As posted on Books and Films Corner
I’ve meant to do a lot of movie reviews on here over the last six months and never got about to doing them! So on Oscar night whether they are on the Oscar track or not here are some of the movies I’ve loved recently and the ones I’ve not and even a mention of the ones I refused to go see and the ones that I did see and was pleasantly surprised!:)
So in alphabetical order here are some of them I can remember!
AUSTRALIA
Loved it! And no it wasn’t just cause Hugh Grant of my We Three Kings! fun and fame was in it! I loved it and unexpectedly so…because I just decided to go see it to meet up with some people and we figured it was the most passable thing on in cinema. I thought I was going to see before me a sweeping love saga unfold. And yes it was indeed a love story…but it was about Australia! I couldn’t get the idea of ‘dreaming’ out of my head after I saw the film. It made me think about aboriginal peoples all around the world and how they really could have such a feel for the land…so much so that they become intuitive…it made me think of myself…I searched within…it made me realise that although I had never visited India I knew it because that was what Hinduism was…it was a tapestry of India…an ode to its rivers and valleys…its plants and flowers….and I feel the South Indians the Saivites were the ones who really were the aboriginal peoples of their they really knew the lady…it is why I celebrate that Hippy Master Shiv today! 
And it made me wonder of the land I now live in Trinidad. What do I know of it? Well it’s aboriginal peoples…we have practically wiped them out and their voice here…well the Europeans did and we were the peoples they brought from another time when people still thought they could own each other…but what about now? It is almost impossible to gather much of the original peoples of Trinidad information…it is pretty much lost…but I could at least try to adapt the approach I know from Hinduism here in this land…and it was what I had been doing anyway…but Australia inspired me to keep on Dreaming….
TThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Well they say it was just made from an idea in a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald but whoever wrote this script made me want to read the book…or wonder how the book would read…the writing was just so rich…the story so wondrous and sweepingly epic. It also rang through that life is really only what we choose to make it…and that each one of us come here for a very unique point and purpose and we should just do it! Made me kinda recall this one of my posts.
The Tale of Despereaux
I kept meaning to write this review and say Gotta See Despereaux! or Gotta Love Despereaux! He was so cute…such a pretty, pretty, cute mouse as my mummy put it!:) Cute enough just to watch the film for! But again a film about living your purpose and not just going with the masses…where one mouse dared to go! It was also interesting the whole inherently deep spirituality in it like all good children tales! About the light and the dark and the sea faring rat and the ones from the sewer and the mouse who was suppose to be afraid but was not. And the kindness in that sea faring rat’s eyes and his voice…aaawwww…what a sweetly made film!:) It still remains with me! I have to buy this film you know! And then there was soup! And I just love soup! Mmmmmm….who can not love soup! Well the sea faring rat for sure would agree!:) Everyone should see Despereaux! Gotta see Despereaux!
And really those were the three films I really had fun with in 2008. I saw Seven Pounds and was so so disappointed! Oprah your review and having Will on the show just didn’t ring through! It wasn’t the acting… that was fine even good at times…it was just the whole concept of the film and the whole idea in the end…geez…a man killing himself to give his organs….come on now! I wrote my rant on that film in response to my blogging friend Matt Welsh’s post on spiritual media blog…here.
Also there is Slumdog Millionaire…it never released on the island and I’m not a bootleg copy watching kinda girl plus Matt Welsh has posted here said it was very gory and I just not worth watching if you can’t take that even though it is to show reality perhaps…I know it is true but I go to the cinema to be inspired not come out blue! So…it is why I didn’t go to the darkness that was Dark Knight (Batman) even though everyone said it was so good and it wasn’t just cause Joker was being played by a now dead man! And no it is not just going to be a cult classic for his fans? I don’t know…I just didn’t go!
But on the night of the Oscars as I pray to Shiv I say I hope AR Rahman fears well as I’ve always loved his music. I’ve heard Jai Ho! and I know it’s not his best for sure. But the ‘white people’ are now being exposed and that’s great for sure! I wish him all the best and I say although I love his music he could not ever with Ismail Darbar contest!
Have to see those three Babita, have to say Slumdog Millioniare is one of the BEST films I've seen in ages!! It is definitely a must see and Danny Boyle has to be one of the best directors around … plus cinematography was brilliant. It so deserved every single award it got! I loved Lars and the Real Girl (Ryan Gosling; great actor) and Kung fu Panda this/last year (children's films are so good!). Dark Knight good too, Heath Ledger made it
what a great actor
I just wouldnt care to watch something so dark…or another Batman movie I guess…I stopped at Michael Keaton as Batman I think…not saying he probably wasnt good…will probably end up seeing Slumdog Millionaire at some point and cringe through the gore dunno…just to know what it was…but I'll have to say even reading this older book called A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry about 10 plus yrs ago was very depressing to me…I'm not saying it doesnt show some reality but I dont like to spend my time on films like that…I mean there are other ways to find out about stuff like that and do stuff to make change but I dont have to be pained when Im reading and watching films…unless I'm specifically doing it to be informed on an issue you know like a documentary etc…
To be honest I think too Slumdog Millionaire will be more appealing to a Western eye or as I like to call it 'white people' I dont mean it in a racist way it is just when Indians from India say the West or Westerners they must mean the white people since I'm a Westerner techinically I mean I grew up in the Caribbean but I'm of Indian ancestry and grew up on Hinduism, Hindi films, things of India etc so…of course the slums will still be unknown to me but it is just different…I view India more than for it's now as I see it as a place of Hinduism…and so I see it in a different historical context. Also notably they call Australians and NZers Westerners and they are technically in the south eastern hemisphere so I figure they mean the white peopel or people from G8 countries originally? But where would that leave Japan…you should see the post where I have about bollywood where I explain my thoughts on this…
http://booksandfilmscorner.blogspot.com/2009/01/e…
I wanted too see Kung Fu Panda but was so many to see…you Gotta See Despereaux!
I read that book too Babita and it had the same affect on me, coincidentally I read Q&A right before (the book slumdog is based on) so there was a huge gap. I think most of us don't really understand until we have lived or walked in someone's shoes no matter where we're from? Can films show or demonstrate the real thing?? even documentaries?
To walk in the shoes of others very different from me…that was my Intent after the Mumbar Terror Attacks!
Kindness, compassion, joy and freedom to everyone, forever.
Cool…Ana