One evening at the movie theater

Are babies/toddlers cute? Please don't give a hasty reply. Consider the word cute in all the multitudinous scenarios that can have babies in them. Sleeping, eating, at the park, at the bottom of the dining table doing the usual thing that babies usually do especially when the dining table is used for the usual thing that dining tables are normally used for, at the theater...ah...There's the catch...Not very hasty now in giving the answer...Are we?

It was just the usual weekend at the nearby cinema and everything is just perfect. But as Neo would probably say, "perfect" is just a word. Just as all perfect things come to a grinding crash, this evening was no exception. In came a young couple with a small ticking device called a b-a-b-i-e. One may wonder what a b-a-b-i-e would do in a cinema. I had the very same doubt. I also had a hazy vision of the future of this seemingly entertaining evening and hoped that what I had in mind wouldn't happen.

All was smooth. The hero came, did some...stuff...and then the rest of the cast came and did their stuff and all were happy. And then it happened. The hero was about to deliver some heavy duty punch dialogue and pounce on his adversary when..."waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaahhhhhh" went the b-a-b-i-e...Not cute at all...Imagine this. Pin drop silence, and then in the middle of this, a high pitched squeal. OK, nothing that bad. It was just a baby. And just behind me..of all the people..Not shabby at all. It was just a toddler. It knew nothing about being silent and watching the movie in a theater. It would slowly learn it when it grows older. And the movie continued. Again the trumpet went off. "Somebody muzzle that small loud speaker". All kinds of questions pounded in my head. What kind of debilitated couple would think of bringing  a kid to see a movie which I believe they are quite sure the kid would make no sense of? OK, I assumed that they wished to watch the movie. Very funny. Why not play with the kid and pass time at home? My thoughts were cut short by another loud squeal. I suddenly realized that the movie was still running and I had missed some really juicy scenes. I had to do something. I made the pretense of turning around and giving an irritated look. Luckily for me, the father took the hint and to the relief of the whole crowd, took the bawling b-a-b-i-e out.

And after a few this and that, the movie ended. My first thought was to take a closer look at the geniuses who brought that b-a-b-i-e to the show. They had escaped!

Seriously, are babies cute? I would say, only when sleeping, when trying to be cute, when posing for photographs (the photographer sure won't agree with me), in the park all dressed up looking like a colourful slightly bigger than normal football, while sleeping (needs a re mention) and...I think thats it. If there are people who disagree, I would suggest they take a day off and be with one of those man-cubs for one whole day. I had the pleasure of being with one for one whole hour and I have been driven to write this post, which I am sure would cause a lot of resentment around. Anyway, A word of advise...If ever..ever you spot one of these b-a-b-i-e in a cinema hall in a movie that you really wish to watch, forget it....your evening is already ruined.

Clash of the Titan and?

There is always something to spoil movies about Greek mythology - Troy, 300 to name two of the latest ones. And one thing that always happens is that the story is twisted to suit the modern day whatever-crap-the-hero-does-is-awesome story line that sells. The latest in line, Clash of the Titans, wanted to merge all kinds of Greek stories in one, add a bit of romance (no kissing though...Sam Worthington should be disappointed...Anyway, the audience sure was...) and have some nauseatingly clichéd “punch” dialogues here and there.

The title says clash of the titans...But the whole story involved only one titan till the end...As such a titan that defeated the original titans (no mention of them after the introduction). Anyone who had been an ardent reader of Greek mythology in their pre-teens and teens and those who had played Microsoft studio’s (pretty decent) Age of mythology and its (pretty decent) Titans expansion pack would be disappointed with this movie. Why? It missed that extra kick that is usually there around Greek stories. The Gorgon medusa (The word gorgon was not in the movie though) was made pretty looking, but at least they stuck to the description of her hair of snakes. Her un-cuttable-head part was missed out. Her being one of three sisters was missed out. For those really wanting to know more about the actual mythological story of Perseus and the Gorgon medusa, just pick up a book from any school library, or refer to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medusa if you failed to find any such library thing in Stavromula Beta.

As I said, the movie does not involve “Titans” as the title suggests. There is just a brief peek at the Kraken which qualifies for a titan. But it comes and does a few things with its tentacly appendages and then our hero does his usual lame stuff to kill (kill, destroy, vanquish...whatever) it. There is no Titan vs. Titan high power graphic stunts involved, much to the disappointment of the aforementioned fans.

The Greek gods were shown in very poor light; some scenes were even funny where Zeus teaches a king a lesson by doing the king’s wife.  Sam Worthington as Perseus doesn’t talk much...Just shouts here and there and rushes into things. There is a scene where he tries to make some heroic speech and ends up creating juicy stuff for a spoof movie (which is a sure thing. But wouldn’t be as funny as "Meet the Spartans" which had a lot of fodder in the original movie.)

The movie posters say “From the hero of Avatar” which in itself gives out a message saying “We are promoting this movie with the success story of another hit movie. The hero of the other hit movie is in this movie. So it is worth watching”. There are two veteran actors apart from the “hero of avatar” in the cast- Liam Neeson as Zeus and Ralph Fiennes as Hades who have done justice to their roles which is absolutely not the reason to watch this movie according to the promoters. Not to forget Gemma Atherton from Quantum of Solace who does a good job looking cute.

The graphics was really done well with face transformations done with flair. As such, the movie is a visual treat, but lacks that extra punch to back it. Surely a onetime watch for those who wish to spend their weekend in an air-conditioned theatre to avoid the inexplicably bizarre power cuts in an equally bizarre city.

An exquisite comeback

Welcome back Disney!!!!
I recently had a chance to visit the video library after a very long time and I was pleasantly surprised to see "The princess and the frog" in the newbie list. I wondered as to what made the library dig out something from their archives and display it in the newbie section. But then, as I always did, I took a look at the synopsis and whoa...This was a new movie..Disney had a traditional animation movie out when the biggies were making Avatars and UPs and Ratatouilles. No, this wouldn't stand a chance.


Something in me suddenly projected images of Simba and Mufasa from I dont know somewhere in the deepest recesses of my mind and I had the sudden urge to see what this movie was made of. Well, here I am.

I have no words to praise the movie enough. Disney, Hats off to you. I was tapping my feet to the jazz and the music, and I just didn't know where those 100 minutes went. The characters were awesome and as usual, the female characters were made really cute and outstandingly beautiful. The villain..my my, He had the eerinesss of Zafar and the sheer cunning of Scar. But more of him later. The characters' faces tell us what the character is-Cute but spoilt or Cute and Cinderella-ic or the role model father, everything was exactly what they were supposed to be. Something last seen in Lilo and Stitch, the cute comedy, was back. And there was something Pixar-ish about the whole making-you-cry-with-sentiment aspect of the story. On the whole it was a whoooo ride for a good 100 minutes.

The story is not what I thought it was initially as what I thought was totally restricted to my days of drooling over fairy tales. The story has been delightfully twisted and turned to make us wonder where we were going and then just when you thought everything was all clear, something pleasantly surprising springs up to tells you...Not yet..but Almost.

The story is about a young waitress Tiana whose dream is to realize her father's dream of a restuarant with all the fancies that a young lady of her age would dream of. But, as it would have it, she has no money and no way to get enough of it. Add to it, a spoilt but devoted childhood friend, Charlotte, of a rich and pampering father whose dreams are of marrying the charming Prince Naveen. Now, pull out of this Naveen the usual prince Charming and add to him a few spoons of Emperor Kuzko and remove all the money and you got yourself a dumb and arrogant prince, just what is needed to fill the gap. Now, this prince gets into a teeny tiny conversation with a local Shadow man, Facillier, who turns him into a frog and his assistant into the prince using voodoo. Now, this Facillier has the thing with all the baddies of the "other side", who provide him with shadow minions to do his deeds - A pleasant change from the actual wicked witch. And then, the prince meets Tiana thinking her to be a princess and convinces her to kiss him and bam..She turns into a frog. Now, that must be wierd..Not at all the way things should go..But then, all this happens in the first 20 minutes of the story, so we still have a lot of storying and singing and jazzing to do. 
They both go in search of Mama Odi, the friendly and feisty witch who would be able to help them get back their human forms. In their journey, they are aided by a jazz loving Alligator, a star loving firefly and a few other smaller but cute creatures. I dont wish to spoil the story by relating all the mid movie thrills but as it would have it, Tiana and the Prince fall in love. The movie progresses with their adventures in the bogs and comes to the climax with the final showdown with the villain of which I would not disclose much, but just say, remember Alladin?


And then we have yet another surprise in the end, before the Happily ever after, but then by then you are already smiling away with a few drops of I-don't-know in your eyes and humming "I just cant wait to be king".


On the whole, a great comeback by Disney and for all those who loved the Disney movies of the 90's this is a treat of a lifetime.