Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Slumdog Millionaire Is The Best Movie I've Seen This Century

I do not only watch network and cable TV shows on the Durango TV. I also watch movies.

A couple days ago I watched a movie that I enjoyed watching more than any movie I've watched in years.

Slumdog Millionaire.

I aborted my first attempt to watch Slumdog Millionaire due to having trouble understanding the Indian English. I came to a scene where the young version of the movie's hero, Jamal Malik, escaped an outhouse in his Mumbai slum by, well, jumping into the excrement, with a splash, then popping up out of the excrement, covered with it.

I turned off my TV.

Then a couple days after that I learned the my DVR has a closed caption option. I turned that on and started watching Slumdog Millionaire over again, this time being able to read the dialogue I previously could not understand. I really did not like the closed captions telling me things like "door slammed", "horns honking", "sound of applause" because I could clearly hear those sounds. I could not find a closed caption option that simply showed the dialogue.

Slumdog Millionaire became a sleeper hit when it hit movie screens in 2008. It is a British movie, directed by Danny Boyle. Danny Boyle is the same guy who produced the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony which was widely praised, but botched and butchered for the American viewers by the inept network known as NBC.

Slumdog Millionaire was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009, winning eight, including Best Picture.

I think Best Actor should have gone to Dev Patel for playing the title role. He was not even nominated. Dev Patel did win a lot of awards from other awards shows.

Reading about Slumdog Millionaire I have seen it called a drama. And a comedy drama. I would call it a drama with some amusing moments.

Slumdog Millionaire's closing credits was an amusing surprise, turning into a humongous colorful musical dance routine.

No comments: