The main takeaway from Manjhi – The Mountain Man is that great stories don’t necessarily make great films. Or not even good films for that matter. In this case, it is the astounding true story and Nawazuddin Siddique’s acting that elevates a worn out film and makes it look average.

The script assumes that the intelligence of the audience is as low and as silly as proceedings in the film. It is hard to believe that it is the same Umesh Shukla who made the likable Oh My God earlier. Wish we could file an RTI and find out how and why this film got made.

A reboot of the ‘80’s National Lampoon comedy, Vacation is just another faulty assembly line product from the Hollywood factory. It aims at cashing in on the nostalgia factor but beyond that, it has nothing to offer.

Partly being a martial art film, by the time all the arm twisting, skull smashing and bone twisting is over, you are brain dead.

Christopher McQuarrie (who wrote The Usual Suspects and directed Jack Reacher, Edge of Tomorrow with Tom Cruise) is at the helm of affairs here and he has peppered the film with enough action and thrills to make this fifth film in the series, one of the better mainstream Hollywood films in recent times. And they did it in 2D.

Like many countless other films, Bangistan also has a promising plot somewhere in there but it never realizes it potential. It has a tough time finding its footing as it oscillates between comedy and some serious sermonizing and the two have to be handled with great care like a chef mixing ingredients to make a dish.

Forget exorcism, the devil will give up if he is forced to sit through such films.

The average script rises above the ordinary because one, the direction and two the acting. You care about Billy Hope because of the conviction with which Gyllenhaal essays the role. Whether it is the physical looks of a boxer or emoting desperation about his daughter, he is brilliant.

The Malayalam version had a bit of flab which is also seen here – both the films clock the same time, even though it looked like the original film took longer to establish the plot and cut to the chase. While the family bonding element it essential it should not take almost an hour to set it up. In the end, Drishyam comes across as a thriller and not so much as a family drama.

I don’t know what they were smoking when the decided to make this movie – even by the standard of Adam Sandler movies, Pixels is a huge disappointment. This is a mind numbing film with an extraordinarily silly plot.