Destination is a state of mind

Movie review: Sunset Boulevard

2010-04-13T23:42:00.001+05:30

Prologue: It all started with the song, Sunset Boulevard, which the girlfriend heard, which in turn prompted me to locate it on youtube. This was the version I found and subsequently became a fan of.

Cut to present: While at a movie rental place, imagine my surprise when I find a movie with the name. To start off, its a black and white movie and not a musical. Apparently the musical came long after the movie and it seems that the movie was quite a controversial movie at the time.

It starts off with the press and the cops rushing to the crime scene where a haul a dead body of of the pool, and that's where the memorable dialogues of the movie begin. "Well, this is where you came in, back at that pool again, the one I always wanted. It's dawn now and they must have photographed me a thousand times. Then they got a couple of pruning hooks from the garden and fished me out... ever so gently. Funny, how gentle people get with you once you're dead." The movie is narrated by the dead guy, Joe Gillis. Turns out Joe Gillis is a writer who out on his luck. Right at the start, he stands to lose his car thanks to a loan, which is something he cannot stand. While trying all his sources to get some cash (~300 dollars), he runs into the repo men at an intersection. A car chase commences and thanks to a blow-out, he ends up hiding is car in a deserted mansion on Sunset Boulevard.

Thus sets the stage for the movie. While the song makes Joe seem like a truly opportunistic parasite, the movie does not put him across in such harsh light. The old star, Norma Desmond seems menacing and at times, sinister and you can slowly see Joe getting entangled in her web, in part because of his own needs (he's got a loan to worry about and no solid source of income) and in part because of the behaviour of Norma (she's suicidal to say the least!). You already know how the movie is going to end, thanks to the beginning, but what's great is all the drama and little jibes that the movie takes on its way to the conclusion.

Verdict: It's a given recommended watching. Of note is the great camera angles and other visual cues, which add a lot to the frame without cluttering it. Great acting by Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond. Do check out the IMDB page once you've watched the movie for a whole lot of surprises.

Here's the trailer of the movie:

sunset boulevard trailer
Uploaded by soulpatrol. - Watch feature films and entire TV shows.

Some of my favourite quotes from the movie (Source: imdb.com).

Joe Gillis: You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big.
Norma Desmond: I *am* big. It's the *pictures* that got small.

Norma Desmond: We didn't need dialogue. We had faces!

Joe Gillis: [narrating] Well, this is where you came in, back at that pool again, the one I always wanted. It's dawn now and they must have photographed me a thousand times. Then they got a couple of pruning hooks from the garden and fished me out... ever so gently. Funny, how gentle people get with you once you're dead.

Joe Gillis: Norma, you're a woman of 50, now grow up. There's nothing tragic about being 50, not unless you try to be 25.

Norma Desmond: My astrologist has read my horoscope, he's read DeMille's horoscope.
Joe Gillis: Has he read the script?

Norma Desmond: There once was a time in this business when I had the eyes of the whole world! But that wasn't good enough for them, oh no! They had to have the ears of the whole world too. So they opened their big mouths and out came talk. Talk! TALK!

Norma Desmond: No-one ever leaves a star. That's what makes one a star.

Joe Gillis: I'm not an executive, just a writer.
Norma Desmond: You are... writing words, words, more words! Well, you'll make a rope of words and strangle this business! But there'll be a microphone there to catch the last gurgles, and Technicolor to photograph the red, swollen tongues!

Max Von Mayerling: There were three young directors who showed promise in those days: D. W. Griffith, Cecil B. DeMille, and Max Von Mayerling.
Joe Gillis: And she made you her servant.
Max Von Mayerling: It was I who asked to come back. I could have continued my career, but I found it unbearable. You see, I was her first husband.

There's even an India reference there!

Max Von Mayerling: She was the greatest of them all. You wouldn't know, you're too young. In one week she received 17,000 fan letters. Men bribed her hairdresser to get a lock of her hair. There was a maharajah who came all the way from India to beg one of her silk stockings. Later he strangled himself with it!

Pic source: terryhoponozky.cz

Anime Review: Gundam 00 Season 2

2010-03-18T10:31:00.003+05:30

Season 2 takes off 4 years after the events of season 1. All this while, Setsuna seems to be fighting a lone battle against the world. The world, meanwhile, did unite, but not the way Celestial Being wanted it. Instead of the coming together as one peacefully, the world has come together by force, and the enforcers are called the A-Laws.

As the A-Laws go around terrorising the "terrorists", it becomes very clear that 'One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter'. The surprise bad guy (Ribbons Almark) from season 1 becomes the main bad guy and works behind the scenes to make things difficult for our heros, the Gundam Meisters and Celestial Being.

As the old 'newtype' of Gundams before surfaces as Innovators in this series, somewhere in the middle of the series, Setsuna gets the twin drive Gundam 00 and the 0 Raiser. Once this happens, he becomes Superman / God, pulling off impossible stunts and acts and miracles on more occasions then one. If you don't believe it, watch how he takes down the Memento Mori or even 3-4 battle ships (in space) in one go. As soon as he gets this "level-up" the series loses it steam, as the characters are no longer trying to win or fight, they are just placing all hopes on Setsuna and end up "holding out until he gets there."

After almost of season of shooting with big guns AND missing (his Seravee Gundam is the one with the Big Guns), Tieria Erde come through in the end and more or less saves the day, leaving the final fight to Setsuna.

What sucks is that Ali Al-Saachez returns and its upto Lockon part 2 to take him down. I wish they had let Lockon part 1 take him out in the first season itself instead of carrying him forward. (Again, Lockon pt 2 is having a really rough time against Al-Saachez and all but loses to him if not for Setsuna's indirect intervention, so there we go again on the God mode).

And now for the Final Fight! It all goes great right up to the final bash-up, and then it gets messed up. Instead of finishing it off between the 00 Raiser and the the Reborns, both sides (Setsuna and Ribbons respectively) take time out to transfer and steal(and transfer) solar furnaces to the 2 original units of the series, The 0 Gundam seen at the prologue of episode 1 and the Exia. I guess that's there for the whole 'Complete circle' effect where in Setsuna/Exia destroys Ribbons/0 Gundam, the very person/Gundam that made him a Gundam Meister in the first place.

Supporting characters like Saji and Louise keep whining much to my annoyance and Graham Aker's 'Mr Bushido' transformation this season is plain pestilence (While his Samurai-based mobile suits and mask look cool, his philosophical rants don't. Maybe they haven't survived translation all that well). The big bummer is what happens to Sergei Smirnov who makes quite an impact as a character over the two seasons.

Verdict: The cliffhanger at the end of the last season compels you through more than half the season, but once the 00 Raiser + Setsuna discover God Mode, the rest of the team and the series too becomes the side cast. Watch it for the great depiction of the state of the world and how the characters respond to it. Also for how ridiculous God mode can be.

Images courtesy: megamansf.ning.com, animepaper.net and forums.hardwarezone.com.sg

Review of season 1 is here.

Quote: The best intentions of great men...

2010-03-17T09:58:00.000+05:30

The best intentions of great men can often lead them to make great mistakes. In addition, statements by such men can easily be taken out of context by certain people. Listeners with an agenda can interpret these words to suit their own purpose.

- Gilbert Durandal, chairman of the PLANT Supreme Council (Gundam SEED Destiny)

Review: Gundam 00 season 1

2010-03-08T21:04:00.006+05:30

I'm watching a Gundam series after ages. The last Gundam I saw was the original one a few years back, and while I liked the story, the animation left a lot to be desired (considering I was watching it along side animes like Wolf's Rain, Kino's Journey and Ghost in the Shell).

This one got off to a flying start, quite literally, with the Exia (the protagonist's Gundam) popping right out of the sky. Compared to the Gundams (there are four) the rest of the mobile suits are outdated and rely heavily on tactics to work against the Gundams, but since the Gundams are the 'good guys', the world never really stands a chance! Its only towards the end of the season that the rest of the world gets mobile suits to match the Gundams.

Unlike other Gundam series, this one is based in 'our' universe, and expected political alliances and nations make an appearance, for example, there's the whole American block, the European block, and the Asian block as the three dominant power factions in the world. The premise of the season is simple, elimination of war and conflict through the use of force. To this effect, Celestial Being, a private armed organisation that uses Gundams act based on the philosophy of a man, Aeolia Schenberg who set this plan in motion about 200 years before the start of the series. What follows are tactical strikes in traditional conflict zones, like Sri Lanka (Ceylon), and Africa, and consequently, the world reacts by both politically and militarily.

Interestingly, each 'armed intervention' (what Gundam strikes to end conflicts are called) triggers its own set of repercussions in each of the factions. World powers start using the Gundams' strikes to further their own ends. What good is politics without greed, intrigue and backstabbing, and there's enough of that here too. The Gundam Meisters' characters develop well and Lockon (pilot of the Dynames) is easily the most likeable of the four. Setsuna (who is the protagonist) keeps brooding all the way to the end, and is quite annoying at times. The character who develops the best I feel is Tieria Erde.

The series ends with an expected climax where the world is forced to unite to fight the common enemy, Celestial Being. Celestial Being is decimated in the process, which leaves you wondering if the destruction of Celestial Being was also part of Aeolia Schenberg's plan, because as he hoped, the world did indeed unite. There's a bit of backstabbing at the end of the season which sets the stage for season 2.

Verdict: A good blend of action and political intrigue. The behaviour of the three factions are interesting, as well as the occasions wherein no matter how Celestial Being acts, someone else always benefits from their actions while they take the flak for said actions. Watch it to see the effects of trying to eradicate violence with violence!

Pics courtesy: antsizedman.blogspot.com and wikipedia.org

Review of season 2 is here.

"Are you a Bihari?"

2010-03-04T20:51:00.001+05:30

said the old lady to the cab driver.

As we got out off the cab outside the entrance to Phoenix mills along the road leading to Elphinstone / Dadar, a mother - daughter / mother-in-law - daughter-in-law duo were awaiting a cab to haul their shopping home. The daughter(-in-law) asked the cab driver if he would go to Worli. When he refused, the mother(-in-law) sharply asked him if he was a Bihari.

Her statement was quite surprising and I wondered what his refusal had to do with "where he came from originally". Did she think that a Maharashtrian cab driver would take them to Worli where as a "North-Indian" wouldn't?

I guess I should have asked her if she was from Mumbai... I've never found a cab easily for short distances (Worli naka is 10-15 mins walking distance from Phoenix) much less for going in the opposite direction (again, w.r.t. Worli naka).

Or maybe I should look out only for Maharashtrian cab drivers in the future to take me wherever I want to go, after all, a sweet old lady did imply that a Maharashtrian cab driver ALWAYS takes you where you want to go!

As for the poor cab driver, he dodged the question, telling her that he couldn't take her anywhere because he had to "close shop" for the night in another 10 mins and he was heading to Parel.

Lunch at Kyani's

2010-02-09T20:46:00.001+05:30

A lazy afternoon is just the time to head out to Kyani's near Metro for lunch. If a heavy meal is what you want, then you shouldn't be here. This place is all about its snacks (or so said the waiter to someone who wanted rice and curry for his lunch) and the latest snacks to check out (not sure how latest it is!) is the chicken frankfurter patice and the chicken seekh kebab patice. The frankfurter one tastes better of the two, with the kebab one being slightly on the drier side. Both seem like a steal at 17 bucks a piece.

Fans of nuggets can rejoice too as chicken and fish nuggets are available long with fish fingers and something called butterfly prawns. I've only tried out the chicken nuggets and you get 5 for Rs 35 along with potato wafers. They didn't have the fish fingers. I'll try the butterfly prawns the next time I think. Washed it all down with Mangola.