Scott Pilgrim Vs The World (2010) : A Review

What does a movie that blends the genres of action, romance, musical, fantasy and comedy remind you of? Definitely Bollywood for me. But, Edgar Wright has managed to put all these elements into a crazy Hollywood movie which is not even remotely Bollywoodish in nature. Based on the graphic novel series by Canadian cartoonist Bryan Lee O'Malley, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World is a fantasy-musical-action-comedy along the lines of Stephen Chow flicks which are mad, energetic but also extremely entertaining.

The movies revolves around Scott Pilgrim(Michael Cera), a bass guitarist for the band named "Sex Bob Ombs". He starts dating a Chinese high school girl Knives(Ellen Wong), but one fine day when he meets Ramona, he falls head-over-heals in love with her. From that moment, he starts ignoring Knives and begins wooing Ramona. But little does he know that to gain Ramona's love he has to fight her seven evil exes.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) : A Review

The story of Deathly Hallows Part 1 continues from where it left off from Half Blood Prince. Dark Lord and his associates have taken over the ministry and began tormenting and prosecuting the Muggles in the Wizarding community. After Dumbledore's death, Harry, Hermione and Ron are on their own and have to find the Horcruxes while on the run and destroy them to bring down the Dark Lord.

The Harry Potter series has come down a long way from the heavily toddlerized Philosopher's Stone. The boys have become men and the girls have turned into nice women. I must say that this is the most complete movie in the series. Unlike the others, the movie doesn't take a hurried approach and gives ample time for the story to unfold. This had been possible only due to the division of the story into a 2 part movie. I wish the same approach was taken for some of the other movies in the series. The story though drags a bit where Harry and Hermione continue their search in the absence of Ron, but this attributes to the same dragging sequence in the book. The Part 1 concludes well and doesn't look like an incomplete movie. Kudos to director David Yates and the screenplay writer Steve Kloves for this.

Where the Wild Things Are (2009) : A Review

Director Spike Jonze, who in collaboration with Charlie Kauffman gave us gems like Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, comes up with another beautiful, coming-of-age fantasy "Where the Wild Things Are".

It is the story of Max, disobedient but a lonely eight year old boy. He often wears a wolf costume and pretends to be an animal. One day his divorced mother brings her boyfriend to dinner. Max insists on showing her the castle that he has built and when she ignores him, he wears his wolf costume and throws a fit. When she tries to stop him, he bites her and runs away from home. He reaches a remote wild place where he encounters several monster like creatures. He convinces them that he is a great king who can solve all their problems. Carol, one of the monsters, is an impulsive and destructive monster, very much like Max. KW is a female monster who often leaves the group to meet a secret friend which irks Carol very much. Max and Carol form a friendship owing to the similarity of their nature.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) : A Review

Based on the popular video game, Prince of Persia hit theatres this weekend worldwide. The pre-release buzz was very poor and so we managed to get the tickets easily on the opening week. The trailers for the movie were not too exciting and that set the expectations to an extreme low.

The story goes like this. The King of Persia gets impressed by the fearlessness of a slum orphan Dastaan(Jake Gyllenhal) and adopts him as a son. Tus, the eldest son of the King, on the advice of his Uncle Nizam (Ben Kingsley) raids the holy city of Alamut. With the help of Dastaan, they succeed in seizing the city. Meanwhile somebody conspires against Dastaan and he becomes the victim of a conspiracy that charges him with the assassination of the King. He flees the kingdom along with the Alamut princess Tamina and tries to bring forth the real culprits behind the conspiracy, while also trying to save the world from destruction.