What are you watching tonight?

[William the White]

I think the central love story is very hollow and contrived, but I enjoyed the rest of the film. I quite like the idea of flashing back to the different points in somebody's life when they acquired these certain nuggets of knowledge....

The way in which the life-event answers to the questions were in matching chronological order basically de-bunked it for me.

yeah, that's the schema, and if you don't suspend disbelief the film is shot...

but the the kids' stories are still moving, i think - the two brothers orphaned by communal violence, the orphaned Latika allowed to join them, the way they build their 'family', the exploitation they endure, the dangers they face, the way they try to look after each other, the harshness of the slums... i think there's a lot to disturb us and and uplift us there...

the film hardly ever surprised me, and the later stories aren't as powerful as the opening ones, but there's more to praise than dismiss here... I'd rather watch this than the majority of movies on at cineworld tomorrow afternoon, when, for some reason, it looks like we have no football...

[Bruce Rioja]

but the the kids' stories are still moving, i think - the two brothers orphaned by communal violence...

Visit Mumbai, William. You don't know the half of it.

[William the White]

but the the kids' stories are still moving, i think - the two brothers orphaned by communal violence...

Visit Mumbai, William. You don't know the half of it.

I'd like to, and I know i don't know the quarter of it... but your point is?

[TANGODANCER]

but the the kids' stories are still moving, i think - the two brothers orphaned by communal violence...

Visit Mumbai, William. You don't know the half of it.

I'd like to, and I know i don't know the quarter of it... but your point is?

Didn't see him as making a particular point WTW, just a comment on the situation?

[TANGODANCER]

Night folks.

[TANGODANCER]

Donal McIntyre.

Leeds v Millwall. No, not the match but the absolutely fxxking mindless violence and demolition caused by lunatics posing as football fans. The cost in policing and the damage to buses was horrendous. £90,000 for the policing bill alone for one game. Twelve officers were injured and one dxxxhead tried to fight a police dog. Millwall fans had to be locked in the ground for an hour after the game. It was absolute war. Just twelve were arrested on the day and twenty nine in the months since based on CCTV evidence. The bill? well, the taxpayers pay that of course.

What these halfwits (some of them in their thirties and forties) and their army of mindless holligans are doing anywhere near football is a mystery. I've seen plenty live football agro over the years, but these clowns take the cake. "I aint dun nuffink" was the whining reply of one plonker arrested. A lot of video evidence got him four months in jail and a six year ban from football gounds to prove differently.. Madness.

[William the White]

Donal McIntyre.

Leeds v Millwall. No, not the match but the absolutely fxxking mindless violence and demolition caused by lunatics posing as football fans. The cost in policing and the damage to buses was horrendous. £90,000 for the policing bill alone for one game. Twelve officers were injured and one dxxxhead tried to fight a police dog. Millwall fans had to be locked in the ground for an hour after the game. It was absolute war. Just twelve were arrested on the day and twenty nine in the months since based on CCTV evidence. The bill? well, the taxpayers pay that of course.

What these halfwits (some of them in their thirties and forties) and their army of mindless holligans are doing anywhere near football is a mystery. I've seen plenty live football agro over the years, but these clowns take the cake. "I aint dun nuffink" was the whining reply of one plonker arrested. A lot of video evidence got him four months in jail and a six year ban from football gounds to prove differently.. Madness.

just a return to cultural norms by this bunch of tossers... jeez... if bricks could fly... you'd know there were leeds fans in the offing...

millwall... the first club to get an official warning about crowd violence in the history of the league... warning notices posted up at the den in the 1930s (i think)...

nice to see the return of old fashioned tradition...

[William the White]

Went to the Royal Exchange to watch a new play by Canadian 'comtroversial' gay playwright, Brad Fraser, called 'True Love Lies'. Very funny. Sometimes moving. But not his best work. I'm a fan and have seen all that have had a British production. Including his first, which had my favourite ever title: Unidentified Human Remains and the True Act of Love...

That was a geat play... This one isn't. Three stars. IMHO...

[Little Green Man]

Went to the Royal Exchange to watch a new play by Canadian 'comtroversial' gay playwright, Brad Fraser, called 'True Love Lies'. Very funny. Sometimes moving. But not his best work. I'm a fan and have seen all that have had a British production. Including his first, which had my favourite ever title: Unidentified Human Remains and the True Act of Love... :D

That was a geat play... This one isn't. Three stars. IMHO...

Saw his Poor Superman in Edinburgh many moons ago - very good, I seem to recall.

[William the White]

Went to the Royal Exchange to watch a new play by Canadian 'comtroversial' gay playwright, Brad Fraser, called 'True Love Lies'. Very funny. Sometimes moving. But not his best work. I'm a fan and have seen all that have had a British production. Including his first, which had my favourite ever title: Unidentified Human Remains and the True Act of Love...

That was a geat play... This one isn't. Three stars. IMHO...

Saw his Poor Superman in Edinburgh many moons ago - very good, I seem to recall.

Yep - excellent play - my second fave after Human Remains.

[Bruce Rioja]

One of my mates is in Macbeth at The Royal Exchange Theatre, which starts on Wednesday (I think). Are you going to see it, WtW?

[William the White]

One of my mates is in Macbeth at The Royal Exchange Theatre, which starts on Wednesday (I think). Are you going to see it, WtW?

More likely than not, but will wait for the reviews. Hesitation only because it's a play i've seen umpteen times. And atm am trying to collect the 'missing' ones. Bit like grounds, where i'm up to 60 plus watching the boys. Every year I hope we get Wycombe and Hartlepool away in a cup and that someone produces Cymbeline and Two Gentlemen of Verona...

[TANGODANCER]

Well, saw Slumdog Millionaire tonight. Different to use India as a centre for the story and a disturbing look at the poverty, sleaze and sheer brutality that still exists behing the bright lights area of so many big cities today. From the comparitive safety of our own environs, it's so easy to forget/ignore the everyday plight of millions in the world.

Thought the story was good enough as an entertaining film and it was well cast and acted. If it were reality I think I'd be cheering for the kid myself. Makes your heart bleed for kids in these sort of cirmumstances and the sheer bxxtards who exploit them for greed. All in all, as a film, I enjoyed it.

[hisroyalgingerness]

Law and Order UK. Very good it was too. And Freema Agyeman in a court outfit looks good enough to eat

[General Mannerheim]

watched American Beauty last night for the first time - thought it was great, miles better than i was expecting!

also, good rack on young Janey!!!.

[TANGODANCER]

I think the central love story is very hollow and contrived, but I enjoyed the rest of the film. I quite like the idea of flashing back to the different points in somebody's life when they acquired these certain nuggets of knowledge....

Thought just the opposite. Something born of childhood and companionship and forging a lifetime bond was, in my view, far better a love story in the film than the modern "See somebody, fancy them, nip in the nearest empty room and rip each others clothes off for sex" type of so called love stories. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of the great historical love stories; Heloise and Abelard, Lovers of Terruel, Tristan and Isolde, Anthony and Cleopatra, Shah Jahan, etc etc. Even the great love stories of fiction, Jane Eyre-Rochester, Elizabeth Bennet-Darcy, Romeo-Juliet, all find more favour with me than their modern counterparts. Must be my age.

[jimbo]

watched American Beauty last night for the first time - thought it was great, miles better than i was expecting!

also, good rack on young Janey!!!.

Great film!

[General Mannerheim]

I think the central love story is very hollow and contrived, but I enjoyed the rest of the film. I quite like the idea of flashing back to the different points in somebody's life when they acquired these certain nuggets of knowledge....

Thought just the opposite. Something born of childhood and companionship and forging a lifetime bond was, in my view, far better a love story in the film than the modern "See somebody, fancy them, nip in the nearest empty room and rip each others clothes off for sex" type of so called love stories. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of the great historical love stories; Heloise and Abelard, Lovers of Terruel, Tristan and Isolde, Anthony and Cleopatra, Shah Jahan, etc etc. Even the great love stories of fiction, Jane Eyre-Rochester, Elizabeth Bennet-Darcy, Romeo-Juliet, all find more favour with me than their modern counterparts. Must be my age.

It without doubt a very enjoyable flick, but its not the amazing picture everyone keeps going on about, - I mean for starters, how come all these ‘slumdogs’ can speak English so well? I know its for western audiences, but why mix it up then? It would have been for more realistic if it was all subtitled, or no sub at all. But apart from all that this boring love story and awful cliché ending totally spoilt it for me. Id have scrapped all that to try and give the viewer a more emotional attachment to the main characters. I mean, when his brother is murdered you don’t feel any emotion, you don’t feel any emotion when he kills the mafia bloke – and you don’t even have any emotion when Jamal finally traps off with Latika. You just think, ‘uh, what a surprise’… yawn.

Not only was the ending clichéd, its also ridiculous – how long have you heard Chris Tarrant hang on for the phone a friend to pick up? And the whole country is watching this kid on tv, (all the slumdogs suddenly have tv’s btw!?), then and hour later this mega famous millionaire is sat on a train station floor totally unnoticed! / whats all that about?

Its not that any of these things make it a bad film, its just they stop it from being the masterpiece everyone claims it is.

[TANGODANCER]

It without doubt a very enjoyable flick, but its not the amazing picture everyone keeps going on about, - I mean for starters, how come all these ‘slumdogs’ can speak English so well? I know its for western audiences, but why mix it up then? It would have been for more realistic if it was all subtitled, or no sub at all. But apart from all that this boring love story and awful cliché ending totally spoilt it for me. Id have scrapped all that to try and give the viewer a more emotional attachment to the main characters. I mean, when his brother is murdered you don’t feel any emotion, you don’t feel any emotion when he kills the mafia bloke – and you don’t even have any emotion when Jamal finally traps off with Latika. You just think, ‘uh, what a surprise’… yawn.

Not only was the ending clichéd, its also ridiculous – how long have you heard Chris Tarrant hang on for the phone a friend to pick up? And the whole country is watching this kid on tv, (all the slumdogs suddenly have tv’s btw!?), then and hour later this mega famous millionaire is sat on a train station floor totally unnoticed! / whats all that about?

Its not that any of these things make it a bad film, its just they stop it from being the masterpiece everyone claims it is.

Masterpieces are those films you see at places like the Cornerhouse in Manchester. This is box-office high budget stuff designed to appeal to a wide section of Joe public. Subtitles would put a lot of people off (not me, with my hearing I love em)
and English is so widely used now that using it made sense. Feel-good movies, however unrealistic, are what the bulk of people want to see. That's what this is, serious undertones or no.

[Puskas]

Masterpieces are those films you see at places like the Cornerhouse in Manchester.

I have to disagree.
A masterpiece would be a film in which Kate Beckinsale, clad in a skin-tight black PVC catsuit, plays a renegade vampire ninja who gets thrown together with a couple of ex-Special Forces agents (Steven Segal and Bruce Campbell) whilst fighting zombies. On Mars. With chainsaws.

And Kate would ride around on a giant leopard called Nigel.

Now that would be a masterpiece.

Any film producer types on this board who wish to contact me for the full screenplay, please PM me....