Solidrariol
Am I Missing Something?
Stephan Hammond
It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Nayan Gough
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
Payno
I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Chris Weatherhead
The acting was fabulous - very well done - well shot - we were surprised and impressed. The way the story was set up was shocking and yet made sense - mental deficiency is a cloudy and mysterious thing to observe in real life and very hard to act it was well - so Christopher Marquette did a great job - and evil men - as deeply evil as Vincent Donofrio's character was is also very hard to play - so the casting of those two roles as well as the brother, Jake and his fiancé was what held my interest - and I felt the cinematography was excellent. It is never clear whether it is the direction, acting or shooting that makes for a compelling story and usually it has to be all three - so, it got me. Having been in the business for many decades and knowing how hard all that is to get right, I was impressed. Hope they got their money back on it and have good memories...It was a very different journey for me as a viewer of many adventure and thriller films.
papukamakshi
As "Broken Horses" was drawing to a close, I formulated my review. I had just one sentence: "You could do worse than spend a totally free evening --when there's no cricket, even--watching this movie."It is just a yarn, spun without imagination, and that yarn isn't substantial enough to be woven into a unique design.There were a couple of twists and turns, some modicum of suspense, many efforts to get the tear ducts opening, but all through I kept thinking, "This is kind of embarrassing." If the movie theater had been full, I dare say there would have been guffaws at the flat story-telling and the clunky dialogs. That would have amused me.With movies on familiar themes you want slick treatment, snappy dialog, and a sound-track that tells some of the story without the aid of words. And in this movie where music is a major theme, I really missed the magic an original score and sound-effects can play.That's it. You aren't likely to go bananas about any aspect of this film, except may be the photography. Having seen this, I am not dying to see "Parinda" either.
powerobject
Stay away from this movie - it is slam dunk boring - from start to finish!! This is a joke out of "PARINDA" movie which was made in India over 25 years ago and obviously Vidoo Vinod Chopra has turned senile in those years that he cannot even think straight anymore.OMG! Is that how a movie should start? ZZzzzz!!! They should watch "CHILDS PLAY" movie to learn how a movie should start!!There are only about half a dozen men and a woman throughout this movie and the camera focuses mainly on 3 people.The whole entire movie is DARK, DARK, BORING, BORING and in some shots you see NOTHING but just a completely DARK screen - all of the movie was shot in the evenings and nights for no reason and even when they show a couple of shots in broad day light for just a few seconds, there is NO light or Sun on actors faces!! Do they call this an art movie cinematography? Maybe the director turned sensitive to Sun light? This is so dumb and annoying. How about learning some techniques before making a movie? Watch Disney, Pixar movies or RANGO or HAPPY ENDING (Saif Ali Khan filmed in the USA with stunning cinematography) - they are all bright, bright.The entire movie is shot in the MIDDLE OF NOWHERE in some unknown hills and mountains - no people, no nothing but just these 6 people who still wear suits, ties, boots, cow boy hats, guns, etc - they could even wander NAKED in those hills and NO one would notice them (LOL) - even Wyoming has more people than these locations.They build a ranch with a white stallion horse in the middle of mountains and nowhere which is also shown only in the evenings and nights for no reason - no one wants to live there even if it is given for FREE!!No offense intended but the 4 main characters in this movie are NO MATCH for Nana Patekar, Jackie Shroff, Anil Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit in the original PARINDA. These actors in Broken Horses are unknown faces and hence the movie seems like a very low budget one. This movie is not a fit even as a 30-minute TV clip. Even low budget TV serials such as Law and Order have more actors, locations, light and better picturization. Each and every scene in this movie is a joke out of PARINDA.If there was a 0, I would give it 0 stars. If there was -10 stars, I would give it -10 stars. That says it all.Jut save your money!
Jasrick Johal
Twenty Five years later, Vidhu Vinod Chopras Parinda has returned as Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Broken Horses, with Mexico's dust bowls replacing Mumbai's mean streets, a ranch on a lake replacing a crucial boat, two brothers joined by love and circumstances now also tied by a slight mental disability, and a lot less blood and a lot more conscious style. So while Chopra's 'Parinda was a pathbreaker in 1989, giving the first gritty portrayal of the underworld in Bollywood, his first Hollywood venture won't make any waves on those well-trodden shores. Particularly as Parinda itself drew comparisons with a film that preceded it by three decades, On the Waterfront. Chopra keeps Broken Horses short and crisp at around 100 minutes, and its violence precise and clipped, a welcome break from similar films that thrive on their glorious celebration of blood. However, with a wisp of a backstory and an embarrassingly simple front one, its largely solid acting can only get it accolades it for its ambition. 'Somewhere near the Mexico border', a sheriff is killed while admiring how good a shot his elder son, Buddy â" otherwise considered rather "slow" â" is. The younger one, Jacky, is more inclined towards violin than guns, and is safely at school at the time. Soon after the funeral, Buddy is paid a visit at the diner where he works by Julius Hench (D'Onofrio), who tells him that "a bad man" killed his father and so he should take revenge. So while Jacky (now played by a hopelessly out-of-depth, and very hopefully curled-hair Yelchin) heads for New York and the Philharmonic Orchestra, Buddy grows up to be the henchman of Hench. Something keeps Jacky away from his hometown, and while you may think the reason is obvious, apparently the younger one has no clue what his elder brother, who can't keep no secrets, does. Jacky finds a girl, a pretty Italian no less, to marry, and Buddy calls him home to give him his wedding gift. Soon enough, for reasons that remain unconvincing, things unravel and complicate. D'Onofrio, modelled after Nana Patekar, is as ruthless and convinced of his own brand of justice, and as afraid of fire since shoving his wife and son into it. One of his "victims" though, a music teacher named Ignacio is so hilariously over the top that one can only be grateful he doesn't stick around to repeat the story about his missing legs. The best role is of Buddy, played admirably by Marquette. As the brother who has been shouldering the family manfully but is also acutely aware of his own shortcomings, he is nervous around the smarter Jacky, the powerful Hench, as well as the other smirking henchmen, and always very, very eager to please. It's a tough balancing act, to be both brave and weak. Shot by Clint Eastwood's favourite cameraperson, and with Goodfellas writer Nicholas Pileggi on board as consultant, Broken Horses also gets its settings right, from its dust-track roads and dust-lined vehicles to its one-horse towns. However, should you keep waiting for all of it to amount to something more, you would be disappointed. The moral of the story for Chopra: If you want to try something new, perhaps go for something new.