Meenakshi Rao's Bollywood and Hollywood movie reviews

Two night stand Starring:  Miles Teller, Analeigh Tipton, Jessica Szohr, Leven Rambin, Scott Mescudi Rated:  5/10 Had the pair not talked so much about sex and actually indulged in it practically, perhaps  Two Night Stand  would have been more entertaining. Stranded in the man’s apartment due to a freak snowstorm in Brooklyn, Megan decides to do the talking after a quick overnight tumble in bed with a total stranger lover whom she met on an online site just hours before the encounter. The sex talk, unlike the actual sex, dominates the entire movie but is hesitant and yet blatant, if you know what I mean. From the nether regions of the body to contractions and wet talk — nothing is left to the imagination. So much so that when Megan proposes to walk the talk, it comes as a relief to the viewers. As romantic ones go,  Two Night Stand  is sluggish, sometimes over the top with candidness and much too limited for a full-length feature film, like th...

Khoobsurat Starring:  Sonam Kapoor, Fawad Afzal Khan, Kirron Kher, Ratna Pathak, Aditi Rao Hydari Rated:  8/10 Sonam Kapoor is known to have just too many critics. But as the breezy motor mouth Dr Mili Chakravarty in  Khoobsurat , she turns in many converts. Other than her and Pakistan’s Fawad Khan as the dishy prince with awesome intensity,  Khoobsurat  is a perfectly Disney film — a fairytale love you fervently wish had been spun around you. It has everything you would have wanted in a sizzling romance — good humour, good chemistry, good humour and good amount of modernity. But, to compare Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s  Khubsoorat with this one in which director Shashank Ghosh spins a royal versus commoner tale, would be incorrect as both make an impact in varying ways. While Rekha was engaged in a delectable fight of  sare niyam tod do  with an uptight matriarch in Dina Pathak, here Sonam has not that daunting a task at hand and is more ab...

Daawat-E-Ishq Starring:  Aditya Roy Kapur, Parineeti Chopra, Anupam Kher, Sumit Gaddi Rated:  6.5/10 Love in the times of a culinary journey of discovery is somewhat new to Bollywood though  Chini Kum was the perfect way to launch these food genre movies in  desi land. In this one, the sassy and spicy Parineeti captivates you the same way as the Lucknawi and Hyderabadi food seduce you without any hope of saving calories. Staying in the bylanes of the old world Charminar area with her dazzlingly old father played to perfection by Anupam Kher, Gulroz  aka  Parineeti has a hangup for an American English speaking husband. All she gets are a string of losers high on dowry and low on esteem. Director Habeeb Faizal, who enjoyed instant stardom through his high octane drama  Ishaqzaade , impresses in this one too though you may be constrained to acknowledge that Parinidhi lends all the  tadka  to the proceedings alongside Mughlai chef Adi...

A Walk Among the Tombstones Starring : Liam Neeson, Dan Stevens, Boyd Holbrook, Sebastian Roché Rated : 6/10 It’s a been-there, done-that story but stands apart because of the unabashed way it portrays unbridled violence again women. Yes, a melancholic, always in regret Liam Neeson as private detective on the trail of unscrupulous and inhuman serial women killers gives the film weightage with his controlled acting, but the unmitigated torture of victims shocks without any plugs. Women here are being surveyed, assessed and picked up by two gay serial killers and thrown out literally in bits and pieces. The close-up of the terror that these hapless women go through runs a chill down your spine and makes you cringe in horror. Director Scott Frank has plunged into unspeakable torture visuals which get only enhanced, thanks to his cleverly deliberate props of acoustics and shrouded processes of killing. The tone of this crime thriller gets set with the visuals of a cemetery care...

The Maze Runner Starring:  Dylan O'Brien, Kaya Scodelario, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Will Poulter Rated:  5/10 Ever since  The Hunger Games  kind of young adult movies came into fashion, crazy edge-of-the-seat challenge bouts have sold like hot cakes. Though a wee bit different from this genre,  The Maze Runner qualifies for similarly formatted thrills though it has been propelled as a science fiction thriller. Battling amnesia and being popped up in the middle of nowhere in a lift which only goes upward and opens up to a box, Thomas arrives to a patch of land encircled by a high walled maze. And this maze is visited by mechanised monsters called grievers who look like botoxed spiders on a mission to kill. Thomas’ job is to beat this unending and mysterious maze and escape back to civilisation, something he soon realises is full of impossibilities, especially with the others like him not wanting to take any chances with their lives. Despite being peg...

Mardaani Starring: Rani Mukerji, Tahir Bhasin, Jisshu Sengupta Rated: 6.5/10 Mardaani  is an entirely gripping film on a raging social issue from the start to the end and it scores on all counts — from the engaging story, to the way it has been handled, to its no-nonsense approach, much like its no-nonsense lady cop in full-fledged action. From the OTT  Aiyya  to the much grounded and yet compelling  Mardaani,  the Rani Mukherji makeover was much awaited and, thus, enervating. She plays a Mumbai Police Crime Branch senior inspector Shivani Shivaji Roy with a firm grip on reality and comes with cop mannerisms that are perfect to a fault, so much so that even the  gaalis that she constantly throws around sit pretty on her persona. This is Rani’s first film release post her long awaited marriage to YRF’s Aditya Chopra who, incidentally, has produced  Mardaani.  Fortunately for her, and all her fans, the film and she make the right impact on...

The expendables III Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Jason Statham, Antonio Banderas, Wesley Snipes & others Rated: 5.5/10 Seventeen top Hollywood stars of ages ranging between 70 and 24, a lot of old world dry humour coating old world action, an attempt to train an entirely new crop for a possible  E4  and a whole lot of ‘remember, we did that in  E  and  E2  too without much of a story’ makes for the latest  Expendables  series. Sly as head of action mission, flies sometimes to Somalia, sometimes to Romania and sometimes around a prison in unnamed territory. He and his buddies have noticeably aged and he thinks most of them are expendable — not because he has had enough of them but because he needs to spare their lives in a one-way mission against former Expendable. And yes, at 68, he is still the super blink-less zombie he started off as when Rambo became a sensation. But that he feel...

MAD-MAD about dance Starring: Saahil Prem, Amrit Maghera, Akhilesh Unnithan, Abhishek Saha, Salah Benlemqawanssa Rated: 5/10 It’s a slow starter, actually a very slow starter, especially when you look at the title. But you see that tongue twister of a name in the credits above? He’s the guy — Salah Benlemqawanssa — who makes the film. But sadly for the film, he makes an appearance only towards the climax and lights it up as never before. But boy, he is a dancer from another world, seemingly without any bones in his body, compelling you to Google his antecedents, and boy, they are brilliant too. He can go parallel to the ground, standing on his feet, he can make you think that time has stood still, he can hang his body in a limbo and he can make you wonder if he at all is human in a conventional way. Yes, he is too good but too scant in the film which erroneously centres around chief character Sahil Prem, his passion to find his guru, his stay in Sheffield with his friends, his l...

Starring:  Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Amole Gupte, Dayanand Shetty, Anupam Kher Rated:  6/10 They are back — Rohit Shetty with his tribute to Mumbai Police, and Ajay Devgn with his  aata majhi satakli  kind of action sequences pegged on bulging muscles, roaring dialogues and a lion-hearted honesty that seems as amazing as his ability to throw men and cars and all else helter-skelter. Remember, this one is about brawn points and not brain bods. It is about being OTT with elan and calling it a larger than life depiction of a committed police force. It is also about having fun at the expense of the villains but that’s where the movie stops short of being shoulder to shoulder with the original  Singham . For here, in a much felt casting gaffe, there is no Prakash Raj. This sequel needed his brand of badness and buffoonery mix which is missing in his successors — this time an OTT  sadhu  and an alliance partner of a ruling party. Together, the...