Posted by Unknown
Posted on 11:11
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Rating : 4/10 Release Date : 18th September, 2015 Time : 138 minutes Director, Co-Writer : Nikhil Advani; Co-Writer: Anshul Singhal; Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy Starring : Imran Khan, Kangana Ranaut, Abhishek Saha, Vivan Bhatena
You know he’s nerdy because he wears specs. You know she’s cool and hip because she paints, has tattoos, wears really short shorts and carries Rs 20 notes in her bag with her phone number written on them… He takes but an instant to fall in love and wants a deep, committed relationship while she wants something time pass, as she hasn’t checked out the ‘merchandise’ in their college yet. And with a start like that, isn’t heartbreak inevitable ? Booze (lots of it), a suicide attempt (featuring a bottle of phenyl that looks like a beer bottle), fights and a rebound one night stand follows, but will they lead to true love finding a way ?
And then, just when you thought it was going to end, is a big twist – something so incomprehensible, so ludicrous, it made the movie fall and fail…
What works are the moments of zaniness (only a few, like when he’s examining toilets, the parents visit to the campus or the opening credits), a decent soundtrack (despite being over-populated with songs), a good supporting cast (especially Abhishek and Vivan) and superb sets / visuals. What falls flat are the repeated, almost desperate attempts to be really cool, quirky (the impossibly overwrought boss, the band at the end), the irritating sister, the stretched heartbreak with the ‘I will forget her’ alternating with ‘I will get her back’ portions and the overall silliness of the plot.
What also doesn’t work is the lead pair – neither is able to truly bring credibility to their characters. Imran is completely unconvincing as the love-sick lover – he doesn’t look like the type who would go to pieces if his girl left him – and he tries too hard to emote. Kangana’s struggle is more with her character, which being flawed doesn’t leave her much scope. And she’s also done the wild chick a bit too often, so the novelty has worn off.
What we get is a terrible, confused, mess of a story, almost as if the makers didn’t know whether to make us laugh or to cry and then fall flat trying to make us do both. The characters are stereotypical, make us feel nothing for them and the ending is a desperate attempt to wring some emotions from us. Though it only made me cringe and hold my head in my hands, while laughing hollowly…
Posted by Unknown
Posted on 20:06
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If you follow my social media (which I assume most reading this blog must, as it's updated exponentially more often) you may have noticed me pulling back or posting cryptically over the last two days. There are a few reasons for that, but the main one is that I'd been waiting to hear back on some test-results from my doctor (newly-acquired, along with my new health insurance). The tests came back today, and... well, it wasn't great news.
I have what's called Type 2 Diabetes.
Briefly: No, this isn't (in most cases and mine) the "needle of insulin daily" Diabetes. This is a less-dangerous, manageable condition that presents basically the same symptoms - or, at least, thats my understanding of the matter, I'm really still learning. The bottom line is, I'm sick. Which is a place I never wanted to be, which scares the hell out of me and which has left me feeling beaten, depressed and (most of all) mad at myself because I'm keenly aware that it's my own fault.
Here's the thing: 3 years ago when I moved into my current apartment, one of the things I resolved to do was lose weight and get in shape - I had to budget myself, and I figured cutting down on food/snacks/etc would be a win-win for my wallet and my wasteline. Weight had been a problem of mine since High School, and through a combination of cutting down portions, avoiding excess carbs, not keeping sweets or soda around the house and a self-imposed exercise regimen of walking and lifting I tried to get a handle on it. I watched what I ate. I chugged water instead of anything sweet. I bought a bicycle and a heavy-bag and used both of them frequently.
And it worked. I dropped a bunch of weight (you can see the fluctuations across old OverThinker episodes) and felt great about myself. I never stopped being hungry all the time, never stopped wanting to eat a giant dish of lasagna or a full rack of ribs for dinner with cake and/or cookies for dessert (which took work, since I'm a decent-ish cook and can just MAKE that stuff if I wanted it badly enough) but I got there. I was productive, getting healthier, turning out more and better work than ever and making more time for family, friends and relationships.
Unfortunately, around the tail end of this same period, a family issue that had been building for far too long was starting to come to a head. The details are, with respect, not for the public - suffice it to say: If someone you love is doing something that is damaging to themselves and those around them, don't wait to confront them about it until they're so far gone that the things that need to be done to help them have to happen against their will.
So that went down. And then, shortly after (or, rather, in the midst of the rebuilding process) I lost my regular professional gig at The Escapist suddenly and without warning. The fallout from that has been getting better, thanks in no small part to the generosity of my fans, but remains unsure and a source of constant stress. And while this was going on... yeah, I got into a depression. That's not to say that I HAVE Depression, but that I was regularly depressed. Down. Feeling bleak about the state of my life and my ability to escape it - like the man said, I don't want to survive... I want to live.
And so I fell into the stupid trap of justifying lapses in any type of self-care that wasn't altogether enjoyable. I couldn't control the economy, or the lack of employment opportunities around me, or the behavior/misbehavior of loved-ones; but I could control my leisure time and my food. So I ate what I wanted, when I wanted, in the portions I wanted. And I stayed home and slept late and did anything but exercise for fun.
I gained back my weight and then some, I lost energy, and now here I am.
Thus far, it mostly... "existentially" sucks. The idea of self-improvement is something I'm all about, but I sort-of loathe the idea of it happening out of medical-necessity instead of self-drive. I love food, particularly the sort that helped get me here, and I find myself literally tearing-up at the thought of potentially having to cut certain things out of my life entirely. I know that sounds pathetic in general and especially in light of people starving elsewhere etc., but... yeah, that's going to be rough. Walking through the supermarket to the pharmacy to get my new medications today felt like a surreal hell: Cookies, pastry, sherbert... will I ever get to enjoy them without thinking about blood sugar and medicine?
The good news is, it's a manageable and (in my case) potentially beatable condition, under the circumstances. I'm on medication, have a regular physician and an appointment with both a condition-specific counselor and a nutritionist (NONE of which I'd have without insurance, which I wasn't be able to afford before Obamacare, FYI) and with that plus the necessary changes in lifestyle I intend to beat this thing. I'm not terribly fond of my own mortality (one reason I'm 999% pro-science in almost all circumstances: I want that brain-in-robot-body/cloned-replacement-parts near-immortality shit in MY lifetime) and I certainly don't plan to die early.
So... that's what's going on with me. I'm aware that I'm opening myself to a lot of "what'd you expect, fatty?" from the usual suspects, but the fact is I'm not good at separating my "public persona" from what's actually going on with me, and I don't want my profile to become a mess of cryptic allusions to "life changes" and "doctors." I have a condition, I'm working to overcome it, the end.
Where this effects you, the fans? Hopefully, not at all. Ideally, this shouldn't prevent me from doing my job as I have been and seeking out more of it to do as well. GAME OVERTHINKER will continue. IN BOB WE TRUST will continue. THE MOVIEBOB PATREON is still up, running and appreciates your continued support. And fans should stay tuned to OverThinker this weekend especially, for some teases about upcoming October programming that should make long-time fans very happy.
This is not going to beat me, and one of the reasons for that is that I've promised my fans and followers cool stuff and hard work and don't intend to let anyone down.
Posted by Unknown
Posted on 04:03
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So. You're probably waking up to hear about a particularly-bright, science/engineering inclined 14 year-old boy in Texas who was arrested, detained, taken from his school and interrogated about "terrorism" by police. Why? Because his name is Ahmed Mohamed, and someone thought the homemade clock he'd brought to school looked like a bomb. Here is the kid explaining what went down. Saddest part: He had already taken pains while designing the clock to make it not look suspicious - which means that, at 14, this child has already had to internalize "adjust your behavior so you don't make anyone whose already made a racist assumption about you uncomfortable." As this was hitting the news overnight, I tweeted spontaneously about it and now I see those tweets getting shared around a lot, so I figured I'd copy said tweets into proper paragraphs. You can hit the jump to see them: (From around 12:30am EST) This. Is. FUCKING. INFURIATING. This shit has been happening since 9/11, and because people (including me) were (rightly) scared we turned a blind eye to it as just part of the "well, we all have to be more aware of things now" ephemera like airport screenings sucking. And it's bullshit. This isn't "Don't yell fire in a crowded theatre. This is "Don't do ANYTHING to get noticed if you are Muslim/Arab/etc. And it's our fault. One more thing about that story to consider: That kid is in the 9th grade. 9/11 was 14 years ago. This has been his ENTIRE. LIFE. He doesn't have any "America before, the way it was supposed to be" memories. His entire life has happened in a country where he is IMMEDIATELY suspect of the worst things imaginable because of his name, his skin and his parents' religious heritage. This isn't 1955. This isn't "that ancient time before that man made dream-speech when we were bad." This is TODAY. This is your world NOW. All because we decided 14 years ago "The Guy Who Didn't Act When He Saw Something" was the ONE thing you must avoid becoming at any cost - while, ironically, we gave a second term to the "leaders" who did EXACTLY THAT. So now, barring an immediate miracle, this *14 year-old* has two choices (assuming the charges are dropped): 1. Keep his head down and get ahead without drawing MORE undue attention. 2. Become a cause-celeb for (mostly) white liberals to rally around for feel-goods, which will "stick" to him and be used to undercut any achievement he makes for the rest of his life. Mark your calendar for 2020-23. That's when the first generation of Muslim/Arab/ME/etc Americans born immediately before/during/after 9/11 are going to be graduating College. Some of them to write books, make films/TV, report news, tell stories, etc; and they are going to have stories to tell and images to share about how THEIR lives were during what YOU probably think of as an overall pretty-good era to come up through that are going to shame you and infuriate you and shake you to your core. Our children will look back on how U.S. treated people of ME/Muslim-descent in the decade post-9/11 the way we look at Japanese Internment. For [all] the talk of individual/communal resilience (which was/is VERY real) 9/11 really did successfully leave a lasting, debilitating injury on the U.S. It hobbled us, we stumbled, we reacted badly and we are still paying for it (and still acting badly.) We went backward. We'll get out of it. We always do. But historically, it's place is next to FDR's "Second Bill of Rights" not being fully adopted, JFK's death, Challenger exploding etc as a tragic historical "If Only..." Also, something I mentioned in follow-up that I feel is especially relevant: Internet activism community? Please resist turning this child into a hashtag. If you want to help, send him support, emotional or otherwise - maybe scholarships, if you're in position to do so. Give to his family's legal defense fund, if it comes to that. But it's wrong to make a "martyr" of a living person unless they volunteer for it. And while it might feel like the "big picture" righteous thing to do, I promise you that using support (however sincere) for this kid to mark YOU as "one of the good guys" will end up "marking" him in ways that could ultimately be detrimental (or even "just" frustrating and stifling) as he goes on.
Posted by Unknown
Posted on 03:48
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Rating : 5/10 Release Date : 11th September, 2015 Time : 131 minutes Director, Co-Writer : Nikhil Advani; Co-Writer: Umesh Bist based on the original ’83 movie by Subhash Ghai; Music : Various Starring : Sooraj Pancholi, Athiya Shetty, Aditya Pancholi, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sharad Kelkar, Kishor Kadam, Chetan Hansraj, Vivan Bhatena
Disclaimer : I haven’t seen the original 1983 film by Subhash Ghai (Wiki link here), so that lets me out of any pesky comparisons
A goonda (with a heart of gold, obviously) falls in love with a top cop's daughter (spoilt SoBo types) while he has kidnapped her at his godfather’s behest…
What Nikhil Advani and Umesh Bist (Director-writer and writer resp.) then do is figure out the most convoluted, tortuous way to try and get the lovers (and their folks) to unite… they add unnecessary characters, twist plot lines, prolong the movie and also defy logic, gravity, space-time continuum etc in their holy quest.
Sample some of the senseless stuff - The godfather, Aditya Pancholi, is never seen without his lawyer. Even in jail, in his cell. Didn’t know you could invite a roomie… - Kidnapping an IG’s daughter should be no mean feat. However, here it happens peacefully. Twice. No casing the joint, observing her movements, or watching her security detail necessary. Not even so much as looking at your potential victims photo beforehand as Sooraj is surprised when he sees her (having had a run in with her at a club sometime ago) - If you kidnapped her from Mumbai, in a car, dressed as cops, where would you go ? Jammu, obviously. Isnt it next door ? Arre – it’s so picturesque to show the young couple romancing in the snow !! - Tigmanshu Dhulia, the IG, has to be the worst cop possible. Not only does he let his daughter get kidnapped, twice, he also lets Aditya Pancholi escape from custody. And then does nothing whatsoever to track him down. Obviously more worried about what people will say about his daughter cavorting around with aaj ka Gen Y goonda… On receiving a match for beloved daughter, he also falls head over heels for the same (Call me Dad) without doing any sort of reference check whatsoever - I loved the gym Sooraj sets up – really fancy. Would love even more to meet whoever lent him the money to make it…also whichever institute did Athiya’s show (and allowed a novice to join in) ? - Why was Vivan Bhatena needed in the film ? For that matter, why was Paris ?
Am not even touching on 20 other points that come to mind (how did she know when he was being released, didn’t the bike wash away in Jammu , how come the bomb blast laid twenty cops low twenty feet away but Aditya Pancholi is unharmed five feet away ?) just focused on the big ones above...
Also, the acting skills of Tigmanshu and Aditya were quite gloriously wasted. I really wish instead of wasting time on songs (too many, too ordinary) and devising new ways to stretch the plot, the makers had spent a bit more time building on the characters of the lead pair, showing us what they were about, why they fall in love etc. The two star kids actually look good, have good screen presence for their debut film and will get better with time. Unfortunately we don't really get to know them at all we are only dealt cliches. Just wish they’d got a better platform, script-wise, to showcase their talents
I'm working on having the pretty-pictures version of this up ASAP, but why should you have to wait? Here's the complete audio-review of M. Night Shyamalan's latest (literal) shit-show. I know, I know, I'm too good to you.
ENJOY!
*P.S. I know that it shows the wrong title in the "credits." This will be fixed in the video version.
Posted by Unknown
Posted on 23:14
with No comments
Well!
So, I haven't posted anything in about a week. There are some personal/time-constraint reasons for that which are neither here nor there, but it was mainly an effect of not a terrible amount "going on" of late that I felt compelled to comment on. That part will change as we head into the "busy season" of movie screenings and conventions, but something else will likely be changing too. I'm actively exploring the "replacement" of both this blog and the Game OverThinker blog with something like a unified "official site." This was, some followers will remember, something that was supposed to already be happening but was delayed by my professional shakeup back in February. I'm probably leaning toward a Wordpress-type service (any advice from web-designer followers would be appreciated) and looking to keep Disqus for comments, but we'll see.
In any case, new content coming this week regardless. Until then, please enjoy this cool thing you probably already saw:
