Alliens Vs Predator - Requiem

Two Predators load several live Alien facehuggers and his dead comrade onto a ship, intending to return to the Predator homeworld. Unbeknown to him, the dead comrade was impregnated with an Alien before dying. The alien bursts from the corpse's chest, then quickly grows into a Predator-Alien hybrid (Tom Woodruff, Jr). The hybrid attacks the crew, killing them and forcing the ship to crash land in Gunnison, Colorado. Before one of the Predators is killed, he sends a distress call to the homeworld. His message is received by a Predator warrior (Ian Whyte) who immediately embarks on the journey to earth to rectify the situation. Meanwhile, the facehuggers escape from the crashed ship and impregnate a father and son hunting team (Kurt Max Runte and Liam James) and, later, two homeless men living in the sewer system.
Dallas (Steven Pasquale) returns to Gunnison after a stint in the state penitentiary. He is picked up at the bus station by Morales (John Ortiz); Dallas and Morales used to be partners in crime, but Morales is now the county's sheriff. Also arriving home is Kelly (Reiko Aylesworth), after a tour of duty in Iraq. Her husband, Tim (Sam Trammel) is overjoyed to see her, but their daughter, Molly (Ariel Gade), is unsure of how to react to her mother's return. She does, however, enjoy the night-vision goggles Kelly brought home as a souvenir. Meanwhile, Dallas's younger brother Ricky (Johnny Lewis), is beaten up by Dale (David Paetkau) and his friends. Ricky has been flirting with Dale's girlfriend, Jesse (Kristin Hager). The fight is the last straw and Jesse breaks things off with Dale. She invites Ricky to go skinny-dipping with her at the high school's pool later that night.
The Predator arrives and scavenges weapons from the downed vessel then destroys it. He uses an acid to destroy the corpses of the alien's current victims as well as the facehuggers he finds. When Deputy Ray stumbles upon the scene, the Predator kills him and skins his corpse. When Morales and Dallas find Ray's body, they realize that something horrible is stalking the town.
The Predator tracks the aliens to the city's sewer system. He dispatches several but is caught off-guard by the Pred-Alien. The Pred-Alien and other aliens escape into the city and begin to attack the citizens. The Predator follows one to the city's nuclear power station. In the ensuing battle, the station is damaged and the city loses power. Morales realizes that the entire county is in danger and orders the town evacuated. He also requests National Guard assistance. The Pred-Alien realizes he can use fertile women to create hordes of aliens without needing facehuggers. At the local hospital, it injects alien larvae into all of the pregnant mothers in the maternity ward. Within hours, a small army of aliens has been created.
At the high school, Ricky's swim date with Jesse is interrupted when Dale and his friends arrive and attack Ricky. Before they can drown him in the pool, an alien arrives and kills Dale's friends. Jesse, Ricky and Dale escape and find Morales and Dallas at the power station. They tell them what has happened, which Morales and Dallas largely confirm by visiting the school. They don't find any corpses, however, as the Predator has already been there to kill the alien and destroy the evidence. Morales, Dallas, Ricky, Jesse and Dale realize they need weapons to protect themselves and break into a local sporting goods store. They are joined by Kelly and Molly, who have been attracted by the flashing lights on Morales's squad car. Earlier, an alien had attacked their home, killing Tim.
Morales makes contact with the arriving National Guardsmen. All he hears, however, is the sound of them being slaughtered by the aliens. Then aliens appear in the sporting goods store. However, the Predator has followed them there and kills the aliens. Dale's face is melted off by alien acid blood but the others escape. They make their way to the scene of the Guardsmen slaughter. Kelly knows how to drive the tanks, so they all climb in. Morales contacts Col. Stevens (Robert Joy), who tells them to head to the center of town to be airlifted out of town. However, the plan is not to airlift anyone to safety but instead to use the townspeople as bait to draw the aliens to one area and then destroy everyone with a small nuclear bomb. Kelly realizes that they will all die if they do as Stevens tells them but Morales doesn't believe her. When they encounter a number of other people headed towards the center of town, Morales joins them; Kelly, Molly, Dallas, Ricky and Jesse head for the hospital, where they will use the med-evac helicopter to fly to safety.
The hospital is overrun with aliens, and the Predator arrives to destroy them. Making their way up the stairs, the humans run into the middle of a Predator-Alien battle. Jesse is impaled by the Predator's flying daggers. Enraged, Ricky attacks the Predator with a machine gun but before the Predator can kill him, the aliens knock it down an elevator shaft. Ricky is wounded but will live. The Predator leaves behind a pulse rifle, which Dallas picks up. They make their way to the roof, but aliens block their path to the helicopter. As Dallas uses the pulse rifle to hold off the aliens, Kelly gets the helicopter started. Just as the aliens are about to surround and kill Dallas, the Predator arrives and kills off the remaining aliens. Dallas boards the helicopter and they fly away as the Predator and Pred-Alien duel to the death.
At the center of town, the humans are surrounded by aliens. Looking up to the skies in hopes of seeing rescue helicopters, Morales instead sees a jet fighter drop a bomb; he realizes Kelly was right as the town and all of the remaining aliens are incinerated, including the Predator and Pred-Alien who are locked in each other's death grip. Kelly manages to pilot the helicopter to a fairly safe crash landing. They are surrounded by other Guardsmen who disarm them and provide medical care to Ricky. They confiscate the Predator pulse rifle from Dallas.
Col. Stevens takes the Predator pulse rifle to Ms. Yutani (Francoise Yip). She tells him that the earth is not ready for the technology it represents. Col. Stevens knows Yutani doesn't want the technology to use on earth.

'Dus Kahaniyaan' -An interesting medley

Sanjay Gupta’s ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ is an interesting, engrossing and entertaining watch. The movie is a rare experiment, comprising of ten different short stories by six directors.
The tales in ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ almost reminded me of short stories by O Henry. Though there is no Henry-esque humour in the film, every story has some coincidence, contrived circumstance, or a twist in the tale. And the best part is that every short film has been shot and presented realistically, lending a strong credibility to each tale.
It would be unpardonable to give away the stories in detail, so here are just the rough outlines of them.

Matrimony

One of the best short stories in the film, ‘Matrimony’ by Sanjay Gupta has Mandira Bedi playing a bored wife of a businessman ( Arbaaz Khan ). Secretly, she is having an affair with another man (Sudhanshu Pandey). The affair comes to an end when he has to leave the city. But before leaving he gives her a gift that coincidentally unravels a new, shocking secret to Mandira.

High On the Highway

This film by Hansal Mehta is slightly ambiguous as the doped minds of its protagonists – Jimmy Shergill and Masumeh Makhija , film students who like to get high and hit the highway. But their lives change on the fateful, farewell night after an incident on the highway.

Puranmaasi

Of the ten kahaniyaan, this short film by Meghna Gulzar is the best, solely because of its superb story. In a small village in Punjab, a mother ( Amrita Singh ) gladly conducts the engagement ceremony of her daughter ( Minissha Lamba ). As Amrita’s rude talking husband leaves to buy things in city, the daughter (Minissha) dresses her mother with her own engagement dress and choodiyan, just to see how Amrita looked as a bride. It is the night of the full moon, the night when someone from Amrita’s past comes calling on her doorstep.

Zahir

Except for the twist in the end, the story of ‘Zahir’ looks plain and dull. Manoj Bajpai , a struggling writer shifts in as the next-door neighbor of Dia Mirza . In no time the two become thick friends. He makes the first move and kisses her. She rebuffs and walks away. Then a disturbing truth about Dia comes to the fore. But there is another truth that is more shocking than this one.

Strangers in the Night

Beautifully shot, this short story by Sanjay Gupta is a tad disappointing. Neha Dhupia plays a wife telling one of her secrets to her husband Mahesh Manjrekar . This is a ritual the couple follow every year on their anniversary. The secret looks like a sexual episode from the wife’s past. But it is more than that.

Lovedale

This is the dullest short story in the medley. Neha Uberoi gets down a train following a mysterious woman and ends up at the house of Aftab Shivdasani , a painter living alone in a house in the hills. The two share many tender moments but then comes the time for her to leave.

Sex On The Beach

This one is a bizarre film by Apoorva Lakhia . Dino Morea finds a book on a beach and what he reads in it comes to life in reality. A sexy girl ( Tarina Patel ) walks up to him and puts forth the proposal of the three-letter word. But what turns out knocks the daylights out of Dino.

Rice Plate

Directed by Rohit Roy , this is one of the best short stories in the film. A devout Hindu woman ( Shabana Azmi ), who abhors Muslims, quarrels with a Muslim man in a railway canteen over a rice plate. It is an incident that changes her belief.

Gubbare

The appeal of this short film is more emotional than intellectual. After a petty squabble with her husband during a busride, the wife sits next to a peculiar stranger ( Nana Patekar ) with many balloons. The stranger tells her the balloons are for his wife who is cross with him. But a different reality unfolds when the stranger gets off the bus.

Rise and Fall

Old habits die hard. Sanjay Gupta shows his old penchant for making stylistic crime movies in this short film starring Sanjay Dutt and Sunil Shetty as two gangster friends divided by power. It is also about two kids who came to the city and got sucked in the whirlpool of crime. It is literally about their rise and fall.
The appeal of ‘Dus Kahaniyaan’ lies in the novelty of its concept. Almost all the stories are about ordinary characters in extraordinary circumstances. Sanjay Gupta emerges the frontman with five stories directed by him, ‘Matrimony’ and ‘Gubbare’ the best of his lot. Meghna Gulzar and Rohit Roy share the second spot with their impressive films ‘Puranmaasi’ and ‘Rice Plate’. Hansal Mehta does a commendable job in ‘High on the Highway’, but he leaves a few questions unanswered. Apoorva Lakhia’s ‘Sex on the beach’ is spooky. Jasmeet Dhodi disappoints with ‘Lovedale’.
Among performances, the ones that stand out are by Amrita Singh, Nana Patekar, Shabana Azmi (if you ignore her contrived accent), Mandira Bedi, Jimmy Shergill, Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza. The rest, including Sanjay Dutt, are ordinary.
All in all, with the exception of a few dus kahaniyaan, the movie is definitely worth a watch.

Welcome ~~~ A comedy of errors ~~

StarringAkshay Kumar .... Rajiv

Katrina Kaif .... Sanjana

Paresh Rawal .... Dr. Ghungroo

Nana Patekar .... Uday Shetty

Anil Kapoor .... Majnubhai

Mallika Sherawat .... Ishika

Feroz Khan .... RDX
Director : Anees Bazmee

Producer : Firoze A. Nadiadwala

Exit from the hall at the end of the movie was the better part of watching ‘Welcome’, director Anees Bazmee’s latest comedy film. The movie falls way short of expectations.
Firstly, the film does gross injustice to an actor like Akshay Kumar , someone who has time and again proved his prowess at comedy. In the crowd of characters in the story, Akshay’s seedha saadha Rajiv gets lost somewhere. Not because Akshay is incapable of holding his own, but because the writers do not care to give more meat to him.
Secondly,the comedy in the film is so childish that I felt embarrassed watching most it. Please bear this sample: Katrina tries to make an April fool out of Akshay and pretends that she has lost her priceless necklace somewhere. Akshay spots the necklace next to a teddy dog alongside a pool. As he is about to pick the trinket, the stuffed dog lets out a bark, and scared Akshay falls into the pool while Katrina laughs at him and wins the April fool contest. Now, this was supposed to be funny. But it left me with my jaw dropped disappointedly.
There is not much to write about the film’s story. Rajiv (Akshay Kumar), a handsome, robust and eligible man has remained bachelor so long, thanks to his uncle Dr. Ghungroo ( Paresh Rawal ), who wants a bahu from a decent family in which no one has ever been to a police station.
But Rajiv falls for Sanjana ( Katrina Kaif ) without knowing that she is the younger sister of the biggest don in the city – Uday Shetty ( Nana Patekar ). And there is also Uday’s henchman Majnubhai ( Anil Kapoor ), a toughie who likes to hold people still at gunpoint and then paint their portraits. “Live Painting” is what he calls it.
While the two don bhais try to make the match between their sister Sanjana and Rajiv, there is a strong opposition from Rajiv’s uncle. So the two lovers decide to reform the dons. Following their plan, Ishika ( Mallika Sherawat ) enters the lives of Uday Shetty and Majnubhai. Expectedly, the two dons fall in love with the bimbo, and their crime business takes a backseat.
But then comes in the biggest don of them – RDX ( Feroz Khan ) to set things right.
Anees Bazmee pulls every possible string to make you laugh. But he fails to give the right strokes. He concentrates only on providing one hilarious sequence after another, but he completely ignores relating the sequences together. As a result, ‘Welcome’ ends up like a poor collage of comedy scenes, lifted shamelessly from Hollywood film ‘Mickey Blue Eyes’.
The saddest part in this purportedly humorous film is that Akshay Kumar has been denied the punchy lines and funny sequences he is best known for. The actor has been used like a prop in the huge cast ensemble. Still, he makes you grin ear-to-ear whenever his Rajiv blushes.
Rather, Nana Patekar’s role has more meat. And the actor does make you chuckle with his impulsive don who once aspired to be an actor. Anil Kapoor, too, is funny at times, playing a somewhat caricaturish Majnubhai. Paresh Rawal is just about okay.
Katrina Kaif looks terrific and hasn’t been burdened with scenes that require her to act. The same goes for Mallika Sherawat, who plays a bimbo without getting to flaunt what she is best known for. The two ladies, however, do add glamour to the film. Feroz Khan does the same for men.
The less spoken of the film’s music the better it is. With the exception of a Himesh Reshammiya track, the songs come and go like mandatory eyesores in this directionless film.
Anees Bazmee has done nothing but put several assorted funny sequences back-to-back in the name of directing this unoriginal movie. And he goes completely over the top in his attempt to make you laugh at the end of the film – in the dangling-house-on-a-cliff sequence, lifted straight from a Charlie Chaplin classic.
To see ‘the end’ of Bazmee’s film was a welcome relief for me. And when the movie’s after-effects faded away, I felt my sense of humour returning back.