Once Upon A Crime (14 Sep 2023)

 

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Mystery

Channel: Netflix

Language: Japanese

Duration: 107 minutes

Writer: Aito Aoyagi, Yûichi  Fukuda, Tetsurô Kamata

Director: Yûichi Fukuda

Cast: Kanna Hashimoto, Yûko Araki,

Takanori Iwata, Kimura Midoriko, Kiritani Mirei, Kaji Masaki

Introduction: 

The movie is a hybrid of an age old fairy tale, infused with a character from another popular fairy tale, plonked with a murder mystery and smart logics to solve it.

Plot:

On her way through a lush green forest, Little Red Riding Hood (Kanna Hashimoto), the girl who perennially wears a red hood gifted by her beloved grandmother, first meets a witch Barbara (Kimura Midoriko) whose magic is apparently ineffective with changeover of shoes and then bumps into the shabbily dressed Cinderella (Yûko Araki) with bruised feet and no footwear.

The aforementioned witch re-appears and gives them a magical makeover, by dressing them in fineries, turning a pumpkin into a carriage and three mice into two carriage horses and a carriage driver respectively.

Another witch Tekla (Kiritani Mirei) appears who is apparently good with shoe magic and adorns both the girls' feet with lovely glass shoes.

The former witch's magic is effective only till midnight while the latter's is effective for full 24 hours! Also all her magical glass shoes only fit the person who has worn them first.

Riding in a pumpkin shaped carriage, both the decked up girls leave for the royal castle to attend the grand ball where Prince Gilbert (Takanori Iwata) will choose his bride.

Midway in the forest, their carriage bumps into a corpse! Confused about it's identity and scared of any kind of scandal, they hide it beneath the dry leaves.

At the royal ball, amongst the bevy of beautiful girls, the prince chooses Cinderella for the couple dance and she instantly falls in love with him.

But soon the news of the aforementioned corpse who is recognized as Hans (Kaji Masaki), the royal hairdresser, reaches the castle along with and a raggedly dressed girl with hooded face, irking the king and turning everything topsy-turvy.

Who solves the murder mystery and how? Who does the prince eventually choose as his bride? 

Watch the movie to satiate your quench for all such queries.

Analysis:

Filled with scenes of lush green forests with wide canopy trees, beautiful elaborate costumes and abundant cute accessories, the movie is quite picturesque and repeatedly gives the social message to not just love & honor beauty.

In spite of being a murder mystery, it is overall funny and entertaining.

All the characters have acted well. However the cranky laugh and sounds of witch Barbara are quite disturbing.

Throughout the movie, the clues are left like breadcrumbs which are finally put together to solve the case with alarming reveals.

Smartest of all the crumbs is the fact that the glass slippers don't poof off at midnight but their magic stays for full 24 hours.

How come we never questioned the existence of the glass slippers even after the midnight, in the original Cinderella story?

Conclusion:

Once Upon a Crime is a relaxing and enjoyable movie with good ending.

If you have a liking for fairy tales, then do watch it.

And Just Like That Season 2 (22 June 2023)

 

Most of our sassy girls are now in their mid 50s - slightly tamed but still on the 'lookout', with their smart dialogues and wise expressions justifying all their actions!!

Their presence and bonhomie are as adorable as ever.

Though their dressing has mellowed down considerably and aptly, they still look and dress fabulously.

The webseries explores all kinds of current age relationship possibilities for middle age women - happily married homemaker with kids, happily married professional with kids, widow looking for casual weekly sex, happily married with kid but falling in love with a nonbinary person, never married and looking for hot and steady relationship and lastly a newly divorced looking out for some fun!!!

It is engaging & entertaining but strictly not for the children.

If you have been a fan of Sex and the City franchise, followed by And Just Like That webseries, then do watch this 11 episodes rom-com on JioCinema.

Missing (19 Jan 2023)

Genre: Mystery Thriller

Channel: Netflix

Language: English

Duration: 111 minutes

Director: Will Merrick, Nick Johnson

Cast: Storm Reid, Joaquim de Almeida, Ken Leung, Amy Landecker, Daniel Henney, Nia Long

Introduction:

Missing (2023), a screenlife mystery thriller is an anthology sequel to Searching (2018). 

"Screenlife or computer screen film is a genre of visual storytelling where all the events are shown on a computer, tablet or smartphone screen."

Plot:

Los Angeles (USA) based teenager June Allen's (Storm Reid) mother Grace Allen (Nia Long) leaves for a week long trip to Cartagena (Colombia) with her boyfriend Kevin (Ken Leung). 

June is supposed to receive them on their return but not only they don't arrive on the due date but also turn incommunicado, leaving June puzzled, confused and scared. 

With limited money at her disposal and only her mother's lawyer friend Heather (Amy Landecker) to turn for assistance, who eventually turns up dead, June uses her smart brain and a bevy of online apps and services to finally locate her mother and in the process unravels few shocking truths about her parents. 

Analysis:

It's quite amusing to follow June's trail of online actions wherein she meddles through assorted Google services like maps, e-mail etc.; goes through different chat transcripts to find clues; accesses public cameras to locate her mother's whereabouts; mobilizes the FBI attachment in to the consolate; hires Javier (Joaquim de Almeida), a Colombian gig worker for offline actions, while constantly decoding the passwords of the missing persons on different apps!! 

It's quite unbelievable to witness how precisely our life movements are being recorded via our digital footprints and assorted CCTV recordings!!

It's eerie to realize how modern technology and online apps can come to your rescue even when you are confined and locked in an unknown deserted location with no cell phone at your disposal!! 

Watch out the movie's climax to see it all happen. 

Conclusion:

It's not a movie with glamorous star cast or pulsating action with hi-fi gizmos, but it's an intelligent movie with a reality check. 

You will understand it better only if you are - computer savvy, used to working with multiple apps and screens at the same time and aware of the usual password recovery methods.

If you have not yet seen a screenlife movie, then do watch it for an altogether new experience. 

You can also watch it otherwise. It's a nicely made film.

The Mother (12 May 2023)

 

Genre: Action Thriller

Channel: Netflix

Duration: 118 minutes

Director: Niki Caro

Cast: Jennifer Lopez, Joseph Fiennes, Omari Hardwick, Gael García Bernal

"While fleeing from dangerous assailants, an assassin comes out of hiding to protect her daughter she left earlier in life."

The storyline is one of the usual action thrillers, but it's a well made and crisp movie, most of which is picturized on the protagonist aka the mother aka Jennifer Lopez, who impresses to the T. 

She plays a practical non-empathatic loner with superb survival techniques. Living in the shadow of her past of being in military forces and then in arms cartel, she lives all alone in an old cabin in an ice capped Alaska region and hunts animals for food. 

She bears all of this hardship to stay out of radar of her two ex arms ring associates cum lovers who are presently out for her blood. 

She sacrificed the joys of motherhood and agreed to put her daughter in foster care, right from birth, so that she stays safe. 

However, when upon turning 12, the daughter is no more safe, the mother comes out of her seclusion and leaves no stone unturned in destroying the enemies and ensuring her child's safety, not once but twice. 

Before the second attack, she even trains her daughter the survival techniques required to stay alive and safe.

The direction is crisp. The production designing is impressive. The cinematography of the vast ice capped region is beautiful.

And so is the mother-daughter bond during training and henceforth. It's different from the usual mushy ones. 

Jennifer Lopez looks sharp, fit and realistic in combat scenes. She ably conveys controlled emotions for her daughter upon meeting and spending time with her, only after she has turned 12!! 

She doesn't resort to hysteria or unnecessary dramatics or any other emotion display that is impractical for a hardened loner assassin.

Overall, the movie is a good tribute to the recently concluded Mother’s Day.

AKA (28 Apr 2023)

"A steely special ops agent finds his morality put to the test when he infiltrates a crime syndicate and unexpectedly bonds with the boss’ young son." 

I chanced upon this French crime-action-thriller on Netflix and was totally taken aback by the planning and execution of it's action scenes, though it is not a genre that I particularly enjoy. 

Alban Lenoir, the co-writer & lead actor of the film looks ultra-skilled and effortless in both hand-to-hand combat and close range shooting scenes.

There is enough blood and gore in the movie, but still the movie appears realistic. Even though the body count is high, the act in itself is never glorified. 

Amidst all the blazing guns and bullet wounds on his body, Alban Lenoir's Adam Franco, the protagonist turns out to be quite headstrong in protecting young children, which adds the required humanity angle to the film. 

The story unfolds at a relatively slower rate, but it's never boring. Your 122 minutes are well taken care of.

Emily In Paris (Season 3) Makes You Fall In Love With Paris 🙂

Channel: Netflix

Genre: Comedy Drama Romance

Country of Origin: United States

No. of Episodes: 10

Running Time: 24-38 minutes

Season 3 of Emily In Paris is a fine cocktail of good looking people, hi-fashion clothing, Michelin star worthy good food, the usual drama around fashion and relationships plus few good songs.

Sunny disposition of Lily Collins as Emily Cooper is simply contagious. Lucas Bravo as Gabriel is the quintessential French lover with amazing cooking skills. The undercurrent and personal restrain between the two is quite cute. 

If you are a food & fashion enthusiast and still have not watched this webseries, then do binge watch it to bring you some pre New Year cheer!! 

Avatar: The Way of Water (16 Dec 2022)

 

Release Date: 16 Dec 2022

Genre: Sci-Fi Fantasy Action Adventure

Language: English

Duration: 192 minutes

- Avatar, the prequel focused on adult love and relationship in the forest area. Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel is focused on the individuality and inter-relationship of growing children in the water territory.

- The shift from forest to water happens after an hour into the movie.

- The change in physicality and culture of water people is interesting and logical. 

- Payakan, the giant whale will skip your heartbeat with it's size and steal your heart with it's innocence and heroism.

It reminds of Matsya, the first avatar of Lord Vishnu in Hindu mythology. 

Later on the harvest of species of Payakan is associated with an anti-ageing liquid Amrita, which again in Hindu mythology refers to 'the nectar of immortality'. 

- The underwater scenes match the description of the Mariana Trench, the deepest oceanic trench on Earth.

- Stunning 3D experience & precisely integrated CGI animation. 

- Acting, background score and fight sequences are expectantly good. The fight sequences are quite elaborate with impressive CGI animation and seamless integration. 

- The production effort is mammoth and needs to be applauded. 

- Story narration is tad bit long and boring. 

- The movie is not as pleasantly exclamatory and engrossing as its prequel, but still do watch it in IMAX or 3D for the sheer visual experience.

- Avatar: The Way of Water - may not be 100% entertaining, but it's still a masterpiece!!