The movie print has not arrived at Anil Ambani’s Big Cinemas theater in Chicago.
We went to Big Cinemas for the 7:30 pm show and the girl at the snacks counter (where they also sell the tickets) lied to us that only the 1:20 pm show was on today.
After we yelled at them, they called an older lady who I believe was their manager. She confessed that the prints are still lying at the airport and they have not been picked up yet.
The lady didn’t even have the courtesy to apologize.
Shame on Anil Ambani
Some more people came in after us and they too were left wondering why the website timings were not followed.
When we told them that the print hasn’t arrived yet it elicited the following humorous response – Potti varaliya? idhe pozhappa pochu ivangalode. Pesame theater a mooditu thuni kada vekka sollu. Ivanga ellam theater yedhukku nadatharanga? (Prints haven’t come? It’s the same story with these bozos. They’d better pull the shutters down on the theater.)
For all the money that Rascal Anil Ambani makes, he cannot have his website updated properly. Shame on him.
The other movie options were Ready and Badhrinath so we decided to preserve our sanity and went for a nice satisfying dinner at Vishnu Vilas, Schaumburg, IL. They had the tastiest Venn Pongal I have ever had all my life and a mouthwatering preparation of Carrot Halwa today.
This helped us forget the assholes @ Big Cinemas – Golf Glen 5, 9180 West Golf Road, Niles, Illinois, IL-60714.
May Anil Ambani rot in hell for fooling the public and showing no respect for our time and money.
Quiz: How many bad guys can Badri (Allu Arjun) single-handedly kill or maim at the Bellary Railway Station with just a sword and without suffering so much as a scratch in the new Telugu film Badrinath?
a) 0
b) 2
c) 4
d) Several Dozen
If you answered from a-c, you’d be grossly wrong but still get credit for retaining a vestige of sanity. Since it’s a Telugu film after all, the correct answer must perforce be d.
Folks, with each new movie, Telugu film star Allu Arjun’s acting gets worse and the plots of his films get further bizarre.
In his latest film Badrinath which premiered in the U.S. Thursday night, Allu Arjun not only, yet again, grossly overacts a la Sivaji Ganesan from an earlier era but the storyline is straight from the loony-bin.
Set in the Hindu holy city of Badrinath in North India, the movie is a mindless Telugu paean to senseless violence (Allu Arjun), asinine romance (Tamanna) and juvenile humor (Brahmanandam).
Trashy as most Telugu films are, one can, if one searches long and hard, spot some redeeming element in the form of acting, music, settings, photography or, if nothing else, seek solace in the scantily-dressed voluptuous heroine.
But Badrinath’s claim to fame is that it comes to the screen shorn of any semblance of artistic merit or any whiff of redeeming elements save that a bunch of wannabe filmmakers had money to burn.
And proceeded to toss Rs 41-crore into the fire if media reports are accurate.Continue reading »
Sadly, some movies get far more credit than they deserve.
And we’re not talking only Bollywood trash, most of which should not even be released in theaters.
Take for instance, the Italian film La doppia ora (The Double Hour) that marked the directorial debut of Giuseppe Capotondi.
We watched the film in the theater yesterday and came out with mixed feelings overall.
Double Hour – The Good and the Bad
What we liked about The Double Hour was the fine acting by Russian actress Kseniya Rappoport, who plays Sonia, a chambermaid at a hotel in Turin.
Being Indian and being starved of seeing acting talent, it’s a pleasure to discover unknown faces who give so much joy with their performances.
What we disliked about the movie was the incoherent plot that made it difficult to make sense of events inside the comatose dream versus happenings in real life.
Twists as a cinematic technique are fine and often add to the allure of a predictable film.
But when twists are thrown into the plot just to jolt viewers, the technique becomes meaningless and irritating to discerning viewers who can easily see through these ploys. And in our not so humble view, Double Hour stands guilty in this ‘twisted’ respect.
Double Hour tries to be so many things at the same time – a romance, a murder thriller, a crime mystery – but succeeds only partially at all of them, likely because of the ‘twisted’ contrivance.Continue reading »
As the more discerning of SI readers will recollect, Midnight in Paris was the opening-night attraction at the recent 64th Cannes Film Festival.
Having watched Midnight in Paris today, we can say the film deserved all the applause it got at Cannes and more.
Truth be said, it took a mighty hard effort on our part not to get up and rush to the front of the movie-hall at the end of the movie and plant a sloppy kiss on the screen as a Thank You to Woody Allen who both wrote and directed this film that besides being a eulogy to Paris is so much more.
Warning: This Trailer Doesn’t Do Justice to the Movie
What is Midnight in Paris All About?
Well, at its most basic Midnight in Paris is nostalgia, a sweet, bewitching longing for a golden era.
A nostalgia complicated because it’s different times for different people.
Sure, for most of us, the past is a wonderful idyllic moment to dream about and savor in dreary middle-age and insufferable old-age.
Weren’t the old days great, the nights heavenly and the ancien regime extraordinary?
To say anything more about the Midnight in Paris story would be to give the game away. And the loss would all be yours. So we won’t spoil the fun.
Suffice to say, Woody Allen builds a gem of a movie on the entrancing scaffolding of nostalgia in the beautiful setting of Paris.
We were perplexed as the movie opened and the screen quickly shifted from one beautiful Paris shot to another – Paris by day, Paris by evening, Paris by night, Paris in the rain, and Paris in so many hues.
Is this a tourist brochure, a plug for Paris a laVicky Cristina Barcelona for Barcelona, we asked ourselves.
Slowly, the answer revealed itself to us bit by gorgeous bit.
We know y’all want to know more.
But all we’ll say is that magic happens when the clock strikes midnight as our soon-to-be-married young man from California Gil Pender (Owen Wilson), on vacation in the city of lights, is walking about Paris, a city he can’t get enough of.
Au contraire, Gil’s fiancee Inez (Rachel McAdams) and his future in-laws, the Tea Party loving conservative snobs who are not too fond of Gil, can’t wait to get back stateside.
Darius Khondji’s camera work is sheer magic evoking as it does a rich tapestry of great artistic and literary figures in a riveting setting. By the way, the movie is mostly shot on location in Paris.
What Did We Love about Midnight in Paris?
Besides the brilliant audacity of the twist and beguiling charm of Woody Allen’s writing, the casting was excellent.
By the way, the movie is an embarras de richesses of great one-liners. Wish we could tell you. Well, that’s another reason to see this gem.
Owen Wilson as the Hollywood hack Gil Pender trying his hand at a novel, Rachel McAdams as his fiancee Inez, Marion Cotillard as Adriana, Carla Bruni (yes, the First Lady of France) as the museum guide and the rest of the vast entourage have all thrown in commendable performances.
Since Owen Wilson hogs the camera, let’s spend a few more seconds on him.
As the dissatisfied Hollywood hack yearning to write a novel, uneasy at one level with his fiancee and her parents, a disconnect that gnaws at him and as the man who comes to life after midnight, Owen Wilson is a delight on screen.
Hey, his character in the movie likes Indian food too, particularly Naan bread. Do you schmucks need any more reasons to see this delightful movie.
Of the three Woody Allen movies we’ve seen so far Match Point, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Midnight in Paris, we have no reservations in declaring Midnight in Paris to be our favorite.
Now, to all you Ladies and GentlemenKuttas and Kuttiyas who worship on the altar of beasts like Salman Khan and raise trash like Ready and Dabangg to the level of commercial successes, we say watch Midnight in Paris and then, maybe, you schmucks will realize the difference between cinema and offal!
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