While I have been slowing down on movie watching and reviewing this year, Angie has been picking up! So we absolutely need to read through her reviews from the comments section and pick the best. This is not a comprehensive list, it’s just the ones that tickled me while reading through the archives.

Double XL

I watched Double XL. I love Sonakshi, and like Huma, but I knew nothing about other cast. And it turned out the guy from Notebook (Zaheer Iqbal) has an important role , Kanwaljit Singh (he is my favourite filmi dad) plays Huma’s dad and Jimmy Shergil has a cameo (btw I don’t know what he did, but he looks very good) + a hot bearded tamil guy, I’m sure I already saw somewhere, is also in this film .
It looks like a perfect Angie movie because they hired every less known actor I like + the southern guy and there was also a scene so cute I almost melted and most important it’s about nice, intelligent women in London. I feel I should love it, and still I didn’t. It was pleasant, I’m happy it was made, I enjoyed it, but I understand why it wasn’t a hit. It’s lacking something in the second half, not sure what.

Nitham Oru Vaanam

It seemed there will be 3 love stories with the same actor and I was curious how the stories are. Unfortunately it’s not one guy who loved 3 times, but something like anthology film glued together by one actor. I hate anthologies. The only thing I hate more are female characters with cancer added to movies just for some cheap melodrama. And guess what? This film has it also!

Seems the people loved this film, but I found it boring, predictable and emotionless. The only good part was when Sshivada showed up. I love her. I didn’t know she is in this film, so it was great surprise. She was on screen for 5 minutes , but it was enough for make me cry. Then the movie become lifeless again. Waste of time.

Dhoka: Round D Corner

I watched the newest Maddy’s movie Dhoka: Round D Corner, because it appeared on Netflix. It’s a perfect fit for my “Bad movies I watched for my crushes” list. It looks like another movie Maddy made for money to finish Rocketry. And I’m pretty sure the conversation between the producers and him was like:
-Maddy please make this movie
-I’m not sure, I’m busy with my Santa film
-But we will give you money, and you don’t even have to change the clothes or shave or nothing, just act like you are in your home.

The movie is bad and boring . It would be a total waste of time if not for the two final songs. Because yes, it has 2 final songs. First there is a sad, blue love song filmed in a mental asylum, and right after a red party song. It was so ridiculous and unexpected I just couldn’t stop laughing. It made my day and I can’t dislike this film now.

King Fish

And yesterday I watched Anoop Menon’s new film – King Fish. One critic called it “A Verbal Diarrhea Package With a Pile of Pointless Subplots”, but you know what? I enjoyed it a lot. I like Anoop’s style and I find his movies relaxing. Yes, it’s full of subplots that go nowhere, many people come and don’t return , but he also has strong female characters (even if in small roles), interesting dialogues, nice people, some unintentionally funny scenes and calm music. There is no pressure, you can watch this people come and go and relax.

Solamante Theneechakal

I knew even less about this one, only that it’s malayalam romantic thriller. I loved it.
It starts with two young policewomen who lives together in service quarters. They cook, dance and even have ig account together. There is even a song in the beginning about their friendship! I was like: the girls make such a cute couple and this movie is so awesome for showing a gay couple in a normal, sweet way. 

I loved them together and was shocked when later a man entered their lives and it turned out they are not gay . But even with them being straight the movie was good, because it has 2 female characters working, having ambitions and their own problems. The thriller and investigation part was good also. I reccomend this one.

Ek Villain Returns

I watched Ek Villain Returns and liked it.

Light spoilers:
For me it was much better than the first film because KRK and his nauseating mysogyny wasn’t there. Then there was Arjun looking super sexy and playing the bad boy (so hot!) and John being a little heartbreaking but mostly funny in his shy, introvert role. He was so miscasted! This role needed someone who can pass unnoticed, someone less beautiful and desiderable. Poor John was there like: I’m a poor cab driver, who wears a cap and never had a girlfriend. And I was like: dude, you’re John Abraham, we all saw you on that table in Paap.
End spoilers.

There also was a CGI tiger, and I like them in my movies. And a surprise – Tara Sutaria wasn’t terrible. I was shocked.
It’s a perfect watchalong movie.

Viraata Parvam

Viraata Parvam -Sai Pallavi and Rana’s naxal romance. You can’t skip this one. Or better watch the first 30 minutes and quit. It starts great, with “I’m Vennella and this is my story”, then with one simple childhood scene director shows us heroine’s fervent nature. It works greatly because when later she falls in love and leave for her lover, we don’t have questions. Really excellent beginning, followed by 2 hours of great boredom. Also it was so hard for me, Polish and Catolic, watching the heroine drawing hearts next to Hammer and sickle symbol, or talking about Lenin like he was a great man.

Brahmastra

First you should know that the last movies I watched were Rocketry (a very long movie about people talking only about rocket engines and in scientific jargon), Meri Amaaz Suno (about a radio guy who lost his voice and now suffers) and Viraata Parvam (2h30min about a girl wandering in a jungle in search of the man who will love her like Lenin loved Krupskaya. Really I don’t know how I survived this one).
Also I haven’t watched an Indian movie in cinema since 2017 (Jab Harry Met Sejal). As they say: “A hungry man praises every dish”. So it’s natural I enjoyed Brahmastra.
I went with 0 expectations and my brain switched off. It started with SRK looking absolutely hot and doing stunts and later transforiming in a giant Hanuman/Monkey (it reminded me Naruto). Who wouldn’t love that? I wish entire movie was only about him fighting villains. Ranbir was bad, like he has the same expression al the time, but I found it funny. And yes, it was very predicable, but before going to the cinema I read that someone said Brahmastra is “kids movie” and I watched it with this in my mind.

The biggest problems in the movie in my opinion were:

– absolutely zero chemistry between Alia and Ranbir. This kind of story desperately needs a very strong chemistry so we can believe the girl will follow him everywhere. If there’s chemistry I can pretend I don’t see how shallow their connection is and won’t ask questions. But here we had nothing.

-both Alia and Ranbir were terrible in their roles. They had the same expressions almost all the time. She was there to look pretty and he looked like he doesn’t know what is going on. Again I could ignore it if I didn’t know they were filming for 9 years! And the roles weren’t even that complicated. There were special effects, or fights or songs all the time. Only few scenes were really emotional and in all those years this is the best shot you had?

-dialogues. OMG, so many years thinking and working on this film, and the dialogues are like that? What was Ayan even doing all this time?

Vashi

I also watched Vashi – Tovino and Keerthy Suresh courtroom drama. The idea wasn’t bad: a couple, she is a laywer, he a district attorney must fight in a court, while they are preparing their wedding. The problem is that the guy she is defending is decisively guilty and she sucks as a lawyer. Keerthy isn’t also the best actress so in the scenes when she should look worried for the case while busy with wedding preparations she is like: man, I hate when my super sexy fiance who looks like Tovino Thomas harrases me with the wedding stuff while I have this super important work to do. And because her character is not a good lawyer the only thing she does is victim shaming and talk rubbish against women rights. I don’t recommend this film. The only good thing is Tovino in his white lawyer shirts, but unfortunately the amount of nonsense Keerthy says is greater than his sexiness.

Chandramukhi

I finally watched a movie I enjoyed and that didn’t feel like 100 hours long- Chandramukhi (Marathi new movie, not the old tamil one): A beautiful dancer/poetess/tawaif falls in love with a super hot, sensitive, shy guy.
Who knew they still make movies like that? A perfect Angie movie! If it wasn’t enough, the soundtrack, written by Ajay–Atul is beautiful and a little old-school. The cinematography and colours are also so pretty.
The movie has no depth, unfortunately, and the choreography in some songs is terrible, but who cares if we have two hot people in a boat talking about poetry? 

Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhai

I watched Vijay Sethupathi-Samantha-Nayanthara’s romantic comedy Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal. Some haters will say it’s not a good movie, but can a bad movie has 2 cute romances with VJS at his cutest? Of course not!
The first hour is absolutely perfect in my opinion – there are two super cute,different and not rushed romances, Vijay is adorable as only he can be, Samantha and Nayanthara and their characters are great (and so beautiful, I love Vignesh Shivam’s way of filming. He takes those pretty actors and beautiful light and slowly, without haste focuses on the faces) .Plus there is a cute scene in which Vijay starts flirting with Nayathara and is like: So you are searching for a groom? I know a nice guy, but he is a little dark, and doesn’t have a six-pack. And she answers: Good, a little out of shape is even better  #perfectAngiemovie

Unfortunately Vignesh Shivam wasn’t sure what to do with the idea of double romance and the movie slows down and gets a little worse, but still there is Anirudh’s music, Vijay’s pretty face and funny comedy scenes, so it never becomes bad.
And in the end (it’s not a spoiler) there is a mixed hindu-muslim wedding with the guests separated by a curtain. Slowly they start exchanging food under the curtain, and it the end they throw it away and party together. I loved this scene with all my heart and I recommed the movie because it’s adorable.

RRR

My son loved this moment, and in the evening when he was in his bed he was still talking about it.

Decoupled

Maddy plays a difficult character in Netflix series Decoupled. I have seen only one episode but I kept thinking: this guy’s a prick but I wouldn’t say no.

Cobalt Blue

Yesterday I finished Cobalt Blue and OMG I have no words. Prateik was super sexy. Neil Bhoopalam was great and he touched my heart in one of the scenes (I now need more with him) but all the rest was terrible. Every 2 minutes I was like: Is this movie for real?? Eg. Prateik and his lover (a guy I don’t remember the name because he was absolutely talentless) are gays so they are never given normal snacks, only sausage shaped snacks are permitted. But the worst part was how they ignored women drama and concantrated only on guys – Talentless guy’s sister has been locked at home without food, forced to abandon her life and marry a random guy because she fell in love, but the hero is like: Oh I’m the one who suffers the most in this situation because my boyfriend left me. It’s basically Ranbir Kapoor movie but with gays. Skip, skip,skip.

Radhe Shyam

THIS IS THE MOST RIDICULOUS MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN! Scene after scene I couldn’t believe in what I was seeing.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it with anger or something, more with disbelief and surprise that a movie like that was made in 2022. It’s so unapologetically romantic and ridiculous and absolutely illogical. Really there isn’t even 1 logical scene in it.
But it could be so good! With a little less nonsense and a little more emotions I would love it. The best parts were when Prabhas shown emotions: when he couldn’t stop the train, when he came and waited for Pooja in rain on his bike, and when he called her from London. He was so beautiful and moving. Now I’m a little angry because nobody makes big romantic movies anymore and they had a romantic idea and an enormous budget and made something like that. Why? Didn’t they read the script, or watch the film after finishing to see the weak parts?

It’s such a mess. As Niki said, Jagapathi Babu was there for no reason. Munnali Sharma doesn’t have even one sentence, so why he is there? And why Prabhas’s face looks so funny? I think they used some special effects because it looks really weird in some scenes. But why? He is handsome, and doesn’t need it. But the biggest question is: why they thought we need another Titanic? It was copy and paste of Titanic, and I don’t want to know how much it cost.

Swapaanam

I’m very proud of myself because I finished “Shy, cuddly drum player in love with Mohiniyattam dancer” malayalam movie I have been watching 3 weeks or more. It was a mess, because it looked like they filmed it and then edited without even watching it. The hero looked once older, once younger, some scenes were black and white all of sudden and many important moments weren’t in the film, while some insignificant ones were tasting my patience. Vineeth, as always has a very weird role (I started thinking he must be a very strange type in the real life, or maybe it’s me who has a odd crush on him and that’s why I react so strongly on what he does. Probably both.) But regardless all those flaws I’m very happy I saw it, because the music was great (all those drums) and I’m absolutely in love with this song and with actress’s face when she dances almost motionless.

Tadap

I agree Tadap was very far from #RX100. The latter’s force were sexy scenes, colours and music, and Tadap has nothing of those. The colour pallete was changed to sad and cold blue. The music was only ok, and the sexy scenes? Inexistent. Also Tara Sutaria was a terrible choice for the role. From her very first scene and the first word she said I knew we are in trouble. But what I hated the most is how they changed all the sexual dynamics. I mean in the RX100 it was the girl who seduced the boy. She wanted to have sex with him, she was inviting him, and seducing him all the time. He was her sexy toy and she was enjoying his company to the fullest. In Tadap all this fun part was thrown away, and instead we have this one, sad missionary position sex. Like all this seducing for this one time? It must have been very bad because the day after she didn’t want to know him anymore.

Meppidiyan

I have hard time finding something good to watch. I started some movies but they are all bad. I also tried watching Meppadiyan. It’s Unni Mukundan’s first movie as a producer. He was all serious about this film. Gained weight, made his hair and beard grow to look like 100% Angie type. I fact he looks so cuddly and nice. Also his character is all nice and sweet. But the movie..Oh man it’s all about some lousy types taking advantage of Unni’s good heart and cheating him for money. It’s well made movie that makes you be on the edge of your seat all the time, but the problem is that I don’t want to be on the edge of my seat and worry about cute Unni! I want to lie on my couch and admire how sexy Unni looks with those extra kilos he gained for the movie. Is this that much?

Akhanda

I finished Akhanda and it was AWESOME. A must watch, so crazy, so over the top, but in the best way because you can see that the protagonist and the director believe in what they are doing, and they’re not ashamed of it.
They spare no expense, the background score is great, and there are slow motions all the time. You know me, I’m more “two ex-lovers walk in the woods and talk about emotions” movies fan, but here I felt like whistling and applauding during every fight scene. And can we talk about the dialogues? Every time the protagonist(s) open their mouth a screenshot worthy line comes out. I hope this movie will be dubbed and relased in Hindi because it will earn a looot of money for single screens.

Madhuram

I watched a malayalam movie Madhuram. People said it’s a feel-good film. It also has Joju George in a romantic role. A good, cuddly actor doing romance? I just had to watch it! But stupid me forgot that feel-good in malayalam is diffrent than feel-good in all other industries. There are some nice, heartwarming scenes, but in the end the movie takes your heart and breaks it in million pieces.
Still I recommend it, because it’s sweet, Joju is great and there is also Arjun Ashokan ( He played the sweet guy who was in love with the heroine since they were kids in “June” , so cute),

Natyam

I watched Natyam and loved it. It’s not a perfect movie but when was the last time we had a film in which someone is ready to die for dance? Or where one of the biggest conflicts is between those who follows Guru ji rules and those who don’t understand the importance of obedience? The main actress is a real dancer, she choreographed some of the dances, made some costumes and produced the movie.

My fav song: (it’s fantasy song, the heroine falls in love with the hero when she sees him dancing, btw I was waiting for a plot like that for years , the rest of the film is less mythological)

Speaking for myself, I am torn between most liking the “Ek Villain 2” review, and the “RRR”