Movie Reviews

Brahms: The Boy II Story:   A young family moves into the Heelshire Mansion where the son befriends a life-like doll named Brahms, in this sequel to ‘The Boy’ (2016). Brahms: The Boy II Review:   Picking up after the events of ‘The Boy’, Liza (Katie Holmes), her husband Sean (Owain Yeoman), and their son Jude (Christopher Convery) move into the guest house at the Heelshire Mansion. Over there, Jude befriends a life-like doll named Brahms, and begins to exhibit odd behaviour to the dismay of his mother and father, as they try to communicate with the young boy to figure what’s going on with him. Katie Holmes hasn’t been in a lead role for a while, and she certainly brings credibility to her character with her performance. Holmes makes it easy to sympathise with the mother Liza, who is troubled by events that take place at the start of the film. This is also reflected on the son Jude, and Christopher Convery is quite unsettling as the young boy battling his demons. It als...

STORY:   When a mysterious resort in Hawaii floats out an invite to host guests with the promise that the stake holders will fulfil their wishes – a group of Americans quickly fill in the form and jump on the next jet plane for a weekend that would end up changing their lives. REVIEW:   Hailing from different walks of life and with a very diverse set of desires waiting to be fulfilled, a bunch of hopefuls – Gwen (Maggie Q), Melanie (Lucy Hale), Sonja (Portia Doubleday), Bradley (Ryan Hansen), Brax (Jimmy O. Yang) and Patrick (Austin Stowell) – embark on a journey to pay a visit to the resort that promises to grant one’s deepest fantasy under the watch of its suspicious character of a manager – Roarke (Michael Peña). But, the catch is that each person gets to realise only one dream and there is no stopping the cycle until ‘that fantasy reaches its conclusion’. The concept of a modern-day genie seated in a posh resort, willing to reduce the burden of your regrets, sound...

Birds Of Prey Story:   Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) teams up with three deadly women to save herself and a young girl from the mob. Birds Of Prey Review:   After breaking up with the Joker, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) quickly discovers she’s no longer immune from the thugs of Gotham City. Besides a bunch of people she ticked off, she’s also hunted by the misogynistic and sadistic gangster Roman Sionis or Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) with his accomplice Victor Zsasz (Chris Messina). Additionally, a young girl Cassandra (Ella Jay Basco) gets caught in the middle of Harley’s mayhem, along with Renee Montaya (Rosie Perez), Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Helena Bertinelli (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). The women need to team up to have a fighting chance against Black Mask and his goons. From the outset, it’s evident that this film’s colour palette and vibe is bright and intentionally erratic. Director Cathy Yan’s vision borrows from other irreverent superhero and actio...

REVIEW:   A writer, a sketch artist, an aspiring actress and a budding pianist. All four March sisters are gifted with a unique talent, but they live in the times where the only two choices for women are marriage and death. Writer-director Greta Gerwig leads with a scene where the film’s protagonist Jo (Saoirse Ronan) is trying to sell her first story to a newspaper editor. In her very first scene, Gerwig successfully establishes the staggering prejudice that Jo is up against, as a woman. But that is no dampener for Jo, whose fiery spirit to follow her dreams and live independently will resonate with women even today. Set in the 1800s, Jo’s character is a rarity and Ronan beautifully captures her essence. Her performance is clearly one of the film’s many highlights. Ronan doesn’t miss a beat while portraying Jo’s internal conflicts and vulnerability as she marches on to chase her dreams, against all odds. And this is perhaps the strongest fabric running across all the women char...

STORY:   All hell breaks loose when a bereaved Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) learns that the tragic death of her family in a plane crash was, after all, no accident. Jaded and broken from the inside, Stephanie embarks on a journey to avenge herself. REVIEW:   It’s been three long, painful years since the now ‘junkie’ and self-immolating Stephanie lost her close-knit family to a plane crash over the Atlantic. Upon being enlightened with the truth, quite naturally, she finds a sense of purpose and is hell-bent on exacting revenge from the international terrorist outfit that was behind this organised crime. And to add fuel to the chaotic fire enters the taskmaster and a former (disgraced) CIA agent, Iain Boyd (Jude Law). To quieten the burning desire of vengeance, Stephanie accepts Iain’s hard-pressed offer to assume the role of a seasoned assassin. But her route to redemption proves to be a bumpy one as she has very limited life as well as combat skills. All that hype abou...

REVIEW:   April 11, 1966: It was one of the darkest days in the lives of many US Army soldiers, who survived a bloody gun battle, but the memory of that day kills them every day. One man, William H. Pitsenbarger (Jeremy Irvine) — a 21-year-old US Air Force Pararescueman — gave up his own life to save over 60 soldiers he had never met. He let go off the chance to escape and stayed back to help his countrymen, knowing well that it could be fatal. Writer-director Todd Robinson meticulously takes us through the guilt, the conspiracy and the struggle that became the hallmarks of this true story. He deploys an army of performers to showcase that convincingly. Sebastian Stan is impressive as Scott Huffman, a Pentagon-assigned civilian lawyer who investigates the fallen hero’s worthiness for a Medal of Honour. Stan deftly captures Huffman’s internal conflict and moral growth as he goes from being reluctant to committed towards the cause. Much of the emotional baggage is carried by the w...

STORY:  Salesmen Aman Tripathi (Jitendra Kumar) and Kartik Singh (Ayushmann Khurranna) find love in the capital city of Delhi, where they live in oblivion and their relationship grows and blossoms without being frowned upon. However, problems start to crop up when the two decide to go back to Allahabad and convince Aman's orthodox parents for their approval. REVIEW:  Kartik comes out to his 'lohar' father as a teenager and faces the brunt of it head-on, and so the thought of being judged and the idea of being ridiculed does not bother him much. But, his small-towner partner Aman dreads the mere thought of an ugly confrontation with his folks. While Kartik is still hopeful that his passion-filled romance will melt the Tripathais, Aman knows better ⁠— the chance of a collective acceptance is next to impossible! The opening scene of this romantic comedy manages to squeeze a wide smile out of you, such is the filmy charm of a flamboyant Kartik and his uptight, yet ...

STORY:   A young shipping officer Prithvi (Vicky Kaushal) grappling with a massive personal loss, takes it upon himself to unravel the mysteries of a haunted ship. Will he live to tell the tale? REVIEW:   Based on a true incident, the film begins with a chilling scene. As the film proceeds, debutant writer-director Bhanu Pratap Singh begins to tease us with flashes of the incident that led to Sea Bird becoming the dreaded haunted ship. He juxtaposes this with Prithvi’s poignant past. Solving Sea Bird’s mystery deaths gives Prithvi’s life a sense of purpose. Vicky Kaushal carries his character’s guilt and his new found mission with utmost honesty. The actor manages to deliver consistently despite a repetitive screenplay that puts him in the exact same situation, many times over. Bhumi Pednekar as Prithvi’s wife puts in a brief special appearance, while Ashutosh Rana’s character is too casually written to be taken seriously. Rana plays the learned professor Joshi...

Story:   Bheeshma (Nithiin) is a frustrated man who’s tired of being single all his life. When an incident changes his life forever but helps him get close to the woman he loves, how does he deal with it? Review:   Bheeshma   is Venky Kudumula’s second film and you can see he has a particular style of filmmaking that’s clearly becoming unique to him. With his first film   Chalo , the director had proved that a script can be as inane and unbelievable as he wants it to be, and yet, he can manage to keep you entertained. And with this one, he pulls it off yet again, maybe not as well as his debut film, but still, definitely making it clear that the crazy is what he excels at. Bheeshma (Nithiin) is a man more frustrated about his singleton status than he is about clearing his degree backlogs. He is a meme maker who has a panache for sprouting the silliest one-liners at odd moments. When he meets Chaitra (Rashmika Mandanna), it is love at first sight and he tries ha...