Posts

Money Monster : Movie Review

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I could sum up the review in one para, but that's not what you're here for. So, lets make it more interesting. Money Monster, is about a show with the same name, hosted by the fast-talking, high-on-success host, Lee Gates (George Clooney). As the name suggests, the show is about making money, through trading stocks, and Lee has to tell, sorry, ADVISE his viewers on what stocks to trade to make money real fast. There's this one stock that he really keeps pushing, till one afternoon, the share value drops, hard. People are out $800,000,000, or $800 Million to keep it simple, in a single moment, and the company who's share it is, simply blames it on a 'glitch' in the algorithm. No one knows what it means so no one asks further questions and no one will, or so they thought. Cue the entry of a predictable antagonist, courier guy Kyle Budwell (Jack O'Connell) who lost all his money trading on that stock and he holds Lee responsible, to give him a better answe...

Pelé: Birth of a Legend Movie Review

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This biopic had to be amazing, awe-inspiring, evergreen, a classic. But sadly it isn't. I am also surprised at the lack of much hype leading up to its release. That said, this film is a must watch for all the passionate fans of football. Pelé: Birth of a Legend, follows the early life of the legendary player Edson Arantes do Nascimento, nicknamed Dico, and how he came to be known as Pelé. It starts with a classic opening sequence of an 11 year old Dico playing football in the favelas with his friends, in a style that shows the flair of the Brazillian style. However the mood turns dark as it is the day that Brazil lost to Uruguay in the final of the 1950 World Cup, a defeat that broke the nation's spirits. Seeing his father in that state, young Dico made a promise, to win the World Cup, for his father, and for Brazil. It portrays the racial differences of the time quite well, emphasizing the kind of obstacles faced by our protagonist prodigy to become the legend he is today. Th...

Reacting to Trump as Republican Nominee for American Presidency

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America, WTF? No, seriously, WTF?! Did you guys get tired of having a sensible, optimistic, respectable and cool president, aka Barack Obama? Do you miss having an entertaining, giant bag of comic material like Bush as your Commander-in-Chief?  Back in 2015 when I heard that Donald Trump was going to run for president, I'd laughed it off as a joke that will end soon while my dad with his years of experience said to me that Trump could actually win. Horrifyingly, to me and to him, he wasn't wrong. While I haven't paid much detailed attention to the American presidential race, its hard to ignore the highlights that have been the screw ups of the Republican party and the rise of Donald Trump.  For what I know, all with the exception of Jeb Bush, every Republican nominee has been a nutcase in his or her own right. A couple of names are clearly remembered, Dr. Ben Carson, Marco Rubio and the last to lose, Ted Cruz. But the biggest and loudest bigoted whackjob, Trump has pul...

Sane Bike Loony Rider Ep 8 : Evening Ride on the Trail

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Soo, again, after a break of almost 2 weeks, I went for a ride(yesterday), this time with the fellas from the group. This was on the same old plantation trail, but without the expert guide, and our first ever evening ride.  I rode to the home of one of the main organizers of the group, in the afternoon when it was sunny and hot. We loaded up 4 cycles in his car and headed to the start point which was the Gunjur Club. There was an unusual amount of traffic for a Saturday afternoon, and half the riders were stuck in traffic too and were late like us. Only the guys who rode till the start point reached on time, which was 4 of the 8. We were almost an hour late from the schedule time for the ride, but during that time the weather took a turn for the better. We finally started our ride down the trail, most of it still familiar to me, slipping and sliding around on the loose sand, trudging through the muddy bits thanks to rain the day before. Half the group was on MTBs and was enjoy...

Captain America Civil War : Movie Review

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Finally, after the high hopes and expectations since the announcement and the thrilling posters, Captain America Civil War is here, and it lives up to all of it. As predictable as the Cap is, surround him with interesting characters and you get one helluva show. This film in the Marvel Universe, is a rock-em sock-em ride with phenomenal action sequences, choreographed and captured to have you on the edge of your seats. In its roughly 2 and a half hour runtime, it shows FOUR major fight scenes, and yet does not feel overstuffed. There is an ongoing theme of superheroes being pitted against each other, and for a simple enough logical reason. No matter how strong the hero, there will always be innocents who will become casualties, there will always be some death and destruction that they cannot prevent. The Avengers till now were not accountable to anyone, and for all the destruction in the wake of their heroic efforts, someone must take responsibility for it, and we know its not goi...

Sane Bike Loony Rider EP 7 : The First Race

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So, it's been a really long time since we had a riding tale. While I did say earlier that it was because I hadn't been on any interesting ones lately, I have also not been riding much since that post. And yes I do feel guilty that I was missing out on rides because of oversleeping, but this one is totally gonna make up for it. A fellow rider from the cycling group had shared a link to an event, a cycling race, being organized by the Decathlon Anubhava, and I had signed up for it. I registered for the Road Bike category since I was more familiar with that surface and my treads didn't give great grip on what I assumed would be the MTB track. The event was yesterday, 24th of April. There was a slight logistical issue, as in, this Decathlon was on the outskirts of the city so I'd need a lift to get there at 6 in the morning. Luckily the rider who shared the event was also participating so I took his help to solve that  problem. We were supposed to reach at 5:40 acc...

The Jungle Book (2016) : Movie Review

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Since the first trailer came out, there were high expectations from this new millennium, the live action reiteration directed by Jon Favreau, of Rudyard Kipling's much loved story, The Jungle Book. The tale is familiar to many and a chance to build on fond childhood memories. The voice over cast is star studded with a truly remarkable performance by debutant Neel Sethi who plays Mowgli, the man-cub raised by the wolves. The wise and watchful guardian that is Bahgeera the panther is voiced by Ben Kingsley while the easy going papa bear is channeled by Bill Murray's iconic delivery style. Mowgli's fierce nemesis Sher Khan gets the fearsome tones of Idris Elba, with Kaa the snake hypnotizing its prey with Scarlett Johannson's sultry voice and the giant ambitious yet funny tree swinger, the King Louie gets the trademark delivery of Christopher Walken. Making the most of today's technology for advanced visual effects and motion-capture technology, Jon Favreau has cr...