Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Slumming it
Well (that's another post beginning with "well") rather than go back to the cinema again so soon, I decided in view of all the fuss I had heard about Slumdog Millionaire, I thought I would bit torrent it instead and I've just finished watching it. I have to say I did enjoy it and it was a good film but in view of all the hype I was sort of left expecting a bit more from it. Thankfully though it is an intelligent film and also quite thought provoking, the whole idea of a slum kid winning a million bucks (or 20 million rupees) and knowing all the answers (or most of them) based on experiences from his life was really quite original (well you can't say too many contestants would really have answered all the questions in real life like that!).
The largely unknown cast were all quite impressive too Dev Patel in the main role of Jamal Malik was very good (actually a British born actor), Anil Kapoor as the host of Who wants to be a millionaire was great too, and Freida Pinto was good as the lovely Latika, whom comes across as a very sympathetic character. Danny Boyle keeps the whole film moving along at a nice pace and I was glad that he didn't sacrifice the ending (for a major feel good copout). All the same though I wouldn't say I was totally bowled over by the film, parts of it did kind of leave me wondering, for example how did he actually manage to get on the show, unless I skipped that bit I don't think they actually show you. I also found although I did sympathise with his tough upbringing and life, that Jamal's character always seemed to know the answer to the questions through some horrible experience in his life (bar the first one!) rather than from something a bit more silly or spontaneous, but I guess that was to add more realism toward the proceedings.
In the end Slumdog is in my humble opinion a pretty good movie, but not necessarily a great one. Anywayys that's enough critiquing.
The largely unknown cast were all quite impressive too Dev Patel in the main role of Jamal Malik was very good (actually a British born actor), Anil Kapoor as the host of Who wants to be a millionaire was great too, and Freida Pinto was good as the lovely Latika, whom comes across as a very sympathetic character. Danny Boyle keeps the whole film moving along at a nice pace and I was glad that he didn't sacrifice the ending (for a major feel good copout). All the same though I wouldn't say I was totally bowled over by the film, parts of it did kind of leave me wondering, for example how did he actually manage to get on the show, unless I skipped that bit I don't think they actually show you. I also found although I did sympathise with his tough upbringing and life, that Jamal's character always seemed to know the answer to the questions through some horrible experience in his life (bar the first one!) rather than from something a bit more silly or spontaneous, but I guess that was to add more realism toward the proceedings.
In the end Slumdog is in my humble opinion a pretty good movie, but not necessarily a great one. Anywayys that's enough critiquing.
# posted by kenny @ 9:51 pm 
