End of April notes

1) What’s Cooking (2000 movie, directed by Gurindher Chadha): Rating a solid 8/10

Thanksgiving movies are a genre in themselves but this one manages to stand on its own. How many thanksgiving movies exist out there whose main characters are portrayed as Latin, Vietnamese, African-American and Jewish? Chadha excels in such movies (like Bhaji on the Beach). She knows how to portray the tiny family problems while not blowing things out of proportion like she did in Bride and Prejudice. The movie shows the four families as having their own share of problems while preparing their variation of a traditional Turkey dinner, with the problems being typical teenage parental conflicts, parents difficulty in accepting their lesbian daughter, a father’s clash with his son over their political differences, a husband wanting his wife back after he had cheated on her, etc. Initially, the four families seem separate but slowly we realize that they are more closely tied than we are led to think. Well worth watching.

2) Mean Girls: Rating 8/10

High school movies often fall in a clichéd category, so it was refreshing to see a different take on high school problems. In this case, the story involves Lindsay Lohan playing a girl who has never been to a public school before. Her parents lived in South Africa where she was home schooled. So when they move back to America, she has to attend the regular high school. High school can be daunting as it is but for a complete newcomer, it can be a completely eye opening experience. So Lohan’s character soon learns the ropes on how to survive in the high school jungle and she comes to realize, her high school is not that different from the animal kingdom. A funny and sensible movie.

3) In Praise of Love (Directed by Jean-Luc Godard):

Simple review: I didn’t get this movie nor did I care to. It is quite abstract and trying to evoke sentiments of 1960’s cinema verite but it just does not translate. Interesting to note that the indie movie, Nobody Needs to Know, really tried to copy this Godard movie but that movie was not slightly more watchable because it limited its scope to one city.

4) The Ugliest Woman in the World (1999 Spanish movie directed by Miguel Bardem):

This one is not a bad flick to watch. The story is set in a future Spain but nothing about the story needs to be in the future. Lola was born as the ugliest baby in the world and made fun of constantly while growing up. Thanks to some plastic surgery and a certain experiment, she is transformed into the most beautiful woman in Spain, but there were some complications with the surgery. Those complications lead to her retreating to her old ugly self. Lola sets about killing women in brutal ways to achieve her dream of becoming Miss Spain.

5) Soul Plane: No need to rate this one.

It is worth some funny laughs but as a movie, it just does not translate.

6) Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow: Rating 5/10 (even a 5 seems too high)

What is so great about this movie? I have no idea. Ok the idea is great – make a movie without ever leaving one’s apartment. Have all the actors act in front of a blue screen and add the rest later. And the fakeness of it all does show. Maybe that is the point, maybe we should really know that this is not all real. That being said, the movie has no life in the first hour or so. It is cold, soulless and just trudges along. The actors (Paltrow and Law) are both inept and can’t generate any interest in that first hour. All that changes when Angelina Jolie enter the movie. She sparks some life into the movie but her role is too limited to make the movie interesting.

There are shades of several movies in this one – The Rocketeer, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Spy Kids 2, Jurassic Park, etc. But the movie was just not interesting enough. Maybe it looks better in a theatre, but on DVD, it looks rather dull.