Romantic comedies are my favourite movie genre. I am one of those people who always crave for a ‘happily ever after’ ending. I enjoy comedies - which are certain to end well and what girl doesn't like a a good romantic story.:)
Hence, the "rom-com" (as it is popularly known) - a movie that is not so sweet that it nauseates you and not so mindless that it doesn’t leave an impression.
These movies make you connect with the characters, their quirks and enjoy their witty banter and the string of incidents they get entwined in which make them fall for each other. This genre has been firmly established by movies like “When Harry met Sally”, “Sleepless in Seattle”, “French Kiss”, “You’ve got mail”…yes, all starring America’s sweetheart, Meg Ryan who, poor thing, painted herself into a corner and was not successful in other types of roles…but that’s another story. Hugh Grant has also been hugely successful at this with hits like my favourite, “Notting Hill” among others (think: “Nine Months”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral”, “Love actually”). In “Notting Hill” he stars with Julia Roberts who is also no stranger to the rom-com having starred in “Pretty Woman”, “My Best Friend’s Wedding” and “Runaway Bride”. Sandra Bullock has taken a shot at it also with “While you were Sleeping” (more romance than comedy) and more recently, “the Proposal” (very Bollywood-ish).
What set me thinking about rom-coms is a movie I saw recently, called “The Ugly Truth” starring Gerard Butler and Katherine Heigl. Hollywood has churned out a steady stream of romantic comedies and Katherine Heigl has been a favoured choice after her hit “27 Dresses”. If “27 Dresses” was unimpressive, “The Ugly Truth” is the ugliest thing to besmirch the name of romantic comedies.
Katherine Heigl again reprises the role of a slightly neurotic, work-obsessed TV producer with no personal life. Gerard Butler fits the role of a boorish, chauvinist who stars on a successful show called ‘The Ugly Truth’ where he attacks every particle of decency that exists in relations between the sexes.
The movie is sleazy and has no development beyond the premise of a Man and Woman who are at loggerheads but who eventually fall in love. The Woman is shown to be desperate – unable to make a success of her show, a failure at relationships with men, a panicky moron who goes for a blind date armed with lists of conversation topics. She is a TV producer but acts like a confused teenager at every given opportunity. Enter: the Man – obnoxiously over-confident, ill-mannered and crude. He makes a living out of being a chauvinist and thrives on shocking people – as such, unable to string together a sentence without a reference to sex. He decides to help poor Woman by giving her advice that will help her snag the cute doctor she’s been eyeing. He tells her to act like the kind of woman he would go after – the kind of woman all men would want – a mindless, beautiful bimbo. By the time things get serious with the doctor, Woman has decided that she actually prefers Man and vice-versa. That’s it.
The Woman remains uni-dimensional and pathetic, the Man remains a swaggering adolescent. There is no sense that both reach a middle ground from the opposite fields that they once occupied. It’s just the story of two really stupid people. If the romance is that bad, their idea of humour is worse. The high point of comedy in the movie involves a pair of vibrating underwear. I rest my case.
Frankly, I was appalled. How can Hollywood make such stupid movies? How do these movies do well at the box-office? If I don’t see a good movie soon I am really going to believe that the death knell has been sounded for rom-coms. Last heard, Gerard Butler (who, by the way, I once thought was cute) was starring in “The Bounty Hunter” with Jennifer Aniston. She’s his ex-wife who is on the run and he plays a bounty-hunter given the task of tracking her down… which he does with glee. Aargh! The caveman cometh.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Bad Company
Everything works out so well in the movies. It’s like an alternate universe where custom, convention and even common sense can be flouted with impunity because one knows that there will always be a happy ending (else ‘picture abhi baki mere dost’). Such is also the case with ‘Badmaash Company’ which I saw yesterday. Movies like this make one wish that the IPL-induced Bollywood drought at the plexes had not ended.
‘Badmaash Company’ is in the same vein as other recent Yashraj releases – pretty faces and half baked plots. Its like the Chopras now believe they have too much moolah to worry about script or detailing. And so, they hand over the baton to first time writer-director, Parmeet Sethi - better known to loyal DDLJ fans as Kuljeet and to all others as Archana Puran Singh’s partner. He has said in interviews that he wrote the script for the movie in six days. I really don’t know why he would want to expose before the audience just how little thought has gone into this film. Either he thought the movie was so good that he should be lauded for coming up with it in such a short time or he knows how flawed it is and seeks mercy. Either ways, foolhardy.
The movie which begins in 1994, is about Karan (Shahid) who along with friends Chandu (standup comedian Vir Das) and Zing (Indian Idol contestant Meiyang Chang), indulges in small time smuggling, serving as a ‘carrier’ to Bangkok for some extra dough. On the way they team up with Bulbul (Anushka) and Karan’s con schemes get more ambitious and more WTF inducing. These include importing shoes from Bangkok with the right shoe sent to one city in India and the left to another therein rendering the value zero. The shoes are not claimed for this supposed reason by Karan & co but purchased discreetly later at a Customs auction for throwaway prices. The gang reassemble the shoes at their end and voila! Full value Reeboks plus evasion of 120% customs duty (hence the need to set it in an earlier time frame where import duty was high). The gang now moves to try their luck in the US pulling similar stunts with surprising ease. With more money comes more pride, which as we all know, goes before a fall. Karan’s arrogance becomes his hubris and the team falls apart. Karan finally sees the light of day and decides to live by honest means.
The first half of the movie is much more watchable than the second. The first half sketches in Karan's frustration with his middle class life and his determination to get rich quick. The second half carries on with the boring variations of the con game with loopholes so big as to suggest the Americans and the audience are complete idiots. The movie drags on moving from one ludicrous scheme to another till one loses any interest to know what’s coming next. Characterisations are also flawed leaving the viewer wondering why Karan, a good student helped along by a rich uncle, at all needs to walk on the wrong side. An exploration of the characters rather than of their repetitive fraudulent activities might have been more interesting.
Shahid is competent but still unable to carry a movie on his own steam. There is only so far he’ll be able to go on the basis of just chocolatey looks especially if he always looks likes he’s trying too hard. Anushka sheds as much clothing as she can but still looks like she would be better off doing ads for fairness creams. Vir Das and Chang are both good considering its their first big movie.
The songs are catchy esp. “Chaska”, “Jingle Jingle” and the title track but too similar in mood and picturisation to really stand out.
For promising a fun-filled adventure and giving us a damp squib instead, ‘Badmaash Company’ gets a 5/10.
‘Badmaash Company’ is in the same vein as other recent Yashraj releases – pretty faces and half baked plots. Its like the Chopras now believe they have too much moolah to worry about script or detailing. And so, they hand over the baton to first time writer-director, Parmeet Sethi - better known to loyal DDLJ fans as Kuljeet and to all others as Archana Puran Singh’s partner. He has said in interviews that he wrote the script for the movie in six days. I really don’t know why he would want to expose before the audience just how little thought has gone into this film. Either he thought the movie was so good that he should be lauded for coming up with it in such a short time or he knows how flawed it is and seeks mercy. Either ways, foolhardy.The movie which begins in 1994, is about Karan (Shahid) who along with friends Chandu (standup comedian Vir Das) and Zing (Indian Idol contestant Meiyang Chang), indulges in small time smuggling, serving as a ‘carrier’ to Bangkok for some extra dough. On the way they team up with Bulbul (Anushka) and Karan’s con schemes get more ambitious and more WTF inducing. These include importing shoes from Bangkok with the right shoe sent to one city in India and the left to another therein rendering the value zero. The shoes are not claimed for this supposed reason by Karan & co but purchased discreetly later at a Customs auction for throwaway prices. The gang reassemble the shoes at their end and voila! Full value Reeboks plus evasion of 120% customs duty (hence the need to set it in an earlier time frame where import duty was high). The gang now moves to try their luck in the US pulling similar stunts with surprising ease. With more money comes more pride, which as we all know, goes before a fall. Karan’s arrogance becomes his hubris and the team falls apart. Karan finally sees the light of day and decides to live by honest means.
The first half of the movie is much more watchable than the second. The first half sketches in Karan's frustration with his middle class life and his determination to get rich quick. The second half carries on with the boring variations of the con game with loopholes so big as to suggest the Americans and the audience are complete idiots. The movie drags on moving from one ludicrous scheme to another till one loses any interest to know what’s coming next. Characterisations are also flawed leaving the viewer wondering why Karan, a good student helped along by a rich uncle, at all needs to walk on the wrong side. An exploration of the characters rather than of their repetitive fraudulent activities might have been more interesting.
Shahid is competent but still unable to carry a movie on his own steam. There is only so far he’ll be able to go on the basis of just chocolatey looks especially if he always looks likes he’s trying too hard. Anushka sheds as much clothing as she can but still looks like she would be better off doing ads for fairness creams. Vir Das and Chang are both good considering its their first big movie.
The songs are catchy esp. “Chaska”, “Jingle Jingle” and the title track but too similar in mood and picturisation to really stand out.
For promising a fun-filled adventure and giving us a damp squib instead, ‘Badmaash Company’ gets a 5/10.
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