Not a "WOW" movie!

Salt never interested me because I am not a fan of Angelina Jolie. Why you ask? Do I really need to answer that question? Why do you think? Yes, because I am a loyal Jennifer Aniston fan, that’s why! But when you get a chance to watch something for free and then write about it, why would you say No?

So the movie is a typical action/ spy thriller. The story revolves around Evelyn Salt, a CIA agent, who is accused of being a Russian spy. Is she innocent or is she an actual spy? This question forms the main crux of the story.



The story has interesting twists but nothing out of the ordinary. The ending was abrupt but could just be an indication of a sequel.

The film has good action sequences and Jolie does some impressive stunts. The editing by Stuart Baird and John Gilroy is also good – I like how they show flashbacks in between to help the viewers better understand the story.

Overall, the movie is entertaining but it is definitely not a “WOW” film like Inception and that is why Inception is still #1 at the box office.

Was that a Dream or Reality?

That's what you will be saying when you walk out the theater after watching the latest Leo DiCaprio flick, Inception. This was my most-anticipated movie of the month and it definitely exceeded my expectations. After a streak of bad and disappointing movies, it was refreshing to see one of the most amazing films I have ever seen. 

The story of Inception mainly revolves around Cobb, played by DiCaprio, and Arthur, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who are able to enter into people's dreams through a technological device and steal secrets from their dreams. Cobb and Arthur are hired by Saito, played by Ken Watanbe, to perform "inception" - the act of planting an idea or thought into a person's mind by making it seem that the idea or thought came from the person's own subconscious. The target for inception is Robert Fischer, Jr., played by Cilian Murphy, the son of Saito's corporate rival. In order to perform this task, Cobb hires Eames (Tom Hardy), who can transform his identity in a dream, Ariadne (Ellen Page), an architect to construct the dream world, and Yusuf (Dileep Rao), a chemist who develops compounds to help them enter into the dream state that would help achieve the goal of the mission. What idea does Saito wish to plant into Fischer's mind? How does Cobb and his team perform the inception? Are they successful in their mission? Watch the film to find out. 

I absolutely loved this movie because the concept of the story was original and unique and the execution of the film was impeccable. Hats off to Director Christopher Nolan, who also directed Dark Knight and Prestige, for coming up with such an interesting concept and transforming it into such a well-written script. The special effects in the film are astounding and each dream sequence seems so real. Editing and cinematography are so crucial and can make or break a movie. Therefore, it is no surprise that the editing by Lee Smith and cinematography by Wally Pfister is remarkable. The main cast of this motion picture especially DiCaprio, Page, Gordon-Levitt, and Hardy deserve an applause because each actor did an amazing job and was quite well-suited for each role. 

The only disappointing part of the film was it's similarity with DiCaprio's last flick, Shutter Island. In Shutter Island, DiCaprio's character is haunted by his dead wife's ghost because he killed her. Similarly, in Inception, Cobb is haunted by the visions of his dead wife, Mal, played by Marion Cotillard, while he is in a dream world because he feels guilty and responsible for her death. How does she die? Is he really responsible for her death? Will he ever be able to get over the guilt or will he continue to be haunted by her visions? Go watch the movie to find out this important aspect of the story. 

Do NOT wait for the DVD to come out. Go spend $12 as this film is a must-watch! Believe me, you will not regret it. It is sad that such good films are few and far between. I wish such movies that really make you think were made more often! 

Copy Cats!

And Bollywood does it again - copy a Hollywood movie and do such a bad job of it! I mean if you are going to do such a bad job, why even bother? Why ruin the original movie for the those who loved it?

Director Satish Kaushik totally ruined Serendipity, which is one of my all time favorite Hollywood movies, by making a really bad Bollywood version of it in the form of Milenge Milenge (We Will Meet) starring Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor.

As is obvious, the movie was shot a long time ago because Kareena and Shahid look completely different now. According to Wikipedia, the cast began shooting the film in 2004 but due to financial and casting issues, the release of the film was delayed until 2010. 

I can't even begin to explain how bad the movie was! Shahid and Kareena had such good on-screen chemistry in Jab We Met but unfortunately in this new venture, they had absolutely none. Their romantic interactions seemed forced. The film was poorly scripted even though it was inspired by such a well-written and well-made 2001 Hollywood romantic comedy. The makeup, hair styles, and costumes were awful. Bad acting and bad direction lead to a box office disaster and that is why even on a Saturday night, the theater was completely empty. The music by Himesh Reshammiya was terrible especially the song, Kuch Tu Baake Hai (Something remains), he sings himself in his nasal voice. 

In conclusion, this film is an utter waste of time and money. Producer Boney Kapoor, I want my money back! 

Only Twi-Hards Allowed!

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, the third installment in the Twilight series, finally comes to the big screen for the impatiently waiting Twi-hards. For those of you who don't know, each of the Twilight movies were directed by different directors: Twilight was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, New Moon was directed by Chris Weitz, and Eclipse was directed by David Slade. The fourth installment - Breaking Dawn will be split into two parts to be released in 2011 and 2012, both of which will be directed by Bill Condon.  

Of the three released so far, New Moon was by far the best. I don't think Hardwicke did justice to the book in Twilight and the look of the movie was dark and depressing. New Moon, on the other hand, was bright, vibrant, refreshing, and very true to the book. It was fast-paced unlike Eclipse, which was quite slow. Eclipse was quite true to the book and the fight sequences were good. However, the look of the film was once again gloomy. Eclipse was just not as exciting as I had expected it to be inspite of the fight sequences between vampires and werewolves. So needless to say, I was disappointed. But for all the members of Team Jacob, he takes his shirt off so I'm sure that's reason enough for you to watch the film. I hate to disappoint the members of Team Edward but the dreamy Rob Patz and the rest of the Cullen clan looked pastier than usual.



Whether you should go watch the film in the theater or wait for the DVD to come out, I leave that up to you because if you are a true Twi-hard, you have probably either already watched it or will watch it inspite of this review. Even though the film was disappointing, I don't regret spending $12 on it so perhaps you won't either.