Sneha Jaiswal's Blog, page 100
May 19, 2024
Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc – Ep 2 Review
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Demon Slayer Hashira Training Arc’s first episode ended with a solid cliffhanger – Lady Tamayo gets a message inviting her to join the Demon Slayer Corps in defeating Muzan Kibutsuji. Episode two picks up from the same scene, ending the suspense over how Lady Tamayo reacts to the unprecedented offer of alliance extended to a demon by the Ubuyashiki Family.
Titled “The Sorrows of the Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka”, episode two’s focus however is on Tomioka, who in the season’s opening edition refuses to take part in the Hashira training going on for all slayers in the Corps. While nobody really knows what’s going on with Giyu, Tanjiro Kamido, who is still recovering from the wounds her suffered in the Demon Slayer Swordsmith Village Arc, receives a letter from Kagaya Ubuyashiki asking him to have a heart-to-heart with Giyu.
Those who remember season one of Demon Slayer will recall Giyu Tomioka as a strong, quiet, intimidating, and reserved young man, and the first Hashira to appear in the anime series. Giyu plays a crucial role in Tanjiro and Nezuko’s foray into the world of demon slayers, and this episode of season four is a belated but much-deserved look into the Hashira’s tragic past. Giyu suffers from imposter syndrome and lives under the shadow of survivor’s guilt, although why it surfaces strongly at this point in the story isn’t made clear. Regardless, it’s an engaging edition, with a generous sprinkle of comical moments (courtesy of Tanjiro) and a mild dose of tragic flashbacks.
The last few minutes of “The Sorrows of the Water Hashira, Giyu Tomioka” abruptly shift focus to another Hashira, which felt a little random, but it also indicates that this season might be packed with a lot of flashbacks. Surprisingly, there weren’t any glimpses of the other characters (Zenitsu and Inosuke) who are undergoing rigorous training to go to war with demons. But on the bright side, Tanjiro is almost healed, so he will be joining his friends soon.
You can stream the series on Netflix, CrunchyRoll and JioCinema.
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Zara Hatke Zara Bachke Review – Dil, Divorce, Disappointment
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Director: Laxman Utekar
Writers: Maitrey Bajpai, Ramiz Ilham Khan
How far would go to avail benefits of a government scheme? Sara Ali Khan and Vicky Kaushal play a much-in-love married couple, Kapil Dubey and Soumya Chawla Dubey, who decide to get a temporary divorce discreetly, so Soumya can be eligible for a house in a government scheme in the romantic comedy movie “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke.” But when their parents discover the divorce papers, the couple’s plan gets a lot more complicated and chaotic than they imagined it to be.
The first half-hour of “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke” comically showcases the perils of living in a joint family, especially the lack of privacy for young couples. Sara Ali Khan and Vicky Kaushal are cute as the small-town middle-class couple Soumya and Kapil. While Soumya is a teacher who desperately wants her own space, away from the taunts of her in-laws, Kapil is a penny-pinching yoga teacher who is quite content with their circumstances but is willing to try every trick in the book to make his wife happy and get her a house. The song “Tere Vaste” in the film perfectly captures Kapil’s love and malleability for the missus.
With a 2-hour and 12-minute runtime, the novelty, comedy, and cuteness of the first half-hour slowly start to fade away as the plot progresses. Despite a solid supporting cast and a funny running gag about a kid constantly catching Kapil and Soumya being affectionate with each other when they are supposed to be pretending to hate each other to get a divorce, “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke” begins to feel unfunny and dragged out.
Vicky Kaushal, who is used to playing the confident small town boy (“The Great Indian Family”), pulls off his role with ease, while Sara Ali Khan tends to be inconsistent in her portrayal of Soumya, however she is adorable in her simpler romantic scenes with her onscreen partner. The cinematography is colorful, and the good kind of chaotic, with believable depictions of middle-class homes, even though sometimes the clothing of the characters feel too costume-y.
The few twists towards the climax were just not in line with the light comedic mood “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke” promises at the beginning, and I found it hard to keep my attention. Some viewers might enjoy the serious turn towards the end, which packs in a predictable message; however, others might find it disappointing. Watch the film if you enjoy family dramas.
You can stream “Zara Hatke Zara Bachke” on Jio Cinema.
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Argylle Review – Everyone Is Under-Utilized—Even the Cat
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Elly Conway is a reclusive, bestselling author of espionage novels featuring a super spy called “Argylle” who loves staying at home. So, she doesn’t expect a simple trip to visit her mother to turn into a crazy globe-trotting chase, as a global crime syndicate dispatches killers after her over her spy novels that predict real-life events. Luckily for Elly, an undercover spy called Aidan Wilde comes to her rescue, but the more time she spends with him, the more she starts questioning everything about existence.
Directed by Matthew Vaughn, who’s worked on hit titles like “Kingsman” and “Kickass” (some of my favorite action movies), my expectations for “Argylle” were pretty high, especially given the ensemble cast behind it. The movie opens with an exaggerated but entertaining spy sequence featuring Henry Cavill as the titular agent Argylle, with Dua Lipa and John Cena making brief cameo appearances. Bryce Dallas Howard is protagonist Elly Conway, the author with a vivid imagination, who is constantly rescued by Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell) from a nefarious organization chasing her for her scarily accurate novels.
After the first few minutes, “Argylle” becomes quickly boring, as it tries too hard to be stylish, smart and funny. While its obvious that the makers are self-aware of all the farcical elements of this spy-thriller-comedy, it’s just not the engrossing kind of self-awareness. “Argylle” starts off in a way that made me think it would be an amusing affair like “The Lost City”, which is also about an author landing in trouble due to her books… it isn’t.
I mean sure, “Argylle” looks great visually in many parts, but with a 2 hour runtime and a whole host of one-dimensional character played by talented actors who should’ve just said no to the script, the film feels like a lazy vanity project. You wish Elly Conway’s cat had a bigger role, at least that would’ve been funny, but even the super-cat is underutilized, unlike the catty-Flerkins in “The Marvels”.
There’s a fun unexpected twist in the last one-hour, which makes “Argylle” feel exciting for a small stretch, but then the plot soon goes back to being a snooz-y affair. Unfortunately, despite Bryce Dallas Howard being charming as a reclusive, asocial author who gets hit by a shitstorm, her character undergoes a significant change that she fails to portray accurately. Moreover, her on-screen chemistry with Sam Rockwell’s Aidan is non-existent, a crucial ingredient that could’ve improved the movie’s likability.
You can stream “Argylle” on Apple TV+
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May 18, 2024
Kartik Aryan Nails Boxer Physique in Chandu Champion Trailer
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Dreamer, soldier, boxer, and a petitioner against the President of India, Kartik Aryan dons several hats as protagonist Murlikant in the trailer of “Chandu Champion,” a sports-themed biopic. Directed by Kabir Khan, the film is loosely based on the life of Murlikant Petkar, who became the country’s first Paralympic gold medalist in 1972.
The trailer opens with a somber scene of Murlikant lying on a hospital bed after sustaining multiple gunshot wounds as a soldier. Flashbacks reveal him as an ambitious child from a modest village who dreams of becoming an Olympic champion but is often bullied and ridiculed by those around him. Never one to give up, Murlikant grows up to be a spirited young man who trains hard and joins the army to make his visions come true.
After playing an unemployed guy who ends up marrying his dream girl in “Satyaprem Ki Katha,” Kartik Aryan turns over a new leaf in the trailer for “Chandu Champion,” showcasing a truly impressive physique. While one will have to watch the movie to see if his acting style can pull off the role, he has certainly worked hard to get the look of his character right, as his chiseled physique steals the show in the trailer. The character is definitely out of the actor’s comfort zone, so it will be interesting to see how things turn out.
While the trailer puts maximum focus on Kartik Aryan, it also gives the briefest glimpses into other characters who will be seen in the movie, including comedian Rajpal Yadav and Vijay Raaz. “Chandu Champion” is set to release in theaters on June 14. You can watch the trailer on YouTube, it’s also embedded below.
Madgaon Express Review – Few Quick Laughs, Tired Tropes
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“Madgaon Express” starts off strong – three teen boys who’ve just finished school decide they want to do a Goa trip, but their parents turn them down. Their beer-babes-beach holiday remains a dream for years and will resonate with anybody who’s had a hard time manifesting plans to have a fun vacation with their best friends. However, when the friends finally decide to take their long-pending trip, it turns into a crazy nightmare involving drugs, local mafia, guns, and violence. But despite the madness, the movie is humdrum in large parts.
Written and directed by Kunal Khemu, the Bollywood comedy “Madgaon Express” stars Divyendu Sharma as Dhanush Sawant, AKA Dodo, the slacker of his friend group, who is stuck doing random low-paying part-time jobs in Mumbai, while his close friends Ayush Gupta (Avinash Tiwary) and Pratik Goradia, AKA Pinku (Pratik Gandhi), seem to be living it up with high-paying jobs abroad. Not wanting to feel left behind, Dodo creates an online charade of being wealthy, well-traveled, and well-connected by constantly sharing fake edited pictures of his fun exploits, like trekking to the Everest Base Camp. So when Ayush and Pinku decide to visit him in Mumbai, Dodo panics and comes up with the brilliant idea to travel to Goa with them, but like when they were young and broke in college – do a shoe-string budget holiday. The cheap trip ends up costing them more than they bargained for!
The first half-hour of “Madgaon Express” is sort of entertaining, especially due to the relatable FOMO (fear of missing out) Dodo suffers from watching all his friends do better than him. Dhanush Sawant is annoyingly entertaining as Dodo, while Pratik Gandhi as Pinku, the anxious mama’s boy who carries a bag full of medicines is hilarious, and Avinash Tiwary just about works at their third friends Ayush Gupta. Thanks to an accidental mix-up, the three friends get caught up between two feuding local gangs, one is a fierce saree-clad all women gang led by Kanchan Kombdi (Chhaya Kadam) and the other is a drug cartel run by Mendoza Bhai (Upendra Limaye).
Once the drugs, and gangs come into the picture, “Madgaon Express” seizes to be as engrossing, and becomes a formulaic stereotypical “Goa Trip Gone Wrong” movie, which aspires to be somewhere between “Dil Chahta Hai” and “Delhi Belly”, but is neither as memorable, nor as comedic. Ironically, it’s often the old, tried and tested tropes that might make you laugh out loud in the film, like a sequence towards the end, where the boys have to dress up as women to infiltrate Kanchan Kombdi’s gang. Bollywood comedies have long relied on the cross-dressing trope for comic relief, and it still may tickle the funny bones of some viewers.
The background music works well, but aside from one song-and-dance sequence showing the friends partying in Goa, the other songs were unnecessary and only bloat “Madgaon Express” to a 2-hour and 23-minute length. Unlike its name, the runtime doesn’t feel like it’s running at express speed, and is filled with barely funny twists and dialogues. All that said, the last five minutes of the movie actually had a few fun twists, and it ends on a hilarious note, if only the creators could’ve managed to keep it fresh throughout, it would’ve been a lot more watch-worthy. Watch if you are looking for chaotic, no-brainer comedy.
You can stream “Madgaon Express” on Prime Video.
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May 17, 2024
Madame Web Review – Spins Slowly, Passable on OTT
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Director: S.J. Clarkson
Writers: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless, Claire Parker
Ahahahahaha… “Madame Web” is so boring in parts, but also really entertaining in bits and pieces, so now that it’s on Netflix, you could consider streaming it online if you missed watching it on the big-screen. It’s definitely not a big-screen attraction, not only is the story set in 2000s, even the gaudy special-effects look like they are from two decades ago.
Dakota Johnson plays protagonist Cassandra Webb, a paramedic who starts having glimpses of the future after an accident. So when she sees a spider-man like evil guy murdering three teenagers in her visions, she sets out to save the girls, eventually learning more about her own powers and potential. Unfortunately, the creators take more than half an hour to get to the main story! Things only begin to get entertaining post the 40 minute mark, when Cassandra finally understands she can really see the future and then sets off to save the girls, who are all strangers – Anya Corazón (Isabela Merced), Julia Cornwall (Sydney Sweeney), and Mattie Franklin (Celeste O’Connor).
You could probably just watch the first seven minutes, which is like a prologue chapter, and then skip to the 33rd minute and you might not even realize that you missed anything. Dakota Johnson as Cassandra Webb is a work-in-progress, since she isn’t sure what’s happening to her for most of the runtime. But Cassandra’s impromptu savior/babysitter act with the three teenage girls targeted by an evil villain called Ezekiel Sims (Tahar Rahim) is an engaging plot-point. The creators should’ve spent more time on the misadventures of Cassandra, Anya, Julia and Mattie, while they are all on the run from Ezekiel, instead of spending almost half an hour showcasing Cassandra’s life as a paramedic.
Tahar Rahim, as the primary antagonist, isn’t very intimidating and comes across as a generic villain with limited screen time. Perhaps someone with more screen presence could have elevated the role. It doesn’t help that the action sequences are limited, but on the other hand, the special-effects weren’t great anyway, so maybe more pow-wow wouldn’t have made a different. “The Marvels”, which also features an all women-led cast scores better with its cinematography and action scenes versus “Madame Web”.
There’s spirited teamwork among the women leading up to the climactic fight, making the final “good versus evil” face-off quite entertaining. “Madame Web” had the potential to be a memorable superhero film, but due to its haphazard storytelling, slow start, and weak villain, it ends up being mediocre at best and nearly unwatchable at worst. If you enjoyed watching “The Marvels”, you might just enjoy this movie, it’s got some good early 2000s energy to it. Besides, there’s always the “fast-forward” button.
You can stream “Madame Web” on Netflix.
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Ashley Madison Documentary Series Review
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“Our marketing guy came up with the idea for a billboard in India – Your parents arranged your marriage. Let us help you with your affair.”
Love and sex might mean a lot of different things to people around the world, but for dating websites, it’s all about monetary profit, and it couldn’t have been truer for “Ashley Madison”, a dating website that was founded in 2002, much before dating websites became the go to place for people to meet their next romantic interest. And just in case you didn’t know, Ashley Madison wasn’t made for singles, but marketed to married people looking to have an affair. “Life is short, have an affair,” was their popular tagline.
So, Netflix’s 2024 documentary series “Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal” looks at the rise of the controversial website and the 2015 data security breach that compromised the private details of millions of its users. The three-part series kicks off with the interview of Evan Back, a former employee of Ashley Madioson, who gleefully jokes about how he’d tell people their website’s biggest competitor was the Bible. While there are few more ex-employee interviews, Evan Back is probably gives the most entertaining insights into the workings of their website and how their former CEO Noel Biderman was the driving strength behind the Ashley Madison’s stellar growth, despite massive criticism and backlash in the media for “encouraging cheating”.
Unfortunately, “Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal” does not feature an interview with Noel Biderman, but it does contain several file footage of his interviews for viewers to understand his vision for the website. It also has a short interview with Marc Morgenstern, the former creative director of Ashley Madison, which was founded by his brother Darren Morgenstern. But the most crucial interviews of course is that of some of the users and their spouses who were affected by the data breach.
While the interviews don’t necessarily flow smoothly through the three episodes, the documentary maintains an engaging structure. It begins with the establishment of the site, follows its growth and the marketing strategies that made it a globally successful, profitable enterprise, and then covers the eventual hacking of the site. The film also details the company’s unsuccessful efforts to protect their customers from being exposed, the subsequent fallout, and the lawsuits the company faced for failing to protect its users’ data. It’s like a tragic-comedy case, comical to those who were unaffected by it and thought the “cheaters” had it coming, while many users and their families faced tragic consequences.
Other interviews in “Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal” include journalists who covered the case, data security experts hired by Ashley Madison to identify the hackers, and a police officer who worked on the case. The data breach didn’t simply expose the users having extramarital affairs through the site, but further digging into the data by various journalists also lead to lot more surprising (or not so surprising) details about the inner-working of the website and how its users were actively being misled into losing money.
Unlike some other Netflix documentaries, “Ashley Madison: Sex, Lies & Scandal” manages to present multiple perspectives, making it an interesting case study on the ethics of hacking, infidelity, and the murky boundaries of online privacy.
Rating: 6.5/10. You can stream the docu-series on “Netflix”.
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May 16, 2024
Raise Hell! Issue #1 Review
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It’s summer vacation and best-friends Victor, Miri, and Reeves don’t have much to do. So they pool in money to buy a kit for summoning a demon from a questionable source, and end up having their own personal demon from hell!
Issue #1 of “Raise Hell!” by Jordan Alsaqa and Ray Nadine is only 25 pages long, but it’s a quick, fun read that concludes in a manner that allows it to stand as a short story on its own. Readers don’t get to know much about the three friends, although Victor and Miri are the cheery, enthusiastic, and optimistic kinds, while Reeves is more grumpy, angst-y and cautious.
The artwork is vibrantly colorful, and the illustrations are a little like how the new Archies comics looks these days. In-fact, Reeves looks like a tweaked version of Jugheads, complete with a beanie-like hat and a lock of hair falling on his forehead. Victor and Miri on the other hand have more distinct personalities as far as their character illustrations are concerned, so at least it’s easy to differentiate the three of them from each other.
Victor, Miri, and Reeves making a blood pact to summon a demon is perhaps the craziest event in “Raise Hell!” And given the title’s hint, they indeed succeed in summoning a demon, but the real surprise lies in the type they summon! With its short length, issue #1 manages to be an entertaining start for this demon-themed fantasy series, which is mostly light and comical in tone.
Rating: 4 on 5. Raise Hell! is also on Kindle Unlimited.
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Boys Be Brave! Review – Adorbs In Chunks
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Okay, so this was super cute in parts! At the same-time, the story is weirdly hashed out and a secondary couple story didn’t match the tone of the primary romance at all.
Directed by Lim Hyun Hee (also directed “Our Dating Sim”), the 2024 Korean romantic-drama “Boys Be Brave” is based on a webtoon titled “Can’t Confess” (고백을 못하고) by Seok Young. One would probably be tempted to place it under the “romantic-comedy” genre, and even though it does have some really laugh-out-loud moments, a major sub-plot is very angst-ridden for no reason.
Spanning eight episodes, the plot follows the studious, introverted Kim Jin Woo (Kim Sung Hyun), who finds himself saddled with an unexpected flatmate – campus heartthrob Jung Ki Sub (Nam Shi An), who Jin Woo has a secret crush on. What was supposed to be a temporary stay, turns into a comical courtship between the two, but despite his infatuation with Jung Ki Sub, Kim Jin Woo refuses to cave to his feelings because Jung Ki Sub is known to be a two-timing jerk. Will these two young men, who are poles apart, get together? That forms the crux of the tale.
Both Kim Sung Hyun and Nam Shi An are adorable as the onscreen pair Kim Jin Woo and Jung Ki Sub, although the latter’s character motivations are hard to understand in the first half of the series. Jung Ki Sub simply says yes to anybody who asks him out on a date, which is a LOT of people, and in-fact, he is the sorts cannot say “no” to anything; so his character comes across as a good-looking sociopath of sorts. Nam Shi An channels the essence of a golden retriever in his portrayal of Jung Ki Sub, akin to an amiable pet eagerly reciprocating attention wherever it comes from.
Kim Sung Hyun on the hand as Jin Woo is like a fluffy-cute dumpling, his character reminded me of Hae Bom from “Cherry Blossoms After Winter”. Despite his crush, Jin Woo is consistently dedicated to his academics, highly organized, and doesn’t let romance get in the way of his career goals. I like how he always had alarms to remind him of different tasks through the day, so he doesn’t miss anything important. Jung Yeo Joon plays Jung Ki Sub’s best-friend Choi Balgeum, who has multiple part-time jobs and strained relationship with a former classmate called Ji In Ho (Ahn Se Min).
With just eight episodes lasting 28 minutes each, the secondary sub-plot in “Boys Be Brave” featuring another couple does little to enhance the series. Instead, it slows down the pace and makes the storyline scattered. A little more focus on Kim Jin Woo and Jung Ki Sub’s romantic progression would’ve been better. Episode 4 has a hilarious little love-rival twist, and I like how almost each chapter ends with a solid cliffhanger. Jung Yoo Hyeon’s cameo as college student Kang Hye Jin, a potential love rival vying for Jin Woo’s attention, was comically entertaining.
Both the cinematography and musical soundtrack in “Boys Be Brave” engaging throughout the runtime, it’s only the storytelling that needed more work. Regardless, the last episode has a ‘feel-good’ climax,and is positively celebratory in its tone. What didn’t come as a surprise was how the second couple doesn’t even a get a conclusive ending, making viewers wonder if a season two will be around the corner. Watch the series if you’re looking for a simple-cute campus romance and enjoyed watching Korean dramas like “Why R U” and “A Breeze of Love”.
You can stream “Boys Be Brave!” on Viki.
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May 15, 2024
Turtles All the Way Down Movie Review
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Director: Hannah Marks
Writers: John Green, Elizabeth Berger, Isaac Aptaker
Seventeen-year-old Aza Holmes thinks she would kill to be like other “normal” kids her age, instead of zoning out all the time, taking pills, and losing herself to her obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). When a billionaire in their town goes missing, her best friend Daisy convinces Aza to reconnect with Davis, the billionaire’s son, so the two girls can solve the mystery and win a hefty reward. Davis is clearly smitten with Aza, but with her fears about microbes, infections, and whatnot, Aza doesn’t know if things can work out between her and the charming young man.
Based on John Green’s novel of the same name, the 2024 movie “Turtles All the Way Down” is a little all over the place; it first promises to be about two best friends trying to solve the disappearance of a billionaire, then becomes a romance about an anxious teen girl who struggles with her OCD and new feelings for a super cute, super rich boy. The cinematography however is bright, cheery and brings in a very “summer romance” vibe through the runtime.
Aza (Isabela Merced) lives with her widowed mom Gina (Judy Reyes), sees a therapist on a regular basis, and struggles with her romantic attraction for Davis (Felix Mallard), a boy she had first met at summer camp after losing her dad. Despite always being anxious, Aza seems to have a fun relationship with her best friend Daisy (Cree), who always encourages her to try new things – like looking for clues to find Davis’ billionaire dad. All the young actors are quite charming in their parts, even though both Davis and Daisy are slightly one-dimensional. Davis is the handsome, broody love interest, who might be super rich, but is a “deep thinker” who shares sad-profound quotes on his online blog. Daisy is the quirky, extroverted, friendly BFF to Aza’s asocial, anxious, self-sabotaging self.
For the first half of its almost 2 hour runtime, “Turtles All the Way Down” unfolds like a sweet but slow teen drama, with a relaxed rhythm to it, except for the weird graphics displaying microbes and microorganisms that Aza is constantly thinking about. Isabela Merced and Felix Mallard (he plays Marcus in “Ginny and Georgia”) are really cute as Aza and Davis, even though their romance is quite un-realistic – David takes Aza out on a very “50 Shades of Grey” style first date – flying her out on a private jet. This seems to be becoming a major trope in romance novels – the rich guy takes the not-so-rich girl out of town on his own luxurious flying wheels. At least Davis takes Aza to a meaningful place that holds emotional value to her, instead of impressing her with a fancy lunch/dinner date.
“Turtles All the Way Down” gives viewers an interesting protagonist, however, I was a little disappointed with the way Aza’s friendship with Daisy pans out in the movie, since it evolves into the story’s most important ingredient. If the portrayal is faithful to the book, then John Green probably doesn’t understand how female friendships work, and throws in some drama between the friends just to have some sort of conflict in the tale that’s not romantic in nature. There are a thousand things close friends can fight about and make up, but in a surprise twist, Daisy seems to hold a steady stream of negative emotions for her friend over the years, the kinds that would simply make two people drift apart in high-school. In the end, Aza and Daisy do make up and that’s sweet, but it doesn’t really click with what happens between them.
“Turtles All the Way Down” is a evenly tempered story about the challenges of living with a mental health disorder and fighting it out despite daily downfalls. It doesn’t really have any mystery elements, despite the billionaire’s disappearance being a sub-plot, instead it’s an almost standard teen drama, with romance, friendships and mental health issues as its core themes. If that’s something that interests you, watch the film.
Rating: 6 on 10. You can stream “Turtles All the Way Down” on Jio Cinema.
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