Us and Them- How to Love Cinematic Aliens

The idea of making a realistic alien invasion film is almost like looking for Santa Claus. In a decade and a half after Independence Day, a film that upped the ante as far as alien attack films went, is there nothing left to explore in the genre?

In the Battle: Los Angeles’ (click here to read the review) director Jonathan Liebesman seeks inspiration from modern-day war cinematic war classics such as Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down. Interesting, you might say but what he ends up giving us is nothing but an unashamedly bad mix of the two. What’s more surprising is that the script finds its genesis in a real event that took place during the Second World War and yet there is nothing ‘real’ about Battle: Los Angeles. The camera keeps shaking as it one of the aliens were asked to film; not a single image is powerful enough to linger on for a moment longer than you could say ‘oh’ and the writing is so trite that you can’t even imagine. At the height of the ‘attack’ a senior officer is barking orders and everyone gets what they need to do but one new Captain looks like a lost pup and the senior impresses upon him that ‘this is not a drill’! This is when the audience would look at the mega bucks you spent on Computer Generated Imagery to show space creatures unleashing their alien fury.

Separated by a few months from Independence Day, 1996 also saw the release of perhaps the only film that tried giving a different spin on this genre. Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! parodied the gung-ho America spirit that saved the day whenever aliens attacked! It celebrated all the elements of the 1950’s sci-fi films and had an impressive cast with Jack Nicholson, Pierce Brosnan, Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, Sarah Jessica Parker, Glenn Close, Martin Short, Michael J. Fox, Jack Black and Danny DeVito. The film never became the success (it made only $101 million with a budget of $100 million) it should have been and even though it could have been much better, it now enjoys a great degree of cult following. It was funny to see that the same things which Mars Attacks! laughed off Independence Day too seriously and ended up making $ 817 million on a budget of $ 75 million!

While science fiction as a genre has seen some really good films in the 15 years (do check out a sleeper called Primer, fantastic to say the least) since Independence Day, the sub-genre of aliens hasn’t mirrored similar success. The only film that somehow managed to break the mould since Roland Emmerich templatized the alien attack genre was District 9. Based on his short film Alive in Joburg that impressed Peter Jackson enough to produce District 9 for him, Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 is one of the best films ever in the genre. Very realistic and highly original, Blomkamp applies the themes of racism and xenophobia to the aliens and even though some quarters heavily criticized the film for its racial insensitivity, the urgency depicted by it’s video-like feel and its innovativeness of showing aliens beyond the clockwork and the steel cage body makes District 9 stand out.

Watching films about alien attacks and world annihilation one can’t help but praise the organized manner in which we perceive these guys. They might be assembly line produced unless one of them is Steven Spielberg’s ET but all of them highly meticulous. They lay great stress on planning and believe that executing orders to the last detail is the edge they have over creatures from the blue planet; dare I say almost Chinese! They know our weakness and prepare for every eventuality but somewhere these out-of-towners just forget our strengths like good looking presidents who were once combat pilots (Bill Pullman in Independence Day), cute looking boy who realizes that aliens can’t take oldies on radio (Lukas Haas in Mars Attacks!) or washed out priests who accidentally spill ‘water’ on an alien take-over plan (Signs) or the best- earth’s ‘bacteria’ penetrates the alien defense (War of the Worlds). The only thing shocking now days in alien attack films is the great expectations that filmmakers have from their audiences!

Click here to read my Buzz in Town review of Battle: Los Angeles.

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The Fighter

One could be right in thinking that there might be nothing new in The Fighter. It’s a true life biographical tale, it’s about boxing and it’s about how an underdog rises to the occasion. Guilty on all counts but dismissing The Fighter as yet another boxing film would be a big mistake. Of course, it’s predictable but like some good films this one’s not about what happened as much as it’s about how it happened.

Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) is one of those boxers who are ‘stepping stone’ for others are on their way to challenge the champ of the day. Managed by his mother Alice (Melissa Leo), who has a softer spot for his older brother Dicky (Christian Bale), who also trains him, Mickey’s used as a pawn by everyone around him. Always under the thumb of Dicky who once famously knocked out Sugar Ray Leonard, Mickey is put through hell by Dicky. He even forces Mickey to fight someone who is stronger than him in a match where his original opponent walks out. Micky with the help of new love of life, Charlene(Amy Adams), decides to go his own way. With his mother looking the other way Dicky goes deeper into his cocaine addiction and when an HBO documentary, which Dicky tells people is about his alleged comeback, shows the world the truth about his crack addiction, Mickey knows he has made the right decision. With a new trainer, and a new manager along with his step-father, Mickey becomes hot enough for a title shot. Unknown to his team Mickey wins the last fight before the title shot with a few tips from Dicky. With one shot at glory, Mickey now needs the old crew of Alice and Dicky along with the new team of Charlene and his trainer to help him win the title, but the two don’t see eye-to-eye.

David O. Russell infuses such a sense of manic energy into The Fighter that it no longer remains a mere boxing film. Rather he makes The Fighter a tale about people more troubled than the next one fighting a battle much bigger than boxing. Even with predictable plot-points Russell takes the screenplay to some other level thanks to four great performances that act as the foundation.

Christian Bale, who’d in all probability will notch up an Oscar for his supporting act, for the first time shows that he’s more than a single expression number that he had become. Bale makes Dicky so organic that he doesn’t remain distant even when he’s making life a living hell for his younger brother. Another probable Oscar winner from the cast, Melissa Leo makes Alice one of the rare acts where the line dividing opposing emotions gets blurred. Her bravura performance where Alice balances her two sons and seven daughters is equally chilling and poignant. Amy Adams makes Charlene like the girl you know too well and yet never lets familiarity become an impediment. Mark Wahlberg’s Mickey might not be the most exciting character when compared to the other three but his isn’t an easy role. While the other have author backed lines and moments Wahlberg keeps Mickey up there for most of the film on his own.

Boxing has had a long affair with Hollywood and everyone from Marlon Brando, Paul Newman and Rober De Niro have won glory for portraying boxers and The Fighter joins the fabled list with much ease. The boxing scenes might not be as riveting as the ones in Martin Scorsese’s seminal masterpiece Raging Bull, the drama however is as good as Raging Bull. The gritty camerawork adds to the overall mood of the tough Boston neighborhood that David O. Russell takes us into. Don’t miss this one.

Rating: 3 ½ out of 5

Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Melissa Leo

Screenplay by: Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson

Directed by: David O. Russell

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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Tanu Weds Manu

‘I love you and what’s that got to do with you…’ seems to be the mantra that drives Tanu Weds Manu and much like a hidden lover you don’t really care or worry about, hidden intentions make this romantic-comedy a half-baked approach.

Manoj Sharma or Manu (R. Madhavan) is the true silent types who no one really notices. He can carry on with his quite and rather lonely existence but being a London settled Indian doctor his parents have lined-up a bevy of girls for him to choose and settle down with. Manu lands up in Delhi and is immediately shunted to Kanpur where he not only meets but instantly falls in love with a passed-out after-downing-a-quarter-Vodka-and-five-sleeping-pills Tanuja Trivedi aka Tanu (Kangna Ranaut). He readily agrees and the families take off to Vaishno Devi to seek Mata’s blessing but Tanu tells her husband to be that she’s in love with some dude called Awasthi and he better back off. Manu’s confides in his man Friday Pappi (Deepak Dobriyal), who can’t understand how Manu could agree to marry someone who was sleeping through the meeting! Manu continues to meet other girls but can’t seem to get Tanu out of his mind and fate smiles on him when he ends up meeting her again at his friend Jassi’s (Eijaz Khan) marriage who is marrying Payal (Swara Bhaskar), Tanu’s closest friend. Much to the disappointment and even embarrassment of everyone right from Pappi, Payal and Jassi Manu doesn’t being chagrined by Tanu making him dance to her tunes. Every now and then Tanu gives Manu some hope of but nothing stops her doing what she pleases. Much to Manu’s shock she asks him to help her run away from home to marry her boyfriend but Manu being Manu convinced both the parents and everyone falls in line for Tanu’s dream wedding. But the compulsive rebel that Tanu is she now craves for something more exciting.

Tanu Weds Manu starts off on a very promising note as it gets its atmosphere so well that you almost feel a party of the great shaadi drama that unfolds. You smile at the family members trying to force fee the daamad to be, you move to the Manu Bahiya Ka Kariye number as if you knew the bhaiya in question, but as it goes along the film ends up falling prey to a very average and, at times, almost pathetic treatment which makes it another run of the mill experience.

Following the tradition of Jab We Met, Tanu Weds Manu has a hero who is reticent to the extent of being mistaken for a piece of furniture and the gal who’s full of beans but unlike Jab We Met, Tanu Weds Manu can’t rise above the basics, which is very sad for the film gets the fabric very well and has many more interesting characters like Pappi, Jassi and Payal in addition to the leads.

The screenplay of Tanu Weds Manu tries hard to make something magical of otherwise done to death filmy situations. In addition to lead characters that end up looking secondary to everyone else around them, the screenplay goes for a toss as the film progresses. Manu pines for lady love and the background is filled with songs about broken dreams, heartache as bitter as the taste of neem but everything seems a little too forced. Tanu on the other hand wavers from one emotion to another in the name of a living it to the hilt character but it’s too much to expect that the two are made for each other in the name of opposites attracting.

The acting in the film is a mixed bag but most of it isn’t bad. Madhavan gets the reserved Manu right on numerous accounts but after a while he seems to be uninterested in his own story; his Manu just doesn’t do anything proactive and at one point when he pets a stray dog as he waits for sun to shine on him, you end up laughing. Tanu could have been Kangana’s ‘Geet’ moment but she falls woefully short; amongst other things it’s almost impossible to fathom what she says at most moments. Deepak Dobriyal and Swara Bhaskar make both Pappi and Payal come alive. Dobriyal has not been give ample opportunities but you give him half a chance and he shows you just how he can take an average character with regular lines and transform the mundane into magical. Bhaskar plays the Bihari Payal with such ease and conviction that you almost mistake for her one; in her scenes with Kangana where she’s drilling sense into Tanu she outshines her more talked about co-star. Even Eijaz Khan, and the two fathers- Rajinder Gupta and KK Raina get their characters well. Jimmy Shergill’s takes a great amount of screen time in the second-half of the film and as always, tries to make most of a handful of scenes he gets.

Unlike most of the romantic comedies Tanu Weds Manu had many elements like a decent storyline by Himanshu Sharma, nice music by Krsna, great characters but most importantly the texture and feel of the whole UP family marriage scene that could have made it much better than what we end up watching. In spite of Kangana Ranaut’s strange shenanigans and an uber reserved Madhavan who might put you to sleep, Tanu Weds Manu is still harmless and even a fun watch at many places.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Cast: R. Madhavan, Kangana Ranaut, Jimmy Shergill, Eijaz Khan, Swara Bhaskar, Rajinder Gupta and KK Raina

Written by: Himanshu Sharma

Directed by: Anand L. Rai

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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I'm Number Four

You know some films that people warn you about and you still watch them to form your own opinion? This is one of them. Stay away for it’s not worth of forming any opinion.

Based on the book by Pittacus Lore, I’m Number Four is about the fourth of the nine special kids who survived the attack on their planet and made it to earth. Once here they blend amongst the others but ugly monsters who destroyed their planet are searching them and killing them one by one. Number Four, John Smith (Alex Pettyfer) has got to know that the third one is dead and now his warrior guardian Henri (Timothy Olyphant) has moved him to Paradise, Ohio, in order to hide him. John falls for the high school cutie Sarah (Dianna Agron) and befriends the school nerd, Sam (Callan McAuliffe) and fights the football captain while dealing with his newly discovered super hero like powers. The monsters find him, kill Henri and wreak havoc in the sleepy town but John decides to stop running and fight the battle. Mystery gal who keeps stalking him turns out to be Number Five (Teresa Palmer) and together they save the day. Once the entire town is destroyed they move on to find the remaining four of the Nine who came in order to prepare for the bigger fight.

There are some films that you sit though no matter how bad, even endure in the hope that there’d be some payoff in the end but I’m Number Four ain’t one of those. You see warriors from another planet fight planet-traveling monsters and yet don’t feel anything. You look at troubled teen from another world, in the literal sense, trying to blend in and become one of us and you feel nothing. You see a cute girl finding her own spot in the sun by clicking photographs on antiquated cameras rather than being the football jock’s arm candy and you feel nothing. You see a young science nerd dealing with bullies and missing his father, who he believes was abducted by aliens and you feel nothing.

Director D.J. Caruso blows up things like any good Hollywood action flick but this one just bores you to death. What’s scary is that there might a couple of sequels in the making. Watch it if you must but be warned even the popcorn tastes bad.

Rating: 1/5

Cast: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe and Teresa Palmer

Screenplay by: Alfred Gough and Miles Millar based on the novel by Pittacus Lore

Directed by: D.J. Caruso

Image: weseemovies.blogspot.com

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Rabbit Hole

Based on a play by David Lindsay-Abaire, Rabbit Hole is one of those films where big stars play regular people. They scream, they shout, they cry and they smile like everyone else and before you know they manage to seep into your system and completely engross you.

Becca (Nicole Kidman) and Howie (Aaron Eckhart) are pale shadows of what they used to be since the accidental death of their young son, Danny. Becca cuts herself off completely and spends most of her time gardening while Howie almost ritualistically goes along the days. This is their way of dealing with the loss and the twain meet at their weekly therapy group. Becca looses interest in the therapy and starts following around the teenager who was driving the car that killed Danny. Howie, on the other hand, has had enough of Becca’s silence and gets closer to Gabby (Sandra Oh), one of the grieving mothers he meets at therapy. To her surprise Becca finds solace in the company of the person responsible for her loss and doesn’t care about anything else. Soon Howie gets to know about Becca and just doesn’t know how to deal with it

Both Kidman and Eckhart put in an earnest effort in making Becca and Howie extremely believable. Immersing themselves into the characters, especially Kidman, make Rabbit Hole a highly absorbing and very engaging experience. The supporting act in the form of Dianne Wiest who plays Becca’s emotionally domineering mother and Sandra Oh’s Gabby who seems to be the only person orbiting Howie’s tormented mind space add to the film.

Provoked by a huge sense of grief Rabbit Hole is depressing but not beyond a point. Somewhere the film resembles the award winning play it’s based on and that makes it look somewhat manufactured and at places, even theatrical. But a strong element of humor that arises when unexpected makes Rabbit Hole very organic. There is a lot of talk about the strong underlying sense of pain, grief and loss but that never takes over. Losing one’s child and coping with life both Becca and Howie don’t know where the next turn might be but both go on because that’s what people who are left behind do. They go through the motions convincingly portraying the emotions that take you on a roller-coaster of a ride and while you are watching it the pain is very real, very palpable. Yet after the film is over you end up feeling that everything was scripted. Nevertheless, a pretty worthwhile tumble down the rabbit hole.

Rating: 3/5

Cast: Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart, Dianne Wiest and Sandra Oh

Written by: David Lindsay-Abaire based on his own play

Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell

Image: Wikipedia

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Kachcha Limboo

Sagar Ballary wouldn’t have imaged that the runaway success of Bheja Fry would make it so difficult for him. Ballary’s Kachcha Limboo explores growing pains with a likeable protagonist but nothing works for the film.

13 year-old Shambhu (Taheer Sutarwala) seems to have trouble on every front. He can’t get along with his father (Atul Kulkarni), he has no real friends and everything he does ends up getting him into more trouble. He struggles to make friends but no one seems to look beyond the over weight kid who’s a chipku. The only person on his team is his mother (Sarika) but she too gets occupied with Shambhu’s baby sister. Wading his way through problems at school and home, Shambhu runs away from the world he knows to find his own place in the sun. He meets into Vitthal (Chinmay Kambli), a street smart lil one, who welcomes Shambhu into his world.

Kachcha Limboo gets one thing spot on- it doesn’t treat kids like kids. This is a film where the children don’t look like cardboard cutouts; they are very real. For the longest time Hindi films had no idea how to look at a children’s film and they often ended up looking stupid. Ballary gets his characters and situations right but what’s the point of that when you don’t know your own film.

The film meaninglessly frets on just about everything without sinking its teeth into something called a story! The problem with the film is that you just don’t know what is this all about and with chaotic childhood, puppy love and a million other things this isn’t a film about nothing! Sutarwala makes Shambhu very affable but had Ballary made the same effort with his story Kachcha Limboo would have been worth it.

Rating: 1 ½ out of 5

Cast: Taher Sutarwala, Atul Kulkarni and Sarika

Directed by: Sagar Ballary

Image: www.fridayrelease.com

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7 Khoon Maaf

*Spoiler alert.

Expectations always make it harder and especially if you happen to be Vishal Bhardwaj. Since Maqbool, every Vishal Bhardwaj film has been looked at with great expectations and to be honest the filmmaker hasn’t really disappointed. But nothing lasts forever and perhaps for the first time really Bhardwaj lets you down with 7 Khoon Maaf.

Susanna Anna-Marie Johannes (Priyanka Chopra) has been really unlucky in love but while people move on Susanna knows only one way to end a relationship. Susanna marries Major Rodriques (Neil Nitin Mukesh) and hopes that life on her farm with a maid (Usha Uthup) along with two men Friday and Amar (Vivaan Shah), an orphan she practically adopts, would be a bed of roses but life doesn’t end up the way one imagines. Tired of her possessive husband who becomes worse after losing a leg in the line of duty, she along with her bunch of cronies kills him in accidental circumstances. During Edwin’s funeral she notices Jimmy (John Abraham), a singer in the choir, and before she knows it Jimmy becomes husband number two. She helps Jimmy to become a rock star but her beau’s persistent drug problem and roving eye becomes too much to handle. So once Jimmy dies in strange circumstances she moves to Kashmir. She meets the soft hearted poet Wasiullah Khan (Irrfan) and becomes Sultana but bad luck seems to be her constant partner. The shy poet happens to be one big sadistic freak who beings out the ‘Susanna’ in Sultana and you know what happens when Susanna gets going. She reluctantly gives love yet another chance with Nocolai Vronsky (Aleksandr Dyachenko), a Russian scientist, who lies about his family and children and what follows is a regular day for Susanna at work. Life comes a full cycle and Keemat Lal (Annu Kapoor), the investigating officer who suspected foul play with Jimmy’s murder, is now a high ranking official who yet again saves Susanna from the gallows but in the bargain becomes husband number five. He dies of a heart attack while making love to his wife and finally Susanna decides enough is enough. When Amar walks out of her life as she tries to seduce him, Susanna tries to end her life only to be saved by Dr. Modhusudhon Tarafdar (Naseeruddin Shah). Life’s not fair to Susanna as she realizes that the shy doctor is prescribing death and then…you know what ensues. Finally fate shines on her and gives her a second chance but can Susanna change?

Loosely based on Ruskin Bond’s short story, this should have been familiar turf for Bhardwaj as he’s very comfortable with adaptations but 7 Khoon Maaf ends up being highly disjointed. Right from the moment it takes off the blocks, the film’s ponderous as if it’s prepping you for some interesting juncture but sadly that point never comes. Bhardwaj compels you to keep looking at the drama that unfolds on the screen with baited breath hoping for some sort of an aha moment but there’s no real payoff. The somber mood that he creates helps generate the viewer’s interest levels but with each murder you just stop caring.

The interesting thing about 7 Khoon Maaf is how Matthew Robbins’ screenplay tries to root such a fantastical tale in reality. The production design, the costumes and a whole lot of detailing makes 7 Khoon Maaf visually a very convincing exercise. Also the manner in which the passage of time is shown- Edwin being decorated for his bravado during Operation Blue Star, Jimmy’s dealer tells him that just as the world has moved on from the Berlin Wall and VP Singh government he should move on to bigger drugs and Nicolai being around her at the time India becomes a nuclear state, etc.- is nice touch to show the 45 year period in Susanna’s life.

One wouldn’t think that with someone like Priyanka Chopra killing seven husbands that include the likes of Irrfan and Naseeruddin Shah, a film could be boring but that’s what a major portion of 7 Khoon Maaf ends up being. Chopra sinks her teeth very well into the character and systematically checks the boxes with skills that one would expect of such a chameleon but it’s the script that lets her down. Irrfan with his poet is the only surprise in the lot and as one’s not expecting Wasiullah to be a sadist the segment is by far the best. Naseeruddin Shah for some strange reason plays Tarafdar as Amitabh Bachchan would; Annu Kapoor gets the laughs and might just get a second lease of life much like Pankaj Kapur post Maqbool; Neil Nitin Mukesh gets to play a much older character and is quite interesting while John Abraham is well…just plain old John. But the weakest link of 7 Khoon Maaf is Vivaan Shah, who is highly unconvincing and really bad as Arun. The only one who perhaps understood Susanna to some extent, Arun is as important as the lady but Shah’s boyish looks and flat voice is a mood kill.

Rating: 2 ½ out of 5

Cast: Priyanka Chopra, Neil Nitin Mukesh, John Abraham, Irrfan, Aleksandr Dyachenko, Annu Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah and Vivaan Shah

Written by: Screenplay: Matthew Robbins based on Susanna's Seven Husbands by Ruskin Bond

Directed by: Vishal Bhardwaj

Image: www.wikipedia.com

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