Sankhayan Ghosh
The Hindu·LiveMint
Murder on the Orient Express
2017 · LiveMint · Nov 2017
The film's revisionist touches are all too perfunctory; there is now a black British man and a Mexican in the mix. By the end, you wonder, why fix what isn't broken? The answer is explicitly given—like many things in the film—in the last scene, where a policeman in a quiet station tells Poirot about a possible case on the Nile.
Kong: Skull Island
2017 · LiveMint · Mar 2017
Kong: Skull Island not only wants to be a monster movie, it wants to be a monster movie in the Trump era. Fair enough. But first it should have got right the basic pleasures of the genre.
Kaabil
2017 · LiveMint · Jan 2017
A somewhat relaxed performance from Hrithik Roshan is the only watchable thing in this dull, dim-witted revenge drama
Arrival
2016 · LiveMint · Dec 2016
For far too long, Hollywood blockbusters have waged war against the extra terrestrial, using it as the perfect excuse to unite a fragmented world. Arrival challenges that notion and asks us to look within.
Trolls
2016 · LiveMint · Nov 2016
There is a buoyancy to the proceedings, even though they are utterly predictable. It helps that the film is a musical; it has actor-singers as a part of its cast and at many points, the songs help the scenes breeze through. The film's primary target audience is, of course, children, but accompanying adults should have a good time too.
The Shallows
2016 · LiveMint · Sep 2016
The Shallows fails to invent new things for itself in the third act. It becomes predictable, falling on easy survival movie devices like recording on a video camera, or the fact that Nancy, being a medical student, is able to tend to her wounds. But it is a well-crafted film that engages for the most of its 1.5 hours of running time.
Freaky Ali
2016 · LiveMint · Sep 2016
To its credit, Freaky Ali never gets sentimental; whenever there's a potentially heavy-handed situation, it's defused with a pun. Sometimes one ends up laughing, even if isn't clear that this is what the filmmaker intended.
M Cream
2016 · LiveMint · Jul 2016
Ultimately, M Cream comes off as an amateur, even pretentious effort to showcase an unexplored subculture. In the end, one of the characters says, "What a journey it has been", and you think, "Not really."
Ice Age: Collision Course
2016 · LiveMint · Jul 2016
Collision Course never really soars. It doesn't show any inventiveness, apart from the set pieces involving Scrat the squirrel (Chris Wedge) and his acorn. Five movies later, it remains the only track that is still as amusing as it was the first time; it has the absurd entertainment value of Tom And Jerry cartoons. The makers have produced short movies starring Scrat, but they should perhaps consider giving him his own feature-length film. At the moment, that seems like a more entertaining prospect than the main franchise.
Kerry on Kutton
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
For all its merits, it ultimately feels like an empty film that depends more on the quirks of the characters than the characters themselves. As a film that describes its protagonists as wannabe gangsters, it almost ends up being a victim of its own joke.
Shorgul
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
Shorgul 's release was postponed because of political pressure. To its credit, the film bluntly takes on real-life references with slightly modified names. Shergill's Ranjit Om is of the Bharatiya Janatantra Party (modelled on Sangeet Som of BJP) whose speeches evoke history to fuel hatred toward Muslims.
7 Hours to Go
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
The film's biggest failure is to not make us care for any of the characters: all victims of terrible crimes. It uses stunts from movies like Usual Suspects and Now You See Me for effect -- faking deceitful identities to fool the system and leaving clues all around the city to prove how clever the protagonist is. There is an attempt of a Psycho touch in the serial killer's relationship with her Tai. Then there are lines like, "He is neither black nor white. He is grey." I was guilty of missing the first ten minutes of the film, but I'm kinda glad I had to watch less of it.
Rough Book
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Rough Book maybe a well-intentioned film that tries to talk about education's descent into business in the country. But it is impossible to take it seriously.
Now You See Me 2
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Characters from part 1 are brought back with lame justifications clearly because they are star names. It doesn't help that the film, like the first one, treats people as a dummy crowd that seem to be cheering at anything that comes their way. If that's what the makers thought of us, then they are way off the mark
Finding Dory
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Finding Dory fills us to the brim till the end. In a joyous climactic escape sequence an in-transit van, carrying fish tanks, crashes into the ocean in slo-mo as Louis Armstrong's 'What a Wonderful World' plays out. We leave the theatres humming the same line in our heads.
Warcraft
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
I'm all for video games being turned into movies, but Warcraft lacks the depth and richness of literature.
The Nice Guys
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
The Nice Guys is a 'nice'-ish film that doesn't try too hard. And that is a relief.
Pelé: Birth of a Legend
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
The most disappointing thing about Pele: Birth of a Legend is its failure to bring alive a fascinating story that has layers of historic, cultural and sporting significance. The film's tagline not only refers to the arrival of one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game but also the introduction of an ancient, ridiculed-by-the-Western-world, indigenous form of martial arts-meets-dance athleticism practised by African slaves in Latin America in a game dominated by whites.
Captain America: Civil War
2016 · The Hindu · May 2016
Civil War shows how effective action sequences can be when done well. Right from the opening sequence, there is a crunchy physicality to the action. It's easy to get carried away, when you have superheroes with distinct set of powers that bamboozle audience with CGI vagueness.
Mother's Day
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
It's one thing to have protagonists with low IQ and make something funny, humane or entertaining out of it. It is another to show stupid people doing stupid things. Mother's Day, which belongs to the latter section of films, shouldn't have existed, just like the stupid, commercially manufactured annual event it derives its name from.
The Man Who Knew Infinity
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
To its credit, the film makes complex mathematics fairly accessible, even to a non-math person. But what's the point if one fails to engage with the man behind the math?
The Huntsman: Winter's War
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
It's futile to compare The Huntsman: Winter's War with the sequel (or prequel) because of the sheer pointlessness of both. But, going by the film's ending, which leaves us on an ominous note, we may have to endure another one.
Before I Wake
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
I abhor the use of phones in theatres but even I couldn't help reaching out for mine a couple of times. I yawned too. A lot. Let's say, the film thankfully ended just before I woke.
Demolition
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
But this visually inventive film moves rather smoothly. It also feels a bit indulgent, but the good kind – that gives us a couple of sexy sequences: including one where Davis dreams of simply walking with his headphones on in a crowded street, while the rest move backwards in time.
The Jungle Book
2016 · The Hindu · Apr 2016
What makes The Jungle Book enduring in our collective consciousness is that it is an outlet to our eternal fantasy to live in the wild. The film, painted in mystical shades, succeeds in invoking this deep, primal core present in all of us.
Bus 657
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
The film, thankfully, isn't too long. To be fair, it might even work for an audience okay with spending 1 hour 30 minutes of their life watching a 'timepass' level generic thriller. But for the more serious moviegoer, Bus 657 is one they should be happy to miss.
Zootopia
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
The new Disney animation movie is an innocuous, enjoyable anthropomorphic parable that doesn't dig too deep.
London Has Fallen
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
When a film titled London Has Fallen begins with the dusty fields of Pakistan, you know where it's heading. It's going to be yet another American geopolitical fantasy where Uncle Sam saves the world, as it bulldozes all nuances of the topic of terrorism along its way. But to be fair, keeping its problematic politics aside, the film begins to tell its story well.
45 Years
2016 · The Hindu · Mar 2016
The film, in its quiet and powerful way, shows us the fragility of marriage...
Carol
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
In one moment it is an American road movie of lovers on the run like Bonnie and Clyde , the next an erotic thriller in motel rooms like Lolita and in another, a lesbian pulp fiction with spies and hidden cameras. It's these hybrid genre elements of Highsmith's text that director Todd Haynes incorporates so well that makes Carol an unexpected love story.
The Revenant
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
The Revenant is a very visual film, a technical marvel and a feast to the senses. Inarritu's long-time collaborator, Lubezki has always brought out the holistic, spiritual soul of his films.
Spotlight
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Spotlight is an important film, especially at times of cynicism around the profession of journalism. It is a non-showy paean to print reportage as much as it is a deeply affecting human drama.
Trumbo
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Trumbo may not dig deep – for all its pleasures, the film doesn't linger. But it does a fine job of picking up a remarkable real life story of an unlikely hero and telling it with a filmic aura it deserves.
The Choice
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
It's the kind of stuff you might have sort of accidentally enjoyed at a pre-teen phase of your life but now only have contempt for simply because you have evolved. If you have a choice to make this weekend at the movies, stay away from this one.
The Finest Hours
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Even at its finest moments, The Finest Hours is just unexceptionably plain and too traditional to surprise us...
Room
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
Room is a superbly made movie about the bleakness that accompanies the loss of childhood.
The Boy
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
The big twist in the last 30 minutes is almost bizarre. It doesn't add up and nearly undoes the good job its done in parts until then. In a sudden turn of events, it becomes a slasher movie. And as a viewer, who was hoping to see a horror film that rises beyond the generic, we feel cheated.
The Hateful Eight
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
The premise of The Hateful Eight is similar to the filmmaker's own Reservoir Dogs . It is also similar in many ways to a lot of other films of different genres. But that's Tarantino, a fan with a mental library of movie myths. And as always, he makes something original and wildly entertaining out of it.
The Danish Girl
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
The most intriguing aspect of The Danish Girl is that it is much more about that love story than it is about Lili's road to self-discovery.
The Peanuts Movie
2015 · The Hindu · Dec 2015
The film does that successfully creating a wondrous, immersive world with round-headed kid characters. It's a cheery, old-fashioned cartoon film. Adapted from the original comics that appeared in a gag-a-day format in the newspapers, it's refreshing to see gags on the big screen. But for the adult audience, is it engaging enough?
In the Heart of the Sea
2015 · The Hindu · Dec 2015
The film is watchable as a big screen, popcorn-cola experience, but it fails to go beyond a plain sea movie, being unable to dig into the rich and dense material of the original story.
Creed
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
The success of the film is also that it communicates the nostalgia even to those who are outsiders to the Rocky fandom. Yet Creed sags from time to time because of its lightweight script. It's a good natured, cheery film but the tone becomes too sentimental in parts.
The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
As an allegory, Mockingjay Part II fails to give us anything that we haven't seen in the movies yet. The twist in the end is hardly a twist at all. The film closes down the series (as of now), but not the way you would have wanted it.