Saw Rajneeti last night or sometime early this morning. This was one pointless movie. Pretty much a combination of The Mahabharata and The Godfather but the biggest problem is that the whole thing is crammed into a little over two and a half hours while the material may have been much better suited for a television mini series. As a result, the story moves along like it's been edited by a 10 year old with ADD and there's just too much shit crammed into the running time leaving every character in the movie short changed. there's no logical reason or anything in their characters to suggest some of their actions and behaviour but yeah, you can sit and spot arjuna, karna, duryodhana, krishna etc. etc. and go, "oh, he ripped off this scene from the godfather." I happen to like Apaharan and Gangajal reasonably and thought both films were let down only by an unnecessary shoot out climax but Rajneethi was just one long unnecessary movie. The scene with karna and kunti was hilarious with its sudden kintu's and paranthu's and overall was lucky to have seen this at home with the option of skipping ahead. Quite fuck all and first movie I'm seeing with Ranbir Kapoor who really is horrible in this film as is Katrina Kaif. The rest of the cast are the same always regardless of role or movie but these two are really shitty. Overall, I'd say a very shitty movie that should never have been made.

I should start watching movies earlier in the evening. Was seeing OSS 17, the Cairo flick last night and while I liked what I saw, I was falling asleep halfways through. I have big backlog now: this one, Solomon Kane, Heartless (A new Brit horror flick) and Inglourious Basterds (yes, FINALLY getting around to it and fuck you to those who want to quote the 10% rule)

^^ Whats the ten percent rule?

Only 10% of Ravenus' opinions are agreeable.

that's a good rule.

So yes, OSS117: Cairo, Nest of Spies was a decent fun spoof of Connery-era Bond, some great jokes there like the one with the lead character assaulting the muezzin caller for disturbing his sleep.. I will now look for the sequel

Watched the OSS 117 sequel Lost in Rio. It's really less of a sequel and more of a retread of the earlier movie, but it's better done on the whole (even if it lacks action scenes with the gusto of the first film) and worth watching. This is a great antidote on the whole to the general sterility of that Quantum of Solace movie.

Also done with watching Inglourious Basterds. Best Tarantino film so far IMO, and apart from a needless use of slow-motion, some hugely incongruous music, a super-annoying Eli Roth and a couple of stupid-ass "let me show you what a film buff I am" sequences, his least self-indulgent effort. And Hans Landa eats Hannibal Lecter's liver for breakfast.

Started rewatching Slam Dunk. This is a timeless classic. It's still as funny as it was the first time I watched it. If you had to watch a sports anime, make it this one. For those interested, the anime revolves around a high school student, Sakuragi Hanamichi. He's the delinquent type, and has managed to get rejected by 50 girls. After getting rejected for the 50th time, he's totally dejected and moping around. Until this girl meets him, and sorta gives him time of day because of his height. She's nuts about basketball. Hanamichi goes apeshit over this girl and decides to join the basketball team. That's the basis of the story and it's hilarious mostly thanks to Hanamichi's antics and his amazing voice actor. I've watched a LOT of sports animes, but barring a few (maybe Hajime no Ippo, Hikaru no go, Initial D), everything else sucks compared to this.

Sounds good, is it ongoing or have they wrapped it up?

---

As for my viewings, Breaking Bad's new episode flings the shit at the fan with gusto. And with his latest move, the main character seems to have shifted over to the amoral side, even though there was more than a hint of compassion in E12. Now it's even hard to root for him all that enthusiastically, though there's still that 'what is this fucker going to do next?' intrigue.

Forgot to mention, I caught Kick Ass sometime last month. If you'd like to see replicas of silver-age superheroes swearing and butchering baddies, this is an option. Sometimes it feels a little gimmicky with the whole 'anti-superhero but still a superhero movie' shlock. And a lot of the setups and punchlines feel contrived as hell. Still, the action scenes are pretty satisfying - and when Hit Girl went "Show's over, motherfuckers", I actually wasn't thinking 'oh, they think they're so edgy showing a foul-mouthed tyke', but agreeing that the show was indeed over, motherfuckers. What can I say, it was a nice moment. Interesting the number of Brits they had playing Italians - all Guy Ritchie regulars too.

^Slam Dunk, the manga, is wrapped up. And rather tidily I might add. About 2/3rds of the manga got animated, so the anime is incomplete in that sense. The manga has Berserk level artwork, so it is a treat to read. It's authored by Tezuka award winner, Takehiko Inoue. I'm usually happy just reading manga, but with this one, I really do miss Sakuragi's voice actor.

I just watched Kickass and I really loved this movie. It was totally unexpected. The promos for the movie were kinda deceptive. I thought it was really original. Something rare for Hollywood. Loved the Tarantino-esque scenes. And also loved Nick Cage's Adam West. That was fucking hilarious and brilliant. Nick Cage is weird. Every time I give up on him, he pulls out a neat performance from his ass.

Saw Sedhu a total banal cliche of a movie start to finish. The horrific insane asylum sequences have some intimation of Naan Kadavul Bala's best movie so far but that aside, this is really dire.

It's about this asshole called Chiyan who randomly beats people up and acts like a dick. Now all of this is supposed to be excused because he's a great guy deep down inside. It's so deep down inside, though, that I failed to see this side to his personality entirely and was left with that impression only because all the other characters were eulogising him and he's slightly better looking than the people he's beating. He later proves how terrific he is by merely abducting a woman and not raping her, which in the warped morality of Tamil Nadu makes him a hybrid of Sir Galahad and Walter Raleigh. In fact, the woman is so impressed by this feat of penile self control, she's all but throwing her underwear at him by the end of the sequence. Unfortunately for her, some of the vast legions of people that Chiyan has been an asshole to decide they've had enough of his shit and beat him to a state of catatonia. The film ends on a cheerful upbeat note: Chiyan spends the rest of his days in an asylum and the woman, deprived of the dubious joys of marital rape, kills herself. It's a conclusion that sucks somewhat for the characters involved but one can't help feeling the world - even one that's a cinematic construct - is better without such scum being given a run of the place.

It's also possible that the entire film is a satire on TN in particular and the world in general. That any people who can tolerate and appreciate brutish behaviour on such a large scale are more dysfunctional and psychotic than the people in an asylum (both loonies and their minders) who smack Chiyan around every time he tries to get too frisky. I have a feeling that's wishful thinking on a Sureshian level, though.

Ravan review coming up!

Finished the 4 seasons of doctor who over the weekend and overall it was a fun ride.

Season 1 has Christopher Eccleston playing the good doctor and he plays it as a character who is more often than not teetering on the edge of madness. Being the last of the time lords isn't a lot of fun even if the doctor tries desperately to make it seem like fun. Overall a solid series with some good storytelling and Ellcleston is my favourite doctor so far in the new series. This is also where he meets Rose Tyler for the first time and who goes onto become his companion over the next two series. Season 2 starts where season 1 ended with the doctor's regeneration and David Tennant taking over the role of the doctor. The character's traits and physical appearance change with every regeneration and this time around the doctor's a ego maniacal chatty fellow and Tennant occasionally plays him like Jim Carey in The Mask. He tends to get a little annoying at times and would be insufferable if some of the writing wasn;t just completely kickass. "The Girl in the Fireplace" where the doctor turns up over various times in a young girl's life as her protector,"The Impossible Planet and Satan's Pit" about a planet stuck on the edge of a black hole with Satan playing a guest role, "Fear Her" about a little girl who's mind is taken over by an alien, "Love and Monsters" about Queen Victoria, werewolves and the birth of Torchwood and the season finale and completely awesome "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" which sees the Dalek and the Cybermen fight for supremacy over the Earth makes Season 2 the best of the lot. Season 3 has some wildly inconsistent and lazy storytelling but then makes up for it with "42" which is about a space ship on a collision course with the Sun and the doctor has 42 minutes to save the crew and again ends with a bang as the doctor's old nemesis the Master returns from the end of the universe in a 3 part season finale. Season 4 is more inconsistent writing and again ends with a bang with the last 5 episodes bringing together all of the characters from the earlier seasons and ending in one big massive and wholly entertaining clusterfuck. Overall, about 50% of the episodes in each season are compelling and the rest are reasonable time pass. I guess the BBC code makes a lot of this very sanitised and child friendly but it's still worth a watch.

HathyaSaiBaba wrote:
He later proves how terrific he is by merely abducting a woman and not raping her, which in the warped morality of Tamil Nadu makes him a hybrid of Sir Galahad and Walter Raleigh.
Hardly restricted to Tamil Nadu. Indra Kumar's Dil espoused that same cause for Hindi movies almost two decades ago.

Oh damn, I missed the bit about the 10% rule. Here goes: If more than 10% of the people Suresh knows (including Facebook friends) have seen and liked a movie, it typically reduces the chances of Suresh seeing and/liking said film to zero.
Finished Arrested Development. You could tell it was a little rushed towards the end. Very good show overall. Who knows, in time I may have liked it as much as The Office or Seinfeld. Looking forward to the full length film.