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As many of you have surmised, I’m not a big fan of
Fox. For example, Fox recently goofed up and sent the RENTAL
DVDs out in the packages for the RETAIL versions. The difference
you see is that Fox doesn’t believe that renters deserve
special features. Since they are renting the movie, they
only deserve to watch the movie and get nothing else for
their time and effort to actually watch a film. Heaven forbid
that those who rent them might actually consider BUYING
the DVD because they enjoyed the movie so much. This is
the latest in Fox’s campaign to be cheap and not give consumers
full value for their money. Sure everyone has to tighten
the belt but not at the expense of their customers even
if they are “rental” customers. Between this and Netflix’s
idiotic decision to charge those who rent DVDs and Blu-ray’s
$4.00 in addition to their $19.00 for 3 movies a month (it
varies depending on the movies you rent a month I might
add) after already tacking on an additional $1.00 for those
who rent Blu-rays (never mind that you may not actual get
those Blu-rays because of the long wait times). Netflix’s
reason is simple—they want to BUY more Blu-rays and charge
folks now for it so they can have more to rent in the future.
By that definition every time a retailer stocks a new item
on the shelf ALL the prices for everything someone might
buy at, say, the supermarket should increase as well. It’s
twisted logic that takes advantage of their customers in
a very bad economy. It’s wrong. It’s an example of the corporate
greed that caused the music business to go under. Consumers
shouldn’t stand for it. ***
Why have I gone into all of this? Because Fox who refuses
to provide extras for their customers also refuses to provide
Blu-rays for those reviewing them for various sites. Netflix
didn’t have any Blu-rays available for “Slumdog Millionaire”
because they were too busy overcharging customers for Blu-rays
they hadn’t bought yet (never mind that they make the money
on rentals and can sell excess copies later at a profit).
So I had to wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. I would have rented
the crummy DVD and done a review for THAT but, well, it
doesn’t have any extras so it doesn’t reflect what you might
get if you buy it (it would reflect the crummy deal you
got if you rented it). So my review was delayed and although
I can recommend “Slumdog Millionaire” for the Blu-ray crowd
I went out and bought the damn thing. I wouldn’t care but
you see I write so many reviews that if I did that for every
review I would go broke and this gig doesn’t pay the big
bucks. ***
Usually the Academy gets Best Picture wrong because
of the critical mass that builds up behind those films touted
for Best Picture. I’m not going to say that the Academy
got it right here either because there are other films I
would consider for Best Picture some of which didn’t even
get nominated. “Slumdog Millionaire” is a exceptionally
good film. I’m a fan of Danny Boyle’s and just about every
genre he touches he turns to gold (or if not gold tarnished
silver). ***
“Slumdog Millionaire” focuses on Jamal Malik who astonishes
India when he continues to win against the odds on the Indian
version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”. Malik comes
from the slums of India and he represents a beacon of hope
to those equally disadvantaged but his display of knowledge
makes the host of the show suspicious. He’s turned over
to the police who torture him and he must demonstrate to
them how he knew all the answers while watching a videotape
of the show he appeared on. As the show unfolds so does
his life including the violence, poverty and hope that he
experienced growing up in India. The worst two blows—the
murder of his mother which he witnesses and the loss of
another orphaned girl named Latika that he falls in love
and loses track of—drive him. He hopes to find her again.
***
“Slumdog Millionaire” is an exceptional movie and at
times extraordinary. It’s flawed but manages to overcome
many of those flaws through the sheer determination of the
filmmakers and cast much as Jamal overcomes many of his
own trials. ---
Image & Sound:
Shot on both high def videotape and film, “Slumdog Millionaire”
looks quite good. The film receives a sharp looking transfer
that has decent skin tones and captures the stylized look
of the film. Blacks veered to dark, dark blue at times.
The flaws though are pretty minor over all. ***
The DTS-HD soundtrack utilizes the format quite well
doing a nice job of creating the ambiance of everything
from the TV studio to the slums where Jamal grows up. Dialog
is clear throughout the film.
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