Rocky II (1979)

the movie comes out 3 years later after the initial release, but takes off exactly like literally where it left off with the characters being taken to the hospital of checkup. and guess what Apollo definitely wants rematch now especially to prove the world that rocky’s performance of a full 15 round fight was a fluke. while Rocky has no interest to do so and gets advice the same by doctors due to his injuries. now due to his increase in fame he gets sponsorship and endorsements giving him a financial high life he was never accustomed to, but with the highs comes trouble unable to manage his new lifestyle financial problems emerges, giving him a reason to accept Apollo’s offer. this is also the time when he and Adrian marry and have a child together. with all this family drama done we get to the training montages and finally the main fight. this time Apollo has decided to end the fight quick and with a knockdown to prove all the nah Sayers wrong. while Rocky is decides to protect his injured eye and plays defensively. even then this fight goes till the 15 rounds with a clear point advantage to Apollo, he doesn’t want this again to be decided by points and rushes the last round for that knockdown but this is when Rocky opens his arms and goes for a full on assault this fight with both drains them equally resulting in a double knockdown both exhausted try to stand but its the main man Rocky that finally prevails while Apollo collapses resulting in Rocky finally becoming the Heavyweight champion.

where this movie falters to me is that we can see a small but visible shift from the drama to the sport story format, a shift that i guess will carry on to the later films too. yet i will say i enjoyed this film. the soundtrack something i forgot to mention in previous film to is still epic and iconic the montages has been pumped compared to previous, this movies is more sporty that the previous as the rematch becomes the core in this film with moments of the character driven story line like the pregnancy crisis, the financial issues and the sense of identity for Rocky who by his own definition only knows to box to keep a balance. Overall the movies sits well with me .

welcome back to the rankings

in all sense this movie feels to be less than its predecessor, but to me who is a sport media fan and fan of comeback stories……..this should have taken the 1st spot but looking back the heart of the film is set by the 1st film on its own this didn’t satisfy me and thus

Rocky I > Rocky II looking forward for the 3rd part now where they take this series from here

71 movies down………..429 to go

see you soon

goodbye

Rocky (1976)

wwhat mesmerises the most about this film is that when i watched it and later read about it being made, the fact that this was written by Sylvester Stallone, it was his breakout film, it was the film that won best picture in Academy Awards, got him nominations and many more……you could say in the truest sense of the word that this film was his child, and such is it feels like the whole movie from the way he acts and how the movie feels.

i had heard about rocky well who probably hasn’t before i sat down to watch, i knew it was about boxing, it had Stallone he was in Rambo so my initial expectations are probably guessable to you. so imagine my confusion when there was no explosions and high octane action in the story, but a somber laid back feel to the movie, the film doesn’t feel like a sport movie or atleast like one i imagined but it was more of a character driven tale of a small time boxer  Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) and his once in a lifetime chance to win the heavyweight belt.

though the premise of the movie is what you would expect from a sport movie, but the way they limit the action the match to the very end and make the story more about the characters their situation their relationships, it makes us as viewers connect with the characters, i guess this in one of the main reasons why this series existed for so long as to all those who watched had connected to Rocky and were invested in his story that spanned 40 years.

this was also among the movies were the characters seem natural at ease, as if its a true life story they are sharing to us. it helps massively sell the story. to those who arent aware of the story already, the current world champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers)(important name is worth remembering for future context in series) chooses Rocky for a fight as a last minute replacement, as initial challenger withdraws. sensing a huge chance of his lifetime Rocky trains (though this movie that popularised training montages in films does it for only a short time and also towards the end only, but still its an epic montage) all along rather than this fight the main story seems to be that of the relationship being built between rocky and his love interest Adrian Pennino (Talia Shire). in the fight itself Apollo never expected much from rocky and thus was overconfidence which comes to bite him in the ass, as rocky knocks him down leading him to take this fight seriously, going for the full 15 rounds and ending in decision with both of the participants broken and drained promising to each other there will be no rematch (yah right!!!!). the decision goes for Apollo even though the audience seem spilt but rocky doesn’t care for the outcome as he expresses his love to Adrian to end the story.

but not the saga.

well i also thought i will rank the movies in this series (obviously its subjective)

since only one watched yet, Rocky I takes the top spot.

70 movies down………………430 to go.

see you soon

goodbye

The Rocky Saga

when think of iconic movie series a lot of the great come to mind instantaneously like Star wars, LOTR, the Dark knight……but i had watched all of them, even still there was one that i never watched yet i knew about it it gets reference and parodied even imitated to an extent that its most definitely a iconic movie the Rocky series.

spanning 40+ yrs having 6 films and 2 spin off, i thought i know the gist of the movie but i haven’t watched them not in order not with interest so why not use that excess pandemic time on my hand to this semi grand journey, a mini task inside the mammoth task. and talk about my views on this famous series. (which i know i am 40+ yrs late to)

False awakening

I have never been much of a dreamer, yet every blue moon i seem to get some real wired one to experience that just makes be dazed and bonkers when i wake up.

this is such an incident 2 days back it was a busy day and after having my family tradition before sleep black coffee i was tucked in the bed ready to depart to the sleepy lands, little was i aware this was gonna be like nothing i ever experienced.

as i was laying down on my bed like any Sunday morning i heard a sudden opening of the front door and a familiar sound of my brother was heard. it seemed he had returned home from his hostel during this pandemic time and i could clearly hear the chatter between him and my parents as i lay and kept hearing this i felt sleepy and slept facing my back towards the door. suddenly there was a shift in weight on the bed i could feel someone else on the bed along with me now. before i guessed who it was the same familiar sound of my brother came but it wasn’t a language i understood. thinking i can get a better hear if i just turn and face him i turn……and i wake up

i was still in the same position i was in as i fell asleep yesterday after having the black coffee, with my back towards the door with the drying rack in front…….i come upon the conclusion that i was just in a dream, with a smirk on my face i think what a odd dream to have…..just then the cold sweat on my back……brings me back to the realisation there was someone on the bed with me. i was sure i slept alone yesterday noway it was someone in the house, eliminating my parents and grandma from the list i was thinking if it all is just a feeling perhaps…….and then i hear it the language i that i heard in my dream but this time its not the familiar sound it is nothing remotely close in fact it was terrifying enough to froze me. i was scared afraid for whatever it was even if a prank i just couldn’t move. it took me all my courage i could muster and literally read ,my self for the worst i turned around and came face with……………

the cloth drying rack, i was still in the same position as i slept yesterday my back towards the door. but my mind was no longer the same i was confused before i even calmed myself my body jumped held the rack and just crouched down, frantically searching the room for anything or anyone that was the source of the voice but all i saw was the room just like it was before i slept nothing out of place. i rushed to my phone after i calmed myself and reassured myself that i was the only inhabitant of the room. looking at the time 3 30 am, it hadn’t not been even a hour since i slept yet as my senses came back to me i realised i was in my first dream within a dream experience and a damn terrifying one at that.

even as i understood what had happened and slept back into the bed, it took me a while to fall asleep for the fear of hearing the sound again was still fresh in my mind, i might have stared endlessly at the ceiling fan to drowse myself to sleep, i dont know when it happened i fell asleep but what i know this time by back was not towards the door.

Dirty Grandpa (2016)

i have to give spoilers before i start this review……..Please don’t watch this unless you have like vulgar comedy movies

there in times comes movies that just change your view point and leave a everlasting effect on you that upon watching fills you with the emotion that i could only describe as nauseating, and that is best way i summarise this movie. i don’t know what went wrong and how it went wrong, it had a simple enough plot not great but simple, had a great caste….ok maybe great enough cast.

now let me be clear its not a film for people who have issues with vulgar comedy movies, the title itself is a reference to it. it has its fair share of moments that might really end up funny, even though the joke itself is cheap and i come clean i had my share of laughter in too. but it still soo much cringe into it that just doesn’t gel with me.

let me tell you the plot of the movie straight from IMDB – Right before his wedding, an uptight guy is tricked into driving his grandfather, a lecherous former Army Lieutenant Colonel, to Florida for Spring Break. just by this much you might have guessed its a story of how the guy (Zac Efron) learns to be less uptight and how the grandpa (Robert De Niro) plays a role in it, and you sir are 100% correct it the genre plot that adds on to the vulgar joke and langue to spice up this trope.

now i might be harsh on this movie and i agree i went in it with a bit of bias towards how the story would play as in my head and it did yet didn’t feel satisfactory or maybe the cringe just got up to me. and as i thought more on it it came to me the fact why i didn’t like this movie that much its lack of a convincing ideals, as easily it changes its internal theme and message to suit the narrative reach a happy ending for all the characters which by the end has a definite feeling of forced.

i would usual stop peopple from watching it but if my rant made you curious watch it and be the judge yourself…..i would love to have new insight into this film from different pair of eyes.

69 movies down…………..431 to go.

see you soon

goodbye

The Other Guys (2010)

the story is about the unlikely heroes the ones you never expect to be up to the task….the underdogs

when Chris Danson and P. K. Highsmith two of the policemen, considered the best by the of the New York Police force (Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson) end up dead due to their own stupidity in a simple pursuit. they police force now has to pick up the slack, this is where our unlikely heroes emerge, Allen Gamble (Will Ferrell) who wanted quite life thus joined the accounting side of the police force, and this partner Terry (Mark Wahlberg) who is a fan of the crime fighting style of Chris Danson and P. K. Highsmith, and is always agitated by the inactivity of his patner. they end up finding clues that lead them to a case where money from the NYPD pension fund id gonna be transferred out to the hands of the opposing side, they act to stop them even when the whole force doesn’t believe and respect them.

now this is a silly movie but just silly enough that it doesn’t bore you, doesnt overly still to a serious tone rather goes out of its way to have meta commentary and joke , which i would say could be tone downed but end result was alright. this movie having will and mark in it was bound to have the duos random interaction scene that just builds up to become chucklish. in this film it was the school of tuna hunting the lion pride conversation.

i have to say one of the best parts of the story to me was the cameos of The Rock and Nick fury in the movie, their characters and then eventual downfall all were just funny and not overused to spoil the movie and derail its simple undertone meta-commentary on how action movies showcase such story lines and sequences. like the scene where upon being nearly being blasted due to a bomb the characters end up complaining about how scene sin movies are unrealistic in their portrayal of protagonist moving away from blast with no effect.

i would recommend this to people who have an affinity to the buddy cop action comedy genre, as it has all those aspects to enjoy that make this genre beloved.

68 movies down…………..432 to go.

see you soon

goodbye

Why Him? (2016)

every once in a while you need to watch bad film, to appreciate the good ones is something i say in my head often. I sit down to review this movie and Spoilers I didnt like it.

the movie is all about A family meeting the the boyfriend of Daughter for the first time and then getting to know that he is not just the boyfriend he is her fiance, something that the Dad doesn’t agree to. this is as simple as i need to express this movie for if you have been watching this genre of movies for a while you might have already come across many films with the father-vs.-fiancé formula done in different iterations, this just being one of them but in my opinion not the best one.

the family, made of the Father (Bryan Cranston – yes the same Breaking Bad one) the owner of the Printing company, the loving mother (Megan Mullally) their son (Griffin Gluck) among the first supporters of his sisters (Zoey Deutch) relationship with the fiance (James Franco) the eccentric tech millionaire, who dreams of becoming a family with them. the whole movie is about his actics that make him less disable to the father while showing enough charm to win approval of other members of the family. and how everything ends as happy ever after.

the movie which without is silly antics would have felt a bit more cohesive and simple maybe not great but more bearable than what it currently is. it felt like there was no reason for me to sit and watch this, to see the star of breaking bad seem so silly and mind you know Bryan Cranston is a great actor and also has experience with comedy but why choose this script it is so bland it humour derived by silly gags, James Franco just seemed his usual self as seem in alot of the comedy movies he has been the part of few years. though it is the usual thing you see in such movie, i guess it just something that didn’t gel with me.

67 movies down…………..433 to go.

see you soon

goodbye

Annabelle Comes Home (2019)

just as walked out of the theater, i saw the poster of the this movie just around the corner. feeling adventurous i walked up the counter and bought a ticket of the next show. as there was still a while to the movie to start i became to realise what i had done, i had bought a horror movie ticket, a genre i feel the lease my taste. mainly because being a scardy cat.

the simplest gist i can give of this movie is that the doll named Annabelle is kept in the basement of the famous Demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga), one time they plan to leave for another one of their missions. thus they arrange for a babysitter Mary Ellen (Madison Iseman) for their young girl child Judy Warren (Mckenna Grace). when the parents leave, Mary’s friends tags along Daniela (Katie Sarife), who has her own reasons to tag along as she knows of the parents occupation she thinks there might be some item in their basement that might help her reconnect with her deceased father. as the night progresses she sneaks into the basement and ends up opening the glass cabinet of containing the Cursed doll ‘Annabelle’. this becomes the catalyst into the house turning into a horror show and the girls trying to bring the doll back into the cabinet to stop the curse.

the acting wasn’t bad, they acted with the script demanded of them but that is all i can say to that, the one scene where it felt there was some charm was probably the initial contact with all the items inside the basement which later into the story play their own roles in scaring us.

the movie is not something i am big fan of, even to me it was hardly scary the film just packs itself nothing more of the random jump scares which get don’t cut the dread that the initial Conjuring Universe made use of. man i need to talk about those movies some day.

i trend i have seem to observe (cant be sure as i don’t watch enough horror to know exactly) is that of the heroic scenes that seems a bit to superheros than normal human type. this is something i first notices in a movie of this same universe ‘Nun’, its not that it cant be possible or its a bad scene to have but i problem lies with the fact how this scene gets implemented or incorporated such that it ruins the tense in an intense and breaks any chance of the tension or the horror to pay off..

66 movies down…………..434 to go.

see you soon

goodbye

Article 15 (2019)

generally movie going for me is a planned process, check the timing book the seats plan the day……..and lot more planning so it works out. it is very rare that i go for a movie impromptu, so rare that when i finally end up doing it last year i said why not a choose two movies at random in the theater and watch them …….first among them was

the 2019 Bollywood starring Ayushmann Khurrana, Manoj Pahwa, Nassar, Kumud Mishra, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and directed by Anubhav Sinha.

the movies is based on true events and still continue to happen in India mainly due to the caste system that even though abolish and prohibited by the constitution of India still has a prevalent impact in the rural regions of India as a ignored reality of India, that exists by never truly acknowledged. the movie begins with the a scene of 2 Dalit girls being ganged up by some guys in a bus, from here we are introduced to Ayan (Ayushmann Khurrana) who is newly posted as the Additional Superintendent of Police of the region. since his arrival into the town the caste discrimination among the residents is seem in various instances. the next morning the bodies of the 2 girls is found hanging for a tree, upon learning the they were gang raped and not murdered investigation is called upon yet the main staff of police are hesitant to go along with it and Brahmadutt Singh (Manoj Pahwa) the next in charge of the station tries to change the case into that of murder by honor killing as the girls were of a lower caste. as the story progresses we are told about the existence of a 3rd girl who might have survived and is missing this story thread is used to give some light at the end of such a murky tunnel. we get to know that the reason from this incident happening to the girls was just because they asked for a increase in wage of 3 rupees. the dishearted effort of the police into this case enrages Aryan who prompts to pin the Article 15 of the Indian Constitution on the billboard as a reminder to all the police officers to first and foremost be Indians and that any kind of caste discrimination is a criminal offence and continues to probe into the case.

hoping to find the 3rd girl and catch the culprit.

the high points of the movie for me was the tone, it held its serious tone all throughout the movie utilizing amazing cinematography by Ewan Mulligan to visually entice us in the scenes at the same time not brake the mood by utilizing the colour pallets of the scene with care. the cast did a splendid job especially, Manoj Pahwa whom i have only experiences with comedy to see him pull of such a twisted serious character made me really invested in his character arc, as for Ayushmann Khurrana let just say this was a movie he chose wisely as this movie showcased his range in acting by tackling a much serious subject matter and doing a great job in it.

this movie was defiantly among the better movies of last year.

65 movies down………..435 to go.

see you soon

alvida.

The Shape of Water (2017)

in 2017 after airing of Oscars a meme became prevalent in internet, that how how the academy best picture went to a movie where a lady sleeps with a fish, fishman to be accurate. it was all the buzz now that made me look forward to watching it, yet i didn’t immediately jump into it, now finally that i have let me share my thoughts

 At the 90th Academy Awards, it won for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Production Design, and Best Original Score. A movie that was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who is famous for his monster movies and honestly to me he is the only man i can think can make a movie like this.

the movie is about Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins), who works as a cleaner at a secret government laboratory in Baltimore, Maryland in 1962, at the height of the Cold War. Due to a wounds on her neck she has been mute since childhood and utilises sign language to communicate. being a person to keep to herself she only has 2 close colleagues,a Closeted next-door neighbor Giles (Richard Jenkins), a middle-aged struggling advertising illustrator, and her African American co-worker Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer). it just happens to be that in the secret facility they work in a mysterious creature captured from a South American river and Colonel Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon) is in charge of the project to study it. 

by accident Elisa ends up meeting the mysterious creature which turns out to be a Amphibian man (Doug Jones), a she starts visiting him often among them a special bond arises. Elisa upon hearing that the Creatures life was in danger smuggles it out of the facility to her home to keep him safe, waiting for the right time to take him to safety. this is where getting to know of the asset’s disappearance The colonel starts tracking them down. catching them at the canal where elisa was gonna release the amphibian man. a tussle ensues witch results in the creature an elisa getting shot here the am amphibian man uses his power to heal himself and kill the colonel, and takes Elisa to the sea and heals her.

the thing that bugs me about this movie, was how it won the best picture in Oscars, the thing that intrigued me to watch it in the first place. now i am not implying its not worthy it surly is worthy yet to me it feels to bland of a film to be the winner. it is well directed has amazing visual effects all such awards felt justified yet. overall the film never made me feel much for the character with each change in stakes and scenarios it felt predictable. now this all might be a personal taste in the matter but with other nomination’s like Dunkirk and Get Out in the list the result just didn’t sit well with me.

i had to add the pictures to showcase the grand visuals of the movie done in a practical manner, now a days when such creation often gets taken to the green screen Guillermo del Toro, having his experience as former special effects makeup artist, brings his creatures and their worlds with practical effects and makeups. and when seeing the movie with that in mind the movie seems unique and beautiful. A special kudos to the performance of Doug Jones in that costume and without words to bring a creature into reality.

64 movies down………..436 to go.

see you soon

good bye