Friday, March 6, 2009

Slumdog Millionaire

Jamal Malik is one question away from winning 20million rupees.

How did he do it?

A: He cheated
B: He's lucky
C: He's genius
D: It is written


10 Oscar nominations, won 8.

Best Picture

Best Director

Best Original Score

Best Original Song

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Cinematography

Best Editing

Best Sound Mixing


Most of the time, people dare not to criticize an award-winning movie....
I admit, I watch this movie after it won.

but,

If you ask me,
"Did the movie deserved Oscar or not???

I will say "Yes,
they deserved...."
but I prefer Benjamin Button.

Why?

Benjamin Button's cinematography and music are much more excellent,
the whole movie is like a masterpiece of art....
everything is nearly perfect if you compare it to other nominators.

But why Benjamin Button lost those big awards in Oscar?
First reason is because it was starring by Brad Pitt, and other Hollywood stars or actors.

You will always have big advantage at box office performance if your movie is starring by a movie superstar.
But in movie awards, semi-pro actors have the advantage!!!

But the main reason that makes Slumdog Millioanire become the multi-awards winner,
is the story....

Well, the story sounds fine for me,
not bad....not that great.

But, it hits the correct timing.

Why did I say that?
because the world is in economic crisis now, especially America....

and, Oscar is an America movie award.

When you look back to the previous Oscar,
almost every year,
the panel prefer the movie that is recognized by American!!!

Which is why,
if you success to hit the target,
the award is yours.

Everyone is discussing about Slumdog Millionaire and Benjamin Button recently.
But, it is hard to judge Slumdog Millionaire today because,

if you say the movie is good,
people might think that you are an opinion-follower.

if you say the movie is bad,
people might say that you don't have taste.


One thing I don't like about their cinematography,
is that they used alot of Dutch angle.

Most of the time,
filmmakers learn how to use Dutch angle,
but they do not learn why.

Dutch angle is a very eye-catching, and a very aggresive technique.

Why Slumdog Millionaire use it?
I have no idea....
I just don't like it.

Well, if you want to read a more expressive review,
you can visit Mun Yi's blog (in my friend's list)

and the answer is,

D: it is written

6 comments:

Wei Xiang said...

sorry JT i'm a bit lazy to google; but what's a "Dutch angle"? care to explain more?

Anonymous said...

i watched it b4 it given an award from GG n Oscar//
N i loved tis movie so much //
mayb i lik tis type of movie //
it's juz great how he write n plan d story //
n make it all together //
story start wif ..
den.. after..
d way he tell d story //
n i was shocked when d last question came out //
d three musketeers //

i love when jamal's young //
how dey live //
life in india //


Suprisely tis movie WON d award!!
btw , i haven finish watch Benjamin Buttton..
but im sure it's great as u said //

jiateng said...

weixiang: dutch angle is canted (or slanted???) angle....guess you still remember....those boring notes....
But people often call it Dutch angle la...
Canted or slanted is a technical term I guess...

Hem: thanks for dropping by again....it's been a while....
Welcome back!!!

weisin said...

U so canggih known it as Dutch angle ar??

No doubt it's a nice movie, nice story line, but the poster sucks. [I have a very huge prejudice on movie poster that have white color background.]
Talking about the movie, what I like the most is just the beginning part, where the characters are still living in the slum, for me I think the acting for that time frame is the best, because the actors are all came from the slum.

I don't really like the 'gown up' of the character, it's too much different from the childhood.

Imagine how come a child come from slum can spreak perfectly british english?
Maybe I'm just too picky with that.

Another thing, I don't really like the music. I think the moviemaker try to make it 'sounds' like Bollywood music, but it's in ENGLISH omg...
end up it sounds funny, nothing bettter than Bollywood, nor Hollywood.

I like the story, and how he bring out the story by watching the show. But I still prefer Benjamin Button prefer to this.

Wei Xiang said...

JT! new review! lol =) will be looking forward to it!

Tammy-C-My said...

I was abt to ask abt the Dutch angle haha...but since question already asked and answered, thanks JT for the extra knowledge.

Agree with Wei Sin on the poster. That's why it din catch my attention when i saw it on erm....some website so i din plan to watch it haha until it won the award of course.

I love the lead guy though. Pretty handsome wat! haha...i'm not to particular about the way he speaks English though because i guess he might have gotten that accent from when he pretended to be a tour guide in Taj Mahal. He has many interactions with "ang-mos" haha...

As for the music...well, I agree it's weird but kinda like it also haha..one of them by PCD (pussy cat dolls and not Pork Chop dance, like some of my friends interpret)


I guess JT has a point also abt the Oscar. Semi-pro actors really have some advantages though not always the case lar...usually for me not well-known movies will win. Haha...and those box-office movies that we all know won't. But i heard from some ppl that maybe this year they wanted something with a happy ending to win lar...since recession ma, dunno...

I forgot to mention that i also really like the way the start the movie, with that question....very nice haha...now "It's written" is like something I always say...

p/s: Dont expect much from my blog cuz honestly, JT's movie reviews are still the BEST of the BEST...learned a lot from him
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND DUMP THE NOTES PPLZZZ haha