He is the man who knows no fear. He can take a car to its limits, push it further and make it do things which will prompt the viewer drive a knife through the chest to see if he or she is dreaming. A pinch just won't do.
He is Ken Block (some say he is The Stig) and his videos get millions of hits on youtube and he doesn't sing at all. But he can make cars dance to his tunes. His chosen mode of transport - heavily modified rally-prep cars. His preferred one - the Subaru Impreza WRX STI. Just in case you didn't know, he never drives in a straight line.
So what if we take the wheels of his steed and replace them with something which would feel at home on a battle tank? What if we drop him and his reworked machine off at a snow-covered mountain? Would he still be able to make us whistle at his antics behind the wheel?
Enough with the teasers...watch the video.
To those who need more pictures of the machine, try googling "Subaru Impreza WRX TRAX STI".
The over-hyped scene in The Expendables, where Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone shared screen space for the first time in movie history, in the auspicious presence of the third man who completed the trio of 1980's action superstars, Bruce Willis himself, was nothing more than a couple of one-liners. Though some of them did succeed in getting a laugh or two, the end result wasn't so much worth writing home about.
And no, I didn't expect them to engage in a brawl or a gunfight with each other. The way Arnold limped his way to the church's altar was sight enough for me to realize that the man has aged gracefully and by no means is supposed to do anything more than walking and talking.
Watched Clash of the Titans - a Swords and Sandals epic which lies somewhere between Troy and 300. Kraken was the piece of cake and so were the mythical creatures.
Revelation: All Greek Gods are womanizers and the seemingly good Gods are in fact the bad guys. Zeus was on a globe-trotting one-night stand spree, impregnating women on earth and tricked Hades to the depths of the underworld. Remember, Hades is always portrayed as the bad guy in Greek epics as he tries to take revenge on his brother Zeus who cheated him by denying him his seat at Mount Olympus a.k.a Heaven! How idiotic is that! Isn't Hades doing what all of us with some self-respect left in us would do when backstabbed? He is trying to get back what is rightfully his. Now how is that evil?
The story on Medusa's origin was indeed sympathetic and another example on how wayward the Greek Gods are. Poseidon, the God of the Seas, brutally raped Medusa when she was a beautiful young woman and he gave way to his urge right inside the Temple of Athena. Medusa pleaded to the Goddess to save her and Athena didn't bother at all. Instead, she turned the hapless woman into a Gorgon and that too once Poseidon was done with his hunger. How considerate! Athena's explanation for her "blessing" - she regarded it as the finest way to save Medusa from men! Medusa went on to be known by the monstrous form from then.
Now tell me - Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys?
Watched Inception and I would choose not to say anything about the movie except that:
1. Nolan, the cast and the crew have put in a lot of effort to conceive and film a movie of this magnitude, complexity and broad canvas.
2. Inception will take sometime and repeated viewings to grow on you if your intellectual capacity is equal to that of an average moviegoer like me. You''l realize that it's a path-breaking, visionary movie which will find its place in the Best Movies Ever List. But you'll find it difficult to explain why you think so.
Despite its astonishing concept/production designing and overwhelming visual effects, The Last Airbender comes across as one of the worst fantasy movies I have ever seen. It wasn't fun, it didn't have a single character to vouch for and the bad acting buckled with ridiculous dialogues make it the worst efforts from M.Night Shyamalan...next only to Lady in the Water.
Inception releases to the highest possible critical acclaim (Imdb rating 9.5/10) today. A whopping $200 million to make this movie and an additional $100 million to market it, Inception is hyper-expensive just like its summer counterparts. The question is, will it give the box-office that much-needed blockbuster hit and will it beat The Dark Knight?
Watching THE A-TEAM. So far it has been AWESOME!!! Action on Hyperdrive!!!
"Passengers, this is your captain speaking. If you could look out through the right window of the aircraft you'll see that the right wing is on fire" - Murdoch (The A-Team)
I'm loving this movie!!!
Was wondering where I have seen the actor who plays Murdoch and checked it up on wiki. It's in fact the lead actor from Oscar-nominated DISTRICT 9.
Funny, action-packed to the brim, with the feel which is undeniably that of the TV series on which it is based. Smart where it has to be, campy all the way, unapologetic for all of the above and add a bunch of lunatic amusingly OTT characters portrayed by Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper and Co. You get the kaboom of an action movie called The A-Team - I would love to see a sequel to this movie.
The last time yours truly saw this machine in motion was on the TV show BBC Topgear when Hamster (a.k.a Richard Hammond) unleashed its fury on the desert highways in Dubai. The final iteration of the highly successful and admired Murcielago range of supercars, the LP670-4 SV is in everyway the Lambo which has been built with its place in the history books factory-fitted.
But more than anything else what makes the Lamborghini Murcielago LP670-4 SV such a magnificent piece of machinery is its capabilities to threaten the likes of the McLaren SLR (which is way above supercar league) and still cross the finish line making the SLR driver nervous with that image of the bull in the rear-view mirror. The Murcielago will be riding away into the pages of history by 2011-12. But it will always be remembered as...
Read the entire article and download wallpapers fromIndiancarsbikes.in - India's most-read automotive blog.
Despite critically acclaimed roles in many movies, Vivek Oberoi has not had a single hit till date as the solo lead. An actor with such a resume should have put in more effort for a movie which is made on a budget of around Rs. 500 million. Unfortunately that’s not what we got to see in Prince and Vivek is not the only one to blame here.
I can't wait to watch Iron Man 2, without doubt, the movie of the year. The promo footage from ET has made me less patient than ever. There is the much hyped Monaco F1 race track sequence and Iron Man's flashy appearance on what looks like the American Idol show. Tony Stark is no Bruce Wayne. Subtleness is not a word which he is aware of. Stark doesn't even know that the word exists. :)
By the way, if you have not received the memo, Iron Man 2 features the arrival of his wing man, the War Machine. The less flashy, more brawny version of the red and gold suit does the job for the latter. Not to mention, the colossal firepower the suit offers. For us, that's twice the metal action.
Another disaster movie from the director who made a career out of making disaster flicks. Roland Emmerich returns to repeat the success of Independence Day and Day After Tomorrow with 2012 - a visual effects filled apocalypse movie based on the theoretical end of the world expected to take place in year 2012.
Forget the fact that John Cusack is the lead actor. Who pays attention to the hero of an Emmerich movie? Even if you intend to, you may not get the time to take your eyes off all that breath taking CGI. The budget is in the $200 million range.
So you thought Hollywood had the best CGI ever. So wrong. This CGI flick put together by PanTural (never heard of that name) will give the Hollywood visual effects companies a run for their money and some real huge complex. As for car buffs like me, it gives millions of goosebumps. The rendering has rendered me speechless (pun intended). There is so much happening onscreen in every second and even if the cars are stationary, they look like they are doing 100 miles per hour. Boy oh boy, do they look a billion dollars! It took this wizard 110 days to complete this project and it's totally worth it.
The soundtrack was the only part which disappointed a bit. Not that the soundtrack is weak, but the fact that it was lifted from some of popular movies like Transformers, Terminator 3 and Pirates of the Caribbean. That steals away a bit of originality from the package. Excellent soundtrack choices by the way.
The plot is pretty Hollywood-esque with bits borrowed from Spiderman 3 and The Day the Earth Stood Still. The cars are impressive whether they are motionless or blasting past at neck-breaking speeds. The line-up includes a white version of KITT Attack mode from the Knight Rider TV movie and the Shelby Mustang GT 500 looks all brawny in the attire. The Chevrolet Camaro joins the pack, kicking up the muscle car quotient a notch. The rest of the team is pretty ordinary with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and an outdated VAZ 07. But those two look dashing despite their age. Surprise package - a full blown Apache gunship monitors the proceedings from above.
The fury unleashed by these machines on the track make us forget for a long while that these are just cars. I know that I shouldn't be saying "just cars". That's a derogatory term.
They transform into beasts on wheels towards the middle of the video. The Camaro and the Cherokee breaks away from the shackles to get some rubber to burn on that track. The rest of the crew join in the show-off which concludes in an explosive finale of crash and burn.
One of the best CGI mini fests that I have ever seen, this one even packs an added punch with the making of the video pre-end credits. One must hand it to this guy wherever he is. This is brilliant. Beat that Hollywood.
What if Michael Bay made a Bollywood Movie? It'll look a lot like Blue. All of Rs.80 crores as budget to splurge on bike chases, underwater action sequences, explosions, shoot outs, classy production values, breath-taking locations, hot stars, stunts, effects, camera crew and writers brought down from Hollywood and racy trailers which promise a full blown slick actioner. Scored by A.R Rahman and sound designed by Resul Pookutty, Blue also features Kylie Minogue's performance. The promotional budget of Rs. 20 crore is enough to produce a multi-starrer in Bollywood. I'm betting my Diwali on Blue.
The Batmobile wannabe car's promotional video is a CGI fest with truckloads of inspiration from the Speed Racer movie. The Tronca has Corvette underpinnings and that is not that so unpleasant a news. So will we see one in the Batman sequel? No. Batman drives Lambos.
Wake Up Sid for the Hindi movie audience is a combination of elements borrowed from Lakshya, Waqt and Dil Chahta Hei. It’s Lakshya without the war, Waqt without deaths or lectures and Dil Chahta Hei without three love affairs. But the absence of these doesn’t turn the tide against it. This is a youthful movie which has the nostalgic flair of Rock On. You might not have been wannabe rock star in your younger days, but at some point of time you were a lazy, wayward, irresponsible person with no clear plan about the future.
Whether or not your dad has a shower manufacturing company which feeds your appetite for pizzas, parties, branded wear and luxury SUVs, you were not worried about the future. That’s what makes Wake up Sid universally appealing. Debutant director Ayan Mukerji’s craft is definitely into character development. The characters are absolute delights to watch. Be it the buddies who hang out with Sid or his parents who are in different tracks to correct their son. Ranbir Kapoor and Konkona Sen Sharma live up to their lead actors tags. Sid’s transformation from rich spoilt brat to poor loser and poor loser to upcoming winner is believable and Ranbir scores high on that regard. Konkona Sen on the other hand has a more grounded character to play which she does with all her charm. Anupam Kher did give a shade of Amitabh Bachchan’s character from Waqt, but his character chose to go by a more realistic route to guide his son. Supriya Pathak’s mother-act was a one which many mothers would find themselves associating with. For the first time ever, a non-actor like Kashmira Shah was cast in a role which suits her and she didn’t make us cringe this time. Rahul Khanna’s cameo was so well blended into the storyline that he almost gives the impression of a significant character.
The tracks though they are not Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy’s best, are pretty good with Iktara being my personal favourite. It’s the co-existence of contrasting characters which makes Wake Up Sid thoroughly watchable. It may not make you laugh till you cry or make you cry till you run out of tears. Neither will it prompt you to hold your lover’s hand while you are watching it. It’s actually a simple movie with a relevant message. But the message is so skillfully merged with the romantic premise and the nostalgic factor that you will never classify it as a preachy movie. That’s exactly why Wake Up Sid is a must watch.
I did not deserve this. I’m not a bad person. Why God, why? I just wanted to give every Diwali movie a fighting chance and ended up losing 2 hours and 25 minutes of my life forever. David Dhawan-Govinda team used to be so good at slapstick comedy and now they have redefined that genre into a piece of film making with screaming, squealing, incomprehensible dialogues. All that the viewer could make out from the speakers was noise and lots of it.
Govinda was at his comic worst in Do Knot Disturb and Riteish Deshmukh had no clue as to what’s going on. He tried to make something out of this mess and in the process made it messier. Sohail Khan dropped in once in a while with the cry boobie-punk act which was probably the only palatable performance. Rajpal Yadav is wasted with another overacting part.
Coming to the ladies, Sushmita Sen should join a gym and fix an appointment with a beautician or a plastic surgeon. She looked downright disastrous in this outing and I seriously doubt whether the costume designer had some serious ill-will towards the once-dazzling actress. As for Lara, she was the only saving grace with her looks – killer as always. But the comic timing that she is known for was nowhere in sight.
The movie wound up with another silly climax to be added to the long list of silly climaxes in comedy movie history. All right, point noted that it’s a comedy movie and it should be silly. But shouldn’t there be some kind of a sense of satisfaction before the curtain falls, that it was a fun-filled two and a half hours? It did not happen in this case.
I should have listened to what the poster on the theatre door said – Do (K)not Disturb.
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All the members of the House say "Yeah"!!!
Find my blogs at Indiancarsbikes.in
A never-ending love-affair with cars and bikes and blogging about them since I knew I could.
Find my write-ups at Nsbollywood.com
I'd rather write about Hollywood as it happens to be more fun and happening. But the money is supremely good in this case. :)
Daily/Weekend Box Office
I can watch this "n" times
The Dark Knight - Evidence that superhero movies can be Oscar-worthy. Christopher Nolan's biggest movie will be in the "best movies ever" list for eternity. Brilliant performances by the talented cast, awesome action sequences, excellence in direction and production values - all these made TDK a flawless piece of film making.
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