 the heck did that one get in here? did you take a dump on the floor? Ike is about to meet a vicious end if he keeps flying near my face. Hey, welcome back to her stupid directions of Corbin. I'm Rick. You can follow us on Instagram, Twitter for more juicy content. Thank you to everybody's supports on Patreon, follow us through the accounts, subscribe to like button. Today we're doing a movie review. And we're doing it of the new film, the 2023 film just came out last week. Pour Thouzel. Pour Thouzel. Again. Pour Thouzel. Pour Thouzel. The new action crime thriller film, Tamil film, and the way it's actually currently in theaters. We did not see it in theaters. We did not. They is playing one place, but it's about, I want to say 80 kilometers. Yes. From us, which is very far. Yes. In LA it would take us over an hour and a half to two hours just to get there. Correct. So I reached out to the producers and the lead actor in it on Instagram and they sent back and they asked the producers if they could send us a screener and they graciously agreed. So thank you guys so much. I do always want to preface this. Obviously we don't do paid reviews. This was just them being kind and allowing us to have a screener of it so we can do a review. Yes. We don't do paid reviews. I think you guys should know that by now. No, that's correct in any way, shape, or form. We don't do paid anything. Yeah. I just want to preface that for you guys. Well, we'll do paid acting. Oh, easily. That will do. Any day of the week. That's the only kind of acting I'll do. But anyways, it's directed by forgive mispronunciations, ladies and gentlemen, because it will all be incorrect, at least trying. Vignesh Raja. And it looks like he was part writer as well. And I believe this is directorial debut actually. Yeah, I believe that is correct. And fucking Ega. Yep. Starring Nikila Vimal, Ashok Selvin, R Sarathkumar, Nizal Ghairavi. I know quite a few other people. Those are your four main leads. Two of those, I believe, were in actually Pony and Selvin. He was in Pony and Selvin. I think he was one of the kings or something like that. And then one of the others as well. But it's still in theaters, so it'll be mostly non-spoiler. If we get into some spoils, we will save it for the end. Save it for the end and we will tell you before we start spoiling you. So Rick, your initial non-spoiler thoughts, please. My initial non-spoiler thoughts. I think one of the measurements of the film is going to be based upon something that we don't have even remotely close to broad understanding of, which is this genre in demo cinema. If I compare it to this genre in American cinema, I don't think that's a fair comparison, even though it's a comparable genre. So ultimately my takeaway from was that I liked it. It wasn't a film that I wound up loving. I can see why it would be loved, especially based on the fact that this might be pretty groundbreaking in terms of... Keep going. It's distracting me. Crime thriller, so that's my two cents worth. I enjoyed it as well. I had some issues with it that we will talk about and stuff that may just not my personal taste, but I was actually, in terms of a thriller, it kept me engaged. It did. And so that's the point of a thriller, especially a crime thriller, to keep you engaged and keep you like, okay, so who is the killer and what's going on? And it did that. It succeeded in its job. And the other thing it succeeded in is the fact that I thought I knew where it was going to go. And I didn't, which is that's what you want. Absolutely. In terms of a crime thriller, especially one that I think I was told a lot of people just this kind of came out of nowhere for a lot of people because it doesn't have a big star. It doesn't have, it's first time director. It was apparently a very small budget that it was made on and stuff like that. Which is wonderful. So that in terms of an overall thriller, me and my wife watch it and we were like, she even was like really nervous at times. She was like, you know, got the anxiousness, which is what you want in a thriller. Yeah. Like if you were to compare it, obviously, like I said, I'm not really comparing it, but like seven or what's the one with Robert Downey? Zodiac. Anytime you, you know, it's a genre that's been around for a long, long time. In terms of a serial killer's out. Right. You need to catch him. Right. And so it's not like an uncommon and we've actually seen it in Indian cinema. But in terms of, hats off to a first time director because I thought he did a very good job in terms of. It does not feel like a first time director. Keeping you engaged and also a bunch of really create, I want to shout out the cinematographer because actually there's a lot of really creative shots in this that that were very helpful in also keeping you engaged and steady. There were a couple of drone shots that felt like they were on a long crane. But I know they were drones. They were so high. Yeah. Definitely definitely didn't feel like a first time director. No, not at all. Hats off to as well as the editing whoever was the editing team. Or if it was just the singular editor of Strigith Sarang. And if that's mispronounced, forgive me. I found the technical aspects to be pretty pretty dang good. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. So let's talk about some of the some of the acting real quick. I really enjoyed our say his name. Our Sarath Kumar who plays the. Basically the older cop. Older cop. Yeah. Essentially. Also he would play a great Ron Swanson if they ever did a Parks and Recreation remake in India. He looks the part. Early on he gave me Kamal Hassan vibes. Yeah. His voice is kind of similar. Yeah. I agree. So I really enjoyed his performance. I thought he I believed him as the long time hardened cop who's really good at his job that doesn't have patience for the rookies. Yeah. And this is we're not giving away any spoilers. This is kind of that's right off the bat. It's a generic thing. It's generic stuff that happens. We didn't even react to the trailer. Yeah. I just heard a lot about that and the producers once again kindly sent us a screener. But I enjoyed his performance a lot. The other lead actor is Ashok Selvin who I thought did a good job. It was he definitely seemed like a rookie cop. And so I thought he did a good job. I thought their chemistry was actually it was kind of a crime thriller buddy. Yeah. Pop a little bit a little bit. Yeah. Not like our our buddy but like no like and this isn't a fair comparison either. But some of you might know, you know, lethal weapon and the relationship between Danny Glover and Mel Gibson actual the movie. Oh, yeah. I was in the show like for an episode. But yeah, I never actually seen the Mel Gibson. That one did Danny Glover. Yeah. I'm getting old for this shit. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's what that's from. That's that is what that's from. The I can't I can't if I can say that but there's a couple other actors. She was also there in seven. I mean, you've got the same thing where you have the seasoned cop with the somebody that's just getting involved. Yeah. Yeah. Very very common thing. It's in the genre. It was very similar to a lot of the genres, but it also did some things that were also different, which was nice. Yes. So overall in terms of because it's like you can't really get into a lot of those because there's a lot of stuff that you could spoil. Right. Because it's a crime thriller of stuff that's weaving and going in and out of who's the killer who's not the killer. Which makes that part of why you either like it or don't like it. Yeah. Yeah. And I think a lot of people will end up enjoying this film. I think you're going to end up walking away being like that was a nice thriller. I enjoyed that. And I think the larger we mentioned at the very outset, I think the largest thing for this would be where this stands in terms of the genre in damel cinema. I think that may be one of the reasons is doing so well because I don't know how many of these are done and how well they do at the box office, especially if they don't have star names driving it in some way. Yeah. And it's very encouraging to hear that it's doing really, really well when it is clearly just driven by story and good performances by the actors and a very, very great debut for a first time director. If I was a first time director and this was the finished product, I would be very proud of what I was able to accomplish. 100%. Yeah. There was some stuff that in terms of I'm just going to go a little vague into some of the stuff that I didn't enjoy as much. There was some tonal changes either at the beginning or it kind of in the middle that I was like, I would have just preferred to stick to the genre. There wasn't a lot of that. There was actually most of the time I was very engaged into the story. But there was a few of that. Some stuff with the ending we'll talk about that I can't get into. But it could all go to based on personal preference of what you like and what I like. And if you've seen it, I'll get into some of that in the spoiler section. I'm just not going to get into that now. I actually thought a lot of the score was actually really, actually reminded me a lot of Vikram Veda a little bit in terms of the background music of it. It's still tamo, so they probably got a lot of inspiration from, because that's a crime thriller as well. Not as like a serial killer one, but in terms of like... Yeah, and this one would be more story-wise, a little bit more twisty. Oh yeah. Easily. A little more complex. Easily. But I liked the score of it and I thought a lot of it... There was times when the tonal switch switched to a little more emotional that it got that Indian little over the topness that wasn't my favorite. But a lot of times when it was in genre that I would have stuck with, I thought it did a good job. And that again is a takeaway that I've gotten to the place of recognizing, particularly in Indian cinema, any region that what we deem in our western sensibilities to be the overscoring of a film is what kind of normal, what they've been doing for a long time. And even the emotional, for lack of a better term, the manipulation, for lack of a better term, it's something that audiences have been so accustomed to that for them, they don't view it that way, nor do the creators view it that way. They get invested in that. So I've grown a bit more. It's like getting an acquired taste for Bon or Hajmola. Any of the things that Western tastes are typically not accustomed to, I'm a lot more, I can take my personal distaste and be more subjective about it than just initially when we started, I was saying this is an objective reality you should never overscore. I feel that way. But when you're talking about cinema that's been this way for so long, again, there's a lot we're still learning. And I can see why those choices would be made. And I didn't feel they were manipulative, unlike you. It's just a personal preference. I definitely liked the fact that this had a lot of twist and turns. I did too. I thought it was going to be more simple. And it was disappointing me until the first hour because I thought, I know this is where this is going. I know where this is going. I just let's cut to the chase. I know where this is. And it didn't. It was surprising in the second half. And without giving anything away, there's like, yes, that's... You're certain. That's who did it. Yeah. And some things are done so, in my opinion, it's almost as if it's so heavy-handed, the creators are going, huh? Look at my cards, huh? And you're thinking, this is just not good storytelling. And then you realize, oh, okay. That was a double fake. Gotcha. One of the things that they do, like if you've seen seven, there's twists, but there's like, you figure out who the killer is, and that's who the killer is, right? It's great. And nothing wrong with seven. Go watch seven. What's in the box? Yeah. Go watch seven because it's a great film. But, and I actually liked how seemingly pretty graphic in terms of like... Makeup. The makeup and the visual effects. Hey, yeah. Shout out to your makeup people because there was some really tight, intimate, close-up stuff of some makeup things that if they don't work, your suspension to disbelief is immediately gone. And I thought the makeup crew did a really good job. And the pacing of it, I think that was a really good pacing. And that's a testament to the editing and directing. So hats off to the... Overall, like I said, I enjoyed it. I would watch it again. I would recommend it. If you haven't seen it, go watch it because I think it's actually a very good thriller in terms of the crime thrillers I've seen in India. Yeah. It's probably one of the best films I've seen. Yeah, I can't, it's better. It's up there for me. I'd have to really think about what crime thrillers you've seen. I put Love Hostile in the genre of a crime thriller. But that's different also. It's different because it doesn't have the mystery. No. This has the Agatha Christie style mystery behind it. Yeah. I think the ones that I'm thinking of... There's an earphone one, right, that he was the cop, right? Yes. And he's trying to solve a murder case that was taking place in the bedroom. And was it the dad? Yeah. Was it the people coming in? So it's also sacred games. It's a series. Yeah, that is the... This was reminiscent to me of the kinds of turns you see that happen where you're trying to figure out, is that really the good guy? Is that really the bad guy? In terms of the... And also one of the things that was a downside, but I kind of brushed it off as it's budgetary, it is dubbed not sync sound. Right. I don't really knock that anymore. It's just something that I have to say because I notice it immediately. Always, immediately. And I always think stuff could be heightened if there was sync sound. I get it in India. I guess that's something that's just more expensive over there to do. Yeah, it is. Once again, it's just part of the culture of filmmaking in India. It's expensive and it's also time consuming, which again is money, so I get it. I don't think it was terrible. It definitely wasn't the worst dubbing I've seen. No, it was actually some of the better dubbing. But it could always be heightened, I feel like, if there's sync sound. Because I can actually get the voice on the day with the same emotion all the time. Truly. I mean, we can pound the payment on this forever, but theater is storytelling. You need suspension of disbelief. And anything that comes in that does not contribute to that suspension of disbelief and pulls you away and makes you remember you're watching a movie rather than being immersed in the story is doing a disservice to it. And dubbing is nine times out of 10. Always going to be a disservice to suspension of disbelief. And we've talked about as well the disconnect that happens with the actual emotion that was being expressed in the moment by the actor versus the dubbing artist. The dubbing artist isn't always looking for just the pure genuineness of the in-the-moment emotion. What they're looking to do is match the emotion. And so there's a contrivance that you can hear. It's not genuine. Like I said, I don't think it was terrible in this. It was actually quite good for dubbing. I'd always notice it when it's done. And once again, some people think that when I say dubbing, like they think it's in another language, I know it was filmed in Tamil and we watched it in Tamil. But they also dubbed the Tamil into it. Yeah, it wasn't filmed with sync sound. So that's what I'm referring to. But overall, I enjoyed the film. I think you should watch the film. Go watch it in theaters. I think support small cinema. Absolutely. And good cinema that will keep you engaged in the theater, especially with a big audience. And it's very original. So that's great. We're going to get into some spoils here about different stuff we liked, different stuff we didn't like, getting a little int more into depth. So if you haven't watched it, please go watch it and come back. We're going to get into some spoils. Yeah. Naughty, naughty, naughty boys. Here come the naughty spoils. Spoilers! Spoilers! Just making sure. There you go. Um, one of my... It's kind of just common with me. I didn't love the ending in terms of... I think it could have been great if it ended at the bullet. Yeah. Him shooting. I was like, this would be a great ending if he's fireshot. It could go black and you don't actually know. Agreed. What happens. Right. I think that would have been a brilliant ending. More mystery. Yeah. They tied a bunch of stuff up. Happy, you know, making it happy. Oh, could he get the girl? Right. They're going to be buddy-buddy now. Buddy cop. Right, they're buddy cops. We've set up a sequel. Like I said, it wasn't the worst thing I've ever seen. It's just my personal preference. You've heard it probably in a thousand reviews that I've done now. I just prefer films to always end on the highest impact level scene. Yeah. And it would have been a brilliant ending if he would have shot the bullet at him, the killer. And it went black. And so you don't know if he hit him. You don't know if the other guy survived. You don't know what happens. You're just like, that was the end. You think you can kind of come up with your own. Yeah. And I understand, you know, if you're talking about writing from the basic ABCs of writing 101, you want conflict, climax, resolution. Yeah. You can include resolution in the climax. And it's quite original to do it that way. And that's exactly, I agree with you. Had we just gotten the bullet and went black. You know, you don't need to resolve everything because that kind of resolved it. You can let the audience determine what's going on in that regard, even whether or not I know that you want to bring resolution to, okay, he gets the girl. Yeah. His older cop who didn't like him at first doesn't die and they're now partners. Yeah. That resolution felt a bit just da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah, I agree. But I get it. It's also one of those things in Indian cinema. Yes. Audiences like that. Yes. So I understand just like the dubbing, just like the overscoring sometimes. It's part of it and so I accept it. It's just, I will always tell you my personal preference and I think it would have been a brilliant ending if he would have shot the gun and it went black. I also thought a couple, this is the primary story here. Early on, I thought our old cop was the killer. Yeah, they wanted you to think that a little bit. Yeah, I was like, he's going to be the killer. And when we get to Kennedy, I thought they really wanted you to think he's the killer. Oh, yeah. It was so, that's what I meant earlier. The red hair, the cards. Yeah. It was super weird. And all of his behavior and any time he grabs him, I mean, every time he showed up it was like Hannibal Lecter. I am glad, because it's one of the things with the writing that I'm glad he was actually a killer. But not the killer. The killer. Right. Because I was like, he clearly looks like a serial killer. I don't want this to be the killer, because that seems a bit obvious. Right. And so I liked that part of the storytelling that they made. It was a little bait and switch. I also liked the attempt is the word I'm looking at, and I think they achieved it. I liked the idea that they went through, and he says it when he's in the car and says, I don't know whether to be angry or feel sad. And then our older cop says, yeah, no, I don't feel sad for them at all. And that's because of their two different experiences, but there's a really strong attention to not characterizing the killers as just these sociopathic, empty-hearted. They're not justifying it, but they're giving an explanation, especially Kennedy's character, as to what caused him to do what he's doing. Great job by the actor as well. Yeah, I thought he did a very interesting look. It'd be interesting to know what they were talking about on set in terms of how much we're giving away, how much we're not giving away, how much the actors actually knew when they were filming. I'm assuming they knew everything. But yeah, I thought it was definitely thought through. This was not in any way a lazy script or a lazy interpretation at all. I agree. It's a couple of the other things that I wanted to talk about. Like I didn't understand the family element in the beginning. That like, when he went and he finally got to be a cop and then his relationship with his younger brother, I mean, I guess they brought that back at the end with him helping that kid at the end with the stuff. But it's just, I was like, that's one of the tonal things that happened really early on. Yeah, and that was my least favorite part of the tonal things and believability was the kid. Yeah, at the end. I didn't hate it, there was like nothing after the shot that I was like, I don't think any of this was needed. It wasn't needed. It felt really oversimplified in that this abusive mom and dad suddenly see the error of the ways because this guy just showed up and said something to them and now everything's all fine and dandy and we're all going to go to Disneyland. I didn't like that. Yeah, yeah, I agree. That was probably my biggest gripe with the film was the way they tied everything up. If you know me and you've been part of the channel for a while, I just, that's not my favorite style of ending of a film. I want everything to be sad or just let me figure out the ending and create my own sadness. It is particular as well to the specificity of genre so I'm far more expectant and celebratory and wanting those kinds of endings in rom-coms. When it comes to a murder mystery or a drama, that's not, those are more indicative of, one of my favorite endings in recent memory if you haven't seen it as three billboards over in Missouri. Not going to ruin it, but that's got one of those endings that is exactly the kind of ending that Corbin's talking about. Another thing that I actually, because in the beginning I was at the love interest with her. I was like, I don't know if I like this. Right, me too. But I'm glad they kind of just kept it kind of vague. Yep. Even at the end, they didn't get together. They were just like, this could go somewhere. So that was a thing I was fine with. And I did like that they didn't have like a love song, something to distract people. It would have convoluted the story. Yep. And so even though they had it, and they had it because obviously you need to have that connection towards the end when she was the one that was abducted, which was a good twist. Because you thought he was going to open the door and have them there and then there was a whole another twist. Yeah, and even little things later on of, holy crap, this goes down to the dimples. Yeah. I thought that was really... I didn't see that coming. I thought the actual killer in the end was kind of a really creepy guy. I thought the actor did a good job. He reminded me a little bit of Bob. Yeah, he did. Same kind of vibe of the killer being this random guy you wouldn't expect. Something interesting in the editing style, and it happened like three times in the entire film. And I was like, I chalked it up to them giving a shout out to like Donald Sinema, I guess, was his reflexes. Because I was like, that's kind of strange. Everything else is pretty normal. He has like, obviously it's not weird to have good reflexes, but the way they shot it, almost like he was like almost super hero-like in his reflexes. Yeah, and I think that goes back to the story he told about throwing the rock up into the tree and knocking the criminal out. I think that is part of what made him feel like I'm designed to do this, even though I don't feel like I have the mentality for it. It was cool. He was like, it's jammed. He threw it at him, caught it. And this is how you get cool with the gun. If you would have shot it and like it went black, it would have been a brilliant ending. I would have loved that. And I did like that tension of he had the gifting and the skill and the training, but there was something else about his particular character and demeanor, at least at this point. And that's another nice thing about the fact that his elder statesman probably started off that way, and reached the place of all after all. And I appreciated we didn't get a really easy explanation about his scars. It was just this guy's seen some stuff and it's made him who he is and that's all you need to know, because he wouldn't tell you. So why should the storytellers tell you? I like that. Exactly. So like I said, it was way more to like in this film than dislike. I think he's a bright young director for the Donald industry. I think he has a very bright future ahead of him and because it looks like he's innovative. You can sequel this too, by the way, obviously. I think maybe that's why they did the ending the way they did. Absolutely. Come on, if you've got another good story to go with those two characters, I would be interested. I'm sure they'll remake this in Hindi and a DJ Dev Gunn will play. We could have said this at the beginning, but yeah, this is one of those things where I don't know what they do with distribution in that regard. So obviously South India is going to get major distribution, but when it goes up, does a film like this get Northern distribution so that there can be some support in the North or does it not get distribution up there? I know it's first week it had less, but then it did well and so it got expanded, which is why it came to the United States. It just wasn't anywhere near us. Because it would make me happy to know that you know, Hindi speaking Northerners are seeing this film in the same way that I would love to see Demilions and the Malayalam and the Delugu seeing which they do. They're like, yeah, we don't get a choice that gets rammed on our throat. Anyways, let us know what you thought about this film. If you liked it, if you didn't like it, what you thought about it, and what should be the next Tamil film that we watch. And once again, thank you so much to the producers and the director for sending us the screeners. Not every production, I reach out sometimes if we can't find a theater, a lot to different productions and to get a screener. Don't always get it. I understand it, but I would like, I always like to thank them when they actually do it because it's very kind. It's not only kind, it also shows the confidence you have because if you know us, you know, I mean, even someone that we know, like an Anyurag, it could send us something. And if we don't like it, we're not going to lie just because we love Anyurag. We're going to be honest. Yeah, we're going to be honest. So it's a very confident thing to say, watch my film and look at it guys. Have we got a screener that we haven't liked? Not yet, no. In terms of when we get one from creators, not yet. Yeah, I don't know, I had to go back, but I don't think we have. No, I mean, there's some we've, like this one where we've said we really liked it, we wouldn't say that we loved the film, but there hasn't been one we disliked. Yeah, anyways, go watch this film, let us know what you thought about it in the comments below.