Emm Aarr Pee

Didn't like the first one so much even though I saw it in 3D re-release. But, this movie is pure cinema. Tom Cruise and his team have once again raised the bar on how to make movies. Over 1B dollars for a movie that is not a superhero movie and not released in 3D, is a great feat. It's a very simple non political movie. The cinematography, sound mixing and performances are top notch. The fact that the actors were in actual fighter jets in the air for the fighter jet sequences makes it even more thrilling. You can see the reality on screen and also feel it. A must watch.

I watched without any good expectation and as expected the movie was super boring even after the bad guys came. Then Vihan kills a bad guy. I wasn't impressed. Later on however the movie and the action picked up pace. It's gritty and even though predictable has a few refreshing ideas. Vidhyut is top notch with whatever has been given to him. The performance by the entire cast was quite good. Yes, it's inspired from Die Hard, the most iconic hostage action movie and also a few others. But, the makers have done a good job in showing their Bollywood take on an already established formula without melodrama and unnecessary songs. Nope. I'm a Hollywood buff and yet I found this movie to be a thrilling ride. Worth watching in cinema halls.

The Bad: The music is generic and the songs are dull. The Love story is just okay. The lingo is not of the 90s. The Good: Visually, it's better than any other Indian war film I've seen. Good production level. Army action is thrilling. This is Siddharth's best performance. No loud speeches. No forced lesson about patriotism. But pure love for your country and sense of duty. The movie is inspired from the real life events of the Kargil War, Capt. Vikram Batra's heroics and the Doordarshan TV series Paramveer Chakra. It's a must watch.

The MCU Infinity Saga audience likes a certain type of movies. Shang Chi is not that kind of a movie. As a standalone movie it's quite interesting up until we reach a certain "village" and then it's exactly like any other Chinese movie with dragons and magic. If we want to watch that, don't we have enough of those and can't we expect more from China? Just because it's different from other Marvel movies it doesn't make it better. This is just Marvel's arrogance or they expect the fans to be stupid enough to forget or ignore the rest of non Marvel cinema. As if the MCU movies are only movies in the world. They've started incorporating/copying or ripping off existing plot lines, genres, action sequences and dialogues from non Marvel movies. I miss Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk and the rest of the original MCU lot. Marvel should've closed shop on the MCU after the Infinity Saga, but it's not practical until their movies start flopping.