Review: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Movie: Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol Critic's Rating****
Cast: Tom Cruise, Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Michael Nyqvist, Anil Kapoor
Direction: Brad Bird
Genre: Action
Duration: 2 hours 13 minutes


Story: The high profile IMF is falsely accused of bombing the Kremlin and agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his teammates are forced to become rogue agents, with the government declaring a ghost protocol (no protection) against them. In a race against time, they must clear their name and save the world from armageddon, as a deadly megalomaniac, Cobalt (Michael Nyqvist) wants to start a nuclear war.

Movie Review: Action has always been the high point of the Mission Impossible series. But this kind of action: Wow!

The new film is essentially a relentless roller-coaster ride that doesn't give you a moment to sit back and keeps the adrenalin pumping to dizzy heights as Tom Cruise gets on his regular mission of saving the world, one more time. And once again, he has nothing on his side, not even his government, other than his physical prowess, his ability to perform the most death- defying stunts and an abundance of sheer luck which redefines the word 'impossible' as 'possible'.

This time however, he isn't working as the lone ranger but has a close knit crack team comprising agent carter ( Paula Patton), Brandt ( Jeremy Renner) and Benji ( Simon Pegg). While Carter adds the glamour quotient, apart from being a female action hero, Benji takes care of the humour element even as he manages the techie stuff and the funky gadgetry and Brandt, the analyst, remains unpredictable and mysterious with a deadly secret. It's a winning team, despite the individual differences and the foursome end up as an endearing family with each character having a substantial role to play.

But essentially it is the exquisite stunts and the high- decibel action set pieces which create magic on screen. The mission basically entails four main tasks: stealing a missing file, getting hold of the Cold War nuclear codes, infiltrating a satellite and finally, defusing a nuclear warhead before it strikes its target and decimates the world.

But before the task is executed you get to witness some genre-defining action sequences which include a daring prison break in Russia, the infiltration of the Kremlin, Cruise's high-rise leaps and jumps followed by his awesome ascent over Dubai's tallest tower, Patton's cat fight with the blonde assassin, Brandt's satellite entry and the final confrontation in Mumbai's multi-level car parking. Performance-wise, Cruise is in total command of the drama which boasts of several engaging twists and turns.

A word about Anil Kapoor: he plays playboy Brij Nath with a penchant for pretty girls and shady deals, in a comic vein. It is just a bit more than a blink- and-you'll-miss role as Patton unleashes her charms on him.

50 Hollywood Movies you can’t afford to miss

50 Hollywood movies you can’t afford to miss

1. The Skeleton Key. TR
2. Minority Report. AD,SF
3. Troy EP, DR
4. Behind Enemy Lines WB
5. Déjà Vu SF, AD
6. Gladiator EP, DR
7. Rat Race CD
8. Mirrors HR
9. Mr. and Mrs. Smith CD
10. 300 EP, WB
11. Shutter Island TR
12. Euro Trip CD
13. Apocalypto AD
14. Bedazzled CD
15. Mummy AD, TR
16. Case 39 TR
17. The pursuit of happiness DR
18. Signs AD, TR
19. Pay Cheque SF, TR
20. Transporter AT
21. Ice-Age AN
22. Up AN
23. Home Alone CD
24. Batman Begins DR, AD
25. The Dark Knight DR, AD
26. Pearl Harbor WB, DR
27. The Terminal DR
28. Cast Away DR
29. Spider Man-1,2,3 AD,SF
30. Prince of Persia WB
31. 50 First Dates DR
32. The Ring HR
33. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl AD
34. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest AD
35. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End AD
36. A Beautiful Mind DR
37. The Sixth Sense DR
38. Green Mile DR
39. Vantage Point AD,TR
40. The Hangover CD
41. Night at the Museum CD
42. Madagascar AN
43. House of Wax TR,HR
44. X-Men TR,SF
45. The Grudge HR
46. National Treasure AD
47. WALL-E AN
48. Constantine HR,TR
49. Exorcist: The Beginning TR
50. Mission Impossible AT
----------------------------------------
Adventure-AD
Thriller-TR
Comedy-CD
Sci-Fi-SF
Drama-DR
Horror-HR
Epic-EP
War Based-WB
Action-AT
Animated-AN
Romantic-RM

Pics: 'The Amazing Spider-Man'

"The Amazing Spider-Man" gives a better look at Peter Parker as a little boy and his parents, who left him with Aunt May and Uncle Ben.

While in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy Peter was seen as a nerd, the new movie depicts him more like an outsider. Talking about this reinvention, "Amazing Spider-Man" director Marc Webb has previously explained, "What was important in those early comics was this notion that Peter Parker is an outsider and how we define that in a contemporary context. That, I think, was one of the challenges for us - getting Peter Parker's outsider status to be current."

Playing the titular character is Andrew Garfield with Emma Stone starring opposite him as Peter's love interest Gwen, and Rhys Ifans taking the role of Dr. Curt Conners/The Lizard. The movie is set to arrive in theaters across the nation on July 3, 2012.

"Amazing Spider-Man" will take part at this year's San Diego Comic Con when Sony holds a panel for its upcoming releases on Friday, July 22. In another promotional effort, an official poster for the movie has been displayed at the side of the Hard Rock Hotel, featuring the Spider-Man logo on his costume.

Watch the Video Trailer here.

The Amazing Spider-Man

Andrew Garfield stars as Spider-Man in Columbia Pictures' The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man Poster

'The Amazing Spider-Man' Official Teaser Trailer Unleashed

A day after "The Amazing Spider-Man" teaser trailer leaked, Sony Pictures has released the official version online. Containing exactly the same footage seen in the bootleg version, it gives a better look at Peter Parker as a little boy and his parents, who left him with Aunt May and Uncle Ben. The preview also shares scenes when teen Peter has a dinner with Gwen Stacy's family and sews what looks like his Spider-Man costume.
While in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" trilogy Peter was seen as a nerd, the new movie depicts him more like an outsider. Talking about this reinvention, "Amazing Spider-Man" director Marc Webb has previously explained, "What was important in those early comics was this notion that Peter Parker is an outsider and how we define that in a contemporary context. That, I think, was one of the challenges for us - getting Peter Parker's outsider status to be current."
Playing the titular character is Andrew Garfield with Emma Stone starring opposite him as Peter's love interest Gwen, and Rhys Ifans taking the role of Dr. Curt Conners/The Lizard. The movie is set to arrive in theaters across the nation on July 3, 2012.
"Amazing Spider-Man" will take part at this year's San Diego Comic Con when Sony holds a panel for its upcoming releases on Friday, July 22. In another promotional effort, an official poster for the movie has been displayed at the side of the Hard Rock Hotel, featuring the Spider-Man logo on his costume.
Watch the Video Trailer Below.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 smashes boxoffice records

The final Harry Potter film was set to smash box office records on both sides of the Atlantic this weekend after reports that US ticket sales on Friday were the biggest in the history of Hollywood.

In the final, climactic confrontation between the forces of good and evil in the world of wizardry, there was already one clear victor – the studio, Warner Bros.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 opened just after midnight on Friday in both Britain and America. It made more than £9 million in its first day in British cinemas, easily eclipsing the previous record of £5.9 million made by the first instalment of Deathly Hallows.

It will almost certainly overtake the British record for an opening weekend – also held by the first Deathly Hallows film, which earned £18.3 million in its first three days last November. The new film is expected to make more than £20 million over its opening weekend.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 is also on course to surpass the British box office record set by the film adaptation of the musical Mamma Mia!, starring Meryl Streep, which made £69 million throughout its run. In the US, the film took $43.5 million (£27 million) for midnight showings and an estimated further $40 million during the day on Friday. That put the total one-day earnings at more than $80 million, comfortably above the previous US one-day record, set by Twilight Saga: New Moon with $72 million.

Earnings were bolstered by higher ticket prices for the movie's 3D version. "Records will fly out of the window this weekend," a studio executive said. "All 3D theatres sold out to excellent reactions." In the US, there were predictions that the film – the eighth and last in the Harry Potter series – would earn $180 million by tonight, far exceeding the previous record for an opening three-day weekend, held by Dark Knight, the 2008 Batman movie, which grossed $158 million.

Even before this phenomenal opening, the first seven films based on the books by JK Rowling were the largest-grossing franchise in history, with worldwide box office takings of $6.4 billion. The film's premiere in London on July 7 drew crowds from around the world, with fans queuing for more than 24 hours in the rain to catch a glimpse of the film's stars, Daniel Radcliffe, a tearful Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint (all pictured above) at their final promotion of the franchise.

Josh Berger, the president and managing director of Warner Brothers UK, said: "This is completely unchartered territory. The books and films are so beloved and have such broad appeal. Because this is the final chapter, it seems to be attracting even more fans than ever before."

Movie Review: Transformers 3 is soulless and infantile

<< A still from Transformers 3

Film: Transformers 3 (3D) (U/A)
Cast: Shia LaBeouf, John Turturro, Tyrese Gibson, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Frances McDormand, Leonard Nimoy, Patrick Dempsey, Hugo Weaving, Peter Cullen
Director: Michael Bay
Rating: *1/2

The Autobots, a race of advanced Robot-like beings led by the valiant Optimus Prime, (voice of Cullen) learn of the US government's secret retrieval of a spacecraft from their planet from the moon -- the actual motive behind the US-Russia space race.

The ship, now in ruins, bears devices that can revive the stranded Autobots’ lost homeworld -- Cybertron and Optimus Prime learns that the vessel was piloted by his long-lost mentor, Sentinel Prime, (Nimoy) who can now be resurrected.

Meanwhile former high school outcast and two-time world saviour Sam Witwicky (LeBeouf), now unemployed in spite of receiving a medal from US President, manages to land another knock-out girlfriend Carly Spencer (Huntington-Whiteley) and joins forces with shady formergovernment operative Seymour Simmons (Turturro) once again to counter a mysterious trap being laid out by the malignant Decepticons, the age-old foes to the Autobots, led by Megatron (Weaving).

Yes, the latest installment of Transformers is still centered on annoying, useless human beings and, yes, the juvenile humour is still arbitrarily injected into most of the “dialogue”.With the action not exactly all over the place like the high-octane Revenge of the Fallen, it’s the focus on “story” in the first half of the film that proves to be a major failing, with the plain unintriguing goings-on doing nothing but highlighting the weak writing. And then there’s the second half, which features unprecedented action, endless machine–induced destruction and earth-shattering explosions on an apocalyptic scale (in 3D!) that dwarfs other such sequences concocted by Michael Bay.

LaBeouf doesn’t take charge as a leading man while his merry band of “enlightened”, sentient mechanical beings, while being cool to look at, are at the best of times mere robots, lacking genuine humour, warmth and personality. Turturro and McDormand fare reasonably better as the sneaky/weird Simmons and the uptight secretary of defence Charlotte Mearing respectively. Huntington-Whiteley, in looking good and providing a basis for the mandatory love angle, is released from a potential existential crisis like so many of Bay's drop-dead gorgeous leading ladies before her.

The only viewing pleasure that can be salvaged from the hulking behemoth that is Transformers: Dark of the Moon is from the reasonably well-done special effects and the insanely overblown action sequences but that sort of excess, without a palatable story, grows old...at lightspeed.

Indian girl claims she spend night with Quentin Tarantino

Everyone knows that Quentin Tarantino is a foot fetishist; after all he drank champagne from Uma Thurman's 6-inch heels. That was a couple of years back. Now, an email written by a young lady is ripping Tarantino's foot fetishist image apart and in the most ruthless way.

The mail written by a girl named Beejoli was sent to her 15 friends narrating an infamous yet true story about one of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers - Tarantino.

Beejoli, who puts on a goofy façade in the mail, went out partying with her friends and met Quentin Tarantino. Incidentally, QT not only poured her a drink, he also publicly made out with her.
She wrote, "At this point, QT puts an arm around me and I'm acutely aware that Quentin Tarantino has an arm around me. As are my four friends, who are all looking at me as if I have grown a second head. To be fair, I am easily the most uncool out of all my friends so the fact that anyone even mildly famous wants to speak to me is pretty shocking. He's chatting with my friends and I like it's no big deal, I am pretending like this happens every night of my life, and out of nowhere he leans in for the makeout. Yes. True story."

So what about this incident manages to rip his image apart? The juice of the story lies in the rather descriptive pictures she paints rather eloquently in her mail. 

Quentin invites Beejoli to his place and she willingly hops in the car. After another make out session in his SUV, the two hit a photo-booth for some clicks and evidence for the young lady that she spent time with QT.

"I spot a photo booth and immediately realize that we must take photos, if for nothing else, proof that this story even happened. We get a few good photo strips, which I immediately buried at the bottom of my purse lest he take them from me, and go on talking about film."

Post the photo session, Beejoli claims that they hit his bar with vengeance and the sexual tension between the two reaches a whole new level. At this point, she is reminded of the fact that she wasn't even wearing sexy panties!

She wrote: "The make-out continues for a while longer, and I'm really getting nervous about where the night may lead, kicking myself over not pretending to be more drunk and "passing out", and wishing he'd turn the damn lights off so that he won't notice that I'm wearing Hanes Her Way underwear the size of Canada."

Moving on, in her word Quentin's sex appeal fizzled out the moment she saw his penis. Beejoli wrote: "We make out some more, there's a little below the belt action that I try to avoid, as QT has the most unattractive penis I have ever seen (short. fat. nub-like).

Predictably yet funnily, Quentin Tarantino asked her if he could jerk off while sucking her toe! A shocked Beejoli then goes on to describe the "weirdest" ten minutes of her life. She wrote: "And thus began the weirdest ten minutes of my life - having my feet made out with by an Oscar winning filmmaker while he pleasured himself. No bodily secretions were ejected anywhere near me or my feet, and just as I hoped, we went to bed right after."

In the morning, the author of this mail was dropped back home by Quentin himself.

"Most insane experience of my life, and without a doubt, probably the best story I will ever get to tell."

This story is heavily one sided primarily because QT never blogged or e-mailed anyone about this incident.

Two Much In Bollywood

Shammi Kapoor’s body language and dancing style reminded many of Elvis Presley.

SNEHA ULLAL and AISHWARYA RAI

THE LOWDOWN:
Sneha made her debut with Lucky: No time For Love in 2005 opposite Salman Khan, around the time he split with his erstwhile girlfriend, Aishwarya Rai.

The film bombed but Salman tried promoting Sneha. She was cast opposite his brother Sohail Khan in the dud Aryan. Flops such as Kaashh. Mere Hote and Click followed Sneha found space in Telugu films. She has an English film, Gandhi Park, coming up.

  
LOOKALIKE FACTOR:
Like Ash, Sneha is of Mangalorean origin and has fair skin and light eyes. She met Salman through his sister Arpita. Salman, nursing heartbreak at the point, recommended Sneha for Lucky reportedly because she resembled Ash. Reacting to Sneha's resemblance to Ash, Salman said: "It's just because of the green eyes. I don't see any resemblance. Even if there is, what's the big deal?"

CAREER PUSH:
With Ash going great guns in Bollywood and Salman not keen to promote her after the initial duds, Sneha wisely shifted base to Telugu films. Hits such as Ullasamga Utsahamga, Simha and Ala Modalaindi helped her consolidate base down South.

HARMAN BAWEJA and HRITHIK ROSHAN

THE LOWDOWN:
Harman got a grand launch in dad Harry Baweja's 2008 film, Love Story 2050.

His affair with the film's heroine Priyanka Chopra made news but Love Story 2050 flopped.

LOOKALIKE FACTOR:
Harman has always been trying hard to brush off the Hrithik lookalike tag.

"I can't help the way I look. It is what my parents gave me. I have not done plastic surgery. Anyway, every newcomer will be compared to someone," Harman defends himself.

However, the similarities don't end with looks. Harman has all along tried to build a muscular frame like Hrithik, and also copy his dance moves.

CAREER PUSH:
Harman has not signed a new film in almost two years now, so there is no career push. Clearly, his bid to become a mainstream star has worked against him.

Big producers who can afford Hrithik would avoid Harman, and small producers can't afford to float productions that match his image. Last we heard, he was approached for a reality TV reality show. He turned down the offer.

NIKHIL DWIVED and SHAH RUKH KHAN

THE LOWDOWN:
Nikhil made his debut with the E. Niwas dud, My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves. Success has eluded him so far despite credible performances in Shor In The City and Mani Ratnam's Raavan.

LOOKALIKE FACTOR:
Nikhil, who has been careful in his attempt to rehash everything from Shah Rukh Khan's hairdo to body language, is yet to get his first hit in Bollywood. He is also gifted with a pout and dimples that remind you of SRK.

While most superstars ignore their lookalikes, SRK was graceful enough to attend the premier of My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves.

"Today people know him as my lookalike, but soon he will be a prominent name in the industry and youngsters will emulate him," King Khan had said then about Nikhil.

CAREER PUSH:
Being dubbed as the poor man's SRK has its advantages. Nikhil never runs out of offers from low and medium-budget filmmakers.

SONU SOOD and AMITABH BACHCHAN

THE LOWDOWN:
Sonu shot to fame as the villain of Dabangg, after struggling for some years despite films such as Jodhaa Akbar, Yuva and Aashiq Banaya Aapne.

LOOKALIKE FACTOR:
Sonu's height, facial structure and deep voice remind many of a young Big B from his Zanjeer days. Notably, Sonu bagged the role of Abhishek Bachchan's elder brother in Yuva because of his resemblance to Bachchan senior.

"I am very fond of Sonu because he reminds me of a young Amitabh Bachchan," Jaya Bachchan said some time ago.

CAREER PUSH:
Sonu recently signed a gangster flick, Zilla Ghaziabad, where he plays an angry young man. Although a Punjabi, Sonu plays a character with shades of the Big B's Chhora Ganga kinare waala image.

In the fifties, when Dev Anand ruled, many noted the resemblance he bore with Hollywood actor Gregory Peck.

ZARINE KHAN and KATRINA KAIF

THE LOWDOWN:
 Zarine made her debut in Salman Khan's dud Veerlast year.

After Salman's then-girlfriend Katrina Kaif reportedly refused to play the heroine in the period film, the superstar went on an aggressive hunt to find a replacement in terms of glamour and looks. He discovered Zarine.

LOOKALIKE FACTOR:
While Zarine bears a strong resemblance with Katrina, critics and the audience alike cruelly dismissed her as 'Fatrina' once Veerreleased because she looked grossly overweight.She has also failed to match Katrina's charm and sex appeal.

 ZARINE KHAN and KATRINA KAIF

 The lookalike factor actually worked against Zarine as long as Salman and Katrina were an item. No Bollywood assignment came her way. "Katrina is beautiful but I don't think I look like Katrina. I want to create my identity," Zarine said in an online interview recently.

CAREER PUSH:
Zarine's latest claim to fame is the hit item number Character dheelain Salman's upcoming Ready. Sajid Khan has offered her a role in his multistarrer Housefull 2. Rumours suggest Sajid would have loved Katrina in the role but she has become ultra-choosy after becoming a superstar. The only starring role Zarine has in her kitty right now is once again thanks to Salman. She will be seen opposite the superstar in Shirish Kunder's upcoming Kick.

Aamir Khan has been compared with Tom Hanks and film observers even find similarities in the acting styles of the two stars.