PS: Possible Spoilers : Avengers Infinity Wars

WHETHER IT IS GOOD TO HAVE DISCUSSED AND SPOILED OR NOT TO HAVE SPOILT AT ALL?

Most of you already know my commitment to being spoiler free. Each and every review on my blog is absolutely ‘spoiler-free’ even the shitty ones like Baji (Don’t bother googling if you can’t remember, it’s not worth it). However, my second biggest commitment (marriage comes close though) is also to theorizing. I always have fun with my other short segment called Judgemental movie reviews, in which I review a movie without actually watching it and ask you all to tell me how much of its true or not. But that’s mostly for the movies I don’t really care about.

 I also love speculating and debating about upcoming movies I am excited for.  In a world of sequels and huge cinematic universes, speculation is a part and parcel of these movies. Curiosity builds excitement and sometimes there is nothing as satisfying as seeing some of your predictions become true on screen (having the movie exceed them in a good way is even better though). However, in a world of superstars accidentally tweeting plots, online leaks, over-exposed trailers, the art of expert speculation has been limited to merely googling shit…just like the art of knowledge and opinions. Earlier you had to, you know… put in actual effort and spend time researching and then formulating your own theories. But with the growing exposure to by-the-moment on set information…it’s becoming too easy. Any dumb-schmuck can sit down and pass on leaked information.

However, I still believe speculation is an art. To carefully look at all the plot points, sometimes deliberate clues in a story and use your own experience and skills to speculate about the next movie (particularly with respect to comic book movies) is a favourite pastime for me. Though in the interest of protecting against spoilers, I have mostly kept those theories to myself. Also most of those theories have been (sometimes sadly) proven to be right.  But then getting it right is never the goal. It never was. Starting a conversation, analyzing a movie for sub-text and clues and then passing on your ideas to those who wish to hear them is the great thing here. Sometimes fan theories are much more interesting than the movie and many a times, fan theories have been genuinely accepted by the creators themselves and also incorporated in the stories as well. Hence, speculation is still a fun thing to do.

The reason again to start this segment was that after I have hinted about or talked amongst my close friends regarding several plot points of a movie – I have been told that I should put them in my reviews as well. So here is my new segment called   ‘P.S.- POSSIBLE SPOILERS’

As the name goes, I ll be discussing storylines of hotly awaited upcoming movies based on my own analysis. These are merely theories and again getting it right is never the goal. Also, these could potentially be spoilers, so in case you want to keep your excitement for the movies yet to be released feel free to look away right now. But if you like reading about some interesting theories, lets dive right in.

P.S. - POSSIBLE SPOILERS

AVENGERS INFINTIY WARS 2 OR AVENGERS 4 (CALL IT WHATEVER YOU WISH)

The context -

Regardless of if you are a Marvel or a DC fan, regardless of if you are a casual movie goer, Avengers: Infinity Wars was one of the most hotly anticipated movies of ALL time. A movie with a build-up of almost 8 years. You can read my spoiler free review of it here (insert link)

The reason why the movie managed to capture the fancy of many people was we got to see something we hadn’t seen ever in a superhero movie in a long time. Thanos, the big baddie who for almost 14 movies has been after the famous Infinity stones –  each containing a cosmic force from the beginning of the universe- finally gets his hands on all of them. The Infinity stones contain the powers  of Space, Time, Reality, Power, Mind and Soul. Until this movie we are not sure of Thanos’ purpose for getting the stones. We assume that it’s the usual mega-villain purpose of ‘Conquering the universe’.  But Thanos’ has a much deeper purpose than that. He has seen that the universe’s resources are finite and its increasing population isn’t. He merely wants to bring balance to the universe by carrying out a universe level genocide. An impartial dispassionate one. He wants to bring all of the stones together to use their cosmic-level power to painlessly make half of the universe’s population disappear. All of the avengers and related marvel characters like Guardians of the Galaxy, Black Panther, Spiderman and Dr. Strange get together to stop him. But unlike a normal comic book movie where they all get together and manage to stop the villain before he executes the plan, things go a bit differently.

What happens in the last 5-10 mins is some of the most stunned silences I have ever felt in a theatre. Spiderman, Black Panther, Bucky a.k.a the Winter Soldier, Nick Fury, Falcon, Dr. Strange – and many others just disappear.  Vision is dead. Although Thor manages to stab Thanos but Thanos snaps his fingers at the last moment to make his wish come true. We are left with a post-credit scene of Nick Fury messaging female super-hero Captain Marvel (whom we’ll get to see in an upcoming movie) before disappearing and that’s it.

All the powerful sorcerers are gone, the space geniuses are gone, Loki is dead, Odin had already died in Thor: Ragnorak. Thanos might also be dying and the Infinity stones he used look like they have lost their power. The Avengers have no way of avenging this grave scenario….

Unless if you really give it a thought.

The Key-

Having read and thought about enough sci-fi stories involving multiple realities and time-travel, let me tell you that the problem is always the answer. If Barry Allen a.k.a The Flash has travelled back in time to create a problem, he can always go back to solve it. That’s the thing with multiple realities and time-travel, once you bring them into an equation then no problem is an absolute certainty. Comic books (both DC and Marvel) have been doing this for ages and if you have read or watched any animated movies regarding story lines like Flashpoint Paradox (The best Flash story ever), Crisis on Infinite Earths (DC), DC Rebirth, DC Injustice, Days of Future Past (Marvel) or the original Infinity Gauntlet storyline, you know that altering timelines or realities is like planning a Europe tour for comic book characters. Just that this is the first time we are seeing this on the big-screen, that too after such a grand setup. That was brilliance on part of Marvel, Kevin Feige and the Russo Brothers to bring that concept to the big screen and especially leave that as a cliffhanger.

Even though I haven’t read the Infinity Gauntlet story-line , I can sort of speculate as to how they are going to go about this here and the reasons for them going about it like that. I won’t want to read that storyline nor give a synopsis of it here…I am gonna theorize this based on the knowledge and the set-up provided by the MCU movies and the real-life issues affecting those decisions. Based on what we know from the movies, pay attention to the following clues-

Me calculating all possible theories

1.       Dr. Strange- Dr. Strange is not only one of two actors in the same movie to brilliantly portray Sherlock Holmes, but is also a master sorcerer. He is a master of mystic arts and holds the time stone in an amulet he wears. He is also smart and had used that time-looping power to defeat an immortal demon in his solo movie. He can also play with reality and create illusions. In this movie, while Iron Man, Spidey and the Guardians of the Galaxy are on Titan waiting for Thanos to arrive, Dr. Strange looks forward in time and comes up with the odds of 1426543 to 1 of them winning this war. When Thanos arrives and they almost manage to defeat him, (fuck Star Lord) Dr. Strange- sworn protector of the time stone and the Earth Realm- hands over the time stone to Thanos before dying to stop Thanos from killing Iron Man. Before dying he says to Iron Man “It was the only way”. What that definitely means is that the 1 scenario in which they win the war, somehow involves Thanos getting the time stone anyway or Iron Man staying alive. Dr. Strange gives away the time stone so that that may happen.

 

2.       Iron Man- Although Iron Man in the comic books was never a central character or even that popular, one of the main reasons for the MCU’s popularity is Robert Downey Jr.’s fantastic portrayal of Tony Stark a.k.a. Iron Man. He is the central character of all of the group ones like Age of Ultron, Avengers 1 or Civil War.  If Marvel had killed him off inspite of him being just a 50 year old man in a metal suit against space wizards and gods, then the fan backlash would have been too harsh. (Although killing him off and bringing him back would have been the most fucking awesome thing to do..but hey Marvel isn’t DC). So they kept him alive. Thanos even acknowledges him and that’s also a clue as to if they kept him alive, you know he is central in bringing things back in line.

3.       Ant-man – In all of this we never get to see Antman or where he is. Although we are getting a Antman sequel in July, it’s surprising as to how they‘ll string together the events after half the universe is gone. Maybe as per the time line it happens at the same time as the Thanos battle and ends when that battle is over. Antman single handedly had the power to defeat Thanos. Everyone has their theories from him becoming ant sized crawling over to the Infinity Gauntlet (the glove worn by Thanos to bring together all the stones) and expanding to a 100 ft to get the glove off him. Some have suggested he could have done the same by crawling into Thanos’ anus.

Pick whatever theory you like, the fact the he wasn’t there means that he’ll be a key character in the sequel. Also, remember that he can reduce to sub-atomic size…that could also mean he has access to quantum universes/ multiple realities. Perhaps, we ll get more clues in the Antman and Wasp movie.

4.       Captain Marvel – Putting in an entire history of Captain Marvel here is not possible. (go wiki that) But in short she is a human who has alien powers. She may not have time travel or reality altering powers, but she is powerful enough to take on movie Thanos. Also, she is the only one Nick Fury manages to send a distress signal to, when the entire universe is about to end. That does mean in the context of the movies, they might amp up her powers. Also, remember, the Avengers are not together, Iron Man is on the planet Titan with no ship and Thor, Captain America, powerless Hulk, Black Widow are the only ones remaining on earth. A superhero from space might be the one to get them together.

5.       Powerless Hulk – Small mention here of powerless Hulk. Hulk has been the Avengers’ go to weapon in case of unmanageable circumstances. With Bruce Banner not being able to summon him (conveniently) we never got to see him properly in play, except when he got his ass kicked by Thanos in the opening. But Hulk is a fan-favourite and we cannot have an MCU movie without the Hulk Smashing carelessly. Also, the original Infinity War trailer shows him in the battle of Wakanda running alongside Captain America (insert screencap). This was not a deliberate bait and switch as most sites predicted or reportedly even the Russo bros. said.  I believe we are going to get that battle again when the time-line is being reversed and this time we’ll have Hulk in full flow.

6.       The glass half full – Most of us were so caught up with some of our beloved characters like Groot or Spidey or Black Panther disappearing that we never noticed the ones who stayed alive. Take a breath and think back on the ones who were (conveniently) left alive in a impartial universe level genocide. Captain America, Thor, Bruce Banner/Hulk, Hawkeye (presuming he is not dead because we don’t get to see him at all) and finally Iron Man. These are the original Avengers…from the first movie. Everyone who came afterwards – Falcon, Spiderman, Vision, Scarlet Witch, Black Panther are all gone. Am not going on a long shot on betting in here that we are definitely through some reality/time manipulation going to get a scene where the remaining Avengers have to go back to the original Avengers 1 battle in New York to get the Tesseract- Space Infinity Stone. Also, some special screenings of the Avengers 4 trailer at some festival in Europe has some fans speculating the same on reddit too.

And finally moving on from the delicious story-wise speculation to factoring in some real-life issues as well. Most of the major actors, particularly Robert Downey Jr. have limited contracts with Marvel to play the said characters. Chris Evans and RDJ have had multiple movies over last 8 years and perhaps the contracts were till Infinity War 2 (as announced by Marvel many years ago). The Infinity war is a colossal event in the comics changing reality forever. Since most of these contracts are about to expire and Marvel’s original plan till the Infinity War was already in place. Marvel/Disney could be using this story-based reason to introduce new actors playing these characters sometime in the future. This could be a cool way of integrating real-life changes into the fictional MCU. A reality altering event will allow other actors to play existing characters.

This happens a lot in comics when catastrophic events are used not only to boost sales but to clear up confusing time-lines, kill-off mediocre characters and introduce new changes. DC has done it multiple times in comics with the famous Crises on Infinite Earths and very recently with DC rebirth. Marvel could also be using this event to finally let go of these existing actors and create alternate realities where different actors play them. Although I have no idea if this final theory of mine, will hold true, it would be a great way of finally letting the actors pass without having to reboot the universe without any reason.

So, what do you guys think? Do you think all of the clues I pointed are #possiblespoilers? Or do you think it’s all just dumb speculation. Go on put on your too-much-time-on-your-hands hats and start thinking!

What else is there to do until 2019?

 

If Nick Fury would have made this call, then Thanos would have been defeated in no time

50th post special : Listless Wednesdays - 4 popular movies which don't get enough credit (Oct 2014)

There are some movies that leave their mark forever on the art of movie-making…some movies which break conventions…some movies which define their own genres…movies which earn their place amongst the truly greatest of the great…these are not the movies am going to talk about.

I mean we all know how invariably any and I mean ANY crime-based movie released after The Godfather carries some sort of influence of it or how every action movie with slow motion Kung-fu was influenced by The Matrix or how any super-hero movie post Batman Begins inevitably tries to ape Chris Nolan’s intense story-telling. But these are all movies which got the credit that was due to them. They are honoured, parodied (which again is paying tribute with a smile) and copied and will be copied for centuries to come. But today am going to talk about such movies which even though they did leave their mark on film-making, they do not get their due credit. At least not as much as they deserve.

And before all you film-school, artsy-types start getting happiness erections, please note that am not talking about some forgotten-nobody-really-gives-a-shit masterpieces of ‘true art’. If you had to believe such hipsters then you would think that ‘real movies’ are made only by French/German/Random European and/or Bengali film makers only. But again am not talking about such undiscovered gems…because there is a reason they were undiscovered- nobody really gives a shit about them. Please again before you get your rage-erections on, note that I am not insulting Goddard or Satyajit Ray or Antonioni etc. Am not even capable of doing so. But their influence upon movie-making is largely known and studied and will be studied for decades.

But I wanna talk about movies which although were loved and appreciated but still don’t get enough credit for changing the way stories were told on-screen. That’s kinda like discovering that Sylvester Stallone loved by all and largely known as a dumb action hero also has an IQ of 160 (not joking)

Anyways, here are 4 movies (in no particular count-down order) which influenced movie-making but don’t get due credit-

4. AVATAR (2009)-

DIRECTOR- JAMES CAMERON

Avatar, just like 98% of action movies that Hollywood puts out, is the story of how a white man ultimately solves all problems…this time its for an exotic tribe which had otherwise been surviving perfectly alright on its own for thousands of years. The concept isn’t particularly original (stolen from the Dances with Wolves and The Last Samurai and 2-3 other movies) neither is the execution full of depth and has interesting plot twists nor are the characters/acting particularly memorable.

But what is memorable, other than the fact that you keep wondering whether being turned on by a 7ft tall alien with a killer figure (and a tail) is right or wrong, are the amazing and actually out-of-this world visuals that enthral you. James Cameron doesn’t just make pop-corn movies. He fucking visualizes them on-screen in such a way that the term game-changing might have been invented just to label what he does. He changed special effects with Terminator 1 and 2, with The Abyss it was the awe-inspiring visualization of a giant sea monster…when the Titanic sailed or sank…you could feel the sheer giant scale of the then biggest ship in the world. It’s now common knowledge that Cameron developed his own technology and waited years for it to be able to capture his vision on screen for Avatar.

Although not merely a visual-director, Cameron does write interesting characters and plotlines as well, but Avatar has to be his lowest effort on that front. It’s a fun movie none-the-less and strictly a one-time theatre watch only for the visual ride.

So, what’s so special about it- Other than the game-changing special effects etc. One thing that makes Avatar a huge influence on modern movies…and let it be taken on record here, your honour that am merely using the term ‘influence’, which can either be good or bad depending on the context…So Avatar’s biggest influence on movie-making is the use of 3D. I never said it was a good thing. 3D has been there since like the last 20 years or so. And 3d movies kinda used to be a separate genre until Avatar came along. It was after the movie released, that money hungry studios realized that you could charge extra for making people wear head-ache inducing googles regardless of whether the movie actually needed to be in 3D or not. And most of these movies, weren’t even the visual treat that Avatar was nor were they even shot in 3D. It was all post-production converted 3D, which is as head-ache inducing and entertaining as drinking two glasses of castor oil and chillies for breakfast.

Chris Nolan literally had to fight with the studios to keep Batman 3D free and he could do it only because he was in a commanding position to do so. But others weren’t so lucky. Almost ALL super-hero movies released after Avatar were 3D and the curse didn’t stop there. Many horror movies (Texas Chainsaw Massacre reboot, Silent Hill, Piranha etc.) ….Almost ALL animation movies (How to train your Dragon, Shrek, Tangled, Frozen etc.) Hollywood even started re-releasing movies in 3D to cash in on the craze. The only up-side to it might be that you got to see Jurassic Park again in a theatre.

And of course how could Bollywood be left behind? The first 3D movie to catch on the post Avatar fad was the Farhan Akhtar directed absolutely disappointing sequel to an absolutely unnecessary remake with an absolutely disgusting casting choice for the main character (gimme a fucking break, SRK!! ) – Don 2 – was released in 3D for no other reason than marketing and charging you extra on the ticket. Many others followed…including Kochadaiyyan and 2-3 movies  probably directed by Vikram Bhatt but am not sure because who gives a shit about his movies these days anyways?

But as always there is a bright side to things and in this case, the ONLY and perhaps I must say the SINGLE MOST GREATEST upside to this trend was the chance to finally make a dream come true…after having worshipped it a million times on TV…finally got to watch THE masterpiece on the big screen- 

3. 300 (2006)-

DIRECTOR- ZACK SNYDER

So, yeah 300 is as much of a guy fest as it can get…with badass sculpted bodies mercilessly hacking off enemies in stylish slow motion while delivering witty come-backs with the occasional story-line and boob show here and there .

Plus, if you really wanna dig deep into it, it is based on an entertaining chapter of greek history when 300 Spartans actually held back a Persian force of 10,000 or more. All the history with added beaheadings, boobs, surreal screen filters and –

Even I don't know what that is...

But it’s just an overtly stylistic yet entertaining take on a historic episode…right?

So, what’s so special about it? - Well, for all you critic-types and/or people who think all good movies should be about people with cancer/history of child abuse/personal tragedy, let’s first delve into the history of the movie.

Well, if you don’t already know, 300 is based on a graphic novel by one of the best and revolutionary comic book artists of all time- Frank Miller. The guy is partly responsible for bringing the gritty aspect back to Batman comics in the 80’s (which would of course later dictate the tone of the TDK trilogy). So, 300 the graphic novel is also based on an old movie called the 300 Spartans…which in turn is a fictionalization of ancient Greek historical accounts which in turn is based on the actual Battle of Thermopylae (Hot Gates).

So even if you put aside all the surreal, stylish aspects of the story, which are nothing but trademarks of Miller’s story-telling style, the movie actually has some base in history. And here is where the fun part comes in, remember all those badass lines about “Fighting in the shade” or “The emperor only asks for earth and water” etc etc. were actually used in the battle according to historical accounts. So they are not just awesome punch-lines written for a dumb action flick, they have some base in history.

But other than that, what’s even more special about the movie is again the way it portrayed its action scenes. Well The Matrix was admittedly the first movie to make Slo-mo cool. But by the time 300 released it had been over-used and people almost lost interest in it. With 300, Zack Snyder showed that using slo-mo can be a really stylish way of portraying action scenes. He used it judiciously and in a really effective way possible. Also, he brought to screen the surreal fairy-tale like setting, shot with the use of innovative modern tech thus achieving a balance between real-time and motion capture technology. Many movies tried to ape that visual style later on-

and many more.

Even Magadheera had a really well executed sequence inspired from 300.

Also, 300 paved the way for history to be portrayed in a badass manner. History Channel (back when it was STILL concerned with History) had a beautiful series called Battles B C which showed historical battles in a 300-like manner. So anytime you see a heavily stylized portrayal of history/mythology with slo-mo action and single-tone screen filters, you know that its 300 which influenced it.

But then what’s so great about the visual style that Zack Snyder immediately became a grade-A director after this movie. The reason is quite simple. In terms of following the source material correctly and interpreting it perfectly on-screen, 300 is in the line of The Godfather or the Fight Club. See, Snyder used the actual panels of the graphic novel as story-boards for the scenes. Meaning the movie was shot EXACTLY like it is in the comic book. 

You have got to appreciate the effort in bringing a book to life this effectively. However, in terms of staying true to original material in style and tone, there was one movie released before 300 that did it in a near-perfect way as well.

2. SIN CITY (2005)-

Most of you who haven’t seen this movie might think of this as some sort of porn movie or some deep melodrama about life in Las Vegas. But look at this-

DIRECTOR- ROBERT RODRIGUEZ/FRANK MILLER

Well, now am sure the same people would think this is just some random sex and action thriller stylistically shot in Black and white. Well…oh boy, you are soo wrong! It is in fact not some random sex and action thriller shot stylistically in B/w, it is THE sex and action thriller shot stylistically in B/w.

This was perhaps one of Miller’s first works to be adapted to the screen. But what Zack Snyder would do for 300 later on, Robert Rodriguez did for Sin City before that. Rodriguez actually used the panels of the comic book as story-boards and shot the movie almost exactly like it is in the book. Also, he first shot a proof of concept scene for Miller to ensure that author was happy that the movie would be keeping in spirit with the book. How many times have you seen Hollywood ever do that?

 Sin City is an adaptation of Frank Miller’s (see 300 above) Sin City graphic novel series. The stories are about characters living in a flamboyantly gritty city, full of sex, violence, revenge and dark twisted characters. The series is a modern tribute to black and white film noir of the 40’s and 50’s and the pulp fiction books of Raymond Chandler and Dashiel Hammett. It has all the traits of fil noir like the characters narrating in first person, the delightful quirky metaphors ­ like –“When it comes to reassuring a traumatized 19-year-old, I'm about as expert as a palsy victim doing brain surgery with a pipe wrench…”-  sexy femme fatales and hardboiled dudes etc. all this in black and white. All in all it’s a fun entertaining movie with a good coherent storyline and refreshing surprising way of story-telling. (At least the first part is)

So what’s so special about it?- But then what sets the book and in turn the movie apart is this – 

The movie/book highlights partial colours (usually red but not limited to it) in the otherwise b/w setting usually to highlight some important character or object or for just stylish effect.

Of course this isn’t the first time we have seen a black white movie with partial colours in it. The first such on-screen use of the technique was of course the amous (and really touching) ‘girl in the red dress sequence’ in Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. But it was limited to that sequence and digital photography and photo-shop hadn’t been invented yet. Sin City’s impact on digital stylistic photography has been so massive and encompassing that just like a disease that spreads (yay! Metaphor!), it might have even affected you without you knowing it.

These days anyone with a digi-cam and an Instagram/facebook account starts thinking of themselves as a photographer. And of course one of the pet effects anyone uses, is highlighting the red (sometimes other colors but mostly red) in an other-wise black and white pic. You have seen it on that annoying friend’s account who shoots pics of sunsets and really close up shots of dew drops/insects on flowers otherwise, to show his ‘artistic’ photography. Hell you might have even used it, either knowingly or unknowingly.

But the ‘Sin city’ effect, isn’t limited to mere amateur photography, many many movies have used it in Hollywood and also Bollywood and count-less ads. It would too long a list to list out completely but recently I have seen the Sin City effect being used in some season of Breaking Bad (I binge-watched it so its ‘recent’ for me, so shut up). Hell Frank Miller himself remade another old comic book into a movie called The Spirit using the same style.

 In Bollywood, the movie Cash –yes that crapfest- had an entire item number with the item in red and all else in b/w.  The Marathi movie Checkmate had flashback sequences with similar effects… many many more. Just that  Sin City because of its graphic comic book violence and overt sexuality (so much sexy  delicious overt sexuality, you guys...you have to watch Eva Green in the recently released sequel to know what am talking about) doesn't get enough credit for being a big fucking influence on modern cinema and photography in general. 

1. OCEAN’S ELEVEN (2001)

DIRECTOR – STEVEN SODERBERGH

Yes even before the most trying-to-be-smart of you tries to point out, Yes I know Ocean’s Eleven is already a remake of an old Frank Sinatra movie. While they share some basic plot elements, the original Ocean’s Eleven in terms of storyline and themes can be more comparable to Reservoir Dogs than the remake.

In case you haven’t still seen it (and the first question you should be asking yourself is -Why the hell haven’t you?), Ocean’s Eleven is a casino heist being pulled off in the most complicated and super-stylish manner (if Brad Pitt and George Clooney are trying to rob Andy Garcia, well they are gonna do it in style) by Danny Ocean (Clooney) and Rusty (Pitt) with the help of 9 other people. There is more to it as to why Ocean tries to rob 150 million dollars out of Vegas’ most secure casino, just when he has completed a sentence. It involves a girl. (Of course it does).

It’s a good movie, most people enjoy watching it. It has 4 stars rating on IMDB and is mostly appreciated by critics and masses alike.

  

So, what’s so special about it?- Well, when was the last time you witnessed a motley crew of suave robbers with their individual skills and expertise coming together to pull off an overtly complicated (yet entertaining) heist that involves using every kind of con, computer technology, illusions/special effects and their wits overall instead of guns …all this with smooth jazz/funky background music and a mind-blowing twist in the end?

Ocean’s Eleven had such an influence on movies that The Italian job, which is a remake of a 1969 film with the same name and 21-which is partly based on a true story involving MIT students and card counting, tried to have the sleek, stylish and witty vibe of Ocean’s series. And am not even counting the Ocean’s sequels themselves which tried to capitalize on the same formula.

And let’s not forget Bollywood- leaving aside the obvious copies- many movies were influenced by Oceans Eleven like Race 2, Players (Official remake of The Italian Job),  Ek Khiladi Ek Haseena, Teen Patti, Raja Natwarlal…etc..hell even the Dhoom series started losing more of its  Fast and Furious/Torque vibe of the first one and moving towards overtly complicated stylish heists  in the subsequent ones.

Copy the style, leave out the plot and logic

But in my mind the only Bollywood movie to successfully and intelligently use the Ocean’s Eleven formula was of course Special 26. It did it in a fun and original way. With the bar now raised for heist movies, I hope somebody will only take it further now-

OH DEAR GOD!...NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

PS- Sorry for not being able to publish review of recently released movies, So here they are in short-

Bang Bang - Didn't care much about the original, less so for the remake. 

Haider -Watched it a week later than it released, Should have ideally been titled 'The Kashmir Apology with a few elements of Hamlet by Vishal Bharadwaj'

Annabelle- saw it only yesterday, watching The Conjuring again would have been more scary.

PS-2- Just some news for you guys, that this blog has crossed 50 posts! and achieved around 4000 views till date. Thank you for all your love and support. Keep reading and commenting! 

Interstellar movie review (originally published in November 2014)

From the only superstar Director of this generation

INTERSTELLAR

DIRECTOR- he he…as if I have to tell you who directed this

CAST- Matthew Mc Conaughy, Anne Hathaway, Michael Caine, Jessica Chastain, Matt Damon and others.

Well, if you have ever seen a stock broker give financial advice on TV, they are actually asked to declare in the end, whether they have any personal stake in any of the analysis given, in case they don’t end up giving biased advice. In the same vein, let me declare outright, that if you even remotely know me, you already know that am a huuuuge Nolan fan and as much snobbish as it sounds to say it, but I actually was a fan of him even before The Dark Knight trilogy. You’ll find me quoting his movie references, his name and style etc. in almost every third review I write on this blog. So let me tell it to you, fair and square, am gonna like this movie more than most people did.

I could go on writing about how Nolan is what Spielberg, Coppola, Kubrick, Hitchcock, Orson Welles etc. were in their respective generations. Directors, who through their cinematic genius and marketable yet intelligent story-telling yielded influence over the ever money hungry movie studios. It is so much so, that Nolan can pretty much walk into a studio with an idea and walk out with an approved budget. Christopher Nolan is a marketable name in itself now-a-days, thanks to the success of the Dark Knight Trilogy and Inception.

So, I imagine when Nolan proposed the idea for a movie about quantum mechanics, Theory of relativity and String Theory, space travel and an apocalyptic future…based on the theories of renowned physicist Kip Thorne, He pretty much got free reign. He did fuck up your brain nicely with a reality based psycho-thriller like Memento and light sci-fi elements in Inception…imagine how much of a mind fuck he can be with all of the above elements.

And that he does successfully to some extent…without doing this in Nolan’s signature non-linear style…let me go through this review in a straightforward manner.

The story goes that somewhere in the near future, the earth is a fucked up place. Over-population and constant wars have kinda led not to a total breakdown of society but certainly a weird regression. Most of technology exists but engineers and soldiers are not needed so much. The world is dying of hunger and all it needs is farmers. Ex- NASA pilot Coop (McConaughy) is now a farmer living somewhere in America and trying to get by. As they very nicely establish it, this is not a generation of explorers or inventors but a care-taker generation, living austere lives. However all is not what it seems, as weird dust storms and diseases are wiping out the crops too.  Humanity has to look for an alternative planet to move to. And that is precisely what they have planned. Also, there are some mysterious forces helping them along the way.

Well, that’s as much as you get to know without actually revealing more of the story. Nolan does a great job of establishing the relation between the Coop and his family…especially his daughter…and one could say that in a movie filled with infinitely complicated scientific theories….that is the soul of the movie. All the actors…I repeat ALL the actors, even the child actors (who are normally very annoying ) act really well.  Nolan even manages to make you care about a metal box like robot. Even if you don’t understand the movie completely, it is this emotional connection that will keep you invested with the characters enough to care for what happens next.

What most of you might not know , is that Nolan has never been a big fan of Special Effects (SFX), he avoids as much as he can. He is old-school amongst a new breed of digital directors, where he prefers shooting on 70mm Cinema reels than digi-cam and also using practical effects and miniatures whenever possible. He had to use SFX for the space scenes here obviously….but its all shot so well, the visuals are so sweeping and magnificent that you can really feel the emptiness of space and the journey of the characters. You can see Nolan’s special touch when the explosions in space do not make any noise because they don't in real life either. Add to that the ever so spectacular music score of Hans Zimmer and you have possible got the best space visuals since 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie was shot and is meant for the IMAX screen and I strongly suggest you watch it one if possible. 

The sweeping shots, the travels through a higher dimension…a lonely tiny spacecraft against the vast infinite backdrop of space are all obviously influenced by 2001: A Space Odyssey. This movie was is and will be compared to 2001: A Space Odyssey time and again…not only because of the similarity in visuals but also because Nolan is often compared to Kubrick in terms of film making skills and Nolan himself cites him as one of his inspirations. However, don’t get your hopes up yet. 

Now, even though being a big fan, let me tell you that in my opinion, this is perhaps the least ‘tight’ (there is no better word for it) script written by the Nolan brothers. There are several convenient moments and unlike Inception or any of Nolan’s other movies, it doesn’t really build up well to a intense climax due to weird pacing issues.. I mean it does have its tense moments but still length seems long at almost 3 hours.. Also, some of the dialogue seems a little corny at times. One more drawback could be that some of the events are so complex that even if the movie tries to continuously explain what is happening, it would do you good to have read a bit of physics. Concepts like singularity, event horizon etc. are difficult to understand even as it is, let alone in a movie. I don’t mean that as a real drawback, but it is the truth that most people just won’t understand it. If you thought driving home after Inception was difficult coz you were still pondering over it in your mind, then prepare to either be so thoroughly mind fucked that either you’ll wanna watch it again or just plain fucking give up. 

An actual negative I felt was that, the third act of the movie is full of conveniences. I wouldn't have expected a Nolan movie to have so many of them. Things just happening at their most convenient time is a liberty a story is allowed to take but not when everything has been so carefully built up. But then, I feel I must have missed something. See, the fact about Nolan is that he is like (to use a cliché) a magician…he likes using misdirection, twisting narratives etc . to keep you on track while yet taking you for a ride. One of the few film makers that can still surprise you. I had frankly figured out the twist well in advance even though the journey to it was entertaining. Maybe, am expecting too much from this movie just because I like Nolan…or maybe I did miss something…some clue here or there. This, I think, has been and will continue to be Nolan’s greatest strength. The ability to keep you wondering and making you watch the movie again and again.

I pop up any of Nolan's movies anytime am bored and I can watch them from absolutely any point on wards. But even though it has its moments, I don’t think Interstellar will fall in that category. Having said that, watching this movie is like watching Sachin Tendulkar score a 50 even when he wasn’t in form. It  still was better than watching some others score a 100. Nolan’s average work is still better than other’s best.

This movie is- Total Timepass

PS- I remember when The Dark Knight Rises was going to release, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be bad. Because a) third movie parts are usually very very bad and b) Every director rather every human being goes through a cycle when he must fail. I wont say he has failed here, just wasn’t in full form. 

Classic movie reviews : Casablanca (originally published in September 2017)

Of all the classics and all the love stories in all of world cinema, I had somehow never walked into…

CASABLANCA

DIRECTOR- Michael Curtiz

CAST-Humphrey freaking Bogart, Ingrid freaking Bergman and others

Yeah yeah…go ahead and shoot me, I had never watched Casablanca before. How can I not have watched what has been termed perhaps the greatest movie of all time in many lists over the years? Well…I wish I had the Bogart charm of shrugging my shoulders and looking classy while denying what would seem like the most common thing to a layman. Blame it on English movie channels which would rather play Fast and Furious Part: who gives a shit, than cinematic classics like they used to play when they initially started in India. AXN, TNT, Star movies actually played movies like Psycho, Casablanca, Vertigo etc. Guess they don’t give a shit these days.

You can also blame this fear of classic movies and books which I have…in that they are either very lengthy sometimes for no reason (yes Mr. Kubrick we get it…satellites rotating in space are cool…can we stop seeing 20 mins of them rotating to classical music?)…or are sometimes a tad bit outdated with melodramatic acting and effects. Although I had gotten around to watching what is considered in those aforementioned many lists as the other greatest movie ever – Citizen Kane- I was not enough impressed by it for it to be considered ‘greatest’. Great certainly…but just not greatest in my opinion. However, Casablanca…is a whole different story.

I mean the movie and its legendary lines (Play it once, Sam....here’s to looking at you, kid…of all the gin-joints…Round up the usual suspects…yes Casablanca’s dialogues have inspired other movie titles) have been parodied, paid tribute to and referenced in so so many movies, TV serials etc. that it just carries this aura of greatness with it. It’s a bit like Sholay in India. If you haven’t watched it and liked it, there is immense pressure upon you to like it when you actually do get around to watching it. (But seriously if you haven’t watched Sholay yet, why are you even reading this?!) So, when I finally got a weekend free and decided to make full use of my monthly Netflix subscription to finally get around to watching movies I had only heard about, I saw Casablanca and immediately started watching it. And as you might have guessed, it does stand the test of time for me.

Test of time is intentional choice of words (pun alert!) because the movie doesn’t clock more than a 1 hour 45 mins. My second choice was Laurence of Arabia which is like 18 days long. I mean Bhagwat saptaha are shorter than that. (ok jokes apart its’ like 4 hours). I agree that length of a movie isn’t that important if the story justifies it. I mean one of my favourite movies – The Dark Knight Rises- is almost 3 hours…but as a matter of personal preference it does matter to me. A revered classic starring my beloved Bogey that’s less than 2 hours? I had to watch it. 1 hour 46 mins later, I had to write about it.

Casablanca falls into my favourite kind of genre- Film Noir. An antihero protagonist with a troubled past, a femme fatale who has broken his heart…sleek snappy lines…a sense of resigned cynicism and renewed hope running throughout the film…twists and turns and all this shot in glorious black and white…that’s Film Noir for you. (Noir is pronounced as NO-AR…that’s French for you).  But instead of being the usual detective thriller, Casablanca is a love story.

Based originally on an unproduced play called ‘Everybody comes to Rick’s’, it is set in French occupied Moroccan Town of Casablanca. It’s the early days of the world war and Paris has been overrun by the Nazis. Refugees wanting to escape to the US can only go through Lisbon in Portugal. But the direct way to Portugal is not safe and the best way is to go to North Africa i.e. through Casablanca then to Lisbon. Casablanca technically is a French territory and still unoccupied by Nazis. Hitler is yet to set his sights towards North Africa and hence the town is a bit of neutral territory. Which of course means that it’s full of refugees looking for escape, smugglers looking to make a buck, corrupt French police officials trying to take advantage of the entire situation, German Commanders trying to exert influence and patriotic French-man trying to run a underground revolution from there. All these creatures meet at one watering-hole – Ricks Café. Richard played by the cigarette toting, drinking and pure embodiment of black and white class- Humphrey Bogart- is a cynical but practical man who doesn’t take sides in all the conspiracy games that go on in his bar. He doesn’t drink with customers and offers not even the VIP’s any credit in the bar.  But as his friend and local Police Chief Louis often tells him, that he can bet that inside he is a very sentimental man. One fine evening, in walks Ilsa with her French Rebel husband Victor Laszlo…She sees Rick and it seems they share a past connection.   

The best part about the story is that the emotional parts are treated with depth and weight without making them sappy. To say that Bergman and Bogart share chemistry on screen is to say that Sachin is very good with a cricket bat…. They literally define cinematic chemistry in all its glory. In one flashback, you get to see the intense connection they have and how it now affects their present. Both of them perform really well without ever letting it look melodramatic or forced. As it neared the climax at the airport, for the first time in many years, I actually teared up a bit in a romantic scene.

All the cast performs well, and well…sorry to hammer this for the umpteenth time but I think I have always had a man-crush on Bogey. The way he speaks with a cigarette in his mouth, the way he infuses the weakness of love in a hardened man, the way he toasts when he says ‘here’s to looking at you, kid…’ he is as the cliché goes the man that every man would want to become and the man every woman would want. Ingrid Bergman is gorgeous in all her Nordic glory and acts equally well. All the supporting cast do really well too.

It’s a movie set during the Second World War, with conspiracy and escape plans and Jazz music…and it’s also a love triangle consisting of betrayal and sacrifice and a climax at the airport…in short it’s for every man and every woman out there. If you haven’t still seen Casablanca, please do so.

My rating for this movie can’t be anything else, as this movie is the very definition of the word – Classic

PS- Sorry I am stuck in Mahad and there won’t be an IT movie review yet.