“Warrior” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5743796) never dissappoints — storylines don’t go the “obvious” way, people don’t always think the way you would suppose they would, enemies become allies in the most unlikely ways, and nobody is ever totally good or bad …

I love this show because it captures humanity so well while showing us how brutal we all can be, given the right circumstances …

The season finale started out with such a small scene — but it played out totally differently than I thought it would if I’d been in the same place. It showed understanding and empathy where I’d have been full of rage.

And then topped that off in the next few scenes with such a satisfying ending to one of the most annoying and smug characters the show has had this season.

From there on, it just keeps building, building, and building to a bloody climax on top of all the groundwork laid out this season, ending with some interesting open threads which hints at some interesting developments and new power dynamics next season, if there is one.

I hope there’s another season (or two or three), I really do!

#TV #Warrior #BruceLee #Western #Finale #RenewWarrior

"The Jengaburu Curse" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27327718) started out looking like an interesting thriller, but by the end devolved into a stupid, brainless story which seems to have been written by kids — and I bet you, kids could probably come up with a better (and more intelligent) plot than this one 😛

The protagonist is a “tribal” who lives and an works in the UK, in fintech no less. But apparently she has no idea of how surveillance works or how you can be tracked … I guess her “tribal” brain just can’t comprehend such “marvels” of modern technology?

I had such high hopes for the show after the first few episodes, but by the end it had turned into a caricature of a show where people just did stupid things because it advanced the “story”, if it can be called that.

#TV #India #Hindi #MiniReview #BadPotBoiler

Indian movies "borrowing”/remaking English and other language movies is fairly standard. But what's even more prevalent is Indian movies in one language being remade in another language 🙂

This is a practice which probably goes back all the way to the beginning of Indian cinema. I certainly remember Tamil movies being remade in Hindi (or vice versa) all the way back to when I was a kid … and that was almost 50 years ago.

In fact, some stars have made a career out of taking a movie which was successful in another Indian region/language and making a hit movie — Jeyam Ravi and Ajay Devgn are names which immediately come to my mind …

Ajay Devgn has starred in the remake of the Tamil Suriya starrer “Singam” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1655607) franchise, renamed to “Singham” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1948150) in Hindi 🙂

Even more interestingly, the Hindi “Singham” movies have taken on a life of their own and spawned spin-offs which make up Rohit Shetty’s (the director of the movies) “Cop Universe” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cop_Universe) which has various cops, including Singham, inhabiting a shared universe.

You can find the Tamil version of the first movie on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G-c07uvZik

There are multiple videos claiming to the Hindi movie on YouTube as well but I haven't found one which is actually the movie 🙂 It looks as if most are just re-assembled clips from the movie with an audio commentary — probably because the authors are violating copyright by uploading the movie 😛

I have not seen the Hindi version but my impression was that it was mostly a scene-for-scene remake rather than a re-imagining …

Guess I should find out one of these days?

Also an interesting thing to note about these cross-language remakes is that some actors, such as Prakash Raj (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0695177) who plays the baddie in both “Singam” and “Singham” will reprise their role. Prakash Raj is fairly notable for this BTW since I remember him playing the same role in multiple such remakes …

(I actually wanted to talk about another re-made franchise Ajay Devgn starred in which has been re-made in at least three different Indian languages, but I think that’ll have to wait for another post …)

#Movies #India #Hindi #Tamil #Remakes #Singam #Singham #Suriya #AjayDevgn

@PavelASamsonov Would love an invite if you've still got any left 🙂

Acorn woodpecker storing acorns

Continuing on with the theme of Indian remakes, “Coming to America” (1988) is an interesting one since I’ve seen at least three sub-continental remakes of the movie — two Indian and one Pakistani 🙂

I’m fairly certain that there are many more movies which lifted elements from the film, but I’m talking of the ones that I distinctly remember from back then as being fairly close to the plot of “Coming to America”.

I don’t recall the name of the Pakistani movie any longer (I think I saw it in ’92 or ’93) but I do remember the Hindi and Tamil versions fairly well.

The Hindi version is “Dil Hi To Hai” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106724) — it had Jackie Shroff and Divya Bharti and I loved at least some of the songs in the movie, if I recall.

You can find “Dil Hi To Hai” on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFPV6SdKjIw

Then, on the Tamil side, you had “My Dear Marthandan” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254593), which starred Prabhu and Kushboo and was trying to cash in on (probably) the Prabhu/Kushboo pairing which was very hot at that time.

“My Dear Marthandan” is on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8Pqq_dtsMA

It’s been around 30 years since I’ve seen either movie, I think. I’d love to watch them both again and see if they still hold up or not …

#Movies #Indian #Hindi #Tamil #Remakes #Bollywood #Kollywood

@cendawanita Oh, interesting — I mean about the song 🙂 I was already intrigued because the synopsis on IMDB mentioned Singapore and so it seemed as if at least part of the movie might be set outside India, but this makes it even more interesting …

@cendawanita I don’t remember it at all, but given that it’s an Aamir Khan movie, I must have watched it. Will have to re-watch now. Thank you 🙂

Today I discovered something interesting — YouTube has fairly good versions of Hindi movies from back in the 80s and 90s!

Well, I think I actually discovered this yesterday when I found “Betaab” but I didn’t actually realize this till today when I searched for “EK Ladka Ek Ladki” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0291883)

Back in the 90s, Hindi movies blatantly copied Hollywood movies (with no attribution or permission, mind you) and made their own versions. “Ek Ladka Ek Ladki” is one such movie which copies Kurt Russel & Goldie Hawn’s “Overboard” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093693).

This movie is probably responsible for getting me into Hindi movies again and for learning Hindi just so I could watch the movies 🙂

I generally never watch a movie twice (with a few exceptions) but I think I must have watched this one at least 5 times …

Oh yeah, it’s on YouTube here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSdQeh3WnkU

The last time I looked for “Ek Ladka Ek Ladki” on YouTube, the only copy I could find was a really dark and hard to watch version. So this version is certainly a find for me 🙂

This gives me an idea! Maybe I should look for other movies from the 90s that copied Hollywood movies and post about them every once in a while?

I generally love the Bollywood version to the Hollywood version of these “re-makes”. So it might be interesting to introduce more people to these versions …

#Movies #Bollywood #Hindi #Remakes #MovieHistory

Yesterday I talked of masala westerns and how I remembered Sunny Deol (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0219971) in a masala western but couldn’t remember the movie.

I thought it might have been “Joshilaay” based on a Google search but it just didn’t seem like the right movie. I even did a quick scan through a YouTube copy of the movie (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFuy-yr0E3I) and it still didn’t seem right — the look and the feel was off.

I’d had a vague recollection that Amrita Singh (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0802080) might have been in the movie I was thinking of as well, but had originally dismissed as my memory acting up.

Today I did a search for movies with Sunny Deol and Amrita Singh and found what I think is the right one — “Betaab” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0254179).

This is from way back in ’83 but YouTube has the movie (https://www.youtube.com) and the first few minutes seem to indicate that this might be the right movie 🙂

The grasslands, the log cabin, Sunny Deol putting his boots and chaps on and getting his saddle, it all points to a masala western and I think this might be the right one!

Guess I’ll be watching “Betaab” again soon?

#Movies #Bollywood #Hindi #MasalaWestern #Memories

@aijaz Yep, I’ve always enjoyed the western homage in “Sholay” too 🙂 Of course, haven’t seen it in a long time, but the songs haunt me every now and then. And of course, even today you can’t escape a Gabbar Singh reference, if you watch enough movies 😛

Good times, and simpler times.

Seeing Sunny Deol in "Chup" reminded me of the one other movie in which he was memorable to me, but I couldn’t remember the name of the movie 😛

It was a masala western.

In case you’re wondering, a masala western is an Indian movie which deals with “cowboy”/western themes, similar to Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns. Sometimes, it’s just the theme of the movie without visible “cowboy” elements, but sometimes a movie will have people riding horses, in full cowboy getup etc. I used to love these 🙂

I just learnt today (or maybe I knew this but forgot) that they are also called “curry cowboy” movies, but somehow that feels pejorative to me 😛 So I’ll stick to masala westerns, thank you very much.

Anyway, I believe the Sunny Deol movie in question was “Joshilaay” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089382) but I can’t be sure since the synopsis on IMDB doesn’t trigger any memories and I have no recollection that Anil Kapoor was in the movie I was thinking of.

All I remember is a single scene where Sunny Deol rides up on a horse in jeans, (chequered?) shrit, and maybe even a hat. And that’s all I remember now ...

But now I’d like to see another masala western … I guess it’s a dying (or dead?) breed these days?

#Movies #Bollywood #MasalaWestern #SunnyDeol

So … “Chup” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15654262) was great more than halfway through. But as they said, or as I might paraphrase, it turned out to be a movie of two halves.

The ending was horrible, not to say stupid. The investigator who was so “smart” at the beginning couldn’t see what was going on right in front of his eyes.

And then he does even more stupid things that I won’t go into. (If you want to know what they are, watch the movie 😛)

So a good movie with a good set up, but let down by some of the ending. Ah well, such is life … and movies.

#Movies #Hindi #SecondThoughts #Bollywood

It's so much fun to see Sunny Deol and Pooja Bhatt in "Chup" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15654262) …

It’s been ages since I’ve seen either of them in a movie and it’s such a trip down memory lane to see them acting again. I think the last time I saw Pooja Bhatt in a movie might have been ’98 or so and I don’t even remember when I saw Sunny Deol last, but it must have been in the early 2000’s?

The way Pooja is introduced, she says to Sunny Deol’s character, “Why are you calling me after so many years?” and I had to wonder if that was intentional, or if it accidentally mirrored how I felt about seeing them both in the movie 🙂

And Sunny introducing Pooja’s character as a member of the “Psychopath Society” — priceless. Or maybe it’s just one of those things where it makes sense only to me? 😛

#Movies #History #Bollywood #Memories

What can I say about "Chup” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15654262)?

Actually, it feels as if I can write reams and reams about the movie. In fact, I think I’ll probably end up doing at least 2 -3 posts tangentially related to the movie …

But as for the movie itself, I’m only halfway through and I’m in love with it 🙂

It’s a movie about cinema, about critics, about people, about society.

Sure, it’s also about a psychopath and about some gruesome murders, but most of that seems far removed from the rest of the movie most of the time.

Most of the movie seems perfect so far to me and the characters just sing! Well, except for one. The one misstep I felt so far was a minor character who seemed way too stupid — mostly to show how clever another character was. And that just seemed forced.

But other than that, totally loving the movie!

#Hindi #Bollywood #Movies #MiniReview #Thriller #Psychopath #SerialKiller

“Por Thozhil" (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27542289) is one of the better Tamil forensic murder mysteries. Unlike what’s usual for the genre, the stupid/impossible stuff is kept to a minimum and the story actually depends on investigation and deduction rather than sheer, dumb luck.

Except for the violence and the gory murder scenes, I really enjoyed the movie.

#Tamil #MiniReview #Movie #Mystery #Suspense

“Heart of Stone” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13603966) attempts to tell a good story, but is hampered by really sloppy writing …

It’s about an “intelligence” agency which shows no intelligence at all. The whole story hangs upon agents making really stupid decisions and not seeing what is obviously right there …

Some of the storyline just makes me so angry at the stupidity of people and their reliance on “systems” that I was tempted to stop watching it several times.

Yeah, it’s that good 😛

#MiniReview #English #Netflix #Movie

@tazedhippo It *is* easy to get going out-of-the-box 😛 Or maybe that’s just me? I like the fact that common workflows can be loaded via a simple image, and the fact that it’s mostly self-explanatory once you figure out what each of the components does …

If you want custom functionality not provided by any of the existing workflows, then it gets harder because you actually have to figure it out …

@branfonk Happy to share 🙂

Like you, I’m excited to try it out. Opinions are simply that, opinions. And while I temper my expectations based on them, I do want to try it out for myself to know if it will work for me personally despite the reservations of others.

I’ve tried multiple VR headsets with the hope of finding one which will allow me to be free of monitors. So far, no luck.

But let’s see how AVP fares when it comes out since that has higher display specs than any of the others I’ve tried 🙂

The second part of Karl Guttag’s (now three part — it was originally a two-parter) series of posts on whether Apple VisionPro makes a good monitor replacement is now out:

https://kguttag.com/2023/08/09/apple-vision-pro-part-5b-more-on-monitor-replacement-is-ridiculous/

What I find interesting in reading the comments to the previous post is that there appear to be people who’ll come up with “magical” excuses for Apple when confronted with a logic-based analysis 😛

So, you say that based on current hardware and extrapolation the AVP would not display text legibly enough to be read easily by all?

Fine, I’ll counter by saying that Apple actually isn’t looking at monitor replacement at all but had to mention it just to keep people happy till they reveal their magical plans for how the AVP is to be actually used.

Or, I’ll talk about how Apple didn’t really mention that the AVP was to be a monitor replacement and so you shouldn’t talk about monitor replacement. Nevermind that some people might want to use the AVP as a monitor replacement whether Apple specifically said so or not ...

I really find this “defending” Apple thing (whether it is required or not) rather tiresome, especially when it seems a knee-jerk reaction to a perceived slight to the glory of Apple.

Other people can have different opinions. Not everybody has to like what Apple does. And you certainly can be critical of Apple while still liking/using their products. All of these things can be true at the same time.

I wish some people (or all people) understood this 🙂

#Apple #VisionPro #Analysis #Opinions #Reflections