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Chak De! India, a review by dfmorgan

Chak De! India

Year: 2007
Director: Shimit Amin
Cast: Shahrukh Khan, Vidya Malvade, Tanya Abrol

Overview: Jo nahin ho sakta hai, wahi to karna hai...

Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan) knows what it's like to come back from the dead. The ex Indian Captain has now come back in the avatar of the Coach of the Indian Women's National Hockey team. A team that exists more on paper & less in reality.

The team is a rag-tag bunch of girls with their own agenda. A bunch of girls who have forgotten what it is like to play for the love of the game - of playing because you want glory for your country. Not because you want a pensioned job or a government flat. They have all forgotten the sharp thrill of just holding the hockey stick, keeping their eyes on the ball and playing for all they are worth. They have played every game but hockey to make sure they get selected every year in the Indian National team. But what does it really mean to play for the Indian National team? To play for India?

"Mujhe sirf ek mulk ka naam sunaai deta hai - India"

The girls have never known the thrilling energy of being Team India. Of giving their all to see their country's name on a trophy. But Kabir Khan, once a captain, now forgotten, does. He knows what it takes to get there. And what it means to return empty handed. This time, he wants to make sure that it is different. He knows there are no second chances. Despite his past, he believes that if only the girls played as one, anything would be possible.

Because Kabir Khan believes that it is not that we can't win. It's just that we never believed that we can.

Chak De India is the story of a coach's fight of making his team, Team India by overcoming their diverse backgrounds, by learning to use everything that lifehurls on them as a secret weapon. It's a story about honesty, sincerity and integrity. A story to remind the nation of its National sport.

Watched: 24th. Oct 2010
My Thoughts: An excellent enjoyable sports drama. There were no real diversions from a sports plot here but a couple of things did surprise me -
a) No song and dance, there were 3 or 4 songs but they never broke off into characters singing or dancing
b) No romance.

A ragbag team of disparate girls are joined by their new coach Kabir Khan (Shahrukh Khan), an outcast since losing to Pakistan in a world cup final. It's his mission to take them to the world cup but first he has to get them to become a team. As I intimated earlier no real surprises, the girls gelling as team was clearly signposted once the ruckus started. Not too sure about how quickly Bindia Naik (Shilpa Shukla) switched her antagonism off after the coach tells her she is the only one who can save the team but then again that would have killed the film dead if she hadn't.

My Rating: I thoroughly enjoyed this so a 4

Dave

(From Dave's DVD/Blu-ray Reviews on October 24th, 2010)

Kick-Ass, a review by addicted2dvd

Kick-Ass (2010/United States) IMDb |Wikipedia |Trailer | Lions Gate Films Director: Matthew Vaughn Writing: Mark Millar (Original Material By), John S. Romita, Jr. [John S. Romita Jr] (Original Material By), Jane Goldman (Screenwriter), Matthew Vaughn (Screenwriter) Length: 118 min. Rating: Rated R : Strong Brutal Violence Throughout, Pervasive Language, Sexual Content, Nudity and Some Drug Use - Some Involving Children Video: Widescreen 2.40:1 Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio: 7.1, French: Dolby Digital: 5.1, Commentary: Dolby Digital: 2-Channel Stereo Subtitles: English, Spanish

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Stars:
Aaron Johnson as Dave Lizewski/Kick-Ass
Garrett M. Brown as Mr. Lizewski
Clark Duke as Marty
Evan Peters as Todd
Deborah Twiss as Mrs Zane
Lyndsy Fonseca as Katie Deauxma

Plot:
Co-written and directed by Matthew Vaughn (upcoming X-Men: First Class), the ass-kicking adventure about unlikely real-life crime fighters stars Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy), Christopher Mintz-Plasse (Superbad) and Mark Strong (Robin Hood, Sherlock Holmes), along with the dynamic father-daughter duo played by Chloe Grace Moretz (upcoming Let Me In), and Nicolas Cage (National Treasure series). Based on the comic written by Mark Millar and John S. Romita Jr., the story follows Dave Lizewski (Johnson), an ordinary teenager who goes unnoticed in high school until he dons a mask to become "Kick-Ass," a real-life crime fighter. Bruised and beaten and without any real super powers, he is saved by a father-daughter duo (Cage as "Big Daddy," Moretz as "Hit-Girl") who have been fighting their own battle against a vicious crime-lord. After a firestorm of Internet publicity, Kick-Ass becomes the target of the same crime lord, which leads to the ass-kicking finale when the three crime fighters take on the crime lord, his son Red Mist (Mintz-Plasse) and his gang of criminals.

Extras:

• Scene Access
• Audio Commentary
• Feature Trailers
• Featurettes
• Gallery
• Picture-in-picture
• BD-Live
• Digital Copy
• Ass-Kicking BonusView Mode, D-Box, BD Touch, Metamenu

I just watched this one for like the third time since it came out.... and loved it this time just as much as I did the first time. This movie is no less then excellent! I was so engrossed with this movie that the time (almost 2 full hours) flew by... and the movie was over before I knew it. Hit-Girl stole the show... best character in the entire movie. Brittany said it right when she told me not to confuse this with a superhero movie... it really isn't one. It is actually a vigilante movie that just happens to use superhero costumes as a gimmick. If by any chance you haven't seen this one yet.... it is one I highly recommend... see it as soon as possible... you won't be sorry!



(From The Alphabet Marathon: Blu-ray Edition on July 26th, 2014)

My PILOT Marathon, a review by Rich

Commander In Chief - Series 1

Pilot
Mackenzie Allen, who serves as Vice President of the United States, has a tough decision to make, whether or not to go against the wishes of the dying current President. He has asked her to step down and let someone a little more appropriate take his place in the Oval Office. However, it's not only the President that is calling for her resignation, it's her entire party which elected her as the Vice President to start with.





This pilot was a little bit too 'god bless America' for my taste, although it surely will become more interesting as the large array of characters and acting talent available come into their own.
The whole first woman as president, but only by default, and how she has to juggle three sickeningly nice kids and appease a husband who was her chief of staff, is so far-fetched and written for the masses that I think they missed a trick.
As the first episode it didn't create much impact, but I will come back to at least give the first series a go in due course.
 


(From My PILOT Marathon on September 7th, 2009)