Public Enemies – an instant review

A movie that had so much potential, so much scope for not only exploring an era and the wildly interesting characters that inhabited it but also for making a fast paced action movie. And it had the people to do it – Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, America’s most wanted, Christian Bale as Melvin Purvis, the man who pursued Dillinger. Their pairing could and should have been explosive. Sadly, nothing worked – on occasions, there were only the hint of what could have been…

Dillinger was a fascinating character. The movie failed to bring it out though there were faint echoes at times. He was a charmer, a guy who did his work with style and was one of the last romantic gangsters…the movie failed to bring it out. Even his almost fairy tale romance with Billie fails to bring any energy to the screen. His growing desperation and death also seemed devoid of sentiments that the audience could have felt. His relationship with his comrades never really came off the screen. So much so, I had difficulty in recognizing at times who his men were!!! but inspite of all that, Depp rises above the loose storyline at times by the sheer power of his acting depth. Not enough to salvage the movie, however

Christian Bale is wasted. Now there are two movies in a row that I watched where this hugely talented actor as been under-utilized (the other being terminator). Here, his combat with Dillinger could have been more intense. Here you have two highly intelligent, resourceful men on opposite side of the law – perfect recipe for a mammoth showdown. It ended in a whimper, however. We don't get to know anything about the agent as a man. Remember, this was the time that FBI got formed and it was mainly due to this conflict between Dillinger and Purvis. We don't see much evidence of birth out of conflict, neither in the story, nor in the character of Purvis

All, in all, it was a movie that held so much promise and of which it gave slight glimmers at times but it ended with being just a linear cat-mouse chase story without any flesh being put on the characters. We don't get to know them. This was a movie about characters who were in  grey. The ‘bad’ guys were simply a product of their times. So were the ‘good’ guys. That borderline treatment never really came out. The characters on the screen remained strangers to us.

Watching it made me compare this movie to the ‘The Untouchables’. And that made this movie come out even poorly…

So much promise, so little delivered

del.icio.us Tags: Gangster,America,depression,movie review,johnny depp,christian Bale

Ghajini - anatomy of a success with only fluff

Its official - one of the worst movies of the year has become an all time grosser (see the article here), proving once again that more often than not, intelligent, innovative and intense marketing leads to huge profits even though the movie content and quality can be atrociously poor.

Watching Ghajini was one of the most traumatically boring experiences of my movie-going existence. It literally came to a point where you could predict the next frame. The underlying concept was of course that of the cult movie - Memento and is a fascinating one. The storyline built on that concept in the Bollywood avatar, though, was wafer thin and full of holes that a child fed on cartoons can spot; not to mention that the film dragged on for atleast 90 minutes more than it should have. The action was implausible and laughable at times. The narrative was weak and there was no thread binding the pieces of the past and present. There were unnecessary characters throughout the movie, who, in retrospect were superfluous.

The funny thing about it was that I knew all of this even before I went to see the movie. The question then is - why did I go on a cold January morning when I could have been sleeping peacefully in my quilt? The answer is this - Marketing, both of the movie and of the actor - Aamir Khan. So even though reliable sources tell you not to waste your money, you still want to go and see what all the fuss is all about.

Perversely, you also want to see how bad can it really get, considering that this was the famed "one movie a year" actor's movie and the next venture after "Taare Zameen Par", probably one of the best movies to come out of Bollywood.

So, what marketing books simply call 'personality branding' was acting itself out in real life and people flocked to see the movie all over, thus pushing up the cash register. Many people simply wanted to see the new all muscle look of Aamir with the gangster hairstyle, deuce with the story, which was turned simply into a revenge drama with lots of outlandish fight sequences.

 

The profit conscious producers got it straight on the bull eye of  course. If the hindi version had tried to replicate the memento's complex pyschological environment (which takes very close viewing to get an idea of what exactly might be transpiring) and especially the disorienting reverse chronological sequencing, the movie would have been deemed complex and would have taken the focus away from Aamir and on to the story, not something that would have made long queues.

It would have been hailed as a new bold style of film-making in Bollywood and would have become a cult classic but not much else. The movie going population love a good story but apparently not enough to make the movie a top - grosser. Otherwise, "Taare Zameen Par" or "A Wednesday" would have taken that slot.

So, in ending, the only positive that I can glean from all of this is that in times of recession, one more avenue has opened up for marketing MBAs - the movie industry; the trickle moving there can change into a torrent!!!

Since content is usually not the strongest point of an MBA education but imagery is, we would be suited for such roles. Maybe we should call them next on campus.

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