Reviews

After a very brief, derivative and clumsy justification for heading back to the swamp involving a young woman named Mary-Beth (Danielle Harris) looking for her family with a kooky sightseeing operator named Reverend Zombie (Tony Todd) back into Crowley's territory we go, along with fresh meat in the form of hired muscle being paid $500 per head, with a bonus to the guy who takes down Crowley.

Only as we see quite frequently in the latter half of the film, Crowley is not an easybeat, at near 7 foot, with a mangled face, huge guns and the ability to take a shotgun blast to the chest without wincing, it would have taken a lot more than five hundred clams to get me in the same state – let alone the same dark and gloomy swamp.

Victor is unstoppable, he is everywhere and can seemingly get anywhere instantaneously. He also has a bunch of toys that he utilises to disembowel, eviscerate, decapitate, violate and penetrate victims that number into the double digits.

No problem there of course this is a psycho killer flick. The problem is the lack of creativity used: victims inch about nervously, do the "did you hear that?" and stand awaiting their violent demise. There are no traps, no clever sleight of hand or tricks, Victor shows up in plain view – shows them his weapon du jour and uses it on them.

If it's a hatchet he hatchets them, a chainsaw? Saw 'em in half. A sander? Hello abrasions. The victims don't even fight back 90% of the time, they stand still and take their medicine like guys in a bad kung fu movie.

What makes that even worse is that I guarantee Mr Adam Green spent more time on the kills than he did coming up with the threadbare backstory and lousy plot, so you just expect more. Let's face it, after the first Nightmare on Elm St each sequel for a decade was exactly the same, you only watched them for the kill scenes and to see what ridiculous quips Freddy would come up with.

Victor doesn't talk, and his kill scenes suck. Even a few gratuitous boobies don't make the rest worth a glance.

That said, all the episodes I've seen are really worth watching and much above average television. You've already been able to see Hooper's disturbing "Dance of the Dead" segment, Coscarelli's fast-paced "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" and Argento's sickeningly sexy "Jenifer", of course. Be sure not to miss Landis', Garris' and especially Dante's episodes when they air.

John Landis's "Deer Woman" is a radical development of the whole premise behind such a classic as "An American Werewolf in London". The idea on that film was giving the werewolf myth a realistic, almost everyday spin to make it scary again in spite of tons of bad werewolf movies. "Deer Woman" does the same, only the premise is even more outrageous, because the monster is something you're unlikely to having heard about before: a creature half woman and half deer which seduces men and then kicks and tramples them to death. With such a ridiculous premise, you'd never believe a filmmaker could produce the smallest shiver in any average viewer. The fact that "Deer Woman" does, without relying on any established movie myth, is a tribute to Landis' (John, but also his son Max, who wrote the screenplay) deep knowledge of how horror movies work. Without even the slightest hint of parody, this film is funny *and* scary and a triumph of what is called suspension of disbelief. Great performances by former "Dream On" star Brian Benben and heart-stopping newcomer Cinthia Moura.

Mick Garris's "Chocolate" is based on a "Twilight Zone" like premise: a guy suddenly starts sharing a stranger woman's senses - it all starts with sounds, and then it becomes images and event tactile feelings. This lures him into an obsession which is very similar to love but also has a strong potential for tragedy. Kind of an ultimate "amour fou", this is quite a bizarre, yet moving, love story that you'll find both involving and desperate.

Joe Dante's segment was acclaimed by thunderous applause at the festival, and it is the most overtly political. I wish someone would dare doing a similar film on our (Italian) administration: "Homecoming" deals openly with how Iraqi war was based on the blatant lie of Mass Destruction Weapons that were found not to exist, and has dead marines coming back from their graves as zombies to let the Bush administration know what they think of its lies. The President is actually never mentioned in person: but the clues are so crystal-clear one couldn't miss even if he tried hard. Witty and bitterly cynical, this is a film a Billy Wilder might have made if he was interested in horror. It should be a must-see for anyone who's voted for the current administration - and also for anyone who thinks horror cannot deal with important issues.

Pre-screenings were limited, and thumbs were primed to point down. But guess what? The finished product is surprisingly enjoyable - particularly the rollicking first hour. Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are obviously having a blast, and anytime they are on screen, the movie's energy and fun level pegs the meter. The break-neck pace can keep the audience guessing about where Cruise's character is dragging Diaz's reluctant heroine off to next. Kudos to the leads for not carrying the movie with their effervescent acting, but also for doing many of their own stunts.Tom Cruise and Cameron were good pair to be watched on screen.Tom was very good in all the action scenes.His approach to seduce the babe was pretty cool.

Zombieland has a simple story. The guys are loners. Columbus with the simple mission to stay alive and Tallahassee with a never ending search for any and all of the remaining golden Twinkies left on the planet. The girls are sisters who are trying to get to an amusement park in CA where they believe, or at least want to believe it is zombie free. A small part of the film feels like the movie Vacation with zombies. The comical trip with a destination which you can just feel isn't going to be what the characters hope for. Like Vacation it shows that the journey is far more important than the destination.

The biggest moment of the film has to be the mystery cameo. I'm glad I didn't know who it was and I won't spoil it for anyone else. I will say that it was brilliantly written into the script. PERFECT! It really goes to show how much they focused on getting Zombieland to be a top notch flick that should go down as a horror-comedy classic to remember. It will certainly fit alongside Shaun of the Dead in my movie collection.

The acting is great in the movie.For me, the gags herein worked, there were reasons for their having been used and therefore makes it funny to me. The storyline didn't stall, the gags weren't desperate for laughs, and the acting was exactly what was needed: the comedic touch. This movie deserves full credit for its level of parodistic comedy on one hand and scary on the other hand even if it is lost on viewers. If you can't stand this movie, or find it unentertaining, then maybe you don't understand its roots well enough to appreciate it.A story that makes sense with background and on top of that very cool climax.Music video that is really amazing and it is named zombie beach...yeah rap.

The one key element to UNDERSTAND and to enjoy a send-up like this is having the knowledge of its background. If you are not familiar with the world and multicultural talents you may not be able to know what is being said in this only multicultural zombie flick.A movie you can't afford to miss......

Horrible Bosses is about three average joes (Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis) that are stuck on their job with awful bosses (Kevin Spacey, Jennifer Aniston, Colin Ferrell) all for different reasons. After all three reach their breaking point, they decide that their lives would be better if their bosses ceased to exist. What follows is their hilarious efforts in finding a way to get it done without getting caught. The premise was promising and thanks to a fresh script by Michael Markovitz, John Daly, and Jonathan Goldstein, the potential was indeed delivered—although not in the ways you'd expect.

The cast is hands-down the standout reason why this movie works. As a matter of fact its also its one minor flaw because we have tons of talent that were not utilized enough because some of the performances were so hilarious in the minimal material given. The bosses themselves were convincingly awful, especially the always-reliable Kevin Spacey as this sadistic, manipulative, and extremely cruel president of a company. Colin Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston step out of their usual roles and surprisingly deliver plenty of laughs with their own cruelly aggressive mannerisms. The main three also provided plenty of laughs and played off each other perfectly well, with Charlie Day being the best of the three. Day's experience with the mildly-dark "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" definitely shows off here, as his whiny and high-pitched voice perfectly matches his character persona and offers the most laughs and one-liners.

London Dreams plays out like a classical Cain and Abel type story, where two brothers, one jealous of the other for his talent and recognition, plots the downfall against the other behind his back in betrayal most foul. Arjun has a dream, and that is to take his music to London, and play at the renowned Wembley stadium, where his grandfather had failed in his time and returned to India a broken man. He spends his early teenage life honing his musical skills, and ever ready to sniff out any opportunity to scale the music ladder until his goal is reached. His is a singular mind obsessed with the single goal, so much so that he's willing to self-flagellate (!) himself when his mind gets swayed by Priya and the chance for romance, or any other distractions that crosses his path that day actually.

Ajay Devgn plays Arjun with enough menace and envy to make him believable as a man who would go to great lengths and at any costs to ensure his road to glory is not jeopardized. Salman Khan's Mannu on the other hand, is blessed with great musical talent without even trying, and while Arjun sees this as an advantage to be gained should he bring Mannu back to London and join his band, little did he realize that Mannu's country boy demeanour would start to win the fans over, as well as Priya. There are plenty of scenes which set up this innocent usurping of another's thunder, and the decisions that come to spark off the entire turn of events just after the intermission.

As a musical film, somehow the songs and dance sequences didn't really stand out, although in general they weren't that bad, but not too memorable as well, other than the pulsating number first performed at Trafalgar Square. Salman Khan proves why he's one of the three King Khans of Bollywood through his rendition of a simple boy with simple pleasures, with plenty of cheekiness combined with great comic timing to bring in some laughs. That airplane scene was a classic light hearted touch in what was a dark tale about bringing down a best friend using the cruelest of methods and exploiting the weakness of another for no good benefit.

I can slowly see Hindi films evolving and taking more chances with their content and characters, something it hasn't done in thirty yearsLet me preface my comments with this disclaimer, I am a nonIndian. Forgive my obvious ignorance and any misspellings, and proceed at your own risk.Go rent A & R, or, even better, buy the DVD and add it to your Bollywood collection. That's what I'm doing right after I finish this review.The first 20-30 minutes of the movie are a bit slow and could have been constructed better to develop the characters. However, after the brief introduction to each, the audience is quickly taken on a ride with the duo, Thanks to both Aisha and Rahul as characters.A story which is different believable and natural acting adds to it. I could feel my roots reaching out for me.

Thank god for Swedes. Its been ever so often that as Indians we have lam blasted the mushy, one track nonsensical movies that were being churned out by bollywood and yearned for something slightly honest and cerebral. And now it seems that the moment has arrived. Swades has finally reached the next level of Indian movie-making with the help of ashutosh, srk and rahman where the execution, the concept and the treatment of the film is at least (i can safely assume) close to world standards. There is no point comparing lagaan (the directors 1st movie) to this movie as his earlier venture was purely fiction with no semblance of realism in it. However this movie has so many ingredients of being a pathbreaker for Indian cinema that its almost scary. The feelings and expectations of an nri set aside, it tells the story of middle and upper class India losing touch with the harsh realities of the sufferings of the less fortunate ones all around us (and the fact that we can do very little to change the ongoing scenario is even more glaring and painful). Besides this the movie also deals with the desires and priorities of humans inspite of the trials and tribulations of daily living.

The maturity of the script, the actors and the score makes it a journey of epic proportions without it looking epic at all. The normalcy of the movie is something which might (and hopefully will) change the way cinema is seen and made in India in the future. One can only hope.

As the unstoppable Macho-man, Salman Khan excels in action sequences. He is, of course known to be stiff and it becomes very apparent while he is dancing but it is fun to watch no doubt, when he lets loose in most songs and just goes wild. Delivering bhojpuri dialogs, threats and romanticism, Salman Khan earns your whistling and hooting. Wanted and Dabangg both would've been catastrophic flops if it weren't for Salman re-inventing himself. Here, he doesn't look like he is out to prove that point. Most of the time, you can see him simply enjoying himself. Arbaaz Khan is passable but could've been sillier to add to the fun as Makhi. Om Puri, Vinod Khanna and Anupam Kher in cameos were superlative while Mahesh Manjrekar delivered a shockingly good performance as a drunkard father. Sonu Sood has been better in 'Jodha Akbar' but he is quite adequate as Chulbul Pandey's adversary. Newcomer Sonakshi Sinha looks beautiful, can put up a straight face pretty well and can compete well against her contemporaries.

It goes without saying that Dabangg was never going to be an intellectual enricher. This is pure, flawed entertainment and that is how it needs to be enjoyed. The action seems like a spoof of our southern counterparts and therefore, is fun to watch. Dialogues, however rude at times: 'haraamzade se yaad aaya, aapke sasur kaise hai?' are thoroughly laugh worthy and the sensational cinematography around Salman's entry at various points in the film augments his heroism. Considering these factors, Dabangg offers tremendous value for money and is no surprise that it opened to such an overwhelming response. Nevertheless, this is not going to be a revolution in Bollywood but just a passing tide and it better remain that way.

There are some funny moments and overall film moves at brisk pace with a few and far fetched well executed Action scenes but overall the film fails to make the required impact and scores just a notch above the run of the mill. There is no freshness in narrative as audience has seen all this in last couple of years. The idea might have some potential but is not given a shape of a proper story and therefore is not exploited properly. The director seems to have lost in the bargain and piece together some action, comic scenes & songs with famous dialogs from Superstar's earlier film rather than putting it in a fresh perspective and make something interesting from it.We went watching this film with family and everyone had a great time.Amitabh is the one who still rules the industry....

The film seems to be about a lot of different subjects all at once but delivered in little, digestible ounces that make it all that more rewarding. Somewhere in the film, there is a story about a new life in a strange and different place as seen through the eyes of a child.The performances of all the actors were sublime, yet powerful.The ending was a surprise, but a joy to watch.one cant ignore the fact that The Taste Of Relation is a well made film with good acting and direction. One has the sense that the filmmakers are playing to a western audience, even though they're close to Bollywood traditions. This is more sophisticated than popular Indian musical films, but if you compare it to Sajayit Ray it's sadly facile stuff. Over all: The film was very powerful: it engaged in important issues.I was happy buying the DVD and watching it three times at my home with my family.