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Avengers: Age of Ultron Analysis by Zulfi 4/5             Joss Whedon continues his adrenaline pumping directorial spurge from ‘Avengers’ into ‘age of Ultron’ with the dynamic thrill of a new engine having all its stops pulled. In the opening action scene, it appears as though it is a continuation of where he had left off in the first part of the avengers. All the six are rushing through the snowbound forests and mountains of Sokovian miltary hideout where they are smashing tanks and throwing soldiers hither and thither like they are barbies and kens. They are infact going for the staff, which Loki had wielded in the prequel. Hulk leads the carnage while Ironman masterminds the aerial attack. Captain America (Chris Evans)and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) with their respective weapons’ mega clangs upend even the war tanks. Even before the opening credits, we see a sinister story taking shape as a set of supes (twins) of the Russi...

Avengers Movie Analysis – 4/5 Zulfi             The main reason to be liked about avengers and also the main reason it worked was the way Joss Whedon pits one superhero against the other. The heroes fight among themselves. Because it is not easy to just form a team and go along. To form a group, you need to solve your differences. Hulk and Thor do, Thor and Ironman do, Ironman and Captain America do (verbally). The first half of the movie is busy with these setups. The inter-superhero relationship draws a lot of interest and also establishes a firm structure to lay the plot on. Joss whedon, a self declared fanboy and an evident one too is an apt director for Avengers. When Coulson talks with Cap like a small boy and even mentions about the cards he had, we know it is Whedon talking. Because he understands each of his character so well. He highlights IronMan’s wit and careless nature, Captain America’s laidback and...

Social Network Movie analysis by Zulfi 4/5             Mario Puzo’s novel godfather starts with the line by Balzac: ‘behind every great fortune, there is a crime.’             And the fortune of facebook is around 50 Billion dollars as that is how rich Mark Zuckerberg is. He is the youngest billionaire and his treasure didn’t come without getting his hands dirty. The small journey, which he took from the starting of the social network, facebook, during his college days to now being the director and owner of the largest user networking site, had embittered many of his close friends against him. Under that success of youth’s crazy and frenzied modern addictions, many personal wars have been fought, dreams have been stomped, friendships have been broken, and loyalties have been swung.             ‘Social ne...

Taxi Driver (1976) Analysis by Zulfi 5/5 (Majestic) In Taxi Driver,Travis Bickle is a canvass on whom New York draws its many hued, myriad layered painting. The layers comprises of dirty violence, child pornography, false modesty, spurious existent love and many others. It is a vulgar but great poetry etched on a character’s portrayal. Travis (Robert Deniro) is a taxi driver who opts for the night shifts. Night life is the true life. In the day, you wear your nice tuxedo and manipulate your wavy hair to attract the customers, depending on whatever you are selling. But in the nightfall, you are reduced to tugging loose ties and subjecting yourself to some fun. This fun couldn’t be adulterated like the job, you do. You would like to have it as frank as it could be gotten. But the truth comes in many ways. The truth of men preying on the wayside selling girls, of thugs robbing shops, of groups of friends discussing their day in a whole heart out manner. And in Travis’s ...

X MEN: APOCALYPSE Movie Review- Zulfi       2/5   Many times while watching ‘X men Apocalypse’, I had doubts if Bryan Singer directed this. I didn’t see his old way of presentation in this latest offering from the mutant franchise. The movie looks long, overstretched piece of imagination, which audience would easily lose the thread over. Not because of lack of understanding but because of lassitude.                 The movie starts in the times of pharaohs with En Sabah Nur /Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac), the first mutant, hopping from his body into another fresh one, in a ritual of soul transference. But the act is sabotaged by the guards who serve him by implosion of the massive pyramid. Why they do it? Don’t know? The procedure of spirit changing the bodies however wasn’t able to be completed owing to want of some sunlight, but one of the personal guards of Nur or h...

Dev D Movie Analysis 5/5 Devdas is probably the most dullest and dispirited character in the world of Indian cinema. Inspired from a Bengali literary portrait, he is the epitome of self destruction, despair and forlorn love. He is more like a protagonist than a hero. Anurag Kashyap's ‘Dev D’ is a movie art form created from the template of the former mentioned. ‘Dev D’ derives all the three acts from the old movie, which was played by Dilip Kumar and in the new version by Shahrukh khan, which were both not of my tastes. Generally it is a given rule that a failed lover's sympathy has a short expiry date. Devdas for me loses that sympathy very quickly. Granted he has a very hard dishing out from fate but that is life and when he refuses to carry on that stroke of bad luck, you stop being empathetic. And when he behaves like a philosophic poet in his fully sozzled condition, it becomes a tough job for us to consider him as a role model. Heroes are role models. ...

X Men: Days of the Future Past Review by Zulfi 3.5/5 The main thing which we must get accustomed to while watching ‘X Men: days of the future past’ is that kitty can not only travel through solid obstacles but also through the dimension called time. Or at least her mind does and she acts as the medium for someone to physically go there. Now there is another important element Bryan singer throws into the equation that for that someone to hop through time it would take a toll through that shearing journey. Many won't make that alive and it would prove a physical impediment. Now who should enter but our Mr wolverine. Because he is a physical monster. You may subject him to anything but he prevails. He is the one who should go back to the time of Nixon and put an end to a sentinel programme, by stopping Mystique in her endeavors otherwise the threat on mutant race is imminent.  Hugh Jackman is the quintessential feature of x men franchise. Though his chiseled body may lo...

RockNRolla Review by zulfi             This one’s a movie for the buds. I mean, tuff guys and give-a-flying-f***ers. I have my doubts if ladies can enjoy this one. It’s the same with ‘snatch’ and ‘lock, stock’ too. Ritchie makes movies for us, buds. There is nothing of a great plot here. I mean build up is good but it is lost somewhere in the middle and is regrouped poorly at the end. It’s all about style and presentation. British underbelly is at play as always in Ritchie’s outings. This time it’s the turn of ruthless realtors, pen-pushing commissioners, traitorous middlemen, gritty Russians and term-serving henchmen. Well, Russian theme always runs for Ritchie.             The contract business boss, Lenny Cole, not only swindles amateur foreigners, but even some of his own thugs from his immediate circle. He makes them subservient to him by growing debts and se...

Knight and Day Movie review by zulfi 3.5/5             In his movie review of ‘silence of the lambs’, Roger Ebert narrated an incident which happened in the real life of Anthony Hopkins. A lady (if I remember correctly a waitress) asked him if he was the one who played Hannibal Lecter and she hoped her husband was more like him. The main attractive element which she noticed in him was that he listened to the inner workings of the principal character in the movie and sympathized with her. Women desire hearing and encouragement from men even if they bungled something. Roy Miller of ‘Knight and Day’ possesses these qualities and probably that’s what makes him look superb.             He is an eagle scout and he is an obsessive do-gooder. He sticks with a lone weakling against which the whole bad world is against. He is a trained agent of some agency and is of the...

The Other Guys Review by Zulfi 4/5 Comedy comes in many colors. And in case of ‘other guys’, it is a completely new hue. It is not your usual run of the mill humor. Many gags in this movie start slow but gather a massive wallop at the end. There are many instances in this movie where rolling on the floor laughing is just mandatory.                 It is about two NY detective partners, Alan Gamble and Terry Hoitz. They are generally referred to as the ‘other guys’, as they are someone completely ignored by the rest of the department and remembered very off handedly. When two of the most revered detectives are killed in a tough assignment, the dept has the responsibility of filling those large shoes. And our two heroes are the pair, which come last in the draw, if they are considered in the draw at all. Terry Hoitz is a hot headed stocky cop, who thinks some muscle bound action is an obligatory ...

Interstellar Movie review by Zulfi             ‘Interstellar’ is a movie that is as hard to watch as it is to make. It’s not because Nolan makes it tough and puzzling for the viewer, but what he does is exactly the opposite. It has never been his approach to make audience go bewildered. He tries to feed the audience his plot in a battered and suppler way. You must understand how much more complex his initial raw data is then. He thinks a ton and makes it into an ounce by his clever screenplay (also Jonathan Nolan) and very ordered and structured storytelling. As for the visual effects, he never tries to overachieve. His imagination speaks for itself in that foray. Interstellar is certainly not his best but it is one of cinema’s best.             I have been trying to follow the movie closely since its inception, starting with the rights that have been bought afte...

Seven Samurai (schichinin no samurai) Movie review by zulfi             What makes a foreign film to be a success to an international audience? ‘Schichinin no samurai’ is one of the first foreign movies I had seen when I was a kid. It is easily one of the best movies in the great master, Akira Kurosawa’s tenure as filmmaker. There was always something appealing about the work every time I viewed it. The movie in fact had many points which go in favor of it. Like the technical work, wonderful performances, great casting, excellent background score and a load more things. But when I watched other Kurosawa’s movies, the subconscious thing which struck with me and which Kurosawa maintained in his every work was the respect for nativity he gave. Kurosawa claimed John Ford as his inspiration for his movies, but I could say Kurosawa was the master. Though he learned technical points from western cinema, he never westernized hi...