Once upon a time in Hollywood - We need more than just 'feet' Quentin

There's always a lot of hype when big directors like Tarrantino, Nolan or James Cameron release a movie. As expected, that was the case with Once upon a time in Hollywood, Tarrantino's 9th film which means he just has one more to go before he retires. There was even more hype when we came to know that it's going to have huge stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Jeff Bridges, and Al Pacino.

So there were more than enough reasons to go watch it. The film released earlier in America with early positive reviews drawing even more attention to it. Leonardo DiCaprio is finally making a movie after 3 years which was the main reason for me to go see it, I knew that no matter the strength of the plot, DiCaprio would have given it everything.

DiCaprio plays the role of Rick Dalton joined by Brad Pitt who plays his stunt double, Cliff Booth and they're reaching the end of their career (Tarrantino's 9th film) and are not feeling great about the fact that they're being deprived of greater opportunities and are being sidelined by playing villain roles and made to star in smaller films. The first half of the movie is about DiCaprio reacting to it and he does a phenomenal job as always. Brad Pitt basically drives him around, trying to constantly motivate him and to look on the brighter side of things.

This was basically the first 2 hours of the movie, Brad Pitt driving around in a car and DiCaprio drinking and drowning himself in self-pity. The movie never really got anywhere after that. DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are two Hollywood legends who do an extremely good job but despite their tremendous performances, there was nothing else to keep me hooked and made the story interesting. Also, one good scene towards the end of a movie does not make up for the fact that the previous two full hours were boring.

Throughout the movie, there are multiple callbacks to Tarantino's previous hits like Inglourious Basterds and pulp fiction, a bunch of scenes featuring 'feet'. Tarantino's previous films, Hateful Eight and Django unchained didn't have any feet scenes, I thought he was over his foot fetish and decided to focus on the plot more but he has compensated for that here. Also, it felt like great actors were kind of wasted with useless plots, for instance, if you remove all of Margot Robbie's scenes from the movie, it would make no difference at all.

I get that the movie is a tribute to the 1960s Hollywood but I just wished that there was more substance to the plot than tremendous camera work, incredible acting, and brilliant soundtracks. Hollywood critics would definitely like this kind of flick but this isn't for everyone, not even for all Tarrantino fans and definitely not for the mainstream audience. This is one of Tarantino's weakest films, probably his weakest in my opinion and I hope that his 10th and final film has a better plot, I get that he's trying to explore different genres in his 10 film journey, I'm not saying that this film is unwatchable in any way, I just feel like he got carried away by his film making techniques and tricks rather than focusing on the plot, or maybe there was something great and I missed it, nevertheless, I'm not sure if I can re-watch it, I definitely don't recommend this one for the main audience, especially the Indian mainstream audience, I don't think we'll have much joy while watching it but if you're a Tarrantino fan who loves his way of storytelling, maybe you can give it a try. 

Verdict 

Tarrantino fan in me: 7/10
Critic in me: 5/10

Most of the points there are because of DiCaprio's brilliant performance which might get him another Oscar nomination and it also goes without saying that Brad Pitt killed it. Without these two, it would have been really hard to sell the movie.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - Step aside Thanos

The Baba Yaga is on the run after the events of John Wick 2. For all those who don't know who he is let me run you through the events of the previous two movies. John Wick is basically the best assassin on planet earth but he wanted to retire and live out the rest of his days with his wife. Unfortunately,  an unfortunate chain of events has forced him back into becoming the assassin again. He has a bounty on his head now because of what he did at the end of John Wick 2.  I've kept it as spoiler free as possible but those two movies completely redefined action movies.  

After the Mission Impossible franchise, I'd say that John Wick is the next best thing out there and as an individual John would crush Ethan Hunt because he doesn't need gadgets, he only needs stationery. I'm not kidding Wick is known for killing 2 men in a bar with a pencil and in this one we see him use a book to dislocate a guy's jaw and fracture his neck brutally killing him in the end. 

The movie starts off immediately after John Wick 2, a few seconds after it actually which is very rare. Usually, in a sequel, we get some time to breathe and live in a universe with a '5 years later' or '5 months later' text. This movie literally starts off 5 seconds after John Wick 2 without a single second for you to breathe. They've already established the universe in the previous 2 movies about the high table and the rules of the continental hotel and now they decided to go with non-stop action. 

The biggest complaint about the first 2 movies is that no matter how awesome the continental and the high table stuff are, they lacked twists and turns. We knew how they were going to end the second they started. Also, Keanu doesn't have a lot of dialogue all he did was go around killing people with headshots. Even though he doesn't have a lot of dialogue here, his killing spree just keeps getting better and there are more than a few twists and turns. At one stage we see him on the back of a horse murdering people coming at him with motorcycles. I wasn't kidding, this guy could definitely take down Ethan Hunt without gadgets. 

Great fight choreography, gorgeous camera work, living up to the standards of the previous movies and excellent supporting roles. Winston is back as the hotel manager helping John in every way possible at the same time trying not to lose his position. We learn that the cool hotel receptionist who took care of John's dog in the second movie is much more than a receptionist. Halle Berry makes things better and could give John a run for his money, more dogs this time taking part in the action. Another decent performance from Laurence Fishburne, we even got a Matrix easter egg in this.

This movie had heart, we got to learn a little about Wick's past, a couple of unexpected twists, so many action scenes, an epic finale and my favorite part of it all, this might not be the end after all. The ending teases another movie and I'm excited already. This is the only action movie franchise that could dethrone the Mission Impossible series as the best series ever. The Mission Impossible franchise had a bad 2nd movie but John Wick is just getting better. Parabellum is the best of the three for me and I would love to watch it again sometime.

Verdict: 

Fan in me: 9.5/10

Critic in me: 9/10

In a world where comic book movies rule, I'm glad that such action movies are still being made and most importantly, getting the recognition it deserves. I was the happiest person to know that Avengers Endgame's box office run was ended by John Wick 3, Baba Yaga for the win. The famous Thanos and John Wick memes finally have some significance now.

Avengers Endgame - Movie of the Century

I'd like to start off by quoting some Stan Lee "I used to be embarrassed because I was just a comic book writer while other people were building bridges or going on to medical careers. And then I began to realize: entertainment is one of the most important things in people's lives. Without it, they might go off the deep end. I feel that if you're able to entertain people, you're doing a good thing." Stan Lee will live on forever in our hearts and words can't be enough to express our gratitude towards him because he did much more than just entertain us. So much work has gone into building the MCU into what it is today and I'm not sure if I can watch another MCU movie after this because of how it left things. 

Endgame picked up exactly where infinity war ended. The review is going to be totally non-spoiler. Joe and Anthony Russo are back for their fourth Marvel movie which might be their last. This is the 22nd movie of the MCU and honestly, I feel like re-watching every single MCU movie countless number of times was one of the best things I've ever done. If you're a fan of the MCU, if you're emotionally attached to these characters then this is the one that's going to please you the most.

I like the fact that Captain America got a lot of time because that was one of my biggest complaints about infinity war. The original trinity got to share the limelight. Iron Man was easily my favorite even though Captain comes close. Thor was cool and this movie was more about the original Avengers than the new ones. The survivors of the snap try to pick themselves up and fight back at the mad Titan. Robert Downey Jr. is at his absolute best and he just kept getting better with every movie and here, he's on another level completely. No amount of oscars are going to justify his performance, he's the main reason this all worked out and he will go down in history as one of the best actors to have brought a comic book character to life right up there with Heath Ledger and Hugh Jackman.

The last half an hour was probably the best and this movie makes it worth watching all the other 21 movies and to enjoy it to the fullest, you should have watched every single one of those, and with some level of dedication. I was fortunate enough to have been a fan of the MCU for a very long time and I got to enjoy it a lot more because of that. MCU is easily one of the best things to have happened to Hollywood. Not sure how much the general audience got out of it but I'm sure that the fans had the best time.

Definitely one of the best times to stay alive and extremely rewarding to have been a comic book movie fan. I'm not going to compare this with DC or Dark Knight or any other movie for that matter because this was its own thing and this is like a gift that the Russos gave us. I enjoy watching comic book movies multiple times but it's going to be really hard for me to see this again. People might need therapy after this because it's going to leave you emotionally scarred. There are a lot of loopholes, unnecessary jokes, and other complaints but I feel like for the experience I got I should think of the negatives a bit later because I just saw Endgame a while back and it has still not sunk inside me fully.

VERDICT:
I don't' feel like I'm worthy enough to give this a rating even though I've been with the MCU right from the beginning. This is a mark of respect I leave for the Stan Lee, Russos, for Robert, Chris (all 3 of them), Tom, Benedict, Scarlett, Mark and every other cast member and crew of Endgame. I urge you to watch all 21 movies and then watch Endgame to truly appreciate it in all its glory.

This movie made me laugh a little, cry a little and live a little. Proud to have been a fan of the MCU and lucky enough to have had the chance to see it in the opening weekend. Marvel has been building their universe for a very long time and they have done a damn good job with it. But we must all accept the fact that a part of the journey is the end.

Shazam! Another big win for DC

Looks like the horror movie directors are doing it for the worlds of DC, James Wan did a great job with Aquaman now we have 'Lights out' movie director David Sandberg with another great movie for DC. Shazam is all about a kid Billy Batson who gets superpowers transferred from a wizard.

Billy Batson is kind of an orphan who keeps running away from foster homes because he's in search of his real parents. After a while, he gets to a foster home with some really cool foster kids Freddy, Mary, Darla, Eugene, and Pedro. Among these kids, Freddy and Darla try to get close to Billy who's usually a closed book and keeps to himself. Ultimately, this is a movie about family and they totally nailed that part. The foster parents and the kids were easily the best parts of the movie. The casting for this movie was amazing, the kids do a fantastic job with it. Zachary Levi was easily the best of them all because he had to impersonate a fifteen-year-old and he absolutely nailed it.

  

This movie was basically every kid's dream, a fifteen-year-old with the powers of an overpowered god who can fly, run extremely fast with super-strength and bullet immunity. Billy, however, needs the help of Freddy who's a huge fanboy of Batman and Superman who's also an expert at all this superhero stuff so because of that Billy starts getting close to Freddy. The way their friendship evolves is really great.

Dr. Sivanna is the villain here and it would be unfair to call him a bad villain. His motivations were well defined and he was kind of the opposite of what Shazam stood for. Speaking of what Shazam actually stands for, these people have really done the comic books some justice, they've stuck to their roots and a lot of this had elements of 'Superman Shazam return of Black Adam' here. There were plenty of teases for Black Adam and I'm definitely excited to see Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam. Also, the last twenty minutes of the movie totally blew me away, just going on to prove that comic accuracy is the key, totally loved that stuff.

Almost every five minutes we're teased with Batman or Superman reminding us that this is very much a part of the worlds of DC and that Warner Brothers will continue giving importance to the two greatest pillars of DC, Batman, and Superman. Clearly, DC didn't start off the way they had to but I'm pleased with the way things are going for them right now. Back to back hits with Aquaman and Shazam would definitely help them and both these movies were critically acclaimed. Solo movies are clearly their thing and they've got a hit out of every single solo movie they've made so far. Maybe they should continue making these until they're confident enough to make a justice league movie.

Wonder Woman 2 is in the works, Batman will be coming out next and I feel like it would be a bad call to make Henry Cavill step down as Superman because if this hit streak for DC continues, they definitely need Cavill. I think Warner Brothers have finally found the perfect directors for their movies and that they should give them a chance to do a man of steel sequel before saying goodbye to Cavill because things are really starting to turn around in a really good way. 

The post-credits scene teased a sequel and I think it would make perfect sense if they decide to use Superman in it. Maybe they can go with the Superman Shazam storyline before the Man of Steel sequel. I think it would be really awesome to see Zachary, Cavill and the Rock fighting it out on the big screen. Shazam was exactly what Warner Brothers wanted, a really fun humourous superhero movie with tons of Easter eggs and a message to the world that DC is far from finished. I really hope this streak continues for years to come, I know they can never be as good as Marvel but they can definitely try to be by sticking to solo movies for now until they're confident enough with the right director.

Verdict
Fan in me: 9.5/10
Critic in me: 8.0/10

Avengers Endgame is going to hit the theatres in a couple of weeks and people should definitely consider watching this fun lighthearted emotional superhero movie before getting their hearts broken because Shazam was the true Captain Marvel movie we needed not that crappy one we got to see a month back from Marvel, if that can make a billion dollars at the box office so should Shazam but we all know how unlikely that is because Endgame is coming. But still, WB was brave enough to get it out on the same month as the most expensive Marvel movie ever made. I hope this movie gets the recognition and box office collection it deserves.

Captain Marvel - Killing time till Endgame

Marvel is known for consistently making good quality films, so far, there's no single movie that's totally unwatchable or horrible or even boring. Some people call Iron man 2 the worst but I found it very much entertaining, not even close to a bad movie by my standards, maybe Thor 2 or Thor Ragnarok, both those movies were enjoyable in their own way, maybe had some plot holes or character inconsistencies. They literally made magic so believable and cool with Dr. Strange, a movie that could have failed miserably but turned out to be one of their best, and the same thing goes with the guardians of the galaxy. But even the best people have bad days and Marvel finally made a movie that comes very close to unwatchable and boring to death.

Captain Marvel, directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck stars Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, and Sam Jackson as Nick Fury, it is the first female solo superhero movie in the MCU. The movie takes place in the year 1995 where we follow Carol Danvers aka Captain Marvel, a hero who meets with an accident which gives her a confusing set of powers which include shooting stuff out of her hands and managing to stay young for decades even they don't actually mention the latter.

Nick Fury meets Captain Marvel due to some events and then they team up to fight a bunch of alien villains. Throughout the movie, Carol has flashes of her past life as an airforce pilot and her childhood. It's sad to say that there was not a single scene in the entire movie that made me even remotely relate with her character. Her past life was poorly explained, she has no idea what's going on at times and we the audience also have very little idea what's going on at times.

I found myself scratching my head wondering how Marvel can make a movie with such little exposition and a so many plot holes. It doesn't even feel like the movie tried hard to be what wonder woman tried to be, a movie about a strong female hero who little girls can look up to. Brie Larson does the best she could, with the same vacuous expression throughout the movie, with robotic behavior and zero life. She's the complete opposite to what Gal Gadot was in Wonder Woman. I guess anyone else in her place would have done the same because the fingers should be pointed at the directors. But still as an Oscar-winning actress much more was expected of her and she was an overall disappointment.

My last hope was Nick Fury, I hoped that they would really do justice to his character but unfortunately I was let down again. This doesn't feel like a young Nick Fury to be honest, he feels much softer than the man he was in the Avengers and he just felt like comic relief at times. He gives us a couple of laughs but that's about it. I was really curious to find out how he lost his eye and that scene in Captain America the Winter soldier where he says 'The last time I trusted someone I lost an eye' was pretty cool and I really expected something dark and awesome but when I found out what happened, I was just cringing so much. I don't even know why they did that. They could have just left that eyepatch bit a mystery instead of turning it into the lame joke it was. The only reason I wanted to see this was to learn about Nick's past but unfortunately it was a huge letdown and extremely inconsistent considering the guy he is now. At times I was hoping maybe his experience from Captain Marvel hardened him but now I'm just confused wondering how he became the badass director of SHIELD. 

The CGI was good, a few fight scenes were cool and there were a couple of laughs here and there. This movie could have at least tried to be a full on comedy like Thor Ragnarok but unfortunately, even the humor notes weren't on point and that's the least we can expect from a Marvel movie. The soundtrack was below average and the villain, as usual, was weak but considering how weak this movie was overall, we can't blame this too much. The de-aging effects used on Nick were fantastic, making the CGI the best part of the movie. 

There was very little hype generated from the trailers that were released and our greatest fears of Brie Larson's same expressions in almost every scene came true. In the end, I'm not even sure what this movie was trying to be, a strong female superhero movie or a good solo Marvel movie or a mini-Avengers movie, in the end, it just felt like Marvel killing time till Avengers Endgame. Am I excited to see the Avengers come back in Endgame, a huge yes but would I like to see Captain Marvel in Endgame, that's a huge no. I swear, if I see her motivating or leading the Avengers against Thanos in Endgame, I'd be walking out of the theatre if it isn't Steve Rogers or Thor or Tony doing the leading. This isn't a sexist comment from my part, this is coming from me because I was infuriated after seeing such a poor film from the MCU. This is really the first time that the MCU managed to leave their fans disappointed.

They should have just made a Black Widow movie instead of Captain Marvel, I swear her flashback during Avengers age of Ultron made me feel much more than what I felt in Captain Marvel. I do not look forward to seeing her in Endgame but unfortunately, we're all going to. I didn't have expectations but I've gone with the same attitude for so many other Marvel movies but they've all managed to prove me wrong, I never thought that Marvel studios had it in them to make a movie as boring and cringy as this, I really hope that they stop experimenting by changing their storytelling style and stick to their roots because it works well and I don't find it monotonous, hopefully, this is something they learn from and come back stronger the next time.

Verdict
Fan in me: 3/10
Critic in me: 4/10

You don't have to see this to understand Avengers Endgame, if you can skip it, please do, but if you want to get a glimpse of what happens after the ending of infinity war then definitely go for it because the post-credits scene and the last few minutes of the movie are really great maybe just go to the theatre about 2 hours late and you won't be disappointed. The whole Rotten tomatoes controversy is really getting on my nerves. They keep deleting so many reviews masking this movie and trying to save it from falling apart, initially, there was a 29% fan rating now it's 51%, if you really want to know how legit they are, just remember that Avengers Infinity War has a lower rating than Captain Marvel and black panther. They've been doing this nonsense right from Batman v Superman, in my opinion, the critics should be banned from posting any reviews for comic book movies, they are made for the fans and we will always be there to judge them for what they really are and our opinions matter more now and always.

Glass - One for the comic book fans

M. Night Shyamalan continues his unbreakable 'franchise' with the third and final installment, 'Glass'. Starring Bruce Willis as David Dunn, James McAvoy as the horde and Samuel Jackson reprising his role as Elijah price aka Mr. Glass. When we all came to know that the events of Split took place in the same universe as Unbreakable, the internet went crazy and I must say, Glass lives up to its hype and is definitely worthy of being in the same universe. For all those who are not aware, Glass (2019) belongs in the same universe as Unbreakable (2000) and Split (2017) so before watching Glass check out Unbreakable and Split to fully understand Glass.

When unbreakable came out back in 2000, I'm not sure how well it was received, feels like maybe it was what ahead of its time. The entire series is a completely different take on a comic book movie without exactly fitting into a comic book movie genre. This is a series about the possibility of the existence of comic book characters in the real world and I think maybe if Unbreakable had come out maybe in 2010 after we got to see some important movies like the X-Men, Spiderman trilogy, the Dark Knight trilogy and our introduction to the MCU this movie might have done a bit better than it did in 2000. In a way, Shyamalan is awesome to have done this way before comic book movies were cool.

'Glass' was basically a movie where Elijah Price tries to make his dream a reality. He wants the world to know that superheroes exist in the real world and is ready to go through anything to prove his point. In some ways, he does stuff very similar to Nick Fury, I really don't see a connection between him and Sam Jackson. Mr. Glass is trying to create a conflict between Dunn and the beast in front of an audience so that the world would finally believe that superheroes exist as he tried to do in Unbreakable only this time he's trying to team up with the beast/ horde. So here, he's trying to be the mastermind behind all these events and his actions speak for him. He really doesn't have much to do in the first half but he does some really cool stuff in the second half.

Talking about performances, McAvoy steals the show here. However awesome Unbreakable was, we really needed a lot of patience sitting through such long hours of exposition, Bruce Willis walking around his hoodie and stuff, the one thing that was lacking there was some comic relief. McAvoy did a great job in Split and he's even better in this. A character suffering from a multiple personality disorder with 23 characters trying to steal the light, can't imagine how he made that look so cool for a second time. The transitions between the characters were amazing and there were so many long shots where he changed between 2-3 characters and only McAvoy could have pulled it off. He brings an element of horror, comedy, humanity, love, and terror. I felt like the least he deserved after his performance in Split was an Oscar nomination but I'm convinced that he's going to be ignored again because the Academy never truly honors great talent, if it had Will Smith, Christopher Nolan and Bradley Cooper would have started winning Oscars instead of people's hearts and McAvoy will be joining that list very soon. McAvoy's performance alone is enough reason for anyone to rewatch this again and in many ways makes it better than its predecessors. Some really nice character development for the horde and the way his past connects with Elijah and Dunn really makes you wonder if these three were destined to meet each other. Loved his origin, loved his performance and without any doubts, McAvoy was easily the best part of Glass and the entire series if you ask me.

The second best performance comes from Samuel Jackson as Mr. Glass. Definitely the wittiest of all, Mr. Glass is trying everything in his power to make Dunn and the Horde go up against each other. But his real intentions are revealed towards the very end. His build-up was kind of boring if you ask me, it took way too long for us to know that he was actually doing something worthwhile, mostly he just sat around in a wheelchair staring aimlessly at the camera, maybe Shyamalan was trying to add some mystery element with that but for me it was more boring than mysterious. Overall, I loved Mr. Glass in the second half and admire his motivations right from Unbreakable but he gets to shine very late, maybe they should have named this movie 'The Horde' instead of 'Glass'.

David Dunn was just brooding around in his superhero hoodie trying to save the day but his best parts come when he's fighting the beast. I loved his relationship with his son, in many ways it reminded me of Batman and Oracle. Joseph really believes that his dad is a superhero and actually has some important stuff to do here. For that matter, Elijah's mom and Casey, the abductee who escaped in Split had equally important roles, so in a way, all three of them felt like sidekicks for our main three characters. 

The true antagonist in the film was basically everyone who hates comics in general and who believe that its all fantasy and waste of time. People underestimate the importance of comics and the motivation that people get from getting to know their favorite characters. There are amazing stories and so many awesome characters and I feel like no one has the right to say that comic books are a waste of time before actually knowing about them. A couple of DC and Marvel easter eggs were spotted here. The stories in comics may not be true but the possibility that they could exist in the real world just makes our hearts skip a beat and give us a thrush of excitement however stupid it may seem and I guess we shouldn't let anyone steal that from us. This trilogy was made for the comic book fans and it's pretty clear that M Night Shyamalan has been a comic book fanboy before it was cool. For that, I really respect him and this trilogy, in my opinion, is M Night's best work yet. As somewhat of a comic book fan myself, I thoroughly enjoyed Glass and would rate it the best of all three because of McAvoy's scintillating performance and Elijah's so-called 'purpose'. It's not a typical hero fighting a villain to save the day type of story, and I enjoyed this different take on a comic book movie. 

VERDICT:

Fan in Me: 8.8/10

Critic in Me: 8/10

Rotten Tomatoes are so wrong about this and I think this is something every person who claims themselves as a 'comic book fan' must watch.