IMDB 250 - Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)

Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001)

This movie is 3 hours, 44 Minutes and 29 Seconds long. Feel free to stop reading the review now because that pretty much tells you all you need to know.

"Lagaan" is a movie about an Indian town in colonial times who challenges the Evil British to a game of cricket. If the villagers win (in a game they don't know anything about) they will not have to pay the back-breaking taxes levied on them. If they lose, they'll have to pay triple.

I say "The Evil British" because the movie makes sure to avoid all nuance and subtlety. The Good Guy is good all the time and is never not good. The Bad Guy is a mustache twirling baddy who has no redeeming qualities. In one of his first scenes, the main bad guy ("Captain Evil") meets a vegetarian and makes him eat meat. But it's against his religion, the man protests, and besides what does Captain Evil even get out of it? Nothing, but he's just pure evil and, as we need to keep the movie under 4 hours, he needs to be established as pure evil.

Following the Good Guy everywhere is the terrifically attractive Love Interest who makes her affections obvious. The Good Guy doesn't seem to notice or care. What is he thinking? Will they ever be together? Then mid-way through the movie he declares that he loves the Love Interest. Why did he not say anything before this? Because that wouldn't be contrived enough for this story.

Of course the movie ends with the climactic BIG GAME... The Big Game... of Cricket. In between song and dance numbers, the movie packs in every cliche from every terrible sports movie ever made by humans. Heightening the action slightly is that it's cricket and I have no idea what's going on. At the midway point of the match the score is 273-3 and it's not looking good for our heroes but there's always a chance that they'll make a miraculous comeback. And at that point in the movie, I knew I was nearing the end and looked at the time... still an hour left. Have you ever "neared" the end of a movie and there was still an entire hour left to go?! I have.

4/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 380.

Freestylin' with The Roots #1

For the first time on The Tonight Show, it's time to freestyle with The Roots:

Randy Newman & The Roots

Randy Newman was on the Tonight Show and used The Roots as his backing band. With a nod to the fact that The Tonight Show has moved from L.A. to New York, they performed "I Love L.A."

Randy Newman's songs are famously sarcastic but "I Love L.A."

Embedding doesn't seem to work but you can see the video here.

IMDB 250 - Underground (1995)

Underground (1995)

My first impression watching "Underground" was that it reminded me a lot of "Black Cat, White Cat" and it turned out that it has the same director. So that's a private victory for me.

"Underground" is a Yugoslavian film that follows a group of characters from the beginning of World War II, to the end of the war, through the Cold War until the Yugoslav Wars. It doesn't play the comedy as comedy or tragedy as tragedy, it simply presents life as a series of strange, chaotic and unpredictable events.

I feel I've been saying things like "it's not a bad movie, it just didn't do anything for me" way too often lately. So, I'll skip that. It doesn't help that as charming as some of this movie is, it's almost 3 hours long. I remember liking "Black Cat White Cat" though.

5/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 379.

IMDB 250 - Rush (2013)

Rush (2013)



I'm definitely not a racing fan myself and so I was excited to see "Rush" as an interesting peek into that world. I'll put aside the fact that "I don't get it" and see if the movie depiction of Formula 1 racing can communicate the excitement of the sport, the adrenaline-pumping speed and the reason it stirs so much passion in the fans. The obvious equivalent is "Days of Thunder", of course. I can't stand NASCAR but still really enjoy watching that movie.

But the definitive movie about indie car racing doesn't really focus on indie car racing (or focus enough for my taste). The movie is a true story about two rival drivers (James Hunt and Niki Lauda) from the seventies. In the first half of the movie we see them attracting women, we see them wooing women, we see them getting married, we see things go badly and the divorce that follows. Why should we care about any of this? Show us the racing, show us what makes these people special, show us why they're the best. On that front, the movie is content to resort to exposition - they just put "James wins" on the screen in nice titles.

The second half of the movie steps it up a little bit with some nice racing sequences but overall I don't care about either of these characters, I don't care how many women they've been with and, even going into it with no knowledge of the sport, I really didn't learn anything about Formula One. It made it into the Top 250 though. So, like Formula One itself, certainly some people out there must be enjoying it but I don't get it at all.

4/10.
Total "Top 250" Movies Seen: 378.

Late Night - Episode #2

Can you imagine if I posted a review for every episode of Late Night? Don't worry.

Just a few notes. It's only the second episode and still it was a huge improvement over the first. The monologue was much more conversational and the yelling has been almost completely eliminated. It seemed he still had a tendency to attempt it and had to consciously make an effort to ratchet it back.

The comedy piece was one where "audience members" stand up and start complaining about the show to Seth. Sure, it's not a groundbreaking concept but it was pleasantly reminiscent of Conan's Late Night.

The first guest was Kanye West - a notoriously tricky interview but it was handled well.

Overall, much, much, better. I still have to question whether I really want to commit to three talk shows every weekday but it's at least more tempting than it was yesterday. There's definite potential here.