Slumdog Millionaire

2008

Drama

McKay's Review

I have heard some buzz about this movie here and there but didn't really know what it was about and just kept putting off this movie for awhile. Boy, that was a big mistake. This movie was incredible. Everything about it is making me feel that this was probably the best movie of 2008. The concept of the story, the acting, the location, the cinematography, the music, everything was perfect.

This movie has a main story and then smaller stories throughout the movie that are memories of the main character's life.

This movie is about a young man from Mumbai, India named Jamal who goes on the Indian version of "Who wants to be a millionaire?". He ends up answering many of the questions with ease but unfortunately many of the answers have come to him from tragedies and hard times from his childhood, which shows him and his brother Salim as little boys seeing their mother murdered and becoming orphans and living on the street and in harsh conditions. It also shows the struggles and life decisions each other takes that becomes their paths in life. While Jamal and Salim are still young they meet a young girl named Latika who they become friends with and Jamal ends up liking but again life tears them apart from each other and Jamal spends a lot of his youth searching for her. FYI Freida Pinto, who plays the older version of Latika is incredibly gorgeous. You could call this movie a simple love story but I feel it is a lot more.

I highly recommend seeing this film.

-McKay R.

A-



Ron's Review

I'm sorry to say I was not as blown away by this film as McKay was. Yes, I'm aware most consider it the best movie of the year. Yes, it will probably win a whole lot of Oscars, and most likely take home best picture. Yes, the cinematography, acting, art direction - all excellent. Where this movie sort of faltered for me was in the story itself. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was a decent film, it had some pretty nifty moments, and I'm a big fan of Danny Boyles' work for the most part - (see Sunshine, Trainspotting, or 28 Days Later) yet this movie didn't resonate with me as much as I expected it too. I will venture to say I didn't detest this film as I did Juno - against the popularity it had with the masses. I don't know what it is. Perhaps the hype just built it up to unreasonable expectations. Perhaps as a man being happily married for close to two years, the story of love lost then love found then love lost again then love found again doesn't quite tug at my heart strings. Of all things I found the story sort of trite and predictable. Of course you know from the get go the main character wins crap loads of money, so I didn't feel there was a whole lot of tension in the game show scenes. The title itself slaps you upside the head - "Poor guy from India gets insanely rich". I'm aware that the meat of the movie is in the story of how he gets to that point, but even so - I'm sorry to say I got kind of bored with Jamal's story. I really wanted to love the movie too. REALLY! But you can't force yourself to enjoy something. Perhaps the older I get the less I appreciate film art with character stories and look forward more to explosions and gun fights. Perhaps it's because I hate the game show "Who Want's to Be a Millionaire". Those who know me know I've really been at odds with what the academy has deemed Oscar worthy in the past. Titanic? Bleccchhhh. Return of the King? Good popcorn fun and fantastically epic but give me a frigging break. And when was the last time anyone watched Annie Hall? The Departed was pretty good though..... I will say that Slumdog does hold up really well within Danny Boyle's film resume, and has successfully portrayed harshness in poverty stricken India. And he's probably made stars out of two very young and talented actors. But I will say that unfortunately, I have enjoyed other films a lot more this year.

-Ron J.

B

Gran Torino

2008

Drama

Clint Eastwood

This movie isn't out yet and won't be until early 2009 but of course if you ever want to find something bad enough turn to the internet. (don't judge me.) This movie stars Clint Eastwood as a bitter, old Korean War vet whose wife recently died and his kids and grand kids don't like talking to him or being around him, but I guess that feeling is mutual with him as well. All Clint Eastwood's character wants to do is be left alone with the few things that he's familiar with, his dog and his Gran Torino. But with his neighborhood and way of life degenerating around him it makes it hard, especially when someone tries to steal his car right out of his garage.

This movie has a bit of the Million dollar baby vibe to it since he ends up making "friends" with a Vietnamese family next door that are in need of help with different things in there lives. There are parts in the movie that surprised me when I heard some of the racial language and things that Clint Eastwood's character called people but it definitely helped to make his character believable.

The entire movie was perfect until the closing credit song, which is a song called Gran Torino and it is sung by...Clint Eastwood. Now Clint is an amazing actor and director but not a singer. He might want to keep his day job.

_McKay R.

A-

In Bruges

2008

Comedy/Action

Collin Farrell; Brendon Gleeson

This movie was recommended to me by my brother where he and I occasionally see eye to eye and agree on movies. But this time he was right on the money. This movie stars Colin Farrell, remember him? Just kidding. And Brendan Gleeson as two contract killers who are advised by their boss to hide out in the small old historic village of Bruge, Belgium until he calls them. Brendan Gleeson's character being a more relaxed older man enjoys this time to take in some of the sites while Colin Farrell's character is a young, smart-ass Irish man (big stretch) who is going crazy with boredom and needing to find anything good and enjoyable in this town.

The acting, storyline, humor, and final gun battle/ chase scene is what makes this such a great movie to me.I already knew that Brendan Gleeson was a great actor but this gave me more respect for Colin Farrell as a serious actor and not a "hollywood bad boy". I think Colin Farrell is taking a play out of the Brad Pitt's playbook by choosing this movie.

In this movie try to see if you can recognize the three people that play characters in the Harry Potter movies.

P.S. When you watch this movie make sure you go into the DVD special features and watch the segment entitled F*cking Bruge, it's hilarious.

-McKay R.

A-

Forgetting Sarah Marshall - 2008

Comedy

Jason Segal, Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell

Available on DVD/Bluray

I'll admit that I hardly knew anything about this movie before I saw it except that it was another creation from Judd Apatow (The 40 year old virgin, Knocked up, Superbad, and Pineapple express). So I knew it had potential to be funny but probably not as funny as the other movies. It's about a guy named Peter (Jason Segel) a tv show music composer who gets dumped by his hot televison star girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell). He decides the best way to get over her is to take a vacation to Hawaii. While checking into his hotel he ends up running into Sarah who is staying at that same hotel with her new boyfriend Aldous Snow (Russell Brand) a very sexually confident British rockstar. While staying at the hotel Peter ends up getting to know the front desk girl Rachel (Mila Kunis) very well. Wink! Wink! While his problems with love and relationships are fading Sarah's are increasing when she realizes that she made a mistake breaking up with Peter. I know the plot doesn't sound funny but when you have a supporting cast like Paul Rudd (Anchorman), Bill Hader (SNL), Jonah Hill (Superbad) Jack McBrayer (30 Rock), and even short cameos of Jason Bateman (Arrested Development), and William Baldwin...pure gold. Plus Kristen Bell(heroes) is dang hot and then there's Mila Kunis (That 70's show/Family Guy) who I have now seen in a new light. Sure she was the better looking of the girls on That 70's show, but lately only associating her voice to the face of Meg Griffin on Family Guy you tend to forget how smokin hot she is. You'll see.

Over all I would recommend seeing this movie and I found it funnier the second time around when I watched it with friends.

-McKay R.

B+

Space Chimps - 2008

Animated

Available on DVD/Bluray

Ok, what the hell?

I understand its not Pixar or Dreamworks, but come on... and also I'm pretty sure the production staff recorded the audio in the same place Weird Al recorded his first song, in a bathroom. I have a better idea. Lets get a bunch of real monkeys, put them in a cage and charge people to see them. That would be more entertaining. Anyway it had an ok story except it was too mingled with annoyingness. Its one redeeming quality was that they did play chimpanzees by the bare naked ladies at the end.

-Kip J.

D

Kung Fu Panda - 2008

Animation

Available on DVD/Bluray

Kung Fu Panda is one of the more pleasantly surprising movies I saw over the summer. Dreamworks Animation (who is responsible for Shrek) has given us a refreshing take on the kung fu genre, and the art of animation in general. A lot of animated films make the mistake of incorporating pop culture jokes into themselves, thereby dating them in a matter of five years or less, as the jokes become trite and turn the films into cheap novelties. Kung Fu Panda ignores these cop outs and chooses instead to focus on telling a compelling story that seems light and cheery on the outside, with an underlying dramatic tension beneath it. It also features some quite inventive ways of reinventing certain themes and ideas (like the standard hero training montage). The hero is a weeble wobble shaped panda named Po, who hopes to someday leave his mundane life of helping out his father (a goose, which plays into some funny jokes later on) with the family noodle business, and accomplishing more. Po's heroes are the Furious Five, a group of plush toy looking animals who are masters of their own respective styles of Kung Fu (Monkey does monkey style, Crane does crane style, etc.) Soon he is drawn in to the world of Kung Fu as he is apparently destined to become the Dragon Warrior, a foretold hero of his valley. The magic of the movie is in how it balances out comedy with heart and drama. It seems to have all the right flourishes in the right places, so it never becomes overly childish nor serious, which helps to serve both comedy and drama extremely well, without having either element feel entirely out of place. Jack Black is the voice of Po, and manages it quite well, shedding the bulk of his Jack Blackishness in allowing the character to be himself without forced jokes or quips. Dustin Hoffman also excels as Master Shifu, a small racoon looking guy with a huge voice. Shifu is the most conflicted character of the story, and along with Po learns alot about himself and how life isn't always quite what you expect. There are other great voice actors featured here as well, but the Furious Five who are portrayed by a miriad of celebrities, take a back seat as secondary characters, so you don't get to know them too well. Maybe they'll be more prominent in the sequel. Kung Fu Panda is visually amazing and the animation is brilliant. Expression and body language are done so well as to almost make you forget you're watching a cartoon. One last thing of note is the music of Hanz Zimmer, which actually takes itself rather seriously when the mood calls for it. He's always been a great composer, but his music lends alot of emotion and flourish to the movie. So check it out. Great for kids and quite enough to entertain this adult who has seen it multiple times.

A

Wall-E - 2008

Animated/ Rated G

On DVD/Bluray

Ron's Review

Pixar apparently is not short on story ideas, a rich pool of voice actors, or talented animators and technical wizards. All of this has never been more obvious than in their latest, Wall-E. As a hopeful future animator, I was able to pinpoint technical brilliance the whole way through, but it really doesn't require an artist's eye to appreciate that this is a gorgeous film. (Can it really be considered film? The debate continues) It may however take a few viewings to take it all in. Unfortunately, the first time I saw it I was trying to break in a trial pair of contact lenses, so most of what I saw at the theater were rapid moving bright and blurry images. Fortunately I've since been able to watch it on Bluray and have not been dissapointed. Pixar has not only mastered movement and digital complexity, but also the realm of solid story telling and character development. One could say they may have gone out on a limb by having the lead characters not speaking, even by not being human at all yet you can see how well planned and thought out the character development really was, through actions, little quirks, and brilliant methods of having robot emotion translate visually into cues that we humans can relate to. After all, Pixar has never had trouble getting it's audience to care about non human characters. It's not until after the first half of the movie that we are introduced to space faring humans and spoken dialogue. Some have criticized the second half as the weaker of the two for this reason, but I thought it segued pretty smoothly from the first half. To me it was pretty much two episodes of a larger story, the first half was quite interesting for sure, but would have become pretty tedious and boring without the second half to balance it out. Wall-E is a simple story in itself, made a tad more complex by the underlying secondary plot of re-establishing sustainable life on Earth. Seemingly a perfect blend of story and whimsy which appeals to kids (who will undoubtedly watch it multiple times) and adults for it's little nods to other films of the science fiction genre, as well as parodizing the state of humanity in modern times. Really words can't do it justice, so you'll just have to watch it on your own to see why the movie sticks with you (in case you've been living in a cave all last summer and have never seen it). The support cast of Wall-E, and perhaps even Wall-E himself may not be as memorable as Woody and friends or even the cast of the Incredibles - it has sacrificed cuddly characters for a more mature plot with slightly darker humor and themes than Pixar usually offers, but I can definitely appreciate it for pushing the envelope and daring to develop something more. Yet curiously it will fit in rather well with the rest of your Pixar library. Be sure to check it out, you won't regret it, even after you have to fast forward through about twenty or so Disney previews and propaganda.

Ron J.

A-



Kip's Review

Johnny 5 needed a bolt of lightning to get a personality, but Wall-e had plenty from the start. He has courage and drive when other supposed "alive" robots would say: "No Dissasemble!"

This movie was awesome. While other animations have also been awesomely awesome (Kung Fu Panda), this one has the best film-like animation sequences and is packed with heart. Disney/Pixar sure gets the cute robot movie award. Oh and who couldn't watch fat people puttering around in their personal hover seats all day.

Viewing Ideas: While viewing this Pic I recommend Twinkies and Tang.

-Kip J.

A-


Average Rating A-