Back‘3 Storeys’, ‘Lara Croft: Tomb Raider’ among movies to watch this week
Thriller drama '3 Storeys', directed by Arjun Mukerjee and starring Renuka Shahane, Richa Chadha, Pulkit Samrat and Sharman Joshi, isn't a conventional crowd-pleaser
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New Delhi: The week-long strikes by Tamil and Telugu film producers and examinations across the country have brought in a dull period for movies.
Thriller drama 3 Storeys, directed by Arjun Mukerjee and starring Renuka Shahane, Richa Chadha, Pulkit Samrat and Sharman Joshi, isn’t a conventional crowd-pleaser, says NDTV. A portmanteau drama that probes the turmoil in three sets of ordinary, uneventful lives that conceal dark, disquieting secrets, it is commendably even in tone and rhythm, if not in overall impact. Promising premise, only partially realized potential: that, in a nutshell, would be the story of 3 Storeys if it were to be judged solely on the strength of its entertainment quotient.
Even if not madly original, ensemble pieces can turn out interesting if consistently told, says The Indian Express. 3 Storeys comes off nice in bits but uneven overall: we are reminded of Roald Dahl and ‘O Henry in some of the inflections, and you can read the twists a mile off. Life, in all its sorrows and joy, big scales and small notes, stretches where nothing happens, and flurries where everything happens all at once, is nothing short of full-on drama, and this is what ensemble pieces like 3 Storeys draw upon.
For Hollywood fans, American action adventure Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, directed by Roar Uthaug and starring Alicia Vikander, Dominic West and Walton Goggins, comes to India this week. Empire magazine calls it not disastrous but somewhat disappointing nonetheless. Conspicuous by its absence is a narrative spark bright enough to engross you. Neither, save Lara, is there anyone to give a damn about. It’s glaringly obvious from the outset that insipid villain Glen is no match for Lara, and this skews the adversarial dynamic and renders the traditional cheering and booing—surely a staple of the genre—rather redundant.
Star2.com calls it a decent action movie with a tough, likeable heroine and more than its fair share of exciting sequences. There’s even a hint of old-school Indiana Jones-styled adventure in the tomb sequences, which, frankly, there hasn’t been much of in recent times. So yes, this is a video game movie that doesn’t really feel like a video game movie. Which makes it a pretty decent video game movie. It’s not going to blow your mind, but it should at least get you interested to see more of Lara Croft in the future.
American heist film The Hurricane Heist, directed by Rob Cohen and starring Toby Kebbell, Maggie Grace and Ryan Kwanten, is a dumb and mildly fun mashup, which has the xXx and The Fast and the Furious director doing what he does best: making people, cars and various inanimate objects come crashing together at extremely high velocities. What he doesn’t do very well is concoct a good story or create characters that resemble real people, which is why Heist can also be a bit of a chore. Still, you’ve got to give Cohen some credit for staging an entire movie against a backdrop of torrential rain and 150 mph winds, although he should have invested more in a good script and less in all the computer-generated pressure systems.
Several films released this week haven’t inspired any reviews yet. These include erotic thriller Hate Story 4, romantic comedy Dil Juunglee, Telugu romantic actioner Kotikokkadu, Malayalam films Aaranu Njan, 21 Diamonds, Charminar and Mattancherry and Punjabi romantic drama Laung Laachi.
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