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'Money Heist:Korea:Joint Economic Area' Web series Review

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 Money Heist: Korea Part 1 Review – More of the same is not always a good thing but a little promising crossover. Apart from the fresh background against which the heist unfolds, the show remains an almost faithful remake of the original and it is this predictability which becomes its undoing. A still image from Korean Money Heist part 1. When La Casa De Papel released on Netflix late in 2017, it took the world by storm. It remained the most-followed series on Netflix for six consecutive weeks, critics and audiences loved it, and the show inevitably lead to numerous sequels being green-lit. It seems like only yesterday that the show finished its fifth season, and a quick browse on Netflix will tell you the final set of episodes dropped back on 7th December 2021. So, here we are again, six months on and we’re back, with more Money Heist. This time though there’s a distinct Korean flavour to proceedings. Aside from that, this is very much the exact same show all over again. As someone wh

'Veera Simha Reddy' Movie Review

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 Veera Simha Reddy review: Balakrishna starrer resurrects the ‘faction film’ genre. The Telugu film, directed by Gopichand Malineni, is purely made for the fans of Balakrishna, borrowing from the success formulas of all his previous hit films. Still image of the movie. Worth a watch 3/5 Stars The year is 2023, but watching Nandamuri Balakrishna’s Veera Simha Reddy feels like a short trip through time back to the early 2000s, when the actor was making films such as Narasimha Naidu. These films, a genre in itself, were typically about a wealthy feudal lord from the Rayalaseema region reigning over the area he occupies, where the rule of law or democracy does not exist. On the hero’s land, decisions are made through over-the-top action sequences and gory violence. The ‘bad guys’ would be of the same caste as the protagonist, and do the same things as the hero. People constantly challenge each other’s masculinity, and there is honour in revenge. These movies were called the ‘faction’ films

'Waltair Veerayya' Movie Review

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 'Waltair Veerayya' Review: Megastar Chiranjeevi Is Enjoyable in This Masala Entertainer. 'Waltair Veerayya' starring Chiranjeevi in the lead role, released in theatres on 13 January. A still image from the film. Sankranti (Pongal) is a special festival down south, and its celebration isn't complete without watching our favorite stars’ films. Just like how the Tamil films’ clash, Ajith’s Thunivu vs. Vijay’s Varisu, has created huge excitement, the Telugu fans are in for a treat with the battle between Balakrishna’s Veera Simha Reddy and Chiranjeevi’s Waltair Veerayya. Megastar Chiranjeevi in Waltair Veerayya walks in like a boss—massy, funny, and full of action. The story of the film revolves around Veerayya (Chiranjeevi), one of the most sought-after underworld dons. He is a nightmare to rouge thugs and the last resort to the country's armed forces for an unofficial help. A retired police officer seeks Veerayya’s help to avenge the deaths of his innocent collea

'Vikings:Valhalla' Season 2 Review

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 'Vikings: Valhalla' Season 2 Review: A High-Stakes Journey With the Same Humor and Heart. The Netflix series returns with a journey that pushes the characters far beyond their comfort zones. A still image from Vikings:Valhalla Season 2. Fortune favors the bold — a common proverb, and one that can be heard in the trailer for Vikings: Valhalla Season 2. Regardless of the context within the series itself, when applied to the season as a whole, the phrase is an accurate one. In Season 2, creator Jeb Stuart  and his talented team take the series in a bold, breathtaking new direction that pays off immensely and sets a high bar for television in 2023. The new season picks up shortly after the events of Season 1, with the settlement of Kattegat in the hands of King Sweyen Forkbeard (Søren Pilmark) following Olaf's (Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson) failed siege of the city. However, shifting alliances and loyalties mean the Viking stronghold is no longer a safe haven for Leif (Sam Corl

'Trial by fire' Netflix series review

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 ‘Trial By Fire’ Netflix series review: Anatomy of a man-made disaster series events. Delivering a flawless performance that will remain etched in memory for years, Rajshri Deshpande makes us forget that we are watching a dramatic adaptation of true events, and Abhay Deol plays a perfect foil as the sedate Shekhar. Abhay Deol and others in ‘Trial By Fire’ On June 13, 1997 when a blaze snuffed out 59 lives in Uphaar, one of the biggest cinema halls of Delhi, it also consigned to flames an unwritten agreement between the patrons and the theatre management that the audience are in a safe space when the magic of cinema transports them to an alternate reality. Amongst the victims were Ujjwal and Unnati, children of Shekhar (Abhay Deol) and Neelam Krishnamoorthy (Rajshri Deshpande), an ordinary urban couple working to give a good future to their kids in the bustling metropolis As media reports suggested that it was a man-made tragedy caused by the callous attitude of theatre management, the

Babylon film review

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 Babylon film review — Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie star in ambitious promise to Hollywood. Damien Chazelle’s fourth film is an attention-grabbing formula to silent movie history A Still from Babylon. The elephant will soon be in the room. In the opening scene of the callow, glittery Babylon, a large pachyderm is conveyed on a small truck up a Hollywood hill. It is 1926. At the end of the road is a movie business party, a crazed bacchanal where the crowd includes a kingly matinee idol, played by Brad Pitt, and Margot Robbie’s free-spirited starlet. At the end of the elephant awaits something even messier: a studied OMG moment. It is still only a preface to the main event, a writhing throng of sexual deviancy, hot jazz and drug abuse. We have a problem. The sight of a teetering elephant in LA speaks to something of Damien Chazelle’s ambitious, attention-grabbing hymn to silent movie history. So does the party. The director has clout. His third film, La La Land (2016), was an acclaimed bo

'A Man Called Otto' movie review

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 Review: Even with Tom Hanks, ‘A Man Called Otto’ sticks to the grumpy-old-guy formula with simple story. Tom Hanks looks grumpy in a scene from “A Man Called Otto.” “A Man Called Otto” is a grumpy-old-man movie that does several interesting things, but it can’t make itself into something other than a grumpy-old-man movie. Formula is destiny, and so the broad outlines of the movie are predetermined: He starts off nasty, nasty, nasty, then gets slightly less nasty, and ends up not nasty. End of movie. Based on the novel “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, which was made into a Swedish movie that was nominated for the foreign-language film Oscar in 2017, this movie stars Bay Area native Tom Hanks as an old guy who has pretty much given up on life following the death of his wife. It’s hard to say exactly how long ago she died. The tombstone says 2018. The action is set in 2022. But late in the movie, he says that his wife died less than a year ago. So, whenever it happened, it’s recent