22 Jump Street (2014)

Director: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Story: Michael Bacall and Jonah Hill
Cast: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube
Music: Mark Mothersbaugh 
Time: 112 minutes
Bottom-line: As hilarious as its prequel 

The duo of Tatum and Hill are back with a bang in this comedy sequel to the 2012 film 21 Jump Street. The film, co-starring Ice Cube, Amber Stevens and Peter Stormare, picks up from the first film left off, and if you loved it, then this one will get you laughing twice as much.

Two years after the events of 21 Jump Street, buddy cops Morton Schmidt (Hill) and Greg Jenko (Tatum) are now back to chasing narcotics. After a failed attempt to nab a group of drug dealers led by Ghost (Stormare), they are reassigned to Captain Dickson (Cube), now located at 22 Jump Street. They are sent to MC State to track down a drug called WHYPHY (Work Hard, Yes, Play Hard, Yes) that killed a student. Jenko makes friends with a pair of jocks who dislike Schmidt, while Schmidt gets emotionally attached to a girl named Maya (Stevens). Schmidt has increasing suspicions on Jenko’s jock buddies but Jenko is interested in being with them and even gets a scholarship for playing football. Whether or not the duo manages to complete their mission is what the film is about.

Hill as Schimdt (left), Ice Cube
as Dickson (centre) and Tatum as
Jenko

While it is true that the basic theme of 22 Jump Street is almost exactly the same as that of its prequel, the movie is a whole new experience. The chemistry between Hill and Tatum is even more enhanced, and the humour too is fresh. The comic stunts, the plot twists are quite good but this film centres more on the duo and all the supporting actors have much lesser screen time unlike the prequel where the characters of Molly and Eric seemed to have a bigger share. Look out for the scene of the parent-teacher meeting, the scene in Dickson’s office that follows the meeting, and the hilariously action-packed climax.

The acting is quite good in terms of, as I said, the chemistry between the lead actors, and the humour content thanks to their actions (right from the start). Their contrasting characteristics and talents makes it all the more fun to view them together. Ice Cube has a bigger role to play here than just assigning the duo to their mission, and he takes credit for a lot of laughs (not to forget a large chunk of profanity too!).

Unlike films like The Hangover Part 2, which was pretty much a ditto copy of the prequel, 22 Jump Street equals its prequel in terms of presentation but is nothing like its predecessor. The jokes (a lot of dirty ones too) are superb, the acting is good, and the overall script is amazing. Look out for the scenes during the closing credits... where we get to see all the possible sequels (going up to even 42 Jump Street)!!

My Rating: 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 84%

Megamind (2010)

Director: Tom McGrath
Story: Alan J. Schoolcraft, Brent Simons
Cast: Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill 
Music: Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe
Time: 96 minutes
Bottom-line: A new experience for a superhero film

A movie involving a number of themes, with the characters created to spoofs of Superman’s lead roles, Megamind sets the tone for a different type of superhero animation film. The film stars Will Ferrell and Tina Fey in the Lead roles, with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, Ben Stiller and David Cross playing the supporting roles.

Megamind and his minion fish
(voiced by Cross)

“I'm falling to my death. How did it all come to this, you ask? My end starts at the beginning...the very beginning!”
With that as his opening line, Megamind (Ferrell) tells us his story, starting from the time of his birth in another planet. Along with Metro Man (Pitt), Megamind is sent to Earth, where they grow up to be superheroes and supervillians respectively. Metro Man always seems to have the upper hand in their battles, so Megamind decides to kidnap the love of Metro Man, Roxanne Ritchi (Fey) and as Metro Man attempts to rescue her Megamind finally uses a trick and wins the battle, and ends up killing Metro Man. Unlike what he expected, Megamind actually misses the fun: “What's the point of being bad when there's no good to try and stop you?” he asks himself. So he creates a new superhero out of Roxanne’s cameraman, Hal (Hill) and names him Titan. However things go wrong when Hal decides to misuse his superpowers, and Megamind starts having second thoughts on being evil...

Metro Man

Megamind is a spoof of Lex Luthor – gets repeatedly beaten by the hero and he finally decides to kidnap the hero’s loved one to set up a trap. Metro Man is a spoof of Superman himself: he can fly, and does only good for everyone around (and notice how he dresses up like Elvis Presley!). Roxanne, as expected, is a spoof of Lois Lane. The twist is that towards the end none of the characters end up what they originally started with, and that is one of the major themes of the story: people have the choice of doing what they want to do, and not to follow what they society expects them to do. More often than not we need some really powerful incident to realise what his purpose is but if we do find it out, then that will be one of the best things to happen to us.

Roxanne

Yes the story is clichéd and is very similar to The Incredibles, but Megamind has its own strengths: the visuals, the dialogues (not as funny as I would have liked but nevertheless) and the weird, but surprising characters. The film also talks a little about friendship
: how we can find friends in the unlikeliest of times and in the people we never thought we would, and how not valuing someone’s friendship can break that person (the extreme case being Hal).

Titan/Tighten (Hal)

Though Megamind isn’t the most original story, it still is a nice combination of several other films I found amusing, including Despicable Me. The humour could have been more polished, but with the memorable characters and excellent vocal work, this is still worth watching!

My Rating: 3/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 72% 

Before Sunrise (1995)

Director: Richard Linklater
Story: Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Music: Fred Frith
Time: 101 minutes
Bottom-line: Nothing fancy, nothing big...but that’s why it is charming

Linklater’s third film and the first film of the “Before” trilogy, Before Sunrise brings together Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy in this beautiful, simple love story. The entire story takes place over one evening and the night, but it will leave you thinking about it for days or weeks to come.

When love can come as a complete surprise.
June 16, 1994 – Jesse (Hawke) is an American travelling on a train to Vienna to catch a flight back to the US. On the train he meets Celine (Delpy), a university student returning back to Paris. As the converse in the lounge car, Jesse’s stop arrives. He convinces Celine to get off at Vienna with him, by telling her that she may regret this opportunity to start a relationship with him, some 20 years down the line. As the couple walk around Vienna they discuss various topics – love, religion, past relationships... and by next morning, both of them would have had perhaps the greatest night of their lives.

Hawke as Jesse and
Delpy as Celine 

You may have seen various other really emotional love stories, but none of them have the simplicity of Before Sunrise. Jack and Rose aboard the Titanic needed the actual disaster as a backdrop; The Fault in our Stars used cancer as a setting... while Before Sunrise just needed a candid camera. Jesse and Celine meet under normal circumstances, and fall in love the way most couples do – by just talking and being with each other. There’s no heroic incident, or sexual encounter; the story is so smoothly flowing it’s like the actors didn’t know they were being filmed. A scene I found interesting was the one where both of them pretend to call their best friends and tell their true feelings about each other (that is the only scene where they act). The future between Jesse and Celine after the screen cuts to black is left for the viewers to decide.

Both Hawke and Delpy deliver natural performances. Their exchanges, actions and expressions seem unscripted and it doesn’t look like acting at all! From the start both of them just converse like ordinary strangers who happened to meet, and before the next hour and a half you realise that they have fallen so deeply in love while spending just one evening and a night together. The scene where Jesse persuades Celine to get off at Vienna is one of the best moments – he says nothing out of the ordinary but yet in few minutes convinces her to make a life changing decision! I think Linklater excels when it comes to making realistic stories (he even filmed the film Boyhood over 12 years for this purpose), and that is why this film stands apart in the romance genre.

Yes it’s true there’s no comedy in the film, and barely any melodrama... but it is a love story of two people in their twenties that you can relate to. This is the first installment in one of the most successful trilogies, as far as ratings go (this film having an outstanding 100% Fresh rating), and it is certainly worth a watch, for all teenagers and adults alike.

My Rating: 4/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 100%  

Michael Clayton (2007)

Director: Tony Gilroy 
Story: Tony Gilroy
Cast: George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Sydney Pollack
Music: James Newton Howard
Time: 120 minutes
Bottom-line: The scintillating performances keep you engrossed throughout 

An acting-driven legal drama, Tony Gilroy’s directorial debut Michael Clayton shines in almost all aspects, and emerged as one of the most successful films of 2007 (alongside No Country For Old Men, There Will be Blood and Zodiac). The story revolves around the personal and professional life of the titular character.

Clooney as Clayton

The truth can be adjusted.
Michael Clayton (Clooney) is a “fixer” (someone who cleans up after crimes by removing evidence, finding loopholes etc) for Kenner, Bach and Ledeen, a New York Law Firm. His personal problem – he has a debt of $75000 after a restaurant investment with his brother collapsed, and the loan shark is holding his brother and gives Clayton one week to return the money. His problem at work – one of the firm’s leading attorneys, Arthur Edens (Wilkinson) suffers a breakdown and strips naked in public, in the middle of a deposition involving a class-action-lawsuit against U-North, an agro-product conglomerate. U-North’s chief lawyer Karen Crowder (Swinton) is ready to go to any lengths when she discovers Arthur has access to a document regarding a carcinogenic weed killer, one of U-North’s products yet to be manufactured.  How Clayton solves both problems, while his own life is also at risk, is what the film is about.

Wilkinson as Arthur

George Clooney and Tilda Swinton both play characters at the top of their form. Clayton and Crowder are impeccably dressed, fierce lawyers and the only difference is that the former is calm and cunning, while the latter is panicky. Clooney’s best roles seem to be the ones where he has that business-man like attire and demeanour (Ocean’s Eleven, Up in the Air) – delivering powerful lines which can be intimidating despite his charming looks! Wilkinson plays the psychotic but brilliant attorney, Arthur, who decides to fight a lone battle against U-North and puts his own life in jeopardy. From his opening monologue to his threatening phone call to the firm, his acting is outstanding. Swinton won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, mainly because she captures your attention in such a short screen time even if her acting isn’t Oscar-worthy.

Swinton as Crowder

The story contains lot of legal terminology and related issues but it’s fairly easy to follow what is going on even for a layman. It is better to at least know what the terms like “fixer” and “class-action-lawsuit” mean but there is enough drama (especially in Clayton’s life) to entertain you even otherwise. The highlights of the film are the encounters between the lead actors: from the exchanges of Clayton and Arthur in prison to that between Clayton and Crowder in the climax, they bring out the best acting from the cast (and show why the Oscar nominations for Clooney and Wilkinson are well-deserved!).

For a debut film Michael Clayton has to be one of the most critically successful films, and moreover it was nominated for seven Oscars (including Best Picture, Director and Original Screenplay). With intriguing characters, made memorable by the superb acting, and a dramatic storyline, this legal thriller is a must-watch for all, especially fans of Clooney.

My rating: 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes rating: 90%