Seven Pounds (2008) - A Mediocre Movie

Will Smith is one of those few great actors who can make u laugh and cry in the same movie with his breathtaking performances. In this movie Will sticks to making us cry by his performance. I watched this movie with very less expectations as it came just after Hancock( Will's worst movie) .

The Story is of an IRS agent who sets on a journey of redemption to change the lives of 7 strangers. The screenplay of this movie is a huge drawback as it tends to get boring at many moments. The initial scenes between 'Ben' and 'Emily' are really lame and pointless. The character development of Emily (who's counting her days) was not so perfect. The performances of all characters are pretty outstanding especially Will Smith and Woody Harrelson . The plot has a very sensitive touch and emotional thing about it but the director fails to impress us at many situations.

The movie could have been much more if more thought was put into it. There are few plot holes along the way and the chemistry between the lead pair is not great.
All said and done Will Smith has given a stunning performance as Ben Thomas and shines above all in this not so great movie.

The other technical aspects were just average but the background score was pretty heart warming. This is a movie to watch for all Will Smith fans but for others u can avoid this flick !!!

Rating 6/10

The Book of Eli (2010) - Not just another post-apocalyptic thriller

Cast : Denzel Washington , Gary Oldman
Director : Albert Hughes

Plot : Eli (Denzel Washington) has been on a journey for 30 years, walking west across America after a cataclysmic war that turned the earth into a total wasteland. The world has become a lawless civilization where people must kill or be killed. The barren roads belong to gangs of cutthroats who rob and kill for water, a pair of shoes, a lighter, or just for fun. Eli is a peaceful man who only acts in self defense, and becomes a warrior with unbelievable killing skills when he is challenged. After the war and the "Big Flash", Eli was guided by a higher power to a hidden book and given the task of protecting the book and taking it to its final destination. Eli guards the book with his life, because he knows that the book is the only hope that humanity has for its future.



Upon first viewing the trailer I was immediately giddy to see a new post-apocalyptic film . Being a fan of the genre, one must get used to the repetitive "lone wanderer" theme so prominently used. I figured this film would go through the same formula, but prepared to enjoy myself.

Yes it did use the lone wanderer as a driving plot device, and yes it did bring the arbitrary twist. Yes all the survivors are short on t-shirts, but live in a wealth of leather and goggles. Yes everything in this film looks like and feels like a typical post-apocalyptia. But the substance of the story is far more powerful then I could ever have expected.

Without giving away too much, yes the film is essentially a Christian metaphor. Eli seems to be protected by some mysterious force, guided by "God" to head west. But it's what the meaning behind this admittedly bizarre plot that makes this film so great. It truly is a film about faith and believing in one's self. Using the dreary post-apocalyptic backdrop, the film is able to contrast this powerful message with the harsh landscape. Even amidst such despair, one can rise and accomplish anything. In a world slowly becoming apocalyptic itself, this message is much welcomed.

The other aspects lending to the power of The Book of Eli are its technical aspects. The cinematography is simply beautiful. Moody slo-mo shots abound with wonderfully toned colors. Everything looks dark and dead, the sun beating down endlessly on the dusty dunes. The soundtrack adds immensely to this feeling, using soft ambient chords and blasting action-scene drums when necessary. Overall The Book of Eli is an excellent film itself and an excellent spin on the post-apocalyptic genre.

Oh yeah, and Denzel Washington actually manages to pull off the part of a wizened, old bad ass.

Rating : 7.5/10

Tamil Padam - A laugh riot

When i heard that Tamil Padam - a spoof of many tamil movies was going to release i expected it to be stayed or stoned by fans. But azhagiri had the guts to produce this film and promote it as any other Tamil film. So is this like scary movie? No way Tamil padam is more a celebration to Tamil movies without hurting anyone's sentiments than a simple spoof .

The director Amudhan has done a great job with the screenplay in the fast half but has probably not focused on the second half. So lets get to the structure of this movie :

The very first scene of this movie is a trailer into what we can expect from this film. The movie starts of with a parody version of Karuthamma and joining it with Nattamai (where the original villain plays the nattamai) and ending it with the famous thalapathy scene(Sri Vidya putting the baby on the train). We then jump into when the kid is around 8 years old and we see a rogue messing with a girl and what does the kid do? Believe it or not the director is smart in using the biggest cliche in Tamil cinema where a small boy turns into an adult by riding a bicycle.

So enters Shiva the hero of the film who bashes everyone with just movement of a finger. And there we have an intro song vijay style . Then as usual we meet the first of many villains who wants to meet the hero and me meet a replica of mammoty who plays Deva from Thalapathy and scene moves into the memorable Baasha meeting scene between Rajinikanth and Raghuvaran. Again the director should be appreciated for joining Maniratnam, Thalapathy, Baasha, Kandhasamy into one scene.

The friends of Shiva are Siddharth (Mano bala),Nakul (M.S.Bhaskar) and Bharath(Venniradai Murthy) . They enact many scenes of Boys and are insanely hilarious at many moments.

The heroine introduction starts off with a mozhi jyothika parody where the heroine hits another lady for bashing her boyfriend. This then moves onto shiva finding out that the heroine likes Bharatanatyam . So in an effort to impress her shiva learns Bharatanatyam in one day and dances before her(The funniest scene of the movie - see to believe it ) in Kadhalan style. So once they come together we have a duet song ' Oh Maha Seya ' - a mockery of all tamil song lyrics which have no meaning. Truly amazing by MD Kannan to come up with this tune

How can we have a love track without the heroine's dad causing problems. He says he wants his son-in law to be rich. Hearing this Shiva sets off to earn money and he does in a single song with the time of making a cup of coffee :)

The second half has its funny moments but is irritating at times. The Kakka mockery sequence was great and also the Cinemapatti scenes were great. Apart from these the second half dissapoints. The Director has many scenes to show but didn't get them in order which makes this movie less enjoyable. The climax again is top notch with a court scene where everyone seems to be a undercover agent.

The technical aspects of the film were outstanding whether it was debutant Music Director Kannan's BGM or Nirav Shah's cinematograpy or even Santhanam's great art direction . The movie is a wholesome entertainer with majority of the scenes being insanely hilarious.

On the whole watch Tamil Padam with family and friends if u Love Tamil Cinema !!!

Rating 7.5/10