'Bala': Bald is gold for Ayushmann
Reviews
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'Marjaavaan': Mush, mayhem & retro mess
By Vinayak Chakravorty
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'Charlie's Angels': A spirited eye-candy
This 118-minute, hurricane-paced spy thriller is the latest big-screen spin on the 1970s TV series and a pair of films that released in the early 2000s. It is a spirited eye-candy with a strong feminist streak but light on content.
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'Motichoor Chaknachoor': Humour in a time warp
The biggest killjoy for a joke is a situation where you have figured out its punchline long before it ends. "Motichoor Chaknachoor" suffers from that problem. It doesn't take you more than 10 minutes to figure out where the film is headed, which is sad because the film looked like a winning concept on paper at least.
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'Ford v Ferrari' hits the right spot
Based on facts for the battle of supremacy in the mid-1960s between the two titular automotive giants, director James Mangold's "Ford v Ferrari" is a one-dimensional, old-fashioned period sports drama that balances thrills, laughs and emotions, in equal measure.
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'Doctor Sleep': Suspenseful but not scary
Director Mike Flanagan's "Doctor Sleep" is neither excellent nor outright sloppy, but it does make for an interesting viewing experience. It is tense and suspenseful in parts but not scary or frightening at all.
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'Bala': Bald is gold for Ayushmann
Bollywood's Mr Disruptor is at it again, rewriting the rules of what the Hindi mainstream hero can dare to do on screen.
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'Satellite Shankar' is for masala movie lovers
By Vinayak Chakravorty
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'Last Christmas': Homage to George Michael
Director Paul Feig's "Last Christmas" is for romance junkies. Packed with frothy soppiness, it is a rehash of the clumsiest-meets-cute formula.
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'The King' Is Netflix's Stab At Costumed Glory
Impressively mounted and poised gracefully on a high moral ground, "The King" is everything a historical epic ought to be. Its earnest stab at costumed resplendence as represented in the British royalty's penchant for power usurpation, is no doubt commendable.
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'Modern Love' is the best love anthology on OTT
Easily the best series I've seen on the OTT platform, "Modern Love" is an ambrosial anthology of eight episodes portraying love in all its splendour, sometimes slender, sometimes hard, but always tender and revealing, each episode has the stand-alone emotional strength of being a full-length feature film.
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'Drive': Neither Fast, Nor Furious
Y-a-w-n. We're back to the same old circus - Bollywood wants to make a "Hollywood thriller" yet again, and this time they have raided Netflix for release space.
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'The Current War': Far from electrifying
"The Current War", based on true events, is a period drama about the greatest inventors of the nineteenth century industrial age -- Thomas Edison (Benedict Cumberbatch)
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'Terminator: Dark Fate' is enjoyable fare
A direct sequel to the first two films of the franchise, this sixth instalment of the "Terminator" series, which began way back in 1984, is all about karma and karmic connections.
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'Ujda Chaman': Humour hits a bald patch
By Vinayak Chakravorty
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'Dolemite' is Eddie Murphy at his raunchiest
Why is this film about a raunchy standup comedian being touted as Eddie Murphy's comeback? An outstanding comic talent such as he doesn't go away. And even if we are looking at dates, Murphy was in much finer form in his last release "Mr Church", where he brought to great use his penchant for wry social comment into play.
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'Bhram": Kalki's eerie performance the only saving grace
If you are an addict of spooky cinema, there is nothing in "Bhram" that you haven't seen before. This, perhaps, is not a bad thing in the supernatural-horror genre where the audience revels in familiar scares.
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'Bigil' is Vijay's show all the way
For a film that speaks stridently on women's empowerment and the sins of sexism, "Bigil" is awfully enamoured of its male protagonist who all but preens when he is on screen. The camera clings to Vijay like a Siamese twin letting go of him only long enough for the incidental characters (and that includes leading lady Nayanthara) to let us know how privileged they are to be in the same narrative as Vijay/Bigil
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"Housefull 4" is more like a haggard circus
Give them some points for consistency. Maintaining the same low IQ over four films – and crafting it into a moneymaking franchise – is no small deal. By now, the makers of these "Housefull" films have chucked all notions of sensible storytelling and intelligent humour. Why bother? What matters is setting off a big bang hype before release, and the box-office math solves itself.