recently watched, following eating and reading Options

[deedawar]

Infamous. Toby Jones as truman Capote. Great!! Loved it!! Such a fascinating and deep story.

[Matilda]

Anyone who likes eating, cooking, Meryl Streep & France must go see 'Julie & Julia'. I saw it today and thoroughly recommend it!
Full of joie de vivreand you come out feeling contented! But don't go on an empty stomach, some scenes will have you drooling!
I had a late breakfast at 11am then went to see the 1.30pm show and was drooling at some of the food shots and absolutely starving by the time it finished!

Memorable TV viewing BBC 3part series 'Ganges' and
2 part production of 'Wuthering Heights'

[swami]

Anyone who likes eating, cooking, Meryl Streep & France must go see 'Julie & Julia'. I saw it today and thoroughly recommend it!
Full of joie de vivreand you come out feeling contented! But don't go on an empty stomach, some scenes will have you drooling!
I had a late breakfast at 11am then went to see the 1.30pm show and was drooling at some of the food shots and absolutely starving by the time it finished!

I saw it a month or so ago and enjoyed the Julia Child segment a lot, especially the chemistry between Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci. On the other hand, much as I love Amy Adams (and in spite of her competent performance), I found the Julie Powell character extremely self-absorbed, neurotic, irritating, and just plain tedious, especially when compared to Julia Child. You're right about the film being food porn, though. I'd planned to skip dinner before going in to watch the evening show, and by the time the film was over, I was quite ready for dinner.

This post has been edited by swami: Nov 4 2009, 02:35 AM

[frangipani]

Yeah, I agree with Swami. Julie annoyed me no end, and I was furious with her for not putting on any weight at the end of all that eating. I mean, seriously. Did you see all that butter?

I loved Meryl Streep and her husband and that part of the story was great. But the film was way too long for such a predictable story.

And yes, I am glad I had dinner before seeing it!

[Jenni]

Went to see The Men Who Stare At Goats. Rather silly, rather funny, rather hippy. I enjoyed it, and so did my Dad, but my Mum was not impressed.

[bfuller]

On DVD, the Pilot of "The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency". Anthony Minghella brought McCall-Smith's work to life.

[lekha]

Away from Her - the canadian film with a superb performance from julie christie as the woman stricken with alzheimer's - i'd read alice munro's short story earlier on which the movie's based "The bear came over the Mountain"

[frangipani]

Saw a film called Bugaboo. Anybody heard of it or seen it?

Bugaboo is essentially a Silicon Valley film. The engineers who have produced it work for companies like Netscape, Cisco, Intel, HP and NASA. All of these India professionals live and work in Silicon Valley.

This amorphous group of prosperous young men seem to have it all: money, access to the world's best technology and a high-flying lifestyle. At the same time, they continue to live inside cocooned, secure Indian communities that are quite divorced from anything that is American.

However, the film's Web site is careful to state upfront that Bugaboo does not belittle or ridicule the achievements of Indian professionals in Silicon Valley. But it certainly raises questions about their worth. It wonders aloud if utopia is really quite dull.

It was overall pretty pretty bad, with a few good lines in the script, very badly delivered. I was a bit startled to recognize two people in it.

[kolmogorov]

Ah Engineers! Has there ever been collectively, a more boring group of people?

This post has been edited by kolmogorov: Nov 14 2009, 05:36 AM

[bfuller]

Ah Engineers! Has there ever been collectively, a more boring group of people?

Yes.

[sadanand]

Ah Engineers! Has there ever been collectively, a more boring group of people?

AFAIK ACCE

This post has been edited by sadanand: Nov 14 2009, 06:31 PM

[deedawar]

Ah Engineers! Has there ever been collectively, a more boring group of people?

AFAIK ACCE

HUH!!!!

[sadanand]

Ah Engineers! Has there ever been collectively, a more boring group of people?

AFAIK ACCE

HUH!!!!

Ah Deeds old fruit this jogs the memory and all that and you asked for it so...Many years ago my dearly beloved 'earers when even I was young and it was one of those early December days when Bombay was cooling down in anticipation of its short winter when I crawled off to town (there was only so much of solid state physics that one could take and beside the winter hols were coming up and there didn't seem to be any sense in studying till March anyway, so I bunked) to the British Council Library for some intellectual refreshments.
Picked up my books stopped by at Yazdani for a bun muska and some ginger biscuits and headed back to Churchgate to pick the train home. Being on a students pass and it not being rush hour (in those days the trains were relatively empty after the rush hour) I seated myself on the western side of the train so I could watch the fields and Wilson gymkhana and Marine lines etc on the long journey home. I had picked up such intellectual tomes as "A summer's day" by Neville Cardus and "Fifteen paces" Alan Davidson (wonderful left arm bowler but we'll leave that for another day at least till dear Dabbler comes back) so I settled down for a good read.
A few minutes later some very lovely young women from who knows Sydenham, Xaviers, KC , Elphinstone ... landed up.They sat on the other side of the long seats. This was very exciting... I buried myself in the book I was reading and displayed the cover very prominently so they could see the front photograph..of Mr.Davidson walking back to the mark.. Who knows some of them may have liked cricket...(but perhaps not in black and white).
Anyway they ignored me (life is full of disappointments) and talked amongst themselves. Presently the train pulled out and life settled into the rythm of the rails..
Several minutes later we stopped at Lower Parel... A group of earnest young men(boys?) noisily jumped in (I was facing the door, I always like to face the door, I learnt that from reading Sudden: Goldseeker) began to move to the other portion of the compartment, caught sight of lovely tresses, did a double take and proceeded towards our end.
Much hushed whispering went on , parties looked at each other and looked away. Now in those days television( we had television even then) used to show a program called Different Strokes. It was very popular with all and sundry. It had a small boy who played the role of Arnold Jackson. He was one of those kids that when you are in your late teens you want to strangle very slowly with a school tie. Then feed him to a goat...Goats are not particular.

Now Mr.Jackson from what I recall had surgery. The earnest young men discussed his surgery in detail. Their voices grew louder. It was obvious to all that they must have come from G S Medical college. It was equally obvious who the conversation was aimed at...See they were going to be doctors, well settled they would be depicted in "ER" etc... People would trust them with their illnesses, electrical companies with electric bills, mothers with their daughters.. (or so Richard Gordon said). The converation was terribly boring fulll of Treitz ligaments, renal arteries , rectus muscle anterior fascia and the right sort of scissors...and the young ladies gave it short shrift.

They got down at Khar Road and in passing gave me sympathetic grins.. Ah that was good, Alan Davidson was better than some silly television programme. Silence descended on the compartment. One of the young men said... "Eck bad luck".

I got down at Ville Parle (note to Mr. Khadlikar and Ms. Shahpar spelt with two L's). The moral of the story is dearly beloved ... As Far As I Know Associations of Critics Criticising Engneers can be more boring than even a collection of would be doctors despite what "ER" shows on TV.

As Sudden used to say "Here endeth the lesson".

Now back to medical matters. Having done my Achilles tendon in I cannot run for some time but I watch this for inspiration... perhaps the greatest long distance runner of them all. I wish I could run like that, he floats.

Running begins at 2:36

[deedawar]

Thanks, I think. Now what does AFAIK stand for?

[sadanand]

Thanks, I think. Now what does AFAIK stand for?

Ah you are a glutton for punishment... Read through the long and boring tale again and concentrate on capitals.

[frangipani]

LOL, Saddu, nice, rambling story to read with my sunday morning bagel and coffee...

[deedawar]

Thanks, I think. Now what does AFAIK stand for?

Ah you are a glutton for punishment... Read through the long and boring tale again and concentrate on capitals.

I get it now

I plead advancing age and a different bent of mind.

[shyama]

Hahaha... Sadanand, came upon your tale a tad late. It's a gem!

[kolmogorov]

obligatory movie/dvd remark - watched the wire - 3rd season - once you can spot the formulaic twists and turns - loses much of its impact.

[hibiscus]

Watched Sonar Kella last night - for the first time - with friends who have seen it several times before and thus knew in advance all the one-liners ("Mr Burman ko thrombosis hua hai." ), the dialogue, the scenes to watch for etc. (It wasn't irritating though it sounds like it.)

And superbly shot! The train and the camel caravan was one, and the shadowplay at sunset.

Felu, I have to say, leaves Byomkesh Bakshi eating his dust.

[frangipani]

I may have expressed before in this forum a strong desire to slap Topshe at various points in this movie! :-)

Glad you liked it, H! I never tire of seeing the scene where Lalmohanbabu is stretching, after the uncomfortable camel ride. Or the train/camel sequence. Or the manganiyar song. Or the two Mukuls' interviews. Or the scorpion. Or the conversations in the taxis.

I also love the music in it.

[hibiscus]

Fran, this is one movie I'm going to buy. I know I will enjoy repeated viewings - the cinematography itself is enough. (I quite liked Topshe, actually, and would like to be him. ) Even the kids are so non-irritating and real. In stark contrast to the generally infuriating portrayal of kids in cinema.

[shyama]

The Twilight Saga: New Moon- Pattinson and Lautner :swoon:

Ajab Prem Ki Gajab Kahani- The movie was so gajab it made no sense at all. Hope RK doesn't fall into the quintessential next door boy trap.

Wanted- A very poor remake of the Tamil version Pokkiri. Salman is nothing to Southie Vijay who exuded an identity all of his own, the comic element that was an intrinsic part of the tamil version turns pathetic here and Ayesha Takia goes anaemic in comparison to Asin's act in Tamil. In totality, a poor version.

This post has been edited by shyama: Nov 29 2009, 11:09 PM

[frangipani]

A summary in case anybody's considering going to see Kurbaan

[lekha]

two part series on BBC - death in holy orders - quite gripping, but if you haven't read the book, i can imagine the confusion - labyrinthine subplots. i'm also not sure whether i like martin shaw as dalgliesh. and miskin's character was irritating.

[deedawar]

two part series on BBC - death in holy orders - quite gripping, but if you haven't read the book, i can imagine the confusion - labyrinthine subplots. i'm also not sure whether i like martin shaw as dalgliesh. and miskin's character was irritating.

Martin Shaw is lovely, esp. as Judge John Deed.

[seeker]

A summary in case anybody's considering going to see Kurbaan

this is hilarious

[shyama]

A summary in case anybody's considering going to see Kurbaan

this is hilarious

I second that! I had no plans to see Kurbaan either way after Newyork plus Mumbai Meri Jaan plus atleast five other whatever-the-name-of-the-movies with terrorism as subtexts over the last 6 months. I am plain done with terrorism. And I just can't work up enough excitement over the Kareena-Saif pair either, with or without shirts, blouses et al.

[frangipani]

I should have put the link in 'new bollywood movie recommendations' instead of this one. Cause I'm not watching it either.
There's a funny summary there of another of Priyadarshan's movies. De Dana Dan or something.

[sadanand]

So I went and saw Kurbaan last weekend. No see Bollywood flick after Kaminey. It was hilarious. Other than noticing BB I saw SAK was begining to get the MAS that no amount of gym visits will get rid off , unless you run TM or do what Miss Fish Sticks does.
We did not laugh in the theatre. It would have spoilt the tense atmosphere.
In defence of the movie I'll say this, that though it is inadvertently hilarious, all the folks involved were very serious and acted as if their lives depended on it. Wife and I spent the rest of the evening rationalising it .
At the end of it we decided we liked the movie very much.
After all if I can see Die Hard I can see anything.

Of course I would not waste money on this thing but it will be a good thing to watch with friends, samosas, tea, single malts, what have you and a healthy sense of wonderment.



BB = Bebo's back (not as in Arnold Shivajinagar's "I'll be back" but anatomically speaking)
SAK = Junior Tiger (offspring of Tiger PAT and Latagore (BT))
MAS = Middle age spread
TM = Ten Miles
Miss Fish Sticks = GP or Wildflowers favourite actress.