I HAVE THE ANSWERS

The last few days have been tough for me. I had to conquer a few inner daemons, namely laziness and eh more laziness, only to be held back by a violent bout with indigestion. One might wonder how I got through those troubling times. Stop wondering. I was aided and inspired by the strongest force in the universe, Heman.

In between my research work I spent a lot of time watching all the episodes of 2002 version of Heman. In fact watching it was also a kind of research. Those of you who watched the 80s version of the show probably asked yourself some very hard hitting questions like "What is this 'power'?", "Where can I find that sword?", "Will I look like Heman when I grow up?", etc... The answer to some of them became apparent in the following years (though I am very very muscular and am probably as strong as some super heroes like Batman, I am still not as strong as Heman). But some of questions have vexed me for several years . The 2002 series gives answers to all those questions and does it in a much more engrossing manner. No longer do I have to spent sleepless nights wondering how I can defend the planet from evil sorcerers.

I am going to quickly list these new revelations:

Grayskull: Not the castle. Eternia had an all powerful king, Grayskull who defended the planet against villains who would make skeletor look like the kinder garden bully. When the entire planet was threatened by a very evil guy (I think his name was Hortag) he managedre to cast him and his army away into another dimension but the tremendous effort killed him. On his death all his powers transferred to his council, ever since called the elders, and to his sword. His wife is entrusted to guard the sword and the castle containing it.

Elders: After defending Eternia for a long time they foretold the coming of heman and retired storing their powers in castle Grayskull.

Sorceress: The first one was the queen of Eternia, Grayskull's wife. When one of them retires a replacement is found.

Skeletor: A villain keldor who was after the power of elders, before they retired. When he breached their fortress Randor, who later became the king - Adam's father, defeated him. Keldor was fatally injured in the fight and to save his life summoned Hortag's spirit. Hortag healed him but turned him into skeletor giving him more powers (I think).

Teela: She is the daughter of the sorceress and Man-at-arms Duncan's brother. Hence her adopted father Duncan is her uncle. She will one day become the sorceress.

Snake mountain: Actually the dead body of a snake god Serpos who had tried to conquer Eternia

When Adam bellows 'By the power of grayskull', the power of the ancient king flows into him.

To change back to Adam Heman chants 'Let the power return' or something like that.

Phew!

Karunesh

Nothing much to write here except that the music of Karunesh is heavenly. Its refreshing and unique; a wonderful mix of Indian, chinese and western music. He is not Indian like I had thought at first. He is a German who had a spiritual trip in India after a serious biking accident and was indoctrinated by Osho. But the music sounds predominantly Indian and I love it. My favourites so far:

Punjab http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqiI0gTA134

Alibaba http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3n-LQfmsn0

Solitude http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2dSiL5wSZf4

Bombay pure http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJaGdGa2qSA

The genre is world music/relaxation/dance.

Underappreciated movies part 2

All right. I am writing this because I have nothing else to do. Its my summer leave and right now I don't have much else to do than sleep and eat. So here is the continuation to the sensational post (link) that had hit the blogosphere like a level 5 tornado.

Don Juan Demarco


It bombed at the box office and got mediocre reviews, but I loved it. Johnny Depp plays the titular role of the worlds greatest lover. Actually he is a delusional schizophrenic who dons the personality of the famous character when a centerfold he is obsessively in love with shuns him as a creep. In the opening sequence he displays his charm by seducing a woman at a restaurant and then shows his insanity by trying to suicide because his true love does not want him. He is taken to a mental hospital by Marlon Brando, a successful psychiatrist who is about to retire.

In each evaluation session Depp narrates his imagined life story (some very funny scenes there). Brando's character slowly gets enraptured by Depp's incredible vision of reality. He soon enjoys a reinvigorated marital life by increasingly thinking like his delusional patient. I cant help but think that people will be happier if they are delusional or ignorant of reality. Sure reality will catch up with you once in a while and deliver a sucker punch. But that's OK.

Ladies should especially enjoy this movie (I think they are the target audience), it has some very interesting dialogues. For example once Depp says "Have you ever loved a woman until milk leaked from her as though she had just given birth to love itself, and now must feed it or burst?". And yes that Bryan Adams song is the sound track of this movie.

Great Expectations


We all know the story. Fisher boy meets beautiful but bitchy Estella and falls in love. Boy never forgets her, gets rich. The girl grows up into a succubus kind of hell spawn and tramples over the boys heart. But he still loves her. Finally she develops more humane feelings and there is a possibility for a happy ending. I like the movie because it is superbly artistic. The cinematography both in Florida and New York, background score, settings/props and costumes are all fantastic. View it only for that, if you expect a realistic portrayal of the Dickens's masterpiece don't bother watching this adaptation. Also Gweneth Paltrow is very convincing as the heart breaker.

Guna


Here is another Tamil movie that has been completely ignored. It is not a masterpiece. It is a brutally realistic film about a mad man (Kamal Hassan) who is obsessively in love with an imaginary celestial beauty he calls Abhirami. There is no glorification of the hero, he is simply a mad man. He meets a beautiful lady and is wrongfully made to believe that she is his Abhirami. He ends up abducting her and hiding in a jungle. She begins to see that he almost worships her and that his love for her is boundless and she falls for him in spite of his insanity. In the jungle they both refuse to accept reality and the mad man's delusions are all that matter to them. Very good acting and a few melodious songs add to the credits of the movie.

Old Boy


It hasn't escaped me that the three movies listed above all have similar story lines. Old Boy is not like any of those. In fact its not like any other movie I have seen so far. It is a terrifying story about the meaninglessness of revenge and has superb acting and direction. A small problem is that it is a Korean movie, but subtitled versions are available. I think a Hollywood remake is on its way. I am not going to describe the plot, just go ahead and watch it. Interestingly there was an unofficial remake (read copy) of the movie made in Bollywood called Zinda. This is fairly common in that talentless desert. When a original movie does come out of there it is drowned in a sea of mediocre or worse movies. I will respect them and their movies the day they respect others.

Indy's back, wish he had stayed put

What a waste of money. Definitely the stupidest movie I have seen in a long time. Even hardcore fans are going to have a hard time trying to like this one. I had enjoyed raiders of the lost arc and the last crusade. I found temple of doom to be horrible, especially so because I am Indian. The crystal skull is just plain dumb. The movie has a few good moments, it has the feel of the old movies but the plot must have been made up by a 12 year old. It does have a surprising end, it starts off as a good movie but when it ends everyones wonders wtf?? Do yourselves a favor and stay away from the theatres or go watch Prince Caspian. 

BLOODY Rambo

When First Blood released in 1982 it was a huge hit and it sparked off two sequels in the next 6 years. The second part was forgettable with an improbable gun totting, pencil thin heroine and part 3 was pure torture. In retrospect its even ludicrous considering that Rambo liberates Afghan Mujaheddin freedom fighters from the clutches of the evil Soviets.

Twenty years after the last sequel comes part 4. Stallone must have been hoping to rejuvenate his waning career. Or may be he is trying to make a lasting impression, his final contribution to cinema. Let's hope its the latter. The first few minutes were the usual. Rambo is leading a retired life in Thailand where he catches cobras for a living. He also drives a boat. The unwilling hero is urged to help a charity mission and after much pleading he reluctantly agrees. I think that pleading scene is the only one in the movie in which a dialogue lasted more than two sentences. The whole time I kept reminiscing the wonderful Hot Shots: Part Deux, which is an excellent spoof of the Rambo movies.

The charity team is caught by the evil Burmese army, they were stupid enough to walk into a war zone so obviously they got caught. If there was a message in the movie it would be: live for nothing or kill everything. Like Rambo tells the terrified missionary lady you cannot change what is. Now its up to Rambo to rescue them. He does that by killing what seems to be the entire Burmese army. There were supposed to be only 100 hundred soldiers in the camp but there were definitely many times that number of dead bodies.

You might ask how this makes it a bad movie. Each killing scene is shot so realistically that after the first few you either go numb or run out of the movie hall or puke. Realistic gore is sometimes required to impress upon the audience the gravity of the scene like in the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan. But when the whole movie is about showing the different ways in which people can be killed, about how blood and entrails can scatter and about how big guns can rip off heads and arms and cut bodies into pieces, it becomes deplorable. In fact violence is a lead character in the movie and it is pictured so well and with such commendable depth that by the end you are accustomed to it and accept it.

There were many people who told me that the movie was good because it was very realistic. Realistic? Really?? In which reality will any one person see hundreds of bodies torn apart in the span of an hour. There are so many shots after shots of shocking, intolerable violence that it grabs your attention and by the end of the ordeal you appreciate the movie forgetting the reason you found it interesting is very base. All the creativity that went into making of this gorefest was intended to shock the audience with socially unacceptable imagery and that makes it similar to porn.

That said there are many other movies with similar or even more morbid violence. The newly released Doomsday has a few scenes that challenge our tolerance limits. The cannibalistic punks of future roast a soldier alive before they cut him to pieces and eat him. But the plot of that tasteless movie is itself asinine and beyond reproach.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is an Italian movie!!

This is shocking. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is one of my favourites. I first watched it a long long time ago when I was in school and my father brought home the cassette tape of one of his favourite english movies. Little did he know that it was actually an Italian movie dubbed in English. Its incredible!

After the first time I watched it again several times and finally owned a VCD of it. It was in that version that one of my undergrad college buddies noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with the order in the initial intro sequence of the lead characters. The scene showing Tuco is titled The Bad while the one showing Angel Eyes is The Ugly. This was the opposite of what we knew and we even had wagers about who was what. Now after more than 5 years I have found an explanation for it. It seems the title of the Italian version was Il Buono, il brutto, il cattivo which translates to The Good, The Ugly, The Bad and the change in the ordering lead to a mistake when the international version was made.

I had noticed that there were a few lip sync issues in the movie, but I thought that it was because it is a pretty old movie. I knew that the director and music composer had Italian names. Even then I never guessed that it wasn't a hollywood movie because it had Clint Eastwood as the laconic, lone ranger kind of hero who was ironically called blondie. He with his cigar chewing and sharp shooting antics is the second most interesting attribute of the movie. The first is the enchanting sound track by Ennio Morricone. This is why these westerns are called spaghetti westerns. And I thought it was somehow related to people eating spaghetti while watching them.

I guess its the immense popularity of this movie that 'inspired' the creation of the hilarious Indian westerns. I have seen a few of the Tamil westerns and they put Quickgun Murugan to shame. I don't know what it is about watching pot-bellied actors riding horses in full western costume (like in a fancy dress competition) with background music that had people whistling and screaming trying to sound like an E. Morricone score, set in the incompatible landscape of the region that tickles my funny bone. I don't know if there are any Hindi movies like these, but considering how everything else is I am sure there are a few. Sholay is in fact in this category but I wont make fun of that movie. There is a very serious Malayalam movie called Thazvaram, by the master-director Bharathan, which has the feel of a western but without any horses. I wish there was a real western in malayalam with Prem Nazir as the 'Shee Aye D' cowboy and Adoor Bhazi as his sidekick. It would ofcourse have Sheela as the damsel in distress/female film prop and the master villian Jose Prakash as the village folk terrorizing dacoit. That would have been the acme of entertainment.

Underappreciated movies

This is not a topic I have done extensive research on. I am just jotting down what comes to my mind now. There have been a number of times when I have felt that certain movies were unfairly treated at the box office and by the critics. I am trying to make more people aware of such movies. May be some of them will get a fan following like fight club did much after its release.



Kingdom of Heaven
An epic by Ridley Scott that bombed at the box office. Its probably the best period movie. There are a number of reasons that make this movie outstanding. Lets compare it with Gladiator, a smash hit movie by the same director. Kingdom of heaven has all the elements that made Gladiator a hit. The same production values, cinematography, music, direction, action scenes etc. The hero is of a different kind here, a more sophisticated kind.

Movies are usually not preachy. Audiences sure don't expect to get a morality lesson when they pay $ for a movie ticket. But I appreciate this movie for doing exactly that. The director and producers definitely showed they have a lot of balls when they released a movie showing Salahuddin as a Honorable king. Contrast that with Leonidas proclaiming that the Spartans were humanity's last hope against oppression and tyranny by Xerxes who is portrayed as a devilish dictator in 300. The movie strives to be politically correct with respect to the contemporary culture spectrum. Its message is very pertinent to todays international politics. It does all this and is an entertainer as well.



Idiocracy

The movie is set 500 hundred years in the future. It portrays a bleak time when mankind's future is threatened. The lead pair has to save humanity from certain extinction. Sounds like the usual science fiction fare? Well, this one is no science fiction. Its a comedy set in the future but is more of a satire of today's society than anything else. It shows a terrifying though unlikely vision of what might happen to us if things continue to be the way they are. I don't think it was intended to be a block-buster hit. It is a low budget movie and does not have a note worthy cast. No special effects or anything. What it does have is a fantastic storyline. And lots of toilet humor. Picture the US president as a tommy gun wielding wrestler and gatorade replacing water for everything everywhere and you will get an idea of what to expect.

Solaris
Another movie by a well known director with a star cast that flopped. It is called science fiction, but is more of a love story set in the future. Deeply philosophical and moving at times, it wonderfully portrays the emotions of the lead character. Should be watched when your mind is totally free so that you can get into the mood of the film.



Dark City
If you want proper science fiction this is probably it. Comparable even to The Matrix (not in SFX), with an equally enchanting and sophisticated story the movie did not find any audience. Its a very good movie and probably the most under appreciated in this list. All Sci-fi fans do yourselves a favour a watch it.



Iruvar
This is a Tamil movie. Directed by Mani Rathnam starring Mohanlal, Prakash Raj, Aishwarya Rai and Tabu among many others with music by AR Rahman and a story about MGR and Karunanidhi. You would think that with all these qualities it would be a sure shot hit. But somehow that didn't happen. Not even the excellent acting by Mohanlal, its melodious music and superb direction could make it more than a semi-hit. The performance by the entire cast including Rai is commendable. It should be regarded as one of the greatest Indian movies.

Other movies that deserve more attention:
Office space - Faithful portrayal of a modern day office and every office man's fantasy.
Big Lebowski - Everyone likes the Dude.
Before Sunrise - Superb script and a touching love story.
Rounders - An entertaining movie in which Matt Damon plays a gifted poker player.

TV shows - Stress test results - Part 2

Continuing with the amazing TV shows stress test results. I apologise to my readers who have had to wait for many hours for this sequel. You guys must have been sitting in front of your computer all the time. I hope you took toilet breaks. Its OK to feel that you have lost more than a day of your life, but I will not keep you waiting any longer.



Southpark
Definitely the most imaginative of all the series I have watched. But its selling point is toilet humor and that takes away a few points, cause not everyone enjoys it like I and other maladjusted guys (including its two creators) do. Sure the animation is crappy and every other word uttered by the eight year old lead characters is an expletive. Sure sometimes it's tasteless, racist and even repulsive. But you see thats the whole idea. Its a show like no other. Some of the episodes are social satires taking on issues that the rest of the entertainment industry avoids. They seem to draw inspiration from real life events. Nothing is off limits in this one as you might guess when you see that Jesus is a regular character.

To be fair I have to say that this cartoon series is more real than most TV shows. To add to its credits it has been running for 11 seasons and there was a smash hit movie made of it. If you don't mind toilet humor this definitely is the best series for you.



The Simpsons
Another long running cartoon series, this one with 19 seasons and more than 400 episodes. In my opinion its the quintessential American TV series. The usual storyline is Homer screws up and makes his family mad and by the end of the show he somehow fixes things. They even made a movie with the same theme and there is more than one simpsons PC game out there.

What makes it so successful? I guess there are a few good laughs in there. Good for regular watching.



Heroes
This X-men clone was interesting at first. I mean they have super heroes who wear their underwear the right way, thats something I think. But like many others it got boring as the series progressed. I lost interest in it and havn't watched the second season. Definitely bad test results.



My name is Earl
I like this one. The hero is a total loser. Hes not a charmer and his friends are all losers too. The two lead girls are pretty and that only adds points. Nice, simple plots and funny dialogues. The lead actor does get on my nerves sometimes with his put-on loser mannerisms, but mostly its good fun.

Definitely good for regular watching. It has enough variety to me keep interested enough to watch the remaining 43 episodes in a couple of days. (As you can see I am a very dedicated person)



30 Rock
Tina Fey is really funny and smart which makes her a rare kind of women IMHO. She is the only reason to watch this series. Alec Baldwin does shine once in a while. But the series has very little variety and fared almost poorly in the stress tests. Some of the supporting characters have irritated me so much that if I see those actors face to face I might slap their face.

Watch an episode once in a blue moon and you will be entertained, anything more is a waste of time.



The Office
Pretty good series actually. But themes have been repeating and some episodes are just not funny. Anyway I somehow got hooked onto the Pam-Jim office romance. I stopped watching it because I couldnt stand the micheal scott character anymore. That and the writer's strike meant I didn't have anymore episodes to watch.

Its good for regular watching and office goers will particularly enjoy it.


Series not worth mention (well almost not worth mention):

Californication - As far I could make out its about agent Fox Mulder fornicating with each and every girl he meets in California.

The Apprentice - You are FIRED.

TV shows - Stress test results - Part 1

I havn't had a TV for most of this year and for entertainment I watch TV shows on my laptop. I watched the entire episodes of season 2  & 3 of Lost in 3 days. I consider that an achievement, but unfortunately I cannot put things like that in my resume. So I am going to brag about it in my blog. Watching episodes back to back is in my opinion a kind of abusive stress test. That is when recurrent ideas in these shows become apparent and the jokes just aren't funny anymore. It really tests the script writer's variety.

Just remember that I am being magnanimous by sharing the results of my stress tests here. Who knows this might really turn someones life around. So here goes.

Lost
Pretty good series and probably the one with the highest ratings. Excellent production values and cast. Season 1 was very good. Each episode was like a block buster hollywood movie with many thrills and fresh ideas. But then seasons 2 just dragged on with nothing worth mentioning. In season 1, the viewers were clueless as to whether it was science fiction or fantasy. But protracting that theme made it boring. May be the writers themselves were clueless. The recurrent themes such as the impending strife between Jack and Locke, new characters appearing out of nowhere and disappearing at the same pace they came and the invincibility of the 'others' started annoying me. But towards the end of season 3 with many more plot revelations things got interesting. The ongoing season 4 sees a lot of new experiments, new characters and plot twists. Also they introduced the new format of putting something like subtitles to explain the plot intricacies (but sometimes they overdo it). They seem to have successfully catered to several audiences at once. Its got romance, violence, science fiction and spirituality. It even had a few court room scenes (US viewers love that).

All said I feel the initial excitement and intrigue is starting to wear down and I might not watch the forthcoming episodes. Nah.....who am I kidding?



Scrubs
Everyone likes to watch a show about losers. Scrubs is yet another of those shows. Although all the lead characters are doctors or medical interns, they have enough quirkiness to make people forget that fact. This show fared very poorly in the stress test. In fact I think they repeated a season 3 episode in season 5. The first season was entertaining but it got too repetitive and predictable after that.

I don't recommend it even for regular watching. Watching an episode once in a while is fine. And the acting isn't great either. I guess they ran out of ideas and resorted to gimmicks (like making poor Dr. Elliot get a boob job).



How I met your mother
Belongs to the same category as scrubs. Its about a bunch of friends who meet regularly at a bar (as opposed to a coffee shop). Few of the episodes are funny and there are a lot of crazy ideas by Barney, but the episodes all seem too familiar. I mean apart from a few highlights there is not much else to watch out for. And sometimes the idiosyncrasies of the characters are really annoying. It must be an attempt to make them more realistic but that is not the end effect. I used to like Neil Patrick Harris (Doogie howser) before I watched this show.



The Big Bang Theory
I would give this one five stars. Hmm...... I didn't give any stars to the others, did I? . But anyway this new series is very promising. I don't think theres any other series like it. It has geeks as heroes. Not as a tease like in revenge of the nerds, but really the lead characters are all geeks. A beautiful (but slightly dumb in a blond kind of way) Kaley Cuoco moves in next door to two Caltech physicists and they and their two friends begin to have new experiences. I guess I really like this one cause I identify with these characters very well. When I am not leonard or Sheldon I am Koothrappali.

The Indian geek Koothrappali is a very believable portrayal of a desi student in the US. Kudos to the writers for that. They deserve applause for not succumbing to employing the stereotype. A very entertaining show indeed. That said there have been only eight episodes of it so far and it might be presumptuous of me to give it such a high rating. But I enjoyed those eight very much.

An excellent short film

http://en.qoob.tv/video/clip_view.asp?id=245

its only 9 mins long