(Crisp) Movie Review: NO HARD FEELINGS by FENIL SETA
2:51 PM
No Hard Feelings stars Jennifer Lawrence and is a story of a 30-plus girl who is assigned by the parents of a shy 19-year-old boy to date him before he goes to university. The plot is quite interesting and the film has some really funny and touching moments that keep the interest going. It's just 101 minutes long and moves at a nice pace. However, after a point, the film stops being funny and gets too serious. Some developments are not properly explained. The film doesn't end on a high either. The performances are superb and Jennifer Lawrence steals the show. Andrew Barth Feldman is convincing. Matthew Broderick (Laird), Laura Benanti (Allison), Natalie Morales (Sarah), Scott MacArthur (Jim) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (Gary) are good in supporting roles. Hasan Minhaj (Doug Khan) is wasted. All in all, No Hard Feelings is an average fare and can be seen in cinemas if none of the new or holdover releases excites you.
My rating - ** ½ out of 5!
Fenil's Bollywood Talk # 783
2:59 PM
Adipurush was finally released last week with a lot of expectations. The advance booking was quite strong and there was a lot of positivity around the film. But things changed as soon as the first shows were played on Friday morning. It didn’t take long for the word to spread that it was a poorly made film. Viewers were not just unhappy with the direction or VFX but also with sub-standard and cheap dialogues.
Yet, Adipurush embarked on a strong start, collecting Rs. 35 crores on the first day, which is better than expectations. The negativity increased with each passing hour. Director Om Raut and writer Manoj Muntashir tried to douse the fire by defending the film. Sadly, it added to the criticism.
Meanwhile, Adipurush collected Rs. 35 crores on Saturday as well as Sunday. On the one hand, it was good to see that despite the bad word of mouth, the film didn’t crash on Saturday. At the same time, there was no growth and it indicated that the film will fall on Monday.
Yet, the expectation was that Adipurush would collect around Rs. 15 crores or Rs. 11-12 crores, in a worst-case scenario, on Monday. Sadly, the film earned just Rs. 7.75 crores on its fourth day. The collections further dipped to Rs. 4.75 crores on Tuesday and Rs. 3.25 crores on Wednesday. The collections might be around Rs. 2 crores on Thursday or it could be lesser. This means that the first week's collections are expected to be around Rs. 122-123 crores. The collections might stabilize over the weekend and then there’ll be another fall from Monday, June 26. At this rate, Adipurush’s lifetime will be less than Rs. 135 crores. This is shocking for a film that had a weekend of Rs. 105 crores.
Meanwhile, tomorrow, 1920: Horrors Of The Heart will release in cinemas. It stars Avika Gor of Balika Vadhu fame and is directed by Vikram Bhatt’s daughter Krishna. The story looks different from the rest of the films of the series. Also, the series has some takers due to the horror element. As a result, the film will open in the range of Rs. 1 crore. The last film of the franchise, 1921, also came with few expectations but managed to open at Rs. 1.57 crore.
The other major release is the Hollywood animated movie, Elemental. It’s produced by Walt Disney and will get its share of audiences, comprising families and kids, in urban areas.
No Hard Feelings, starring Jennifer Lawrence, is a sex comedy and it can attract the youth. Sadly, as per the latest reports, it is getting a very limited release everywhere.
Lastly, The Three Musketeers: D'Artagnan is a French film which is being dubbed in English. The only recognizable face in the film for Indian audiences is Eva Green. There’s no buzz or awareness and hence, it’ll sink without a trace.