perseus71 Reviews

The Silent Service (2023)

Crap Jingoistic waste of time

[1/10 · 10 February 2024]

Based on an antique manga, this drivel from Amazon is a big waste of time.

Given the budget they had a great opportunity to produce something on the scale of "Hunt for Red October" meets "Tora Tora Tora". Instead what we have is daytime soap with enough dull dialogue to put an elephant to sleep. Besides protagonist and the antagonist are shown as superhuman all knowing people who get all the right coincidences as they need.

The action scene, if you call them that; are a snooze fest and demonstrate a clear lack of military knowledge and tactical understanding on part of the director.

Overall I'd give zero rating if I could.

Without Remorse (II) (2021)

Over Hyped underwhelming delivery

[1/10 · 11 July 2021]

There are two major criteria on which this movie will have to be graded and sadly it fails on both.

1. HOLLYWOOD MILITARY FARE - Even by Hollywood standards, this movie performs pretty badly. Compared to the likes of Lone Survivor, Act of Valor or 13 Hours, this stands out like a sad travesty. I don't even want to compare with Zero Dark Thirty as this one would a moth compared to that one. A few points to illustrate its failure on this front. Military tactics, discipline, the comm traffic are even worse than The Expendables. The uniforms are wrong, the military chain of command is ignored. (Does a Lieutenant Commander take order from a CIA Liaison which contradict her own Pentagon Boss?). Another pet peeve, why does a silenced M4A1 sound like an AK47? Where's the fire discipline? When other movies on a lesser budget can deliver on these counts, why couldn't this big budget one? How can one lowly CIA field officer suddenly twirl entire Seal Team around his pinky when the Secretary of Defense does not agree?

2. THE TOM CLANCY ANGLE - Where do I begin? In the book Without Remorse, It's a sole Seal Operator John Kelly who lost his wife to a car accident (Not Russian mercenaries). He picks up a drug mule hitchhiker named Pam whose Pimp objects to her going legit. Kelly is wounded due to a shotgun blast while Pam is tortured and killed. Upon recovery Kelly goes vigilante and kills everyone in the gang. It is ONLY at the very end that CIA agent Bob Ritter comes in and provides a new identity (Clark) to Kelly in exchange for him rescuing a Colonel from enemy interrogation.

Needless to say, except for the 2 names John Kelly/ John Clark and Bob Ritter, rest of the plot of this movie has absolutely nothing to do with the book. Even if we look at the plot on it's own merit without Clancy's name, it still struggles to stand on its own. Without revealing too many spoilers, I will say that there's more holes to this plot than a Cheese Grater.

Lapachhapi (2017)

Decent Story ruined by weak direction

[3/10 · 10 July 2020]

I have no idea why this movie has got so much high rating. Makes me suspect all these high rating reviews.

Director Vishal Furia is also the story writer for this movie. This story had so much more potential than the weak direction afforded for it.

From the very beginning, there are very obvious mistakes that are jarring and disrupt viewer immersion into the story. As the movie progresses, the disjointed and out of sequence events make one feel as if this was a case of poor editing as well.

At the end of the movie one is left with more questions than answers. Some of them very core to the story/plotline.

Romeo Akbar Walter (2019)

Decent and Realistic Storytelling

[9/10 · 20 July 2019]

First and foremost, at 2h 21min this is a decent length spy thriller. Don't expect Ek Tha Tiger (2012) type non-stop action. It's about on par with Madras Cafe (2013) or even Raazi (2018) to a little degree. It is tempting to compare with the first half of Phantom (2015). There is very little action if anything. So it's best to think of it as a Suspense Thriller rather than Action Thriller.

Plotwise, there is a decent story based on the true events that was made into a good screenplay. There are unexpected plot twists but they don't deliver shock value like most Bollywood thrillers tend to. The unexpectedness keeps you riveted if anything. Mou

Acting-wise, you get to see a thoroughly de-glamorized John Abraham. Mouni Roy's Shradhha was not better developed making her feel more of a tack on mandatory love interest. But she delivers pretty decent performance. Jackie Shroff pulls off a very decent and controlled character. He shows the potential to be another Amitabh for older key characters such as this one. Anil George delivers another stunning performance with the limited character of Isaq Afridi. Another stellar performance worth mentioning is Sikander Kher's Col Khudabaksh Khan. The 70's era has been portrayed pretty accurately down. The constant dark weather adds more to the story telling.

On the downside, like I said before, Mouni's character is underdeveloped. There are a few plot holes. Editing could have been better. The ending seems rushed but good one nonetheless.

7, Roshan Villa (2016)

Fairly mediocre movie with unknown cast

[2/10 · 19 May 2019]

This movie is categorized in Drama, Horror, Suspense Genre on Amazon. It's just a simple drama.

The director has tried to add too many plot elements including even paranormal angle. But in the ends it's a predictable formula and you can guess all the twists as well as the end within first 20 minutes or so.

Husband and wife visit a hill station for the wife to relax and recover from a miscarriage. She's also blaming herself for the death of the father in law who died of heart attack after hearing of the miscarriage.

Everything with the husband isn't all that it seems to be. The depressed wife is being gas lighted by the husband and even the staff. The direction seems immature as the attempt to tell a lot of story through the conversations of the husband, wife and the cook.

Mukkam Post Dhanori (2014)

Super Mediocre Low budget movie

[3/10 · 13 April 2019]

Three friends decide to go visit a village in remote area for archeological study during vacation. The motive ostensibly is to finish the work of the mom of the leading lady. (More backstory there). Along the way and once in the town they meet bunch of characters. In the village apparently there's a ghost of a dead guy and a buried treasure which, the dead guy's son wants.

The Dr. Shankar Devkar written plot is reasonably okay. Mahesh Rajmane's dialogs are not too bad but they could have been better. The acting could have been better especially on dialog delivary. What brings down this movie is the direction. The director duo Mahesh Rajmane and Sudarshan Warale couldn't pull it all together. Extremely low budget did not help either. The story is told disjointedly and there are many open questions. The climax is supposed to bring it all together and close the story. However it is weird and leads to even more questions.

The only saving grace is Niyati Ghate the leading lady. She portrays Pooja with her troubled past pretty well. Yugandhar Deshmukh's music is pretty good too.

All in all, this is a B grade movie which wasted my time.

Continuum (II) (2012– )

Brainless Drivel

[1/10 · 16 July 2018]

This was originally created as a web series consisting of 10 minute episodes. Each episode had total of 5 minutes taken by the opening sequence and closing titles. Thus each had effective 5 minute story time which included "Previously on...."

Why am I telling you this ? Well you see, the 10 such episodes of 10 minutes apiece are now combined into so called one season. There's two such seasons. The single biggest problem with that is, they have literally concatenated each episode. So every 5 minutes you see ending titles followed by opening sequence. Actual story time is about 20 minutes in each season.

Now as to the story itself, well it's a cheap low budget take on the cult classic 2001 A space odyssey. With a shoestring budget and single set with 3 characters, let's just say the retelling isn't up to scratch. The acting is pathetic, plot gaps galore and you're expected to leave your brain at the door. To top it off, the CGI seems to be made by a 10 year old kid.

All in all, I wish Amazon wouldn't give this crap the time of the day.

Icon (2005 TV Movie)

Its not that Bad (Possible Spoilers)

[6/10 · 25 October 2005]

I had read the Book twice before finding out that there actually is a Mini Series on this. Given Hollywood's reputation on filming Novels (Bourne identity, Sum of All fears, the Jackal) I wasn't particularly expecting exact replica.

But well its not that Bad. Face it Comapred to what they did to the other books I mentioned, this is as close as it gets. hallmark does have a reputation to stick to the Book better than rest of them. If you have not read the book then you will surely like this one. The Cast's good, the Score and the locations are good.

I didn't like it when they replaced the Manifesto with some biological Weapon Crap. I thought the Female FSB agent and the Daughter were just distracting. Nigel Irwin was turned wimpy to say the least. What I did not like at all was when the agent provocateur (sp ?) of Forsyth was turned into modern day James Bond. Patrik's not bad its the role he had to do.

I didn't like the Ending when Jason shot Igor. I'd have expected the FSB agent to do it as a foreign national shooting an elected President would have been a diplomatic Faux Pas.

All in all Not a bad Yarn especially if you have not read the book.

No Way Out (1987)

On Par with Jack Ryan

[9/10 · 20 February 2003]

SPOILERS AHEAD ! This movie is indeed exceptionally well paced and brilliantly Paced. A routine murder turns into Mccarthyesque Witch hunt. The suddenness is so abrupt that it does not let you have a chance to second guess anyone's motives. Truly edge of the Seat and gripping Story.

The director has made it exceptional with many shocking twists and turns that keep you glued to your seat. It manages to jostle shoulders with the Jack Ryan tales at the top. I really never expected Star of Waterworld could give this Exceptional performance ! Truly remarkable !!

Regarding Henry (1991)

Looking from the Other side

[7 October 2002]

I am Harrison Ford Fan Especially since his Dr. Jack Ryan Days. I had first seen this movies in 97-98 on TV. At that time I'd probably have given like 3/10 or some such and called it a tear jerker.

But after doing my own 3 months in Hospital and 1 yr. in Rehabilitation, I saw it again on TV. This time it made a huge impact on me although I knew the story. Suddenly I was able to relate to Henry and his problems and frustrations, especially his love to live life Fully.

Not many people will agree with me. But I do wish to tell you that take his advice. You never know about Tomorrow.

Frederick Forsyth Presents: The Price of the Bride (1990) Season 2, Episode 3

A must see spy thriller

[9/10 · 22 November 1998]

Truly the best case intrigue, suspense and deceit. The classic

Forsyth touch is seen all over the movie. One wonders why the assistant Dennis Gaunt is made the hero where clearly his superior Sam Mccready had pulled the strings in the original novel!

Airplane! (1980)

Spoof galore

[2/10 · 15 November 1998]

Picking up the plot in toto from the novel 'flight into danger' by Arthur Hailey and John Castle(Both not credited); adding some crude jokes in nielsen tradition, this movie spoofs the airline disasters, religious zealots. There is such a striking resemblance with the novel ( down to the particular dialogs) that one wonders how it escaped without crediting. what could have been a great drama midair as in the actual novel, this is a big comedy made out of airline disaster. The repetating dialogs and gags tend to drive one up the wall. In all worth staying away.

The Air Up There (1994)

A must see

[7/10 · 12 November 1998]

The efforts of an assistant coach; not working by the rules, to get a basketball player somewhere in a remote part of Africa, are

best portrayed in this movie. The astonishing length to which

he is prepared to go with a knee out of order are really touching. The plot is quite emotional at some points especially when Jimmy decides to go in the play with the risk of losing the knee permanently.

Rising Sun (1993)

a must see scean connery

[8/10 · 10 November 1998]

This is one hell of a suspense story with very intriguing plot and twists & turns. Especially the charater of conner has more angles than a ordinary mystery movie. The depth of Japanese culture is shown brilliantly. In all a must see. For those sean connery fans, this is far superior than any of his Bond movies.