December 24, 2007

2007 faves and connectivity misery..:)

I am having tons of trouble connecting while traveling in India- connectivity in small tows is HELL! Bbut how long can a blogger survive without blogging? Driven to anxiety from the lack of creative writing, I found myself unable to help myself…..

With the approaching year-end, I am compelled to do come up with my “top 10” list for 2007. These are not all Oscar worthy, merely what I had fun watching. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. The Namesake: The movie that Tabu deserves an Oscar for. The movie that catapulted Irfan Khan into being the true crossover star that he is (take that Aishwariya- your comparative movies: “Last Legion” etc.- suck big time).

2. The Darjeeling Limited: Easily my favorite movie of the year. Adrien Brody proves he can be endearing and handsome, Owen Wilson simply proves he can actually act, and – well he proves nothing, but simply blows me away. Now I am compelled to watch all o Clive Barker’s movies…..

3. Honeymoon Travels: This was serious fun- it easily qualifies as one of the most underrated movies of the year. Boman and Shabana are brilliant, and I am SO in love with Abhay Deol….mmmmmmm yummy!

4. Bommarillu: SO good! I love Siddharth, and I love this movie for helping me “crossover” and appreciate cinema in other languages. We DO NOT see the boy walking away with the girl in the end, but we believe he will….I guess this one also helped me finally appreciate romantic movies. Good Stuff.

5. Cheeni Kum: I finally learned to appreciate Amitabh. This was a fun watch, and Tabu again proved that she is one of the most talented actors in Bollywood history.

6. Unnale Unnale: I was almost not going to include this- it appeared to be a run-of-the-mill romance after all. But an O. Henry-esque ending saved the day and this movie oh so gloriously. Bonus: A bearable Tanisha for once!

7. Die Hard IV: On the list for its sheer entertainment value. Also kudos are in order for the presentation of an aging male Hollywood star without the ignominy of sagging man-boobs and idiotic self-applause. Bruce cracks jokes on himself and wins the day against tech-terrorists with unmatchable panache.

8. Bhul Bhulaiya: Akshay, you finally made me believe you are a true star- I ignored Vidya’s idiocity and even thought kindly of Shiney and Ameesha, while I was awestruck by your entertainment skills.

9. Spiderman III: Yes yes, I know the movie sucked, as did Spidey himself (SUCH a sissy boy!). But Topher Grace and James Franco cannot be denied applause for their amazing presence and charisma.

10. Salam-e-Ishq: Another underrated movie that single-handedly revived Govinda’s dead career. Salman, in a dumb hairstyle, nevertheless blew me away (when does he not?). Sohail Khan went SO unappreciated, though he was truly raunchily funny.


Note: You will find that the list misses out on much miscellaneous popular cinema. This is deliberate, since I have no admiration of it! :D My biggest crib against 90% of cinema today is the fact that while the clothes, special effects, cinematography etcetera all rock, the story and script seem way behind. We appear to be falling all over themselves applauding movies whose story has either been done million times in other countries (Chak De), or is so wafer thin it cannot hide behind all the gyrations of all the babes in the world.

No comments: