HOODWINKED (8)

I liked it. It was funny. It was also really strange. I don't know it's numbers, how well it did in the theater and how the DVD sales are going but I'm gonna tell my older sister to buy it for her kids. I think they'll like the singing goat and the frantic squirrel and the snowboarding grandma and the hip treat-delivery girl Red. They probably won't be so much into the thespian woodcutter but that's okay, the dective frog makes up for it.

Entertaining, different, and not saccarine. A good film.

BAD SANTA -- by naudy (6)

BAD SANTA was one of those movies I wanted to see but always forgot about. Fortunately Comedy Central showed it several times yesterday and so I finally remembered to watch it. Well, I watched most of it since the film was edited for content and a majority of the film was silent due to bad language being deleted out. Which was okay 'cause the only reason I watched it was to see Billy Bob Thornton sit around in a Santa suit and drink. If that's the reason you're wanting to watch this movie, then you're in luck 'cause that's practically all he does. Drink and pick up on girls and look sweaty. Fortunately he also manages to crack safes, beat up on skateboard punks, accuse a mall manager of discriminating against his African-American little person partner, and steal a pink elephant. And drink.

It's not exactly heartwarming but I liked it.

PAHELI -- by naudy (3)

The lesson for the weeks is this:

"Release yourself from expectations."

PAHELI was the movie sent to the Academy of Motion Pictures as Bollywood's entry for the "Best Foreign Film" category and I don't know why. I admit that I had high hopes for this film. I came to it expecting it to be good. Anything that India felt would be worth an Oscar should be magical, or at least pack a social punch.

PAHELI completely let me down. It's well shot, has actual special effects, beautiful costumes, nice songs, and is utterly irrevocably shallow. Based on a novel by Vijayadan Detha, it's supposed to be all folk tale and lovely-quaint. Instead it's a Sha Ruk Khan movie. You can tell because he's shirtless. Add a pretty girl with green eyes and a complete lack of moral/emotional depth and it's a hit!

I'm going to go back to high school English here, but isn't drama based on personal growth? Isn't that why we watch it, to experience the struggles of a character's choices and consequences? We enjoy seeing people learn, watching folks make decisions, sitting back and looking at people fight though the mess of their lives, be those lives real or imagined. PAHELI dosn't have any character development. No one learns anything. Really. I would explain the story to you but there's no point.

I do have to admit that if you watched PAHELI fully expecting it to be lousy, you might like it for the oversaturated visual beauty that defines the film. Unfortunately, I couldn't. Next time I will seek to release myself from all expectation and perhaps I'll actually enjoy myself.