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Visitors Review

dosdanmalo 2012-05-20 19:15:44

Didn't quite fulfill its potential, IMHO

I feel that this is a worthwhile film that has some beautiful moments,especially in the first half hour or so. That said, while it seemed atfirst that Slumdog might actually live up to the enormous hype, thingsstarted getting a bit silly when the boys reached Agra. Having spentseveral months in India over the course of two trips, the Taj sceneswere far-fetched at best and I was never really hypnotized by the filmagain after that. Security is very tight at the Taj and street urchinsoperating a stolen shoe ring simply wouldn't happen as you don't takeyour shoes off until you're well past the military style checkpointthat "slumdogs" would never be able to pass. This in itself didn't ruinthe film or anything, but starting with those scenes my suspension ofdisbelief generally faltered and the whole thing began to feel somewhatcontrived. I suppose the writer's desire to plug in the trusty old"rags to riches" story was probably the main reason for this as VERYFEW Indian street kids ever climb the social ladder. I feel that Jamallosing out on the money but finally rescuing the girl would have madefor a more realistic (and artistically apropos) ending. ConcerningJamal, I also failed to see any physical resemblance between the adultversion and the two younger ones. Actually, Dev Patel has asignificantly lighter complexion than any of the actors who playedSalim, Latika, or the younger Jamal.Ultimately, it seems to me that the gaggle of Oscars might actuallydamage Slumdog's reception somewhat as they inevitably lead one tobelieve that this is a once in a generation type of film. Simply put,it's not. For my money, City of God was a better executed film aboutstreet kids and Born into Brothels (while a documentary) was a superiorchronicle of the Indian variety. Oh well. Slumdog is still worthseeing, it's just not quite worthy of the hype. 7/10

Alaa Habib 2012-05-19 22:53:20

I have to disagree.

I'm sorry but i have been studying film since i was 7 years old. And ipersonally believe that this film was BS. It was a tooty fruity humanrights film and i am absolutely appalled by the fact that it has gottenthis much attention. Yes i get it India has problems but so what!i believe a film not a movie but a FILM appeals to people becausebeyond the desire to be entertained we want to be able to connect. Inorder for this to be achieved the primary motivator of the story has tobe the characters personal struggle. If not- and it's the plot workingas the primary motivator than it is in fact a blockbuster- Jaws, StarWars, Legally Blonde etc. don't get me wrong i love a healthy dose ofblockbusters but I'm aware of the difference and trust me there IS one.But films - Schindlers list, Fight Club, Gladiator, Terms ofEndearment, The Duchess, Breakfast at Tiffanies, Lost in Translation,the Squid and the Whale- these are all films that allow you to connectwith someone- films that offer depth, and analysis of the humancondition. And i do not believe that Slumdog Millionaire does this ATALL. so if it wins best picture in the Academy Awards i will have lost faithin peoples ability to tell the difference.

mcdude-1 2012-05-10 15:16:10

Slum Dog

Very good, well done movie. Not sure what I was expecting. I don'tthink it was exactly deserving of best picture. I thought The Wrestlerwas better. A little too many clichés in this movie. No real surprises.Not a movie that makes you think much. I do like how the movie showedthe slums of India. I guess I don't have much to say about this movie because IMDb.comkeeps making me add more lines. I suppose if that is the case the moviemight not be as good as I think? I was entertained throughout the moviethough, it kept my interest. Maybe it just wasn't that memorable? Irecommend seeing it.

planktonrules 2012-05-10 05:02:53

Not quite up to all the hype and perhaps not for everyone...

With eight Oscar wins (including one for Best Picture), you can't helpbut assume this will be one of the best films ever made. Well, althoughit is very good, it's hard for ANY film to live up to this much hype Iwas a bit disappointed as a result.I began watching the film with my wife and oldest daughter, a short wayinto the film my wife left--saying the film was just too violent anddepressing. Well, it IS both of these things and shows in awful detailwhat life can be like for the poor orphans of Mumbai. Vomiting, a kidjumping into a pool of excrement and evil thugs deliberately blindingkids--this movie WILL make you flinch and comes by the R-ratinghonestly. Now I am NOT suggesting they should have completely cleanedit all up--after all, this is a terrible sort of life and showing itany other way would be wrong. But, be forewarned--this is a very toughfilm to watch--especially in the first half hour.I would talk more about the film except it has already been reviewed10000000000 times--and adding my two-cents worth isn't going to addmuch that hasn't already been written. Extremely well acted andconstructed--this is a fine film.Perhaps the Oscar nominees that year were really bad. I dunno. All I doknow is that this film probably has killed the Indian travelindustry!!!

Mohammad A.Tarik 2012-05-06 17:56:00

slumdog millionaire

The story of Jamal Malik, an 18 year-old orphan from the slums ofMumbai, who is about to experience the biggest day of his life.Itdescribes the destiny of young Indian boy who grew up in Mumbai. He isa contestant on the Indian version of "who wants to be amillionaire".However he is a self confessed non-genius.Each chapter ofhis story reveals the key to the answer to one of the competitionsquestions.He finds the answers of the questions by chance,because ofthings that happened in his life such as the scenes of him obtainingBachchan's photograph,the death of his mother,he and his brothersbefriending Latika,his being around Tajmahal with his brother Salim, soJamal Malik is tortured by the policemen in a precinct accused ofcheating a game show because according to them it's impossible that anon-educated man who Works as serving tea(chai-wallah)in a call centeris close to winning twenty million rupees in the show. The policeinspector shows the videotape and after each question, , he begins toexplain to the police how he knew each of the answers to avoid furthertorture. Jamal tells parts of his childhood with his brother Salim, hiscrush for Latika and their fight to survive on the streets to justifyeach correct answer, guided by his common sense and past experience,and prove his innocence. At the end of this film his brother Salimgives Latika his phone and the keys to his car and urges her to runaway ,when Jamal answers the last question .Thanks to Salim ,Latika andJamal meet.Besides, he wins the grand prize.It is then revealed thatthe correct answer to the opening question is : D)it is written.In this film revealing look into the Mumbai slum is just one of thebeautiful and terrifying story lines.The very realistic and brutallytrue-to-life scenes involving the raids of Muslim sections of the slumsby Hindus, and the luring of children to a life of begging on thestreets (for gangsters and criminals) in exchange for accommodation andfood are done in a manner that is both tastefully evocative of realitywhile fitting in tone with much of the rest of the film, which has amore hopeful tone.This film takes us on a journey to the height anddepths of our souls.From the height of romantic altruism andunfathomable financial reward, to the depths of torture, murder rape,and extreme child abuse.Besides that love and destiny are the weaponsto control the pace and the direction of the film.Besides,The romancescenes are either beautifully understated (most of the scenes with themas children/young teenagers, and a couple after that) or fantasymelodrama like much of the stuff near the end of the film.I personally think that it is very good.It is refreshing and engaging.This well-acted and well-directed film is the heart wrenching tale of aperson who has everything ever loved taken away from him, only to trywith everything that he has to regain his true love and gain more thanhe could ever hope.So ,It is realistic one which can easily effect ourfeelings or thoughts."Slumdog Millionaire" is, I suppose, a dramatic comedy at heart. But itis also much more. It is a film about friendship, gratitude, love,betrayal, poverty and hope. It makes you laugh, weep and cheer as youcan't help but marvel at Boyle's sheer genius. This film has made megrateful to be alive.I think it should be seen because it is anexcellent film with an excellent soundtrack which is one of the best ofthe year.It's funny, sad, thrilling, basically a very enjoyable filmthat deserves numerous Oscar nominations.

bhatian 2012-05-06 02:21:02

Seriously; This film is no crap!

The film teaches us all a lesson on 'how taking people's crap can leadus to success'. It is not asking us to be an 'ass-licker' but insteadmaking us stronger by showing us the difficult sides of life.Here we have the character Jamal who is innocent, simple, happy, andtakes life as it comes. Jamal's simplicity leads him to path which weall think is only possible by being a crook, street-smart, firm,confident or positive. Whereas in this film, Jamal achieves his destinyby just moving on with his life and taking every new day as a 'brandnew day'.I think we all have a lot to learn from Jamal, and it's not easy for usto follow in a short span of time. Hence i urge everyone to view thisfilm few times to let the story sink into our brains and hearts.Remember: "There is no use fighting with crap.....because it is crap"N. Bhatia

2012-05-02 04:28:08

one of the best Oscar winner since 2006

amazing movie with a new spirit than the ordinary Hollywood movies .. it's worth the blu-ray for sure .. you will not be disappointed with all the beautifulness in each angle that Danny made Must Buy

tuingol 2012-05-01 11:50:12

Complete exploit

I watched this even before Oscars. Well, I liked it but it was trulypainful to watch those kids, although I knew it was a motion picture.In fact, it is a painful movie to watch and painful story to listenafter the release about kids involved in it. It's complete exploitationof those small kids and Directors even refuse to pay for a penny fortheir parents? After all, with worldwide gross over $360 million andwith a budget of about $15 million, why the hell Danny Boyle "trusts"few thousand pounds to their funds and why those kids live in "freehousing", "non profit schooling"? The pain you watch in the movie isactually their everyday pain in real life, so Indian lawyers should sueDany Boyle and his company. Finally, I felt disgusting after seeing itand I don't want to visit India at all.

2012-04-29 22:44:53

Great movie

This review is from: Slumdog Millionaire (DVD) We thought this movie would be too violent at the beginning - but it is reasonably subtle and tastefully done. It's disturbing that such things can happen to people, but I'd say nothing is overplayed or gratuitously exagerated.Overall, we enjoyed this movie.

rkd5023 2012-04-29 09:56:12

Over-rated! Slum Dog should not win the Best Picture

Good movie, but Christ, it is over rated. It shouldn't get bestpicture, it really was not that entirely original or innovative. I amjust so upset because it was good, maybe even great, but it was notanything that should win best picture or be in the top 30 movies of alltime...I mean, seriously, the top 30? Wow, there are so many betterfilms than this. There was not any part in it where I stopped and waslike, "That's great, never been done before or at least has never beendone that well." I don't know, even the ending was like, what the hell?I guess you could call it fairy-tale, because it definitely was notrealistic...it didn't even really follow the themes of the movie, thatgreed and money is not what's important. He should have lost and feltcontent anyway because he got his love, it would have better made thepoint I suppose.

axismladen 2012-04-26 15:43:53

Good movie but is it overrated!?!?

Slumdog millionaire surprised me in every aspect.It's a really goodmovie.Very enjoyable and interesting!The crew is good,the directing isgreat,music is great,the screenplay is great and the story isoriginal.There is one more thing i was very surprised by in this moviean that's cinematography.There are only few flaw's in this film butthey are not relevant so i'm just gonna say one that is.That flaw isthat the movie is forgettable.Even though it won eight Oscar's i don'tthink it will be remembered in fifteen year's from now.It's personalityis just not as strong as it's technical aspect's and the movie itself.I don't know,maybe i'm wrong but i just don't think that it willbe remembered and called a classic one day.For example when someonemention's Gone with the wind or Dances with wolves or Braveheart orGladiator or Forrest Gump or Clockwork Orange,i instantly rememberevery part of them and i remember those strong scenes and dialog's thaton some way marked the history of film industry.And that's somethingthat i don't see in this one.When someone says to me that some movie doesn't deserves the Oscar's itgot i always say to that person that you have to look at itcompetition.If the competition wasn't very good then he deservedthem.That's why i think that this movie deserved the Oscar's it gotbecause it's competition wasn't that hard.Well,actually on the secondthought i think that there are two movies better then this one thisyear an those are The Wrestler and The Dark Knight.So i think that itdidn't deserve the Best Picture Oscar.But when i think again those twomovies weren't nominated for Best Picture so it did after all.Just one more thing i have to say an that's not about this movie.It'sabout the Wrestler on which i already wrote a comment an i don't wantto change it so i'm just gonna write it here.I think that it's shamefulthat Mickey Rourke didn't get the Best Actor in a Leading RoleOscar.Don't get me wrong Sean Penn was great in Milk but he wasn't evenclose to Mickey.He gave one of the best performances ever in theWrestler and i think that 'Academy' should be ashamed of it self.Anyway,to come back to Slumdog Millionaire,it's a great movie that'sdefinitely worth seeing but it's also a movie that definitely doesn'tdeserves a 38'th place on IMDb's 250 list.

mmahadevan 2012-04-26 08:10:43

Boyle showed what the liberal left of India have done to their country

The movie starts off very well, MIA/AV Rahman's O'Saya (MIA was robbedof an Oscar for this) kick starts the movie with the kids ....youngJamal in particular and the ride starts....Its an amazing beginning forthis ride....Like a 747 taking off that requires maximum thrust at takeoff, the song "O'Saya" and its intensity was what gave the liftingthrust along with the cute kids running with equal intensity . I havenever seen a movie that started with such a bang. However, it petersout soon and by the time the adult Jamal's is in the story, it becomesa cheesy film to tie the lose ends.The good thing I liked about this was the showcasing of the slums as itis for real. The slums and the extreme poverty in India is the work ofthe congress party (The liberal left). they have ruled India almost 85%of the time since independence and this is what they have to show forit. China seems to have done so much better. India's liberal leftieshave failed India miserably. It's time to stop India's anarchy(disguised as liberty) and get a China like government in place toclean up the mess.Recently New Delhi Municipal did not allow new slums to be built in thecity...and the left was out in full force demanding the right of poormigrants from rural areas to live wherever they want. India's left helpbuild these slums. and then they have the audacity to point it out andtell the world..."hey look... these poor people are living in slums"while they have controlled India for the most part(government).so at least we got to see that.There is also this interesting thread in this story. The relationshipbetween Jamal and his "evil" brother Salim. This was fascinating. Salimwas not an one dimensional character. Salim has let down his youngerbrother a few times...but where it mattered, Salim came through for hisbrother. Jamal knew it when he tried to explain to Latika that hisbrother would help them. He knew his brother.One more thing I did not care for, was the originally story (Q&A) had apedophile Christian priest exploiting the kids. This was convenientlyleft out of the story and the "Hindus" killing the Muslims wasintroduced that was not in the original story. India is a country whereyou hear Islamic terrorism almost every month. This was PC at itsworst.So all in all there were some very nice parts...particularly the kids.They were amazing. I guess, its worth at least one watch for the kidsperformance.There are couple of songs that you may want to download for your ipods.1. O'Saya (MIA and A V Rahman) 2. Paper Planes (MIA)

2012-04-26 16:44:21

Triumph of the Human Spirit

This review is from: Slumdog Millionaire (DVD) This film won several Oscars and deserved them all. It is a unique masterpiece that grabs the viewer on several levels: the story, the setting, the acting and the cinematography. SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is the story of how Jamal, a young, uneducated man, from India's lowliest slums, working in the most menial of jobs, achieves unprecedented success as a contestant on "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" It seems impossible to believe that he would have the kind of knowledge to answer a wide assortment of questions that clearly would appear to be outside his scope of experience. But therein lies the brilliance of the film: how he knows the answers to each question is woven into the fabric of his life's experiences and told in flashback.Orphaned at a very young age when their mother is brutally murdered, Jamal and his older brother Salim, survive amidst trash dumps. Their lives are brutally harsh and made more so when they become ensnared by a professional gang of beggars, and later when they do what they must to eke out a living. Yet in each vignette of their lives something occurs that provides Jamal with the critical knowledge he uses later on the TV program. Threaded throughout his story is his undying passion for a little orphan girl, Latika, who he repeatedly loses and then finds only to lose her again.This is a story of the triumph of the human spirit. No matter how battered down and hopeless life appears, Jamal never gives up. An unforgettable movie that has already become an "essential".

rfreddy 2012-04-26 00:52:29

good "bollywood" movie

May be its the immense hype given by the Indian media and the goldenglobes it won, I guess I was expecting too much from this one. But itcame out as a fairly good work, though reminding a bollywood movie mostof the time, except the childhood of the protagonist. Of course itportrays India in a very bad light. But then, its a story about theslums and we have a lot of them. I will not say that these kind ofthings never happens in India. It do happen. There are murders,prostitution, begging, and money involved in all these, but still wehave a civilized section too. People who watch Slumdog Millionaire haveto keep one thing in mind that... This is India, but India is not justthis.And about the music... If any foreigner thinks the music in SlumdogMillionaire is great, then I feel sad for them, coz they missed allthose beauty of A.R. Rahman's earlier works. Trust me, this is just anaverage work according to his standards. He's the mozart of madras. Imean, how can anyone churn out hits after hits like this. Twocharacters I love about his music are... 1. Its timelessness. You willlove it 10 years after now as you love it today. 2. You hear it firsttime.. you'd think... wow! second time... woww! third time... wowwww!and it goes on like that.

MrWar 2012-04-24 02:46:26

Extremely overrated, merely OK...

This is a good movie. That's it. It is not a masterpiece and itdefinitely did not deserve the Oscar. I really cannot understand whatis happening with the Academy to award this "only OK" movie with somany Oscars. Also, the end credits are so cheesy that I could notbelieve it... It seems people really like giving awards to movies thatshow extreme poverty these days as this is the most strikingcharacteristic of this movie. I have never been to India but I don'tsuppose that India is ONLY poverty and violence as it is shown. Andonce again, the end credits were the worst part of the movie, I amstill shocked that an Oscar winning movie could have such endcredits...

2012-04-23 15:18:47

Not The Greatest

I was really suprised that this movie won the Academy Award for best picture..After watching Slumdog just recently & comparing it to the other nominated movies this year that i did see like The Reader & Milk,Slumdog was extremely overated.I believe that the Academy got it wrong this time,they gave in to all the hype.To me the story of slumdog is a good story about the human condition in India but falls short of a classic movie that i would want to see again.

2012-04-20 02:54:03

Awesome

This review is from: Slumdog Millionaire (DVD) A five-star movie, that's all. What else can be said. I didnt know the whole story when i saw it, and i was glad. I loved it... the music, the way it was made... it's a "story," not all movies are meant to be true-to-life... HELLO people??! It's fantastic... end of story!

prudhocj 2012-04-19 11:44:20

Talk about a narrow focus in criticism!

"Lacking in Nativity!!!, 6 January 2009 - 1/10 stars - Author:thirumurugan-k from United States - The language in which thecharacters speak is the soul of a movie. Cidade de Deus, Shichinin nosamurai, Ladri di biciclette were made in native language and so theoriginality of the movie was intact even though I watched those movieswith English subtitles. Slumdog millionaire is totally lacking on thisaspect and it is definitely not a film to be rated in the top 250.I understand that the movie is made for western audience. But, It wouldhave been better if the movie was made in Hindi and was released withsubtitles to the western audience (similar to Lagaan)."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Movies should be criticized as a whole - picking out one thing tocriticize is just too shallow to be helpful! It's like criticizing thecolor of someone's clothes in a movie. You have to let the creators anddirector have some leeway in how they present the movie and whataudience they are trying to reach. And such a criticism doesn't tell usmuch about why the reviewer thinks the movie should be poorly rated, itonly tells us about his bias about one aspect of the film. If areviewer can't approach a movie as a whole then what have theyaccomplished in their review? Only that they are reviewing a bias thattheir ego can't cope with. Give us a valid review or move on! Let'sface it - it is pretty ridiculous (and superficial) to give a movie 1star out of 10 based on how the soundtrack was presented language-wise.

Dylan Wilbur 2012-04-17 15:25:34

Terrible, Don't see this film, you have better things to do with your time.

A film about a young boy in India who implausibly makes it all the wayto the final round of India's version of "Who Wants to Be aMillionaire". It's not that he is a genius, it just so happens that the20 questions they ask him coincide with the 20 most important instancesof his young life! The answers are so ingrained in him, that they are apart of his very being! From the religion that caused his mothers deathto the song that almost made him blind, every question is a chance forus to revisit his life story and reveal the "heart wrenching" past thatmade this boy who he is. Oh, and did I mention that the questions alsojust happen to be in chronological order, so that we get his life storyall neatly packed up in a coherent time line that builds to the end ofthe film? What genius writing this is...Don't ever see this movie, ever. Its not worth your time, not even forthe ridiculously out of place dance sequence at the end of the film.The whole thing stinks of sub par writing and less than originalfilm-making. The one semi-clever moment was the transition betweenyoung and older actors (which occurred when they fell off a train andwere rolling in the dirt, with the camera rolling with them (Straighton close up, ala Requiem for a Dream (The bridge from summer to fall)or the old MTV show "Fear") they then emerge from the dust as theirolder selves. Clever. Sorta. At least I thought they handled it well.But the whole film is really a series of poorly connected events thatare meant to give rise to this epic love story, which is highlyimplausible due to the fact that the boy and girl involved were around7 years old when they first met, but I guess it could happen. Reallythough, and this maybe due to the venue that I saw the film in, and thefact that I've been reading the "Stuff White People Like" by the guy at"http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/" (good stuff), the whole film feelslike a chance for American and White audiences to feel cultured andunderstanding of those living in developing countries. Just look at themise-en-scène of this boys past, which is filled with so much filth,dirt, and debris (at one point he even jumps into a vat of human fecesso he can get an autograph of his favorite actor), that one couldn'thelp but root for him to succeed and conquer his troubled past, get themoney, get the girl, and dance at the train station. The film is filled with hip and edgy montages (including a sequence setto that damned MIA song, you know the one, with the sound effects andstuff) that somehow allow the protagonists to get by with theirmiserable settings. In fact, these sequences are so bouncy and happythat they almost manage to portray their settings in a positive light.I suppose that its good to look for the positive, but how about a bitof realism for a change, a bit of truth of the cinema that shows thegood and the bad. Because no matter how cool the music makes it look,fighting everyday for food and having to steal, and fight, and kill foryour meals is not an existence to be envied. Did I mention that eachsetting that they exist in has a convenient mob of kids that arewilling to make friends and strike a living together? It's just asgreat as Peter Pan and the lost Boy's out there! Who wouldn't want tojoin in on the fun? The energy of the film is terribly unbalanced, andI wonder if the book that it is based on "Q&A" is so one-sided inportraying the hardships of these kids. The worst part, if there even is one moment that warrants being put ontop, was the fact that the films final climactic tension, the last bitof drama before we are released to the happy ending, was nothing morethan the same tension one finds on an episode of "Who Wants To Be aMillionaire": Will he answer the question correctly? DOES HE KNOW THEANSWER? OH MY GOD! I had almost hoped that the film would redeem itsself with some crazy twist that requires the audience to revisit everysequence in the film to look for the hidden truth (there were someinterrogation scenes that strongly reminded me of those from the "TheUsual Suspects"), but no. Instead, our final moments of the film are tobe left up to the same devices as a TV game show. Pathetic. JustPathetic. Top it off with one terribly, terribly, corny (and cliché) final scenewhere the protagonist and the girl are reunited (He says: "It wasdestiny" She says: "Kiss Me") and you have your self the stuff to makesoccer moms and teenage girls swoon. And this is supposed to beindependent cinema? Looks and smells like Hollywood to me... Bottom line: 2/10 Don't see it, don't rent it, don't even watch it onTV. Unless you liked Twilight, then maybe you might find this filmenjoyable. Otherwise, beware.

intelearts 2012-04-17 08:15:29

Gotta love Danny Boyle, Gotta love Mumbai!

My first ever review on IMDb was a little known film from 2003,directed by Danny Boyle. Now some 230 reviews later I am back to whereI started with Danny Boyle again...That film was Millions about a boy in Scotland I thought it wasbrilliant: an honest, moving, fantasy, all centered on hope indesperate situations.And that pretty much is Slumdog Millionaire: a film about hope and afilm about romance, eternal love, with a neat plot device of usingCelador's Who Wants To Be A Millionaire to frame each extraordinarychapter. Borrowing from sources as wide apart as 30s Westerns and theclassical Arabic tales, as well as the questions themselves this opensup a vista of wonderful possibilities.The other star of Slumdog is Mumbai - and this is the breakout film forIndia - unlike Gandhi which was very Attenborough - this really lookslike an Indian production team has worked at this - amazing colours,sounds, and settings - just a shame smellovision isn't ready yet! It isa tale of pessimism and optimism, it is fun, intriguing, and charming -and if course, exciting.It is deeply romantic, but as with all of Danny Boyle's films, it isnot cloying or sentimental: honesty in film is the keystone here.It's above all entertainment, and entertainment with a conscience.A clear winner for the Awards and all we can say is please Mr Boyle canwe have some more?