I'm not a fan of 'destruction' movies and this particular one was definitely not on my list of anticipated movies. I had seen just a little bit of the trailer and the fall of 'Christ the Redeemer' scene made me think this could be an interesting watch. Well, the trailer deceived me. I saw this movie in a theatre at Helsinki yesterday evening. It was 150 minutes of 'holy crap'. Holy - because it is based on an ancient Mayan faith. Crap - because it IS crap. It is another proof of how clever marketing and hype can fool the entire world. In the south Indian context I can quote 'Sivaji - the boss' as an example.
It was my first visit to a Finnish cinema hall. At the outside the movie theatre looked like a very-artistically constructed ancient building. The moment I landed inside, I felt like I was in Satyam cinemas or Inox. No big difference. Of course the audience was much quieter than our people. The movie was supposed to start at 1615 hrs. But until 1630 hrs there were only advertisements; they were all in Finnish :-( It was painful to sit through all those incomprehensible ads. I didn't then realize that these ads were just saving me from the horrible movie.
There is nothing worthy to say about the movie. Everyone told me this is from the director of 'Independence day'. I should have been more alert and googled before deciding to watch it. Just after returning from the movie I found out Roland Emmerich is the director of '10000 B.C' and 'Godzilla'. Had I known this before I would not have gone for this. 10,000 B.C was like the worst possible copy of Mel Gibson's marvelous 'Apocalypto' and 'Godzilla' was awfully funny. It was silly to watch a Godzilla play hide-and-seek in Manhattan. In the case of 2012 I should admit I wasn't very alert and let myself get fooled. I consider the Euro 8.40 I spent for this movie as an act of charity towards Sony corporation.
Coming to think of Sony, I completely understand the movie is distributed by Columbia pictures which is owned by Sony corporation. But why does that mean everywhere it should be Sony products on the screen all the time! Every laptop that has 'acted' in this movie is a Sony Vaio. Every cellphone is a Sony Ericsson. I wonder what would have happened if Pixar made movies when Steve Jobs was its CEO. Would they have filled the screen with iPhones and Mac-books? How silly. I wish Microsoft doesn't plan to get in to movie making.
Starting from poor casting (The US president and German chancellor lady were the most silliestest of all. I believe Barack Obama and Angela Merkel would themselves have done their parts better), poor script to very poor direction, everything tested my patience. After I returned from the movie I searched on the Internet and found that this movie is categorized as a 'disaster film' - a genre of movies which show some disaster on screen. I agree to this completely. It WAS a perfectly 'disastrous' film.
--S--
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Some Tamil movies this time
I watched few Tamil movies in the recent past. I've been watching quite a lot of non-Tamil movies past couple of months. May be because I got a lot of foreign movies that I've wanted to watch for a long time. Or perhaps it was just the "aftermath of Kandasamy". Like everyone else, I too had the worst 'Kandasamy' experience which made me stay away from Tamil movies for sometime. It is better left not talked about.
Let me start with the most recently watched and the most important of all of the Tamil films I happened to watch in recent time.
Achchamundu! Achchamundu!
I am not sure how many people saw this movie. Even I watched this accidentally, but fortunately! The classy look, too decent cast and the missing of hero intro song, dirty comedies (in which the comedian gets beaten up for the Nth time in Tamil cinema) and the most famous of all - 'kuthu song' - must have sent clear signals to the Tamil audience to stay away from this movie. In my honest opinion, this kind of movies alone can life Tamil cinema to great heights. Fantastic screenplay, never-thought-about storyline and superb casting are the highlights of this movie. Prasanna fits perfect in his role and so is Sneha. She continues from where she left in 'Pirivom sandhippom'. This definitely is a world class attempt from Tamil cinema and the director can be very proud of his product. I have seen quite a few movies with psychotic characters. But a paedophile villain in Tamil cinema was something very disturbing. I read that the director studied film making in the US and made this movie in typical Hollywood style. Great job! Unless our directors realise that it is the script that matters and nothing else, it is difficult to life Tamil cinema to a better position. I know it is an irrelevant comparison, but still I must admit that I liked this movie better than Kamal's Unnaipol Oruvan. I feel, rather than pushing Kamal Hassan to paint himself and don dozens of roles in a single movie, by supporting Achchamundu... kind of movies, tamil cinema will definitely attain greater respect in the world stage.
Aadhavan
The whole time I was watching this piece of shit, there was only one thought in my mind. Is this the same Surya who acted in Varanam ayiram? Even Ayan was much better than this crap, thanks to that beautiful African sequence (though it reminds me of DiCaprio's Blood Diamond). I seriously wonder what made Surya choose such a pathetic movie. His next movie is going to be even more sickening. The stills express that very clearly. I can only say that Surya is making a terrible mistake by choosing such movies in his attempt to become a commercial hero. Extremely poor. The first half and almost the entire movie reminded me of Mahesh Babu's 'Athadu', which was much better to watch than this. If this or Kandasamy kind of movies become big hits, I wonder how can tamil cinema ever come out of such a mess.
Peranmai
I was actually waiting for this movie. I liked this director's previous two films very much (Iyarkai, Ee) and I had high hopes for his third venture. Perhaps, I had too high hopes. Peranmai was not disappointing at all, but it definitely lacked the charm of Iyarkai's narration and Ee's storyline. Though the execution of the story is really good, somehow the practicality of a bunch of foreigners sneaking in to Indian forest to destroy a satellite is very doubtful and little unbelievable too. A greedy doctor using poor, illiterate people in slums (am I allowed to use the term 'slumdogs'?) to test or spread deadly viruses seems very much practical for me. Whenever I hear news about swine flu or some other viral fever spreading in a locality I think of this film 'Ee' and its shocking message. And I wonder why that forest officer's nasty comments on 'Jeyam' Ravi's caste were censored completely.
Oh I must also tell about those girls in this movie. How cheap their dialogs are?! Huff. I seriously don't know if really girls talk like that. Censor board could have worked even better in some scenes.
Eeram
Eeram is another tamil movie which was worth watching. Though as a director Shankar is becoming worse, producer Shankar is still very impressive. Looking forward to the next thriller from his production house.
---
I read that the upcoming Kamal Hassan - Mysskin combination movie is going to be a historical, based on Buddhism and is set in 500 B.C! Hope it comes out as their masterpiece.
--S--
Let me start with the most recently watched and the most important of all of the Tamil films I happened to watch in recent time.
Achchamundu! Achchamundu!
I am not sure how many people saw this movie. Even I watched this accidentally, but fortunately! The classy look, too decent cast and the missing of hero intro song, dirty comedies (in which the comedian gets beaten up for the Nth time in Tamil cinema) and the most famous of all - 'kuthu song' - must have sent clear signals to the Tamil audience to stay away from this movie. In my honest opinion, this kind of movies alone can life Tamil cinema to great heights. Fantastic screenplay, never-thought-about storyline and superb casting are the highlights of this movie. Prasanna fits perfect in his role and so is Sneha. She continues from where she left in 'Pirivom sandhippom'. This definitely is a world class attempt from Tamil cinema and the director can be very proud of his product. I have seen quite a few movies with psychotic characters. But a paedophile villain in Tamil cinema was something very disturbing. I read that the director studied film making in the US and made this movie in typical Hollywood style. Great job! Unless our directors realise that it is the script that matters and nothing else, it is difficult to life Tamil cinema to a better position. I know it is an irrelevant comparison, but still I must admit that I liked this movie better than Kamal's Unnaipol Oruvan. I feel, rather than pushing Kamal Hassan to paint himself and don dozens of roles in a single movie, by supporting Achchamundu... kind of movies, tamil cinema will definitely attain greater respect in the world stage.
Aadhavan
The whole time I was watching this piece of shit, there was only one thought in my mind. Is this the same Surya who acted in Varanam ayiram? Even Ayan was much better than this crap, thanks to that beautiful African sequence (though it reminds me of DiCaprio's Blood Diamond). I seriously wonder what made Surya choose such a pathetic movie. His next movie is going to be even more sickening. The stills express that very clearly. I can only say that Surya is making a terrible mistake by choosing such movies in his attempt to become a commercial hero. Extremely poor. The first half and almost the entire movie reminded me of Mahesh Babu's 'Athadu', which was much better to watch than this. If this or Kandasamy kind of movies become big hits, I wonder how can tamil cinema ever come out of such a mess.
Peranmai
I was actually waiting for this movie. I liked this director's previous two films very much (Iyarkai, Ee) and I had high hopes for his third venture. Perhaps, I had too high hopes. Peranmai was not disappointing at all, but it definitely lacked the charm of Iyarkai's narration and Ee's storyline. Though the execution of the story is really good, somehow the practicality of a bunch of foreigners sneaking in to Indian forest to destroy a satellite is very doubtful and little unbelievable too. A greedy doctor using poor, illiterate people in slums (am I allowed to use the term 'slumdogs'?) to test or spread deadly viruses seems very much practical for me. Whenever I hear news about swine flu or some other viral fever spreading in a locality I think of this film 'Ee' and its shocking message. And I wonder why that forest officer's nasty comments on 'Jeyam' Ravi's caste were censored completely.
Oh I must also tell about those girls in this movie. How cheap their dialogs are?! Huff. I seriously don't know if really girls talk like that. Censor board could have worked even better in some scenes.
Eeram
Eeram is another tamil movie which was worth watching. Though as a director Shankar is becoming worse, producer Shankar is still very impressive. Looking forward to the next thriller from his production house.
---
I read that the upcoming Kamal Hassan - Mysskin combination movie is going to be a historical, based on Buddhism and is set in 500 B.C! Hope it comes out as their masterpiece.
--S--
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