June 11, 2008

Summer Movies- consolidated edition II

Since we must not disturb the sanctity of this being primarily a Bolly blog, here is a quick round up of summer movies so far:

The "Oh OK"
Title: The Chronicles of Narnia- Prince Caspian
Year: 2008

Cast: Georgie Henley,
Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes

Run through:
The kids are back! Only its been 1.3k years, and Narnia thinks they were a fable. They join hands to BELIEVE and make it all GOOD, and help make the dishy Prince Caspian king.

Conclusion: Its entertaining- not as good as the book, but entertaining. I'll see the next one.

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The "Pretty good actually"
Title: Iron Man
Year: 2008

Cast: Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson

Run through:
1- American Millionaire Tony Spark (Robert) mass produces weapons. But the innocent millionaire is so ensconced in his cushy cocoon that he doesn't realise the effect of his weaponry.
2- American millionaire gets a wake up call when terrorists kidnap him.
3- American millionaire, which we all know is being played by a has-been actor, single-handedly defeats terrorists as well as (kind of) the evil big businesses maneuvering America, and wins the day.

Highlights:
Watch Robert Downey Jr sober! Watch Robert Downey Jr fly! Watch Paltrow shimmy up to him! Watch him beat the baddies with utter sobriety! [I am mean, I know]

Conclusion: Is there still a question about how many emotional and psychological levels this movie plays at, and therefore became a enormous hit? Is there a doubt about the obvious metaphors? This is not a criticism however; it is a intelligent movie, but nevertheless a manipulative and well-timed one as well.
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The "Absolutely Must See" (in capitals, no less)
Title: You Don't Mess With The Zohan
Year: 2008
Cast: Adam Sandler, Emanuelle Chirqui.


Run through:
If you see 1, but just 1 Hollywood movie this summer, this should be it. So fine, the jokes get a bit dirty, but the idea of a Israeli Mossad agent (Sandler), who fakes his own death so he can move to New York and become a hair stylist, is riotously rediculously hilarious. I roared throughout the movie, and it was good to have laughed so much. Emanuelle Chirqui is the Palestinian stylist in NY whose salon Zohan ends up at as an apprentice. Love blooms of course, but somewhere in there is honestly clever commentary about the inanity of war.

Highlights:
1- Endless laughter.
2- Actually clever jokes, courtesy co-writer Robert Smigel.
3- A stream of cameos of various SNL alumni; my favorite was Chris Rock as the taxi cab driver.

Conclusion: We can laugh about anything, no matter how serious it is. And in that laughter one can find the glimmer of eventual resolution- a Yoda-esque comment, no doubt.

4 comments:

La vida Loca said...

Zohan here i come

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

I may watch it again :)

veracious said...

Huh, I heard Zohan was pretty much absolute crap. But then, I don't like Adam Sandler anyhow so I doubt I'll check it out.

I adored Iron Man to pieces, though. Such a fun fun movie.

Shweta Mehrotra Gahlawat said...

Sandler HAS been doing crap for a long time- but this is not that. I really do beleive in the concept of Zohan- there are tons of in-jokes, and it is really good. Even if you dont go to the theatre, try catching the dvd later :)

Iron man's a fun watch- but I couldnt help but keep drawing parallels to the recently past political scenario :)