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Firefly, the Cobra saboteur was one of the first action figures that I played with as a kid. So naturally I was quite interested in the new GI Joe movie that released sometime last month. The GI Joe franchise is seeing a revival of sorts, with a new updated comic book series picking up steam and this movie bringing GI Joe back to the big screen. The movie follows a plot by a power hungry corporation seeking to control global politics through the use of terrorism and advanced weaponry, and the efforts of an elite military unit to stop them.

The movie opens with a sort of back story for the McCullen clan, giving the origin of this clan of weapon traders and how the word “Destro” got linked with them. For newcomers to the GI Joe universe, Destro is the silver encased Cobra weapons designer who also heads the armaments company, MARS industries. The movie then cuts to a NATO meeting where James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), the current head of the McCullen clan and CEO of MARS industries presents his new nano-technology based warheads that can eat through metal, tanks and even entire cities. The movie then follows the efforts of a mysterious group led by the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun), which is later referred to as Cobra, to acquire the weapons and unleash mayhem on the world. Enter the elite Special Forces unit called GI Joe that is hell bent on stopping them, to ensure peace for all men and the protection of the American way of life. What follows are some pretty well executed action sequences, involving action in the heart of Paris, in an underground base and deep underneath the polar icecap. (more…)

I was browsing through trailers online when I realized that 2009 and early 2010 certainly have a lot in store. Here is a list of some of my picks of movies to watch out for:

Public Enemies
Public Enemies has Johnny Depp playing Depression era gangster, John Dillinger. Dillinger became quite famous (or was that notorious) because of his stylized bank heists, so much so that the FBI named him the “first” ever public enemy. The movie follows Dillinger’s exploits as his nemesis Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale)  attempts to catch him. Directed by Michael Mann  (Collateral and  The Kingdom), this promises to be a good cops and robbers caper. (more…)

Watched Eagle Eye recently. The movie looks at how everyday technology can be used in an nightmare scenario to track your every move. The movie follows Jerry Shaw (Shia LaBeouf) and Rachel Holloman (Michelle Monaghan) who are forced to follow orders by a mysterious voice on the phone, all the while being tracked by traffic cameras, cell phone signals and other everyday equipment we take for granted. Their goal seems to be part of a terrorist plot to eliminate the chain of command in the US. Later on it is revealed that the voice is in fact the computer “eagle eye”, acting on its interpretation of its programmed goals. This was the most pleasant surprise for me, because I kind of expected the usual terrorists-vs-lone-hero kind of movie. The AI computer bought a nice sci-fi touch to the entire movie. The construction and motivation of the “Eagle eye” AI, Ariia is reminiscent of HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey. I found that aspect the most interesting in the movie. Overall its a decent one time watch.

Watched a movie in a theater after a really long time. Little Zizou is funny, charming little comedy set in Mumbai in the Parsi community.  The movie follows the exploits of two brothers Xerxes, who is convinced that his mother is an angle in heaven who will send Zinedine “Zizou” Zidane to visit him and his brother Artaxerxes, who dreams of building a flight simulator, harbors a crush on the girl next door and narrates most of the movie through panels in his zany “graphic novel” (or comic book as his younger brother calls it). Throw in a crazy father, Boman Irani for a neighbor and you have one fast paced comedy that has you laughing from the first frame. The movie also features guest appearances by Kamal Sidhu, John Abraham, Kunal Vijaykar and Cyrus Broacha. I found the movie total “paisa Vasool” (even at weekend multiplex rates). Do go and watch it, it will brighten up your day.

Just saw Journey to the Center of the Earth. Was expecting it to be an adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel, was pleasantly surprised when it was not. The movie works on the premise that what Verne wrote in his novel was not fiction but fact, which in my opinion was an interesting take to adapting the novel for the big screen. Thanks to this novel plot device, at least the  plot could be suitably bought kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The acting was decent with Breandan Fraiser playing somewhat of a “Mummy”ish character. The movie is decent fun, worth a watch.

I just watched Max Payne, and boy was it bad. The movie is based on the hit videogame of the same name. The game was a noirish take at undercover cop Max Payne’s investigations into the seedy, drug fuelled underbelly of the city. The movie stars Mark Walhberg as Max Payne, an cop doing a dead end job in the Police HQ basement. Secretly, he is trying to solve the murder of his wife, a prominent researcher at a major pharmacuetical firm. The investigation leads him deep into the city’s darker lanes into a conspiracy involving a street drug called Valkyir, Russian mobsters and creatures in the dark.

The acting sucks as well as the script. The only redeeming feature is the extremely stylized production value. The screen world of Max Payne is very enchanting, I only wish that the story did justice to it.

Watched a DVD of Bangkok Dangerous last night. The new Nicholas Cage action flick is possibly one of the most cliched “hitman” flicks I have seen of late. Still in spite of that the movie does have its moments. The plot follows Joe, a seemingly faceless assassin to Bangkok. Joe wants to do one last job and fade away into the crowds. The Bangkok job involves four hits and a lot of cash which is retirement money for Joe. Following his rules, Joe recruits a local pickpocket called Kong (yes, it doesn’t get funnier than this) to act as his go-between and contact the local mafia that hired him. Everything seems to be going as planned, when Joe executes his first hit flawlessly. However, Joe soon begins to violate his own unwritten code and develop a relationship with a local deaf-mute girl. To top that, the mafia wants a very sensitive target eliminated in the last hit and is curious to know the hitman’s identity, lest he botch the last hit and spill the beans.

The movie isn’t bad per se, just horribly cliched with almost every hitman cliche thrown at your face. The action set pieces and the hits are well shot and so the film does have its moments. Collateral (2004) and Matador (2005), movies on a similar theme were much better in my opinion. Still the film’s worth just about a watch.

PS: Me thinks this movie has excellent remake potential in Hindi. I can almost see a movie being made titled “Mumbai Dangerous”, directed by Sanjay Gupta. The movie cast would include Joe (Sanjay Dutt) and Kong(Ritesh Deshmukh). The club dancer being played by Katrina Kaif and the deaf mute girl played by Simone Singh. And for the bad guys, Sharat in the movie bears an uncanny resemblance to Sharad Saxena. And since quite a bit of movie is in a night club, excellent potential for an item number. What say Bollywood ?