Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Sherlock Holmes 2 - A Game of Shadows - Movie Review

Exciting!! Robert Downey at his best as Sherlock Holmes along with Jude Law as Dr. Watson come together again to unravel the game of shadows and bring down a cunning professor who plans to make fortunes by instigating world war among countries which come together on a peace summit.



Now, that was the story in short of "Sherlock Holmes - A Game of Shadows". To write more on the excitement of watching the movie in theatre, dozens of antique words will not be sufficient.

Robert Downey is at his witty best, those beautiful camouflage clothing and the funny yet important costumes that Holmes comes up with in certain scenes keep us entertained. I don't want to let more spoilers spoil the fun when you watch the movie but I can say that Holmes travels from Germany to France to Switzerland, in full action. Hans Zimmer has retained the theme for Sherlock Holmes while adding more strings and speed to it. Action sequences where Sherlock Holmes deploys his "curse" to see the opponents moves are shown in more detail. The chase in the forest is easily the long but the best action scene of the Sherlock Holmes sequence. As always, the best is saved for the last; the climax scenes are scintillating and the expected twist at "The End" is well delivered :).

I would rate the movie 9.25 on a scale of 10. How much would you?

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

A brief history of "What's up!"

Every other day someone pings me or I ping someone in a variety of e-places including Gtalk, Facebook chat or Skype or even plain old communicator. Here's how a typical conversation starts:

Person A: Hey hi!
Person B: Hey man.. What's up?! (or wassup, ssup, or sup or even 'wasp!!')

Some people complain that its pointless to ask What's up to a person who is grounded, some tactfully reply back saying "nothing much" and some people reply literally saying "Fan, bulb, ceiling and sky :P". Ye
s it is a meaningful reply, though.



Ok, today I sat back for a few minutes and thought about this unknown hollywood movie which I saw the other day, only for a few minutes while punching my TV remote buttons. There was this scene where a guy comes over to his friend and asks 'What's happening?'. I thought again. I wanted to blog this!

Typical people who liked to use abbreviational words said 'What's happ' instead of 'What's happening' which then got transformed to 'What's up?!". Voila!

And so you see people, that, is a brief history of 'What's up!". So, next time if someone IMs you or pings you or just walks by and asks 'What's up?!" you know the history :D.

PS: All of the above except the movie scene are just framed by my mind. I do not know if there is some real reason, share if you know it. Yes, it is widely believed that it originated from a catchphrase "What's up, Doc?" by Bugs Bunny.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Movie Review - Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol

Phew! Its been quite a while since I wrote a blogpost at Yusuf.in. Yesterday was a great day because I got to watch Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol at a Multiplex here in Cologne, Germany!

Boy did the movie keep us all tightly coupled to our seats with some scenes demanding perfect silence since the dialogies were spoken with "huge huskness". So, here goes my review of the movie. Btw, no where did I notice it saying as "Mission Impossible:4" !



It starts with Ethan hunt(of course played by Tom Cruise!) at a prison in Moscow, Russia for the task of extracting a source - with the help of Dunn (played by Simon Pegg) and Carter (played by Paula Pautton). The movie title blazes through the 'light them up' and Ethan is given the mission to extract files from "The Kremlin" to trace down something code named 'Cobalt'. Halfway through this mission someone talks on the IMF radio and The Kremlin security end up chasing Ethan but then The Kremlin blows up!. Security forces then believe that its an act of war after which the US president evokes "Ghost Protocol" - disavowing IMF in full; but Ethan and team are allowed to escape by the IMF secretary just to chase down Cobalt and stop it, along with the intelligence analyst Brandt(played by Brenny lee) who is then discovered as not just an analyst. They land in Dubai to trace details and its an edge of the seat action at the Burj Khalifa! Next stop, Mumbai, where they have to extract codes from Brij Nath (played by Anil Kapoor). Up next are high octane scenes of action in style, launching missiles and the impossible mission's climax and finally, the real story of Ethan Hunt's wife.

I loved this particular scene next to the private jet from Dubai where Dunn says "Love the jet" to which Ethan replies "Wait until you see the car" :). Unfortunately, the i8 couldn't even wade through Mumbai's traffic and people.

To sum it up, Ghost protocol is way better than the 2nd and 3rd installments of Mission Impossible movies and to say it in four words "Paced action in style".

I would give it a rating of 9 on 10. How much would you?