The Expendables 2 Movie Review – Band Of Geriatric Goons

The Expendables 2 is definitely amongst the most anticipated releases of 2012, at least for those who are diehard fans of real action heroes like Sly Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Arnie), Jason Statham, Chuck Norris, Jet Li, Bruce Willis and last but not the least Jeanne Claude Vann Damme. For many viewers and movie buffs this movie would be a dream cum true to see all their action icons sharing one screen.

If we talk about the plot of the movie its not a rocket science in fact its quite simple. If you have watched Expendables 1 and know the storyline, Sly and his team blew up Willis plan. So, in second episode of Expendables, Willis wants to send Sly and his men to another mission to retrieve something of significance value before bad men can get their hold of. Willis introduces them with a female mercenary – Nan Yu, who can lead them in certain situations. Anyways, the team heads off for the mission, without knowing the seriousness caused by the Villain of the movie Jean Claude Van Damme. The rivalry turns into personal when Van Damme brutally murders one of Sly’s gang mates. From there the movie transforms into a new journey – journey of revenge!

The the plot does not make a bit of sense at many places, as it only involves explosions, chases and blood shattering scenes. “Track em. Find em. Kill’em”. Is what the movie is all about – Dialogue spouted by Sly for the bad guys.

This time the movie is focused more on fun and action. The chemistry between Statham and Sly is amazing. Similarly, Arnold’s presence is a treat. Chuck Norris Steals the show in a brief cameo. Bruce Willis is there for – making his presence felt, else he was not technically needed for more than one scene. Jean Claude Van Damme looks ruthless, acts much better and fights perfectly! The real action heroes of this ride are Statham, Van Damme and Sly. Those who bring smiles are Arnie, Sly and Statham. The ones whose presence catches you by surprise are Arnie and Chuck (in every scene).

This particular movie has received mixed responses from audiences. According to some geriatric goons are back, for others it’s a star packed salute to fans of action movies and for others its far too weak for its fury. It’s a pure 80’s and 90’s idea with same era’s super stars in new packaging. Director Simon West gives his best after almost fifteen years, which was Con Air.

Recommended to all those who want to watch their Action icons together. Bad-Ass Action flick with corny one-liners like
"I pronounce you Man and Knife", "Rest in Pieces", "Do you want to hit me like a Man or Shit" and last but not the least
Sly: "I think it belongs to a Museum"
Arnie: "We all DO"

Rating 7.5/10

EID MUBARAK

Eid Mubarak (Eid Greetings) to all my followers, readers and every person from all over the world!

I thank you all for being a continuous support!

The Avengers - Movie Review

Marvel needs no introduction. Those who grew up in 70’s, 80’s and 90’s read and watched comics and cartoons produced by Marvel and those whose childhood belongs to 2000 must have watched some amazing movies produced by them. It is simply close to impossible to create a master piece again and again; this is the reason why most of the sequels flop at the box office. But I simply don’t know what formula lies with Marvel, from Hulk (2003) to The Avengers (2012), they continue to provide the best of experience to their audiences, including, Iron Man (2008/10), Thor (2011) and Captain America (2011). They are definitely the entertainers.

It was not a piece of cake to get all the superheroes together in any movie just like that. After all, screen play, plot, logic and script have to be extraordinary for making them stand shoulder to shoulder. Marvel Studios and Paramount Pictures bang on the perfect script in which they united the amazing team of Superheroes as well as they grab the right cast. The story revolves around how the director of S.H.I.E.L.D, Nick Fury (performed by Samuel L. Jackson), gathers a team of all super heroes including, Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) along with Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) to fight against Loki (Tom Hiddleston) who plays Thor’s father’s adopted son and threats Nick Fury to demolish the peace on earth and rule it. As Loki, just like Thor is not a human and possesses super natural powers and army there has to be super heroes against this God of evils.

The movie brings surprises in many ways, the interaction between all the characters whether in their super heroic attires or common suits is first-rate. The dialogues between Tony Stark and Captain America gives you many reason to smile and clap at many places (off the record, I managed to whistle as well). The action sequences of Hulk were worth watching again and again, just to note the expressions and daredevil stunts. Thor’s entry is a treat to watch and the complete scene is remarkable, how Thor (The God of Thunder), Iron Man and Captain America try to show their strengths – simply bravura. Samuel L. Jackson gets a much lengthy role this time, unlike Iron Man 2’s role, and he simply proves his excellence with his performance, be it the beginning of the movie, communiqué with Loki and post interval. Same goes for Scarlett Johansson, she is fast and a nice element included in the movie – it is a difficult task to get noticed as a normal human in the movie studded by superheroes. This time Hulk is much civilized, well you may say that, he knows how to control his rage and Mark Ruffalo perfectly portrays a role, am sure audience will love him over the previous Hulk(s). The only character from THE Avengers who under-performs (I am not saying that he has not performed well) is Hawkeye. In such movies where there are so many heroes it is really difficult for the villain to stand out but Tom Hiddleston as Loki excels and performs a role that is tailor-made for him. He looks comfortable and cold blooded both at the same time. 

Like all the scenes and sequences the climax is also directed very well by Joss Whedon. Characterization is strong, script is clap-worthy and there are many other surprises “action wise”. It is undoubtedly a Super Movie brought to its audience by a team of Super Heroes, called The Avengers. Watch this movie in Cinema, it is worth experiencing.

Rating: 9/10

**The Article is initially published at Dunya TV's Blog

VICKY DONOR – The sperm that produces a “Laugh”

Tribune

With the passage of time audience have seen that the cinema has changed. I would call it a 360 degree change. There were times when action flicks used to be the talk of the town. There used to be an angry young man beating up the goons either for the sake of vengeance or for proving his macho character. Then there were times when love stories were liked by budding lovers and college sweet-hearts, those movies used to have some great music compositions which were instantly liked and loved by the listeners (of that time). Now weird (for some people) and interesting (for other viewers) movies are made. At some circles slapstick comedies are encouraged and on the other hand people are also appreciating thought provoking cinema. This particular movie, “Vicky Donor” is a combination of both.

The movie might not get success, on the basis of its topic, screenplay and concept, if it would have been released in 90’s or even in 2000’s. Audience is much more ready to accept things nowadays. The movie is tale of a Punjabi boy named Vicky Arora (Ayushman) whose great grandfather had 19 children. This story also revolves around a (not so successful) middle aged Doctor Baldev Chadda (Annu Kapoor) who specializes in infertility operations and he runs a fertility clinic and looking for a sperm donor. Last but not the least, this movie also revolves around the love of a Punjabi guy with a Bengali girl Ashima Roy (Yaami Gautam) and their trust and understanding.

The theme of the movie is really interesting yet controversial, for some. Dr. Chadda convinces Vicky to donate his sperm so that he can give happiness to those parents who are not blessed with their biological kids. For this he quotes some factual yet hilarious examples to Vicky, regarding Mahabhaarat’s time. Finally Dr. Chadda convinces Vicky and he starts to donate sperms. The sequence between Annu Kapoor (as Dr. Chadda) and Ayushmaan (as Vicky) are amazingly hilarious and here definitely Annu Kapoor being a veteran actor takes the audience to the heights of laughter. It is not easy to share the screen with Annu Kapoor but Ayushmaan makes his presence noticed strongly. They both complement each other in almost every scene be it be dramatic or funny. Those who know the roles portrayed by Annu Kapoor in his career will never doubt that he has a caliber that is not shared by many actors. Be it his “Gali Gali Chor hai” or “7 Khoon Maaf” both roles portrays huge contrast. For those who really want to see his amazing performance must watch “Ek Ruka hua faisla” (21 years old young Annu Kapoor portraying a 59 years old lawyer).

On the other hand (the debutant) Ayushman is also full of surprises. He performs extremely nice as a funky, easy going and smartass boy at one place, whereas he astonishes audience in climax (I don’t want to spoil the experience – watch it yourself). Be it a serious thing or comical the young talent has the potential to get noticed. Yaami Gautam is a well known name of Indian TV Channels but she debuts in this movie and guys will love her charms and sweetness. She does not portray an “Oh So Sexy” role but even then am sure guys will smile after watching her and noticing her simplicity. She can go a long way provided she chooses right roles.

There are other characters that shine in this movie, including, Vicky’s mom (Dolly Ahluwalia) and grand mom (Kamlesh Gill). Jayanta Das, portraying the father of Yaami Gautam, excels brilliantly.

On the whole, John Abraham has managed to produce a great piece of funny and witty cinema. The movie shares a nice plot line, if we can save a dying man by donating our blood, why can’t we grant our sperms to grant a whole life to someone who does not even exists in the world. The good things about this movie are that it has freshness, good humor, some great performances and a nice handling. Only drawback – it lacks star power (which these days is a must for many movie goers).

Music is average, dialogues are hilarious and direction is promising.

Rating 7/10

The Friendship Drama – An Indo Pak Reality

I am sure; my readers have made a lot of friends in their entire lives. I am also of the view that my readers exactly understand what friendship is all about, after all, according to philosophers “of all the richest men in the world is one who has the highest number of friends”. But I also believe with the advent of technological advancement, people have now developed friendly relationships with objects and not with the living individuals. These days the best friends, for youth, include PS3, Laptops, Xbox, iPhone and Career etc. Gone were the days when individuals used to be friends with each other. The reason why I am quoting this, somewhat irrelevant thing, is because years ago I heard an opinion and remark on “friendship” from one of my mentors (all my teachers, seniors, juniors and family members are in my mentoring list), that was “A friend is someone with whom you can trust the custodianship of your mother, wife and sister – a friend is someone whom you want to marry your sister”. Trust me; I hardly came across such friends!

So, as per the terminological meaning of “friend”, I have few statements,

a.       Two individuals attached with the feeling of affection and regard,

b.      Individuals that provide support to each other,

c.       Individuals who are not hostile with each other and share sympathy and symphony.

Lately we have seen many acts of friendships, carried out by artistes of Pakistan and India (most strongly and successfully). The revolution started long ago, when Manoj Kumar offered a role to Mohd. Ali and Zeba in his movie “Clerk”, when Talat Hussain acted in an Indian movie that was early 1980’s. Now coming back to recent times, where “Samjhota Express” was seen as the beacon of hope and friendship between the two most powerful nations of the world, undoubtedly. United they ruled the world and divided they ruined their images, one having the biggest slums and poverty of the world whereas the other being still considered as unstable economic and political state of the world. So this is the outcome of division! Just like dividing the key and the lock, without being together they can never be fully utilized. Ever!

The problem is that, there are few of us, who want to be genuinely friends with one another, like me – without a doubt, and there are few who just for the sake of keeping their social status alive agree to this, though they actually do not want a bit to befriended with each other. The friendly attempts in terms of hand-shakes, embraces and paying regards have been initiated by both the countries and there is no point of question in that. But I suppose, believe it or not, we still are confused. We (means both, Indians and Pakistanis) can never accept the defeat of our Cricket Team while playing against each other. We take it as a matter of respect, repute and patriotism. The fact is, we do not have patriotism a bit, we are eager to move to USA or Canada at any given moment and will never plan to visit back to our homeland. Is this patriotism? After living just 5 – 6 months abroad when either of us lands on our motherland, we start to criticize our flights (planes), the traffic system, the people, politics and finally the country. Most commonly heard statement is “this place is not suitable for hardworking/good people – they are all thieves – why are you still living here, leave this country ASAP”.

So the logic of patriotism flows down from flush system here. And why is it only India and Pakistan’s match that causes the traffic jams, sorrows and foul comments after the match, in any one of the countries? Why not we feel the same disrespect and high pitched tension while losing with Australia, South Africa, Bangladesh or England? The reason is, we have a majority of people who are not rational and who are not mentally mature. They can not take a game as a “game”. To them the concept of playing well as a team or player is like an alienated thought!

Finally, I don’t know how to end up this article. The only thing that I want to request to both of the nations is that let us try to be logical and not mentally operated by few “Senas” or “Parties”. I am a strong believer of friendship, with same footings from both the ends. Let the best team win. Lets us get familiar with “Sportsman Spirit” – which we have lost ages ago.

Be blessed!

P.S. I would appreciate if my readers will comment!