Movie Review: Big Hero 6

The recent Disney movies have been must-watch, not just because of the kids but also for their story line and message that we can identify with in our daily lives. Disney has moved on with time from traditional fairy tales to more contemporary story lines that gives the female lead more than just glass slippers.

Big Hero 6 trailers tempted us to watch it for the adorable and chubby robot. Little did we know he turns out to be a healthcare robot. Protagonist Hiro finds himself building a special bond with his deceased brother's inflatable robot. Determined to uncover the mystery behind his brother's death, Hiro transforms his friends into a group of high-tech superheros, you guessed it, called Big Hero 6.

The movie started with a robot fight, bringing in so much laughter and fun especially for the little ones with the underdog winning in the most unimaginable way possible. However, it only goes downhill after that.

It was fun watching our kids enjoy the movie. Yes Baymax is super adorable and makes funny squeaky sound as he moves, just as a balloon would. Story wise it just fails short of achieving even 50% of Frozen or Wreck-It Ralph.

Big Hero 6 is set in an imaginary or rather futuristic city San Fransokyo, a fusion between San Fransisco and Tokyo. What a noble idea to bring the two cultures together, giving a good scope for the story. However one wishes it was leveraged better than this.

For some reason Disney is trying to make new superheroes, when the world (the cinema world, at least) has plenty of. We don't need another team of Avengers or Justice League. Neither do we need a robot or microbot with fancy costumes or transformations. Nor a red coloured robot suit that has self-thrusting robotic hand. We have seen it all. All these ideas, falls behind being original. Sad but true.

Not sure how this movie would fare at the box office, but I sure hope Disney would get the message and stick to what it is best for, less action, more adventure and family drama. Or least, a movie with a message, which is lacking big time in Big Hero 6. 

And by the way, with a number already in the title, this movie will have a hard time finding a name for the sequel. Unless they go Big Hero 7.

Movie Review: Interstellar

Interstellar brings a futuristic movie with a different possibility. Instead of being a super-advanced civilization, the world slows down to concentrate on farming, to provide food for the growing population of the lone planet. No budget or support given for engineering or technology of any kind.

Predictably there is a secret government funded project that aims to save humanity from extinction, by giving mankind a possible alternate planet, in a galaxy so far away it takes a wormhole to travel through.

A group of explorers is set to travel beyond the solar system in search of a planet that can sustain human life.While the rest of the world is barely surviving on farming the last possible food, corn.

The very plus point of this movie is the director Christopher Nolan himself, who has made movies that goes beyond our thinking. Thanks to him our imagination runs wild everytime we think 'Inception', and even Batman is not the same anymore.

Interstellar is like a quantam leap back into the days I loved, lived and breathed science. Astronomy in particular was my favourite topic to read on, probably because we did not cover much of it in physics subject in school.

Interstellar does have some inaccuracies as far as science is concerned, in fact I am guessing it will be at the butt of jokes in The Big Bang Theory for those slight blunders. It is the nerd in me speaking. After all I have been a big fan of TBBT, Back To The Future and TV series Sliders (don't know if anyone remembers it at all). Space time-continuum relation, inter-dimension travel and worm/black holes are all interesting possibilities and raises a thousand questions in my head!

Last year it was Gravity that amazed me (after Life of Pi, of course). And this year it is Interstellar! While Gravity and Life of Pi were on emotional and spiritual side, Interstellar is intellectually tantalising!

Roasted Chicken With Veggies Recipe

I present you the one casserole dish, roasted chicken with vegetables. I had seen such recipes around but somehow I never got to making it because I have a rice-lover in the house, so most meals need to be rice+gravy/soup. Somehow this time I got the brilliant idea of serving it with pasta, and my how it worked!

And to show you how spontaneous and easy the recipe is, I will just explain the recipe without any format. Ok, I admit, I also get to save some formatting work!

Its so simple that you can just spend several minutes chopping the vegetables, and toss them into the casserole dish. I chopped potatoes, french onion, carrots, and crushed some garlic. The larger the better! Throw in a splash or two of EVOO, salt, mixed herbs and black pepper and toss well.
Keep aside.

Marinate some chicken in soy sauce, worchester sauce, salt, honey and mixed herbs. And oh, some more generous amount of EVOO. You could chill this for an hour or so, or move on to the next step immediately.

Arrange the marinated chicken on top of the veggie goodies. Bake at 240C for 40 to 60 minutes.

Thanks to all the yummy marinade and juice and fat from the chicken you get super aromatic and doubly yummy juice at the bottom. You could go all Jaime Oliver on it and transform it into the perfect gravy or just leave it in for a runnier gravy to go with your dish.

The final look of the meal, roasted chicken and veggies served with aglio olio pasta. In fact the juice from the chicken is so flavourful and rich, you could just toss your cooked pasta in it, it would be totally mindblowing. But don't forget parmesan cheese on your pasta. Totally does it!

On a side note I have totally over-used the totally work, okbye!