing the material stuff right??Wrong!!
This movie has great relevance to today's society and raises some very important questions.
Is Christmas all about just the presents??
Can't we imagine a Christmas without Santa and Christmas trees and stockings??
Then what is Christmas all really about??
These might sound like really serious questions but the best part about this film is that it gives a moral in the most subtle way possible through a character who everyone should hate but can't stop loving.
Jim Carrey is impeccable as the Grinch and nails the character and mannerisms brilliantly. His counterpart, Cindy Loo is cute and has some of the craziest hairstyles that even Gaga might be inspired to try.
The animation, special effects and make up are in place like you would expect in a high budget Hollywood movie. And for those of you who didn't know this-this movie is actually directed by none other than Oscar Winner Ron Howard who has made some intense movies like Frost/Nixon, A Beautiful Mind and even The Da Vinci Code but this is a movie that's far from the genres he is used to but still has executed it beautifully.
It's a beautiful Christmas tale which you wouldn't mind watching again and again especially if you've grown up watching it.

I'm going with 3.5 out of 5 for The Grinch.

Happy Holidays and Keep Reeling!!

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York

The one thing which we all wanted at some point or the other as a kid, was to have our freedom...Freedom from our parents, our home, our city even...and the want to just go and explore things on your own without supervision or guidance. We may fall on our face, or we might just push our potential to another level and rediscover what we are capable of doing, which obviously might surprise us at the same time. The Home Alone series captured this feeling and made an absolutely fun family holiday movie series, the best of which is clearly the movie I am reviewing right now.
There might be very few people among you who are reading who wouldn't have seen this movie, and keeping that in mind, I'll skip the synopsis. But for those who still haven't had the opportunity to see it, well, the title says it all. The Wet Bandits return and this time they are in for more torture by the hands of our very own protagonist-Kevin. This was the obvious bit and the expectation before we could even see this movie. But what sets this apart from the previous one are so many things:
Firstly, the involvement of the Bird Lady played by Brenda Fricker is easily the best and most touching addition to the movie. The relationship between Kevin and her is shown in such a beautiful way and is perfect in every scene of theirs.
Secondly, the involvement of New York-probably the best looking place in America during Christmas. Just the scenery of the stores and the decor is enough to make you want to be there at this time of the year. There's just so many dimensions to the city and this is probably my personal favorite picturisation of the city in a movie.
Lastly of course, there's the fictional gangster movie-'Angels with even filthier souls' which is even more hillarious than the first one and bringing in Rob Schneider for the scene just lifts it up a notch higher. Absolutely brilliant!!

Macaulay Culkin as Kevin is again a standout as in the first one with his misheveous smile and a screen presence that even established actors sometime lack. But of course, the first 2 movies were indeed tailor-made for him in every which way and there couldn't have been anyone better.
As is the same with Director Chris Columbus who is brilliant with Kids' movies ( he also directed the 1st 2 parts of Harry Potter ) by carefully tackling the plot in such a manner that the antics don't look repetitive.

All in all, it's good clean family fun and a movie that anyone will enjoy this Christmas.
I'm going with 4 out of 5 for Home Alone 2. Watch it to see how a comedy worked in the 90's.

Happy Holidays and Keep Reeling!!

Jingle All The Way-It's Turbo Time!!!

My first Pick for this holiday season is surprisingly an Arnold movie from the 90's. But yes, it about Christmas and of course, in this movie too we shall ignore Arnold's effort to act and concentrate on the more cheerful things :-)
But seriously this is among his most remembered movies and especially more so as he completely broke out of his mould as an action hero and adapted to the role of a father and a family guy so easily.
The story is about his son's character wanting an action figure for Christmas. Now like most dads Arnold wanted to be there for his son for most of the time, but due to work and a little bad luck, he always lacked somewhere. Therefore, he sees this want of his son as an opportunity to bond with his son again.
There is one small problem though.
The Action Figure is completely sold out on Christmas Eve and he cannot find one of those in the entire city!! Add to his dilemma, he has a cunning postman, a mad reindeer and a sly neighbour to contend with along with accomplising his task of buying a Turbo-man for his son.
Now the story is simplistic and direct, but also it is a movie that would entertain all audieces and more so it is a movie that gets you in the festive spirit without being 'in your face' about it.
Among the cast it's obviously Arnold who carries it on his Broad shoulders and his lack of acting is cobvered in the honesty of emotion that he so enthusiastically carries through his role.

I', going with 3.5 out of 5 for 'Jingle All The Way'.
It's a movie that'll take you back to your childhood.

Happy Holidays & Keep Reeling

The Twilight Saga-Breaking Dawn: Part 1-Forever is just the Beginning!!!

A Global Phenomenon: That's what one would associate The Twilight Saga with nowadays and the box office figures are proof of that. The latest installment in the series is said to have been the third highest opening for a movie ever, making it fall short only of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Twilight Saga: New Moon. This in spite of the lukewarm response it has got from critics the world over. What this series has offered to teenage girls the world over is known to us, and us guys unfortunately have 'Edward' and 'Jacob's standards to live up to..but then again, at least we are human!..Now coming to the actual stuff...What exactly did I think of the movie...Well read on to find out..
The movie starts of with invites going out to all the family and friends of Edward and Bella for their wedding. The only reaction worth watching though is of Jacob's as he gets livid and has the only shirtless scene of the movie. Yes girls, that is it..So be prepared. The wedding is expectantly beautiful and has a surprise entry from Jacob as well in what I feel was the best scene of the film. Post this of course they have the honeymoon off the coast of Rio on a beautiful island, and this in spite of Bella still being human and well aware of the consequences. The first night is funny and passionate, but the next morning Edward realizes that this is not fun and games and refrains from doing anything else except play Chess for the rest of the trip. This gets too much for Bella and few days later they do it again. Then...something unexpected happens, Bella gets pregnant and Edward is more stunned than any guy who realizes that he is going to be a dad. All of this happens in the first half and the nature of it is quite slow paced. This I have no complaints about though because if you have read the books, you would know the love that Bella and Edward had for each other and the unison of the two demands a scale of importance. The second half is quite the real deal though and has all the elements to make you await the last installment. The way Edward tries changing Bella into a vampire though is not the way I would have pictured it, but nevertheless the last shot of the film makes you forget all else.
Coming to the actors, it seems that everyone got their make up right for the film. Edward doesn't look that white and even Bella looks kinda attractive. Taylor Lautner's performance though definitely stood out for me.
It's definitely a movie for the fans of the franchise and also if you have been following it but I would strictly not recommend the same who haven't seen any of the parts. I just wish the next movie would release sooner but sadly we'll have to wait a whole year for that one. I'm going with 3.5 out of 5 for Breaking Dawn: Part 1...

Keep Reeling!!

2 Fast 2 Furious-It ain't the same without Vin Diesel!!

To be Aired on Star Movies
November 22nd
9:40am


To say that this was the most underwhelming film of the lot, would not be surprising. People who love the franchise obviously love it for the cars and the girls. But they also love it for 2 other reasons-Paul Walker and Vin Diesel.
One half of the duo, like everyone know, opted to not be a part of the movie which brought on Tyrese gibson to fit in Diesel's enormous shoes...Does he deliver?...Well read on and find out..

The story tracks O' Conner being nabbed by the cops at Miami and is asked to help them to take down Drug Peddlar Verone, played by Cole Hauser. O' connor agrees to take the job as it will clear all charges against him, but needs the partner of his choosing who turns out to be Roman Pearce, played by Gibson who also takes up the job to clear his name of charges levied against him, because of which he is still under house arrest. Now at the start they may not be the best of friends but they soon start seeing eye to eye, with difficulty of course and here starts the master plan of taking Verone down.
It has a typical GTA feel at times and Miami definitely adds up to the whole 'Gangsta' feel.
The Mitsubishi cars are expectantly high on looks and performance( the year is 2003 btw ) and the racing bits of the movie ,lives up to expectation.
The girls are a mixed affair though.
While Eva Mendes plays her role as an undercover cop/ Verone's mistress really well delivering just the right amount of oomph, Suki, the only female racer in the film, doesn't excite you with her looks or acting.
The surprise element of the movie has got to be Ludacris who shines in his cameo as Tej Parker, an ex street racer and a race organizer at the moment. there were moments where I wished that it was him who was Paul Walker's partner rather than Gibson.
Nevertheless it's a fun film and although it seems like a filler when we look at the whole series in context, it;s a no brainer that won't bore you...
So if you have the time, then definitely catch this on Star Movies or watch it on DVD.
I'm going with 2.5 out of 5 for the second installment in this thrilling series..

Keep Reeling!!

Rockstar-without the drugs!!

It's been five days since I saw this movie and I was hoping the time passed by between then and now would bring about a transition in my judgement of this movie. I did not want to just be critical or negative about it. Hell, I actually wanted to like it. But if you have seen this movie and liked it, I suggest you read no further.

Saadda Haq-Aithe Rakh was the anthem that we have been chanting ever since the promos of the movie came out...The music definitely created a buzz and why not, with the likes of Rahman and Mohit Chauhan being at the helm of affairs. And this is one section that delivered exactly what was needed.
The second thing that went right was the casting of Ranbir kapoor. I must admit that I am not his biggest fan..but the pain of Jordan, the innocence of Janardhan and the person in between is brought out so effectively and earnestly by him, that I have got to say that as an actor, this is his best performance yet.

So, if all this went well and it is directed by Imtiaz Ali who has churned out brilliant movies back to back, what went wrong??

HIM- Imtiaz Ali has made some of my most favorite movies-Jab we met, Love Aaj Kal and even Socha na tha. But with Rockstar, he gets so self obsessed with his script that he doesn't really see the logic in it. Also the editing is horrible had felt completely mismatched for a movie that lasts almost 3 hours!! I actually felt that he should have gone for a straight-forward narration rather that the 'experiment' he tried. Also the scripting is really loose and the movie gets intolerable in the second half. The biggest character flaw has to be that Jordan, who idolizes Jim Morrison, doesn't get into drugs...now what kind of ROCKSTAR is that???

NARGIS-Probably the worst element of the movie, she sticks out like a sore thumb. Her acting is painful to watch...Her dubbing is even worse...I actually felt Katrina would have been thousand times better in her place. She should just get back to her modelling or taking care of her kid or whatever but spare us the horror of seeing her in the movies.

I don't want to give out much of the premise as most of you'll know the basics thanks to the promos. I don't know how many of you'll might agree or disagree with me but this is how I felt.
Please do share your views as I would like to know what you'll thought of it.

My suggestion-save your money and go watch Ra.One again ( you read that right )

I'm going with 1.5 out of 5 for Imtiaz Ali's ROCKSTAR...

Keep reeling!!

Home Alone-Don't try this at Home!!

To be aired on Star Movies

November 7th

6:50pm

The holiday season beckons and it's time to revisit a classic. This 1990 comedy directed by Chris Columbus is seen by all and forgotten by a few. It's probably among the first kids' movies that I ever saw, and you have to give it up for the recall value of this film which still doesn't look dated 21 years later and still holds it's own in spite of the repetitive gags.
For the ones who haven't managed to see this yet, here's a glimpse of the plot-Mackaulay Culkin, our very own John McCalister is a kid who doesn't like his family very much. He hates being bullied by his elder brother Buzz...Hates the fact that he has to share a bed during the holidays with his cousin who pees in his sleep. and hates the fact that he has to go with his huge family for a holiday to Paris.
Fortunate for him-he gets left behind accidentally and has the whole house to himself.He eats junk food, trashes his brother's room, watches a gangster film and more-basically everything he probably wouldn't be allowed to do otherwise. The fun is short lived though as there are 2 burglars waiting to thieve the house as they think no one is home...But little did they know that the 8 year old boy was going to be a living nightmare for them..Actually did I say the fun was short lived?...It just got started...Gag after Gag you're in awe of Kevin's character and the cuteness with which he tackles the bad guys.

Each booby trap is better than the other but my favorite moment has to be when the pizza delivery guy gets scared by the voice overs of a gangster flick which Kevin very tactfully plays the dialogues of.or also the scene where he re-creates an entire party in his house to fool the bad guys with objects lying around the house.

It's cute , it's ingenious and it's a movie that will never be forgotten.
I'm going with 4.5 out of 5.

Keep Reeling!!!