All said and done, Force 2 should be watched for its stellar action sequences. They’re high on both quality and quantity. If you’ve grown up enjoying the careers of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone, this film can provide a very satisfactory experience.

Rock On 2 does drag at certain points but the film has all the right ideas. Better still are the performances. Farhan Akhtar and Shraddha Kapoor sing reasonably well but they act to perfection. Farhan’s underplayed performance rocks you, there are moments when the tremble in his hands can give you gooseflesh. Shraddha gets the pitch of her fragile character right as well. She looks beautiful and has given one of her best performances ever. Arjun Rampal is impressive in his moments as well. The performances save it from the limitations of its writing and execution. Rock On 2 is nevertheless a bittersweet symphony.

Director Mike Mitchell loads the movie with countless pop culture references that make the story telling both cute and cool. The trolls are small and cute, in a funky disco-flavoured Smurfs sort of way and that works for the visuals of the movie. With a 90 minutes runtime, Trolls is a breeze to sit through. The camerawork complements the 3D content to great effect as well. Colours and glitter keep popping out of the screen all the time. While the sweetness and cutesy nature may seem over-the-top, that’s exactly what works for this movie. It’s light, bright and a very happy film.

Despite its hits and misses, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil is an experience worth having. Karan Johar peppers this love story with countless movie references, some his own, some of his mentors at Yash Raj and others of his idols from Hindi cinema. His homage driven treatment adds the right kind of spunk to the film. Barring the minor hiccups in the narrative, this film is easily one of the best efforts of his career. It’s a film that makes you cry, makes you laugh and makes you fall in love.

With  crisper editing and less melodrama, Shivaay could’ve been the best of the year. But the ‘more is less’ approach just doesn’t work out.

The only redeeming factor of the film is its political stance. The movie genuinely tries to depict the suffering  of a community and the death toll that occurred on that fateful day. Anyone watching  this film will have to settle for its intentions alone. Everything else in this melodramatic overdose is genuinely embarrassing.

The only time Fuddu engages it’s audience is when it critiques the city of Mumbai and its cramped homes. That social relevance of the film makes an impact for a few minutes, but the rest of the 2-odd hours of this feature film are devoted to 15 pedantic days in the life of a young newly we’d couple who just can’t get any action. The ennui of the subject and the film leaves the audience with a major downer too.

Saat Uchakkey is a real surprise package. This reasonably under sold movie has a lot of endearing goodness and the kind of satirical silly humour that made movies like Jaane Bhi Do Yaro and Kholsa Ka Ghosla such classics. It may not be the most polished product but it is a gem nonetheless, a funny movie with the right amount of weirdness and outrageous ideas. All presented in an honest and crazy manner.  This One’s sure to con you into having a good time.

As you’d expect from a Sunny Leone movie, Beiimaan Love has a lot of onscreen seduction and romance. But all the film’s goodness is wasted on a script that’s so trite and amateur that at times it gets laughable. This movie is strictly for die-hard Sunny Leone fans only.

But the one reason Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children works wonders is Tim Burton’s direction and some well crafted CGI. The monsters in this movie look scary and yet they offer a light-hearted brand of entertainment and comedy. The climax scene where skeletons and monsters battle it out at an amusement park is downright hilarious. This movie and its perfect balance of mystery, gloom and innocence will charm you and leave you with a veritable sense of wonder. This is masterclass filmmaking at its best. Child or adult, this 3D fantasy adventure is a must watch.