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Lawless (2012)
Disappointingly Average
I am writing this review as most of the reviews on IMDb for the movie has been positive which led me to expect an above-avg movie but i was sadly left disappointed after watching the film.The negative reviews i have seen were mostly one line reviews & hence it was difficult to take them seriously.So i wish to provide a more accurate picture than the present rating would lead viewers to believe.(it is currently more than 7 but the latest trend on IMDb is that it drops pretty steeply after the movie is released on blue-ray or shown on TV)
The movie shows the life of 3 brothers - Tom Hardy as Forrest,the able leader of the operation, Howard played by an unknown actor is the muscle for the group & Jack played by Shia Labeouf the weakling amongst the three who is trying to earn respect from his older siblings(come on who in their right mind would respect Labeouf or take the guy seriously who is famous for playing supporting lead to cgi in Transformers). They run a bootlegging operation during Prohibition era & the main story is all about them trying to continue their business when a corrupt & villainous cop,played by Guy Pearce try to stop their operations.
The biggest problem plaguing the movie is that it is strictly avg & very clichéd, nothing happens in the movie that we have not seen a 100 times before.Well there are always those people who say that every movie must not be a masterpiece or touch new heights & i completely agree with them.But a movie should be entertaining & in order to be so one should have interesting plot or relate able characters & this one has neither.In a gangster movie one does not expect characters to be moralistic or be the good guys but here the characters are outright stupid for example once Howard almost gets his brother (Tom Hardy) killed as he was busy getting drunk while the said brother believes himself to be immortal & invincible.Another time Jack leads the police to their secret hideout because he wanted to take his girl friend to the place where they make illegal liquor on their first date.(Labeouf once took Micheal Bay's side over Megan Fox during a controversy..so yeah we basically know he is not terribly bright with girls and once you see his filmography you realize he is not really bright with anything else for that matter).
The acting is serviceable enough with the standout performance being that of Guy Pearce who is great as the diabolical cop.(I had been a great fan of his since he did Memento & L.A. Confidential & it pains me to see him acting in movies like this & the bag of crap called Prometheus). The female leads hardly have anything to do in the movie except be tepid love interests & show some nudity..not that i have any problem with the second. I have heard complaints about Tom Hardy's accent & i think criticizing a character or actor on basis of hairstyle or accent is a trivial thing to do.His acting is decent but it fails to hide a poorly written character who it seems will play a prominent part in the movie but that part never comes.Shia Labeouf does not ruin the viewing experience as he usually tends to do so even he is tolerable or maybe there is nothing really left to ruin.
SPOILERS:- The ending is abysmal & as idiotic as it can get where Hardy has a gun pointed towards Guy Pearce but still manages to get shot numerous times on the chest without firing a single shot in return, what follows is even worse as he still survives (it would have been almost unbelievable if Hardy as Bane had survived that). It is simply ridiculous in a movie that tries to be a tightly scripted crime drama & not a summer action movie.
My Final Verdict - There is neither anything cringe-worthy nor anything praiseworthy in the movie.It is very average, so you may watch it when it is on TV & you have nothing else to do but do not go about buying the blu-ray expecting something special.Had it not been for the ending it would have got a six. 5/10
P.S. - To the fans of Oldman, A lot of reviewers have commented that Gary Oldman has given a great performance in the movie.Don't trust them as they are outright lying because he has only a cameo of 2 minutes & not even a minor role in the movie.
Double Dhamaal (2011)
Nothing Close To The original
The original Dhamaal was a rip off from an assortment of Hollywood releases but still it was one of the best comedies i have seen.Double Dhamaal is simply another worthless & disappointing sequel like Bheja Fry 2.
In this installment the idiot foursome is back and try to take revenge against Kabir(Sanjay Dutt)as now he is a rich conman.The plot moves from India to Macau in the second half without any improvement.The jokes & gags get repetitive and the chemistry between the leads is missing which made Dhamaal such fun.Javed Jaffrey is funny in parts while Ashish Chaudhury is simply irritating to watch.The other two leads Arshad & Riteish had been doing these same stupid roles from the onset of their careers and sleepwalk through their roles.Sanjay Dutt looks lost while seeing Kangana & Mallika act we realize why there weren't any female leads in the original Dhamaal.It would have been much better had they only been used for the item numbers.
In short the cinematography,music,plot has got nothing new to offer & though there are some funny moments they are few & far in between so at more than two hours it gets bland & boring.Avoid this if you value your time & only if you are desperate to watch it rent a DVD.