of Romero, Vaughn, Oldboy and Nolan

hoo boy, its been forever since my last post. I've been through too much and seen too many movies in that time period. Some of them were good but forgettable, (the interpreter), some great but with flawed endings and poorly written scripts (Parineeta), some surprisingly good movies...which i'll be talking about at length in this update.

First things first, lets get the bollywood stuff out of the way. I saw three very different movies in a short span. First was RamGopal Varma's Bhoot, which i had never gotten around to seeing. Theres not much to be said about this one...a total copy of exorcist, even more toned down than the racy original, avoids dealing with religion entirely, avoids having any controversial material, and so obviously, it is nothing but a watered down effort at horror. I shudder to think what this could have been if Ramu had taken some risks. Even though he hates the mention of Raat now, I think that was a more honest effort. Of course, Bhoot was a big hit, thanks in part to two things: Urmila's amazing performance, and cheap scares. Yes, cheap scares. I hate a dishonest horror movie. To scare me with a sudden shot of a monster with loud music is one thing. But to scare me with an unrealistically lous door buzzer...that is just Ramu laughing in the audience's face. Come on, you could have done a better job than that. You are a much better director than that.
Its ironic that Ramu calls his company the factory huh. It seems that so many movies are coming out of that factory, that they are almost cookie cutter like. Similar in look and feel, different plots definitely, but all fatally flawed so that none really achieve cinematic greatness that they really could. To date, only a few RGV films have truly impressed me, only a few, and I'm even a self confessed RGV fan! Satya, Rangeela, Company, Ab Tak Chappan, and to a small extent, Darna Mana Hai (terrible, terrible ending). I haven't seen D yet, and i've heard its great...but whats with the item number title songs and stuff? We all know where hes heading, hes becoming a businessman, not a filmmaker anymore.

Enough about Bhoot, and I wanted to talk the least about it anyway. I saw an excellent Hindi film, Kya Kool Hain Hum. If you haven't identfied the tone of sarcasm in my voice yet, then let me put it bluntly. WTF? Ok granted, this movie was funny in a sit down with your buddies drink beer and laugh out loud kind of way. But this movie was like Dada Kondke in Hindi! and to think my mom recommended it to me. (I did kinda enjoy it though, i admit). Lastly Parineeta. Good movie. Excellent music. Good performance by Vidya Balan. Passable performances by the rest. Nice look and feel, excellent cinematography. Not a bad job with pacing. Horrible ending. Overall a good experience though. However, now, looking back, I can't remember one moment in the film where i really loved it. Like loved it loved it. In the overly hysterical, insanely ostentatious Devdas, there were several moments where through the over the top acting, loud sets and garish costumes, Bhansali made moments shine through like a hot knife through butter and they stayed with me. Like the ending and the meeting of the two women. Parineeta? Not so. End Rating, average.

Thats the Hindi stuff. Now to the excellent american movies i've been watching. A funny thing happened to me today. I was at the gym and I saw two squash ladder players talking. The desi guy was trying to talk to two Italians and get their names. The guy was saying my email is romero@blahblah.com (emails may have been edited for the sake of privacy ;) and the desi guy kept saying "M-A-R-O?". After lots of frustrating back and forth, the third guy butted in and said, do u know how to spell romeo? Desi guys goes "Yuzz, of course". "Then put an R between the E and the O". Desi guys gets it immediately. The Italians then ask him "whats your email?". Desi guy contemplates the complexity of his own name for a second and then replies "I think its best if we don't go there right now". And then all three turned around to see a goofy faced Sumier laughing right behind them. Sumier-->sheepish look-->hasty exit.

Anyway, silly story aside, i came home and took out my Day of the Dead DVD and put it in and realised...hey, i'm watching a George Romero classic horror movie! Weird how two Romero's pop up in the span of hours huh. Anyway, this campy 80s zombie horror flick was the last in the Night of the dead, Dawn of the dead, Day of the dead trilogy and defined the Zombie horror movie genre. 28 Days later? They came back? Resident Evil? Silent Hill? Yep, they can all thank Romero's original masterpieces. However, watching them now with the cheesy dialogue, acting and the campy 80s music, I can't help but laugh. These aren't superior movies in the conventional sense. You won't be watching these and going oh, they made some excellent movies in those days too. No, this isn't Kramer vs Kramer. This is the height of crazy american camp horror. The 60s, 70s and 80s saw tons of these movies all playing with their new toys, rock n'roll, color film, special effects, a more liberal audience and comparatively more freedom with gore and violence and less scrutiny than what we have today. Romero comes out with his 4th zombie movie, Land of the dead next week, and early screenings say it is excellent. So after millions of reminders by my friend Chetan, i finally got around to watching this. I wouldn't recommend this one as the definitive zombie horror movie by any means, but check out Resident Evil and Apocalypse if u want some scary zombie fun. But the two true masterpieces of the genre right now are two british films: 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead (Shaun is my personal favorite....hearing zombie attack news broadcast in radio in Hindi just adds that little something extra to the movie ;).

28 Days later stars the excellent Cillian Murphy, who raises his head in another movie I just saw last week, Batman Begins. Batman Begins is really, the DC comic movie we have all been waiting for. I won't write much about this one, but I will say this. For a guy whos not a comic book fan, who didn't know shit about Batman, Christopher Nolan(Memento, Insomnia) does an excellent job at directing this one. Gone are the days of rubber nipple suits, crazy lighting and weird sets. This is a dark, serious, well written, ass kicking batman. Christian Bale finally gets his moment of fame (so deservedly) and I am glad they are making two more. Watch this one, it is excellent. Funny thing though, so much of the main cast is british. Nolan, Bale, Caine, Murphy, Neeson. Except for Freeman and Katie Holmes, they are all European. Good good summer fare. Possibly the first great movie of the summer.

I've ranted on and on and on with this post. Its cause I haven't written so long. It feels great to talk about movies though, for too long i've been numbed by some serious personal shit in my life. I can say that finally i'm growing accustomed to the pain, but even as i write this, i see how much my views on the same movies have changed. Two months ago i'd have written very different reviews. Such is life perhaps...and no one said it would be easy. I am still dealing with increbile rage, humilation and hurt. Which is why I leave discussions of Layer Cake and Oldboy for the next post.

Next Post: More movies, more personal discussions than this post, Motorcycle Diaries, Howl's Moving Castle (hope I can catch it) and maybe My summer of Love and Me, you and everyone else we know. Pardon the grammar and typos in this one, its late and i'm too lazy to proofread. Hope all y'all are in good health and spirits.

till next time.