Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

Amazon.com:

A mumbai teen who grew up in the slums becomes a contestant on the indian version of who wants to be a millionaire?. He is arrested for cheating & while being interrogated events from his life history are shown which explain why he knows the answers.

Someone in the movie calls Jamal's story "bizarrely plausible" and I would have to agree. The story is basically structured in a way that if one thing had happened differently in Jamal's life he wouldn't have be able to answer all the questions on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire. While nothing in life ever works like that I think it made a really nice story.

Basically the movie was exactly what I thought it would be. It was good but I wouldn't call it great. I heard from tons of people how wonderful it was but also from a few friends (who have similar tastes) who said it was good but not THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME, and I would have to agree with them. While I liked the movie I think The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should have gone home with the Oscar, that movie blew me away.

While I liked the structure of the story I did have problems with it. I liked the relationship between Jamal and Latika but felt when they met up towards the end of the movie we should have seen some more proof of their chemistry, I wasn't totally convinced. And the ending, the actual ending (with illustrated credits etc) that totally changed the mood of the movie and I thought was a bit uncalled for.

Slumdog Millionaire was a good movie but not really as emotionally empactful as other movies I'v seen. A lot of people are commenting on how hard some of the scenes were to watch, I was waiting for it to rise above movies like The Kite Runner, City of God, and Tsotsi, compared to those movies Slumddog Millionaire was a cake walk to watch. Also, I was disappointed that it was mostly in English. I know I'm coming off as a total film snob, sorry. I really felt the need to nitpick this one. But don't get me wrong I did enjoy and like the movie!

All in all, a good but not great movie with an interesting premise.

4/5 Stars
My dad bought, and I watched

Slumdog Millionaire was released on dvd March 31st.

17 comments:

  1. I pretty much agree with you. I thought this was a wonderful movie, but the best movie of 2008? Eh. I thought Doubt and Gran Torino were both better. I just never really got caught up in Slumdog Millionaire. Like I could get how it might disturb people, but it didn't shake me up at all.

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  2. I really do want to see this at some point. I think it sounds good. I want to read the book at some point though.

    -Lauren

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  3. I didn't really know a lot about the story before watching it -I had just heard it was really good and it was only $1 in the red box- but I thought it was fantastic.

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  4. I saw this one in the theater and really enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it was the best movie of the year.

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  5. Still haven't seen this one. I do adore A R Rahman's composing though; the soundtrack to Slumdog is amazing! He's kind of the Mozart of Indian music...at any rate, it is on my list to read AND to watch!

    Great review!

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  6. I loved this movie!!! ..and the book too hehe

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  7. Are you going to read the book that the movie was loosely based on now?

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  8. This sounds amazing!

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  9. I just watched this movie and blogged about it ( http://enbuscadeequilibrio.blogspot.com/2009/04/slumdog-millionaire.html ) this weekend. I really loved it. I did think that the dance while the credits were rolling did completely change the mood and thought it was a bit odd (especially since Jamal had been so serious the whole movie), but I still enjoyed it.

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  10. I haven't watched this movie but I do own it. It just doesn't call to me. I dunno. I might watch it in the future or something.

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  11. Love all this honest talk about Slumdog. I did, in the end, want to dance. But I think some of that had to do with the fact that I didn't want to dance in many other places of the film. The acting, I thought, was wonderful. A very good point about the chemistry.

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  12. Everyone's seen this but me! I really rent it. If I have enough quarters left after the school's book sale, I'll go rent it. :P

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  13. I haven't seen this and to tell you the truth wasn't really planning on it either. But with all the hubub going on about how great it is I think I might sit down and rent it and see what's up.

    P.S. An award is waiting for you here:

    http://creativitygone.blogspot.com/2009/04/day-126-friendly-splash.html

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  14. Well as I posted, I thought it was all a bit cheesy. A nice movie, but not really Best Picture worthy. But I'm okay that it won, you know?

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  15. My hubby and I really need to watch this one. I bought it when it came out, we just haven't gotten around to it yet!

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  16. Madison- I just saw Doubt, I was hoping for more from it. After watching it I said to my friend, this totally was a play first and then I discovered I was right. Hehe.

    Literary Feline- Maybe eventually!

    Mrs. V- Yeah it was just sort of a strange way to end it.

    Thanks for the great comments everyone!

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  17. I ADORED this movie! I thought the relationship between Jamal and Latika was just beautiful. Overall, I thought it was extraordinarily emotional!
    I wouldn't call it the best movie of all time, either, but I did think it was great.
    We really do just disagree about movies, don't we?

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