Rock 'N' Rolla'

Plot Outline:
Set in London, when a Russian mobster sets up a real estate scam that generates millions of pounds, naturally it catches the attention of some of the city's various members of London's criminal underworld, who'll pursue their share/opportunity of the fortune at any cost.

Prelude:
Lock Stock I saw quite late on, I found it a unique & decent film, but nothing too special. Snatch on the other hand was a masterpiece. Sure, there were similarities, but both films did hold their own as individual films. With Revolver, it lost this strength. It felt to me like a cross-breed of a number of films that had impressed me over the previous decade, shoved in a blender & not really mixing well due to the blender being full.

In the end, I was confused more than anything else. I have yet to see it again with the directors' commentary. Either the film was 'too' clever for the audience, or just really not. Though I'm leaning towards the latter, I am still hopeful that it may just click together upon the re-watch.

I knew not to expect a masterpiece, It had to be a downward dip, which it was, but it was overly so. It was no patch on either previous films. What happened? Well he had the guts to try out something different & stylistically it was pretty cool.

Denigrate

The Back Story:
They say pictures speak louder than words, here are some pictures with words within them ... the punchline is missing, click the pic for that. If this isn't enugh for you I'll mention I'm looking forward to Tropic Thunder in the UK, but I have to wait a month ... AGAIN!!! My precious never ever betrays me this way .. One worldwide release date, end of story!!

Expedite

The Back Story
Sometimes at work the client/customer has an unrealstic expectation from us. Rabbits out of hats, that sort of stuff. As an example we had a scenario where a certain client witnessed what seems to be a bug, an unpredictable, intermittent bug. The worst kind. The sort that needs to be proved. The sort that needs to be prepared for. The sort that requires a lot of legwork to investigate. Naturally to the customer, this is the most important thing ever, the highest priority issue of all time (for now).

Our liaison happens to be internal to the company. Someone willing to help the customer & get things rolling, but not quite. That's supposed to be the role of this person, but not quite what happened in this instance. Instead their role became to nag us (pretty consistently), making demands for a fix, an instant fix. Unrealistic demands.

Anyway, the issue was complex & full of peril, it meant getting more bodies involved. More experienced bodies. The oracles if you like. The powers that make us double think about each word we put to them, for dependant on what we say, we could get the perfect response, or the pits of hell-fire.

The oracles responded. Guidance was given. To reach the bottom of this cauldron, a certain small sacrifice was demanded by the client. Now we'd explained already that a lot of legwork is required to investigate this nature of issue. A little sacrifice on their side is no big thing to ask, except in this instance our liaison has become too friendly onsite, willing to hassle & nag us for them, as though working 'for them' rather than 'with us'. This mistake bites back when on-site refuse to accept this demanded sacrifice. I do not envy the liaison at this stage. *shrug* Not my problem though.

They have only have one more card to play. They predictably do just that, get yet another liaison, a little higher up to try & chase us. The vamp sends this out: As this is an urgent issue for ####, would they not be willing to try this in order to expediate our investigations? & it's a fair point. We can't pull the rabbit out of the hat if we have no rabbit after all. Wait hang on ...

Expediate .. is that even a word? Yes. Yes it is. It means to Expedite ... Oh.
A lesson learnt here. Whatever happened to the issue?!

_ram-jaane'

Space Chimps'

Plot Outline:
When a $5 billion NASA probe disappears into an intergalactic wormhole, the agency recruits Ham III (Andy Samberg), grandson of the the first chimpanzee in space, to help retrieve the wayward craft. However, Ham is a free-spirited circus performer more interested in zero-gravity hijinks than living up to his illustrious heritage.

The simian slacker becomes a reluctant hero and learns the true meaning of courage as he and his crewmates, Luna (Cheryl Hines) and Commander Titan (Patrick Warburton) risk everything in an effort to save the peaceful inhabitants of a distant planet from the evil dictator Zartog (Jeff Daniels).

Overall Impressions:
I got bored. It was well held together okay structurally. It was 'okay' for what it was, but not much more. Infants will probably love it, if they haven't got used to the better products available yet, but I really felt it could've done with more than just cheap chimp puns, it felt like a skeleton script. The treadmill scene from the trailer standalone was 'not' worth it, which is a shame, I was hopeful.

The animation & voice acting was great, but it still lacked emotional involvement & I'd say that needed to go in at the script level, setups & payoffs as Bill would say.
If it's for anyone, it's the kids & even for them, there is ample else to see. I'd call this the last resort. If all the other ones have sold out & the kids aren't swayed to wait a couple of hours or easily blackmailed by ice-cream, then maybe.

Singh is Kinng'

Plot Outline:
Lakhan Singh (Sonu Sood) is the "king" of the Australian underworld, accompanied by numerous associates. Far away in a small village in Punjab where Lucky was born there is someone more notorious than him - Happy Singh (Akshay Kumar).

The village is fed up of his magnanimity which has resulted in a number of disastrous situations. Out of desperation they decide to send him on a long trip to bring the gangster Lucky back to Punjab, under the false pretence of a dying sick parent who wants to see his son again.

Happy takes this mission quite seriously and embarks on his journey accompanied by his friend Rangeela (Om Puri). Things don't go as smoothly as planned ofcourse, for he takes his fumbling wth him. He is fortunate to find warmth and affection in a elderly lady (Kirron Kher) who helps him meet Lucky.

In a strange turn of events Lucky is saved from a life threatening attack by Happy risking his own life. Inspite of this, Lucky is paralyzed and Happy becomes the new 'King'. The series of chaos, shocks and misunderstandings result in the crux of the plot.

The Mummy:
Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'

Plot Outline:
It's been 2,000 years since China's merciless Emperor Han (Jet Li) and his formidable army were entombed in terra cotta clay by a double-dealing sorceress (Michelle Yeoh), but now, after centuries in suspended animation, an ancient curse is about to be broken.

Thanks to his childhood adventures alongside father Rick (Brendan Fraser) and mother Evelyn (Maria Bello), dashing young archeologist Alex O'Connell (Luke Ford) is more than familiar with the dangers & powers of the supernatural.

With a surprise visit from his parents at his first large archaeological find, he finds they're re-union to be quite a life changing experience, as they are tricked into unleashing the Emperor and his army who are are determined to stop at nothing but World domination. The family & the old bumbling team member Jonathan (John Hannah) must work together to save civilisation once again.

Vituperate

The Back Story
It was word of the day on some site yesterday, but I baked up a bit of a back story that I thought I'd post involving the fellow commuters when I work in London. If I get in on time, rather than early, I've usually had a number of reasons to become a vituperator by the time I'm in. The innocent looking folk who will try & budge you out of the way to get in front of the train doors, they'll say sorry but they won't mean it. I have once shifted such a person by force back to their original position & said sorry. Most days I'm more tolerant.

So, I decide to concoct a little something to say about how I totally understand the scenario where you turn, like Michael Douglas in Falling Down, I totally understand it. In commuter-mode, these sods really do show their primal nature. All animals I tell you, the talk of their supposed civilization really crumbles to dust if you saw them all getting in to work. So, yes, they could make you want to retaliate, vituperate, vent in many ways.

This very day that I decide to say this, they were actually toned down. Odd. The guy standing in front of me even folded his newspaper to read the part he wanted rather than open the whole thing & turn pages in my face & had the opposite not been my normality, I'd have thought nothing of it. Today, I was thankful.

The X Files: I Want to Believe'

Plot Outline:
Six years after the events of The X-Files series finale, a young woman is fighting against an abduction at her rural home in West Virginia. In conjunction with this we also follows a large number of FBI investigators following a long-haired, bespectacled man (Billy Connolly) in a snowy field, where they uncover a buried human arm. Sound like the familiar & confusing opening of a TV Series you once watched? Yes. It's an X File. With inexplicable events surrounding the disappearances of several women with little time on their hands, it's time to round up the experienced professionals, well at least the 'one' that wanted to believe.

Former FBI agent, Doctor Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) is now a staff physician at a Catholic hospital, treating children with rare diseases. The FBI arrives to ask Scully's help in locating Fox Mulder (David Duchovny), the believer, the former head of the X-Files division turned wanted fugitive. They say they will call off the manhunt for him if he will help investigate this one case. Mulder is initially resistant but quite easily convinced. Scully takes some coercing.

The investigation ensues...