Maggi Noodle Review: The Dark Knight Rises

With great fanfare and much furor the final installment in Christopher Nolan's reinvention of the Batman saga - The Dark Knight Rises (TDKR) - was released last week.  Here are my thoughts on it.

(If you haven't watched the movie, fret-not, this is a spoiler-less review.)

(Christian Bale returns for the last time as Batman)

Batman Begins was about how Bruce Wayne sacrificed himself in order to become the Batman, a symbol of hope for the citizens of Gotham City and a harbinger of nightmares for evil-doers.  The Dark Knight (TDK) brought the dual personalities of the hero to light through the warped eyes of the Joker.  This movie was more about Wayne's struggle for an identity than anything else conjured up by the Joker.  Who was the real "person" - the crime-fighting vigilante or the playboy billionaire?  By the end of the movie, Bruce Wayne is beginning to wonder that himself.  In TDKR, Nolan's hero comes a full circle and the movie is clearly about the sacrifices made by the Batman in order to let Bruce Wayne exist.

In the eight years since the end of TDK, Gotham City has not needed the Batman.  Bruce Wayne has hung up the cowl and is holed up in his mansion, a recluse who rarely shows up in public any more.  This, more than anything else, tells us clearly that he believes that the Batman persona represents who he really has become while Bruce Wayne is the mask he wears so he can sleep better at night.  It takes a villain of monstrous proportions (physical and diabolical) to bring the Batman back onto the scene and the story takes off with some spectacular action sequences from there.

The movie is 264 minutes long and, yet, I never felt its length.  For a change, characters in an action movie take the time to talk to each other in more than a couple of sentences and the action scenes themselves are longer.  Rather than having scenes intercut every half-second or so the director lets us sit back and watch the action from a distance.  For the first time in 3 movies, we can actually see more than just one person on the screen during an action sequence and spatial orientation is not sacrificed.  

While the story follows a familiar arc, the movie finds time for sly humor in the form of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman (never clearly named that, though) and a love story between Wayne and Miranda Tate (Marion Cotillard).  Surprisingly, there are a couple of twists that I did not see coming, and an ending that I did.  

All in all, it made for a very satisfying conclusion to the trilogy and good way for Christian Bale to give up the role.  While I was more impressed with TDK, this movie is great viewing in its own right and must not be missed.  Christopher Nolan promised to give us a grander, more elaborate Batman and he has delivered on his promise.

Watch it in IMAX, if you can, or in a regular theater.  Either way, the final scene will tell you all you need to know about the rise of the Dark Knight.

Maggi Noodle Review: Hugo

I had no intention of seeing Hugo.  I am not a big fan of 3D movies.  I feel it is more of a gimmick than an artistic improvement on 2D.  On top of which, I felt the the preview for the movie was about a Dickensian orphan living by his wits in a French station.  Been there, seen that.

Now that I have seen the movie, I am super-duper glad I did.  it is a gem of a movie, an ode to movie-making, and the 3D is non-intrusive, making you (the viewer) a part of the action as opposed to the target of it.

I should have known.  Martin Scorsese, the director, is a man who has long professed a love for the movies and probably sees 3D as the wave of the future and wanted to make a definitive movie for the medium.  Much like James Cameron's Avatar (the only other 3D movie that I recommend must be watched in 3D), Hugo is a movie that relies on the story as the hook on which to hang the visuals where a lesser director would make the mistake of doing it in reverse.

Some of the side characters are caricatures, behaving in a typically predicable manner, but at the heart of the story is the connection between the eponymous hero and an elderly gentleman who own a toy store played with great elan by Ben Kingsley.

Go, see the movie while you can on the big screen and in 3D, if possible.  Then we can talk in more detail about the story and how it is, at its heart, a love story.  A love story between a director and movies.

P.S.  The only jarring (and sad) note for me was that the main protagonists speak in a decidedly English accent even though the entire action is taking place in Paris.  *sigh*

Maggi Noodle Review: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

At first glance it would appear that ZNMD is an updated version of Dil Chahta Hai. After all it does have a Farhan Akhtar connection. I went in with the same impression but came out with a different one.

ZNMD has a superficial resemblance to DCH in that it features 3 friends, a road trip, and a woman at the heart of it. But it is different in that the entire movie is a road trip, the woman at the heart of the movie is not Katrina Kaif, and the resolution is not quite what you'd expect. I will not say more except that the writers play fair and do not cheat you with the ending.

Maggi Noodle Review: The Adjustment Bureau

What if you did not have the ability to choose your own path in life? What if it was already pre-ordained? How would you live the rest of your life? What could you do in the (supposed) absence of Free Will? The Adjustment Bureau asks those questions about Free Will and Choice and more.

I went in expecting a sci-fi movie with thrills and spills and chases. I came away with the distinct impression that I saw a very well made love story. Yes, there are thrills and spills and chases, but they are moments of kinetic force that simply let you appreciate the tenderness with which the love story develops. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt were meant to be together! Or were they? Sometimes, it is not clear if even The Adjustment Bureau knows. And that is where the movie rises above the level of a typical one.

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck came into the industry together, but have forged two vastly different careers. Matt is able to juxtapose his Bourne Identity action hero image with intelligent choices in what we would call hatke movies. This movie is another feather in his cap.

As you watch the movie, you find yourself asking questions about what you would do if you found out your life was already pre-ordained to a certain degree. Would you try to break the shackles or would you set forth to get some control over your choices? The answers are not always that simple and the questions are not always that complicated.

As Ian Malcolm once said, "Life will find a way."

Maggi Noodle Review: The best movie of 2010

2010 was an odd year for me. I saw very few movies, so much so, that during the recent Oscar telecast, the only nominated movies I had seen were Inception, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - part I and *ahem* Tangled.

So when I present to you the best movie of 2010, I do so from my limited viewing list. I thought about making it Inception but I decided against it. Much as I was impressed by the movie and all the conversations it has generated in its aftermath, the movie that moved me the most was:

Maggi Noodle Review: Salt

Let me state this upfront: I am neither a big fan of Angelina Jolie nor do I think that she is particularly beautiful. My disdain for her acting prowess is based on the Lara Croft movies. My indifference to her beauty is more because of personal taste. In spite of that, I found her to be particularly effective in her latest movie. She is a little too thin to convince me that she is physically capable of some of the actions sequences she participates in. But I am getting ahead of myself.

Salt is an uncommon action movie among today's whiplash-inducing, CGI-heavy, action genre movies. It is not as if it does not have the requisite parkour-heavy running sequences, car chases, exploding buildings, and bullet-wasting shootouts. It is just that it is done very effectively. The story is about a woman who may or may not be a sleeper Russian agent and whose goal is to eliminate some big guns to cause worldwide panic. Or something like that.

As in any action movie, the initial story is just a set up for a series of set pieces where the characters speak only those lines that will move the movie forward. Salt is no different but about 10 minutes into the movie I stopped paying attention to the absurdity and just got carried along in the slipstream of its fast-paced action. At less than 100 minutes, the movie does not linger to contemplate the enormity of the conspiracy that is being perpetrated by the main players. If you can believe that a person can chase a fast-descending elevator for 8 floors and do it with just a grunt or two of exertion while jumping from girder to girder, then I have just the movie for you to see.

I don't know how else to say this, but here it is - Salt is an action movie to its core and yet it is easily the best-made action movie of this year. By a wide margin. Take a bow, Angelina Jolie.

Here's the preview for the movie, one of the better previews of late:

Maggi Noodle Review: This is it

In the early 1980's, I was a budding quiz enthusiast in Hyderabad who was mostly content to ride the coattails of my more accomplished brother. Let me rephrase that - my much, much, much more accomplished brother. Gathering trivia was an obsession and I remember stumping him once by declaring that Michael Jackson had the biggest selling album of all-time. (It's a totally different matter that my brother was more into Geeta Dutt and SD Burman so I don't think he cared that I knew MJ's name!). The Grammy Awards were telecast in India for the first time the year MJ won 8 awards for Thriller. While watching the show, my brother and I surmised that he was "preserving his voice" for his concerts. Only much later, when I actually heard the songs, did I realize that MJ did have a high-pitched voice.

Over the years, Michael Jackson's world got more bizarre by the day, eventually culminating in an early demise. However, music has a beautiful way of lingering on long after someone is gone. This is it is more than just a collection of Michael's songs - it is a window into the last few days of the talented singer-dancer. Say what you want about his off-stage activities and medicinal challenges, on the stage the man was transformed into something else.

Maggi Noodle Review: Inception

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master...

-- If (by Rudyard Kipling)

Of late, movies that make the audience think are becoming the exception. The joy of such movies is that you don't quite know what is going to happen next, and at the same time, you are trying to figure out what the characters should be doing. Inception is one such movie. Directed by Christopher Nolan, the movie could fit into the science fiction genre but firmly has its roots in heist movies.

All the elements of a heist movie are in it - an initial plan that provides a basis for showing us what the main characters do, the break-up of the gang leading to a recruitment process in exotic locales (Mombassa, Paris, etc.) where the rest of the new (improved) gang is assembled, the "target" is explained, all the "rules" that must be followed are demonstrated, followed the sting, the job, the heist.

Maggi Noodle Review: Rajneeti

I wrote a fairly detailed review of the movie but did not post it. Today, I am glad I did not. Trolling the web for other reviews, I found that ALL of them had picked up the Mahabharat and Godfather connections that Rajneeti is heavily inspired by. (One of the more entertaining reviews is by Greatbong.)

Instead, I shall jot down random thoughts that flit through my mind when I think of the movie:

Maggie Noodle Review - Kites

Ten years ago Rakesh Roshan launched his son Hrithik in a movie that was tailormade to showcase all the actor's assets. Kaho Naa...Pyar Hai successfully launched a phenomenon. Unlike most other star-sons, Hrithik did have the talent to justify the launch. A few days ago, Hrithik's career was relaunched, this time aimed across the Atlantic with Hollywood firmly in its sights.

Kites is a Hindi movie that tries very hard to be something different, all the while placing Hrithik front and center. The only time the camera even seems to go away from him is to showcase Bárbara Mori, a Mexican actress, in agonizingly long and drawn out slow motion scenes. Hrithik exudes a lot of energy but tries too hard. Odd as this may sound, Hrithik needs to watch a few Sharat Saxena movies before facing the camera again.

Hrithik has worked hard on building a muscular body and spends most of the movie displaying that. The director, Anurag Bose, probably believes in equal opportunity so the heroine is not left behind either. Along the way, however, all of them forgot that eye candy can only take you so far. The storyline is actually a pretty interesting one (not original but interesting) that could have been exploited a lot better. Instead, after a fairly decent first half hour, it degenerates into a loooooooooooong commercial for Hrithik, full of suspense-killing slow motion that telegraphs the plot twists minutes before they should.

It may have helped if the supporting cast featured better actors. I am told that Kangana Ranaut is a good actress but I will have to wait for a different movie to evaluate her. Kabir Bedi is wasted in a small role while the guy that plays his son (I am not interested in trying to find out what his name is) is atrocious. On top of his awful acting, the fellow is saddled with a whole slew of terrible scenes that would make a seasoned actor cringe.

Pardon the pun, but this Kite should have been reeled in a long time ago.

(Memo to Indian movie-makers: If you are going to film scenes in an American setting it would be a good idea to read up on some of the laws and rules of the country before portraying the cops in the movies as being no different than in Hindi movies. This is especially true if your ultimate intended audience is an American one.

Hrithik: Muscular, good-looking guys who are also good dancers are dime a dozen in Hollywood. I would not make that my MO if I were you. You have considerable acting chops. Focus on showcasing that before you lose your shirt. (Forget my note on Sharat Saxena...take a look at Chiranjeevi's first Hindi movie - Pratibandh. For a fellow whose calling card in Telugu movies was his dancing ability, he very smartly chose a strong story to showcase his acting talents and did not have a single dance number in the movie. After Pratibandh became a big hit, he showed his other skills in Aaj Ka Goonda Raj. Now, that was a smarter way of trying to make a first impression).

Maggie Noodle Review - Iron Man 2

Iron Man is a rarity among superheroes. Like Batman, he does not have any special powers or abilities but relies on his inventions and inventiveness to seem like he is super-human. More critically, he is about the only superhero I know who not only does not hide his "human" identity, but instead actually revels in it.

Iron Man 2 picks up from a little after the first Iron Man movie ended. The first movie took its time getting into what makes Tony Stark tick (almost literally) and this movie takes the premise even further. Robert Downey, Jr., plays Stark, the man behind the outfit, as a fellow who laps up the attention and uses Iron Man's visibility as a deterrent to the bad guys. He has an ulterior motive for exposing a narcissistic streak but just as the movie gets interesting a curious thing happens. The attention is repeatedly taken away from RDJ and shifted elsewhere.

Maggie Noodle Review - Sherlock Holmes

Honestly speaking, when I saw the preview of the Sherlock Holmes I had no intention of watching it. I have read every Sherlock Holmes story there is (including the clunky ones like the The Valley of Fear) and can quote from them extensively. I resisted for a while and then succumbed as it was either that or It's Complicated. Guy Ritchie is the director of this movie, and he has a cult following for some off-beat movies. I expected something along those lines. Friends, I was in for a surprise. What the writers have done is to take some of the less-detailed aspects of Holmes's life - that he is a fairly accomplished fighter with some advanced knowledge of martial arts, an occasional dabbler in narcotics when ennui sets in, and his fascination for Irene Adler - to weave an engrossing movie out of it.

This is not the clean-shaven, sharp featured, quirky detective that Jeremy Brett made popular. Instead Robert Downey, Jr. takes the Sherlock we know and sinks his teeth into some of the neurosis that the man surely possessed. Another entertaining deviation from the Conan Doyle era Holmes is that Dr. James Watson (Jude Law) is shown to be a gallant, brave, and surprisingly perceptive man. Watson is not shown as the fall guy for Holmes to show-off his deductive skills. Instead all through the movie, Watson is shown to be his equal in figuring out clues. Naturally, like the truly good sidekick he is, Watson lets Sherlock resolve the big mystery at the heart of the story, but features in the adventure all the way to the end.

This is not to say the movie does not have its defects. Downey, Jr.'s British accent comes and goes, the movie is shot in murky colors making a lot of the action hard to follow, and the characters have the terribly annoying habit of speaking their important (and plot revealing) lines when the camera is not on them. I have noticed this same problem with the Harry Potter movies, too, where the character may be saying something important to the plot but the camera lingers on some other actor or a side-incident and it is hard to keep track of both. Ugh!

Usually it takes me about 5-10 minutes for my ears to adjust to the British accents but I could not do so till the end. I missed out on many utterances and was only able to intuitively glean what the character was saying based on what happened next or how the characters responded.

So, do I recommend the movie or not? I will slip into Hyderabadi movie review mode and say that this is a time pass movie and not a story movie, so don't go in with the wrong expectations. Do not try to solve the case many of the "clues" are not revealed to us but if you sit back and enjoy the ride, you will be carried along to a pleasant enough experience. Or you can just wait for the sequel.

P.S. Mary Morstan first came to Sherlock's attention as his client in The Sign of Four but the movie shows them to be strangers until Watson introduces Mary as his fiancee. Surely, the writers could have found some other character to parade as Watson's fiancee? Or am I being too much of a stickler here?

I think I shall go and re-read my favorite Holmes story - Silver Blaze now.

Maggie Noodle Review - The Book of Eli

A man walks across a treeless, mostly monochromatic and ravaged landscape. Mostly in slow motion, but walk across it he does. The Book of Eli continues the recent trend of Hollywood movies that show the US in the future as a post-apocalyptic disaster zone where plants do not exist, barren deserts are the norm, and everyone wears as many leather-bound clothes as they can lay their grubby hands on. Personal hygiene is a way of distinguishing the good guys from the bad (except for the main bad guy who always manages to be above the mess he deals with). In this barren zone there are pockets of humanity spread far enough apart so as to provide set pieces of action sequences to keep the story going. You'd think that a band of people struggling to survive would try to pool together as many resources as they could. But that is a story not meant for this movie.

Denzel Washington portrays a man on a mission. A mission to head towards the West where he has to deliver a book. He has been walking for 30 years and has not reached the west coast yet. (You'd think 30 years would be enough to head across the continent but let's disregard that for now). On the way he comes across bandits hell-bent on ignoring his wishes to be left alone. Bad things happen to them when they try to force Eli to give up his possessions. Bad things, yes, but in a stylish ninja-fighting-cool kind of way.

All Eli wants to do is read the book and head west. Along the way he bumps into Carnegie, a book-burning lover of books, a contradiction that Gary Oldman makes believable by chewing and slithering his acting chops into the role. He wants Eli to work for him, Eli naturally refuses. Carnegie dangles some bait in the form of Solara (Mila Kunis). Eli demurs. Carnegie goes to Plan B (which was Plan A all along) - snatch the book from Eli by force.

After this the movie settles into a paint-by-the-numbers series of action sequences, setting up the payoff at the end. Then the directors (the Hughes brothers) stun you with a gobsmacking surprise. I refuse to tell you what the surprise is and if you have any intention of seeing the movie please don't talk to anyone who may tell you what it is. Going into the movie, I knew that there was a surprise twist at the end. I watched carefully for it and it still hit me with full force. When the movie is done, you continue to think about it, dissecting all that went on in light of the revelation. A fun way to leave the theater, I promise.

Apart from that surprise, two things stood out for me. Denzel Washington can make any character seem serious and respected by just being himself and a new star is looming on the Hollywood horizon - Mila Kunis. Mila is mostly known for playing the airhead girlfriend of Ashton Kutcher on the TV sitcom That 70's Show but in this movie she holds her own against Washington and comes out strong. She is impressive and I shall be following her career closely to see if she justifies my praise.

In the end, The Book of Eli delivers what it promises in the preview and contains enough intrigue to make it worth you while to spend a couple of hours peering at the screen. Also, I'm not giving anything away when I say that the the twist at the end gives you a perfectly good reason for why it has taken Eli 30 years to walk across the continent. Or has it?

Here's the really cool preview of the movie:

Maggi Noode Review - 3 Idiots

Almost all of us have memories of a friend (or friends) in college who stood out from the rest. 3 Idiots takes that thought and crystallizes it into a movie that is watchable for the great chemistry between all the actors on-screen. In some ways it is a typical Hindi movie with fun and melodrama in good doses but with one difference - the melodrama is well-contained and levity is used to reduce the seriousness of those moments. In most other ways it is an atypical Hindi movie. Liberally deviating from a book by Chetan Bhagat, the screenplay expands and widens the lens to add in genuine moments of surprise and enjoyment.

Briefly, the movie tracks the intertwined lives of 3 students at a (fictional) college of engineering in New Delhi, a stand-in for an IIT. All this is told in a series of flashbacks as two of the main protagonists are searching for the third one who has been missing since graduation. But that description does not do justice to the movie. It is more than a movie about the search for Rancho, it is also a commentary on the Indian educational system albeit in an off-beat way.

There are numerous moments that stand out, but the most impact comes from the surprise revelation that ushers in the interval. It is a credit to the movie that the post-interval twists are engaging enough to keep you hooked even as you see the final revelation almost immediately. The movie is not perfect, far from it, as it brings up uncomfortable topics and then quickly goes away from them before the movie gets bogged down with maudlin issues. A lesser movie would have proselytized ad nauseam about the demerits of the current educational system but the director, Rajkumar Hirani, lets the end results show his message.

Aamir Khan's career has been linked with 2 other contemporary Khans for most of the last 20 years. However, he has never really been revered by the masses as the other two have. True, his movies have been well-received but the adulation has not met that of the other two. In the last 10 years Aamir Khan has slowly managed to turn some of this adulation his way. In the 2000's his releases have been Lagaan, Dil Chahta Hai, Rang De Basanti, Fanaa, Taare Zameen Par, Ghajini, and 3 Idiots with the solitary misjudgement being Mangal Pandey. Going through that list you will see that he has not repeated a character even once. He has attained success his way and not relied on his image to carry him along. He appears to have finally figured out the pulse of the movie-goers and is making movies that cater to different sets of people each time and striking gold repeatedly.

3 Idiots took me back to my days as a student and I have been thinking of the movie off and on ever since I walked out of the theater. I identified the most with Rancho (many similarities between that character and I) and it brought back some memories, both sweet and bitter, of those days. What a nice way to start a new year (decade?).

Maggi Noode Review - Avatar

It has been a long time since James Cameron made a movie that was not expensive. His movies are a visual spectacle of the highest order and his latest, Avatar, took 10 years to come to fruition. And it is worth the wait. In the hands of a lesser director the focus of the movie would have been on the action and the set pieces. There are numerous set pieces of wow-inspiring nature but Cameron side-steps the easy route and takes his time, giving you over 2 hours and 40 minutes of viewing pleasure. Okay, the last 30 are action but by then you have been given ample time to soak in the movie.

The action sequences themselves should be made mandatory "reading" for action directors like Michael Bay and Tony Scott. At no time are you unaware of who is doing what to whom and the results are spectacular.

Okay, I have talked about the movie without touching upon the very critical elements of story and acting. The story is cut from the standard White Man's Burden prototype that is the fare of most such movies. Working within that simplistic storyline, Cameron weaves in a lot of interesting characters, both human and alien. Most of the movie comprises of CGI in the alien's world. [Or are we the aliens, since the action is not happening on Earth?]

Overall, by taking his time to tell us the story Cameron lets us become vested in the motivations of the characters and none of them display behaviors contradictory to the way they are revealed to us. The man knows how to make movies and he has made another one here. I haven't even touched upon all the wonderful flora and fauna of Pandora. I will leave that to your imagination. Believe me when I say that Cameron's imagination has far exceeded ours.

Note: It can be seen in 3-D or 2-D. Either option would be fine, but if you can do it in 3-D, do it. It is a movie that was meant to be seen in 3-D.

Maggie Noodle Review - New Moon

Reviewing a movie like New Moon is not an easy task. Based on the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer, it is the second installment in the love story of Isabella "Bella" Swan and Edward Cullen. Bella is a morose, klutzy, unenthusiastic teenager who has recently moved to her father's town in Washington (the state). At school she runs into the Cullens, a group of stylish, haughty, and aloof kids. Something isn't quite right about them, but Bella does not care one bit, developing a fascination for Edward.

In Twilight, she found out their secret - the Cullens are vampires. Not your traditional long-fanged, flying through the air, killed-by-garlic-and-crosses vampires, but vampires nevertheless. In New Moon, she finds out that vampires are not the only strange things lurking in Forks, WA. There are werewolves to contend with, too. And Bella, if not anything, is consistent in that she is attracted to them, too. Or at least to one of them, Jacob Black. So what was a love story of the forbidden kind (vampire and human) is now a love triangle of the awkward kind, since vampires and werevolves are mortal enemies, wouldn't you know it?

Already I have told you a lot of the story without telling you anything. There are a whole bunch of "rules" and "explanations" and other stuff that goes on in the books, and obliquely, in the movie. The movie stays fairly true to the book, within boundaries, and is actually quite engrossing once you stop thinking about it. I went in prepared to cringe my way through it. (Full disclosure: I own the whole series so I have already read all 4 books). After a few minutes, I stopped worrying about the target audience and the pseudo-heaviness of the character's problems. Like all romance stories, this one also survives because characters talk in half-sentences and do not articulate their feelings. If they would only spend five minutes clearing the air then there would be no story. So misunderstandings are the order of the day.

I got swept along in the enthusiasm of the crowd and the earnestness with which the actors were portraying their roles and came out enjoying it more than I should really care to admit. I may not stay awake at night dreaming of Bella, but I am curious to see whether the glimpses of life the actress (Kristin Stewart) shows are the real deal or not. The fate of the franchise depends upon her lightening up and lighting up (pun intended)!

Maggie Noodle Review - 2012

Roland Emmerich has been leading up to this movie. Step by step, disaster by disaster. The man hit the big time with Independence Day, then went on to make Godzilla, where he destroyed big chunks of New York City, and then onto The Day After Tomorrow, where he began to think global. In 2012 Emmerich takes his art to its logical conclusion - he takes on the entire world and destroys it, and then ends with a rejigged distribution of landmasses. Disaster movies do not come any bigger than this.

(Of course, the cynic might point out that there's other planets, the solar system, the Milky Way, and finally the universe, so Emmerich may still have some tricks up his sleeve).

The movie has all the ingredients required for a disaster movie and faithfully checks though each and every one of them. The plucky hero, the separated wife, the lovable kids, the other boyfriend, the...never mind, you get the drift. You know the eventual fate of every character the minute they appear on the screen and are not surprised when you are proved right.

But everyone knows this going in. It's not as if the previews were misleading. So, knowing that, I'm here to tell you that Emmerich delivers on his promise. The special effects are top notch, the action sequences are incredulous but they carry you along through sheer force of will and if you don't worry too much about accuracy and storytelling you will get your money's worth. The world may not end the way Emmerich predicts, but boy, if it does it will be hard-pressed to beat him for sheer magnitude and effect!

Maggie Noodle Review - Julie & Julia

Julie & Julia traces the interconnected paths of two protagonists over two different timeline. The movie weaves seamlessly between the stories of two ladies and, on the face, it appears as if their lives revolved around food. But that is simplifying it too much. In reality, the movie is about two ladies struggling to find a meaning to their lives. In one of life's cruelest ironies, Julia Child was herself childless and eventually found fame through her cooking books and TV shows. Julie Powell, on the other hand, was stuck in a dead-end job and lacked motivation to seriously pursue writing, until she was inspired by Child's cookbooks which led to a successful blog, book, movie rights, and a life in the spotlight.

After establishing the backstory for the duo, the rest of the movie is about Julie wading her way through recipes and Child trying to get her cookbook published. The two lives never intersect though it seems, for a brief while, that it might. A close acquaintance of mine who grew up watching Julia Child's cooking shows said that Meryl Streep nailed the character's mannerisms so much so that there were times when she forgot she was watching an actress in the movie. I cannot think of any higher praise than that for one of the most proficient actresses of the last 30 years.

Amy Adams is cast as Julie Powell. Julie is not a pleasant person to be around at home during this enterprise, I'm sorry to say. She is mean to her husband and very self-absorbed in her mission, to the detriment of their relationship. However, Amy Adams is such a likeable actress, she manages to make us feel sympathetic about Julie's travails. Amy Adams first came to my attention in Charlie Wilson's War and she was the brightest spot in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. I am an unabashed admirer of her's and when she smiles, she lights up the screen. The last person that truly captivated me on-screen to this degree was Annette Benning and Amy Adams reminds me of her a lot. Reason enough to like Julie & Julia!

Even disregarding my obvious bias towards Amy Adams, Julie & Julia is a well-made, entertaining movie that hits the right notes in many places. See it if you have a couple of leisurely hours to kill.

Maggie noodle review: Love Aaj Kal

Love Aaj Kal is not a movie I would recommend heartily. There is a very good rom-com in there somewhere but the movie-makers have not found it. Instead they have taken the story, made it predictable, and then robbed it of all its charm.

Deepika Padukone smiles in almost every scene, even when her heart is being broken, while Saif Ali Khan, sadly, seems more interested in his own looks than the girl he is courting. His best work in the movie comes when he is playing a down-to-earth sardarji. Since he does not get a chance to show off his pectorals and biceps, he concentrates more on trying to act. Where's the Dil Chahta Hai-Omkara actor hiding?

There are two actresses who do steal the scene in the short time that they are on-screen. One of them plays a simple Punjabi girl and has just three lines of dialogue but you wouldn't know it from watching the movie. The amazing thing is that the actress who played the role is Brazilian!

The other actress is a surprise (click here if you really want to know) and she lights up the screen simply because one can't but help smile at all the implications of her on the screen (least of all that she is back on the screen after a loooong time).

Maggie noodle review - Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs

I have not seen the first two Ice Age movies, so I went in without any preconceived notions about this one. I knew that Ray Romano voiced the main character - a mammoth - and that was about it. I was surprised by how much of the humor was targeted towards adults but without being crude or vulgar. The characters could have been humans and it would not have made a difference. When mammoths are able to make sculptures and wind chimes as intricate as are shown in the movie, you have to suspend copious amounts of disbelief.

In the past few years, showing a T. rex seems to be the in-thing to do and this movie features one, and goes one better by showing a bigger, badder dinosaur that looks like the unfortunate product of a T. rex and a crocodile. So, naturally, an animal with an Australian accent is summoned by the scriptwriters to tackle this croc-o-saur (how they must have giggled at the scriptwriters session when this brainwave occurred to one of them).

Overall, the movie followed predictable patterns with some generic humor thrown in to make you smile all through. It is a gently-moving movie that sets out to give you a pleasant time and delivers on that promise. It is no Pixar movie, but that should not be taken as a slight against this film. If anything, this movie has found a different niche and settles well into it. Comfortably so.