So the other day I decided I wanted to start shooting music videos, now that I have an amazing video camera. I’ve been watching tons to get ideas and I’m going to be writing up some treatments soon.

Here is one company whose videos I enjoyed a lot: http://www.iendeavormedia.com/

Rating:  

*Prologue: I had read lots about it beforehand, so nothing shocked me about this movie, except for something that shouldn’t have. For some reason I completely missed that Patrick Wilson was starring in it. I had no idea he was even in it, let alone a main character, and he is one of my favorite actors. I grew up watching his dad, John Wilson, on TV as the anchorman for our local news station (Tampa, FL) and the drama teacher at my highschool was apparently his drama teacher at one point - so I’ve been closely following his career for years, waiting for it to take off as I knew it would. I had the pleasure of seeing him perform live once… at a benefit concert his family put on to raise money for victims of hurricane Katrina. Him and his family are just the picture perfect role models, doing wonderful things in the community and being super sweet people all around… which is why I find it slightly surprising that Patrick picks such racy roles. It’s like he picks roles that would be the opposite of what you’d think he would play - with the exception of his role as Raul in Phantom Of The Opera. I can’t picture his dad and brothers and mom all watching WATCHMEN in theaters, during what had to have been one of the longest and most unnecessary sex scenes in the history of cinema. Awkward.

With that said, here is my review of the actual movie! Too long, very slow at times, way too much (unnecessary) nudity… but it was a brilliant and refreshing take on the old debate about which is right: to kill a few innocent people to save a greater number of innocent people, or to never kill the innocent under any circumstance? Lots of bonus points for it being a superhero movie that didn’t feel like your standard superhero movie… something about it was less cheesy than most. Special effects were incredible, and the acting wasn’t bad either. I wasn’t disappointed at the end, but I wasn’t nearly as blown away as I thought I’d be. In fact, I think the only reason I really loved it was because I just flat out love Patrick Wilson. The movie needed more of his story, not a 10 second “oh I’m just a superhero cuz my dad was rich and left me some money to play with” scene.

Oh, and during most the movie I was trying to pinpoint what other movie it reminded me of, and I just got it: The Fifth Element (which is my #2 favorite movie of all time, behind LOTR) Dr. Manhattan was like Leeloo, with Laurie being kinda like Korben, no? I wonder if Luc Besson read the WATCHMEN comics before writing The Fifth Element…

Rating:  

One of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s just about perfect. What stuck me above everything else was the pulsating, riveting soundtrack. As if the gripping imagery of the slums of Mumbai wasn’t enough, the head pounding indian music that accompanies it throws you into the perfect mood to carry you through the movie with a deep compassion for Salim and Jamal for withstanding such an intense, harsh childhood… it acts to instantly uproot you from comfy, rich America and put you right in the heart of India. 

The story line is an unbeliveable, albiet creative and fun idea. A “slumdog” that nobody can believe would actually advance to the million rupee point on India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” has to prove he isn’t cheating by re-telling most of his life and how he knows the answers to the police. He only went on the show in the first place because he knew his lost love would be watching… he wasn’t even interested in the money, despite growing up in abject poverty - traveling as an orphan all over India; begging for money and finding food in garbage dumps and even being abducted by a child slave owner for a time. 

What Jamal overcomes just to find and rescue his childhood love is heroic and spectacular… and this movie serves also as a remarkable expose of the poverty in India despite the growing wealth of the country and it’s upper class, and the hope of the slumdogs to one day prosper. 

When I returned home from this movie the first thing I did was research Mumbai and how we can all help the people in extreme poverty there. Turns out the Indian government is already hard at work in doing so, since India’s wealth is growing and they want to make Mumbai, the largest city, a more acceptable business destination. What they’re going to do with the millions that live there, I’m not sure - but all the slums are planned to be demolished by the government and in there place they are building low-rent apartment housing, apparently. Hopefully most of the slum dwellers can afford these places - for those that can’t let’s pray that India has a plan for them… 

You can find out more about the situation in Mumbai at this amazing website - where you can even hear interviews from families that live in the slums.