X-men First Class ( Clear Cut )

First of all I was skeptical about the movie.. An X-men movie with no "Wolverine" Come on.. Who would want to see that?
But then again I am more a creature of habit than reason. So yes, Friday night is movie night and since I had absolutely no other movie left to watch. (I have this strict rule of seeing a movie only once in the theatre. No kidding! No matter how entertaining it is, I am yet to see a movie twice - in the theatre.)
I went ONLY for the purpose of eating chocolate popcorn. It was a pleasant surprise to me at how distinct the movie turned out to be. 
Forget about getting to see Professor X or Magneto in their susceptible years.. Forget about their exposed vulnerability and the reason they turned out to be who they are.. Forget about the CG in the movie.. I got to see Kevin Bacon play the bad guy. After what Hollow Man? The guy is mind blowing. You hate him with disdain but admire the flair and flamboyant performance nevertheless. 
Then there is diamond girl who is foxy .. and Prof X is flirting - yeah that's right.. You get to see him flirt a little bit!! And there was wolverine with two words (Fuck off or Fuck you or some other version of it) for a micro second on the screen - which of course brought more applause than the opening of the movie. 
The movie had some splashing special effects, a decent back story and fresh faces who brought their own persona on screen and none of the lingering embers of the earlier cast. To be creative and original after a decade of being exposed to the X-men storyline is no mean feat. I was amazed at how the movie was not a mere back tracking of the earlier plots. However influenced by the original plot they managed to portray established characters in an unusual light. Who would have thought the Professor would be portrayed as the cheerful little guy mildly flirting around, using standard pick-up lines? :) Or that Raven/Mystique would be characterized by a deep-seated need for approval? 
X-men was a pretty long movie - two and a half hours. Yet I did not look at my watch. Not once. That is something in a movie. If they make a spin-off from a cult classic, with none of the hot shot artists in the earlier movies and still you did not feel like falling asleep or snoring in the theatre, then that is IT! 
The movie you watch on a Friday night after a nice dinner. No regrets!! 

Super 8

Super 8 is movie with an ordinary storyline, an uncommon plot and an extraordinary screen play. The story has been told many times beforE... And it is definitely not a movie you would watch twice. But it would keep you glued to the screen for the better part of it's length.
The ordinary story...
Government's super secret experiment.. subject goes overboard.. chaos everywhere... FINALLY we manage to save the day.
The alternate version of the ordinary story...
Government's super secret mission is actually testing an alien who crash landed on earth.. specially in US soil.. :)
But what is so very enticing about Super 8 is that they have managed to keep the audience enthralled out of pure fascination for the unknown. The need to see how this uncommon screenplay unfolds.


The protagonists are a bunch of school kids..
The background score is just loud enough to make you tingle but not scream..
You dont actually get to see the alien until 15 minutes before the end credits roll..

Everything about the movie is subtle. The performance of Charles (the kid who plays the director of the short film) is tangible. He is so real. How he wants to improvise on the train wreck shots among others - simply splendid. The protagonists Joe Lamb and Alice have done nothing shot of a sleek performance both in the movie and in the short film in the film. I wonder how the director exacted such a level of performance from this young crowd.


So yes I would not call Super 8 novel and it is definitely a movie you would watch until the credits roll and not give a moment's thought to walking out.

Kaavalan

Time and again movie buffs turn up at “Illaiya Thalapathi” Vijay’s movies hoping against hope for a decent masala movie. WE are not expecting an “Inception” or even an “How to train your dragon”. However, our dude never fails to disappoint us these days.

I am a movie lover. To people like me, it does not matter if movies have a higher purpose or a message or just provide 3 hours of unadulterated opportunity to live in a fantasy world. We are at the movies because we enjoy them.

My love for Vijay starrers has braved against atrocities like “Sachin”, “Sura”, “Udaya”, “Badri”,” Youth”, “Shajahan”.. I think I can come up with more but then I was also appeased by some decent masalas like “Gilli” and even “Vettaikaran” was a feel good movie if nothing else.

But Kaavalan is for loss of better words, an assault on the intelligence of average movie buffs. I mean seriously, what were they thinking? Alright! Let’s pool in Asin- she has been out of the tamil industry for some time now and her screechy voice and horrible sense of dressing and over made, over expressive face may just work out.. MAY. After all it worked in “pokkiri” and “sivakasi”. Then the producers thought.. oh let’s rope in Vadivelu.... Now that’s a combo that could NOT go wrong… People I will tell you what went HORRIBLY wrong with this thought process. Atleast the TOP 5 reasons!!!

1)      Let’s face it Vijay cannot ACT. He can maybe create the illusion and pull it off once in a while, few tricks here and there but ACTING was NEVER our dude’s cup of tea. He emotes the protagonist of the original movie. Classic examples.. Pokkiri,Gilli… God knows how he managed to make this miserable a caricature of Dileep!!!

2)      Music is very passable in Kavalan! The ONLY saving grace of Vijay starrers had always been the catchy tunes which you hummed along until the next fast beat came around... I cannot even begin to describe the senseless, totally expendable music tracks in this movie.

3)      Vadivelu… !!!????!!! WHAT CAN I SAY?? We have seen this roaring comedian provide some hearty comic relief . Probably he saved his better tracks for a better movie maybe? That is the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.

4)      ASIN! – Stale, sickening overacting Asin is just her usual, obnoxious self. No surprises there. But the dressing sense had gone progressively downhill. Did the stint in Bollywood NOT teach her anything at all?

5)      Icing on the cake? The climax!!! Puh-leeeeeez!!!!!!!! People mistake me not, I laughed throughout the movie. Oh no.. not when the supposed comedy track was in progress but when Vijay delivered heart wrenching dialogues with not even a trace of emotion.. when Asin was taken aback when Vijay’s kid Siddharth asked her to be his mommy. Trust me, she was so taken aback that she went two feet backwards!!!! Oh lord!!!

High time Vijay dusted his boots and made a serious attempt in choosing scripts that have decent shots of success.