Recently Seen Movies - 12 - Page 12

Hustlers

Inspired by a true story, Hustlers is a fun-filled crime story that shocks and awes throughout its runtime.

Various elements of the film offer nods to a number of relevant films. The stripper ensemble is reminiscent of Magic Mike. The main characters evoke a bit of Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas where you know they are criminals but cannot help but be mesmerized and empathize with them, perhaps even root for them a little (Fun fact - Martin Scorsese was almost roped in to direct). There is the big ensemble crime hustle factor like the Ocean's Series or Italian Job. Like The Big Short, it reflects on the ramifications of the 2008 market crash, but in unexpected ways. But perhaps at the most there is the 9-5 element where mistreated women at work sticking it to the man.

On the whole, though this is a unique film that holds its own carving a niche for itself. It's a stripper film but balances the titillation by fleshing out these characters outside of work. While you are both shocked and repulsed by their crimes, you cannot help but empathize with what they did and why.

Jennifer Lopez stuns as Ramona. She perhaps has one of the best movie entrances ever. JLo's screen presence will leave you slack-jawed very much like Constance Wu's Destiny, the partner in crime who despite doubts cannot help but be enamored by Ramona's schemes. Lili Reinhart pleasantly surprised me. Its a bold move for her to go from buttoned-down Betty Cooper to sultry stripper criminal Annabelle. And Keke Palmer as Mercedes is a hoot and a half. Lizzo, Cardi B, and Trace Lysette all shine in well-written cameos. So does Usher who I must say is a mighty good sport to play himself.

I also have to give props to Jennifer Lopez and her marketing chops. This is a film about sisterhood and female bonding. Women of color make up most of the cast. There are no male characters of note in the movie. But rather than focus on these elements, the film has been largely promoted as a ripped from the headlines unbelievable true story. It doesn't shy away from paying cursory lip service to the male gaze. And seriously watch it for a bloody good time about a shocking true crime.

Btw. I must make a note about the soundtrack. "Its Britney Bitch" has never been used this brilliantly before. The entire soundtrack is on point.

De de pyar de is hilarious. I almost died laughing when Rakul’s character imagines that raho mein unse song 😆and the use of singam background was very clever. It was a fun, relatable movie. I could relate to Rakul’s character having been in a massive age difference relationship myself once upon a time. I also liked how there was no misogyny in this film. Ajay’s character was quite an equalist. It was refreshing to see. Maybe the director got fed up of being called sexist. 😆 And Tabu and Ajay are a treat to watch on screen, as always. If you like them together, you’ll love this film.

Student of the year 2. It was lame other than Tara’s pretty dresses. I watched it anyway though because I had to finish cutting vegetables for the week. If you need to put something mindless in the background to do your chores, by all means watch it. 😆

Finals :

After seeing some positive reviews from Desis as well as other sources, I decided to catch this movie along with Rambo - Last Blood. While Rambo is a movie which we know whats gonna happen (even-though I wanted the first half to be strengthened and last half to be lengthened), Finals is a movie which disappointed me at the end of the experience. The main culprit is the writing post interval. I believe many liked the movie because they expected a typical underdog sports drama and got something that's totally unexpected. I can understand as well as respect their emotions. But when I went with the reviews in the mind, I felt the issues is the second half was mainly because it toughed many topics/issues and didn't give any space of any issue to be developed and the movie ended up with a montage of shots just to sum up the things. And yeah, the negative characters were stereotyped with generic issues associated with this topics.

What I liked in this movie

1) Rajisha Vijayan's performance ~ Post Revathy/Urvashi, I didn't see any actress who can handle bubbly roles without looking filmy/irritating/artificial (like Mrs Fahad Fazil). But in Finals, she shown that she can handle roles which is not bubbly. Ho effortless she looked when she played the hostel strike scene and interview byte following it.

2) Suraaj Venjaramoodu's best performance after Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum. Never in my wildest dream did I expect the guy who irritated us in Dileep/Mammotty/Mohanlal kyamedis to deliver an outstanding performance as a Middle Aged Coach, Aged Coach, Father etc. This man is a revelation.

3) The movie had a good theme!!

4) Supporting characters did well.

5) Cinematography and BGM were good!!!

6) The First Half sans songs was intriguing!!!

What I didn't like

1) There is a corrupted minister, A corrupted official, Struggling Sports Personalities, Nepotism, Backstabbing etc etc....After giving Hints in the first half, we see the typical dramas thats around such characters. If the makers reduced 1-2 issues and focused on the rest, it would have been excellent. In short, the messy writing in second half killed the movie.

2) The transition from Rajisha Vijayan Movie to Save Niranjan Project. Again the first half sowed seeds for this but I felt the makers just threw Alice out of the pic.

3) Songs were terrible!!!

4) Dhruv who acted as Aadhiseshan gave us the reason why he was kicked out of Maamangam.


As a movie, this is still better than Ittymaani. But when you compare this movie (post positive reviews) and Ittymaani regarding what they promised to deliver, Ittymani won that race. I believe the makers deliberately gave a low key promotions for Finals which worked in favour of them.

Overall......I was so so satisfied,..... decently liked only, and not that much liked,... becoz of the expectations I had!!!

Review below holds spoilers,....

F I N A L S ::

*******THIS REVIEW CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS*******

This was a movie I had planned to watch due to multiple reasons. One, very rarely we get a sports movie in Malayalam and two, seeing the general public opinions and also reviews by Malayalee and few desis at couple places....

Although the movie is heavily promoted as a Rajisha Vijayan (as Alice) movie where she essays the role of a cyclist from Idukki, it purely belongs to one individual...Suraj Venjaramood (as Varghese) who acts as her father. Alice is a national cycling champion on whom everyone has a Gold medal hope for the Tokyo Olympics 2020. She trains very hard and Varghese always ensures her focus is on the training and achieving the goal. He also never lets Alice give interviews to the media (reason for which is shown in the 2nd half). Maniyanpilla Raju's son Niranjan plays the role of Manuel, a very close friend of Alice and who loves her. Alice though having the same feelings to him won't reciprocate the feelings as Varghese doesn't like her deviating from her aim. First half progresses with Alice's cycling practices and towards the interval the cycling race at Vagamon is shown. Varghese finally gives the nod to Alice to confess her love to Manuel and subsequently Alice asks Manuel to wait for her at the finish line of the Vagamon race. However, Alice meets with a horrible accident (intentional or not is focused in the 2nd half) while she was leading the race which brings the first half to a close.

2nd half fully focuses on Varghese. Himself a sports trainer the flashback story of Varghese is shown where the sports federation and its top people taking vengeance on him through different ways as he works independently and reaps rewards for his sports school trainees. They gets him arrested in the name of giving steroids for his athletes and thus shutting down his sports school. Dejected initially he later finds the spark in Alice in the field of cycling and starts doing everything for her for many years to achieve their dream.

His dreams are shattered for the 2nd time after the accident to Alice which has resulted her being fully paralyzed with the ability to only blink her eyes....is there a way for Varghese to achieve anything...??? This is where the film completely shift gears and the focus....to find that out please go and watch the film in theaters....

Personally I had a so so amazing time watching the movie, right from the opening credits showing the sporting icons of Kerala till the end credits rolls where it says the movie is dedicated to Kerala cyclist Shiny Silas who was killed after a car hit her cycle. We have always read the stories of the national level sports people (excluding cricketers) about the humiliation and ignorance they face from their respective authorities. This film clearly shows the turmoils of sports persons without overdoing the same.

The movie as I said earlier belongs to Suraj ably supported by Rajisha and Niranj. The supporting cast of Tini Tom, Sona Nair and others also are good. BGM and songs stay true to what is happening in the screen. A big salute to the director / writer P.R Arun for taking the efforts to give us a beautiful film and thanks to Maniyanpilla Raju for bankrolling it. The technical side of the film is top notch with the highlight being the sequence showing the Vagamon race.


My rating : 3.20 / 5.00

Ad Astra :

The movie starts with liv leaving the house and after that it’s slow mo death trap. At one point there is space baboon killing astronauts. Then there is a “too scared astronaut “ so Brad’s character could be shown as a savior and then there are space “pirates” , then there is Brad Pitt shielding himself with metal piece from asteroids and always making a perfect landing on the ship in outer space. Then he uses nuclear explosives to propel to return. There are movies like Martian ,Gravity and then there is this nonsense. Did they even do some basic research? I mean this movie is mind numbingly ignorant.

The visuals and cinematography are well worth the praise but this movie is pointless.

Brad’s character has daddy issues. That’s it . That’s the movie.

Too busy to write anything but wt i watched

Dear comrade : Vijay is ❤️💗 , really enjoyed it and entertained

Ratsasan : Epic 9/10 movie. Must watch thriller

Watched few prabhas movie no 1 perfect etc.

Only enjoyed Mirchi movie , want that chiseled prabhas in second half back , get in the gym you lazy ass

Rangasthalam : Ram charan can act , literally carries the whole movie , watch it for him

Theri : was better than most vijay film , a tympass movie , not good not bad

Between the ferns : loved all the celebs interview segments.

Hobbs n shaw : was good timepass , could have been better , better than ff8

D16 : good mysterious movie , nice fun watch

It chapter 2 : trash except hader and mcvoy.

The spy : good enjoyable tv series by sascha Cohen

Super 30, kabir singh watched then again and like this time way better

Parasite is love , winning tht international Oscar or very close

Originally posted by: GrumpyTheCat

Ad Astra :

The movie starts with liv leaving the house and after that it’s slow mo death trap. At one point there is space baboon killing astronauts. Then there is a “too scared astronaut “ so Brad’s character could be shown as a savior and then there are space “pirates” , then there is Brad Pitt shielding himself with metal piece from asteroids and always making a perfect landing on the ship in outer space. Then he uses nuclear explosives to propel to return. There are movies like Martian ,Gravity and then there is this nonsense. Did they even do some basic research? I mean this movie is mind numbingly ignorant.

The visuals and cinematography are well worth the praise but this movie is pointless.

Brad’s character has daddy issues. That’s it . That’s the movie.

We were eagerly waiting for this since many months, and it's still unreleased in India :'(

Really regret that I couldn't make it to Interstellar when it hit the theaters, and now this.. so very let down... 🥺 will it be released atleast by the end of the year, or even next year? I will wait... 💔

Originally posted by: Angel-likeDevil

We were eagerly waiting for this since many months, and it's still unreleased in India :'(

Really regret that I couldn't make it to Interstellar when it hit the theaters, and now this.. so very let down... 🥺 will it be released atleast by the end of the year, or even next year? I will wait... 💔

I hope you feel it’s worth the wait and it releases soon in India.

I didn’t mention interstellar in my review because this movie is not even 1% of what interstellar was. It’s slow mo with Brad’s closeup 80% with his monologues.

Sacred Games S2

Might I dare to say I find this series overrated? The first season was a game-changing thriller. But I did find it slow. The second season seems even slower and laborious.

"The Fall" was a show that brilliantly balanced the slow character development with pulse-pounding thrilling moments. It punctuated every slack of pace with a tense moment. Sacred Games for all its praise seems to err in its formula for me.

I love the concept. I love the characters and their performances. I love the episodes tied to Hindu myth. I love the web that is being spun around Gaitonde. Ganesh Gaitonde is legend. But can't we accomplish the narrative with a brisker pace and tighter editing.

Guruji's cult reminded me of Wild Wild Country. And while I loved the characterization of Gaitonde's bisexuality/pansexuality - some of the homoerotic sequences had this creepy feel to it. But the depiction of sleazy politicians, the spread of mob mentality, and the end of innocence was all beautifully done. I think Sartaj's mental anguish was also well depicted.

Thankfully, the pace picks up in the last two episodes as Sartaj makes a mad rush to save the city. And I am once again at the edge of my seat wondering what happens next. Hopefully season 3 improves the formula.