Saturday, February 15, 2025

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!")

Thursday, February 06, 2025

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.

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 aficion...