The Conjuring review by Jaffrina Jahan

Like James Wan’s previous horror outing, Insidious, The Conjuring is typical in following the haunting of a family who move into a new home. It is filled with cliché horror devices ranging from the jack-in-the-box to the imaginary friend and it is clear that Wan has been inspired from other horror films such as the Exorcist and The Poltergeist. 

Ed and Lorraine Warren are the real life paranormal investigators who are called by the Perron family to investigate the strange events in their new home. The Perron family with Dad Roger, Mum Carolyn and their five daughters are given a lengthy introduction that included a dead dog and Hitchcock style suicidal pigeons. The slow build up was surprisingly effective in creating tension and a sense of claustrophobia which is subtly present throughout the film. A sense of entrapment is prominent as the house is a financial burden stopping the family from moving, which would not have helped anyway, and Carolyn being prevented from leaving the house. However, at times it felt as though the film was too long until Wan introduced a creaking door or sleepwalking child and you felt like an idiot for doubting Wan and the film.
 
The writers’ decision to delay the introduction of the Perron family to present the Warren’s previous case of the creepy doll, Annabelle was a wise choice. It was scary and the fact that the film was from two points of view; that of the Warren’s and Perron’s, added a sense of realism to make the ‘this is based on a true story’ concept all the more believable and thus frightening. The narrative conveys the events clearly and never leaves you feeling confused. After watching Dead Silence and Insidious I was concerned that the ending would be confusing and disjointed but Wan succeeds in closing the narrative without any open threads and disappointing plot twists to deliver a satisfying conclusion.
 
The soundtrack was by Insidious’ Joseph Bishara. It was similar to Insidious and an accomplishment in enhancing the tension and the subsequent scares. The acting was superb across the board, particularly from Vera Farmiga; Farmiga’s anxiety and tightly concealed fear are superbly portrayed and reminds us that she is rightly an Oscar nominated actress.
 
Ignoring the violence and gore of Saw and abstaining from CGI, Wan delivers a horror filled with old school scares which are executed with tactic and genius. The camera’s close, lingering shots of the ghosts are truly frightening and leave you closing your eyes and recoiling. It is well known that the best kind of fear is the fear of the unknown and Wan succeeds in this without doubt; from the clapping hands coming out the wardrobe to the creepy Annabelle doll mysteriously leaving her box and inexplicably returning. The Conjuring is one of the great films to come from the horror genre in recent years and for Wan is an impressive follow up to Insidious and a testament to the fact that he should stick to scaring audiences. 

RATING SYSTEM

Performance 9/10

Direction 9/10

Story/Script 8/10
Action 8/10

Music/Soundtrack 7/10
Cinematography 7/10

I give this film 8/10 "8 out of 10"

Rating: Better than most other horror movies! 

Read More

Pain and Gain review

Obviously Pain and Gain had amazing box office collections in USA! Unfortunately, it didn't do as well around the globe but that does not matter one bit. This film is a true story (as specified many times during the movie) and is very well directed, shown quite well on the silver screen by director Michael Bay. I'll keep this review short and straight to the point. "Pain and Gain, which Bay and Bay alone was capable of directing, seizes on this image of his country and thrashes about with it dementedly; along with comedy dismemberings, farcical GBH and the barbecuing of human hands, the movie offers the equally gruesome spectacle of a metaphor being clubbed to death."

The idea of America as a musclebound nation, psychotically devoted to self-improvement, has some merit as a throwaway conceit — the sort of thing a Scorsese or Oliver Stone might toss into one of their bloody epics as a grace note. What should be clear by now is that grace notes are not really Michael Bay’s forte. His films usually involve brilliant action sequences so this does seem like a change of pace for him, and he accepts this challenge with open arms.

As this film goes through the motions, you never seem to be unengaged with the characters (yes, that was a double negative). Mark Wahlberg plays his role of  fitness 'freak' Daniel Lugo brilliantly well while beautifully anchoring the film through its various twists and turns.

Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson does Paul Doyle's character justice with his wonderful portrayal that makes us feel sorry for Dwayne's personality in the film. The emotional and comedic scenes were also excellently captured and spectacularly laid down on the silver screen by Mr. Bay.

Other supporting cast of Anthony Mackie, Tony Shalhoub, Ed Harris and many others did the best job they could , even though they did not do brilliant, which does not mean they did not do good!

Inspired by a true story (and also IS A TRUE STORY), this film has a brilliant storyline which is completely unique due to its factual nature and witty and fast paced screenplay will blow your mind away! It seems like a line that should have been in the "Now You See Me" review but Pain and Gain does bring an amazing plot come to life for the audience.

Unfortunately, the film recognises the true story part more than once, which may lead some viewers, slightly unimpressed. This is due to the emphasis on the "true", at least three times in this 2 hour film.

The visual effects used in the film, make you feel as though you are actually in the film.. Living it as you go on with your own life! Cinematography is exquisite. The cleanliness in the way the film is shot is extremely good, but not in competition with Bay's previous works "Transformers" and "Armageddon"

This film has its bad points like the vast use of curse words (which isn't usually a problem in rated 15 movies but this was quite over the top)... still this film does amaze in its story!:) It seems like a line that should have been in the "Now You See Me" review but Pain and Gain does bring an amazing plot to life for its targeted audience.

RATING SYSTEM

Performance 8/10

Direction 7/10

Story/Script 7/10
Action 7/10

Music/Soundtrack 5/10
Cinematography 7/10

I give this film 6.83/10 "6.83 out of 10"
Rating: Great Story! Must Watch! (But never again)!

Read More

Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbaai Dobara

The length of the title is a start to a film that will feel as though it is dragged on for longer than it needed to.
OUATIMD (Once Upon Ay Time In Mumbaai Dobara) is one of the few films that I wanted to watch at the start of the year, but unfortunately, the film seems to be too long for what it is.
This film is a love story...with action added into it, that actually looks very good.

Director Milan Luthria has made some absolutely amazing pieces of art on the silver screen but with this movie he can not put the same flavour, which unfortunately tarnishes the backbone of the film that is the character of Shohaib Khan (played by Akshay Kumar). Mr. Luthria has done quite well with the history part of the film, linking up his previous two films with this one. To be honest, all the scenes in the film were shot with fantastic precision and definitely looked the part on screen.

Shohaib was first introduced to us in the prequel to this film, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, in which the role was played by Emraan Hashmi. He nailed that role and I'd even go as far to say that role played a key role in his stardom. However, if you have seen the first installment, you will be slightly unimpressed in the way Akshay Kumar portrays Shohaib Khan, due to the unncessary dramatisation of this role. That does not mean he did not do a good job, he was great but Hashmi just set too high a standard for this role. All that said. "Halfway into Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai Dobaara! Akshay Kumar playing the all-powerful, Dawood-style, murderous mafia don, declares: “Villain hoon main, villain.” He says it with such a menacing relish that I wanted to applaud. More than anything else in Milan Luthria's sequel he was "THE" man to watch!" Akshay was brilliantly menacing which was a good turn from what Hashmi played in the first part. Some of the dialogues given to him were terrific, no doubt about that. I won't say Hashmi could've done a better job because in this film, Shohaib Khan had to be a villianous mastermind who says stuff like "Mujhe accha banne ka koi shauk nahin hai." This review seems to be all about Akshay Kumar, but the film does revolve around him. He was the key part of this movie. Akshay unlocks the loneliness and heartache of the horrific villian that is Shohaib Khan.

Sonakshi Sinha (played Jasmine Sheikh) was typical Sonakshi, with the "bubbly" personality in the film, however, she actually did a very good job, especially when she had to scream in some of the emotional scenes. The emotion she was trying to emit came out exactly as it should have.
Imran Khan surprisingly played the role of Aslam, extremely well, showing the whole industry that he is Aamir Khan's nephew. I'm sure he must have gotten some tips from his uncle when he found out he was chosen for this role. No doubt his performance was very believable and you felt for the guy.
Everyone else that was casted in the film, played their roles well but with abit of over acting that was bound to happen with this type of sequel.

The story in OUATIMD is not a true story, and is a new touch to the characted of Shohaib Khan. It shows a softer side to him, the "emotional" side which we had not seen completely in its prequel. It is an old school love triangle with an action twist added on, which does make it a decent film to watch, but nothing that you would want to watch again. Ending may just surprise some of the viewers, apart from that, the film does not contain many twists that you don't see coming from a mile away. Through out the film, you will be engaged by the atmosphere that engulfs you, but the aura of this movie diminishes as the end credits roll. 

Action....aaahhhhh.... very realistic, apart from the train sequence. SPOILER ALERT.... Imran Khan's entry into the film is on a train, where he is chasing some people, who he is stealing diamonds from. That whole section of the film, seems too unrealistic and filmy, but apart from that, all the rest of the action is spot on!

Box office wise the film has gone steady but not been a complete success either, which is a little surprsing for an Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha starrer. 40 crore in 4 days seems to be a good achievement for most films but with an extremely high budget movie like this, it's considered fairly mediocre.

Pritam does not reach his full potential with his 100th attempt at being a music director (well done to him) but I think the prequel had fantastic music (also done by Pritam). Songs like "Bismillah" and "Tu Hi Khwahish" were just added into the film to fill the quota of songs, which is a disappointment because "Ye Tu Ne Kya Kiya" and "Chugliyaan" are brilliantly composed and lyrically are great. "Tayyab Ali" is a humourous song, that was first made popular by Amar, Akbar and Anthony film in the 70's/80's but the song comes back with a bang in this film. The song is completely random and unncessary but even I laughed at parts of it.

"Yes, the film is over-wrought, melodramatic and designed as pulp fiction. But it’s intermittently fun. One of my favourite scenes was Shoaib going voluntarily to the police station. The cops are so busy trying to set up roadblocks to catch him that they don’t even notice that he’s standing there. It’s absurdly comic. And a special mention here of Sonali Bendre Behl, who shines in the few scenes she has.
Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbaai Dobara! had me cheering for the bad guy. Which, at least in the movies, is never a bad thing."


Finally, I do think this film was amazingly hyped up to be something it wasn't, unlike the previous part which was not hyped and turned out to be one of the great movies of 2010.

RATING SYSTEM

Performance 7/10

Direction 8/10

Story/Script 7/10
Action 8/10

Music/Soundtrack 6/10
Cinematography 8/10

Choreography 6/10

I rate this film 7.14/10 "7.14 out of 10"
Rating: Good! Experience it once, but not dobara!(again!)

Read More

Chennai Express review

Back in 2006, when Golmaal:Fun Unlimited released (director Rohit Shetty), I found that film hilarious and thought that Shetty would become an amazing director with a unique talent for entertaining the audience.
BUT!!!!!! ROHIT SHETTY I am sorry to say...Chennai express was a disaster!! I can't believe I am quoting the film but this really was a "Bokwoas" film. Direction was so unfresh, predictable and extremely monotonous. This all has been done before Rohit Shetty, please bring something fresh to the table in your next venture. (1 Mark down for Chennai Express)

This is an all out old school Bollywood masala film...but alot worse! Most of the jokes were so obvious that you'd easily be able to predict what the punchline would be...plus, it won't be funny. The film contained no suspense whatsoever! I don't even have to do a "SPOILER ALERT!" because there is nothing to have a spoiler about! (Another Mark down for Chennai Express)

Screenplay was quite brilliant in a few parts and by a few, I do mean a few! Dialogue delivery by most of the cast was reasonable, but nothing shone like the horrendous, typical Rohit Shetty direction. K.Subhaash (the writer) literally looked at "Tere Naal Love Ho Gaya" and "Ready" and thought to himself "Let's just make a combination of these two with twists in the middle that are super obvious." (And Another Mark down)
Once again! I am ashamed of Karan Johar and Shahrukh Khan's film brain, even with the vast experience they share between eachother. They understand what makes money in India unfortunately, but don't understand what film goers actually need, a good entertaining well directed, well acted film, not a completely uninteresting attempt at an entertaining film, that just flopped at it. Mr.Johar, Student Of The Year, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani and now this, all absolute disappointments in my book. Shahrukh Khan once again produces a film that should not be worthy of being called a film. Om Shanti Om, Ra.One, Jab Tak Hai Jaan...all these films could have been great, but unfortunately, all of them were disappointing..however, none were as worthless as Chennai Express. (I'm tired of the down marking, but you get the gist)

Mr. Shahrukh Khan...wait...he wasn't first billed....so let's start with Miss Deepika Padukone. She was the highlight of the film...no doubt about it. She kept her "fake" but quite reliastic South Indian accent through the entire film which played as a good comedic palate cleanser from the unrest that transpired around her. Her role was not amazing, but she pulled it off very well, with the grace that could have been added to this character of Meenamma.
I've already talked about Shahrukh Khan's involvement with this film as a great failure, but his acting was better than the film, even with all the SUPER OVER-ACTING by this so called "King" of Bollywood. His dialogues were funny, but like I said before, these jokes were not as spectacular as they were made out to be. A plus point for SRK fans, he was dancing amazingly well for a guy who's 47.
Anyone with half a mind would realise that these two actors and the others, Sathyaraj and Nikitin Dheer, were wasted in this movie.
The character development was inexistent. The connection or chemistry between SRK and Deepika glimmered through a couple of scenes when they end up in a small village, but otherwise, it was too cheesy and to be perfectly honest, just not there.

I am thinking long and hard trying to come up with some positive points about Chennai Express but I just can't think of any. I guess the music.....no wait....even Vishal-Shekhar went off their game with this soundtrack. All the music in this film was old and the audience would have heard a billion times in previous films. Addiction to songs, I'd say the most catchy tune is while the credits role, "Lungi Dance", which is such an annoying song, but will stick to your tongue as you start singing to it for no apparent reason (atleast that happened to me). This song was a tribute to Shri Rajnikanth, which is commendable, unfortunately the song was just horrific...but catchy.

Lastly, the ending....was so unbelievably obvious, that I just wanted to cry how bad it was. OHMYGOD!!! I found a plus point...the film had no vulgarity, sex scenes, swearing words anything, which was a nice pace for


an Indian film nowadays, but this film was a disaster even without those things.

RATING SYSTEM

Performance 6/10

Direction 5/10

Story/Script 5/10
Action 6/10

Music/Soundtrack 3/10
Cinematography 5/10

Choreography 5/10

I give this film 5/10 "5 out of 10" (The lowest rating I've given to an SRK film since Om Shanti Om :O) 
Rating: Below Average! Don't watch it...Please! I am begging you! Watch something else!

Read More

Ironman 3

Let me start off by saying, sorry for the hold up, I have not had any time to post anything of significance in the past month, but do not fear, I am back on here and will be updating quickly.

Ironman 3, this film was the biggest build up of this year of 2013 and for most people, this was the perfect cherry on top for the Ironman franchise. For me, it wasn't as spectacular as it seemed to be in the trailers. Even though this film had a gross profit of over $1 billion, I did not feel the chill that I felt in Ironman, Ironman 2 or the Avengers film last year.  
First of all, this looked more like a sequal to the Avengers, when it was meant to be one for Ironman....but still it was more like "Avengers:The Ironman Effect" and I think Shane Black (director), could have put more of an independent aspect behind this project...but that's just what I think.  
"Interestingly, while Black succeeds in presenting the most personal and intimate Tony Stark story in the series thus far, it sometimes comes at the expense of iconic Iron Man action that die-hard fans will be expecting."

It has been about 3 months since this film released back in May and honestly, this film has only one part of it that intrigued me and that was the character of Aldrich Killian, played by Guy Pierce, who was brilliant in his role and stood levels above the rest.
Robert Downey Jr. and his comedic portrayal of Ironman fell apart for me in this film and even in scenes that required a seriousness, he could not show that 'Tony Starky' charm that was very apparent in the previous films. Though he was not bad, but by no stretch was he the usual excellence we have started to expect from him.
Gwyneth Paltrow and Don Cheadle were decent in their specific roles, as well as Sir Ben Kingsley, who actually surprised me with this new genre of acting, making him the second highlight for me in the film.

SPOILER ALERT!
It seems as though the films creators tried to invent a "new" superpower for audiences that are becoming flooded with superhero mythology, and while their goal was a respectable one, their execution was lacking. These "new" powers, which served as more of a chance for the special effects team to go crazy than anything, just make absolutely no rational sense whatsoever (even for this genre), and in the end, destroyed the "willing suspension of disbelief" which keeps us engaged in a story. 

Personally, one of the suspensive parts of the film "The mystery of the Mandarin", was very interesting and seemed to be an eye-opener for the audience.  

BUT THERE IS ONE THING I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND! If Ironman's suits are so strong and all, why do they break and dismantle so easily in this film....seriously, the suit falls to pieces with little hits and that is just extremely ... sad. 

Visual Effects in this film were well done for which I would like to applaud the Visual team for Ironman 3, but the story...though interesting, does become quite boring by the end of it and the ending....I won't say anymore....just remember to not wait for the end-credits scene because it's literally 10 minutes of watching the credits and then a 1-minute scene which is humourous but not worth waiting for in the cinema. Wait till the DVD/Blu-ray, then just fast forward to it!

RATING SYSTEM

Performance 7/10

Direction 8/10

Story/Script 7/10
Action 9/10

Music/Soundtrack 8/10
Cinematography 7.5

I give this film 7.75/10 "7.75 out of 10"
Rating: Average for a superhero film! One watch is enough!

Read More