Kundun: If, like me, you can never get enough of Tibet and the Dalai Lama, then you should add this little-known but beautiful Scorsese movie to your Netflix queue. It's quite painful to learn the truth of what China has done to Tibet, and it's all the more devastating when seen in juxtaposition to the gorgeous, simple, spiritual, balanced, peaceful lives the Tibetan Buddhists enjoyed. I like to think that there is still hope for Tibet.
Bride and Prejudice: If you're expecting a brilliant new take on Jane Austen, you might want to skip this, but for a just-plain-fun goofy Bollywood musical, you can't do much better. Silly and colorful and nothing that will stick in your brain for even one moment after it's over.
Million Dollar Baby: (Would it have killed them to hyphenate Million-Dollar?! After all, it is a compound adjective before the noun it's modifying. Sheesh.) Since we rarely see movies when they're first released anymore, we are often in the position of waiting ages to rent a movie that seemingly everyone already saw and can't stop talking about. So, here's where I stand on this one: I liked this movie a lot, but it was not the be-all and end-all that it was made out to be. The characters and plotlines were as cliche as they get: the grizzled old trainer who needs a winner (Burgess Meredith, anyone?), the man seeking his lost daughter, the girl seeking her lost father, the athlete who comes from nothing and succeeds because of a combination of talent, hard work, and heart, etc. I thought the acting was terrific all around, although I'm getting tired of Morgan Freeman playing different versions of the same role over and over, and I found his voice-over narrations heavy-handed. Nothing happened in this movie that we haven't seen a million times over—no, not even the ending (which I won't give away here in case there's someone left on the planet who hasn't seen it yet). A really good flick? Yes. Best picture of the year? Not so much.
I agree about Kundun. I saw it a long time ago since I, too, can never get enough of all things Tibetan and Dalai Lama-related. Have you ever seen The Cup? It was made in Bhutan in a real Tibetan monastery-in-exile. It's lighthearted and very enjoyable.
Posted by: Erin | July 28, 2005 at 08:13 AM
Maybe some of the elements of "Million-Dollar Baby" weren't as original as you might have liked, but I think the way Clint Eastwood directed it was very Oscar-worthy! Compared to the hype and the cast of thousands of a movie like "The Aviator", this movie relied basically on the relationship among 3 characters and was so incredibly powerful.
Posted by: Elena | July 28, 2005 at 08:24 AM
Phooey, I can't find The Cup at Netflix -- I will have to look for it at the dreaded Blockbuster! Sounds very nice (I read about it at imdb).
Posted by: Karen | July 28, 2005 at 10:05 AM
I agree that everything about M-DB was well done, but I just thought it was somehow going to be "life-changing" after all the raves it got.
Posted by: Karen | July 28, 2005 at 10:06 AM