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Reviews
Loham (2015)
Too many characters; Too complex a plot
Loham starts with the coffin of a Malayalee laborer being sent from the Gulf to Kozhikode airport. Subsequently, Mohanlal makes his entry as a taxi driver picking up a lady passenger at Kochi airport. In parallel to that Siddique (great acting, as always) is shown gambling with a partner in a hotel in Kochi. Thus, At least 3 streams of stories flow in parallel without giving much of a clue, before merging together.
The movie looked promising in the first 30 minutes with some good acting by Mohanlal, Siddique and others, but then new characters started parading in and diluted the whole movie and made it too complex with too many twists. Complexity was OK if it was woven right. It seemed like the director lost control of the plot too.
It is an OK movie that you can watch till end, but not one to make any mark beyond that.
Kerala Varma Pazhassi Raja (2009)
Hype-lore
Many Indian movie makers have learned the tactic of riding on the wave of hype and making money out of third class movies. This movie is probably the latest in the list of Malayalam movies that do that. With a paltry confused audience and lack of existence of any real meat that can be translated to a good movie, the producers have to try all kinds of stunts to make a movie a success. The result is movies like this 3+ hours long farce.
We have great difficulty in establishing the authenticity of historic events that happened 20 years ago, so forget about the authenticity of the event that has gone into this movie. It is not a movie based on history, it is merely a fictional version of a page from the history of Kerala. So, patriots, no need to boil your blood over this.
It is a Malayalam movie where the same superstars and comedians appear in slightly different costumes. It is a Malayalam movie with the usual masala (endless unrealistic stunts, dialogs with no punch and no regard for the people who watch it).
Only good thing about the movie is the photography and the credit goes not to the photographer, but to Kerala herself. Sound mixing is great in some scenes, but it didn't help much to elevate the enjoyability of the movie.
Stunt scenes are horrible. The director should have cut down on the stunt scenes to hide all the awkward moves saving us some time. But, clearly, he was trying to please the audience at the other end of the spectrum. Mammootty could have used some ayurvedic massage before the fights to loosen his muscles a bit. It is very hard to think that the famed kalari fighters could have a paunch that bulges out above the hard-tied mundu.
Sharthkumar has done a great job in his stunts and acting, so did Thilakan. Most others including the great Mammootty are average. Kanika, who acted as Makkom, made me wonder how Pazhassi Raja could possibly be a great man with such an over-acting spine-less wife. Then there was Padmapriya who acted as Neeli, a flying, fighting tribal girl who looked as fair as a Persian and looked and talked as if she grew up in New Delhi. Then, there were a bunch of white men in loose fitting clothes, who looked like they were picked up from Kovalam beach. But, I think the director is to blame for all the poor acting, punch-less dialogs and lousy stunt scenes. It is very clear that most scenes were shot without enough thought behind it.
If this movie comes anywhere near you, run away.
The Village (2004)
Lame !
I must say Shyamalan is a great movie maker. He, no doubt, brings the best out of the actors, actresses, the camera and the atmosphere. But, what makes this movie a sub-standard outcome is the fact that Shaymalan is trying too hard to give that 'Shyamalan' touch. It seems like he had the touch planned out in advance, but couldn't find a suitable story and he finally settled on this lame story to deliver that touch. I think Shyamalan should try and grow out of the 'Sixth Sense' shadow. He should not waste any more of his movie-making talents on the 'Shyamalan' puzzle which found success through 'Sixth Sense'. His later movies make me wonder if Bruce Willis should have actually gotten the full credit for Sixth Sense. It is very clear that with every movie that he tries to deliver that touch through, he is losing even more. The audience is fast losing interest in his tricks too.
Like Steven Spielberg did, may be Shyamalan should try out diverse ideas to better utilize his talents. That will probably keep the audience interested too.
Death Becomes Her (1992)
Silly, but OK
This is a story about two women (Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn) wanting to stay young and a doctor (Bruce Willis) who is caught between them. Both the women drink a potion that gives them (literally) mannequin bodies. A completely silly comedy. Goldie Hawn is her usual dumb, and Meryl Streep is nothing extra-ordinary. Bruce Willis is the one that has stolen the show in a role completely different from any of his other roles. I didn't even recognize him the first time he appeared in the movie.
Well, this is the movie that can be easily skipped without having missed anything, but if you run into it, you can sit through it and enjoy it too.
The Peacemaker (1997)
Unconvincing
Great action scenes and good acting by George Clooney and Nicole Kidman, but the movie fails to satisfy due to many holes and non-credible series of events. Can't believe a nuke weapon will make it through international customs just because it was in a box marked "Diplomatic papers - Confidential". Also, it doesn't make sense why the guy would shoot himself if the nuke he is carrying is going to go off in 2 minutes. Wouldn't he keep talking to push through those two minutes ? Well, I don't know. May be he was already stressed out from everything and he couldn't last for another 2 minutes. The story-lines clearly doesn't answer many questions. If those questions do not come up in your mind and you just want to enjoy an action movie, this is highly recommended.