Movie Review: Killing Them Softly

Cast: Brad Pitt, Ray Liotta and Richard Jenkins
Director: Andrew Dominik

After last year's double whammy of Tree of Life and Moneyball I concluded that Brad Pitt was the greatest of all today's movie stars - perhaps not the finest actor but one who never fails to ignite the screen.

Pitt meshes movie-star glamour, ageless good looks and acting chops to bring characters to life in a way a mere first-rate performer could never achieve.

Read More

Taken 2 - English movie review

Story: Retired CIA operative Bryan Mills and his ex-wife get kidnapped while holidaying in Istanbul. His daughter manages to escape. Will she be able to 'save' the couple?

Movie Review: This sequel of 2008 hit Taken follows up a while after where the first film left off. Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) is finding it tough coming to terms with the fact that his daughter Kim is seeing a boy and may be serious about him. The fact that she had been the recent victim of a kidnapping attempt foiled by her father is not lost on her. Father and daughter are still close and he wants nothing more than to ensure his family is safe. So, when his ex-wife Lenore complains about a cancelled trip, he consoles her and asks them to join him after 'work' (an assignment where he provides security to rich, high-risk clients) in Istanbul.

Read More

The Avengers (2012) Movie review

Directed by	Joss Whedon
Produced by	Kevin Feige
Screenplay by	Joss Whedon
Story by	Zak Penn Joss Whedon
Based on	The Avengers by Stan Lee Jack Kirby
Starring	Robert Downey, Jr. Chris Evans Mark Ruffalo Chris Hemsworth Scarlett Johansson Jeremy Renner Tom Hiddleston Samuel L. Jackson
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Seamus McGarvey
Editing by	Jeffrey Ford Lisa Lassek
Studio	Marvel Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures1
Release date(s)	April 11, 2012(world premiere) May 4, 2012(United States)
Running time	143 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English

Read More

21st jump street: Online movie review

Directed by	Phil Lord and Chris Miller
Produced by	Stephen J. Cannell Neal H. Moritz
Screenplay by	Michael Bacall
Story by	Jonah Hill Michael Bacall
Based on	21 Jump Street by Patrick Hasburgh Stephen J. Cannell
Starring	Jonah Hill Channing Tatum Brie Larson Dave Franco Ellie Kemper Rob Riggle Ice Cube
Music by	Mark Mothersbaugh
Cinematography	Barry Peterson
Editing by	Joel Negrone
Studio	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Original Film Lord Miller Productions Relativity Media[1]
Distributed by	Columbia Pictures
Release date(s)	March 16, 2012
Running time	109 minutes[2]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$42 million

Read More

Battleship : Online movie review

Directed by	Peter Berg
Produced by	Peter Berg Brian Goldner Duncan Henderson Bennett Schneir Scott Stuber
Written by	Jon Hoeber Erich Hoeber
Starring	Taylor Kitsch Alexander Skarsgård Brooklyn Decker Rihanna Liam Neeson Tadanobu Asano
Music by	Steve Jablonsky[1]
Cinematography	Tobias A. Schliessler
Editing by	Colby Parker Jr. Billy Rich
Studio	Hasbro Bluegrass Films Film 44
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	April 11, 2012(International) May 18, 2012(United States,Canada)
Running time	131 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$200 million

Read More

Ghost Rider 2 Movie Review

Poor Nicolas Cage, his career just keeps on going downhill. At least in the past when he made B action movies he would intersperse them with something worthwhile. Now it seems he just makes one bad movie after another. ìGhost Rider: Spirit of Vengeanceî is in keeping with that tradition. The original movie in this series was bad but this sequel is worse. Where is Eva Mendes when you need her?

As we know from the first film, and it is repeated here, Johnny Blaze (Cage) made a deal with the devil in order to try to save his father. Now he is human at some times and a demon at others. When he is in his demonic state he is all afire and skeletal. Not a pretty sight to see.

Now it seems that the devil had a son with a woman named Nadya (Violante Placido). His name is Danny (Fergus Riordan) and he is now thirteen years old. At the bequest of a man named Moreau (Idris Elba), Johnny agrees to help find and protect this Danny. Moreau says he will free him of his demon if he does.

The rest of the movie concerns Johnnyís efforts to protect Danny and also to confront the devil (Ciaran Hinds), or Roarke as he calls himself in this movie. This leads to some fairly good action sequences but not good enough to make the movie entertaining or enjoyable.

Cage, Hinds and Elba are all too good to be in a movie like this. They are slumming big time as they play these roles. Cage goes all crazy on us in his role, Hinds plays his tongue in cheek, and Elba plays his straight. Three actors in movie hell and these are the choices they make.

The special effects are fairly good and it is exciting to see a skeleton on a motorbike burning up the highway literally. You also get some other gory effects with a character who can cause anything and everything to decay and rot. He is called Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth).

The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity and violence.

Hopefully this is the end of this series. I wouldnít want Cage to have to betray his talent in another ìGhost Riderî film. Better he go make ìNational Treasure 15î or something like that. Or maybe go way back and revisit his ìMoonstruckî character.

"Ghost Rider" is a movie that might appeal to fans of the comic book, but all others will want to sit this one out.

I scored "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" an ungodly 4 out of 10.


By Jackie K Cooper

Read More

Rampart(2011) -Movie Review

Nothing fascinates like a dirty cop. In real life they're terrifying, but in the movies their upending of law and order can open deep explorations of psychology, morality and violence. So meet Dave Brown, Brown is a cop long ago unleashed from the rules of the Los Angeles Police Department. Roving the streets in his black-and-white cruiser, he governs and punishes at will.  


Anyone familiar with the TV series The Shield already knows the basic premise of the James Ellroy-penned, Oren Moverman-directedRampart, a movie that—like The Shield—is based on the real-life case of a corrupt division of the LAPD. Woody Harrelson plays one of those dirty cops: a pill-popping, self-proclaimed fascist who won’t let public shaming, federal investigations, or alienation from his family stop him from using excessive force on suspects, or from orchestrating his own crimes.


Brown is a man of many vices, a hard-drinking, heavy-smoking, pill-popping, womanizing, racist sexist cop who hides his hatefulness under a veneer of fearsome intelligence and charisma. He's a law-school grad who failed the bar, but the ease with which he quotes legal precedent on the job suggests that he failed only because he lacked the motivation to pass.


Brown is exactly the sort of hard-talking tough guy one would expect in a film with Ellroy's name attached, but Harrelson suggests his heart isn't entirely calloused over. The actor, in one of his finest performances, delicately finds the shred of humanity in a man capable of great inhumanity. He's too far gone for us to feel much sympathy for him, but somehow he recognizes that he's destroying things he legitimately cares for — not least his connection to his daughters — and it's those stakes that become paramount for the viewer. Moverman gets away with a protagonist who it's impossible to root for by making sure we care about the fallout of his meltdown.

Read More

Big Miracle- Movie Insight

Title: Big Miracle

Director: Ken Kwapis

Screenwriter: Jack Amiel, Michael Begler, from Thomas Rose’s book “Free the Whales”

Cast: Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, Kristen Bell, Dermot Mulroney, Tim Blake Nelson, Vinessa Shaw, Ted Danson

The success of last year's "Dolphin Tale"proved this theorem: Imperiled marine animals + true-ish story + workmanlike sincerity + happy ending = a hit. Will the equation hold for director Ken Kwapis' whale movie"Big Miracle"?

Politics makes strange bedfellows. Who would have thought that so many individuals with different cultures and conflicting ideologies could unify in the remote northern regions of Alaska, all working toward the same goals albeit for different reasons? Ken Kwapis does a great job in recreating what must have been covered in one way or another by the National Geographic Channel, employing the big screen to milk audience emotions in a movie that bears some of the tensions you might expect in a thriller. The film boasts a PG rating from the MPAA (there might of been a time that “hell” and “damn” would not have garnered such liberality). “Big Miracle,” with a screenplay by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler from Thomas Rose’s “Free the Whales,” is inspired by a true story that allegedly riveted an international TV audience in 1988.

The screenplay by Jack Amiel and Michael Begler takes what it likes from Thomas Rose's nonfiction account "Freeing the Whales: How the Media Created the World's Greatest Non-Event" and cooks up the rest. (Per Rose's "non-event" subtitle, whales being trapped under ice was nothing new; in this instance, however, the media machine was around to sell it.) The result is more about heart than the human comedy, but the script is cleverly balanced and structured.

What does a local newsman do for warmth in this sort of weather? This allows director Ken Kwapis to trot out Drew Barrymore’s Rachel, a Greenpeace volunteer who is less than diplomatic toward the people with the power to save the three whales–a woman who was dumped some time back by newsman Adam and who will obviously connect once again with the woman who, he says, drives him crazy. As for the whales, they look realistic enough but are animatronic creations made a world away in Auckland, New Zealand, but who have too many worries about survival to remember their names–baby Bamm Bamm, mother Wilma and daddy Fred. Why do Eskimos, who spear and eat whales (although not the gray whales in the cast); an fellow for whom Alaska means nothing more than a place to drill for oil; a Soviet barge during the icy days of the Cold War; the President of the United States; and an environmentalist all doing working together? Only Rachel Kramer is sincere in her love for the big creatures: for the others, it’s all PR, but who cares? As long as they get the job done.

Overall Verdict: Watch Worthy once

Read More

Woman In Black

Guttering candles. Pale faces at windows. Mysterious noises from upstairs. They’re a few of the things commonly found in a classic ghost story, and Susan Hill’s 1983 novel The Woman In Black contained all of them. A spectral mystery in the tradition of MR James, Hill’s novel was the subject of a popular stage play, a 1989 TV movie, a couple of radio adaptations, and now a new Hammer production starring Daniel Radcliffe.

 The question is, how is it possible to adapt such a traditional story in a way that modern audiences will find even remotely frightening? Many of the ghost story trappings listed above are now so familiar, and so constantly parodied, they’re almost cosy, like an episode of Heartbeat or Highway To Heaven.Director James Watkins’ answer to this problem is simple: there’s nothing wrong with the familiar and the generic, as long as the material’s approached with enthusiasm and conviction. The result is a modern supernatural horror that is old-fashioned yet extremely effective.It shouldn't work, but somehow it does. Kipps, you will be astonished to learn, does not get a good night's sleep when he stays over at Eel Marsh House. Cruel-eyed dolls, loud bangs, a bloody creature in the bedsheets ...Watching him blunder around the haunted mansion is like being strapped into an unhinged fairground ride: scary, funny and genuinely jolting.

 The film’s reconstruction of the austere late Victorian age, all bustling dresses, starched suits and oak furniture, is great, too – though there are a few anachronisms dotted about if you really want to nit-pick. Some of the dialogue is more 21st than 19th century (a child would never address an adult they'd just met by their first name, for example), and I was rather alarmed at the almost total absence of hats.Does that bode ill for Radcliffe, an actor desperate to break with the past? (The Woman In Black marks his first appearance in a big-budget, non-HP movie). The project won't silence his critics. It should, however, swing floating voters. His occasional woodenness fits with the schlock and when he's good, he's gripping. Seems there's life in the old boy yet. Harry Potter, RIP.

 Nevertheless, The Woman In Black is a direct, simple ghost story told with real energy. It’s also great to see the Hammer name appear at the start of a film once again – now there’s at least one ghost from the past I’m genuinely glad to see looming out of the darkness

Read More

Sherlock- TV series

If you are a Sherlock Fan you ll go Crazy after Watching this series if you are not Sherlock Fan you ll be one after watching this.

In the First Episode the story begins with John Watson, a retired Defense Doctor who is stressed after he had quit army for certain reasons.

When Watson Meets Sherlock for the First time Sherlock's Brilliance is Portrayed very stunningly that you would really go gaga over Sherlock at that very instant. The First Episode establishes very clearly how John  Watson becomes Sherlock's Friend. 

Also Sherlock's Eccentric attributes are brought out in brilliant way.

Anyways i would not reveal the story here for any Episodes. But i would suggest all of the Readers to Watch out almost 5 episodes out of the six released. The only Episode which i felt lagging in pace and brilliance was second season episode 2 ( The Hounds of Baskerville).

So People who haven't Yet watched the Sherlock TV series Better start Downloading it Now. I would definitely say its worth watch for a life time.

IMDB LINK

Read More

In Darkness- Movie Review

A dramatization of one man's rescue of Jewish refugees in the Nazi-occupied Polish city of Lvov.




"In Darkness" is a pitiless glimpse into the inferno, into hell not only on earth but below it. Based on a true story, it takes you into the sewers of the Polish city of Lvov during World War II, a place where a group of Jews lived for more than a year under circumstances that are almost unimaginable.


But, as directed by the veteran Agnieszka Holland, "In Darkness" is not a typical Holocaust film. For one thing, even more than in her 1990 film "Europa, Europa," Holland's directing style is cool, almost dispassionate. It's as though she's insisting that, as detailed in David Shamoon's effective script, these horrific events should speak for themselves without special pleading, if they are to speak at all. And for another, the film's focus is not on the Jews but on the anti-Semitic, Catholic Pole who becomes their unlooked-for savior and lifeline.


"In Darkness" is also honest enough to show how the enmities and conflicts that existed among the Jews aboveground were carried into the sewer and worsened by that desperate environment. In a world where everyone was looking for an angle, hoping to survive the nightmare and maybe even turn other people's misery into a tidy profit, the fact that a fragile humanity survived at all is little short of a miracle.


Holland, interestingly enough, dedicates "In Darkness" twice. At the film's beginning, she singles out Marek Edelman, the Jewish leader of the legendary Warsaw Ghetto rebellion. At the end, mention goes to the more than 6,000 Poles, more than any other nationality, who are recognized as Righteous Gentiles by the Israeli government for having risked their lives to save Jews. "In Darkness" shows us how extraordinarily fraught that choice was.


Review by: kenneth.turan@latimes.com

Read More