Musings From New York

Best TShirt Design Evah!

It's a pity that this design is out of print. I can't wait to get my tshirt!

Found via WWDN: In Exile

The Most Awesomely Bad Kung-Fu Movie ... Ever!

And by "awesomely bad", I don't mean in a bizarro-world/ teen lingo way. I mean ... awesomely bad. Although, in a way, this movie went so far beyond "Bad", it crossed the threshold and started approaching "Good". That movie is "Master of the Flying Guillotine". It's a 70's kung-fu movie, all bad dialog, lots of flying fists, and bad acting. And a flying guillotine! There's a pretty cool electronic theme music to the uber-bad killer monk.

I would recommend this movie only to lovers of the genre. I count myself as one of them, and I got bored an hour in. I mean, how much Mortal-Kombat-esque fighting can one watch anyway?! I picked this movie up from Netflix after reading that it was one of Tarantino's favorites, and I can definitely see how it influenced Kill Bill!

Achtung!

Friday is a holy day.

My iPod tells me summer's coming ...

I was fooling around with my Mac's iCal program, and I was trying to add US holidays. Apple's website has a great library, including a great a calendar subscription about movie releases. Unfortunately, it only goes out 30 days (or maybe its 2 months, I won't be sure till next week ... Kartik, any ideas?)

Anyway, I thought I'd list some of the movie releases I hope to be seeing over this summer. I say "hopefully" because, quite frankly, the Lady has some serious hangups about my choice of movies.

• Spiderman 3, May 4th: Ah, the Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman. Catches thieves just like flies, apparently.
• Shrek the Third, May 18th: The second movie was a bit of a disappointment compared to the sheer exhilarating originality of the first. The trailer to the last installment doesn't offer me much hope, but the glass is always half-full, I always say!
• Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, May 25th: Following the disappointment that was Dead Man's Chest, I'm hoping that this movie will offer fans "more Gore, and less Verbinski" (to quote the Ninja)
• Ocean's Thirteen, June 8th: Does anyone detect a trend of excellent first movies, mediocre second movies, with the third & final installment this summer?
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, June 15th: To be fair, I thought the first FF movie was pretty crap. But what the heck, this is the only movie to open this weekend that I considered putting on this list.
• Evan Almighty, June 22nd: Two words. Steve Carrell rules. OK, that's three words.
• Ratatouille, June 29th: Can Pixar boounce back from the ignomy of losing an Academy Award? Their movies are innovative in plot and setting, to say the least.
• Live Free and Die Hard, June 29th: Refer above, regarding strong first movies in a franchise. The thing that really irks me about the Die Hard series is that the producers seem to have forgotten what makes a good Die Hard film. One man + A closed environment = Die Hard. Not running around New York City, or Chicago. That's any run of the mill action flick.
• Transformers, July 6th: I played a lot with these toys as a kid, though I can never remember which action figures I had, or what they turned into. Hopefully, this movie will not be part of the "Wreck your childhood dreams" camp (ref: any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, July 13th: Admittedly, I thought Book 5 was pretty darned crap. Yeah, he's going through puberty. Yeah, he has emotional turbulence wrought by hormonal imbalances & stuff. Someone smack this kid along the ears and tell him to stop sniveling, please?! The last few movies have been pretty good though. Hopefully, the writers for this movie installment can edit out the emotional crap we had to endure over 500 pages.
• The Simpsons Movie, July 27th: I love anything Matt Groening has done. Long live Futurama! Oh wait ... this is The Simpsons. Ah well, still good stuff. The writing of the show kinda flopped around a bit over the last few years, but this last season has been very strong in political and social satire. Hopefully, the movie producers kept the same writers around.
• The Bourne Ultimatum, August 3rd: Hmm ... yet another trilogy with a weak middle part. But Matt Damon really owns this character, and I do look forward to this movie.
• Rush Hour 3, August 10th: Verbal constipation meets verbal diarrhea for the third time. But I'm a fan of Jackie Chan and his crazy ass stunts.
• Mr. Bean's Holiday, August 31st: A big hit across the pond, this movie spawned an essay examinging why Bean was the cultural ambassador to the rest of the world.

Hah.

The best 300 spoof so far ...

My Picks

Well, the last year's been a bit better than the preceding year, in that I've watched a few more of the nominated pictures. Even so, my "picks" are more like "guesses". Here goes ...

Best Picture: The Departed

Best Director: Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu, Babel

Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, Last King of Scotland

Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Best Animated Feature: Happy Feet

Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Best Cinematography: The Illusionist

A couple of people have asked me if I plan to blog the Oscars again this year. Unfortunately, it was more of an experiment last year ... and I ended up concentrating more on my laptop than watching the show ... a strange experience, to be sure. Somewhat like missing the joy of a moment because you're too busy looking at it through a camera viewfinder. And so this year, I plan to fully enjoy the show, with my back to the PC!

I'm calling it

Now, the Oscar season's wide open, but the Nominees list for Best Animated movie will contain:

• Happy Feet
• Cars
• Flushed Away

I need movie suggestions!

I've been toying with the idea of writing another mock Hindi movie script. Thus far, the only details I've sketched out in my head are that I want to make a total mockery spoof of the rom-com-dramas of Karan Johar ... and so the action needs to be spread across at least 3 countries, preferably 2 or more continents. Throw in Switzerland for a song-and-dance sequence, too.

Filmi Hindi won't be a problem now ... but I need movie suggestions to get ideas on how to construct the mock script. Thus far, my list is KKHH, K3G, and KANK. Only problem is that they're the summation of current source material.

So I open it out to the Hindi movie watching junta: give me some movie titles.

The Queen 8/10

I took Mom to watch The Queen this weekend, and I can definitely say it's the first Oscar shoo-in I've seen this year. Actually, I'm a little confused on the rules for eligibility. Can a British film be considered for the "traditional" Oscar Awards, or only a "Best Foreign Film" (The Academy is, after all, an American institution) ... I seem to recall it's the film's language (English or not) that qualifies it for consideration, but is there anything about the production, or financing, too?

Anyway ...

The film focuses on the Royals' reaction to Princess Di's death, juxtaposing it non-public display of emotion (something the Queen, played by the stunning Helen Mirren, believes the British are renowned for), with the public's need for inclusion in their grief. Playing both sides is the newly elected Cheshire Cat, Tony Blair (played by the uncanny doppelganger, Michael Sheen).

You can read all about the movie's merits in other (read: better qualified) websites, and so I would rather focus on the character portrayal I found most interesting - Prince Charles. Now maybe I'm colored by my own perception of him (the man after all left a fairy-tale beauty for ... well, enough of that). But he's portrayed as a caring, and mature, heir who recognizes the need for the Royals to modernize, but is emasculated next to his charismatic mother. Personally, I only believe the last bit. I almost started to wonder if Charles had a hand in the financing, as a PR stunt to woo more of the British public into changing their opinions of him.

But all told, a fine, fine film. Given the serious subject matter, it comes as a surprise to find flecks of humor, and some vicious trash talk, peppering the script. I think my favorite line was when Blair was running for the door when his secretary tells him Gordon Brown's on the phone. He responds, "Tell him to wait."

If you didn't get that ... well, you need a lesson in New Labor's political maneuvering over the last decade.

Hack or not?

Kartik just sent me a link to a trailer on the Apple website. Before I provide you the link, let me present the debate. I urge folks to read through our conversation, watch the trailer, and take part in the poll below (for some weird reason, the poll engine refuses to recognize apostrophes ... oh, and you may have to hit "Refresh" to see the results correctly in Firefox ... dunno about IE)

Update: After you vote, please leave a comment to indicate who you are, and if you feel like, why you voted the way you did.

Kartik: you seen the trailer for the movie 300? sweeeet.

Akshay: i havent heard of it. who's in it?

Kartik: http://www.apple.com/trailers/wb/300/trailer1/medium.html .... just watch

Akshay: this is so awesomely bad you know it'll be a cult hit

Kartik: what bad..it is very comic book ish..like sin city

Akshay: please! it looks so ... HACK!

Kartik: graphic novel-ish

Akshay: HACK. sorry i did not getting comic book from it. it was not bizarre enough to be comic book

Kartik: well, inspired by frank miller..it says in the  begining...plus, frank miller wrote a graphic novel called 300..and all the  frames..look again, they have a graphic novel feel … http://www.amazon.co.uk/300-Frank-Miller/dp/1569714029/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_a/202-7773981-1892621?ie=UTF8

Akshay: i dont know man … sometimes things come out one way on a comic but flop in live action

Kartik: you have no taste.

Akshay: funny, i was thinking the same thing :)… i will put this to vote!