The Hunger Games (2012)

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi, Thrillers

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Donald Sutherland, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson

My Rating: 2/5

When it comes to mainstream movies, my taste rarely differs with the general audience. However, with this movie, my opinion differs.

This is the second disappointing movie of this year for me after John Carter. At least with the later, i knew what i was getting into with its terrible reviews and poor box office performance. But, with a domestic gross (U.S. & Canada) of more than 400 million dollars and being the only movie next to Avatar to stay at No.1 position for 4 consecutive weekends at the box office, i really expected a lot from this.

May be i am getting too old to watch a movie targeted at young audience, but to my defense, I did like the Harry Potter series and the first part in the Twilight series. Harry potter had a good story plot, Twilight had the vampire and werewolf mix that got me interested till the first part. This movie was aimed at both the male and female audience and probably that's why it made more than the Twilight series' box office which was aimed at female audience.

There are so many things that didn't work in this movie for me. This movie is about a death match between youngsters in a futuristic setting. The main character Katniss (i couldn't even take the name seriously for it rhymed with Cat-piss) volunteers for the match when her sister's name comes up in the lottery. The rest of the movie is about how she manages to win the match among 24 participants.

Having mentioned the story, the first flaw i found was that, most of the movies about a competition or match has a  lead character that is an underdog. With this movie, there are so many other kids that are younger than Katniss and with limited skills. I just couldn't bring myself up to root for her.  Also, there was no character development. I did not know much about Katniss' character except that she is skilled in hunting.  May be  I should have read the books first.

I also felt that having targeted the male and female audience, they tried to give both action and romance but it did not work for me. The action sequences were not intense compared to even the magic duels in Harry Potter. They should have made it more darker. I do not think much about how the events would turn out when i watch a movie, but i could clearly know what was going to happen. They need only one winner and the main character was already shown as skilled enough that you know she is going to win. Also, i felt that the director(or the author in the book) lacked imagination the way in which the characters that side with the main character were killed to make sure she doesn't kill them and in that way make it easy for her to become the winner.

Everything seemed so artificial and silly to me - the fire behind Katniss' dress to impress the audience before the games, the idea of impressing the sponsors to get help during the match that "Twilight" felt like an oscar-worthy movie.

Transformers (2007)

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

Cast: Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, Tyrese Gibson, Jon Voight, Josh Dushamel

My Rating: 5/5

The Autobots and the evil Decepticons, two robot species fight for the "All Spark", a cube that creates their life forms but lose it in space during their war. Finally, the autobots hear news that it has been located in an unknown planet called "Earth".

If you like giant robots transform into cool cars and fight against each other, then this movie is for you. Shia LaBeouf stars as a teenager whose father buys him a used car. It turns out that it is an alien robot that has a mind of its own. It soon signals it's friends, the remaining autobots to come down to earth.

It is then revealed that the teenager's great-grandfather discovers the frozen state of Megatron, the leader of the evil Decepticons, who first locates the All Spark on earth, in the Arctic Circle. Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots tries to get to the All Spark location before the Decepticons could so that they do not take the control of the universe. There is plenty of robot and human fight sequences and also between the  two robot species.

Having never seen the original transformer series, I really loved the concept and the action sequences. However, i heard the true fans complain that Optimus Prime was not given much of screen time and that the story revolves around the teenager. But it is definitely worth watching if you are a big fan of action movies and special effects that makes Hollywood famous worldwide.

21 Jump Street (2012)

Genre: Action, Comedies

Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube

My Rating: 4/5

The second best R-rated comedy of 2012 so far after Ted. This movie  is based on the 1980's TV series of the same name that launched Johnny Depp's career.

High school classmates Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum join the police force after graduation but are assigned  park patrol duty in bicycles. After messing up on a drug arrest in the park (they forget to read the rights correctly), they are asked to go to "21 Jump Street" for their new assignment. They go to an abandoned church which has a "Korean Jesus" (a Korean looking Jesus statue). Ice Cube plays the priest who assigns them a narc mission in a high school for according to him, both Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum are "Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus looking mother*******".

The whole plot of the movie is about how both the lead characters infiltrate the high school posing as teenagers and bust the drug dealers and suppliers. The movie is hilarious with fresh plots and is definitely worth a watch.

Shutter Island (2010)

Genre: Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers, Mystery

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Kingsley, Mark Ruffalo, Max Von Sydow

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Director: Martin Scorsese

A true masterpiece from director Martin Scorsese. We finally get to see a Hitchcock type of movie in the 21st century.

Leonardo DiCaprio plays an investigator sent to a hospital in "Shutter Island" for criminals who are insane. Mark Ruffalo enlists as his partner in finding the disapperance of a female patient from the hospital. Soon, Dicaprio finds that the hospital has his own web of mysteries. Ben Kingsley plays the lead pyschiatrist who is reluctant to help with the investigation and cuts them access to certain parts of the hospital. There is also another doctor who might have been involved with the Nazis during the world war which makes him think if they are doing any experiments on the patients in the totally secured island knowing that they are just criminally insane that no one would for them. He soon finds himself driven crazy by the events unfolding at the hospital and the rest is about whether he accomplishes his mission or not.

Dicaprio definitely needs to consider playing different roles. In most of the recent movies like "Body Of Lies", "Blood Diamond", "The Departed" and even in "Inception", he plays serious roles in which he looks sleep deprived. I hope he realizes it and looks for different roles.

The Grey (2012)

Genre: Action, Thrillers

Cast: Liam Neeson

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

I think this movie is good in its own way. I made the mistake of expecting it to be another "Taken" or "Bourne" type of movie with unbelievable action scenesand was disappointed and hated it initially. Do not make my mistake and let it go at its pace. This movie is realistic and has a serious tone.

It is about a group of men fighting it out with wolves in a severe Alaskan winter. The first thing that would go in one's mind is "Which era are we in?  Are wolves a threat to humans?" This movie takes you back to the stone age for the group do not have any modern day weapons. You get to experience how harsh life was during those times where humans had (were/are ) a threat everywhere (though not as big a threat as humans against each other).

I couldn't help but wonder if the director got the idea about this movie from "Twilight" series where the wolves claim that the vampires are not allowed in their territory. In this case, the humans are not. This movie also borders on the slasher genre on how the wolves kill them one by one but the comparison ends just there.

Liam Neeson plays a security guard in Alaska for an oil drilling team. He grieves over his wife's death(his real-life wife died in 2009) and tries to commit suicide while on mission but the gun wouldn't fire. After the drilling, the team boards the plane only to crash in a severe storm. The rest of the movie is about whether the survivors realising that they are in the gray wolves' territory get out of it safely.

Insidious (2011)

Genre: Horror, Supernatural Horror

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

No Blood. No Gore. Rated PG-13. Yet Scary. This is one of the best horror movies i have seen recently apart from the "Paranormal Activity" series. It has a fresh plotline and good jumpy scenes.

I stopped watching horror movies for a while after almost all the movies have a plot about either a haunted house or a demon possession. So, when i saw the trailer of this movie about a haunted house, i promptly decided to skip it. But, when it became one of the surprise hits of 2011, I decide to give it a try. I have recommended this movie to almost all my friends now.

I do not want to spoil the suspense by telling the story. But in short, it's about a boy who falls into a coma and the family decides to know if he was really in come or being possessed.

Seeking Justice (2011)

Genre: Thrillers, Revenge

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Guy Pearce

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Finally, Nicolas Cage has acted in a good movie. But this movie only got a limited release in US and then faded away mainly in part for poor marketing by a small production company. But, it's definitely worth a watch.

The whole movie is set in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of the unique cities you would come across in America. Nicolas Cage plays an English teacher whose wife gets raped and beaten by a rapist. While at the hospital, he is approached by a mysterious man who says he is part of an organization that takes care of bad guys and  makes a deal with him that he would take care of the rapist in return for a small favor that he may ask in the future. Cage, agrees to the deal and soon after receives an envelope with a photo of the murdererd rapist.

Everything goes well for some time and then suddenly he is approached by the same guy that he made a deal with and is asked to kill another person who is yet another scumbag. Cage's life soon gets into a mess and he is chased by both the police for murder and by the organization to protect themselves. The rest of the movie is about how he manages to prove himself innocent.

John Carter (2012)

Genre: Action, Sci-Fi

My Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

One of the reasons i started writing my blog is because the mainstream critics seem to always love movies that are realistic, too long and too slow. On the other side, some people like me, want movies to be unreal. We want all that action & drama around it, things that can only happen in the movies, not in real life.

When i heard that it's about a guy, who, one minute is going after gold and chased by Indians, and the other minute, finds himself in Mars, i decided to ignore the critics' poor reviews. Unfortunately, I will have to agree with the critics here about this movie. This movie sucked, it was too long and boring. I somehow got through the entire movie. To start with, the hero doesn't have the screen presence like other action heroes. We do not clearly understand who the villains are, what powers they possess and what they want to do.  It talks about a ninth ray that can give infinite energy but once again, it was vague.

Do not waste your precious two and half hours of life and ignore this.

Midnight in Paris (2011)

Genre: Romance, Time Travel

Cast: Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates

Director: Woody Allen

Are you one of these people who loves the past and wish you were in the past? Then this movie is for you.

Director Woody Allen still has it in him. This movie is about a Hollywood screenwriter, Owen Wilson vacationing in Paris with his fiancee Rachel McAdams. He loves Paris and wants to settle down but his fiancee opposes the idea.

He also struggles to finish a novel which his fiancee doesn's support and asks him to instead focus on scrrenwriting for Hollywood. One night, being drunk, he gets lost in the streets of Paris and gets picked by bunch of people in a old horse carriage. To his surprise, he finds that he has been transported back to Paris of 1920s, his favorite era. He gets to meet the famous novel writers of that time and exchanges his novel for their feedback. The next morning he finds himself back to the present. To make sure that it was not a dream, he goes to the same place once again during midnight and .. gets picked up once again and back to the 1920s.

The rest of the movie is about whether he wants to stay in the past or lead his present life.

The most interesting thing about this movie is that, though i dont know the famous authors of the 1920s, i got equally excited. Owen Wilson really acted well that we get to see the Paris of Old from his point of view.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Genre: Sci-Fi

Cast: James Franco, Frieda Pinto

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

One of the best movies of last year that i have seen. When i saw the trailer, i was skeptic about how the movie would be, for some of the scenes in the trailer didn't make sense. So, i waited a long time to see this movie only to realise that i made a mistake.

Do not watch this movie with hopes of seeing plenty of action and violence. I have always used to think - Before man there were dinosaurs that ruled the planet but will be there be another species that might take over him? This movie kind of toys with that idea about what happens if an ape that has been genetically modified to have enhanced brain cells that makes it intelligent would do with an army of apes? But wait, this movie is not about a war between humans and apes. The director does end the movie with that possibility though.

The best part about this movie is that you would be left with struggling on whose side to pick.. the apes or us humans. If you have already seen the original "Planet of the apes" movie you would be able to appreciate some of the scenes in the movie. But you need not watch that movie to understand this one though.

So, the story is about a scientist, James Franco who experiments on apes and chimpanzees to look for a cure to Alzheimer's.  He administers a drug on a female chimpanzee which mutates and attains higher level of intelligence. It tries to protect its baby from the approaching guards and gets killed. James Franco, not able to kill the baby chimpanzee takes it home.

The baby also inherits its mother's intelligence and is able to think on its own.  We get to see the movie from the ape's point of view about how it feels when it can also think like a human being but gets treated in a different way. There is this scene where the chimp, on seeing a dog on a leash, realises that it is also being treated as a pet and gets furious.This movie really is different from the regular run of the mill Hollywood movies and you wouldn't be disappointed once you get to see this.

The Adjustment Bureau (2011)

Genre: Sci-Fi, Thrillers

Cast: Matt Damon, Emily Blunt

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

A Sci-fi thriller with a love story. I watched this movie without any expectations and was pleasantly surprised with its fresh plot. Matt Damon stars as a politician who just lost in his campaign. While rehearsing for his speech, he meets Emily Blunt and instantly falls in love with her and gives an inspired speech that makes him a favorable candidate for the next elections.

A month passes by and when Matt Damon is about to walk out of his apartment, a guy is told by his boss to make sure that Damon spills his coffee at a particular time. However, he doses off and Damon meets Emily and gets her phone number. He is later apprehended and told by men in suits that they are from "Adjustment Bureau" who make sure that everything goes by "plan" and that Damon meeting Emily is not in plan. He is also told that he cannot talk about the Bureau or he would be "reset".

The rest of the story is about if Damon is able to meet Emily again and re-unite with her against the bureau's plan. The movie could have been even more interesting had they explained about the "Bureau" in detail. All we know is that they can use the regular doors in buildings to move quickly to different locations and that human beings were initially allowed to choose their own path, but after the world wars, the bureau decides their fate with a plan.

Kick-Ass (2010)

Genre: Action, Action Comedies, Superhero Films

Cast: Aaron Johnson, Nicolas Cage, Christopher Mintz- Plasse

My Rating- 4 out of 5 stars

If you thought "Batman" is a realistic superhero who doesn't fly or spin a web or possess any supernatural powers except for gadgets, watch "Kick-Ass".

The hero is a regular teenager who gets inspired by the comic books and sets out to become a superhero by just wearing a masked bodysuit without any superpowers or skills. But of course, he learns it the hard way that it is not easy to become a superhero by getting beat up. But, he doesn't give up and goes on with it. He later comes to know that he is not alone and that there are others like "Big Daddy" (Nicolas Cage) and "Hit-Girl" who don the superhero suits and use cool gadgets to fight crime. He soon becomes a target of a mob boss for having intervened in his business.

This movie is also funny except for its portrayal of violence and gunfights. It is R-rated becasue of this compared to the other superhero movies which are mostly PG-13.

The Lincoln Lawyer(2011)

 Genre: Thrillers

 Cast: Matthew Mcconughey, Marisa Tomei

 Likeability- Fresh Plot, Good Twist

 My Rating- 4 out of 5 stars

Looking at the title at first, i was thinking that it would be involving the president Abraham Lincoln, but found out that it was named because the main character goes around in his "Lincoln" Town car. That did make me lose my interest in the movie initially for i was expecting 1800s settings, and later on when i realized he is just a corrupt lawyer who defends gangsters and drug dealers i almost gave up. But give it a few more minutes, the movie really kicks off when he takes on a case of a wealthy guy who was accused of attempted murder by a prostitute. It takes a twist when one of his clients facing death sentence in prison may not be guilty and both the cases may have something in common. I will leave you here to figure out the rest.

The main reason why i liked this movie was that it had a fresh plot and had a bit of serial killer and coutroom drama situation which made me sit through the entire movie.

I would recommend this movie when you feel bored but have enough patience to watch a serious movie.