Mini Movie Reviews - 2012 August to December

Wreck-It Ralph - The media will never support good movies. While so many average commercial movies get released with so much noise and fanfare, an innocent, instantly lovable movie gets absolutely no love, support or appreciation at all. I have always wondered, wouldn't the villains get bored by being bad all the time? I mean, for how long can they keep going like that? Here, the bad guy gets bored and gets tired of feeling underappreciated all the time, and so he decides to prove that even he can become a good guy and so get a medal and thus, he hopes that then he will get society's respect and get invited to all the cool parties to which he is usually never invited. But for that to happen, he has to go on an adventure to different gaming worlds (and who is gonna say no to that really?) and then you get to see the real lives of these real characters from so many video games that we played and loved in school. The film benefits from the voices of John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk and so on that are perfect for the characters that they are portraying. There's even one line which the characters say to each other to cheer themselves up which is 'one game at a time' which I think could apply to everybody's lives and this is, without any doubt, a wonderful movie with a heart and soul and it has been created by a team that has a lot of love for video games. If they can understand the franchise potential that this movie has then this could end up becoming one of those most beloved film series of all time that is enjoyed by both kids and adults alike. Final Verdict – This is one of those rare and unique movies that are just wonderful to see and experience. With cameos from over a 100 video game characters (including some from Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, oh yeaaah!), for a normal viewer it is a good, fun movie to watch but it is for the gamers who live in dreams filled with nostalgia that I will say that this movie is RECOMMENDED. If you love video games then it is a special movie for you and you will never play another video game the same ever again. Get Me A Sequel Please, with even more video game characters! P.S. The end credits song is by Owl City and the name of the song is also a loving tribute to the good old video games of our precious childhoods (and our memories of them) which is 'When can i see you again'. Watch this one as soon as you can.

Skyfall - When was the last time you saw a commercial movie that had the GUTS to be an artistic, serious, personal movie? Having an academy award winning director serious about the story makes it a game changer in the canon of the James Bond series and just by the storyline itself this movie will be there in the top 5 and while it respects tradition, it also uses all the things you already know to create something totally new, totally fresh and totally wonderful. Plus, Daniel Craig really gets deep into the character of Bond and along with the addition of Moneypenny and Q to the new version of this series, at the same time that it goes back to its roots, it also goes forward to new places. Plus with an intriguing opening credits that has a moody, apocalyptic theme song by Adele, winks to old bond movies (& even the lion king!), it becomes a visually captivating (a totally brilliant neon lit shanghai, a dangerous Macau) & interesting movie (that too in a post-Bourne world) and watching the RESURRECTION of Bond is a constantly entertaining re-innovation. Final Verdict - Though the last 1/4th is a slow anti climax, 3/4th of the movie I hoped it would never end and when Bond makes The Final Stand with just a gun, a knife and an endless valley around him, you finally understand what makes him bond and due to that reason, nothing else matters!!! LET THE SKY FALL!

Cloud Atlas - Once Kamal Haasan acted as 10 characters in 1 movie which some people thought was just a show-off. Now imagine 6 characters doing 6 roles through 6 timelines! Though it takes considerable skill in keeping 6 stories going and editing them together, if the people don't really care or feel anything at the end, well then no matter how audacious the idea, it will just end up being nothing more than an average experiment. Plus there are a lot of dialects in the movie, so if you have no subtitles then you won't get around 30 to 40 percent of the movie. Perhaps some ideas are better in book form than in a movie format. Final Verdict - You know it's supposed to be great but you just don't get or feel the movie. It's more like an experiment than a movie and it just doesn't work and for that reason the people aren't gonna get the pay-off they wanted and hence they will be dissatisfied by it. Critics might be saying that it's good and all, but seriously, it really doesn't have anything in it that is great and hence it is not a movie that is worth your time. Plus if people from behind say at the interval "bhai yeh ho kya raha hai" (man, I still don't understand what's happening) and a lot of people leave before the end, well then you get the idea. Not Worth It.

Looper - When was the last time you saw a smart slick original sci-fi action movie? Using time travel to show you so many choices, so many possibilities, so many past, present & future lives and therefore so many reasons to live and die for, the over-used concept of time travel gets some of its lost credit back and the surprising thing is that the movie gives you just an idea of how the mechanism of time travel works and then pushes it into the background and mainly focuses on the characters of the story. Plus it has a solid script that has genuine emotional conflicts so you don't even know who to root for and so it's a credit to the director that for 99% of the movie, you don't know how it is gonna end, and yes, it is in the ending scene that you understand what the director was aiming for and yes, the ending is interesting and it makes you think about decisions, emotions, choices, timelines and so on and that's when you will realize that that's what makes this movie a real looper. It's a little slow in the middle areas and it does have a small, 'independent drama' movie feel at some places but those are things that i think the director was aiming for and so it is all a part of the movie itself. Final Verdict - It is an interesting movie about a guy, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has to choose between the happiness of his future self, played by Bruce Willis, and the current problems he faces due to meeting Emily Blunt and her son, which could affect his future self's happiness. In fact, there is no way for him to escape happily because whatever choice he makes, it will decisively affect the other choice as well so it is a genuine head-scratcher and yes, you will feel that this was worth a watch. If you like Unique movies then this one is Recommended. Plus when Bruce Willis says in the movie "I don't regret learning French", I thought yeah man, same here! This is the movie that you need to see this weekend.

Dredd - Yup, it's bloody, it's violent and it's definitely not for the light-hearted. But it is also a strong, solid, serious movie about a bad city with a badass anti-hero, who doesn't give in to pseudo-emotional growth journeys, doesn't give in to negotiations and no, he doesn't give a damn for anything else but Only for the Law. Even in the end, there are no wisecracks, no fake glory lines, nothing else except pure Dredd. Plus he even says in the movie 'I am the Law', just in case you had any doubt about what exactly the character's motivation is. Though it does have some unfortunate similarities to that Indonesian action movie, it takes a comic book and turns it into a tough, crime patrol type action movie that has 3D that gives it a claustrophobic quality and slow-motion scenes that are arguably visually beautiful. This is a tough movie about a tough hero so be ready for a guy with an attitude that is impervious to nothing. Plus, in accordance with the comic, Karl Urban never shows his face on screen. All we see is the helmet of the judge and that is all there is to know about Dredd because he is all about his job and only that. That is why they call him Judge Dredd. Final Verdict - "Mega city one. 800 million people living in the ruin of the old world and the mega structures of the new one. only one thing fighting for order in the chaos - judges". Yup, Mega-City One needs a Judge and his name is Dredd and yes, it makes you forget about the flop sylvester stallone version of Judge Dredd from the 2000 AD comic book and THIS is how you should make a remake. It's funny but that's the same thing that they are saying over at rotten tomatoes. Hmmm... maybe I'm turning Professional!

The Expendables 2 - I knew Stallone not directing would be a good thing and this time the movie is directed by Simon West and hence, it is less serious, more fun and thereby a better movie and so more ENTERTAINING. Most of the gang from the last time return here like Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture and so on and though Jet Li is only there for sometime in the beginning, there are a bunch of new characters in this movie and the newest members of the team are played by Liam Hemsworth and Yu Nan. This time it is up to The Expendables to take revenge when one of their team members is killed by the villain of the movie. Plus there is a scene of 4 great 80's action stars in 1 gun fight (Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis & Chuck Norris) near the end that is worth every rupee and then there is the villain named vilain(!) who is Jean Claude Van Damme Cool (clearly he is enjoying it and he CAN act, what a miracle!) and his sidekick played by Scott Adkins and the whole movie is filled with enjoyable winks and hints at so many lines from so many of their old blockbuster hits and tongue in cheek references to themselves which the audience simply loved and of course the final fight between Stallone & Van Damme is something to watch since this is the first time that these two famous action stars have ever worked together in their long and prosperous careers. Final Verdict - This one's more breezy and doesn't require any thinking skills but still, this one's cool, for real. Keep mid range expectations and then go. P.S. Some movies are meant for FUN, so if anybody tries to do an intellectual analysis on this one, well then Track'em Find'em Kill'em!!! ENJOY!

Step Up Revolution - This is the only movie where I felt so lazy in the end that I didn't even want to write a review for and that's something that normally doesn't happen to me, so you know what I mean. The reason they are not calling it Step Up 4 is simply because this isn't a movie that could come anywhere near the quality of any of the movies in the Step Up series. It's more like a TV movie where you can figure out the plot easily but you at least hope that they will give you some cool dance moves or at least something to go along with it but unfortunately, they don't. Dance shows have somewhat the same backgrounds on TV but at least they have some better dancing. It is just mainly for timepass and if you have seen any dance shows on TV or any dance clips on Youtube then you are NOT gonna be impressed, at all. Plus, how do you know if a movie sucks? If you have to bring some fan favourite characters from the last movie to the end of this one just to give it something to watch then yes, that's when you know that this movie sucks. This is not a dance movie, not even a movie. Why waste your time on something like this? Just find something better to do than to watch this movie. Unless of course you really want to watch any of the actors or actresses but only if you love them so much. Otherwise no, stay away from this one. Final Verdict - If the dance in a dance movie isn't cool then what exactly is the point of going for a dance movie? There isn't really anything to write about this one. Save the money and don't go for this one. 3 words - Don't Even Bother.

Total Recall - I'll admit it. I never even gave this movie a chance. But using the sci-fi genre's natural ability for showing paranoia and personal anxiety (plus colin farrell's 'always confused' look) it actually makes for an acceptable evening at the movies. They have changed the storyline and this time the action isn't on mars but rather on earth itself and it is about the war between a state and its colony i.e. the have-s and the have not-s and hence it is political in nature. Except for the 5-10 minutes when it tries to be pseudo-philosophical (with talks about past vs. present, dreams vs. reality, what's really real? and so on) and its 'wannabe inception' pseudo-confusing last shot, if you have low expectations then it is somewhat ok and as a weekend entertainer it is not a bad choice. Colin Farrell plays a man confused with what is really real and who he really is and Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Biel play the two women in his life who may not be who colin farrell's character thinks they really are. So this is like a modern, updated version of the old Total Recall. Final Verdict - What makes Total Recall (2012) reasonably acceptable are the flying car traffic scenes and specifically the futuristic mecha-urban cityscapes that stand-out in the film which makes the movie ok for 1 watch. So keep low expectations and then go. P.S. This won't compare to the Schwart-ah-ha-whatisit-nagger sci-fi action classic one because you go to an arnold schwarzenegger movie to see arnold schwarzenegger, not just somebody who looks like just somebody! So keep low expectations and then go if you are looking for a weekend distraction.

Ice Age: Continental Drift - The day isn't far when an ordinary family's weekly entertainment means going for an animation movie. After 2 below average sequels that made more money (pathetic!) but no respect in comparison to the cool first one, this time the series finally gets somewhat back on track. This time, after getting separated from them, Manny has to get back to his family and Diego and Sid try to help him with that and then they get attacked by a bunch of sea pirates while Scrat is still chasing that same old damn acorn. All the characters return and they are voiced by the same people again like Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Dennis Leary, Queen Latifah and so on along with the addition of Jennifer Lopez. I don't know how the time passed by and it was a fun movie that also has some wonderful animation in it and the movie is still going forward with the same old characters and the idea that a herd protects one another and sticks together no matter what life throws at you. Overall, It is good for some timepass and it does have some funny moments here and there so just go for some weekend time-filler. For example, how are you not gonna laugh when there are lines like "I'll push him overboard, you guys say it was an accident!!!" or "I think he's got the L word", "yup leprosy!!!". Final Verdict - The Ice Age series is getting its feet slowly back and so just go for some weekend timepass with some medium range hopes of some entertainment and it will be fine for you. Because if you are having mid level expectations, in a sweet, fun way, this Ice Age 4 is As Cool As Ice!!!

Though Ice Age: Continental Drift was a good weekend timepass and it's kinda fun to just go along with it, other than that, it's not really interested in being anything more than a weekend distraction and once the movie is over, neither will you care about it much nor will you think about it much and also since there were so many other way more cooler movies released during the same time, it really won't end up on anybody's yearly top ten list and though Total Recall has some visual brilliance in its futuristic mecha city designs, other than that it had nothing and so this one just cannot get anywhere near the original arnold schwarzenegger movie and though all the genre movies had their own good times within their own respective genres as Looper was a smart, thinking sci-fi movie and Dredd was a serious action movie with a 'no nonsense' attitude and The Expendables 2 was an action movie with some old school sense of action and fun and though Wreck-It Ralph was a wonderful animated movie with heart and had wonderfully different visuals from wonderfully different gaming worlds and a lot of video game characters, after considering all the facts, because of its usage of all the things that were now old and common to make something new and fresh and for bringing back some dry wit and emphasizing on backstory, energy and characterisation, thereby leading to the complete re-invigoration of the series, ladies and gentlemen, The Best Movie of 2012 August to December is... Skyfall.

Thank you for reading Mini Movie Reviews - 2012 August to December. Hope you have enjoyed it and had a good time with my movie reviews. There are 2 opinion polls below regarding which movie you thought was the best movie and what you thought about my article of movie reviews, so please feel free to take them, comment and give your opinions. Hope to see you soon on another article about movie reviews. Have a good day and once again, thank you for reading Mini Movie Reviews - 2012 August to December.

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