Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) is more obsessed with building Iron Man suits than spending time with his girlfriend Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) who is now the CEO of Stark Industries. At times, Stark suffers flashback from events that took place in The Avengers which continues to weaken him. Starks seems to be telling (to someone) on an event which took place back in New Year’s Eve 1999. Then, he was with Maya Hansen (Rebecca Hall) completely ignored the proposal of Advanced Idea Mechanics (AIM) by a crippled scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce).
Back in the present day, a terrorist known as the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) continues to threaten national securities with his strings of bombings which lack of evidence, Stark Industries security chief Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) is critical injured in one of the bombings, Stark issues a televised threat to the Mandarin who responds by destroying Stark’s Malibu home with helicopter gunships.
Although Pepper and Hansen, who came to warn Stark, survive the attack, the world thinks Stark is dead. As Stark is flown to rural Tennessee, he learns the Extremis is behind the attack as he teams up with a boy named Harley (Ty Simpkins) to overcome and track down Mandarin.
Later on, Stark learns that the Mandarin is just fictional character played by a drunken British actor named Trevor Slattery; it was Killian who is behind all the attack — alas, I’m sorely disappointed as the Mandarin is supposed to be a powerful supervillain as portrayed in the comic.
When Killian is about to kill the President of the United States, Stark and Rhodes manage to thwart the attack as Stark calls upon his fleet of Iron Man suits with JARVIS’ help and destroy every single Extremis.
Overall, Iron Man 3 didn’t disappoint (except the Mandarin part) and is quite entertaining.
7 out of 10
The best of all three Iron Man films but the film is filled with explosions and fires which at times consume the show.
Yes, please stay back after the post-credits to find out who Stark was telling his story to.
The Impossible is a thriller film by Juan Antonio Bayona based on the true story of María Belón and her family’s experience of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Maria Bennett (Naomi Watts), her husband Henry (Ewan McGregor) and their three sons Lucas (Tom Holland), Tomas and Simon are enjoying their Christmas holiday at a resort in Khao Lak, Thailand. During their time at the pool, the devastating 2004 tsunami occurs and they are swept up in the flood separating Maria and Lucas from the others.
Maria’s leg is badly wounded while Lucas suffers minor scratches. They are found and rescued by the locals and taken to a nearby hospital. Elsewhere Henry, Thomas and Simon are safe but it takes Henry a lot of relentless effort to finally reunite with Maria and Lucas.
Naomi Watts gives an incredible performance in the film, with not even a single emotions of her seems fake or unreal while McGregor and Holland also gives the best performance of their lives. Watts and Holland are nominated for a number of awards.
Overall, The Impossible is possibly the best disaster thriller of the year.
8 out of 10
Incredible acting and realistic special effects, but you would never watch this film twice
End of Watch is an exceptional cop thriller directed by David Ayer. The film is set in south central Los Angeles and stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as L.A. cops and best of friends Taylor and Zavala.
Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña in "End of Watch"
The pair frequently makes pranks at their other colleagues and at times tries to annoy each other. Occasionally, they stumble upon some big arrests. Somehow, during one of their high profile busts, their names become known publicly which makes them the target of the country’s most dangerous drug cartel.
Together with the thrilling pace and gruesome violence, Ayer maintains a great balance in the film by letting us to take a sneak peek into the personal lives of Taylor and Zavala (which Taylor fondly refers him as "Z"). Taylor finds new romance with girlfriend Janet (Anna Kendrick) whilst Zavala’s wife Gabby (Natalie Martinez) is expecting the first baby.
Director David Ayer, not only successfully portrayed how real-life cops do their neighborhood watch but he did it so fashionably that you can almost feel how mundane their lives would be at times (the hand-held camera shots added the extra energy to every action). The incredible acting by Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña makes the movie fun to watch. The pair has great chemistry together, coupled it with their realistic and often funny banter. Although, I’m pretty sure the real-life Mexicans drug cartel doesn’t overuse the F word even if they live in L.A.
Overall, End of Watch is fun and enjoyable to watch, highly entertaining with superb acting. It’s a must-watch!
8 out of 10
End of Watch is a brilliantly played cop thriller which is thrilling, moving and hilarious.
In The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, the first part of a three parts movie, Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) tells an untold story to his nephew, Frodo (guest starring Elijah Wood) about his adventures nearly 60 years ago — an adventure that changed his life forever.
Ian McKellen, Martin Freeman, Mark Hadlow, Graham McTavish and Ken Stott in "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
One good morning, an old wizard by the name of Gandalf (Ian McKellen) stops by Bilbo’s house to invite him to join an adventure as a burglar. Initially, the stubborn hobbit rejects the invitation, citing that he will be homesick. That very night, without Bilbo’s knowledge, Gandalf has invited 13 dwarves led by Thorin Oakenshield (Richard Armitage) for a feast in Bilbo’s home. There are plenty of food, drinks, singing and laughter but Bilbo is not impressed nor he is interested to join their adventure to reclaim the Erebor (Lonely Mountain) and its treasure, once home to the mighty dwarves, from Smaug, one of the last great dragons of Middle-earth.
The next morning, all the dwarves and Gandalf are all gone, the house is squeaky clean, there are no trace or whatsoever. However, Gandalf leaves the contract to join the adventure with the only missing signature of Bilbo. Without hesitant, Bilbo decides to join the party.
The journey leads the party from Shire to the wild where they encounter the trolls, Gandalf saves the company and leads them to Rivendell, where Elrond (Hugo Weaving) helps them to decipher the map. When the band passes through to the Misty Mountains, they fall into the goblins tunnels and encounter the goblins and their ruler, The Great Goblin (Barry Humphries). During this time, Bilbo gets separated from the rest and meets Gollum. He plays a game of riddle with Gollum in return for a reward, if he wins, Gollum will show him the path out of the tunnels. If he loses, he agrees to be eaten by Gollum. Bilbo wins but Gollum realizes Bilbo has stolen his ring becomes furious and tries to attack Bilbo. The hobbit manages to escape as he accidentally wears the ring which makes him invisible.
Later on Bilbo joins the party and even saves Thorin from Azog the Orc chieftain as the party is then rescued by eagles who are summoned by Gandalf from the Orcs and Wargs.
Overall, Peter Jackson’s adaption of the The Hobbit is lengthy than The Lord of the Rings as he includes more details of the book, which prolong the film. Although the film has plenty of action scenes and is immense in terms of special effects, the story line is not unexpected but fairly predictable. Somehow, great acting by Michael Freeman and Ian McKellen and the great soundtrack make the show bearable even though it’s almost 170 minutes long.
8 out of 10
An epic journey that is not unexpected, action-packed, hilarious and fun-filled
Pi Patel (Irrfan Khan) tells a story to a local writer in Canada referred by his family friend of his life story.
Pi is named "Piscine Molitor" by his parents after a swimming pool in France. But he changed his name to "Pi Patel" as a result of tired being taunted as "Pissing Patel" in school. His family own a local zoo in Pondicherry, India and Pi has great interest in the animals especially a Bengal tiger named "Richard Parker". Pi is raised Hindu and vegetarian but discovers other religions — Christianity and Islam when he was 12 and follows all three.
Due to some political concern in India, his father decides to close the zoo and move the entire family to Canada, selling the animals to North America. During a heavy thunderstorm, the ship sinks and Pi is thrown overboard with a lifeboat as his family and the rest of the crew die.
Pi finds himself in the lifeboat with an injured zebra, and is joined by an orangutan. Richard Parker, the Bengal tiger also joins them in the boat forcing Pi to hang on to the edge of the small boat.
The next morning, a hyena emerges from the tarp covering half of the boat, it tries to attack Pi but is unable to climb up to the tarp. Soon, it begins to eat the injured zebra, killing it. Later on, in a fight, the hyena also mortally injure the orangutan. Out of the blue, Richard Parker appears from the tarp and kills the hyena.
It is now just him and Richard Parker, the Bengal Tiger. Pi builds a small raft to stay at a safe distance from Richard Parker. He also manages to find emergency food and water rations to keep himself fed. However, as the days go on, he realizes he must also feed the tiger to prevent from getting eaten by the tiger due to hunger. Pi starts fishing and collects rain water. At one point, the tiger jumps into the water to hunt for fish. Pi loses almost all his supplies after a nighttime encounter with a whale. For that, he is forced to eat the fish raw in order to face off starvation. After many weeks at the sea, Pi decides to forge a bond with the tiger in order to be accepted in the boat. After all, they are both in the same boat (no pun intended).
The film takes us to beautiful unexplored wonder of the world and in such spectacular visual, definitely a treat to all ages.
Overall, Life of Pi is a miraculous, heartwarming story that is bold, courageous and full of faith.
9 out of 10
Incredible film with incredible story that is visually stunning, profound and heartwarming
