THE PAIN OF MAX PAYNE

FILM: Max Payne
DIRECTOR: John Moore
CAST: Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis




His wife and new born baby were murdered, inside his own apartment. He couldn't save them as he arrived home ten minutes late. He wants vengeance and is soaked in pain. He is Max Payne. The movie is an adaptation of the 2001 video game which is one of the most popular games of all time. I remember, the USP of the Max Payne games used to be the story telling in between the chapters of the game. The movie follows a similar story telling pattern to narrate the story. The screenplay holds the hands of the video game style narration.

Max Payne, a DEA agent, is in search for the killers of his wife. But in this pursuit he is held guilty of two new murder cases, Natasha and his best friend Alex Balder. Mona Sax, an assasin is the sister of Natasha and wants to kill Max Payne. But soon she comes to know of his innocence and vengeance and consequently joins forces with him to look for the actual killer.

Natasha's character is played by Olga of Quantum of Solace fame who makes a guest appearance here.

Max's deceased wife, Michelle Payne, worked for a pharmaceutical company called AESIR. The scientists of this firm had invented a drug called VALKYR. This drug was meant to be a booster to provide unprecedented energy to soldiers. But it was soon realised that an overdose of this drug led to deadly hallucinations.

Slowly and slowly, Mona and Max unfold the mystery and realise that the three murders are very much interdependent. In this pursuit for vengeance Max goes through deception, unrest, struggle and pain.

Coming to performances I think Wahlberg looked stiff at times and was overdoing the character a bit. Kunis was a good choice for Mona Sax. Beau Bridges amazingly portrayed BB in the movie. One of the best performances in this movie was by Amaury Nolasco who portrayed the villain here(Lupino). Olga had a short role to play which she did well. And the surprise factor in the movie was the guest appearance of ace rapper Ludacris.

Truly speaking though the movie does not live up to the greatness of the pc video game, it still strikes a chord and makes a statement with its excellent narration and good picturisation. Max Payne, I hear has done really well in the Box office in the US and to be honest has not released in India yet. But all thanks to the piracy network which has sucessfully circulated the motion picture into the Indian soil before it hits the big screen. So all and all this would be fun to watch when it comes in the theatres. It has got good action and drama and is backed up by a good story(Sam Lake) and a good director. To sum up, No pain in watching this one, go ahead!

LOVE REDEFINED

MOVIE: Notting Hill
DIRECTOR: Roger Michell
CAST: Hugh Grant, Julia Roberts




Thousands of movies release every year. Most flop or do average, some make a lot of money and the craze for such movies fizzes out in few months. But there also exist such movies which truly deserve shelf space and are of life time importance. Notting Hill is without a doubt one such movie. The Hugh Grant starrer Four Weddings and a Funeral is the DDLJ of Britain and I also extend the analogy by claiming that Grant is the Shah Rukh Khan of Britain. Though many fans would suggest me to make the analogy the other way, but I am happy with the way I put it.

Julia Roberts for a long time was the heighest paid actress of Hollywood and was undoubtedly the woman which men across the globe longed for. She plays the role of a superstar(Anna Scott) in this movie. Without a doubt she would have been the most obvious choice in 1999 for this role as she was almost bereft competition at that point of time.

Hugh Grant plays William Thacker, a divorcee, an ordinary man living in Notting Hill with a cracky roommate (Rhys Ifans). He runs a bookshop of travel books which has never got him profit in life. But thats the place where Anna turns up someday, probably to kill time or get a break from life. Her visit proves to be the most profitable thing for him. With beautifully crafted cinematic events, which are worth remembering forever, the movie moves on to show a very beautiful relationship between Thacker and Scott. This union though sees it ups and downs through beautifully crafted events. Very beautiful screenplay indeed.

Now with such an union of an ordinary man and a superstar, things obviously wont be easy to live with. Nor can your ordinary friends accept the fact easily, nor can the ever busy and jobless press. These compulsions and situations are beautifully shown in this movie and also along with that a lot of human emotion, practilality and the reality of the world of glamour weaved with subtle humour and Hugh Grant's british accent and cute mannerisms to die for, make this movie a true classic.

Whenever you get a chance to catch this classic do not miss it. It is not worth missing, its worth dying for.

SORRY DOST!!

FILM: Dostana
DIRECTOR: Tarun Mansukhani
CAST: Priyanka Chopra, Abhishek Bachchan, John Abraham.




The movie has started. The camera speeds through a water body and then we see an American city with tall buildings. No guys you are not watching Kal Ho Na Ho, this is the new flick from the same banner, Dostana!

The promos of Dostana revealing Priyanka in a very very hot swimsuit, John with his irresistible packs and cuts, Abhishek with his cute regular face, made many of the young people excited about this movie. The good music by Vishal and Shekhar only added to the excitement. But this Tarun Mansukhani directed movie is in one word a "disaster".

This was meant to be a Bollywood comedy hence I have no authority to scrutinize it or find faults in the direction or something, but all this should do is make me really laugh aloud. Unfortunately this movie fails in doing so. Though few jokes are really funny, like the joke in which Abhishek refers Gabbar Singh as gay.

Two almost strangers, John and Abhi, act gay to get a room in an apartment which would cost them 2000 $. Well I dont know why they had to go through all this mess. They could have rather found some other place with the same money. Now situations force them too get themselves registered as gays. Priyanka owns the apartment and hence stays with them and this develops the three into a dostana. After this point the movie seems to keep losing sense. I mean initially they showed John to be lusty and desperate, but there were very few instances highlighting this fact later. Or may be it was unclear that how could Priyanka not have any straight guys roaming around her even though she was so beautiful and successful. Anyways.

Finally there comes a guy in Bobby Deol who is someone of professional rivalry to Priyanka. This rivalry soon develops into love. Though attempts were made to show this transition but the screenplay couldnt support this emotional transition. So its all confusion when John , Abhishek and Bobby like Priyanka. Priyanka likes the three too, but cant get to the two as she thinks they are gay. Amidst all this the plot starts loosening. From men stripping and then dancing in a prestigious auction to John and Abhishek actually locking lips(dont you think I should have kept this under wraps??), this movie ventures into unwanted zones as far as the story was concerned.

The movie, as I mentioned before, keeps giving you glimpses of Kal Ho Naa Ho and its major product, Kantaben. Kirron Kher and Boman Irani appear and disappear. So all and all the comedy part was not that funny, the sad part was not at all touching and the climax felt like what the...

Bobby Deol has been made a fool in this movie. They havent kept him in the promos and purposely made him arrive late at places where dance numbers would take place, and called his act in the movie a guest appearance, but hes very much a full fledged character in the movie! He would be disappointed.

As I said such movies should not be judged on basis of practicality or reality but only by the "how much you laughed" factor. And I didnt laugh much to be honest. Some time ago I read that Priyadarshan is remaking the Iranian classic Children of Heaven with Darsheel Safary as Bum Bum Bole. While I suggest he should not be making that movie (rather ruin the classic), I also suggest he should have made Dostana with the same Dharma Productions' meaninglessly expensive production. So not really thumbs up to this Dostana, you could do without watching it.

BOND IS BACK, DID IT BANG???

FILM: Quantum of Solace
DIRECTOR: Marc Froster CAST: Daniel Craig, Olga Kurylenko, Mathieu Amalric




Marc Froster's Quantum of Solace, which is necessarily the continuation of the story he told two years back, Casino Royale. Ian Fleming, I consider should be amongst the top 100 thinkers of the 20th century. The imagination that has gone into the making of the Bond is just impeccable. During the days when the sun started setting in the British empire and real life special agents of Russia and the United States did high level espionage in various corners of the world, thinkers like Fleming gave the so called Solace to the British mass by describing great imaginations of cool weapons and accessories. This movie though not written by Ian Fleming but by Paul and Neal Haggis is an equally lovely story. In Quantum of Solace the basic plot is the point where we left in Casino Royale. After being betrayed by the girl he loved,Vesper, Bond was in search of the person who was the reason for this betrayal. This was his personal task along with the actual job he had in hand. On interrogation of Mr White, Bond discovers that there is existence of a secret unheard organisation. White mentions that this organisation has its plants everywhere and anywhere. And as soon as he says it, one of the men around the investigation area opened fire and killed a few around and proved it that truly this organisation was present everywhere. But this fact gets super faded in due course and you dont really get scared by this organisation and dont see its men everywhere!! This organisation was responsible to blackmail Vesper to steal Bond's casino earnings(in Casino Royale). Now in Haiti, Italy, Bond meets Camille due to a mistake of identity and this introduces him further to a person called Dominic Greene(Amalric), who is a heartless businessman who talks of environmental issues, but actually is a major force in a criminal organisation called Quantum.

Now here starts the adventure of Bond through places like Austria, Italy, Bolivia and South America where he realises the depth of the nexus Greene is involved into and what big intentions he has and how are they ecologically and politically dangerous for the world. Within this journey, the movie provides non stop action(becomes a headache at a point) and Bond goes closer to completing both his personal and professional goals. The script is really intrguing but I am afraid the direction was not up to the mark. Froster erred quiet a few times and that upsets this flick to be called a classic, otherwise the plot has good enough elements to make it a great classic. Also one thing which irritated me was the photography. Too much of close up in action sequences is a trick used by cameramen to make the effect of shaking movement. Here it was more necessary to show a proper chasing scene rather than create illusions of a chase. In most action scenes, the close up was too much which spoils up the broth. Coming to the performances, I guess after Sean its Daniel. He has performed very nicely. Olga suits her character very well and gives a good enough performance. Amalric for me was the high point in the acting as far as Quantum of Solace is concerned. Going through public responses, Bond lovers are not really happy with Quantum of Solace, nor am I. Probably next time they will need something more than a quantum to give solace to the lovers of Bond, James Bond!