Directed by: Mark Neveldine,Brian Taylor
Produced by : Michael Paseornek,Tom Rosenberg,Gary Lucchesi,Skip Williamson,Richard Wright,David Rubin
Written by: Mark Neveldine,Brian Taylor
Starring Jason Statham,Amy Smart
Music by: Mike Patton
Cinematography: Brandon Trost
Distributed by: International:Lakeshore Entertainment,
North America:Lionsgate Films
Release date(s): April 17, 2009
Running time: 96 min.
Country: United States
Language: English
Budget: $12,500,000 USD

For those of you who’ve seen “Crank”, the so called “action packed thriller” and enjoyed it, good for you and I’m sorry. I’m glad that you enjoyed it, but sorry that you didn’t watch a better one because in my opinion, “Crank” made much sense in terms of having a storyline then a babies Pampers having the sense of staying dry 24 hours after being used on a newborn. “Crank” is an action packed movie all right and it does have the thrills and chills of an action movie, but I couldn’t find the storyline/plot anywhere because nothing made sense (in fact I’m still looking for it even after having read the 20 or so words on the back of the DVD box).

Apparently “Crank” is about a man who is dying and is trying to find the culprits who were trying to do him in. He buys some crack from the black market and sniffs it until he feels better (sure, when you gotta go, you might as well live it up I guess). He even goes into the drug store and swipes several boxes of nose spray because a customer tells him it has some kind of chemical that’ll make him feel better (I didn’t and I had to go run to the toilet to make myself feel better after sitting hrough another piece of “cinematic brilliance–NOT!”).

The acting suffice as to say was pretty good despite what the cast of “Crank” had to deal with it. The direction was pathetic because all the twists and turns were hard to swallow and follow and they were harder to swallow then a pretzel with a Molson Canadian (ouch, now that’s pretty hard). The cinematography was okay and the pace was pretty consistent (faster then Speedy Gonzales and “Angulay! Angulay!).

If you like action packed movies that doesn’t have much of a plot (Those Die Hard movies at least had somewhat of a plot to it) then by all means see this movie, but let me try and save you some time when I say, hey, the weather’s getting warmer; so why don’t you go outside and enjoy it rather then watch this disappointment. “Crank” left me feeling “cranky” after viewing it and rightly so (pun intended). Also don’t get the soundtrack because the consistency with the music was apalling (like mixing opera with heavy metal–PEW!!).

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GULAAL : WEAK ENDING RUINS STRONG BUILD-UP !

Technorati tag : Review Gulaal

Kashyap’s latest is a dark film, not just in it’s content, but also visually. Dark or poorly-lit rooms, house dark, vengeful characters. The main story focuses on student politics in Rajasthan, where law student Dilip Kumar Singh (Chaudhary) has newly arrived. Naïve Dilip finds rooms let by Rananjay Singh, known as Ransa (Abhimanyu Singh), the son of the erstwhile Raja. Dilip, cowardly and weak, is soon embroiled in student politics, courtesy Ransa and other rival gangs.

Gulaal introduces us to politics via Dilip, but this is really the story of people hungry for power and the affluence that it brings. Duki Bana (Menon), a zamindar, who finds himself bereft of any real power in the face of Governmental rulers, wants money to build the state of Rajputana. Kiran (Mohan) and her brother (Aditya Srivastav), as children of a kept mistress, want their father’s name. There is a third faction of louts also contesting the student General Secretary post, however they do not become prominent to the story. Other characters, all interesting, are those who sway one way or another.

The first half of the film is strong and well-controlled, and Kashyap uses the time to give us a tight, political drama. You have a weak common-man, Dilip, friends with Ransa, who’s kind of wild and reckless. Dukki Bana, who’s married, has a mistress on the side, and is open to other amorous advances, is using Ransa to win over student politics in Rajpur, and thus supporting him over rival factions. Deepak Dobriyal stunningly plays Dukki’s right-hand man. Then there is Kiran, who will go to any lengths to win the elections and become the student General Secretary. And there is her brother, cold, calculating, trigger-happy Karan who master-minds Kiran’s every political move.

There are also minor characters like Dukki’s wife (Jyoti dogra), a dutiful woman, who gets a little feisty when she hears of Madhuri (Mahie Gill) Duki’s mujra-performing mistress. Model Jesse Randhawa plays Anuja, a teacher who is stripped of her clothes and her dignity, but must continue to puff-up impotent clouds of cigarette smoke, in the absence of any hope of action against the perpetrators. I found her role inconsequential to the story – it didn’t do anything and didn’t exert any influence on any character. The female characters in the film are all of them powerless, and truly depicted given the context. Even Kiran’s character, while conniving and determined, is only so at another’s bidding.

Then there is also Dukey Bana’s mentally retarded brother Prithvi Bana (Piyush Mishra), who is given to singing and composing couplets. Kashyap uses him to narrate the story in balladic form, and reflect on the corruption of it all.

This film doesn’t have any one protagonist. The main characters are all negative, except maybe Dilip, who’s weak, and doesn’t have the strength to overcome the odds. So it’s kind of hard to actually root for any one. Still, the film with it’s interesting characters, and brilliant acting, is trundling along nicely, until it hits intermission. Then, it’s downhill, because Kashyap fails to keep up his promise. The story flags and I found the end really disappointing. Where he should have upped the ante, and provided a sizeable twist to the story, he goes along with a jaded, and un-interesting premise.

Kashyap tries hard to give us a gritty, ethnically-flavored drama, and comes close to carrying it off, but ouch! – that ending. I cannot see this film succeeding commercially at all, for who really has the time to read between the lines, these days ? Still, this film is highly recommended; just don’t go in there expecting too much.

If you liked this film, you might also like :

- Haasil
- Hazaron khwaishen aisi
- Omkara

The Novel, Angels & Demons is a bestselling mystery novel by American author Dan Brown. The novel revolves around the quest of fictional Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon to unravel the mysteries of a secret society called the Illuminati, and preclude a plot from annihilating the Vatican City using destructive antimatter. The story recounts the conflict between science and religion that brought the establishment of the Illuminati, and, after centuries of non-existence, the group is thought to have resurfaced for retribution against the Roman Catholic Church.

The “Angels and Demons Movie” tells the story of Robert (Tom Hanks) Langdon\’s brush with a shadowy secret society, the Illuminati, and his frantic quest for the world\’s most powerful energy source, in the company of a beautiful Italian physicist whose father, a brilliant physicist, has been murdered.

When Langdon discovers evidence of the resurgence of an ancient secret brotherhood known as the Illuminati – the most powerful underground organization in history – he also faces a deadly threat to the existence of the secret organization\’s most despised enemy: the Catholic Church. When Langdon learns that the clock is ticking on an unstoppable Illuminati time bomb, he jets to Rome, where he joins forces with Vittoria Vetra, a beautiful and enigmatic Italian scientist. Embarking on a nonstop, action-packed hunt through sealed crypts, dangerous catacombs, deserted cathedrals, and even to the heart of the most secretive vault on earth, Langdon and Vetra will follow a 400-year-old trail of ancient symbols that mark the Vatican\’s only hope for survival.

DASVIDANIYA is a bitter-sweet situational comedy about a man Amar Kaul (Vinay Pathak). One among the millions of people in the pool of Mumbai’s ever increasing population, Amar’s existence is easily forgettable. His innocence and his obsession for making his daily ‘TO-DO LIST’ every morning is what motivates him to look forward to the next day.

Apart from Vinay Pathak, Rajat Kapoor and Neha Dhupia other stars in the movie include Saurabh Shukla, Gaurav Gera, Suchitra Pillai, Sarita Joshi, Suresh Menon, Purvi Joshi, Ranvir Shourey and host of others.

Dialogue and story is by Arshad Sayed, Art Direction by Rakesh Morchale and Arun Verma is the Director of Photography. Music has been given by Kailash Kher.

Part of the film was shot on the McGill University campus in Montreal, Quebec. Other scenes were shot in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, California.

Bungling secret agent Maxwell Smart, also known as Agent 86 for CONTROL, is on a mission to battle the forces of their evil crime nemesis known as KAOS with his more-competent partner Agent 99, (whose real name is never revealed) at his side. When the headquarters of U.S. spy agency Control is attacked and the identities of its agents compromised, the Chief has no choice but to promote his ever-eager analyst Maxwell Smart, who has always dreams of working in the field alongside stalwart superstar Agent 23. Smart will do whatever it takes to thwart the latest plot for world domination by KAOS.

The movie pairs together Shahid Kapur and Vidya Balan for the first time. In the supporting roles are Juhi Chawla, Om Puri and Vishal Malhotra. Kismat Konnection is produced by Ramesh Taurani and directed by Aziz Mirza . The film has music by Pritam.

An out-of-luck architect and an out-of-love social activist find themselves connected in a strange way by kismat in director Aziz Mirza’s film ‘Kismat Konnection’.

The love story which centres around Raj Malhotra (Shahid), a street smart charming guy but despite his best efforts success eludes him. Raj’s luck changes when he meets an enigmatic fortune-teller Juhi who assures him that he is about to get lucky with a new chance.

Deviating from his signature pair of Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, Aziz Mirza has roped in current bollywood heartthrob Shahid Kapur and Vidya Balan. The director hopes that Vidya and Shahid will make it to the list of successful Bollywood reel-couple.

Australian pace spearhead Brett Lee is all set make his debut in Bollywood opposite actress Amrita Rao in a sports movie Victory. The movie will be the story of a cricketer and will also star other cricketers like Allan Border, Mike Hussey and Jason Gillespie. The movie will be produced by Vivek Aggarwal and calling the shots will be debutant director Ajit Pal.

This is not the first time that the Aussie cricketer will feature in the Indian entertainment industry. A year back he featured in a music video and sung a duet with Asha Bhonsle. Lee is very excited about his role in the movie and says he is not likely to have any problems with acting as he will be playing the role of a cricketer.

Harman Baweja is also expected to feature in the movie along with Anupan Kher and Gulshan Grover. The movie is expected to boost movie trade between India and Australia as Bollywood movies are quite popular in the land down under.

This is the tale of powerful leader Prince Nuada who treads the world above and the one below and commands an unstoppable army of creatures. It’s up to the planet’s toughest, roughest superhero to battle the merciless dictator and his marauders. Hellboy is helped on his mission by his pyrokinetic girlfriend Liz Sherman, aquatic empath Abe, and protoplasmic mystic Johann Krauss, the newest member of the BPRD. How they put and end to Nuada’s force of goblins, fairies and other magical creatures is the story. If you liked the first part, you’re sure to love the sequel!

Hellboy II: The Golden Army is a 2008 comic book film based on the fictional Dark Horse Comics character Hellboy. The film is directed by Guillermo del Toro and is a sequel to the 2004 film Hellboy, which del Toro also directed. Ron Perlman reprises his role as the titular character. The film was commercially released on July 11, 2008 in the United States and Canada.

Hellboy 2 ends up being a fun, beautiful looking fantasy / adventure type movie that manages to be a tiny bit better than the first one. No, it’s not as funny and the lack of David Hyde Pierce was painfully obvious, but other than that it’s a truly fun time at the theaters. Del Toro does it again! Overall I give Hellboy 2 a 7.5 out of 10.

With just one year passed after taking out Ra’s Al Ghul’s plan to have Gotham eliminated and the mysterious disappearance of Dr. Jonathan Crane AKA the Scarecrow, after the city was nearly plundered with his toxins, Bruce Wayne and his vigilante alter-ego the Batman, continue the seemingly-endless effort to bring order to Gotham, with the help of Lt. James Gordon and newly appointed District Attorney Harvey Dent, but a new threat has now emerged into the streets.

The Dark Knight faces a rising psychopathic criminal called The Joker, who’s eerie grin, laughter, and inhuman morality makes him more dangerous than what he has yet to unleash. It becomes an agenda to the Batman to stop the mysterious Joker at all cost, knowing that the both of them are in the opposite line. One with no method at all and seeks to see the world plunge into the fire he has yet to lit. One who represents the symbol of hope and uses his own shadow to bring the peace and order he has yet to accomplish on doing. Written by Anonymous

Set within a year after the events of Batman Begins, Batman, Lieutenant James Gordon, and new district attorney Harvey Dent successfully begin to round up the criminals that plague Gotham City until a mysterious and sadistic criminal mastermind known only as the Joker appears in Gotham, creating a new wave of chaos. Batman’s struggle against the Joker becomes deeply personal, forcing him to “confront everything he believes” and improve his technology to stop him. A love triangle develops between Bruce Wayne, Dent and Rachel Dawes. Written by Leon Lombardi