Hit And Run (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – Caught!

1.5/5 Stars

‘Hit And Run’ is a film about a young man, Yul Perrkins/Charles Bronson running away from his murky past, who is trying to start a new life with his girlfriend Annie Bean. Currently in a witness protection program, there are a few aspects of his past that is girlfriend is unaware of. Enter the horrific criminal, Alex Dmitri!

It’s mildly entertaining in patches. The problem is that these patches are too few and far in between. Predictable plot, lacklustre dialogue and a cringe-worthy Bradley Cooper!

A young couple, Charles Bronson (Dax Shepard) and Annie Bean (Kristen Bell), are leading a hassle-free life. Charles, a former abettor in bank robberies, is in a Witness Protection program and Annie teaches at a college. Charles is assigned a clumsy United States Marshal, Randy Anderson (Tom Arnold), for protection. Things are going fine until Annie has to give a job interview for the post of heading a department at a college in Los Angeles. She has to relocate and Charles, who has been hiding the truth from her all along about his real identity, faces a dilemma. After much deliberation, he agrees to drive his girlfriend to LA. Problems arise when Annie’s suspecting ex-boyfriend Gil Rathbinn (Michael Rosenbaum) is anguished at the prospect of losing his former lady love and gets Charles’ old accomplice Alex Dmitri (Bradley Cooper) to know about his whereabouts. What follow is a sequence of car chases, gunshots, kidnappings, confrontations, accidents and eventually, justice is meted out to everyone concerned. The plot, albeit good, wasn’t done justice to from the writers and the actors.

Kristen Bell was just about passable in the film. Else, Dax Shepard, Michael Rosenbaum, Bradley Cooper and the rest of the supporting cast, just amble away on the screen without much purpose. Some of the dialogues are bizarre and totally out-of-place. Even the chemistry between the lead couple (also dating in real life) is bland.

The car-chases have been shot excellently. There are a couple of slow-motion shots which look brilliant on the big screen. The score is amusing, to say the least. There’s a scene in which a police vehicle catches the Marshal Gil’s car for speeding and you have a song playing in the background (sounding like a typical 80s Bollywood number). And, you’re left flabbergasted. Director David Palmer and Dax Shepard (now you know!), deliver bad writing and extract poor performances from the cast.

Would you want to watch Bradley Cooper, with golden braided hair, hamming away to badly-written dialogue? No! (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza

The Campaign (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – The Muck Stops Here!

3.5/5 Stars

Incumbent Congressman Cam Brady is set to win yet another term at the office unopposed. Till, two businessmen, the Motch brothers, seize the opportunity to place their man, Marty Huggins, against Brady. The battle begins over who will conquer the North Carolina district.

Exceptional dialogue, amazing performances and great concept! This is not just a raunchy comedy, nor is it merely a political drama. It’s a mix of both!

Cam Brady (Will Ferrell) is the unopposed candidate for the 2012 elections in North Carolina district. Posing as a typical politician, Cam is shown to be a womanizer, a high-handed leader, a maverick, and just an arrogant go-getter. He beds cheerleaders, women supporters, competitors’ wives, and is silly enough to let it out in the public as well. He also tends to give the same speeches everywhere, no matter what the context is or who the addressees are. Despite all this, Cam is a favourite with the voters.

The Motch Brothers, Glenn Motch (John Lithgow) and Wade Motch (Dan Aykroyd), have a plan of setting up a huge plot in one of the districts of North Carolina, where the employees will not be Americans, but Chinese. This will be done so that the Motch brothers don’t have to spend a penny on the shipping costs and products can be made within the American territory. However, this method of ‘insourcing’, as the Motch brothers call it, is nothing but injustice being meted out to the Americans. They ask one of their influential friends, Raymond Huggins (Brian Cox), to convince his naïve son Marty Huggins (Zach Galifianakis) to stand up against Cam Brady during the elections.

Now, Marty is a bit on the clumsier side. He is not well groomed, neither is he well-spoken. He and his family, along with wife Mitzi Huggins (Sarah Baker) and kids, spend time indulging in food fights, playing childish games, not taking themselves too seriously, hence, leading a hassle-free life.

It would have been quite a big ask to get the extremely gullible Marty to stand up to the ‘strong-haired, handsome, well-groomed and charming’ Cam Brady. So, the Motch brothers hire the super-smart Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott) to become Marty’s campaign manager. So, the Huggins family undergoes a big makeover to ‘fit’ into the political circle. There’s mud-slinging, sleeping around, ugly altercations and a lot of political skirmish among the two rivals to decide who the winner is. The concept is terrific, backed with wonderful performances.

The performances are amazing. Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, in particular, are mind-blowing. Even though they play rivals in the film, the chemistry in their skirmishes, lights up the screen. Will Ferrell is the arrogant politician, who refuses to bow down to the clumsy nobody, played by Zach. One sleeps with the other’s wife. The other gets the former’s son to call him ‘Dad’. Hilarious gags all around, justified by brilliant acting. Even the supporting cast, comprising John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, Brian Cox, Sarah Baker and Dylan McDermott, is absolutely amazing in their respective roles.

The casting is perfect, but the writing is even better. The scenes couldn’t have played out better than they did, thanks to brilliant writing by Shawn Harwell and Chris Henchy. Some of the one-liners, anecdotes and jokes do leave you a bit dumbfounded, but you end up guffawing anyway. Often, the jokes border on the ridiculous, but the effortlessness of the cast is what pulls off the punches. You don’t need too much effort in comedy when you have Zach Galifianakis of ‘The Hangover’ fame. Director Jay Roach, who has directed films such as ‘Meet The Fockers’, ‘Meet The Parents’ and ‘Dinner For Schmucks’, gives yet another laugh-riot!

Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferell, are phenomenal. 'R' rated, but funny nevertheless. (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza

Shark Night 3D (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – Unintentionally Funny, But You Still Won’t Laugh

0.5/5 Stars

Bunch of college students pack their swimwear and head to one of their friend’s lake house for a weekend getaway. Problem - The Lake is infested with deadly sharks. Be it the acting, story, screenplay, graphics or the dialogues – everything was juvenile about the film, notwithstanding the actors themselves. Better than ‘Piranha 3DD’, but even that film isn’t a ‘benchmark’ so to speak!

7 college friends Nick (Dustin Milligan), Dennis Crim (Chris Carmack), Beth (Katharine McPhee), Gordon (Joel David Moore), Malik (Sinqua Walls), Maya (Alyssa Diaz) and Sara Palski (Sara Paxton) head to Sara’s lake house in the Louisiana Gulf for a weekend getaway. The girls are looking forward to have a wild time, while the guys want to get laid. However, they don’t know that the lake adjoining the house is infested with deadly sharks. Malik, for instance, gets his arm ripped off while he is water skiing. The group soon realizes that there’s not one but fifteen species of sharks moving around in the lake. Malik’s girlfriend, Maya, gets killed by a shark and many such incidents follow. With their lone boat destroyed, while the group was trying to get away from the sharks, and no phone signals, will the group get out of the place alive?

This is the sensible and more realistic part of the story. The second half, of course, offers insanity in various doses. The characters are very predictable. You have the typical nerd, the lover boy, the Casanova, the desperate guy, and three gorgeous girls. Even the casting was quite clichéd, and the acting followed suit. The performances were forgettable, mildly put. The ‘stars’ of the film try too hard to emote. You would’ve still forgiven them for their performances had there not been that one ‘after-credits’ song. If you do watch the film, don’t miss this song. It appears after the credits.

The story was just a trifle better than the other ‘deadly sea animal against ‘hip’ collegians’ sagas, but that is no consolation. There is more story, for instance, than skin-show or blood-and-gore. However, the acting department falls short miserably. Even the dialogues are lazily written. There is a big twist in the second half, but then it’s followed by even more bizarre twists. The director David R. Ellis promises a ‘watchable’ film in the first half, but leaves us shell-shocked with the inexplicable end. There’s a rap song in the end, which is 10 times more ridiculous than the rest of the film put together.

If the indications haven’t been strong enough, here it is, you’re better off staying away from the ‘Shark Night 3D’. (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza

The Expendables 2 (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – Reminiscent Of 80s Action Blockbusters

3.5/5 Stars

Mr. Church reunites the Expendables for what should be an easy mission, but when one of their men is killed; their quest for revenge takes them to a mine in erstwhile Soviet Union.

Exciting action sequences, great humour, fantastic cameos and a thrilling storyline renders ‘The Expendables 2’ better than the first part.

The Expendables, namely, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone), Lee Christmas (Jason Statham), Gunner Jensen (Dolph Lundgren), Hale Caesar (Terry Crews) and Toll Road (Randy Couture), along with the new entrant Bill the Kid (Liam Hemsworth) and an able Yin Yang (Jet Li), rescue Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and a Chinese billionaire from a dingy dungeon in Nepal. Bill expresses his desire to leave the crew and settle down with his girlfriend in France. However, on the team’s next mission, they are accompanied by a female mercenary Maggie (Nan Yu), at the behest of Mr. Church (Bruce Willis) to retrieve an item from a plane that was shot down in Albania. Bill loses his life to the antagonist Jean Vilain (Jean-Claude Van Damme). Jean Vilain along with his right-hand man Hector (Scott Adkins) seized the item (a computer containing a blueprint to an abandoned Soviet Union mine which stores five tonnes of plutonium) from the Expendables. To avenge the death of their young team-mate and to prevent the shift in the world order, the team sets out to travel to the mines.

Sylvester Stallone and Jason Statham share amazing chemistry in the film. The action sequences performed by them in tandem, the harmless banter and the occasional tiffs add a lot of lustre to the story. The cameos in 'The Expendables 2' are quite a few in numbers; exceptional scenes involving mega stars such as Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and the incredibly funny super-human Chuck Norris. Liam Hemsworth packs a punch in his small, yet significant role. Jean-Claude Van Damme looks menacing as the antagonist. His final duel with Stallone is action-packed to the hilt. The members of the supporting cast including Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews and Randy Couture are amazing as the rest of the team. Nan Yu stands out as the lone female mercenary in the film. She plays a prominent role in the storyline and does a great job in the action sequences as well. Scott Adkins too plays an important role as the antagonist and leaves a mark.  Overall, the line-up for this film is absolutely stellar.

The opening 15 minutes of the film display magnificent action, a great background score, marvellous cinematography and to top-it-up, the combined charisma of this all-star cast. Countless gun shots, knife-fights, fist scuffles, bombings and yet, there are a few humane moments in the film. The crisp editing and the relatively short duration (100 minutes) serve the purpose as you don't find a lull moment at all. The film stars in most technical departments. Be it the editing (Todd E. Miller), cinematography (Shelly Johnson) or the music (Brian Tyler) department, the film comes up trumps visually abled with great sound. Director Simon West amalgamates wonderful action with a decent storyline. Turns out, this movie fares better than the first part!

The film is not cinematic brilliance, but the best part is that it doesn’t even pretend to be one. Go watch, have fun! (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza

The Legend of Bhagat Singh (2002) Review by Shivom Oza – The Word ‘Legend’ Is Aptly Put

4/5 Stars

‘The Legend of Bhagat Singh’ is a historic biographical film about Bhagat Singh, a freedom fighter who fought for the independence of India. Directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and starring Ajay Devgn, the film went on to bag 2 National Awards; National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi, and National Film Award for Best Actor.

Emphatic performances by the cast, inspiring score by A.R. Rahman, faultless script (thanks to the guidance of Kultar Singh, younger brother of Bhagat Singh who last met him when he was 12), immaculate direction and the encompassing patriotic fervour make this film a must-watch.

Bhagat Singh (Ajay Devgn), as a child, witnessed countless atrocities inflicted on Indians by the British rulers, who had initially visited the country as traders under the guise of the East India Company, but ended up taking over. The Jallianwala Bagh massacre, ordered by General Dyer, which led to the massacre of thousands of innocent men, women and children, had a deep impact on young Bhagat. He lost his faith in Mahatma Gandhi (Surendra Rajan), from whom he was greatly inspired, after he called off the Non-Cooperation Movement following the Chauri-Chaura incident. Bhagat grows up, aspiring to become a revolutionary, starting to pick up fights with the ‘Whites’ or the ‘Goras’.

Brought up in a protected household, Bhagat’s father Kishan Singh (Raj Babbar) and mother Vidyavati K. Singh (Farida Jalal), expect him to settle down in life. They want him to marry Mannewali (Amrita Rao) and handle the family dairy business. However, Bhagat believes that he is already married to the country and that getting freedom is his topmost priority.

 So, along with Sukhdev (Sushant Singh) and his other friends, he joins Hindustan Republican Association (a party formed to fight against the British’s tyranny). Along the way, he is joined by Chandrashekhar Azad (Akhilendra Mishra), Lala Lajpat Rai (Sitaram Panchal), Bhaswar Chatterjee (B.K.Dutt) and others to fight against the British and at the same time, compete with the Mahatma Gandhi-Jawahar Lal Nehru (Saurabh Dubey) led Indian National Congress for national prominence.

The story, apart from being the most accurate account of events, has been put on the screen brilliantly. Yes, the plot had its melodramatic moments, but nothing so over-the-top that it got cringe-worthy. Bhagat’s childhood scenes could have been more expressive, but thankfully, the filmmakers decided to do away with anything that would undermine the ‘legendary statuses of the freedom fighters.

The casting couldn’t have been better. Every historical figure (known/unknown) looked their part. The lesser-known freedom fighters such as Bhagwati Charan Vora, Durga Bhabhi, Gaya Prasad, B.K Dutt and the others were immaculately portrayed. Sushant Singh gives an emphatic performance in the film as the passionate Sukhdev. The scenes where he takes on the Britishers are very well written and excellently performed. He does justice to the scenes involving light hearted banter as well as the impassioned speeches. An actor par excellence, truly. Akhilendra Mishra, who plays Chandrashekhar Azad, also completely fits the part. Other freedom fighters such as Mahatma Gandhi (Surendra Rajan), Jawahar Lal Nehru (Saurabh Dubey), Ram Prasad Bismil (Ganesh Yadav) and Subhash Chandra Bose (Kenneth Desai) looked and sounded so much like the revolutionaries that they played. These characters remind you of the freedom fighters, and that’s what serves the purpose.

D. Santosh, who plays Shiviram Hari Rajguru, is a phenomenal actor. Having showed his mettle in the recent ‘Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year’, the actor has always delivered firepower performances in films such as ‘Khakee’ and this one. The supporting cast, including Farida Jalal, Raj Babbar and Amrita Rao, deliver fine, understated performances.

The selection of actors for playing foreigners did leave a lot to be desired. Even the dubbing for the foreign artistes wasn’t neatly done. This is one blip in an otherwise great film.

Lastly, Ajay Devgn, as Bhagat Singh, delivers one of his career-best performances in the film. His character goes through many ups and downs in the film. He had to play, a reticent young man, a shy behind-the-scenes revolutionary, an introspective reader, an impassioned orator, an influencer, an aggressor, a hard-hearted freedom fighter and a martyr in the same film. Ajay’s performance takes you back to the 1920s and the 1930s and makes you feel like you’re a part of the movement.

The film hardly falters anywhere, technically. As already mentioned, the screenwriting has been undertaken brilliantly. A hint of sepia is prominent throughout the film to give it the ‘old-world’ feel and it works well. Brilliant writing by Anjum Rajabali, Piyush Mishra and Ranjit Kapoor, along with able direction by Rajkumar Santoshi not only makes this film historically precise but extremely entertaining as well. The court-room scenes are funny, inspiring and emotional at the same time, which reflect wonderfully on the excellence of the performances. The editing by V.N Mayekar is precise. He does leave the film a little too long at 2 and a half hours but then, that was the norm during the early 2000s. Nitin Chandrakant Desai, the art director, wonderfully recreates the 1920-1930 India. Cinematography (K.V. Anand) too, is finely executed.

The music of the film, composed by A.R.Rahman, is wonderful. Songs such as ‘Pagdi Sambhal Jatta’, ‘Mera Rang De Basanti’, ‘Sarfaroshi Ki Tamanna’ and the absolutely mind-blowing opening credits with ‘Shora So Pahchaniye’, raise the film-viewing experience by quite a few notches.

Rajkumar Santoshi makes a well-intentioned, well-presented film. Extracting wonderful performances, magical music and developing a hard-hitting script, Santoshi excels and how!

This film does not preach, it proclaims. Go Watch! (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza

Overtime (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – Pointless

0.5/5 Stars

‘Overtime’ is about a young girl Khushi, who dreams of becoming a heroine someday but is currently making ends meet by working as a ‘high profile’ sex worker.

This film does not deserve a review, let alone a viewing. Abysmal acting, cringe-inducing dialogues and a senseless story, make this film a must-NOT watch.

Khushi (Swati Sharma) is a young girl, living in Mumbai, harbouring aspirations of becoming a film actress someday. However, difficult circumstances force her to become a call-girl, colloquially called ‘Overtime’, who beds well-off, middle-aged men for money. Having been manipulated and used by a corrupt politician Aatre (Satish Kaushik), builder Sawant (Yashpal Sharma) and his secretary Liza (Arzoo Govitrikar), architect Rajeev (Zakir Hussain) and film co-ordinator Shankar aka ‘Shanky’ (Vijay Raaz), Khushi gets embroiled in this big, bad world of sex, exploitation, debauchery and corruption. Khushi’s emotions keep getting manoeuvred by various people, including her ‘best friend’, who calls her ‘Thoku’ at one point and cajoles her to make that one last deal, which will sort her for 6 months.

The plot is pointless. There’s no entertainment (intentional/unintentional), no social message, no sensible dialog, only hamming. The presenters/models on television shopping shows possess more acting skills than the new faces in this almost 2-hour long bore. Well-known actors such as Satish Kaushik, Yashpal Sharma, Zakir Hussain and Vijay Raaz display their absolute lack of judgement by agreeing to become a part of this sleaze-fest.

There is no continuity. Vijay Raaz sports a short crop in his first appearance and subsequently long-haired in the remaining scenes. Actors are shown wearing the same clothes over multiple days. The opening credits look like they’ve been shot by a handy cam by an amateur student filmmaker. The music is forgettable. What were the makers thinking?

You would rather go ‘overtime’ at your workplace every day than watch ‘Overtime’. (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza

Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan (2012) Review by Shivom Oza – That Is India Too!

2.5/5 Stars

Watching the film without having an idea about its theme and message would not serve the purpose. ‘Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan’ (Alms for a Blind Horse) is a Punjabi film (subtitled in English), based on a Jnanpeeth-award-winning novel of the same name by Gurdial Singh. The film “tries to bring to screen the effect that years of subordination can bring to struggling masses in the face of events spinning beyond their control” (in the words of the debutante director Gurvinder Singh). In a nutshell, it portrays the problems faced by the Indian farmers and landlords on the outskirts of Punjab.

Having watched this film only after watching a one-minute-long trailer, it did seem very random. One does feel that the film is devoid of any basic premise, hence making it difficult to enliven enough interest for almost 120 minutes. However, it would be advisable for those watching this film to read a bit about the theme and the concept to understand the film better.

Set in a village on the outskirts of Bathinda in Punjab, where people are trying hard to make peace with their existence, the film revolves around a Dalit family. The head of the family, the Father (Mal Singh), is a silent spectator to the various occurrences happening around him. The landlord has apparently sold his plots to an industry that has demolished the house of one of the villagers. Mal Singh’s character joins the community in demand for justice for the trouble family. His son Melu Singh (Samuel John) is a cycle-rickshaw puller who is participating in a strike by his union. The strike turns violent and Melu gets seriously injured. All along, Melu along with his friends are unsure about their existence and their future. They find solace in their drunken conversations during the night when they get to vent out their ‘unheard’ grievances.

Back at the village, the atmosphere is tense, with the police randomly arresting a farmer, gunshots being heard in the night, the apathetic condition of the farmers and their families and just, the solemnity and the eerie silence of the place itself. There’s a recurrent scene in the film featuring a man asking for alms, crying out ‘Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan Do’. The title of the film, just like this appeal, is metaphorical and is left to your interpretation of who the blind horse is. The plot is meandering, but in retrospective, that is the condition of most people living in the rural areas of the country.

The principal cast of the film (Mal Singh, Samuel John, Serbjeet Kaur who play the daughter Dayalo, Dharminder Kaur who play the Mother and Emmanuel Singh who plays Melu’s brother-in-law) is brilliant. All of them effortlessly portray the pathos that was required of their characters. Mal Singh doesn’t have much dialogue but he leaves a lasting impression only on the strength of the body language. That is no mean feat! Melu Singh is impressive in his short, yet significant role. Emmanuel Singh too, does a fine job.

Being a Punjabi film, one would feel a bit alienated from the characters owing to the language barrier. However, the performances are such that you don’t have to religiously follow the subtitles to understand what the characters are trying to convey. That truly is a remarkable achievement.

The film shines in three departments; cinematography (Satya Rai Nagpaul), music (Catherine Lamb) and the production design (Pankaj Dhimaan). The film could have done with a voice-over or some text about the condition of the farmers and other villagers in Punjab, at the start or the end so that the viewer could relate the sequences to the issue at hand. The cause on which the film is based is a serious one. Hence, if the makers thought that they’d do away with a concrete plot, they could have concentrated more on the issue and enlightened the audiences about the same. Director Gurvinder Singh picks up a brilliant subject. However, the basic plot is a bit of a let-down.

All said and done, the film is very different from other ‘issue-based’ films. There’s a great deal of subtext. The viewer would need to ‘read between the lines’ to really understand the basic essence of the film. (First Posted in MSN)

Shivom Oza