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ReviewPreview: Flightplan
Set high above the Atlantic in a futuristic, state-of-the-art aircraft, Robert Schwentke’s Flightplan goes a long way towards proving what lengths a mother will go to in order to ensure the safety of her child. Featuring Jodie Foster, the movie co-stars Sean Bean and Peter Sarsgaard, not to mention a trio of extremely good-looking German flight attendants.
Kyle Pratt’s world seems to be caving in around her. A few days after the unexpected death of her husband, her six-year-old daughter Julia mysteriously disappears without a trace during a flight from Berlin to New York. Making matters worse, none of her fellow passengers recall having seen a girl bearing Julia’s description on board. Furthermore, flight records show that the child never boarded the plane, and with an increasingly hostile flight captain and an overzealous air marshal to deal with, Kyle is left with no choice but to take matters into her own hands.
A stellar performance from the flick’s one true star (Foster) aside, Flightplan turns out to be nothing like the high flying thriller that most expected. Despite slowly picking up pace as it proceeds, the movie fails to gather any real momentum and, disregarding a sudden twist in the storyline halfway through, ends up being yet another in a long line of recent Hollywood disappointments. Three stars out of five at the very best.
Kung Fu Hustle
By Saqib Khan
It’s difficult to describe Kung Fu Hustle: Bollywood meets the Matrix detouring through slapstick territory, bordering on gross. In short, delightfully eccentric.Stephen Chow is a legend in China in the same light as Jackie Chan used to be for Hong Kong before he sauntered off to tinseltown. His acting may not be at par with Chan’s, but he more than makes up for it with his nifty direction and screenplays. His first flick to hit Hollywood was Shaolin Soccer, which took a pathetic two years to reach those shores. Having established credibility with it, this one didn’t take long to cross the Atlantic.
The plot, for all practical purposes, is non-existent and in that respect the movie runs on empty, fuelled only by the exaggerated histrionics and special effects. There are only a handful of flicks which have successfully performed this manoeuvre without falling flat on their face and Kung Fu Hustle, to its credit, does it more than aptly.
Stephen Chow plays a gawky goon who desperately wants to make it big in the criminal world. The thing is no one takes him seriously. During one such comic endeavour, he inadvertently sparks off a row between a poor community and the Axe Gang. The gang gets infuriated and decides to wipe out the community: little do they know that the town houses some of the best Kung Fu masters in the world. What ensues is a rivalry that stretches to the end and provides the bulk of the storyline, as well as the fireworks.
Kung Fu Hustle is likely to appeal even to the non martial-arts moviegoers, and had it not been for its ‘R’ rating (there are some gruesome shots a la Kill Bill), it would have been a treat for the younger audience as well.
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01 |
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire |
| 02 | Walk the Line |
| 03 | Chicken Little |
| 04 | Derailed |
| 05 | Zathura |
| 06 | Jarhead |
| 07 | Get Rich or Die Tryin’ |
| 08 | Saw 2 |
| 09 | The Legend of Zorro |
| 10 | Pride and Prejudice |
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