Slumdog Millionaire

Slumdog Millionaire

2008

Director: Danny Boyle and Loveleen Trandan

Writer: Simon Beaufoy and Vikas Swarup

120 Minutes

Slumdog Millionaire came into our lives with great international buzz, but rested in our hearts as a film which good overcomes evil, underdog triumphs, and hope. Hope, above all, that after being shit on, shot at, and subjected to brutal pain, we can win a huge sum of money and get the girl of your dreams.

We all saw this film and talked about the final scene in the train station.

“Stay for the credits, it’s worth it. Everyone dances!”

The traditional Bollywood dancing scene at the end of the movie captured the imagination that other countries, like India, have great films too. That America might not be the forefront of great entertainment, yet this is a very American movie.

American because love concurs all, David verse Goliath, and a chance to win loads of money without having to do any work. It’s why we play the lotto. It’s why romantic comedies always gross high in the box office. It’s why we watched “Deal or No Deal.” It's why we read Romeo and Juliet in high school. And it’s why Rudy was a great sports movie about the University of Notre Dame.

Slumdog is coaxed with American idealism. And that’s why we like it.

In the scene above, Jamal (Dev Patel) has won 20 million Rupee (which equals $429,184 USD) and he is a hero to the people of Mumbai. Does he throw a huge party? Does he commit to sex, drugs, and rock and roll? Does he buy a big house?

No, he comes back to the train station - alone - and waits. He waits for his true love. Because to Jamel, it wasn’t about money. It was about love.

Everyone in the country would have been his friend. Everyone would want to meet him, party with him, or use him, but he doesn’t want any of them. He only wants his soul mate.

What makes this film so important is love. Without love, you have greed, oppression, and sin. And consequently, that’s what Jamel has to go through to complete his goal.

In the end, there is a story that the DVD “Slumdog Millionaire” was sitting on an executive’s desk for months before he screened it. It was wasting away and the only reason the executive watched it was because Danny Boyle (director of “The Beach”) had some success in the box office.

It was a piece of gold waiting to be discovered. Eight pieces of gold, to be specific, in the form of the Academy Awards.

In this life, how many other pieces of gold are out there…?

Diner

Diner

1982

Director: Barry Levinson

Writer: Barry Levinson

110 Minutes

How can you even explain the brilliance of this movie…?

The greatness behind Diner is Barry Levinson. Pulling from his childhood experiences growing up in Baltimore, he created a cast of characters probably much like his own friends, family, and lovers. Married, single, troubled, confused, or immature, Levinson brought us the Baltimorean World circa 1959 in the most entertaining way.

The story is about teenagers becoming adults, taking responsibility, making choices, and eventually finding who they really are. That’s why we see coming-of-age films – to find out who these boys are, but more importantly who we are.

We’ve all been through periods of confusing in our lives, facing difficult questions, and unanswerable situations. This helps us escape those problems in a relatable way. And even though time may change, problems between friends usually don’t.

In the scene above, Eddie (Steven Guttenberg) and Shrevie (Daniel Stern) are talking outside the diner about marriage. Eddie is getting married, while Shrevie has been married. When Eddie asks about Shrevie’s marriage, he replies with this:

“When you're dating, everything is talking about sex. Where can we do it? Why can't we do it? Are you parents gonna be out so we can do it? Everything is always talkin about getting sex, and then planning the wedding, all the details. But then, when you get married... it's crazy, i dunno. You can get it whenever you want it. You wake up in the morning and she's there. You come home from work and she's there. So all that sex planning talk is over with. And so is the wedding planning talk cause you're already married. So... ya know…I can come down here and we can bullshit the entire night away but I cannot hold a 5 minute conversation with Beth. I mean it's not her fault, I'm not blaming her, she's great... It's just, we got nothing to talk about... But it's good, it's good”

Plus, Beth (Ellen Barkin), Shrevie’s wife, doesn’t know about the flip side of records, yet the topic is all too important to her husband.

See, that’s important to guys: flip sides of records. There is also movie quotes, video game conquests, and busting each other’s balls. And that’s why Diner is a wonderful film because it’s a movie for guys that deal with guy’s important issues.

Like flip sides of records.

In the end, the movie comes out well. Eddie gets married. Shrevie appreciates his wife. And Mickey Rourke falls off the planet until The Wrestler. Then Iron Man 2.

But, we’ll always have the Diner.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Director: Milos Forman

Writer: Lawrence Hauben and Bo Goldman

133 Minutes

Randle P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson) is someone we like. Someone we know. He goes to a mental institution to get out of the work farm and more so, out of prison. At the institution, he meets Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher) who plays a “rigged game.” She dominates, demoralizes, and oppresses each patient with her calm, cool demeanor.

Once McMurphy discovers her truth, his goal is to rattle her cages.

He knows she is pure evil, so he wants to break her spirit, just as she has broken everyone else’s. In the shower room, there is a bet on the table that McMurphy can’t accomplish his goal. No way. No how. Everyone places their bets.

“In one week, I can put a bug so far up her ass, she don't know whether to shit or wind her wristwatch,” explains McMurphy.

This goal, mirroring Ratched’s goal of utter control, is about power. This film is a power struggle between our two main characters. Power to control. Power to cause chaos.

In the film, McMurphy has petitioned Ratched to watch the World Series Baseball game. They take a vote, but no one sides with McMurphy. After the shower room scene where McMurphy tries to move the water cooler, they take another vote. When McMurphy gets everyone in the group to raise their hands, Ratched says they need more than the group; they need all the catatonic, delusional, and mute patients around the ward.

Like I said, Ratched dominates, demoralizes, and oppresses each patient to the bitter end. And even when McMurphy gets a swaying vote from Chief (Will Sampson), Ratched ends the meeting and the voting is over.

That’s Ratched rigged game: control.

So, McMurphy goes over to the blank television in protests, while the rest of the ward retires for the day. Inspired, McMurphy begins to regain control. McMurphy starts calling the game, play-by-play until the group members come back and watch what’s happening.

“Koufax kicks, he delivers, it’s up the middle, it’s a base hit!”

Everyone joins in to see what’s happening in the game, but Ratched didn’t turn on the game. McMurphy is calling what he thinks is happening.

In the scene above, Taber (Christopher Llyod) joins the group and when McMurphy calls out a “high fly ball into deep left-cetner”, Taber looks up. But, there is nothing on the screen. Nothing but their reflections. Yet, the men cheer anyways. They are excited. McMurphy calls another play and everyone screams in excitement. They dance around, smiling and laughing.

And there is Nurse Ratched, watching her uncontrolled ward in chaos.

She knows she has lost power, ordering her patients to stop, but they are fixated on the imaginary baseball game that McMurphy is announcing.

“Stop this immediately!” Ratched exclaims.

But, the group can’t hear her. They are cheering. They are excited. And they are more insane now to cheer for an imaginary baseball game.

In the end, McMurphy doesn’t give up. His goal isn’t to gain power, but more to stop Ratched’s reign. And even though McMurphy loses in the end, the group wins. They know the truth. They know McMurphy rattled Ratch’s cages and choked out her voice, which eliminates her governing weapon. Her lost voice was enough.

In death, McMurphy’s spirit carries on, in the group, and in Chief.

"She was fifteen years old, going on thirty-five, Doc, and she told me she was eighteen, she was very willing." - McMurphy

What’s not to like about him…

More Than A Game

More Than a Game

2008

Director: Kristopher Belman

Writer: Kristopher Belman and Brad Hogan

105 Minutes

LeBron James might have been the best high school basketball to ever play the game. He is one of the best professional players to step onto the court, regardless of the team he plays on.

But, there was a story before LeBron James was LeBron James. And that’s what More Than a Game is about. It’s about five teammates on their quest for the high school national basketball championship. But, they were friends first, brothers second, and they always stayed together.

LeBron James, surrounded by his teammates Dru Joyce, Romeo Travis, Sian Cotton, and Willie McGee, were the stars.

And this journey starred back in 1999, when the boys were no older than fourteen, and they entered the AAU national championship game with limited money, resources, and support. But, they had heart. They had each other.

All packed into a mini van, their team drove from Akron to Florida to compete, though entering the stadium were teams with money, fans, and experience who looked to the Ohio Shooting Stars with doubt and questions. This team didn’t have a chance…until they started playing.

One by one, they eliminated each and every team that didn’t believe in them taking them all the way to the championship game facing the Southern California All Stars, the best team in the country.

The game came down to the fourth quarter when Ohio started coming back. And with four seconds left and down two points, LeBron James got the ball, which is the scene above. The inbounds pass comes into James as he rushes down the court, clock ticking down, and he fires up a three-point shot.

Even James says, “This is the one I always dreamed about…”

Cling. Miss. The buzzer sounds. Game over. Ohio lost.

But, this started a fire. This started a passion that this team was going to win, at all cost. Just win. And throughout their journey of conflicts, obstacles, and complications, that’s what they did. They all went to high school, played basketball, and stayed together.

They were met with criticism, negativity, and doubt, but they stayed together. There were egos and drama, but they all stayed together. And even when their star, LeBron James, was faced with controversy, they stayed together.

Consequently several years later, the met up with the Southern California All Stars again in a national championship game. And that time, it had a better outcome. These boys, now men, made sure of it.

From 5th grade on, this team of brothers had a dream to win a national championship. But, they were friends first. They always stayed together. And they were brothers to the end.

In life, is there anything better?

Forrest Gump

Forrest Gump

1994

Director: Robert Zemeckis

Writer: Winston Groom and Eric Roth

142 Minutes

In the opening scene, there is a feather floating through the air, being pushed from this direction to that, and finally landing at the edge of Forrest Gump’s (Tom Hanks) shoe. Forrest grabs it and puts it in his book. In the scene above, the feather represents everything about Forrest Gump’s life.

He is not merely making decisions, but floating through life, being pushed from this experience to that, and finally landing on park bench a couple blocks from his one true love, Jenny (Robin Wright).

That is the meaning of his film. Do we have fate or self-will that takes us through life (Thank you Blake Snyder).

See, Forrest didn’t mean to play college football, he just ran on the field when they Alabama coach was present. He didn’t mean to go into the Army, he simply got handed a flier. He didn’t mean to catch all those shrimp, but God brought the hurricane that wiped out all the other boats. And he didn’t mean to invest in a “fruit company,” but Lt. Dan (Gary Sinise) bought stock in Apple, Inc.

All he decided was to love Jenny, live up to his promise to Bubba (Mykelti Williamson), and go for a run.

Forrest is the innocent, child-like wonder we all have inside us. He goes with the flow, happens to be in the right place at the right time, and is continually victorious. And he only listens to two women: his mama (Sally Field) and Jenny. While the characters around him can be violent, obsessive, crazy, and questionable, Forrest doesn’t know the wiser and follows whatever path life takes him on.

“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get.”

He explains life perfectly: a random mixture of experiences and complications all revolving around your own fate and destiny. We might plan and plans might alter. We might expect and we may be disappointed. But in the end, life’s major consistency is change merged with unexpected occurrences. That’s all Forrest’s life has been.

But, there is a theme and presents in this movie that grabs our attention more than fate vs. self-will. It’s called America.

America is so present in this film it could have been draped in the American Flag. An innocent hero wonders through his life escaping high school bullies, getting a college scholarship, being a war hero, enjoying New Years in New York, becoming a captain of a ship, wising investing, traveling the country (running) and being a volunteer, while in the end, his life is complete when Jenny finally returns his love and they marry.

This is the American Dream. It makes us proud to be Americas.

Forrestt Gump will forever be in our hearts solidified by our everyday-man Tom Hanks in a random adventure of a “feather” floating through life. In the final scene, the feather drops out of the book and floats away to the next experience and adventure in this random life we lead.

Adventures in Babysitting

Adventures in Babysitting

1987

Director: Christopher Columbus

Writer: David Simkins and Elizabeth Faucher

102 Minutes

Adventures in Babysitting gave hope to every single girl out there waiting for a guy to ask her to dance.

At least, that was the case in Chris Parker’s (Elisabeth Shue) life. But sadly, her “so cool” boyfriend stands her up and she is force to babysit the Anderson children, Brad (Keith Coogan) and Sara (Maia Brewton). As straw dog Daryl Coopersmith (Anthony Rapp) enters the group, Chris gets a call from her friend Brenda (Penelope Ann miller) who ran away from home to a Greyhound bus station in downtown Chicago.

Road Trip.

Should be an easy excursion, yet turns into an adventure in babysitting because of this:

Chris’s car gets a flat tire without a spare. A tow truck pulls up. A hook-handed mechanic picks them up. The hook-handed mechanic gets a radio call about his wife cheating him on. Detour. Chris’s car gets a bullet through the windshield. Chris and the kids get into a random car, which is being stolen. They go to a chop shop. Playboy. They escape the chop shop. Babysitting Blues. They get onto the subway. Gang fight where Brad gets stabbed. Hospital. See hook-handed mechanic. Window okay, need 50 bucks. Go to a frat party at the University of Chicago. Chris meets the guy wanting to ask her to dance. Get 45 bucks. To the auto shop. Thor. Get the car. See Chris’s “so cool” boyfriend at expensive restaurant. Sara runs off. Office building. Parents. Escape without Playboy. Eventually, Chris picks up Brenda.

“You wouldn’t believe the night I had,” exclaims Brenda.

That sums up the entire movie, except for Daryl’s interaction with the 17-year old hooker than ran away from home and as Daryl explains, “you wouldn’t believe what that girl would do for 20 bucks.”

In the opening scene above, Chris dances to the Crystal’s song Then He Kissed Me. The lyrics are fitting about a guy asking a girl to dance, then kissing her, then meeting his parents, and then marriage all starting when he kissed her.

It’s the American Dream for most teenage girls.

More so, this scene relates to anyone who has danced around the room, gazing at themselves in front of the mirror. This scene gets you on board with Chris. You like her. You relate to her. You want to be her. And then she gets dumped. All these things need to happen for you to like her because all she wanted to do with find a guy to ask her to dance.

Who knew she would find it at a frat party at the University Chicago after being accused of posing for Playboy.

Side note: Elisabeth Shue was in Playboy Magizine - November 2005, Vol. 52, Iss. 11, pg. 26, by: n/a, "Tease Frame: Elisabeth Shue"

But, Chris gets what she wants. And all ends well.

Adventures in Babysitting is a fun movie. If the movie were simply about Brenda learning about the do's and don'ts of the Greyhound bus station in downtown Chicago, it would have been cute. But, it’s so much more. It’s about four kids running around the streets of Chicago getting into unwanted mischief and mayhem before having to beat their parents’ home on the Eisenhower expressway.

But remember…no one leaves this place without singing the blues.

Weird Science

Weird Science

1985

Director: John Hughes

Writer: John Hughes

94 Minutes

John Hughes might be the most missed man in Hollywood or at least the most missed man to the Breakfast Club generation. Hughes made being a teenager fun, exciting, and adventurous when it was none of the above.

Weird Science was every fourteen-year-old boy’s dream.

Playing on their computer, Gary (Anthony Michael Hall) and Wyatt (Ilan Mitchell-Smith) decide to create a girl using Wyatt’s pre-internet computer, lots of power, and a Barbie doll.

Intro: Lisa (Kelly LeBrock).

Lisa represents the ultra-female personality having sex, intelligence, and style. She wore seductive clothes, spoke confidently, and had any man she never wanted. Yet, her loyalty was to the boys that created her. She threw parties, made friends, and stopped an oppressive brother, Chet (Bill Paxton), by turning him into a pile of shit.

What’s not the love about a movie that turns Bill Paxton into a pile of shit?

In the scene above, Lisa has taken the boys out for a night on the town. They end up at the Kandy Room, an urban nightclub, where Gary and Wyatt are about as comfortable as sandpaper on the toilet seat.

But, this is there bar mitzvah – their rite of passage. They have never been out, nor ever been seen with a beautiful woman. Now, they have both. And a ton of alcohol.

They sit a table full of grown men with dark pasts. This is their table, their club, and their rules. One of the soulful-voiced men hands Gary a bottle and says, “drink it.” Gary refuses.

“DRINK IT!” Gary must.

When the men ask Lisa about the boys, she explains it’s purely sexual. Obviously, these boys are up to the challenge of pleasing even the most gorgeous and erotic woman.

“She’s into malakas, Dino,” explains Gary. The room accepts these two as equals, though the movie is about these two accepting themselves and standing up for who they are. This outing is the start.

The group gets comfortable and Gary begins to tell a story about how he went crazy over this 8th grader with big old titties who kneed him in the nuts (family jewels) and called him a fagot in front of everyone.

Gary drunkenly claims, “broke my heart in two.”

“Broke more than your heart,” the soulful voice replies.

But, Gary has Lisa now. And Gary and Wyatt will get a lot more by the end credits.

Weird Science, more importantly John Hughes, treated teenagers with respect. They were not lost individuals trying to cause problems or nerds playing on the computer. They were people who had to face their own problems, issues, and complications, even when adults are too caught up in their own lives to recognize it. In these movies, teenagers were human.

And Mr. Hughes captured that all too well.

When Harry Met Sally...

When Harry Met Sally…

1989

Director: Ron Reiner

Writer: Nora Ephron

96 Minutes

In the beginning, they weren’t friends. In the middle, they were friends. In the end, they were together.

But, nothing compares to this dialog in this film, especially below:

Harry: You realize of course that we could never be friends.
Sally: Why not?
Harry: What I'm saying is - and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form - is that men and women can't be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.
Sally: That's not true. I have a number of men friends and there is no sex involved.
Harry: No you don't.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: No you don't.
Sally: Yes I do.
Harry: You only think you do.
Sally: You say I'm having sex with these men without my knowledge?
Harry: No, what I'm saying is they all WANT to have sex with you.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: They do not.
Harry: Do too.
Sally: How do you know?
Harry: Because no man can be friends with a woman that he finds attractive. He always wants to have sex with her.
Sally: So, you're saying that a man can be friends with a woman he finds unattractive?
Harry: No. You pretty much want to nail 'em too.
Sally: What if THEY don't want to have sex with YOU?
Harry: Doesn't matter because the sex thing is already out there so the friendship is ultimately doomed and that is the end of the story.
Sally: Well, I guess we're not going to be friends then.
Harry: I guess not.


This is the entire theme of the movie laid out after a very character-explaining diner scene, compliments to both director Ron Reiner (who represents Harry) and writer Nora Ephron (who represents Sally) for inspiring each other.

But, the scene pictured above is later in the film. Sally (Meg Ryan) has just received a hello-how-you-doing phone call from her x-fiancée and found he is getting married. Immediately, she calls Harry (Billy Crystal) who rushes over.

They discuss the situation, while Sally cries about not wanting him, but her wanting him to want her. Harry listens and offers condolences. And then she explains this:

Sally: AND, I'm gonna be forty.
Harry: When?
Sally: Someday.
Harry: In eight years.

This is classic dialog, but what happens next to most important. They have sex. No cafe fake orgasms here. Sex. Nookie. Bumping Uglies. Slap and Tickle. Knobbing. Stuffing the Turkey. Sex. Afterwards, Harry looks frighten, while Sally couldn’t be more comfortable. This scene gives the answer to the question above…

…No, men and women can’t be friends.

Having sex to Harry and Sally was the death of their friendship. It changed everything. It meant something to one. It meant nothing to the other. Their friendship is over.

When Harry met Sally, he knew they couldn’t be friends. When they met again, Sally indicates she wanted more than friendship. In the end, they can't be friend, though they can be much more than friends.

This story all comes down to Harry realizing it WAS that much more. And when he does, he runs the streets of New York City to a New Years Party he attended the previous year to tell Sally, “when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with someone, you want to the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

Hats off to Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron for putting together a great film. And not to ruin anything for you, but those older couples that help segway through the years of Harry and Sally’s relationship are just actors; two strangers that never before met until they filmed their scenes that day.

The real couples weren’t as believable enough.

Cheers to love.

Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder

2008

Director: Ben Stiller

Writer: Ben Stiller, Justin Theroux, and Etan Cohen

107 Minutes

The scenes above are a complied list of fake trailers shown before the opening of Tropic Thunder - giving the audience an idea of who each character is and what films/movies they usually do.

This creates the entire tone of the film, knowing this film will be about making a film with involves each of these dysfunctional characters.

Booty Sweat, in the commercial advertisement above, is an Alpa Chino (Brandon T. Jackson) brand energy drink. Similar to rapper Nelly with his Pimp Juice energy drink, Alpa Chino, most likely a rapper turned actor, loves the female booty and moreso the booty sweat, even though in the end it’s reviled a different type of booty he likes. I’m sure Booty Sweat tastes like shit though.

Scorcher VI: Global Meltdown is a sequel on top of a sequel on top of a sequel. It’s for the franchise actors who need to pay big mortgages or trapped under contract. And our hero, Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), is that type of franchise actor like Bruce Willis or Will Smith. These films are fun because you know exactly what this film is about and you go for the action, not the story.

Fatties: Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black) plays various characters and farts alot. This film was build for people who smoke marijuana or raised in the Midwest. Eddie Murphy most likely died when he saw this trailer because this is his career. Fatties involves a family, all played by Portnoy, who are probably as dysfunctional as the characters in Tropic Thunder. It’s a comedy for all ages.

Saint Alley: Finally, the art house film we needed starring the great Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr.) and Mtv Best Kiss Winner Toby Maguire. This film will be apart of the Academy Awards that year and people in the Village, Los Feliz, and Evanston will rave about the acting, directing, and writing in this film. It’s dark - dealing with real, human themes - and involves two men who shouldn’t be together in a time when they shouldn’t be together. And que Joesph Gordon-Levitt or any other independent actor - though the trailer does look amazing.

All together, you know how Tropic Thunder will turn out and that’s why we go. I absolutely loved these trailers because it opens the world to these characters in their own movie world. Had Stiller simply introduced the characters, while making a this movie within a movie, it wouldn’t have the great impact than fake trailers about these actors.

But, one thing Stiller did do was stop going full-retard, which you never do.