flixtime

I'm planning to pick up PAAN SINGH TOMAR in my next order. I've seen Director Tigmanshu Dhulia's previous four films...don't remember much but, if not good, the films were at least "interesting" and perfectly "watchable". SAHEB BIWI AUR GANGSTER was the most recent I believe, and while I didn't think it was anywhere near as good as some of the critics, I still found it an interesting viewing despite the many flaws. I do remember really liking the actor who placed Jimmy Shergills right-hand man...I think the actor's name is Deep Raj Rana...he needs to be in more movies.

flixtime

Eega (2012 - Telugu) - Caught this in theaters...it does NOT have English subtitles...but you really don't need them at all...the story/characters are simpler to follow than a 1940's singing cowboy picture. I'd be comfortable with tagging EEGA as "if you only see one Telugu movie in your lifetime, it might as well be EEGA". EEGA is a live-action/CGI-animation fusion relating the tale of a young man reincarnated as a common house fly. He seeks to avenge his murder while at the same time protecting his previous girlfriend from the romantic interests of the bad guy. There is only one song (and then another one at the end credits), and the song is actually pretty good for a change. The runtime is approximately 135 minutes and moves along quite well, and unlike other Telugu films, EEGA doesn't contain anywhere near as much material that would have been better off left on the cutting room floor.

I'd say the general tone of the film might be something in the general vicinity of, say, HOME ALONE...so sort of family-oriented, light action-comedy. The villain most certainly reminded me of Daniel Stern from HOME ALONE. So, yeah, HOME ALONE if you replace Macaulay Culkin with a vengeful CGI fly and instead of being on the defensive as protector of his home, the fly is more the aggressor in laying siege to the villain in the villain's home/work/etc.

The movie isn't perfect but my only critique would be to suggest a few tweaks here and there. Among other things, I would have liked a couple more minutes on the reincarnation/transition-from-human-to-fly front. Also, the film seems to climax, but it doesn't, instead going on for another fifteen-twenty minutes maybe with another final confrontation...it is impressive on its own while also maybe being too much of a good thing (at the same time too being a little stale in revisiting some earlier material), and it also brings about a measurable change in tone as things get somewhat more serious/violent. So I would have liked a little smoothing out of things such that I wasn't just about to get out of my seat after the earlier faux climax, which left me rather fidgety over the final climax, and again maybe I would have toned down some of the violence in the climax since it felt a little unwelcome when compared to the earlier vibe of the film. Still, taking into account the rather groundbreaking nature of the film (with regard to Telugu cinema), the above criticism is more nitpicking than anything else.

EEGA was definitely an enjoyable viewing experience.

flixtime

Oh yeah, in case nitin is still around (since we've talked TV in the past), nitin I recently started watching BREAKING BAD...nearing the finish to Season 2. Wow...just wow! What I've seen so far is just an absolute masterpiece on every level! I'm actually having a tough time in the sense that I've lost - at least temporarily - some interest in watching movies because they come up far short of the excellence on display in BREAKING BAD.

nitin77

definitely around, just havent seen much indian cinema lately despite ordering some more blu rays

Breaking Bad, only finished up to season 3 myself (have s4 lying around though), but in a way it only gets better, at least dramatically. It does unfortunately lose some of its black humour in the process but thats offset by the sheer amount of gasp inducing drama conjured up in s3. There are at least 3 episode finales where you keep sitting with your mouth open.

flixtime

Yeah, I did notice that BREAKING BAD went darker/serious even with the beginning of Season 2, before adding black humor back into the mix for a couple episodes midway in the season. Among everything else I like about the show, I really like Aaron Paul's voice...a strange observation perhaps...but I do think he has a great voice.

And on a continued off-topic but related note, if I were to build the perfect female, there is no doubt...she would have the voice of Maureen O'Sullivan (aka Jane from the early Weissmuller Tarzan films).

I also watched Season 1 of GAME OF THRONES recently...and again excellent show...really loved Peter Dinklage's character in Season 1.

Also watched the first two seasons of JUSTIFIED. I liked it and am looking forward to Season 3 on home video. At the same time, the show isn't to the level of BREAKING BAD, THE WIRE, THE SHIELD, etc. It can be great quite often...when they focus on the bad guys and the overall story arc. It really sags though when it comes to the ex-wife stuff, some of the standalone stories, and the writers just don't seem to know what to do with two of the supporting characters.

The AMC Western series HELL ON WHEELS - at least based on Season 1 - isn't worth the time.

All things said and done, I just don't get why the writing on some of these TV shows is so outstanding...for example BREAKING BAD seems to have at least two great and memorable scenes in every episode. And yet when I watch movies such as WAR HORSE, TINTIN, HUGO, SUPER 8, etc. - while perfectly entertaining enough - well they just evaporate entirely from my memory once the end credits roll. And speaking of SUPER 8...hmmm...how can I phrase this...okay, got it...if I were in my mid-teens I'd be totally in love with Elle Fanning.

edited to add: Also, continuing on the TV series front, I recently picked up (via UK releases): the French show ENGRENAGES aka SPIRAL series 1-3; the French show BRAQUO series 1 & 2; the Danish program FORBRYDELSEN aka THE KILLING series 1 & 2.

I want to draw out and savor the exquisite experience of watching BREAKING BAD, so as much as I'm tempted to just blow through Seasons 3 and 4, I'm going to give it a breather...therefore I'll dive in on one of the aforementioned European series next.

nitin77

Game of Thrones is definitely great, have only seen season 1 though.

And I enjoyed the hell out of the first season of Justified (probably more so than any season of Breaking Bad actually) but I've heard 2 and 3 dont quite keep up.

Have Hell on Wheels, havent seen it though.

And I agree about Tintin and Super 8 but I will not hear a bad word about Hugo, the only movie I've seen twice at the cinemas since probably Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I hope you saw it in 3D btw, because as much as I hate the format, it really added to this movie.

Can you tell me what you think of Braquo btw, been thinking whether I should pick that up.

I'm currently loving the UK series The Hour, tremendous show. As much as I loved my previous tv showing, In Treatment s2, this is on another level.

flixtime

JUSTIFIED - after taking a few episodes to find its identity in Season 1, I thought the rest of the season was tremendous. Season 2 had great villains...and much potential, but I don't feel it was explored to its fullest. Around mid-season, there are a couple of episodes or so that totally kill the momentum...stuff like some silly storyline with the ex-wife and if I recall right a standalone episode that sort of felt like it was written to meet a contractual requirement that a certain supporting player actually gets some screentime once in a while. There is unquestionably quite a bit of excellence on display in Season 2, but it should have been even better.

HELL ON WHEELS - blatant DEADWOOD wannabe without the writing/dialogue and acting/characters...but too with the same lack of plot momentum. And for a show about the building of a railroad it is curiously stagnant...and sort of cheap in general. The lead actor is dull, and they just seem to forget about his quest for vengeance far too often. Colm Meaney, Common, and Dominique McElligott are fine enough in their roles, but the rest of the supporting players don't register much at all. They do establish a terrific supporting character but then curiously irreparably neuter the character not long after.

Actually did not watch the 3D version of HUGO...didn't watch it in theaters but at home where I have only a standard set-up. You'd be hardpressed to find someone with less of an interest in 3D than I have.

And related to our mention of SUPER 8, I did enjoy ATTACK THE BLOCK as well.

Sure thing, I'll post here on BRAQUO once I get to it...I'll probably slot it next after finishing Season 2 of BREAKING BAD.

I'll keep it in mind about THE HOUR and IN TREATMENT (I did do a little reading up on this one (and TREME) after your previous mention of it a short while back)...simply want to control my building up too much of a TV backlog as of this moment.

nitin77

That would be me I absolutely loathe it, except Hugo did wonders with it IMHO.

flixtime

Finished up Season 2 of BREAKING BAD...wasn't wild about how they handled the close of the season.

So BRAQUO...watched the first episode and might as well post first impressions. Somewhat disappointing. Yeah, following BREAKING BAD is an impossible assignment, but even setting that aside...disappointment. I'd say it is more for genre fans...standard cop fare that doesn't offer anything to make it transcend the genre. I don't feel a bit of attachment to the four main characters...could take it or leave it in terms of spending more time with them. Also, the apparent storyline for the season doesn't seem interesting. In general it seemed to be trying just a little to hard for a sense of urgency, intensity, and grit...sort of "affected" in acting, style, and tone. The four main cops seem all cut from the same cloth...worldweary, worn down, and walking a tightrope. The guys from THE SHIELD had a finely tuned love 'em/hate 'em vibe to their work as police officers...I'm not sensing that here as they seemed more like loose cannon criminals-with-badges types. Either good or bad or whatever, they just didn't seem all that interesting...and again neither was the story. The first episode had its share of violence, and three scenes with nudity, and a sort of camerawork that tries to up the edge factor. But again it sort of felt less natural...more trying to replicate the current trend for this type of fare. It certainly felt "American" or familiar...but that has been the case with a number of French thriller films too I suppose. Anyway, that's a lot of judging going off only one episode...but yeah the main issue is I don't have any interest in the characters and the storyline looks like it will be unremarkable...just a case of standard genre fare that'll bring nothing new to the table. I believe the first season is only eight episodes so let's see how it goes.

nitin, gut feeling at this too early stage is that you could live without BRAQUO. I could certainly be mistaken, but I sense that while you do watch a significant amount of crime cinema/TV, you usually go for stuff a cut above mid-grade fair.

I'll of course update things once I finish Season 1.

nitin77

yeah let me know what you think once you finish season 1, not in any rush, still have 40 seasons of unwatched tv to keep me occupied.

Now then, back on topic, finally got around to Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. Definitely feels like Zoya's version of her brother Farhan's more superior movie Dil Chahta Hai. But I still enjoyed it, flaws and all (namely length, contrived resolutions, surface scratching drama), maybe some of that had to do with the knockout blu ray presentation, maybe its just that I liked the characters.

I know flixtime got bothered by the 3 males but to me, they were a very accurate depiction of upper class, modern indian youth, right down to the inappropriate use of dude for people in their 30s

Also, make this the second movie that I've now enjoyed Katrina Kaif in, who would have thought.

flixtime

Oh come now...nitin, yes, all well and good...but you're no fun...you left out the most important part...how neglectful of you...you know...you know you do...don't you feel just a little bit "different" today...is not the world now seen from a new perspective...you can tell us, you're among friends...don't turn your back on it, embrace it and set yourself free, let it be let it be, live the new you as a "rock chick in a hard rock world"?

And, don't be so hasty, before you answer, remember, "nothing rocks better than a rock chick girl".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1CLJ9xOE7g



edited to add: watched episode 2 of BRAQUO...might as well share some thoughts. It basically confirmed everything I said about the first episode. It's perfectly acceptable pulp entertainment for genre fans. Coarse language, violence, nudity, and down and dirty characters. Still it isn't near the level of something like THE SHIELD; the characters and story in BRAQUO are just too mid-grade, cookie-cutter, non-interesting, and cliche...a product constructed from off-the-shelf parts.

Too often things feel just a little off. For example there is a gunfight in episode 2, the cops are engaged in a gunfight with a bad guy type...one of the cops hears a woman/child screaming maybe fifteen feet off to his left and he hops a road barrier and goes off to shield him with his body. Now is this the wise thing to do? Now I didn't go back and re-view the scene but on first glance through, I would figure that by going over to shield them he would actually be putting them in more danger as he could be drawing the fire from the bad guy over to them. Also, this cop was a character - in terms of story - probably needed to be shown in a more positive light following earlier events...so now you show him being heroic. You could debate that maybe him running over there divided the attention of the bad guy bettering the chances for the other cops to take out the bad guy. But on first look through it didn't really play out that way (unless I wasn't paying close enough attention). Sure it was an entertaining action scene, just maybe not too sensible. Again, a later scene where a girl is shown to have just gotten up from bed, but she doesn't really look like she had been sleeping at all, more like she was getting ready to go to bed. And a later scene where two cops are having a talk in a nightclub/bar and one asks a provocative question and I think "the other cop is going to check him for a wire now" and predictably/cliche that is what happens.

The story so far just seems like not-especially-interesting anti-hero cops (being hounded by Internal Affairs) and going after bad guy types. Nothing going on in terms of depth/substance/meaning/interest. Again perfectly fine in escapist terms and would be of interest to genre fans not demanding too much besides pure entertainment.

Had some time so simply wanted to expand on my initial observations. Final report will come after I view the complete season.

flixtime

I know I said I'd muzzle myself with regard to BRAQUO but I need to vent...watched the third episode and this show is starting to flatline big time...and, well, it's just kind of dumb.

The opening scene is a nightime car chase...our "heroes" are actually being chased by some other cops through the city streets...they hang a sharp right and cut through a sort of parking area between two city streets. In making the sharp and quick right into the lot, they enter through a somewhat cramped space with two concrete barriers on either side. The cop cars follow. To exit the other side our "heroes" have to do the same...through a space flanked by some concrete barriers...it's a straight shot through and they hang a left and off they go. For some reason, the first pursuing cop car instead of simply following through the barriers, jams the breaks and skids out and stops...end of pursuit. Why the cops couldn't drive straight in between these barriers (like they had done while hanging a right to enter the lot), well I just don't know. Of course if the characters/story were interesting, then I wouldn't notice this sort of stuff...like I never question why the Indians don't just shoot the horses in STAGECOACH...but BRAQUO isn't good enough to distract my attention.

There's maybe three more scenes in the episode that I thought were dumb (or at least seemed curious in their questionable/poor handling/execution). Again our "heroes" are tailing a bad guy type and they get stuck behind a guy having trouble at a tollbooth, so they cut around at which point a regular patrol car starts to go after them with sirens flashing. They see the patrol car signaling them down and yet they can't communicate that they are cops in some way, and up ahead the bad guy type never seems to pick up that patrol car behind them. And the scene sort of cuts and comes back later and our "heroes" have been pulled over by the patrol car and are sorting things out without much urgency...and the rest of the episode goes off on another tanget leaving that whole bit with the bad guy unresolved.
And another scene with another of our "heroes" going in to a small shop to hassle a hood for some information...of course the hood won't talk so our "hero" antagonizes him and then the hood and at least a half dozen of his buddies give the cop (they don't know he is a cop) a whooping and toss him out. At which point, the cop shoots the tires on the hood's beloved car and threatens to set spark to the gas tank...one, why didn't the cop just do this after the guy first refuses to help instead of getting whooped first, and two, if the cop went ahead and lit the gas tank wouldn't it kind of be a great risk to, you know, blow up right away with the cop standing right next to it.

And lastly, there is some bit with another cop being observed by one of our "heroes" talking to Internal Affairs inside the IA guy's car parked at the police station...the "hero" is suspicious and thinks this other cop is selling him out...now if that was the case wouldn't it be super dumb to be doing it in such plain sight so wouldn't you maybe not think that it was a case of being sold out...or maybe the IA guy just asked the other cop to talk...but if you were the other cop why would you have to get comfy in the car to do so if you were reluctant to talk in the first place. Anyway, the show is really starting to come across as braindead, along with all my other earlier issues I had with things.

And, it even failed on the cheap thrills, there was a chance at least for some gratuitous nudity, and they don't really go much for it at all.

So, yeah, I'm actually starting to pull back from my modest "okay enough for genre fans" stance, and am very close to complete thumbs down territory.

One more thing, like a lot of shows, BRAQUO likes to end each episode such that you are eager to come back for more...but for this episode it was horribly done...totally cheesy...a bit with a grenade that felt like something you would see in 1930s-1940s cliffhanger serials. I'm really starting to feel I'd be having a much better time if I just rewatched the first season of THE SHIELD.

flixtime

This is what happens when - in large part due to the (supposed) star players - you hate your favorite baseball team...you found yourself caught between Scylla and Charybdis...in my case that means more BRAQUO.

I've finished episode 4. Well, there wasn't a whole lot in terms of action (braindead or otherwise), and despite the opportunity existing this episode went for nothing in terms of gratuitous titillation. So with action and sex out of the equation...that means we finally get to push ahead with the plot and some character development...umm, wrong...just a lot of not much going on.

You know, for cops who are supposed to be under intense investigation from Internal Affairs...well they seem to be going about their business rather freely and carefree. And Internal Affairs never actually seems to be attempting to track them, and our "heroes" never seem especially concerned that they might be being followed. And for "top cops" they seem to have a lot of free time to be doing their own thing, and/or tangling with rather low-level baddies...not that we'd really know because any character development for the villains is also non-existent (and one of the "big" baddies doesn't even seem to have any foot soldiers to whom he can task a broad daylight abduction of a well known lawyer right outside the lawyer's office in the city). In general, they keep telling us how these guys are top cops, but it sure doesn't seem that way...Vic Mackey, Shane, and the boys would take these guys out without breaking a sweat....USA! USA! USA!....haha, just kidding around...or maybe getting a start on my Olympics spirit (actually, "no" on this last part).

And one more thing with regard to BRAQUO...I just keep losing focus because I'm always thinking that Duncan MacLeod and Richie Ryan should be around somewhere...one of the cops lives on a barge just like Duncan had and another cop is always on his motorcycle and about the same age and personality as Richie.



edited to add:

Note to self: I really should have better anticipated my longwindedness on this topic and broken it off into a separate thread from the get-go.

flixtime

BRAQUO

Episode 5 - is that really how you conduct a urine/drug test?

Episode 6 - is that really how you handle a vital piece of evidence?

This show is just way too stupid...coupled with a lame plot, lame storytelling, and lame characters.

With 6 of 8 episodes from Season 1 now complete, it sure is looking like this is going to grade out as thumbs down.

On the bright side, the show is quickly-paced and curiously not unwatchable...but that doesn't take away from the fact that it also kind of sucks.

flixtime

BRAQUO

Episode 7 - better late than never...the return of gratuitious nudity!

Episode 8 - yawn...the end. And I'm in no rush to get to Season 2.

Final summary on BRAQUO Season 1 - a desperate and thoroughly unsuccessful attempt to copycat THE SHIELD. And when you take into consideration some of the talent involved - Olivier Marchal, Frederic Schoendoerffer, Abdel Raouf Dafri, etc. - then BRAQUO registers as an even greater disappointment. Thumbs down.


Your patience with my off-topic ramblings is appreciated.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

nitin77

ta thanks, will cross of the "maybe to get" list.

toddly6666

Flixtime and Nitin,
Either of you catch the two big animated films from India - Arjun and Ramayana? I'm thinking about getting both DVDs. The Arjun DVD from India has English subs. And the Ramayana DVD from Thailand has English subs. Arjun the Warrior definitely looks 100 times better than Ramayana of course.

flixtime

Surprise, surprise...look what the cat dragged in...didn't think you were still around here toddly...you are indeed one stealthy ninja!

Haven't watched either of those movies, though I will likely pick up ARJUN: THE WARRIOR PRINCE when I place my next Hindi film order sometime...oh, maybe about a month or so from now. On a related note, did you ever bother with LAVA KUSA: THE WARRIOR TWINS...maybe you didn't (I didn't get around to that one either).

Watched a few Telugu movies recently. Figured since everything in the universe that isn't BREAKING BAD kind of totally sucks, might as well counter-program with some truly lousy Telugu movies (I wonder if "lousy Telugu movie" is some sort of equivalent to "frozen tundra" aka tundra is by definition frozen...yeah, I'm being mean now). So, anyway, the following Telugu movies are not worth a moment of anyone's time: ORANGE, RACHA, BEJAWADA, NENU NAA RAKSHASI

It truly is something to witness so much money being spent on films almost entirely without merit. ORANGE at least had solid music and a charismatic performance from Ram Charan Teja, but good lord Genelia was supremely annoying...I don't get these types of performances from actresses in Telugu films...college-aged girls acting as if they are maybe six years-old. BEJAWADA and NENU NAA RAKSHASI were just plain braindead. RACHA wasn't any good either, and even Ram Charan wasn't as appealing...maybe the whole "Mega Power Star" aspect to the character had a lot to do with it. I really need to make a list someday of all these South Indian actor "Star" titles...okay, maybe not. What else related to these films...let's see, women got slapped in two of the four, and were threatened with slapping in a third. Two of the four had what can be seen as racist scenes. Ah, yes, Telugu censorship...there seems no rhyme or reason to it. I believe it was the movie BEJAWADA...the movie had a fair amount of scenes where characters were drinking or smoking. Well, every time there was a cigarette or alcohol in the scene, there'd be a burned in to the print warning...for cigarettes a cigarette inside a circle with a slash through it and then also followed by text that presumably read "smoking is injurious to your health" (which would match the warnings often shown at the beginning of Telugu films)...likewise a drinking scene would have a cocktail glass inside a slashed circle. I mean it was ridiculous to watch these warnings pop up over and over during the movie. And the best part is one scene where the guy is smoking so the warning is there and also in the scene the girl is eating a huge chocolate bar all by herself...and all I could think of was...shouldn't there be a warning for that too..."eating a huge family sized chocolate bar all by yourself is injurious to your health". And then the "hero" has a gun and is about to tangle with three villains...he tosses the gun away and proceeds to fight them...well, there should be a warning for that too..."tossing your gun away when about to fight three bad guys could be injurious to your health". It's just kind of odd to see the villain smoking while flanked by two guys with machine guns and then seeing a red cigarette warning pop up at the bottom middle of your screen. I'll tell you what...you know what's injurious to your health...watching friggin' Telugu movies...that's for damn sure injurious to your mental health...where the heck is that warning at the beginning of every Telugu movie. And then you have the movie RACHA and one of the early scenes shows a guy drinking and there is no warning of any sort. So I just can't figure out what is going on in the heads of Telugu censors.

Ah, good, now that I've done my duty and actually posted on-topic...well, now I can talk about BREAKING BAD. I've got three episodes to go to finish up Season 4. I got a little worried when the third episode of the season came across as the weakest episode of the entire series to that point, and even the next episode continued with a sort of "settled in" and perhaps slightly "unsure" feel to the show. But things got back on track after that. Just an absolute masterwork on every level. And I've quite enjoyed the unofficial WISEGUY reunion aka Frank McPike and Michael Santana (meaning the actors not that they appear as those characters again). Ahh, WISEGUY...what a great show...the Steelgrave arc, the Profitt arc...just a magnificent first season that was...and Joan Severance, yum...darned, now I've got myself feeling frisky.

Also watched the TV-miniseries HATFIELDS & McCOYS and very much enjoyed the absolute madness of it all. If I were to nitpick I'd say there was a slight "generation gap disconnect" in the performances of the older versus younger cast members, but again that is really fine-tooth combing through the miniseries.

toddly6666

Yeah, I still come in here for nostalgia. You DVD people are funny! When you gonna join the Blu-ray cool people? hhehehe...kidding.

I think I may pass on both animated features. Reviews say that Ramayana is the better film, but that animation makes me cringe. And now they are also saying that Arjun is pretty dry too....I honestly don't remember if I bought Lava Kusa on DVD or not. I feel like that I did and stopped watching the movie after 4 minutes. But I'm not sure!

nitin77

todd, I have more blus than dvds

No havent got any of the animated ones, they did not really catch my interest.

Will be picking up Shanghai though, apparently its off the same source material as Costa Gavras' Z and although I dont expect it to be anywhere near as good, I'm curious.

flixtime

True, the dust is coating on real thick around these parts...it might get to the point that I become e-homeless.

Then I must be a laugh riot...because I still consider myself to be VHS people!


And now I get to talk about BREAKING BAD. Vince Gilligan must have cut himself a deal with both God and the Devil to come up with something as good as this show! Either that or he is some sort of advanced life form masquerading as a common man. I'm through the first four seasons now, and ready to come current by polishing off the first four episodes of Season 5.

nitin77

I'm waiting a bit to get to s4, I dont want to rush through the series.

flixtime

nitin, that had been my original plan too...meaning to sort of draw out and savor the experience. The primary reason I scrapped that plan was due to fear of spoilers. When Season 5 premiered it was tough because ads were all over the place, including places like IMDb which for any movie buff is tough to avoid. Even episode titles were all over the place. So basically I wanted to come up to speed asap to avoid accidentally stumbling across a spoiler.

Watched Turkey's ONCE UPON A TIME IN ANATOLIA. It contained some highly impressive cinematography, at least during the first half plus of the film that takes place at nightime...specifically the lighting of the nightime scenes and scenes with an apple and also later a girl. At least one of the character arcs was very powerful as well. If you set aside the much stronger technical values in ANATOLIA, it otherwise had a general feel similar to POLICE, ADJECTIVE which I once commented upon somewhere around here...maybe one of the older "what are you watching in International/Euro" threads. Actually, I still recall fondly a very amusing scene at around the fifty-minute mark of POLICE, ADJECTIVE.

nitin77

I saw Anatolia in the cinemas about 2 mths ago, and tha cinematography is astounding on the big screen. Got my blu too so plan to give it anther whirl, really liked the movie.

flixtime

Off-topic yet again...or looking at it from a glass half-full perspective I am at least on-topic with my other recent posts (haha). So I'm beginning to think I should just quit watching anything that isn't in the category of "very well-received English-language television show/miniseries". I seem to have real good luck in that sense as I've enjoyed LIFE ON MARS (UK), THE SHIELD, THE WIRE, DEADWOOD, SPARTACUS, JUSTIFIED, the first season of GAME OF THRONES, what I've seen of THE WALKING DEAD, the miniseries HATFIELDS & MCCOYS, THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH miniseries...and of course BREAKING BAD which is like the greatest thing ever. And now on top of that I'm quite enjoying the just released Season 1 of HOMELAND (I'm five episodes in to the run of twelve)...and I'm curious to check out the original Israeli version once it gets a pricedrop at Amazon UK.

Which leads in to the latter half of this rambling...I watched the Indonesian action movie THE RAID, and actually it didn't do a whole lot for me. It was okay enough (aka average at best if I were being generous) and I liked seeing the guys from MERANTAU back in action because I think they are very talented martial artists and I also find them to be very charismatic and likeable. Yeah, there were maybe five nice martial arts fight scenes which functioned nicely in a standalone or demo-reel sort of way but they certainly felt repetitive. Even one of the scenes where two guys are fighting against one, well yeah it was fine, but going forward if I need that sort of fix, I'd easily opt to pop in an old Shaw Brothers picture...if I remember right the climax of AVENGING EAGLE has something similar which I found far more enjoyable overall. Outside of the martial arts aspect, nothing else in the movie registered with me at all. Actually, I enjoyed the director's previous film MERANTAU (even in its butchered form) significantly more than THE RAID...at least MERANTAU had some heart and story to go along with the action. And as an action film I found THE RAID to be a letdown, as it took maybe thirty-five minutes in to the film before any of the action really caught my attention. I'd actually opt not only for MERANTAU but to even re-watch Thai efforts such as Tony Jaa's bigger hits, CHOCOLATE, RAGING PHOENIX, etc., before considering another viewing of THE RAID. And of course Hong Kong has given us better action entries such as INVISIBLE TARGET which I very much enjoyed.

Now that I think about it, I really do need to catch up on my Hindi cinema viewing so maybe I should dedicate a chunk of this month's viewing time to watching the ten or so recent Hindi films I'm interested in sampling (I've most certainly had my fill of soulless Hollywood product such as WRATH OF THE TITANS and SHERLOCK HOLMES GAME OF SHADOWS).