Book Review: Swearing Cats Coloring Book For Adults

Cat lovers Coloring Book with a funny Twist

Back in the day coloring books were mostly aimed at children and contained images of nature, trees, cartoon characters, etc. Modern day coloring books are aimed at several niche markets and audiences. There are coloring books for adults, children, religious people, country based, thematic, etc. Several psychological studies have demonstrated the advantages and benefits of coloring as a therapeutic, focus improving, relaxing, and soul soothing practice for adults. 

The Swearing Cats Coloring Book for Adults, like the title says is a coloring book with a twist. Aimed at adults this book is themed after the friendly feline, but there is humor in each page. The expression on the cat's face, the caption, and the surrounding drawings all are designed to evoke a laugh, chuckle, or at least a smile from the user.

I like the presentation of this book, with a foreword that says how to prevent colors from bleeding through the page. The type of color ideal for the paper this book is printed on. There is also a QR code that will lead to coloring inspirations for those that are struggling to start. A page with several shapes and designs to test colors before digging into the actual book. 

With over 35 coloring pages this book will keep you occupied for a while. Every page is bound to evoke a smile, chuckle, or laugh. After coloring you can share it with friends and make them laugh too.

Movie Review: Fist Fight

This movie depicts one of the greatest realities of today's America in a highly comical way. Written by Van Robichaux and directed by Richie Keen, Fist Fight (2017) is easily one of the most funny movies in recent times.  I had the opportunity to watch this movie when I got stuck in a long haul flight from California to Florida. Starring Ice Cube, Charlie Day, Tracy Morgan, Jillian Bell and Christina Hendricks, this movie is a laughter riot all the way from the beginning to the end.


It is the last day of school and students are not in any mood to study, in fact they are all set and prepared to play pranks on the teachers. On the management side the school board is looking to fire a bunch of teachers in a cost cutting move. In this chaotic scenario, the English teacher Andy Campbell, married father of one and expecting another child soon, inadvertently causes the dismissal of another teacher Strickland. An enraged Strickland challenges Campbell for a fistfight after school in the parking lot.


The rest of the movie is all about Campbell's efforts to get out of the fight and also be there for his daughter during her talent show, and his wife when she gives birth to their second child. The movie is presented in a hilarious way which makes anyone laugh through the movie.


I would definitely recommend watching with family and having a great time at it.

Movie Review: The Internship

Everything possible in this modern day era of glitz and glamour. With large corporations controlling pretty much everything it is not impossible to make people actually pay to watch a long winded advertisement. That is exactly what Google has achieved in this movie starring Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson. This movie follows the familiar track of the duo in other movies. The glutton Vaughn and romantic Wilson both team up and conquer.

The movie starts off with the protagonists, two technology shy older watch salesmen losing their jobs because their employer decides to wrap up the business in face of increaseing digitilization. While Wilson goes to work for his brother-in-law selling mattresses, Vaughn gets the bright idea that they should try to break into the digital world by getting an internship in Google.

They land the internship with a narrow margin and move to Silicon Valley to start the internship. From here onwards the movie is nothing but a big advertisement about how awesome a workplace Google is, the facilities they provide, play rooms, free food, quiet areas, naptime, etc. etc.

A little bit of romance, frustration, and team work is thrown in to make the movie somewhat watchable. Bottomline is that Google suckered the audiences into parting with their hard earned money to watch an advertisement.

Movie Review: The Waterboy

Cover of The Waterboy [Blu-ray]

Most of Adam Sandler movies I have watched have a different storyline and depict some excellent acting by the leading star. The movie is also centered around one or two characters. This is no exception. Sandler plays the role of a mama's boy, Bobby working as a waterboy for a college football team. He has a bad stammer and is constantly bullied and made fun of by everyone.
At age 31 he still lives with his mother, has never been to a restaurant or dated a girl. He has no interest in college or studying. Once during a practice one of the hunky players spits into the water which makes Sandler angry but he suppresses it. The coach sees this and tells him to stand up for himself. Sandler moves with such force that it surprises everyone on the field and makes the coach plead and beg him to play football.
Of course mama is not happy about Sandler going to college or playing football. Because deep within her mind she is afraid that he is going to abandon her like his father did years ago. She has a tight grip on him which is the reason for his suppression and lack of social skills.
Coach encourages Bobby to give up his role as waterboy and start playing without his mother's knowledge. Bobby concurs and starts playing which turns the fortunes of MudDogs and earns fame and notoriety to Bobby. Meanwhile Bobby runs into an old friend, the girl of his dreams, and takes her home, Mama doesn't like her.
How Bobby manages to obtain his mother's approval to study, play football and marry his romance interest comprises the rest of the movie replete with laughter, gags and fun. It is available on Youtbe free so go ahead and enjoy the movie.

Movie Review: Think Like A Man

I heard great reviews about this movie on National Public Radio (NPR), so I decided to go watch it. The movie is just an average entertainer which pits women against men and supposedly teaches the former how to snag the latter and make them propose marriage. I was rather disappointed that NPR promoted this movie and it was definitely not upto the praise the radio program proffered on it.

Anyway the movie is about this bunch of African-American men who are dating or living in a steady relationship. Their girlfriends want to marry and settle down but the boys are not taking the initiative. Meanwhile Steve Harvey releases a book titled Think Like a Man, Act like a lady which becomes an instant hit among women. These women who read this book will start using the strategies to play men and make them their slaves (not literally... but figuratively). Just when they are succeeding the men get hold of the book and employ the same strategies against the women and guess what happens when they come face to face. Things go wrong and the women make a big issue about the fact that the men were playing dirty and leave. This leads the men to run behind the women, seek forgiveness and get married.

What an anti-men movie directed by a Man. In terms of entertainment I would give it a 3 star rating, acting 2.5 stars, direction maybe 2.5 and overall movie 2.75.

I would say definitely not worth paying $5.50 per pop to watch this movie.

Movie Review: 21 Jump Street

One thing about Americans, they have the capability of selling anything to anyone. Just like few Bollywood film makers take bits and pieces of several English movies and make one Hindi film, Sony pictures has made a full length feature film out of a TV series. I must say they have been quite successful at that and I am pretty sure this movie will be followed up by a series of others.

I wouldn't have even heard of the movie if not for a website http://www.gofobo.com which sent me two free passes to pre-release screening of the movie. Of course every movie buff in DFW seemed to be in the line to watch the free movie but we did manage to get in and grab a decent seat.

The movie deals with the highly over rated and mythical "High School Experience" in America. An age when kids are learning to be independent, party, try out recreational drugs, learn smoking and drinking habits, and mature into presumably "responsible adults". Jona Hill is Schmidt a nerdy high school kid who is dreaming about going to the prom with the hottest chick in school. Of course the girl rejects him. On the other hand is Channing Tatum playing Jenko, an academically dumb but sporty and cool kid in the school. He barely makes a grade and results in getting barred from attending the prom.

Fast forward seven years, the duo land up in the same class of the Police Academy and graduate to become bicycle cops. They are looking to arrest someone and make a name but only end up making fools of themselves. The chief fed up with their antics transfers them to a undercover unit known as 21 Jump Street. The head of the unit is trying to recruit young underachieving officers who look like high school kids to infiltrate high school and bust a crime ring that is selling a lethal drug to teenagers.

The rest of the story is how the duo fit into the high school life and how roles get reversed. Schmidt becomes the cool guy in sports, and drama, while Jenko becomes a nerd who hacks into the school's drug dealers phone. The movie is a laughter riot, it is definitely worth watching.

21 Jump Street is releasing in theaters on March 16, 2012, try to catch it first day first show.

Hindi Movie Review: Karma

This movie starring Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor and Naseeruddin Shah was released in 1986 and was a moderate hit at that time. The movie follows the theme of the legendary movie Sholay. Dilip Kumar plays the role of a compassionate jailer, Anupam Kher plays notorious terrorist commander Dr. Deng who gets arrested and placed the former's jail. In one of the interactions Dilip Kumar slaps Dr. Deng and earns his enemity. An angry Dr. Deng organizes his terrorist group and massacres the entire jail residents and Dilip Kumar's family.

In response Dilip Kumar decides to take revenge and he picks up three convicts in jail and trains them into fighting machines. Together they destroy Dr. Deng's empire and camps and eliminate him. Thus eliminating all the threats to India. This is one of the formula movies of Bollywood. Three heroes, two heroines, a villain and supporting actor. Five songs, couple of attempted rape scenes, etc. It is worth watching once and does definitely inflame passions for the country.

Kannada Movie Review: Mylari

Complete family entertainer from Shivanna!

I have said in this blog and elsewhere time and again that since the early 2000s the quality of Sandalwood movies has significantly improved. There is some real meat in the story, there are great and truly hummable songs without any double meaning. Then of course the acting and direction seems to have matured. Then of course there are a brood of imported heroines from other states who are vying for top spot in Sandalwood. All this means good entertainment for the average cine-goer in Karnataka. Hopefully now Kannadigas will start watching Kannada movies instead of patronizing other language movies.

Anyway coming to this movie, the central character Mylari (Shivrajkumar) is the older son of a rural farmer. He is not interested in studies and his father has to continuously coax, threaten, beat, plead with him to go to school. On the contrary his younger brother is a brilliant student who is doing great in school. This of course leads to discrimination from father and illtreatment of the older son. Then there is Anitha the heroine who is the village headman's daughter. She goes to the same school as Mylari and both of them are in love from childhood but neither has the courage to express it. So Mylari does the best he can, he writes his feelings in the form of poetry, and prose literature and becomes a great poet. His father of course doesn't appreciate it.

Finally one day Mylari comes to know that Anitha is getting engaged to someone else and takes the step to express his love. This leads to lot of complications and results in getting him thrown out of the house. He ends up in Bangalore and there starts the real saga. He hooks up with his old friend who has become a famous journalist in Bangalore. The latter gets him a job as a journalist/ writer and then the trouble starts. As a press reporter Mylari breaks some important stories against prominent political figures. The political leader threatens Mylari's friend and since nothing comes out of it he eliminates the entire family.

An enraged Mylari goes on a killing spree and eliminates the politician and his henchmen. Then he is arrested and sentenced to death by hanging. The entire story is said as a flash back. It is definitely worth watching and can be watched with the whole family. There are some real touching scenes in the movies, that have been excellently executed by the main actors.

Kannada Movie Review: Buddhivanta

Laughter Riot
 
Upendra starrer Buddhivanta (2008) is a movie in which Upendra has lucidly executed his role. The movie starts off with several people coming to lodge complaints with the police against one individual who has cheated their sisters off the money by entering into a fake marriage with them. When they compare the pictures of the complainant all of them have the same picture. The police are convinced that they are dealing with the same person who is masquareding as different individuals and taking the people for a ride. They are hot on pursuit for this individual. There is a bus accident and all the passengers are admitted into the hospital, when police come to investigate they find the culprit among the injured. The police arrest the accused and present him to court.
 
The rest of the movie is a courtroom drama with Upendra the hero effectively arguing his case against all the women. The judge played by Lakshmi has pretty much no role except to sit there and watch. The heroine Pooja Gandhi also doesn't have much role except for running behind Upendra like a mad woman. Towards the end of the movie it is revealed who Upendra really is and why he went into disguise and what he hoped to achieve by doing what he did.
 
I would say this is a complete family entertainer with a generous dose of comedy included. It is totally watchable once.

Hindi Movie Review: Chal Chala Chal

Govinda Stars in Sentimental Idealist's story

This movie is the story of what would happen to an idealistic person in India - he would be oppressed, dominated and cheated by everyone he comes across. Govinda plays the role of the youngest son of Om Puri who is a retired school headmaster. Om Puri owns a beautiful bungalow in the heart of Mumbai which is sought after by several builders and real estate developers. Being idealistic young man Govinda is emotionally attached to the home where he believes the memories of his late mother are present. Govinda has two sisters who live with him with their families in the same family bungalow. Though well settled his brothers-in-law want to sell the house and get the cash. They don't attach any emotional significance to the home.

Om Puri is fighting a legal battle with the school he was employed at for his pension and retirement benefits. The opposition lawyer is none other than his own son-in-law who is bent to save the school the money. Finally the court orders the school to give Om Puri some property to the value of his retirement benefits and they end up with a broken down bus which Govinda decides to restore and deploy on the road to earn livelihood. His bus conductor flees with the collection of a whole month and not wanting to trouble the conductor's parents Govinda decides not to lodge a police complaint. This leads to further complications.

There is a namesake heroine in the movie who doesn't have much role. The part could well have been eliminated but I guess Indian movie makers are still obsessed with the idea that without a heroine it is impossible to make a movie work. The rest of the story focuses on the tussle between the driver, conductor and owner of the bus and how the union gets involved. At each juncture Govinda displays an amazing humanity and continues to pardon those who cheat him. Finally he decides enough is enough when members of the workers union decide to vandalize the bus. There is one final fight and a court drama before the end of the movie.

This movie reinforces the message that if one is an idealist, he/ she has no place in the corrupt dog-eat-dog Indian society.

Movie Review: Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo

Cover of Deuce Bigalow - European Gigolo

This is one laughing circus of a movie. Set in Amsterdam the movie features the old favorites Rob Scheineder (Deuce Bigalow) and Eddie Griffin (T.J the Pimp). Duece is a former Gigalow who has gotten into research about fish and is living a quiet life in Los Angeles. Out of the blue he gets a call from his former Pimp TJ who is operating in Amsterdam to come and work for him. A sudden turn of events make him decide to go to Amsterdam and there things are quite different.

Drugs, and prostitution are legal and everyone seems to be in the trade. There is a university to train young men to become gigolos and there is an association to protect their rights. Male prostitutes aka gigolos pay taxes and have insurance. Just when everything is cozy and nice, a serial killer starts murdering gigolos one at a time. The association is worried, cops are after the killer.

TJ gets framed as the murderer and now it is upto Deuce to prove his innocence and secure release. The next part of the movie is fraught with hilarious scenes, one liners and other jokes. It is an R rated movie so I wouldn't advise watching with kids. Adults can watch this movie and enjoy the comedy. There is not much nudity so don't worry about getting embarrassed.

It is available free on Youtube, so you may as well take advantage of it.

Movie Review: Kissing Cousins

Funny Movie misrepresents Indian culture
 
This is one of those ABCD movies (American Born Confused Desi) that tries to depict Indian youth as completely accultured in England and America. Meet Amir lives in Los Angeles, works as a heart breaker, his job is to deliver messages of breakups to partners who have been dumped by their significant other. Basically men and women who doesn't have the courage/ heart to tell their partners their intention to end the relationship use him to deliver their message. He lives alone, watches porn every night, doesn't believe in lasting relationships, and goes on with his life. He best buddies are Tucker and Charlie who are in relationships and Bridget who is the former's sister and single.
 
Charlie meets Tina and decides to get married. It has been agreed for several that Amir is going to be the best man but while making plans Charlie and Tina decide that Tucker should be the best man because he has more positive "relationship karma". Amir is disappointed and outraged by the sudden change of plans. He goes home for the Thanksgiving holiday and notices that things have changed. His room has been rented, his sister is married to an African-American and is expecting, his father has a best buddy who is 15 yr old and Amir has no place to sleep other than the sofa. He meets his cousin Zara after a gap of 20 years. Zara lives in London and is in the US for a holiday.
 
After the holiday Zara travels with him to LA and she starts presenting herself as Amir's girlfriend in front of his friends. Everybody believes this and what follows is a fairly comical turn of events and Amir is once again given the mantle of the Best Man in Charlie's wedding. Things take sudden twist at this point. I wont reveal the end and spoil the climax.
 
While the movie is pretty entertaining, there are several factual errors and gaps in the story. First off, the names of the main characters Amir and Zara are Muslim names. Second Amir's mother appears like a Hindu. They celebrate all Christian festivals such as Thanksgiving and Christmas rather than Diwali which takes place around the same time as former. There is no indication that these people have converted to Christianity or otherwise. The film makers have made a cultural mess out of this family and its portrayal. I wish film makers were a little more culturally attuned before they start making movies of this sort.

Movie Review: Hot Fuzz

What happens when a hot shot police constable is transferred from London Metro area to a small sleepy village on promotion? His life goes crazy trying to enforce law and he finds out that the sleepy village is indeed not so, there is something going on and a secret society is bent upon murdering everyone who is not in with their agenda. Meet Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) who is the best policeman in London, he is so good that his colleagues are being questioned about their efficiency. They conspire and get him transferred to a small village out in the country on a promotion as a Sargent. He protests but he has to go.

Once there he is paired with a new recruit who is more interested in eating that anything else. The village community seems to be peaceful and there is no crime at all. Sargent Angel is not convinced, his gut feeling tells him something is amiss. Then there are a series of murders starting with an actor and then a local businessman and then the city newspaper editor. Sargent Angel is working on the case and there seems to be no leads whatsoever.

The motive and murderer's identity remains a mystery till the end. The mystery is good but it is the comedy that is the hallmark of this film. I'd recommend it to everyone, it is a complete family entertainer so you can watch it with your kids and parents and everyone.

Movie Review: 17 Again

American culture glorifies youth so much that most people are obsessed with their high school years. I wouldn't blame them because high school is something that one either hates or loves. This movie kinda glorifies the high school experience once again and how decisions made at that time will go on to shape the rest of an individual's life. The story centers around Mike O' Donnell who has been thrown out of his house by his wife, his teenaged children don't want to have anything to do with him and at work he is passed up for a promotion.
 
Back up a few years Mike was the high school basket ball pro who was all set to go to college. On the evening he was supposed to play the match that would get him a scholarship to go to college he comes to know his girlfriend is pregnant. He throws it all away and settles down with this wife to raise a family. But deep within he harbors a sense of loss, a feeling that he would been someone else, done something else if his girlfriend now wife had not gotten pregnant. This feeling leads to angst and gets him to the brink of divorce.
 
There is a divine intervention at this point in his life and he is transformed into a 17 year old. He goes back to the same school that his children go to and then starts the fun. He becomes the coolest kid at school and changes the lives of his son and daughter and finally reclaims the love of his life - his estranged wife. The whole process is riddled with comedy and high school fun. The story and theme could have been handled much better but this movie is ok... not too bad. Worth watching once.

Aarakshan - Hindi Movie Review

Aarakshan is one of those movies that has a Good story but the flick itself is not good because of too many subplots or bad screenplay. This movie starts as being about reservations set around the Mandal Commission recommendations of 27% additional quota for the Other Backward Classes, but is it about social reform and upliftment of the downtrodden? The movie takes a totally different twist and becomes an anti-coaching classes story which ends in the commencement of another coaching/ remediation center.

Movie Review: Vaare Vah

Komal's comedy masterpiece is definitely worth watching and when it is available for free on youtube don't miss the laughter brigade.

Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara - Movie Review

zindagi-na-milegi-dobara-poster - Bollywood World

I watched this movie when I was in India recently. The movie is for the young and young-at-heart viewers who like the feel-good themes that bollywood throws up sometimes. The movie centers around three heroes Arjun (Hrithik Roshan), Imran (Farhan Akthar), and Kabir (Abhay Deol). Of course there are three heroines too, otherwise it wouldn't be a Indian flick. Anyway the story is all about Kabir's impending marriage and a road trip that the three friends take as part of their bachelor party.

The three friends of course atrociously rich - most middle-class Indian kids would not be able to afford a trip like this - meet up in Spain and start of their adventure sports. Deep sea diving, sky diving and being part of a traditional bull chase festival is what the three intend to do. The movie also exposes the baggage that the friends carry and help resolve issues between the friends and also in their lives.

Imran reconciles to the fact that his biological father is just that, Arjun finds a new girl friend and Kabir understands that marriage is not for him right now.

Summing up I'd say it is definitely worth watching and one of those movies without too much drama and few songs and can be watched with the family.

Movie Review: Chor Mandli

Starring: Mukul Dev, Sweta Keswani, Razak Khan, Dharam Pal, Vishwajeet Pradhan
Director: Sanjay Khanna
Genre: Comedy

Last week while snow and ice were wrecking havoc on the roadways, causing accidents, I was cooped up at home reading my textbooks. To take a break I watched this totally nonsensical Bollywood comedy Chor Mandli. Surprisingly the movie had few songs and was over in less than two hrs. This is surprising because Hindi movies are usually 2-3 hrs in length and have the standard formula, five songs, one rape scene, 3-4 fight scenes and a climax. I am glad Bollywood directors are finally moving away from the used, reused and abused formula concept. The director has moved away from the standard formula and woven a story around five common and petty thieves.

Set in Mumbai, India, the movie features Honda the car thief, Nandu the mobile thief, Marco the gambler, a struggling actor, Buta Singh, Chindi someone who watches while others steal. Honda gets caught and goes behind the bars where he meets another entirely crazy character who gives him a tip about a safe that contains lots of cash.

Honda tries to enlist his friend's help to get bailed out and steal the cash, instead the twist of events make him stay in jail for 3 years. His friends how meanwhile have come to know of the details of the loot plan and execute the job. The ending is completely different and quite illogical and stupid in my opinion.

The movie is available free on Youtube, watch it if you have lots of time on hand.

Movie Review: Mata

Sandalwood regaining glory

During my teenage years I avoided Kannada movies like plague. There were several reasons for that including the fact that I bought into the popular notion that not watching Kannada movies was cool. Moreover the quality of Kannada flics were quite pathetic and had more or less the same storyline, same old faces, too much drama, unrealistic and badly executed action sequences. All this seems to have changed during the past few years. I have noticed that a new genre of Kannada movies starring actors like Ganesh, Puneet Rajkumar, Sudeep, Ramesh Arvind, Jaggesh, and an entire army of new actors and actresses are comparable with the best in any other regional film industry.

Recently I watched the movie Mata starring Jaggesh and effectively supported by a team of supporting actors such as Mandya Ramesh, Tabla Nani, Shashidhar Bhat, and others. The movie tells the story of a religious institution that cares for handicapped children. The chief swamiji of the institution is also responsible for these children. One fine day the swamiji falls in love and leaves his position to become a householder. This puts the institution in a quandary, the trustee decides to place an advertisement in the local newspaper and recruit the right candidate for the position. Something unheard of in the country.

The candidates who get selected to undergo the rigorous training to qualify to become a Swami are the heroes of this movie. I mentin Heroes because everyone has an equal role in the plot and Jaggesh is the only popular face so one tends to think that he is the hero. The rest of the movie is about the training that the applicants receive and which one becomes the swamiji.

The best part of the movie is its message and of course the liberal dose of comedy that is thrown in. Definitely worth watching and I would give it a 4 star rating.

Movie Review: Tooth Fairy

For lack of nothing else to do on Friday evening we decided to go to a movie at the dollar theater in Plano. The intent was to watch a Jackie Chan movie, but there was none playing at a night show. So we decided to watch The Tooth Fairy instead. This is a fairly entertaining kids movie... apart from a few minutes of fantastic ice skating and a some comedy frames there is nothing much worth watching in this movie.

The story traces the life of an aging ice hockey star who is named the tooth fairy because he knocks out teeth of his opponents. His girlfriend has two kids, the daughter just loses one of her teeth and the mother tells the story of tooth fairy. The protagonist tries to tell her the truth in a rude manner to the chagrin of the mother. The son doesn't like this guy because he is rude, and sarcastic.

The story moves on to fairyland when the player gets called to do some community service and then after some seriously boring drama and some funny scenes the movie ends with a soulful transformation of the protagonist. I definitely wouldn't pay the regular theater ticket to watch this movie....