High School Musical 3

Final year at East High School is almost over. Separation with loved ones becomes a certainty. How will school basketball star Troy and his girlfriend, Gabriella; and his teammate and best friend Chad spent their lasts days together besides juggling the new opportunities that lie before them?

Well, they sing and dance their way out in a tree house, school garden, garage, school auditorium, etc., in this high-energy Disney production.

Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron reprise their roles as lovers Gabriella and Troy and they look comfortable in every bit. All the stars make it look as there is no problem at all when it comes to dancing in high heels. The dance in the Wildcats victory party involving hundreds is perhaps the best choreographed dance in this film. The plot involves a simple love story besides East High's 'Paris Hilton' Sharpay (Ashley Tisdale) attempts to steal the best songs for herself in the school's drama creation. The nature of the plot makes the film moves quickly and it doesn't take too much time to disclose the feelings of the pensive youngsters.

High School Musical 3 is jolly entertaining with an eye-catching young talented cast and a well-rehearsed collection of music.
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High School Musical 3 (Senior year)
English (U)
Cast: Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, Corbin Bleu, Monique Coleman Director: Kenny Ortega

Merry Christmas

Have you ever seen Germans and the Allied forces hanging up their rifles and chatting side by side in any world war movies? If not, this is the right time to get yourself a ticket to PVR Cinemas this week for one of the most moving story on humananity in a cumbersome situation.

‘Merry Christmas’ (originally titled Joyeux Noel) screened at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival and nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2006 Oscars is based on a true story that took place on the Christmas eve of 1914.

Three armies (Scottish regiment, French and German) are just a few metres away from each other in their trenches on the cold Christmas eve. Suspicion is in the air even as the Germans, led by their prized tenor, begin to sing their version of ‘Silent Night’. It was a night none had expected. Eventually, the three forces gathered together at ‘no man’s land’ to have a mass after their commanders declared an unofficial ceasefire.
The men drank, shared food, buried their dead, talked, sang and exchanged addresses. They found that their enemies were not so cruel after all. However, the circumstances leading to their “most memorable Christmas” come with consequences and they must accept what is stored for them.

The sorrows of war is resonanated strongly in the painful music composed by Philippe Rombi. The keyboard has been employed with great expertise to bring out the agonies of the men at war.

With regard to the acting, Gary Lewis as the Scottish priest, Guillaume Canet as the French lieutenant and Benno Furmann as the German tenor are central to the film’s mood and they carry it pretty well. Perhaps the most hard-hitting fact shown in this film is the religious angle in which the Allied forces are indoctrinated by priests to fight and kill ‘to save democracy and protect God’s given freedom’!

The film celebrates the true spirit of Christmas — love and brotherhood. A must watch.
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French/German/English
Cast: Gary Lewis, Guillaume Cane, Steven Robertson and Robin Laing, Benno Furmann, Diane Kruger
Director: Christian Carion

The Day The Earth Stood Still (Film Review)

This movie is a remake of the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still, based on the short sci-fi story Farewell to the Master by Harry Bates. The film sticks to the original storyline about a humanoid alien coming to the earth to destroy human race for the sake of preserving other lives. However, there are numerous additional inputs with newer technology and unpardonable changes in the script.

Klaatu (Keenu Reeves), the humanoid messenger, lands in Manhattan Park from the outer space alongwith a giant robot in a huge crystall ball like-object. The self defensive-destructive robot will start its work if humans fail to listen to Klaatu’s warning for changing their destructive lifestyles that are harming other living organisms.

Among the scientists who are summoned by NASA to examine the mysterious Klaatu and the object is Helen Benson (Jenifer Connelly), an astro-biologist. The US army wounds Klaatu and is admitted to a hospital where he adopts a human form. After coming to his senses Klaatu tries to reason with US secretary of defence Regina (Kathy Bates) that he had come to convince world leaders (refer UN Assembly) that humans need to change their ways. But the secretive US administration refuses to fall for his story except for Helen who somehow strikes a note with Klaatu.

Klaatu is taken to a detention centre but he escapes and calls up Helen who comes with talkative stepson Jacob (Jaden Smith). Klaatu, now convinced that humans will not change their ways, tells Helen to keep on driving until they reach a forest where he initiates the process of destroying human species. To be precise, the only good thing in this film is the core idea that the earth also belongs to other forms of life besides showing that there are still some good souls left on Earth which gives enough reason that human race need not be wiped out.

However universal the theme may be, this film falls apart as there are many loopholes in the storyline. The first scene which shows Reeves in the Karakoram mountain itself makes no sense at all. So are the steel-like insects that destroy everything on their path. Aren’t they supposed to kill only humans? How come so many of the giant crystal ball-like objects (modern day Noah’s Ark) that propped up all across the Earth suddenly were never discovered by scientists? Even the Indian promo poster which has Taj Mahal is misleading.

These are just a few of them. But the most annoying thing is that it deviates too far from the original. Result: you have a foreshorten film in which the director and scriptwriter never really understand each other. Even the grace of versatile actor Keanu Reeves cannot save this film because of its weak script, directionless direction, cluttered editing and passable visual effects.
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English (U)
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith
Director: Scott