Review: Despicable Me 2

Voices of: Steve Carrell, Russell Brand, Kristen Wig, Benjamin Bratt, Ken Jeong, Elsie Fisher, Miranda Cosgrove, Dana Gaier, Pierre Coffin

Directed by: Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud

2010’s surprise animated hit, Despicable Me, gets a sequel this summer, bringing back villain Gru to the big screen, along with his sidekick Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), his adopted daughters Margot, Edith and Agnes, and most importantly, his minions. The first one was much better than I had thought it would be, and so expectations were high for the second one.

Bollywood Review: Raanjhanaa

Starring: Dhanush, Sonam Kapoor, Abhay Deol, Swara Bhaskar, Shilpi Marwaha, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub
Directed by: Anand L. Rai

The Hindu boy, Muslim girl love story has been done to death in Bollywood, and from the trailer Raanjhanaa seemed to be a sweet, possibly fun, version of that template. Thankfully, there’s more to the story than just the issue of a inter-religion romance, however it’s not just sweet and romantic either. There’s much more to the plot than the promos let on, and for that alone, the film deserves a chance, but it’s also quite a satisfying watch.

Trailer for The Wolf of Wall Street

The trailer for Martin Scorsese’s next, The Wolf of Wall Street, has been released online. Based on the memoirs of a New York stock broker in late 80s/90s, it stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Jordan Belfort, marking the fifth collaboration between the director and actor. Also starring in the crima-drama-comedy, is Matthew McConnaughey, Jonah Hill, Jean Dujardin, Kyle Chandler, Jon Favreau, Cristin Milioti, and Joanna Lumley amongst many others.

It seems like an all too obvious, and a rather strange choice for Leo to follow The Great Gastby with, but I quite enjoyed the trailer, and am looking forward to it.

The Wolf of Wall Street releases November 15th 2013 in the USA, and 17th January 2014 in the UK.

Review: Man Of Steel

Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Lawrence Fishburne, Ayelet Zurer, Christopher Meloni

Directed by: Zack Snyder

No one is really a big fan of Superman Returns, Warner Bros. and Bryan Singer’s attempt at a Superman film. Some even dismiss it as just being made to keep the rights to the franchise. I didn’t hate it – I might even say I enjoyed it, however I will admit that even I knew that the next Superman film Warner Bros. made would have to be a drastic improvement if they wanted to keep the movie franchise alive and well. And so, they put it in the (producing) hands of Christopher Nolan, and his wife Emma Thomas, the pair who got them major success with his The Dark Knight trilogy, hoping his touch will do to the Superman series what it managed to with the Batman films.

Review: Joss Whedon’s Much Ado About Nothing

Starring: Amy Acker, Alexis Denisof, Fran Kranz, Jillian Morgese, Reed Diamond, Nathan Fillion, Clark Gregg, Sean Maher

Directed by: Joss Whedon

I am not a Whedon fan boy, at least not of the same level as a lot of people are -you could hear murmurs and chuckles in my screening whenever some familiar face from Whedon’s previous work popped up, and I only knew a few. What I have seen of his work, I have thoroughly enjoyed, and what intrigued me most about the latest adaptation of Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing is how a director goes from a massive superhero film, to a 10 day-shoot in his back garden of an old English comedy. I suppose it’s not the first time the superhero movies and Shakespeare films have shared common artists. Kenneth Branagh – famous for acting and directed many Shakespeare plays, having done his own version of Much Ado… with Emma Thompson – did direct Thor a couple of years ago, and people said that there was something Shakespearean about the family relationships of the Nordic Gods. If Branagh can switch between worlds, there’s no reason Joss Whedon can’t.

Bollywood Review: Fukrey

Starring: Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Ali Fazal, Manjot Singh, Richa Chaddha, Priya Anand, Pankaj Tripathi, Vishaka Singh

Directed by: Mrigdeep Singh Lamba

Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment is one the production houses in Bollywood from which you can expect good films, but they’re also usually associated with big budgeted affairs, with foreign locations and big names. Fukrey is a bit of a departure from that, it’s a much smaller film, set in Delhi, with the cast consisting of relatively new names. The change of pace hasn’t effected the quality of their productions though, Fukrey is a well made and fun film.

Review: After Earth

Starring: Jaden Smith, Will Smith, Sophie Okonedo, Zoë Kravitz

Directed by: M. Night Shyamalan

I had low expectations going into After Earth, what is essentially Will Smith’s attempt at launching his teenage son, Jaden Smith as a big movie star for the coming years. Critics have been quite cruel, giving the film an 11% Rotten Tomatoes rating on weekend of release, and also because it was my second choice of film to watch, when what I really wanted to see didn’t work out for various reasons. Whether it was my barely-existing expectations of it, or the actual merits of the film, I found myself somewhat enjoying it.

Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s ‘Fukrey’ Coming This Friday!

Excel Entertainment latest comic caper Fukrey, a hilarious tale of four young, hapless ‘nobodies’ [‘Fukreys’] is releasing this Friday, 14^th June 2013.

Bollywood Review: Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani

Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin, Aditya Roy Kapoor, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Farooq Sheikh

Directed by: Ayan Mukherji

Sometimes there’s nothing quite like a regular Bollywood romantic comedy musical, and no one really does them better than Karan Johar. Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is Ayan Mukherji’s second film, after Wake Up Sid, and it’s a little more ‘typical’ Bollywood, but that’s in no way a criticism. YJHD is a few original ideas, put together with a number of tried and tested ones, making a sweet, entertaining film, matching the usual high standards of Dharma Productions.