Runner, Runner review

A film about money, greed, poker and most of all....MORE MONEY!

I must say, Justin Timberlake completely succeeds as Richie Furst, a masters student at Princeton who is in dire need of some cash. He has to be the most interesting aspect of this film, apart from the outstandingly presented story by director Brad Furman. 

Ben Affleck, plays Ivan Block, a businessman who has been extremely lucky. Saying any more about his business would most definitely be a SPOILER ALERT! Let's just talk about his acting. To be honest, I never expected him to be able to pull of a negative role, but he does not do a bad job. At some points he actually looks threatening enough to be called a villian. After finding out he was Batman, I never thought I could see him in a different light...guess I was wrong.
Gemma Arterton held her own, in a film where she is given little room to act. Unfortunately, her obviously "fake" tan in the film just became quite annoying after a while, but you may be able to look over that because of this brilliantly written story by Brian Koppelman and David Levien.

Anthony Mackie....the man who never disappoints, however important the role is, he always delivers in his own unique way.

Some people believe that 'Runner, Runner' shows the wrong side of Finance....but actually, it just shows an alternative to what people could actually do with their money. 

ONE HUGE DOWNSIDE IS.....the film is only 91 minutes, but feels like 191! For some reason, it just seems like the film should have been shorter.  I guess t

hat was because the film had a good story...but just failed at connecting with the audience. This does not happen very often, at least to me. I usually connect with all the films I like. But however hard I tried to connect with the film....'Runner, Runner' would just 'Run...' away!

Another downfall of the movie was the lack of suspense. I know I've praised the story and direction, but the film fails to spark any surprise for the viewer. That's not to say that this film should never be watched...it's just a movie that movie-lovers should watch with an open-mind.

Rating System:

Performance: 8/10

Direction: 8/10

Story/Script: 8/10

Music/Soundtrack: 7/10

Cinematography: 5/10

Action: 7/10

I give this film 7.17/10 "7.17 out of 10"

Rating: May seem like a higher rating than it deserves, but the film made me smile! Decent!

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Besharam review

Besharam is very shameless!!! Ranbir Kapoor and Pallavi Sharda acted very well but the story was horrendous.... Just very TWO DIFFERENT SIDES OF THE SPECTRUM!

I realised, this film was an attempt at a "good-hearted man" being rude, obnoxious and shameless due to the fact that he did not have the facilities or the opportunities that everyone else had. On the surface, it sounds like an interesting take on the matter but the amount of stress the director, Abhinav Kashyap, gave to this point was disappointing. Main culprit in the downfall of this movie has to Abhinav....the way he shot the scenes, the camera angles, the entrances...they were all too 'tacky', in my eyes.
Usually the box office and I do not completely agree, but in this case, we do. This is Ranbir Kapoor's first "official" flop since Saawariya (which I thought was top notch).

I would review this film more deeply, but personally, quote says it all
"“Besharam” means shameless, and Bollywood helmer Abhinav Kashyap never stops trumpeting that concept for a moment.  “More of the same” seems to be his mantra for this romantic comedy — more frenetically unmemorable musical numbers, more mugging, strutting and crass bits of business. Kashyap relies completely on star Ranbir Kapoor to put over this relentless reiteration of cliches and, admittedly, the actor invests his aggressively tasteless, crotch-grabbing antics with enough energy and humor to make it palatable, but only just."

After giving hits like Yuva, in 2004, and Dabangg, in 2010, Kashyap loses his credibility as a "serious" film maker. That is not to say, he will not bounce back, he might...but a person who rejects Dabangg 2 and then makes a film which is "VERY SIMILAR" in its whole "DHAMAKA BANG" type fighting.
Secondly, the story and screenplay was also written by Kashyap himself...well the bulk of it.

To be honest, I did not expect this film to be any better than the promos, which did look quite ordinary but I won't be as harsh as to say that no one performed well in the movie.
ALL...and I mean ALL OF THE ACTORS in the film did their level best to portray their role to the best of their abilities. Even debutant Pallavi Sharda, who in her first film, matched toe-to-toe with Ranbir Kapoor on the dance floor as well as in the emotional scenes.
The "New Gen" Kapoors joined the party with their first all family outing on the silver screen, which showed that they all have amazing on screen chemistry. Due to the film, this was not well utilised by the director, but there were glimpses of genius amongst this havoc called "Besharam".

I am delighted to say that I did not need to do much preparation for this film as most of the reviewers had already said what I could have thought of. Here is another person, who shares my views:  "Indeed, all the thesps do their damnedest, but Kashyap’s script almost perversely refuses to introduce any character gradations or to even slightly vary the actors’ routines.  
Production values and visual effects seem shoddier than usual for a Bollywood blockbuster, and the pic’s broad, tongue-in-cheek ethos undercuts the physical impact of the action and the gags."

Music might just be the 'glimmer' of hope this movie could have had but apart from "Besharam" and "Tere Mohalle", the other songs were very overused...like the melodies to the other tracks had been used MANY MANY TIMES in previous films. Some people may have found them quite refreshing, while the majority found them annoying. One more thing that was just a buzz kill....the first 29 minutes of the film is shown to be an introduction to everything but includes 3 songs..in 29 minutes..... squeezing them all into that small gap....was there any point for that? My answer is no. The film could have been cut short in many areas that were just far too long-winded and songs could have been spread out across a longer period of time so that the audience would not get "BORED" during the next 110 odd minutes of the film.
Choreography (done by Remo D'Souza) does seem to cheer me up, but again with the "pelvic thrusts"...I think Bollywood is trying to play off too much of Michael Jackson and Prabhudeva in their dance routines...which looks good but too vulgar for my eyes.

RATING SYSTEM

Performance 7.5/10

Direction 4/10

Story/Script 4/10
Action 5/10

 Music/Soundtrack 6/10

Cinematography 5/10

Choreography 7/10

I give this film 5.5/10 "5.5 out of 10"
Rating: Below Average! Please don't watch it...just watch the funny scenes when it releases on YouTube. (which there are not many)

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