sumit_excel Reviews

Little Things (2016– )

Somewhat relatable at some levels

[7/10 · 11 August 2021]

I and my wife fell in love with the relatable comic situations in Season 1. After season 1, we watched 4 episodes of season 2, and it was a bit of a disappoinment. I guess, they just subjugated Dhruv a bit too much in season 2, thereby ruining the chemistry of their relationship. Even the camerawork and direction seemed as if we were watching a Doordarshan series from the 90's. We have decided to abandon this series to keep the sweet memories of season 1 intact.

As people in the other comments have mentioned, the parents and everyone being cool about the live-in is bit of a stretch for an Indian series. Moreover, as other comments have pointed out, there were few things that many Indian viewers would not have found to be relatable.

Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995)

Beats 'Romeo and Juliet' in stupidity

[4/10 · 12 June 2019]

Part 1: Simran is daughter of an Indian expat in London. Following the Indian culture, she has never had a relationship, but is hopelessly romantic. When she realizes that her marriage was fixed by her father when she was a child, she panicks. She is scared of the unknown: how would this guy who is raised in an Indian village fit with her culturally? The reality that she has to go and live in a village in India also hits her. She is completely panicky. She decides to go on a Eurotrip to live the "last good month of her life" before getting married.

Raj, on the other hand, is shown to be completely chilled out. Party-lover, an apparent philanderer (if I may). He is kind-of spoilt brat who is among the first to fail in the xyz university... A feat in itself.

Part 2: Both Raj and Simran are on this trip. Simran is in her culturally-appropriate mood. But Raj being Raj starts hitting on her. Now this is not normal flirting... He's getting all harass-y and physical. I don't know what would you call it, if you don't call it sexual-abuse (which includes verbal and action based abuse too).

It seems that Simran is already trying to soak-in the reality that she's got to move back to an Indian village and marry an unknown, uncultured man. If it were a normal girl, she would have punched Raj in his face for what he's doing, but Simran is "Hindustani", and this is bollywood in early 90's.

Simran starts to fall for Raj's antiques... Possibly suppressing the reality of walking into an unknown seems to be worse than falling for this flirt.

The scenes during the apparent courtship are so anachronistic that one can't even describe the problems in direction. For instance, in one scene Rj drinks Cognac in the night to avoid cold, Simran has to drink it too (remember that this is in the night)... they are dancing in the daylight in the next scene with Simran drunk (yes, she is drunk NOT hungover)... But then in the next scene Simran is waking up... So, this must be next to next day... Cognac is indeed amazing.

Part 3: The ONE MONTH tour is over. During the farewell, Simran asks Raj for address to send the wedding invitation. Raj (understably) says he doesn't want to come. Then Simran reaches home and is explaining to her mother that she (Simran) seems to have fallen in love (haha...)

I think this is what Simran is thinking:

• A handsome guy. I don't know how the other guy would be
• Lives in London. I know that the other guy lives in an Indian village.
• This guy is atleast smooth talker. I don't know how this unknown guy back in India is... But I know that it's highly probable that a Punjabi village guy is going to be tough in manners.
• The body says... Take these hormones to confuse you even further. But the problem is that fear and love are both controlled by Oxytocin... You don't know if it's love (for Raj) or fear (of papa). But love sounds more pure and romantic... Let's consider it love.

Raj, on the other hand, cannot forget this hard-to-catch girl. His father comes in and identifies that he's fallen for a girl. Without even asking if the girl also likes him... He sends him to "bring the girl".

Part 4: Raj goes to Simran's house (let's just assume that while Raj didn't give his address, Simran did). But Simran's father "literally" sold everything in in 1 night (as he confessed earlier) and left for the village in Punjab. But Raj has a very strong sense of direction... He reaches the village too (amazing stalker).

In the village, he befriends the Simran's husband-to-be, and gains access to the house without revealing his identity. He works like a servant to impress everyone (learn something, Dhanush from Ranjhana)... But Simran's sister-in-law-to-be falls for him (But this lady is just a prop to make up some funny scenes... Don't mind her please).

Now Raj seems to finally act as a lover in he last 30 minutes or so. He's fasted because Simran was fasting for him... Maybe a couple of more scenes. But the grandma wants to shift the wedding about earlier. There is no point, so Raj decides to leave. But this picture of him and Simran flies and is caught by angry papa-of-Simran.

Now, Raj was going to leave but he is beaten in 2 installment... Once by the angry-papa and once by the husband-to-be...

Raj has had enough. One girl and this much of hodge-podge. He's taken the train... Simran arrives ad is pleading her father to allow her to go with Raj. Papa's heart has finally melted. Simran can finally live her live... A creep plant supported by Raj instead of being supporter by papa... Simran catches the train by outrunning it... Because LOVE (what else).

I would love to see a part-2 of this movie to see how such a love turns out to be in reality 😁

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019)

Fantasy, action, good-guy

[8/10 · 2 June 2019]

So, a good-guy chief wants to create a safe-haven for all the dragons to live peacefully. It was also kind-of his father's dream (watch the previous movie in the series for the back story). The good-guy is also kind-of clumsy (maybe to connect with more audiences). He, and his team, are so committed that they even raid others who have the dragons.

There comes a bad-guy who kills the dragons ,especially the alphas. The good-guy has an alpha (night-fury) as his own. So, the bad-guy brings a female for the alpha (which isn't expected to exist), as a bait. The alpha is in love and is shown to be torn sometimes between the good-guy and the only female available.

A lot of team work... great animations... It was just too good to watch. The "good guy wins" gives you a good vibe about everything happening...

I think that I enjoyed this one as much as I did the previous one... 🙂 I would recommend you to watch it.

John Wick (2014)

Worst mismatch between the expectation and the reality

[4/10 · 30 May 2019]

Mindless action, even if it looks good. A guy who can't be killed because *god knows why* by an army of other professionals.

And he is killing everyone because a couple of guys killed his dog. But he didn't do anything when his dog was being killed in front of him (oh yes, he was a bit depressed... Bur amazing) 😂

Avengers: Infinity War (2018)

A gripping fantasy, sans brain

[7/10 · 15 May 2019]

Infinity wars does what the superhero movies do the best: if you can leave your brain at home, you can enjoy the movie in the moment.

But the moments were beautiful. Nothing much to analyze.

Even if we assume the possibility of the great powers of Stark's suit, humans surviving in outer atmosphere and planets without a support is something I cannot really un-see.

Baby Driver (2017)

Adrenaline + Love : No consistence of characters's behaviors

[6/10 · 12 May 2019]

Typical bank-heist-poor-kid movie. But it will keep you busy and happy.

So, there's this teenaged kid who is great on the wheels, and who listens to music all the time. He's got special tracks for every mood, and different i-pods for every day. Cool kid... And you start to associate with him. Adrenaline rushes as you see him driving like crazy.

In the flashback, it is shown that the kid's father was abusive and that the parents got killed when they met an accident as they were fighting while the mother was was driving. The kid was in the passenger seat and therefore always hears some noise... That explains his love for music. Does it?

There's a heist planning BOSS. And the kid is stuck with him as driver for the bank-heists he plans. Explanation for him being stuck is all over the place.

The kid finds a girl who falls for him. He has, in the meantime, paid off the BOSS for whatever he was stuck with him for.

But the BOSS wants him to continue anyway. Becausethats what the evil bosses are supposed to do. A new team is formed to rob the Post-office. There's this hot-headed guy in the new team who goes crazy... Killing people he is not supposed to kill, and doing petty crimes on the way.

BOOM BOOM... And then everyone is dead. The BOSS, who had been killing everyone at his will, suddenly has a change of heart. He let's himself to be killed to save the love of the kud.

The kid goes to the prison. And the girl, who has just met him 3-4 times, sends a letter that she will wait for him (the kid has got 25 years in prison or something).

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Watch it for: Adrenaline + Sci-fi

[9/10 · 11 May 2019]

So how did I feel during the movie?

Watch it for the cool music and wonderful action and animation. I didn't feel the time passing-by. Keep your brain aside because you ain't gonna use any on this bad-boy.

So, there is a cool and intelligent kid who is bitten by a radioactive spider. He's got the spidy power. Lets call him spidy-kid... Who is different from the spiderman.

Cut to the main story. The villain (kingpin) lost his family, therefore he is trying to use physics (space-time continuum machine and other bull-crap) to bring the spare ones from other dimension. Spiderman is present in the moment to stop him. Since the villain considers Spiderman to be indirectly responsible for his loss, he hates spiderman anyway. Spiderman gets killed during the action. But Spiderman had noticed the spidy-kid who was serendipitoudly present when he was fighting. The spiderman give to the spidy-kid a pen-drive, which, if entered in the giant machine will make everything alright.

The spidy-kid doesn't know what to do. He goes to the grave of (now-identified-by-face -of-the-dead-body) to apologize.

To the grave also comes the spiderman... But Wait wasn't he supposed to be dead!

Apparently, the machine worked just well enough, before the death of spiderman caused the glitch, that 4-5 spider(men/women/animal/robot) came to this dimension... Including an older spiderman.

They want to go back home... But also want to save the world. Some family drama I'm between... And finally the spider-kid becomes the new spiderman... And everyone goes back to home again.

Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

A life lesson + In-your-face advertising

[8/10 · 10 May 2019]

This is real life wrapped-in as animation: how your loved ones may hold you back because of their insecurity of losing you if you go to follow your dreams. They sometimes become so protective that they don't realize when they should step back a bit. It's not that they don't want you to follow your dreams. It's only that they are too scared of losing you in the process, especially if they have cozied up in their own lives.

There are two friends: Ralph and Glitch (Vanellope), both inside an old gaming system.

Ralph enjoys the daily life. He enjoys repeating the same thing everyday, and thinks that not doing anything would in-fact be an ideal case scenario.

Glitch, on the other hand, is ambitious. She is looking forward for new challenges.

They absolutely enjoy each other's company nonetheless.

Ralph loves Glitch so much, that in the process of serving her up with challenges, he contributes to Glitch's life being at the verge of collapse. This is shown as Ralph trying to make up new racing tracks which leads to the breakdown of the gaming system they belong to.

To reclaim the game, they go to the internet. Glitch finds a new game which is much more challenging, in the process of them trying to make money by making funny wreck-it-Ralph videos. The act of Ralph going through all the trauma to earn money to reclaim the game for Glitch shows his love for her.

Glitch wants to stay in the new and challenging game... But Ralph's insecurities regarding losing his only friend makes him act like an emotional-demon. The insecurities(called as in-security) have been shown as security-threat which are copied by a virus, leading to almost-collapse of all of the internet.

Finally Ralph realizes that he needs to let Glitch go, and not stop her from following her dream.

Ralph goes back to his normal life. Glitch stays in the new challenging world. They still remain great friends and visit each other.