Posts tagged country
“Slumdog Millionaire” Wonderful and Heartbreaking
Dec 24th
Wonderful and Heartbreaking
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is a gem of a movie by director Danny Boyle that is suspenseful when it shouldn’t be and uplifting when it is at its most depressing.
Of course, this could also describe the country of India, where the story takes place.
The film begins in 2006 as we see 18-year-old Jamal Malik being tortured by the police. Jamal is a “slumdog,” an orphan from the extreme poverty of the slums of India. And yet somehow he has managed to appear on India’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” and unbelievably answered all of the questions correctly up until the last one, which will be asked that night.
The producers of the program suspect that Jamal is cheating, because how else could a slumdog possibly know the answers to all those difficult questions?
Jamal tells the police defiantly, “I knew the answers.”
Then in flashback we see the progression of questions as they were asked, and in further flashback we see the lives of young Jamal as a child and his older brother, Salim, and the event in their struggles just to stay alive that provided Jamal with the correct answer to the question.
At one point, they befriend a young orphan girl named Latika, and she joins the two brothers growing up, whom they refer to as “the third Musketeer” based on their having read the famous novel by Alexandre Dumas.
One of their life-changing moments was when they were all taken out of a garbage dump by a group of adults who claimed to be an orphanage, but in reality they exploited all the children under their control and taught them how to beg on the streets and the ways to get the most money.
However, when Salim discovers the horrible plans in store for Jamal, the two boys escape, but Latika can’t keep up with them, and she is left behind in the clutches of the adults.
In fact, one of the reasons that Jamal wanted to appear on the quiz show was in the hope that Latika would be watching and get back in touch with him.
The construction of the film is wonderful, the pictures are beautiful, but the stunts involving the child actors look terrifyingly dangerous, making you wonder how they were accomplished.
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is both wonderful and heartbreaking.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”
“Four Christmases” Four Disappointments
Dec 12th
Four Disappointments
“Hotshots” looks at a movie!
FOUR CHRISTMASES starts off bad, goes downhill from there with a lot of cheap laughs and easy shtick, and then it even also ends poorly, which all make it the perfect representation for Christmas.
Reese Witherspoon stars as Kate, Vince Vaughn is Brad, and they have been dating for three years with no intention of ever getting married or having children.
They live in San Francisco, and every year at Christmas they have lied to their parents in order to avoid spending Christmas with them.
As Brad tells his friends at one point, “You can’t really spell ‘families’ without ‘lies.'”
However, I am getting ahead of myself: The opening of the film is cheap and bogus, and it is designed to fool the audience more than to lend an insight into Kate and Brad.
So, rather than spend Christmas with either of their parents, they lie to them and tell them that they have to go off somewhere and do charity work, when in reality Kate and Brad are off to some exotic country for a vacation.
This year they plan to go to Fiji, but when they get to the airport, intense fog has caused all flights to be canceled, and they happen to be interviewed live by a local television crew about their canceled plans.
Of course, their parents see them on the news being interviewed, call them immediately, and guilt them into visiting on Christmas. Only problem is, both sets of parents are divorced, and thus Kate and Brad have to make four visits in one day, which adds up to “four Christmases.” Get it?
The four parents are played by Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek, Jon Voight, and Mary Steenburgen, and so we are not dealing with lightweight actors here, just lightweight material.
They visit Brad’s father first, and Kate learns some secrets about Brad that he had never told her. Then they visit Kate’s mother, and Brad learns some secrets about Kate that she had never told him.
Do you see a pattern here?
Yes, in satisfying their parents at Christmastime and meeting each other’s siblings, Kate and Brad learn more about each other, which can either strengthen their relationship or end it altogether.
And the moral of the story is nothing really beats being honest.
FOUR CHRISTMASES is nothing more than four disappointments.
I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”