hotelfocus Reviews

Dhoom 2 (2006)

Doom 2 let down by star cast

[3/10 · 28 January 2020]

Dhoom 2 is total entertainer. And yet, each of the stars lets down their role and the movie.

It is just so surprising and unbelievable.

You wish it had been a silent movie, then it would have been a great thriller. But every time any star opens his or her mouth, omg you wish he or she would just shut up. The dialogues don't go with the character or the scenes. It was like every star had their say in what they would say and how they wanted to come off on the screen and to hell with the script and the roles.

Too bad.

Compared to this movie, each star in the first Dhoom movie, from John Abraham to Esha Deol, was restrained and played the role to perfection and to the script.

The songs too hardly make the grade.

There is no rationale to split Bipasha Basu's role into a double role.

Ash is pathetic.

Hrithik's role is powerful and so is his presence in the main robbery scenes. But when he mouths those terrible and impossible dialogues, the movie just crumbles.

And Ash's use of the 'funny guy' phrase is just so mis-placed.

Bard of Blood (2019– )

Best Of Netfix India !

[8/10 · 11 October 2019]

Totally riveting and entertaining. Anyone who bemoans that online cinema is too much TV style and not enough like Hindi movies, will love this series.

A brilliant Hindi potboiler of a series !

And it was refreshing to hear quotes from Shakespear sprinkled through out the episodes.

And thankfully the production team has not degenerated the entertainment value of the series by resorting to 'reality stuff' as underpinning of the content.

The series falls somewhere between Agent Vinod and Phantom. It has lesser production values than Tiger Zinda Hai, but the action sequences are total time pass.

The simplistic screenplay and plot help to introduce new-comers and entry-level audiences to the content, context and locales of more sophisticated fare like Body of Lies and et al.

However since War has raised the standards for spy movies and action thrillers for Hindi movies, Series 2 has a lot of upgrading to do.

The plot is straightforward and clear, but the ending was still a bit of a surprise, and reminded me of Goldeneye.

The main villains were too much cardboard type of Hindi movie villains.

Imraan Hashmi kept his head, and was clear about how to pitch his role in line with the low level of sophistication of action sequences and screenplay.

Get Shorty (1995)

It's all about the acting, silly !

[6/10 · 30 December 2014]

Such a silly movie with a silly plot, silly characters and silly dialogs.

But I never enjoyed a movie more, and never before was I so engrossed in watching John Travolta on the screen.

Truly the difference is in the acting.

Travolta single-handedly turns this silly movie into a delightful movie.

Its a Travolta show all the way. All the other actors would have sunk with the movie if it had not been for 'Chili Palmer'.

Travolta proves he is a brilliant actor. He actually manages to show that a brilliant actor needs absolutely no support but can actually sustain a movie on his own.

No other actor has been able to do this, ever.

The Italian Job (1969)

The serious business of making of comedy movies

[7/10 · 30 December 2014]

This movie is all about its 'comic elements'.

The robbery theme and the characters are all focused on delivering the 'comic elements' that make for a brilliant comedy movie.

The complete focus on the robbery plot makes for a classic caper movie, as well !

The remake focuses on the robbery plot as the mainstay of the movie and badly tries to add certain 'comic elements' to it.

The original focuses on the 'comedy drama' as the mainstay of the movie and as a superb platform for the robbery plot.

Even the 'end' of the robbery plot is a 'comic twist' on the comedy tale.

The focus on the serious business of a robbery, and the seriousness of the characters who plot the robbery and those who would thwart it, serve to make the audience take the 'comedy' quite seriously. And enjoy the 'comic elements' as a part of a 'serious plot'.

This 'unique perspective' of the movie is ably handled by Michael Caine, and this is what makes him the great actor that he is.

Magnum Force (1973)

Dirty Harry changes sides

[4/10 · 30 December 2014]

As a sequel to Dirty Harry, the plot of Magnum Force has been brilliantly thought out and neatly planned.

The character of Dirty Harry as a cop who steps out of the law to protect the law, has been magnified but drafted onto a bunch of cops who are then made the villains of the movie, with Dirty Harry playing hero against them.

Clint Eastwood is smarter than he shows.

This movie allowed Callaghan to be Dirty Harry and yet become a real hero. As against the 'anti-hero' that Dirty Harry was.

Of course most Dirty Harry movies [ and also where Clint plays a cop with any other name ] are a city version of western movies of a bad-ass sheriff out-gunning the bad guys.

Magnum Force is a little different. The focus is more on the killers, and the targets. To that extent, the focus is a little less on Clint than usual.

Even the focus on Clint's character in the movie is a focus on his 'reputation' as Dirty Harry.

Clint plays more a 'detective' of the killings.

The airplane hijack scene and shopping mall scene seem contrived and outside of the main plot. But of course enjoyable to die-hard fans of Dirty Harry. [ In a way, the scenes highlight the 'Dirty Harry' side of Callaghan while allowing for Harry to play the 'good' cop against the 'out of law' killer-cops. ]

Clint's one-liners are crisp and short, and add to enhance his character to make sense of his 'position' against the 'view' of the killer-cops.

Knight and Day (2010)

A difficult movie to review

[4/10 · 30 December 2014]

The first time I saw it, I thought I hated it. Then a friend said that he liked the movie. Then I thought I liked it.

Now I have seen it quite a few times on TV, DVD, and laptop.

Each time is like flipping a coin to see if I like it or I hate it.

The movie is impossible to review in a straight forward, conclusive manner.

And it also depends on how you 'categorize' it. If you see it as a comedy movie about a spy, it stands up. If you set out to see a spy movie with a wry sense of humor, it fails miserably. If you see it as Tom Cruise playing a watered-down Ethan Hunt and Catherine Diaz playing a watered-down version of her character in Charlie's Angels, the movie is immensely enjoyable.

The director seems to have his own clear idea of what the movie and the plot is all about. But the movie itself allows you to have your own idea of how the movie comes together. Each time you see it!

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

The weak link of the MI series

[2/10 · 30 December 2014]

A spy story turns into a revenge drama.

Drawn out endlessly.

All the brilliant action scenes, and all the twists and turns of the plot are over-shadowed by the insipidity of the overall plot of revenge of a super-villain on a dedicated spy who dares to cross him and 'arrest' him.

Of all the movies in the series, this third part is the 'weak link'.

Maybe if you see the movie as an attempt to highlight how fragile the social life of a spy is ?! And the consequences of keeping his 'social relations', in the shadows and out of bounds, and out of his own life ?!

If that is the point, it has not been projected properly to appeal to the audience's sensibilities.

Cabo Blanco (1980)

A Charles Bronson's 'interpretation' of Casablanca ?!

[5/10 · 30 December 2014]

It seems like almost all Hollywood stars have to have their own version of Casablanca.

Even Shakespeare plays must not have attracted so many varied 'interpretations'.

Even Charles Bronson ?!

But surprisingly the movie is still a typical Bronson movie. Factor in the nudity, the fights, the thrills, and the 'he-men' that populate your regular Bronson movie.

I personally found the ending a bit'weak and maybe obscure'; but it helps to differentiate the movie from being a direct Casablanca copy.

Overall, it stands up OK for die-hard Bronson fans.

The Devil's Own (1997)

Great movie

[7/10 · 30 December 2014]

Forget the 'truth' of the Irish problem.

Just enjoy the movie on an 'as is' basis.

Brad Pitt rarely puts in a 'performance'. Happily neither he nor Harrisson Ford are playing a 'star' in this cops and terrorists caper.

Stay at the level of the director's pitch of the movie. Enjoy the plot, the nuances of the characters, the interplay of the characters.

And at an enjoyable level without any 'highbrow' attitude.

The dialogues are straight, to the point and stick to the story line.

This movie is great to 'pass the time' and still commendable for 'decent performances from good actors'.