“Slumdog Millionaire Sucks”
I knew I’d hate Slumdog Millionaire. Everyone I know ( … and I mean EVERYONE … ) who’d seen the movie told me: “You have to see it. You would love it.” I can be stubborn; so, I made up my mind: I was going to hate it. No film, no matter how great, can live up to such hype. Nevertheless, I went to see it “just in case” my friends were right. Plus, I hate it when I wait so long to see a movie that someone ruins the end for me, sing-songingly apologizing, “Soooory, I thought you saw it already.”
I go to the 7 pm showing at The Angelika Film Center — a cutesy little arthouse film center on Houston Street with a coffee shop as a lobby decorated with dainty cafe tables and wireframe chairs. The place is packed even though the film has been out for weeks. “Oh, now I know I’m going to hate this,” I figure. I don’t usually follow the pack on movies; I’ve vomitted over tons of flicks others thought were brilliant. (Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, Gangs of New York, Indochine and Monsoon Wedding come to mind.)
Unusual for me, I skip popcorn and pop to head straight to the theater. I get a good seat dead center. Lights go out. Film starts. For the first five minutes, I hate it. I mumble under my breath, “It is written … Slumdog Millionaire sucks!” But, seriously, by the sixth or seventh minute in … I fell in love. Shocking, right? Honestly, I surprised myself by liking this movie so much. Granted, I’m a Danny Boy fan. Trainspotting and 28 Days Later rock. Also, I love movies with cinematography that show lushly colored scenery (e.g. Baz Luhrman’s Paris in Moulin Rouge and Ang Lee’s American West in Brokeback Mountain). And, yeah, I like foreign film better than homegrown stuff. But, yeah, I still thought I wouldn’t like Slumdog. Yeah. Anyway. If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly reccommend it. I’m sure people walk away from it with different messages; for me, it was about how heartbreakingly painful and sad life can be — even when it’s progressing “exactly as it should.” Cue Max Ehrmann’s Desiderata.
Dev Patel is today’s Manly Monday pick. He’s the dude who plays the lead, Jamal Malik — doing it in a way that makes him seem honest and hopeful, yet not naive. Jaded and frustrated, but optimistic. Damn, I’d like to write more about him and the movie but I don’t want to ruin it if you haven’t seen it. If you’ve already bought and used a ticket to see it, I’d love to hear your impressions. Let’s chat about it in the comments section? By the way, thanks and big drippy kisses to Fox Searchlight Pictures for making the behind-the-scenes footage below available:
January 12th, 2009 at 11:13 am
soooo…. did you like the Golden Globes this weekend…..
lamesabassman…… next stop…. The Oscars……
January 12th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
I actually just saw the film too! And I also thought I was gonna hate the thing–mainly b/c of all the hype. But I actually loved it, and it really affected me on a ton of levels. Initially, Being second-gen Indian, I thought the film was just going to be India watered down for western audiences (much like most Bollywood films), but this was different: that was the real India folks–no filter,completely unedited. Second, this is probably the first time i’ve seen a movie with a Muslim-Indian protagonist,depicting some of the real discrimination and violence Muslims from India ( I happen to be one:-) face on a daily basis. But yeah, needless to say I was pleasantly surprised by a movie that actually lived up to all the hype…and won many Golden Globes, yay!
January 12th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
I don’t know about you, anyone who doesn’t like Monsoon Wedding, I have serious doubts about…
Just Kidding, but I did really enjoy Monsoon Wedding, I may be jaundiced because I am in the business and I am a film school grad. In fact, While I have seen movies I thought could be a lot better, I have never seen one I thought was without some kind of merit.
I’m sure you do the same when you read someone else’s writing, think how you could have / would have done it. That is what I do when I see a movie.
January 12th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
I want to go see it. I have a list of movies that I must see and havent yet.
When’s your B-Day Twanna?
January 12th, 2009 at 11:10 pm
there was not one movie nominated by the golden globes that i have seen…and i don’t really know how i managed that….
January 12th, 2009 at 11:18 pm
If you are a Dev fan watch the first two seasons on Skins. This is an awesome show and he has two really key episodes that feature him in the second season.
January 13th, 2009 at 1:18 am
wouldn’t it be cool if Hollywood took notice of the Golden Globes and really made
some thinking person’s movies like Slumdog….. something we could chew on around the water cooler and have it stay with you awhile…….
lamesabassman……. like the Dark Knight……
January 13th, 2009 at 11:26 pm
Nice Pick! I didn’t realize he was soooooooo adorable until I saw this post.
January 19th, 2009 at 7:04 pm
I really like what you wrote about this movie. But there is more to it. This movie devalues hindu culture. Please read my post http://www.fourthplane.com/2009/01/slumdog-millionare-sucks.html
on my blog. You will know how much this movie sucks.
Thanks.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
To be honest….Slumdog Millionaire Sucks…yep it sucks big time….only darker side of mumbai is shown and in fact muslim women and men get too much freedom in India that is even not possible in pakistan as well as middle-east countries. The undying and lively spirit of Mumbai should also been shown. And yes this is recorded:It is only city in the world that after going through series of blasts since 1991 (of course conducted by muslim terrorists) still has peaceful ambience (because Hindus & Christains of Mumbai never strongly reacted). This element of tolerance was absent in the movie which makes it void in loss of facts.
January 24th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
To be honest….Slumdog Millionaire Sucks…yep it sucks big time….only darker side of mumbai is shown and in fact muslim women and men get too much freedom in India that is even not possible in pakistan as well as middle-east countries. The undying and lively spirit of Mumbai should also been shown. And yes this is recorded:It is only city in the world that after going through series of blasts since 1991 (of course conducted by muslim terrorists) still has peaceful ambience (because Hindus & Christains of Mumbai never strongly reacted). This element of tolerance was absent in the movie which makes it void in loss of facts…………..
January 25th, 2009 at 2:47 pm
The depiction of slums is not the issue here and we Indians most humbly accept our shortcoming ,infact I enjoyed the movie as a form of creative art ,but the problem starts with the stereotyping of the class conflict …..see anil kapoor taunting jamal on his slum back ground and him being a chai wala and more over the audience guffawing in that ugly way in response….wait a minute ..,can you imagine amitabh bacchan letting go such a volley of abuses .Anil does it not in a typical direct way but in a way which says much more than it appears to naked eyes .I dont think that was in good taste ..that brings out the primitive western instincts ,as the saviors of moral uprightness .a colonial hangover that never lets go..and the stereotyping of indians and more so as the inhabitants of the subcontinent .We dont disagree with the fact that there is class conflict ,but it exists in every civilisation to a certain extent ,thankfully our constitution strictly prohibits such discrimination on a public medium like television.We own up to our poverty ,our poor health services ,our corruption ,our politics.. we are trying to improve things and are increasingly successfull.To sum it up I would quote the director of “Dharavi ” who talks about this BBC documentary being filmed during the course of of filming Dharavi .He was requested to help the BBC crew around dharavi .He says during a shot inside a hut one of the BBC crew comes screaming “stop…..theres a telivision set inside”….A telivision set is out of place in a slum ……..! Somebody said journalism? Infact journalism with a script…This hasnt stopped us getting this far…. we have a long way to go and we assure the west , we will be there ….where no BBC ,danny boyle script can think of ….in no time… !till than ride Tatas jaguar and Rovers ….our day will be when we see these in our countryside ..the common man being able to afford them.. Jai Hind.
January 26th, 2009 at 5:55 am
While it is nice to see a movie based in India that doesn’t make it a great film.
The film is just a lightly above mediocre Hollywood movie that has Indian actors instead of Americans.
The film is ultra predictable, cheesy, and they characters are shallow.
Why does he fall in love with her? There is no real chemistry between the characters. The audience is given no reason to believe there is any connection there. Why does he like her? She is hot? That is it.
The good looking people get together and get rich, the bad and not as pretty people lose, die, get shot, The End. How many films are like this? Like a million…
This is style (cute kids, great scenery in the movie) over substance.
January 27th, 2009 at 8:45 am
Slumdog Millionaire” has it all, and I am sorely tempted to give it a 10/10
February 5th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I just saw slumdog millionaire a while ago and i can’t believe how sickening this movie is. The music sucks bigtime ( i heard it won awards – there really is no accounting for good tastes nowadays with award giving bodies). The story sucks! Common – a story about a game show being watched by the entire indian population? Don’t they have anything further to do? The society as depicted in this movie is so sickening. I am not familiar with the indian culture but believe me – after watching this film – it give me a really bad impression about the country and the culture. The actors of the movie sucks bigtime – no one knows how to act!!! I really felt i was shortchanged by this movie – this is THE WORST movie i have ever seen lately….
Really sucks!!!!
February 5th, 2009 at 9:47 pm
and here I thought that it was just a movie….. Dang…. guess I’d better wait till
Transformers 2…. the lost cause….
lamesabassman….. was there any redeeming factor in this movie… other than
it might go home with a gold naked statue …….
February 10th, 2009 at 10:16 am
Slumdog Millionaire is a pile of crap.
February 10th, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Thought i was gonna like it but hated it so much.
Plot was stupid and relied on coincidence in order to progress
The climax was stupid and pointless
And all in all it was a boring waste of my time and money
Sorry but i hated it
N i have good taste in films
February 11th, 2009 at 2:36 am
but….. just what happens if and when this movie wins ” Picture of the Year”….
will the earth move…. will time stop…..
or will we all just go to the mall and shop and never go to a movie again….
no…. we will go to see the sequel…… yeah… there will be one… you do want to
see what happens when he runs out of money…. and his friends leave ….
and he had to get a job…. at Mickey D’s…… or worse .. write a book…. title:
Slumdog…. Nirvana on the rocks….
lamesabassman….. and Snoop Dogg does the soundtrack…..
February 13th, 2009 at 6:00 am
This movie is totally disgusting. The kind of picture that it gives about India is ridiculous. Half of the things that they show are incorrect. There is no strength in the script, story as well as the acting is mediocre. There have been much better movies than this in the past. The movie is over rated and over hyped.
February 16th, 2009 at 4:44 pm
This movie, made by a Brit, seems to degrade India, just as the Brits did when they were there. It’s a cheap shot at India, and although poverty does exist in India, it is not India. India has other social classes, that western movie directors, tend to overlook. They want to sigmatize India as a poverty struck nation. Say if, films made in the USA or Britain were only shot in the ghettos and slums of the USA or Britain, how would people’s image be of the west? That’s exactly what Indians accuse Evil Western Filmmakers of doing in India. Looking only at dirt, and ignoring India’s brilliance.
February 17th, 2009 at 2:13 am
yes, Joe….. it seems that you are so correct on that point….. one can only look
at the movies made in the 70’s and 80’s concerning Blacks in the ‘Hood…. one
could not simply own a boom box…… nope, it was called a ghetto blaster….
and the one most statement that the Brits always loved to say was that..” The Sun
never set on the English Empire…”
guess times now have changed…… or have they…..
lamesabassman…… betcha the movie sweeps the Oscars, that would be a statement…..
February 19th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
Slumdog is a cinematographic and editing wonder but the message sucks and there is no spine whatsoever to the movie.
Its clearly a cheapt attempt to present a twisted and single dimensionally malicuous version of India which is an exact 180 degrees from the truth. Sadly western audiences adore such hogwash and they go “We knew that is the reality and see its all revealed now”.
About the second generation muslim’s comments — India is a secular country unlike any Islamic country in the world (except Turkey) and has a history of tolerating Muslims inspite of the horrible holocausts inflicted upon the Hindus by Muslim invaders. Even recent violence was always incited by Islamic aggression rather than Hindu discrimination. Inspite of that Muslims live and thrive (better than Hindus) in all parts of India and walks of life.
Script lacks any coherence and holds it own sheerly thanks to povety porn and perverted human minds that secretly like it.
February 23rd, 2009 at 10:23 am
er…… ahem…… somebody went home with 8 naked gold statues for a film that
raised a lot of comments about life and death in G and A : Hindu style…
now…… did it ring true….. or did it miss the boat…..
be that as it may…. it reached somebody ….. somewhere…. and somehow it struck a nerve ( no pun intended FBC )…. but for any and all reasons,at times,
Life and Art do meet at the crossroads and at those times ….. stuff happens….
lamesabassman….. ahem, did I not say it so… if it did and … it did…
February 23rd, 2009 at 6:14 pm
u ppl are stupid this movie sucked!!!!!!!!! dont u know anything about movies….i dont think so………..cause this was the worst film of the year……..just as bad as disaster movie……..i would find hearing donkey give birth more entertaining than this shit it got 8 oscars tHAT were meant for the dark knight this movie is a disgrace so screw u oscars!!!!!!!! dark knight was a masterpeice and it leaves with like only 2 oscars shame on u……..
March 11th, 2009 at 4:19 am
hands down the film sucks more han a vaccum cleaner but i wud jst like 2 get across my opinion 2 ANNE ZINTA,ur comment tht it was obviously muslims behind the blasts since 1991 is beyond childish nd urfurther remark tht hindus nd christians never strongly reacted,displays ur lack of knowledge nd a 2 digit iq.ur pathetic religion based remarks wer uncalled for u shudve stuck 2 givin opinion jst bout the movie.it was a movie bout INDIANS period! i hope u will sumday evolve frm being a pigeonhead 2 a thinking human
March 11th, 2009 at 10:45 am
Art … at times…. isn’t for everyone….. we are talking about a slice of life in a place where … at times…. there is no life….. and since this movie as all movies
has a bit of fantasy mixed in with fact….. it may hit 2 close to home for some
out there but ….. these are the breaks….. gee whiz…. life here in America’s
ghetto are no crystal stairs, but a lot of people have rose to greatest from there…
and ,yeah, some rather dumb movies have been made about those ghettos and
people irked….. we must put away the fears that keep us in the shadows of regret
and try to focus on raising the bar of life for those less fortunate…..
lamesabassman…… ’tis only folly to do less….. are we not all human… still.
April 3rd, 2009 at 10:30 pm
Slumdog was ok, nothing particularly special. What is predictable is the extremist Hindus who are trying to turn this into a communal issue. These are the same Hindus who kill, murder and rape Muslims, Christians and other minority groups in India. Google Orissa, and see what they did to Christians, raped nuns and even murdered Hindus who tried to protect them.
That Slumdog even showed a bit of that reality is acceptable by the lunatics.
May 13th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I hate it.
Slumdog Millionaire sucks, plain and simple.
There’s just no point, the plot is uninspired and, albeit unpredictable, it’s uninteresting and mindnumbing. Maybe it’s my cynicism doing its sharms, but it’s just so uninteresting. What’s there to learn with this movie?
May 31st, 2009 at 6:26 pm
January 26th, 2009 at 5:55 am
G stated THIS RIGHT
‘Why does he fall in love with her? There is no real chemistry between the characters. The audience is given no reason to believe there is any connection there. Why does he like her? She is hot? That is it.’
<<<this thought stayed in my mind the entire time, boy tracked down/saved girl from life as a whore and then left him for his brother, then tells him to leave when he finally tracks her down later because she’s too busy making really bad sandwiches for some obviously chauvinist pig who likes soccer, and THEN after she FINALLY sees him about win a crap load of cash all she has to offer him is “I don’t know” from a call to his BROTHERS cell phone and then goes running to him as if she had been tortured all her life by not being with him after he goes through all that pain to become rich… what a load of bullshit….
2/10 -ONLY for the soundtrack not this craptastic movie/goldigging Indian bimbo WHORES…
also ditto too all else below, thx for setting things straight “G”
“While it is nice to see a movie based in India that doesn’t make it a great film.
The film is just a lightly above mediocre Hollywood movie that has Indian actors instead of Americans.
The film is ultra predictable, cheesy, and they characters are shallow.
Why does he fall in love with her? There is no real chemistry between the characters. The audience is given no reason to believe there is any connection there. Why does he like her? She is hot? That is it.
The good looking people get together and get rich, the bad and not as pretty people lose, die, get shot, The End. How many films are like this? Like a million…
This is style (cute kids, great scenery in the movie) over substance. “