Hello again! I'm back after a long time and with more masala to keep you hooked to your TV sets! Being a huge Sherlock Holmes fan since my early childhood and having read the whole Sherlock Holmes collection, I thought to myself how better can a BBC TV series be after a super stylish, tight film by Guy Ritchie? Well, surprise surprise! Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat catch me thinking on the wrong foot. While Arthur Conan Doyle's Holmes would have been over a hundred years old now, this Sherlock Holmes is young, even in 2010!
Sherlock is an adaptation of Doyle's works in the 21st century and a good adaptation indeed. Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Sherlock Holmes, a charismatic, highly functional,laconic consultant detective, a job that he claims, is created and performed by him alone. While Holmes shines in his new character, a guy who prefers to text (SMS) rather than make calls, the character of Dr. Watson, an ex-army doctor and Holmes' room-mate and side-kick, who writes a blog about the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, fails to impress. Not only is Dr. Watson's character underwritten, but he also misses the acumen and efficacy of the original character by Doyle, despite an earnest performance by Martin Freeman.
Sherlock makes a good impression right from the moment he is introduced to Dr. Watson and the audiences, and their first conversation is as impressive as in the original work, but Watson and Holmes lack the chemistry that Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law were able to create on-screen in the Guy Ritchie feature. Doyle's Inspector Lestrade of the Scotland Yard is now Detective Inspector Lestrade, but unlike the original, almost everyone hates Holmes here. The cases that Holmes works on are similar to the ones in the short stories, though little variations are very intelligently fitted in as they are set in modern times. Holmes and Watson are shown living at 221B Bakers street (the legendary address used by Doyle in his works too), as tenants in Mrs. Hudson's house, now a modern flat is missing the very famous 'rocking chair' that Holmes used to sit on while contemplating a case. A surprise element here is that of Sherlock's elder brother, Mycroft, who now occupies high post in the British Govt. and calls himself the arch enemy of Sherlock.
Cumberbatch delivers an remarkable performance and shows deep understanding of the character. Martin Freeman as Dr. Watson is good but he does not have much to count upon with a poor script in his hands. Rupert Graves is just about manages to be OK as DI Lestrade, while Una Stubs delivers an honest performance as Mrs. Hudson, Holmes and Watson;s landlady. The three episode season 1 of the show ends with Holmes coming face-to-face with his biggest enemy, Prof. Moriarty and is left open ended to leave the audiences thirsty for the next season scheduled to premier sometime in 2012.
The direction is spotless and the series uses the same music as that in the Guy Ritchie film and is very well woven into the plot and conducted perfectly to get the right effect to the audience. The show grows onto you like a climber vine and you just cannot shudder to even move throughout the length of the 90-odd minute running episodes. All in all, Sherlock is a must-watch; a one of a kind series that takes TV detective shows to a whole new level! A 4/5 from my side to the show and a word of immediate recommendation, specially to Sherlock Holmes fans who could't get enough of him on the Big Screen.
For More info, visit:
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1475582/
Adios!
Yours Truly!
Showing posts with label Movie Reviews. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Movie Reviews. Show all posts
Saturday, 13 August 2011
Tuesday, 7 June 2011
Inception Through My Eyes
They say, in India, when you start something new, always start with the name of God. God isn't exactly an entity I believe in much. I pray sometimes, but to no effect. And He, if He exists that is, is as ignorant towards me. So who is it, whose merit deserves a mention in my first blog post. Baba Ramdev? Well tried Babaji, but I guess the newspapers have written enough about you, your current affairs and your tryst with black money. Then who? Nadal? So what if he won again. Nothing new in that. And as an Indian Citizen I know writing about cricket does not matter because every reader is a fan, a historian, a commentator, a coach- an Indian in short. So lets move to my favourite topic then - FILMS.
Now here I guess I have too many options. Hollywood or Bollywood (Oops! Sorry Mr. Bachchan, Hindi Film Industry I should say). Actor or director. Wait! Yes! Director... Let me see... James Camaron? What's he done in the recent past? Avatar! Yes, but I haven't watched it yet. What do I write! Anurag Kashyap? Or rather I should wait for Shaitaan's reviews first. Ridley Scott? Yes I did watch Body of Lies a few days ago. Or how about Nolan? Yeah. He is the one. Its almost an year since I watched Inception. Though a review at this point in time seems absurd. But none-the-less, someone said, 'Better late than Never.' Okay. Let me call it a tribute then to Inception. Here is Inception, through my eyes.
Christopher Nolan this time comes forth with a visual extravaganza that is set to scintillate every nerve of your body and that leaves you demanding for more. Nolan rightly delivers what is expected of a director of his stature after the success of his previous films Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Memento (I'm purposely not mentioning Following, Insomnia or The Prestige due to they not being considered commercial films by many) . This time Nolan comes up with a film about Dreams (no not the big city dreams of a small city girl Yash Raj pot-boiler). Nor about people living their dreams but about people living in their dreams. Dreams as he calls it are ‘the most resilient parasite’ and Inception sucks the blood out of your face as it completely bowls you over in the first 5 minutes itself. As the movie begins with a dream within a dream, Inception demands the viewers’ attention right from the first minute of the film to its 149th running minute. Shot in 6 different countries with a rumoured mega budget of over $200 million, Inception is worth every penny that one spends at the box office.
Inception is a sci-fi psychological-heist thriller which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a man who can get into any person’s dreams and thus can steal any kind of personal or secret information from the man’s sub-conscience. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, Dom’s associate who is perfect in his job. The film begins with Saito (played by Ken Watanabe) taking an audition of Dom and Arthur and their crew. But it turns out that they fail as Dom’s dead wife Mal (played by Marrion Cottilard) keeps mysteriously appearing in his sub-conscience. Arthur and Dom leave Saito before he actually comes out of his dream. They are about to escape when Saito again meets them and offers them a job of not stealing someone’s ideas but to plant one. While Arthur insists that such a thing is not possible Dom agrees to the job in return of getting his hand cleared of all criminal charges that he faces in the US and which is why he cannot return to see his young kids.
Saito needs Dom to plant the idea in Robert Fischer Jr.(Cillian Murphy)’s head to breaking up his father’s business empire so that Saito can take over the entire energy business of the world. Now Dom needs a crew of an architect to design the world of their dreams, a thief who can frisk stuff as easily as he can take up some one’s identity and a chemist who can keep the shared dreamers sufficiently sedated till their job is done. Dom finds an architect in Adriane (Ellen Page) who is recommended by Dom’s father (played by Michael Caine), a forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and the chemist Yusuf (played by Dileep Rao). Now Dom and his crew along with Saito manage to get Fischer into slumber and pass into a triple levelled dream to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s empire. En route to their final destination they end up straightening the strained relationship between Fischer and his father and also bringing to light the motives of his Godfather and his father’s friend Peter Browning (Tom Berenger). Dom and his crew end up in a four levelled dream totally unplanned and thus Adriane also helps him solve the mystery of his dead wife’s presence in his sub-conscience. Dom and his crew are successful in their endeavour and Dom returns a free man; but Nolan leaves the story open ended, not showing whether the world that Dom returns to finally is the real world or that of a dream.
Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show all the way with an awe inspiring performance. Joseph Gordan-Levitt in the role of Arthur is brilliant and Cillian Murphy leaves a good impression. Nolan succeeds in deceiving the audience in a maze of dreams within dreams and hardly does one realise the need to munch pop corn or even flutter an eye lid. The only thing that seems odd is that all characters in the movie seem to be too easy about the concept of shared dreaming and understand the twisting chain of events with hardly any effort. The VFx used in the film are first rate especially the scene in which one half of the city of Paris closes like a lid on the other half. Joseph Gordon’s zero gravity sequence does raise an appreciating murmur amongst the crowd and after a long time we get to watch a film with pin drop silence in the crowd and claps after the end of the show. Not sure as to how many awards does Inception bag but it surely has won the hearts of millions across the globe and is set to do well in India too. With a strong script, impeccable execution and flawless cinematography, Inception is by far the most entertaining film of this year till now.
My rating 4/5 and a word of recommendation to watch the movie.
So here I am at the end of my first blog post. For those who read the whole of it, either I salute your patience, or your love for Inception. For those who slept half way, well I guess I was successful in atleast achieving that. And for those who got bored just after the introduction and skipped to this paragraph straight away, it tells me how much you love me and it was very sweet of you just to open a link I shared. So I'll be back soon since I have nothing to do here at my training site. And I can't watch a movie in office as I forgot my headphones again at home.
Adios!
Yours Truly!
Now here I guess I have too many options. Hollywood or Bollywood (Oops! Sorry Mr. Bachchan, Hindi Film Industry I should say). Actor or director. Wait! Yes! Director... Let me see... James Camaron? What's he done in the recent past? Avatar! Yes, but I haven't watched it yet. What do I write! Anurag Kashyap? Or rather I should wait for Shaitaan's reviews first. Ridley Scott? Yes I did watch Body of Lies a few days ago. Or how about Nolan? Yeah. He is the one. Its almost an year since I watched Inception. Though a review at this point in time seems absurd. But none-the-less, someone said, 'Better late than Never.' Okay. Let me call it a tribute then to Inception. Here is Inception, through my eyes.
Christopher Nolan this time comes forth with a visual extravaganza that is set to scintillate every nerve of your body and that leaves you demanding for more. Nolan rightly delivers what is expected of a director of his stature after the success of his previous films Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Memento (I'm purposely not mentioning Following, Insomnia or The Prestige due to they not being considered commercial films by many) . This time Nolan comes up with a film about Dreams (no not the big city dreams of a small city girl Yash Raj pot-boiler). Nor about people living their dreams but about people living in their dreams. Dreams as he calls it are ‘the most resilient parasite’ and Inception sucks the blood out of your face as it completely bowls you over in the first 5 minutes itself. As the movie begins with a dream within a dream, Inception demands the viewers’ attention right from the first minute of the film to its 149th running minute. Shot in 6 different countries with a rumoured mega budget of over $200 million, Inception is worth every penny that one spends at the box office.
Inception is a sci-fi psychological-heist thriller which stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Dom Cobb, a man who can get into any person’s dreams and thus can steal any kind of personal or secret information from the man’s sub-conscience. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Arthur, Dom’s associate who is perfect in his job. The film begins with Saito (played by Ken Watanabe) taking an audition of Dom and Arthur and their crew. But it turns out that they fail as Dom’s dead wife Mal (played by Marrion Cottilard) keeps mysteriously appearing in his sub-conscience. Arthur and Dom leave Saito before he actually comes out of his dream. They are about to escape when Saito again meets them and offers them a job of not stealing someone’s ideas but to plant one. While Arthur insists that such a thing is not possible Dom agrees to the job in return of getting his hand cleared of all criminal charges that he faces in the US and which is why he cannot return to see his young kids.
Saito needs Dom to plant the idea in Robert Fischer Jr.(Cillian Murphy)’s head to breaking up his father’s business empire so that Saito can take over the entire energy business of the world. Now Dom needs a crew of an architect to design the world of their dreams, a thief who can frisk stuff as easily as he can take up some one’s identity and a chemist who can keep the shared dreamers sufficiently sedated till their job is done. Dom finds an architect in Adriane (Ellen Page) who is recommended by Dom’s father (played by Michael Caine), a forger Eames (Tom Hardy) and the chemist Yusuf (played by Dileep Rao). Now Dom and his crew along with Saito manage to get Fischer into slumber and pass into a triple levelled dream to plant the idea of breaking up his father’s empire. En route to their final destination they end up straightening the strained relationship between Fischer and his father and also bringing to light the motives of his Godfather and his father’s friend Peter Browning (Tom Berenger). Dom and his crew end up in a four levelled dream totally unplanned and thus Adriane also helps him solve the mystery of his dead wife’s presence in his sub-conscience. Dom and his crew are successful in their endeavour and Dom returns a free man; but Nolan leaves the story open ended, not showing whether the world that Dom returns to finally is the real world or that of a dream.
Leonardo DiCaprio steals the show all the way with an awe inspiring performance. Joseph Gordan-Levitt in the role of Arthur is brilliant and Cillian Murphy leaves a good impression. Nolan succeeds in deceiving the audience in a maze of dreams within dreams and hardly does one realise the need to munch pop corn or even flutter an eye lid. The only thing that seems odd is that all characters in the movie seem to be too easy about the concept of shared dreaming and understand the twisting chain of events with hardly any effort. The VFx used in the film are first rate especially the scene in which one half of the city of Paris closes like a lid on the other half. Joseph Gordon’s zero gravity sequence does raise an appreciating murmur amongst the crowd and after a long time we get to watch a film with pin drop silence in the crowd and claps after the end of the show. Not sure as to how many awards does Inception bag but it surely has won the hearts of millions across the globe and is set to do well in India too. With a strong script, impeccable execution and flawless cinematography, Inception is by far the most entertaining film of this year till now.
My rating 4/5 and a word of recommendation to watch the movie.
So here I am at the end of my first blog post. For those who read the whole of it, either I salute your patience, or your love for Inception. For those who slept half way, well I guess I was successful in atleast achieving that. And for those who got bored just after the introduction and skipped to this paragraph straight away, it tells me how much you love me and it was very sweet of you just to open a link I shared. So I'll be back soon since I have nothing to do here at my training site. And I can't watch a movie in office as I forgot my headphones again at home.
Adios!
Yours Truly!
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