needlessly messianic articles written by ankur banerjee on anything that catches his fancy, which is quite a lot indeed - stuff like tech, quizzing, h2g2 - and cups of filthy liquid almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea
Isaac Hayes, the singer, died day before yesterday - but he’ll probably be better remembered (at least by me) in the role of Chef in the South Park TV series. Too bad that he left the series over a silly dispute on Scientology, especially since everyone in South Park seemed to liked his ‘chocolate salty balls’. Till the time he was on air, he used to be quite funny, with his constant advice on how to ‘lay women down by the fire’. This particular picture on the right was a parody of the Star Wars series movie Revenge of the Sith, where Chef is dressed up as Darth Vader (complete with a glowing spatula). This episode was especially funny, as they ripped Scientology apart once again. Now only if Matt Stone and Trey Parker would get back to their humorous streak…
Chef in the South Park episode Scott Tenorman Must Die (that one was so AWESOME, to use Cartman's catchphrase)
Gattaca (Yahoo! Movies page) My rating: C (Mediocre) Directed by: Andrew Niccol Cast: Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, Jude Law, Gore Vidal Released by: Sony Pictures
I saw Gattaca on Set Pix a few days ago…and I was greatly disappointed. I’d come across this movie on many ‘Greatest Sci-Fi Movies of All Time’ sort of lists, and had come to expect a lot from this movie. It must be something to have stayed at the top of so many lists. Sadly, it falls short of expectations. It’s hardly a ’sci-fi’ movie at all! It’s more of a human drama, a love story maybe with a futuristic setting, but true-blue science fiction it most definitely isn’t.
Plot development is very one-dimensional, because it focuses only on the fact that societies in the future may base a lot of their structure on genetic engineering. Ethan Hawke as the genetically invalid trying to go to a space settlement in Titan (a moon of Saturn) - that’s the end of the story. Oh, and with a love affair thrown in as an afterthought, which only develops in the last few minutes of the movie. I understand low budget, but this movie is pants! Those black-and-white monitors which act as biometric security gates look like they’ve been bought second-hand from the sets of 1984! They should take a few lessons from Kurt Wimmer on how to make a classy looking sci-fi movie on a low budget, like Equilibrium. It would also help to take advice on how to work with pathetic actors like Ethan Hawke.
Ethan Hawke’s portrayal of the character, while not as wooden and expressionless as other actors like Christian Bale, leaves a lot to be desired. I rather thought Jude Law as the crippled but genetically superior guy was exceptional in his role. He was the only person who gave a stellar performance in that movie. You also get to see a young Uma Thurman, who for once looks good; unlike her later movies where her age clearly shows. Uma Thurman’s character hardly gets to play anything, except in the last few minutes; that too seems like an afterthought to give a romantic angle.
Gattaca was a great disappointment for me, specifically because it was pitched as a science fiction movie, which it isn’t. Maybe if I had seen it expecting a drama, I’d have given it a higher rating. Maybe. Because Ethan Hawke isn’t going to win any awards soon.
I happened to be channel surfing today, and accidentally ended up at (horror of horrors) Star Plus. They had another of those idiotic song reality shows going on, called Voice of India or something. I watched it for a while, and although I’ve never seen it earlier, I could tell that their anchor guy doesn’t seem to be enjoying the show. He constantly has a facial expression which seems to have been brought about by the fact that someone forced him to drink a whole bottle of Pudin Hara, mixed with a generous dosage of castor oil. Or maybe it’s just his paycheck. Anyway, I didn’t watch this travesty of a show for long, but during the few minutes that I *did* watch, it was quite evident that quite a few of the folk participating were nothing better than bathroom singers - and terrible ones at that. It didn’t stop the judges judges from swaying around as if a K L Saigal LP record was being played in the studio, but I’ll gloss over that fact. In fact, the judges seemed to have nothing more to mutter than sweet nothings after a contestant had their go. I guess a desi Simon Cowell won’t work with Indian audiences. The footage of the show also appears to be VERY jerky, almost as if it has been shot at a frame rate of 15 FPS. I just don’t get why people watch this kind of stuff. 20 minutes of THIS had me puking.
Just saw the finals for Lufthansa Nat Geo Genius. I admit, I hadn’t seen the prelims, and missed one semi-final, so I was quite surprised to find Kunal Malhotra among the finalists. Rajat Kapoor is a pathetic quizmaster, because he really doesn’t know how to keep excitement levels up in a quiz. He would have been a good choice if the show had been on Doordarshan, but National Geographic? Nah. And the reason I’m saying this is because I’ve seen the earlier international version of Nat Geo Genius too, and THAT was done pretty well.
More than Rajat Kapoor I think it was a fault of the production house Miditech, of Nikhil / Niret Alva. Let’s face it - Miditech is better off doing cheesy American Idol remakes, quizzing is NOT their cup of tea. I mean, this is not a singing reality show that you can drive up tension by making the anchor say (after the quiz is over) “So who has won Nat Geo Genius - is it Mr A or Mr B?” with shots of those two guys. It’s a QUIZ dammit, people KNOW who has answered more questions, especially when the scores are called out after each round.
National Geographic made a BIG mistake choosing Miditech to bring Nat Geo Genius to India; and Lufthansa made a BIG mistake sponsoring this cure for insomnia. Let’s hope the second season is better, and sensible people like Siddhartha Basu / Joy Bhattachrya / Aditya Mubayi get to host it.
