Now now, cursing doesn't make you sound intelligent.

Here is my question to you about those SAW sequels...haven't they basically stretched out the continuity like bubblegum, and snap by now?

Just reading those summaries from wikipedia, what with 3/4/5 all occuring at around the same time...I have a headache from trying to figure it all out.

Well, it seems each episode I'm wondering yet again, "Jigsaw is still alive?? How??!" ...and V was no different. But with this series, I don't give a ....gosh-darn!... it's what it is, just bring on the nail-biting, skin-stretching, eye-plucking GORE already!! ...and be more clever than you were in the previous installment!

I concur, but as you said, I still enjoy the franchise. I love knowing that around Halloween time every year they'll be a new one out.

Cool.

THE TERMINATOR (1984) - ****1/2



"I'll be back."

Does anyone else remember that tabloid rumor years ago that O.J. Simpson was being paid over a million bucks to play the psychopathic killer in an European slasher film? No idea if that project ever came to pass, but I think it's hilarious that he was a candidate to play the title villain in THE TERMINATOR but the filmmakers rejected him because they felt nobody would take him seriously as a murderer.

People have written about how the popular sci-fi/action THE TERMINATOR is actually in fact a well-made slasher thriller, and in retrospect they have a point. You have this freakish killer (cyborg) that is masked (by Gargoyle sunglasses) and stalks several victims (who all share the same name) and his death reaper presence is always felt, even when not on screen. He notches up a solid body count, including two pretty people after they had sex, a genre red alert that you're so gonna brutally die. Also, he is finally defeated only by the last would-be victim (Linda Hamilton) screaming off her head, who overpowers and limps away alive...only to collide with a twist ending.

So if we are to use such argumentation, then James Cameron's THE TERMINATOR is indeed the greatest slasher movie ever produced....ever Yes, even better than John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN and Tobe Hopper's TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE. Sorry, but it's true, damn true! In fact, those folks usually forget that TERMINATOR shares another slasher trademark, which is being sometimes being forced to be very creative and uniquely epic in spite of its low budget limitations, i.e. Sam Raimi's THE EVIL DEAD.

Thus if writer/director Cameron has moved on to bigger budgets with better FX, TERMINATOR is still his filmatic peak precisely because of that down-to-Earth scale with gritty intensity that meshes very well with his renown myriad of exciting action cinema and solid storytelling. Cameron-wannabe losers like Michael Bay and Paul W.S. Anderson have tried and failed in replication with much studio dime and time, but just watch this sequence at the nightclub. As as I similarly described for THE ABYSS, you get such well-cut and directed suspense and tension, with appropriate acting which culminates in some good ole bang bang:



Yeah, that's good shit surprised the hell out of everyone back in 1984. I mean from the poster and trailer, those critics were expecting a nasty B-actioneer starring that Austrian Oak from CONAN THE BARBARIAN, and instead they get not just the best goddamn action movie of the year, but this cheapo was superior to that Steven Spielberg's much-hyped and much-funded INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM. Hell, TERMINATOR even made the Time Top Ten list that year. Yes, those snobs thought a picture about a killer robot from the future was as good as any Oscar bait or arthouse fare to come out in 1984. Suck it AMADEUS! Too bad the Academy Awards' prejudice against action cinema was as strong back then as it is now, so basically TERMINATOR was of sorts the THE DARK KNIGHT for that year.

Now if the Oscars weren't such bigots, I would think Arnold Schwarzenegger deserves an Oscar nomination. If CONAN made Arnold a star, TERMINATOR turned him into a global superstar. The part has only 16 lines, and scripted as simply: "It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead!" Sure, a giant bodybuilder with a German tongue sounds far from a perfect infiltrating assassin, but Arnold forces you to forget such logic.

What I think attracted him to that character was that he's playing the ultimate unstoppable masculine fantasy: He easily crushes bones, smashes stuff, tosses people like a newspaper, and withstand the gunfire assualt of an army. Consider too that how chiseled the cyborg bodies are, in contrast with the weaker, diseased, and flabbier humans, like poor Michael Biehn. Sure he's a tough little bastard, but being shell shocked, he's only an annoying obstacle for Mr. Terminator, the idealic predator with probing eyes like that of a shark. Guinness Book of World Records once described Arnold as the "most perfectly developed man in history," which means then that Skynet produces human flesh better than the real thing.

Think about it.

But Arnold's sheer incredible physical intensity ushers that role to a whole other level of iconic heights of awesomeness which neither Simpson or anyone else could have pulled. He's the ultimate hero in CONAN, but those gargoyle sunglasses and punk leather jacket, surrounded by composer Brad Fiedel's trademark dum dum dum music, he's not just the ultimate villain in THE TERMINATOR, he's an utter badass. I mean take the most famous scene in all of Arnold's filmography, with how he delivers what inadvertedly became his signature line. Somehow, such a simple shot becomes the most badass moment of all 1980s action cinema, beating out Indiana Jones' creative way to end a sword fight in RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK and "Yippee ki yay, motherfucker!" from DIE HARD.

How did he and Cameron pull that off?



Little admiring touches by Cameron still impress me, like during the police station shoot-out a bullet passes right through Arnold and cracks the glass behind him, but Arnold doesn't flinch at all. Nice. Also Cameron's use of Biehn's dreams about literally his past future life. Most movie dreams try to trick you, but no Cameron knows you're wiser than that. Later with that other flashback to the future, with small money, old school FX and miniatures from the late Stan Winston and Fantasy II effects, industrial resourcing, and economical storytelling, Cameron excellently unveils that possible reality where humanity is on the brink of extinction.

Comparing with 1984 Los Angeles, he puts into perspective what is at stake and what will be lost, and that Biehn only fighting to conserve what little is left for them, so Cameron probably ripped off not only Harlan Ellison, but also LA JETEE. Biehn's best moment though is when he's interrogated endlessly by the cops, and he finally loses his shit. Still, Biehn's moral conundrum does get him some pity sex from Linda Hamilton and her Mullet hair. So maybe being a whiney bitch at times does indeed save the future, one unplanned pregnancy at a time.

I would love to give TERMINATOR the masterpiece mantle, for shit it almost deserves it, but two things that Cameron did always bugged me. For one, that opening text prologue in 2029 A.D. Was that really necessary? Imagine if the film opened with naked Arnold and ass-cheeks arriving in L.A., and from there the movie is patient in explaining itself. Plus, I assume most folks who want to watch TERMINATOR would assuredly know roughly about the premise, right? Second, there is such a major plot hole when after a car chase, Arnold crashes but after the police arrive on the scene, he vanishes.

We've established that those puny cops never would have had a chance of stopping Arnold from doing his quest and exterminating Hamilton, right? So why does Arnold flee? Then again, I guess the dude wants to finish the job while looking cool with that Reagan Decade eyeware. See, it's such little mistakes why you Terminators always fail when you go back in time. When will you all ever learn your lesson you goofy bots?

Anyway, Biehn is a solid if outmatched hero, with enough emotions to be beneficial without being Emo-annoying. For what is usually the thankless role as the woman in an actioneer, Hamilton breaks out of that tradition with earnest seriousness due to strong and surprisingly smart drama material from Cameron. She's a lousy waitress who can't balance her checkbook, can't keep a date, and oh yeah her awful hair. In short, the most insignificant woman alive in 1984, but ends up as the upmost critical within our history, a contemporary Eve. Sorry Virgin Mary, but last I checked, you don't have murdering Terminators chasing after you in biblical Bethlehem.

I guess we have to remember that like those two people struggling to survive against that monster, Cameron had great difficulties to get TERMINATOR produced. He was previously an art designer and FX director for B-film producer Roger Corman. His only pre-TERMINATOR directing gig was PIRAHNA II: THE SPAWNING, which he only got after the original director was fired, and Cameron was himself later axed. Living on his friend's couch, he conceived and wrote the TERMINATOR script, and many major studios wanted to produce it. The problem was, Cameron would only sell the screenplay if he got to direct (much like Sylvester Stallone did years earlier with ROCKY), and that was a deal-breaker for most of Hollywood. Orion Pictures agreed though, but TERMINATOR got delayed for 9 months because Arnold was stuck doing his CONAN sequel, and meanwhile Hamilton broke her ankle.

Then his producers tried their very best to chop up the entire 3rd act, and end the picture after the truck explosion. Cameron won that battle, but lost the war with the studio marketing department who refused to seriously back and capitalize upon TERMINATOR being a major sleeper hit in theatres. But he persevered through all that and created a franchise of three sequels and a television series. The $200 million summer blockbuster SALVATION (starring Batman) set for release this summer, on the 25th anniversary of TERMINATOR's release, which is ironic since Cameron's picture cost only $6 million, which was small potatoes even back then.

TERMINATOR was and still is a great and fully satisfying genre classic in spite of its B-production values which appealed to guys with action, and romance for the gals. Now friggin McG is at the helm. Oh where is the T-800 to look through a phone book for us?

Great Review Ronnie..

Love the Terminator films even though 3 should never have been made and I hear there making a fourth..

Terminator -7/10
Terminator 2 8/10
Terminator 3 5/10

I finally watched American Gangster. I found the movie to be half and half. Denzel Washington turned in a great performance but the movie tended to drag at times. Nicholas Pileggi who wrote Wiseguy[Goodfellas] was behind the production.


Ransom with Mel Gibson is a great movie. Gary Sinese steals the show as the bad cop who takes part in the kidnapping.

Payback Straight up the directors cut is also another great IMHO. Gibson comes through again as the bad guy this time. It was also nice to see the late James Coburn. The older actors will be truly missed in years to come.

Terminator and Terminator 2 are wonderful films. One of the few complaints I have is that I want to shake young John in T2 and tell him to get the freaking hair out of his eyes. And who can decide who has the better body in the sequel - Arnold or Linda?

The one thing I never did buy is how in love John's parents were supposed to be ("We loved enough for a lifetime."). I did love how Cameron ties so many neat little bows, though ("I always wondered what you were thinking about when that picture was taken.").

"American Gangster" is great. it's long, yes, but that's the only way it could be. after all, it's the Black Godfather we're talking about. its darker tone worked very well for me and the characters are both very interesting (Frank Lucas and Richie Roberts) as well as the story itself. I watched the commentary track with Ridley Scott and he seems to know what he was talking about. overall I believe it's a very underrated movie that doesn't get any love because it don't bring what some people want to see. there's not much action or very likeable characters but if you focus on the great story that's being told, there's nothing wrong with it.

The only reason I was disappointed in AG is because it was just like a million other gangster movies out there. There wasn't much new other than maybe the gangsters being black.



Tarantino style books? I need to check this guy out. Anything in particular?

Yes!

The director's Cut of PAYBACK, without the smartass "hipness" that affected way too many 1990s movies, is a brutal unforgiving and unashamed action pulp...and absolutely enjoyable.

No offense, but that's kinda putting Elmore Leonard down. He's a better and more talented writer than QT, and I'm sure QT would agree.

Leonard is unique, of which I can't simply describe him to someone else to which you could understand why he's a legend.

Linda. How many buff female action heroes do we get anyway? Also, I doubt she used steroids like Arnold use to.



Yeah I don't either, though I think that fateful intercourse was more a reaction to the physical or emotional drain after Biehn has been alot of crazy shit and he's a wreck. Hamilton loses her whole world as she knew it, and they both can basically only rely on each other to survive that cyborg monster.

Not love necessarily as we usually consider it, but in T2, dead Biehn becomes for Hamilton more a symbol of what she's lost...and gained...because of Arnold.



So many filmmakers have tried the paradox, and most fail because they either tip it too early or because after TERMINATOR, we usually guess it, or maybe simply that Cameron was slick in making you be invested in the chasing and storytelling, you never get a chance to add 1 and 1 together. That or we listen to those clues, and we take them literally.

I don't know.

To be honest I am not a big Arnold fan. I have not seen either Terminator. I saw the one with Jamie Lee Curtis (forgot the name) and another film I did like with Arnold was "End Of Days".



TIS

I just watched "Gummo" anyone else seen it

TRUE LIES?

Which btw was also directed by James Cameron.

OMG!! I LOVE "True Lies"!! And the Arnold that steals the movie is Tom Arnold. He is just too funny as Ah-nuld's slimy partner. And I thought that Jamie Lee and Arnold had very, very good chemistry. She also looked fabulous. Her whole "dance sequence" in the hotel room made quite an impact on me when I saw it, mostly because I was 8 1/2 months pregnant when I saw it, and not feeling particularly pretty.

The dialogue is funny, the actors interact well, the action scenes are wonderfully over-the-top, and yet you can almost believe the premise of the PTA parents next door being spies.

Did you like it? I love it. Julien Donkey-Boy's excellent, too.

Wasn't keen on Mister Lonely.

I liked it but damn it's on some weird shit. Was it movie or a doco???

SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO (1991) - ***1/2

I gotta commend fellow AwardsDaily member Citizen Darko for recommending this movie, for despite my heralded taste and lambasted tolerance for action cinema, I've been rather hesitant about this particular one for years if only because I've never liked Dolph Lundgren, and I've got a lengthy Netflix backlog of trash action. But now I'm glad that Darko convinced me for SHOWDOWN IN LITTLE TOKYO is a ridiculous cheesy B-actioneer that executes every single possible genre cliche in the book, yet its immensely fun because its never in self-denial about it's lot in life, unlike many other creatively bankrupt studio releases like THE GLIMMER MAN. Instead, SHOWDOWN is an unashamed cartoonish martial arts/cop shlock that goes outlandishly absurd in all it's glory in under 80 minutes.

I mean you have a movie which politely demands you to accept without hesitation the Swedish Lundgren having been raised within the Bushido lifestyle in Japan, and then later somehow found his way to become a cop in Los Angeles and amazingly while there he feuds with a Yakuza mobster (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa), the same one who murdered Lundgren's parents decades ago. Lundgren also has to team up with his new by-the-book Japanese-American partner (Brandon Lee) who knows absolute jack about his ancestoral home, while Lundgren is an expert. SHOWDOWN was also helmed by Mark L. Lester, who directed the over-the-top Reagan Decade exploitation-extravaganzas CLASS OF 1984 and COMMANDO. Also, look at the title. This obviously never played at your local art theatre.

Oh hell, just watch this clip:



Yes, the Dolph jumpkicks over a cadillac racing at him, but the best moment was the head thug just dismissing this gross violation of the Gravity Laws. That's funny. Now I must admit, I don't think I could handle weekly stuffings like SHOWDOWN, and I'm definately not recommending this to a general audience. If you can't handle that sorta thing, then don't bother with SHOWDOWN. No, I'm pimping this for all you action nerds out there who like me at times want a nice if brief change from your viewing-routine of action cinema, which is a goofy fine (and thankfully painless short running) time at home with greasy pizza and cheap beer inbetween James Bond and Jason Bourne and John McClane and Dirty Harry all their endless bastard clones. Plus you get Sumo-wrestling topless women, which my local strip club needs to implement immediately.

Anyway, what did surprise me with SHOWDOWN was how Dolph wasn't the dullard hero that I had expected. I guess I only remembered him from ROCKY IV. Dolph is efficiently engaging and slick enough for what his rogue cop badass shtick needs. I especially enjoyed that scene when confronting some gangsters trying to extort a restaurant, he calmly tosses them around with ease with one hand, while holding his cup of sake in the other.



Also astonishing, Lee is a good smartass with enough toxic touch to be a real jerk, yet enough bravado-charm that you end up liking him in spite of being an asshole. He also delivers this classic cool-but-awkward scene:



WHAT THE HELL?!? I mean I always knew 1980s-action movies had a nasty reputation for homoeroticism, but...wow. I'm stunned, I really am. Bruce Lee's kid comfortably complementing Lundgren's rather sizeable, umm.....endowment. At least the late Mr. Lee Jr. does Dolph a great reason why they should win: "After we're done, we're gonna eat raw fish off naked chicks!" Too bad Tia Carrere had a body double for her nude shots, so no sushi off her. Tsk.

I also dig that unlike most such fare, both heroes know and display some solid martial arts moves, and never get the obligatory ranting-dress down by their precinct superior. Thank God. We also get some more pure cheeky-ludicrous when to prevent witness Tia Carrere from committing seppuku suicide, Dolph suddenly storms the Malibu beach house to save her from endless henchmen, and killing one of them by grabbing thru a door without the hinges coming off. Awesome. Just about as nutty outrageous is when an Yakuza gangster alone in an interrogation room swiftly breaks his own neck so he won't snitch on his boss.

Speaking of him, Tagawa is a crazy sadistic mother here. He seduces a junkie gal, and while video taping this, he decapitates her. Then later while raping her best friend, he plays that footage on the television. God damn dude Where's Viagra when you need it? Tagawa though is classic-great when he demands one of his thugs to ritually chop a finger off, penalty for failing to exterminate Mr. Lundgren. The poor guy does so after much hesitation and pain, and Tagawa sneers: "That's all?" What an asshole.

But this does lead to an action climax that's....explosive to say the least. We definately need more movies with utter-redundant deaths where villains get run-through with a katana blade, shot put by the hero over to a wheel strapped with fireworks which detonate, which cooks the dude extra crispy, and afterwards the heroes crack jokes about it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8-RsoEGicc&feature=related

So for a movie where Ivan Drago and The Crow chop suey Shang Tsung to save the chick from WAYNE'S WORLD, this probably is about as good as it gets.

I gotta admit, I had dismissed SLUMDOG beforehand because it seemed like the sort of feel-good tripe celebrated simply because of a well-timed release considering the global situation.

But having seen it, I quite liked it too.

Boyle still owes me money for THE BEACH though.

Jeez. You like curse words in reviews? Then Hollywood can go fuck itself!

Fuck You Very Much, Hollywood, for wasting too many minutes of my life on the totally uninspired remake (since you can't think of anything original any more) The Omen (2006). Simply.... WHY?? What was wrong with the original? Nothing. How did you improve upon it? Oh, you didn't. You somehow made it BORING, you pieces of\\\\\\\\ all right now. You get the gist. :|

Geoff,

You really hated the Omen remake that much? I saw it when it was released. Although, without a doubt, the originalmovie and cast is much better, I thought it was a "decent" remake. The storyline remained pretty much the same, the acting was good. Hmm I think the original Damien was scarier than this one. Of course they didn't have to make a re-make and don't know why they did, but I thought it was one of the better remakes I've seen. Then again, what do I know?




TIS

For the reasons mentioned by both of us, I just thought it was a waste of time/money/effort on their -- and our -- part... What next, a remake of Caddyshack? Speaking of which, did Howard Stern ever do his Porky's remake?

Attaboy that's the spirit!

Dude, you should realize that with all this rash of Hollywood horror remakes...nobody involves gives a shit.

And why should they? Bother to give a care or not, they make a profit regardless. Hell remember that dispised Rob Zombie HALLOWEEN remake? Still hit post $50 million in America. A notorious criminal too is producer Michael Bay.

Hell, the original FRIDAY THE 13TH (without hockey-mask Jason actually in it, nor was he the murderer) I found to be surprisingly a solid slick thriller with a great jump-scare ending.

The remake will find a way to be even more mindless and stupid than even the most mindless and stupid of the previous FRIDAY sequels. Then again, people watched them to see the creative gruesome ways that Mr. Voorhees dealt with the kids.

Don't know about CADDYSHACK but I have heard that they plan on remaking BACK TO SCHOOL with Cedric the Entertainer

I just watched The Big Boss, which is one of Bruce Lee's early movies and it was by far one of the cheesiest movies I have ever seen. Some notable moments include:

* Bruce Lee has been made the foreman of an ice factory (yes an ice factory) so he and his cousins do this funny dance as they return home. It was almost out of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

* Incest central as he likes his cousin. But, hey we are all familiar with that plotline in films we like (or in the case of most of us hate with a passion).

* Bruce Lee is fighting some bad guys. Gets one of them lined up against the wooden wall of a barn or something and chops him through the wall. But, instead of the wood falling apart in a million different directions, no the guy who falls through the wall makes a clean symmetrical shape of himself like a snow angel.

Just watched a prison movie called "Felon".

Starring Val Kilmer and Stephen Dorf.

It was actually quite enjoyable.......to not be in there with them!!!

I watched this aso awhile ago and enjoyed it as well..

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE (2008) - ***1/2

"It is Written."

After my screening ended, the audience applauded. When was the last time you been to the movies and your rather large crowd honestly clapped, as if they thought the film deserved it?

I had great bad vibes about SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, especially after KNIGHT got shut out of most major Oscar nominations. What must be the appeal with SLUMDOG? There were so many conspiracy theories out there on the Interet, in trying to compare with previous winning scenarios. Were Academy voters wanting to feel good about themselves by celebrating a picture making an issue out of foreign poverty (like CRASH with racism?) Did some silly folks confuse run-of-the-mill foreign storytelling with exotic quality because they lacked an adequete frame of cinema context from that nation? (CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON?) Plus, me and director Danny Boyle haven't been on the best of terms, whatever its his silly pointless attempt to arty legitimize the Romero zombie movies (they already were) with 28 DAYS LATER or his infamous THE BEACH fiasco.

Now I understand why SLUMDOG is favored to win the Oscar, for it's now like ROCKY was back in 1976. That particular rich year gave us reel classics like Martin Scorsese's TAXI DRIVER, Sidney Lumet's NETWORK, and Alan Pakula's ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN. I still think any of them should have won Best Picture, and yet I've never really had a serious problem with the ROCKY victory because it was an earnest feel-good drama. Alot of us movie buffs are just so used to despising hollow "uplifting" packages, usually because they simply don't deserve that artificial happy ending, but when we get genuine honest pictures that do earn that finale, like ROCKY or THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, my heart is there.

The cynic in me before SLUMDOG would have sneered that with the awful economy, several wars and endless hostilities, people may have been geared up for such a well-timed Charles Dickens story. I still keep that opinion, but why was the Obama Inauguration from weeks ago such an unprecedented national party, even in parts of America that voted against him? Because it was an ardent opportunity for which we could celebrate ourselves, whatever as Americans or not.

Several Indian friends of mine have derided SLUMDOG as a dime-a-dozen story often told in Bollywood, and only honored it because a British director was involved, and also we goofy westerners have never previously really taken seriously Indian cinema, and they do have a point because we don't hold them on the same level as we might with European or Japanese works. Plus, how many of you have seen the works of say Satyajit Ray? I haven't. We simply dismiss Indian pictures with the popular Bollywood stereotype, that they all are a lightweight, all-dancing musical gay time at the movies. Thankfully, no such sequences occur in SLUMDOG until the credits. Sooner and I probably would have thrown my shoe at the screen, for it definately would have been absolutely inappropriate within the narrative.

I guess I'm then woefully ignorant about Indian movies, which I apologize because I quite liked SLUMDOG. Yes it holds no surprises at all, but with only a particular number of stories always told in cinema (what, 23 or 24?), I say that if a picture hits all the right formula moments, it'll always succeed every mother fucking time. SLUMDOG seem to be successful with my audience at least, who were gripped with the high and lows, and cheered after the all-or-nothing climax.

Hell, a Dickens-esque tale is probably more appropriate for modern India, for that country is much more social class-concious than Victorian England ever was. But like that epoch, contemporary India and their billion people are on the surface becoming a global cultural (Bollywood), financial (corporatized urban centres), and military superpower (they have nuclear weapons), which SLUMDOG conflicts nicely in great contrast with the impoverished and overfilled street nation where social justice is denied and which is quite frankly ignored by the upper-classes who are too busy watching game shows and football or driving BMWs. Amazing how as a nation, they have such great (well-deserved) hatred at the British for what those imperialists did to their country, yet their well-off seem as snobbish, elitist, and "cultured" as the Limeys.

A good scene is when the middle-class cop mocks the hero (Dev Patel) for being clueless about such an obvious question about the country's flag and not recognizing Gandhi, then which the kid quizes the policeman about the local "ground," which he is glaringly ignorant about. My favorite shot though is when his older gangster brother who before a fateful confrontation, fills his bathtub full of money which he then jumps into, as if that's what he felt his life always revolved around. That's something you would have expected in SCARFACE, no?

So like a Dickens urban melodrama, the kid is born into dire straits and suffers tragedies but with wits, luck, and keeping his essence of goodness, he ultimately triumphs after a lengthy epic journal where has has adventures in confronting utterly good and utterly bad characters, and maybe even an acquitance of his who has a change of heart to do the right thing at the right time. What I dug though was when as a boy, the hero is locked in the latrines as his favorite Bollywood movie star is nearby. The kid is determined at all costs to get that all-important scribble from his hero, so Like Tim Robbins in SHAWSHANK, he crawls through shit. I mean it's blunt sublety, but it's a nice quick visual summation of SLUMDOG that this guy will always persevere no matter the odds against him as he chases throughout his life for this one girl.

Now one misconception I had heading into SLUMDOG was that the guy got onto the Indian version of WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE? because he cheated, but more like he used basic logic and certain questions tied coincidentally into previous episodes of his which aide him. Folks, Dickens was never called realistic for a reason. I doubt he would have done so well on THE PRICE IS RIGHT, with their fictional and unrealistic suggested retail pricings for cars, dish washers, and Hawaiian vacations. He definately would have bombed on JEOPARDY! though, but maybe win WHEEL OF FORTUNE.

Is SLUMDOG as technically well-shot and made as David Fincher's BENJAMIN BUTTON? No. Is it as well-round packaged overall as THE DARK KNIGHT? Oh No. It's just going to be a sad casualty like what happened to JUNO last year. You know, an unimpeachable pretty good little picture that gets overhyped and overloved, which reachs a breaking point and a severe backlash then erupts against it because it was labeled as the best or important.

Forget the Oscars, forget THE DARK KNIGHT snub, forget all the Internet bullshit. Ignore all that loudnoise, accept for better or for worse what SLUMDOG is, and maybe you'll end up clapping yourself, and afterwards wonder how the hell Ron Howard got nominated again.