mkothamangalam Reviews

Dexter (2006–2013)

Slice of life

[9/10 · 15 December 2011]

Tonight's the night. And it's going to happen, again and again. It has to happen.

Jeffry P. Freundlich better known by the pen name Jeff Lindsay created a complex character called Dexter Morgan through his novels, of which Darkly Dreaming Dexter was the first. I read on Wikipedia that Jeff wanted to name the novel "Pinocchio Bleeds" but his publisher disagreed. I wonder how it would have turned out as a TV series.

I started watching Dexter in early 2011. I don't know why I took so long to fall deeply in love with this epic of a show. The pilot episode sets the stage for an intense, nail-biting thriller that follows in the remaining episodes of Season 1 focused around the main antagonist "The Ice Truck Killer" played brilliantly by Chris Camargo. I do not want to ruin the show for someone who hasn't watched the series yet, so no story or plot spoilers here.

James Manos, Jr. who co-produced and wrote the first season of The Sopranos developed the series that is exceptionally well executed and designed. The writing is top notch and in most episodes keeps you guessing on what's coming next. Although, only Season 1 is based on the novel and the other 5 seasons are original, I have to appreciate the effort Jeff Lindsay put in creating the characters in the story and the plot.

The characters of the series will be etched in your memory for a very long time. Jennifer Carpenter as Dexter's foster sister, David Zayas as Batista, Erik King as Doakes, Lauren Velez as LaGuerta play recurring characters through Season 6 and have done a commendable job of staying in character since Oct 2006. There are many others in the show including the antagonists in each season that need a special mention here. Chris Camargo, Julie Benz, Jimmy Smits, John Lithgow, Colin Hanks to name a few. All the other actors including extras do a phenomenal job which makes the show, for lack of a better word, real.

Although the series is about a serial killer and his vigilante ways, there is something so likable about Dexter's character that you will root for him every time he is trouble. The reason is his "code" which he adheres to 99.9997% of the time. He kills people who kill people. The kill room, the modus operandi and the act of taking lives are shown consistently flawless, after all this is fiction and makes for a great TV show. Michael C. Hall epitomized the character remarkably. His first person narration, diction and quips combined with unique facial expressions make you fall in love with the character instantly. Michael's method acting and certain subtle nuances in characterization resulted in a more lifelike performance.

Some of the episodes show a lot of blood and gore(Season 6) which may be a huge turn off for most people. Blood plays an integral part of the story right from the beginning of Season 1 as Dexter has a love-hate relationship with blood.

This review is as layered as the series. There is no beginning and end to such a multi-layered, open for more plot lines and new characters, type of story. Personally, I don't want the series to ever end and I am not even sure about a logical end to Dexter's character.

Please make "tonight the night" to start watching Dexter, if you haven't watched this show yet. The title credits theme is beautifully composed and shot and will slowly begin haunting you. Dexter and his dark passenger....the journey continues.

Ra.One (2011)

Ra.One: Ravaged One

[1/10 · 27 October 2011]

First reactions: This review will come as a huge surprise to some of my friends who know that I was one of the greatest admirers of Shahrukh Khan's work back in the day. I will try to be as honest as I can be with this review/rant of a movie from which I didn't expect much to begin with but wanted to check it out for myself what one can do with a questionable INR 175 crore(US$39 million).

The movie experience (VFX): Beginning credits set the tone for any movie. They need to engage the audience from the get go and showcase slick editing and production design. At the beginning of this movie when the titles start rolling, I wondered why such an expensive product (from Bollywood) has such lame titles with lightning and thunder effect. A modern superhero movie with 30's beginning credits? On a positive note, if there are people still figuring out whom the biggest superstar from India is then you really need to be in the theater when Rajinikanth's name appears on the screen at the beginning of the movie and you hear loud cheers and applause.

The rest of the movie is as disappointing as the beginning credits. Right from the first scene where a Gaming company employee explains something about signals, waves, 3D technology etc. to a bunch of people in an auditorium who are as confused as the audience in the movie theater. Shahrukh Khan shows up on screen in the next scene with heavy use of graphics and animation fights three Chinese women and Sanjay Dutt to rescue Priyanka Chopra. I don't understand why the producers spent so much money to hire the best in the business for VFX and come up with such sloppy work. The only thing to brag about was the VFX in the movie and how an Indian movie never had such spectacular computer graphics. The screenplay of the movie is a big joke. Nothing makes any sense. The game design company is destroyed and the game designer dies in a mysterious way on the launch night of their new video game. The funeral service is done and people still don't realize another person from their gaming team is missing. The company head has no clue of the death of his employees. Mumbai's Victoria Terminus is destroyed for no reason; cars fly aimlessly and penetrate through London buses. Songs, dances and vulgar comedy are all over the place. There is no style or sophistication about anything in the movie. In a superhero movie, you tend to root for the superhero. In this case, you just want the movie to end somehow because you just don't care for anyone in the movie.

Man of the moment - Shahrukh Khan: Shahrukh's Shekar character suffers from him trying too hard to be a geeky Tamil game designer. He comes across as neither geeky nor a Tamilian with his gibberish Tamil and terrible hairpiece. He hams throughout the movie and looks just plain shabby. In the superhero character as G.One, Shahrukh Khan is no T-1000 from Terminator 2. Robert Patrick was brilliant in that role. You wonder if Shahrukh is the same actor who we saw work hard on his character and bring out his inherent charm in movies like Swades and Chak De India in recent years.

The others: Arjun Rampal did his best in the title role given his minimal screen time. Kareena Kapoor is confused and lost in the plot. She doesn't know whether to mourn her husband's death or fall in love with a character that comes alive from the game or dance funnily to jarring songs or continue writing her book on Hindi swear words. The kid in the movie, Armaan Verma, is the only one with some kind of characterization. Akon's Chammak Challo sounds good but looks bad on screen.

Verdict: The movie is an exaggeration of gestures and speech from every single actor(?) in "random" scenes may be to justify the title of the movie. The plot of the movie has holes as big as the Grand Canyon. The characters do not connect with each other or the audience on any level. Simply put the movie was missing soul along with several other important elements of a superhero movie. Expensive experiment gone completely wrong. All said and done the movie will still be profitable for the producers as in the case of other disastrous movies like Singh is King, Wanted, Ready and Bodyguard.

Parama Veera Chakra (2011)

PVC...you better see

[9/10 · 14 January 2011]

It's a Herculean task when two stalwarts of Telugu Film Industry (TFI) come together and work on a project that has to live up to the audiences'expectations. In this case, there were no stalwarts and obviously no expectations.

Comedy king Natakiriti Rajendra Prasad left a vacuum in TFI after a string of commercially unsuccessful comedy genre films. His movies were always entertaining and most of them are still very funny to this date. One hero, and by no means an actor, Balakrishna has involuntarily become a hero who gives tremendous comic relief to audiences across various sections, barring very few who think is a great actor for reasons unknown.

The story of Parama Veera Chakra is rare and hard to find because there is no story to start with. The director and the hero just know that they have to make a movie together. Dasari might have been a good director in the past but why he is still making movies is beyond me. Balakrishna has acted, I repeat, acted in only a few movies in his entire career. All the other movies, he was just a caricature and a mere puppet used in every which way possible by the people around him. I pity Balakrishna and at the same time thank god that at least he has got the money from his father so he can lead a comfortable life. He's definitely missing many vital brain cells.

I just realized I am wasting my precious time writing about something no one will even remember in a few weeks. So, I am ending this so-called review abruptly. I know you must be wondering about the 9/10 rating, but I think the two old people deserve that for their dedication to complete the project they had started and also for spending months shooting for it. Agreed, they both need psychological help but guys they have created a new genre of films that have meaningless dialogs, senseless fights and emotionless acting.

Rakta Charitra (2010)

Disappointed

[3/10 · 22 October 2010]

Shiva: The very first scene sets the tone for the rest of the movie. First couple of minutes of the movie: No dialogue, unique camera-work, exceptional background score, rugged looking thugs, a victim and smoke from the exhaust of an ambassador car. The thug Ganesh is still remembered for his spine-chilling character. Trendsetter in Indian cinema.

Kshana Kshanam: Bank robbery scene grabs your attention from the very beginning. Another scene, even the bearded rowdies have enough intelligence to wait for Sridevi's elevator to stop at a certain floor so they know which floor she lives in, instead of just running up the stairs blindly like they are shown in other movies.

Company: The scene in which Malik and Chandu murder Saeed and his brother Anees in their car on a rainy day, and the very next scene with amazing soundtrack in the background while they drive away from the spot. Coldblooded to the core.

Its scenes like these and countless others in Kaun, Bhoot, Antham, Ratri among others that make me want to watch Ram Gopal Varma's movies. The actors in his movies don't have to say a word but still look every bit the characters they play. Audiences don't need vast narrations of scenes and explanations with voiceovers in a RGV movie. Because he is brilliant at visuals. He always says in his interviews that he makes movies for himself. And I have liked 90% of his movies. The other 10% are only bad because of him choosing the wrong plot or subject matter for those movies. Even his bad movies are exceptionally good in technical aspects. The actors in his movies are very natural and look every bit like the characters they portray in the movies.

Unfortunately, Rakhta Charitra is nothing like his earlier movies. Some say it's different and I agree with that. But the problem is its below RGV's standard of film-making. Its different because the actors are caricatures of the characters they play. The overdose of low quality dialogues is to a large extent laughable. The characterization is poor. All the actors in the movie are fine actors who look plain stupid in this movie with misplaced dubbing and directionless roles. Most of the movie just doesn't make sense. The screenplay is horrid. The background score is unusually loud and jarring and simply put senseless.

How could someone go wrong with an extraordinary story like this one? What's up with the shaking camera in the 1st half of the movie? Why would you make such great actors "act" when they can be their best just being natural? The 3 stars are for Vivek Oberoi trying very hard to stay in the skin of the character, Abhimanyu Singh for his excellent screen presence and the RGV's guts to make a daring movie about something so dreadful to most normal humans.

I am disappointed because I know RGV has a great potential and he could have done a much better job with this movie. Respect!!! I just hope that Part 2 delivers...and it has to with RGV, Surya and Priyamani in it..it better.

My Sister's Keeper (2009)

Heartwrenching Masterpiece

[10/10 · 15 October 2010]

Fact: Life is unpredictable. Death is inevitable.

I had many inhibitions about this movie when I watched the previews a couple of months before it's release. The previews pretty much give the story away just like any other Hollywood movie trailers. In this case, though you know basic premise of the movie, there is a lot more to it than what meets the eye. While on the topic of eyes, please make sure to bring a lot of tissues to wipe your tears off. What you can't wipe off are the thoughts you are going to take back home after watching such an emotional and sensitive story.

I didn't read the book written by Jodi Picoult on which this movie is based on and I haven't seen The Notebook or John Q, earlier movies made by Nick Cassavetes , the director who made this movie, but I can surely say this is one of my most favorite movies ever made in any language. It's a classic.

I like how the movie begins with each character in the movie explains its predicament and slowly connects with the audience at an individual level. The character Anna Fitzgerald played by Abigail Breslin is one of the most challenging roles played by any child actor. Abigail has tremendous potential to become one of the most prolific child artists in this generation. She shows the pain in her unwilling sacrifice, the happiness in being the younger sister, the anger in being just a donor child, and the sorrow in knowing the fact that she can't keep her sister alive. The only purpose of her life, to her parents, is to keep her dying sister alive. Abigail Breslin, a 13-yr old, is just magnificent.

The character played by Evan Ellingson is of a brother, Jesse, in the family whose two sisters are going through a lot of pain and emotional anxiety. Jesse's character in the book this movie is based on describes him as addicted to drugs and as juvenile delinquent. The character in the movie is a little different from the book, showing loneliness and pain for the most part and torn between parents and ailing sisters. He is dyslexic too which adds to the problems of the family. Evan did a great job and portrayed his loneliness in very natural way throughout the film.

The central character of the movie is Kate Fitzgerald, a cancer patient, played convincingly by Sofia Vassilieva. There are many emotional moments in the movie where I just couldn't stop weeping. Especially, the scenes that involve Kate and her love interest in the movie, Taylor, a fellow cancer patient who she meets at the hospital. As a viewer, I just wanted Kate and Taylor to fall in love at first sight, I wanted them to have a beautiful life, I wanted them to live longer happily together. The first time their eyes meet, the first time they go to the "hospital's prom", their first kiss.....the actors that played the characters steal the show with a tear-jerking performance. Sofia Vassilieva is brilliant as a dying cancer patient. A very matured and intense performance. She touches the hearts of each and every member of the audience with one of the best characters played in a long time in Hollywood. I really hope she wins more accolades and many more awards as she honestly deserves each one of them. Abigail and Sofia have already won 2010 Young Artists Awards for Best Performance in a Feature Film as Leading Actress and Supporting Actress respectively.

Jason Patric and Cameron Diaz play the characters of parents in this movie, handling the toughest situations any parent could handle in life.Cameron Diaz is a revelation in this movie. She is not goofy in this movie as she is in 20 of her other movies. She plays a lawyer, a mother with great amounts of pain, focusing solely on keeping daughter Kate alive at any cost. This goes to prove that we don't always need a Julia Roberts or a Meryl Streep to play characters like this one. If you liked Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side then this is Cameron Diaz's The Blind Side. Jason Patric's role has lesser screen time compared to the rest of the cast but he did his best in those few scenes. The scene where Kate climbs down the stairs wearing a beautiful prom dress and the rest of family is clicking pictures to capture one of the happiest moments in their lives and also in the movie, Jason's character Brian looks at his smiling daughter and mumbles "I love you" to her is one of the many heart wrenching scenes in the movie.

Alec Baldwin as Campbell Alexander who represents Anna in her case against her parents is adequate and did justice to his character.

This is a splendid movie. Just rent it and watch it tonight.

Enthiran (2010)

Rajini...the one and the only SUPERSTAR

[9/10 · 30 September 2010]

Can you always get the best results with the best ingredients? The answer is YES, YOU CAN. Provided you have an actor/superstar who listens to his director, an actress/global celebrity who just glows on screen throughout the movie and if the big budget is totally justified.

All the credit for this extravagant movie goes to Shankar Shanmugam. The man is an absolute genius. His creativity reaches great heights with this movie and elevates the Indian movie standard to an all time high. With every movie of his, the scale of movie-making grows tremendously. He got the best technology money can buy. Looks like the majority of the budget is spent on Animatronics and this movie has got plenty of that.

Rajinikanth is magnificent in this movie. In fact, he is the movie. He adds life to every single frame created by Shankar. Aishwarya does what she does best, look GORGEOUS.She has some pretty slick dance moves in the songs.

The Animatronics are the best you could find in any movie so far and not just an Indian movie. The songs are spectacular. Shankar shows the audience some of the best places in the world all for a few bucks. The locations are mind-blowing and totally unique to this movie. Shankar handpicked the locations for the songs and they are shot on a grand scale. The music is haunting and highly entertaining.

This movie will surely become one of the biggest movies ever made in India and without a doubt bring in a lot of moolah to the producers, distributors and the exhibitors all around the world.

Rajinikanth redefines super stardom. Truly, a legend of a man.

The Town (2010)

Make way for Ben Affleck. He's arrived...again.

[8/10 · 27 September 2010]

This movie proves that Gone Baby Gone is not a fluke by Ben Affleck. The man is definitely talented and we can expect great movies from him in the future as well.

The Town, although comes across as a heist movie, is an intense drama in lives of the criminals, the law enforcement and the victims. Ben and Jeremy were Doug and James throughout the movie. They were their characters till the end. I thought Jeremy Renner was great in Hurt Locker. In this movie he's nothing short of perfect. John Hamm, Mad Men fame, is adequate given the role. He did a fine job. Blake Lively is eye candy on Gossip Girl and in The Town is all that and then some. She gave an extraordinary performance and looked very hot. I wish her character was a bit more longer. Rebecca Hall had a tough role to play and she did justice to her role.

The background score and the camera work are great. The action scenes are splendid and were realistic and not gravity defying for a change.

Now, let's talk about the captain of the ship, Ben Affleck. The screenplay and the direction are impeccable. The story is wafer thin but the execution is great. There is never a bad scene or a bad action sequence in the movie. The movie maintains its pace for the full 2 hours. Ben did an amazing job of getting the best out of his cast and is therefore a very successful director of one of the best action/drama movies this year.

Devil (2010)

Night Chronicles # 1

[8/10 · 27 September 2010]

M. Night Shyamalan is finally back. The first few minutes of the movie give you the creeps and slowly let you into the elevator where everything begins.

I think the story has a lot of potential and so do the lesser known actors. The background score is apt and the initial score during the titles remind you of the music from Shutter Island's opening credits. The movie is gripping and almost an edge of the seat thriller with a few really good jolts.

The camera angles are just perfect. I liked the inverted images of the buildings in Philadelphia when the title credits roll in the beginning of the movie and slowly take you into the elevator where it's all gonna go down. No pun intended.

All the actors did a brilliant job. One of the security guards gets into the skin of his character. All the characters stuck in the elevator did a great job of misleading the audience towards the killer. I like the way the story connects in the end but felt it could be predictable to an avid mystery/suspense genre audience. Although, I couldn't find any lose-ends in the movie may be because there aren't any.

All in all, I liked DEVIL and can't wait to watch the two other movies in the Night Chronicles.

Why only 8 stars? May be because I want every Shyamalan's movie to be a Sixth Sense. But, the credit goes to the director of this movie who lives upto people's expectations of a Shayamalan's movie.