ABCD 2

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 19th June, 2015
Time : 154 minutes
Director, Writer : Remo D’Souza; Music : Sachin-Jigar
Starring : Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Lauren Gottlieb, Prabhu Deva, Dharmesh Yelande, Sushant Pujari



Disclaimer : I haven’t seen ABCD – the first film

Some great dance sequences. Some ordinary ones. An over-stretched movie and plot, replete with storm-in-the-teacup kinda conflicts and emotional, melodramatic moments that fail to move you at all

Our heroes from the first one are caught up in a scandal as they copy an international act, move for move, in a local competition. Rapidly becoming the nations biggest punching bag, they seek redemption by going for an international hip-hop dance competition, with the auditions in Bangalore and the finale in Vegas… Along the way, merely after watching him dance once, they decide they must have Prabhu Deva as their choreographer

Varun and Lauren, among the main leads, are excellent on the dance floor. Shraddha is good but not in the same league. Dharmesh Yelande is good too but the one who really catches the eye through his dance moves is a deaf-mute character (though not during a forgettable emotional side-track he is burdened with).

Dance films – Indian or international – suffer from being predictable. This one is no different. The story tries to add a layer of redemption, of national pride (ho-hum, what’s new?) but pays only lip service to either storyline. The whole drama around Prabhu Deva’s back story turns out to be quite laughable. The songs are quite ordinary – nothing to really stick. The choreography, sets are super, though, as are some of the touches of humour. They could’ve dialed down on the melodrama and probably could’ve wrapped up the movie in half hour less, and done away with one or two ‘twists’ of the literal and non-literal kind…

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Spy

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 19th June, 2015
Time : 120 minutes
Director, Writer : Paul Feig; Music : Theodore Shapiro
Starring : Melissa McCarthy, Jude Law, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Jason Statham, Miranda Hart, Peter Serafinowicz, Richard Brake, Nargis Fakhri, 50 Cent, Allison Janney



Lots of crude and crass humour, about a fifth of which is bleeped out and only a tenth makes you smile. Ludicrous situations. And the older-Bond-style villains, the type who’re happier to chit-chat than actually kill.

Melissa moves from being CIA agent Jude Law’s voice, eyes and ears – basically his assistant and researcher – to being an agent on her own, thanks to a certain set of circumstances. Her brief is to track and report Bobby Cannavale, in the hope he will lead them to Rose Byrne, who in turn would lead them to a missing, hot, portable nuke which is in the process of being auctioned to the highest bidder, and likely to enter USA.

Of course, Melissa is not going to be content just reporting – but will get into the thick of action, aided by her assistant, the bumbling, lanky Miranda…

The million dollar question is why did Jason Statham take up a terrible role as a highly strung out, competitive CIA agent ? Nargis Fakhri has a minute part in the film – a comical action sequence she gets to join but not much else (doesn’t even make the opening credits). The worst was reserved for Peter Serafinowicz, who got the part of a sex-crazed Italian agency resource, who uses every opportunity to grope Melissa…

The makers here seemed to be struggling with the question of whether to make this a spoof (along the lines of Johnny English, Spy Hard) or to try to keep it real. Currently, it just kind of fell through the cracks

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Age of Adaline

Rating : 8/10
Release Date : 5th June, 2015
Time : 112 minutes
Director : Lee Toland Krieger; Writer : J. Mills Goodloe, Salvador Paskowitz; Music : Rob Simonsen
Starring : Blake Lively, Michiel Huisman, Ellen Burstyn, Kathy Baker, Amanda Crew



Age of Adaline makes you want to fall in love again. It reminds you, with all its bitter-sweetness, the heady rush of conflicting emotions that course through you when experiencing those intense moments – the pounding heart screaming yes, the logical brain yelling no – the looks, the tenderness, the chaos and the way everything around you seems more beautiful.

Blake Lively, in the title role, stopped ageing after a freak accident. And once you get over the obvious advantages of such a ‘gift’, you realize the inherent negatives – watching those you love age around you, the incredulous looks of friends, the suspicious looks of the authorities. And reaches the same conclusion as the central character in the little known film The Man From Earth. She realizes she has to live the life of a nomad, with no roots, away from her daughter (Ellen Burstyn)…almost a fugitive… until she meets Michiel Huisman…and his parents, Harrison Ford and Kathy Baker…

What was extraordinary about Blake’s performance in the film was her demeanour. Its one thing to look youthful, gorgeous but quite another to be all that and behave old, mature, wise beyond her…(well, not in this case). Whether its her all-knowing eyes (having seen it all), her confident posture (Without being assertive) or her measured dialogue delivery (wiser, without being condescending) – she was exceptional and lit up the film, made us believe its improbable premise.

It’s funny the thoughts such a film can provoke. The realization, like that of King Midas, about how a simple gift can have unexpected consequences. The wisdom that can come from years of living (as demonstrated by a game of Trivial Pursuit in the film). The choice of anonymity and its accompanying practicalities – in terms of choice of profession, the banking modalities, the homes chosen. And above all, the loneliness…the wistfulness… and the memories of heart-aches that don’t fade...

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