Bollywood World

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 26th February, 2016
Time : 127 minutes
Director : Alex Proyas; Writers : Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless; Music : Marco Beltrami
Starring : Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Brenton Thwaites, Courtney Eaton, Geoffrey Rush, Rufus Sewell, Elodie Young, Chadwick Boseman



Basically, it�s about two super-heroes fighting (think Batman vs Superman, Captain America vs Iron Man or even Godzilla vs King Kong) garbed in the cloak of Egyptian mythology.




Gerard Butler (a demi-God himself), slays his brother, the King of Egypt, and blinds his son, Nikolaj, taking away his super powers, sparing him only because of the beautiful Elodie Yung . He then unleashes a reign of terror, warring with and seeking out the other Gods, all under the watchful eye of the Sun God (Ra), Geoffrey Rush, with most mortals condemned to be slaves. However, one couple, Brenton and Courtney, dream of a better after-life and believe freeing Nikolaj to battle with his uncle once more is key to a better future





What follows is great from a special effects point of view but quite insipid from a story or emotion perspective. Nikolaj, as in his role as Jaime Lannister in Game of Thrones, brings a degree of warmth and charisma to his character. Gerard Butler looks and acts sufficiently mean, nasty and ambitious. And Courtney and Brenton as the young slave couple are sufficiently sweet with the latter doing well in his action sequences too.



Egyptian history does continue to hold a strange fascination for the Western world � the success of The Mummy and its sequel are testament to the fact that a good story set in the era of the pyramids can enthrall. However, this film uses the whole mythology bit only as a cloak, just for a bit of local colour � the characters, their ethos, their walk remains unmistakably American and that is it�s biggest failing.

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 20th November, 2015
Time : 146 minutes
Director : Sam Mendes; Writers : Josh Logan, Neal Purvis, Jez Butterworth (based on the character created by Ian Fleming); Music : Thomas Newman;
Starring : Daniel Craig, Christoph Waltz, Lea Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Rory Kinnear, Jesper Christensen



When you light a firecracker named Bond, you don�t quite expect it to fizzle out as badly as this one did. Rarely has the end been as much of a damp squib, where you wonder what it was all about or why Bond villains repeating the mistakes their predecessors of twenty years ago.




Daniel Craig, while on the heels of a villain in Mexico, causes unauthorized carnage. His boss, Ralph Fiennes (M), isn�t too happy, especially as there is a major restructuring of intelligence services underway and his new boss, the young, cocky Andrew Scott (C) is looking for excuses to shut down the Double O programme. However, Mr Craig has his own agenda � and with the sometimes unwilling assistance of Ben Whishaw (Q) and Naomie Harris (Moneypenny) � he�s hot on the heels of Christoph Waltz and his shadowy organization, Spectre. Encountering, along the way, a couple of damsels in distress � Monica Bellucci and Lea Seydoux.




There is a sense of foreboding through the film, particularly in the first half. A kind of tingling anticipation of great things to come, evil villainy, grand masterplans of world or interstellar domination, sizzling secrets and adventurous action. Which is why, given an actor like Waltz (wasn�t he just delicious in Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained?), the second half is doubly disappointing. Action wise, there was nothing new either � no sequence which stands out in memory (the opening with the helicopter was quite tame compared to say, Goldeneye) and the opening credits were weak with the song positively mournful. And thanks to our censors, in particular the idiotic brown-nosing buffoon, Pahlaj Nihalani, we dont really get to see either Lea or Monica (who has a blink and you miss role) do their stuff.




I like Daniel Craig. I simply adore Christoph Waltz. And have had a crush on Monica Bellucci, like forever. But unfortunately, Sam Mendes and his band of writers are not able to do to Bond what Christopher Nolan managed to do to Batman � take it up a couple of notches and then keep going higher, into the stratosphere. Perhaps naming the previous one Skyfall turned out to be prophetic ?