The Hundred-Foot Journey

Most of you may have noticed that all the movies that I've reviewed so far have one thing in common- they are all either action or adventure or science-fiction. But not today. Today, I'm reviewing The Hundred-Foot Journey, a heartwarming story about a young Indian chef in France as he struggles to prove his competence in cookery.

When Hasan and his family end up in a tiny French village with a dream of opening an Indian restaurant, they aren't discouraged by the fact that just a hundred feet across their door is an acclaimed Michelin-starred French restaurant that's so popular that even the President of France dines there. But when Hasan and his family open their restaurant, the owner of the restaurant opposite, Madame Mallory, will do anything to get their restaurant shut down. The French and Indian cultures clash, and what was first a small rivalry, becomes all-out war. However, when Madame Mallory discovers Hasan's prowess and passion for cooking, she immediately takes note of his potential to earn her restaurant one more Michelin star. This, along with the budding friendship developing between Hasan and Marguerite, Madame Mallory's sous chef, brings the two cultures together. 

This movie was beautiful. Along with Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, it was one of the best movies I've seen this year. The acting was first-rate and the story was a perfect mixture of comedy and seriousness. Another thing I really liked about the film was that there were no random clashes or out-of-nowhere surprises. You guys remember Disney's Ratatouille? Ratatouille is one of my favorite movies, and The Hundred-Foot Journey reminded me of it, especially the similarities between Remy and Hasan. The movie was about food, and it did just what food should do: it satisfied me. I would recommend this movie to everyone, but I guarantee that you're going to leave the cinema hungry! 

• Genre- Comedy and drama
• Director- Lasse Hallstöm 
• Producers- Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey and Juliet Blake 
• Starring- Helen Mirren, Manish Dayal, Om Puri and Charlotte Le Bon 

My rating

5/5

Guardians of the Galaxy

"All heroes start somewhere."

Marvel has finally made a movie starring some of it's lesser-known, but still amazing, characters. The Guardians of the Galaxy include a thief, an assassin, a genetically modified big-mouthed raccoon, a plant-humanoid who can speak only three words and a powerful prisoner. Together, they are the most unlikely of superheroes to save the day.

When Peter Quill steals a stone with powerful properties, he is made a target by Ronan, the obsessive Kree who wants to destroy the planet Xandar. He forms an uneasy alliance with a bunch of extraterrestrial misfits: Gamora (the assassin), Rocket (the raccoon), Groot (the plant-humanoid) and Drax (the powerful one). From here on, they embark on a thrilling journey across the galaxy to restrict Ronan from getting his hands on the stone and destroying the entire galaxy. 

I'll give it to you guys straight: Guardians of the Galaxy was one of the finest Marvel movies. Better than Iron Man 2. Better than Iron Man 3. Better than Thor: The Dark World. The action and comedy were great too. It's not only got the markings of an amazing movie, but you can also empathize with the characters and get to know about them. Everyone acted really well throughout. While I was watching, I couldn't decide on which character was my favourite. Peter? Groot? Rocket? I couldn't choose. I guess I liked Peter because he reminded me of Han Solo from Star Wars. The resemblance between those two was uncanny. Meanwhile, everyone at DC is probably scratching their heads and wondering how in the world did a movie starring a talking raccoon and a tree-humanoid who can only say one sentence is at the top of the charts. All in all, an amazing movie and a movie that everyone, and I mean everyone, should watch. And one more thing, Groot was awesome!

• Genre- Sci-fi, action, adventure
• Director- James Gunn
• Producer- Kevin Feige
• Starring- Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel and Lee Pace

My rating

5/5

Transformers 4: Age of Extinction

"This is not war, it's extinction"

This is the fourth and definitely not final movie in the explosive Transformers franchise. I'm pretty sure that all of you know what happens in the other movies, or at least have a basic idea, but if you don't, here's a quick 101: a bunch of Decepticons attack, everyone goes crazy deploying soldiers and weaponry, and then the Autobots along with a few humans save the day. There's one small difference in Age of Extinction- there aren't any soldiers, and the final battle is in China, not some city in the USA.

When struggling inventor Cade Yeager finds an old truck that just happens to be Optimus Prime, he is targeted by CIA agent Harold Attinger, who is bent upon finding and destroying all remaining Transformers on Earth. But when businessman/inventor Joshua Joyce, one of Attinger's allies, ventures to learn more about the Transformers, he crosses the line and pushes technology to it's limits, trying to learn as much as he can; all while an ancient Transformer menace threatens Earth once again. 

To be honest with everyone of you, I thought that this movie was one of the worst in the franchise. It was way too long for an action movie (2.5 hours!!) and they didn't even try to develop the plot. Remember the slo-mo scenes in the first three movies, like when Ironhide jumps up and shoots missiles while a woman screams underneath, and Devastator in the second movie and how Bumblebee transforms with Sam still inside him during the third one? Well, there were none of those in Age of Extinction. There was slo-mo, but not the memorable kind. Then there's the humor. There's only one word for it- sad. I'm not sure, but I think it was supposed to be funny, not make you sigh with annoyance. I've been a Transformers fan for a very long time, but this was an all time low. You know, there should be a new law passed that makes it illegal to make a bad movie if the trailers are so good. The trailers made the movie seem better than they actually were. The only good thing I have to say about this disappointment is that the CGI and graphics were amazing. It looked fantastic. Mark Wahlberg did a good job, but he was the only one. The lone spark in a gigantic cloud of smoke. 

• Genre- Action, sci-fi and adventure
• Director- Michael Bay
• Producers- Don Murphy, Tom DeSanto, Lorenzo di Bonaventura and Ian Bryce
• Starring- Mark Wahlberg, Nicola Peltz and Stanley Tucci

My rating

2/5

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

"The one last chance for peace."

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. What a dramatic name for an amazing movie. If any of you have no idea what this movie is about, its name tells you all you need to know. So what's it about? Yes, you guessed it: Apes. In this sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the very same virus that made Caeser as intelligent as a human has killed most of mankind and led to the downfall of all the countries in the world.

For ten years, the apes have lived peacefully in the Muir Woods in California, while the rest of the world is chaotic and full of confusion. When a band of humans are encountered by a few apes, a fragile peace is reached, but it is only momentary. Within a few days, the two sides reach the brink of war. When Caeser is shot, but not killed, by Koba, everything depends on Malcolm to avert a terrible war that will determine who becomes the supreme species on Earth.

I have one word for Dawn of the Apes: stunning. Everything was stunning about this film. The special effects were fantastic. If you weren't told that real apes were not trained for the movie, you wouldn't be able to make out that the apes were just special effects. There were actually actors who were portraying the apes. Now, to the plot. The story was pretty good; way better than its prequel's. I also liked that the apes could speak proper English. That was a nice touch by the writers. The fight scenes were quite impressive. Overall, one of the best movies this summer.

• Genre- Adventure, action and sci-fi
• Director- Matt Reeves
• Producers- Peter Chernin, Dylan Clark, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver
• Starring- Andy Serkis, Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell and Gary Oldman

My rating

5/5

Be Patient!!

Hey everyone. Sorry I've not been updating my blog, but I've been busy with school and other things. So just be patient and look forward to my next review, which will be on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Cheers!

Edge of Tomorrow

"Live, Die, Repeat"

One of the world's favorite movie genres is science-fiction. It's my favorite genre, too. The Edge of Tomorrow is just that. It's got the aliens, futuristic technology, action, a hard-to-believe story line and the fighting. It's got everything. For Edge of Tomorrow, they've thrown in the concept of time as well.

An alien species called the 'Mimics' has hit Earth and invaded most of mainland Europe. When Major William Cage is unceremoniously thrown into combat, he inexplicably finds himself in a time-loop, forcing him to live the same day and fighting the same war again and again and again. But when he meets Rita Vratski, one of the most decorated soldiers fighting the war, they figure out ways to take the fight back to the Mimics and with each 'resurrection', they get closer and closer to defeating the terrible enemy. 

I guess I could say that Edge of Tomorrow was your typical science fiction movie. The storyline was good, but the 'Live, Die, Repeat' slogan was a spoiler. Living, dying and repeating was the only thing going on the movie. The movie's budget was $175 million, which in terms of movie budgets, is quite small. It is like this for one reason only- there was barely any filming. Since Cage was killed and resurrected so many times, I'm pretty sure that they just used the same footage over and over again to save money. The film was way too repetitive, as you may have have gathered. However, I liked the story and Tom Cruise was amazing as usual with all of the action. Overall, the movie was good, but the endless repeating of the day got a little boring.

• Genre- Action and sci-fi
• Starring- Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt
• Director- Doug Liman
• Producer- Erwin Stoff, Tom Lassally, Jeffrey Silver, Gregory Jacobs and Jason Hoffs 
• Screenplay- Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth

My rating

4/5

Godzilla (2014)

"The world ends, Godzilla begins"

Godzilla: a remake of the previous one that released all the way back in 1998 with a few changes in the plot. If you've watched any of the previous ones, you'll know the basic plot; a huge monster is created because of an accident in a laboratory, it goes under the ocean and later surfaces at some major city in the US where the monster proceeds to destroy buildings, kill people and basically looking as if it has serious anger management issues. At the same time, soldiers are deployed and plans are made to kill the monster by an air strike or detonating a bomb. At the end, Godzilla is killed and everyone lives happily ever after.

In the latest Godzilla movie, the storyline is different. Instead of focusing mainly on Godzilla himself, the movie revolves around two other monsters called MUTOs as well as Godzilla. The two MUTOs try to reach each other to mate, and what's a better place to mate than at San Francisco? But the MUTOs and Godzilla are natural enemies, and when they meet, it ain't gonna be pretty. The human race has to depend on it's most destructive ally, I should say, to defeat the MUTOs.

So far, there have been about 25-odd movies starring Godzilla. Most of these focus on Godzilla himself, and the actors in these ones were horrendous. However, in this year's remake, there was actually some acting, something that was lacking in the other movies. Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen have a bright future ahead of them in Hollywood. Let's get to the subject of the great Godzilla. From the role of a main character, Godzilla's role has shrunken to that of a supporting character. They focused more on the MUTOs and well, I'd paid to watch Godzilla fight, not the MUTOs. One more thing: Godzilla was fat. I mean, did you see that pot belly hanging down towards the ground? Huge! He must have been gorging himself underwater. On a whole, I quite liked the movie, especially the end when Godzilla becomes the good guy. However, I did feel that Godzilla could have been a bit more violent, though his atomic breath was a nice touch.

• Genre- Action and sci-fi
• Director- Gareth Edwards
• Producers- Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent and Brian Rogers
• Starring- Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Bryan Cranston and Ken Watanabe 
• Screenplay- Max Borenstein 

My rating

4/5