Slumdog Millionaire

This is my first five Swedish Fish rating and for good reasons. The movie has everything I enjoy in a movie: great plot, believable story, intriguing characters, and an interesting backdrop for the movie (Mumbai, India). Slumdog Millionaire’s underlining theme is we are all a sum total of our experiences. Jamal Malik(played by Dev Patel) uses his experiences to answer obscure questions while on India’s version of “Who wants to be a Millionaire”. Watching a very poor and homeless Jamal (and his brother Salim played by Madhur Mittal) growing up in Mumbai; my first thought is “how can anyone live like that”? The answer came again and again as Jamal and others are determined to survive doing wherever it takes. If you watch closely you will notice several subplots: the love and the betrayal of a brother, rags to riches physically but never really leaving the slums mentally, the desperate children that are ultimately stronger than those that take advantage of them. Freida Pinto plays Latika who is Jamal’s friend as a child and who becomes his destiny as an adult. Slumdog Millionaire gets my vote for Academy Award’s Best Picture. Not too bad for a movie that was originally scheduled to go directly to DVD!

Yes Man

I find people either love or hate a movie where Jim Carrey is in the starring role. You couldn’t pay my wife to sit through a movie with him in it but I am the exact opposite. In his comedy movie’s (i.e. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective-1994) he is “spilt-the-gut” funny. In his serious roles (i.e. The Truman Show-1998) he is very believable. This is one of his classic comedy movies. Yes Man has your standard gags but also has your unexpected twists that keep the movie interesting. The movie also stars Zooey Deschanel who plays Carrey’s love interest- Allison. I have never seen her in any other movies but I think she did a great job alongside Carl Allen (Jim Carey). The movie pokes fun at the motivational speaker stereo type with the all too real “cult-like” following. However, before the movie ends, it does show you the “man behind the curtain”. A very funny supporting character is Carl’s boss Norman played by Rhys Darby. Norman’s “Harry Potter” and “300” theme parties are very comical. If you like Carrey’s type of humor you will enjoy this movie.