Category — Reviews

I was able to catch a screening of the new film Slumdog Millionaire last night. The movie, directed by Danny Boyle, tells the story of Jamal Malik, an impoverished youth in India as he progresses through India’s version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

I know, I know. That’s the premise? It’s a bit more than that. At the start of the movie, Malik has already accumulated 10 million rupees on the game show and is thus arrested for suspicion of cheating. As the police inspector says, doctors and lawyers are on the show and do not go past 16 thousand rupees. What does a slumdog know?

So as Jamal is sitting in the police station, questioned by the inspector about his response to every single question, the audience watches as Jamal gives his story and we see how his path in life revealed the answers. We see him as a young boy with his brother Salim and friend Latika. We see him grow up and try to make some kind of living. We’re with him on his journey to find Latika, who he had lost track of. We find out about the events in his life that ultimately bring him to the hot seat of the popular game show.

I read that they couldn’t find a decent person to play Jamal Malik in India and that’s why they went with British actor Dev Patel, who turned out to be perfect for the role. The cast also includes Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor playing himself (or a smarmy version of himself. I’m not entirely sure), newcomer Frieda Pinto playing Latika, and Irfan Khan as the police inspector. Khan has made a name playing in non-Bollywood movies like A Mighty Heart, The Namesake, and Darjeeling Limited and now, this.

Slumdog Millionaire depicts an India that Bollywood usually tries to steer clear of. Boyle shows us the life of kids in the slums and the brutal reality that a lot of them face. It’s not light hearted and fluffy. Also, while the score is composed by A.R. Rahman, one of Bollywood’s most notable composers, there are no songs that the leads spontaneously break out to from 6-8 times during the movie. Instead, the score complements the visuals to give us a really good story that sticks with you after you leave the theater. Highly recommended.

I watched Batman: Gotham Knight last night. This is the third movie in the recent trend of straight-to-DVD animated features from DC Comics and Warner Brothers. This is how I would rate the movies thus far:

-Superman: Doomsday - Only ok. However, it was at least better than Superman Returns (but seriously, what wasn’t?)
-Justice League: New Frontier - Better
-Batman: Gotham Knight - AWESOME

The movie is broken up into 6 stories, each drawn by different animators, which are self contained yet interconnected:

-Have I Got A Story for You
-Crossfire
-Field Test
-In Darkness Dwells
-Working Through Pain
-Deadshot

Timeline wise, the film falls after Batman Begins and before the upcoming The Dark Knight. The 6 stories are in chronological order, as this is not a Tarantino movie, and bring together a film in which Gotham City is still trying to get used to a vigilante in a Bat costume and Bruce Wayne is getting used to being Batman. Therefore these stories represent different aspects of Batman: how Gothamites view him, how the police view him, and how he views himself.

Although it does tie in with the two live action films, don’t look at this animated film as a method the production studios can capitalize on the attention Batman is getting with the upcoming feature film. There is an emphasis on quality storytelling here and combined with the stellar animation that utilizes the Japanese anime style, Batman: Gotham Knight is easily on par with Batman Begins and the upcoming The Dark Knight, which is already drawing raves.

As an aside, I was a bit distracted while watching the first story because its plot was the same as an episode of Batman: The Animated Series in which Gotham City kids talk about their stories of Batman. In the episode, each kid’s account was wildly different and conflicted with each other. Before I could pat myself on the back for making the connection, I found out that this particular episode, Legends of the Dark Knight, is included on the special edition DVD.

Highly Recommended.

By the way, this doesn’t mean that I have lost my love for Superman who still ranks as my favorite superhero. I’m still allowed to appreciate Batman, especially because this character always seems to have the best animated series and movies connected to him. I have to admit though, in my mind Kevin Conroy is Batman so when he doesn’t provide the voice acting, as he doesn’t in WB’s The Batman, I won’t bother watching it. However, everything else has almost consistently been great (ok, maybe not Batman: Sub Zero as much but even that was still pretty good).

Until next time (which I believe is Wonder Woman)…

Over the weekend, I saw Morgan Spurlock’s documentary Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden. It was good but it’s tailored for those who do not know much about worldly affairs. If you know the results of the “War on Terror,” that actual people with feelings live in Muslim countries, and that the population at large in these countries don’t really care for Bin Laden, then you don’t really need to watch this as it is dumbed down for the average person who doesn’t know much of anything. It’s effective for this specific crowd though and fulfills its purpose.

There was one part that cracked me up and I thought I would share it with all of you. In the beginning, Spurlock went through defensive training by an organization that prepares civilians traveling to Middle Eastern countries. The class even taught people what to do in case they are taken hostage. In one scene, Morgan Spurlock is crouched down on the  floor with his hands behind his head while an instructor play acts as a terrorist. He holds a gun to Spurlock’s head and asks in a threatening voice: “Are you going to convert to Muslim?”

Convert to Muslim?! Hahaha.

*shakes head* Oh the humanity. . .

Last night I watched Justice League: The New Frontier, the latest animated straight to DVD movie released by Warners Animation. The first one released was Superman: Doomsday, which I wrote about previously.

The movie, based off a comic book, was animated in an old style manner to mimic the art of the Golden Age. I wasn’t sure how I’d react to it since I’m a huge fan of the modern Justice League animated series, but it worked quite well.

The plot of the move revolves around The Centre, an initially unseen enemy that wishes to eradicate the human race because of their destructive ways.

The movie takes place during the Red Scare in which in addition to fear of communists, the public maintained a fear of superheroes. Because of possible ramifications, the superheroes in general are hesitant to use their powers. However since fending off The Centre required the joining of forces of both the American military and various superheroes, an understanding had to be reached. To deflect a standoff between the two groups, Superman gave an impassioned speech as to how they all needed to let go of their fear of each other and band together to fight the common evil.

I really liked the movie - good plot, good animation, and better than the Superman Returns movie (but like I said before, anything is better than that). It makes you think though - maybe what this world needs to combat the constant fear of one another is a common alien enemy. But that wouldn’t be practical, would it.

The next animated movie due to be released straight to DVD is Batman: Gotham Knight, an anime-style Batman movie in which Batman is voiced by the original Batman voice actor from the animated series, Kevin Conroy. Woohoo!

A few months ago, a friend gave me a copy of Three Cups of Tea. I always saw it at Borders and wanted to read it, but never got around to it. However, it joined the growing pile of ‘Books I have but have not yet read pile’ on my shelf.

A few weeks ago, a coworker emailed me about the book, saying that he was reading it and thought that maybe I would like it as well. So I finally got around to it last week and finished it yesterday.

Whoa.

The subject, Greg Mortenson has been responsible for building schools in poor regions in Pakistan, especially schools for girls. He felt the need to start the endeavor after wandering into the village of Korphe after a failed attempt to climb K2. He made a promise to one of the village elders that he would come back and build a school. Although Mortenson had to overcome a lot of hardships to eventually fulfill his promise, he didn’t stop there.

It’s crazy because here’s this guy, Greg, who owes absolutely nothing to Pakistanis and Muslims and yet has dedicated a good portion of his life to ensure that the poor regions can provide an education to its children when Pakistan’s own government cannot. Since 9/11, Mortenson has also been trying to build schools in Afghanistan in order to a)educate the children so they won’t become part of the group of uneducated extremists and b)undo a lot of the damage the American fight on terrorism did to the villages of the civilian population.

Although I don’t think the book was perfect (the sentence structure was a bit confusing at times), I have to recommend this book. I couldn’t get over how much Greg Mortenson has accomplished.

DC Comics recently came out with an animated straight to DVD movie titled Superman: Doomsday. This is meant to be an adaptation of the Death of Superman storyline from the comics, which began in 1993 and ended in 1994. This animated movie was created by the same people responsible for the Superman, Batman, and Justice League cartoons. However, it doesn’t quite take place in the same universe.

I got the DVD a couple of weeks ago but put off watching it because it’s Ramadan. I ended up watching it Saturday night after I broke my fast in the evening because I got nostalgic for the Superman animated series after catching the end of an episode on cable. So what follows is a look at the movie, with comparisons to the comics. You really don’t have to read what follows if you’re not interested in the topic. Really folks, turn back now or you can’t complain about how much thought I’ve given to this:

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Hi All.

I caught Aliens in America on TV the other day, the new show on the CW that debuted on Monday. The premise, if you’ve been living under a rock is this: A Pakistani Exchange student comes to live with an unsuspecting American family in Wisconsin. The mom was expecting some good looking Nordic kid that would make her own son, Justin, more popular at school. Instead, the family got shalwaar kameez and kufi wearing Raja from Pakistan.

I heard before that the show does a good job of portraying Raja as a real person and not just some steretype. I had my doubts when he came off the plane and acted, y’know, strange, but the actor and character came around. The funniest scene was Raja’s first day and the teacher asked him what it was like to be different. While he was trying to get a protest in, the teacher asked what people thought of Raja and when someone said she was angry at him because of “what his people did to the buildings,” the teacher asked who else was angry. The rest of the class raised their hands. The look on Raja’s face was the dawning realization that life in America wouldn’t be as simple as he thought it would be.

I’ll tune in next week to catch the further hijinks of Justin and Raja.

I have to say, I was a bit surprised at Scott Patterson’s portrayal of the Dad. I was expecting some grumpy guy that wouldn’t care for Raja from the outset. Instead, he was the first one to warm up to him, especially after he saw how Raja washed the dishes without being asked.

I guess I’m so used to seeing Patterson as grumpy, plaid-wearing, backwards baseball cap Luke on Gilmore Girls that I forgot he wasn’t supposed to be Luke.

Yes, I admit I watched Gilmore Girls. Happy? Granted, it got sort of not good (my nice way of saying ’stupid’) in the final season with all that stuff about Lorelai and Christopher but when Lorelai ended up serenading Luke with “I Will Always Love You” during karaoke night in one of the final episodes, I got all choked up. Shut up. Not a word :p

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Most people know that I am unhealthily obsessed with the TV show, Veronica Mars. I look forward to each and every new episode and, a few times the episodes have been pretty intense and I even have a hard time falling asleep after watching it. I know, crazy right?

The episode that came on last night was the first new one in about 2 months. A couple of weeks ago, they started airing commercials for it and apparently it revolved around prejudice with Arabs. O-kay. . .

But I thought, it can’t be bad. I mean, it’s freakin Veronica Mars.

And then I watched it. Man oh man.

It was LAME.

So Veronica takes the case of a Middle Eastern Restuarant that gets vandalized by someone spray painting Terrorist on their restaurant.

You know what Veronica says?

“Guess it’s a bad time to be Arab in America.”

Yeah. It’s 2007. It’s been a bad time to be Arab in America FOR A LONG TIME NOW.

Didn’t 7th Heaven already do an episode of helping out the Muslims? God Bless You Camdens!

And what of Crash? This was a rehash of one of the movie’s many intertwining storylines.

This episode was so cliched and bad. It hurt me. The only good part was Mac.