Vettai movie review

The plot is set in Tuticorin and we have 2 brothers who are diametrically opposite to each other. While the elder one Thirumurthy is a timid man who fears everything, the younger one, Gurumurthy is a fearless bloke who doesn't mind getting into a hustle now and then.

Thiru incidentally gets into the police force after his father's death and he is helped by his brother while dealing with the rogues and rowdy elements in town, in the form of Mari and Annachi. The brothers get hitched to a pair of sisters. The elder pair's is an arranged marriage while the younger pair fall in love and get married later.

Thiru gains the respect of his colleagues and family due to his brother's timely 'action' interventions. The villains are baying for his blood and they eventually find out that Thiru is actually a timid guy and they bash him to pulp. Then with his younger brother's encouragement, Thiru turns a new leaf. It is like a rebirth and he goes around town wrecking havoc on the villains in his new 'action' avatar.

After a cliched climax where the brothers' wives are also dragged in, the villains are hunted and the 'vettai' is complete.

Hits

• The movie moves lightheartedly for the majority of the first half and it is enjoyable till then. Maddy and Arya bond well with their comic timing and their contrasts in character. In the second half when Arya and Amala play around with the NRI groom, it is entertaining too, thanks to the NRI guy's artificial accent and antics. 
• Amala Paul is really fresh and has a long career ahead. She carries off any costume gracefully and emotes well too. 
• Sameera goes overboard at times but is decent as the talkative and bold elder sister.
• The camera work by Nirav Shah makes the film look glossy. 
• The scene where Ajith's Mankatha intro scene comes on screen, sends the crowd into frenzy. The mini cameo by Jiiva on screen in the movie Ko is another mini-highlight. 

Misses

• The villains are cliched and are a caricature with their loud voices, stale punch dialogs, long hair, unkempt beard etc etc. For how long will this continue? 
• Whenever the movie becomes serious and action oriented, the audience mocks. Such is the formulaic treatment. The climax in particular is a major drag and is totally stale. The scene where Maddy gets up from the wheel chair seeing his brother getting hit, is hilarious and silly. Unintentionally funny scenes galore. 
• Arya and Maddy hardly look convincing in action and Maddy sucks during his dance in the opening number. 
• The BGM by Yuvan is a major letdown. 

Comments

• Average songs which have been placed just for sake to fill time. Kattipudi is the pick of the lot. 

VERDICT

The light hearted scenes make the movie watchable while there are lot of unintentionally funny scenes as well. Half baked hunt. 

Nanban movie review

Nanban is a faithful remake of '3 Idiots'. The essence of the original is totally preserved. The only feeling of redundancy is due to the fact that the original was such a widely accepted classic. Nanban has been beautifully enacted by the likes of Sathyaraj, Sathyan, Jiiva and last but not the least the ever youthful, handsome 'king of the masses' Ilayathalapathy Vijay.

The message of the movie is to see education as a holistic concept and not as just mere marks and ranks. Panchavan Parivendan is one such brilliant student for whom science and machines are a passion. He despises the system and enrages the college dean Virumandi aka 'Virus' with his brilliant antics. His 2 friends Senthil and Venkat struggle at engineering due to fear and misplaced passion, respectively.

Pari helps his friends at all times and shows them a direction in their life and career. There is a nerdy idiot 'Silencer' who is always on the lookout to pull Pari down. Then we have Ria, the dean's daughter who falls for Pari and Ria's pregnant sister who delivers her baby with the help of Pari

There is a suspense behind Pari's identity which is a shock to everyone concerned, a pleasant one at that. As the movie ends, there is an overwhelmingly positive feeling and everyone is happy. "Aal iiz well" as they say ...

Hits

• Vijay's youthful screen presence. He looks a million bucks and his 'spiked' makeover in the climax is a 'sixer'. He is capable of understated emotions and he shows that again. His comic timing is also perfect. Not much scope for dance and zero scope for fights. The king of the masses has bowled over the entire audience spectrum with Nanban. His costumes are casual and envious. 
• Sathyaraj and Sathyan are brilliant and they are supposed to irritate yet, make us smile. These talented actors have delivered spotlessly. Lot of awards up for grabs for Sathyaraj in particular. Jiiva comes into his own in the 2nd half while Srikanth is a limited actor not capable of anything special.  
• The casting is perfect. Actors who play the various parts have matched the original actors in every aspect. Vasanth Vijay scores very well in his brief cameo that makes the heart heavy. 
• Among the songs, 'En Frienda Pola', 'Heartiley Battery', 'Endhan Kan Munne' hit the bulls eye. 

Misses

• The majority of the movie happens between 1997-2001. No care has been taken in this aspect. People use the term Chennai freely when it was only Madras back then. The cars, the brands shown in the movie didn't even exist back then. We expect perfection from Shankar
• Harris Jeyaraj's BGM is a major letdown for most of the movie.

Comments

• The feeling of seeing a Shankar movie comes only during the cheekily shot Asku Laska song. The original movie is such. 
• Ileana and Anuya play their parts in a male dominated movie. Ileana is cute, anorexic and her much hyped waist isn't special. 
• The longest Thamizh movie in recent history. Though not boring. At least the long drawn out delivery scene in the climax could have been trimmed. 

VERDICT

A faithful remake and a blockbuster treat for the entire family after a long time. 

Van Wilder 2: The Rise of Taj (2006)

Van Wilder's former assistant Taj Badalandabad goes to Camford University in England, with his dog Balzac, to complete his doctorate. He leads a house of losers who don't have self confidence. He renames the house as 'Cock and Bulls' and they compete with the other houses in the college. 'Fox and Hounds' led by Pip, is one particular house that despises Taj and his group.

In the end, Taj inspires his house to victory in the Hasting's Cup comprising contests like quiz, fencing, dog show, guzzling, badminton etc. He also wins over Charlotte, Pip's girlfriend and his parents are proud of him.

Hits

• Some genuinely funny moments during the quiz and the dog show.
• The heroine Lauren Cohan is seriously hot and enticing. Intoxicating beauty.

Comments

• There is a whole lot of skin, fun and parties in the movie
• Kal Penn is passable as the lead hero. He worked better as the assistant of Van in the first part.

VERDICT

Worth a watch once, for some harmless time-pass. 

Traffic (2000)

The movie is about the war on drugs between the United States and Mexico. Mexico is the major supplier and the drug cartel is controlled by 2 major gangs in the city of Tijuana – the Obregon brothers and the Juarez cartel.

Javier and Manolo are 2 cops in Mexico who are involved in nabbing the drug traffickers. General Salazar secretly works for the Juarez cartel and he uses these 2 cops for his purposes. The DEA is later informed by Javier about Salazar’s involvement in the drug cartel and the general is packed off to prison. Manolo is unfortunately killed by the General’s men after Manolo thinks of informing the DEA. 

Meanwhile, Judge Robert Wakefield is appointed the Drug Czar in the US and he takes a lot of proactive steps to control the situation. But, his daughter Caroline herself is a drug addict. The judge has to keep track of her as well as handle the situation on a country level.  

Ray and Montel are 2 cops who work in the US and they keep a watch on drug dealer Eduardo Ruiz to get hold of the big shots who are involved. One such Carlos Ayala is arrested and Ruiz agrees to testify against him. Helena is the pregnant wife of Carl and she takes all possible steps to free her husband and she succeeds in the end. Ruiz is killed just before he goes to testify.

The judge understands that this war is too tough to tackle on a macro level when his own near and dear ones are involved.

Hits

• Multilayered, many characters and seamlessly integrated. Very complex yet gripping stuff
• The issue that is being addressed is very critical and the movie is highly detailed.
• The camera is very jerky and symbolizes the chaos on the streets of Mexico.
• The ensemble cast is terrific be it Michael Douglas as the high profile judge who has many problems to tackle, Don Cheadle as the strong bald cop who handles Ruiz, Benicio Del Toro as the honest Mexican cop, the hugely voluptuous Catherine Zeta Jones as the pregnant wife who goes to any lengths to save her husband etc. All the other characters like cop Manolo, drug addicts Seth and Caroline, cop Ray and Eduardo Ruiz are very realistically performed.

Comments

• Salma Hayek has the most minuscule role possible.

VERDICT

A critical issue beautifully addressed by Steven Soderbergh. One of the landmark movies on the war against drugs. 

21 (2008)

Ben Campbell is a brilliant student from MIT who does part time jobs to fulfill his dream of getting into Harvard Medical School. His brilliance is the talk of the school and soon, Micky Rosa his professor offers him a chance to earn big money by counting cards in the casinos of Las Vegas.

There are a team of 4 other students who are already in, including Jill. Jill and Ben are in love with each other. Initially it is all rosy but slowly betrayal, greed and lust for money set in. Ben loses his friends and rubs Micky the wrong way.

Finally, Ben manages to resurrect his life even though he loses all the money he earned. He impresses Harvard and gets in through the Robinson scholarship.

Hits

• The science behind counting cards, the strategies involved, the signs, the terms etc. are quite fascinating. Very engaging movie. 
• As usual, the scenes of celebration at Vegas are awe-inspiring. 
• All the performers have a role to play with Kevin Spacey being the only known face. 

VERDICT

Engaging movie about card counting and how youngsters are lured by big money. 

The Ides of March (2011)

Stephen Meyers works for the democratic presidential candidate Governor Mike Morris. Stephen is a very smart man and is loyal to his colleague, friend and mentor Paul. Stephen is lured to work for the Republican candidate but, he stays put on Paul's side. He also has a thing going with Molly, an intern at his campaign office.

As time passes, he comes to know of the true colors of the people around him. The people whom he respected aren't as true as what he believed them to be. He is drawn into a big conspiracy theory and is thrown out of his job by Paul. 

Stephen then compromises on the very values he stood by all along. In the end, he is also sucked into political games and is forced to manipulate to get the top job all to himself

Hits

• Very serious political drama with an ensemble cast. Ryan Gosling leads the way with Philip Seymour Hoffman and George Clooney chipping in. 
• The movie is unwavering and never loses focus. 

VERDICT

A political drama all the way. Unwavering and focused effort by George Clooney. 

I saw the Devil (2010)

The movie is about a serial killing psychopath and how a secret agent takes revenge on him. The serial killer generally targets young girls, rapes them and kills them brutally. He does the same to the secret agent's pregnant fiancee. The entire police force is in shock.

The secret agent takes leave from the force for 2 weeks, follows the killer around using GPS and a mike and uses the most brutal methods to extract revenge on the killer who doesn't mellow down till the very end.

Hits

• The 2 lead actors are menacing in their own way. While the serial killer is manic the hero is cold blooded. Both of them are relentless in their pursuits.
• The thriller is well made. Location wise, lighting wise and the other aesthetics. 

Comments

• Too gory and bloody. Quite sick
• There is one highly explicit rape scene
• The movie is quite slow moving. Could have been crisp. The revenge saga is long drawn out.

VERDICT

Decent serial killer movie which could have been crisper and less gory.