-
GoodBye Soviet Union (2020)
The twentieth century will be remembered for the two world wars and the cold war. While a lot of movies had covered the western military and spy operations in eastern Europe including the recent The Courier (2020), there have been only a few that showcased the lives of ordinary people living on the wrong of the iron curtain. Exceptions were movies like Good Bye Lenin (2003), a period film that happens during the unification of Germany when a young man tries hard to keep his sick mother believing that East Germany hasn’t fallen. Goodbye Soviet Union (Hüvasti, NSVL), a film from Estonia made by Lauri Randla follows the life of…
-
Asterix and the Griffin: Album 39
When the real world outside us becomes unpredictable and scary like it is now with a pandemic still playing hide-and-seek with humanity, the best place for some solace are books. And what a better book to read than the one that you loved from your childhood, which has brought joy & happiness to kids and adults around the world for generations and can instantly transport you to a safe and fun place. I am talking about the French comic: Asterix and Obelix, created by René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo, and later by Jean-Yves Ferri. Nothing bad happens for the friendly residents of the village in Gaul in the year 50…
-
Secret Magic Control Agency (2021)
Secret Magic Control Agency (2021) is a fantasy animation film based on the famous kids classic “Hansel and Gretel” by Brothers Grimm. Available on Netflix. It was a simple story of a king being kidnapped by an evil witch, and two brave special agents saving the king. A fun film to watch and gets a Mangoidiots rating of ‘Raw’. The cookies coming alive and walking, talking gibberish and even fighting was fun to watch. Seeing so many colourful sweets, sugary treats, and pastries made me hungry and order a box of doughnuts for dinner :-) Kids will love this film.
-
Journey to the West (2013)
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons is an interesting fantasy comedy from China. It follows the journey of a Buddhist disciple who goes from places to places to save the villagers from the horrors of demons, he competes with four other commercial demon hunters. There is a lot of blood, killings and mutilations in the film, if you can avoid taking it to heart and see the comedy on the narration you will enjoy the film. It is available on the Kanopy streaming service. The first twenty minutes where a blood-thirsty water demon attacks the residents living on river stilt houses built was pictured very well. The action sequence…
-
Hotel Mumbai (2018)
Hotel Mumbai (2018) is a fictionalized account of the terrorist attack on the iconic Hotel Taj in Mumbai that happened on 26th November 2008. The film does a reasonable job of covering the terror unleashed by a handful of boys with sophisticated weapons on the metropolitan city of 15 million residents. On that line, I was expected more from the film but it came out being simple with only a few moments that took to your seat’s edge. It is available on the Zee5 streaming service. The first few minutes of the film sets the mood well, showing how the gunmen were able to simply walk into their locations of…
