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Folks, it’s the time of the year again when we usher in the new and flog out the old! some might say it is the onset of the spring and the departure of the winter but sure doesn’t feel like that!
Here’s wishing you and your loved ones a very Happy Bhogi, a Prosperous Bhogi and a Cheerful Sankranthi…
Wishing you all a Very Happy & Prosperous New Year! May 2012 not end as soon as the Mayans predicted… 
P.S: If you didn’t read my ‘Old’ New Year Poem yet, suggest you head over here and check it out.
More like Mission Impossible: Waste Protocol. The fourth instalment of the Mission Impossible series is probably the swansong for Tom Cruise as IMF Agent Ethan Hunt and an attempt at laying down the groundwork for a new protagonist (remember Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ?). It continues in the same vein as a spy caper would and ignoring several plot holes and plain stupid scenes, it still is more-or-less an exciting & watchable movie.
But is it a blockbuster and blow-your-minds-away type of a movie? Not for me.
MI4 or MI:GP begins with Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) being helped to pull off a Prison Break from a Moscow jail by the IMF team of Benji (Simon Pegg) & Jane (Paula Patton) and then they all join in another should-they-choose-to-accept mission of stealing some files on a global overlord named Cobalt from…hold on…The Kremlin (yeah, how to top Langley & The Vatican? Kremlin, of course). Some supraawsome tech jiggery-pokery later, all hell breaks loose when the Kremlin is bombed, IMF suspected and subsequently disavowed. Joined by IMF’s analyst Brandt (Jeremy Renner), the team then head out to Dubai & hang out at the Burj Khalifa (see what I did there?) before tackling the final dénouement at Mumbai (pah!)
When the first Mission: Impossible movie was watched way back in 1998, it was an action packed and enthralling adventure rollercoaster of a movie where the viewer is compelled not to take their eyes or minds off the movie throughout. John Woo kinda put in unnecessary pigeons and slow motions in MI2 but it still was watchable, more so for the Thandie Newton – Tom Cruise chemistry than the whole Chimera/Bellerophon gobbledygook. JJ Abrams brought in added style & suaveness to MI3, which also saw Hunt lose a protégé and get marries. Plus, it had a really devilish antagonist in Philip Seymour Hoffman as Owen Davian.
Where MI4 lacks a punch is the clear absence of a really rascally villain and a weak attempt at creating a compelling crisis-y situation for the IMF team to tackle. The villain Kurt Hendricks (Michael Nyqvist) is a nuclear strategist out to kick-start a new cycle of evolution by destroying the existing civilization. And how? a global nuclear war incited between the USA & Russia? Yawn. Should have just signed up for Terra Nova, maybe! Plot holes and unexplained jumps are abound, though the pace of the movie is such that you don’t think “hang on! how’d they do that” immediately but the question keeps nagging at you nevertheless. Some of the gadgets depicted are also meh, in a way. And I’ll not even start on the sandstorm or the entire Mumbai sequence…
What the movie does accomplish is that it ticks the checkboxes for a racy opening scene, the mandatory choice of mission acceptance, exotic locations, usage of latex masks (only one though) and the one pièce de résistance stunt. Additionally, the movie has added emphasis on teamwork between the four primary characters – something which MI3 had but was better IMO in MI1. A lot of effort also goes behind their character development and how they work for each other not because they have to but because they want to.
Tom Cruise appeared to me as going through the motions and a tad disinterested sometimes. Paula Patton does ok as a revenge-seeking lady but reined in. Jeremy Renner’s William Brandt might yet be the next Ethan Hunt and he does his chances a world of good but he doesn’t look like doing the stunts on his own. Simon Pegg plays his role as the geek-in-the-field with aplomb.
Director Brad Bird has only directed animated movies before & does well in lending the movie the desired scale and flamboyance. He also brings in some funniness into the goings-on in a cheeky self-deprecatory way, poking fun at the spy genre itself. The background score and title theme were not upto scratch, though. The screenwriters also write in cameo appearances for Ving Rhames and Michele Monaghan at the end. And it is no big secret that there *is* a room for sequel.
Most of the people I know who’re raving about the movie had seen the IMAX version and it should lift up the visual experience of the movie a notch but wouldn’t have made it a better movie than it is, right? One-time watch in IMAX and rent the DVD of the first Mission Impossible and re-watch it, I’d say.
Rating: 
The draw for the round of 16 matches of the UEFA Champions League 2011-2011 was made earlier today at Nyon.
And know what, there is no Manchester United innit! They are in the draw for the *blegh* Europa League
Pick of the lot? AC Milan Vs. Arsenal. I’d also expect Chelsea to be given a stern test my the Napoli whiz-trio of Hamsik, Cavani & Lavezzi…but it remains to be seen if either or all of them will still be with Napoli come February 
The first legs will be played on 14/15 & 21/22 February 2012 with the return legs on 6/7 & 13/14 March 2012
Mark Webber finally ended his winless streak for the season by taking the chequered flag at the last race – the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in Sao Paolo. He was followed home by teammate Sebastian Vettel in a Red Bull one-two – their fourth of the season and first time with Webber in front. Jenson Button capped off a fine season by finishing third and this consolidating his second-place finish in the Drivers’ Championship Standings.
Fernando Alonso drove a valiant race but could only manage fourth place as tyre degradation and a DRS-failure allowed Button to pass him during the closing stages of the race. Felipe Massa finished fifth in his home grand prix, with Adrian Sutil sixth, Nico Rosberg seventh and Paul Di Resta eighth. Kamui Kobayashi and Vitaly Petrov took the last points places in ninth and tenth respectively. McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton had to retire due to a gearbox problem.
Some might argue that Webber was only handed the win due to a gearbox problem for pole-sitter Vettel, who had no 2nd gear and had to nurse his car using short shifts – which allowed Webber to take the lead – but still had enough pace to keep him out of the clutches of Button/Alonso behind him. Alonso might have had the third place after a good start saw him overtake Hamilton into the first corner and then pass Button on lap eleven, but Button clawed back the position towards the fag end of the race as the Ferrari’s tyre degradation made it tough for the Spaniard to hold fort.
It was a disappointing end of the season for Lewis Hamilton as well, who retired on lap sixty eight due to a gearbox failure. He was having a good battle with (who else!) Felipe Massa for fifth place and even after the second round of pit stops found himself behind the Ferrari and was lining up a DRS move before having to retire. Another driver who had a disappointing race was Michael Schumacher, who suffered a left-rear puncture as he closed the door on Bruno Senna’s Renault – a move which incredulously saw the Renault driver get a drive-thru penalty – and could only finish fifteenth.
Sebastian Vettel set a new record of 15 pole positions in a single season as he set the fastest time for the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos in the last Qualifying Session of the season. Despite insisting that the record was not in his thoughts, it surely would have felt good for the Champion driver – if only as something to aim for having wrapped up the title sometime earlier! Red Bull locked out the front row of the grid for the seventh time this year as Mark Webber was second fastest, ahead of the McLaren of Jenson Button in P3.
Lewis Hamilton was fourth fastest, ahead of the Ferrari of Fernando Alonso in fifth and Mercedes of Nico Rosberg in sixth. Felipe Massa starts seventh in his home grand prix with the Force India of Adrian Sutil beside him in eighth. Bruno Senna was ninth fastest for Renault and rounding off the top ten was Michael Schumacher, who did not set a time in Q3.
Full Qualifying Report here.
Contrary to popular belief (well, not really that popular considering it was only me) this is NOT the Part 2 or sequel of the Urmila Matondkar – Saif Ali Khan starrer Ek Hasina Thi!
Ek Deewana Tha is actually the Hindi remake of the Tamil film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa which had Simbu and Trisha in the lead roles. It was also simultaneously made in Telugu as Ye Maaya Chesave with Naga Chaitanya and Samantha innit. Though both movies became hits, their standout point was A.R. Rahman’s music – songs & tunes are the same in both versions. The Hindi version is directed by the same director – Gautham Menon and has Pratiek Babbar and Brit gal (A Miss Liverpool!) Amy Jackson & is said to have two completely new songs.
Though I’ve never been a fan of Telugu movies of this type, YMC registered a seismic presence around me coz of the incessant chatter about how good it was, how good the music was, how gorgeous Samantha was blah blah blah…couple of my friends were so hooked to the music, they had it as their ringtones as well as caller tunes! This post is dedicated to them…
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