Ice Age: Collision Course***

Dir:  Michael Thurmeier, Galen Tan Chu

Starring: (voices of) Ray Romano, John Leguizamo, Denis Leary, Adam Devine, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Keke Palmer, Josh Peck, Simon Pegg, Seann William Scott, Wanda Sykes, Queen Latifah, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Rauch, Chris Wedge

Scrat, the pre-historic sabre-toothed squirrel forever in pursuit of his desired acorn, sets things into motion in the fifth instalment of the popular Ice Age franchise. His quest leads him to an abandoned alien aircraft which then proceeds to take off with him on board leading to planetary and cosmic bodies going off-course and threatening the Earth with an extinction level event.

The regular cast of characters- Manny the forever-despairing woolly mammoth (Ray Romano), Sid the lisping ground sloth (John Leguizamo), Diego the gruff sabre-toothed tiger (Denis Leary) as well as Manny’s wife, Ellie (Queen Latifah) and daughter, Peaches (Keke Palmer) - are all back, as are Ellie’s adoptive brothers, the opossums Crash and Eddie (Seann William Scott and Josh Peck) and the weasel Buck (Simon Pegg) from the third entry in the series. Among the new characters are Peaches’ fiance, the mastodon Julian (Adam Devine) and Francine (Melissa Rauch), a possible love interest for Sid.

Manny is still getting used to the idea of Peaches getting married and taking off (the father-daughter relationship here echoes the one in the Steve Martin version of Father Of The Bride) when soon he has other things to worry about - such as the complete extinction of his and every other species on the planet. So off he and his friends go to figure out a way to stave off the impending annihilation.

The first two Ice Age movies were very enjoyable (the first one in particular was terrific) but the series had gone off the rails after that (Ice Age: Continental Drift was almost unwatchable). Thankfully, Collision Course gets the series somewhat back on track. Though still not hitting the heights of the first two movies, the latest Ice Age film chugs along nicely and is amusing enough. There just might be some life left in the most successful animated franchise of them all.

Cut to chase: The animated franchise returns to form - somewhat.

 

Happy Bhag Jayegi ***

Dir:  Mudassar Aziz

Starring: Abhay Deol, Diana Penty, Momal Sheikh, Javed Sheikh, Ali Fazal, Jimmy Shergill, Kanwaljeet, Piyush Mishra

Model-turned-actress Diana Penty had made a favourable impression with her debut in the successful, Cocktail. So it was surprising to have her disappear after that. So with her making her return to the big screen in the titular role in Happy Bhag Jayegi and the trailers of the movie looking promising – much like its premise of a runaway bride from Amritsar finding herself in Lahore – I was looking forward to watching the film. However, while Happy does by-and-large work reasonably well (the first half of the movie is much stronger) it never really takes off. A screwball comedy like this should have a series of escalating comic events that build to a riotous climax but the movie moves in spurts and the expected comic crescendo never really arrives. The movie also doesn’t make enough of the same-but-different possibilities inherent in the plot of a madcap Indian landing in Pakistan.

The entire cast does a reasonably good job with our own Momal Sheikh acquitting herself well in her Bollywood debut. However, the actors - and the audience – would have been better served with a tighter script and wittier lines. Still, the movie’s worth a look.

Cut to chase: Reasonably well done but wastes its potential.

Kmumtaz1@hotmail.com; Twitter: @KhusroMumtaz

Rating system:  *Not on your life     ** Hardly worth the bother     ** ½ Okay for a slow afternoon only     *** Good enough for a look see     *** ½ Recommended viewing
**** Don’t miss it     **** ½ Almost perfect     ***** Perfection