Men In Black 3- Movie Review

Its just 10 years since the last installment of Men in Black came. It doesn’t seem that long though.  MIB 3 looks fresh and fun that it feels like we recently watched its prequels. And throughout the series we have seen the Agent J (Will Smith) & Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) bond, grow and fight aliens together. Though to me Will Smith looks like he is still in the groove.

So this time around the men in black have to catch the extra-terrestrial serial killer Boris the Animal (Jemaine Clement) who escapes from his maximum security prison on the moon and travels back in time to kill K. Nobody else but J remembers K’s existence. It’s up to him not to venture through time and look for a young K (now played by Josh Brolin) and stop Boris from destroying the world and save K.

Can history be rewritten and K be saved?  Emma Thompson joins the task force as O, (Alice Eve plays her younger self). But amongst everything one will hardly notice them.  The script by Etan Cohen  is fun riffing the ’60s. The casting of Flight of the Conchords‘ Clement as Boris is good. He delivers a good performance but I expected a better stronger villian.  The 1969 segment features the requisite encounters with the era’s racism and hippie culture, but Smith’s boyish charm keeps the screen light-hearted. The movie also  incorporates a couple of big moments from 1969 (The Factory, the Mets World Series upset, the moon landing) into the plot. Also excellent is Michael Stuhlbarg (Hugo) as Griff who knows all the possible scenarios for what happens next, depending on what happens now. His scenes with J and K are the film’s highlights.

Directly Barry Sonnenfeld seems to find his groove once again with the movie. Josh Brolin impersonates Jones in the role of a younger K brilliantly. Brolin sounds and acts exactly  like Jones here. His expressions, mannerisms and delivery are identical. Rick Baker does terrific work on all of the alien creatures here. Overall MIB 3 is fun and Sonnenfeld tells his story in an easy 103 minutes. Even better rite! There is a twist in the tale but I don’t want Spoilers here. The attempt at character development impresses me the most, the need to go deeper, even back in time, to develop character was fun. In a nutshell the third installment is fun and as good as the first. A welcome comeback of the series after the disastrous second sequel. Watch this one for Brolin, Smith and a small cameo by Nicole with a cake. 1969  was indeed a good year for MIB and reminded time travel is fun.

I like the overall look and feel of the film. Go watch it without high expectations and you won’t be disappointed.

Rating- 3 out of 5

James Bond’s Skyfall- Official Teaser Trailer

The first teaser of the James Bond film in four years, Skyfall, was unveiled on BBC1 . On first thoughts the trailer looks Wow. Action, Action and more Action There is the first glimpse of Sam Mendes’ big bad Silva, Javier Bardem, caught in silhouette walking away from a blazing inferno. Skyfall is out on October 26. Check it out here-

The Expendables 2, Peddlers, Miss Lovely – Trailer

So its summer times. That means more movie announcements, releases and trailers. Here are a couple of those-

The Expendables 2- Almost every action hero in movie history is kicking ass in this new trailer for The Expendables 2 which was featured on IGN. You name it and they have it. Right from Chuck Norris to Arnold and Silvester everyone is there. Can it get bigger than this?? Check it out yourself. Hope it does better than the first part.

Miss Lovely- Official Selection for the Cannes Film Festival 2012 , ‘Miss Lovely’  has been directed by Ashim Ahluwalia. Set in 1986 Mumbai, it`s the story of two brothers who make underground films (with titles such as Lady James Bond) for a small-town picture house. Cracks in their fraternal relationship appear with the arrival of a vulnerable young actress. Here is the trailer

Peddlers- Making an appearance in Critics` Week is the Hindi-language film ‘Peddlers’ by Vasan Bala, about three unusual characters whose paths cross in Mumbai. Check out its trailer here-

Gangs of Wasseypur Trailer

So Gangs of Wasseypur movie trailer is out on Viacom 18 movies Youtube page. Directed and produced by Anurag Kashyap, the film is reported to be based on true incidents of a revenge story set in the dynamic socio-political milieu of Bihar.  The film features Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Richa Chadda in the lead roles.

The film will be screened at the 2012 Directors’ Fortnight, an independently-curated, non-competitive event which runs concurrently with the famed Cannes Film Festival and will also Open London Film Festival 2012. Movie to release in India on June 22nd

Trailer is okay. Not as good as I expected from an Anurag Kashyap film. Let’s see how the movie comes out. Here is the trailer-

The Avengers- SMASH ASS – Movie Review

Handling 7 great comic book characters and link all the stories is a difficult thing. And Joss Whedon impressed me with it. A comic book fan himself, Joss with Marvel’s The Avengers, give us a Hulk Smashing, action packed entertainer. The movie has everything. Action, Comedy, a bit of drama and of course Scarlett Johansson.  Several years in the making, The Avengers concludes a  journey that Marvel Studios  began with Iron Man, and continued through The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America. And with the hype created by the movie, it lived up to it.  Whedon included clever banter, gripping action and an air of excitement. Whedon has an utter love for comic books, and it is proudly displayed in The Avengers.

The film starts with Thor’s  brother and villain Loki (Tom Hiddleston) teaming up with the Chitauri alien army for his invasion of Earth and steals Tesseract that was seen crashing with Captain America (Chris Evans) into the ocean.   Loki puts Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) and Dr. Erik Selvig (Stellan Skarsgard) under his spell and sweeps away before the entire facility is destroyed. Meanwhile, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) heading S.H.I.E.L.D.  assembles the Avengers. Whedon introduces his superheroes one at a time and then make  these superheroes battle each other.  Thor takes on Iron Man, and then Captain America, Hulk takes on Thor and the Black Widow before they all find a way to get along and save the world.

Iron Man as usual is witty, egostic and entertaining in the first half until Bruce Banner gets angry and Hulk sweeps away the second half. Captain America  comes on strong in the beginning but gradually fades.  Clark Gregg’s Agent Caulson returns, and Cobie Smulders makes her Marvel films debut as Agent Maria Hill, and she is a welcome addition. The movie is slick and time will just fly by.Probably the best part of The Avengers are the characters, and Writer/Director Joss Whedon finds a way to make sure that none of the Avengers falls waywide. Mark Ruffalo takes over for Edward Norton as Bruce Banner and excels in that role. Joss also gives us a sneak peak in the next villain with Thanos, who appears in between the credit sequence.

A question remains what are these superheroes avenging, and also how are they talking to each other, but all that doesn’t mattter. The friendly banters amongst each other is fun. The Avengers represents the perfect fusion of an intelligent, witty script. The movie is action packed with a power punch. Whedon provides more than just a standard comic book film, but a story with reason that’s backed up with incredible action and humor. The movie is a comic book fan’s fantasy.Can’t call it THE BEST Superhero movie but surely one of the best and entertaining.

Rating- 4 Out of 5