The Namesake

"The Namesake" directed by Mira Nair, is an interesting and slow film, and it is relatable in a way because as American Desis, we all feel  at one point in our lives that our parents are too old-fashioned or superstitious. Gogol Ganguli, the main character, takes this very reason to avoid his parents completely after getting involved with an American white woman, Maxine. However, this only creates more pain after a tragedy strikes his family.

"The Namesake" has a dramatic pace to it, and most of what occurs is quite extreme, as the protagonist goes through a huge and frustrating transformation.  After his father dies, Gogol tries to abstain from his erratic western way of life by sticking strictly to Indian culture and living with his mother, but when he marries a Bengali woman who ends up cheating on him, he realizes that life is more than just following traditions... 

The sweetest character is probably Ashima Ganguli (played to perfection by Tabu), the mother of Gogol, whose kindness eventually makes her open-minded enough to accept her son's liberal views. She comes to accept her son's mediocre identity, and even asks him to make up with Maxine after noticing his loneliness. I can see my dad making the same compromises for me if I was really intent on getting a degree in art (which is never gonna happen cuz I SUCK at art or making things...). 

So okay... the movie is a relate-able to me, and I am sure it may be to anyone who's parents are immigrants.

Kotha Bangaru Lokam (telugu movie)

There is something about conventional telugu movies that makes me wanna barf.  Perhaps it's the overacting and extraneous sentimentality that pervades every two minutes of these dragging pieces of crap. Well, this one stars Varun Sandesh, probably the best looking telugu actor in tollywood, who I liked much better in "Happy Days" where he was a nice and shy college student. In this movie, he is a teenager, which is very unconvincing, since he looks like a college student and acts like a five year old. But what I find annoying might be normal: for Sandesh is simply following in the footsteps of the top telugu actors, making bizarre gestures that most people would find inappropriate... 

the heroine (who HAS to be his lover) is depicted as "cool" and "innocent," code words for "boring" and "dumb."

I suggest that you don't watch this movie if you are not a regular viewer of telugu movies, and if you are, then please don't get offended by my review. I was somehow really frustrated by this film, and its strange dimensions.. 

Chances Are

The movie stars Robert Downey Jr., the awesome dude from Iron Man, who manages to bring great complexity and emotion to his role in this light hearted comedy. 

In a nutshell, this movie is about a lawyer (Louie) in his 30s (totally in love with his wife, Corrine) who dies and gets re-incarnated as a yale graduate (Downey) whose girlfriend is the daughter of his previous birth.

 It's funny to see Downey realize his former identity. Especially as the ex- husband of the ever loyal Corrine who sneaks pictures of  Louie in the refrigerator.

And when Corrine finally believes that Downey is Louie, she tells her shrink, "I'm in love with a 22 year old man I knew for 26 years." 

I really liked this movie because it was cute. I enjoyed the reunion between Downey and his former birth's wife because it seemed like real, genuine love for a change. 

Downey is really cute, being the young actor he is in this film. 

Do I recommend it?? Ehhhhh. This review has lots of spoilers and it's pretty old. So if ya have time and wanna see it after reading this, then I suppose you can =) 

Halallooyah

PS: Sorry for the confusing plot explanation.... :) 

12 Angry Men

I chose to watch this movie the day before a physics final... and I don't regret it at all. This movie is intellectual gold... it captures the very essence of good film making, and it MAKES SENSE.

The movie is about an hour and a half long and it involves a jury making a decision about a boy's innocence. By the end, 12 men which make up the jury must either mark this boy as "guilty" or "not guilty" for stabbing his father ten minutes after midnight. It is REMARKABLE to find these gentlemen, all from varying backgrounds and pasts come together and make logic of fragmented trial evidence (apparently the boy's lawyer wasn't very good...). In this extraordinary case, the men must not only use their brains but overcome their prejudices.

It is a MUST SEE film, rated #8 on IMDB's top 250 movie list, and it is probably the ONLY OLD movie worth watching (in my opinion...). It released in 1957, but this movie is TREASURE, and with its simplicity and down-to-earth arguments, it is spectacularly interesting to see.

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!!

Go figure.

Cutting Edge 3: Chasing The Dream

This movie didn't release in theaters... it premiered on television, which might be the answer to why you've never heard of it. 

This movie's a spinoff of the original Cutting Edge movie, released in 1992 about a hockey player becoming a figure skater on ice...

Except this time, the changer is a girl played by Francia Raisa, a well-complexioned, hot figured latino girl. Her veteran figure skating partner is practically a backstreet boy model, played by the hot Matt Lanter. Is this realistic?? Ehhh, not really. Is this worth watching?? Not quite (at least in my opinion...). 

A lot of the stuff is dramatized. For one thing, the relationship between Matt Lanter and Francia Rasia's characters. Now, I never thought the relationship between figure skating partners HAD to be romantic, but that's what the movie seems to be proving... and it might seem to make sense, I mean you're touching your partner in intimate places and chemistry does play a huge role. When Matt Lanter's character tries to pull away from that romantic connection at one point in the movie, it is awfully frustrating for Francia's character, because a part of the game seems to be the tension between the players. And Francia and Matt are somehow doomed to fall in love from the beginning because if it isn't so, then neither can skate comfortably, and neither would be happy either... That's what this movie seems to be proving...

HOWEVER, often times in real life, people do not HAVE to fall in love to be figure skating partners and so at times I kinda felt that their whole relationship was too dramatized.

NEXT, in a STATE competition, Matt Lanter's character (Zack) falls and trips over Raisa's character (Alejandra). Despite this cardinal mistake, they still get 4th place, and then by luck of a cheating couple, they get 3rd and then go to nationals. This is highly improbable.  Generally, IF you FALL, YOU'RE OUT!!! That's it. There is no chance, whatsoever. Especially in a state competition...

Anyways, I like Francia here much more than in the Secret Life of the American Teenager. She  is more natural and has the potential to be a fun person, although at times she's nosy.... Matt Lanter is quite the hottie, although at times his voice is too earnest for the role (in my opinion...)

It was quite obvious that Francia and Matt weren't really figure skating throughout, there were doubles that were doing the difficult parts (if you look closely on the screen, ya can see)....The doubles actually did almost the WHOLE national competition - do I have any qualms about that??? Not really, but it was quite obvious....

SO....No need to really watch this movie. But if ya wanna kill time, I suppose it's okay.

:)

The Secret Life of the American Teenager

This show is an acquired taste...at first you think it's just plain WIERD...but then you get used to the way the characters bluntly talk about their drama and personal lives. This is NOT a rated R series- it's TV14, and VERY appropriate for teenagers. It actually discourages sex, which is a good thing and tries to make the whole scene realistic. But then it has to be entertaining....so there are a bunch of complicated plot devices to spice it up a bit. 

My favorite character is...NO ONE. Everyone is kinda screwed up in one way or another. If it is either through their personalities, or their decisions, BUT at least, it shows how lame having a baby in highschool is. No matter how much you love the child, it was produced at the wrong time...

Amy Jergins has a baby with the school player, Ricky. And after she finds out she's pregnant, Amy falls for a sweet boy named Ben (too clingy as we see through later episodes...). Then her mom gets pregnant by her dad WHILE they are having a divorce. If this is not complicated enough for you...then try the relationship between Ricky and Adrian (the school biatch/slut/girlfriend of Ricky)....Excuse me, but I think I accidentally forgot to mention the two most boring characters...Grace, a christian/cheerleading  barbie doll, who's irritatingly perfect and her innocent, nice but slow football boyfriend, Jack. The most normal character would be Jack, but then he had a thing with Adrian and did all these strange things which made him enter this show's conventional club of stupids. 

SOOO...if I am complaining so much...why the HECK do I watch this show???

It's not inappropriate, there's drama, characters that would do things that I would never do, etc. 

So it's time pass. If ya wanna kill your time watching an american soap opera, especially for teens, ya gotta accept the stupidity in the lives of its characters. 

AND that is precisely what I am doing...

yay me. 

Forrest Gump

There is nothing much left to say about this movie other than the fact that it is AMAZING! Forrest Gump's perspective is optimistic, bright and innocently sentimental which gives this movie a genuine flow in its hero's endeavors. Forrest Gump is only capable of doing profound things... and ends up taking part in almost every major event in USA history ranging from the integration of an all white school in Alabama to the Vietnam War. 

WELL...who IS Forrest Gump?

Forrest Gump is perhaps the most non-cynical, disinterested and spectacular man on the planet. His attitude is what makes him a genius, as his military captain tells him..."GOD DAMN Gump... you are a GOD DAMN genius...you must have a GOD DAMN IQ of 160..." although Gump has a lucky and miraculous life, he still marks the moments with his lover, Jenny as most precious...

Jenny however is not as lucky as Gump and experiences the dangerous counterculture of the 50s and 60s, involving herself in drugs and vagabonding through big cities. Yet it is SO SWEET how Gump still loves Jenny throughout the movie and how they both relate to eachother although they are so different. 

Tom Hanks is a BRILLIANT actor. He IS Forrest Gump pretty much. 

I love this movie. It is so inspiring. 

Watch it if you haven't, please. 

Sinngh is King

I just finished watching this movie two minutes ago... and my mind is already spinning with the song "Singh is King... Singh is King" featuring Snoop Dog that popped up during the ending credits of this film...I thought that was one of the best parts...

The movie is entertaining and contains a lot of authentic punjabi masala. And the hardcore Punjabi culture is evident from the mentioning of "Guru Nanak." There is an innocence from the characters that suggests their intrinsic Indian creed, which is nice, but it unfortunately makes their criminal roles even more unconvincing.... no wonder they were able to change so quickly from bad to good.... they were never REALLY bad in the first place.... 

"Happy Singh", played by Akshay Kumar, is a thoroughly happy man from a punjab village.  However, whenever he does something intentionally good in his clumsy alacrity, he always ends up making the situation worse....so the annoyed villagers hatch up a plot to send him to Australia to convince (in vain of course) Lucky, an ex-villager turned mobster back to the village. They know that Happy would fail but never come back a loser, so would never return to the village again. This plan changes, however, when one  of the villagers that plans this strategy ends up accompanying him to Australia.... 

The female hottie in this movie is Katrina Kaif, who tears it up as a tough criminal psychology student from Egypt. She has good chemistry with Kumar, who has done several movies with her in the past. 

The plot and the movie are really silly...but plain dumb fun.. and it is nice to not use your brain for a while, because the acting is great. Akshay Kumar is perfectly cast and brings charisma to the role...

Just make sure to leave your brain at home, and this movie will be a nice time pass. 

Oh balle balle!!! :)