Modern Family (Dark Ages)

With its graphics in place and a plot that is from the scriptwriters' textbooks, The Croods is an above average film that will entertain you. This Chris Sanders and Kirk De Micco film highlights the element of surprise in discovery and lets you enjoy the doubts and predicaments of its characters, who are compelled to experiment with something new.

Described as the world's first family road trip, the film tells a tale of The Croods, a family from the stone ages that has internalised the art of survival. With a safe-haven cave and a family motto of 'never not be afraid', Grug, the patriarch in the family, tries his best to protect his family from whatever evil lurks outside - be it the predators or darkness. However, when their cave is destroyed, they have to embark on a journey to find a new, safer home. And while world as they know it crumbles behind them, the Croods encounter an imaginative nomad in Guy. With his innovative thinking and advanced ideas, he guides the family to a better home, but not before their survival skills are duly tested.

What makes this film so special is its retrospective treatment, wherein you are looking at the characters from the vantage point of the present. The family dynamics are no different than any urban western family, where the teenage daughter is rebellious; the youngest child is an uncontrollable force of nature and their old grandmother who is always pulling punches at her son-in-law. Some moments in the film where Grug invents the photograph or, Epe's reaction when she wears shoes for the first time or, for that matter, Guy's pet, who he uses as a belt, are the simple parallels drawn between two worlds that are separated by thousands of years.

The story lacks in delivering something new, but the first half has some scenes which one may remember for a long time. For instance, a scene where the Croods have returned to their cave from their daily hunt for food, just before sun down, Epe goes climbing a steep cliff in a feeble attempt to stay under the sun for some more time. Sadly, that longing for light is the only deep emotion in an otherwise thin narrative.

Since it is summer now and your children are getting restless at home with nothing to do, The Croods presents itself as a great opportunity for a family outing to the multiplex. And in that regard, one couldn't ask for more.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Published in DNA (Pune) on April 20, 2013

Random Felonies

Never judge a book by its cover and a movie by its tagline. Because Stolen’s ‘12 hours, USD10 million, 1 Kidnapped Daughter’ isn’t one percent as intriguing as the promoters have tried to make it sound. Simon West’s latest effort, at putting up a decent action film in a year we saw The Bourne Legacy, The Dark Knight Rises and Skyfall, is in vain.

Originality aside, as a standalone film too, Stolen has its share of loopholes and ridiculous and phony elements in the narrative. The Mardi Gras parade has been insignificantly included in the story and the FBI make mistakes that even a 12-year-old boy, who reads crime fiction, won’t. David Guggenheim’s writing is derivative most of the times and bears resemblance to the plot of Taken. Add to that, the fact that ‘stolen’ is just another word for ‘taken’ doesn’t really work in favour of this film. 

The film opens with a bank robbery that goes bad for Will Montgomery and his little gang. While Will himself gets arrested, his partner Vincent gets shot in the leg as the rest of them escape. After serving eight years in prison, Will is out on parole to find that his teenage daughter has been kidnapped by Vincent, who, on the records, has been long dead. Vincent has a sadistic plan to make Will pay for the loss incurred eight years ago and asks for his share of the bounty in return of his daughter’s life. Will, first tries to get some help from the FBI, and failing to do so, decides to do what he does best – rob a bank again. Alas, a circle is complete.

In terms of direction, Simon West, who is known for his work in the action thriller genre, is a colossal disappointment. Teaming up with Nicolas Cage for the first time after his debut film Con Air, West has exhibited a certain decline in standard, technically as well as charismatically. After The Mechanic and The Expendibles 2, this film comes across as another step down for the director. In terms of performances, Nicolas Cage tries hard to class up his acting with a few pauses between dialogues and the rest of the cast just reads the lines that were handed out to them. Nothing noteworthy in that area either.

To sum up, the film is a stale plot wrapped in a tin foil of a narrative tied with a ribbon called Nicolas Cage. And quite frankly, you will have realised at the end of the movie that the only thing stolen, were 95 precious minutes of your life.

Rating: 1 out of 5

Published in DNA After Hrs (Pune) on November 10, 2012