#Chappie #EnglishHollywoodlmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating:* * *

#Chappie #EnglishHollywoodlmMovieReview #JohnsonThomas #Rating:* * *

#Picks&Piques/SnippetFilmReview13thMar2015/#JohnsonThomas

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#Picks&Piques/SnippetFilmReview13thMar2015/#JohnsonThomas

 

#NH10 (Hindi) Rating: * * * A darkly violent , reasonably engaging, shadowy thriller that makes violence it’s leitmotif.  The violence and cuss words are shocking alright but the narrative is not entirely plausible or engaging. There’s not much of a story to tell and the performances are at best, befitting. #DeeptiNaval is the surprise packet though! #AnushkaSharma #PhantomFilms #ErosInternational #NeilBhoopalam #DarshanKumar #CleanSlateFilms #VikramadityaMotwane
#AnuragKashyap #VikasBahl #SunilLulla
#KrishikaLulla

 #InTheirShoes(Documentary/English) Rating: * * * A little too rudimentary and explanatory but has historical significance with it’s digging into the past of the Agra shoe trade business. Atul Sabharwal’s research and explorations into an area that has been hitherto neglected and mostly forgotten, deserves praise! #AtulSabharwal #TheSearchers #AnsarShah #MoesArt #ParmanandKumar

#AnthonyBJRuban #PramodThomas #VipinMishra #RobertLang #GeetikaTyagi

 

#Focus(English) Rating: * * Flimsy excuse for a film.It’s more of an attempt to keep Will Smith’s brand alive in public memory. The lack of chemistry and effort in scripting/plotting is hard to overcome. A few strategic scene stealing gains don’t offer much bite despite the short runtime. #WillSmith #MargotRobbie  #GlennFicarra #JohnRequa #WarnerBros #GeraldMcRaney #AdrianMartinez #RodrigoSantoro

 

#Chappie (English) Rating: * * *   Blomkamp’s ‘Chappie’ tries to hit ‘affecting’ rather than the expected cutting edge visual metric of sci-fi sagas. So what you have here is not a very sophisticated , super effects extravaganza but a much more simplistic telling of a very human tale full of emotions and affections(even if it involves a Robot).  #NeillBloomkamp #SharltoCopley #HughJackman #DevPatel #SigourneyWeaver #SonyPictures

English Film review

Johnson Thomas

Endearing Sci-fi saga

Film: Chappie

Cast: Hugh Jackman, Dev Patel, Sigourney Weaver, Sharlto Copley, Jose Pablo Cantillo, Brandon Auret

Director: Neill Blomkamp

Rating: * * *

Runtime: 120 mins

Synopsis:

Neill Blomkamp who made those big-budget sci-fi actioners District9 and Elysium tries his hand at a much lower budgeted sci-fi saga that works more on the heart than on the intellect.

 

‘Chappie’ is basically an expansion of sorts of his own futuristic short ‘Tetra Val,’ which he co-scripts with his ‘District 9 ‘ collaborator Terri Tatchell.  The narrative centers on the story of a slap-dash experiment with an out-of-commission police robot, nicknamed Chappie, who has the human ability of thinking and feeling for himself. Of course he needs to be trained initially like any human baby- but once he gets that under his wing, he becomes an ace at whatever he does.

 

Review:

Much like Steven Spielberg’s ‘ET,’  Blomkamp’s ‘Chappie’ tries to hit ‘affecting’ rather than the cutting edge visual metric. So what you have here is not a very sophisticated , super effects extravaganza but a much more simplistic telling of a very human tale full of emotions and affections(even if it involves a Robot). Like District9, this film starts almost as a documentary, with grainy newsreel footage setting up the premise. The plotting begins in  South Africa, in the near future where crime appears to have been curtailed by a successful robot police force. But a jealous inventor decides to sabotage all those efforts in the hope of getting his own creation off the mark while the original’s ,gets kidnapped by an industrious but desperate gang of three who think he will help them control the on/off button that they perceive as control over the police robots. And he, Deon(Dev Patel) gets kidnapped just when he is in the midst of setting to fruition his very latest creation- a sentient being called Chappie.

 

The hardened criminals, who get Chappie as part of the windfall (due to Deon’s kidnapping),  see him as their key to pulling off a major heist. So Ninja and Yo-Landi Visser - start teaching Chappie how to be a criminal, getting him suitably dressed, perfecting his sidey walk,  showing him how to hijack and imparting swear words. What happens to Chappie thereafter is the stuff of legends..only saying.

There’s fun and involvement to be had here and that’s the nicest thing about this movie. The special effected Robots are excellent no doubt but the film largely has a raw, blunt appearance that suits it’s simplistic narrative spiel. Hugh Jackman plays against type (and that too is a surprise), while Dev Patel reprises most of his standard expressions quite adroitly here and Sigourney Weaver fills in with her Corporate head honcho quirks. This is a film that manages to hit the right buttons emotionally even if it doesn’t get the technicalities all too fancy or spiffy!

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