Moview reviews

If you remember the first Home Alone flick, you know what happens: the youngsters Zain, last seen in Chain Kuli Ki Main Kuli, is likeable; Swini, last seen in Cheeni Kum, is not beat a couple of thieves back, with all their arsenal: dragging them across lawns, throwing smelly liquids whooshing on their heads, shooting sharp pointed objects at various body parts, and so on.

And because it is a Hindi film, it has an item number, fronted by Shamita Shetty. A larger-than-life villain, who has one false eye and a hideous Mumbaiya accent. A couple of hoods called Diesel and Filter Saurabh in waist-length Rasta curls who lets loose noisy smells from his rear end at regular intervals, and Vijay in florid flowery suit. A scientist who8217;s working on a secret computer 8216;cheep8217; chip. And a script which doesn8217;t know the meaning of sense, and so full of holes that several large-sized trucks can drive right through.

Who cares, though? Certainly not the six-year-old sitting right ahead, who chortled his way through much the film. Plot to have your tykes whisked off to the film by elder siblings, while you take in that film you8217;ve been wanting to: that8217;s what multiplexes are for!

RAFOO CHAKKAR8212;FUN ON THE RUN
CAST: Yuddhisthir, Aslam Khan, Nauheed Cyrusi, Nisha Rawal, Archana Puran Singh, Mita Vashist, Shakti Kapoor, Sadashiv Amrapurkar
DIRECTOR: B H Tharunkumar
And this one has nothing to do with that mid-70s barrel of fun-on-the-run starring Rishi and Neetu, other than the fact that they share the same name, Rafoo Chakkar.

Two middle-aged sisters Archana and Mita have to marry within 24 hours to fulfill the conditions of their father8217;s will. Two ne8217;er-do-wells Yudi and Aslam land at their doorstep, and are reeled in, kicking and screaming. In addition to this happy foursome are two curvy airheads Nauheed and Nisha, who claim they are penniless, but appear to be dressed if you call Nauheed8217;s plunging tees 8216;dressing8217; to the nines every time they appear on screen.

B H Tharunkumar8217;s previous outing Nayee Padosan had fake sets, loud actors, and a story which didn8217;t have a subtle bone in its body. Rafoo Chakkar takes all these ingredients, and ratchets them up a hundredfold, making it way beyond bad.

The lines are worse. Sample this exchange between the two fellows, about to be led off to their 8216;suhaag raat8217;: 8220;hamari bohni itni purane customers se nahin ho sakti8221;.

Yeah, it8217;s like that. All of it.

shubhra.guptaexpressindia.com

THE X-FILES: I WANT TO BELIEVE
CAST: Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Amanda Peet
DIRECTOR: Chris Carter
Some files are meant never to be closed, and many would argue that The X-Files fits that category. Six years after the series ended and 10 years after the last film, Scully and Mulder take barely a scene between them to get The X-Files back in its rhythm. It isn8217;t the best case that the two have solved, it isn8217;t the most difficult, it isn8217;t even the best of science fictions, and it barely fits into the category of paranormal, but it is perhaps the closest look at two characters that TV audiences have loved for years now.

Older and wiser, less flashier and argumentative, Scully Anderson and Mulder Duchovny here are retired from the FBI and at peace. Yes, they are living together, and the film just lets that drop, casually. After all those years of speculation about whether they would do 8220;it8221;, when they would do 8220;it8221;, this matter-of-factness sets the pace for the rest of this adventure. This Scully and Mulder are not here to impress us 8212; that battle was long won8212; they are here to be themselves, do what they believe in. And if you think about it, the Scully and Mulder we know would go about their love in their own way, at their own pace.

When the FBI seeks their help to look for a missing agent 8212; the only clue they have is a psychic who claims to be able to see her 8212; they get into it grudgingly. With everybody doubting the psychic, Mulder, who is the 8220;believer8221; of The X-Files, is quickly drawn in. Scully, now working as a doctor in a church-run hospital, is as always the sceptic.

More than the search for the FBI agent, the film at many levels is about the larger question of faith, and how far one would go for it. The film pits stem-cell therapy against religion, is about scientists taking organ transplant far enough to play god, about a serial paedophile priest who prays with the belief that God will forgive him, about Scully debating reason and emotion in trying to save a dying patient, and about Mulder who seeks no reason at all for his beliefs.

There are many things stunningly out of place. Such as a top-notch surgeon like Scully 8220;googling8221; to find out about stem-cell therapy, and apparently using the information on her patient to save his life. But Anderson is so earnest, her portrayal of a doctor torn between what she knows and what she would like to believe so tortured that you can almost believe she is doing everything in her power to save the boy.

Yes, it is not The X-Files we know, but be as it were about former FBI agents Scully and Mulder, let it herald the beginning of a whole new adventure: The Ex-Files. I want to believe.

CHARLIE BARTLETT
CAST: Anton Yelchin, Robert Downey Jr, Hope Davis, Kat Dennings
DIRECTOR: Jon Poll
Now what exactly is this film about? A poor little rich kid missing his parents? A principal trying to run a school of hardboiled kids? Misguided teens and their angst, with no one to listen to them? Misuse and the easy availability of drugs? Or perhaps, as in case of most teen emergencies, almost nothing at all?

Even that would work, except that Charlie Bartlett decides to be faux serious, and keeps adding layer upon layer till it is playing on your nerves. Half that effort, and this could have been American Pie.

You feel the worst for Anton Yelchin who plays Bartlett. He is a true find and a natural as a teen forced to don the role of an adult in the absence of a father 8212; who is in jail 8212; and in order to take care of a mother 8212; who refuses to take charge. Remember Juno? Bartlett could be the male version. However, here he is dishing out wisdom and psychobabble, apparently without any reason and without applying any of it to himself.

The rest of the school is apparently full of no-brainers, who will take Bartlett8217;s words or the drugs he freely distributes, in the men8217;s toilet, no questions asked.

Robert Downey Jr as the alcoholic principal and Hope Davis as Bartlett8217;s cheerfully clueless mother try to inject a much-needed levity, but the film keeps pulling them down and down.

shalini.langerexpressindia.com