The Movie Geek

In the wake of Kabir Singh (Hindi) and Adithya Varma (Tamil), the most controversial of it's time, the original, Arjun Reddy (Telugu) is once again in the news. It's been over two years since Arjun Reddy hit the theatres and is still one of the most talked about in the film fraternity. While some are of the opinion that it's just another movie with glorification of drugs and alcohol and mistaking obsession with love, others are of the opinion that Arjun Reddy is one of those rare movies that reinvent filmmaking. Kabir Singh and Adithya Varma may or may not meet the expectations but Arjun Reddy will be remembered for generations to come. Before we dig deep, one important thing to be remembered is that Arjun Reddy is not a story of a perfect protagonist. It's the story of a person who is transforming. The essence of the movie lies in the raw feel it carries. Arjun Reddy is as close to reality so far from it. He has the same issues as every other college going kid an...

***Spoiler Alert!*** 24 Superheroes. 18 movies building the characters. 10 Years of World Building. 6 Infinity Stones. One big bad baldy. When such a well sought out movie ends up somewhere between good and great, that's a disappointment. After the perfect Superhero movie, Black Panther , Marvel was waiting to deliver another perfect movie. Or so they thought. Thanos was teased first in the first Thor movie. Every superhero fan and a movie fan have been waiting for him get his ass out of the chair he so loves to sit in and wreck the world since then. And he does. Surprisingly, for a Marvel movie, the villain becomes the strength here as the heroes become the weaknesses. Inconsistencies in the characters and the script become the weaknesses.  The movie picks up exactly where Thor: Ragnarok leaves us. We see Ebony Maw walking on the wrecked Asgardian rescue ship, killing the survivors. Thanos stands tall as Thor is fallen and Loki is trying to work his charm and mischie...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences award movies every year on various categories. Though there are various institutions that award movies every year, The Academy's Oscars are still considered the most prestigious and movie enthusiasts across the world look forward for this. The Academy brings into light so many underappreciated movies with the Oscars that the world would probably not pay that much of interest otherwise. Last year's Moonlight , the Best Picture Academy Award winner is such an example, for a movie which wasn't paid any heed until it was nominated for the Oscars. Though there have been quite a few misfires from The Academy, rewarding the wrong movie or actor or actress every now and then, it maintains it's credibility by actually contributing to the Industry and in it's willingness to develop for better every passing year. We will be looking at movies that are nominated for Oscars 2018, major categories in this post and will draw out po...

***Spoiler Alert!*** How do you top yourself when your filmography consists of movies like Memento, Inception, The Dark Knight and Interstellar ? You make Dunkirk ! Probably the only director who's got great following (pun intended!) in a country that worships stars on screen but ignores the makers is Christopher Nolan . There are many factions like We believe in Nolan or Nolanites that completely believe in his ability to make a groundbreaking movie. And the genius delivers. Every single time! When the audience were still scratching their heads trying to figure out the science behind Interstellar , Nolan started working on his next venture, a World War II drama, Dunkirk . This project was the most doubted in all of Nolan's other projects due to unrecognizable star cast and relatively weak scope of originality in the story department as it is based on a true story. Against all odds, Nolan proves yet again that he's on the path to greatness, probably the best direct...

***Spoiler Alert!*** Guardians of the Galaxy was the smash hit of 2014. The movie had surprised audience and critics alike with some mesmerizing music, great action, stunning visuals and above all, an extraordinarily funny script. After Groot sacrifices himself for his new-found family, Guardians of the Galaxy- Vol. 2 (Hereafter GotG2) benefited having Baby Groot (yup, he's damn cute!) on it's roster. With widely famous Awesome Mix Vol 1 , audience wanted more of those wonderful soundtracks in the background while their favorite outcast anti-heroes kicked some ass. The trailers and TV spots increased the hype with some genuinely funny scenes and some great visuals. Also, we all wanted more Baby Groot and waited for the movie to come out. The movie starts off with our guardians fighting off an inter-galactic threat with tentacles that feeds on batteries. Batteries that are sacred for Sovereigns, a highly sensitive, highly intelligent race. Rocket (Bradley Cooper) steals...

***Spoiler Alert!*** You'd be very well aware that I was quite disappointed with Baahubali- The Beginning if you've been following me. Though the movie had reached heights in case of VFX, the only department to credit is that of Cinematography and nothing else. Good Visuals doesn't necessarily make a good movie . As The Beginning ended on a note of ambiguity, audience of the movie craved for closure. This meant that the sequel already bagged all of it's audience from the first movie. With enough hype surrounding the movie, the producers didn't compromise on the quality of making it as it seemed as a safe bet. The first look and trailer, even with it's weird soundtrack, added to the hype. The movie is out and is making tons of money. However, a movie that makes a lot of money in India doesn't necessarily be a great movie. The movie starts off with a visual recap of important sequences from the first part, during the titles. The visuals are impressive d...

***Spoiler Alert!*** King Kong has been the world's beloved monster for generations now. Hollywood is not bored with the big bad ape even after seven movies. The latest one comes with an all-star ensemble cast. With fan-favorite Tom Hiddleston playing the lead and respectable actors Sam L Jackson , Brie Larson , John Goodman , Toby Kebell and underrated John C. Reilly playing supporting roles, the movie seemed to have good potential. The trailers showed Kong, much bigger in size than any movie adaptation before, packed enough hype to pocket great openings. The music used in the trailers was bang on and it actually tricked me into believing that this movie is going to be another Guardians of the Galaxy . Ask me if I was wrong! In 1942, during WWII, two plans crash onto an uncharted Island which was hidden from human civilization until then. While the two pilots are trying to kill each other, they're interrupted by a bigger and stronger force. Now, after 24 years, Bill Ra...

A movie is called a good one when it is able to entertain it's audience. What makes a movie great is if that movie succeeds in connecting with the audience and stays with them long after the movie has ended. The Oscars is a celebration of such movies. A platform where the world is made aware of the great films that were released in that specific year, which would've been lost and withered off if otherwise. Many great movies do not get the publicity they deserve owing to comparatively less budget they were made against their action/adventure counterparts. A way larger group of people were well aware of Furious 7 than Spotlight, which in turn won The Best Picture Oscar 2016. The Oscars make sure that a great movie reaches greater group of audience it deserves. Though there were fairly good number of cases where the Academy's judgement was wrong (The Crash winning Best Picture against The Brokeback Mountain, for one), their credibility is still intact today for the service th...

***Spoiler Alert!*** Don't blame me for liking violence when it is so damn beautifully captured. Keanu Reeves comes back for the second installment of surprise hit film, John Wick. In the era where quality action movies had a fall from greatness, Chad Stahelski brings an action movie with a lot of power, potential and style. He continues it for the second time too. John Wick had floored the audience with a revenge tale after a bunch of amateurs steal John's car and kills his dog in the process. Keanu Reeves got praised a lot for his performance as the troubled, retired assassin with style and suave written all over him. That suave assassin is back again and well, will he recreate his magic on screen? The movie kicks off with John Wick (Keanu Reeves) kicking some ass to retrieve his stolen car. A lot of bodies are dropped even before the titles. He gives a shot at retirement, again, but his demons from the past are hell bent on keeping him alive in business. This time ar...

We are a country where Liam Neeson is famous for Taken franchise and not for Schindler's List . A country where David Fincher is relatively unknown compared to Michael Bay. A country which sees Hollywood only for a grand screen of destruction and not at the art and depth of films it can offer. On an average, two out of five movies that get nominated for Academy Awards do not get released in India with 2016's Best Picture Academy Award Winner not seeing light in India until after it's win. Yet, not a single feature from Fast & Furious or Transformers will be overlooked by Indian audience. 2016, was no different. Three critically acclaimed, Oscar buzzed movies, Moonlight , Manchester by the Sea and Hacksaw Ridge didn't get a release in India. There were other great movies that got their release but were not paid enough attention by the audience. Out of them, I pick two, which for all their brilliance, deserved a great deal of attention we were unable to offer. ...

***Spoiler Alert!*** The Spin-off of Harry Potter  franchise had made Potter-heads go bonkers when it was announced. Then it was announced that Eddie Redmayne (Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl fame) was cast as Newt Scamander and that David Yates (Director of last 4 Harry Potter movies) will be directing this venture. Though Yates was not able to make his magic work with Tarzan, I've expected him to work wonders with Fantastic Beasts. Then, great talents as Colin Farrell, Jon Voight, Ezra Miller and of course, Johnny Depp join in and make this movie one of the most anticipated movie of this year. Trailers boasted of quality, action, thrill and magic. Let's see if the movie has managed to live to the expectations. Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) reaches NY in 1926 with a case full of magical creatures with an intent to release Frank, a giant Eagle-like creature. One among them, is a Niffler, sneaky duckbill platypus-looking animal, which has a thing for shiny o...

***Spoiler Alert!*** Golden Rule #1: Not every super hit movie needs a sequel. Golden Rule #2: When you force a unnecessary sequel on audience with absolutely no interesting plot, it falls flat. It'll not even work as a cash grab. Yup, the makers of Rock On 2 totally and completely ignored both these golden rules. They tried forcing this movie so desperately on audience that they didn't even hesitate to twist each and every one of our favorite characters from the first part so much that they lost all that we loved about them. Totally. Rock On!! ends perfectly. The story of Magik , a rock band and their friendship, sorting out their issues and giving closure to all the characters involved. Rock On 2 completely undoes all that work and creates a mess. And moving forward, it keeps messing up the situations and characters that at a certain point, you feel like every character involved need psychiatric treatment. Though Rock On!! was a complete picture, when Rock On 2 was ...

***Spoiler Alert!*** After a long time since its inception, MCU introduces magic to their universe and due to that, Doctor Strange has been a very important movie. They got is perfect with casting. This is one of the most star-studded cast movies in the whole of MCU. Being an origin story and not having much of connections with the rest of MCU movies, Doctor Strange had large audience base and Marvel has been successful in getting them give a shot for their latest outing. With a strategically planned path by Kevin Feige (President of Marvel Studios) and wonderful vision of Scott Derrickson (Director of Doctor Strange) , Doctor Strange comes out as a fresh serve-up. Doctor Strange starts off with Master Kaecilius (Mads Mikkelsen) and his disciples stealing forbidden rituals from their London Sanctum Library (too much for being a safe house eh!) . They hold the librarian with Lassos of Truth  something that looks like the Lasso of Truth (of Wonder Woman) and beheads him. ...