Cloverfield: One Long YouTube Video

I’ve never been one to be completely swayed into seeing or not seeing a movie based solely on reviews, especially from jaded movie critics, but I definitely should have listened when it came to Cloverfield. The concept was promising– an entire movie filmed via amateur commercial video camera, complete with shaky images and shots that were in-and-out of focus, possibly causing some viewers to go into epileptic shock. It certainly made for interesting, anti-formulaic rendering of this monster-invades-New York offering.

But the concept isn’t original; the Blair Witch Project paved the way on seeing the world from a digicam’s view lens. This, however, was also Cloverfield’s Achilles heel, as we were privy only to the scenes captured by the reluctant cameraman (in this case, one of the movie’s characters). Were there scenes that could’ve had a stronger impact had they been filmed differently? Maybe. Where this movie succeeded is the suspenseful nature in which some of the scenes were depicted. There were many a time when I actually found myself having unknowingly gripped the armrests of my seat.

If you were expecting the movie to live up to the hype the ambiguous trailers had caused, you may be disappointed, what with the oft vacuous dialogue and clichéish characterization that it also came with. But, if you want to see it for the pure pleasure of watching yet something else wreak havoc on the Big Apple while her hapless inhabitants try to make sense of it all, then go see the film. You may want to hold off on the popcorn, however; you’ll find that there’s already plenty of corn in the movie.

On This Day in 1993: André the Giant Passed Away

André René Roussimoff, known worldwide as wrestling’s Andre the Giant, died in his sleep today in 1993, at the age of 46, from congestive heart failure. He played a lovable character named Fezzik in one of my most favorite films of all time, “The Princess Bride” (shown in picture above with co-stars Mandy Patinkin, who played Iñigo Montoya, and Wallace Shawn, who played the wily Sicilian, Vizzini). The funniest moment of many was when he uttered a memorable line in the following exchange involving the three characters above:

Iñigo Montoya: That Vizzini, he can *fuss*.
Fezzik: Fuss, fuss… I think he like to scream at *us*.
Iñigo Montoya: Probably he means no *harm*.
Fezzik: He’s really very short on *charm*.
Iñigo Montoya: You have a great gift for rhyme.
Fezzik: Yes, yes, some of the time.
Vizzini: Enough of that.
Iñigo Montoya: Fezzik, are there rocks ahead?
Fezzik: If there are, we all be dead.
Vizzini: No more rhyming now, I mean it.
Fezzik: Anybody want a peanut?
Vizzini: DYEEAAHHHHHH.

Bwahahahaha! (Okay, you had to be there…) Ah, Mr. Roussimoff, you are missed.

Aishwarya Rai

Speaking of Bollywood, do you know about Aishwarya Rai, dubbed as the most beautiful woman in the world? I recently saw the movie “The Last Legion,” and rather than treat you to a virtual castigation of such a juvenile movie, I’d like to focus on Ms. Rai. As I’d mentioned before, I was into Bollywood films for awhile. Ironically, in the over 50 Bollywood films that I watched over a two-year period, Aishwarya wasn’t in any of them. It took a goofy Bollywood “Pride & Prejudice” re-imagining called “Bride & Prejudice” to introduce me to this beauty.

Sadly, Aishwarya is married to Bollywood actor, Abhishek Bachchan, who most likely would be dubbed as the luckiest bastard in the world. Winning the Miss World competition in 1994 helped usher Aishwarya into acting, with her first two films released in 1997. “Bride & Prejudice” was also released in the U.S. in 2005, helping to introduce Aishwarya to non-Bollywood audiences. She will be appearing in an upcoming “The Pink Panther” reissue, and I hope that her face and, uh, talents will be a mainstay in Western entertainment for many years to come.