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Look what I found!

X-Files 3! Okay, so it's just speculation and rumor at this point but a fangirl can always dream of a moose and squirrel reunion. Though I can say that XF2 was kind of a bummer of a film, it did have its super cute moments and just fun to be spending time with Mulder and Scully again (funny -- I almost typed in 'Skinner' instead of Scully -- Freudian finger slip, you think?). Here's a debunked rumor and here's a placeholder for a film due in 2012. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I'd watch Mulder and Scully read a phone book, though honestly I'd hope Chris Carter and company do better than that.

Labels: movies, pop culture

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

In you I see God

I'm addicted to this particular song from "Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi." We actually did a dance to "Dance pe Chance" from the same movie in our Bollywood/Bhangra class. Later when we watched the film to get the context of the dance, I was instead instantly attracted to this song. The lyrics of this particular song -- "Tujh Mein Rab Dikhta Hai" -- were just really beautiful. This particular version of the song has subtitles so of course I have to post and share it with the rest of the world. Seriously, one of the most romantic (if not a little sad-- but it's a Bollywood movie; sadness doesn't last long) songs ever.

The movie is really very cute and probably one of the best Shah Rukh Khan movies I've seen. The plot is a little out there, but all the same, very fun. And I think the music is fantastic.

To get the subtitles, click on the little triangle in the right hand side of the menu bar on the bottom of the video screen. A little "cc" option will pop up. Click that and you'll get the subtitles.

Labels: Bollywood, movies, music, video

Saturday, January 10, 2009

You can never have too much Bollywood

This is one of my all time favorite songs from Bollywood. This is from the movie "Guide":

and also this golden oldie from "Guide":

Labels: me, movies, video

Friday, January 02, 2009

Dholi Taaro

I love this song -- hard to sit still when it's playing!

Labels: Bollywood, movies, video

Found!

I've always wondered what movie "Dola re dola" came from and I can't believe I forgot it was in "Devdas", the soundtrack of which I think is in my car somewhere. Enjoy!

Labels: movies, video

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Things that make you go hmmm...

Does the title of the new James Bond movie make any sense? No one says things like "I need a Quantum of Solace." I guess it's a sexier title than "A Little Bit of Comfort."

Labels: deep thoughts, movies

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Does Your Mama Know?

You can find the complete soundtrack for Mamma Mia! on YouTube. I'd advise skipping any with massive amounts of Pierce Brosnan singing. It's not... pretty. But the rest of the album is just so much fun. Can't stop playing it in the background. All the songs can be found here. No movie video available yet -- just 30 second clips here and there -- but it's really the music that's most fun. The rest is just window dressing.

Labels: LotD, movies, music

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Oooh fun!

I loved "Mamma Mia!" I only know a couple of ABBA songs like "Dancing Queen" and "Winner Takes All", but the theme song is the one I really liked. So I went and found it on YouTube. Just so catchy and danceable. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I highly recommend it. It's just fun, silly, but fun, but sometimes you need that in your life, y'know?

Labels: movies, music

Friday, July 25, 2008

XF

Forget the critics -- if you're a fan, you'll like, if not love, the movie. Seriously. It's good, nearly everything I was hoping for. No spoilers. Just go. Take it from a fan girl. It's pure fun and nostalgia and even a bit scary all nicely wrapped up with Easter Eggs for fun.

And oh -- here's a link to Rebecca Traister's essay on Scully. Must read.

Labels: LotD, movies

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Countdown

Forty-seven hours from now, I'll be at the movie theater. It'll just be so nice to spend time with Mulder and Scully again and see what they've been up to. So yes, definitely excited for the movie.

Labels: me, movies

Friday, March 28, 2008

July 25, 2008

I know where I'll be.

Labels: movies, video

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Ghosts of Rwanda

Yesterday I watched Frontline's "Ghosts of Rwanda" which has to be one of the single most disturbing films I've ever seen. I'd read about Rwanda countless times in the last decade, though to this day, I'm unsure if I even was aware of the situation when it was unfolding in the April of 1994 through July of that same year. Even knowing the story ahead didn't lessen the shock -- the stunning gut check -- of seeing the piles of bodies and the footage of all the western powers pulling out of the country, leaving countless behind to die. I wondered, as I watched the American conveys passing the people standing on the street, how many of those people are alive today?

The film traces the development of the genocide, beginning in 1993 when General Dallaire from the UN first visited the country to the assasination of the Hutu president to the brutal murder of the Belgian peacekeeping troops and through 100 days of genocide when approximately 800,000 people were slaughtered with machetes (among other things). At that rate, with primitive weapons, the extremist Hutus would have reached, if not surpassed the Holocaust, within two years. It's astonishing to me because butchery with a machete is up close and personal. It's an intimate act and yet so many people participated, even coming up on a church and somehow managing to slaughter all 5,000 Tutsis sheltered within.

The documentary has plenty of interviews including with General Dallaire, Pierre Gaillard, and Madeline Albright among others, insights, including some very touching and heroic actions taken by the few westerners left in the country, including Pierre Gaillard, who represented the Red Cross. I was left alternately stunned by the world's indifference and by the heroism of the few who stood up to the killers, the few who had no weapons except their words and mere presence to defend against an organized, ruthless campaign of extermination.

This is an extremely strong and disturbing film with appalling graphic footage, but if you can get your hands on it, you should. It's very much like visiting a concentration camp. You can read all about atrocities, you can see pictures, but until you're face to face with it directly, you cannot even fathom the pain, the suffering, the loss, the evil. As I mentioned, this film is NOT for the faint of heart, but I also think not acknowledging what has happened in the past and not bearing witness means we will let it happen again. So much for 'never again'.

Labels: LotD, movies, politics

Monday, February 12, 2007

Little Miss Sunshine

I finally got around to seeing this movie this past weekend and it was a delightful treat, much better than "Thank You For Smoking", which I'd originally been more interested in. "Little Miss Sunshine" is the most dysfunctional family movie around, but it's charming and sweet and funny in its own idiosyncratic way. The movie takes the old convention of a family roadtrip and spins it around, populating its yellow VW bus with a stressed out housewife, a failed motivational singer, a gay scholar who just tried to commit suicide, a Nietsche fan who doesn't speak, a grandfather with more than a few vices, and of course, Little Miss Sunshine herself, the effervescent Abigail Breslin.

The humor in the film starts out on a subtle note and becomes more and more slapstick and more predictable as the movie progresses, but somehow that didn't bother me. On the contrary, my amusement level grows as the roadtrip from hell means these disparate characters are forced to interact with each other on levels they're not used to, and how their relationships change and how they work together to get Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine pagent is wonderful. The acting is very good, the dialogue is sharp and funny (though a note here on some bad language and adult humor -- despite the young main character, it's not a children's movie). Definitely one of my favorite movies of the Oscar season.

Labels: culture, movies

Thursday, February 01, 2007

God sleeps in Rwanda

The Fainter and I went to see God Sleeps in Rwanda at the Holocaust Museum the other night and I've spent the last two days kind of processing the very idea that we were sitting in a HOLOCAUST MUSEUM watching a film about genocide that happened only 12 years ago and that there is a genocide going on RIGHT NOW in the Sudan. Sometimes I think we say we'll never forget and then we do, because it's happening somewhere else to people who aren't us and whom we have no real connection to. What I find incredible is how no one in the international community acted. Could someone somewhere have done something to stop the machete-killing spree? Who knows? It's impossible to second-guess, but to have done nothing at all...

The film itself is more uplifting than you'd think it'd be. It's about women in Rwanda, what happened to them during the genocide, and then how they've managed to move ahead and not only that, gain greater rights and equality in Rwandan society than they've ever had before. As someone pointed out on Tuesday evening, it's a tragic irony that nearly a million people had to die in 100 days in order for women to make these strides for it wouldn't have happened otherwise.

If you have a moment, you can send an email to your congress person about Darfur. If you go to savedarfur.org, they have a form letter and all you have to do is fill in your name and your zip code and they'll send off the email. It'll take two minutes of your time. The one good thing here is that President Bush has recognized what's happening in the Sudan as genocide; President Clinton never acknowledged that in Rwanda until many years later. So while we have the President's attention, go ahead and fill out the email and maybe this time we can do something.

Labels: movies, politics

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Sunday, February 28, 2010

Monday, August 03, 2009