Nutshell Reviews

Well, My 'reviews' have been non-existent for the past few weeks due to exams and the holiday season on top of my usual laziness and procrastination prowess (which I am not proud of). I've watched a couple of movies, so I really cant write a full-fledged review for each and everyone of them, so heres another NUTSHELL REVIEW.

1) Rapunzel: A Tangled Story (2010)


Some call it Rapunzel, Some call it Tangled. Nevertheless, it retells the classic story of Rapunzel, a girl with extraordinarily long blonde hair who is trapped in a tower by her evil 'Mother' while a dashing young man comes to her rescue. The typical Disney love story. But with a twist. This movie is on of the better animations of 2010. The storyline really worked and kept the audience interested from start to finish. The cute little Chameleon, Pascal, really stole the show with its adorable antics and cute gestures. Rapunzel portrayed a very innocent character with a whole lot of curiosity and naivety while Rider played out the typical egoistic man, full of himself - who is a thief by the way. And all this works perfectly to give a very brilliant movie that caters to both Children and Adults alike. Definitely worth the watch.


+ Funny and adorable
+ Thoroughly interesting
- Predictable

Rating: 7/10

2) Easy A (2010)


A clean-cut schoolgirl, Olive, relies on rumours that she is sleeping around to augment her social and financial status. One lie to her friend led to the whole school believing in that lie through rumours - which spread like wildfire. This movie is very witty and makes a whole of of reference to other things. Which works and fails at the same time. A person who doesnt get the references made, then they wont enjoy this movie. But those who do, definitely will. Simply because this movie's humour is based mostly on words and conversations rather than actions. A thoroughtly enjoyable movie and very funny to say the least. Olive's parents in my opinion really had me laughing my ass off. Superbly funny and sarcastic, they make grown-ups look cool. What I didnt like thought about this movie is the pace of it. I felt it went a little too fast, rushed if you will. But overall a good laugh.

+ Very funny
+ Nice Story
- A little rushed
- Predictable

Rating: 6.5/10

3) The Last Exorcism (2010)


A troubled evangelical minister agrees to let his last exorcism be filmed by a documentary crew. Cotton Marcus, a pastor who specializes in Exorcisms got what he least expected when he traveled to a small town to perform his 'final' exorcism. What was thought to be a routine 'exorcism' turned out to be fatal for both Cotton and his camera crew. This movie is in my opinion not scary enough, It is pretty terrifying but nothing that made me sweat. The fact that it was shot entirely with the 'through-the-camera' style added to the horror-factor. The movie was pretty interesting from start to end and the flow was good. But the ending was somewhat misplaced and probably poorly directed. But I guess the directors wanted to leave the audience thinking. Cotton Marcus's Last Exorcism is no ordinary Exorcism.

+ Nice Storyline (- Ending)
+ First-person style is appealing
- Poor Ending
- Could have been more scary

Rating: 5.5/10

4) Dragonball: Evolution (2009)


The worldwide comic phenomenon that is Dragonball finally makes its way to the silver screen. It is something all Dragonball fans have been looking forward to for years. The movie revolves around a young warrior, Son Goku who sets out on a quest, racing against time and the vengeful King Piccolo, to collect a set of seven magical orbs that will grant their wielder unlimited power. Unfortunately, Son Goku went on a quest to send this movie down the pits of hell. There is nothing good about this movie. Its like a bad TV movie - and thats not even funny. The choice of actors are terrible and an insult to the comic. Not one felt like the characters in the comic. Accents were horribly obviously faked. CGI is horrible and acting is pathetic. The storyline was poor and flow was all over the place. If I had a choice I'd Kame-Hame-Ha this movie, along with its directors to Namek.

+ Jamie Chung
- Everything Else

Rating: 2/10


5) Tron: Legacy (2010)


The critically acclaimed 'sequel' to the original 1982 Tron tells of the son of a virtual world designer goes looking for his father and ends up inside the digital world that his father designed. He meets his father's creation turned bad and a unique ally who was born inside the digital domain of The Grid (source: IMDB.com). To put it simply, its about a guy who goes into the digital world (The Grid) to find that his 'missing' father is actually trapped in that digital world because his father's creation - CLU - went obsessed with making a 'perfect' world in the Grid. Sam Flynn's rescue mission then ensues with flashes of futuristic weapons and gadgets enough to make a geekster wet his pants. I must admit the disc fights and the racing thingy was very very cool. The way they used the stick-cum-motorcycle was awesome. The whole futuristic element was amazing. The soundtrack by Daft Punk was also absolutely fitting and amazing.


Unfortunately, the rest was not. As most people would put it, the movie is like a body without a soul. The movie felt hollow. Everything (well, almost everything) was shot in the digital Grid - that said, the CGI is pretty good - . The movie just lacked that connection with the audience. Acting was just average and the movie felt like a bad rollercoaster, one that brings you down 2 seconds before the climax. The movie felt draggy and uninspiring. Its as if the directors focused a little too much of the body and not the soul of the movie. Definitely could have been better.

+ Futuristic Element (however, they became a little too repetitive after a while)
+ CGI and Soundtrack
- Storyline
- Average acting
- Draggy and beating around the bush a little too much

Rating: 6/10