manofsan Reviews

Lockout (2012)

Escape from New York Meets Total Recall

[8/10 · 13 April 2012]

I enjoyed this movie for the nice action-oriented thrill-ride it was. Nobody watches a Schwarzenegger or Stallone movie for the acting performances. Is anyone going to claim that Expendables was full of quality acting and plausible storyplots? Nonsense. This is a genre of film which doesn't require any of that for its appeal. I'd compare this to Escape from New York, which younger viewers may not be familiar with, but which has a lot in common with this movie. Lockout takes that same type of story premise and updates it to a space-based setting, and uses more modern special fx, along with Luc Besson's Euro-stylization. If you like Philip K Dick stuff, you'll like this. And who doesn't like a good actor like Guy Pearce?

Tron: Legacy (2010)

Needs More Tron!

[7/10 · 18 December 2010]

What I liked in the original was that Boxleitner's character Tron was a plucky monitor program taking on the big Master Control Program that ruled the mainframe/grid/whatever. Bridges' character had god-like powers because he was a user, but Tron was a spunky fighter.

We hardly get to see Tron in this sequel. I'm fine with the fact that when we do see him, he turns out to be a henchman or enforcer for the evil CLU. But we hardly get to see him or his awesome fighting capabilities. When he does finally flip from bad to good, it's too brief and there's not enough buildup to it. He changes to good and sacrifices himself in an all too brief instant. Even when Darth Vader switches over to good and kills the Emperor, we at least first get to see the drama of him watching his own son Luke suffer at the emperor's hands. We don't even get just a little bit of dramatic impact when Tron converts and helps out the good guys.

The movie and its sequel are both named after Tron, the plucky agile freedom fighter hero from the original. They could have at least given him a bit more screen time for his death scene. If I had made this movie, I would have at least had Tron accompanying the good guys and clearing a few baddies out of their way using his awesome fighting skills.

The only hint of a better fate for Tron was his plunge into the water, and the change of his colors - like some sort of final redemption. They could have at least made that more poignant.

Aakrosh (2010)

Plagiarism

[1/10 · 17 October 2010]

This movie is a rip-off of "Mississippi Burning" just as the movie "Shaurya" was a rip-off of "A Few Good Men".

There is an unfortunate tendency in Bollywood cinema to plagiarize successful Hollywood pot-boilers down to the letter, and pass them off as locally-inspired profound morality plays. The local Indian viewing audiences have for the most part never seen the Hollywood originals, and thus end up feeling awed at what they think are totally original story concepts.

Hey, I've got an idea for an Indian sci-fi film: it will feature guys with swords made out of light, and it will start off with the words "long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away" Hey, as long as it's in Hindi, nobody will be the wiser...

Elaan (2005)

Good-looking, Good Fun

[4 February 2005]

I too thought Elaan was interesting, although the musical songs didn't particularly stand out. The cast were all good-looking -- Arjun Rampal, John Abraham, Lara Dutta, Amisha Patel, and even Rahul Khanna were all nice to look at. As far as the action scenes, some of the stuff was interesting in a "Sword of Gideon" type of way, but it was all over-the-top in a way that's typical of all Indian movies. It was nice to see some of India's best bodies and faces altogether in a scenic European backdrop. Even the mobster guy projected a unique malevolence. I think that a lot of Indian critics typically base their praise or criticism of any movie based on how politically correct it is. If it has any type of politically serious tone to it (eg. anti-terrorism) instead of the usual frivolous fantasy fluff, then there are a lot of left-wing writers who'll pounce to make any nitpick they can. So I'd say it's an entertaining over-the-top action thriller, but don't try to bash it by comparing it to Shakespeare.

Garv: Pride and Honour (2004)

Low Quality Junk

[12 July 2004]

This movie was junk, an absolute waste of time. Salman Khan must be the most narcissistic male alive. He constantly has to preen in front of the camera, flexing his muscles while trying to suck in his gut. The movie does have some positive messages such as the need to not scapegoat police for everything and treat them according to double standards. But the fight scenes are garbage, the melodrama is childish, and the gang-rape scene was salacious trashy cinema intended purely for shock value, just like go-go dancing scenes with those ugly dancing girls. Salman's receding hairline and growing gut mean that he'll have to find another career sometime soon, because he won't be tenable on screen for much longer.

Lakshya (2004)

Lakshya - Landmark Indian Movie

[23 June 2004]

I found Lakshya to be a refreshing step up in the quality of Indian films. It depicted courage, loyalty and other exemplary values in an interesting storyline. The musical song-dance numbers were well done, and the background musical scores were also emotive. I found the cinematography really stood out in this movie as above par, showing off the scenic landscape of the mountainous Kargil region.

Regarding krishnam's commentary, I really have to disagree. Firstly, it's silly and petulant to single out this movie for such criticisms while ignoring the glaring errors and inaccuracies typical of most other Indian movies. I feel it should be judged relative to Indian cinema in general, although it could even compare favorably with various Hollywood hits.

I thought the director, composers and cast did a very good job, and hope this film becomes a benchmark for future Bollywood creations to be measured against.