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Mankala Reddy
- India
- 2550 Points
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Mankala posted a review for Veere Di Wedding in Movies
What are your expectations from a film starring Kareena Kapoor Khan and Sonam Kapoor? The general assumption would be a fashion extravaganza that is shot in beautiful locales and has attitude and sass to spare. Veere Di Wedding is all of these things -- it is also outrageous, gratingly loud and unnecessarily abusive – but what it is not, is entertaining. Credit, however, is due to writers for choosing the characters that they have - a gay couple living in south Delhi that is looking for acceptance, a woman dealing with divorce, another one who is under pressure to get married, a commitment-phobic woman who is all set to get married and a woman beset with weight issues and an estranged father. In theory, Veere Di Wedding is about accepting everyone the way they are; only if its execution could have carried off its lofty ideals. The plot forces characters to stay on two modes largely – highly emotional and ready to have fun. Yes, women like to drink, abuse and have active sex lives but there is so much more to being a modern-day independent woman. This movie would have you believe that marriage is stupid, friendship is the only saving grace and cigarettes are stress-busters. We all may have believed that, perhaps in college, but we outgrew it all in teenage. The film’s team was at pains to say that Veere Di Wedding didn’t resemble Sex And The City but the similarities are hard to ignore. The veeres take impromptu ‘honeymoon trip’ to Phuket, a lot like Carrie and her friends heading to Mexico after her wedding goes wrong. Swara, quite shockingly, is over-the-top as a south Delhi babe and Sonam’s character impresses in parts. Shikha and Kareena’s characters are the only ones among these Veeres who are relatable. Sumeet does what he does best – play a cute, understanding guy who does not care much about rituals but cannot say no to his family. In its own subtle way, Veere Di Wedding also tries to subvert the male dominant stereotype but these moments are so few and far between that you almost miss the point. It may be a buddy comedy but it is not among the best in the genre, not even top five.
Mankala posted a review for Action Point in Movies
Action Point feels particularly unstuck in time, even by the standards of movies built around niche celebrities whose times in the spotlight has already come and gone. Fifteen years ago, a movie starring two of the faces of Jackass would’ve been a buzzy hit, a lark offering the chance for audiences to participate in the time-honored tradition of watching people with a remarkable lack of regard for their own safety eat shit for the entertainment of the masses. Johnny Knoxville made his career on this sort of fare, but Action Point is curious in that it’s just as interested in being a vehicle for Knoxville the character actor-turned-leading man as Knoxville the reckless daredevil. It’s an appeal for his merits as an all-around performer, long after the world cemented him as a man fated to pratfall for our entertainment. If the film’s existence feels a bit dated in and of itself, Action Point gives that impression early and often in its story and delivery as well. It’s strange to find oneself drawing on Joe Dirt as a key stylistic influence, but here we are, as much of Action Point unfolds in flashbacks while an elderly D.C. (Knoxville, once again bathed in old man makeup) tells his granddaughter stories of the good ‘ol days. For D.C., those were his halcyon days running the titular backwoods amusement park in the late 1970s, where the Schlitz flowed freely, the times were good, the girls were pretty, and “there weren’t so many rules.” D.C. takes several shots at the modern-day “nanny state” throughout Action Point, and the closest thing the movie seems to have as a thesis is that we were all better off when we could disappear off the grid, get into some generally harmless trouble, and maybe destroy some property or our own bodies along the way. Action Point is essentially a death trap, an outdated carnival-esque park full of cracked slides, grinding fairway rides, and occasionally a local brown bear. D.C. is an enthusiastic ringleader, equally full of love for the locals who’ve grown up on his rides and the “Shitbirds,” a group of local teenage ne’er-do-wells who come back every summer to enjoy themselves, loosely police the rides, and drink and smoke themselves into nightly good times. He has a little bit of help from Benny (Chris Pontius), who’s the second closest thing to an authority figure at Action Point when he’s not flirting with girls or practicing with his katana. Action Point’s only real rival for D.C.’s affections is his daughter Boogie (Eleanor Worthington-Cox), who lives in New York City with D.C.’s ex-wife, and comes back to live in the woods with her dad for the summers. When a local amusement park conglomerate attempts to encroach on Action Point’s land, D.C. and Boogie and the Shitbirds find themselves engaging in the kind of hijinks that both movies and society used to enjoy more often when we had “a little thing called personal responsibility.” There’s a lot of talk of days gone by throughout Action Point, to such an extent that even the film’s R-rated penchant for four-letter words and porno mags feels oddly quaint, in its way. For all of the film’s insistence on repeatedly assailing Knoxville’s penis with pressure washers and well-placed objects, Action Point ultimately aspires to being a Jackass take on fare like American Graffiti or Dazed and Confused, an ode to simpler times, when the trouble we got into was more innocent and not everything was taken so seriously that it ended in a lawsuit. Between the various slimy lawyers and businessmen offered throughout, and the revelation that the adult Boogie turned into a helicopter parent, Knoxville and director Tim Kirkby are clearly interested in wistful nostalgia and nothing more. As such, the movie is reasonably successful in its own modest way; its interests go no further than offering a handful of pratfall-driven laughs, and a few lessons about kicking back and cutting loose before you miss out on the simpler pleasures of life.