Take #31:Don't Breathe

Without giving away anything, it wouldn't be entirely untrue to say that, as a home-invasion film, this one is among the most extreme you'll find. 


Make no mistake, the tension is very real, and you'll have reason to applaud the appropriateness of the title in every minute of the 89-minute runtime of this movie. 


But I personally think that "Hard to Kill" would have been a much better name, had it not already been taken.

Don't miss this. It's an experience.

Take #34: Sully

If you remember the front page news in the Indian press one January day in 2009, and you can recall your amazement and your wonder at how such a thing could come to pass, this is not a movie you will want to miss. The unprecedented water landing by a commercial airliner and the subsequent rapid evacuation and rescue of its passengers was "the best news that New York had heard in a long time - especially where airplanes were concerned".

Clint Eastwood's taut script and unerring directorial hand, and Tom Hanks' restrained portrayal of a skilled pilot wondering whether he had made a terrible mistake, make this a remarkable 96-minute telling of a 208-second flight and a 24-minute rescue. An absolute must for pilots, Clint Eastwood fans, Tom Hanks fans, Hudson River fans, and just about everybody else.

Although "Sully" is more like a documentary than a standard disaster film, it is still one of the best-made movies I have seen this year.

Take #33: The Shallows

Speaking literally, this was undoubtedly a Lively film .

Figuratively, it was anything but, although still very skilfully crafted, for all that. Blake Lively did a commendable job (quite unrecognisable from her bimbette part in Green Lantern) and the director was a close second.

This is a two-days-in-the-life-of diary kind of survival film, and isn't for the squeamish. I personally felt that, considering the locale, the cinematographer could have done a better job of capturing the surf, the spray, the sunsets, the sand and the shark.

Blake Lively was pretty good. But I've said that already.

Take #32: The Magnificent Seven

Hmm, this one is difficult. I have a few suggestions to offer - first, try not to keep either the Kurosawa classic or the Sturges remake in mind when you go for this film; second, try to cope with the fact that Denzel Washington is upstaged by Chris Pratt; third, try not to remember Eli Wallach's lines from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly: "If you want to shoot, shoot; don't talk".

At 132 minutes, this movie was probably 25 minutes too long. The characters have great promise but have not been etched finely enough. The prairie landscape looked distinctly like a painted set in parts.

Sure, as a stand-alone, it's a great entertainer. But we're too complex these days to look at anything stand-alone: like financial results, it has to be consolidated; and in a consolidated view, this film fails.