bhttacharjee-saurav

Another Netflix show pretending to be a funny spy thriller. Has loads of overacting, over smart American characters trying to show that espionage is badass. At least Arnold does well (sigh). Agents go rogue all the time, they switch off comms often, there's no need to glorify such minute details for no reason. Lost interest in the pilot, and the remainder was a snooze fest. Seems like the scriptwriter kept forgetting that espionage is supposed to be serious!

How has Netflix not learned lessons from how The Recruit tanked? Stop dumping money on all this and give genuine shows such as Mindhunter and McMafia much needed extensions!

The only objective of making such a movie is to showcase human emotions. This movie doesn't justify adultery or say cheating is cool. Worse, it doesn't do anything much at all. Shakun Batra does well with good cinematography. His attempt at bringing in a Sam Levinson-Luca Guadagnino type work into scenes is appreciable, much like Kapoor and Sons. So is Deepika's and Siddhanth's acting. But why cast Ananya Pandey? Her acting is so bad, she always seems like a clown in a board meeting.

Besides, there are glaring loopholes in the story. How does Zain run away from home, still manage to study in the US, scale up quick enough, return to India as a board member, start his firm, and still be young? Zain has no family? Why is Alisha onboard with cheating so quick? What is the cliffhanger even supposed to convey? 5/10 only for Deepika and Siddhant's acting, the cinematography, the music.

I watched the entire documentary, and my honest review is it is a must watch. Throughout the documentary, I didn't even realise the map was showing anything related to Poland, or whether someone mentioned that the Polish built camps. The story is about the pursuit of justice against a war criminal, and a media trial. It makes you think hard and it gets denser with every passing minute, keeping you engaged. I just hope Polish viewers would stop taking offense to the maps shown, and focus on the story instead.

I've watched almost every half-decent narco TV show, including Narcos & El Chapo. Comparison- Narcos 1,2,3 romanticises drug traffickers while brushing on reality, El Chapo is close to reality and has less of Hollywood, but The Last Narc is mind-blowingly investigative and close to reality. No beating around the bush, no making heroes, no contrapunto- this documentary zeroes in on the Kiki Camarena case and unravels the complete extent of it. The pure intellectual and investigative brilliance of Hector Berellez comes out well, and the real story astounds you. The story is pieced together very well.

All the while, you're reminded of a famous Mexican drug lord who was being chased down by the DEA once. He ran into a dead-end, the drug lord got the DEA official into his car and offered him $10 million. Then the drug lord walked free. And that story rings clearly in your head while you watch The Last Narc.

For a large part of this movie, it seems like it is a low-budget comedy thriller. There are a few funny moments, and a few goof ups- random shadows appearing unchecked and all. But largely, there's nothing to get you out of your seat.

Timelines are horribly wrong, for example when there is a scene between 2 characters, and then the scene shifts to newer characters, in 10-15 mins when the scene cuts back to the earlier characters they're doing just what they were 10-15 mins ago. Decent acting, nothing special. Scenes are stretched out. Not worth 102 mins.

The plot makes for a good story. But the comic part is repetetive and unengaging.

Blue Miracle hooks you up beautifully and toys a line of 'obvious outcome' for 90 minutes, while keeping you completely glued and emotionally invested. Jimmy Gonzales and Dennis Quaid are at the absolute top of their game. The story is told out fantastically. The movie and it's learnings dawn on you like fine wine on a Saturday evening. A huge plus is the perfect character buildup of 'Papa Omar'. The only drawback maybe is slight over dramatization of events. But hey, that adds to the goodness.

And when I learnt it was a true story, it gave me goosebumps. Watch it without second thought!

The story is gripping and the plot was a golden opportunity for the show-makers. What was needed, was to exploit the reason for racial wars, go deep into their activities in Britain, to explain how they convince members to hate, and what was the modus operandi of a spy who infiltrated the BNP. But what we got was a half baked cause and effect POV from the spy and some other characters. Better sequencing, storytelling and character buildup would've made Manhunt: Nail Bomber as good as the Manhunt series. But this was bland and at times boring, with very few moments that pull you in. Disappointing.

Chapter Two is one of the looniest 'horror' movies you'll watch. The plot is lazy, the demons (incl Pennywise) are weird, and the CGI is the final straw. Scenes are riddled with goofups as well.

Cut to a scene where the only lady in the group ends up at her old house, she meets an old lady who secretly behaves like her underwear has an itch. Is that supposed to be scary? Bringing in some 'voodoo stuff' with names like shokopiwa is just lazy script writing.

There are 6 males and 1 female in the Pennywise Justice League team but not one of the them ever has a 'fight' reaction to the clown in the entire movie. Everyone just goes into flight mode.

The climax is funnier- a bunch of underpaid CGI interns giving their lives' worth of effort to get their roles converted to full time. With 3 orbs.

The plot starts off with thrill and surprise, explaining what really happened. Some neat building plans and perspectives. And then it goes down long frustrating rabbit holes of explaining how the mob works, how the mafia works, how small time crooks can be suspect, how art works are smuggled, how guards talk to dead art, how art is love etc.

There is nothing remotely thrilling about the story for large swathes, and it only manages to bore you out. The constant flashforwards become convoluting too. You could leave the show running for 3 episodes and you'd miss nothing.

Positives:

Scam 1992 is one of those rare combinations of a well worked plot woven around a near-perfect cast, unbelievable cinematography, brilliant acting performances, and an astute portrayal of Bombay in the 80's and 90's. Prateek Gandhi steals the show, and absolutely every other actor is brilliant. The research work behind this series is deep, well articulated and explained as if to a layman. They hype around this show, and this will stand as one of the finest shows to come out of India.

Negatives (having read the book and having read about the case extensively)

1. Writer's bias: this is unavoidable, but just for certain sections it felt that the contrapunto between the writer and the hero (villain) was not well managed. The writer's self-praise kind of came across as a turnoff for viewers. Hansal Mehta could've dealt with this a little better. 2. Character buildup: if a little more time was given to Harshad Mehta's character buildup, it'd have helped the audience relate to him a lot more (maybe his upbringing). A Mumbaikar who's lived around Gujarati families would relate to Harshad a lot more, but unsure of others. Similarly, if a little more was shown about the Bull and Bear-cartel rivalry, it'd be even more understandable. Nevertheless, covered by Prateek Gandhi's fantastic performance. 3. Attention to Detail: were people in the 1990's wearing slim fit blazers? Were they living in buildings & interiors styled as per 2018?

Best parts about season 1: 1. Some very fine acting on display. Casting is top top notch. Liraz Charhi takes your breath away! Shaun Toub, Navid Negahban are known faces who pull off their roles amazingly well. 2. Story and the realistic feel of the plot is maintained throughout. Good cues taken from spy stories. 3. Good flow that keeps you hooked

Cons: 1. Loopholes. Gaffes. Plenty of them. Most that are almost funny for a Spy thriller. **spoiler alert**

• For instance, the first plot of identity exchange on just a rhinoplasty cast on Zhilla's face is funny. Funnier is how every character, especially who have looked at her and worked with her closely just go on with her being a completely different woman and looking soooo different!
• Attention to detail absolutely sucks big time. Doors left open while Tamar goes sneaking into people's houses, gates left open in chase sequences, leaving Faraz Kamali alive instead of finishing him at the end, Tamar roaming about in the open without being caught on camera (cue the same scarf every time lol), bringing personal life (Arezoo) into her survival while on a mission (poor research), the way Yael Kadosh avoids a blaring question of her Iranian ex etc.
• A mossad trained Spy who graduated as the best in her class suddenly reacts badly to seeing a person being hanged? She can't fight 3 college going noobs attacking her at the park? She can't take care of a dead body herself (Zhilla's boss)?

2. Character buildup all over the place. 3. The bar set by spy thrillers is very high. And Tehran disappoints. Becomes predictable at times too. Could made so much more out of this plot!

One of the best movies of 2019 I'd say. The character buildup of Dr. Manmohan Singh is refreshing - something so rare in Bollywood cinema. Credit to the storyline and to Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna who kill it in their roles. The punto-contrapunto style of storytelling is the mark of Bollywood off late (read The Tashkent Files) and this is a true example again. You cannot expect a 3 hour film to detail every little thing including 10 Janpath and all the positives. If any, this movie displays Dr. Manmohan Singh in a great light as a really good man, an economist, a honest politician and someone who fought evils; and cuts through reasons for UPA's demise. So you can be a simple spectator like the Congress and agitate at everything against you. Or you can watch this movie/read the book with an open mind and you'll know it is a careful account of Dr. Singh's 2 terms as PM.