Pirates Of Caribbean - On The Stranger Tides

The world of pirates is back. And it's none other than Captain Jack Sparrow who leads the party. The Pirate brig sets sails right from the word go and keeps you glued to the it till you find the "Fountain of Youth". Though I actually liked the complex plots of the first three parts (especially the third one), this one is a plain simple story which doesn't entangle you with tons of sub plots.

A revision of all prequels before you watch this one will ensure that a race to reach the "Fountain of youth" is on the cards as hinted by Barbossa in the last part. Barbossa, though disappoints me a bit as he lacks all that evilness and rawness which he had displayed earlier. I didn't watch this one in 3D as I have personally felt that it takes the focus out of the movie and shifts it to the 3D effects and other details. Although I am sure just like the series of movies released in 3D in the past year which lacked the effect that the viewers were expecting, POC 4 wouldn't have been an exception.

The best part of the movie was the mermaid sequence. It was horrifyingly beautiful as it also alters your image of a mermaid to be someone like "Ariel" which we grew up watching. So beware as this movie shows a completely new side to the fictional mermaids. Although when you compare this with the huge battle of the two pirate brigs trapped in a vortex, it definitely falls short by huge margins. It's all quite fast and furious till they reach the "Fountain of Youth" while picking up mermaid's tear and two silver chalices which will not only open the gates to the fountain but give you additional life and health. But once they reach there a sudden series of fights followed by Blackbeard's death and destruction of the fountain by the Spanish, it actually turns out to be a bit of disappointment as the climax. I was expecting much more to be in store when it all suddenly wrapped up. Even a final scene with Depp bringing out the Black Pearl and sailing away to an unknown destination would have made me feel contended.

Bloom and Keira Knightly are missed like hell though Penelop Cruz fits in Keira's shoes as smoothly as you could expect her to. Ian Shane as Blackbeard wasn't too impressive. Blackbeard as a character wasn't as fierce and lacked that aura which this real life pirate deserved. Though its a complete fiction based plot I guess it would have been worth a try if they framed it in a manner to showcase some treasure hunt along with the actual turn of events that lead to Blackbeard's death. But then this would have made Captain jack Sparrow a sidekick and would have become a sore in the eye for die hard fans of this pirate series.

Overall a must watch for all fans of Jack Sparrow. Though it doesn't matches the rawness and the thrill of its prequels its still worth watching. The major difference lying in the huge change in star cast and direction, I guess the older cast was able to feel and portray its characters with much more passion while the new ones may need another sequel to finally get them into the pirate mode.

My Verdict: 7.5/10

404 Error Not Found

One fine Friday arrives and suddenly I end up in theatre watching a movie of which i hadn't even seen a trailer and had no idea whatsoever about what I am gonna face. And the experience yet again turned out to be non impressive. A great concept combined with an utterly slow screenplay ends up in a dull spice less platter served to you with lots of sound and steam coming off but tasting just like any other plain dish.

There were several positives too. The whole concept, though not unpredictable was narrated in a well woven plot. This movie churned out some brilliant performances especially Nishikant Kamat. He was excellent in his change of expressions displaying the different modes of his character. Imad Shah was good and did his job well. He definitely has the ways of his father from looks to his style to dialogue delivery and is sure to be one of the most sought actors of bollywood in upcoming years. Newcomer Rajvir Arora justified his character to a great extent. Satish Koushik as usual is funny while Tisca looks gorgeous in her professor avatar.

The whole idea was to present the thought that, "Everything is in the mind". Whatever you see, feel, and perceive is actually what your brain wants to see or makes you believe. Though the climax suggests a dual ending depending on the way the viewer perceives it.

The cinematography is good for a psycho thriller. Background score could have been much better to support the theme. The main troublesome area was the length of the movie. There were large parts of the movie that could have been edited to make it shorter. Such a huge length even made you feel sleepy at times. The director tried hard to maintain the suspense till the end, though if you've seen plenty of such English movies, you can easily guess the build-up of the plot. This movie had somewhat mixed effects on my mind and I would recommend you to go for it only if you have some extra bucks in your pocket and its kinda hurting you.

My Rating: 6/10

Ragini MMS

A cocktail mix of "Paranormal Activity" and "The Blairwitch Project" which gradually looses its spine and ends up as a mocktail instead. Still a good movie which deserves accolades for various reasons. On the contrary there are certain facts which turn out to be fake or more appropriately irrelevant. The posters and the tag line suggest a completely different storyline which actually turn out to be nothing of a supernatural "threesome" as suggested.

The sound and special effects were quite apt and effective. The first half of the movie definitely creeps you out a bit now and then. A short storyline also works in its favour. The actors were simply brilliant with "Raj Kumar Yadav" aka Uday portraying the typical Delhi boy. His expressions on his encounter with the evil forces are just priceless. "Kainaz Motiwala" plays a sweet but seductive character in her own way. The whole concept was fair, apart from the fact that the director was bit too quick to reveal out the facts behind the haunted villa and direct encounter of the lead actors with the evil spirit.

Fear is an emotion which works out well till you are not sure what you are facing. The director killed the element of "fear of the unknown" too early to turn it into a classic piece of horror flick. And once done, movie didn't have much left to offer in the fear department. The climax which reminds you of "The Blairwitch Project" to an extent, again turns out to be good though the movie ends abruptly. Also by then it had already lost almost all its steam to make you declare it as one of your best horror flicks.

Nevertheless, brilliant performances, great sound effects, decent special effects and the haunted background are good enough to turn this into a "paisa vasool" for sure. I would say its worth trying once but don't expect too much and you may come out happy.

My Verdict: 6.5/10

Haunted - 3D

There are several aspects which complete a movie. More focus on one parameter and overlooking the other generally results in an unfinished piece of work which tastes good only in parts but fails to impress you overall. This is how you feel about Haunted-3D.

A horror movie has its base in certain parameters like Sound, Camerawork, Background score and its perfect usage, and unpredictable twists and turns. "Haunted" scores well in terms of Sound though it was too loud at several points. Cinematography was quite good and the scenic beauty of Ooty has been well captured. Background score was pretty average. Its something that many a times makes a movie stand out overshadowing several glitches too, but couldn't do so for Haunted-3D. One of the weakest links was the highly predictable nature of the script and the story. You can almost predict the complete storyline which in a way reduces the thrill and horror element of the movie to a considerable extent.

I am not an expert in the 3D domain but the print was quite hazy and it seems it happens so in case of stereoscopic 3D vision, so it has to be neglected time and again. Another major weakness which was visible throughout the movie was individual performances. What an individual performance can add up to your script can be felt by remembering "Bhoot". Right from lead actor and actresses to sidekicks there wasn't even a performance good enough to be mentioned. "Haunted-3D" is a movie that's completely based upon its 3D and special effects and doesn't cater much to anything else. It's like the effects and 3D should have acted as an icing on the cake though what has actually happened is vice versa.

During certain phases of the movie, you even feel like laughing out loud and sometimes you actually do. The way it all started, it was projecting as a quite interesting plot which later on turned dull and slow post interval. The pace at which events unfold early on makes you feel (and feel good) that its going to be a short movie but then all of it vaporizes with unwanted scenes added up for no apparent reason. The rape scene shown in such details somehow resembles the B-grade horror flicks of the 80's. If you have to pick odd one out, you will surely pick out the dance sequence which has been inserted for showcasing actor's dance skills alone.

But amidst all this mix up, you do witness some spooky scenes now and then. Though they don't bring the hell out of you but surely fulfill your desire to get a bit scared(at least a little), but again even these were sadly, quite predictable. Certain scenes remind you of a few new and old Hollywood movies and the good thing is they have been carried out well. Its definitely a movie which shows that Indian cinema is progressing since there was not much fault or any major or minor glitch in applying the special effects including 3D, but at the same time reminds that its not only about creating the right effects but also using them the correct way along with a good star cast, screenplay and some great dialogues. Lets just hope this degrading pattern for Vikram Bhatt comes to an end and taking this as a learning step, he produces a classic horror movie soon enough.

My Verdict: 5/10 (mostly for Special effects including 3D)