Jumanji-Welcome to the Jungle, Review: You only live thrice If you happen to get your hands on a board-game called Jumanji, you and all within range will be transported to a virtual jungle, where virtually all imaginable forms of carnivorous animals will vie with each other to gobble you up. But even if they do, do not worry, you will still live, to die another day, by falling off a cliff, perhaps. Now that you have used up two of your allotted three lives (nine are for cats only), you better...

Ant-Man, Review: Up the ANTe When a comic-book super-hero film engages you on two fronts, exhilarating effects and hearty humour, the audience is in for a good time. It is debatable whether going the whole hog on either front, at the cost of the other, would have served the plot better, but Ant-Man has turned out to be refreshing and innovative viewing. In 1989, scientist Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D., after discovering that the organisation tried to send him off to Ru...

Spy, Review: Mel iss a delight Spy thrillers have spawned spoofs by the dozen, ever since James Bond’s maiden foray, Dr. No. (We can discount the earlier Casino Royale). Almost all of them were done in the farce/slapstick style. Here comes one that is part satire, part tribute, but laced with original entertaining punches. In spite of a protagonist who is a literal heavy-weight, and some off-colour jokes, writer-director Paul Feig succeeds in making the audience root for her, like a reg...

Danny Collins, Review: Letter and spirit  Dan Fogelman, in his feature directorial debut, gives ample evidence of a truly fertile imagination that builds an edifice on an apparently flimsy premise. Considering he’s the man who wrote Crazy, Stupid, Love; Tangled and Cars, this should not come as a surprise. After all, a good screenplay means convincing fiction, doesn’t it? Almost anything can trigger a film script: a news item, a book, a biography, a personal experience, or, a...