AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON: Spectacular but standard! Fun for fans!! [3/5]

If you are a hardcore comic-book fan, you would know what to expect from a specific series, and when. There will be moments of comfort shaken by the flashes of threatening situation to the very existence of mankind. Team should be intact and as any of the old-book sayings would recommend, ‘together’. Meanwhile, you can have a romantic track between the two of leading members, a sentimental family-connection, self-assured guys cooler than ice-crushes, a ‘mightier than ever’ evil force and loads of pages carrying only action-words like ‘Boom’ ‘Bang’ ‘Crash’ ‘Smack’ written all over big & bold.

Marvel’s screen-adaptation and a sequel to 2012’s super-hero flick THE AVENGERS, Joss Whedon’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON too doesn’t dare to rule out on the basics and tries its best to serve you ample portions of everything you read in the buffet menu. Tony Stark [Robert Downey Jr.] known for inventing witty one-liners more than scientifically viable gadgets and programs accidently brings an artificial intelligence program into life, and ‘Ultron’ is now planning to extinct human race from earth in order to save it. Initially, it [as Ultron is just another evolved operating system, works by hacking and controlling dense information freely flowing in the virtual world] gets hands of support from a speedster young kid with his twin sister- a mind-manipulating freak seeking personal revenge from Stark. She can easily invade any mind and slide them to a complete opposite track with corrupted visions in the head.

AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON gives plenty of space for an entertaining ride having your favorite superheroes by your side. In one particular ‘party’ scene, everyone else tries to lift the immovable hammer of Thor [Chris Hemsworth]. Thor looks quite confident of his caliber and the hammer’s built until Bruce Banner- the hulk [Mark Ruffalo] enters the game. Bruce couldn’t do much but succeeded in shaking Thor’s confidence for a moment. Don’t miss his face! In other, everyone in the team pulls Captain America’s leg for his one of early instructions to watch out for the ‘language’. It all starts in the beginning and keeps coming at regular interval but so incredibly, you are never done with the joke. The film also explores the softer track between Natasha [Scarlett Johansson] and the rage-driven green monster in a man’s body, Bruce [Ruffalo]. The eagerness of being alike mixed with the sadness of uncertainty in the nature of their relationship is heartbreaking. So is the sequence where Stark’s artificial intelligence program JARVIS gets terminated by the evil Ultron. After Johansson’s talking operating system in Spike Zonze’s HER, this was another heartfelt sequence involving some machine.

Whedon creates a world full of explosions, destruction and skyscrapers getting melt down to dirt. The action sequences especially the ones having all the superheroes fighting in slow-motion and in one frame are a treat to watch, but what lacks the most is the depth in the story. I wish the plot gets more thickened by some cleverness and hadn’t just decided to bigger the scale. It’s scenic. It’s thrilling. It’s pure fun. Don’t expect anything out of the box or any unpredicted surprise in the tale! AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is the latest in a popular series and stays the same. Spectacular but standard! [3/5] 

LUCY: Enjoyable mash-up of chaotic Creative Junk & high-on intellectual trash! [2.5/5]

Human Brain has endless possibilities and a kind of galaxy of information that make us better and more sensible than any other living souls on this planet. But if Newton could push his to unravel the mystery of gravity after the ‘apple’ effect or the Wright brothers could manage to pull out their aeronautical inventions; trust me, they all were using just 10% of their mind. Naturally, we the average people don’t even hit that level. Now think, if mere 10% can make someone a Newton or Leonardo Da Vinci or Aryabhatta, what magical excellence a 100% would produce? LUCY, I say and that’s the cynicism one develops while watching Luc Besson’s science-fiction thriller LUCY. Trying to sound multifaceted, intricate and advanced like THE TREE OF LIFE and look slick-pacy & pulsating as LA FEMME NIKITA, LUCY actually ends up in being not more than a chaotic creative junk mixed with high-on intellectual trash.

Lucy, played by the ever-startling Scarlett Johansson gets in trap of a Korean mob during an involuntary drug delivery mess. Soon, she finds herself as one of the human drug carriers with a pack of highly synthetic CPH4 powder positioned in their lower abdomen in a surgical operation. Much before she could be transported to her planned destination, an unwanted brawl lends her in a serious problem or magical transformation in disguise. The pack gets burst and now the invincible chemical reactions start stimulating human mental powers to reach its maximum. No wonder, Lucy is now a superwoman who needs to walk the path of retribution and revolution, later!

From the very speedy time-lapse shots to the earth evolution theory getting reproduced on screen with amazing visuals, LUCY at places looks a distant cousin to THE TREE OF LIFE, though the depth and connect go missing at large. But if it is not into its National Geographic Mode, it is sure a thriller that never loses the steam. Monologues by Morgan Freeman, playing a neurology expert scientist talking about magical capabilities of a human mind and how evolution can become revolution followed by the same getting applied on Lucy’s situation is nicely interwoven. With just a 90 minute of duration, this is in fact too much jam-packed in one box. Film doesn’t think much before slipping and swapping genres of all kinds. At one if it joins the league of science-fiction, minutes later you will find it covered as a regular Hollywood action-thriller. No wonder, you don’t really feel like connected to any.

Having said that, it is not an unwatchable film at all! Scarlett Johansson alone is capable of pulling it off for the most, her earlier performance in HER shouts out loud to prove the point. Morgan Freeman is as usual extremely sincere and charismatic, one of my favorites. Besides, the visual effects are never involved and incomprehensible like we see in most of Hollywood’s regular Friday flicks but simplified or I would say over-simplified. Film’s action sequences are average. Drama is almost overshadowed by the cerebral investigations and research theories. I doubt if even Luc Besson had his share of 10% implied on this film. This is not a piece of information you would like to keep in your mind but having a good time with it, is completely different. Watch out for Ms. Johansson! [2.5/5]

CHEF: Taste life like the best dish on menu! Sweat, simple and delicious! [3.5/5]

You don’t really have to be a cook yourself to like Jon Favreau’s tasteful slice-of-life drama CHEF, but if you are a life-lover you hardly can stop yourself from falling in love with it. Alike every nicely-cooked & well-presented dish in any of your favorite restaurant, life requires nothing but a demanding preparation, monumental effort and a good heart to top it all. CHEF takes its inspiration from the very same idea and turns out to be a deliciously sweat, simple and delightful film that has its heart right in the place.

Coming from the director of highly technological, imaginative and illusory IRON MAN & IRON MAN 2, comedy-drama CHEF emerges as a surprising but an appetite-full creation of Jon Favreau. Besides being the writer-director, he plays Carl Casper- a passionate chef trapped in a commercial restaurant run by the money-driven, dominating and unreasonable Riva, played by Dustin Hoffman. Life takes a drastic turn when Carl gets bashed up from left, right and center by a reputed food critic for not being innovative and imaginative in his servings. This is the time when his personal life too is on the edge. He should spare some of his life-chunks for his 10-year old son living with his divorced wife and in the meantime, also be looking for what he misses the most i.e. cooking what he likes to.

CHEF tempts you not only with the luscious, lip-smacking dishes of all kinds being grilled, baked, chopped, basted, fried and served artistically in the most enticing manner; in fact there is hardly any scene where the food is not being celebrated; but also with the heartfelt emotions in a simple yet relatable plot of human relationships. The sentiment of not being permitted to experiment and innovate for what you think is right and often surrendering yourself in the name of what your employer thinks is right, is never an extraterrestrial for any man of creative values. Chasing your dreams and following your heart may not be possible for everyone but when you see Carl getting on to it, you never feel isolated from the sense of achievement and contentment Carl is gaining gradually on screen.

Film also succeeds in throwing pleasant surprises on regular intervals with the most delectable short & sweet star appearances in recent. Scarlett Johansson woos the screen as Carl’s colleague at the café. Dustin Hoffman as a bossy owner is a luxury to have on board but leaves you unfulfilled wanting more of him. Robert Downey Jr plays a romantically witty more like his Tony Stark in IRON MAN. Russell Peters joins the cast as a selfie-lover cop who can’t stop asking for clicks to upload on social networking sites. Emjay Anthony as his son and Sofia Vergara as his ex-wife come up with endearing performances but CHEF is all about Jon Favreau. As the writer-director, he not only pushes his boundaries but also blesses the screen with a wonderful character lovable in all given situations.

Though in between courses you might notice something very regular and recurring, at the end it is a sweet, simple and delicious feast you won’t regret booking your table for! Likeability is guaranteed! [3.5/5]

HER: Imaginative, inventive and extremely human! [4.5/5]

Prank in which friends pass on mobile calls to other saying there is someone asking for him; later to make him realize that it is just a recorded computerized voice message from service providers of all kind, is an age-old tasteless joke ever played on you. But think of a next level in futuristic world not so far-off where technology has made into our lives so fanatically that we are bound to get connected to them for our every single need including the emotional support only human could afford to offer till now…and that is the premise on which celebrated filmmaker Spike Jonze constructs one of the finest and the amazingly fascinating mankind-meets-technology romantic science-fiction called ‘HER’.

Writing personal letters for his clients who may not have enough time and skill to do that and posting them to their loved ones on behalf is what Theodore Twombly [Played by Joaquin Phoenix] has been doing for a very long. This is the world where every single machinery around is operated by voice commands and you literally have nothing in the name of social connect. He is a loner on the verge of a broken marriage. His only pastime is silly interactive video-games with body movement recognition on life-size screen. Soon, he finds an artificially intelligent operating system run by a female voice named Samantha [Scarlett Johansson’s magical voice]. She can talk. She can discuss. She can observe state of mind of the one she’s talking to. She can chuckle. She can joke. She can see things and have her own opinion about them. She is everything but a trapped soul in a computer system without having any body. No wonder, Theodore finds a companion in her to share his loneliness and the emotional drain he’s been in. The bond gradually moves into a serious mutual relationship in which Samantha discovers much more than she’s designed to experience. Where would this unusual, odd but extremely emotional and ‘no less than any human’ love-story find its end, is the next in line.

In HER, Spike Jonze paints a beautiful world using bright, vivid and vibrant color palette decorated luminously with minimal props and innovative art-design. The shades of red & yellow worn by Phoenix are nothing short of visual treat for eyes. Brilliantly shot outdoors to establish subtle futuristic world and aesthetically sticking to extreme close-ups to capture varied human emotions set an example in skilled cinematography. Editing is crisp and shows an upper hand especially in lyrical montages where Theodore recollects moments from his past relationship. Silence has its own rhythm in music and the sound designing in HER definitely knows how to employ and exploit that.

On one hand if it is a wonderful work of filmmaking, it is also exceptionally good at performances. Joaquin Phoenix in broad frames and thick moustache delivers one of his bests. Scarlett Johansson as the voice of Samantha excels in emoting through just what you hear and not seen at all situation and makes her presence felt completely. Amy Adams plays a colleague-cum-friend to Theodore who’s always there with her unconditional support to him.

Having said that, though it stumbles a bit in the second half with a repetitive approach in the series of events, Spike Jonze’s HER never slips from being the most inventive, imaginative and one of the cutest love-story on screen in a long time. I loved HER and I don’t see any reason why you would not. A Must-watch!! [4.5/5]   

DON JON: Real, honest, witty & confident…a rare in romantic-sex-comedies! [3/5]

There have not been many adult comedies that are clear in head, certain in content & honest in effort to make you laugh with the real-to-the-core wit and also feel for the hearty participation of its characters in making it a not-so-regular adult joke book. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not a new name in need of any introduction but with his directorial début in romantic-sex-comedy ‘DON JON’, he definitely earns another feather in his cap. ‘DON JON’ is real, honest, witty, emotional and matured enough to talk firmly & unhesitatingly about ‘grown up’ issues covered under the sheet till now.

Jon [Joseph Gordon-Levitt himself] is any young blood who loves his life more than anything. The space he lives in, the bed he sleeps on, his regular workouts in gym, the church time on every Sunday with family, his friends, his car and anything that you can think of, for a self-centered man like him but what makes him out of the league is his self-acceptance of the fact that he loves watching porn. With enough reasons and grounds of his own, he just believes in and enjoys the idea of masturbation while watching sleazy sex-clips on porn-sites, even if there is a girl in his bed to give him the real pleasure.  

Things don’t pay any favor when one day his bossy girlfriend [the lovely Scarlett Johansson playing bitchy here] - a fairytale romance believer, catches him sticky dirty handed enjoying what he enjoys the most. Now, Jon has to compromise with his likings if he really wants to make it all good in his ‘true love’ relationship but is he ready? What about his new bonding with the much experienced and more thorough in life-lessons Esther, played by enigmatic Julianne Moore? Will he be able to learn-unlearn few things from her??

From the opening title sequence falling in between while surfing channels on TV to the montages showing the monotonous routine in his life-hours to the intercuts between porn clips & real life illustrating what mental state he’s in to, film impresses with the story-telling techniques big time. The fresh approach to be simple but straight in your face is very well communicated. The humor comes easy with the writing and in situations that fall apart out of nowhere. Joseph Gordon-Levitt looks every part of the character played by him, who can be very sure of one thing but completely clueless in impulse. Scarlett in her portrayal of a dominating-typical girlfriend material impresses. Her igniting presence on screen clearly pays off. Julianne Moore brings the sensitivity & sensibility factor in the account. There are also some delightful cameos to raise your heartbeats [Channing Tatum & Anne Hathaway is one of them].

With an unsullied writing hand and impressive directional skills, Joseph Gordon-Levitt creates an amusingly witty adult comedy that is best enjoyed if you do dare to accept things as they are in real. Not for ones who are adults but still think of sex as a cultural taboo to talk, to show & to entertain. Thoroughly enjoyable!! [3/5]