Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni can’t save 'It Ends With Us' from its own predictable and cringe-worthy narrative.

Arbitrage segues smoothly into a psychological thriller, seamlessly weaving the financial finagling into the slow decline and fall of Robert Miller's moral universe.

Tony has a completely nutty brainwave and the movie now clicks fearlessly into Wag The Dog (Barry Levinson) territory and becomes more than the sum of its parts - a tense rescue thriller and a great satire of Hollywood's always tenuous grip on reality!

So, wine as a subject is all about heritage, soil and the climate (roughly, 'terroir'), about family and honour. Oh, and wine critics and huge amounts of money. What a great setting for drama -every theme known to Greek tragedy is here in this complex, sadly elegiac movie.

The wonderful The Angels' Share reminds us that Loach's best work is always lit with flashes of humour as well as brilliant ensemble work between actors.

The plot such as it is the usual bourgeois breakdown and the final act is a shambles more like a dud war movie than a delicious comedy.

Side Effects is many things, and finally becomes a full throttle thriller moving ahead at great pace and no little intricacy.

This is a film at once calm, cold and scary.

In the last 10 years, there’s been an ever-widening niche of documentaries about Stanley Kubrick. Every one of them has been fascinating, one or two (like “Stanley Kubrick’s Boxes”) are as idiosyncratic as the director himself, and the most artful and memorable — “Filmworker” (2017), a portrait of Kubrick’s monkishly devoted gofer and right-hand assistant, […]

Last month, Catalan TV3 just aired a new documentary called "comprar, llençar, comprar", meaning "to buy, to throw away, to buy" in Catalan, right on time for the christmas shopping and the winter sales which started this week. You can now watch the

The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
Dir: Mike Mitchell
Cast: Chris Pratt, Tiffany Haddish
Rate: 

The Lego universe gets a sequel intended to keep the young fans happily engaged, but the film fails to come close to being entertaining, even if we whittle down expectations and limit them to their target audience.

The novelty that the first Lego movie had going for it, has, of course, worn off. First-off, the script by Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Raphael Bob-Waksberg goes intergalactic in its attempt to give Lego Batman a life-partner. Their resulting union is meant to spread the message of peace and love in the universe. That's a place where no Batman sequel has gone before, and therefore, seems a little too contrarian and far-fetched to stomach. Even the threat to Bricksburg by Lego Duplo invaders from outer space, seems like a marketing gimmick rather than a believable story idea.

The usual characters Emmet (Chris Pratt) and Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) end up having to confront an alter ego that appears more sinister and powerful than it seems at first glance. The belief that kids from kindergarten and pre-primary school will relate to this sort of story ideation is preposterous. That they make it all link to everyday family friction may seem commendable, but the consequent labelling is not something to be proud of.

The ideation here is musty, the characters are no longer likeable, and the story is too tortuous to be considered engaging. Garishly coloured animation, sentimental live-action montages meant to connect the dots, and musical numbers (including a not so catchy, Catchy Song) make it all the more off-putting. There's over-abundance of elements here, which makes the experience jarring for the senses. The puns being bandied (including Ourmomageddon) about are silly and patronising.

The stray humour sputters to life in intermittent gurgles, but it's too little to be entertaining. This sequel reeks of commercialisation, and there are no two ways about that!

Check out The Lego Movie 2 trailer here:

Also read: Fun facts about The Lego Movie 2 we bet you didn't know 

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Amavas
U/A: Horror
Dir: Bhushan Patel
Cast: Sachiin Joshi, Nargis Fakhri
Rate: 

The experience of watching a Ramsay Brothers horror is unique. It's almost synonymous to buying a ticket for a comedy. Dealing with Amavas, is pretty much the same. It's the modern-day equivalent to a Ramsay product. Do you love it? Yes, to bits! It's a laugh riot. But, that's not how director Bhushan Patel designed it to be, which is why, it's disappointing.

Patel, who previously directed the Bipasha Basu and Karan Singh Grover-starrer Alone, takes the tomfoolery a notch higher with this film. We are introduced to the familiar 'praacheenkal' knowledge of 'bhooth-pret'. There is a haunted mansion - resembling a cross between that in The Conjuring and Sushmita Sen's Vaastu Shastra.

Familiar tactics - creaking doors, spooky scores and shadows - are employed to evoke fear. Yet, the idiocy on display doesn't occupy my mind. What does is the fact that viewers could have been spared from the goings-on had the cast simply travelled to Paris. Let me explain. Karan Ajmera (Sachiin Joshi) is coaxed by girlfriend Aahana (Nargis Fakhri) to take a trip to the former's Brit mansion, instead of taking off on a romantic getaway to the French capital. On arriving, skeletons begin to tumble out, and they learn the reason behind the house being locked up for eight years. All hell breaks loose.

Even the slightest mention can be a spoiler in a horror, so we'll leave the details aside should you wish to catch this one. But, we can reveal that this uninspiring story ticks every clichéd check box in the horror rule book, including possessed bodies, hapless spirits, barren trees, a grave and temple bells. In addition, there's a half-faced doll, and a bored ensemble of supporting actors who look more clueless than the doll in question. As lovers, Joshi and Fakhri certainly lack chemistry. In fact, the latter's visible disinterest even overshadows Joshi's ineptness.

What is really horrifying is the depiction of the psychiatrist, played by Mona Singh. 'Calm down' or an increase of medicinal dose, are apparently appropriate responses to paranoia and migraine. While the boyfriend battles serious issues, the girlfriend busies herself by exploring the estate, and playing hide-and-seek.

The incoherence is baffling, and one is only compelled to wonder why a team of qualified artistes would create this kind of cinema. But since the movie doesn't take itself too seriously -the quality of VFX and continuity being obviously ignored - it is best relished as a comic caper.

As for Fakhri, who makes a comeback of sorts to Bollywood with this film, she had more meat in her five-minute act in the American thriller, Spy (2015) than she does here. Pro tip for the writers - Just send them to Paris next time. It's always a good idea!

Also Read: Nargis Fakhri annoyed with press prying into personal life; leaves Amavas promotions midway

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Badla
U/A: Thriller
Dir: Sujoy Ghosh
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Amrita Singh
Ratings: 

Sujoy Ghosh takes us back to the basics with his latest offering. Badla, as the title suggests, is a revenge-drama loosely based on the Spanish thriller, The Invisible Guest. Like with the original, it's not too difficult to decipher the end a good while before we get there.

Yet, Badla isn't predictable. What it certainly does lack, though, is the smarts that could be expected. Ghosh designs this film as more than just a whodunit. He lays out his cards neatly, unfolding one incident after another. So, it's all about cracking codes in the wobbly story, narrated by Naina (Taapsee Pannu), a top-notch businesswoman embroiled in a murder case.

She was found injured in a hotel room, with her lover lying dead on the floor. There is no sign of anyone else entering or leaving the room. Naina maintains, she didn't kill her lover. The film revolves around a single meeting with her potential lawyer, Badal Gupta.

Badla soars because of its unpredictability before we arrive at the end. The key lies in the names of its lead characters - Naina (eyes), a play on how truth depends on whose point of view is being considered. There is an inherent Rashomon philosophy in the narrative. Badal's name is a play on the film's title itself. Ghosh uses these props to confuse his viewers, create mirages that they are frequently misguided by in their tryst to keep the guessing game going.

At one point in the midst of this rigmarole, we look towards the screen and wonder why Bollywood doesn't exploit the terrific Amrita Singh enough. As Bachchan and Pannu battle it out in a verbal duel, it's Singh who does the emotional heavy lifting. Of course, both Bachchan and Pannu are terrific actors, but Pannu's Naina is played in a rather single note. Naina wins awards, is intoxicated by power, and is guilty about her affair. But the required nuances demanded by the narrative are missing from Pannu's act. There are a few genuine shockers, but it is largely a simplistic tale put together in a complicated fashion.

As admirers of thrillers, we are not failed by Ghosh. The tapestry of tension that he weaves is unparalleled. The camerawork by Avik Mukherjee deserves a mention. Set in Glasgow, the setting plays a part that's as essential as the characters. I was sold to the ride that Badla took me on; but, does it live it up to the thrill of Ghosh's Kahaani? Nah, that will need cleverer writing. Yet, this is worth a watch.

Also Read: Exclusive - Taapsee Pannu on Badla: I am a very vindictive person by nature

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Milan Talkies
U/A: Drama romance
Dir: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Cast: Ali Fazal, Shraddha Srinath
Ratings: 

This film is so inherently inconsistent, uneven in its storytelling that you feel like rooting for it still, simply because of the scattered set-pieces full of humour and insights/mannerisms of a small town, north India that you encounter once in a while.

It's almost like spotting diamond among the roughs - whether that be the local uncle breaking into nostalgic songs after a few pegs of whisky, or the street goon, wannabe Vidhayak (legislator) - both being the same - desperate to test his skills as a Hindi film star.

We're referring to Uttar Pradesh in particular, and Allahabad (now Prayagraaj) to be more specific - effectively a land of bakchods (blabber-mouths), with tonnes of tashan (exhibition of bravado) dictating mofussil male lives.

I know this isn't as true anymore, but another aspect that has geographically remained common to Indian towns is the cinema hall (or talkies) as the all-important landmark (there are usually two or three max in a district), where both the rich and the poor, predominantly young, but also the old, merge for their movie entertainment, and other accoutrements that naturally surround it.

Check out the trailer here:

Milan Talkies, that the film is named after, is one such adda/theatre in Allahabad where a young dude spends most of his time in the projection room, aspiring to become a Mumbai filmmaker when he isn't shooting low-budget films with neighbourhood talents himself. One assumed this would be some sort of a version of Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian classic Cinema Paradiso (1988) - ultimate tribute to the movies.

Hell, no. This is a full-on, wannabe-classic romantic story about that boy, and the girl with an authoritarian dad, and the fact that they can't get together - even as the film doesn't care to explain exactly why. And the two are happy to elope - not once, but several times in a row, and oh my god, 'will they, won't they,' just go on, and frickin' on.

The film is directed by Allahabad boy Tigmanshu Dhulia (Paan Singh Tomar, Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster), who whether he likes it or not is probably better known for the dialogue, "Jab tak Hindustan mein saneema hai, log c****iye bante rahenge," that he delivered as an actor in Anurag Kashyap's iconic Gangs Of Wasseypur (2012). Such is how crisp dialogues (like tag-lines in ads) work on us anyway.

Whether this film itself is part-autobiographical or not, Dhulia got noticed as a filmmaker with his debut Haasil (2003) - at the time a rare, robust insider's account of his home-town, and campus politics in a north Indian small-town. Over the years, that script (or the premise, if you may) has been milked so much to death, that it's turned into a tiring genre of its own.

Ali Fazal (similarly seen as a UP ruffian in the Amazon Prime series, Mirzapur) plays the protagonist here - a role that I'm told has been through several replacements (Imran Khan, Shahid Kapoor, etc) in the past. Although at some portions he sounds/behaves a lot like Dhulia himself, Fazal is competent to the core (no doubt). As is the female lead (Shraddha Srinath), making her Hindi film debut.

The film itself though does little to the genre, besides deliberately revisit some old-world Bollywood cliches. Maybe there's some subversion (that I'm unable to see). Maybe a full-blown, big-screen romance hinges much on the scale, for effective suspension of belief, which is sadly missing. Either way, one suspects, much of this movie pretty much remains in the filmmaker's imagination/head. Rest of it, quite honestly, gave me a bit of a headache.

Also Read: Sonu Nigam's soulful voice in Shart from Milan Talkies will tug at your heartstrings

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U/A: Drama romance
Dir: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra
Ratings: 

Ritesh Batra's The Lunchbox, achieved international success six years ago, and despite two international projects (one with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda) along the way, Batra comes home again, to his comfort zone. He has on offer here, a rather chaste story of kinship, bordering on romance between two acutely lonely souls. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

While the construct here is similar to The Lunchbox, it doesn't garner a matched significance because of the inherent familiarity in the set-up. This time around he takes on an unlikely pairing of opposites — Sanya Malhotra as Miloni, a CA foundation-course topper from a typically repressed middle class gujarati home, and Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Rafiq, an impoverished photographer, overburdened with familial responsibilities.

Romance for Batra is not about heavy emotion and carnality. It is a process of revealing your innermost fears without putting them into words for someone you can share them with. Both Rafiq and Miloni experience loneliness in varying degrees, and for diverse reasons. Rafiq is impoverished, shares his one-room tenement in a slum colony with fellow photography peddlers.

Check out the trailer here:

In comparison, Miloni is well-heeled; on her way to being considered successful in life. They come from different social strata, and if they spent time thinking about it, they would never have entertained the fanciful notion of getting together. It's a random connection at best, which is made further intriguing by the lie it gets embroiled in. Repressed emotions find an outlet for Miloni in this covertly rebellious action. For Rafiq, they become an aspirational pursuit bordering on hope.

Batra focuses his viewfinder on the warmth that develops between the two characters. It is quite clear that they are drawn to each other based on their individual needs. The timely play of Bollywood songs heightens the possibility of romance for a bit. Peter Raeburn's sweetly compelling score lends nuance to some of the quietly definite moments in the film.

The narrative is an assemblage of beautiful events shot with breath-taking lucidity — by cinematographers Tim Gillis and Ben Kutchins. Mumbai beckons hauntingly as the two central characters make this seemingly fleeting tryst last a lot longer than what seems possible in real life. Photograph is the emblematic representation of that connection we seek in these disconnected times. It speaks to us, but not as much in words as in the moments that warm our hearts.

Also Read: Ritesh Batra's Photograph gets a thumbs up from critic

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Mere Pyare Prime Minister
U/A: Social drama
Dir: Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
Cast: Anjali Patil, Om Kanojiya
Ratings: 

What's the first thing you wonder about this film, given its title, and the fact that no head honcho of a democratic state in world history has ever had as many biopics - shorts, docs, features, web-series - simultaneously being made on him/her, even while they're still in office?

So, well, no, this isn't really a film on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Or it is, only by suggestion, since a boy writes a letter to the PM, which would be Modi (who else), but we don't see his lookalike on screen (unlike Uri, and many others in the pipeline).

Be that as it may, a film that focuses on the problem of urban, open defecation, the eradication of which should be on the agenda of every corporator/legislator, and of course the PM (current, or ones to follow), belongs to proper public service advertising/announcement (PSA) space, rather than propaganda of any kind.

Why are your suspicions slightly legit still? For it's hard to explain why the filmmakers would go ahead with this PSA script (unless they're genuinely struggling, or been forced into coming up with one), when every element here has been dished out plenty of times before, and there is no attempt to top any of it either.

Check out the trailer here:

And you could go right from trying to meet, or connect, with a head of state (I Am Kalam, My Name Is Khan), to detailing life among kids in a Mumbai slum (Salaam Bombay, Slumdog Millionaire), or in general, the Mumbai slum itself (Dharavi, Gully Boy), to addressing head-on how the poor in India (men, but women, in particular) have to bear the burden of shitting in the open, because there are no frickin' loos, which is what the rather entertainingly done, recent Akshay Kumar picture, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, was all about.

Even as a peek into the lives of Mumbai slum-dwellers, who constitute about half the metropolis, the Iranian Majid Majidi's Beyond The Clouds (2017) seemed a far more perceptive, original and thought-provoking take, than this local, thoroughly distant, predictably upper-class view of the lives of the downtrodden others, with every conceivable cliche that must dictate it - rape, domestic violence, drunken males, and Sheela Ki Jawani, Baby Doll type of Bollywood songs/entertainment as the only route towards momentary escape.

This is the sort of film that ideally aims to ride on its supposedly noble intentions alone, rather than engaging characters or story, the gist of which is that there's a little boy (a wonderfully cast Om Kanojiya), who does odd jobs selling newspapers, condoms, etc.

He shares a lovely bond with his single mother (Anjali Patil). He writes a letter to the PM hoping for a public toilet in his slum. That the right to shit in peace must involve a petition to the PM, no less, is tragic enough. That you don't feel for anyone in this film (let alone, the issue), with the camera hovering around a bunch of parallel songs/story-lines, aimed to extend a simple short film into a full-length feature, is perhaps worse.

Also Read: Watch video: The fun-filled making of Mere Pyare Prime Minister's title track

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Junglee
U/A: Action
Director: Chuck Russell
Cast: Vidyut Jammwal, Pooja Sawant, Atul Kulkarni, Akshay Oberoi
Ratings: 

There may be a relevant message lying at the heart of Junglee's story, but the wafer-thin plot renders director Chuck Russell incapable of translating it into a thought-provoking film. Poor execution and bad acting makes this Vidyut Jammwal-starrer a mere comedic watch.

This wildlife adventure revolves around Raj (Jammwal), a vet working in Mumbai. He shows his extraordinary Kalaripayattu skills by taking on a bunch of goons who are torturing a stray dog. While his relationship with his father may be strained, the two harbour a shared passion - their love for elephants. Raj's trip to the elephant sanctuary owned by his father turns all the more interesting when he meets female mahout Shankara (Pooja Sawant) and a journalist-animal rights activist (debutante Asha Bhat). However, our mighty hero has little time for romance - trouble looms large over him as he has to protect the elephants from poachers (led by Atul Kulkarni) who trade their ivory tusks for moolah. How Raj saves the pachyderms from the hunters forms the crux of the story.

Watch the trailer here:

Russell appears to be well-acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of his protagonist. So, you have a script that has little plot and more frills. You will be sold at the good ol' hand pummeling, as Jammwal spices up the desi maar dhaar with mixed martial arts. As for the rest of the cast, Kulkarni's poker-faced bad guy act is something one doesn't expect from a seasoned actor. Sawant is convincing while Bhat as the babe in the jungle is completely wasted. Akshay Oberoi as the forest ranger and Makrand Deshpande are sincere.

On the upside, Mark Irwin's cinematography keeps you hooked to the screen. He captures every moment in the lush jungles with sincerity. But that doesn't save the film from sinking. With a runtime of 115 minutes, this thriller feels longer than it should. You will miss the deft direction that Russell displayed in his previous outings, The Mask and The Scorpion King.

Also Read: Chuck Russell on Junglee: Made film keeping Vidyut Jammwal in mind

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After four years off our TV screens, Downton Abbey returned on Monday night for the world premiere of its big screen adaptation and received mixed reviews from critics.

फिल्म में जैतून (अपारशक्ति), विजय दीनानाथ चौहान (दिव्येंदू शर्मा) और जुगनू (हर्ष मायर) की तीन कहानियां चल रही हैं

जुरासिक वर्ल्ड : फॉलन किंगडम की रिलीज़ के साथ ही इस फ़िल्म की चर्चा शुरु हो गई है. जे ऐ बेयोना इस फिल्म के निर्देशक हैं और समीक्षकों की राय में उन्होंने इस फ़िल्म को पिछली जुरासिक फ़िल्मों से बेहतर बनाया है. फ़िल्म की कहानी पिछली फ़िल्म जुरासिक वर्ल्ड के अंत से शुरु होती है. जुरासिक पार्क वाले द्वीप पर एक सुषु्प्त ज्वालामुखी सक्रिय हो गया है और अब डायनासोर्स को उस द्वीप से निकाल लाने के लिए लोग कोशिश कर रहे हैं.

'सिकैरियो : डे ऑफ द सोलडाडो' में सिकैरियो, का मतलब है, हत्यारा और सोलडाडो का मतलब है सैनिक. ये फिल्म डेनिस विलेनेव की 2015 में आई फिल्म सिकैरियो की सीक्वल है.