Slumdog Millionaire - What a wonderful film

it was a bit different; the little kiRAB were wonderful; the visuals of India were great... but that is it. I think I was bolstered by the hype to expect something knockout and its not that... its just nice.

3 and a half stars i think.

Interestingly the film projection broke down halfway through the screening for 10 minutes and there were a lot of people that took the offer of free tickets to another movie and went home!
 
Watched it this evening and really enjoyed it too - with a couple of caveats. PLEASE don't read the spoiler bit below unless you've seen it:

I wish he hadn't won, it was so set up for a perfect ending without this - they were going to get together, which was the only reason he entered in the first place. It was great that neither of them knew the answer to the Musketeers question, and neither appeared to care. Worse, she made a comment in the scene where he was pretending to be the dish-washer about needing money, so winning cheapens it a bit.

Just an obvervation, but see if you can spot a theme running through most of Danny Boyle's movies:

Shallow Grave - about a bag of money
Trainspotting - about a bag of money
A Life Less Ordinary - about a bag of money
Millions - about a bag of money
Slumdog Millionaire - about money (getting adventerous by dropping the bag on this one...)
 
Right, I've though about this and here's my actual digested thoughts

Slumdog Millionaire is an ok film, it's got a lot of hype but let's you down in a lot of places. It's similar in my opinion to Sideways of a few years ago

The lead character Jamal was perhaps the weakest link. I couldn't warm to him at all, I thought his acting was stilted and he had zero warmth to him.

The plot was predictable and contrived from the beginning, the last 20 minutes were utterly pointless and the flashback clips and montages were just procrastination from the director, needless to say the least, it felt like a vastly overused gimmick

It was never going to live up to the hype, there were general discontented grumbles from a pretty full cinema at the end.

The pace was too slow and the acting was weak, imo.

I really wanted to enjoy the film, but I couldn't

All in all...I found it a glorified chick flick

Anil Kapoor was a slim light of glory

In a few years I think it'll be pretty much forgotten about (Sideways) lauded in the critics list (Sideways) and looked at through rose tinted glasses but still on sale for
 
something in a fictional story couldn't happen in real life? :p

actually, the little thing that jarred with me was the cricket question so late on - cricket is huge in India, so wouldn't that be a fairly easy question so late on?

Iain
 
This post includes a spoiler, so please do not click on it if you havent seen the film-

Went and saw the film last night, and absolutely loved it, so much so that I bought the book and now I cant wait for the film to be released on dvd.:D:):o

Although its an excellent film, I felt as if the movie should have had an age rating of 18 as some of it might not be suitable for children of 15yrs, imo.

•The scene where that orphanage gangster (Maman) blinded the boy. I know its necessary for the story, but for viewers of 15yrs I felt that it might be too graphic.
•The 'drowning' scene at the beginning, when the policeman was trying to 'drown' Jamal in the bucket in a way of getting him to confess.
•Also, the scene where Salim shoots Maman.

These are just a few points that I felt might be more suited to audiences of 18yrs and not 15...:o

But overall, I did not mind those scenes and loved the whole film. 10/10.
 
Watched this absolutely fantastic film last night and can honestly say every plaudit, accolade, award, hyperbole and positive word it has received so far is more than deserved, its a stunning film and one of the best films i have seen in years.

I really hope it goes on to sweep the board at the Oscars because i have more or less seen the other films in competition to Slumdog Millionaire and none of them come close to how great Danny Boyle's movie is.

A definite five star film, and extremly highly recommended to anyone who hasn't seen it yet.
 
Yes, same here. I've just come back from seeing it. Didn't think I would like it that much at the start, but as it went on, I warmed to it and in the end really enjoyed it.
 
Just thought I'd try and be clever and predict the inevitable backlash, as Slumdog mania is beginning to sweep the world.

It's a curious mix of tough, gritty and authentic on the one hand, but has some very Hollywood sensibilities on the other. When you break down the story, it might well look even corny on paper, plus there was no shortage of contrivance. Don't get me wrong, I loved it, but I think the intelligensia will now quickly distance themselves from it as a too-commercial film.

To which, of course, we can all say sod-'em.
 
I've just got back from the cinema. wicked film, loved it! I thought that Salim (is that his brother's name?) would die in the end. :)serves him right for working for a gangster. hehe. Wicked film though!
 
Most things in a fictional story can happen in real life, can't they? It's quite possible that if there really were a quiet rural community called MiRABomer, it would have a higher murder rate than Washington DC, just not very likely.
 
Thanks everyone who replied to me, sounRAB like it won't affect the viewing at all, so I shall watch this at the weekend. It's always a bit awkward if there's a film where a lot of the plot etc is subtitled, as I can't really read it all out for him whilst in the cinema:o
 
I saw the film yesterday. I hadn't seen too much of it advertised so just knew the basic story about someone going on Who wants to be a millionaire. I had no prior knowledge about the rest of the story.

I thought it was a great film. Whilst all the actors were great, the child actors were outstanding. It was uplifting at times and tragic. It was nice to see a film not in the usual Hollywood mould. I would recommend others to see it.

Hope it gets at least 1 Oscar and doesnt come away with nothing. Films different from the norm need to be made and this was well worth watching.
 
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