Sidbose

Don't remember when I last saw two shows of the same movie in a span of 24 hours. Had once ridiculed one of my colleagues for queuing up to watch the same film a second time without break. For once, Marvel has made a film where it's not the superhero who steals the show, but the film's story. And, it has one hell of a villain, menacing as he comes and spawning raw terror with his presence. Together, they make for a intriguing backdrop for Captain America to shine through.

It's a dark and brooding script, much like the ones churned out from the Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder stables. It consumes you from the very beginning where Captain Rogers is drawn into a game of deceit by the very people he has come to trust and maintains the adrenalin-pumping momentum till the final act where Rogers as Captain America confronts the devil from his past.

That brings me to the villain. Ah! After a long time I could actually see the terrified audience gasping in collective sigh every time the Winter Soldier would walk onto the screen. Thank God, Marvel didn't overplay him. He comes across as absolutely believable in an age of overrated CGI villains that pass off as easy distractions than vehicles of terror.

Perhaps,that makes the Winter Soldier frighteningly close to reality. He can happen to anybody. Just like Christoph Waltz's smooth-talking, 'eagle' hunting down Jew 'rats' Col Hans Landa in the Inglorious Basterds and Javier Bardem's portrayal of the unstoppable evil Anton Chigur in No country for old men. This is not comparison, just plain reference where our villain is going to take us.

Other takeaways include, the chirpy and unruffled black widow (Scarlet Johannson), the falcon (yes Marvel have introduced falcon in this installment), the senator (Robert Redford) and of course Nick Fury, the wily and unforgiving head of SHIELD (Samuel J Fox) Then there's the bonus: Captain Rogers aka Captain America who's once again on a mission to save the world. Since the story remains unfinished, I Am already salivating for the third installment of the franchise. Can't wait till 2016.

How often do you find a movie where the camera does the talking in the film's opening scene. You waltz with the visually stunning frames in and out of the story for full ten minutes before even realising that there were no dialogues!!! Sucker punch breaks the convention in many ways and at several levels. It demolishes the stereotype; challenges your tastes and offends your clichéd sensibilities. It is like a room full of colourful tapestries, each more beautiful than the other, so much so that their collective brilliance confounds the orthodox and humbles the willing. It is a simple story of a bunch of girls fighting their demons made brilliant by its unmatched style of presentation. So, it is not about what the film tells the audience, it is how it tells them. Director Zach Snyder's concept of a theatre inside an asylum is the key to the film which unlocks its secret in the very end. The story about girls finding their wits to escape the asylum also becomes the plank for them to break free from the reality into a surreal world where they become the protagonists and control their worlds. The ending is as dramatic and as devastating as life itself. It cannot be replayed. Like life, it is not fair. Like life it is not the least predictable. A must watch for those who are willing to widen their creative mindspace... Will give it a nine for making me think and think again.

I held on to this movie a long time before finally watching it. I was genuinely surprised by the refreshing take on parallel worlds of angels and humans and the fallout of a crossover. Some of the shots in the movie are uncanny, if not entirely different. They are unsettling but seam with the flow of the story that essentially dwells on an emotionally charged relationship between an angel and a human. Nicholas Cage starts off slightly jaded, his portrayal of an angel, more wooden than natural. But, the moment Meg Ryan enters the screen, he adapts to the story like a fish to water. Their chemistry is bang on! It is hard not to fall for them. The crackling freshness between the two sets the tone for the poetic end... It will stir your beliefs on love and afterlife, if not shake them.