Review Catch-Up

Caught up on a few mile-high movies, while traveling:

Smart People: Arrogant, yet amusing. Highly reminiscent of Margot at the Wedding, for some reason. Prefer this avatar of Ellen Page, where she seems much more real and confused, versus her Joan-of-Arc-ish character in Juno. Sarah Jessica Parker was actually tolerable and at times, pretty, for a change. Thomas Haden-Church - awesome. Dennis Quaid - traditionally subdued.

Really looking forward to Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist.

The Happening: The acting, being a lot more theatrical and Hitchcockian - with the intense close-ups - is a little variant from Shyamalan's usual style. But the intensity is well-carried throughout the film. Gladly the plot is not other-worldly with wierd creatures and names. It was also nice to see the UTV showreel at the beginning of a Hollywood film. In terms of the India-centric power shift when it comes to entertainment and production - its happening!

U Me Aur Hum: Bollywood interpretation of the runaway success tearjerker, The Notebook. The Alzheimer's premise is a gripping one, and captured very effectively in The Notebook, which probably was the sole reason that led to its blockbuster-ish DVD rentals. The whole concept of portraying a love story, and its passion, and then having one partner start to forget it all, with little spurts of memory, is universally strong on sentiment. For the Bollywood-ization of it, UMH was not bad at all, actually. A little too soppy and over-the-top at times, but that's the traditional Bollywood compromise. Some Ajay-Kajol scenes were handled with absolute finesse, though. The highlight of this film for me, was the Saiyyan sequence - with Kajol looking absolutely goddess-like.

 

I Am Legend: I still wonder why I missed watching this movie in the first place? One of the most spectacular edge-of-the-end-of-the-world movies ever made. I would put this way above Cloverfield in terms of its content, and with 99% of those points attributed to Will "The Legend" Smith. With half the film's length featuring him alone on screen, he is probably one of the only actors in today's time who could've carried off this performance.

Rock On: A well-done, feel-good flick. Farhan Akhtar is a much better actor than he is a singer, and a much better director than he is an actor. Part of Bollywood Renaissance of movies that portray life in metro-India as it truly is (instead of going all village-ish, or metro-critical). Farhan began this effectively with DCH, lost his Lakshya towards the middle, and is back in the saddle with Rock On!

No Country for Old Men: Watched it again! Javier Bardem is prolific!

What Happens in Vegas: *Sigh* Shouldn't have bothered.

Chaos Theory: What was I thinking?