Sudhir Srinivasan
The Hindu
Shut In
2016 · The Hindu · Nov 2016
The big twist of the film that comes out of nowhere almost made me burst into laughter. There is no build-up, no effort at developing flesh around the twist to make it believable when it comes.
Trolls
2016 · The Hindu · Nov 2016
I just wish that the film had been a lot more fun, and perhaps, less preachy. But that's like wishing that a chocolate-dipped peanut butter cup-stuffed Oreo were less sweet. It is what it is, and you'll love it if you have the taste for it.
Train to Busan
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
Train to Busan brings absolutely nothing new to the zombie genre, but it shows that lack of novelty needn't be a handicap at all. It has everything you'd expect in a zombie film: The close calls, the mass slaughters, the long chases. A lot of it is quite beautifully shot.
The Accountant
2016 · The Hindu · Oct 2016
As is only expected of a film that deals with a disorder, a narrator explains at the end that autism—which is what Chris supposedly suffers from—affects a sizeable percentage of the population, and tries to encourage sensitivity towards the condition. But considering that Affleck's character almost romanticises it as a superpower, the narrator may well have not bothered.
The Magnificent Seven
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
It isn't that The Magnificent Seven is a bad film. It's made quite competently, and with much deference to the original — or should I say, originals. But the Seven here aren't just magnificent enough. Fuqua's film is to the original what a Colt revolver is to the Gatling gun.
Sully
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
Thanks to Sully, I now know — as much as there is to be known safely at least — what it must be like to be part of a incapacitated plane. Isn't that why we go to films, after all? So, we can live the compelling lives of others… at least briefly.
Skiptrace
2016 · The Hindu · Sep 2016
Much of what happens in Skiptrace appears manufactured; the dialogues are no exception.
Mechanic: Resurrection
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
You can survive it for a while, but you'll never outlive it. Towards the end, the villain finally wakes up to the folly of picking The Mechanic as his adversary (remember The Dark Knight line?), but I wasn't at all sure why Arthur needed to wait so long to rescue Gina. Then, I looked down and understood. The omniscient Arthur was just giving us time to finish the popcorn.
War Dogs
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
This lack of depth gets exposed calamitously during the latter half when the film's veil of comedy drops; even Jonah Hill fails to make it all seem engaging. This likely explains the casting of Bradley Cooper, who, I'd guess, was paying off a debt. There can be no other reason for his deciding to play the role.
Suicide Squad
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
What Marvel achieved by painstakingly releasing film after film to establish its superheroes, DC tries to do with hyper-stylised minute-long intros for the dozen characters that populate—no, crowd—Suicide Squad.
Jason Bourne
2016 · The Hindu · Aug 2016
I didn't understand why Bourne, after taking down the main adversary, still had to go on a never-ending chase to take down a lesser threat, the CIA's asset, who takes control of a S.W.A.T truck and plays his version of Carmageddon on the roads of Vegas. But by this time, the film is simply going through the motions and hurtling in auto-pilot mode towards its rather predictable end.
The BFG
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
The BFG is the closest a film has come in a long time to waking the child inside.
Ice Age: Collision Course
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
Towards the end, there's something about magnetic rocks getting dropped into a volcano, but I'd lost all patience and could only keep going back to that opening scene in which Sid shares his dating philosophy: "Love them and leave them."
The Secret Life of Pets
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
The Secret Life of Pets won't stay with you for long, but while you're watching it, it's impossible to ignore.
The Legend of Tarzan
2016 · The Hindu · Jul 2016
Some warm moments amid vast uninspired stretches...
Central Intelligence
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Central Intelligence is a high-school chick flick, and rather fittingly ends at a high-school reunion, in which Robbie, for some reason, has to parade himself naked in order to get over the traumatic bullying incident that has scarred him for life. I wasn't sure what the big metaphor here was, but I'm pretty sure his last name, Wheirdicht, had something to do with it.
The Conjuring 2
2016 · The Hindu · Jun 2016
Though there's a twist at the end concerning the identity of the demon, the film is bogged down by large unmemorable portions that hardly make you sit up. The Conjuring may have gotten away with its over-reliance on jump scares, but the sequel gets exposed. It doesn't take long before you realise that the film needed to be much more than just another case from the Warren stable.
Miruthan
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
That's native, organic humour, but there isn't a lot of that in Miruthan, which suffers from the same malady that afflict many bad Tamil films: needless, forced melodrama, and a distinct lack of subtlety. I think it's safe to say that we still don't have our first zombie film.
Bangalore Naatkal
2016 · The Hindu · Feb 2016
With the exception of a few jokes, mainly in Kutty's track, Bangalore Naatkal is a faithful remake.
Gethu
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
But Gethu is definitely a welcome relief for those of us who wondered how long Udhayanidhi would go on with comedies that relied not so much on him, but the comedian, usually played by Santhanam. Though Karunakaran plays that role here, he's more a character artiste than a comedian — another welcome relief.
Rajini Murugan
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
There's pretty much nothing in Rajini Murugan that will even startle you, let alone blow your mind. It's everything you've seen already, but you know the thing that differentiates stars from actors? They're able to take your mind off the silly story; they're able to make you forget that the plot is flimsy, that the songs (even if catchy) are excessive, that the love story is regressive.
Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam
2016 · The Hindu · Jan 2016
Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam is what happens when Prabhu and Manoja are brought together by means of an arranged marriage.
Vedalam
2015 · The Hindu · Nov 2015
The time-tested I'll-abduct-your-close-ones method was after all used in a film like Run, that released 13 years ago. And oh, somebody should really tell filmmakers that it's completely all right to not cast a heroine when she has nothing substantial to do, like Shruti Haasan in this film. In comparison, Nagma's seems like a plum role in Baasha. And that's saying something.
Naanum Rowdydhaan
2015 · The Hindu · Oct 2015
Almost all the jokes, both subtle and loud, work. And they're everywhere, and often admirably, without heed to political correctness.
Paayum Puli
2015 · The Hindu · Sep 2015
The end — like the beginning — adopts an atypical, downbeat note, as the camera again slinks back into the sky from where it originally descended for the opening scene. But for what Paayum Puli actually is, they may as well have began and ended amid kuthu beats and much fanfare.
Naalu Policeum Nalla Irundha Oorum
2015 · The Hindu · Jul 2015
NPNO is an admirable film, mainly for its irreverence to elements that are typically thought of as being forced by producers. There's no big climactic duel at the end. There's just the one duet in the whole film, and even that is shot as a parody of a song from the black and white era, as if to say that it is in that time that such love songs firmly belong.
Inimey Ippadithan
2015 · The Hindu · Jun 2015
Inimey left me feeling good about having watched the film, mainly because Santhanam remembers that he is more thamaasu than maasu.
The Age of Adaline
2015 · The Hindu · Jun 2015
...despite a great cameo by Harrison Ford as Ellis' father, The Age of Adaline quickly tapers off into a regular rom-com. I liked The Age of Adaline when much wasn't happening— when she's simply strolling and just being; when she's looking at a park bench and remembering a 50-year-old memory and shedding a tear; when she's looking at news and remembering an old tragedy that she was part of; when she's looking at all her old pictures of King Charles spaniels.
Kanchana 2
2015 · The Hindu · Apr 2015
The acting isn't the problem; the predictable story is. The thaali sentiment is revived for some reason. Kanchana-2 may get away with such ideas, but Kanchana-3, which is hinted at before the end credits, needs to do better if the franchise has to survive. It'd be a pity if it didn't.
Nannbenda
2015 · The Hindu · Apr 2015
Also, in such a film where there's no question of a dark ending, what's the point of a lengthy will-he-wont-he sequence towards the end? He will; of course, he will. In these films, he always does. Give me the darned jokes I paid money for. That's the main problem with Nanbenda — they never come.
Katham Katham
2015 · The Hindu · Mar 2015
If the director had avoided the temptation of including 'necessary commercial elements', Katham Katham would have been a quality film. But as Pandian, almost as if he were speaking on the director's behalf, says, "Awards venaam. Collection vandha podhum."
Anegan
2015 · The Hindu · Feb 2015
Anegan, on the whole, is a complex story told simplistically. Had the complexity been retained, and had the masala spoon been of a lesser size, it would have made for a great film. For now though, it will have to satisfy itself with being a hit film.
Yennai Arindhaal...
2015 · The Hindu · Feb 2015
A rushed climax, a problematic organ trafficking angle, a repeated plot device, a predictable ending… and yet Yennai Arindhaal comes as a breath of fresh air, especially at a time when big-budget films haven't quite lived up to their hype. There's just that one melisaana kodu that stops it from being terrific.
Kappal
2014 · The Hindu · Dec 2014
There's no message here, just like how the main characters are friends for no particular reason. As the film asks before displaying its title card: Who needs a reason to be friends? Director Karthik G. Krish, however, understands that while friendship may not need reasons, humour definitely does. And there's plenty of that in the film.
Ra
2014 · The Hindu · Dec 2014
Ra also shows good production values (especially in its VFX), and that's more than you can say about many other small films that have released recently. The flaws are mainly in the writing.
Naaigal Jaakirathai
2014 · The Hindu · Nov 2014
However, despite these inspirations, there are quite a few genuinely enjoyable moments in the first half of the film, one in which it hasn't yet stepped into hero-has-to-rescue-heroine territory.
Thirudan Police
2014 · The Hindu · Nov 2014
As you walk out, you can't but wonder if the director, after noting all the laughter at the end, rues his decision not to have made a full-fledged comedy.
Poojai
2014 · The Hindu · Oct 2014
Poojai, despite not being Hari's best, could still be successful in the B and C centres, and affirm his bankability. The writing is generally not well thought out though. It seems almost like groups of imperfect scenes were put together in the hope that they'd somehow come together to form a riveting, entertaining whole. Poojai then is a refutation of Aristotle's adage that states that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.