Thor : The Dark World [Movie-2013]

Thor : The Dark World. Albeit, a good sequel, far better than the previous movie, with stupendous graphics, some great acting, and a good plot.

Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman and Tom Hiddlestone continue their roles as Thor, Dr. Jane Foster and Loki, with Loki, now gradually becoming a part of those villains we regard as 'Can't Hate' among Joker, Darth Vader and Jim Moriarty to name a few. One just falls in love with his cunning mind.

The story starts with a recap of events that occurred in the 'alien' world, decades ago, where Bor, the father of Odin battles the elf commander Malekith, who is on a quest to destroy the universe, with a secret
weapon - Aether. Bor, defeats Malekith, and seizes the weapon and hides it to prevent it's further misuse, while some elves make their getaway. Jump to present day, Thor is treated as the next king, and takes on his responsibilities to make peace between the Nine Realms, while Loki rots away in prison for crimes he committed on Earth. On Earth, Dr Jane Foster and her assistant have made revealing discoveries which are bending the laws of physics. Further exploration leads Jane to disappear in a portal. Thor, is informed of this by Heimdall, and eventually finds her, also finds her to be infected with a non earthly force, leading him to take her to Asgard, where Odin recognizes it as the aether.
Malekith, awakened by the arrival of the aether, launches a full scale attack on Asgard, to recover it, cuasing huge damage to the city and it's soldiers, as well as killing the queen, when unable to obtain the Aether. Thor, then teams up with Loki, defying his father's orders of not  to leave Asgard.
We come to the elves' home Svartalfheim, where Malekith successfully obtains the Aether and is again on his goal to annihilate the universe, which he plans to do at Greenwich, center of the convergance between worlds. Loki gets killed in the process. Thereon, a battle ensues between Thor and Malekith, travelling between the Nine Realms

SPOILER.
Thor defeats Malekith and returns to Asgard, where we find out, Loki has disguised himself as Odin, to sit on the throne.

Plain and simple, the movie works through Hemsworth and Hiddlestone's impressive collective charisma. Natalie Portman continues to look as stunningly beautiful as one can get.  Chris Evans as Captain America makes a hilarious cameo as Loki never fails to make us laugh. The movie, otherwise, lacks something, I haven't figured out what, but it definitely does. Maybe it has to do with the hero being able to perform any task, without any challenges. A movie requires a downfall before the denouement.

Watch it, just for the visuals, beauty of Portman, and the chemistry between Hiddlestone and Hemsworth.

My Rating - 6.9/10

50/50 [Movie-2011]

50/50 is an inspiring story. Inspired by true events, it casts Adam  [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] as a young man, in his 20s, as a victim of a genetic cancer, which as the title suggests, has a 50-50 odds of being treated. This movie shows his suffering, how he copes up, with the help of his best friend Kyle [Seth Rogen] , his cheating girlfriend [Bryce Howard], who eventually bails out, his therapist Katherine [Anna Kendrick] and his over protective/over smothering mother.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a revelation, and he proves that he can play any role, whether it be a comic role, drama or action. Seth Rogen supports his cause by another great supporting role. The rest of the characters complete the story perfectly.

The story follows as Adam, a radio journalist, experiencing back pains, revealing to be a tumor. He is offered to be taken care off by his best friend, his girlfriend and his mother, with him choosing his girlfriend, who it seems is although agreeing to take care, maintaining a distance from him. Kyle catches her cheating on him, leading to an eventual break-up. Meanwhile Adam gets close to two fellow patients Alan and Frewer who provide him company and eases his feelings. The story moves on, with major impact scenes which includes Kyle helping Adam shave his hair and Adam finding a book in Kyle's home to help cancer patients, realizing Kyle actually cares a lot for him. Adam also meets Katherine, who is a recommended therapist for cancer patients, and through the doctor-patient bond, grows reals feelings which ultimately leads to them being together.
The operation is successful and we get a happy ending.
Beautiful movie, made me Cry.

One to watch for.

My Rating - 8.2/10

The Bling Ring [Movie-2013]

The Bling Ring, as the name suggests, is a movie of GLAM. It is a real life story of a couple of teenagers turned into crooks, who break in into celebrities houses while they're away and walk away with million dollars worth of designer clothes, purses, shoes, etc. If you're a fashion freak, you would love the movie.
The movie does not add much to what we already know of the original 'Bling Ring' members [if you had read/heard about them], and there it fails. Sophia Coppola fails to elaborate the characters, other than displaying their monotonous activities of partying, stealing, doing drugs, and GODDAMN taking photos everyfreakingwhere. Yes, the shooting is done commendably, especially portraying the homes of the various stars such as Paris Hilton, Rachel Bilson amd Orlando Bloom among others. Israel Broussard and Katie Chang have played their roles upto the mark. Emma Watson, is a top notch actor, accepted by all, and is splendid, as well as stunning in this movie. She is the one, who really sparks up the movie. In all, movie is not captivating enough to hold you on for 90 minutes and you eventually get bored. Could have been much better by the inclusion of the lives of the characters.

Skip it. Or if you just adore Emma Watson, give it a watch.

My Rating - 6/10

21 Jump Street [Movie-2012]

21 Jump Street is innovative, classy and quirky. It is a perfect comedy dabbling in a bit of romance, bit of action and bucket full of comedy! Jonah Hill follows up with his incredible performance in Moneyball, so does Channing Tatum with his delightful appearance in The Vow. These two make a dynamic pair on screen, and make the movie highly exciting. This a sarcastic reply to all the teenage movies, which feature the usual cliques of a typical high school - jock, cheerleaders, goth; and who is cool and who is not [It is no more cool to pick up on people, it is cool to be eco-friendly and read comics]
Brie Larson, and Fave Franco, as Molly and Eric are fun characters as well, and introduce some freshness to the movie.

The plot focuses on, two fellow ex-classmates, now turned police officers, Jenko [Tatum] and Schmidt [Hill], sent to pursue an undercover mission, to negate the spread of a new drug, via joining of the high school, where it is being cooked up. Messing up their identities, leads to Schmidt becoming a track and theater star, and Jenko becoming of a physics nerd. In their own ways, they try to further their mission, Schimdt getting 'in to deep' in the process, owing this to the recognition he is receiving in the school, which he lacked when he was originally in school. Through their misfits, they are thrown out of school, and eventually fired from the police force. This, makes them realize their mistakes and lead them to fulfillment of their mission, where they discover the school gym teacher as the drug supplier, and he is onto dealing the drug outside school. The revealment of their true selves leads to a bullet war and a chase which, obviously, is successful. Jenko and Schmidt get reinstated, and celebrated at 21 Jump Street - the secret headquarters for undercover police officers and are eventually, sent on their next mission, college, much to rejoice of Schmidt and demise of Jenko.

Johnny Depp plays a good cameo, always loved that actor!
I feel, the role of the chemistry teacher swooning over Jenko could have had a larger role. In all, a delight to watch. Finally, some good comedies have kicked in after the usual plethora.

My Rating - 7/10

Gravity [Movie-2013]

Stunning. Sublime. Tantalizing. Enthralling. These are just some of the adjectives I would use to describe 'Gravity'. The film features a simple plot, yet manages to keep us interested for an hour and a half. Many people would describe this film, as boring, but then, to them, movies like Student of the Year are brilliant.

The story goes as two astronauts, Dr. Ryan Stone and Matt Kowalski, on their mission to service the Hubble Space telescope, are caught up in a storm caused by debris caused by destruction of a Russian satellite. They find themselves as the only crew to survive the strike, and at a loss of communication with NASA, and also far away from any space station with oxygen at a bare minimum. They both reach the ISS, Matt, generally doing the talking to keep the conversation on, and to bring a sense of calmness He sacrifices his life to enable Ms.Stone to enter the satellite. She then, with great courage, moves through different satellites, surviving another debris strike and reaching eventually, our planet.

Though described by actual astronauts as quite unrealistic, I think it makes perfect tribute to them. Dr. Ryan Stone [Sandra Bullock] and Matt Kowalski George Clooney]are adept in their role and they further their reputation among the better actors in Hollywood . The simplicity of the characters, especially the nervousness and fear shown in Ms. Stone, helps the audience connect and relate more.

The graphics, oh what can I say? Coupled up with 3-D effects, leaves the audience in awe and gives them hope for 3-D which is nowadays regarded as unnecessary, with half the movies being shown in 3-D just to earn more. Other than the space scenes, the scene of the the planet, when Sandra Bullock lands is such a beautiful scene. Kudos to the cinematographer. The background music is very important in a sci-fi/action movie, and Steve Price pulls it off successfully with such brilliance, Hans Zimmer should be impressed.

Overall, a must watch movie, with stunning graphics, stupendous acting, amazing background score and also hear-touching, giving goosebumps and inspiring movie.

My Rating - 8.6/10

21 and Over [Movie-2013]

From the makers of Hangover, comes nothing unique. It's the overused all night long-college-youth-party movie. From the makers of 'The Hangover', you expect something good, something fun. But 21 and over, is not. It's full of cliches and is as predictable as it can get. The usual sororities, beer pongs, bullies and happy ending. Tell me you've not seen all this before?  Directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore have proved that they were one-hit wonders and nothing after The Hangover has been more than decent by them. Miles Teller is still a good actor, and brings something good to the movie, the rest two actors [Skyler Astin and Justin Chon] deliver nothing great to the movie, to make it more interesting, since the plot is baseless.

The movies goes around three high school best  friends, Miller, Casey and Jeff, who meet after quite some time, to celebrate Jeff's 21st birthday. At the cost of having one drink, they get really 'high' and to find out Jeff's address they go through a whole saga of events, such as sneaking into a sorority and making the females 'kiss' each other, fighting the/a  Bully, playing beer pong, being captures by the Latina's sorority chicks, smuggling Jeff from a mental facility, and driving him back home in time for an interview.

In this process, they introspect, and see ho each have changed, and learn to stand up for themselves, and sit back sometimes, and enjoy the little things in life, in short, a happy ending.

Skip the movie, not worth your while.

My Rating - 5.2/10