Tuck3r Mu$t Di3

Three ex-girlfriends of a serial cheater set up their former lover to fall for the new girl in town so they can watch him get his heart broken.

Race 2 (2013)

Genre: Action/Drama/Crime/Romance

Starring: Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandes, Ameesha Patel, Anil Kapoor

Bollywood would never die without giving up on trying to make a typical Hollywood movie. What does a typical Hollywood movie comprise of? Fast cars, hot girls, loads of action, high-tech gadgets and a plot that has little relevance or sense. Race 2 has effectively done each and every one of those in the worst possible manner ever. When you have playing cards that have 'thermal sensors that tell reflect on Deepika's sunglasses what cards her opponent has' and sports cars with 'parachutes that automatically trigger if it senses a freefall', you immediately know what an amazing movie this is going to be. The original movie had cars involved in it to a higher degree but it seems that in the second movie the makers were far too involved in showing Deepika and Jacquelines body to bother about the vehicles. Armaan Malik (Abraham) is a million-dollar tycoon who has made his money doing shady dealings. Ranvir Singh (Khan) is a con artist who has an idea for which he needs funding and who better to approach than Armaan himself. Armaan buys the idea not knowing that Ravnir's main motive is to dis-repute him and take revenge from him for murdering his girlfriend. The movie is a joke for the word 'movie' and is a disgraceful attempt at trying to be cool. From gadgets that are simply unimaginative and outlandish, gripping action that was missing throughout and a plot line that was far too twisted to be realistic, the movie is a complete wash. The only reason to watch would be the long-legged women but I am sure that cannot be the sole incentive to ever watch this movie. Avoid!

Thumbs up: Good loads of eye candy

Thumbs down: Horrible everything else

Rating: 4.2/10

50/50 (2011)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance/Biography

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anjelica Huston

A lot of movies have been made with people having various diseases, problems and disorders and this movie does not chose to be very different. Based on a true life story, Adam Lerner (Gordon-Levitt) has a tumour in his spine which has turned cancerous. He has a 50% chance of survival and this sudden news seems to have hit him very hard. Most of the movie focuses on the ups and downs with Adam and him trying to cope with the cancer. From a mother who feels left out, a girlfriend who is two-timing him, a friend who is using him as a bait to get women and a psychiatrist who has no previous experience, Adam's life does not become any easy but it only gets harder. The movie does not throw up anything exceptional in terms of Adam trying to deal with his illness and is very normal and predictable. The movie might be worth that one watch, but then again it might not be. Leaving the story out, the movie is perfect in all other aspects but its simply the uneventful plot line that becomes a bit of a damper.

Thumbs up: Good performances

Thumbs down: A very predictable and obvious story

Rating: 6.5/10

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola (2013)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Crime/Romance

Starring: Imran Khan, Anushka Sharma, Pankaj Kapur, Shabana Azmi, Arya Babbar

Vishal Bharadwaj has a distinct style of his own that makes his movies different from the rest of the lot. Usually set in rural India, unique story lines, sarcastic humour and rowdy abuses; that is what Bharadwaj is all about. Mr. Harry Mandola (Kapoor) is an extremely rich land lord living in the village of Mandola in Harayana, India. His dreams of setting up an automobile factory near the village, is not as simple as he thought when the villagers refuse in transferring their lands to him. However, Mr. Mandola actually has a bigger problem then simply acquiring land, and that is his alcohol problem. 4 pegs of his favourite drink is all that he needs to become a completely different person, so much so, he even led a protest outside his own house against himself. To counter this problem, he hires Hukkum Sigh Matru (Khan) a well-educated driver and servant who is in charge of preventing him from getting too drunk.Chaudhari Devi (Azmi) is the local politician who has vested interests in the land deal and Mandola and his wealth. She strategically wants her son, Badal (Babbar) to marry Mandola's daughter Bijlee (Sharma) so that she may inherit all of Mandola's wealth when he eventually passes away. Pankaj Kapur puts on a fabulous performance of a drunk Mandola, of a stern Mandola and of a frightened Mandola with so much of ease and simplicity. The movie has got good performances but the songs get a bit too much after a point. The movie too is not up to the expectations that you would have of Bharadwaj but nonetheless, the movie is definitely worth it to hear Pankaj Kapur's drunk antics and the regular 'Bhencho-Bhencho'.

Thumbs up: Fabulous Kapur and the rest of the cast

Thumbs down: A bit long and too many songs

Rating: 7.3/10

Dabangg 2 (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Crime/Action/Drama/Romance

Starring: Salman Khan, Arbaaz Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, Prakash Raj, Vinod Khanna

When a thousand bullets come buzzing towards him, he can dodge everyone of them; when a hundred able-bodied men come charging at him he can put them all on the ground; when his car jumps 30 feet in the air and spins 20 times before crash landing into a pile of junk, he can walk out without a bruise. Ladies and gentleman, I bring to you for the second time, Chulbul Pandey (Khan). The suave and charismatic police inspector is back and this time he has a bigger jurisdiction to handle, the city of Kanpur. A city whose streets are filled with filth, crime and thugs, Chulbul starts cleaning up and when your cleaning such a huge city, there will be people who are not going to like it. Bachcha Bhaiya (Raj) is the local crime lord who is harbouring political ambitions which he intends to win by rigging the elections and thus using this new power to further his interests. But this can never happen if Chulbul Pandey has decided that he will stop Bachcha Bhaiya from achieving this and swears to get rid of him from Kanpur for good. The first movie was epic in its own way, just like how every Salman Khan movie ends up being. However, the second part lacked the humour and stupidity that the earlier movie had that made it interesting. What this movie also doesn't have is a story and thus its just a good guy trying to get rid of the bad one and that's it. Its just too straight forward, not very exciting, not very entertaining and simply, boring.

Thumbs up: Salman Khan. He is probably the only person in the world who can pull off such a role and such a movie

Thumbs down: Far off from part one and seriously lacks the entertainment value.

Rating: 4.9/10

Hoteal Transylvania (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance/Fantasy

Starring (voice): Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, Kevin James, Andy Samberg, CeeLo Green, Steve Buscemi, Molly Shannon, David Spade

Throughout almost all our fairy tales we have always seen big, scary monsters and children hiding under their beds in fear that these monsters would come and eat them up. Ever heard of a story where things happen the other way around? Dracula (Sandler) has built a hotel called Hotel Transylvania where all monsters and beasts can come and feel safe. No scary humans to come and disturb them, only darkness and peace. But when Jonathan (Samberg) a young human bag packer arrives at the castle, Dracula is petrified. Dracula's young daughter Mavis (Gomez) is eager to explore the world outside but her father refuses to let her go into the destructive and dangerous human world. The movie explores a good storyline which is the exact opposite of the stories we usually hear. The movie is light and entertaining but the movie still lacks a lot of humour. Yes it would appeal to a 10-year-old but the movie still needs to give the audience some more reasons to laugh.

Thumbs up: A new and interesting story

Thumbs down: No real climax, needs more humour

Rating: 6.4/10

P.S. I Love You

Genre: Romance/Comedy/Drama

Starring: Hilary Swank, Gerard Butler, Lisa Kudrow, Gina Gershon, James Marsters, Kathy Bates, Javier Bardem

Jerry (Butler) and Holly (Swank) are a young married couple who had taken the decision to be together without the consent of their respective parents. The two enjoy a love-hate relationship where they are stupidly in love but yet fight a lot. Fast foward a few months ahead and Holly is now a spinster. Jerry suffered from a brain tumour and subsequently passed away. It is only now that Holly realises how much Jerry meant to her inspite of all the fights they had. Whilst on his deathbed, Jerry realises that his passing away would have a disastrous consequence on Holly and he plans to help her have a smooth getting-over. Jerry cleverly leaves behind a trail of bread crumbs asking Holly to do exactly as his letters ask her to do. The movie is a fun to watch romance-comedy and can very easily bring forth a tear even amongst the stone hearted. Swank and Butler seem to share the perfect on-screen chemistry and look absolutely brilliant. A truly fantastic watch and recommended for anyone who doesn't want a heavy and mushy romance movie but rather something light, simple and enjoyable.

Thumbs up: Great fun to watch

Thumbs down: Just seems perfect in a lot of ways.

Rating: 7.0/10

Dear John (2010)

Genre: Romance/Drama

Starring: Channing Tatum, Amanda Seyfried, Richard Jenkins, Henry Thomas

Most romantic movies are too good to be true. Most movies have a twist towards the end due to which the relationship does not work out and its this very twist that determines the fate of the movie. A young soldier John Tyree (Tatum) is home on vacation and falls in love with a college student Savannah (Seyfried) over the summer. Savannah has to return to college and John needs to report to duty and they both promise to meet after a year. 9/11 happens and John is compelled to extend his duty and cancel leave and to serve his country. The young romance that happened over a year ago just over a couple of weeks, has blossomed to large levels over the regular exchange of letters. However, everything is too good to be true and disaster strikes. Like I send before, there always is a twist that determines the outcome of the movie. In this case, the twist was just simply lame. In fact the whole climax goes mostly unexplained and makes you wonder how that even happened and why would anyone do that. It comes across as stupid and irrational and kills the otherwise steady movie. Most of the movie is the normal blossoming of love between the two without getting too boring or too interesting. What entirely kills the movie is the final outcome. The movie is watchable for romance fans but it really wont touch you or make you go 'awwww...' towards the end.

Thumbs up: Good romance, easy watch

Thumbs down: Horrible climax

Rating: 5.2/10

The Marconi Bros. (2008)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Brendan Sexton III, Dan Fogler, Zoe Lister Jones, Jon Polito

Also known as: Wedding Bros. Two brothers who are completely opposite of each other, find themselves in an identically similar situation. Anthony Marconi (Sexton III) is the first person in his family to graduate from college and intends to use his knowledge in improving the family business. Carmine Marconi (Fogler) is a good-for-nothing and uneducated man who works in the family business because he has nothing better to do. The Marconi families business is in selling carpets and Anthony's father is not interested in applying any of Anthony's fancy marketing ideas to increase business. Whilst carrying out a carpet laying assignment, Anthony and Carmine meet Lou Burns (Polito) who is a wedding videographer and is looking for two assistants to help during the next wedding assignment. Sensing an opportunity, the two brothers decide to quit the family business and start a whole new life with Burns and his videography business. The movie is quite uninteresting and seems to based on a very lame idea. Although the plot does somehow manage to blend a lot of elements together, it just gets very dragged and boring after a while. Lack of decent humour or enjoyable romance leaves it with nothing very interesting. An average movie that is watchable but not very enjoyable.

Thumbs up: An average entertainer

Thumbs down: Not very funny or interesting, a bit boring

Rating: 5.0/10

Ek Tha Tiger (Hindi)

Surprise surprise, I actually enjoyed Ek Tha Tiger, a film that has been criticized by many and yet has managed to break most ticket-sale records. 

Starring Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif the film doesn't bring about anything new, but under the direction of Kabir Khan and production of Aditya Chopra, it presents a cleaner and straightforward film.

Here are my top 10 reasons why you should watch Ek Tha Tiger;

The Story - While most of the recent Salman Khan films are heavy on action, Ek Tha Tiger is more of a romantic film with intermittent fight sequences. It's the story of a RAW agent, played by Salman, and about him falling in love during a mission and the complications that arise when he "listens to his heart rather than his head". The story might seem simple, and it is, but it manages to entertain because it avoids unnecessary drama and sticks to the basics.

Salman Khan - I am no fan of Salman Khan, and there are some movies of his that I enjoy while others that I despise. Here though he somewhat tones down his larger than life persona a little bit and gives a pretty good performance as a RAW agent.

Katrina Kaif - Although her name should be enough of a reason, Katrna Kaif for a change comes across as very comfortable in the film. She's in her element and doesn't seem out of place or struggling. Could this be because of the nature of the film being international or the presence of Salman Khan, I cannot say. (Those of you who are not into Indian cinema gossip, Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif have long been "linked" together as a couple).

Action - There is a fair bit of action in the film but rather than the slow motion one man killing ten people with one punch kind of action there are more realistic fight sequences. There is also a fair bit of running around and chases that happen in a semi-parkour fashion which once again are beautifully shot and executed. Unfortunately there are also sequences like the one on a tram that are so CGI laden that they shout FAKE from the onset.  

Romance - Say what you may, but there is definite chemistry between Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif and it shows on the screen. It's easy to see that both are extremely comfortable with each other and for a change the romance seems real which adds to the charm of the film.

The Direction - Kabir Khan deserves credit for sticking with the story and presenting a sleek film. Ek Tha Tiger does get slow in the middle, but as stated above the romance feels genuine enough that the couple of "forced" song and dance numbers in the film don't irritate much. Moreover, the so called packaging of the entire film is at par with other Yash Chopra productions.   

Locations - The number one rule of a good spy film is that you need to take the audience around the world to pretty locations. Once again the film succeeds rather well in this category as we are whisked away from India to Ireland to Turkey, to even Cuba. The film also incorporates the local culture and sounds into the music numbers beautifully, showing that there really was a lot of planning and thinking that went into the production.

Songs - Hummable and on most top chart lists, the songs lack longevity. Still with only four songs, yes four is 'only' in an Indian film, they are good enough not to drag the film too much.   

Supporting cast - For a change the supporting cast actually supports the main characters and the film. There are no sidekicks which lack a character arc placed in the film for vulgar comedy. There are no subplots taking the film on a tangent. The primary story remains the same, and every supporting member is simply a part of it. Girish Karnad requires no introduction and Ranvir Shorey steps out of his usual comedy routine to give a pretty good performance.   

Roshan Seth - I know he should be part of the support cast reason given above, but his role, which is unfortunately very small, oozes old world charm so much that it was truly a pleasure to see this underrated legend of cinema act in an out-and-out commercial film like Ek Tha Tiger. 

If you haven't seen Ek Tha Tiger, you might be fooled into thinking that it is like other Salman Khan films (Ready, Bodyguard, or Dabaang). It is anything but that. The film is not without faults. There are enough loopholes that I could fit my plump body through them, but for a change the pros in the film are multitudinous compared to the cons.

Rating 3.5/5

Rabbit Hole (2010)

Genre: Drama/Romance

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne West, Tammy Blanchard, Miles Teller, Sandra Oh

A couple who loses their young son in a tragic car accident are unable to overcome the loss. Becca (Kidman)a and Howie (Eckhart) are still mourning the loss of their son, Danny, which starts affecting their personal lives and strains their relationship. Becca wants to give away all of Danny's belongings and attempts at erasing all the memories there ever was of him, much to the ire of Howie. Howie lives in Danny's memories and wants to have another child but Becca does not agree with him. Becca's loss starts affecting her relationship with her mother who compares Danny with Becca's brother who passed away due to a drug overdose. The movie primarily revolves around the strained relationship of a couple and how that starts affecting their personal relationship with people around them. The movie can get slow and heavy at times and may not be to the liking of all. If it is family drama that appeals to you, the movie is a fabulous watch. Kidman and Eckhart have a great on-screen chemistry going that gives you a more 'real world' feel.

Thumbs up: Fabulous performances

Thumbs down: May not appeal to all, a bit slow and heavy

Rating: 6.9/10

Revolutionary Road (2008)

Genre: Drama/Romance

Starring: Kate Winslet, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kathy Bates, Kathryn Hahn, David Harbour

The people who appear to be the most happiest in their lives may not actually be as happy or lucky as their outward appearance would suggest them to be. Frank Wheeler (DiCaprio) and April Wheeler (Winslet) were the envy of a lot of people because of their positive relationship. Even though they appeared to be the best couple in the neighbourhood, there were a lot of fissures in their relationship. April was a budding actress whose career never actually took off. Her theatre performances are just about mediocre and she cannot take any more of peoples false praises of her acting. Frank is doing a job he hates which he only got since his father previously worked in the same company. In order to give herself a new life and give Frank the option of discovering what he wanted to do, April suggests they start a new life in Paris. Initially absurd, Frank slowly buys into it and they start preparing, only to find out that April is pregnant and cannot risk travelling to Paris in this condition. All their ambitions and whatever they hoped for come crashing down on them and Frank gets a surprise promotion which gives him every reason to stay back and not go to Paris. The movie taps on a unique fundamental thought that many of us what to do something very absurd but somehow don't explore it due to fear of being labelled as 'weird' and 'impractical'. The movie is quite slow, which is expected from its kind, but makes up to it by the fabulous performances of Kate Winslet and DiCaprio. The two make a good on-screen pair and their spectacular acting makes the movie worth that watch. There is a climax to the movie that you would yourself looking forward to, but the slow nature of developments and progression may not go down well with everyone and may not be to all tastes.

Thumbs up: Fabulous Winslet and DiCaprio

Thumbs down: A bit too slow for everyones liking

Rating: 7.5/10

Persepolis (2007)

Genre: War/Historical Event/Drama/Romance/Animation/Action/Biography

Starring (voice): Chiara Mastroianni, Catherine Deneuve, Danielle Darrieux, Simon Abkarian

The story of a young girl who witnesses the rise and fall of Iran and its evolution from a free monarchy to an intolerant democracy. Like any other country of its time, Iran too was ruled by a ruler, the Shah of Iran. The Shah's ruthlessness against his enemies and those who opposed him did not go down well with his citizens and was eventually overthrown in the Iranian Revolution. Marjane Satrapi (Mastroianni) was brought up in a contemporary Muslim family, where freedom and western lifestyle was easily accepted and widely protested against the Shah and wanted Iran to be free. When Islamic Fundamentalists win the first general elections with a landslide victory, the peoples hopes of any freedom are squashed. Woman are forced to cover themselves from head to toe, all forms of music and entertainment are banned and life becomes hard to get by. Marjane's parents do not want her to be brought up in this Iran and send her off to Europe to experience a good life with freedom and education. If it is a lesson in history that you seek, the movie accurately recounts the Iranian Revolution and depicts modern fundamentalist Iran very accurately. The childish but yet modern animation is clever and easy to watch and makes the movie much lighter than what it would have been in regular print. An autobiographical movie is made only when the persons life story has something unique to narrate. Apart from being a part of a revolution at a young age, most of Marjane's life is like any other teenage girl and does not reflect a uniqueness that it should have. A slow and slightly tedious movie but a must watch for history lovers.

Thumbs up: Good animation

Thumbs down: Slow, nothing unique about the autobiography

Rating: 6.4/10

Malena (2000)

Genre: Drama/Romance/Historical Event

Starring: Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro, Luciano Federico, Pietro Notarianni

When a ravishing, young damsel enters the heart of thousands of men, young and old across entire Sicily, she indeed must have been something. Malena Scordia (Bellucci) is a goddess, who walks down the streets with every head turning, every nose picking up her smell, every set of male eyes visually undressing her and every set of female eyes visually beating and scarring her. Even though every man would die for her love, a young 12-year-old Renato Amoroso (Sulfaro) shows that he loves her and not lusts her like everyone else. He secretly watches her every move, watches her dress, her cook, her walk, her cry, her laugh and wishes with every passing day that he walk up to her but never has the courage to do so. With Mussolini announcing war against Britain and France, Malena's husband has gone to war to fight for Italy. With her husband away, the men become wolves and when they learn of his death they all became monsters. The movie fantastically portrays how society creates a demon and then blames the demon in the end for becoming one. It is a fabulous story of a young boy who learns of manhood and a young woman, learning the hardships of being far too beautiful. The movie is exquisite and very European, develops well and keeps you gripped for a very long time. Not too long, compact and brilliant and just what the doctor ordered for.

Thumbs up: Gorgeous Bellucci who does a lot without speaking a lot

Thumbs down: Nothing specific

Rating: 8.1/10

Kyaa Super Kool Hai Hum (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance/Adventure

Starring: Tusshar Kapoor, Ritesh Deshmukh, Neha Sharma, Sarah Jane-Dias, Chunky Pandey, Anupam Kher, Scooby

The prequel to this movie, Kya Kool Hai Hum, can be unofficially accredited with turning Bollywood around from the conservative family dramas to the open sexual comedies. The movie shook the nation with its open abuses, sexual jokes and skimpy women and kick-started the trend in this genre. The second part of this movie, aims to be just as openly ridiculous as the first if not more. Adi (Kapoor) is a struggling actor whose only claim to fame is selling ridiculous products on a tele-shopping network. DJ Sid (Deshmukh) is a less-known DJ who is looking for a big party to play at to become famous. Sid goofs up with the music during a fashion show which distracts model Anu (Jane-Dias) and results in a wardrobe malfunction on live national TV. Simran (Sharma) is a call centre executive who meets Adi by chance in a bus. Adi falls in love with her and proposes to her within 9 days which freaks Simran out. Simran lies to him that she is lesbian with her flat mate Anu and hence cannot marry Adi. Anu and Simran head out to Goa for a break and Adi and Sid don't want to be left behind. Unlike the normal formula for making a movie, this one has first created a string of jokes and glued them together on a hopeless plot line. This formula might have just worked, had the jokes been consistent throughout the movie and not gotten melodramatic towards the end. Some unnecessary drama and songs ruin an otherwise decent momentum. The jokes, in isolation, are a laugh-riot and extremely bold. Spoofs on a whole lot of people and movies are made which is a treat to watch. Enjoy the jokes and forget the rest, that's what you need to do in this case.

Thumbs up: LOL jokes

Thumbs down: Humour is not consistent throughout the movie, gets melodramatic at times

Rating: 6.4/10

Bicentennial Man (1999)

Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance/Science-fiction

Starring: Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt

What is the defining point between a man and a machine? In order to obtain an answer to this dilemma, a robot named Andrew Martin (Williams) learns that he is different and exceptional from the other robots. Andrew's master, Richard Martin (Neill) learns of Andrew's unique abilities to recognise art and the abstract, to learn and develop and to be inquisitive about things that he did not know about. Having befriended Richard's younger daughter, Amanda aka Little Miss (Davidtz) along with Richard's motivation, Andrew set out to learn and understand human beings. His ultimate goal to understand the non-mechanical creatures, and to be more like them, led him to the eventual path of evolving into one, bit by bit. The movie has a very deep and profound message attached to it with respect to humanity, human desires, slavery and emotions. The movie brings out these messages in a good fashion, however, its stretched and slow plot make this movie a slight drag to watch. The climax is indeed touching which does make you think deep about the various messages the movie brings out. Had this movie been shorter and perhaps more powerful, it would have been a more entertaining and enjoyable watch.

Thumbs up: Robin Williams and his outstanding performance

Thumbs down: Slow plot

Rating: 6.2/10

Singin' in the Rain (1952)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance/Musical

Starring: Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, Donald O'Connor, Jean Hagen, Millard Mitchell

The genre listed above is a big personal turn-off. People frolicking around, singing and dancing with the added melodramatic romance scenes is simply not my cup of tea. The fact that this movie turned out to be far more enjoyable than I had imagined, speaks a lot for itself. Set in the year of 1927, when movies were still silent and the new trend of 'talking pictures' was classified by many to be a passing trend that doesn't hold any water. Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are a hugely successful on-screen duo who have created many famous romantic saga's. Don is a noted dancer, singer and performer whereas Lina has nothing but attractive looks. Her shrill and squeaky voice makes her a misfit for a talking picture but at the same time the studio management has a contract with her on which they cannot go back on. Kathy Selden (Reynolds) is a theatre artist who knows the challenges when it comes to acting while talking and believes that actors in movies are not true actors at all. When Don and Kathy meet at a party, they are both at disagreement over each others thoughts about acting but still find a connection between themselves which makes them fall in love. The movie is filled with energetic performances, mostly danced and sung by Gene Kelly himself. The overdose of music may not go down very well with many, like me, but there are still a few select performances where the moves are marvelous and anybody would appreciate it. Singing and dancing apart, the movie beautifully showcases the evolution of movies and the hilarious challenges that directors, producers and actors had to face alike. A good entertainer where one can easily skip the singing and dancing and move on with the movie.

Thumbs up: Good humour by O'Connor, fabulous song sequences

Thumbs down: Too many songs for the average person to enjoy

Rating: 8.0/10

Observe and Report (2009)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Seth Rogen, Anna Faris, Ray Liotta, Michael Pena, Collette Wolfe

An over-ambitious shopping mall security guard, Ronnie (Rogen) aspires to join the police force and thinks that he is just the man for it. He thinks of himself being capable of doing far more things that in reality he can never do. When the mall is hounded by a flasher who openly shows his genitals to women, Ronnie thinks he has a case on hand that needs to be cracked. Brandi (Faris) is a cosmetics sales girl on whom Ronnie has a crush and who has been subjected to a full view of the flasher and his tools. Police Detective Harrison (Liotta) has been appointed to catch the flasher much to the ire of Ronnie, who thinks it is his case and his moral right to save Brandi from the clutches of the flasher. The movie might appear to be interesting and entertaining but sadly does not turn out that way. Seth Rogen is annoying rather than being funny, Anna Faris is the usual dumb blond that she is always known to play and the humour between them is simply non-existent. Its not exactly unwatchable but it is still highly avoidable.

Thumbs up: Some bits of humour are good, but rare

Thumbs down: Annoying performances, not funny throughout

Rating: 5.3/10

Bol Bachchan (2012)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Crime/Action/Romance

Starring: Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Asin, Prachi Desai, Asrani, Krushna Abhishek, Archana Puran Singh, Neeraj Vora

A Rohit Shetty film has a standard formula. Create a theme for humour, build a story around it, hire some cars, do a bunch of action sequences with those cars crashing into each other and ALWAYS have Ajay Devgan playing the lead role. Bol Bachchan does not promise to be any different from this formula either. Abbas Ali (Bachchan) has lost all forms of livelihood in New Delhi with not even a roof over his head anymore. Under the suggestion of his mentor, Shastri (Asrani), Abbas decides to move with him to the town of Ranakpur to start a new life there. The town is overseen by Prithviraj Raghuvanshi (Devgan) who is of royal heritage and looks after the town and its well-being. When a boy falls within a moat inside a locked temple premises, Abbas breaks the door open to save the child but realises that upon revealing his true faith he might get into trouble. In order to save Abbas' skin, Shastri's son, Ravi (Abhishek) tells Prithviraj that Abbas' name is Abhishek Bachchan. Prithviraj's lack of tolerance towards liars sees more and more lies being piled one on top of the other to the extent that Abbas leads two lives, one of that of his true self under the false name of Abhishek Bachchan and the other of his gay twin brother under his true name of Abbas Ali. The movie is a family laugh-riot that does not make any amount of sense. Ajay Devgan does a good attempt at trying to make you laugh but Abhishek Bachchan is a complete washout. Cliched and over-emotional Bollywood dialogues plague the movie and often enough boredom seeps amidst the attempted humour. Don't attempt to criticise the plot or decipher anything projected in those two and a half hours, just kick back, relax, enjoy and forget.

Thumbs up: Good attempts at humour but not the best

Thumbs down: Horrible Abhishek Bachchan

Rating: 5.7/10

Baby Mama (2008)

Genre: Comedy/Drama/Romance

Starring: Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Greg Kinnear, Dax Shepard, Romany Malco

Who says you need to be married to become a mother? Who says you even need a partner to become a mother? Who says you even need to get pregnant to become a mother? Katherine Holbrook (Fey) is a successful corporate employee who chose promotions over starting a family. Now 37, she feels the need to become a mother and eventually start a family. Without a boyfriend or a husband, normal conception gets ruled out. Her adoption requests never get sanctioned since she is single and her abnormally shaped uterus does not allow her to use donated sperms. Her only option now is to opt for a surrogate mother where her ovaries would be used but the child would be carried by another lady. Enter Angie (Poehler) a low-income girl who many would classify as 'white trash' who decides to become Kate's baby mama. Kate works for a company that sells organic products and hence despises anything chemical or artificial. It's more than just an uphill task to get Angie to stop the Pringles, Dr. Pepper and Laughing Cow and switch over to pea soup, carrots and orange juice. The movie is a light entertainer which has a decent set of twists, humour and drama to make it a well-rounded movie. An easy and smooth watch which you can never really go wrong with.

Thumbs up: Decent sprinkling of humour on the drama

Thumbs down: Some more LOL humour would have made it more appealing

Rating: 6.8/10