Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
June 15, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Went Looking For…
Believe it or not, I sometimes do have a predetermined playlist while browsing for movie titles. Generally, there is a week between my adding them to the playlist and actually watching them. The movies under “Went Looking For…” are typically the movies that I had slotted as “Ended up with…” the previous week.
When I made a list of movies that I planned to watch this week, I seem to have had Africa in my inner eye. I definitely wasn’t aware of it when I added District 9 to my IW queue immediately after it was listed. The next movie in my list was another Africa centric story - Gorillas in the Mist. The story of treason and redemption involving a group of animals resisting human manipulation. I am not sure if I am still talking about Gorillas or G-Force, the next movie on my list. I rounded it off with The Third Man, a classic mystery from yesteryear.
District 9
The story is that Neill Blomkamp was given a reasonable budget and the offer to direct any movie. The director chose to expand on his own short film to come up with this unique movie. At this point, mockumentaries are becoming redundant through every other TV show. This movie probably lost out on a unique narrative style on that account. Still, breaking the fourth wall is the best way of communication for a movie such as this one, where the audience involvement is almost mandatory. For reasons unknown, I expected some awkward pixilation what with the main plot involving aliens but in fact it was seamless CGI. There are quite a few parallels to be drawn with current affairs. The movie is set in Johannesburg, which is not a coincidence. The totally natural performance of no name actors adds to the authenticity of the narration, making it almost believable. It's not for the squeamish, though. The picture quality on NetFlix IW was great.
G-Force
Guinea pigs are trained to save the world. Zach Galifianakis is their coach. This is the movie that Penelope Cruz signed right after being a part of acclaimed director Pedro Almodovar’s Broken embraces. Kitchen appliances are trained killer robots. There are flatulence jokes. Academy Award winner Nicolas Cage lends his voice to a star-nosed mole. There is a love triangle involving three guinea pigs. Federal agents are outsmarted by said G-Pigs. An untrained G-Pig rises to the occasion and helps save the world. Guinea pigs trained by Zach Galifianakis indeed save the world from kitchen appliances programmed to destroy the world. A silly movie. I liked it.
Gorillas in the Mist
The story of Dian Fossey is one for the ages. "One woman’s crusade" is a phrase that has been used without restraint in recent times. Some restraint should be used, is all I am saying. It should be reserved for women such as Dian Fossey and not wasted on, say, Venus Williams, for equating lingerie with sportswear. Anyway, Sigourney Weaver embraces Dian Fossey’s growth - both the fish out of water early part as well as the queen of the jungle second half with élan. The music is a little underwhelming and seemed less grand than the images on screen. I am also guessing that the book is better than the movie. All this aside, the movie manages to portray in vivid detail the growing loss of habitat for these majestic animals and one woman’s fight to stem the atrocity. We need more Dian Fosseys.
The Third Man
Old black and white classics seem to have more shades of grey (no pun intended) in their story lines than modern thrillers. The Third Man doesn’t introduce the titular character until the last few frames even if he is talked about throughout the movie. That is a bold piece of direction and kudos to Carol Reed for effecting it. A murder mystery, The Third Man, almost feels like a first person narrative. The twist in the tale is late in coming but is effective. I was really impressed with the cinematography that mirrors the gloom of a war torn town and its shady creatures. It is even more remarkable when you consider that this movie had a decent run as a radio show emphasizing on the spoken narrative than the visuals. It also doubles up as counter programming for G-Force.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably ended up fattening my instant watch queue with some new additions. These go into my “Ended up with…” list and the plan is to watch them during the week ahead. NetFlix keeps tempting me to move each one of them to the top of the queue but I resist. These are movies that I plan to check out in the days ahead.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
Time for another visit to the wisecracking duo’s antics. To be honest, I’ve never watched BCATSK in its entirety. I’ve always found myself catching parts of it during various reruns. I need to do justice to my fondness for this movie.
The Count of Monte Cristo
The 2002 version of Alexander Dumas’ epic was released in the box office graveyard of January. A difficult time to watch movies, it also left the theaters before I could rearrange my calendar or rather get a calendar for the sake of rearranging. I hope it turns out to be
a well made movie. Revenge sagas can be interesting.
Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year
Here's more Shimit Amin (Chak De! India) with this Bollywood fare that reportedly is un-Bollywood-like. It is not often that Bollywood movies have a loser to be the "hero." Maybe that is why it didn’t do well commercially. It is surprising how few people in my circle have actually seen this movie. The ones who did see it seem to agree that it is underrated. Three out of four reviewers at Rotten Tomatoes have given it a fresh rating.
Monsters, Inc.
I am introducing my 2+ year old to this movie. This is going to be his first full fledged movie watching experience. I then plan to ask him to review it. It should in all probabilities exceed my attempts. For me, this is part of a planned boot camp for Toy Story 3.