Youth In Revolt - Review

Youth In Revolt

Nick Twisp(Michael Cera) is a teen with above average intelligence. He reads classic prose, likes Frank Sinatra and is an aspiring novelist. He lives with his mother Estelle Twisp(Jean Smart) who is currently dating a truck driver Jerry(Zach Galifianakis) who also happens to be a pathological liar. His dad George Twisp(Steve Buscemi) is currently jobless and is dating the wonderful 25-year old Lacey(Ari Graynor). Nick is irritated with everything around him, which includes his last name as well, and to top it off he is still a virgin.

When Jerry sells a no good car to a couple of sailors, Nick and his mother escape with Jerry to the peaceful, religious town of Okiah where they go to a trailer park aptly named “Restless Axles Trailer Park”. This is where Nick meets Sheeni Saunders(Portia Doubleday), the girl of his dreams. Sheeni is an intellectual, beautiful girl who has a major fascination with France. Nick falls in love with her at first sight and wishes to have babies with her. But in the way of his dreams and plans are a lot of people and problems. Firstly there is this perfect guy Trent who Sheeni is dating, then there are Sheeni's parents who are religious fanatics. Nick has always been this sweet kid who is polite to everyone around him, but now he realises that to get the girl of his dreams he has to change his whole personality and become a total opposite of what he has been for the past 16 years. But in doing so he commits some crimes and is on the run from the cops. All this is very exciting for Sheeni. In the picture then comes Sheeni's brother Paul Saunders(Justin Long) who should be given a special mention for playing a short but hilarious role. He is this marijuana smoking, mushroom eating, hippie kind of a guy who just happens to come from nowhere. All this makes a lot of chaos by the end, and Nick is confused whether he should still be that bad ass or be what he actually is, a sweet little virgin.

This is not your typical teen romantic comedy but its not all that great either. Michael Cera has nearly perfected in playing a nerdy looking sweet boy character but now it looks a little repetitive. Lets hope he grows up soon and plays different roles. Portia Doubleday has acted decently well but at times looked like she was trying to act a little too old. Steve Buscemi and Zach Galifianakis don't have a major role in the film but they do their part nicely. Justin Long put a refreshing touch to the film.

Go watch it once. A light hearted movie with some funny scenes here and there.

(6/10)

Sir Rachit Varma

Prince Of Persia - Sands Of Time - Review

Prince of Persia – Sands of Time

Not being too big a fan of the newer Prince on Persia games, I went into watching this movie with a pretty neutral frame of mind. But having played the old school version of Prince of Persia, I had a feeling of familiarity while watching this. But let me just tell you, there's not too much common with that old version of the game and the movie.

This film is about this boy Dastan(Jake Gyllenhaal) from the streets, who is picked up by the king of Persia(King Sharaman – played by Ronald Pickup), for showing heroics and courage during one of the king's rides through the village. His men are about to kill the poor boy when the King realises that the little kid has potential and goodness in him, so he decides to adopt him and commands his second-in-chief, Nizam(Ben Kingsley) to take the boy with them to the palace. There he grows up to be a good courageous prince along with his two brothers, who are the real sons of the King.

Jump to the present, Nizam convinces the King that the Persian army should conquer the city of Alamut because he has reason to believe that it was producing WMD's. So after conquering the peaceful city of Alamut, Dastan is falsely accused of killing his father but miraculously escapes with the beautiful princess(Princess Tamina – played by Gemma Arterton) of Alamut. He discovers that Alamut was indeed a peace loving city and that there was a plot to steal the 'dagger' which could take one back in time, which also looks like a WMD. To save the world from destruction and to clear his name as well, he goes on an adventure with princess Tamina all across Persia where he meets Sheik Amar(Alfred Molina), a conman and a funny touch to the movie who races ostriches and hates the government because he thinks they charge useless taxes.

This movie is a decent one time watch, nothing great, not too bad either. It hasn't got any memorable action sequences, most of them look a little fake and way too computerised. And specially after James Cameron's Avatar, a lot of the special effects are gonna look fake, unless they are done in the same way as Avatar's.

A decent pop corn flick, not too much substance, average acting, poor effects but bearable.

Even if you don't watch it, you're not missing anything great.

5/10

Sir Rachit Varma

Kick-Ass Review

Disclaimer – This being my first ever full length review, pardon my French. Ardon Pardon come to my garden. And yes, I haven't read the comic Kick-Ass. Or 'graphic novel' if you'd prefer to call it that.


Kick-Ass



It is a superhero movie nothing like what you've ever seen before. It has got no bulky, hoarse voiced macho men. Its got no super futuristic weapons. The heroes don't fly. In 'Kick-Ass' what you end up seeing is a bunch of kids who thrash real gangsters, and thrash them good. They don't care how old they are, they do what they need to do. Kick some ass.

This story is about Dave Lizewski(played by Aaaron Johnson), an average high school kid, with very few friends, no skills to talk up a woman and he even gets bullied by the other kids. But what he's got is love for comic books which when combined with building frustration over his inability to do anything cool, can be quite, lame. He gets this stupid gooey looking green colored costume and names himself Kick-Ass. He's got no style, no skills, but again, what he's got is, is a good heart and the will to do good things and not just stand and watch people do wrong things. But while doing this he gets his ass kicked big time! He looks like Ass-Kicked rather than Kick-Ass.

But then come our real heroes. Damon Macready/Big Daddy(played by Nicholas Cage) and Mindy Macready/Hit Girl(played superbly by Chloe Moretz) are a father daughter duo who want to avenge the death of the wife/mother and during that process make this world a better place. Damon very calmly shoots at his daughter, who's wearing a bulletproof vest, just to prepare her if there ever is a situation like this in the future. They play with guns and the girl knows inside out about glocks, tommies, bazookas and what not. She plays with a knife as if its a doll. She is this cute little 11 year old girl what when she gets down to killing people, she can be mean. Now both of them see Kick-Ass getting his ass kicked so they decide help him and form a sort of alliance to fight crime.

Now I won't spill any more details out for you here, but will they be able to defeat the ganglord who caused Big Daddy to become a vigilante in the first place? Will Kick-Ass finally get to be a hero? Will he get the girl of his dreams? Watch to find out. Its a good entertaining film, a refreshing watch. Its got a lot of disturbing images which include a violent 11-year old girl hurling abuses at the bad guys and using cuss words in general. All this might look a little disturbing to the viewers and might send out the wrong message to kids everywhere. But lets not worry about the kids as they are not supposed to watch an R-rated film in the first place, so you can't really blame the director of the film. Its art. It's meant to be subjective. It's meant to challenge the norms. But she has played the role of her life and she looks to be a promising little actress who can really make it big in the future. Nicholas Cage is finally acting his age by not being some stupid burning bike-borne killer. The music just blows you away, with a very unusual mix of classics and modern remixes which are put into the scenes in a very effective manner which really jacks up the viewers enthusiasm towards the particular scene and involves him. All in all a good job by Matthew Vaughn who delivers another good product. I wonder when will he get a good BO hit. Its his third movie which is particularly good and interesting but like the other two this hasn't really garnered the money it deserves. I'll be waiting for Kick-Ass 2.

Hit Girl: Show's over, motherfuckers.

4/5

Sir Rachit Varma