Heffernan99

1,300 years in Narnia has passed when the Pevensie siblings were living in the real world for only 1 year. Contrary to their expectations, Narnia has changed a lot from what they last knew it to be. The Telmarines are a non-magical, human race that have put the Narnians on the verge of extinction with most of them assuming that they are already extinct. A Telmarine Lord, Lord Miraz (Castellitto) is the brother of the King of Telmar whom he killed along with all his sons, save Prince Caspian (Barnes). Now that Lord Miraz has a newborn heir, he intends to get rid of Caspian and hence pronounce himself the King of Telmar. Caspian escapes Telmar and in an act of desperation, summons the Queens and Kings of Old, the Pevensie siblings. Aslan (Neeson) has not returned and the Telmarines intend to attack the Narnians and Prince Caspian and wipe them out once and for all. The movie is a large improvement from the previous movie on multiple fronts. There is far more action, adventure and anticipation than before and the useless and immature dialogues have been thrown for something more mature and needful. It's a wholesome, entertaining fantasy- war movie that young and old can enjoy and relate to alike.

The orange, rotund feline is back once more, and he has a twin. Garfield's (Murray) nightmare is about to come true. Jon (Meyer), his owner, intends to keep him and Odie locked in an animal shelter whilst he is away to London with his girlfriend Liz (Hewitt). Garfield, for the cat that he is, decides to tag along with Jon and Odie has no intentions of being left behind. Prince (Curry) a British cat with the exact same appearance as Garfield, is an heir of a sprawling mansion in the English meadows. Lord Dargis (Connolly) was expecting to inherit the mansion when his aunt passed away who instead left it to her cat, much to his disappointment. He now intends to get rid of Prince and eventually control the mansion and convert it into a hotel. Prince and Garfield get swapped and a situation of mistaken identities occur where Garfield is living life Prince-size, and Prince has to live in a hotel like a commoner. The movie is an improvement from the previous movie and Garfield is more sarcastic, rude and uncaring than the previous movie. Although the movie plot has its flaws, its meant to appeal to the mindset of young children and it definitely will.

The third, and perhaps final, episode of the four friends who ran away from their zoo enclosures to experience a better life, are finally on their way back home. When Skipper the Penguin (McGrath) and his crew decide to take their warp speed travelling aircraft to Monte Carlo to win some big money, Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Smith) sense that they may never come back to fetch them. The crew decide to find them and make them go back home to NYC with King Julien the Lemur (Baron Cohen) and his sidekicks in tow. Animal Control officer Captain Chantel DuBois (McDormand) is called after the animals wreck havoc in one of the casino's and is asked to put the creatures where the belong, on her living room wall. The movie is a perfect example of 'old wine, new bottle. The main elements for which we all loved the first movie have been collected and repackaged into this brand new offering. King Julien is the same, his song is the same and the old characters seem to be there for no reason. Even Melman had no role as the 'doctor' as he always was, Gloria wasn't shown for her 'beauty' and Marty wasn't the eccentric that we loved. Its still a watchable movie, but is far from where the original epic was made.

When two emotionally broken women want to run away from their current lives, the find respite in each other and in the other persons life. Amanda Woods (Diaz) is a movie marketer based in L.A whose boyfriend is caught cheating on her with his secretary. Fed up of her life and her routine, she wants to run away to someplace quiet and serene. Iris Simpkins (Winslet) is a journalist based in London who is deeply in love with her colleague Jasper Bloom (Sewell). Jasper too keeps expressing his love for her, but at the same time gets engaged to someone else, leaving Iris heartbroken. When Amanda contacts Iris to swap houses and lives for 2 weeks, the two women never realise what is in store for them. Amanda falls in love with Iris' brother, Graham (Law) in spite of trying very hard not to. Iris falls in love with Amanda's friend, Miles (Black) and befriends her neighbour, a movie veteran, Arthur Abbott (Wallach). There is a feel-good feeling to this movie and you would be quite happy once it is done. The good thing about the movie is it projects the two lives as actually being two separate lives and not something where a particular situation occurs at both ends. Taking an example, Iris' love comes to meet her but that is not the case for Amanda. Iris befriends a neighbour but Amanda doesn't. The individuals have their identity of their own and are only stringed together by emotions. A good movie worth at least one watch.

Marty McFly (Fox) is the average American kid who loves skate- boarding, chasing girls and getting late to school. His father keeps getting bullied by his supervisor, Biff (Wilson), his mother is an alcoholic and his elder siblings don't seem to have any aim in life. He has be-friended the local crazy scientist, Dr. Brown (Lloyd) whom the entire town considers to be mentally unstable. Dr. Brown has managed to create a time machine by modifying a DeLorean which needs a speed of 88 mph before it can travel through time and which also uses Plutonium. Dr. Brown had stolen the Plutonium from the Libyans and whilst showing Marty the functioning of the device, the Libyans attack Dr. Brown and Marty manages to escape back in time to the year 1955. Since he was out of Plutonium, Marty could not go back to the actual year and hence needed to find the younger Dr. Brown and take his help in going back to the future. 1955 was the year when Marty's father George (Glover) fell in love with his mother Lorraine (Thompson) but sadly, Lorraine takes a liking towards Marty himself. Marty realises that if he comes in the way of his parents, he might alter the future altogether to the point that he himself would seize to exist. The movie is a hardcore science-fiction movie that is a complete entertainment package. Although the story and developments might come across as being clichéd, the movie has some very good twists and a gripping climax to make this movie a wonderful watch. Many sci-fi movies end up looking too cheesy because of bad execution of the 'futuristic technology' but this movie seems to pull it off with ease which looks believable even 27 years later. A brilliant movie and a must-watch.

Based on the famous book by Roald Dahl with the same name, the story narrates the life of Mr. Fox (Clooney) who lives life by raiding nearby farms. When he learns of his wife's pregnancy, he decides to quit his hobby in favour of the family and their to-be child. Two years later (Twelve in fox years) Mr. Fox, Mrs. Fox (Streep) and their son Ash (Schwartzman) move to a new hole under a tree which is close to the fields of three farmers; Boggis (Hurlstone), Bunce (Guiness) and Bean (Gambon). When Ash's cousin Kristofferson (Anderson) comes over to stay over the weekend, Ash feels insecure when everyone praises him and his capabilities over Ash. With Mr. Fox feeding his family with his nightly jaunts, the farmers are tired of the thefts and decide they need to get rid of Mr.Fox once and for all. The movie is made in stop-motion animation technology which gives it a good childish look and feel. Roald Dahl wrote books for children and the movie too aims to target the same segment with the movie. However, in spite of the movie being made for a younger audience the movie can still be very entertaining to the mature mind too. It is a great wholesome entertainer that people of all ages would enjoy. This is what you call a well-rounded entertaining movie.

The first movie was widely acclaimed for its relevant humour, animation that appeals to a different audience and of course, the minions. With such a big burden on it's head, this movie had a lot to live up to and like any other sequel it is always difficult to recreate the first magic. Gru (Carell) has finally given up on being a villain and now has started focusing his resources on making jelly and jams. He lives with his three adopted daughters, Margo (Cosgrove), Edith (Gaier) and Agnes (Fisher) and all of them are happy with their lives. A laboratory gets stolen from the arctic circle and nobody has any idea who did it or why. Agent Lucy Wilde (Wiig) from the Anti-Villain League, recruits Gru to help them identify the villain by thinking like one and be on the good side for a change. A big evolution in the movie is the character of Gru who has turned good from being bad. That has not only not made him despicable but also affected the movies humour content to some extent. Yes, the movie fails to live up to the standards of the first movie but having said that, it is not exactly a bad watch. You would get more than one occasion to laugh heartily but maybe not as much as the first one. Since the audience is more or less familiar with what Gru is, there is nothing appealing about him anymore and in that sense, the movie lacks innovation. Great movie to watch but could have been far better.

Musicals are annoying, very annoying, at least for me. And when you have a song every 5 minutes it can get very annoying. Sophie (Seyfried) is getting married. Sophie lives with her mother, Donna (Streep) off a Greek island. Sophie does not know who her father is since Donna slept with 3 men around the same time. In order to find out, Sophie discreetly invites Harry (Firth), Sam (Brosnan) and Bill (Skarsgard), her 3 possible fathers to her wedding without informing Donna. When they do turn up, Donna is reeling under a shock and Sophie is trying to determine who her father is. Harry, Sam and Bill don't know that one of them could be the father of Sophie and everything turns out to be one big mess. The movie is entertaining and there is no doubt about that. The endless songs are extremely annoying and can give you enough reason to not watch the movie anymore. For someone who hates songs in movies, this one is the ultimate torture. If songs are your thing, coupled with ideal summer destinations and a sprinkling of romance, then this movie kills it in every way.

The genre listed above is a big personal turn-off. People frolicking around, singing and dancing with the added melodramatic romance scenes is simply not my cup of tea. The fact that this movie turned out to be far more enjoyable than I had imagined, speaks a lot for itself. Set in the year of 1927, when movies were still silent and the new trend of 'talking pictures' was classified by many to be a passing trend that doesn't hold any water. Don Lockwood (Kelly) and Lina Lamont (Hagen) are a hugely successful on-screen duo who have created many famous romantic saga's. Don is a noted dancer, singer and performer whereas Lina has nothing but attractive looks. Her shrill and squeaky voice makes her a misfit for a talking picture but at the same time the studio management has a contract with her on which they cannot go back on. Kathy Selden (Reynolds) is a theatre artist who knows the challenges when it comes to acting while talking and believes that actors in movies are not true actors at all. When Don and Kathy meet at a party, they are both at disagreement over each others thoughts about acting but still find a connection between themselves which makes them fall in love. The movie is filled with energetic performances, mostly danced and sung by Gene Kelly himself. The overdose of music may not go down very well with many, like me, but there are still a few select performances where the moves are marvellous and anybody would appreciate it. Singing and dancing apart, the movie beautifully showcases the evolution of movies and the hilarious challenges that directors, producers and actors had to face alike. A good entertainer where one can easily skip the singing and dancing and move on with the movie.

The third instalment of an epic series by an epic director needs to be epic; and it is. The Batman (Bale) takes the fall for Harvey Dent's murder, and for eight years stays off the streets of Gotham City. Bruce Wayne is now a cripple and has invested a fortune in developing a sustainable source of renewable energy. When he learns that the reactor's core can be converted to become a nuclear weapon, he shuts down the project and hence millions of dollars of Wayne Enterprises gets permanently locked onto the project, leaving the company in the red. A cat burglar, Selina Kyle (Hathaway), performs a job where she lifts Bruce Wayne's finger prints and sells it to Bruce's rival. Unknown to Selina, her act triggers a sequence of evens where a terrorist by name of Bane (Hardy) intends to take down Bruce Wayne, The Batman and all of Gotham City for good. Superficially, the movie is still the tried and tested good winning against the evil unlike the more un-conventional approach that the earlier movies took. The biggest let-down of the movie was Bane and his character's inability to live up to the reputation of The Joker. The Dark Knight's core reason for succeeding was The Joker, nothing more and nothing less. No doubt the movie was a brilliant work of art, but minus The Joker and it all turns bland. Bane, was the more conventional villain who is strong and muscular, has a stereotypical behaviour and belief and can be associated with any modern criminal. He is far too conventional and a tad uninteresting. The first half took its own sweat time in establishing the plot and foundation which made the movie slow and a bit boring. The second half picks up pace dramatically to end in a superior climax. Although the climax is impressive, it can still be counted as predictable and not what the audience might have expected. The movie definitely packs a whole lot of punch and entertainment but no aspect of it shines out and can be termed as outstanding. Too predictable and conventional in a lot of ways, but don't get me wrong; its still a treat!

A reboot to the Batman series by the epic director Christopher Nolan is sure to create fireworks. The movie starts the Batman saga from scratch, by narrating the story of Bruce Wayne (Bale) and how he became the Batman. The son of a philanthropist and multi-millionaire, Bruce developed a fear of bats at a young age when he fell into a well which had a bat cave. Bruce later witnesses his parents' death a street corner by a mugger and is left to be raised by his butler, Alfred (Caine). Years later, a much older Bruce is still seeking revenge for his parents death and decides to train under the guidance of Ra's al Ghul and his trainer Henry Ducard (Neeson) who belong to the League of Shadows, an organisation of discrete crime fighters who wish to eradicate the world from evil. A fallout between Ra's and Bruce sees Bruce return to Gotham City to become The Batman where he fights crime by night and is determined to wipe the cities streets clean. Coming from the stable of Christopher Nolan, the movie is vastly different from conventional superhero movies. Typical of Mr. Nolan's style, this movie too involves the human mind and its abilities and cleverly includes them in the script. The core foundation of the movie movie is still the story of good over bad but the manner in which it is created and executed, is what makes the movie different from the rest. Christian Bale seems to have fulfilled the role with sheer brilliance and puts on an outstanding performance to make it a well-rounded and action packed movie that keeps you wanting till the very end.

Most romantic movies are too good to be true. Most movies have a twist towards the end due to which the relationship does not work out and its this very twist that determines the fate of the movie. A young soldier John Tyree (Tatum) is home on vacation and falls in love with a college student Savannah (Seyfried) over the summer. Savannah has to return to college and John needs to report to duty and they both promise to meet after a year. 9/11 happens and John is compelled to extend his duty and cancel leave and to serve his country. The young romance that happened over a year ago just over a couple of weeks, has blossomed to large levels over the regular exchange of letters. However, everything is too good to be true and disaster strikes. Like I send before, there always is a twist that determines the outcome of the movie. In this case, the twist was just simply lame. In fact the whole climax goes mostly unexplained and makes you wonder how that even happened and why would anyone do that. It comes across as stupid and irrational and kills the otherwise steady movie. Most of the movie is the normal blossoming of love between the two without getting too boring or too interesting. What entirely kills the movie is the final outcome. The movie is watchable for romance fans but it really wont touch you or make you go 'awwww...' towards the end.

Celebrating 50 years of James Bond on film, Skyfall is the twenty- third movie in the franchisee and Daniel Craig's third. 007 (Bond) is on a mission in Turkey where a mercenary killed several MI6 agents and has stolen a hard drive that contains the information of several NATO operatives who are hiding undercover in various terrorist organisations throughout the world. If this information gets revealed, several operatives would be compromised. When Bond and Eve (Harris) fail to recover the hard drive from the mercenary, M (Dench) comes under political pressure for failing to save the lives of so many agents and is asked to take up voluntary retirement. The MI6 headquarters comes under a terrorist attack which causes further damage to M and her image. 007 was assumed to have been shot dead in Turkey but who actually survives. He enjoys death and decides to retire for good when the troubles back home convince him that he is needed once more. An old, unfit and alcohol addicted James Bond returns to duty with a huge question mark slapped on his head on whether he can continue the job or not. The movie is very different from the usual Bond movies where we are accustomed to seeing Bond romance several beauties, have a gadget loaded car and have blistering action sequences. There was no 'Bond girl' in this movie, there were hardly any awesome gadgets that 007 used and save for the first 20 minutes there was absolutely no other captivating action sequence the movie could bring up. Javier Bardem was a saving grace to some extent but somehow he too does not feel like the right villain that Bond would usually fight. The movie was disappointing and although I haven't seen each and every Bond movie, I will go as far as claiming this to be one of the worst I have come across.

Jerry (Butler) and Holly (Swank) are a young married couple who had taken the decision to be together without the consent of their respective parents. The two enjoy a love-hate relationship where they are stupidly in love but yet fight a lot. Fast forward a few months ahead and Holly is now a spinster. Jerry suffered from a brain tumour and subsequently passed away. It is only now that Holly realises how much Jerry meant to her inspite of all the fights they had. Whilst on his deathbed, Jerry realises that his passing away would have a disastrous consequence on Holly and he plans to help her have a smooth getting-over. Jerry cleverly leaves behind a trail of bread crumbs asking Holly to do exactly as his letters ask her to do. The movie is a fun to watch romance-comedy and can very easily bring forth a tear even amongst the stone hearted. Swank and Butler seem to share the perfect on-screen chemistry and look absolutely brilliant. A truly fantastic watch and recommended for anyone who doesn't want a heavy and mushy romance movie but rather something light, simple and enjoyable.

Throughout almost all our fairy tales we have always seen big, scary monsters and children hiding under their beds in fear that these monsters would come and eat them up. Ever heard of a story where things happen the other way around? Dracula (Sandler) has built a hotel called Hotel Transylvania where all monsters and beasts can come and feel safe. No scary humans to come and disturb them, only darkness and peace. But when Jonathan (Samberg) a young human bag packer arrives at the castle, Dracula is petrified. Dracula's young daughter Mavis (Gomez) is eager to explore the world outside but her father refuses to let her go into the destructive and dangerous human world. The movie explores a good storyline which is the exact opposite of the stories we usually hear. The movie is light and entertaining but the movie still lacks a lot of humour. Yes it would appeal to a 10-year-old but the movie still needs to give the audience some more reasons to laugh.

So how many movies have you seen where a girl becomes a guy and a guy becomes a girl? Many, right? Well this movie is no different and is just like the rest. Jessica (McAdams) is a an arrogant teenager who loves hanging out with her girlfriends. One day she steals a pair of voodoo earrings from a store which in turn out to have super powers. The earrings, if worn by 2 different people, would ensure that their bodies get exchanged but the soul remains the same. Jessica's body gets exchanged with a low-life criminal (Schneider) who manages to find one of the missing earrings. Jessica now needs to live in a mans body and needs to convince her friends of her story and take their help in finding her true body back. The movie is a load of utter trash and is not even remotely funny. The only funny bit is watching Schneider in being a girl, not cause its funny but because he makes a fool of himself.