Rajeev Masand – movies that matter : from bollywood, hollywood and everywhere else

January 29, 2010

Picture perfect

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 11:51 pm

January 29, 2010

Cast: Nandu Madhav, Vibhawari Deshpande, Ambarish Deshpande

Director: Paresh Mokashi

The Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory, directed by Paresh Mokashi (and released with English subtitles), is an engaging account of the making of India’s first motion picture in the year 1913 by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke or Dadasaheb Phalke, who has since come to be known as the father of Indian cinema.

In 1911, after abandoning his printing business, Phalke became obsessed with making his own film after he happened to chance into the screening of an English film in a tent theatre with his son. Soon after, Mokashi gives us a delightful scene in which Phalke along with his wife and two sons is seated on the floor of the same theatre, all of them completely mesmerized by the moving images, and Phalke with his back turned to the screen examining the beam of light projecting the pictures. It is evident he has come here many times now and today he’s trying to figure out how this thing works.

The film follows Phalke as he travels to London to acquire a camera and the skills required to make a motion picture. It tracks him as he returns to his home in Girgaum in Mumbai and begins production on his mythological film, Raja Harishchandra.

Never a lofty biopic that romanticizes Phalke’s struggle, Mokashi’s film in fact is a humorous, light-hearted take on a challenging adventure filled with impossible hurdles. From raising money by selling his furniture, and casting men in female roles because no women agreed to act in the film, Harishchandrachi Factorylooks for irony and laughs even in the darkest places. A portion in the story when Phalke combats near blindness is recounted evenly, without any trace of over-sentimentality or heavy-handed direction.

The film works primarily as a sweet comedy and leaves it entirely to the viewer to absorb and understand the enormity of Phalke’s achievement. Mokashi’s film is also the remarkable story of Saraswati Phalke’s unconditional love and support for her husband. Easily the strongest character in the story, she’s a pillar of strength, an ever-willing collaborator brought to life in a restrained yet solid turn by Vibhawari Deshpande.

Mokashi paints an entirely believable portrait of the early 20th century with able assistance from a sharp technical team that uses clever production design to set up the period. Working from a tight script that tells you as much about society in those times as it does about this man on a mission, Harishchandrachi Factory is an important film that should not be missed.

In the central role of Phalke himself, Nandu Madhav delivers a stunning, winning performance, infusing the character with his legendary restlessness, and practically stealing the film with his infectious charm.

Harishchandrachi Factory successfully recounts Phalke’s passion and singular obsession with his dream, and does so with clarity and simplicity. It’s an emotional roller-coaster ride that’s hard to resist.

I’m going with four out of five and two thumbs up for director Paresh Mokashi’s Harishchandrachi Factory; it’s a fine first film by a filmmaker to watch out for.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Schmaltzy side up

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 11:45 pm

January 29, 2010

Cast: Sandra Bullock, Tim McGraw, Quinton Aaron

Director: John Lee Hancock

The Blind Side starring Sandra Bullock, is the kind of remarkable true story that Hollywood invariably homogenizes into a schmaltzy, superficial tear-jerker. It’s a feel-good movie that never stops feeling good.

Adapted from a nonfiction bestseller, The Blind Side is about a wealthy white American family that takes in a homeless black teenager and encourages him to play football. What makes the film relevant is the fact that the kid in question, Michael Oher now plays in the NFL for theBaltimore Ravens.

Sandra Bullock stars as Leigh Anne Tuohy, a Memphis mother of two, who spots the black kid (played by Quinton Aaron) near her children’s school on a cold winter night, clad only in a T-shirt and shorts. When she learns that he studies in the same class as her daughter and appears to have nowhere to go, she invites him to stay the night in their sprawling home. The boy’s very grateful, but barely speaks at all. Leigh Anne and her family, however, have a heart of gold. They insist that Michael lives with them permanently, and they make him a part of the family.

Football fanatic that she is, Leigh Anne pushes Michael to pursue his interest in the game, making sure he’s good enough to get on the school team, even teaching him a trick or two about how to pass block.

Quinton Aaron delivers an understated performance as Oher, who’s portrayed as something of a near-mute saint in this film. He shows no interest in girls or in making friends, in television or videogames for that matter. He just hangs out quietly around Leigh Anne’s kids and establishes more or less invisible but deep-rooted bonds with them. Oddly for a film about this kid, The Blind Side turns Oher into a supporting character in his own movie.

The star here, you see, is Sandra Bullock, and this is her best role yet. Her performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy is obviously played to garner Oscar consideration, and more than likely she will take the trophy home. But the problem is that it’s a self-serving performance that undercuts the potential power of the story. Bullock plays Leigh Anne as a feisty mom who marches up to high school players and doesn’t think twice before dispensing her pearls of coaching wisdom. She takes on a crack dealer and threatens him with dire consequences. But her most cringe-worthy moment has got to be the one at a lunch table where one of her high-society friends refers to Oher and remarks to Leigh Anne: “You’re changing that boy’s life.” She replies, her eyes going moist: “No, he’ changing mine.”

The Blind Side may be based on a true story but you never feel like the film honestly captures what’s true about it. It seems devoted to showing us what an upbeat selfless family the Tuohys are, and as a result, the dramatic conflicts in the film become secondary.

I’m going with two-and-a-half out of five for The Blind Side; it turns Oher’s remarkable life into a Hollywood fable. For those who’re easily moved, this film will undoubtedly work. For me it was over-sentimental to a fault.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Bad news!

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 1:04 am

January 29, 2010

Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Mohnish Behl, Paresh Rawal

Director: Ram Gopal Verma

In the climax of Ramgopal Varma’s Rann, Amitabh Bachchan’s character, a senior respected journalist Vijay Harshvardhan Malik delivers an eight-minute impassioned monologue explaining the relevance and the responsibility of the media. Earlier on in the same film, this pillar of journalistic integrity agrees to air an anonymously received sting-operation that implicates the country’s Prime Minister for his involvement in a communal riot, without so much as verifying the source of the footage or investigating its authenticity.

As it turns out, the sting is fake. So much for his bhashan on the media’s responsibility!

For a film set within the world of television news, Rann is embarrassingly ill-researched and contains plot holes the size of craters. Varma threatens to expose the politics of television news, but with his simplistic, misguided approach his film ends up just as sensational as the very channels he points fingers at.

Bachchan’s character Malik is an ethical, principled channel head who’s losing the TRP battle to a former colleague Amrish (played by Mohnish Behl) whose channel believes in packaging news entertainingly. Advised by his industrialist brother-in-law, Malik’s son Jai (played by Phoonk’s Sudeep) makes a discreet deal with a corrupt politician to air a fake sting framing the Prime Minister in exchange for enough money to save his failing channel and to set up a few more.

The sting, once aired on the channel by an unsuspecting Malik Sr, takes down the PM and helps the corrupt neta (played by Paresh Rawal) get the top job instead. But before long an earnest reporter at Malik’s channel (played by Ritesh Deshmukh) smells a rat and unearths the truth. He approaches the boss with the information, and Malik Sr eventually exposes everyone involved in the scandal.

Rann is not so much a bad film as it is a boring, predictable one. Varma and his writers borrow the Madhur Bhandarkar-blueprint and give us uni-dimensional characters who are either black or white, seldom grey. Although the film’s portrayal of a certain kind of Hindi news journalism may not be far from the truth, it is the film’s lazy stereotyping that is tiresome here.

Varma uses crazy camera moves, tight close ups and a booming background score to create the drama that his simplistic script fails to.

What ultimately comes in the way of Rann achieving the potential of its premise is the over-use of cliché in the absence of original writing. As a result, Amitabh Bachchan is wasted in a part that requires little else but for him to look dismayed throughout the film.

I’m going with two of five for Ramgopal Varma’s Rann; it’s not even average stuff from a filmmaker who’s given us so much more. Can we have the old Ramgopal Varma back please?

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Can’t help falling in love

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 12:55 am

January 29, 2010

Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi
Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Ishqiya, directed by debutant Abhishek Chaubey, is a delicious little film that teeters dangerously between saucy comedy and suspenseful noir. Unapologetically adult in its relationships, its language and its humor, the film sparkles for its inspired writing and uncompromised direction.

Naseeruddin Shah and Arshad Warsi star as Khalujaan and Babban, a pair of thieves in Uttar Pradesh who’re on the run from their boss, having taken off with his money. They show up at the home of an old friend in Gorakhpur but discover that he is dead. His widow, Krishna, played by Vidya Balan, takes them in nevertheless, and with that the stage is set for a complicated love triangle against the backdrop of kidnappings, deaths and blow-ups.

Written by Vishal Bharadwaj, Sabrina Dhawan and the film’s director Abhishek Chaubey, Ishqiya is a film that has wheels within wheels, a film that’s constantly unraveling itself, surprising you as every new layer is peeled.

Chaubey wastes no time in setting up his drama, throwing you into the thick of the story immediately, never wasting more time on back-story than necessary. The film’s most enjoyable track is the love triangle which the director treats delicately yet cleverly, aided by remarkable performances from his leads, and an extraordinary score that comprises original compositions by Vishal Bharadwaj and snatches of previous musical hits.

Vidya Balan shines as Krishna, the sexy, deceptive temptress who seduces both men cunningly, and the actress achieves this without ever compromising her character’s vulnerability. Naseeruddin Shah is charming as Khalujaan, whose old-style bashful romance is captured beautifully in Bharadwaj’s utterly disarming number Dil toh bachcha hai ji, and his flirtations with Krishna set against the melodious evergreen music of SD Burman and Hemant Kumar. Arshad Warsi, meanwhile, goes balls-out as the sexually aggressive Babban whose bindaas wooing of Krishna is complemented appropriately by contemporary chartbusters.

Much of the film’s genius lies in its crackling dialogue which throws up so many little gems it’s hard to pick just one. Arshad Warsi’s character Babban sums up the film’s generational difference towards romance perfectly in that resentful dialogue toKhalujaan: “Kya mamu, tumhaara ishq ishq, hamara ishq sex?”

If the film falters, it’s in the third act where a key twist comes off as unconvincing, and a climax too convoluted. But these are small nitpickings in an immensely enjoyable journey that deserves to be relished more than once.

I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five and a thumbs-up for director Abhishek Chaubey’s Ishqiya. It’s an assured, confident debut and one hell of a rollicking ride. A textured, compelling drama that’s unlike anything you’ve seen lately.

(This review aired first on CNN-IBN)

January 22, 2010

Veer clear!

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 1:15 am

January 22, 2010

Cast: Salman Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, Sohail Khan, Zarine Khan

Director: Anil Sharma

Even if you’re willing to forgive all the historical inaccuracies and the complete disregard for detail, Veer starring Salman Khan, is still an impossible film to appreciate.

Set in the late 19th century – although dates in no way correspond with costumes, language or even age and appearance of actors – this Anil Sharma-directed clunker is the story of a Rajputana warrior clan, the Pindharis, who swear revenge on the King of Madhavgarh (played by Jackie Shroff) after he joins hands with the British and cheats the Pindharis of their land and deceitfully slaughters their men.

The head of the tribe, Prithvi Singh (played by Mithun Chakraborty), sends his sons Veer and Punya (played by Salman and Sohail Khan) to study in London to become familiar with the British game-plan for their country. But as often happens in most unoriginal Hindi films, once there Veer falls for the princess of Madhavgarh and the daughter of his tribe’s sworn enemy Yashodhara (played by overfed debutante Zarine Khan). ((pause)) Scripted by Salman Khan himself, Veer suffers from formulaic overkill. There is just so much contrived jabber-jabber you can take about defending your honour, about duty versus love, and about drinking the blood of the British. The film’s director, Anil Sharma, may have touched a chord with a similarly jingoistic approach in his Sunny Deol-starrer Gadar: Ek Prem Katha, but in Veer the chest-thumping melodrama appears mechanical and excessive.

The film’s action is visceral with several blood-splattered slaughter scenes, but often runs the risk of coming off as ridiculous. A Gladiator-style duel ends with Salman literally twisting a man’s head 360 degrees around, and there’s another one in which he yanks out a rival’s insides with his bare hands.

The film also suffers on account of too many songs that don’t take the narrative forward, including one in which Neena Gupta jiggles and wiggles and heaves her bosom suggestively at the entire Pindhari clan including her grown-up sons who dance along merrily.

Much of the film’s first half holds up because there’s conviction even in the stupidity. You may find it hard to believe that one man can single-handedly fight an armed gang, but Salman and his director dive into the most preposterous scenes unblinkingly.

The film, then is watchable for Salman Khan’s arresting screen presence, his charming romantic overtures, and a degree of involvement from him that you haven’t seen before. Unfortunately, what lets Veer down in the end is the fact that it overstays its welcome. At almost two hours and forty minutes, it’s way more than you can handle on an evening out. It doesn’t help that key parts are filled by weak actors like Sohail Khan, Puru Raaj Kumar and Aryan Vaid who rob the film of any shred of credibility it might have otherwise earned.

There’s unintentional humour to be found in abundance here, especially in the track involving Jackie Shroff’s character who after losing an upper-limb to an angry Pindhari, sports a gold forearm complete with rings and diamond bracelet, which our hero tugs off in a later scene.

I’m going with two out of five for director Anil Sharma’s Veer. Watch it if you’re a die-hard Salman fan. It’s an epic-sized period film with tacky special effects.

Unacceptable in these times. From Cameron’s Pandora to Anil Sharma’s Pindhari, we’ve come a long way baby!

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Dead funny

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 1:10 am

January 22, 2010

Cast: Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

Director: Ruben Fleischer

I’ve never been much of a zombie-movie fan, but this one surprised me. Zombieland is a comic road-movie set in a post-apocalyptic America where the undead roam the streets, looking to kill and convert anyone who hasn’t been zombified yet.

Our hero, a nerdish loner (played by Jesse Eisenberg) appears to be the only survivor on his campus, thus prompting him to set off towards home, when he meets an unhinged, whiskey-swiveling zombie-killer (played by Woody Harrelson) with whom he takes a cross-country road-trip. Along the way, this oddball duo is outsmarted and subsequently befriended by a pair of survivor siblings (played by Emma Stone and Abigail Breslin) who join them on their adventure, splattering zombies with guns, baseball bats and pretty much anything sharp or strong that’s handy.

Unpredictable and packed with clever one-liners, Zombieland works as an amusing buddy movie thanks to some sparkling chemistry between the two guys. Sure there’s lots of blood-splattered action too, but the tone’s more comic than gruesome. There’s also a surprise cameo by a well-known actor who plays himself in the film, and that catches you completely off-guard.

I’m going with three out of five for Zombieland; it delivers lots of silly, slapstick fun; it’s a good way to spend two hours after a tiring day at work.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Animal house

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 12:20 am

January 22, 2010

Cast: Max Records, Catherine Keener, Voices of James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Dano, Forest Whitaker, Catherine O’Hara

Director: Spike Jonze

Maurice Sendak’s beloved picture book for children, Where The Wild Things Are translates into a complex but intriguing film by Spike Jonze. It’s the story of Max, a naughty 9-year-old who sails away to an exotic jungle and meets giant untamed creatures who adopt him as their like-minded king.

The source material was always going to be hard to adapt given that Sendak’s book consists of a mere 8 sentences. The challenge, hence, lay in fleshing out the tale, which Jonze does commendably. From the film’s opening credits that appear to be vandalized by a kid and his crayon, to the emotional outbursts that fuel the departure of the boy to the land of the Wild Things, the director knows exactly how to convey that childhood sense of having stronger emotions than you know how to deal with.

Still upset from being bullied by his sister’s friends, Max must now deal with his mother’s unwanted boyfriend. No wonder he puts on that wolf suit and acts out accordingly, before finally running away – into his own subconscious as you gather soon enough. He finds a boat and sails away, till he reaches an island where giant, rowdy, fuzzy beasts are having trouble getting along. In order to avoid being eaten by these creatures, he quickly comes up with one of those on-the-spot stories that kids like to tell, about his own superpowers and secret strengths. The Wild Things believe every word and make him their king. Not much later, Max realizes he’s been thrust into the parent role, and that out-of-control kids can be hard to manage.

Jonze’s film isn’t an easy watch because there’s little in terms of narrative. But you cannot deny that in terms of emotional truth he pretty much hits all the right notes. Children, especially those unfamiliar with the book, will find it hard to understand the subtext and will probably lose patience at the half-way mark. But discerning adults are likely to appreciate the layers.

The director brings the Wild Things alive by shooting the action live with puppeteers inside nine-foot creature costumes, and then using CGI to add facial expressions and tics. It helps that credible actors are cast to voice the various beasts – James Gandolfini as the gruff but vulnerable Carol, Catherine O’Hara and Paul Dano as the insecure Judith and Alexander, and Forest Whitaker and Chris Cooper as the more assured Ira and Douglas.

The film’s a remarkable visual achievement unarguably, but if you study it closely you’ll notice it captures the thrill and excitement of childhood without ever shying away from its very real complexities and pains.

I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five for Spike Jonze’s Where The Wild Things Are; it’s not so much a film for children as it is a film about childhood. Gather your patience and give it a chance.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Manhattan monotony

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 12:07 am

January 22, 2010

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Natalie Portman, Blake Lively, Shia LaBeouf, Ethan Hawke, Julie Christie

Directors: Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Allen Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Wen Jiang, Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Brett Ratner, Randall Balsmeyer, Shekhar Kapur, Natalie Portman

New York, I Love You, an anthology of ten short films about life and relationships in the Big Apple, is possibly the best cure for insomnia. This dull and cumbersome feature that includes shorts by 11 directors is second in a planned franchise that started with Paris Je T’aime in 2006.

That film strung together 18 shorts by 21 directors, and while some worked better than others, each piece had its own distinctive voice and was set in a specific Parisian district. The shorts in New York, I Love You, meanwhile, play more like subplots in a larger ensemble piece. They have a ‘sameness’ to them, because few of the directors venture out of the tourist-friendly zip codes of Manhattan to explore the romantic possibilities that might be found in other boroughs as The Bronx, Harlem or Queens.

Among the more engaging shorts is one by French actor-director Yvan Attal in which Ethan Hawke plays a tactless womanizer making moves on a beautiful woman, played by Maggie Q, as they stand outside a restaurant. There’s also Shekhar Kapur’s sad but haunting segment (written by the late Anthony Minghella) about an encounter between a fading musical diva played by Julie Christie and a young hotel bellman played by Shia LaBeouf.

The ones that don’t work include Mira Nair’s contrived short in which Natalie Portman stars as a Hasidic Jew and bride-to-be who engages in an encounter with an Indian diamond seller, played by Irrfan Khan. Ditto for the segment directed by Portman herself about a little white girl playing in Central Park with her black, male ‘manny’.

The larger problem with this omnibus is that most of the shorts come off as either affected or cynical, but always boring. Where’s the spirit, the energy of this cultural melting pot which we’ve heard so much about?

As a result, it’s the charming little piece by Brett Ratner that is most enjoyable. In this one, a blind date between a recently dumped teenager and a girl in a wheelchair ends with a delightful little twist that makes you laugh for the first and probably the only time during this film’s 110-minute duration.

I’m going with two out of five for New York, I Love You; not all shorts are unwatchable, but as a collection, it’s mostly dreary and pretentious. You’ll find it hard to stay awake.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

January 15, 2010

Out of step

Filed under: Our FIlms — Rajeev @ 1:28 am

January 15, 2010

Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Genelia D’souza

Director: Ken Ghosh

There are three moments in Chance Pe Dance that I can’t get out of my head. The first involves a small kid, digging his nose furiously, followed by a tight close-up of his booger. The second is that of a Parsi gentleman in a sudreh, scratching his hairy chest and armpits incessantly. The third is a scene in which Shahid Kapoor scrapes his nails against a blackboard, the shrill sound of which is deafening.

Evidently each of these scenes is intended to make you turn away, to be repulsed even. The thing is, director Ken Ghosh needn’t have tried so hard. Chance Pe Dance is an annoying, exhausting film that entirely fails to entertain. ((pause)) Shahid Kapoor stars as Sameer Behl, a struggling actor chasing the Bollywood dream. He faces rejection every day, until finally his killer dance moves get a prominent film director to notice him and subsequently sign him up as the lead in his next film. Not much later, he is dropped from the film.

Sameer has no money for rent and finds himself living out of his car. He has no money for meals, and must take up a dance-teacher’s job at a school. It doesn’t take a genius to predict that he will lead his oddball students to victory in an inter-school dance championship, and depite all odds, he will become a movie-star after all.

Chance Pe Dance doesn’t work because you feel no empathy for its protagonist. The film’s writers — if you can call them that, considering there is no script to speak of — fail to invest even a hint of vulnerability in Sameer. Moreso, Shahid Kapoor’s surface-level performance doesn’t help convey the desperation his character’s supposedly feeling.

The obligatory romantic track between Sameer and an upcoming choreographer (played by Genelia D’souza) is so random, it adds no dimension to the central plot. This is a film without any character arcs, or plot progression. To be honest, Chance Pe Dance is a film that probably started shooting before a script was ever written; a one-line idea that never developed into a complete story.

The dance portions here are impressively performed by Shahid Kapoor, but you could interchange each of the sequences and it would make no difference to the final film. Much of the blame for that must by shared by composer Adnan Sami who delivers an uninspired soundtrack of indifferent tunes.

Chance Pe Dance is only a little over two hours in running time, but feels much longer because the screenplay limps lethargically in no particular direction.

Of the cast, Genelia D’souza saddled with a half-baked role and left pretty much to her own devices, screeches through her scenes and strums up none of that buoyant energy one has come to expect from her. Shahid Kapoor for his part, makes too many faces throughout the film, and lets his chiselled abs and his nimble feet do the talking. Unfortunately, that’s not enough.

I’m going with one out of five and a thumbs down for director Ken Ghosh’s Chance Pe Dance; he borrows liberally from such Hollywood films as School of Rock and the Jessica Alba-starrer Honey. But with it’s theme of a struggling actor’s ultimate vindication, in the end I suppose Chance Pe Dance could be described as “Luck By Chance-For-Dummies”. Although it would be a crime to mention the two films in the same breath!

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

Mismatched Morgans

Filed under: Their Films — Rajeev @ 1:24 am

January 15, 2010

Cast: Hugh Grant, Sarah Jessica Parker

Director: Marc Lawrence

Did You Hear About the Morgans? stars Hugh Grant and Sarah Jessica Parker as unhappily married New York couple Paul and Meryl, who have separated for reasons that are far from uncommon – he slept with another woman, and she doesn’t know how to deal with it.

Remorseful and desperate to get back together, he invites her out to dinner to discuss a reconciliation. But as luck would have it, before the evening’s ended they witness a murder. What’s more they get a good look at the hitman, who in turn gets an even better look at them. You know what happens next. They’re whisked off on a witness relocation program to rural Wyoming.

From this point on it’s a fish-out-of water story in which these condescending Manhattan-ites survive a close encounter with a grizzly bear, and pick up all sorts of small-town lifestyle skills including wood-chopping, cow-milking, and gun-shooting before falling right back in love with each other just as the hitman on their trail lands up to eliminate them.

A by-the-numbers, formulaic rom-com that leaves little to the imagination, and almost everything to the actors’ charms, Did You Hear About the Morgans? feels contrived and conventional and sorely lacking in originality.

Sarah Jessica Parker is insufferably neurotic from her very first scene in the film, in which she starts yakking away to total strangers about her biological clock and her decision to adopt. Hugh Grant, meanwhile, has done this kind of film so many times before, he appears to be on auto-pilot mode, though you can still count on him to deliver the occasional witty line as if he’s come up with it spontaneously.

Problem is they have virtually no chemistry together, and it doesn’t help that in terms of plot there is nothing that you can’t guess before it happens on screen. Which makes this roughly 100-minute film a true test of your patience.

I’m going with one-and-a-half out of five for Did You Hear About the Morgans? Lucky for you I did, so you don’t have to.

(This review first aired on CNN-IBN)

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