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Bramayugam (2024)
Cinematic masterpiece and great storytelling
Brahmayugam, an atmospheric film, thrives on its captivating plot. The film delivers its core premise effectively, albeit with minor storytelling imperfections. The central antagonist, a master of a mysterious mansion, wields magical powers to ensnare unsuspecting visitors. A yakshi (a female vampire) shares an enigmatic connection with the master, yet the context remains elusive. Elusive also is how a servant cook holds such immense knowledge of the secrets of the master and the mansion, even granting his deep rooted connection to the estate. It's understandable if viewers crave a deeper exploration of historical context of the servant cook but the focus and time was instead spent on the enigmatic yakshi angle which also leads nowhere. A more robust exploration of the mansion's history could have enriched the narrative.
However, the film's true brilliance lies in its monochrome color palette, which adds an unparalleled sense of intrigue and mystery. Its monochrome color palette weaves magic, enhancing the film's mystery and serving as a constant reminder of the colorless nights. Despite its imperfections, Brahmayugam remains a unique gem in Indian cinema, leaving us pondering both its captivating allure. To fully appreciate its genius, watch the movie and let the atmospheric hues envelop you.
Burden of Proof (2023)
Fantastic true crime documentary that bridges the gap between real and tv. But a lot of holes you can poke
There are aplenty of detective shows with savant, heavily invested in truth and have always the right intuition. This true crime documentary puts you in the shoes of an a brother who is obsessed with finding out what happened to his missing sister, as parents suspected of crime against their own kid and detectives as they process the case.
This documentary is not just a mystery, but also a family drama and a psychological exploration. It shows how we can be biased, mistaken and misled by our own emotions and assumptions when we judge others. It also raises the question of what could happen when we are not patient and compassionate, but heavily biased, thinking the worst. It follows the folly with police process when not done correctly but also highlights some incredible techniques that are used.
The brother, Stephen, believes that his parents are somehow involved in his sister's disappearance. He thinks his father did something terrible and his mother helped him cover it up. He spends years trying get an answer in the way he likes, even at the cost of his relationship with his mother. He takes keen interest in the case police reopened and he conducts his own investigation, uncovering new evidence and secrets.
The documentary follows his journey as both a victim and an accuser, as well as the work of the police, who face challenges, errors and breakthroughs in their quest for justice. The direction is impressive, but not flawless. The series could be shorter and avoid some repetition. It could also give more insight into the bond between the siblings and what Stephen was doing when his sister vanished. The ending is powerful but unsatisfying, as it leaves many questions unanswered and many details unexplored. It seems like the makers have made up their minds about the case and do not want to share more information. Stephen gets some closure, but not the kind he expected.
Despite these flaws, the show is captivating and the ending is shocking. It will leave you wanting to know more about the case and its aftermath.
White Men Can't Jump (2023)
A great casual watch
If you have watched the original or love basketball, then maybe you wouldn't like it. But it could be an absolutely fun watch for the rest. Most hate for the movie comes from the former two groups. And this movie isn't about greatness of basketball or an attempt to recreate the original movie.
What it is is a creative spin on the orignal movie. The premise remains the same with emphasis on friendship and family. The hustling and most of basketball scenes are brushed through because the viewer can fill in the blanks. The actors do a good job and the plot is relatable and that's enough to give this one a try.
Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet (2020)
Promising preface but not a fan of the narrative and execution. Doesn't come anywhere near silicon valley
I can see that mythic quest is trying expand on what silicon valley brought to the table, but it fails to do so in a way that doesn't insult your intelligence. It is a Straight up comedy but game development has no place in it
Brooklyn 99 is a police station based comedy which doesn't take any of the actual preface of a police station seriously but is very entertaining.
Silicon valley on the other hand does parody of the actual silicon valley. For it to do that it takes into account the actual working of venture funded software development space.
What I'm saying is mythic quest is more like Brooklyn 99. None of the characters hold any semblance to their real counterpart. It's a comedy that wears a disguise of high stress game development environment but this doesn't work for it because it tries to be in between Brooklyn 99 and silicon valley.
One Cut Two Cut (2022)
Mindless effort at comedy
Though there are comedians as writers and actors none seem to have grasped doing comedy is different from making a movie.
Rather than creating comedy they have gone ahead and created a recipe for headache with ingredients such as multiple languages including including bad english that is barely real, scenarios and dialogues that fall flat, unimpressive and headache inducing background music, forgettable characters and pointless story.
This probably would've done well as a school play because it probably gives a lesson to children of what a pointless comedy feels like, and children would've like it.
For anyone else this is a drag.
Army of the Dead (2021)
Plenty zombie action and fresh plot but loopholes as rotten as zombies.
Not the best of zombie movies, not the best Zack Snyder movie but still a decent one with a few hits and a few misses. Great cast delivering enjoyable performance. Dave Bautista carries it all the way and there are fun characters keeping the mood up but heavily underutilised and maybe not needed. This movie could've been fined tinted a lot more. All in all I did enjoy the movie and the loopholes and inconsistencies didn't hinder the fun that much.
Guns Akimbo (2019)
A good action entertainer that just missed being perfect
We can liken this movie to death race and gamer movies but it's very easy to Love this more than the others. The performance of Daniel Radcliffe is excellent and we can see that he is in his elements. The performance by all the characters are spot on although other than the main antagonist and the protagonist there's not much mar in any other role. And there's at least one character that needed more depth I feel, which is of Nix.
Story isn't really that great and that's not why we would watch this, three direction and action and character are the things that keep us glued but I feel that a lot of plot holes could've easily been avoided and made it a much better movie to watch. The story is really in taters in some cases for example anyone in role of the protagonist would've made the obvious choice of surrendering to the police and there were plenty of chances to save himself from further complications., And given how he is portrayed to the intelligent kind here he should've easily gotten out of the situation unless there were other compelling reasons not to, which could have been easily implemented. Three other example is the injection of backstory elements to the charater of Nix and her entire portrayal which seriously could've been much more enhanced or removed completely.
But these imperfections can easily be forgotten and watch Radcliffe preform.
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
Great potential ruined by greatly stupid ending
I went into the movie seeing it's rated good in IMDb and I was disappointed, but not too the very end from the beginning but at the very end. The pretext is nothing new, an angry, driven and extremely smart man trying to bring the system down for injustice he perceives.
Most of the time the audience is rooting for that guy, and I think the same is true here. However the creators of this movie thought to give the good guy act to an arrogant person, in whom we don't see an aeoto of remorse or any humbling experience but the disgruntled whose actions we all empathise with but is a bit too violent out done by cleverness which he should be known for, of the arrogant guy defending the system without making any effective augment towards the system.
The ending is abrupt and really douses all the hype built by the rest of the movie. Sometime a person wants to a tragedy that end up being comedy, in somewhat a similar fashion this movie didn't quite know what it's working for.
Hannibal (2013)
It's classy but lacks substance
It's no doubt captivating, with a phenomenal cast and their precise delivery. Comparing it with a similar series Mindhunter which had the situation and charters personality offset, I found that it lacks the realism so well projected in its counterpart.
To put it vaguely this is to Mindhunter as James bond is to the Jason Bourne.
Vice (2018)
Tries too hard ends up confusing
The possibility of a great story and great direction is immense but is immensly wasted on unnecessary and distracting elements such as narration, background music, dramatisation etc. It was tiring to watch.
The Good Wife (2009)
another good legal drama but also look out for clichés
One thing that is not cliché about this title is that they have brought together two things, legal drama and a regular drama.
It keeps mostly to the legal side with brilliance of the good lawyer character shown who also happens to be a good wife and takes help of this side story sometimes to keep things interesting and not monotonous.
It does run out of ideas sometimes and it'll be like watching the same situations played over again but does well most part. All in all it turns out to be a pretty good combination even though there is lot of scope to emphasis and bring out the the good wife story and character more.
Ra.One (2011)
A sci fi hero and villain take their battle into real world and a game developers family is caught in between.
I have to admit that despite my prejudices this movie delivered a fair deal of entertainment. Of course it depends whether you watch it in a theater or on your computer. There are good and bad in every aspect of this movie, You could skip the bad ones and straight away move to the cool ones. God help you if you are going to see this in a theater. Parodies- some are good and some are bad, pathetic parody of tamilians and it would make any tamilian puke, I'm not one though i still feel like puking, Its totally not justified nor entertaining. The opening scene which involves parody of final fantasy like character was superb - SRK and priyanka. There are some epic comedy scenes but you'll know that it all been put there as a formulaic element. And some are so bad I didn't wait to see just skipped forward.
The concept however badly portrayed here is exceptionally well developed and could've been very entertaining. SRK does a good job despite my prejudice. Sound is bad, costume and make up are all pathetic. Its like a dish gone bad because you mixed curd with spaghetti. ewww!!
The plot is very well developed for a superhero, scifi movie and it has done a decent job in indianising it if you turn blind eye towards the things that the movie does extremely bad. I liked the villain, Chinese guy, arjun rampal, the concept of gaming. Hate the development of a love story and trying to humanize the movie. Still worth a watch if you only watch it on your computer.
Colombiana (2011)
A vendetta machine trains to take revenge but the decision she takes might be just over the line....
This isn't any different from loads of films that are already there on this theme. Kill bill being being the top class of it, but I never get bored of an assassin movie, they are just so cool. So this movie for the fans of this genre wont disappoint and will give you exactly what you expect, lot of coolness, a vendetta machine who is a sexy female in this case, a final unreal showdown and more but that might make the movie nothing more than just that. Hanna was a recent movie on similar base, but i prefer this on overall to Hanna. Final verdict- this movie wont disappoint you if you are looking for action and stealth with vendetta to add..
The Devil's Double (2011)
another story describing the psychopathic dictator's life..
Similar to the movie "The last king of Scotland" in revealing the sadistic, psychopathic dictators lives, this movie tells us about the life of Odai Saddam Hussain the elder son of Saddam Hussain in the perspective of his double lattif Yahia. The movie does justice to the context but is by no means complete in its effort. Odai has psycopathis tendencies especially towards women apparently was shared by his double too, both indulged in domestic violence. The movie tends to lean towards making the story in a "good guy vs bad guy" perspective. But i remember one of the news papers saying "this is the kind of story to be made into a Hollywood movie" and to a good extent this happens to be true, But in my opinion it could've been so much more and anyone who would dig deep enough would agree with me. Politics is kept to a minimum and little bit of fiction added it really doesn't hurt very much by doing it even though you can guess the true from the fiction quite easily. all in all this was an entertaining movie.
Solomon Kane (2009)
A renounced warrior trying to escape his past finds a reason to fight again even at the cost of his soul.
A typical hack and slash, dungeon, witches and magic movie. Anyone who looks for these things Solomon Kane does it perfectly and in comparison with the movie "The Ghostrider" this movie does plenty justice to the genre. The protagonist a warrior, an antihero who has won many battles for greed and power.One day a grim reaper appears before him claiming his soul is to be damned for some deal. He cheats death and begins a life of solitude but it is not lived for long and a man of peace finds a reason to fight again even at the cost of his soul been damned. I was looking for a movie like this and it does what it was supposed to do. You can't expect this to be a masterpiece it is meant to be a hack n slash movie...so if you are looking for that this might be a good choice.