Expendables 2

FROM ISSUE # 201 (September 2012) | IN THIS ISSUE
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The movie begins in Sidhupalchok district where the expendable gang arrives in armored vehicles with big guns to rescue a Chinese billionaire and none other than Trench (Arnold Schwarzenegger). After an explosive 'teaser' to kick things off, Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and his team of 'Expendables' (Jason Statham, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, and Liam Hemsworth) are called in to pay off a debt; their mission is to retrieve some classified information from a safe in the wreckage of a downed plane. Martial artist Maggie (Nan Yu) comes along to help. They retrieve the package, but unfortunately the villain of the movie Vilain played by (Jean-Claude Van Damme) arrives at the scene and takes away the package or the intel which contains the secret location of a store of plutonium. In the act he kills Bill The Kid (Liam Hemsworth). So the team vows revenge, hopefully saving the world from complete annihilation at the same time.

The mindless action continues  where the enemies are such bad shots that despite all the gun firing the gang doesn't even need to bother with cover and not a single scratch from a bullet, whereas each bullet they fire results in a kill. There are few humorous scenes in the movie like, "Rest in pieces," cries Barney before blowing away a fool. The script tries to beat audiences and critics to the punch by supplying its own insults. Spotting an aircraft on its last leg, Stallone says, "That plane belongs in a museum." Snaps Schwarzenegger, "We all do." It's a no brainer.

And there's also an extended cameo by yesteryear action star Chuck Norris who plays the character Booker or The Lone Wolf.

New faces to the franchise- like Hunger Games star Liam Hemsworth as a speedy sniper, or Nan Yu as a female mercenary, Maggie –hold their own against the veterans and manage to be some of the more interesting (meaning, actually formed) characters in the piece. Jean-Claude Van Damme shows off some improved acting skill in addition to his still impressive athletic ability.

It was nice seeing John Rambo, John Matrix and Lone Wolf McQuade in the same movie. But it's not just enough to include a couple of former 80s action heroes and tickle the audiences nostalgia. Yes this movie is basically about it but that aspect of it should begin and end at the casting. The actual movie needs to be about the story not the actors' past glories.

As with the first 'Expendables', what Stallone has done is assemble a bunch of prominent action stars, many of them noticeably past their prime, and a preposterous amount of explosives and heavy weaponry to enact a formulaic good-triumphs over evil tale.

If you want to see badass action icons blowing up stuff and their bullets tearing down their enemies with blood splashing around while cracking a joke or two here and there you might still have good time with this movie. Those hoping for a deeper or more polished action movie will be disappointed.

Jism 2  

Sunny Leone should also be referred to as 'she-with-the-heaving-boobs', for it is these assets that dominate the screen in Jism 2. Also they emote more than do the expressions on her face.
Leone is nice looking, acts ok, well she is not going to be winning any awards for her skills as a thespian but for those of us who walked into the cinemas ready to ridicule the movie from the get go (well, in our defense, there isn't much to do in Kathmandu when you have an afternoon off), we had to grudgingly accept the fact that she isn't any worse than the many starlets gracing Bollywood's silver screen these days. She has the body and the legs, but not the racy persona required to make the audience believe that she is this honey-pot of quivering desire that no man, or in this case the very hot Randeep Hooda will be able to resist.
The story is a predictable potboiler. Top-secret Indian government agent Ayan (Arunoday Singh) and Security Chief Guru Saldanah (Arif Zakaria) hire Izna, a porn star, to trap a wanted assassin and terrorist who conveniently happens to be her ex-boyfriend, Kabir (Randeep Hooda). Izna has to convince Kabir into giving up a computer file containing the names of his accomplices.
Izna agrees and is taken to a residential colony in Sri Lanka, to live where Kabir also lives. Izna acts as Aayan's fiancee and goes to Kabir's house to introduce herself as his new neighbour.

In shock he slams the door on her, but returns to spy on her the next morning and writes 'sorry' on the window pane with this blood. This is important to the movie as it harkens back to the time Izna and Kabir first met, she as an innocent PYT being used as a drug carrier and he as the morally upstanding police officer, and they fall in love and she stalks him and writes him the cheesiest love letter ever in her blood.

Yes, really this is the plotline Pooja Bhatt thinks is romantic and also plausible. And then things get messier. It's a lot of kiss kiss, bang bang, Ayan falls in love with Izna, Saldanah is not to be trusted, insert a few songs, Izna and her assets in the swimming pool, revenge and betrayal and stuff I don't want to bore you with.

The end is more tragic than any Shakespearean tragedy. Izna kills Kabir, Ayan shoots Saldanah, Ayan shoots Izna, she falls but doesn't die, and then Izna shoots him dead. After dying Izna asks Kabir to forgive her. Izna tells Kabir that without him, heaven won't be heaven for her and with him, she won't be afraid to go to hell. Their souls rest in peace. Yes, honestly, that is what happens.

The highlight of the movie for me was Randeep Hooda playing an anguished cello solo. And I want to end at that, because that is the only thing I took away from the movie: how gorgeous Randeep Hooda is.