Review: Terminator 4
The fourth instalment of “Terminator” series has hit the screens but without Arnold Schwarzenegger - though he makes a blink-or-miss appearance towards the end of the movie.
Set in the future, the film is about man fighting with machines to save the world from the grip of an enemy called Skynet, which is trying to wipe out every trace of humankind from earth.
What happens when man wages a war against machines? There is the clink of metal against metal, gun shots and explosions. Director MCG has packed enough thrilling stunts to keep audiences on the edge of their seats. There are a few scenes that actually make you jump up as the filmmaker doesn’t give you enough time to think or absorb the turn of events.
The film is devoid of colour, but the director has created space for emotions with the help of Bryce Dallas Howard, who plays the hero John Connor’s (Christian Bale) pregnant wife, and Moon Bloodgood, who falls in love with a machine. However, he has ensured that the emotional scenes are not too many.
While Schwarzenegger played the saviour in the first three series, Christain Bale takes the responsibility to save humankind as the leader of human resistance in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles in the fourth instalment.
The film opens with circa 2003 — where we see Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington) donating his body to Serena Kogan (Helena Bonham Carter). The film then takes a leap and lands in 2018 where Los Angeles has turned into a junkyard, with no sign of human civilisation but only debris, dead bodies and a chilling stillness.
Connor is all the while trying hard to resist his superiors from bombing Skynet station because he wants to save all those who are imprisoned inside.
Meanwhile, Marcus emerges from nowhere and reaches Los Angeles and it takes him a while to understand the situation.
Marcus is the only one who can help Connor in his mission to destroy Skynet base but the latter is not ready to trust him because Marcus is half human and half machine.
When James Cameron’s original was released in 1984, it became one of the greatest action films of the decade. “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”, which came in 1991, managed to keep the interest alive. “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” came in 2003 and the fourth instalment takes the story forward.
With a spate of action thrillers coming to theatres, “Terminator Salvation” might not have anything extraordinary to showcase, but its a good watch for action-lovers.
Christian Bale does a decent job, while Sam Worthington remains expressionless in most of the scenes … just like a machine. Bloodgood, Carter and Howard pass muster.
Review: ‘Bruno’ (R)
Full frontal male nudity, raucous swingers and Paula Abdul are three of the many elements contributing to the ridiculous and utterly compelling Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen’s return to form after a three year post-Borat hiatus.
At 83 minutes, Bruno is a mad-dash trek from Paris fashion week to the Hollywood hills, to the Middle East, Africa, the southern United States and back again. In his fame-seeking efforts, gay Austrian journalist Bruno completely freaks out a non-bondage-gear-friendly hotel staff, gets chased down an Israeli street by incensed Hasidic Jews and nearly starts a riot by getting physical with his assistant Lutz in front of the rough-and-tumble crowd at a cage-fighting match. Whether the movie pisses you off, grosses you out or makes you double over laughing, Baron Cohen’s bravery must be commended.
WHO’S IN IT?
Baron Cohen as Bruno, Gustaf Hammarsten as Bruno’s enraptured assistant Lutz and Clifford Banagale as butt boy Diesel. Abdul, Ron Paul, Harrison Ford and a cast of unaware antagonists from across the United States, Europe and the Middle East also make cameos.
A scene featuring LaToya Jackson was cut from the film three hours before its Los Angeles premiere, which was held on the same day as Michael Jackson’s death.
WHAT’S GOOD?
If Bruno is digested as it’s sold – flamboyant fashionista comes to the United States to fulfill aspirations of fame and manifests hilarity through encounters with unassuming citizens – then the movie is indeed an insightful glimpse into the often uncomfortable collective unconscious of prejudice and its many tangential issues.
But.
Bruno distributor Universal insists the film’s action is authentic and have not discussed the filmmaking process. Baron Cohen and director Larry Charles have been similarly mum. However, it’s been suggested that the film is a series of staged vignettes in which actors portray common folk for laughs. If so, Bruno maintains its hilarity but loses the reality component that renders the satire so fascinating. Still, the number of Bruno-related lawsuits Universal is already grappling with suggest many people in the film aren’t thrilled to be there. Certainly politician Ron Paul was unaware of the situation when he ended up in a hotel room with the disrobed protagonist. The former presidential candidate grumbles that Bruno is a “queer” after fleeing the scene.
WHAT’S BAD?
The vain, wimpy, animal print thong wearing Bruno is a sashaying gay stereotype in heels. The nebulous homophobia issue has made the movie a point of contention in the gay community. However, this and other mini scandals, (see Bruno’s MTV Movie Awards appearance with Eminem), have contributed to the buzz growing as the film’s July 10th release date approaches. Whatever preconceptions the audience brings to the theater, Bruno truly must be seen to be believed.
Review: Harry Potter
A year has passed since the climactic events of 2007’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which culminated in the reemergence of the sinister Lord Voldemort. Darkness is spreading across the muggle and wizard worlds alike as the orthodontically-challenged Bellatrix Lestrange and the rest of her Death Eater crew roam freely between both realms, leaving devastation and chaos in their wake.
Newly famous thanks to his heroic exploits, Harry Potter has barely a chance to cash in on his celebrity before his old pal Dumbledore arrives to whisk him away on an urgent wizarding matter to the town of Budleigh Babberton. It’s there the two encounter the eccentric Horace Slughorn, a former professor of potions at Hogwarts who now hides out in the homes of vacationing muggles. Convinced that Slughorn is withholding knowledge crucial to the defeat of Voldemort, Dumbledore enlists his most famous student to help convince the starstruck professor to return to his old position at Hogwarts. He then tasks Harry with finding out what Slughorn is hiding.
As danger mounts outside the school, romance blossoms within it. Oblivious to the affections of Hermione, Ron Weasley has begun dating the cloying busybody Lavender Brown, while Harry has developed a crush of his own on Ron’s sister Ginny, who’s currently attached to Dean Thomas. It’s quite the tangled teenage web; the element of magic, with its love potions and other mind-altering concoctions, only further complicates matters.
Unamused by the romantic proceedings is Draco Malfoy, now clad entirely in black and simmering with hatred and envy for his rival Harry. Draco’s rage and resentment make him a perfect pawn for Voldemort, who recruits the angry young lad to aid in the Death Eaters’ attempts to infiltrate Hogwarts and exact revenge upon Dumbledore.
Draco’s suspicious behavior doesn’t go unnoticed by Harry, who becomes convinced that his long-time nemesis is surreptitiously working in league with the Dark Lord. But when his concerns are dismissed by the Hogwarts hierarchy, Harry mounts his own investigation and makes a disturbing discovery: Draco has been receiving help from someone on the inside, a traitor whose efforts could pave the way for Voldemort’s ultimate triumph.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix director David Yates marks his second stint behind the camera with Prince, taking on what is arguably the most challenging episode of the franchise to date. But he proves more than up to the task, delivering all the visual grandeur and CGI fireworks we’ve come to expect from the Potter collection while simultaneously tackling the potentially thorny issue of adolescent hormonal urges with warmth, subtlety and a good dose of humor.
Though it clocks in at over two-and-a-half hours, the film never feels dull. Yates establishes a brisk pace from the outset, skillfully transitioning between emotionally dense dialogue exchanges, action-packed set pieces and comic relief. For all the travails facing young Harry, he’s never weighed down by the gravity of his situation, and neither is the storyline, which thankfully avoids becoming excessively dark.
Equal parts scary, funny, thrilling and touching, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is quite simply the best Potter flick yet.
For all of its fevered set-up, the film’s ending is something of a letdown: a brief, unspectacular climax followed by a somber denouement. While it effectively sets the stage for the final episode of the franchise, to be depicted in the two-part Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, it will undoubtedly leave many a viewer feeling a bit dissatisfied.
