Watching Instantly
By Vijay Kumar
September 29, 2010
BoxOfficeProphets.com

This actually looks like a screen test for Iron Man...and Sean Penn was very, very nervous about it.
Browsing through NetFlix’s online streaming collection is not unlike those late Friday nights spent browsing through the movie maze in your local video store. The search for that perfect movie is often tricky. Sometimes you have to deal with a fuming partner and/or a melting tub of ice-cream in the car. The pressure is compounded by a listless, unhelpful store clerk in some cases. This column aims to be that clerk for NetFlix Instant Watch – maybe just a little less listless and little more helpful. This is what I waded through recently – at NetFlix.

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.

Dead Man Walking

Dead Man Walking’(DMW) is one of those movies that I have caught on and off on television. Invariably, it has always been the early scenes filled with Matthew Poncelet’s (Sean Penn) arrogance and Sister Helen Prejean’s (Susan Sarandon) exasperation. Once I caught the finishing stages of the movie and noticed the difference in attitude in Poncelet, I finally got an opportunity to figure out the reason behind this change.

Poncelet is a convicted murderer on Death Row. He reaches out to the church through letters and finds a sympathizer in Sister Prejean. The focus of the movie is firmly on Sister Prejean who is exposed to a variety of conflicting emotions very quickly. She has to first come to terms with criminal consoling – offering spiritual comfort to a convicted felon. She also has to deal with the family of the victims as she finds herself in the line of fire, so to speak, of their anger towards the criminal. Through all these she has to answer questions of faith from everyone involved, including her own. The fact that she stays true to her belief amidst the human chaos makes her a hero to everyone yet no one. It is a wonderfully written part whose essence is captured by Susan Sarandon, culminating in an Academy Award for her.

DMW reminds me of another movie - Edward Norton’s 25th hour. The two movies involve a convicted felon coming to terms with his mortality as days, hours and then minutes count down towards impending punishment. Sean Penn, getting into the skin of a Louisiana reprobate, finds solace in a nun in the dying hours of his life. Norton’s character has the hope of surviving the jail sentence. They share a common manmade dread.

This continues to be Tim Robbins’ finest work as director. His selection of the late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s sufi vocals towards the end of the movie comes as a surprise but fits the somber mood of the situation. At the box office, movies of this caliber often reap rich dividends. DMW is no exception with revenues more than three times its production budget of $11 million.

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

I see The Goods as the Glengarry Glen Ross for the comedy brigade of current times, led by fast talking Jeremy Piven as Don Ready, leader of a pack of used car liquidators with the task of clearing a dying car dealership of its inventory. Every character is played by an established or rising comedian fitting handsomely into the role. This extends to even the inconsequential roles. A small scene inside an airplane, for example, has the uniquely talented Kristen Schaal as the stewardess in whose vocal chords expletives come across as humor of the highest order. Ed Helms and Ken Jeong add further credence to the comic talent part of this movie. Ed Helms plays Paxton Harding, a "Man in a Boy Band" with a vested interest in the dealership, the daughter of its owner being his fiancé. The sincerity with which he embodies the man-boy roles works here as well. Kim Jeong, on the other hand, takes a deviation from his usual aggression and gets a few beatings (for laughs) often triggered by a senile car salesman played by Charles Napier. At the same time a few others like Craig Robinson (The Office) and Tony Hale (Arrested Development) are underused in this crowd.

The movie lets us know that "We are living in the golden age of lap dances." It has the means to become a cult hit but somehow failed to build upon that promise.

Blake Edwards’ Pink Panther series is a one-of-a-kind comedy with a bumbling detective put in his place time and again by intelligent adversaries. The comedy is physical and also draws some sympathy for the lead character that has to fail for the story to succeed. I am quite fond of the original Peter Sellers series. I think there are many more like me and within this is a sub sect that wants the new Pink Panther series to fail in a fashion similar to the hero of the original series.

Steve Martin stays true to form as far as the physical comedy is concerned. The accent is of forced and exaggerated and compliments the comedy at times but fails to impress in other times. In this particular edition, a team of international detectives are brought together to capture a bold and daring thief known as The Tornado. The growing romance between Inspector Clouseau (Martin) and the secretary Nicole (Emily Mortimer) is thrown off track as much by Clouseau’s strict adherence to rules as it is by the interference of the Italian detective Vicenzo (Andy Garcia). Alfred Molina, Yuki Matsuzaki Jeremy Irons, Jean Reno, Lily Tomlin and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan round off the truly international team. Peter Sellers would have succeeded in losing to the Tornado but in the new age version, Inspector Clouseau has to defeat the Tornado. The said sub sect might not appreciate that.

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.

Ironman

One of the titles added to the NetFlix library following the epic Epix deal. I’ve enjoyed the trendsetting superhero in the Cineplex and in home theatre. I still want to see it in the new format.

The Princess and the Frog

A rarity among animation movies, The Princess and the Frog, is a hand drawn animated film introducing one more princess to the already formidable gang put together by Disney.

Kurbaan

Kurbaan is a Bollywood thriller dealing with the aftermath of 9/11 and told predominantly from the point of view of the terrorists although not exactly condoning their actions. I see it as ‘New York’ (reviewed earlier in these columns) but with better actors.