Slumdog Millionaire- I don't get the hype.

Personally I enjoyed it. I dont usually care for movies like this. But it kept me interested the whole time.

 

Maybe I need to see trainspotting to compare his work.

Spoiler

Yes I knew he would win half way through, but for me it did not discount from the suspense of not knowing if he would find her dead, or alive, etc.

 

i haven't seen it, but really this is a pretty bad year for award movies. I mean Rev Road is awful, The Reader is boring, Frost/Nixon is ok but nothing to write home about, Milk is again ok, but nothing to get too excited. The best (american) movie I have seen was the wrestler, and while good it would get its *** whiped by the two winners last year.

So I can see how slumdog can be doing well in awards, it is competing against well... basically against nuttin'. Having said that Freida Pinto is freaking gorgeous, and I mean gorgeous.

 

Bum, you can do the spoiler by going:

[ spoiler ] words words words [ /spoiler ]

Just remove the spaces between the brackets.

 

Or he can highlight the post and press the pretty button to the right beside the quote button.

 

I liked it quite a bit. I saw it before the awards season got underway, and largely missed the hype. Only thing I'd really heard about it was what lucky said...so my expectations werent through the rough lol (They were pretty high, though). Not sure I've seen a better movie this year. But I havent seen Frost/Nixon or The Wrestler yet.

I did think the movie lost a little steam as it went along. When they were kids I was totally into the movie, and really loving it. When they got older the pace slowed down for a bit. But it was a minor thing for me, and not enough for me to not like the film.

 

Ive seen city of god, and I have seen the movie that same director made after it as well as favela rising. This was better then those movies IMO...............

edit: another film about the slums is tsotsi if you haven't seen it......

 

I liked it and here's why.

Spoiler

Yes, it's a fairy tale but it's set within a very realistic backdrop.

Jamal is a 1 in 1.3B indian. He is a Muslim of which only 10% of the Indian population is and the film shows how much xenophobia there is in India as 80% of the population is Hindu. He is a slumdog within India's social caste system. A system which says that if you are born in the lowest social hierarchy, you will die in that hierarchy. You cannot move up and all avenues will not be available to you. Hence he only serves coffee and can never be a call center operator. It shows social discrimination against them as you see the game show host trying to sabotage him.

Despite all this Jamal prevails. Is the story realistic? no, but it shows what Indians in poverty within a caste system go through everyday and we should only be grateful. And it does make you go for the underdog and in the end, well.... he freakin wins.

BTW, the soundtrack was mostly from British, Indian artists like M.I.A

 

I really enjoyed it, but then again I really didn't hear much of the hype. The only thing I knew was that it had won a Golden Globe. So I didn't have many expectations going in. I didn't know anybody who had seen it. I didn't know it had anything to do with the Millionaire show. I didn't know it was based in India. I might have heard it was a love story. I liked it enough that I'll probably see it again on video. I don't know that I'll own it, but I'm pretty picky as to which movies I buy to keep.

 

Wasn't a BAD movie. But it was rather predictable and I'm a bit taken by all the hype it's received. It's good, but not THAT good. IMO, the Dark Knight got a raw deal. Best film of the year, IMO.

 

The Dark Knight didn't get a raw deal, IMO. This is an original idea, never really been done before. Not only has the Batman idea been redone time and time again, but the whole caped crusader itself is a timeless copied idea. Not taking away from the movie as it is by far one of the best Batman's ever made, but I think a movie that touches on new ideas and originality deserves more attention for the big awards.

 

Rags to riches is a new idea?

 

the format in which they portray it is. batman is still just that batman, just darker. which by the way is like the comic book.

 

I have no problem saying batman is just batman, but the whole idea behind SM is not new is all I meant. Doesn't mean both movies can't be great or deserving of awards.

Even something like Wall-E which I thought was great all around (story, to picture, to sound, music, etc) isn't even really a new idea entirely.

I don't think a movie should be "docked" just because of where the idea comes from, but rather just on execution.

 

I mean hell, the Departed won best picture and it was like a direct copy of a japanese movie.

 

The "Rags to Riches" premise isn't even the main part or even a sub factor for the plot of this movie.

Spoiler

The whole idea behind the movie is a boy who meets a girl who he truly believes he is destined to be with and goes on a game show because he knows she will be watching it. He doesn't even really care if he wins the money, he makes that clear. I dont think I have seen a movie like that before personally.

 

How much of the general populace knows that though? Everyone knows Batman is a remake.

 

Riches don't have to be measured monetarily.

Spoiler

Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back is even more common than rags to riches.

 

depends how much you abstract the plot really. i can agree if the execution is original. batmans execution wasn't all that original, slum dogs was somewhat. dont get me wrong I like both wouldn't care either way if either won best picture, but I do think sm is better. I do agree somewhat with what you are saying.

 

Hong Kong movie... Infernal Affairs is from Hong Kong.

I think the Dark Night did no make it because it shouldn't be there. It was a fun movie yes, and to a huge extent a highly successful spectacle, but it was also not the even the best out of the two Nolan Batman's... least not in my opinion.

Also it is a comic book movie, members of the Academy are older dudes... it wasn't going to fly... geekdom should be happy they got Lord of the Rings as a win.

 

Thanks, my bad.

I don't think DK should be best picture, I just didn't think it should be knocked simply because it is a batman movie.

Yea, that was one I was surprised about. I thought the Two Towers was better, but I guess I should be happy at least one of them got an award like that.

 

Isn't this thread supposed to be about slumdog?

I think everyone is missing the point of the whole movie.

It's not a rags to riches story. It's within a romantic genre. A fairy tale set in a realistic god foresaken situational back drop. It's not meant to be original. It's very much a cultural film as well, but it's no documentary. If you don't see it for what it is, you won't like it.

 

last I checked most art is open to interpretation. A rags to riches story is not to far from interpretation.........

 

To me it's about the change in one person's destiny. To break free of a once perceived destiny. To this day the caste system in India exists where from birth you and your future generations are forever destined to be placed in your social order. This is one of today's greatest social injustices known to man. As one of the fastest developing countries in the world India needs to realize they need to change and get rid of these prejudices.

There is a political under tone in the movie and I hope the world watches it and realizes how much social discrimination there is from the upper class toward the lower class in India.

 

I agree and don't see it as a rags to riches story.

 

I don't get all the hype about this movie, the beginning you can't figure out what the heck is going on. Once you figure it out it is okay at best. Not the worse movie I have seen, but nowhere close to one of the better movies I have seen.

 

Don't understand how one can not love this movie.

 

I just watched it. Kept me interested the whole time. I thought it was a solid movie. Best of year? maybe so since it was a down yr for quality movies, imo.

 

excellent movie