213 Best History Movies to Watch (Page 15)

Sight is based on the extraordinary life of Dr. Ming Wang, a Chinese immigrant who fled Communist China and revolutionized his field of ophthalmology in the West. Because of his hardships, he’s sympathetic to the needy and often takes pro-bono cases. In the movie, he even helps partially restore a little girl’s sight, which was cruelly taken from her by an abusive stepmom. Obviously, Wang’s story is rife with intrigue, inspiration, and drama, but this film by Director Andrew Hyatt does him no justice. There is no conflict nor tension to be found here, no exciting twists or turns—just a perfectly bland story whose ending anyone could guess. The performances could’ve elevated it, but Terry Chen, who plays Wang, never compels. To be fair, he doesn’t seem to have a lot to work with; he’s just an all-around good guy who doesn’t find the need to grow past anything. But even in the simplest scenes, his delivery seems wooden, almost like he, too, is unconvinced by the strength of his lines. Looking equally bored is a squandered Greg Kinnear, whose presence makes me wonder whether he has some debts he needs to settle. But even if Chen and Kinnear gave it their all, it’s hard to imagine Sight as anything more than a lazy attempt to retell an inspiring true story.

Genre: Drama, History

Actor: Aaron Paul Stewart, Ben Wang, Danni Wang, Donald Heng, Fionnula Flanagan, Greg Kinnear, Jennifer Juniper Angeli, Ken Godmere, Mia SwamiNathan, Natalie Skye, Raymond Ma, Sky Kao, Terry Chen, Wai Ching Ho

Director: Andrew Hyatt

Rating: PG-13

Even before its characters get to Europe, Bawaal sets itself up as a truly ludicrous romantic comedy, completely unmoored from any common sense or internal logic, and with the most cartoonishly awful protagonist at its center. There isn't a single convincing story idea here, from the way Ajay's students learn from and idolize him despite his complete lack of teaching ability, to the way he treats his wife Nisha like dirt after learning she has epilepsy. Movies about scoundrels aren't unwelcome, but it feels as if there hasn't been any thought put into how Ajay views other people and the self-image he so desperately wants to protect—and even less thought seems to have been put into the hilariously shallow ways Ajay "earns" redemption by the end.

But then the characters get to Europe, and Bawaal inexplicably becomes a history lesson about the atrocities of World War II, which are briefly recreated in corny and at times tastelessly done fantasy sequences. The idea that these grown adults who have access to knowledge and pop culture are only now finding out that genocide is bad is nothing short of mind-numbing. Even worse is how Bawaal ignores every difficult and painful truth we've learned and continue to learn from World War II, and reduces so much suffering into a contrived moral lesson about how we should accept each other's flaws and learn to forgive. No matter the efforts of its lead actors or the quality of the production values on display, the film just can't overcome the bad taste it leaves in the mouth.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, History, Romance

Actor: Anjuman Saxena, Janhvi Kapoor, Manoj Pahwa, Mukesh Tiwari, Prateek Pachori, Varun Dhawan

Director: Nitesh Tiwari