I went in to watch the movie today knowing very well that it had nothing to do with the brilliant detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I came away from the movie with mixed feelings.

The movie begins with Sherlock Holmes and Watson catching the dreaded serial killer and sorcerer Blackwood. However, Blackwood returns from beyond the grave to strike fear in the hearts of the people of London with one aim: to take over the world.

And, of course there is only one man who can stop him: Sherlock Holmes. Ok, there are two, we can’t discount Watson.

From a detective story point of the view, the movie is excellent. A well woven plot, excellent acting on the part of Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law and Rachel McAdams. Mark Strong plays his role of Blackwood beautifully. His voice and style of speaking truly gives you the “creeps” at times.

However, from the point of view of Sherlock Holmes, the movie was a let down. I would still have been fine if they had not got some important facts wrong, like (spoiler ahead) Watson introducing Mary to Sherlock Holmes. The actual story is that Mary Morstan hired Sherlock Holmes and Watson in The Sign of Four. So, in effect, Mary didn’t need to be introduced to Holmes.

Also, we know Holmes to be a boxer. However, we never know him and Watson to get into fist fights when solving crimes.

Well, worth watching once or maybe more than once. However, watch it with a pinch of salt.

My rating: 7/10

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Travel cost: 60 rupees

Renting 3D goggles: 200 rupees

162 minutes of pure fun: priceless

We’ve been waiting for Avatar ever since I saw its trailer a little over a month back. So, when it released, I decided to watch the movie and booked my tickets well in advance!

When Corporal Jake Sully’s brother is killed in war, Jake takes his place on Pandora. For Jake, who is crippled, this is a chance for a new life. On Pandora, Jake’s mind is linked with a human-Na’vi hybrid. As the hybrid, Jake is free to wander the new planet.

As far as the story goes, Jake gets lost, is rescued by Netyiri, gets introduced to the Na’vi people and finally joins the People.

The movie has been produced in 3D, which required us to watch it using 3D goggles. I say required, because without the goggles the entire movie is totally blurred.

The special effects are fantastic, though the story line is somewhat predictable. the trees, the plants, the birds and animals are well done with good detail. The effect of the 3D definitely has its advantages, especially, when you see a gas canister about to hit you or one of the creatures howling into your face.

So, if you haven’t yet watched the movie, go ahead and watch it in 3D. If you have, then tell me what you liked / hated about the movie.

My rating: 8/10

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Team dinner

Every quarter the teams out here go out for dinner. Last quarter we went bowling and had a quiet dinner. This time work pressures ensured that we skipped the bowling and just went for the dinner directly.

Dinner was at Jalsa, which is in Marathahalli. I had originally inteded to take the bike to work, but dropped the idea. But, we had enough of bikes and so there wasn’t a problem.

Regarding my bike, the Bajaj service centre really seems to have screwed something up and the pickup has dropped and so has the top speed. Now, am hunting for a local mechanic out here. There are a few in Bellandur and Sarjapur area where I intend to give the bike. Let’s see…

Jalsa is a moderately priced place, designed in a very Indian setting from the times of the kinds of old. I stuck to starters as I usually do when I am out for dinner. Who wants the non-chicken part, right?

Got a lift back home thanks to a colleague who was passing this way.

Weekend Movie and Shopping

Last week, Vincent and me made up our minds, bought the tickets and headed off to watch G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which turned out to be a good movie to watch. Bernard, who was bunking with me for the month, also headed off back to Mumbai, so I once again have my room to myself.

And, last Sunday, we went over to Oasis mall for lunch, followed by shopping at Spar. Whenever we go shopping, we end up spending a bomb

We picked up tonnes of stuff resulting in a very well stocked fridge. Also, got myself a tin opener finally, so its cheese time as well. We picked up a packet of pork sausages as well, but they weren’t as tasty as the ones I get in Mumbai.

Pizza Hut and shopping

We decided to go off to Pizza Hut today as well. Owning a visa card ensures that we get our pizza really cheap and within 600 bucks you can get a pizza, drinks, garlic bread and a Caesar salad.

We dropped into Star Bazaar as well and I have realized that it is a better place to shop than Spar. There are better offers and the prices are lower as well. We did a fair bit of shopping, especially for extension boards. The ones we had already were with two pin plugs resulting in no ground, which isn’t really good for electronics like laptops etc.

Am also hunting for a low end microwave, only for heating purposes. Unfortunately, Chroma didn’t have it either. Any suggestions for those who are from Bangalore?

Tomorrow I plan to get some work done from home. But, tonight, I need to sleep!

But, what if they come back and haunt you? What if…

On the eve of his brother’s wedding, three of his girlfriends come back to haunt him, as does his favorite uncle Wayne (Michael Douglas). They take him through his past, his present and his future and he can view this in a totally different perspective.

The movie is rather standard. The story line isn’t spectacular and the acting is decent. Matthew does a good job at playing Connor Mead and as does Jennifer Garner, who plays Jenny, his love interest. They have picked up a good set of really good looking actresses including the really cute Camille Guaty, who has played Piper in the now extinct TV series Las Vegas.

Overall, this is a good one time watch as is the case with many romantic comedies. Will give is a generous 6/10.

Fast forward into the not so distant future and his descendent James runs one of the largest weapons manufacturing corporations in the world. James’ company has sold four highly powerful nanotechnology based weapons to the NATO and the rest of the movie revolves around these four weapons.

The rest of the movie is the attempt of the Baroness (Sienna Miller) and her team trying to steal and take control of the weapons. And, in steps General Hawk (Dennis Quaid) and his team of G.I. Joes.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra turned out to be an exciting movie to watch. While it isn’t spectacular, it definitely is well above average. The special effects could have done with some improvement. The acting was decent and the sprinkling of jokes did light up the movie. The weapons technology is phenomenal. I would love to own a baby rail gun!

Overall, I’ll rate this movie as a 7/10, simply because I think a sci-fi / technology movie deserves much better special effects.

Have you seen this movie yet? If so, what do you think about it? Written a review of it? point me to it.

Met Sneha on Wednesday for dinner. Dinner was at the Happy Singh, which is a part of Pop Tates. Decent enough joint, but the long island iced tea was ice tea!

I met up with Idea Smithy for tea on Thursday. We met at Crepe Station in Lokhandwala which has recently opened. IMO, while the place is decent and the food too, it is over priced. So, you need to pick and choose what you would like to eat. The conversation resolved around blogging, writing, education and a bit of food.

I met up with Marise after this and we headed over to Bandra to Sheesha. We ended up sitting at the same place as we had during our last visit. The food is definitely good and so are the mocktails, however they really need to put a few fans and lights in that place!

Went over to Marise’s place on Saturday afternoon. Before that we stopped at the Airtel “relationship center” in Bandra. The relationship center is a real joke because for any support you need to call up the customer. For all users of Airtel, make sure you check your bills carefully. I was billed Rs. 100 for downloading two games which I never did and more, don’t even know to download from where. This isn’t the first time I have seen Airtel incorrectly bill users. Had to yell at the customer care dude who promised that it would be rectified in 24 hours. I am totally clueless as to which planet this 24 hours belongs to. I have decided to discontinue this account. I’m not sure which is worse, Airtel or Reliance! At least Reliance didn’t try to bill me incorrectly!

We also went over to the Vodafone center, which in my opinion is a much better service. I guess that is what differentiates a multinational company than a company run by a bunch of greedy Indians. I guess this is one of the things that pisses me off about my country. If this was the US or UK, you could take the company to court and win! Out here, you don’t have the years of your life to do that.

Marise and me, along with her family and Rixon, caught the late night show of Ghosts of Girlfriends Past at PVR in Phoenix Mills. I will write a review of the movie sometime later.

I stayed over at her place and we returned home the next day. I spent the last few hours at home getting an haircut and a shave. Set off for the airport to catch the Go Air flight to Bangalore.

The flight was perfectly on time, unlike on my journey to Mumbai. Mumbai looks really beautiful from the air and even better at night. The new Bandra-Worli sealink has beautified the landscape and it was my first view of the link.

If you haven’t seen Mumbai from the air, then check out some beautiful pictures of the same. But at night, it is even more beautiful. I could see the entire shape of South Mumbai. The journey was comfortable except for the occasional bit of turbulence that we faced.

The Airlift that I had booked was already at the airport. I had to wait a while for the remaining passengers and we headed back. Reached home in about an hour. Did a bit of blogging and then went off to sleep.

And, Monday, work began as usual!

However, Monday was a bit eventful. Vincent managed to get the road tax for my bike done on Saturday and so we set out on our bikes to the Bajaj Service Center which is in HSR Layout. They did a good job on the bike and it is running beautifully! We both headed home after work at about 12am and I froze in the cold. Didn’t have my jacket, but I also realized that I need to pick up a thicker jacket.

Yesterday, I was the only person in my cab so I reached home rather quickly

If I thought that Pune was bad with its power problems, then Bangalore has started to win! The compromise was that I had to work the whole of Sunday. The good part was I caught up on much needed sleep.

Vincent and me went over to the BSNL office in the afternoon to apply for a new broadband connection. Airtel turned out to be a really crappy alternative, when they found it “not feasible” to give us a new connection. We were surprised at the efficiency and speed of BSNL, which, despite being a government firm, has some very efficient staff.

Airtel has turned out to be a rather painful connection when I received a message a few days back billing me 50 bucks for downloading some game that I didn’t even know existed. Calling up the helpline is rather useless, nor is visiting their help center. I’ve been asked to check back on the day of the new billing cycle! I’m well aware of others in the past as well of being incorrectly billed by Airtel.

We had plans to catch the movie in the evening. However, before that we headed off to Garuda mall and spent sometime in the Barista out there. It has been a while since I went to a Barista and every time I go there, I realize that I prefer it anytime over Cafe Coffee Day. Will make sure I go off to a Barista when I go to Mumbai next.

We caught the movie at that place. 200 bucks was worth it for Transformers, however, it just isn’t fair when Marise watches it at half the price in Mumbai!

We headed home after the “late” night show and crashed rather immediately, since both Vincent and me had to go to work the next day. Spent a long long long week in office with several late nights. Friday was the only relatively light day.

Today was spent at home. The persons from BSNL came over today and fixed the phone line. The modem should be here in a few days and we’ll be hooked onto a 512kbps unlimited internet connection!

We initially at plans to go shopping, but laziness and sleep won over it. So, possibly next week, I’ll target a few shops that are offering sales.

Tomorrow shall be yet another lazy day. However, I do need to put in a few hours of work. May also work on some more of my WordPress plugins. I already released an update of Ajax Edit Comments today.

For those of you who are not from this planet, Revenge of the Fallen is the second part. It’s been two years since Megatron was defeated. The humans and the autobots have formed an alliance. At the same time, the Decepticons are gathering forces. We’re not really sure what they are looking for (at least for the first half hour).

The movie opens with a spectacular action screen as the humans and autobots fight together to destroy a Decepticon. The Decepticon dies, but with a message, a message that would soon change the world as we know it!

At the same time, Sam is getting ready to go to college. Wonder why he would leave the spectacularly hot Megan Fox and do that!

The end is a bit weird and people claim the movie is too long, which it is. But, machines, Megan Fox, more machines, guns, war and a rail gun, why would anyone complain?!

This is one movie you have to watch and make sure it is in a theatre.

My rating: 8/10

Steve Martin returns to play the brilliant bumbling detective Inspector Clouseau in Pink Panther 2. The movie begins with the Tornado having stolen treasures from around the world. In order to capture the Tornado, the countries of the world form the "Dream Team" of the most brilliant detectives. Without doubt, our Inspector Clouseau makes it to the Dream Team. And, the laughter continues!

The jokes are great, but what really takes the cake is Steve Martin’s acting. The scenes are very well done and the theatre was wild with laughter

Aishwarya Rai really stands out in the movie. She was the only one who couldn’t act! I really wonder why they cast here! Did they run out of actors?

Also, the story line left a lot to be desired. The end was rather predictable. As usual, the movie was only worth the laughter you get out of it. Otherwise, well, there was a lot to be desired.

My Rating: 7/10

Have you seen The Pink Panther 2?

Here’s a softcopy of the article as it appeared in the newspaper.

Mumbai Mirror is a newspaper focused for Mumbai that comes along with The Times of India.

Though, I must say that I didn’t see much traffic coming out here because of the article, I am pleased that my review was considered newspaper worthy

Thank you Mumbai Mirror! And, thanks to @rahuljrark of Cool Tricks N Tips for pointing this out to me.