Categories
movie

Shaun the Sheep – The Movie

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In recent times, as most of my readers know, the only movies that we have been going to, are cartoon movies. Two reasons behind this are – this way the kid and we can enjoy together (RoI is very important – since we are spending a sh** load of money on movie tickets) and secondly, the wife and me have started becoming impatient with respect to movies (partly due to watching recorded movies on Tata Sky Plus at home – where we can forward all the unwanted junk!).

Anyways, the cartoon movie scene in Bangalore does not help too much. Except big scale movies from big movie houses (read: Disney), all other cartoon movies barely cross a week in theatres. Same was the case with “Shaun the Sheep”. It release the weekend of the Independence Day (Aug 14 weekend) and by Aug 21 weekend, it was running one show in one theatre (and irony – the theatre farthest from where we live). But no, that did not deter us. We hauled it from Koramangala to the Orion Mall Rajaji Nagar for the 4PM show.

The wife and me (and the kid, incidentally) have been big fans of Shaun the Sheep cartoons on tv. If you have not, go to youtube and search. They are fun, clean, and smallish cartoon strips about a bunch of sheep, one of them being Shaun. Ofcourse Shaun, being the pratagonist, is smarter and more quick witted than the rest.

We went to this movie with a single thought – how could you make a cartoon strip which typically runs as a filler in the cartoon channels (most of the strips are 5-7 minutes long) as a whole movie. But the director has done a commendable job. The movie does not leave you fidgetting your thumbs. It is a fast paced movie.

The jokes are clean, which will leave young and old chuckling – very typical of the usual Shaun the sheep strips. None of the jokes leave you cracking up, but keeps you chuckling through the movie. Very nice animation. And hey, get this, there is not a single dialog in the movie – just like in the strip. The only person capable of speaking, the farmer, also just makes unintelligible noises, but that is it.

Very well done movie. One hour and 15 minutes of pure fun.

Categories
movie

Movie review: Jobs

jobsthink

The Jobs movie, starring Ashton Kutcher, is a pretty neatly done movie. I have read the Isaccson official biography and sure, there are a few minor inaccuracies, but then that should be discounted for artistic freedom. Making a movie based on someone as incredible as Steve Jobs is not an easy one.

I personally think, it is a great package. It covers the overall personality of Jobs (atleast the personality that I could decipher from the official biography). Ashton does a fine job of portraying Jobs. I am a big fan of Steve Job and his presentation skills (as some of my blog readers would have observed by now) and have seen several of his keynote speeches, and some multiple times. And the personality, the little body language quirks, Ashton plays them beautifully. The slouch, the walk, the finger on the nose. I think he did his homework well.

I wish the movie could have been a wee bit longer, and covered some more of his NeXT years and his Pixar days (which are woefully not even in the story line). The movie was as fast paced as it needed to be and 15 mins more would not have gotten it bad rep.

Also, I think, the relationship of Jobs and Gates was a much more complex one, and was a bit trivialised by the one f-word-laden phone conversation that Jobs has with Gates. But, I guess, that is defenitely way out of scope out of the movie story line.

On the whole, a nice movie. Super acting by Ashton Kutcher.

Categories
movie

Idiocracy

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I heard about this movie first in Merlin Mann’s podcast with Dan Benjamin (in the 5×5 network). It is a great fun podcast talking about tech and productivity – two things that I am super passionate about. But I digress. Merlin was talking about this movie and was comparing it to living in Florida, and how sometimes the folks are in their ‘own world’. I noted it down and wanted to watch it some time, and I got the chance today.

It is a pretty nice movie about an average guy (Luke Wilson), who is in the army. He gets chose for an experiment called “human hibernation”. Unfortunately, the Army forgets about this top secret experiment, and when Luke gets out of the chamber, it is the year 2500AD. Things are not too dandy. The world has gotten all topsy turvy, and the average IQ has fallen abysmally, making Luke the smartest man on the planet. The world is then fully of super dumb people. Folks who believe water can be replaced with Gatorade (even for watering crops). Everything is amiss.

In all, a pretty good entertainer, and an eye opener. Comes with a nice message of getting your kids to read, to get educated, and just be overall smart.

[IMDB link]

(img src: link)

Categories
movie

Disney Frozen

frozengroupWatched a movie in the theatres after a very very long time. A first for my son. We took my 4 y/o for his first movie experience over the weekend. Watched the new Disney movie ‘Frozen’.

My thoughts on the movie:

  • Excellent story line and execution – nothing surprising here – since it is Disney.
  • The snow effects are just awesome.
  • Since it is a kids movie, the 3D effects are not jarring or frightening. In fact, even without the glasses, it didnt feel bad. (Some 3D movies look super blurred without the glasses). Perhaps this was intentional too. Sometimes it is difficult to get the kids to keep the glasses on for a long time. This happened with my son midway through the movie.
  • Super comedy with Olaf the snowman. Great recovery at the end, where there is a magical arrangement (watch the movie to see it!) to make sure that Olaf does not melt away. Great touch – since the kids would have hated to lose this character.
  • Awesome depiction of feelings and human like emotions on animated characters.
  • Nice twists and turns in the plot.
  • Overall, a great entertainer.

(picture source: Official Disney Frozen Site)

Categories
art technology

A Boy And His Atom – World’s smallest movie

Well, the first time you are reading the title, you are probably thinking (like I did), that this is going to be another animated short, but maybe this is really really short. Well no. It is the world in which the movie is shot that is small. This movie has been created by IBM by  moving actual atoms and molecules on a surface. Well, there are two reactions that are pummelling with each other in my mind — “IBM is the only place which can produce such an amazingly cool thing.” vs. “Engineering folks at IBM have a lot of time in their hands”. 🙂

For engineers like me, the cooler video is the next video – “the making of the movie”. Mind blowing.

Categories
misc

Dasavatharam trailer

The much awaited movie Dasavatharam from the ultimate actor, Padmashree Kamal Hassan. He has done 10 different roles in one film. Amazing. Here is what the Big B has to say about it:

Its Kamal Hassan’s film ‘Dasavataram’ and its music release and he has asked me over to attend the function to commemorate the occasion. There’s Jackie Chan, and the Chief Minister of TamilNadu and several colleagues of Kamal. Its a warm friendly event. The few minutes of the promo seen looks awesome. He has played 10 different roles in the film, and all seem so difficult t identify !! Marvelous !!

And here is the trailer for your viewing pleasure 🙂

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3McfGR64BfY&hl=en]