The Trip to Bountiful (1985)
Director:
Peter Masterson
Stars:
Geraldine Page,
John Heard,
Carlin Glynn |
See full cast and crewThere were a couple odd editing moments that threw me off. It did have a very theater feel to it, but the actors did well to elicit the emotions. It didn't go exactly as I thought, but it was nice.
Oh and apparently Geraldine Page won an Oscar for her performance. :)
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Side note: Apparently I went three weeks from watching the above movie before I watched the next and then watched 5 movies in the past 4 days! (Long Vacation weekend)
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200 Pounds Beauty (2006)
Director:
Yong-hwa Kim
Stars:
Ah-jung Kim,
Jin-mo Ju,
Yong-geon Kim |
See full cast and crewYou can watch this on Hulu HERE: http://www.hulu.com/watch/487769
This movie was a pretty typical Korean comedy with a bit of self-effacing humor. Not everything the actress did was perfect so you could laugh (although the main man was more serious... one wasn't really supposed to laugh at him, I guess.) The fat suit wasn't very believable, but the actress was pretty great with her expressions. Except she cried a lot, which is very like the genre. It was interesting in that it looks at plastic surgery and both condemns and accepts it. Instead of a 'fat acceptance' movie, we are given many ideas... that only beautiful women get attention, but fat people are worthless, but those who undergo the knife are 'monsters' or 'lack confidence'. And there is a lot to say about male/female relations in that movie too. The woman is basically okay with some crazy street guy taking video of her... And the main guy is a super toughy who supposedly takes care of her, but doesn't seem to be polite when he wants something... Not a thinking movie. Ruffled a few of my feathers, but I still did tear up at it, b/c it's a Korean film and they are wonderful about eliciting a few tears. ;)
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Aisha (2010)
Director:
Rajshree Ojha
This is the Hindi version of Jane Austen's "Emma" novel. Cute, fun, predictable. It's kind of hard to like Aisha because she's rich and spoiled, but somehow we kind of have to. Oh, and I love the actress of Pinky's deep voice! (Ira Dubey)
Watch online! http://www.hulu.com/watch/446632
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Bollywood Beats (2009)
Director:
Mehul Shah
This is one of those movies where you have to say "it has heart" because there are other things clearly wrong with it. The writer/director/actor had his heart in the right place for sure, but it can be difficult to don all three hats and pull off a successful piece. The viewer can tell this was a team effort that people really believed in. There were some top-notch actresses (Pooja Kumar aka Miss India USA 1995 and Lillete Dubey who is a deep-voiced beauty and the real-life mother of the deep-voiced beauty I raved about in the prior film AND a lot of other movies!), but there were also not-so-good acting abilities, contrived dialogue and scenes, split storylines that don't give us ONE person on which to focus. You can tell it was done pretty low budget, but I still enjoyed it. It may not have been perfect, but major kudos to Mehul Shah for getting his script off the ground and on the screen. It makes it easier to overlook some of the flaws when you know it's coming from someone who clearly worked hard on it. I've been involved in projects like that too, so I get it. Congrats! (Oh, and I love that Shah worked on
Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives! I have yet to see it but I know of some of the drag queens in it.)
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Horrible Bosses (2011)
Director:
Seth Gordon
Stars:
Jason Bateman,
Steve Wiebe,
Charlie Day |
See full cast and crewThis is one of those movies where we don't see the main characters grow or change, but just get into trouble and all sorts of antics. There are funny moments when it nods at itself with Strangers on a Train/Throw Momma From the Train references and with Jamie Foxx's character. Kudos on making Colin Farrell a slimeball. I had to do a doubletake with that nasty combover. It was an enjoyable romp. Some funny lines, but nothing very groundbreaking. And SPOILER: they didn't make it out okay thanks to themselves, but sheer dumb luck, so don't bother rooting for them.
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Isi Life Mein...! (2010)
Director:
Vidhi Kasliwal
Cute movie, good-looking leads, a bit of character development. The similarity to Bollywood staple movie DDLJ and Salman Khan's shameless, needless appearance both made me laugh. Akshay Oberoi is my age and a hottie, but sadly for me, he is already married. Le sigh. That's okay. Oh, and the mother looked too young to play the mother and confused me. And the lady that may have been the grandmother? The father was a little young, but okay I guess. Just the ages of the actors didn't really work all that well and some of the relationships were hard to figure out (Is that the brother or the servant??). Anyway, fun for a feel-good romp. Oh and it's based on the characters performing Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew. Watch movie online here: http://www.hulu.com/watch/264066
