King Kong Rules
King Kong is one of the best films I have seen - EVER! I mean, ok, the end is tragic, but maybe that really made the film what it was. The director, Peter Jackson first makes you wait in terrified anticipation for the beast, then be horrified by it, root for it in the totally stupendous fight scenes, and then finally pity it. All that in a span of just 3 hours! Beat that Sam Raimi.
I have never been a monster movie fan. I don't think I have seen Godzilla completely even when it was shown on TV. I just happen to know about Mighty Joe Young because of the stupid title. But you have to hand it to these Peter Jackson. He made a fan outta me.
The Japanese have always been rabid fans of monster movies. That probably explains why there have been 28 (no you read it properly, twenty eight) Godzilla films made in Japan till date. Starting from the 1954 original, there has been a film more than once in two years! According to me, thats crazy. How many times can you watch a man in a rubber costume destroy Tokyo? Well, it seems not many times. So the film makers decided 'lets have more than one man in a rubber costume destroy Tokyo'. And so almost every film after the first one had Godzilla battling other monsters in (where else) Tokyo. All along, denizens of Japan ran helter skelter screaming 'Gojira! Gojira!'. (The say 'Gojira' because the don't have an 'el' sound in there language. Thanks for that one abstractwhiz).
Anyway, so back to King Kong. He battles 4 T-Rex's single handedly (literally single handedly because he is clutching Naomi Watts in the other hand/paw). He climbs up the empire state building, destroys three airplanes, fights of bats the size of a car and enthralls you with his....Acting. Kong is played by Andy Serkis(who also played Gollum in LOTR). Though he is not wearing a rubber suit, he wears a digital one. Andy's movements are captured and shown as Kong's. It seems Andy went to Africa in order to study the movements of wild gorilla's. (Man! To have his job....). This guy also plays lumpy the cook in the film. This is the double role in which the two characters look least similar!!
Everyone should really really watch this movie. Its more than totally Paisa Vasool. I would have paid the admission price just top see the awesome fight scenes. And believe me, the movie in its entirety is better than the fight scenes. So this one is really worth a watch.
Found in Cyberspace
In the late 1990's Star TV was kind enough to telecast a series called 'Lost in Space'. This is till today one of my favorite shows on TV. Its about a family - The Robinsons who are headed for a planet in the Alpha Centauri(!) system. After a failed sabotage attempt by the eveer scheming Dr. Zachary Smith, their ship -The Jupiter 2 veers of course. They are now 'lost in space'.
Though it was basically a science fiction oriented show, it was hilarious too. There were two reasons for this:
1. This one was unintentional: the original series was made in 1965 while it was shown here in 1997. According to the story, the Jupiter 2 would be launched in (hold your breath) 1998. Yes, the Jupiter 2 - manned spaceship capable of faster than light travel, equipped with a humanoid robot with artificial intelligence, suspended animation for the crew and the like - would be launched in 1998!!
2. The other reason was, of course the aforementioned Dr. Smith. He was amazing. Sort of like Tantri the Mantri (from Tinkle comics) in space. All his plots failed but he kept on trying nonetheless. He was also known for his smithisms - the insults he gave away very graciously.
These insults are what i have found in cyberspace. Check them out
here. They are too cool.
I saw a movie yesterday called Evil Dead 2 on Star Movies. What a cool movie. Its basically a slasher directed by Sam Raimi (director of the Spiderman movies). Its relentless in its display of blood, gore, severed body parts - works. And this unshamed all-outness of the movie is why it really works. Plus a really nice ending (which, by the way inspired a sequel!).
What made this movie experience even better is that I gound a lot of stuff about it on the net. Especially great was the fan fiction. And all this together made it an amazing movie experience.
Talk about Coincidence!
After I wrote the earlier entry,
see what I found. It has begun... ?
My thoughts on India: Part 1
I recently read Chetan Bhagat's second book. This one is called
One Night at the Call Centre. I had read his first offering. That one was called
5 Point Someone. The title is an allusion to the IIT' method of ranking students in the form of a Cumulative Point Index(CPI).
5 Point... was a really nice book. Very funny, and really un-put-downable. But it did not address any issues as such. With the possible exception of, well, 'what not to do at IIT' as its cover page declared. That was fine since it was meant to be a novel.
His new book, however, talks about a bunch of people working in a call centre. I won't delve into the story - its great and you should read it for yourself. But I'll talk about one of the things this book addresses. One of the characters, Vroom, hates the fact that he has to answer calls about repairing microwaves, ACs and the like all night. And all these calls are from some guy halfway across the globe. He believes that him working in a BPO isn't doing his country any good at all. This is also a somewhat recurring thought in the book.
Now, the writer got his share of brickbats for badmouthing what is, without doubt the current blue eyed boy of the Indian Industry right now - the Service Sector. But it got me thinking - is the service sector really going to help us get what we really want - a first world status? Which leads us to the question, what is it exactly that a first world country has that we need to get.
1. Good Infrastructure as against Bad infrastructure(I know, *doh!*)
2. Products as against Services
And I know one thing for sure. There is only one section of our society that can help our country get both of these. Technically Educated Youth*.
I will be delving into this issue in the days to come. I have quite a bit to say about this. Any suggestions are more than welcome.
*Technically Educated Youth: Technically does not mean people from professional colleges alone; Educated does not mean
formally educated; youth means anyone (cliche alert) young at heart!
Also please read
this article by Chidanand Rajghatta. He is a columnist in the Times of India. His Column, Indiaspora can be found on the edit page every Sunday.
More what they say ---- what they mean
Diploma student saying anything ---- Paper may have been good, bad, ok anthing. The real problem is that i'm a bit disoriented 'coz I haven't completed an assignment way ahead of schedule for a very long time now!
Answering Hrishikesh's query. I fit squarely into the following type
Anyone saying 'accha tha', 'sahi tha', 'good paper' ---- paper was much much better than expected but ill play down the excitement till the results come out and I get 75+ then go about telling people 'i don't know how this happened' and hope they think i'm really humble and cool. And intelligently sexy.
And it really works!
Two papers down and so am I!
Digital Communication and Computer Networks. Two papers with the biggest syllabi we have had to face yet. And that too in a span of three days!
It is said that
'Hardship is a time of discoveries'. There were some interesting ones in the past few days:
1. I laugh or at least smile when tense. Mind you, this is very different from what is suggested by expressions such as '
Laughing in the face of danger' and the like.
2. What Engineering students say after papers and what they
really mean.
- Muggu* saying 'OK paper' ---- I studied like crazy and basically made my life a living hell in order to score more than 80 but goddamit I think Ill get around 75
- Scholarly type sayng 'OK paper' ---- I hadn't studied much coz' I was reading things which really matter. But my abnormally large IQ and vast storehouse of knowledge will easily get me a first class, hell maybe even a distinction. Anyway it doesn't matter coz' when it comes to engineers, I'm the real McCoy! (In the original Star Trek, when it came to doctors, they had the reall McCoy. *wink*)
- Girl saying 'Bad paper' ---- Bad Paper
- Girl saying 'Bad paper' whilst giggling and trying to look cute ---- Great paper. I'm only lying coz' it makes my hair look good. It does, doesn't it?
- Anyone saying '*whimper*' before strarting to cry ---- What paper? oh there are six months more for that one. (*wink*)
- Anyone saying 'accha tha', 'sahi tha', 'good paper' ---- paper was much much better than expected but ill play down the excitement till the results come out and I get 75+ then go about telling people 'i don't know how this happened' and hope they think i'm really humble and cool. And intelligently sexy.
- Anyone saying 'Amazing Paper' ---- (this guy is probably new to Mumbai University Engineering) This paper was just like the 12th standard one. COOL. (hint to newbie: wait for your results before declaring 'Amazing Paper').
*Muggu: Term originated in IIT during my fathers time there. Means someone with the IQ of a flea, which has dyslexia and is dead. However, this someone has more relaible memory than your new state of the art HDD.
