"Sivaji - The Boss" - Review

Sivaji - The Boss

At the outset, this was probably the most publicity any movie has received yet. What with NDTV telling this was the biggest movie ever, and economic times giving the analysis of profits and a comparison of all of Shankar's movies. Suffices to say that my expectations were really high. I approached for the tickets on the 13th expecting to be able to see the movie on Sunday only. Surprisingly, I go tickets for the coveted first-day-first-show; that too on the second row from the back. Yippeee!!! I woohoo-ed and danced a jig outside the ticket station. The general public rushed to call the asylum, fearing the worst.

On the day of the movie (today 4 hours before right now), the line outside the ticket stands was a mile-long. The theater was packed. Although the intro scene was more mellow than I expected, it had all of us out of our seats screaming and whistling. Apart from a few scenes, the audience was quiet and listened to every line of the movie.

The first half of the movie was a real drag, with comedy scenes being the only reprieve. The first half ends with a lot of expectation. And shankar delivers in the second half. So does Rajini. It is hard to believe that the guy is a grandfather. He dons his "thambikku entha ooru" look in the first half and the "baasha" look in the second half - well, at least most of the second half.

The worst thing in the movie is without a doubt, Shreya. She comes fully clothed in all the scenes and scantily clothed in the song sequences. She desperately tries to display some form of emotion in a couple of scenes, but falls on her face. The second worse thing would have to be the screenplay. They will have to know when to put in songs. Songs creeping up throughout the time in the movie results in the screenplay taking a severe beating and slows down the pace of the movie (the all important pace of any rajni movie) to a crawl.

All in all, the movie is definitely above average - much better than Baba, but nowhere near baasha, arunachalam, padayappa, etc. It has all the key elements - a villain, a cause, concerned parents, bumbling love interest and a comedian. As can be expected from a shankar movie, the songs and fight sequences were a bit over dramatic.

Spiderman 3

Yay!!! I saw Spiderman 3 on the first day. As can be expected from superhero fans such as myself, I am going to say the movie was spectacular. Even better than Spiderman 1. The graphics were spectacular to say the least. The battles are actually so complicated and there's so much carnage and web action that I think it will take a second viewing to absorb all the action. I dare say that the physics in all action sequences were perfect as far as I could judge it. The new crop of villains are quite good, but reminded me of other ground-breaking movies of the past. Sandman for instance, reminded me of T-1000 in terminator-2.

The movie is quite funny too. In two ways. Scenes intended to be funny and scenes that were just funny. Jonah Jameson (editor-in-chief of Daily Bugle) brings in a lot of humor (and it was intended to do so). But Peter Parker crying was meant to be emotional and sentimental, but did not come off that way. Lets just say, the guy is better off with his mask on. Surprisingly though, he did emote well between the good Peter and the evil Peter. A little bit of kajal in his eyes helped the evil look, but his general mannerisms were differently portrayed in both characters. Topher Grace has done a good job too, but for all fans of "That 70s Show", you will feel like, "Whats' Eric doing here?". Harry made for a good villain too.

Final verdict: Definitely worth watching once. If you are a fan of either Spiderman or good graphics or both, it's worth watching multiple times.

Movie Mania

I'm on some kind of a movie watching spree. I guess I'm trying to escape from the harsh realities of life :p

In the last two weeks I watched:

• In Pursuit of Happyness (3/5)
  
• Stranger than Fiction (5/5)
• Children of Men (4/5)
  
• Cars (5/5)
  
• Open Season (3/5)
  
• Fallen (4/5)
  
• Panic Room (4/5)
  
• Babel (5/5)
  
• Motorcycle Dairies (In Spanish, without subtitles :p) (5/5)
  
• The Prestige (3/5)
  
• The Departed (5/5)
  
• The Fellowship of the Ring (5/5)
  
• The Two Towers (5/5)
  
• The Return of the King (5/5)
  
• Date Movie (1/5)
  
• Trial and Error (2/5)
  
• the last eight aired episodes of Family Guy (5/5)
  

I'm averaging more than one movie a day. With my new 19" monitor and a creative audigy2.0, soundblaster 5.1 speaker system, I must say I'm loving it!

I still have to watch:

• Borat
• The Illusionist
• Entrapment
• 300
• The Namesake
  

Now the strange thing was that I found Cars more touching than The pursuit of Happyness. Should I take it that something wrong with me? :p