Tashan

Tashan is a freaky squeaky ride, and freaky is good until it begins to squeak right after the breaktime. The whole hoopla about make-overs of the cast and crew turned out to be just that - hoopla : no great shakes. Story, on the other hand is quite shaky ! Characters (and hence actors) underutilized. Long noisy action sequences with 12000 bullet sounds. And the impatience of the film-maker becomes very obvious in the rush to wrap up the plot abruptly.

Saif's your regular saif, which means he's the same in every movie - cool, english speaking, slick and shallow guy (barring occasional omkaras of the world). The fact that he can portray these roles with such accuracy makes me believe more in the theory that it must come from within, rather than his acting skills. Kareena is zero size and puts all jolly-bellied people to shame. She has flaunted her thin frame more than her regular hall of fame - acting ! Strangely her new avatar makes her look like Beavis and Butthead, really huge face and a tinny-minny body. Akshay is funny and good looking. Anil Kapoor is funny and not-good looking plus a tad loud here and there. Rest is immaterial because there isn't any material in the film. It's a story of treason and revenge woven around gangsters, money and true love finding its way towards the end. Now the good stuff to ensure the aftertaste. The movie manages to make you grin amply, tashni characters, wicked are the songs and their locations. Grungy title track inspires you to have atleast some tashan in life, clearly the highest point of the movie. One must also appreciate the cinematography and camera angles, infact they contribute hugely to the freaky, mad and irreverent feel of the flick.
Is watchable ? Why not..visual pleasure is guaranteed !Tashan gets 5 out of 10 from me.

Krazzy 4

Everything's wrong with Krazzy 4 starting from the spelling ! The good stuff has already been aired in the promos - Sizzling Sawant item, 4 funny-liners of the flick, SRK's presence and Red-hot Hrithik. So no need to check out the remaining stuff because it's simply not worth it. The story is about 4 crazy people who step out of their asylum for the first time and all hell breaks loose. The lady psychiatrist riding them out of the hospital to watch a cricket match gets kidnapped on the way by her own husband for some godforsaken political motives which are extremely ulterior supposedly! Obviously one doesnt expect intelligent stuff from Krazzy 4 but atleast funny? Nossir ! Throughout the film you see your 500 rupee notes being torn into really tiny pieces and that pretty much makes you realize that it's not a pretty picture at all. Rajpal yadav is usually so loud and garish that his underplay seemed tolerable in the movie. Arshad, Irrfan and Menon are totally underutilized. Once-upon-a-time-charming Juhi looks haggard and worn-out. Humph ! Krazzy 4 is most certainly the Kaala feather in Rakesh Roshan's cap. GrrrrrKrazzy 4 gets 3 out of 10 from me.

Race

Race has a lot of pace and obviously more than one race. Clean, glamorous and stylized flick. Considering how challenging it can be to film slick action scenes and not make them look preposterous, Race managed to pass with flying colors ! With lot of flying cars, human beings and plans. The movie is a mesh of plots, theres a plot in a plot in a plot in a plot and wait..another plot in a plot and finally the plot thats got a mini back-up plan ! They just keep booming into your face by the minute. Precisely, the negative of the movie as well. Unexpected and upredictable plots spin your head for a while but when the plans are thrown at you, by bucketsful, they become less exciting and you guessed it...predictable ! The chase (race) is for 200 million dollars to be made in an insurance scam, set in South Africa. Gorgeous lifestyle, designer wear and lots of thorough-bred stallions (horses AND men!). A couple of mal-direction points like punjabi boys having a church wedding (why?! nothing wrong in a church wedding but so out-of-pretext?!), Saif flying down a building like superman to save the damsel in distress (how?! Or else, show that besides money, women and power Saif had some super powers to boot!) You may advocate the scene by saying our desi heroes have been flying around like superheroes since forever - so whats so objectionable in this scene?! Okay go and check out the scene.. the dive is so stupid that you gotta see it to believe me!)Anil Kapoor is the corrupt yet smart cop sniffing around the scam. He has great potential as a comedien.Race gets 6 out of 10 from me.

One Two Three

The movie is funny. If funny is giving you a stupid grin for most of the film-duration, if funny is anything goofy even if not terribly witty and certainly so, if you can think of more than 5 scenes that crack you up while you're recounting them to your friends much later! Three guys by the same name, laxminarayan (who keeps these names anymore?! Well they come in different sizes, shapes and age groups LN the Paresh 55, LN the Shetty 40, LN the Tushaar 25). Lots of confusion and communication gaps because all 3 end up in the same hotel and unknowingly contribute their own life stories to the drama! I've noticed confusion always works! It is the key to making a comedy, right from the days of angoor, golmaal till the latest riot1,2,3. The villains are the funniest. Sameera and Esha look tasty. Upen and Tanisha are the worst pinwheels in the machine. Drop them and you got great stuff on your hand. Raghav Sachar has pleasantly surprised all of us with his catchy music. Phenomenal progress since the days when he almost died when he was asked to sing a line on radio and the RJ literally had to arrange for glucon-D to revive him ! (Personal experience..couldnt help mentioning it:). The film drags a little-bit post intermission but the director manages to get the train back on the track towards the 3/4ths and we're still in laughing business.One Two Three certainly deserves a better rating than it's title!Gets a 6 out of 10 from me.

American Idol - 2008

After a few years EVERYTHING becomes predictable and boring, if conscious efforts aren't put into re-invention. Such is the story of American Idol, in a nutshell. However, let's give due credit to the young blood that spills itself on the grand (yet trite!) stage of American Idol every year. Performers this year are far from exciting and hardly charming. Barring David the Rocker, Jason the lounger, Brooke the pianist and Michael the Aussie ! I find myself taking frequent snack trips to the kitchen, attending nature's calls liberally and switching channels during the show. Need I say more? Oh yeah, the proverbial Judges! Out of Randy, Paula and Simon - the only tolerable fellar is Randy the Dog! Paula is known to be speech-impaired and brainless, well the brain department is consistent- she's as mindless as ever, though her speech has only woresened - the woman can't even deliver one sentence properly, and mind you the sentence is only three words "that....was.....soulful...."! Simon's candid and merciless coments only evoke yawns (I must mention that I used to like him the best once upon a time!). Randy was normal earlier on, he still is - so apparently normal is in! We all have our favorite contestents, I do too. I hope Michael wins because he's the oldest! Comparatively that is! Otherwise, 29 is also a jealousy instigating number!American Idol(latest season) gets a 5 out of 10 from me.p.s. 1 full point is for the host Ryan Seacrest and about half a point for his signature "THIS....................is American Idol"

Rambo 4

For a non-Rambo-Rocky person too, I'd say Rambo 4 does manage to captivate the audience. So it obviously is a treat for Stallone lovers. Sylvester Stallone looks very impressivley shaped up for his age (62!). John Rambo is a man of few words because he can afford to, his actions speak so loud and clear that you're on the edge of your seat. He saves a bunch of Christian peacemakers from the wrath of Burmese army. Yes, thats the story. But the trail is so gory that I really felt nauseous in one or two sequences. I'd only heard about this effect of watching violence but now I know it exists. However, the pace and direction make up for those atrocious scenes, which I believe a typical Rambo lover looks forward to. So Rambo pretty much delivers what he is expected to. One dialogue that stayed with me, obviously voiced by our hero John Rambo "We live for nothing but die for something!" One dialogue that stayed with John Rambo, voiced by one of the missionary girls,"You've been living here in the woods for 25 years, don't you wonder what happened to your father back in America?" So t'wards the end of the movie after killing about a million evil soldiers and saving a lot of lives, Rambo says goodbye to his pre-historic lifestyle in the jungles of Burma, and goes back to Colorado (say it with a twang please).Rambo 4 gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

Sunday

Sunday is the first one to come under my scalpel of scrutiny.Actually managed to watch this one on a sunday! The other logical thing about the movie was the title song "missing sunday" - missing sunday was fun! Literally,even if you miss sunday, it's not gonna make a huge difference in your life. Shetty guy claims it to be a comedy thriller. Comedy does come about in the Arshad-Irrfan scenes, but the tragedy is that such scenes are sparse! Thrill was completely lost on me. Run-of-the-mill murder mystery with hardly any chase, spunk and climax. It's like a shoddy build-up only to end in a colorless spurt. Ayesha looks stunning in almost all scenes. Manzar the item number is groovy but that you can catch on radio..no need to burn a hole in the pocket. Ajay Devgun should REALLY stop attempting comedy...he makes a FAR better angry young man! So folks, there are better things to do on a sunday then watching it crumble on the big screen unless ofcourse you have an interesting partner you want to cuddle up to in the dark of a theatre and you dont really care whats on 70mm as long as it goes yap-yap!Sunday gets a 4 out of 10 from me.