Of books, shows, and movies

I've been on a tear with books the past few weeks. Picked up some twenty-odd from the library; finished about half a dozen, DNF'd another four to five, and have the rest lined up on my to-read shelf. Jo Hamya's The Hypocrite and Ian Banks' The Crow Road were a couple of the stand-outs from this set. 

Doing something similar with shows as well, though they obviously take longer to complete. Carmy and the gang haven't moved much, but I have now fully caught up with them. Disclaimer was a disappointment, Blanchett notwithstanding. Restarted my Madmen odyssey too, as I have the AMC+ sub for a few more months.

The movie watching continues at the same rhythm, of course. Fridays, Saturdays, and other assorted holiday eves are spent going through my Letterboxd watchlist. Indian movies have been way better than most of the stuff Hollywood churned out last year, which is nice to see. Having said that, wound up 2024 watching Dune 2 for the third time, which was almost as enjoyable as the first. Movie of the year, for sure.

Movie quiz at the office

Here's a Dropbox link to a movie quiz I conducted at the office the other day. Meant for the faint-hearted, not the expert quizzers out there.

And here are the answers. Enjoy!

Movie Posters Quiz

This is a quiz on movie posters that I put up at @kweezzz, the fast growing quizzing community on Twitter. Simple stuff, really. In all cases, name the movie.
A few easy ones initially, to set the ball rolling:
1.  2.  3. 4.  5. 6. 
7. Not an original poster, but a re-imagined one for TV. Name the film 8.  9. 10.  11.
12. Connect the image below and the now defunct ad agency Dazu, to an iconic movie poster.
13. Often appears in all time great movie poster lists. Name the movie and the person credited with this poster
.
14. 
15. Another re-imagined for TV poster. Film?

16. 
17. No movie posters quiz would be complete without this all time great image. Name the film.
18. Campy movie, but has a cult following. Great poster, too

19. Identify, should be easy
.

20. The first known instance of legs appearing as an A-frame in a film poster. Used repeatedly since.
21. While on the subject...

22. A classic. The lead actor specifically requested illustrator Adrian G Spear to create this poster.
23. Another easy one, but what the hell
.

24. One of my favorite posters
.

25. A movie no one remembers, a poster that ranks among the best.
 

26. The first ever film made on this subject, it had just two screenings. Identify.

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Management and the Movies

Walk into any bookstore and chances are you’ll find at least a quarter of the store stocked with books on management. If the store is in an airport, I’ll wager it’s close to 70%. Luminaries like Peter Drucker, CK Prahlad, Tom Peters et al smile down on you benevolently, encouraging you to purchase their book and change your life forever. You steal a glance at the man in the grey suit, purchasing Tom Friedman’s latest along with the 90 page flavor of the month, Who Moved My Mouse. You feel you are missing out on something, you feel you’ll be less of a manager if you don’t read these books. You feel you need to spend thousands on these hardbound tomes, to earn your pay.

I have an alternative. Go to the movies. Watch films like The Godfather. Twelve Angry Men. Apollo 13. Braveheart. Watch the greatest movie ever made, Sholay. Go ahead and combine business with pleasure. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot.

Need to know how to get someone to agree with your point of view? Make him an offer he can’t refuse. How to convince eleven peers to reconsider their opinion? Observe Henry Fonda’s Juror #8 in Twelve Angry Men. Intense collaboration, critical decisions being made as the clock is ticking away? The pressure cooker ‘Houston, we have a problem’ situation in Apollo 13. Inspirational leadership in the face of insurmountable odds? William Wallace in Braveheart or King Leonidas in 300. Take your pick.

In closing, do consider of course, our very own Thakur Baldev Singh, from Sholay. Recruiting skills? Check. Watch the khote sikka dialog and the train robbery scene. He sure knew how to identify talent. Mission statement? Very clear, very precise: Gabbar, alive. He also displays an amazing utilization of scarce resources in achieving that objective. The Thakur’s only shortcoming though, was that he was a hands-off manager. Not his fault, of course.

Having A Point Of View

The problem with movie watching these days is not about the quality of the movie or getting tickets. It's about going in already biased, with an opinion about the film. An opinion that comes from what your favourite reviewers are saying. An opinion based on Twitter feeds. Based on Facebook reviews and status messages.

Let's face it, you already know you are going to either hate the movie and post snarky tweets about it or you are going to find it über cool and talk about how it references twenty three Hollywood films no one's heard of before.

Look at Raavan. No, I do mean it. Watch the movie, for crying out loud. Then call it Mani Ratnam's Aag if you must. If you have watched Aag, of course.

Not that I believe the movie is great. I saw the Tamil version and found it quite boring. Aishwarya Rai looked as delicate as ever, jumping over waterfalls notwithstanding. I found the Karthik - Hanuman angle tiresome and forced. I also thought the songs were the worst ever from the Mani Ratnam - AR Rahman combination. On the other hand though, the cinematography is brilliant, Vikram continues to impress and the climactic fight on the bridge is one of the best action sequences I've ever seen in an Indian movie.

Do I recommend it? Not really. But I did walk in thinking the movie was going to totally suck, based on all that I had read online. I'm glad I realized I was being biased. My point of view may be idiotic, but at least it's my own. So there.

Oscar Predictions

I don't recollect an Academy Awards season when I felt less meh. There were very few good movies last year, very few movies that made you sit up and think. Sit up and watch, yes - we did have Avatar after all. But movies that made you think? Movies that made you scratch your head, go look up the Wikipedia entry on it, movies that made you burst out laughing or those that got you walking on air out of the theater, silly grin plastered on your face? Just compare this year's crop to 2007, when we had No Country For Old Men competing with There Will Be Blood and Juno.

Like I said, meh.

 

At any rate, here are my predictions for this year's Oscars. Not the ones that I like, but the ones I think will win:

Best Picture - Avatar. Yes, I did like The Hurt Locker, but I think Mr Cameron will be back on the deck.

Best Actor - Jeff Bridges. The dude has it coming.

Best Actress - Sandra Bullock. I hated myself writing that, damn! I really don't think there's a better actor alive than Ms Streep, but one more Oscar? Unlikely.

Best Director - Kathryn Bigelow. No, James Cameron. Nah, Bigelow. I'll stick to Bigelow.

Best Original Screenplay - I'm going out on a limb here and predicting Up. 

 

There, I'm done. Didn't enjoy doing it, but I'm done.

Posted via web from Mostly Charmless

Stick-my-neck-out-dept v2009

Here we go with my predictions for the Oscars:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

Actor in a Leading Role: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Actress in a Leading Role: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Actor in a Supporting Role: Robert Downey Jr, Tropic Thunder. I'm kidding. Heath Ledger of course, for the picture that should have been nominated as Best Pic.

Actress in a Supporting Role: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Original Screenplay: Wall.E

I'm not going to try and predict the winner for Best Original Song and Best Score, for some reason.

What, me worry?

*From /Film

What is common to the following songs?

1. Desolation Row – My Chemical Romance
2. Unforgettable – Nat King Cole
3. The Times They Are A-Changin’ – Bob Dylan
4. The Sound Of Silence – Simon & Garfunkel
5. Me & Bobby McGee – Janis Joplin
6. I’m Your Boogie Man – KC & The Sunshine Band
7. You’re My Thrill – Billie Holiday
8. Pruit Igoe & Prophecies – The Philip Glass Ensemble
9. Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen
10. All Along The Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
11. Ride of the Valkyries – Budapest Symphony Orchestra
12. Pirate Jenny – Nina Simon

Ans: They are all tracks from Watchmen. The last is featured in the end credits of the Tales From the Black Freighter DVD. Excellent collection, don't you think?

Cinescape 2008

A fantastic montage of the best of 2008. I haven't watched half the movies featured, but I really want to, after viewing this.

Upcoming movies: Posters and Pics

And of course, our very own...






Most of the images are from the excellent FirstShowing.Net site.

Couple of movies, couple of books

Don't get me wrong, I thought Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Hey-nonny-no was watchable. I did laugh at times, especially when Ratna Pathak Shah was around. The cameos were well done and some of the one-liners had zing. That said, I found the gang of friends quite insipid. Everyone in that group save Jai (Imran Khan) was one dimensional. I couldn't really figure out what made the group tick. Why was Aditi popular? What do the others do apart from hanging around the leads and singing chorus? Hmm. Pass, could do better is my verdict, Mr Tyrewala*.

Aamir, now. The movie, not the director/actor/producer/blogger. A bit fantastic, the way the protagonist gets into terrible trouble a few minutes into the film. However, the excellent direction, sets and acting make up for some of the harder to digest moments. The lead actor, Rajeev Khandelwal, seems to have had a blast.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Christian reading two books, each of which have the word 'God' in their titles, must be very devout and will pull you into church and get you baptised at the drop of a hat. Even if the books were titled In Spite of the Gods and The God Delusion. No one is safe.

*Which reminds me, I need to go to the gym.

KQA's 25th

The KQA's 25th Anniversary is being celebrated with a two day quiz festival starting tomorrow, the 28th of June. and I are setting the Entertainment Quiz, scheduled for 3pm tomorrow at the St Joseph's Boys High School, Bangalore.

FYI & A, as they say around here.

Celebrity blogs

Ram Gopal Varma seems to be the latest to hop on the blog bandwagon. Though I didn't particularly care for his blog, I found some of his responses to comments quite amusing. This, for instance:

Comment: Please make commercially successful films.

Ans: Thanks for the advice. It didn’t occur to me.

And:

Comment: A study on you would be incomplete without AAG.

Ans: Ahhhhh! You are telling me! The greatest education I have ever had in my life with regards to cinema, my life and my self is due to AAG and its aftermath. I must have had one million twenty seven lakh thirty thousand and twenty three advises, and criticisms not including the ones I deduced myself. Now you can see how much more richer I am. Want any charity?

I think they are human too, these actors and directors.

I just can't wait...

From left to right: Silhouette, Mothman, Dollar Bill, Nite Owl, Captain Metropolis, The Comedian (kneeling), Silk Spectre, and Hooded Justice.

March 6, 2009. I just can't wait.

Image from Ain't It Cool News.

W

Good Josh!



This is from Oliver Stone's upcoming biopic, W. Should be interesting.

Was the Death Star attack an inside job?

An excellent analysis on the famed Death Star attack. Asks a lot of uncomfortable questions.

Shower vs Shower

Compare and weep:

Second RIP entry for the day

And now Raghuvaran is dead. Not that I was a big fan, but still. He was good in Shiva, Anjali and Daivathinte Vikruthikal, from the movies I've seen.

Nice line

Homage without innovation isn’t homage, it’s karaoke.

From Matt Zoller Seitz's review of Doomsday.