ICE AGE 4 REVIEW

Each of the three previous ‘Ice Age’ movies earned between $175 and $200 million at the domestic box office. Each did even better internationally; the last installment, ‘Dawn of the Dinosaurs,’ made an incredible $886 million worldwide. In other words: at this point an ‘Ice Age’ movie is a sure thing. This franchise doesn’t need to do anything but show up, and it’s guaranteed to make money. In other other words, an ‘Ice Age’ movie has no reason to take any risks, or vary its formula in any way, and as a result ‘Ice Age: Continental Drift‘ feels less ‘Ice Age 4′ than ‘Ice Age 1.4,’ a meager software update on an old, well-worn program.

This time out, the ‘Ice Age’ critters — woolly mammoth Manny (Ray Romano), saber-toothed Diego (Denis Leary), and sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) — contend with the end of the world; you know, for kids. Their home on the ancient supercontinent of Pangaea begins to break apart after Scrat (Chris Wedge), the squirrel whose acorn-obsessed antics kick off each ‘Ice Age’ production, winds up mucking around inside the Earth’s core. It’s been a while since I was in high school, but I’m fairly certain this portion of the film is not geologically accurate.

Despite its title and set-up, ‘Continental Drift’ is not really about the destruction of Pangaea or the formation of the world as we know it (which, in the universe of ‘Ice Age’ took about thirty-five minutes). All that stuff is just a MacGuffin used to strand Manny, Diego, Sid, and Sid’s senile Granny (Wanda Sykes) on an ice floe adrift at sea. There they battle an evil ape (Peter Dinklage) who has turned another ice floe into his personal pirate ship he can steer, somehow, by tugging on a tree branch. He hates Manny and company and repeatedly tries to kill them because otherwise the movie would have no villain.

Dinklage’s Captain Gutt also has a whole crew of cutthroats at his command, including Aziz Ansari as a deranged rabbit, Nick Frost as a dopey seal, and Jennifer Lopez as another saber-toothed cat who gets into a rivalry, and then a romance, with Leary’s Diego. In order to return Manny to his wife (Queen Latifah) and weirdly anthropomorphized daughter (Keke Palmer), our heroes need to sail to an island, steal Gutt’s boat, and ride a current back to the mainland. None of the characters manage to jump a shark in the process, but they might as well.

Any pretense of compelling storytelling is long gone from the ‘Ice Age’ series by now. These movies are factories of the comfortably familiar, churning out a constant stream of kid-friendly action, chase scenes, and physical comedy. On that level, at least, you can’t say that ‘Continental Drift’ doesn’t deliver the goods. But it still pales in comparison to this summer’s other computer animated family films, Pixar’s ‘Brave’ and DreamWorks’ ‘Madagascar 3,’ in every possible way. Visually, it lacks ‘Brave’s rich detail and ‘Madagascar”s psychedelic exuberance; narratively, it boasts neither ‘Brave”s genuine surprise nor ‘Madagascar”s insane dream logic (although the steerable glacier boats comes pretty close).

‘Continental Drift” is busy, but indistinct. It’s not boring, but it’s not particularly memorable either. It won’t take long before it vanishes from your mind like Pangaea from the face of the earth. It’s not quite a sure thing, but it’s a pretty safe bet.

The Amazing Spider Man Review

“There is only one plot in all of fiction,” Peter Parker’s English teacher tells him near the end of Marc Webb’s ‘The Amazing Spider-Man.’ These words make an all-too-fitting conclusion to a story that’s essentially recycled from a ten-year-old movie which was itself repurposed from a forty-year-old comic book. If you go to the theater regularly enough these days, you see a marquee filled with remakes and sequels and prequels and (as in the case of ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’) reboots. It often does feel like there’s only one plot in movies.

And we’ve seen it already.

That singular plot, Peter’s informed, is “Who am I?” So who is ‘The Amazing Spider-Man’s’ Peter Parker? Other than the fact that he’s now played by ‘The Social Network’s’ Andrew Garfield and he perpetually carries around a skateboard, he’s basically the same Peter Parker Tobey Maguire played for Sam Raimi in three films over the last decade: dorky yet heroic, brave in the face of danger yet timid in the face of romance and a lonely brooder in his room yet a sarcastic wiseacre in his costume. Is there enough difference between the Maguire and Garfield Spider-Man, and between the Raimi and Webb ‘Spider-Man,’ to justify a full-scale reboot? Not really. The marketing has advertised this version as “The Untold Story” of Spider-Man’s origin. To me, it felt a lot more like the retold story.

Take the arc and motivations of Dr. Curt Connors, a.k.a. the super-villain The Lizard. He is, beat for beat, the exact same character as Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the super-villain The Green Goblin, from ‘Spider-Man.’ Like Osborn, Connors is a brilliant but overly ambitious scientist. Like Osborn, Connors is struggling to meet a deadline on his latest project, a formula that would enhance human tissue. Like Osborn, Connors uses himself as a test subject after becoming a mentor to the fatherless Peter Parker. Like Osborn, Connors’ serum gives him super-powers. Like Osborn, they also drive him insane. Like Osborn, he forces Spider-Man to rescue civilians he leaves danging beneath a New York City bridge. That, we can all agree, is a lot of “Like Osborn…”s.

Or how about Peter Parker’s transformation into Spider-Man? There are a few cosmetic differences — the spider that bites him comes courtesy of Connors and his lab’s stunningly lax security; professional wrestling plays a much smaller role — but they’re exactly that: cosmetic differences.

Webb, who previously directed the indie rom-com “(500) Days of Summer,” brings a few new images to the table, but almost no new ideas. This is not a matter of going from the Adam West biff-pow-zot Batman to the Tim Burton gothic fantasia Batman, or even from the Burton Batman to the Christopher Nolan terrorism allegory Batman. It’s more like going from the Burton Batman to the Joel Schumacher Batman if Schumacher had been forced to reuse the script from Burton’s film.

So why remake a perfectly good movie that just came out ten years ago? The answer, one imagines, goes something like this: “Because, dummy, there’s money to be made.” And, hey, Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ wasn’t in 3D. This is absolutely true; it’s also the only significant reason to see ‘The Amazing Spider-Man.’ In 3D, the effects do more than look great; they feel great — the point-of-view-shots from inside Spidey’s mask as he swoops through the steel and glass canyons of Manhattan really give you the visceral sensation of swinging from a web. The action, particularly during the big finale atop Oscorp Tower, is, to borrow the title of a ‘Spider-Man’ comic, spectacular.

But that only justifies making a new ‘Spider-Man’ movie — not necessarily remaking one we’ve already seen. Presumably Columbia Pictures, the studio behind all four ‘Spider-Man’ films, thought restarting Spidey from scratch would allow them to erase all that old continuity, and to regress Peter back to high school where he might make a more appealing and relatable subject for the ‘Twilight’ and ‘Hunger Games’ crowd. But Peter spends about as much time in class as a juvenile delinquent, to the point where other characters constantly ask him why he’s not in school.

His love interest in lieu of Mary Jane is Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. While Stone’s portrayal doesn’t resemble her comic book counterpart (if such things matter to you), she is a spark plug and a nice match, chemistry-wise, for Garfield. She also has one of the film’s few memorable dialogue scenes, when she’s forced to improvise a lie to keep her police captain father, played by Denis Leary, out of her bedroom where a wounded Peter is hiding. Leary’s character, Captain Stacy, fills the role of Spider-Man’s authority figure antagonist previously occupied by J.K. Simmons’ grouchy newspaper publisher, J. Jonah Jameson. The substitution does the film no favors; neither does replacing Rosemary Harris and Cliff Robertson with Sally Field and Martin Sheen as Peter’s Uncle Ben and Aunt May.

The only major change from Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man,’ the supposedly “untold” part of this story, turns out to be a red herring: a prologue shows Peter’s never-before-seen parents, Richard and Mary (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz), leaving a young Peter with Uncle Ben and Aunt May after their house is ransacked. The inexplicable departure of his parents hangs almost as heavily over Peter’s head as the death of Uncle Ben, and his search for answers is what initially leads him to Connors, who was a former colleague of his father’s. But after setting that particular subplot rolling, Webb and screenwriters James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent (who worked on the Raimi trilogy), and Steve Kloves (who wrote most of the ‘Harry Potter’ movies which, come to think of it, offered a similarly orphan-centric origin for their titular hero) promptly forget about it. Between this movie and ‘Prometheus,’ 2012 is looking more and more like the summer of blockbusters about unanswered questions.

The biggest one I’m left with is why they didn’t just go the James Bond route and continue on the series as if this was a vaguely connected ‘Spider-Man 4?’ Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man’ looked great but it also felt contemporary. Even with its cutting-edge special effects, the decision to make Webb’s ‘Amazing Spider-Man’ a reboot gives it a faintly stale aroma — especially when it starts cribbing Raimi’s we-are-all-in-this-together post-9/11 New York City milieu. Rehashing the story we already know gives us nothing more than an excuse for some undeniably impressive imagery. That’s who this Peter Parker is. He’s got an extra visual dimension, but no new emotional ones.

Cocktail Movie Review

Director: Homi Adajania
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Deepika Padukone, Diana Penty

Cocktail follows the basic Bollywood genre-geometry of a love triangle. The good part about this one, unlike most love triangles, is that the three protagonists get to know who loves whom pretty early in the picture and the revelation isn't stretched till the climax. However, beyond a point, the film isn't able to use this element to its merit and falls for the regular range of spite-to-sacrifice sentiments of any triangular love story. Cocktail, basically, is the same prose with new grammar.

So the story is about a compulsive flirt Gautam (Saif Ali Khan) who gets into a no-strings-attached relationship with the hot-n-happening Veronica (Deepika Padukone). Girl-next-door Meera (Diana Penty) is literally the girl Gautam takes home to his mother (Dimple Kapadia) to cover-up his live-in with Veronica. Until by interval point his heart starts fluttering for Meera. And the rest as they say is 'history'.

The characterizations are basically been-there-seen-that. The guy is commitment-phobic until he meets his match and realizes what 'true love' is. The firang female has a frivolous attitude until she realizes she, too, is vulnerable to feelings. The introvert desi dame isn't aware of her own beauty until the boy makes her realize it. Further she goes in the let-go-love-for-friend mode.

The narrative never tries too hard to build the chemistry between the characters. Like Veronica gets a random stranger Meera home and they become the best of buddies. Or Gautam and Veronica just hit if off in two scenes. So do Gautam and Meera subsequently, and if it wasn't for the kiss at interval point, one wouldn't know cupid has cross-connected. Further Meera's sudden truce with her past love (Randeep Hooda) in the pre-climax seems half-baked. Yet, at the expense of conviction, what you don't mind is that the story keeps moving ahead without expending too much time on the obvious and inescapable elements of a love story.

The pacing drops in the second half, and one gets more impatient with predictability seeping into the plot. Evidently you know which girl would win in the end but you lose out to the protracted proceedings. In fact when the hero extensively proposes the heroine in the last scene, you just want the girl to say yes and get over with it.

Yet, despite all its conventionalism and inconsistencies, what still keeps you connected to the movie is its attitude to never take itself too seriously. The film is as much flippant as its protagonists and the scene tone remains subtle even in the most dramatic sequences. The humour is inherent and scenes like Saif's first encounter with Deepika or Dimple Kapadia's artificial respiration to Deepika are hilarious. Thereby after laughing on every formula of any love story, when this cocktail can't do away with the basic emotional ingredients of a love triangle, the film's nonchalant attitude backfires.

Anil Mehta's cinematography is picture perfect. Pritam's music is peppy and some new voices add freshness to the soundtrack.

From the cast, Deepika Padukone comes with the most impressive performance and is exceptionally good in the drunken scene where the happy-go-lucky Veronica shows her vulnerable side. And while she remains absolutely natural in her act, she looks stunningly sexy too. Saif Ali Khan is in his comfort zone in this romantic comedy and effortlessly charms girls (both on and off screen). Diana Penty comes with the requisite rawness that her character demands and is quite decent in her debut act. The minimalism in her looks often reminds of Giselle Monteiro's character from Love Aaj Kal. Dimple Kapadia comes as a pleasant change to the Punjabi-mom prototype in Bollywood and is quite likeable. Boman Irani does well in his short role. The talented Randeep Hooda gets no scope in his three-scene two-bit role.

Thuppakki HD Stills

Viswaroopam Movie Review

Viswaroopam is an upcoming thriller movie directed and produced by Kamal Haasan under his home production house Raj Kamal International. Starring Kamal Haasan, Pooja Kumar, Andrea Jeremiah, Isha Sharvani & Rahul Bose, Viswaroopam is expected to relaease for Diwali 2012.

Viswaroopam: Starring Kamal Haasan, Pooja Kumar, Rahul Bose, Isha Sharvani, Andrea Jeremiah, Samrat Chakrabarti

Directed by Kamal Haasan, Cinematography by Sanu Varghese, Music by Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Vishwaroopam is an upcoming Tamil-Telugu-Hindi trilingual Indian spy thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Kamal Haasan that features himself in the lead role. The film, also has Pooja Kumar, Rahul Bose, Andrea Jeremiah and Jaideep Ahlawat in supporting roles. The soundtrack is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, with lyrics by Vairamuthu for the Tamil and Javed Akhtar for the Hindi versions respectively. The film was shot with the same cast in both languages simultaneously, and is titled in Hindi as Vishwaroop.

Development of the film commenced after the release of Kamal's Manmadhan Ambu, and several of the crew were imported from Hollywood. The direction department was taken over by Kamal Haasan from Selvaraghavan, and reports indicating a comparison with Hollywood films surfaced during the production. The initially estimated budget was around 150 crore (US$29.93 million), making it one of the most expensive Indian films. Due to delays, casting took a relatively long period of time, with several of the original cast dropping out of the project. The film was shot extensively overseas, in countries including the United States and Canada, while domestic locations included Chennai and Mumbai.

Viswaroopam is a terrorism based thriller movie which is being simultaneously filmed in Tamil and Hindi.

Kamal Haasan is playing as an Afghan mujahideen., The New York-based actress Pooja Kumar, who also crowned Miss India USA is playing the female lead opposite him. Andrea Jeremiah and Bollywood actress Isha Sharvani are also playing important roles.

Bollywood actor Rahul Bose plays as Baddie while Jaideep Ahlawat and Samrat Chakrabarti, the New York-based Indian actor, play pivotal roles.

Bollywood actor - filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, who was behind Academy-nominated flicks like Elizabeth I and it's sequel Elizabeth : The Golden Age, is in guest appearance in Viswaroopam.

Many foreigners from Russia, Iran and Africa are playing as American soldiers, and more than 40 Afghans are playing as Mujahideens.

The first schedule of the movie is shot in the specially designed set in Chennai which replicates Afghanistan. The mountains, the valleys, and the houses are realistically designed to recreate Afghanistan. The next schedule will be held in Jordan, thus becoming the first Tamil film to be shot in Jordan.

Story and dialogues are penned by Kamal Hassan. Initially, Director Selvaraghavan was supposed to direct Viswaroopam. But the dates of the lead roles were not in sync as Selvaraghavan was busy with other projects. Finally, Kamal Haasan has decided to direct the movie.

Sonakshi Sinha, who supposed to play female lead in this movie had to pull off from Viswaroopam. She was replaced by Pooja Kumar, who was last seen in Kollywood 12 years ago in Kadhal Rojave.

Kamal has printed the entire script of Viswaroopam and has distributed the copies to his cinematographer, music director, art director and the actors who are playing the major roles. He wants to make sure that everyone is aware of this script and each and every actor should know their dialogues in both Tamil and Hindi.

Karthik Calling Karthik (Hindi) fame Cinematographer Sanu Varghese is handling the camera while musical trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are composing the music.

It was earlier rumoured that Viswaroopam is the remake of the hollywood phycological thriller movie Hannibal (2001) but Kamal Haasan has denied this saying that Viswaroopam is his original story.

Currently in filming phase, Viswaroopam is expected to release for Diwali 2012.

Viswaroopam HD Stills

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