Rubber: A dead film, ironically!

How often you come across a film which seems to be completely different , shows  total uncanny treatment, promises you a great deal of entertainment and gives you a dead boring experience? Almost every time. In case of RUBBER (no, not "THAT" one), the most bizarre idea of this decade, sadly its the same. RUBBER is a film about Robert, a small Tyre with life and psychic power to blow up stuff. You can go over that last line all you want just to make sure whether you read it right or not but it still says the same.  Written and directed by Quentin Deuplex, popularly known as Mr. Oizo, RUBBER has to be the weirdest concept a filmmaker can ever imagine. For those who have no idea what Im talking about, here's the trailer for you!

RUBBER starts with concept of film inside a film where one of the characters addressed a bunch of people who are actually audience for this ‘Homage to no reason films’. Then we have Robert coming back to life, rolling around like a free spirit, blowing up things, killing people, falling in love (Oh yes, dude’s got feelings too) etc etc  and at one point between this ‘happy happy’ stuff you find yourself so bored that you don’t care anymore for whats happening on the screen.

Yes it is a different type of comedy and for first 30 minutes, quite interesting too but then everything becomes extremely dull. Some scenes are real fun to watch like one where Robert try to break a beer bottle by rolling over it but couldn’t. That feeling of disappointment is totally conveyed to you through a lifeless medium.

It could have been a GREAT film if it was tightly edited. You cant sit through whole 80mins of its timeline watching a tyre rolling around blowing up stuff. Plus that parallel storyline, one with the audience, is too stretched. Film starts off really welll, but all human characters spoil it in the midway. But it has almost the perfect ending that one can think of. Those last 5 minutes are best, not only because you are relieved but also that is the most funny and entertaining sequence of whole film.

If you ask me, Dupieux should have made a short film with no dialogues and maximum action with this concept. These kinds of absurd thoughts go really well with lot of music and minimum chitchat. Still, one has to appreciate his efforts. His camera work, interesting treatment to the genre and specially his music which is so good that you actually feel unsatisfied and want more of it at the end, must be praised.

You don’t get to see something so close to ‘out of the box' thinking every day. So for experimental film lovers, this might be a good opportunity for you to scratch your head and have few laughs. For those who keep no interest in such idea, its better if you stay away from this one and stare at your car  tyre instead.  

My Rating: 2 out of 5

End- A Short Film!

Welcome to END, a very beginning to my new found hobby, Movie Making. It deals with the delicate subject of suicidal tendencies due to academic failure. With this short film, I have tried to focus on the thinking of one man when he looses all hopes and is about to end himself. With my partner Anup Sarda and actor Shubham Agrawal, END is a single character film mostly shot in our college SRKNEC! I want to thank all my friends who directly and indirectly helped me while making this film. Im really sorry for poor audio quality and some editing mistakes that I have made as Im not very familiar with movie making softwares. With no more talks, here I give you my debut short film! Please like, dislike, comment or criticize and give me your honest opinion! Hope you enjoy it! 

Green Zone- Engaging like a real news!

Set your mind back to the year 2003 for a moment, when the invasion of Iraq commenced. Highest levels of American government offered assurances that the invasion was a necessity in order to remove the clear and present danger presented by Sadaam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction (or WMDs, as they're more commonly referred to).

Green Zone directed by Bourne director Paul Greengrass deals with the same situation and seeks the truth behind this invasion. Movie revolves around Roy Miller and his troop who are on the mission to find these WMD's but come bare handed every time they get information from their source. Claiming that source is fake, he demands the truth behind this information but as usual, rejected. With the help of a local Iraqi he tries to find out the truth on his own and thus begins the cat and mouse chase.

Green Zone is probably the most realistic and accurate war film i have ever seen. Hand held and overview cinematography makes is play like a news reel. Action sequences are highly tense and very engaging. The location and destructed sets gives the idea of war devastation. Greengrass's direction is very appealing. Performance-wise whole movie relies on Matt Demon and he delivers his best. Apart from Demon, Khalid Abdulla has done superb job as fredy, an Ex-Iraqi soldier who wants to help his country.

Green Zone is highly engaging war thriller. Though the truth behind war does not seems socking after 4 years, it gives us the idea of politics in war. last 30 minutes of movie are highly intense and beautifully directed. Overall Green Zone is a must watch war drama

My Rating-4 out of 5

Rakhta Charitra 1- The Review/ Frustration!

Have you ever came out of theater feeling so exhausted that you just want to hit the nearest bar for a double large peg of Whisky just to forget what you witness recently? People who saw AAG, Agyaat ,Phook or Jhoota Hi Sahi might know the feeling im talking about. Rakht Charitra-1, a new product from RGV factory, is so boring that it will make you nauseated from movies for a really long time.

Apparently Rakht Charitra is based on the life of Patiala Ravi, a factionist turned politician.  Now I Agree that its hard to keep a tight screenplay with true story adaptation because everyone knows whats going to happen next but a little use of brain would have been appreciated. The plot of the film is so clichéd that it can be compared with almost every gangster film made by RGV.

We have Vivek Oberoi as Pratap Ravi who’s father, a leader of low caste people, is killed by Politician named Reddy. He joins the forces with his brother to kill everyone who is remotely related to his father’s and then he’s brother’s murder and end up being a vigilante. Seeing this, a political leader Shivaji Rao, played ridiculously by Shatrughan Sinha, takes him into his political party and then he becomes a political leader.

Apart from these ‘goody-goody’ violent people we have Bukka Reddy played by Abhimanyu Singh, sort of an ancient hairy ‘Rakshas’ who sweats more than entire cast of RC bleeds. Bukka Reddy will remind you of entire mythological monsters. This pervert either kills people with different style or just rapes every woman he sees. Other than that he has nothing to do on screen. . Bukka uplifts women from street like one buys vegetables from the market. Keeping aside Pratap’s wife and mother, every middle aged women is either kidnapped, raped, burned down or atleast molested. Ironically, only prostitutes in the film have happy lives with smiling faces when compared to entire women characters in RC1.

A piece of advice, don’t buy coke while watching this film. You might end up throwing up in your own cup. Not because of blood and gore. We have a pretty strong stomach and, being slasher movie fans, a very good appetite for that. It’s the pathetic direction and really silly and gravity defying cinematography that will make you go crazy. I mean c’mon Ramu, when will you grow up? Slicing people like watermelon and then making your character shout Rakht-Rakht after every 10 seconds like some municipality horn does not make a good film. Where is your Company and Satya attitude towards gangster films?

There is not everything as bad as I have written above in RC1. Performance of Vivek Oberoy is quite good. Also Bukka Reddy is one hell of a villain. But RGV spoiled this only movie-saving character too. In one particular scene, Bukka is seen “Pleasuring himself” just by staring at a smiling girl poster on a big roadside banner. I mean what the hell is that? I know he is a psychologically ill pervert but I never saw any of my mentally challenged friends standing in Law-College square staring at Kangna Ranauts Killer Jeans poster or Akshay Kumar’s topless Levi’s banner. (Don’t judge me, now days you have to consider every possibility).

Bottom line is Rakht Charitra 1 is really bad film and don’t waste your money on this one. If you are thinking of downloading it for free, have some Anti piracy principles and follow them for once in your lifetime.

My Rating- 1 out of 5 just for all the Bukka Reddy’s screaming and sweating.

Monsters- A contradiction to its name

There are very few movies which deserves a standing ovation. ‘Monsters’ is simply one of them.

Take a moment and think about all the best monster movies you have seen. Names like Godzilla, King Kong, Jurassic Park and most recent one Cloverfield will pop up in your mind. Now if you want see same kind of destruction, you are in for wrong movie. Monsters, a sci-fi horror movie, is unlike any other monster movie ever seen.

Story of the film is conveyed through 4-5 lines at it's very start. A NASA probe sent to discover extra-terrestrial life in universe crashes over Central-American soil six years ago. Then new life form began to appear and apparently battle between humans and 100 feet squid like creatures begins. Andrew Kaulder (played by Scoot McNairy), a media photographer, is sent to bring back his boss’s daughter Samantha (played by Whitney Able)from Mexico to US. They are bound to travel on land through infected zone and the fun begins.

Frankly plot sounds little clichéd. So what’s unique in this?  It’s the screenplay and spectacular direction that strengthens the movie. Written and Directed by Gareth Edward, Monsters is a new dimension given to the sci-fi genre after Neil Blomkamp District 9. Rather than concentrating on huge explosions and big creatures surviving those, Gareth shows the aftermath of such situations and how one learns to adopt himself even though he’s not an alien.

Monsters basically has three plus points. First being its background score. Music is a key to any sci-fi horror and it is at its best here. Composed by Jon Hopkins, his conditional music involves you in the film more enormously. One particular scene where both the leads are encountered by a roadside madman in devastated American town, beyond doubt works only on its background score.

Second notable point is its cinematography. Cinematography works best with high budget but Monsters here sets an example. With the use of only prosumer level equipments, cinematographer Colin Goudie catches every still from heaps of debris to beautiful Mexican forests with superb excellence. You'll be shocked and amazed at the same time with his camera work.

But the best thing about Monsters is its direction and choice of locations and sets which producers are claiming to be real. On one side you have beautiful trees, rivers and on the other hand you have destroyed buildings, burned helicopters and jet planes. But all of this in a mere cost of $15000. How can someone make something so utterly unique with budget of only 15000$? We saw Paranormal Activity made in such a low budget but that involved just two actors, a room and some invisible “supposed-to-scare-you” ghost. In Monsters we see giant creatures, bombarding airplanes, huge devastated building and ships. That’s almost impossible to make with such a low budget. Still it excels at every level of entertainment and keeps that “WOW! Its Awesome” expression on your face for most of its running time and for that it does not have to take you on some Pandorian journey or play with your subconscious mind.

The only negative point of the movie is its little slow first half. Could have worked better if first 30 minutes were tightly edited.

Monsters is a contradiction to its name, to its genre. Best scale of assessment for Monsters is, Its way better than Cloverfield but fall little short when compared to District 9.

My rating- Deserving 4 out of 5.

Do not miss this one! A Must Watch!