Thursday 1 October 2015

Movie weekend (I-Lived and Umrika)

Last weekend was movie weekend - I decided to try a couple of unusual films and see if I liked them.

I-Lived

Ever had one of those dreams which didn't quite make sense, and then you thought, 'Hey, I'm going to tell everyone about it in a movie?' That's why I thought coming out of I-Lived.

The principle is that the main protagonist an app reviewer. He tries an app called I-Lived which promises to improve your life. You enter your goal and it gives you things to do to achieve it. He gets what he wants and then wants to stop, but then bad things start happening. He realises that 'I-Lived' is 'Devil-I' backwards (not really a spoiler). He realises he's now owned and does the increasingly twisted things. There is a laughable speech at the end.

So there was only 5 people in the cinema for this movie including myself. 2 walked out (I assume because it was so bad). The other 2 guys were saying it was a poor film, but debating the hotness of the girlfriend:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1686536/

Me? Just didnt get the film.

Umrika

This is a Hindi movie about a brother who goes to investigate when his older brother, who has travelled to America, stops sending letters back home to India. It is in Hindi with English subtitles.

I don't really want to go into too much more but it is a great movie - very emotional, and going into family and love. It's less than 2 hours as well! It's one of those movies which does show a lot of beautiful scenery as well. Its a good Sunday afternoon movie, there are some surprises as well so it's not a predictable movie.

I found out after that the actors in the movie had also been in big films such as Life of Pi, Grand Budapest Hotel and Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It does show as a well-acted movie, where the emotion and atmosphere does come through. One thing I didn't realise though until 15 minutes in is that 'Umrika' is Hindi for 'America'. That's my fault though.

NEXT TIME: AFL SPECIAL - a Brits' view on the whole thing. And some suggestions on how to improve the sport.