Eating Muffins in an Agitated Manner

Kuch khatti kuch meethi, Tashan, Luck by Chance and Sarkar

Posted by Sari

This batch had both movies which tried to break away from the masala pattern, and a few that really followed the traditions. The most most formulaic was Kuch khatti kuch meethi, which is from 2001 but looks like it is from early 1990s. Kajol plays a double role as a good twin and a wild twin, separated at birth by the machinations of their nasty aunt. When the twins find each other they switch places to get to know the other parent and begin to plot to bring their parents back together. Yes. It is “The Parent Trap” except Kajol is an adult. Well, two adults. Or something. The most interesting thing in the film was Rishi Kapoor as the weak alcoholic dad manipulated by his  sister. He gives a credible performance, maybe aided by his own alcoholic past. Other than that and the fact that Kajol is always adorable, not one of the most memorable hindi movies I have seen.

Tashan was also a film firmly in the masala mode. This 2008 film starring Saif Ali Khan, excellent Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor was a road/gangster/caper comedy with romantic interludes. Saif Ali and Kareena steal evil gangster Anil Kapoors money, Kareena double crosses Saif Ali who ends up chased by Akshay – a comical but competent thug for hire. There are chases, betrayals and bonding, really big scale action sequences and a very sweet love story for Kareena and Akshay. Violence is again very over the top as is the custom in Bollywood, and the humour is pretty broad I liked the buddy chemistry between Akshay and Saif, and though Kareena’s character was the least developed of the three, she did a good job. (In India Tashan got a lot of press before the opening because there is a scene where Kareena goes all Ursula Andress in a bikini). Even if Tashan is not a great film on any standards, I ended up liking it more than I thought I would, mainly because I think all the actors but especially Akshay did a good job.

Luck by Chance is a whole different kettle of fish. It is a story of two young struggling wannabee movie stars and the realities of dream factories. Young actor Vikram (Farhan Akhtar) comes to Mumbai to be a star, friends Sona (Konkona Shen Sharma), an actress doing bit parts and waiting for her big break. For Sona that never comes, her lover/director coolly informs her he wants a fresh face. Vikram gets cast as a hero against a daughter of a legend who is not especially interested in being an actress. Vikram is seduced by the glitz of Bollywood, and only starts to regret abandoning his old companions after Shah Rukh Khan (as himself) reminds him of the importance of friends. When he tries to make up with Sona, she correctly sees hat he is just feeling guilty, and she moves on happily doing TV instead of dreaming of breaking the bank. Luck by Chance has a very low-key approach for a Mumbai movie, the camera work and dialogue are both geared nearer realism than is usual. It is an interesting movie with lots of interesting cameos from famous stars, but the main characters - with the exception of Dimple Kapadia as aging former star making a career for her daughter - fall pretty flat.

Sarkar - the other not so masala movie - is, as its director Ram Gopal Varma admits, an indian take on Godfather. Big B plays Sarkar, a rich and powerful man who dispenses his own brand of justice in the corrupt indian political system. Of his two sons the elder is a movie producer making eyes to his starlets, and the younger – played by Abhishek - is just back from America with his girlfriend. When Sarkar refuses to make a deal with Dubai based don for drug trafficking, he is betrayed and set up for a murder he did not commit. Abhi believes his father and starts to find out who is responsible. In the course of events he has to kill his brother who had gone over to the enemy, and by the end he has taken over Sarkar’s organisation. So, pretty much godfather. It is nowhere as good as the original, but it has been well localised to Indian political culture – Sarkar’s character apparently owes much to maharastrian nationalist strong man politician Bal Thackeray. The Bachchans were obvious choices for these roles and both deliver. Kay Kay who plays the elder brother, even looks a bit like indian James Caan, and Katrina Kaif was pretty good with what she was given.  There is a sequel “Sarkar Raj”, which I am looking forward to seeing.

Billu, Dus and Dostana

Posted by Sari

Books, dogs, figure skating… what is missing? Bollywood, of course. There have been few movies I have not written about, mainly because I saw them so long a go I don’t really remember much. Chak de India, for example, which as far as I recall was a decent enough sports movie with themes of national unity, women’s self-empowerment and of course King Khan strutting his stuff.

Love and Anarchy festival showed Jodha Akbar, which I had already seen and found pretty but boring, so I skipped that and went to see their other Bollywood import, Billu Barber, which was actually pretty interesting movie. It was a credible effort to fit together a more quiet movie about village life with a huge blockbuster, using a classical Hindu story about Krishna and his friend Sudama as its inspiration. Billu is a poor barber in a small indian village where a famous Bollywood star, Sahir Khan, is coming to shoot his next film. Billu and Sahir are childhood friends and when this news gets out everybody wants suddenly to be friends with Billu. Billu does not first want to impose on Sahir and later can’t get to him, and thus all the village, including his family, turn against him thinking he had been lying about his friendship.

I thought Irfan Khan was excellent as Billu, Om Puri deliciously hilarious as the village big man Daamchand and Lara Dutta was surprisingly soulful as Billu’s wife. Shahrukh is obviously playing himself and the huge totally over the top production numbers with Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor work surprisingly well as a contrast to the much more realistic rest of the action. The only place where the film really falters is in my opinion at the end where Shahruk/Sahir gets to give his big sentimental speech about his childhood friend Billu. As much as I think he is the cat’s pyjamas, he really hams the scene to the max.

Less of a success was Dus, a indian take on an international terrorist thriller. Abhishek and Zayed Khan are sent to to catch a terrorist collaborator from Canada without the knowledge of canadian officials, while back in India the anti-terrorist organisation tries to find a mole. The movie is full of twists and turns and chases, but the plot is a mess and I just can’t get used to the theatrical way modern indian movies choreograph chases and fights. I have rarely seen Sunil Shetty in a good movie, and only movie Esha Deol has not managed to bring down to her level was Dhoom. So despite a catchy signature tune, this was not a keeper.

Last movie in this set, Dostana is more of a dilemma. On one hand, compared to other hindi movies it depicts homosexuality in a positive light and has some genuinely touching scenes, but on the other it is very slapsticky and full of stereotypes. Dostana – friendship – tells of two expat desis (Abhishek Bachchan and John Abraham) in Miami who pretend to be gay so they can sublet a condo with Priyanka Chopra. This of course leads to all kinds of silly misunderstandings, especially when both men fall for Priyanka and try to sabotage each other and Priyanka’s love interest Bobby Deol. The movie constantly underlines the fact that neither of the guys is really gay, the really gay characters are as stereotypical as they come, and the comedy is as usual incredibly broad. The best thing in the movie is Kirron Kher milking her punjabi mommy role for all it is worth. All in all, despite its good intentions, Dostana is still pretty cringeworthy.

PoP! Goes My Heart!

Posted by jukkahoo

*Sniff*

Oh, lordylordylordy...

*ghasp*

Well, I say. This new Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore romcom really looks like something that people who started listening to pop music in the early 1980's should love. I've come to the notion, that not only is 12 the Golden Age of  Science Fiction, but also Pop Music. Meaning that the stuff you're into when you're 12'ish, pretty much stays with you for the rest of your life.

Apparently Hugh Grant listened to CD hits from the 1980's to get a feel for the music of the time. He later met with Martin Fry to learn more about what it meant to be a musician during that era. It was apparently key preparation for this role. Nostalgia trip if anything, this one, methinks.

PoP! Goes My Heart!

Espoo Cine: Sancharram - The Journey

R&A –festareille olin kyllä Parineetaa menossa katsomaan, mutta mörrimöykkypäivä ja kipeä jalka saivat jäämään kotiin. Eli tämän vuoden festari-intialaiselokuvaksi jäi Espoo Cinen ohjelmistossa ollut malayalaminkielinen Sancharram, kertomus kahden nuoren tytön rakkaudeksi kasvavasta ystävyydestä. Lesboutta ei intialaisessa elokuvassa ole vakavasti pahemmin käsitelty. Silloin kuin teemaa käsitellään tai siihen viitataan, lesbot joko koodataan voyaristisesti roistoiksi tai kyseessä on Intiassakin hyvin voivan naisvankilagenren edustaja. Ainut aikaisempi teemaa vakavasti käsittelevä leffa jonka olen nähnyt on The Fire vuodelta 1996.

Siinä missä Fire –elokuvan päähenkilöt löytävät toisensa petyttyään heteroseksuaalisiin suhteisiin, Sancharram on herkkä Romeo/Julia tyyppinen kasvutarina ja heräämisen kuvaus. Sen juoni on äärimmäisen ennalta-arvattava ja tempo vähän liian hidas. Kiran ja Delilah kasvavat rakastamaan toisiaan, mutta kun Delilahin äiti saa selville tyttöjen suhteen todellisen luonteen, pyrkii hän naittamaan tyttärensä nopeasti Amerikkaan. Vaikka Kiran järjestää tytöille mahdollisuuden karata kaupunkiin ja yrittää elää omilla ehdoillaan, ei Delilah uskalla astua yhteiskunnan sääntöjen ulkopuolelle ja suostuu avioliittoon. Elokuvan tuntuu kiertyvän kohti väistämätöntä tragediaa, mutta loppu onkin yllättäen avoin ja toivoa antava.

Teknisesti pienellä budjetilla tehty Sancharram on välillä horjuva, mutta onnistuu muutamissa hiljaisissa kohtauksissa vangitsemaan lähes hypnoottisesti hetken valkokankaalle. Pääosin sen kiinnostavuus on kuitenkin sen eksotiikassa: Keralan vehreät maisemat ja etelä-intialainen kulttuuri viehättävät vieraudessaan ja värikylläisyydessään. Intialaisen elokuvankaan kliseitä ei ole vältetty: rakastavaiset eivät tällä kertaa laula jyrkänteen reunalla, mutta seisovat siellä salwar-kameez hulmuten, ja ukkosmyrsky saa jälleen kerran symboloida seksuaalisuutta. Kivaa.

Kun valot jälleen syttyivät, viimeinenkin heistä oli syöty!

Posted by jukkahoo

I had some movie tickets that would've been soon past their best date, so we needed to go and see a movie. Tossed a coin between Good Night, and Good Luck. and Pink Panther, and the latter won by default. Mainly because I've grown weary and frustrated ages ago with the so-called Movie experience™ due to motley crowd of whispering - and not so whispering - kids, teens speaking on their cell etc. If I want to hear some blisfully ignorant person's opinions during my motion picture or hear the endless rattleing of crips packets or hear the odd ringtone here and there, I can can provide that all by myself (especially the ignoramus-bit) at the privacy of my own home, thank you very much. Mindless fun, where the blasted background noise is not going to be a problem, was going to be the order du jour.

This was exactly what the doctor would've ordered. Pink Panther was good fun ie. I laughed a fair deal (so did Sari), liked the cast and enjoyed my pop corn. The problem was that pretty much in the middle of everything, the movie was no longer Pink Panther. Äänspektö Klysöö evidently grew a brain somewhere after the wholly unnecessary New York portion (but it was good to see the Big Apple again)  and his own apartment. Until that dreadful moment, all was well - even if the script wasn't all that brill - and I was entertained. Afterward: still funny-hahaa, but not the real mccoy.

But the pop corn, that I mentioned earlier! What about that pop corn? I haven't been to cinemas lately, so I don't know how new or old this thing is, but they have these cans of E from where you can add artificial chemicals to your popped corn! Five different flavours (I drizzled parmeggiano/garlic and nacho/cheese on top of my combo) to enhance the enjoyment! Flavours to your pop corn! Whatever next? Butter? Sugar?

Oh, wait...

Anyway, it was a nice, salty surprise. A bit like the movie, come to think of it.

You gotta think more like snooker, poker and free-face rock climbing

Posted by Sari

In the honor of Finland's latest icon M15 and his team taking silver at Toronto, may I recommend the greatest curling movie ever, Men with Brooms. It's got Paul Gross, a training montage, a dead guy on the button, Leslie Nielsen doing something irregular to a cow, Tragically Hip doing a cameo and a heartwarming story about doing the right thing. Awww. Also, beavers. The animals that is.

The Call of Dracula

Posted by jukkahoo

It's finished, it's done!

The new Flame Mountain Extravaganza, a veritable cinematic masterpiece, The Call of Dracula (Aka. Draculan Hutsu) was shown to a choice audience at the Bio Flame Mountain, last Saturday. And what a feast of biomagic it was! Sensuous Colours, Thrilling Excitement, Horrifying Shocks and a Whole Lot More! A horror film to end all horror films, maybe even flicks.

You ask yourself: could one mix Bram Stoker with H. P. Lovecraft, and get away with it? Only if you're a true autéur á la Petri Hiltunen. That master of poise and dialogue, that Rollin of cinematography, that Fellini of austerity, that Dekker of humour and gore!

No, I tell you, it was better than that, and more. Many a people said that this is the best Flame Mountain production so far and I've seen them all. Heck, I've acted in all of those!

It follows a trusted formula: starring Matti Tanska and Veikko Laeslehto as fearless vampire hunters (as opposed to a dashing adventurer and a trusty mechanic from The Warlord of Saturn; of which M. John Harrison has said: "drinking a couple of beers in front of it"!), yours truly as a professor (no more a mere docent!) with a kidnapped daughter (Tuisku Hiltunen as you've never seen her before), and Petri Himself as the Count with that vile Radu (played with gusto by that hairy beast, Mika P. Nieminen - congrats on the happy occasion!) as his henchvamp, as the evil kidnappers. The three caballeros then fight the evil dudes and claim victory, and the babe. Errr... perhaps not the babe, as Tuisku is still (what, 9?) a very young girl indeed - and my daughter in this film!

It's fun, it's not too long - a mind-numblingly co-incidentally three-quarters of an hour long, just like ALL previous Flame Mountain productions - and it looks a way bigger than the real budget of €30. Go figure. Shot in FOUR different countries, it has the most advanced FX ever in a Flame Mountain production, as well as original score by the director-producer-scriptwriter-FXmaster-editor-star MC Petrus Himself! Is there no end to the talent of this Renessaince man? Evidently not.

Sari was especially taken by the editing, which she thought was seriously better than in two previous ones, and she also thought that us actors seemed to be more "in" with our roles than before. She also thought that surprisingly, prof. Carl-Gustav Apollonius is not a cardboard-copy of doc. Arimo Kaskelotti! Mein gott, who knew I had layers?

Go see it.

Oh... it probably won't be available at your local multiplex very soon. I gues you must wait for the commercial DVD. Coming soon to a very good filmstore near you (ie. Pieni Leffakauppa).

I'm OK, you're OK(?), we're all OK!

Posted by jukkahoo

Once more I have visited the hotsipal and once more my doctor has told me I'm OK. Blood, CAT and all that jazz were good. Hurrah and huzzah!

And as it has now been almost two years since the implantation of my veinal gate (laskimoportti), it is due to be removed. Should happen the 10th of Oktober. Sigh! Goodbye my sweet cyborg appliance, who remainded silent thru the Kittilä airport security check, the Seutula one and mightily beeped at the Brusselleux International, thus giving an excuse for that Belgian to frisk me. Farewell!

I'm taking this as a good sign, and so should you too. I wonder if they let me have the thing? Could it be turned into some kind of a pendant? I think I'll have to ask.

Other news: I have been watching the new Galactica. It isn't half bad. I just said today, that I think it is the best sf-series since DS9. Then Teemu (or was it Marko?) asked whether it is better than Firefly. I have to admit it is a close call, but galactica has better premise and no stupid sooooooooooo out of place element.

Anyway, me likes. It's not the best thing since sliced bread, but a very good sci-fi tv-series. I must admit I was more than a bit sceptic about the modernisation of an old and definitely camp series, but Ronald D. Moore has done a very nice job with combining the original idea and characters with today's perspective. Good casting, though I cannot see the sultriness of that Jessica Simpson -lookalike. Baltar, Starbuck, Adama, Tigh and president; great choices. Not too sure about Apollo, and very uncertain about Boomer. And the human cylons. Too much this "what am I?", "what is love?" and "gee willikins, I can have sex!". And some other things, but as that would really need getting into details, I think I'll pass. Check it out, though. Jukkahoo says: "verra nizza!"

What isn't very nice, is another childhood/teenage love: "Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy". Oh, for f**k sake what a piece of c**p! Laugh-free near two hours, with decent choices as characters, but utterly dismal script and staggeringly fun-free dialogue. How the frag can they manage to distill Adams' radio-play/books void of anything funny? C'mon, the dialogue was there already! How can you possibly take out all the humour? What kind of a sick joke is this movie? How could that brainless twat at the showing snicker and giggle thoughout the entire movie? How is it possible, that I actually paid good money to see this... travesty? I could've just burned the tenner, or wipe my nose with it. Must have been both funnier and less painful that way.

New Galactica = Good. HHGG-movie = Bad. Health = Good.

Summa summarum = doubleplusgood. I can live with that.

Ken Burns Effect

Posted by Sari

Everybody and their sister is saying this but it is still true: Digibox is a worth-wile investment just because YLE Teema. Almost every day there is something really worth watching. At the moment my favourite is Ken Burn's documentary on American Civil war. Burns is justly famous for his documentaries, in fact his way of uniting spoken dialogue with zooming in and out of stills has become such a part of film-making that the zooming and panning effect is actually called Ken Burns Effect.

I love Burns documentaries, propably most because he is really good at picking interesting subjects. His historical documentaries have a pretty impressive range from Frank Lloyd Wright to Baseball  and from the history of Radio to American Suffragettes, and they all manage show light on one more piece of America.

Burns does follow the same pattern which can be a bit boring (you can and you really should download an absolutely brilliant Burns spoof "Old Negro Space Program" here), but the makers have made a real effort of digging up material for their films. The amount of pictures, paintings, letters, diaries and other documents make the story intimate and interesting. Even though his narrator frames the story and he obviously has chosen his original material to match, the scope of the narrative mixed with his nose for genuinely good human interest stories balance films out nicely.

Ken's brother Ric is also a maker of documentaries and had produced my favourite documentary ever: The history of New York. Last time I was over there I bit the bullet and bought the whole glorious fifteen hours of it. Now if YLE would buy that. Or better yet, make good historical documentaries. Sodan ja Rauhan miehet was the last good one, and that film is about quarter of a century old...

Edited to Add: Shelby Foote, the honey-voiced novelist/amateur historian who was the main talking head in the Civil War documentary died on last Monday night

Kansallisaarre

Posted by jukkahoo

I came across this single movie ticket the other day (Saturday). It had to be used RS (as in by yesterday), so I had no room to dilly-dally. Sari was (and is) pretty fluish at the moment and I myself have been feeling rather woozie these past few days, so nothing brainy was on the menu. Sunday would've been great, but I wasn't feeling too good and almost didn't make on Monday, but after a hearthy lunch I decided to brace the elements. And went to see the new Nicholas Cage/Jerry Bruckheimer -vehicle National Treasure.

Worth every penny. There be spoilers.

In fact, it wasn't that bad. Sure, it's mindless, crashboombang wall-to-wall-action with plotholes the size of that asteroid in Armageddon - and as plausible as that piece of moviemagic, but it entertained me. Must've been the flu.

No. I'd give it weak three stars. A star for the entertainment factor, a star for silly-but-fun historical butchering of facts for bit of Hollywood-plotcoupons and a weak star for the surprisingly non-violent and non-destructive ending. Which is silly beyond belief: are we really supposed to believe that Sean Bean aka. The Evil Dude is going to leave those pesky do-gooders all by themselves, after that HUMONGOUS lie Jon Voigt pulls out of thin air?

Nicholas Cage has done at least two similarish Bruckheimer-blockbusters (Rock and Con Air) and this is simply the most subdued of the lot. It is a Disney-movie, so there is only one major blast and a single fatality on the movie. Lots of chases and odd camera-angled action shots with an incredible Boys Adventure Tale -like plot. It's neither Rock nor Con Air though. Jon Voigt ain't Sean Connery and Declaration of Independence is not a Fairchild C-123K "Provider". Actually, I better take that back as Declaration of Indepence could probably kick C-123's butt any given day.

But it was the locations that endeared this to me more than anything. After the initial DC-scenes, the action went to Philly, and then to NYC. There's the Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell. Now they're running thru the Market Fair, the City Hall and Nick seems to be heading towards Benjamin Franklins grave (and they don't even mention it in the film!). That's Intrepid! Trinity Church! Boston!

As expected, Sean Bean is good, but he isn't given that much to work with. It's kiddie-movie, so he can't really kill or mutilate anyone. As it happens, he lets people get away a bit too often: "Let them go, we have it!" [rustle, rustle, rustle] "DAMN! I've been hadde!" Again.

Pleasant and good-naturedly amusing (I snorted rather forcefully with all the Templar/Masons-mumbojumbo at the beginning, but other that that it's fairly run-of-the-mill humour), National Treasure is an entertaining 134 minutes of your time. It moves at fairly brisk speed, has little or no slow moments and delightfully subdued ending. It's crap, but at least they don't destroy the bloody treasure (nor the surroundings) in the end, since apparently the 9/11 didn't do too much damage either (Trinity Church is just around the corner from WTC). At least it looks like a sequel would be more or less out of the Q. Hey, isn't that something that Bruckheimer-blockbusters are more often than not, sequel-free?