Identity Thief grabs the spotlight

Identity Thief grabs the spotlight

[Feb 8-10]

#1-Identity Thief debuted at the top spot with a solid collection of $36.5million.Directed by Seth Gordon of Horrible Bosses ,Identity has done remarkably well.The only competition the movie faced was the winter storm,Nemo , in North America.On the other hand the movie hasnt managed to make the critics happy.Scoring just 24%, only Melissa & Jason's performance was appreciated while the story was deemed a rip off other comedies.The movie has already recovered its $35million budget and considering its good start its expected to be another big hit ,following last years Ted.

#2-Warm Bodies made $11.5million bringing its worldwide total to $45.3million.The movie is doing a good business and with its fresh concept ,its bringing in the crowds.

#3-Acclaimed director Steven Soderbergh's final movie before retirement ,Side Effects ,turned out to be a disappointment.The movie just managed to make $10million.The medical thriller was praised by critics for its twist filled story.The movie has a fresh rating of 86%.

#4-Silver Linings Playbook had another good week making $6.9million.The movie is holding strong and is inching its way to a domestic gross of $100million.Currently the movie has made a worldwide total of $120million from a budget of $21million.

#5-Hansel and Gretel:Witch Hunters has turned out to be a hit.Making $5.7million in its 3rd week ,the movie has made a domestic gross of just $43.8million from a budget of $50million.But its overseas collection has been strong.The movie has made $84million just from overseas ,putting the worldwide collections to $127.8million.

Tom Cruises' Top Gun 3D re-release turned out into a bitter disappointment.The movie made just $1.9million strengthening the notion that 3D re-releases might not be such a great idea.

Boosted by its overseas collection ,Skyfall & Hobbit are still making big bucks in the international market.Skyfall has made $1.094billion (#7 highest grossing movie all time) and Hobbit Part 1 is at $955million (#18 in the same list).

With Valentines around the corner ,Hollywood has lined up 4 interesting movies.One romantic drama ,one teenage fantasy ,one kids movie and one action packed thriller.My pick of the week will be---

1-Die Hard 5- A Good Day to Die Hard will have a tough sell this time.Headed by Bruce Willis ,this is a sequel to a series of tough as nails action movies.But on the down side its director,John Moore is having a bad run (MaxPayne ,Omen) ,and the Die Hard series always are at the border of being cliched and amazing.And also to be considered is the curse of the Expendables.So far all 3 action movies of the stars who acted in the movie have tanked ,will this effect Die Hard too? Whatever it is ,Die Hard seems to be the best option this week.This is MY PICK OF THE WEEK!

2-Beautiful Creatures ,is based on the novel of the same name ,and is in the same line as of Twilight series.Whether it will be as bad as the latter is yet to be seen ,but its undeniable that its catered to the female audience of below 18 years of age.The story is about 2 teenagers falling in love and uncovering their families dark secrets.

3-Safe Haven.Now this is the most standard romantic movie that you can expect to be released this week.Its based on a Nicholas Sparks novel (his novels have been made into movies such as Notebook,Walk to Remember,Dear John and so on).Since its based on his novels ,theres 2 things that are guaranteed - its going to be a cheesy movie and its going to be a hit among the female audience.The story is of a young woman who comes into town and starts a relationship with a store owner ,and dark secrets start to turn up. (dark secrets seem to be a favorite this week)

4-Escape From Planet Earth ,is the animated movie of the week ,and this is the one you MUST miss at all costs.Poorly marketed ,cheesy looks and animation is not so great either.This is a movie made for just one reason ,its the only family movie this week.Die Hard is rated R ,and Safe Haven & Beautiful Creatures are both PG13 ,which leaves Escape that seems to be the only option for families with little kids.Itll be worth it if you sit at home rather than watch this.

ABCD & Special strike at Box Office

New Releases make this Week Special

[Feb 8-10]

ABCD [HIT]

Prabhudeva's dance movie made an excellent collection of Rs.17cr.The 3D movie has been getting above average reviews.Critics have praised the movie for its dance but the story came up short.It was quite obvious the movie was following on the heels of Step Up and many similarities popped up.Also the various characters were said to be too uninteresting.
But made at a low budget of around Rs.12cr ,the movie is already churning up profits.

[Watch It]


Special Chabbis (26) [HIT]

After a slow start not many expected Special 26 to make an impact at the box office ,but the movie went on to score Rs.24cr which is quite a solid collection.Both critics and audience have given this movie a thumbs up.Critics have praised the actors chemistry and the witty script.This is a heist movie based on a real life con artists that pulled off multiple robberies in the 1980's.Akshay's & Manoj Bajpai's performance has also been praised.

[Must Watch]


Vishwaroop- Hindi [Average]

Kamal Haasan's movie has slowed down at the box office.The movie just managed to make Rs.1.2cr ,for a domestic total of Rs.11cr.


Race 2 [Super Hit]

Race 2 has become the first movie of 2013 to make it into the 100cr club.Race 2 has so far made Rs.101cr.


The major release of this week is Murder 3.Starring Randeep & Aditi Rao ,this will be the first movie of the Murder series to not have Emraan Haashmi.The movie is expected to make a good impact.

Community Season 4 Mini review

The first episode from Season 4 of Community was below expectations.Sure a major portion was parodying cheesy TV sitcoms ,but there wasnt much good comedy in this one.Was firing the creator ,Dan Harmon the reason for this result? Hopefully the show will soon pick itself up!

Loads of news from Spiderman 2 ,Avengers 2 Prequel ,Mission Impossible 5 ,Hitman and more!

1-After the successful reboot of the Spiderman franchise last year ,with the Amazing Spiderman ,fans have been waiting for news on the sequel.Today the synopsis of the sequel has been revealed-
"In The Amazing Spider-Man™ 2, for Peter Parker, life is busy – between taking out the bad guys as Spider-Man and spending time with the person he loves, Gwen, high school graduation can’t come quickly enough. Peter hasn’t forgotten about the promise he made to Gwen’s father to protect her by staying away – but that’s a promise he just can’t keep. Things will change for Peter when a new villain, Electro, emerges, an old friend, Harry Osborn returns, and Peter uncovers new clues about his past."

So far, this movie has brought in major new characters with Mary Jane (Shailene Woodley) ,Electro (Jamie Foxx), The Rhino (Paul Giamatti) and Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) joining up for this sequel.Is this a good idea?

2-Other than Iron Man 3,Thor 2 ,Captain America 2 and Ant Man , there is one more superhero movie that will set up for the events that take place in Avengers 2 in 2015.And that is Guardians Of the Galaxy.
The first actor confirmed for a role is Chriss Pratt who will play the lead role of Star Lord.Chriss has acted in various comedy roles and was last seen in the gritty Zero Dark Thirty.James Gunn will direct the movie and its set to come out on August 1 2014.

GOG is about a team of superheroes who protect the galaxy.Led by Star Lord ,son of a human mother and an alien,hes a charming troublemaker who serves as an interplanetary policeman.GOG also consists of-
-Drax The Destroyer,a superhero born when his human spirit was placed inside a powerful alien body.Drax's arch enemy is Thanos*
-Gamora is an alien warrior and adopted daughter of supervillain,Thanos*.
-Rocket Raccoon ,is the guardian of a sector of outer space.Hes a master tactician and commander and he also happens to be a raccoon.
-Groot, is an alien tree ,that first appeared as a villian ,but later on became a member of GOG after SHIELD captured him.His powers include ,controlling trees and other such tree related stuff.

(*Thanos was the villain that was shown during the credits in Avengers)

Got to say ,Raccoon & a Tree will be a hard thing to explain in the movies!

3-After making the brilliant ,Cloud Atlas, Wachowski's have redeemed their names.Their next project is called Jupiter Ascending ,and while nothing much is known about it ,the cast for the movie includes -Channing Tatum ,Mila Kunis & Sean Bean.
The synopsis of the mysterious movie is as follows-
"In a universe where humans are near the bottom of the evolutionary ladder, a young destitute human woman is targeted for assassination by the Queen of the Universe because her very existence threatens to end the Queen's reign."

Although it sounds great ,the chances of getting this screwed is high !

4-Hobbit The Unexpected Journey continues to inch its way to a Billion Dollars ,and most fans are waiting for the bluray release ,and also for the extended version.Although i felt the theatrical version was long itself ,its almost confirmed the extended version will come out ,but only by this Christmas.Meanwhile the normal version will release on MARCH 24.The bonus features are a disappoint though (they are waiting to release the full features with the extended version).Other than trailers ,there are the 10 video blogs that Jackson posted throughout the last 2 years (available on YouTube).

Meanwhile the teaser for the second part ,Desolation of Smaug ,will be shown on March 24 aa well.

5- After Disney bought off the Star Wars franchise and announced plans to continue the series ,many have debated about the possibilities of spin off movies.Now, the CEO of Disney,Bob Iger ,confirmed that there will be spin off movies focusing on major characters of the original trilogy.These movies wont have much of an influence over the new trilogy -Episode 7,8& 9 ,and will be stand alone movies.
There are rumors that the first stand alone movie will be a prequel on the Jedi Grand Master ,Yoda.

6- After the immensely successful Mission impossible Ghost Protocol ,the fifth part is preparing for a 2014 release.Not much is known at the moment other than Tom Cruise will lead the movie as expected.
Today ,Christopher McQuarrie confirmed that he would be directing MI5.McQuarrie has previously directed Cruise in last years Jack Reacher and has also written Screenplays for -Usual Suspects ,Valkyrie ,upcoming 2013 movies such as Wolverine ,Jack the Giant Slayer etc.

7-Paul Walker ,star of the Fast & Furious series ,is all set to play the lead role in Agent 47 ,which is based on the famous video game series -HITMAN.
A movie version of Hitman was made back in 2007 but was considered a failure.Agent 47 will be a reboot ,and set for release in 2014.
Skip Woods ,who wrote the 2007 Hitman movie ,will be writing for the movie and Aleksander Bach will be directing.

Wreck-it Ralph (2012)

[a fun watch but not fully satisfied]

Wreck-it Ralph (2012)
IMDB- 8.0
Rottentomatoes- 87%
RJG Rating- 65

Ralph ,a villain in an arcade game is tired of being the bad guy.To win some respect he ventures out of his game.

Starring- John C. Reilly,Sarah Silverman
Director- Rich Moore

Animation was great.Blending the 8-bit style into this movie was pretty neat.It carried a sense of perfection within the movie ,something which animation legends ,Pixar is renowned for.But on the downside ,the voicing cast could have been chosen more wisely.Sarah Silverman as the voice of Vanellope was a wrong choice in my opinion.

The story was a great concept which carried almost infinite potential.The idea of arcade games coming to life at night might sound like a modernized version of Toy Story ,but Wreck It Ralph manages to bring out some interesting points along the way.The introduction into such a world was amazing and was done quite well ,but what followed up was a bit disappointing.As the movie progressed it started bending towards a more kiddish and a bit cliched story.But on a positive note,the twists towards the end was a welcome change.And the cameo of various 80's game icons was an excellent touch to the story.

Direction was by Rich Moore was good.Although he tried to make the movie to be acceptable to all ,he does mess it up in the second half.With 80's iconic game characters and a somewhat a new concept ,he might have roped in much of the audience ,but its undeniable that the second half just throws it all out to cater for the kids alone.Much sense is lost and setting up majority of the movie in candyland seems to be a forced attempt to make the kids happy.

The comedy wasnt too fresh but was definitely family friendly (something many animated movies forget these days).the movie excelled in its action sequences and the drama scenes were well set up.

Overall ,Wreck It Ralph is a good attempt ,although it doesnt fulfill expectations.But since sequels is inevitable considering the large universe the movie has opened ,several flaws can be fixed.

Animation- 4.5/5
Story- 3.5/5
Direction- 3.5/5
Comedy- 3/5
Action- 4/5
Drama- 4/5

Oscar Nominations- 1
Best Animated Feature Film

Iron Man 3 Site & Wallpapers

Fast & Furious 6 Trailer & Pics

Ready for the full trailer of Fast & Furious 6 ? Click below and Enjoy !
Trailer #1

For More Pics ,visit My Fb Page

Warm Bodies makes a warm debut

Warm Bodies makes a warm debut[Feb 1-3]

#1- Warm Bodies made a strong opening (for a February release) with $19.5million.The zombie movie was strengthened by good reviews which praised its unique concept and sweetness.The movie currently has a 77%.

#2-Hansel & Gretal fell as expected and landed second with $9.2million.The fairy tale adaptation has already made $96million worldwide recovering its budget of $50million in just 2 weeks.This is impressive considering it has been getting poor reviews from both critics as well as from the audience.

#3-Silver Linings Playbook continued its strong hold with $8million.The movie has been performing quite well and has crossed $100million worldwide.

#4-Mama made $6.7million in its 3rd week.The horror movie has been staying strong and has so far made an impressive $58million domestically ,and is the 4th highest grossing horror movie in the last 5 years (overshadowed only by the first 3 Paranormal Activity movies).

#5-Even though it started strong ,Zero Dark Thirty continued its downfall making just $5.3million in the weekend.The movie was expected to easily cross the 100million mark when it first showed impressive openings in limited theaters but in the last 2 weeks ,ZDT has been losing audience steeply.The movie has made $77million domestically so far.

The curse of the Expendables continued as Sylvester Stallone's Bullet to the Head flopped.In the last couple weeks ,Expendable stars such as Arnold's Last Stand and Jason Statham's Parker flopped.Bullet to the Head turned out to be more worse than those two making just $4.5million.The movie failed to impress the critics also.It has a rating of 46%.

The Stand Up Guys was a bigger dud and failed to open even in the Top 10.The Al Pacino movie opened at #17 with barely $1.5million.With poor reviews and zero marketing ,the movie was destined to die.It has a rating of 36%.

Meanwhile ,Skyfall overtook The Dark Knight Rises to become the #7 Highest Grossing Movie Worldwide.The latest James Bond movie has made $1.093billion in 12 weeks.This is far as James Bond will go in the list as its next target is quite unattainable - Lord Of the Rings 3- $1.119billion

Next week we have 2 extreme genres opening - One a comedy and the other a crime drama.Which is my pick of the week?

Identity Theft- Im choosing the comedy movie this week.Identity Theft is directed by Seth Gordon (Horrible Bosses) and stars 2 great comedy stars ,Jason Bateman (Arrested Development) & Melissa McCarthy (Bridesmaids). Although it doesnt have much hopes of becoming a great comedy movie ,its trailers do look great. Identity Theft is My Pick Of The Week.

Side Effects- This is a strong movie,directed by Steven Soderbergh (Contagion ,Oceans 11 ,Che 1&2 and loads more) ,and this is also reported to be last.The movie also has a strong cast of Channing Tatum ,Rooney Mara,Jude Law & Catherine Zeta Jones.With an initial rating of 92% ,this sounds to be an excellent medical thriller.But i wasnt a fan of his earlier medical thriller,Contagion ,so ill just wait for the reviews first.But if you like thriller more than comedy ,this will be a good watch.

New releases fail to dethrone Race 2

New releases fail to dethrone Race 2[Feb 1-3]Race 2 [superhit]With the weak performances of the new releases ,Race 2 had no problem keeping the audience flowing towards it.The action thriller made another 15cr this weekend to have a domestic total of Rs.90cr.It is now guaranteed that Race 2 will enter the 100cr club within next week.Meanwhile with Rs.22cr from overseas ,the movie has crossed 100cr in its worldwide collections.
David [Flop]While it managed to get average reviews ,David flopped badly on its opening weekend.The movie barely made just Rs.2.25cr.The movie was praised for its storytelling and performances ,but its plot holes and second half were its weakness.[One time watch]Vishwaroop [average]Kamal Haasan's highly controversial movie ,Vishwaroop managed to make a slight impact with its Hindi version.The movie made Rs.8cr in its first weekend.Critically the movie is positive to mixed reactions.The first half is intense while the second fails to hold up.The action and special effects are brilliant and are equal to Hollywood movies.Check out our Guest Reviewer ,Arnab's take on the movie.https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=604460286247566[must watch]

This week Akshay's Special Chabbis ,and Prabhu Deva's ABCD (AnyBody Can Dance) will release.

SuperBowl trailers

Iron Man 3
Ironman 3 Teaser

Fast & Furious 6
Fast Furious 6 teaser

The Lone Ranger
Lone Ranger Teaser

Star Trek Into Darkness
Star Trek 2 teaser

World War Z
World War Z teaser

 

Vishwaroopam (Guest Review -Arnab)

Exclusive review from our Guest Reviewer - Arnab Goswami

Vishwaroopam (Hindi) 2013

AG rating : 70

An espionage drama where not everyone is who he seems to be.

The film

The film has Kamal Hasan screaming from it in every frame. A highly engaging espionage drama to the brim, every scene is filmed perfectly and aesthetically. Talking about the film is incomplete without talking about Kamal Hasan. Truly, he is the greatest talent India has ever produced. No one comes even a million kilometers close to him. With all the hype that Aamir Khan gets about being an all rounder, he is but a child compared to Kamal. He has given his heart and soul to this film and there is no doubt about that. However, the film suffers from a curious problem. It is beaten by itself. While the film starts off superbly and almost all of the 1st half is extremely engaging and Kamal bowls us over with his stupendous acting and screen presence, the 2nd half of the film, alas, fails to live up to the promise of the 1st. Kamal Hasan draws hoots and thunderous applause at his transformation from the classical dance teacher to the agile agent and his first action sequence is truly mind blowing and I personally applauded for him too. However it is the 2nd half which was an issue to me. When broken down into its individual components, the 2nd half is absolutely perfect both technically and cinematically but when put together, it collapses instantly like a stack of cards. The iron clad fist that held the amazing 1st half together seems to have withdrawn its support in the 2nd. To me, the 2nd half felt disjointed. Though everything was present and in top form, it failed to connect to me and somehow, the 2nd half lacked the urgency and thrill of such a spy thriller. The fault lies with the screenplay of the 2nd half. It sorely lacks the urgency and the thrill and felt somewhat disjointed to me though individually the action, the score, the acting, etc all stand out.

The acting

Once again, this cannot be stressed enough but Kamal Hasan steals not a show but the all the multiplexes and single screens of the country and I am pretty sure of the world too. His classical dance teacher is every bit as sincere as his enigmatic and mysterious RAW agent. Rahul Bose is the only 1 who manages to stand his ground. All the others are completely overshadowed though the actress who plays the wife is good too.

The action and effects

Nevertheless, vishwaroopam is the best espionage drama in the history of Indian cinema if one manages to forgive the 2nd half and concentrates solely on the 1st half. The action actually bests Hollywood and I am not being partial here. I prefer Hollywood when it comes to such kind of cinema but the action bowled me over still. I have never seen such sharp graphics and effects in any indian cinema and undoubtedly Kamal and his team have spent their money exceedingly well. And the result shows. The sound mixing and production also deserves kudos.

The music

Shankar Ehsaan Loy is the next best thing that has happened to vishwaroopam. The songs are treat and so is the background score. They have triumphed again.

The cinematography and screenplay

While the screenplay suffered in the 2nd half, the cinematography was unaffected and coupled with the excellent screenplay in the 1st half, it was an amazing visual treat for the eyes. The flashback sequences though, even in the 2nd half were brilliant along with the superb 1st half.

The AG verdict

The film deserves a watch and if you are game for espionage thriller with a light heart and stupendous action, then surely go for it. If not, then vishwaroopam deserves a watch just for the greatest actor of Indian cinema, Kamal Hasan!!!

Fast & Furious 6 Teaser Poster

The 6th part's synopsis is online as well :

After the Rio heist ,the gang have split up and are wanted by the cops worldwide.
Hobbs ,(played by Dwayne Rock) ,is tracking a group of lethal drivers headed by a mastermind & Dom's thought to be dead girlfriend ,Letty.So Hobbs asks Dom to create a team to nab this mastermind & Letty in exchange for pardons for his team.

Eyedealess-A short movie

Hey friends! Do check out this short comedy movie by my friend Arpit ,called Eyedealess
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aqv0pRW6Cb4
Like & Share :)

The ABCs of Death (2013)

[disgusting and stupid]

The ABCs of Death (2013)
IMDB- 5.7
Rottentomatoes- 77%
RJG Rating- 05

26 short movies by 26 directors that deal with death.

Staring- Various
Director- Various

Acting in these movies cant be judged much ,since theres absolutely very few minutes that include the art of acting.All were amateurs and no one actually made a mark.

From 26 movies/clips ,you would expect a good number of them to hit the mark ,especially considering horror aspect works exceptionally well in short duration.But unfortunately if you see this movie expecting horror or good film making ,you are in for a huge disappointment.The 26 clips are arranged according to the alphabet and heres my short review on each of them.

A is for Apocalypse ( movie-1/5 ,gore-1/5)
B is for Bigfoot ( movie-2/5 )
C is for Cycle ( movie-2/5)
D is for Dogfight ( movie-4/5)
E is for Exterminate ( movie-2/5)
F is for Fart ( movie-0/5)
G is for Gravity ( movie-0/5)
H is for Hyrdo-Electric Diffusion ( movie-0.5/5 )
I is for Ingrown ( movie-0/5)
J is for Jidai-geki ( movie-2/5 ,comedy-3/5)
K is for Klutz ( movie-2/5 ,comedy-1.5/5)
L is for Libido ( movie-3/5 ,gore-3/5)
M is for Miscarriage ( movie-0/5)
N is for Nuptials ( movie-3/5 ,comedy-2.5/5)
O is for Orgasm ( movie-0/5 )
P is for Pressure ( movie-4/5 ,gore-4/5)
Q is for Quack ( movie-2/5 ,comedy-2/5)
R is for Removed ( movie-1/5 ,gore-3/5)
S is for Speed ( movie-1/5)
T is for Toilet ( movie-1.5/5 ,horror-2/5)
U is for Unearthed ( movie-2/5 ,horror-1/5)
V is for Vagitus ( movie-2/5 )
W is for WTF ( movie-0/5)
X is for XXL ( movie-1/5 ,gore-3/5)
Y is for Youngbuck ( movie-0.5/5 )
Z is for Zetsumetsu ( movie-0/5 ,gore-2/5)

Other than a select few such as Dogfight and Pressure the rest score only on gore factor.And out of the remaining 24 ,majority make no sense at all.As you can see ,none even qualify as horror movies.The makers think horror only contains just gore and nudity.A big fail.

The direction of most have been worst.Out of the bunch ,only Pressure has been made with any sense at all.The main directors of the movie ,or whoever had the idea of ABCs have failed miserably.Movies like Fart,WTF ,Ingrown make you go 'what just happened there?'. Writing a disclaimer saying they had no say in any of the clips is a poor excuse.

Overall ,ABCs is a good idea gone rotten.Skip it and forget it.

Acting- 1/5
Story- 0.25/5
Direction-0.25/5
Horror-0/5
Gore- 4/5

At Worlds End Cast

The cast of Edgar Wright's At World End ,Nick Frost, Eddie Marsan,Simon Pegg,Paddy Considine and ,Martin Freeman.
World's End is the finale of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy (previous entries being -Shaun Of the Dead & Hot Fuzz ).The movie will release on October 25 2013