Fast & Furious 4 – Review

This weekend, I along with a few colleagues and friends had a boy’s night out (it was more of a lukewarm, boy’s evening out). We booked the tickets at the Avenues cineplex and later had dinner at TGIF. There was a lot of mall roaming involved and checking out stuff at Alghanim Electronics (I just love doing that).

‘New model. Original Parts.’

That’s the slogan of the fourth and latest Fast & Furious installment. It brings back Vin Diesel and Paul Walker from the original cast and the results are – not that great.

So back to the movie – watching it on the large screen definitely brought out some scenes, especially the intro scene which I personally enjoyed a lot (even though it was a little too, ‘come on! they can’t do that!’). In addition to that it was just fun watching it with friends with comments flying all around. There wasn’t anything unique or fresh about the plot and most people were there just for the ‘ride’. Unfortunately they didn’t have that awesome camera-work from the 3rd part where it was running from one car to another mid-scenes. They also had a few chase scenes inside a mine but you couldn’t make out much because of the tight angles. The movie also caters to muscle car fans and ricers. I belong to the former type.

I’ll only recommend this to fans of the series and if you enjoy watching elaborate (yet somewhat shaky) car chase scenes.

By the way, TGIF has this deal going on whereby you get a 15% discount on your bill if you show them a ticket of the same day from the cineplex.

8×10 Tasveer – Review

Yesterday we went over to the Avenues to watch the latest hindi thriller – 8×10 Tasveer (picture). I’m not a huge fan of hindi movies but I must say it was a refreshing watch.

Th movie was quite different from the standard fare and I have a suspicion that the content is a rip-off (which is usually the case when you get a ‘different’ movie coming from Bollywood).

It stars Akshay Kumar and the story revolves around him where his father has just died in an accident on a boat where some other friends and family members were also present. Soon a murder conspiracy starts and we follow the hero through the plot twists and turns. The interesting part of his character is that he has a supernatural power through which he can look at pictures and psychologically transport himself to any person in that picture at that moment in time and see what happens from that person’s eye-view for about a minute. Its portrayed to be a potentially life-threatening skill that for some reason leaves him needing a blood transfusion almost every time he does it.

A view of the inside of the new Avenues multiplex. Very nicely done design which I couldn't capture properly.

I won’t say much to ruin the plot, but its definitely a fun watch that had us guessing and re-guessing the culprit. Rohail was pretty much alright through it with an occassional comment, though there was this guy sitting a few seats from us continuously burping!

Bumblebee is a Camaro

Turns out Bumblebee is going to be the new Camaro in the upcoming Transformers movie. I thought he was supposed to be a VW Beetle, but this is way cooler.“Apparently, “Bumblebee” is going to start out as a 1970s Camaro, and then be rebuilt as a 2008/2009 Camaro. Meanwhile, “Starscream” is going to be an F-22 Raptor, and “Optimus Prime” is going to be a fire truck.“

Read the rest of it here.

This movie better be good and and that’s my ex-Camaro above.

Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End review

Yesterday I went with a friend from work to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End at the Mohallab cinema. It was certainly better than the sorry Spiderman 3 though a tad bit too long. The battle sequences were awesome and Johnny Depp is once again at his best.

What I love about this movie series is that while it is an action movie it still has a serious comedy punch. Some scenes are really funny and very subtle at the same time. Anyhow, to fully comprehend what goes on in this installment, you had better refresh what happened in the last two flicks. Otherwise, it could get pretty confusing.

The basic plot consists of how the last group of pirates must make their final stand against the East India Company’s fleet. They have to put aside their differences and fight. At the same time, everyone has their own hidden agendas such as William wants to free his father and get his bride, Jack wants to get undead and stay free of anymore precarious debts, then there is this whole plot of the ‘Calipso’, etc. Watch it to find out how it all unfolds.

As usual, this one also consists of a lot of betrayals, deceptions and double deceptions. It seems everyone is fooling someone. Jack Sparrow is brilliant and I chuckled when after he has once again fooled everyone that a soldier asks the captain whether he plans it all or just makes it up as he goes along.

Good watch!

Spiderman 3 – sad

We went to watch Spiderman 3 over the weekend. It has almost run its complete course at the Kuwaiti theatres but if you haven’t seen it already; you shouldn’t be too worried.

Before I go on, let me say that Rohail made us proud and sat through it all without any fuss. He even managed to take a nap during some of the loud action scenes!

Back to the movie – as a friend pointed out; it was more of a love story this time than the dark and sinister flick I expected to enjoy. By its third installment; it seems that Spidey has turned in to a cheap show-off. Romance, jealousy and revenge seemed to be the key points in the plot. Other than some of the fight scenes and the awesome animation of him swinging around New York; I didn’t really enjoy the movie much.

I don’t like giving away much during my comments on movies but I’ll just say that the plot was very weak and things between Spiderman and the Green Goblin very conveniently and quickly fell into place when it was needed.

I hope to catch Pirates of the Caribbean 3 this week and desperately hope that it is does not disappoint as well.

101 Best Kept Hollywood Secrets

A few days ago I caught E!’s 101 Best Kept Hollywood Secrets on TV. Listed below are a few of my favorites:

74. Some talk show guests are fake or coached by producers.
62. Sony Pictures created a fake movie critic to praise its films.
46. The man behind the “scary voice” in “Scream” was kept hidden from the cast to ensure more authentic performances.
38. “Bond girl” Tula was born a man.
11. Jack Nicholson’s “mother” was actually his grandmother and his “sister” was actually his mother.

You can check the complete list here.

Evan Almighty

For those of you who loved Bruce Almighty, this should be good news. Evan Almighty has Steve Carell playing the lead role this time. I think he can be pretty funny in a not-in-your face kind of way.

This time God gets in touch with Evan who is a Congressman and his task is to build an arc for an upcoming flood. Noah?

I heard about it yesterday when I chanced upon its trailer on some channel. Looks promising!

[Official website]

Movie seller at work

 

Once a week this guy comes in carrying his bag and discreetly walks into the ‘take a break’ room on my floor. Soon after you notice people randomly drifting in and then walking out with plastic bags. Turns out this guy is the DVD seller. I too have now become part of his growing clientele and purchase 2-3 DVDs from him every now and then. It sure beats running to Hawally (local computer and movies have-it-all place in Kuwait) every now and then for my stuff.

Emirates is cool

I got back from my work trip to Dubai on Thursday night. It was pretty hectic as we reached the hotel by Wednesday midnight and then spent most of Thursday in the meeting and then me and a colleague went to the City Centre for an hour or so before heading off to the airport. I was hoping to go to the Mall of Emirates but we just didn’t have the time.

The interesting part was actually in the plane itself. We were aboard an Emirates flight and as you can see above, they’ve set up this soothing and cool starry effect on the ceiling. Something even better is their new menu which looks awesome and has a hell of a lot more movies where you also get individual control over the media you watch (pause, play, rewind, etc.). Their movie collection was extremely impressive and they had all the latest flicks as well as the classics.

More photos here.

I forgot to mention – the standard of their food has gone down drastically and I’ve been noticing how they don’t even bother to ask you what you want anymore and just serve you with whatever.

Ratatouille (rat-a-too-ee)

Ratatouille looks like a fun animation that is going to be released on my birthday this year. I’ve seen some of the release photos and the animation looks vivid. Its a release from Disney and Pixar is involved so I’m hoping it will be an entertaining watch.

Its about this rat in Paris who dreams of becoming a chef in a world that doesn’t quite like rats and his family isn’t the most supportive either.

[Official Website]