Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
June 22, 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.
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
The movie starts engaging you from the opening montage itself. The pair of Butch Cassidy (Paul Newman) and The Sundance Kid (Robert Redford) are respectively the loudest mouth and fastest draw in the west, with such merriness that the label "lovable rascals" might have originated here. It was my pleasure to watch the movie in its entirety for the first time ever. Paul Newman carries the movie. An outlaw clearly aware of his limitations, Butch Cassidy uses glibness and guile in place of the gun as much as possible. Sundance, on the other hand, is the quick draw king of his circle and beyond. He has limitations, too. Their collective strengths and drawbacks crop up at the most inopportune moments. Especially their drawbacks. After messing around with one group too many (including their own) they are forced to go on the run all the way to Bolivia. They lie low for a while before the gun culture catches up with them again one final time, or so it seems.
More than a gun slinging western, the endearing part of this movie is the banter between the leads. I liked the way Will Ferrell channeled the “Don't you get sick of being right all the time?” line from this movie in Land of the Lost. Not that he cares, but I liked it.
The Count of Monte Cristo
To some it might seem pointless to watch a movie whose story is already known. To me, there is some excitement not so much in anticipation of the story but in the treatment. Alexander Dumas’ revenge saga, The Count of Monte Cristo, is worth being retold many times over. It could be a complete character study or a swashbuckling entertainer. The 2002 rendition of the story tries to be the former and could have achieved greater heights with a better cast. Long prison terms are commonplace in Dumas stories – think The Man In The Iron Mask. Here, the prison period forms the divider between the two worlds of one man- one where he was wronged, and another where he gets his vengeance and gets almost everything back from the men who wronged him. This is a faithful retelling of the original story. Jim Caviezel is monotonous for the best part of the movie and that could be its undoing.
Rocket Singh: Salesman of the Year
Ranbir Kapoor, the latest entrant from what some consider the first family of Indian Cinema, is already building a strong portfolio. Sawariya, his launch vehicle, proved to be a dud at the box office but his subsequent choices have been brilliant. He has been vacillating between popular fare such as Bachna Ae Haseeno and the more cerebral
Wake up Sid (both are available on NetFlix IW).
Rocket Singh is one of his bolder choices in that he neither gets to be a romantic lead nor an action hero - the only two kinds that are deemed as billable in the Bollywood milieu. Instead, he plays an average guy (he barely secures a college degree) who develops a spine a little late in life. The clichéd part is the caricature of some businessmen and their Bring-Your-Own-Bribes attitude. Having said that, the small office atmosphere is captured with quite a bit of naturalism. The office receptionist and the peon stand out by being so convincing in their designations. Rocket Singh starts his career in a PC manufacturing firm as a sales trainee, comes close to being a whistle blower, turns entrepreneur, loses his career and finally gains respect of other salesmen. The story itself is a trite, simple one, but not overtly so. This is new age Bollywood where directors are bold enough to be subtle in their narrative style.
Monsters, Inc.
Introducing my two-plus-year-old to this movie in an attempt to get him tuned to feature length movies and getting rid of any latent fears of monsters was not a well thought out move from my end. We finished the movie in three sessions. He is now demanding to see movies every other day. Nothing else seems to intimidate him any more. He loves shouting “Mike Wazowski” every now and then and it was extremely cute for the first three thousand times. Trying to explain Wazowski’s single eye was a severe strain on the creative process and success is still awaited.
Give it to Pixar for coming up with a story line that both a toddler and his dad can relate to. I believe this is the only Pixar movie to have missed out on an animation Oscar (it went to the first Shrek movie). A buddy movie at heart, Monsters is a fun ride with the layered and sensitive Sulley and his simple friend, my one-eyed tormenter, Mike Wazowski. Pete Docter and team create an alternate world of Monsters with a trivia laden insert in almost every frame.
Ended up with…
Whilst checking out the above movies, I invariably end 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.
Rachel Getting Married
There are not many movies that are common to both my wife’s list and mine. This movie is one of those rarities. It promises to be an intense drama in the line of Margot at the Wedding. Besides the similarity in the title, both are about one sister acting out on another’s wedding day. The condition is that I don’t make any "silly" references to our own wedding during the viewing. Agreed.
Food, Inc.
It’s been on my To-Do list for a while now. I’ve been putting it off as I know what to expect out of this documentary. It is going to make re-evaluate my food choices with a side order of guilt. I am going to watch it to be in the know.
The Misfits
The cast precedes the story on this one. Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe, Montgomery Clift and Eli Wallach headline this movie and is the last movie for Gable and Monroe. I am not aware of any other source to rent classics such as this one.
Sense and Sensibility
Emma Thomson’s screenplay for Jane Austen’s 19th century tale has many accolades going for it. I’ve gone through many inspired movies in multiple languages of this classic. It would be nice to kick back and enjoy an English version with a cup of tea, I might add.