Return of the Blogger- Rakhta Charitra 2

Well so we continue our journey through Pratap Ravi's life through the second movie but the difference is that in this movie Surya is the main character and as the movie starts of it recounts what happened in the first movie, and the first scene is iconic with the entry of Surya , walking in with a face of a lion ready to avenge the wrongdoings done on him. After this the movie just loses the plot and it becomes all music and silent gestures and loses the sense of thrill the first had.

Here's the plot line set to race you blood pressure a bit-
Following upto the prequel this story shows us the dark side of Pratap as it shifts focus to Surya , born out of similar circumstance as Pratap, Surya fueled by venegence against pratap for the death of his family . The rage of surya drives this movie. As Prataps futile efforts to end Surya's life fail , the whole movie revolves around their rivalry. But inspite of all the right ingredients, this movie fails to find the right mix that the first did. Sure it has lot of memorable scenes such as the attempted assassination of Surya in court and also the powerful scenes of Surya recounting of his parents death , but all of this mulled out by RGV's need for music background and unnecessary usage of slow motion scenes just kills the concept of the movie . A letdown compared to the first. But as the saying goes the first is not complete without this movie , so if you have watched the Prequel then you have to catch this one to complete the storyline of Pratap Ravi. This movie has a strong message to it , even though circumstance make a man, our will has a lot to play in shaping who we are.

Theater seen from- Coronation Theater, Calicut city
Audience recommended to - People who have seen part 1 , Surya Fans and people who just love violence

Details-
A History of Blood
Directed by Ram Gopal Varma
Produced by Madhu
Mantena Sheetal Vinod Talwar
Chinna Vasudeva Reddy
Rajkumar
Written by Prashant Pandey
Starring
Surya
Vivek Oberoi
Sudeep
Shatrughan Sinha
Kota Srinivasa Rao
Abhimanyu Singh
Priyamani
Radhika Apte
Music by Imran-Vikram
Dharam-Sandeep
Bappi-Tutul
Sukhwinder Singh
Cinematography Amol Rathod
Editing by Nipun Ashok Gupta
Studio Cinergy Pictures
Distributed by Vistaar Religare
Cloud Nine Movies
Release date(s) Part 1:
22 October 2010
Part 2:
3 December 2010
Country India
Language Hindi
Tamil
Telugu
Budget 30 crore

Final word-
I am going for 2.5/5 for The sequel to Rakhta Charitra. This movie is an essential part of the Rakhta Charitra Series , see it for Actor Surya's compelling performance and nothing more.(PS watch the last scene carefully , its amazing how it corelates with what has really happend this year )

Return of the Blogger- Rakht Charitra -1

There's a certain movie which tends to define a director or an actor . For example we all hear George Lucas and we think star wars , Titanic spring into mind when we hear James Cameroon, Jurassic park brings Steven speilberg into the picture. So Ram Gopal Varma or RGV as he is called is well remembered for his work on the movie The Company and Sathya. After that RGV was written off as he did a string of Horrible movies, so horrendous his so called factory started churning out creations meant to tarnish his image. But that all changed when Rakht Charitra got released, both Vivek oberoi and RGV got back their mojo with this movie.

Here's a short synopsis that will splatters blood on the storyline-
The story involves the true life telling of the story of Paritala Ravindra,a well known political leader of andhra pradesh . Played by Vivek oberio , Pratap ravi emabarks on a journey of Vengeance( which is the main theme of the movie) and the incidents which later unfold and lead to his death are been discussed in the two part series of Rakht Charitra . The first part is told from the View point of Vivek Oberio's character and the second part is narrated from the point of view of Surya Narayanareddy a congress leader played by tamil actor Surya .

The greatest strength of Rakhta Charitra is that is the style of story telling adopted by RGV . It brings a sense of greatness to the history and one is pulled into the narration from the start. There are some amazing scenes in Rk-1 that surely will boil the blood in your veins , it just makes you scream for Vengence as Pratap Ravis life is torn into pieces with the incidents taking place in anathpur . The other thing that makes it a great watch is the super villain in the movie in the form of Pukka Reddy who really epitomizes evil in his character. As goes ahead plundering the town and as he continues to violate the modesty of the innocent women in the town. Vivek Oberoi plays his character to perfection as he dons the costume of both naxalite and politician and the entry of Shatrughan Sinha as Shivaji Rao brings the much needed twist to the story.This truly is critically acclaimed movie of year 2010.

Details-
Directed by Ram Gopal Varma
Produced by Madhu
Mantena Sheetal Vinod Talwar
Chinna Vasudeva Reddy
Rajkumar
Written by Prashant Pandey
Starring

* Surya
* Vivek Oberoi
* Sudeep
* Shatrughan Sinha
* Kota Srinivasa Rao
* Abhimanyu Singh
* Priyamani
* Radhika Apte

Music by Imran-Vikram
Dharam-Sandeep
Bappi-Tutul
Sukhwinder Singh
Cinematography Amol Rathod
Editing by Nipun Ashok Gupta
Studio Cinergy Pictures
Distributed by Vistaar Religare
Cloud Nine Movies
Release date(s) Part 1:
22 October 2010 (2010-10-22)
Part 2:
3 December 2010 (2010-12-03)
Country India
Language Hindi
Tamil
Telugu
Budget Indian Rupee ₹30 crore

Theatre seen from - Pvr Cinemas bangalore
Audience recommended- the strong hearted, RGV fans, people enjoying gore and fans of historical biographies .

Final word-
I go for 4/5 for RGV's Raktha Charitra , because this ladies and gentleman might just be the most violent movie India has ever made.

Return of the Blogger- The Green hornet

Here's the thing about super hero movies, is that they have this great capacity to allure young men into their web of action adventure and mystery.Well sometimes that web turns out to be nice suprise , but sometimes it turns out your in a big spider waiting to be devoured by the fake promise of that tight panted superhero. So its not suprising i decided to go for the The Green Hornet the very day it was released and Boy was i caught in that spider's web.Am sure many of you like me wouldnt even have known the Green hornet existed before this movie got released.

Here's a short synopsis to horn out Your Brains-
Britt Reid, son and heir to Los Angeles' largest newspaper fortune, is a rich, spoiled playboy who has been happy to maintain a direction-less existence. When his father James Reid dies, Britt meets an impressive and resourceful company employee, Kato. They realize that they have the resources to do something worthwhile with their lives and finally step out of James Reid's shadow. Kato builds the ultimate weapon, The Black Beauty, an indestructible car with every weapon imaginable and Britt decides that in order to be heroes, they will pose as villains. With the help of Britt's new secretary, Lenore Case, they learn that the chief criminal in the city is named Benjamin Chudnofsky. He has united all the gangs under his power, and he quickly sees that the Green Hornet is a direct threat to the prosperous criminal underworld he controls.

Here's the problem with this movie it tries so hard to be everything- Funny , Action packed , deep seated mystery about the hero , a beautiful lass to save and all the materials you need for a great movie. But at the end of the day Seth rogen's kills the movie along with the villian (omg the villan sucks , i know spoilers right ). Cameron diaz provides atleast a bit of eye candy reminiscent of her role in the Mask . Other than that you just get bored with all the comical style direction and poor slapstick humour.

Movie Details-
Directed by Michel Gondry
Produced by Neal H. Moritz
Written by Seth Rogen
Evan Goldberg
Based on The Green Hornet by
George W. Trendle
Fran Striker
Starring Seth Rogen
Jay Chou
Christoph Waltz
Cameron Diaz
Music by James Newton Howard
Cinematography John Schwartzman
Editing by Michael Tronick
Studio Original Film
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) January 14, 2011 (2011-01-14)
Running time 119 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $120 million
Gross revenue $217,249,389

Theater seen from- Crown theater , Calicut city
Audience recommended to- Die hard Green hornet Fans( if there are any), Die hard Seth Rogen fans( who after this movie don't exist) and really bored people and also die hard Cameron diaz fans ( am sure there are millions)

Final word-
I am going for 2/5 for this movie . Go for this for the only reason imaginable - Cameron Diaz ( oh yeah ;).

Return of the Blogger- 127 hours

There's a certain problem with hollywood you see , it follows a trend at a time like all movie industries. Someone releases a great action movies and then its all action movie ...and so with all the other genres. For example , the action movie genre involving a team brought out - Expendables, macgruber, The A team and the losers and all other low budget movies on the same theme. Thats what happened with apocalypto brought out 10,000 BC and the Viking . So when both sanctum and 127 hours were released on nearby dates i was skeptical . But after hearing a lot of good reviews of 127 hours , me and Brother decided to drive to the nearest multiplex (a cool 120 km off my college). Boy did we not know what we were getting into.

Here's a short synopsis to get you through 127 hours-
Centers on Aron Ralston, an American climber whose arm got trapped under a boulder while hiking in Utah, and who, after waiting five days, decided the only chance he had for survival was to amputate his own arm.

Now you must be wondering why i have given such a short synopsis , well thats all its there to the story of the movie. The movie is recorded by the view point of Aron who survives the 127 hours in that Rock formation and how he comes to realize his destiny in that time . Sure the movie has a certain amount of gripping scenes, but it fails to keep your full attention on Aron ,at first sure there's a feeling of what if it was me scenario but after sometime even that wears off , then his stages of delirium are sure to drive you nuts . And the scenes where he drinks his own urine are sure to cause disgust than sympathy . Then The grande finale is the cutting of his own arm, which it seems is what has got the critics going Ga Ga over , even our highly acclaimed critic and my mentor Rajeev masand going out and giving 4/5 for 127 hours. As i described to my friend this movie is like the story of "The Emperors New Clothes" where just because everyone says its good doesn't mean it really is. Face the truth , this is nothing more than sad survival story more to inspire only the Mountaineers and adventurers than your normal urban man . As for the self mutilation scene , i think we have seen lot of those in the saw series.

Details-
Directed by Danny Boyle
Produced by Christian Colson
John Smithson
Danny Boyle
Screenplay by Danny Boyle
Simon Beaufoy
Based on Between a Rock and a Hard Place by
Aron Ralston
Starring James Franco
Music by A. R. Rahman
Cinematography Anthony Dod Mantle
Enrique Chediak[1]
Editing by Jon Harris
Studio Film4 Productions
HandMade Films
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures (US)
Pathé (UK/France)
Release date(s) September 4, 2010 (Telluride)
November 5, 2010 (United States)
Running time 94 minutes
Language English
Budget $18 million[2]
Gross revenue $42,932,116[2

Theater seen from- Oberon mall multiplex, Kochi
Audience recommended to- Sadists,Survival story fans, Drama queens

Final word-
I am going for 2/5 for Danny boyle's critically acclaimed movie 127 hours because at the end of the day it teaches us one thing life is about surviving or in this case surviving this movie

Return of the Blogger- The Dilemma

Yet another romantic comedy under the list is Vince Vaughn's dilemma . Here's the reason why i enjoy romantic comedies - 1. they smooth your mind 2. they remind you of that special girl , 3. they make you happy and at the end of the day thats what matters. So when when both Vince Vaughn and kevin james (popular since the will smith starrer hitch) teams i am sure not to miss it as it promises to be a roller coaster ride of laughter. Vince Vaughn's has the necessary elements in his acting to hold together a proper comedy film and get away with it (except for the Movie break up with jennifer aniston which bombed).This movie brings up two beautiful female leads played by my favorite Jennifer Connely known for her role in Di Caprio's blood diamond and very raunchy Winona Ryder.

Here's a short synopsis that leaves you in a dilemma-
Since college, confirmed bachelor Ronny and happily married Nick have been through thick and thin. Now partners in an auto design firm, the two pals are vying to land a dream project that would launch their company. With Ronny's girlfriend, Beth, and Nick's wife, Geneva, by their sides, they're unbeatable. But Ronny's world is turned upside down when he inadvertently sees Geneva out with another man and makes it his mission to get answers. As the amateur investigation dissolves his world into comic mayhem, he learns that Nick has a few secrets of his own. Now, with the clock ticking and pressure mounting on the biggest presentation of their careers, Ronny must decide what will happen if he reveals the truth to his best friend.

The entire movie gives spotlight to Vaughn's character who has to decide between work and friendship and ultimate truth . There a lot of enjoyable scenes such as the break into Geneva's boyfriends house and one where they plan an intervention for Vaughn's at his house. This movie combines slapstick humor along with moral to make this a perfect watch for both couples and friends looking for some fun. The movie keeps the flow of comedy at such a rate that your not falling of your chair laughing or are you held up waiting for that big laughter scene.

Details-
Directed by Ron Howard
Produced by Brian Grazer
Vince Vaughn
Written by Allan Loeb
Starring Vince Vaughn
Kevin James
Music by Hans Zimmer
Lorne Balfe
Cinematography Salvatore Totino
Editing by Mike Hill
Dan Hanley
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) January 14, 2011
Running time 118 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $70–75 million
Gross revenue $61,828,070

Theatre- Dubai mall Multiplex, Uae

Final word-
I am going for 3/5 for Universal pictures Dilemma. Guys and Gals let there be no Dilemma in watching this movie cause its sure to entertain.

Return of the Blogger- No strings attached

So its that time of the year again ...you know what i am talking about ...Valentine's day... a day where hearts get broken and love gets made at the same time....So it was only perfect i caught one of the highly anticipated romantic comedy of the year - no strings attached . Sure each year valentines day makes Hollywood churns out their drum roll of such movies , but no strings attached proves its a bit different from the lot. The combination of ashton kutcher and natalie portman makes all the magic work in this wonderful romantic comedy . The movie has a lot of sexual content and most of the humour is based around sexual activity , so i wouldnt recommend this for take your kids out for a movie day, but would recommend this for all the new couples and the old ones looking for a come back. This movie nonetheless gets you in the mood.( Unfortunately i watched with 4 dudes so it was kinda of a bummer).

Here's a short synopsis for you to string the story together -
Emma and Adam are life-long friends who almost ruin everything by having sex one morning. In order to protect their friendship, they make a pact to keep their relationship strictly "no strings attached." "No strings" means no jealousy, no expectations, no fighting, no flowers, no baby voices. It means they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, in whatever public place they want, as long as they don't fall in love. The question becomes -- who's going to fall first? And can their friendship survive?

Natalie portman gets on your nerve in certain scenes where you just wish kutcher would dump her, but her crazy acts make way for more cute and humorous touches in the movie . As for Kutcher he play his role to perfection , the ultimate chocolate boy. This movies brings back the genre of good romantic comedies or chick flicks as some may refer to it. A perfect movie to take your girlfriend out to or the chick you want to propose to or the girl who you want to make the natalie portman of your life (ie an everlasting one night stand ),

Theater seen from - Inox Bangalore

Details -
Directed by Ivan Reitman
Produced by Jeffrey Clifford
Joe Medjuck
Ivan Reitman
Screenplay by Elizabeth Meriwether
Story by Elizabeth Meriwether
Mike Samonek
Starring Natalie Portman
Ashton Kutcher
Music by John Debney
Cinematography Rogier Stoffers
Editing by Dana E. Glauberman
Studio Paramount Pictures
Release date(s) January 21, 2011
Running time 110 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $25 million[1]
Gross revenue $88.4 million[2

Final word-
I am going with 3/5 for paramount pictures "No strings Attached" because sometimes you dont listen to the critics , sometimes you just follow you heart and go for that romantic comedy whether they call it a chick flick or not .
PS - make sure you watch it with your girlfriend/wife and not a guy cause otherwise you might end up missing her a lot during this movie or missing that girl you like (as in my case;).

Return of the Blogger- Season of the Witch

Okay here i am back again after what seems to be ages , am sure my post have stopped but not my habit of been engaged in the art of movie watching. Well now this movie is one of the several movies i caught in the theater over the last month.

So i begin my grand comeback with none other than nicholas cage's season of the witch. A much awaited movie by me but not by the rest of the audiences . In times where movies like orphan and uninvited try to spook you with their eerie depictions of children as per se ghosts and the truimph of paranormal activity in scaring people out of their seats with nothing less than a camcorder footage surely seems to click these days, but still the good old days of horror mixed with action seemed to be missing. Reminiscing the good old days of the evil dead series , where the main lead our hero battles forces of evil and zombies across time lines seemed to be the write amount of popcorn crunching horror we needed those days and thats what exactly the season of the witch delivers.

Here's a small synopsis which leaves you bewitched -
A medieval knight undertakes a mission pitting him against a devious witch and making him the last hope for the world against an ancient and dark force. His faith broken by years of battle as a crusader, Behmen returns to central Europe to find his homeland decimated by the Black Plague. While searching for food and supplies at the Palace at Marburg, Behmen and his trusted companion, Felson are apprehended and ordered by the dying Cardinal to deliver a young peasant girl - believed to be the witch responsible for the Plague - to a remote abbey where her powers can be destroyed. Behmen agrees to the assignment but only if the peasant girl is granted a fair trial. As he and five others set off on this dangerous journey, they realize with mounting dread that the cunning girl is no ordinary human, and that their mission will pit them against an evil that even in these dark times they never could have imagined.

Well now that you know the plot line , here's why i suggest you go watch the movie-
1.Your a die hard Nicholas Cage fan (like me)
2.Your really turned on by witches
3.You just love horror movies
4.You have a girlfriend and want to take her out for a spook
5.Your a movie buff like me

Details
Directed by Dominic Sena
Produced by Alex Gartner
Charles Roven
Screenplay by Bragi F. Schut
Starring Nicolas Cage
Ron Perlman
Music by Atli Örvarsson
Cinematography Amir Mokri
Editing by Mark Helfrich
Dan Zimmerman
Studio Relativity Media
Release date(s) January 7, 2011
Running time 98 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget US$40 million[1]
Gross revenue $68.4 million

Final word-
I am going with 2.5/5 for the season of the witch, surely it doesn't leave you pissing in your pants like some of those japanese horror movie but it provides the right amount of horror and action in its running time , after all guys who wants to go home scared right.