BONE LAKE

Name: Bone Lake
Director: Mercedes Bryce Morgan
Actors: Mickey Liddell,Pete Shilaimon,Jacob Yakob,Joshua Friedlander
Running Time : 95 Mins
Genre : Thriller
Language: English

The film is an erotic thriller with lot of borrowed ideas from different films – Boy and his girlfriend play a couple whose getaway at a remote lakeside house is interrupted by another mysterious couple, leading to a disturbing series of mind games and manipulation. The ‘double-booked’ rental is a copied idea from the movie ‘Barbarian’ and a most often repeating theme that couples having relationship woes book a lake house and everything gets worse from there. What’s disappointing is that the disturbing series of mind games and the manipulative acts does not have any emotional impact and the movie keeps moving without any serious pace. Every idea seems to be worse than the previous one and this impacts the terribly made movie. The climax is so messy that you can’t even view it once. Can be watched once with multiple intervals to actually check what you are really watching!!!

Blink Twice

Name: BLINK TWICE
Director: Zoe Kravitz
Actors: Naomi Ackie,Channing Tatum,Christian Slater,Simon Rex,Adria Arjona, Haley Joel Osment
Running Time : 102 Minutes
Genre : Thriller
Language: English

Tech Billionaire Slater King (Channing Tatum) meets cocktail waitress Frida and invites her (and her friend) to a vacation in a private island. Strange things start happening and Frida starts questioning her reality. The initial proceedings where Slater King starts by meeting the waitress and invites her to this vacation in a private Island, once it is done – its only wild nights that blend with sun-soaked days and everyone’s having a great time. But something looks wrong….something looks strange. Most importantly, Frida has no recollection of the previous night. Every day seems to start on a new note. As time runs out, Frida will have to figure what is going wrong with this private island vacation or else she will have to stay here forever. Channing Tatum is ice cool in this movie, except for the final confrontation with Frida. Frida revelations in the end are quite shocking and the suspense factor is maintained all through the movie which works out well. Very good, impressive direction by director Zoe Kravitz. Well done. Worth a watch.

MURMUR

Movie: Murmur
Director: Hemnath Narayanan
Genre: Horror
Language: Tamil
Duration : 2 hours 20 Minutes

The movie is taken in ‘hand-held footage’ mode and is quite an interesting attempt. The movie follows a group of You-tubers venturing in to a forest in search of “Seven Saptha Kannigal” (7 Virgins) and the cursed spirit that haunts the forest, but eventually gets brutally killed. The movie started off too slow, the first real jump scare appears in the 94th minute. From there, the movie does not disappoint and gives a package of scares that might leave the audience crave for more. What was very interesting that the movie is done with real low budget and the scares were really effective!!! The climax where the leader of this group meets the ‘Saptha Kannigal’ who are taking the bath in a full moon sky is really disturbing considering it’s very effective. The first 94 minutes does take this movie too slowly and there are sub-plots which might irritate the viewer, but if you go through them – there is still plenty of twists left in the tank which will keep the viewer glued to the movie. Well done!!!

Manjummel BOYS

Movie: Manjummel Boys
Genre: Survival Horror
Directed by : Chidambaram
Starring : Soubin Shahir,Sreenath Bhasi,Balu Varghese
Language : Tamil

A group of ten friends known as Manjummel Boys go on a trip to Kodaikannal and as they enjoy the adventure, one of the friends suggests they visit the Guna caves. As they enter the restricted area ignoring all warning signs, one of the friends Subhash falls into a hole whose depth cannot be measured. Known as the ‘Devil’s Kitchen’ this hole is 900 feet in depth and nobody as made it out alive. The real adventure starts as the friends figure out a plan to rescue their friend and a race against time begins. The song ‘Kanmani anboda’ from Guna is used regularly in the movie that elevates the mood of the film. The pacing is correctly done and the set for the Guna cave looks gorgeous and captures the beauty and the danger that hides there. It’s a great thriller movie and was one of the few movies, I watched twice in the OTT. Cannot be missed.

DAhAAD

Title: Dahaad
Genre: Crime ,Mystery, Thriller
Starring: Sonakshi Sinha,Vijay Varma
Language: Hindi
No of Episodes: 8
Available in : Amazon Prime Video

In Mandawa, a small village in Rajasthan, Sub-Inspector Anjali (Sonakshi Sinha) stumbles upon a strange case where almost 27 woman mysteriously disappear from their respective homes only to be raped and have committed suicide. What would have driven them to do such an act? who did this?

She deducts a pattern in these murder. These women were aged around 25, below poverty line, parents struggled to get these women married and the women died next day they eloped with their partner. The Inspector knows that a serial killer is on the loose and she decides that Anand Swarnakar (Vijay Verma) who is a college lecturer and is married with a son is the primary suspect. A deadly game of cat and mouse ensues as the Inspector digs down deep and finally catches the suspect. A very good entertaining performance from all the cast members. Sonakshi Sinha as the Sub-Inspector does great justice to her role and leaves no stone unturned until she nabs the suspect. It’s interesting this plot is actually based on a true story of a killer called ‘Cyanide Mohan’. Very enjoyable.

Love at First Sight

Movie Name: Love at First sight
Directed :Vanessa Caswill
Actors: Haley Lu Richardson,Ben Hardy
Distributed by Netflix
Running Time: 91 Minutes

It’s been a very long time since I had the courage and patience to watch a romantic movie. This was the first one after a long time and it was really a fulfilling experience. Though the plot is very predictable (of young girl getting the phone number, losing it from the young boy sitting next to him) , the story telling is very creative and the chemistry between the lead characters is unbelievable. The movie does have it’s share of comic reliefs and has some great music (‘Video killed the Radiostar’ by Buggles and the alternate version of “I wanna dance with Somebody” by Whitney Houston needs special mention). overall, a heart warming treat. Finally, Romance is in the air.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Movie: Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Directed by : Destin Daniel Cretton
Actors: Simu Liu,Awkwafina,Meng’er Zhang,Fala Chen, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kinglsey
Running Time : 132 minutes
Language: English
Genre : Superhero / Fantasy

Originally Created by Stan Lee in 1980 to have Brandon Lee (Son of Bruce Lee) to have a fantasy based Martial Arts story has finally come to the big screen in 2021. (It was initially visualized with Bruce Lee in the mix of things) I missed this movie because there can no be greater movie than Avengers: End Game, but this movie proved me wrong. The movie works mainly because this movie does not take itself seriously. Enjoyed every moment and the director has made sure that it has been kept engaging from start to finish as the team of Shang-Chi (Simu Liu) and Katy (Awkwafina) go in to a dangerous journey as they confront the past and the leader of the Ten Rings Association and go in search of a mythical village. CGI was amazing in this movie and the comedy scenes which involved Sir Ben Kinglsey (as Trevor Slattery) and the charming Morris (the faceless beast). Though at 132 minutes, the movie might look very look – but it doesn’t look that way. The movie has the correct running time and finds its balance between story + CGI + comedy. Great Watch!!!!

FALL

Movie: Fall
Directed by : Scott Mann
Actors: Grace Caroline Currey,Virginia Gardner,Mason Gooding
Running Time : 107 minutes
Language: English
Genre : Survival – Horror

The Trailer of ‘Fall’ was breath-taking already when I first saw it. I knew what to expect when I saw the producers of “47 Meters down” had made this movie. This movie went up several notches after what I had seen 47 Meters down, which itself is sure to keep the audience on the edge. The movie shows two women climbing a 2,000 foot (610 m) tall television broadcasting tower and become stranded at the top. Movie does have a backdrop of a story where Becky loses her partner in a rock climbing accident and decides to confront here fears as she meets thrill seeking friend Hunter who enters her life. The tower itself looks all set to induce fears and the correct camera angles play in your mind which means the ladies would go stranded once they reach the top. The women summon every last bit of their strength to devise a plan to return home or die trying. The movie gets very scary once they reach the top as my palms became too sweaty, elevated blood pressure and so on. You will have to watch this as there are enough scares even if you are the person who says that you are not scared of heights. Go ahead and enjoy the FALL!!!

Last Night in Soho

Movie: Last Night in Soho
Directed by : Edgar Wright
Actors: Thomasin McKenzie,Anya Taylor-Joy
Running Time : 116 minutes
Language: English

Slasher, fantasy and some ghostly mystery collide in the correct proportions in this movie. Though the title doesn’t make much of sense (or is neither attractive), the movie starts off way too slowly , but catches steam mid-way and ends as an edge-of -a seat thriller. It’s the story about a girl (Ellie) who dreams of becoming a fashion designer and joins the London college of Fashion. She has this strange visions of a bar dancer whom she starts to believe was strangled and killed and as the visions begin to haunt her more, she starts searching for her from her rented mansion which is owned by the elderly Ms. Collins. As the truth unfolds, the audience are left stumped to know the actual truth on who killed this bar dancer. It leaves your head spinning and also provides some stunning visuals filled much needed retro fun. Don’t miss this one :-))

BEAST

Directed by Baltasar Kormákur
Starring: Idris Elba
Language: English
Running Time : 93 Minutes

Cool Movie!!! For Tamil audience who were disappointed with another movie that had same title, this movie is totally a cool break !!! Really an one time watch, but still the director makes it a point to make sure the audience are never let down. Idris Elba plays a doctor , a widower basically with two daughters – this sets up the premise for some relationship issues, but once they go into the wild they are held in their vehicle as hostages by a Rogue Lion. The survival drama starts there and how the father fights it out to protect his daughters forms the crux of the story. The action sequences especially scenes that involves CG is beautifully done and particular mention to the special eerie background score adds a new dimension to the movie. There is a point where you start thinking this Rogue Lion might never die (especially after he survives a horrific Fire accident), the drama goes to the next level and some smart thinking from the Lead actor to make this Lion fight with the other Lions available in the wild gives the movie a satisfied ending. Had me on the edge of the seat for the entire movie.

4 out of 5 stars.