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Reviews
Aegan (2008)
Goes from bad to worse
Tamil film "Aegan" is supposed to be a remake of the Hindi blockbuster "Main Hoon Naa". But, many changes have been made to suit Tamil tastes and the image of the matinée idol Ajith.
Ajith plays a cop who, disguised as a student, is sent to guard a superior officer's daughter from an underworld don. How he succeeds in his mission is the long and short of "Aegan" - translated into English by the star's fans as "one-man-army".
While Shah Rukh Khan played an army officer in the Hindi original, Ajith plays a police officer as it obviously suits the present trend in Tamil films. Shiva (Ajith) a CID (criminal investigation department of the police), is on a mission to safeguard a college student (Piyaa) whose father (portrayed by Devan) is a key link to a business tycoon with underworld links (Suman).
In the college, Shiva falls for a beautiful lecturer played by Nayanathara.The snide remarks by younger characters playing students making fun of an "elderly" Ajith as "uncle" is a bit offbeat because the movie star's fans are accustomed to seeing him in more youthful roles. Ajith pokes fun at himself as well, pointing to the slight bulge in his midriff. The family drama linking Piyaa with a guy of the same college (played by Navdeep) forms the emotional anchor to the story that follows the predictable climax in which the villain is finally laid low.
The India-Pakistan link, shown so successfully in the Hindi original, has been completely avoided in "Aegan". Ajith is agile but no patch on Shah Rukh Khan. Choreography by Raju Sundaram and sibling Prabhu Deva is excellent.
While Piyaa and Navdeep are passable, the show-stealers are Nayanathara (thanks to her curves) and Jayaram (playing the bumbling college principal provoking quite a few laughs).
Yuvan Shankar Raja strikes the right chords with his music. The cinematography (credits shared by quite a few) is breathtaking.
Overall "Aegan" is a very bad remake of a hit movie. I have no clue about how all the good comments for the movie came in here. Probably put here by people connected with the movie or hardcore Ajith fans who will let anything go however bad or unbearable it is!!!!
House (2008)
Not bad... not good
Well, as a guy who occasionally watches movies from the horror genre, i found this movie quite interesting. If you are a person who doesn't like too much gore and blood but need to get ur adrenaline pumping for sometime, then i would suggest you go for it. This is just one of the rare horror movies without all that. Shouldn't be rated R for sure, i feel that quite a few 15 - 17 year olds would also enjoy this movie. The 6 stars are for making a movie for the rare category of people who like horror movies with no gore.
I would have rated it higher but the story made no sense, some of the characters made no sense and i ended up kinda confused in the end with a lot of unanswered questions. Like some of the people commented, the movie does not suck and it isn't too good either. I would suggest watching it if you just want a few thrills without the nightmares that come with them
Babylon A.D. (2008)
Not very entertaining
Most bad movies can eke out some dignity by at least looking like ambitious failures. Then there are some movies like "Babylon A.D." that are just too much of a mess and destined to be failures.
This movie did not have much hope from the get go, what with its director Mathieu Kassovitz publicly distancing and disowning the film, saying the studio interfered too much and made too many changes in the final cut.
It would not be foolhardy to expect at least a somewhat entertaining movie if it stars Vin Diesel. Add to that his co-stars the Asian actress Michelle Yeoh, French actor Gerard Depardieu and the veteran British actress Charlotte Rampling, the director actually has some very fine actors to work with. But they are all wasted here and almost nothing seems to be going right for this movie.
The script is weak and not clear in explaining the mystery of the all important young woman. The actors don't have enough of a background story or a decent script or some characterisation to work with. The movie starts off strong but towards the conclusion just peters out into a muddle. The ending is one of the most disappointing of any action movie in recent memory and very clearly seems tacked on.
Diesel is Toorop, a mercenary who is hired by a Russian mobster Gorsky (Depardieu) to smuggle the young woman Aurura (Melanie Thierry) accompanied by her caretaker Sister Rebecca (Yeoh).
The trio is chased by some army guys who seem to be hired by the girl's father. But her mother also wants her and has some people hunting for her too. The movie never clearly explains what makes the girl so special and a bit after the halfway point you don't really care.
The role of Gorsky is one of the most wasted and humiliating for an actor of Depardieu's stature. Rampling, who has starred in some classic movies like "The Verdict", plays nothing more than just a caricature here. Yeoh, with her radiance, has the power to light up any drab role given, but here the weight of the inanity seems almost too bleak for even her to shine through.
The director, although having made his displeasure with the studios clear, doesn't seem to give us anything to cheer for him in the parts where he might have been given control. This movie suffers from much more than studio interference. It does at places try to take on some grander themes like global warming or the downside of globalisation in the future. But it doesn't dig deeper and uses them only as background detail.
The action sequences indicate quite a bit of money spent but they are too few and coupled with the lack of empathy we feel for the characters, they sadly fall short. The movie has supposedly been shortened considerably by the studio. So for those looking for a light, brisk action movie which doesn't make too many demands on the brain, "Babylon A.D" just might be satisfactory.
Nivedhyam (2007)
An entertainer worth a look
Nivedhyam is quite a good movie with hummable tunes and good acting by the lead pair of Vinu Mohan and Bhama. I watched it one day when I was really bored and didn't expect much from the movie.
But the truth is that I found the movie enjoyable and quite an entertainer. Bhama was pretty, cute and quite believable in her role as the bubbly girl facing a lot of problems in her life. And Vinu was a refreshing change from the usual superstars of Malayalam filmdom. Both the new-comers deserve special accolades for their performance. The quality in the direction of the movie was expected of the veteran Lohitadas and the movie as a whole package is very commendable. The veterans Bharath Gopi and Nedumudi Venu have also been given good parts suited to them.
For criticising, the movie, I don't see much but the storyline was expected from being tried and tested in many movies before. Overall it is worth the watch.