vsrawat Reviews

Spides (2020)

Excuse its slow start, it becoming gripping by third episode

[9/10 · 13 March 2024]

I started seeing it, got bored within half an hour of first episode, left it, it kept lying in my disk for 6 months.

Then yesterday I started seeing it again and by the time I finished viewing 2nd episode, I was hooked. And then finished the rest in two days, and cannot wait for second seacon to appear.

So, if you excuse its slow start and get past, it becoming gripping by third episode. I am sure you will see the last 4 episodes in a single sitting, come what may - come high water or hell.

It is different, it is unpredictable, not following the typical theme of other alien or zombie or sci fi anything. It is unique. Seeing all these actors and actresses for the first time, so there is no previous history to bias me for or against them.

That slow start might have killed its reach. They should have shown Nora's "insect planet dream" and then her kidnapping and her mating call scream and its effect within 10 minutes of first episode, then the viewers would have got sold to it and it would have been much more popular.

Though there are not typical twists and ups and downs as in other serials, but you will feel a connection, a bonding with all major players. Commissioner shooting the Captain and committing suicide was the most stupid development in the entire show.

Oh Second Season, come fast. Don't torture like this.

The Postman (1997)

Forget Bad Critics. This is a cult movie. Don't miss it for anything in the world.

[10/10 · 25 February 2024]

I landed on this movie searching for "apocalyptic" movies that is my favourite theme and downloaded it, but then I read about it in wiki and knew about how everybody declared it a bad movie. I was on the verge of deleting it without seeing it, but then I thought to have a peek to justify some use of the wasted bandwidth.

And I was hooked to it. I couldn't make myself close it, I saw it through in one sitting, of course with tea-coffee breaks. And this has landed quite high in the list of my most favourite movies. I came to imdb, gave it a rating of 8, Saw it further, and then I came back to imdb again and raised the rating to a perfect 10. There would be not many movies that I would have rated at par with it.

So, Ignore the critics who gave it a bad rating. They were so lame that they couldn't recognize a true flaw-less diamond and threw it thinking of it as a cheap piece of glass.

Do see it. Do show it especially to your kids. That is the best education and guidance that you can provide to them. This movie should be be shown in all schools and colleges throughout the world to give a purpose to lost youth of the time.

It is a cult movie. What a message. What a presentation. What a step-by-step guide to building a state and a nation.

This movie is about HOPE, HOPE and HOPE. It is not justa the mails that the postman delivered, it was HOPE that he delivered, as simply as "a candy from his pocket" (a dialogue from the movie), in the darkest of the times, when it was needed the most and that turned the things right side up. In this era of confused people everywhere, this movie elaborates how one individual can make the difference between life and doom. When Bethlehem and his goons killed the teenage postmen and women, your heart cries for them and you would do anything to prevent them from meeting that fate. When some postmen retaliated and killed Bethlehem's people, that showed what violence begets and highlighted why non-violence is the only way.

While most of the other "apocalyptic" movies show the last remaining humans scheme against one another and end up kill one another, thereby ending human species, even the Earth, even the only known life form, this movie shows an Icarus rising from its on ashes. It is not just a "Restored" America, it is actually a "Resurrected" America.

Thank you Kevin Cosnter for the idea and portrayal. One part of your greatness lies in the fact that you portrayed your own role in movie in a quite lazy, confused, lost way, and portrayed Ford Lincoln Mercury as having done the actual work of nation building. A teenager youth could do it all, of course you kindled the spark in him. This didn't steal the limelight from him as any lesser actor or director would have been tempted to keep the focus on himself.

Such a movie brings love and respect to the entire community of movie makers. Forget Bad Critics. This is a cult movie. Don't miss it.

Sunshine (2007)

Science fiction meets Friday, the 13th

[5/10 · 29 April 2023]

A beautiful plot spoiled by introducing horror, loads of it, where else, right on the surface of the Sun. The film looses its direction and promise as soon as Pinbacker appears, and remains off rail as long as he appears on the screen. Though, due credit to them, the entire crew of the mission hold their ground, sacrifice their lives if they must, and make the mission a success nonetheless, giving a new lease of life to the mother planet and billions of surviving humans still on it.

So much for the poor ratings given by the story/ script writer/ director to the space agency (read, NASA), that NASA appoints a religious manic cum terrorist to captain a spaceship who can and will eventually kill entire crew of two missions. What happened to millions of endless, infamous, irritating psychological evaluations that are a must that must have revealed this aspect of his disorder at some point. He even stays alive, all alone, orbiting the Sun right at par with Mercury, only to wake up again and enact another serial killing on Icarus 2, in the ilk of "Freddy" Krueger of Friday, the 13th.

All those special effects shown with the Pinbacker are unnecessary and hinder the continuity and confuse the viewer by hiding what is really happening.

The writers/ director's excuse could be that they felt they were just raising the psychological-ethical question of "Should man interfere with the design of God?" But making a maniac serial killer out of a learned and qualified astronaut is not a proper way to raise such a question.

Entire Icarus 1 part of story could have been done away with, this being the single Icarus on that mission, and the crew members should have discussed among themselves about "interfering with the design of God" aspect to make survival of the Earth and humanity the argument that turns the odd in favor of "Yes, God would have wanted us to interfere."

Dom (2021–2024)

Another series spoiled by senseless excess of flashbacks

[1/10 · 17 April 2023]

Completed viewing S01 and S02. In S02, I actually fast-forwarded entire parts where dad, Victor Dantas' earlier life was depicted. I didn't feel interested in knowing or seeing all that. When kids have grown up to become young men and women, the story should concentrate of the views and life of the youths. The dads and mom have usually become spent force by then, there is nothing in their life that could usually interest a viewer. There is just no point in knowing or seeing how the dad or mom had spent their earlier life. Earlier life leads to later life, and when the viewer is seeing them as a lost cause in the later life, there is no point in earlier life.

So, this is yet another series spoiled by excessive dose of flashbacks. There are 4-5-6 sequences of flashbacks going on all the times all mixed it. There is no indication when the flashback changes, when the time line changes, and viewer keeps on sitting without a clue about what connection a next scene has to a previous scene.

It would have been more logical to portray the earlier life of dad and then they marry and have kids, who grow up, and then switch to showing the kids youth. Then, there is a continuity, there is thread to cling to. Say, Pedro in jail, they are planning jailbreak, whether he will survive, get out, or be captured again or be killed ... In the suspense of this all, who the hell is interested in how Dad caught bitten by a snake 20 years earlier and how the native Indians used their illogical make-believe rituals to cure him?

And different actors played the role of the same characters at different life spans, that just added to the confusion.

Once the kids are grown, who wants to see the love and sex scenes of the parents in their youth. By showing all this, the director alienates all Hindu/ Muslims, Eastern cultures and people where it is a sin to think/ see/ talk about parents' sexual life and activities. If the same was shown not in flashback, but earlier before the kids were even born, then it would have been erotic to watch.

Not just that the dad was an utter failure, the son was also a lost case and a failure. Being in rehab some dozen time, being in juvenile jail, being in adult jail, being a drug addict, being a robber, threatening to kill a kid girl by a grenade, what sins and crimes he didn't commit that he would be considered a role model? Why would anyone would see his life or even know about it. Even after half his life in rehabs and jails, he is not ready to give up his addiction, he falls back to the drugs again and again.

And the logic is so poor, Pedro Dom is the top criminal in Rio and has daily updates about him on TV and newspapers, but in the nearby town, nobody known his name or how he looked. He spends months in jail with a fake identity and nobody recognizes him. In current age of information and social and other media, that is unbelievably likely to happen ever.

The director glorified crime. The director glorified drug addiction.

And with so much resources at its disposal. The company making the series couldn't develop a consistent subtitle and audio for English. Audio says something else, and something different is shown written in subtitles. Of course the series was originally in Portuguese language, and they dubbed it to English, why couldn't they get English subtitles developed after the dubbing, instead of machine translation of the Portuguese dialogues?

It is a badly made series. There is no message, it prompts you to resort to crime and to become a drug addict.

Avoid it. You will not loose anything by skipping it.

Hardcore Henry (2015)

Camera keeps on moving, with senseless angles and zoom, causing strains to eyes

[1/10 · 17 April 2023]

I couldn't see it. Tried my best efforts, managed for some 20 minutes, then starting getting headache.

Why? Because camera keeps on moving, it was not put on a rolling stand with smooth movements, sort of hand-held camera, with senseless angles and zoom, causing strains to eyes.

And for those 20 minutes, the main person, Henry, wasn't shown even once. They made it look like we are to see the movie from the eyes of Henry. What fun could be in that?

Irrespective of content of the movie, the shooting style is ugly and a pain to the viewers. Stupid directors and story/ scriptwriters come with such ideas, probably under the influence of consciousness changing drugs.

Avoid this film and its ilk.

The Darkest Minds (2018)

Mark my words - This will be considered a cult movie in future!

[10/10 · 13 April 2023]

That is the irony and curse of cult movies, surely for most of them - that they sink without leaving a trace at the time of their release, like the death of an unsung hero. Because they are beyond their time, they are having concept that current level of mass human consciousness cannot grasp, cannot understand, cannot appreciate.

But, times change. Humans grow and develop, and consciousness evolves, and then the same humanity can and does grasp and understand and appreciate the same concept, the same movie that was turned down, mocked upon earlier.

So, mark my words - This will be considered a cult movie in future!

There might be quite some misgivings about this movie, but nothing can undermine the Ultimate Sacrifice made by Ruby, by removing her own memories from Liam's mind just so that he can live, even if it meant that he will not even recognize her and they would not live a life together happily ever after.

A 16 year old girl making that sacrifice? No, that was not her first, she had already made the same sacrifice 6 years ago, when she erased herself from the memories of her own parents, so that they wouldn't worry for her, she was turning barely 10 years that very day, so it was in her character, her nature, the way God made her.

It seems appropriate to draw parallel with the film, Donnie Darko (2001), in which a 16 year old boy sacrifices his own life so that the world could live, even when he could have saved himself and let the world rot, as any normal 16 years old would have done. That movie also was beyond time so was not received well at the time of its release, but times changed and humans grew to understand the significance of it, and now that is considered an outright cult movie. It required some 20 years for the human consciousness to do that.

Similarly, this movie is fated to become a cult movie, so, don't undermine it, don't mock it, don't discount it, see it, understand it and do your bit to pave way for it becoming a cult movie.

I Am Mortal (2021)

Watered down version of Matrix

[6/10 · 4 March 2023]

Plot is straight from the cult movie Matrix. Logos is Neo, Akae Trinity and The Pilot is Agent Smith. People, actually an entire city, are being mind-controlled by genetic modifications and use of chemicals, though there is a single controller who is in front of all. There is no violence, no action, no thrill. Lengthy monologues are spoken narrating events, instead of showing things happen. None of the character is properly built. The Pilot's erstwhile partner and co-creator, Helias, is spoken about many many times, but is not shown, not even in any flashback. The ending leaves a 100% surety of a sequel in pipeline, but no information is about that is found on Google. Becomes boring, though it is worth viewing to know what science might hold in future. Wish it was a better made movie.

Blank (II) (2022)

A good film, spoiled by incomplete end

[3/10 · 24 September 2022]

A good engrossing film spoiled by incomplete end. Although it becomes repetitive, the viewer is hooked to it just to see how it ends.

And that is it - The end never happens. The story suddenly ends leaving viewers with no answers at all for dozens of questions that are relevant and obvious for any film - How can an AI operated center stop working, and no one attends to it for one month or even more? What had happened if Claire didn't finish the story - would supplies have all been consumed and she die starving? There is bound to be some human supervisor somewhere keeping tabs on how long the supplies are going to lost and he/ she should have been worried about occupied rooms and should have come enquiring. Whether the novel get published? How was it received by readers? Did she publish it under her mother's name to make amends?

Actually, I had thought that the entire Rita's "I cannot open the door till the story is finished" thing is actually the center's method to force Claire to write up the story, to bring anxiety to her, to bring depression to her, so that she is forced to overcome her writer's block. But that was not so. The film just ended.

Shadowland (2022)

a long blabbering chat show, trying to prove conspiracy theories as correct.

[1/10 · 23 September 2022]

It doesn't really talk about the psychology or mechanism of coining and spread of conspiracy theories, that I expected it to do.

It goes on to pick several conspiracy theories, meet persons who coined or spread that or believe in that, and those people chat endlessly trying to prove that their theories are correct.

So, it is a long blabbering, chat show, that ends up proving that the conspiracy theories are actually correct.

I was tearing my head seeing repeat mention of Capitol Hill incident or covid-19 being pharma-company generated or elections hacked by google/ facebook.

They should have left out individual conspiracy theories altogether and rather have concentrated on analyzing why people feel the need of coining such theories, why they put their time and effort and money to spread them and what psychological need causes other gullible people to subscribe to any such trash theories. It could have been heavily edited to limit it to 2 to 3 hours, all the originators of various conspiracy theories should have been strictly kept out of it, they happily used this series to sell their trash theories.

It is a waste of 8 hours to see the series, you are none the wiser after seeing it full, actually you end up getting convinced that various conspiracy theories were actually correct.

Don't waste your time on it.

The Space Between Us (I) (2017)

It is a Roman Holiday reboot, with sci-fi garnishing.

[8/10 · 20 September 2022]

I surprisingly loved this one.

A cute simplistic story line, but lovely presentation. No pretenses, not over-burdened with special effect. The soul of the story was kept intact and that is much considering the current techy movies. Could have been made better and more logical by building upon the emotional relationship of all other characters, but innocent unpolluted romance between the boy and girl makes you give concession for all the errors.

It is sort of a Roman Holiday (1953) reboot, with sci-fi garnishing.

I wish to see a sequel of it, do the boy and girl meet again? But, sadly, seeing the poor box office collection, a sequel isn't likely to be presented. Sad that the film didn't click with viewers, but it is not lacking, it must be poor marketing. Salutes to all actors and entire team.

Astral (III) (2018)

Good start, but poor ending... in fact, formal ending is missing.

[2/10 · 27 June 2022]

It started well, remained scientific, just the way a science lover person would look into paranormal issues. Giving credit to the authenticity of their effort, I even didn't question their web-cam shooting trying to gather proof of astral projection by moving the pendulum.

It lost track when Alisa was pulled out of the bed and dumped on the floor. Why did the director had to put camera inside his own ass and why cannot he had a wider view so that us viewers could see what happened? That started to discredit the authenticity, and yeah, going into Tarot could be a very normal, obvious way ahead for paranormal thingy, but I an a no-no for the tarot card reader figuring out that he has brought the Devil himself with him in to her office, and she going ahead to exorcising him, and showing things like scars on the face, that she explains as "not real", but they did get shot in the camera, so they were enough real.

Then, the film just stops, there is no epilogue, no closing credit, nothing, it just ends mid scene.

The director cheated me if this was what he had to show.

But, I would say, all those information and discussion and the students' and teacher's efforts to understand about astral projection and good input.

Portals (2019)

Senseless film. Don't waste your time watching it.

[1/10 · 23 June 2022]

This is what one comes up with when he has taken lot of low quality weed.

It is a mess. Raises millions of questions, doesn't answer any single one. Ends abruptly. The entire world is shown to get problems, but it doesn't offer a solutions or way around. No hope. Apocalyptic.

Avoid it at all cost to save your sanity.

Interceptor (2022)

A typical "Save the world" film but interesting to watch

[8/10 · 3 June 2022]

It is usual story line, bad guys vs. Good one(s). It is already known that good ones will be able to save the world. So, nothing great, but still good plot and nail biting climax. Worth watching. Could have been made more emotional by adding more sub-plots about family lives of various characters. Glad that they didn't make the terrorist Islamic, otherwise it would have got religious overtones undermining the real message of anti-terrorism.

When Geek Meets Serial Killer (2015)

An otherwise nice sex-comedy-thriller movie, spoiled by the summary ending.

[7/10 · 28 May 2022]

The movie was a good comedy, with suspense thrill, right dose of sex and nudity but the end spoiled the otherwise good part of a good movie. A Novice, confused teenager Zhang Jian-He managing to kill an experienced serial killer just like that is not believable. For that matter, grown up Jia-Ming comes out as very decent, methodical, perfectionist, cute, handsome, trustworthy person one would feel like caring for and he was killing wrong-doers so one might sympathize with him, it was sad to see him getting killed, that too by someone he trusted. Zhang Jian-He was not a killer as such, both his kills were accidents in self defense, he was unable to plan and execute a murder and he going scot-free of three murders, and many more in partnership with Jia-Ming, is not a good indication of the country's police and judiciary system.

The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)

Move over "Who moved my cheese", this film is there to shift paradigms

[10/10 · 26 May 2022]

An otherwise normal apocalypse movie movie with some twists, I am giving it a rating of 9 and feel like submitting my first review of a film on IMDb just on the weight of its 2-some minutes closing scene.

They started a school for virus infected kids. What a great thought and contribution, that is the most they could have done in such a forbidding end-of-the-species scenario, and that is exactly what any wise man would have recommended in such a scenario - cry over and forget about your own species' end, it has been done, it cannot be reverted, just start helping the new species that is going to rule the planet and beyond, tomorrow. So they opened a school. The knowledge in their heads was all the dying species was left with, and they were gifting that knowledge to tomorrow's rulers.

That is the mother of all paradigm shifts. All alien films have shown a fight for survival for the current species, and that is normal, just a reflex, but, when it has become certain that our species is going to end whatsoever we do, we have to adapt to the reality and end our fight voluntarily, make friends with the alien and handover the reign to them.

Current Homo Sapiens first appeared some 300,000 years ago. First schools were established some 3000 years ago, that too were just for the princes and wealthy people's offsprings. A school for common man's sons and daughters was established no earlier than 19th centuries. So, the Homo Sapiens spent 300,000 years in ignorance, without formal education, yet we could achieve so much. This new ruling species in the movie has formal education available since day 1 almost, just think how much would they develop, evolve, get molded and what wonders they would do.

Full respect and credit to the director and story writer for that 2-minute ending. Now I am no more afraid or worried seeing all those "end of the world, end of the humankind" movies. Some new, better species are going to take our place and the world and humankind will continue as ever.

Rapture (II) (2019)

Avoid it. It is just a "convert to Christianity" advertisement.

[2/10 · 8 May 2022]

Senseless movie, no logic, no explanation. Humanity Ends.

When food and water is contaminated, and every remaining one is also infected and will die, what is the point of converting to Christianity?

Wasted my 85 minutes. Cursing the script writer and director. They should be banned from making any further movies.

You can avoid it without any loss.

Blue (I) (2009)

Blue beaten blue n black (lots of Spoilers here)

[3/10 · 17 October 2009]

They had at least some plot that a Manmohan Desai or Subhash Ghai would have shot into a catchy movie but, instead of shooting it, they spoke it in last 10 minutes of the film. So you get the story as Sanjay Dutt speaks about his dad, Akshay speaks about his dad, Gulshan speaks about his partnership with Akshay, and you wonder that they couldn't have run out of money (the costliest film), they didn't run out of time (less than 2 hours. When interval happens at 1 hour, I hear several gasps of arey, interval ho bhi gaya), they couldn't have date problems as none of the personalities is really busy, they why the heck they didn't shoot it.

So, it is about a treasure hunt. If you think you might be able to remember that Titanic itself was about a treasure hunt actually, the blue diamond, but you have almost forgotten that part is the ultimate tribute to Cameroon that this treasure chase was running just as a thin line in background while one of the most finely told love story unfolded on the screen.

Kat being wifey of Akshay brought a lot of laughs from the audience, as if they had stopped counting the plot goof-ups, but we do wonder why at all Katrina accepted to do this movie for such a wafer thin role. Zayed knows she is working for Gulshan, She already knew that Zayed is going to Bahamas, still he puts all blond jokes to shame by dropping a voice message to her cell telling her that he is in Bahamas, for Gulshan to hear, and even then feels safe hiding there and showing surprise when gulshan reaches there.

Bahamas is near Mexico and Cuba, how does a ship coming from UK to India reach their is the biggest unrevealed mystery of the film.

Akshay's character portrayal is utterly confused. he was a good friend to begin with, though you wonder how can someone just spend his entire life befriending Sanjay Dutt just for the treasure, while womenising greedily, but leaving him at being the real manipulator, the real villain would still have been consistent and had brought some twist, but then he comes out to be the grandson of the captain and gives entire treasure to government to clear family name and even puts the 20% award legally received from government to Sanjay Dutt. What the heck is happening.

It also didn't become clear why Gulshan breaks to tell Sanjay Zayed about the secret partnership he was having with Akshay. And the allegation that Akshay wanted to keep entire treasure for himself also didn't stick as Askhay didn't want that money at all.

Further, if Akshay had just told Sanjay in the very beginning that he wanted to find the treasure and give it to the government to clear family name, there is good possibility that Sanjay would have agreed to do so. Then the movie needn't have to be made.

And when Gulshan tells it, Sanjay just believes him forgetting his old friendship with Akshay. It seems so odd.

When Akshay supposedly dies in the see, they didn't even search for his body, nor for his bike under the sea, nor even inquire about what happens to Akshay's business and property, after all, Sanjay was an employee of Akshay.

And why Akshay had to remain hidden from them for 3 months at the end has been provided no reason.

And After Gulshan got killed and Akshay supposedly died, why didn't Sanjay and Zayed and Lara try to bring the treasure for themselves. Sanjay and Zayed were unemployed now and Lara needed some money, or they themselves could have given the treasure to the government. Why Sanjay Dutt had not provided the treasure details to the government all his life has also not been told.

If entire thing was just a make believe to trap Zayed to force Sanjay to reveal the treasure, then it looks a sickening waste that so many real guys get killed in bike chase in New York and Bahamas chasing Zayed and so many vehicles got destroyed and lives of the people in those vehicles too.

Akshay and Sanjay look more like fathers to Lara, Katrina and Kylie, thus the body display scenes of ladies didn't really fume. Zayed was coolly young but it is surprising that with a spoilt single brat life he was supposed to be living, how come he gets so much captivated by Katrina (She looks elder and quite fatty to Zayed, sorry Kat fans) in 12 hours to behave like being in love. And then he was left without any partner in the visual treats of Bahamas. Why did they make Akshay flirt with Kylie when they could have made Kylie a mate for Zayed till the end of the movie.

The songs didn't add to the film, but they didn't hinder the film either. Songs go unnoticed. Yaar Mila Tha is not there. I couldn't figure where at all it could have been put. The entire lyrics, the feel of the songs, the situation, doesn't fit on any character at all in the film. Film didn't have any emotion-intensive scenes at all, so no specific song was really needed for it. The great emotions that ARR had so laboriously put in some songs really served no purpose for the film.

Chiggy Wiggy happens just like that, it deserved a big build up, but no. They just visit any hotel, just spot one of so many a girls who happens to be Kylie, and the dance starts, and then Kylie disappears from the film. Such treatment will scare away all other foreign celebrities from bollywood.

V S Rawat