The Expendables - ITS BOOM, BOOM and more BOOM

Inflation is peaking across the globe….Living Legend Sylvester Gardenzio Stallone is in complete denial and is ready to prove it. He says you’ll not only get more for the same 100 rupee Gandhi note but you will get the best in the industry.

If you need one good reason to watch this movie….Sly says “I will give you 11 and if one Rambo ain’t enough…make way for gang of Rambos.”

Sylvester Stallone…..Age – 64, I am your worst nightmare, push me hard and you'll get war.
Jason Statham…..Age – 38, Rule # 1, Fasten your seat belts and never change the deal.
Jet Li…..Age – 47, Here's the deal, Meatball. You let me go, I LET YOU LIVE.
Dolph Lundgren…..Age- 53, I gave you an order soldier, now let me see you waste that gook traitor
Terry Crews….Age – 42, I'll be praying for the families of your victims.
Randy Couture…..Age – 47, If you're looking for a whoopin', you've come to the right place.
Mickey Rourke….Age – 58, I don't hear you giving me any name, jerk. Guess when I shot you in the belly, I aimed a little too high.
Bruce Willis...Age – 55, yippie kay yay
Arnold Schwarzenegger....Age – 63, I’ll be back
Steve Austin....Age – 46, You know, I don't know who you are, and I don't care.
Eric Roberts….Age – 54, You think you know me? hah! You think you know me?

People like Sly just don’t give up…do they? They are ridiculously crazy and we like them that way. When SRK and Aamir (both in 40’s) are working towards 6 and 8 pack abs only to show off in some stupid songs like Dard-e-disco and Guzaarish, Sly Stallone is all set to rediscover himself at the age of 64 as the Ultimate Action Hero of all times even after gaining worldwide fame with smash hits like Rocky series (started in 1976) and Rambo series (started in 1982). This is the ultimate tribute to the Action heroes with an average age of above 50 in the crew. Even at the RIPE age all of them I should say are RAW.

The story has absolutely nothing to offer though the movie starts off on a very promising note. Story in short, a highly trained mercenary group called “The Expendables” is sent on a mission to an Island to fight against the dictator and the druglord. As the storyline is very familiar, ignore the story and concentrate on what Sly has lined up. The usp of the movie is the nostalgia it creates w.r.t. the who’s who of the 80’s and 90’s action movies. It is a very difficult task to give screen space to all the legends and build on their characters. Only Sly and Statham get more screen space, but nevertheless Sly has managed to do a good job.

This is not the best action movie I have seen, but the old school heavy duty fight sequences and vehicles flying while bodies are being torn apart and cool dialogues delivered with bullets flying during gun fights, and legends kicking ass as well getting their ass kicked was worth my money. I have grown watching these legends kick ass on the big screen and the best scene any action movie buff can ask for is to see Sly, Bruce Willis and Arnold together on the screen. Though Bruce and Arnold had only a cameo role, the scene was worth it with Sly making fun of Arnold for trying for the post of President. My favourite scene is when Sly runs on a bridge and then jumps on to hold on to the flying plane in the first half. The second half is filled with an ass kicking team who wreak havoc with a ton load of explosives on anyone who stands in their way. Its just boom, boom and more boom.

Sly Stallone, in his mid 60’s has produced, co-scripted and directed the movie apart from doing most of the stunts on his own, he ain’t a faint hearted chicken like Abhishek Bachchan who tried to take credit away from his body double for his jump into the river from the cliff claiming the stunt as his own in Raavan. Sly reminds all of us that he is still capable of making engrossing action movies. Bollywood offers only one genre – “Masala genre” (Romance, comedy, action, suspense etc…all in One), hence the whole movie industry was invited as Farah and SRK themselves were confused about the genre of their movie Om Shanti Om.

Kids, faint hearted chickens, KJ and SRK fans stay back and watch MNIK…. Expendables is a GUY THING….Watch it for an adrenaline overdose seeing the Action legends, the movie industry has ever got to offer, together. And in the end you’ll surely say “Thank You Rocky”

THINK ABOUT IT: If the movie had also lined up Halle Berry, Sharon Stone, Kate Winslet, Madonna, Cindy Crawford, Charlize Theron, Demi Moore, Cameron Diaz, Monica Belluci and Angelina, I suppose the movie would have been called “Cherry Blossom”.

Primal Fear

You are not one but three - The one you think you are, the one others think you are and the one you really are.

-Satyanarayana Raju
Based on William Diehl’s novel, Gregory Hoblit has provided the movie watching fraternity one of the best psychological thrillers. He succeeds in holding onto the suspense till the last second and the ending will blow you away.

Movie starts off with Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton) being arrested for the gruesome murder of archbishop along with the murder weapon. A never beaten attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) takes up the case to defend Aaron, an innocent altar boy who stutters. With all the evidences against Aaron, Vail fails to convince the jury that Stampler and his girlfriend were the victims in the situation as they were sexually abused by the archbishop. As the trial progresses, Vail is shocked to discover the soft spoken Aaron transforming into a violent personality calling himself as Roy, who admits to have committed the crime. Aaron reveals that he has no memory of the happenings when he is Roy. Hoblit has put in immense efforts in the very real and convincing scenes where Aaron transforms himself to Roy. Vail creates a situation for the prosecutor Janet Venable (Laura Linney) to provoke Aaron so that he transforms himself to Roy in the court and the Jury is convinced that Aaron is suffering from Multiple personality disorder and he be sent to a mental hospital and not jail.

As the final scene rolls, Vail meets Aaron and the suspense is revealed which will blow you away. You have to be seated till the end of the movie and once the suspense is revealed in the last minute of the movie, I can picture you guys in shock and awe with your jaws dropped and thinking about the whole story again as it has done to the audience for the past 14 years since 1996.

Richard Gere and Laura Linney complement each other and do a commendable job as ex-lovers and as defense attorney and prosecutor. But the movie belongs completely to Edward Norton. Norton’s career was launched and it rocketed sky high with his stupendous performance as the innocent Aaron and violent Roy. He won 8 awards for this role out of 12 major nominations in 1996 and Hollywood got itself a new villain.

This movie is worth your collection and recommended for all occasions.

THINK ABOUT IT: Deewangee (Ajay Devgn, Urmila and Akshay Khanna) is a very bad copy of Primal Fear. The suspense is revealed in the first half of the movie itself (what a shame) so that they could incorporate some song sequences in the movie. When will these Hindi Movie directors who copy movies from Hollywood ever learn the art of story telling?

SALT - Tastes Bland

Watan ka khaaya NAMAK toh NAMAK HALAL bano
- Arjun Singh walad Bhim Singh walad Dashrath Singh

Phillip Noyce delivers yet another Spy Thriller after some of his successful spy thrillers like Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Bone Collector, The Saint. Though the director has incorporated good twists and turns to the plot, the storyline is very familiar and audience familiar to spy thriller genre will not be thrilled. By replacing Tom Cruise (who dropped out quoting that he had already done movies with this kind of storyline) with a hottie like Angelina Jolie, I was expecting some “thrilling scenes” like his previous movie “Sliver” starring Sharon Stone. But the food tasted bland even with so much of SALT.

The movie kicks off on a promising note with Evelyn Salt (Angelina Jolie), a CIA agent being framed as a Russian Spy. Then as she is on the run, the story keeps you guessing whether Salt is a Russian spy or a CIA agent. The pace of the movie gets very slow and in the end it’s a no brainer to answer the question – “Who is Salt?”. Moving away from Computer Graphics, Angelina has done all the stunts on her own including jumping from a flyover onto a speeding truck and then onto a speeding tank and then jumping onto the road to speed away on a bike or jump from a moving train without getting injured. This was the only thrilling moment in the movie. The movie ends with Jolie escaping from CIA suggesting a sequel to the movie. Familiar plot and slow pace of the story and very few commendable action sequences does not qualify SALT to be compared to Bond, Mission Impossible or the Bourne series.

Watch it only if you like to watch Angelina Jolie kick some ass. If you are a big fan of her svelte figure, I suggest you watch her other thrillers like “Taking Lives”, “Original Sin” or wait for the 2010 release “The Tourist” (with Johnny Depp)

Think About It: Is a Cool Chic Hot or a Hot Chic Cool?