Thunderbolt (2025)

 I had two minds as to whether to watch this. Is this going to be another one of those comic book movies with similar plots, heroes win end of the day stuff. It is based on comic book characters after all, what else can one expect.

But I was in for a surprise. Here’s the summary taken from IMDB, “After finding themselves ensnared in a death trap, seven disillusioned castoffs must embark on a dangerous mission that will force them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.”

Yes, for good hour or so, the entire team of those with super abilities are stuck in a building, trapped, making it a unique play of character interactions, frictions, and exploration of their dark pasts. They become memorable at the end of the day, symphathetic unlike the smug members of The Avengers (this was to become The New Avengers eventually).

Of them, I was very impressed with Florence Pugh. You can’t but get involved with her emotional struggle with her father who is in the team. She’s the heart of the film. I was also surprised to see Wyatt Russel, man he is bigger and tougher than his dad, Kurt. Looks like he has some good future in the action arena.

The entire film feels like a bit of fresh air on the comic book movie platform. Character above action, intrigue in interactions, and a sustained tense mood throughout. It’s definitely worth revisiting.

 

The Amateur (2025)

Ah, Rami Malek, Hollywoods new blue-eyed boy, after the success of Bohemian Rhapsody. After his turn as a smaller sized Freddie Mercury, the industry sought him like the way we keep on signing up for a new social media app. Not sure that is an app, I mean, apt comparison, but he’s the man of the season.

Unfortunately, the only thing helping him in this film, as far as performances go, is his bug-eyed appearance. Surely, it helped. For sometimes, then it becomes a routine.

Here’s the story summary, I picked up from MRQE.com, “After his life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder takes matters into his own hands when his supervisors refuse to take action.”

It’s a techno/revenge thriller which do manage to be quiet entertaining till we have to convince ourselves of the incredulity being a techie (in this case, Rami is a CIA programmer) who takes off on a revenge spree while evading his masters who then goes after his ass. 

As with most of thrillers of this genre, the journey is fun and they just don’t know how to sustain the momentum in the climax. This film suffers from it. As one reviewer mentioned, the whole film is constructed into having best scenes crafted for a trailer (see my review on Drop).

So, it’s another good popcorn fare that you will immediately forget after digesting it. It will do well in the OTT, I figure.

Drop (2025)

Making a movie trailer is art by itself. More often than not, in order to sell their products hard, the filmmakers and the studio tend to feature the best parts of the film in their trailer. It, of course, ruins the audiences’ experience when the feature is out.

That was what going on my mind when I kept seeing it during all my recent theatre visits, they keep showing this trailer and you know what’s coming.

In a way, that exactly what happened but, the director and his team proved that they can still find way to entertain you despite the tropes and cliches.

If you have seen the trailer, you will know the plot. This gal going on a date suddenly gets messages from unknown contact, urging her to do this and that, or her kid (being babysat by her sister) would be killed. And the threat was convincing enough to get her to do what the sender requests, including (not a spoiler, it was a trailer) to kill her date.

For a good three quarter of the flick, it’s a hell of a thrill ride. Edge of the seat suspense as our protagonist weave her way through one nail biting scene after another to outwit the mysterious sender and hopefully save her kid and the sister.

It’s a good ride while it lasted, as we jump from one suspect to another with as we go through the journey with Violet played by Megan Fahy whose performance is crucial to draw our empathy. She reminded me a lot of Michelle Pfeifer, though.

Set primarily in two locations – a restaurant and Violet’s home – this techsploitation horror as a reviewer termed it, hardly wavers and held my attention up to the end. Yes, the climax is cliched, but I actually wanted it to happen, hell it has to happen.

But thanks largely to Fahy's performance, the film really works. If we were not along with her for the ride, this might as well be another B-grade thriller.

 

Good Bad Ugly (2025)

 I'll make it short and err...

Good : Ajith. The presence, the charisma, the sly humour. It's all there.

Bad: The entire film. Seriously. Son gets kidnapped and dad goes after the baddies. Could have been a short film. But they kept on dragging and dragging.

Ugly: Over glorification of Ajith. Too much of reference to his past films, and especially when they dug Simran out for a short scene. Ewww.

That's it. Abusing Sergio Leone's film title should by itself be an offense.

Veera Dheera Sooran (2025)

The film begins with a woman and her daughter outside of a don's (or something like that, called Periyavar) house seeking her lost husband.

From that moment right up to interval the movie never lets up, gritty, intense, and building up the drama with one long scene after another until the inevitable action moments.

Director S. Arun Kumar, who also wrote the script, worked on each scenes squeezing the last drops on intensity that keeps us at the edge of the seat (not literally, but you know...).

Everyone was good, may it be Vikram, the scene stealer S.J. Surya, Thushara Vijayan and all the others, right down to the minor characters.

Which is why the film worked for me. What started out as a plot hatched by S.J Surya's cop character to "encounter" (assassination with righteous motive) goes haywire with involvement of Vikram, a former red neck hit man who has since settled down with a family running a provision shop.

There's the inevitable flashback sequence, thankfully short and is only one. Then, we are back in the fray.

Yes, there's violence towards the end, lots of bloodshed but this story demands it. Everyone has done a great job, including composer G V Prakash aiding with the tense situations. I like this flick.

A Working Man (2025)

There is a sense that you have seen it all before. Of course, you have. Which is exactly what the expectation should be when you walk into a Jason Statham flick. It’s critic proof in a way, that the reviewers would be genuinely intrigued if at all something original and brilliant appears on screen.

I like Statham ever since I saw him in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (1998), and felt he would have a great future. I was right, but I never thought he would be surfing in the hardcore action wave. Even in the worst ones, Statham can be quite entertaining – may it be the physical moves or the sense of humour that he picked up from the Guy Ritchie films.

This has the run-of-mill plot of someone dear getting kidnapped and the protagonists goes and gets the person. The film is co-produced and co-scripted by Sylvester Stallone based on a novel by Chuck Dixon. If you have watched too many John Wick or Liam Neeson flicks, you will find this film very ordinary. But then, you walk into a Burget King outlet, you ain’t gonna order no Linguine in tomato sauce with chopped basil. You have Angus Signature burger which is exactly what I am having while I write this (no, I am not paid by BK).

I liked it fine. The burger. The film? Well, it has some pretty good action sequences, bad guys you want to hate, the kidnapped gal who is not a damsel in distress, and the stoic Statham kicking asses. The end indicated that there might be a sequel. Let’s see.

 

Snow White (2025)

The review is so small, I'm typing this in my phone.

First of all, my expectations has been so low, thanks to the bad press this film is getting that actual I got cool with it.

It's not that bad and it's not great either. There are interesting moments and there are cringe worthy ones as well.

The songs are not memorable, those ones sucks and Gal Gadot's singing....well you know. 

She is the weakest part of the film in fact. She tried her best to be wicked, but nah. It didn't work out.

As for Rachel Zegler, she's fine. It's not a heavyweight part and beauty is subjective. Not as white as snow? From this Asian point of view, she is 

The CGI dwarves were distracting at first, but later I got used to it, as does all the other CGI-ed stuff. It has been force-fed onto us audience for so long now, it's part of film watching experience. I ain't got no complainta, it's a goddamned fairy tale after all. Not Hamlet.

Mickey 17 (2025)

I liked Robert Pattinson as Bruce Wayne in that sleeper hit that came out of nowhere, The Batman. Just when the so-called comic book aficionados were celebrating Ben Affleck as the comic-book accurate Bruce Wayne/Batman (who probably haven't read ones before the Dark Knight revival).

What is this flick but a mish mash of some of the iconic sci-fi flicks of the past. I see Arnie's Sixth Day (cloning), Groundhog Day (waking up to same event) and even Total Recall (science under the corporate's feet).

Pattison's character starts out as the 17^th version of Mickey, clone, printed actually, basically a guinea pig for experimentation by Mark Ruffalo character who is not reticent about mimicking Donald Trump – you know the filmakers are on the left side here.

It could have been stereotypical, formulaic and well, who cares. I did. I liked it. Especially Pattinson's portrayal of the clueless character who has to team up with his later version (Kinda like what Arnie did in Sixth Day) and go up against authority.

There are moments that felt like pure innovation, nothing like you have seen before, and well, if you have seen one too many films, you have seen them all. But it still felt fresh. The story is not too complicated especially when you have a corporate buffoon (Ruffalo is edged on by his onscreen wife, played by the wonderful Toni Collette – the Trump comparison eh? Whatever). 

Also, I liked Naomie Ackie, gutsy performance. You gonna be big one day, kid. I said the same of Zoe Saldana and she got herself an Oscar.

The only issue I have is that the filmaker uses plenty of flashback shtick – something I abhorred considering it is the staple of the Tamil film industry past few decades, but hey, the director, Bong Joon Ho is Asian after all (Korean).

Some may fall out of the plot carousel – it is sci-fi, after all – but let me assure you, Pattinson's performance will keep you gripped. There are messages here and there, like, hey, don't fuck with nature, but it will fly pass you. I hear the opening has been weak in the US, and I can understand why. It is mostly bereft of the action sequences one would associate with sci-fi (thank you, Schwarzenegger), and Ruffalo's baddie is not exactly the bigger than life type despite is Trump impersonation and not exactly effective counterpoint to the protagonist's struggle or journey.

But it was alright with me. I liked it. Which means, it is not going to do well in the cinemas. Perhaps the OTT crowed might embrace it.

Captain America: Brave New World (2024)

Here's the deal, I took a different route in watching this film and to my relief, I managed to have fun despite knowing about the bad reviews that has been pouring in.

Yeah, the cliches, the usual badly edited fight sequences and the overused CGI are all there. My advantage is, I have not watched any of the previous Captain America films, having only see the character in the Avengers films. 

And speaking of which, I had no issues with all the Avengers films simply because I treat them as the Iron Man sequels with Tony Stark being the central figure.

Likewise, I decided to watch this focussing on on Harrison Ford's character. It worked. I managed to overlooked all those elements 

It works better as a political thriller, as  elements of this genre is present throughout (US almost going to war with Japan) and that is where Ford's contribution comes in having had played CIA analyst and yes, a different sort of US president before.

As usual to test how exciting a film is, I have made it a practice these days to watch after lunch, the time I'd be pining to have a nap. I slept through the Scorcese, Ridley Scott films recently.

But this one survived it. Not because of the action sequences though the noise helped, but watching Ford under duress... sweating and snivelling from scene to scene.

So, this flick will bore the regular audience overexposed to the previous superhero movies, but it will definitely appeal to the fans of the Jack Ryan series and Air Force One ("Get off my plane!")

Vidamuyarchi (2025)

Vidamuyarchi has one big issue: it’s an unofficial remake of the 1997 Kurt Russell starrer, Breakdown. At least the first half. So, it’s not a fresh story telling…again..which is an affliction when it comes to watching Tamizh language films. Or content. Originality is not this industry’s forte.

The second half, otherwise, is a mish mash of many thrillers out there. But there are two points that keep us riveted:

1. Ajith Kumar. The man carries the film no matter whatever plot holes or pure dumbassery occurring on the screen – he gave the film a touch of class and gloss.

2. Lack of Trisha. She’s the main heroine all right, but with her character ‘s disappearance being the central plot, this queen of frozen faced performance is only seen at the beginning, the bloody flashbacks and towards the end. Yippee!

We have Arjun as the chief bad guy, but I still haven’t bought him as a hero, much less a baddie now. But Arjun is in the right territory, Hollywood purloined action flicks – which used to be his playground during the leading man days.

Then there are some henchmen, you know, the current crop of yesterday’s beard and cropped hair fashion statement.

Leaving aside Ajith and Arjun, the rest delivered their best mega serial inflected performances. Though I can’t say the same of those actors playing Azerbaijanis (is that how you call ‘em?) whom seemed to be pretty comfortable in their terrains, giving our hero tough time.

The story of ordinary guy getting entangled in extraordinary situation in cinemas got its prominence from the Buster Keaton days….we have since accustomed to this central plot. We have not been told how (despite gazillions of flashback that needed to be told here because most Indian filmmakers treat us audience as dumbfucks) Ajith suddenly has the resourcefulness and punchability, but Kurt Russell did get heroic at the end of Breakdown. So, fair is fair, I didn’t question his character there and I am not going to do the same with Ajith kicking assess.

In fact that is the best part of the film, director Magizh Thirumeni has a knack for action sequences. There was a good long sequence towards the climax which could have been a great thrill and fun if it was not ruined by Anirudh’s pathetic song plus background score or whatever shit you call it.

Last few words about Ajith Kumar. I always compared him to Steve McQueen -a superstar who was also a fantastic actor with great screen presence. And yes, McQueen was a car racer too. I went to this flick just to watch Ajith and for that reason alone, I am not disappointed.

Update: Apparently makers of Breakdown got to know about the plot similarities after the film was into production...and Vidaamuyarchi producers paid for the rights as is said in this link. Yet, I didn't see the original writer credited.

Tamil School Pasanga (2024)

 

The last time I watched a Malaysian-made Tamil film, I was a guest at the launch and the premiere. It took plenty of diplomatic skill to criticise it while ensuring I sprinkle it with chocolate and nuts on it to sweeten the overall read. The producer and director managed to overlook the needle pricks.

This time, I voluntarily stepped into the theatre (didn't buy popcorn, sugar issues, dammit) and was curious as to how far the Malaysian Indian film scene has come since then.

Well, as expected, the film started slow and somewhat confidently wiggled its way into the halftime, really sure that the audience would still plant their butts on the seats. But what the hell, the scenes were charming and, well, kept the few audience members in the Rawang LFS cinema plant their butts on their respective seats.

There's something about not overstaying the welcome feel throughout the film. The story is very familiar if you have watched the older Hollywood flicks like To Sir With Love or Dead Poets Society, or the amalgamated copy, Nammavar, in Tamil. A teacher comes to a school that needs some sort of rehabilitation. He does do that, but not without challenges and resistance, and how he gets over it would form the rest of the narrative.

This film follows the formula to the T, but the difference is that, in doing so, it tackles many issues facing the Tamil schools in the country and predicaments afflicting the Malaysian Indians in general. The filmmaker tried his best to skillfully blend many of these issues into the narration; some felt very relevant, and some—somehow—felt like they were force-fed and could have been left out.

But this is not to say the story went left field or something. The characters, at least the main ones, do keep us intrigued, with all the actors, from the lead, played by co-producer Denes Kumar (well known among the Malaysian Indian content followers), right down to the little ones, being good and adequate, and even if at times the performances look amateur, you are involved enough to dismiss any sign of weaknesses.

And this is also the first time I ever got emotional watching a Malaysian flick (bar the earlier P. Ramlee features, but that's another story)... it will hit you hard, that scene. I wish it could be avoided, sort of something most lazy directors would resort to in order to get the attention towards the climax—but I suppose it is needed in this film.

I am also glad that the romance angle is not explored too keenly, or it would have lost the focus. Neat, tidy script (despite the lag in the beginning and some not-so-great comedy materials), a not-too-rushed pacing, and, as mentioned, able performances from all around make this a good viewing. The only issue I had was the quality of the picture, which kind of switches now and then from really good to grainy. Well, it was not bothering me.

If I were the great critic Roger Ebert, I would definitely give it two and a half thumbs up...if such a thing is possible.