Breathtaking rendering - beat that Hollywood

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 The rest of the team is pretty ordinary with the Jeep Grand Cherokee and an outdated VAZ 07.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.

Remarkable action movies : Speed (1994)

Why : Speed infused tension, action and fear into the most common part of urban life - boarding a bus.

A Los Angeles citybus is rigged with a bomb which will tear the vehicle apart if any of what follows happens. If the speedometer needle goes anywhere west of 50mph, the bus blows up. If anyone tries to get off, the bus blows up. Dennis Hopper’s insane of a villain didn’t mention the clause, if anyone tries to board the bus, the bus blows up. May be he was counting on the the prospective hitchhiker's fear of death. But that didn’t stop Keanu Reeves from getting onboard and what followed was action movie history. Sandra Bullock’s spontaneous act was an absolute delight. Jan de Bont’s directorial excellence was evident in retaining edge-of-the-seat thrills till the moment the bus explodes. Let us choose to forget the concluding moments in the subway.

The movie won Academy Awards for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing and the producers laughed all the way to the banks to count the $350 million it made at the box-office. Its sequel was a dud, though.

Transformers 3 : release date announced

As the second installment of the shape-shifting robots epic prepares to invade theatres this June, the news of the release date of its sequel is making the rounds. Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks have confirmed that the third movie of the Transformers series will release on 1 July 2011.

A couple of years back, studios found it more effective to make two movies of the same franchise at the same time, (just like Gore Verbinski directed the 2nd and 3rd Pirates of the Caribbean movies simultaneously) Paramount and DreamWorks wish to take things a bit slow. Of course they’ll be concerned about the reception of the second movie. A $200 million is at stake this time and possibly another $100 million on the marketing campaigns. At the moment, the economic scenario doesn’t let the studios opt for risk taking. A lukewarm response may render the whole dish tasteless. If the third movie is completed together with the second, that’ll also make it impossible to introduce changes in the follow-up based on the audience and critics’ comments.

Though the date has been declared, the rest of the decisions have not been taken. No writers or crew have been drafted in yet. Instead, the makers are into vigorous promotional activities for the second movie -Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

The hype surrounding Revenge of the Fallen, is bound to heat up in the coming weeks. Viral marketing and theatrical trailers are spreading the word about the robot v/s robot action extravaganza. TF2 won’t be a flop for sure. There is a wider audience at the moment and a larger number of followers which will ensure the movie a bumper opening. Director Michel Bay’s reputation of the being a blockbuster film maker and the popularity of lead actors Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox will be the selling points. Not to mention the prospect of double the action and triple the excitement with more robots and special effects. Autobots…roll out!