Tag Archives: determination

Infinite

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Vampire Owl: I have often walked towards infinity.

Vampire Bat: You are not supposed to touch the infinity portal.

Vampire Owl: I never really touched it. I just go near it.

Vampire Bat: Your presence near the infinity portal can be chaotic.

Vampire Owl: I assure you that I have a positive relationship with it.

Vampire Bat: The portals can get into your brain very easily.

Vampire Owl: You mean like the zombies do.

Vampire Bat: I am talking about manipulation of mind.

Vampire Owl: You mean, like the device Doctor Frankenstein invented.

Vampire Bat: Mr Frankenstein invents too many fake things.

[Gets a ghee cake and three cups of Peermade tea].

What is the movie about? :: It is revealed that there are people who are gifted with a perfect memory of all of their past lives, called the Infinites. Among them, there are two groups which try to gain supreme power, one being the Believers, dedicated to using their knowledge for the protection and growth of humanity. The other groups, Nihilists, find this power as a curse – they have the power to end all life on Earth, and only the Believers stand in their way. In the year 1985, a man in chased by a huge group of people including the police, right on the highway. He drives off a bridge and falls to escape from them, while his associates are killed by a strange man with a powerful explosive weapon. In the present, many years after the incidents, it is shown that a man named Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg) has schizophrenia, and he feels that his dreams are his memories. As he has a history of violence, he struggles to get a job, and is one step away from paying the bills. This just don’t seem to work for him as he sees things and takes anti-psychotic drugs.

So, what happens with the events here as we just keep looking? :: For some reason, he is able to do things that he has no idea about. He was never trained to be a bladesmith, but manages to create too strong a sword. He tries to sell it to the local gangsters, but as their leader try to cut a girl’s hand off, he intervenes only start a fight. He end up being arrested by the police. In the police station, he meets Bathurst (Chiwetel Ejiofor) a man who keeps calling him by another name, and talks about his past in this life and others. He also threatens to kill him if he doesn’t bring his memories back. As Bathrust has almost made him memorize some of the things, Nora Brightman (Sophie Cookson) arrives in a bullet proof car and saves him, as the two manage to outsmart Bathurst. After escaping, he feels that he is having another psychotic episode and will soon wake up in a hospital. Nora tells him that his visions are realities from other lives. He says that whatever he is doing now are possible due to the special skills that he used to have in another life.

And what more is to follow in this world of different lives in chaos :: Nora tells him that there are about five hundred of them with the ability to remember their past lives – the skills from their earlier lives also stay with them. She tells him that she is one of the Believers who understand that their gift is a responsibility unlike the Nihilists who see the curse in it. The Believers have to act fast enough to make sure that the Nihilists won’t cause the end of all life on Earth. Both groups believe that Evan is the reincarnation of Heinrich Treadway from that event in the past where he drives off the highway to his fall. He is taken to the location known as the Hub, which is located quite far away that they have to use an airplane. He meets many other members of the group, who hopes that he is really the person they are looking for. There, he understands that Bathurst was once a part of their group, and that they were friends – then he had lost his faith and turned to another side. Bathurst wishes for the world to end so that there would be no more reincarnation – there should be no life on this world to reincarnate into. Can he and his people be stopped?

The defence of Infinite :: This movie does have sci-fi elements strong. There is also the presence of enough action around here. The world is well-created, and the secret area is a beautiful space with a lot of detail about it. There are multiple action sequences that will be remembered, starting from the protagonist’s escape from the prison and the last one feels the most significant among them. The special effects are nicely used to support this, and there is some fine computer generated imagery that powers them all. It does have Mark Wahlberg, who has been the one actor whom we have preferred in the action movies, and he blends in here quite well too. It is good to see Sophie Cookson in a full action thriller having all the seriousness, instead of going through the Kingsman nonsense of the lowest level. She becomes a lovely action star in this one. Chiwetel Ejiofor makes a strong villain, except for a little struggle in the end. Wallis Day and Kae Alexander are two other notable performers in there with some extra action.

Positives and negatives :: The thoughts about memories and reincarnations makes one feel like going back to a few Bollywood movies of the 1990s – there is no value to them now, except for bringing up the nostalgia again and again, as they were rather too emotional, a lot more than needed. The movie could have used the preface even better, with much more of the grandeur here. There is so much of potential around here, that much to actually go on to become a cult classic with reincarnations, but it doesn’t seem to try that much. Taking the risks doesn’t seem to be this movie’s method of going forward, as it does feed the usual at times. The movie’s success is a lot in its mystery which is always there, and there is also the fact that they have successfully created a world which fits in the willing suspension of disbelief for most of the time. I find it rather surprising that the critics didn’t find the movie to be that good – it is certain that if it had released here before the corona virus pandemic, it would have brought in a lot of money.

How it finishes :: Infinite is as much an interesting work of science fiction as many others which bring something innovative at all times, whether it is The Matrix, Jupiter Ascending, Reminiscence, Free Guy or anything else which remains similar and different at the same time. It is a smooth journey which remains engaging at all times. Well, it is not easy to bring a science fiction concept out of nowhere and make it work with efficiency. The same seems to have been achieved here with the help of a new world, something which is so well-created and managed. As a movie talking about reincarnations, it does leave a message that despite the fact that we do fall, there is a chance to try again – it is pretty much a positive message, but one does wonder if depending on one to reincarnate will be the best option in that case. Well, the movie is indeed an entertaining one, and it does leave us hope that we all will get out second chances – in a world like this, mistakes might be the only thing that comes right, and instead of reincarnation after death, what we might need is a resurrection, just not in the form of a mindless zombie.

Release date: 10th June 2021
Running time: 106 minutes
Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Sophie Cookson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jason Mantzoukas, Rupert Friend, Toby Jones, Dylan O’Brien, Wallis Day, Tom Hughes, Raffiella Chapman, Kae Alexander, Liz Carr

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Kidnapping Stella

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Vampire Owl: So, these people have made a movie about just one kidnapping?

Vampire Bat: You are saying that one won’t be enough?

Vampire Owl: No, I am saying that it can be like a vampire movie made out of one blood-sucking event, which won’t be enough.

Vampire Bat: It is a remake of the 2009 British thriller movie, The Disappearance of Alice Creed.

Vampire Owl: Okay, the one starring Gemma Arterton, the lady vampire from Byzantium.

Vampire Bat: The whole vampire team is indebted to her for the work in that movie.

Vampire Owl: It is my second favourite vampire movie after Interview with the Vampire.

Vampire Bat: If you add Let Me In, it could go to the third spot.

Vampire Owl: Do you realize that you haven’t reviewed a full-length German movie yet?

Vampire Bat: Yes, but there has been a short-film which left enough for us to think about.

[Gets an vancho cake and three cups of black tea].

What is the movie about? :: There is some big preparation going on with the two former convicts named Vic (Clemens Schick) and Tom (Max von der Groeben) getting something ready inside a building, just before they get prepared to commit some crime. Stella (Jella Haase), the only child of a wealthy businessman is their target, as they hope to become rich with the money of her father. This act and the resulting ransom is supposed to make sure that they won’t have to go to work for a long time. For this, they come up with some very careful planning, and leave no chance for them to escape, as they undress her and keeps her in a red tracksuit, blindfold her, tie her to a bed, and keeps her in a soundproof room, with no chance for her to even move more than al ittle. To conceal their identities, the two also wear masks while talking to her. There is a certain amount of risk involved with her knowing their identities, because she is pregnant with Tom’s child, as they were in love some time ago.

So, what happens with the events here? :: Stella tries hard to escape from her bondage, but there is no positive result for those attempts, as far as she is concerned. Tom does have a soft corner for her as he comes to know that she is pregnant only at a later moment when they threaten to cut off one of her fingers in front of the camera, while making a video which is to be shown to her father so that he would finally agree to give the ransom money to them. But the problem here is that during one of those vulnerable moments, she finds out that one of the kidnappers is Tom, and almost manages to overpower him to get hold of the gun. But Tom handles that situation as well as a few others which follow. Soon, Vic starts to have some doubts about Tom and Stella, as he is no longer the person whom he met in the prison – he is not sure if Tom can be trusted either. Now, it is to be seen how the two manage to keep the situation going. Can they get the money, or will the girl end up being dead? What will be the priority for Tom now, as he knows that she is pregnant with his child?

The defence of Kidnapping Stella :: You will notice that Kidnapping Stella, just like The Disappearance of Alice Creed and its earlier remake Reckless, doesn’t waste its time in getting into action. There are a few minutes when nobody talks about anything, and then we are quickly into the action when the girl is kidnapped and tied up without any chance to escape even from the bed where she is tied up. We do not have any subplot to take the focus away from the main thing, and even though there is a possibility of some flashback, we never really go towards it. You do have some twists, even though not used to the full effectiveness. A kidnapping scenario is also shown without any pretensions, and without showing it as someone who is locked in a random room giving them an easy journey throughout the abduction. The kidnapping programme is quite a solid one, and even though becoming only the third version of the same tale, you have to appreciate them doing this situation well enough here along with maintaining the thrills.

The claws of flaw :: If you have watched The Disappearance of Alice Creed or its Dutch remake, there is nothing much that you can find here to keep you interested, because you have seen all these in more critically appreciated movies, and the performers who have gained better applause not just in one film, but also many others. This movie also doesn’t seem to have gathered that much of an attention or appreciation as those movies which released much earlier. This one is also quite slow at parts, and for a movie which doesn’t have that much of a run-time, it is definitely a strange thing, no matter how you look at it. The movie could have used some more intense moments to make things feel better. As most of the movie is set within a small area, there was scope to bring more. When you have a film with kidnap as the main thing or rather the only thing, you would expect that something else would be there to be taken. There is always the chance for improvement as far as remakes are concerned, but we doubt if that chance was even thought about here.

Performers of the soul :: One cannot deny the fact that this movie misses someone like Gemma Arterton who has been one class actress in different roles, the best of them that we remember being Byzantium, the highly underrated and under-watched vampire movie coming from the director of the highly appreciated Interview with the Vampire. We can only guess that it would have been a fantastic performance. Jella Haase is pretty much okay as the kidnapped girl, but she doesn’t seem to raise that bar that much. The two kidnappers are actually very good though, and Clemens Schick as Vic, the tougher one comes up with a work that will make us attached to the situation here. Max von der Groeben as Tom, the guy who is caught between two sides also have our attention – he wants to do more than one thing, as there is the need to save his former lover and their unborn baby along with getting all that money from her father. There is no other character here, and these three makes the performers list fully.

How it finishes :: The movie originates from The Disappearance of Alice Creed, a 2009 British movie, which also had another remake in the form a Dutch movie named Reckless. From the reviews which we have read about this version here might be the film with the lowest rating, while the other two movies seem to be quite ahead. But for most of us who haven’t watched those two movies because we never really had much of an experience with Dutch movies and as the British movie was released a long time ago, Kidnapping Stella is going to be an interesting experience. There are enough thrills around there, and it surely feels more than the usual hostage movie. Matching The Disappearance of Alice Creed was always going to be a tough task, as it had Gemma Arterton who has been in all kinds of movies with all the glory, a performer who is difficult to match. You are free to watch all the three versions in different European languages and decide the best for yourself if you feel the need to disagree. Otherwise, you can just enjoy this newer version.

Release date: 12th July 2019
Running time: 89 minutes
Directed by: Thomas Sieben
Starring: Clemens Schick, Jella Haase, Max von der Groeben

<— Click here to go to the previous review.

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@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.

Finals

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What is the movie about? :: Alice Varghese (Rajisha Vijayan) is a cyclist from Kattappana who has evolved to become the national champion under the guidance of his father KP Varghese (Suraaj Venjaramoodu) who has worked as a sports coach in more than one school, and also at his own academy. Varghese is someone who hasn’t achieved much from his career as a trainer, and has all his hopes set on his daughter who is supposed to represent India at the 2020 Summer Olympic at Tokyo from 24 July to 9th August 2020. Before appearing at the event, she is also selected by the National Olympic Committee to have her training in Russia. At the first city in Asia to host the Olympic Games twice, she is supposed to be a clear favourite to gain a medal, finishing far ahead of others in all competitions. Before she leaves for Russia, she hopes to visit her friends and relatives at hometown for the last time, and she returns to Kattappana for the same reason.

So, what happens with the events to follow? :: There she meets her childhood friend Manuel Thomas (Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju) one more time. Manuel has been in love with her since school days, and wanted a reply from her for a long time, but she has been evading that question with ease. She visits the school where she studied, after a very long time, and motivates the students there, along with traveling through those places which provides her with a nostalgic feeling. Varghese who has supported the Olympic dream with everything that he had in his life, never really had anything more than that small house, because the dream was the only thing that he lived for. As she makes her return, there is one last race which she will be participating in, before leaving for the Russian training – but there are twists of events that await her, and her loved ones. Fate had a backup plan to bring the twist – well, fate always finds a way, as it would follow here.

The defence of Finals :: The best thing about Finals is that it decides to change its pattern from the usual stuff which has been followed in almost every known sports movie – there would be a sportsperson or a sports team which is facing some kind of trouble, and someone would help the person or the team to rise up to the occasion and win the competition, or at least come close to doing that so that we feel that there would be a victory next year. We have the sportsperson at the top in the beginning itself in this case, and we see what happens later. But the movie is not limited to her, and the neither is it limited to her family or the people around – the world goes further, as there are many issues being discussed despite the budget and the number of big names being so less. There is the corruption and nepotism which are part of sports, which lead to the athletes from the lower strata of the society suffering – except for cricket in which everyone gets something.

Positives and negatives :: Well, it is only when the interval hits you so hard that you realize that there is a big change coming up, making this a very different sports drama – we love both sides of the interval, as each shows something of beauty, and also feeds our emotional so well, along with providing motivation. We can feel those emotions even after we are finished with the movie, a short one lasting only a little more than two hours. The beautiful visuals of the high-ranges also contribute to the same, with some nice songs to go with them. The struggle that the movie shows feels so real, as we know how the athletes other than cricketers are sidelined with ease. The absence of necessities for the other sports-persons, is something that needed attention a long time ago, especially with those games which more than nine or ten nations of the world are interested in playing. One might still feel that this is not the kind of movie they expected from the trailer, but that indeed is the beauty of it.

The performers of the soul :: Rajisha Vijayan is fantastic in a movie which brings more than one face of her, and its a step forward from the State Award winning Anuraga Karikkin Vellam, the two lesser known Georgettan’s Pooram and Oru Cinemakkaran as well as the most recent charming bildungsroman adventure, June. There is deep feeling in her performance, whether in happiness or in grief, whether in determination or in the absence of the same – the emotions can be seen going very deep here, and we are happy to see that she is always one step ahead of the character, with her preparations as well as the final work. The character here is so natural and close to life, further ahead of anything she has played in the past. If Rajisha could’nt pull this off, nobody else could have, and we see that she never struggles in doing the same – she is that good as of now. This could be another award winning performance, and we wouldn’t doubt that.

Further performers of the soul :: Suraaj Venjaramoodu in serious roles has been a revelation in the past, whether it was about a small role in Action Hero Biju or a full role in Thondimuthalum Drikshakshiyum. This is another character which carries a certain amount of melancholy, from which there is no escape – we are also part of those emotions which go deep, as the struggling coach tries to successful at at least some point. There are those emotional undercurrents which we can feel in such a way that they return to us when we are sitting idle and thinking about those moments. Meanwhile, Niranj doesn’t just shine, but glitters in this world, coming with a performance close to life, as a commoner from the hilly side of Central Kerala. We have him touching both heart and soul here with the feelings running heavy. There are those dialogues and his combination scenes with both Rajisha and Suraaj that tests our emotional strength. Tini Tom and Sona Nair provide fine support as his parents too.

How it finishes :: Even though it is announced earlier that the movie is a fictional story, the credits in the end dedicate the movie to the cyclist Shiny Siles who died in a road accident while participating in the State Road Cycle race at Manjeri in the year 2002. With or without it, this movie happens to be one of the best sports drama flicks ever produced in the country, and not watching it will be a crime, if not a cardinal sin. You feel the frustration, hopelessness, anger, fear, determination, hope, and everything else just like the characters do, and as we live a life with these characters, our second and the most realistic part of life, Finals easily becomes the best movie among the Onam releases, rising above the fighting thriller Brother’s Day and the not-so-serious comedy flicks following the same pattern – Love Action Drama and Ittymaani. The number of viewers as of now is surely low for the movie, but if we don’t support a movie like this at the theatre, we would be the barbarians, unless we are cacodemons. Here, I leave you with a song from the movie. Why you would stop yourself from falling in love with this movie and feel deep with it, is beyond me, as Finals come up with that kind of a lovely feeling in multiple ways.

Release date: 6th September 2019
Running time: 122 minutes
Directed by: PR Arun
Starring: Rajisha Vijayan, Suraaj Venjaramoodu, Niranj Maniyanpilla Raju, Tini Tom, Sona Nair, Muthumani, Kunchan, Nisthar Sait, Dhruvan

@ Cemetery Watch
✠ The Vampire Bat.