Movies to look out for this week

From Paris With Love [IMDB]

In Paris, a young employee in the office of the US Ambassador hooks up with an American spy looking to stop a terrorist attack in the city

Cast: John Travolta, Jonathan Rhys Meyers

Direction: Pierre Morel


Piranha 3D [IMDB]

After a sudden underwater tremor sets free scores of the prehistoric man-eating fish, an unlikely group of strangers must band together to stop themselves from becoming fish food for the area's new razor-toothed residents

Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Eli Roth

Direction: Paul W.S. Anderson


Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole [IMDB]

When a young owl is abducted by an evil Owl army, he must escape with newfound friends to seek out the legendary Guardians to stop the menace

Cast: Abbie Cornish (voice), Emily Barclay (voice)

Direction: Zack Snyder
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Hisss

At the risk of attracting several arched eyebrows and incredulous looks, I have to say I was looking forward to watching Hisss. And even more alarmingly, I rather enjoyed the movie. Maybe my ability to derive joy out of nonsensical movies is more evolved than others, but then to my defense, I absolutely detested Singh is Kinng (and all subsequent Akshay – and Priyadarshan - movies). This movie goes much beyond Akshay’s efforts, and delivers a really cinematic classic

Infact I happened to read in the papers today that the director Jennifer Lynch has disowned the movie saying she left the movie once the shooting was wrapped up. She never entered the editing room and we actually owe the present form of this masterpiece to co-producer Govind Menon. Infact according to Jennifer, she was intending to make it a love story rather than a horror one.

(I have to say, after watching the movie, I cannot for the life of me imagine this as a love story. But then neither can something so funny be a horror movie !!)

Nevertheless I think the greatness of this movie can be judged only by comparing it to that another epic - Jaani Dushman. And I have to say, this movie trumps Jaani Dushman by some margin. Granted it doesn’t have Sonu Nigam’s terrible hamming in it, but it has Mallika Sherawat in almost every frame of the movie, almost naked or as a giant snake. Plus she doesnt speak (only screams a little at the end). And Mallika’s snake (or butt) would anyday kick Armaan Kohli’s butt

By now you must have realized that Hisss is not a movie to be taken seriously (I can just imagine how much fun this movie is going to be drunk). You definitely should not expect a cogent, logical story and slick editing – it has neither. In fact it has problems keeping the timeline linear. However, to its credit, the snake scenes are done rather well. Coupled with jerky camera movements, it will definitely make you jump more than once. And the family scenes of Irfan Khan and Divya Dutta are also handled very sensitively

Now let me touch on why you should bother with this movie. Mallika is mostly minimally clad – just a dupatta draping her, for example. Or she is naked climbing trees, lamp posts - or swimming in rivers. Some of those scenes are quite explicit – it is surprising how they cleared the censors. But the most epic of scenes comes when Mallika is chasing one of the baddies in a burqa and nothing else. She is jumping from roof to roof and one such jump is caught in surprising detail from the street below – bums and all. Nearly everyone in the hall almost choked on their laughter

There are similar ridiculous moves which make the movie worth it. But only if you can overlook the cheesiness. I don’t see any point in rating this movie, since it will score very poorly. But if you want to watch a movie after having a round of booze - or you enjoy nonsensical movies like I do - you cant pick a better movie.
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Do Dooni Char

For it's first attempt at making hindi movies, Disney played it safe and went with the safest name that they could find - Yash Raj Productions. Most of us don't even remember the product - Roadside Romeo. (Yes, it was Disney's first attempt at hindi movies). But then to give credit to Disney, they didn't give up on the Indian market. They waited around for a better script - even if it came from a unknown name like Habib Faisal - and released their second movie with much less fanfare last weekend. And they managed to pull off a casting coup of sorts, by getting Neetu Kapoor to break her hiatus and star with her husband in this movie.
(Though apparently the credit for this coup goes to IIPM's promoter Arindam Chaudhari - the executive producer of this movie)

The result of all their hard work is worthwhile - Do Dooni Char is one of those exceptionally heartwarming movies that anyone will find hard to fault with. It is a picture postcard of a happy Delhi middle class family, without the glamorous sheen our Bollywood usually puts. The house, their clothes, their fights - everything is delightfully genuine. Most of the movie is shot in actual Delhi, and all the actors do a tremendous job in portraying that quintessential Dilliwala. Lest you be concerned, Delhi doesnt overpower the story - it is just a backdrop for the events. And allows for some amusing Dilliwala jokes, maybe.

But there are things that everyone would be able to identify with - the excited planning that went into purchasing anything big for the house, the disagreements, the constant bickering between siblings for no rhyme or reason - and in the end the father having the final say. The Duggals are a delightful take on the Indian middle class. The story is essentially about the Duggal family’s dream of upgrading their scooter into a car – and the struggles they undergo to make that dream come true. And to the writer’s credit, the story does not focus much on the negatives of the situations – they always takes the happy route out. But the actors – Rishi & Neetu Kapoor as well as the kids – are such natural performers, that you are never distracted enough to ponder about alternatives.

Rishi & Neetu Kapoor’s chemistry is still sparkling and it shows. The two kids are very believable too. The supporting characters – the ‘Fufu’ and the neighbours – every one does really great. If I had to summarize the movie, it is like Khosla ka Ghosla, but without the wacky humour and with more sweetness in it. The good thing is that it is still playing this week, although not too many shows. I just wish they had done a little more publicity for it - for it is definitely a must-watch!


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The American

The American is the one movie which might make even a hardcore George Clooney fan doubt his mania for a while – because George Clooney not only stars as lead, but also produces this maddeningly dull movie. So you cant blame anyone else for making Clooney look bad – he did this to himself.

The movie is about an American hitman who is on the run from some enemies (identified only as “the Swedes”) and is also looking to retire. When his remote Swedish countryside hideout is busted, he flees to Italy and looks up an old friend/boss, who arranges for him to lay low in a small hilly town of Castel del Monte. In exchange for that, he has to make a custom-made rifle for another assassin to use. However he meets some interesting people in that small Italian town and gets involved with them without wanting to.

The plot is quite common – In Bruges is a movie with a pretty similar subject. But while In Bruges was enormously entertaining, The American is like a version of it with all the quirkiness and humour stripped out. This movie has no comic relief and the only scene where the heroine drops her clothes has been chopped off by the censors !!

The reason why most of you would loathe this movie is its dryness. It is extremely slow paced and agonizingly dull without any color or vivacity. The dialogues in the movie are minimal and quite a bit of the footage is just of Clooney going about town – walking, drinking coffee etc. We are forced to watch the same footage of Clooney driving from Castel del Monte to a nearby town to make phonecalls multiple times – without any sound of the car engine or brakes or anything else – just silence. There are similar other shots of many such activities – where the natural sound has been completely filtered out for unnatural silence

It seems like a desperate attempt to be stylish. But it falls flat on its face

The other big failing of the movie is the complete lack of explanations – like who was after Clooney and why? Or what was his relation with the guy on the phone? Or what made him choose the Italian girl while rejecting the Swedish one ? It is quite ok for a movie to leave some questions unanswered. But to not answer any question at all was highly unsatisfying. You can conjecture, but you would never know for sure.

All in all, a complete avoid for everyone, movie enthusiasts included. Don’t quite understand what got it the 6.8 rating on IMDB


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