Slumdog is OVERRATED
Posted by Matt Rosenberg on February 20, 2009 at 6:00 am
Overrated
I know, I know! Everyone loves Slumdog Millionaire. I’ve heard people saying it’s one of the best movies ever. My roommates Grandparents actually claimed it might be there favorite movie, and to this I say COME ON!
This movie was very good, and very good at best. It was not great. The plot was very interesting and definitely something new for the American film viewing audience. I think people were blown away about how original and likeable the story is. But seriously let’s be honest the film is not as good as people say. There where times I was straight bored in this film, and you don’t say this when your talking about an incredible film.
Dev Patel’s face is annoying and pretty much straight stupid. Yes, he has a stupid face. His utter obliviousness in
Stupid Face
many of the scenes was a bit tough to watch. I give the character respect for such a difficult life, but that does not give you the right to have stupid facial expressions for everything.
And now to the host of the show. “Who wants to be a Mill-uhhh-Naire”? If you can honestly say that you were not irritated by this then you were either on xanex or lying. At first it was hilarious. The second time it was funny. The third time I chuckled. The fourth time I wanted to dump him in a pile of poo.
On a positive note, the movie was well written and original. The child actors should be ones commended for their performance, not Frieda Pinto and Dev Patel. They truly captured the film. We all were sobbing for these kids, not their adult versions. The Direction was top notch and Danny Boyle deserves the credit he is receiving. He was really able to develop many personalities in this film well and appeal to the viewing audience’s emotions. I for one definitely felt awful for these kids and at the same time incredibly impressed how they were able to survive. I do want to add that India itself did have a huge role as a character, and Boyle was able to capture the country beautifully.
I will leave with these parting words. Slumdog is overrated dance of the dead divx download . The movie is receiving too much credit for simply a well made film. That’s it, just well made. There are a number of films that deserve to win Best Picture this weekend over Slumdog. Feel free to let us know what you think, and which film should win this weekend.
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I disagree, I thought it was the best movie of the year, and think it should win for best picture. The story itself would have been emotional and touching without the concept of the millionaire. That added a nice spice to the movie to make it unique. Very well acted with all new faces. The directing was fantastic and he will probably be the new it director. The soundtrack was also extremely well done with a mix of dance, indian music, and hip hop. Overall a very solid movie that will be remembered for a long time.
I think Blade is the best film of all time.
One of the best movies EVER? Hell no. One of the best movies this year? Yes. I loved it. I think it deserves the nomination and it wouldn’t be wrong if it got the win. Personally, I loved Crash, but didn’t think it should have won for best picture. Although, I have to say, the Oscars are a bunch o’crap most years anyway, because the Academy can’t decide if it’s awarding the best of the indie/arthouse set or the best of the commercial successes. Pick one.
PS, I agree with your point about the child actors vs. Patel and Pinto. What is so great about either of them? Still doesn’t take anything away from the film!
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@DebtHater I agree that this might not be one of best of all time, but clearly deserves for the year. It does have a lot of similarities to Crash in the sense it was a small no name picture that came out of no where and built buzz to come to the point where it is. I think in this down year of movies it will be the reason it wins, same as Crash did, something new and fresh.
Craig’s last blog post..Slumdog is OVERRATED
Matt this came up on my Facebook homepage and I gotta say that it’s nice to finally read a review about this film that doesn’t say that it’s the best movie of all time. While this movie was pretty good, like you said, there’s no way it deserves the accolades it’s getting. I think people like the underdog factor of the movie so that makes them think its better than it is.
I still haven’t seen all the Oscar nominated movies this year but the ones I did see (Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon) were nothing impressive themselves. Benjamin Button was just a shitty Forrest Gump and Frost/Nixon wasn’t interesting until the last 10 minutes. I’m gonna see The Wrestler this wknd, so hopefully that manages to salvage the year in movies for me.
As much as i like your view on this issue,and a change of seeing a different opinion of this film, i must disagree, but only in small terms. The film Was very good, but by no means Over Rated. Going by the awards alone, this film in many people’s eyes is well deserving of the Title Best Film. It was an excellent original story, and it touches so many peoples hearts. The film was well directed, and had beautiful settings.I am positive that this film will win the Oscar, never have i been so certain about an awards winning. Over rated, i dont think so, but best film ever, im not so sure.
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@justrobby I feel the same way with you, def not overrated. It may be seen in a higher class than the others because this year was a down year in movies. I think this movie deserves much more to win movie of the year than No Country For Old Men did last year
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Yo Matt, u wrong dawg. This movie was sick. I enjoyed every minute of it. I especially liked the music- no one on the corna have a swagga like us. I am VERY disappointed with your review. Will Slumdog Millionaire win the oscar for best picture?
My hubbie and I danced through the whole movie! I’m definitely getting that soundtrack. Movie IS AWESOME! I saw a 10:30 pm show and I had been up that day since 3 am and I didn’t even bat an eye to fall asleep. Incredible story of hope and not allowing your past circumstances to hold you down. This is one of the few movies that win best picture that I agree with the Academy.
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@Naomi I feel the same way. I went to see the movie by myself on a Sunday afternoon and was wide eyed the whole time. It hit all emotions for me and was one of the rare movies where I really left the theater happy. I bought a few songs off of itunes, very solid. I recommend the soundtrack as well.
@Naomi and Craig,
I think you both need to get off the Slumdog band wagon. Perhaps I was in a bad mood seeing this movie. I liked a lot, but come on. It’s not that good. What is going on here. Gran Torino was still the most deserving movie this year and somehow did not get nominated. Highway robbery right there.
How does Dev Patel’s face not piss you off?
SO overrated! Yes different, clever at times, but also in need of a good editor. Yes I got it, slums, yes horrid squalid surroundings, yes, bad brother…the scenes of poop and poverty nearly had me screaming for the exit. This was not a 5 star film, but it was clever with excellent music. Now lets see how the now-multitrillionaire filmmakers will help the poor people they used to make this movie in the 1st place.
@Bekke A lot of people share your opinion, the editing was different though, I’m curious to which parts specifically you thought the editing could have been different? I still think it was an excellent movie, and looking forward to it coming out on DVD to watch it again.
I’m thinking about giving the film another viewing, at whatever point in time.
But I still can’t shake off the utter lack of memorability of the characters, even if the film is blantly manipulative. Cardboard, indeed. They all lack any distinctiveness or definition. Other than the host of the show (whose turn is more or less telegraphed moments before he becomes bad), every character fullfils the promise of what they’re pressumed to be, the good guys as good and the seemingly bad as bad, with hardly any conflict individually. One might say Jamaal’s brother has some, but then his demise was quite predictable as well. It’s just pretty mechanical, and, indeed, limits itself to be not much more than decent or good.
Jamaal has perhaps some definition of his own, if not for all the stereotypical boy-from-rags characterization. And I guess its just sheer luck that Latika turned out to be the innocent, beautiful young girl we wanted her to be when she grows-up. But then again, it is “written.”
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@Alex I agree that the acting was very one dimensional. I loved the movie but do think that the weak spot was the acting. Both characters didn’t impress me, again their roles were very simple to emulate and they weren’t fully in the movie. I really liked how the younger children played in their roles and to me they were more recognizable and distinctive than the older actors. In a lot of ways the story had the simple hollywood story you would expect and maybe because of it the characters didn’t have a lot of range to them. In terms of an overall movie though, I still think it was clearly the best movie of the year out of a bad bunch and deserved to have won.
@Alex, We at the movie banter appreciate your feedback and even happier that you agree with atleast one half of us. I cannot agree with more with you that this move did lack memorability. The acting is this movie can really only be judged one an individual character level. Such as, the kids were great, their older counterparts were not. And yes, it was rather convenient that Latika grew up to be beautiful. The movie was very good, but that’s it. I also think the cutting was confusing and a little nauseating. But that’s an editing issue. I don’t want to sit here and rip apart this movie, because I did enjoy it. I think I’m just getting ticked off by all the accolades it is receiving. Please feel free to ask us any questions and give us additional feedback
@Bekke, Agreed on all points. I do need to give it another watch, but both Gran Torino and Milk are more deserving movies. Hopefully the people involved in this movie actually try to make a difference in the India slums. They did the children actors out of them. So that’s a start
You have to give praise to the fact that these sort of stories DO happen in other countries and is based on their culture. There are children who are being kept like the way the movie portrayed, if you went abroad, I am very sure you will give more credit to the movie. I agree that the children should be getting a lot more credit because their acting were superb. I don’t think that Patel has a stupid face, it’s just the way he was born with. Besides, there were a lot of cultural aspects to this…the way they express, talked, and etc. Best movie of the year, I say yes. Of the whole time? ehhhh… depends. If I was to say of the Indian movies, yes…but, the whole world’s…dun think so.
This is the most overrated movie of all time. It has simple characters, a simple story, and is for simple audiences. And it was NOT violent. It should have been rated PG-13. How was this interesting to any of you? The summary: An Indian kid goes on a game show and wins money. They think he’s cheating. He tells them about his hard life. He wins the million dollars and finds his true love. That is the most pathetic feel-good story I’ve ever heard. The movie would of been good if they just focused only on the realtionship between him and his brother, and took the gameshow part out. Also how can you take drama seriously when they dance at the end. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.