Dr. Strange-The Multiverse of Madness, Review: Averse, obverse, inverse, diverse, reverse, converse, traverse, transverse Of all the screen movements in Dr. Strange-The Multiverse of Madness, floating and jumping are the main competitive events, closely followed by light rings that are twirled and hurled as weapons by either side. If you can excel in these events, you win the battle. The battle, yes, but the war, no. It is a completely unequal war, with a witch who keeps winning any which way...

Spiderman - No Way Home, Review: Spidermen Indian release today, American release tomorrow. How exciting! Shot during the Covid 19 Coronavirus pandemic. How daring! Third part of a Trilogy – Homecoming (2017) and Far from Home (2019). How challenging, if you are not a die-hard fan and do not remember the previous homings well-enough! A cast that consists of Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Benedict Wong, J.K...

IFFI 52, 06: Campion’s The Power of the Dog to be mid-fest film New Zealander Jane Campion, who has won international recognition with such well-crafted films like Sweetie, An Angel at My Table and The Piano, and deals mainly with family relationships, has moved away slightly, into the Western genre, with The Power of the Dog, a 2021 production. IFFI 52 is showcasing it as its mid-fest film. It stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Kirsten Dunst. Based on a1967 novel of the same name, by Thoma...

The Courier, Review: Delivers on time A spy story with no fights, no gadgets, agents who neither carry guns nor seduce each other, The Courier is a hark-back to the genre that can be traced at least to deglamourised espionage outings like The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin, way back in the 60s. It’s not positioned as a competitor for the James Bond or Mission Impossible series, or their spin-offs, and is, in fact, based on a true story. Unwavering focus on the plot, and all round co...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent If you wonder what Benedict Cumberbatch has been up to, here's the latest. He stars in a true-life spy story, and it looks exciting. Plus Rachel Brosnahan is in this with more great actors in the MI-6 thriller... Curated by Screenmancer Staff from Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions LOS ANGELES: Lionsgate and sister company Roadside Attractions will deliver the Cold War espionage drama THE COURIER, starring Academy Aw...

1917, Review: One shot wonder, real-time revolution War films can be about nations and nationalism, or soldiers and their sagas. While the former promote jingoism, the latter tend to be anti-war, by personalising the narrative and addressing personal trauma of the protagonists, while universalising their sentiments. 1917 belongs to the second category. It is a technical marvel, but never wavers from the plight of its main characters. All the awards and encomiums it has garnered, raising expec...

The Current War, Review: DC Edison v/s AC Westinghouse Unless you do some background reading, this review included, you will not guess that the film is not about a conventional war but about the rivalry between Thomas Alva Edison, credited with inventing Direct Current operated incandescent bulbs, and their Alternating Current based, dynamo-run variants, developed by George Westinghouse, back in the 1880s. It’s a double-barrelled bio-pic that spouts too much jargon and is not saved by f...

The Grinch, Review: You can’t steal Christmas An entire film built around Christmas cannot but be happy and heart-tugging, which is what Grinch is. And since it is animated, anything and everything outrageous and impossible can be incorporated, with technical finesse. Obviously, the film will have special appeal to those who believe in Saint Nicholas, aka as Santa Claus. But others too will be won over by the charm and innocence, seasoned with guile and villainy. The Grinch, who lives ...

Avengers-Infinity War, Review: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust #Book of Common Burial Prayer, 1662: Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life. #‘Ashes to ashes, funk to funky’ Artiste: David Bowie, Album: Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 1980. From all appearances, a large number of Marvel’s Avengers and their partners in common cause have become ashes by the time the film ends. Whether any of them will be Re...

Thor-Ragnarok: Of hammers and horns, Avengers and Revengers Add humour. Suspended in mid space inside a trap-net by the fire demon Surtur, Thor asks a fellow prisoner how long has he been there. Pans out the fellow has already turned into a skeleton by this time, and, on hearing Thor’s query, his jaw (bone) drops off, literally. That’s the first scene, and the first laugh. After a marathon bout as gladiators in a cosmic arena, Thor and Hulk are freshening up, and Hulk comes out of...

Siraj Syed reviews Doctor Strange: Surgery and sorcery go hand in hand Comics can be victims of overkill, especially when they traverse the distance from page to screen. Casting might be (mis)guided by name and fame, when suitability is of greater import. Marvel’s Doctor Strange, with part Disney talent and full distribution channels in tow, is ridden with both pitfalls. It’s a marvel then that the film manages to serve above par, enjoyable fare, for which credit largely goes to t...

Black Mass, Review: Whitey’s black deeds and the FBI’s blind eye Black Mass is a term used to indicate a reverse Christian mass, the inversion of the traditional Latin Mass celebrated by the Roman Catholic Church, one that celebrates the occult. People who know this would think that a film with such a name was another supernatural horror drama. It is nothing of the kind. So, the makers toyed with the idea of changing the title, but for reasons best known to them, stuck with the or...

  The Imitation Game, Review: Every spectator is a winner Before the publication of Oxford mathematician Andrew Hodges’ ground-breaking 1983 biography, Alan Turing: The Enigma, the British mathematician who played a crucial role in breaking the Nazis’ Enigma ciphers during World War II and laid the groundwork for modern notions of artificial intelligence, was little known outside of scientific circles. Hodges’ revelatory account detailed how a man who should have been a ...

SPOTLIGHT MEDIA PRODUCTIONS   87TH OSCARS® NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED   By Adrienne Papp   Directors Alfonso Cuarón and J.J. Abrams, actor Chris Pine and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the nominations for the 87th Academy Awards® today (January 15).  For the first time, nominees in all 24 categories were announced live. Cuarón and Abrams announced the nominees in 11 categories at 5:30 a.m. ...

The Hobbit—Battle of the Five Armies, Review: 5 times the fight fest, in 4DX and 3D *So snow comes after fire, and even dragons have their endings. *Where there's life there's hope. ― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit The film opens where The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug left off: the dragon is on his way to attack the town of Esgaroth on the lake. People flee in terror, while Bard the Bowman struggles to escape from prison in order to help fight the dragon. the dwarf king Tho...

By Maria Esteves - November 17, 2014   The PENGUINS OF MADAGASCAR, directed by Simon J. Smith and Eric Darnell, a 3D animated action comedy film starring the voices of Benedict Cumberbatch, Chris Miller, Christopher Knights, Conrad Vernon, John Malkovich, Ken Jeong and Tom McGrath opens in U.S. cinemas on Thanksgiving eve, Wednesday, November 26, 2014. http://madagascar.dreamworks.com ...

The play-turned-movie August: Osage County follows one family's moral and emotional smack-down in the American Heartland. No one wins, though a shrink could clean up handily. The Westons of Oklahoma sure could use some counseling. And judging by the actors' comments at the film's New York press conference, they too may have some lingering traumas to be worked out from the ordeal of performing this Gothic melodrama.  Meryl Streep, who played the splenetic matriarch, and Ju...