Kick-Ass 2 provides some repsite

It's been a rather dull time ever since the magic of the land of Oz has started fading and reality of this world has started swimming back (yeah, yeah, I know it's been like just four days). The wizard, the trio of witches, the flying monkey, the China girl, all are being missed. There is nothing grand waiting for me this weekend, so that adds to the boredom. There hasn't been much in terms of movie related news too. So when I read that the first Kick-Ass 2 trailer has been released, I could do nothing to stop the grin from appearing on my face. 

Kick-Ass was refreshing, the name itself is refreshing. The movie, based on comics with the same name, had its own take on what a masked hero is, or what it can be. The story was more human-ish in its approach. And it got loads of youngsters all hooded and suited up to... kick ass! If the trailer of Kick-Ass 2 is anything to go by, we gonna get a lot of the same. Chloe Grace Moretz grabbed much of the attention in the first and she would be a treat to watch as Hit Girl in the sequel as well. But the surprise element here is none other than Jim Carrey! The guy is known best for a peculiar comic style of his. But in Kick-Ass 2 he plays Colonel Stars and Stirpes, someone who is building a bunch of superheroes. And while his character appears no less wacky than the more memorable roles he has played in the past, this time there seems to be an intelligence to his wackiness. Readers of the comics would be a better judge of the justice Carrey has done to the character, but as someone who would be entering the cinema hall ignorant, I have a feeling that this is going to be entertaining! 

As he says in this trailer... "Try to have fun. Otherwise, what's the point?" So try to have fun as you watch and enjoy the trailer of Kick-Ass 2. Oh, it's a red-band trailer by the way. Make a note of that. 

The disaster of too many hangovers

Stop this hangover, is what I would like to scream! No, it ain't the hangover after having too many a drinks that I am suffering from. It is the headache that has crept into me after watching  the trailer of The Hangover Part III, stated to be and hopefully would be the last of the series. The Hangover released about four years back, won a lot of hearts, played a big role in pushing Bradley Cooper towards the A-star list, made people learn to pronounce the name of Zach Galifianakis, and emerged as one of the best R-rated comedy movies of its time. It has a wonderful 7.8 rating on Imdb and went on to make loads of money in USA and abroad. Life became wonderful for many. Amen! The problem is that once the studio sees lots of money on the floor, it starts hallucinating and sees it double and triple effortlessly. All you need to do is release the same movie again and add a 2 next to it, right? So they released The Hangover Part II and many poor blokes like me went into those dimly lit theatres expecting yet another intelligent movie filled with comic events. All the movie gave me were a few laughs scantily spread, and an annoyance on the destruction of the beauty of the first movie. The Imdb rating too fell to 6.5 for the sequel. But the problem (and not for the studios  lay that it still made money, in fact more than the first in worldwide revenues. 

So some guy at the top in the studio must have called some guy below chirping 'we want more money for I need to purchase the latest Porsche. Let's roll out another one, whether there is a script or not.' Now I am not being forced to watch this movie, so what exactly is my problem? It is two-fold. One, many years from now when someone will ask me whether or not to watch The Hangover, I will have to categorically state that watch the first one and not the others, and thus waste my time in a mundane talk where a simple nod would have sufficed. Two, and more importantly, you have robbed a spot in the prime period for movie releases, a slot in May, which could have gone to something far better and deserving. A weekend without a movie it is likely to turn out to be for me, for I have kept myself away from adding The Hangover Part III  to my watchlist.

The teaser trailer has done nothing to change my mind. Where is the hangover part? What is the plot about? Why the secrecy or is this a spy film? The jokes hardly brought a giggle out of me. The only part I liked was when they stated that this is the 'epic conclusion' to the series. Maybe the full trailer would provide some shape to the plot, if it has any. Maybe the best jokes have been hidden away for later. Maybe it would not disparage the brilliant story-telling style that the first movie explored. Maybe.. oh forget it, I for one am not keeping my fingers crossed! And no links to the trailers here. Would be better if you gave it a skip. 

More from Oz and the demise of Jack

I am still fluttering around in the magical world of Oz. The more I think of it, the more cool connections I locate neatly woven into the fabric of the script. The homage paid by the movie to the works of L. Frank Baum and the movie The Wizard of Oz is well known by now. Beyond that, there are some neat parallels and yet contrasts drawn between the period in Oz's life in Kansas (which would be the black-and-white part of the movie) and his life as the Wizard in the land of Oz. The most obvious one is the character of Annie who appears at the circus in Kansas and then Glinda, the Good Witch, both of whom have been portrayed by Michelle Williams. But the more selfish Oz lets go of Annie's love in search of his own greatness while the transformed Oz is told by Glinda that he has displayed something beyond greatness, which is 'goodness'. A bit cheesy maybe, but these scenes happen at such ends of the movie, that they kind of showcase the whole transformation that Oz has gone through in this adventure. 

The more interesting analogies are the other two characters in Sam Raimi's movie. Remember Zach Braff says to Oz early on that he is the only friend that Oz has, to which Oz replies that Zach is nothing but a trained monkey? Guess what, the monkey who assists Oz in the land of Oz has been voiced by Zach Braff himself and in the end Oz offers him 'something that I have not offered anyone before'... his friendship! Ahh, a tear for that! And then there is the China Girl. After Oz discovers her with her legs broken, he delicately fixes them and helps her back on her feet so she can walk again. And what had he not been able to do early on in Kansas? Bingo! Oz could not do the same feat with the girl in the chair who said she believed in him and wanted him to make her walk again. To tie these two together, the girl in the chair is Joey King herself, the one who voices the China Girl, thereby displaying the differences Oz made in the land of Oz which he failed to do so in his previous life. Seemingly minor connections, these are the little things that add to the charm of such a movie, and provide further credence to the running theme of the movie without blatantly stating it out. This is another artistic manner of expressing things, which appear delightful in a properly conceived movie as the Oz the Great and Powerful.  

On another side is the story of Jack the Giant Slayer which is witnessing a gigantic crash in its second weekend, largely due its own doing and also not helped by the release of Oz the Great and Powerful this weekend. Jack this year is what John was last year, and by John, I mean John Carter. Made on huge production budgets and released in March, both these movies have drilled massive holes in the pockets of its producers and distributors. While I still liked John Carter and its portrayal of Mars and the alien set of creatures, it lacked a tighter screenplay and no real star-power to justify the astounding $250 million production budget. Jack the Giant Slayer though does not even feel like a movie where close to $200 million has been spent on its making! It has recovered a partly $34 million in the first weekend (USA) and a Friday-to-Friday dip of 67% as the second weekend begins, is the last thing the producers would have wanted to hear about. John Carter in its complete theatrical run had managed $73 million in USA and another $210 million in other countries (but remember that the proceeds would be split by the theatres and the studios in almost an equal ratio), and seeing the progression of Jack the Giant Slayer, it is going to fall short even of these figures by quite a margin. Tells you that create the giants as big as you want, a good movie these do not always make! 

Oz the Great and Powerful: It is magical once again!

Happiness! I can feel it once again now. Oh, how you have eluded me so far this year, to emerge momentarily and then fade away... but such was not the case tonight. A joyful smile was planted on my face from quite early on and it remained there more or less throughout the next two hours, to be substituted at times by muffled gasps or roaring laughter. Oz the Great and Powerful is the kind of film that the year needed to get things roaring forward, picturesque, adventurous, magical and fun-laden. For the ones completely unaware of the origins of the tale, the movie acts as a prequel of sorts to the story told in the classic novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz written by L. Frank Baum (and hence James Franco in the movie is working with the circus called 'Baum Brothers Circus'!), published in 1900, which led to the highly popular movie of 1939 titled The Wizard of Oz. While Baum's story was about the adventures of a young girl from Kansas, Dorothy, who seeks the help of the mysterious Wizard of Oz in her pursuit to reach back home, Oz the Great and Powerful explores the origin of the Wizard himself, who he really was, how did he end up in the land of Oz, what adventures led to the people of Oz believing in him, and so forth. The idea is a delightful one to explore for it could be equivalent to someone a hundred years from now filming a movie on the adventures of Harry Potter's parents! The key is how well do you execute it. 

Thankfully, Sam Raimi does not do what Bryan Singer did with Jack the Giant Slayer, that is simply take up a popular story and paste it against a large landscape. Sam Raimi works with a more elaborate and intriguing storyline which tries to bring out the changes that James Franco's character, the to-be Wizard of Oz who is also nicknamed Oz, goes through, from being a conman looking for greatness to becoming a good man who starts caring for others too. The plot pays a number of homages to the original novel and the subsequent movie of 1939. So you have the opening Kansas scene in black-and-white mode which shifts to colour once James Franco lands in Oz and you have the scene with the lion getting scared easily to which the Wizard shouts after him to get courage (the Cowardly Lion was one of the creatures accompanying Dorothy to meet the Wizard of Oz in the original book). These teeny-tiny additions are what make such tales more appealing. And as I have not seen the 1939 film, I am sure I have missed out on quite a few more references. 

There is no dearth of characters in this movie, reminding you at times of the elaborate manner in which Disney came out a few years back with another one of the classic story reincarnations, Alice in Wonderland. Interestingly, L. Frank Baum himself is said to have been inspired to a degree by Lewis Carroll's writings, and to see such large budget movies being released on stories related to works of these two great writers, reinvigorates faith in one thing... classics fade not with time! James Franco as the central character has a lot riding on his shoulders and his charm is what makes the magic of the wizard work. Be it his wide grins when in a tight spot, or his impassioned speech when he talks of achieving greatness, or the emergence of his empathetic side when he is the last hope for many, James Franco manages to sell the 'conman with a heart' part quite well. He had big boots to fill too for his role was initially offered to Robert Downey Jr. and then to Johnny Depp, and you could so easily see one of them as the Wizard, for what these two have mainly in common is truckloads of charm. 

And as for every wizard one can expect a witch, Oz the Great and Powerful delights us with three. Rachel Weisz as Evanora for me steals the show amongst the witches with her effortless performance. She's a pro after all! Mila Kunis as Theodora is the one who falls for the Wizard's charms and it is only in the second half of the movie she really comes alive. Michelle Williams steps into the movie after half of it is over, but she fits the role of Glinda perfectly. Talking too much of the witches would ruin the tale though for with them lies much of the mystery. Two of the unexpected highlights of the movie are Finley the flying monkey voiced by Zach Braff (he's no Superman!) and the China Girl voiced by Joey King. They have some of the funniest lines and also the tenderest moments of the movie. And while the magic is there to be delivered, it is the production design of Oscar-winner Robert Stromberg, who has worked before on Avatar and Alice in Wonderland, that adds to the vow factor, making the movie a visual treat, especially if you are lucky enough to watch it in the Imax format. The exquisite creatures created for the land of Oz, the beautiful recreation of the Emerald City and the wide-angle shots taken, simply add to the flavour. 

Oz the Great and Powerful though falls short in transcending from an enjoyable lovely film to a great classic film, because of the manner in which the story progresses. It gets a bit bumpy at times, moving too quickly and then a bit slowly. The progression in James Franco's character is the key ticking point here, and the pace of this metamorphosis in him should have been the pace of the movie, which at times isn't. But my complaints are limited for after all I started writing with the words 'happiness' and to that I shall stick. Made on a production budget of $200 million, Oz the Great and Powerful  earnings would no doubt be compared to the box-office smashing Alice in Wonderland. An $80 million opening weekend in USA is the latest estimate which would be shy of the $116 million that Alice in Wonderland had garnered in its first weekend. But strong worldwide revenues is what movies bank on nowadays, and if Oz the Great and Powerful can get anywhere close to the $690 million made by Alice in Wonderland outside USA, then that would very well turn out to be the biggest show of the Wizard of Oz! 

Woes of finding a movie mate!

The trouble with getting the right sort of group to watch a movie with is something I have had to grapple with for quite some time. The problem usually is that for many it is 'just' a movie. So that entire plan that you make for the evening of a weekend is not only about the movie. It is not about reaching a little early, checking out the posters, getting inside the theatre on time to be greeted with trailers of up-coming movies and then make yourself comfortable to watch the feature film undisturbed, when you no longer remember who you came with, but know only what is being showcased on the screen. No, it is not about this sanctity with which you watch a movie, for many. It is about creating an elaborate plan that involves meeting at eating spots before the movie, it is about deciding the things to do once the show is over, it is about not worrying whether you are a a minute or twenty late for the movie, and it is about considering which flavour of popcorn and kind of coffee to have in the intermission.  

Now I do not mind being with a boisterous group if I go to watch Hangover. A friend to chit chat with during one of the Fast & Furious movies is also fine. But don't nudge me when I am watching The Dark Knight. Don't ruin my moment of being part of history when I am deeply immersed in Lincoln. And once I step out of The Hobbit, I care not where everyone wants to go, for I have just been part of an epic adventure. That is what movies are about, right? Experiencing emotions, most of which I probably have not felt till now. Living experiences that I have not created on my own. Being part of a story which pulls me in and keeps me there for those 120-odd minutes when my other life holds little meaning. It is not 'just' a movie. It would never have been a multi-billion dollar industry if it had been 'just' something. While each movie has a story unfolding in front of you, there is usually a story unraveling behind it. Providing jobs to so many. Providing an artistic outlet to a gifted few. Creating its own rags-to-riches stories. It is the unwise who dismiss the power of a movie. The power of great story-telling!

But for many this wisdom will not dawn anytime soon. Hence I tend to ignore the masses, keep away from the crowds when I step in to watch a movie that would probably light my eyes up. And once the lights of the theatre fade and it is only the huge screen that is lit, there is no other world left, not even me. It is just the pure magic of story-telling. Experience it this way once. Step into that theatre alone, willing to let yourself be swept away by the enchantment of a wonderful movie. I assure you, you will discover an unadulterated pleasure, unique in its kind. And movie watching shall never be the same again... 

To: Mr. Tony Stark

"So why... can't I sleep?" Well, Mr. Tony Stark, the reason I cannot sleep is because you are donning the stylish and elegant red and gold suit of Iron Man for the fourth time. I cannot sleep because Ben Kingsley who once won an Oscar for his portrayal of the leader of a non-violent movement, is looking chillingly cold and menacing as Mandarin. I cannot sleep because Don Cheadle is looking the true patriot in his striped suit with more screen time appearing on the cards. I cannot sleep because Gwyneth Paltrow is appearing so vulnerable that she requires your protection and yet I expect her defiance to kick in. 

Am I not clear yet? I find sleep hard to come by because the latest trailer of Iron Man 3 has given me so much to look forward to. I find sleep hard to come by because April 25 is so near and yet seems so far away. I find sleep hard to come by because I expect Iron Man 3 to once again ponder on the age-old question about the suit/cape that a superhero wears: whether this blessing becomes a curse eventually if you stick to it too long!? Whether the suit defines the man or the man defines the suit!? 

I am not able to sleep, Mr. Stark, because already I am wondering about the various possibilities that your next movie would open up for the Avengers 2 storyline. I am not able to sleep because I am preparing myself to catch on the subtle remarks that would be made about the other superheroes in your universe. I am not able to sleep because I am worried about the questions being floated around, on how long would Robert Downey Jr. wear the Iron Man's armour. 

So there are enough reasons, Tony, for me to be left deprived of sleep. None that you would understand for you live in a different world, being a billionaire and saving lives as a superhero, all served in a single dish. You got a lot going on in your life. So I wish you well! Get him, Tony, get Mandarin, save your girl. Come April and I'll be rooting for you. And if there ever comes a time when the burden is too much for you to take, just hand me a suit and I shall fight beside you right till the end...

So where the heck is Guy Ritchie?

Guy Ritchie to me for quite a long time was more recognizable as Madonna's husband. For a brief period after his divorce, he was Madonna's ex-husband. Being the husband of such a popular pop diva, for some reason did not make me think too highly of the man. Catch me stereotyping here, but I could imagine him carrying the diva's bags with a smile planted on his face, happy about the lucky break in his life. I could not have been more naive! In my defence, if there is one, I had only seen Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, before and while I had enjoyed the film from start to finish, I could never imagine the director Guy Ritchie being the same Guy Ritchie whom I thought of nothing more than Madonna's hubby. A few years back, I saw Snatch. Then I saw Sherlock Holmes. In 2011, I saw the sequel, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows. I profusely apologise to Guy Ritchie for ever judging him. The guy is a genius! 

Imagine, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels was Ritchie's first full length feature film. That's a bullseye to start with! Next came Snatch. That's like hitting again the same spot that you hit with your first shot. Both these movies which have been written by Ritchie (the Genius) himself have a very special style when it comes to the screenplay. The stories are largely gangster movies, filled with numerous characters that get caught in the mayhem of activities, eventually leading to a unique blend of humour and violent action, intertwining with each other. The beauty of both these movies lay in the style with which characters entered and exited the short stories running within a larger story effortlessly, keeping your brain cells active all the time as you grapple with the shifting of gears within the story. It is Ritchie the writer here that impressed me the most, than Ritchie the director, though the latter did nothing less than a fantastic job on these movies too! The part where they created a unique accent to Brad Pitt's character in Snatch is simply a masterstroke.  

Two duds followed next, Swept Away starring wife Madonna (who will be referred to as Ritchie's ex) and Revolver. RocknRolla released in 2008 to relatively better reviews and results. It is probably this 8-year period after Snatch where Ritchie could not match the brilliance of his previous creations, that have been the hurdle for the guy reaching a step higher in the director rankings. He seems to be making up for lost ground though. Sherlock Holmes again saw Ritchie achieve commercial and critical success, but this was not the same old Ritchie anymore. Call him maybe a refined one. He took one of the greatest literary characters of all times, cast an actor who too is making up for lost ground, and added his own touch of magical herbs to the broiling pot, creating his version of the ace detective while keeping the outlandishness of the original alive. Two years later, came the sequel, with the same results. Guy Ritchie was truly back in the game!

So where is Guy Ritchie now? Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows released in late 2011, which is more than an year back now. Imdb shows Guy Ritchie's next directorial feature film as The Man from U.N.C.L.E. with no release year or casting details, though the trivia section says George Clooney had to drop out due to health problems. Wikipedia page on Guy Ritchie does not even feature this movie. Rather it talks about the possibility of a sequel to RocknRolla titled The Real RocknRolla. If you dig a bit further, Ritchie has already written the script for it but there is no further activity. If you really cannot give up and start googling, Guy Ritchie has been brought in by Warner Bros to direct an adaptation of the classic book Treasure Island. So which one is going to come up next? And what about Sherlock Holmes 3? Surely in this age of sequels and sequels of sequels, you are not going to 'let be' such a popular franchise. Or are you? I am as stumped as the one next door. I have no preferences at the moment and am just waiting for Ritchie to announce his next movie and resolve this mystery. Whichever it turns out to be, it would be interesting to see the transition that he makes, after successfully evolving from an indie movie maker to a big studio backed director. Can he now solidify his stature, and make people look forward to seeing the next Guy Ritchie movie? I certainly think so. But then I am always the optimist, aren't I? Fingers crossed!