Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2, English Hollywood Film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * *

English Film review

Johnson Thomas

Tasty visuals but poor in story

 

Film: CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 (3D)              

Cast: Bill Hader, Anna Faris, James Caan, Will Forte, Kristen Schaal, Terry Crews, Andy Samberg, Neil Patrick Harris, Benjamin Bratt 

Directed by:    Cody Cameron & Kris Pearn

Rating: *  *

 

The first time round, it was a tasty enough joy-ride-nowhere close to exciting but nevertheless interesting. This second installment in the franchise picks up from where the first ended. Where the first movie clued itself on the book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett, the sequel treads a narrower out-of-page path that digresses completely from Pickles to Pittsburgh- the follow-up book by the authors.

Cloudy 2 finds Swallow Falls having to cope with the big, gooey mess left by those spaghetti tornadoes and other torrential tidbits.

Flint Lockwood(Bill Hader) believes that his genius is finally being recognized by his idol Chester V(Will Forte), who out of the blue invites him to join the Live Corp Company, with Barb(orangutan with human brain) escorting him to the HQ.   Seeing that Flint’s ambition has always been to get recognition as a famous inventor, Chester sends him out on a dangerously delicious mission to save the world from his own machine created creatures called ‘foodimals.’ Flint , being naïve, is unable to divine Chester’s true intent.

 

  For the first one, Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller not only assembled likable voice casts but also  cleverly worked-in relatable themes while giving food a more sinister and varied projection.

The creators of "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2" retain some of the earlier creative effusiveness and also ends up substituting original thought for greater size and numbers. The food doesn't just fall from the sky, it moves, breathes, and develops its own ecosystem. The foodimals end up being more interesting than the human toons inhabiting the conceived landscape.

The first movie was about a kid obsessed with science and ostracized from his society  and finally learning that even he  had a place in it. This second movie is not half as interesting- t an admittedly adorable, talking strawberry, not-withstanding. . The characters of "Cloudy 2" are almost non-existent. The visual creatives manage a sumptuous buffet but it’s a little too out of our reach to be edible. This film simply lacks inventiveness and story , making the going dull and difficult to sustain. The voice cast is solid enough. This film has a few too many flaws and since it’s an extension of an idea that did not necessarily warrant another outing- is less than satisfactory!

Johnsont307@gmail.com

Jackpot, Hindi bollywood Film Movie Review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * *

Hindi Film review

Johnson Thomas

   

Not a winner, by half!

Film: Jackpot

Cast: Sunny Leone, Sachin Joshi, Naseeruddin Shah

Director: Kaizad Gustad

Rating: *  *

     

This is Sachin Joshi’s third attempt at becoming a star and it’s as unrealistically driven as his earlier two ventures. Director, Kaizad Gustad, infamous for the ‘Mumbai central’ incident and famous for his second film the Jackie and Ayesha Shroff produced ‘Boom’ which had then freshers Katrina Kaif and Padma Lakshmi displaying their booty with delicious candor, helms this one too. In ‘Boom’ he had Amitabh Bachchan do a whacky turn  while in this one he’s got Naseeruddin Shah attempting to break stereotype.  ‘Boom’ was ushered out of the theatres even before it’s first week run was completed. But the effect on it’s two heroines was entirely different.  Today Katrina Kaif and Padma lakshmi are well-known stars in their own right. So I guess Sunny Leone, without expecting much from the film itself, is hoping that Kaizad’s luck with his heroines will rub off on her too.

   

Sunny Leone being Sunny Leone, she has to be scantily clad for several sequences- and that goes without saying. After all it’s a romantic thriller and romance for Sachin Joshi here is all about singing sensuous numbers and performing erotic love scenes with the next big sex goddess of Bollywood.

    

‘Jackpot,’ set entirely in Goa, has a backdrop of sun, sand and casino boats and is meant to be a fast-paced thriller con. But the pace is not smooth it’s jumpy and the characterizations are erratic. The film  has it’s brief moments of comedy  with crazy characters to give the few zany one liners some substance.

     

Jackpot is the name of a famous boat casino, open 24x7. The narrative goes back and forth in time delineating a card game between the lead players in a con. But the players they are trying to con are much smarter and pull a fast one on them. The loss of face leads to trust issues and each one begins suspecting the other of doing them in.  A beautiful woman, Maya(Sunny Leone)  with a gun, a brief case full of moolah and her romance with Francis(Sachin Joshi)  add further intrigue. The casino owner Boss Man(Naseeruddin Shah) is a crazy eccentric who also appears  to be bowled over by Maya, is also in the thick of things.  

    

Despite the herculean attempt to make things spicy and interesting, the thrill factor is totally missing. Sunny Leone can look the part of a beautiful sensuous woman quite adequately but convincing us of her acting chops, is another matter. Her expressions are a little too hard and appear vacant and fleeting. It’s clear from her past and present ‘Jism’ experience that empathizing with a character is downright difficult for her. Naseeruddin Shah, comes across as competent but the cruddy half baked character assigned to him, doesn’t do him any justice. Daniel Weber, Sunny’s husband, does a surprise cameo in the film. The music of the film is decent enough. Toshi and Sharib do well to lend sensuality and heart to the romantic numbers. The cinematography is also quite eye-pleasing. The plotting and the character machinations though, appear a little too ham-handed to curry favor. If you are looking to this misadventure only to salivate over Sunny Leone’s considerable assets , then you may not be disappointed. Otherwise just stay away!

Johnsont307@gmail.com