2012 - An insanely cinematic entertainment(2/5)

You think you've seen end of the world movies before? Well, this one ends the world, churns it up and rips it apart.

Why am i writing a review for this movie? Am not sure about that but am sure that most of us go watch this movie for its insanely spectacular pleasure and not based on a review. What am i going to write about this movie? Am not sure about that too.

Its a Roland Emmerich film, the king of disaster movies (Independence day, Godzilla, The day after tomorrow, 10,000 BC - his last film in itself being a disaster) its about doomsday, its got "never seen before kind of CGI", Its big budget, Its got hell lot of things blown up on screen. Comon, how many more reason do you need to watch a movie of this scale?

Just like the list of reasons to watch this movie, i could easily come up with a list of reasons to hate this movie. Its cliche to most parts. A few HD camera shots took away the drama element from the CGI. No empathy for the characters. No real way to convey hope (for those who love happy endings). Drama is a bore. There were more than couple of instances at which the protagonist's air plane was airborne while the runway was falling apart. 3 times is a charm if you are giving your graduation supplementary exams. Not cool. But, Who cares?

Its been long since I watched a movie pretentiously and 2012 gave me one helluva ride. You might come out of it criticizing every bit, but if it was not for this pleasure, we could've watched "Life is Beautiful". Ain't it?

Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani - Juvenile; a few jokes apart (1/5)

Yesterday when I decided to watch a movie, I’d four choices. Jail, Ajab Prem ki gazab kahani, Rebound and the Informant. On a normal day, I would’ve chosen between jail and informant. But I was feeling lucky and left out Steven Soderbergh and Madhur Bhandarkar behind, I went ahead with APKGK.

APKGK is an over told fairy tale love story where they belt out a bunch of juvenile humour and sentiment except for a couple of occasions, leaving the audience behind to catch up with them or leave it behind. The director seems to be in a hurry to say so many things at one go, that right from the opening scene, he fails to engage the audience. Ranbir’s opening scene, which is supposed to be funny, is one that you would’ve seen all through Indian cinema from late sixties onwards. Not Funny anymore.

The protagonist is a 9th grade dropout who has no other better job, but running a happy club. He falls in love with an orphan girl, jenny who already has a boy friend and now our protagonist, Mr. Prem have to help them unite. The story revolves around Prem and jenny and their friends and family until the last 30 odd minutes (remember the movie is around 3 hrs of running time) you’ll find new characters getting introduced like the politician (jenny’s boyfriends father) and a not-so-funny gangster who’s after the politician for money i don’t know why?

The script lacks in continuity and empathising for its characters. The story is over told, and drags at most of its part. The songs are shot bad except for one. The second half is frustratingly slow paced which takes you to another frustratingly choreographed fight. As a result of trying too hard with the script, the movie in most parts lacks any integrity.

Being said all this; there are still a handful of things to be looked out for. A selected couple of jokes, a decent performance by Ranbir and Katrina, a few good locations and few scenes which are genuine and worth a watch.

Watch out for that scene in which Prem's mother trying to seduce and distract his dad so that jenny can come out of bathroom without being noticed. But all this will take only 30 minutes out of this movie which is otherwise an agonising bore to watch.

APKGK was a bad idea for me. Am going with 1 out of 5.