Tuesday 26 July 2016

Active Consulting Movie Review: Café Society

When it comes to romance, you can always rely on Woody Allen to bring out a wonder. The director who brought you Annie Hall has this time come up with a narration of love form 30’s Café Society.

Café Society is a story about Bobby (Jesse Eisenberg) nephew of rich agent Phil Stern (Steve Carell). Bobby comes to Hollywood with his uncle to find some work. Here he meets Vonnie (Kristen Stewart) and thus a story of love, heartbreak and a lot more follows in the Allen’s way.

Eisenberg had sort of made an image of a witty, cunning boy whom you love and hate at the same time. After his works in movies like Social Network, Batman V Superman, the Now You See Me series etc. him being able to pull out an innocent foolish character like Bobby was really impressive. Stewart on the other hand equally complimented him during the whole movie. You could feel her in every scene with a liveliness that Allen is famous for putting in his female protagonists.


Talking about the other actors, Steve Carell’s work as Phil Stern was impressive. He replaced Bruce Willis in the movie and there are parts when he did a far better work than Willis could have. 

There were also decent jobs done by Corey Stoll, Jeannie Berlin and, of course, Blake Lively.

Thus, you can find freshness in Allen’s work as he brings you Café Society and the movie is certain to make you fall in love with him even if you don’t yet.

For more movie and book reviews keep visiting active consulting.

Monday 18 July 2016

Independence Day: That’s Why Aliens Invade Us

The two things that decide the success of an alien invasion movie are the noise it creates and the success it achieves in shutting down the logic gates of the viewer’s. But imagine an alien movie that still presents itself as so distinctively dumb that it actually turns on the viewer’s brains to spot the nonsense. Honestly, according to what Independence Day Resurgence shows us if this is what we have developed since the last 1996 movie, we ourselves should be throwing a welcome bash to the aliens.

Fine, truth be told, Independence Day was never one of the smartest written or directed movies ever. But at least the older one had something interesting to show even if it was Will Smith fighting the Aliens. But in Resurgence the director Ronald Emmerich seems to have successfully taken that away too.

The cast both some older carry forwards like Bill Pull man, Brent Spiner etc. along with younger additions like Liam Hemsworth Maika Monroe etc.
Talking about the plot, this time the daughter (Monroe) of ex-president (the guy who actually came up with the idea of calling the alien invasion as Independence Day) is set to have herself noticed by the viewers for being there against the aliens. While, Dr. Brakush Owen (Spiner) another older character sleeps in coma for 7300 years. And  suddenly while you’re watching all this, the director secretly plays the older Independence Day so that you find a thing or too still interesting.

So, conclusively though the movie has some exciting parts which you will find if you plan to watch it, but keep the expectation bar at zero.

Tuesday 12 July 2016

The Purge: The Election Year – Movie Review

Writer-Director James DeManco took a good one year before coming up with the third addition to the movie series The Purge. The third instalment has none other than the US Elections for its storyline. So, finally in 2025 after two movies, someone realized how stupid the so-called “holidays” are. Senator Roan (Elizabeth Mitchell) goes as far as running as an independent candidate after surviving a Purge herself and losing her family. While against her in the race is Edwidge Owens (Kyle Secor) whose, the main agenda is to maintain the Purge tradition.
As compared to the first to instalments in the series, the third part is likely to please only the die-hard fans of the series. As for those, who are looking for sci-fi horror, this might turn out be a disappointment.
If we discuss the storylines, it seems the third instalment is following the standards set by the second part in the series. The only thing that differs is the constant mention of the utmost importance of Senator Roan’s safety, which is quiet annoying. However DeManco has the script well contemplated and directed, yet it is less likely to gan much attraction for new viewers.
So, to summarize it, it can be said, even after the over the top emotional drama that the movie provides, Election Year has nothing much new to offer from its predecessors. Though the work done by Mitchell as the lead protagonist is appreciable but it is advisable to not keep your expectations too high.

That was the active consulting review for The Purge: Election year, for more reviews on movies, books etc. keep visiting Active Consulting.