MOVIE REVIEW

PREDESTINATION

Directors:  Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Writers: Michael Spierig, Peter Spierig
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Sarah Snook, Noah Taylor
Strength: Story, script and character development
Weakness: The plot develops quite slow
Runtime: 97 minutes
Rating: 3.5/5

Plot: The life of a time-traveling Temporal Agent. On his final assignment, he must pursue the one criminal that has eluded him throughout time.
Review:  This is not just classic sci-fi it is almost a classic play: fateful and tragic. That's the parting feeling. But it delivers so many genres on any level you care to enjoy it. The strength of this film is the characters and how well the writers have developed them. This is not a movie for those who are looking for action or intense time-travel based complexities, it's a character driven drama with some action that uses time travel to an incredibly complex character alive. The elegant, thought-provoking symmetry of the original short story is respected beautifully—but hats off to the directors for expanding it into a study of human self-identity. The movie uses fantasy within the realms of possibility to explore humanity in ways that a grounding in known reality cannot, and this film offers viewers a 'what if' so believably presented they can put themselves in that situation and question themselves in a way they normally never would. The only paradox here is the very real inescapable self of all of us and yet being so many different people throughout our lives. This is a must watch for movie buffs who enjoy relating to characters in movies, but beware, the bond developed may shock you in the end!

     Reviewed by Mohammad Haque

***

ACTION JACKSON

Director: Prabhu Dheva
Writer: A. C. Mugil
Casts: Ajay Devgn, Sonakshi Sinha, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Manasvi Mamgai, Yami Gautam
Runtime: 144 minutes
Strength: Good story and direction
Weakness: Lack of character development; takes darkness to an extreme level
Rating: 2.5/5
Plot: The movie begins with a woman calling her friend while in a car in a parking lot when all of a sudden her friend gets thrown onto her car and dies on the spot while she is yelling for help.
Review: Prabhu Dheva, seems to have gone all out to infuse every possible element in this film and has tried to mount it on the same canvas as that of WANTED, ROWDY RATHORE AND R... RAJKUMAR! The sad part is that this time round, he fails miserably and falls flat on his face. Going by the looks of it, it seems like Prabhu Dheva was in a tearing hurry to recreate the same magic of the aforementioned films. Despite ACTION JACKSON being a Bollywood film, the look and feel of the film is that of loud South Indian films. While the film drags in the first half endlessly, the second half too barely has anything in it to hold the audience's attention. The film has no script whatsoever and has been put together haphazardly on the editing table glued together which non-sensical graphics and animation.
As far as the performances are concerned, even the seasoned and ever dependable actor like Ajay Devgn couldn't save the film from drowning ever since the word go. The otherwise composed Ajay seems to be confused himself as to what exactly was being required of him to do in the film. There is hardly any element of Ajay Devgn which we haven't seen in his previous films. The same applies to Sonakshi Sinha, who seems to be repeating all of her previous acts in this film too. She appears in the first half and completely disappears until the climax. Yami Gautam has a sort of extended cameo and her character is just subject to unbearable violence with the goons bashing her up in every second scene. Sadly for the debutante Manasvi, this film does no good, as her character is shown to be plain psychotic to disturbing levels. The young actress is just made to play a bold part and do ample of skin show.
What's shocking is that, Prabhu Dheva, despite being an ace dancer and choreographer himself, wasn't able to help Ajay who seemed to be struggling with his dance steps. The film's editing has no logic or pattern.

Reviewed By Broti Rahman

***

Classic Review

MY LEFT FOOT (1989)

Director: Jim Sheridan
Writers: Shane Connaughton, Jim Sheridan
Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Alison Whelan
Runtime: 103 minutes
Plot: Christy Brown, born with cerebral palsy, learns to paint and write with his only controllable limb - his left foot.
Review: ''My Left Foot'' is an intelligent, beautifully acted adaptation of Christy Brown's first book, published in 1955, the initial chapter in a series of semi-autobiographical works in which he recalled his own most particular coming of age. At first he is so explicitly deformed that it seems rude to stare at him, which might be just the sort of reaction that Christy would use to gain an advantage over a stranger. Christy knows that he will always be different, but that doesn't prevent him from attempting to realize himself as completely as other men. How he does this, and at what cost, provides ''My Left Foot'' with its narrative shape. The film is a series of flashbacks from a gala benefit at which Christy is being honored and where he meets the young woman he will eventually marry. Despite being blunt and tough in its presentation of Christy's handicaps, it avoids any direct criticism of the handicapped world into which he is born, one in which his mother spends most of her time being pregnant, in which poverty is as likely to make the spirit ugly as beautiful and in which the church always has the last word. The fine supporting cast is headed by Brenda Fricker and Ray McAnally as Christy's parents, Ruth McCabe as the young woman Christy falls in love with, and Fiona Shaw as the doctor who is largely responsible for the education of the older Christy. It might have been even better if it had been even more caustic. That, however, would have been a different movie from the one that Jim Sheridan has directed from a screenplay written by him and Shane Connaughton, with the exemplary Daniel Day Lewis playing the adult Christy Brown and Hugh O'Conor playing Christy as a boy. With “My Left Foot”, writer/director Jim Sheridan haven't flinched from depicting the unhappiness and anger in Christy's life. But his rounded impression of the man leaves one with an overwhelming sense of the miracles in life and of this man's spirit.

Reviewed By S.M. Intisab Shahriyar