Slumdog Millionaire [Blu-ray]
Beyond Slumdog Millionaire on Blu-ray
 Little Miss Sunshine |
 Rachel Getting Married |
 The Visitor |
Stills from Slumdog Millionaire (Click for larger image)
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User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars The (Officially) Best Picture of 2008 now on DVD
I love this movie. Chaotic, loud, colorful, frenzied and so many other adjectives, the Dickensian “Slumdog Millionaire” was one of my top choices of 2008. I was so thrilled by the film after I first saw it that I brought a friend along with me the second time because I was afraid the movie would come and go too quickly for him to get another chance to see it. The big surprise was when it started sweeping awards shows and emerged as the front runner for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
But much like Jamal Malik, the hero of this film, “Slumdog Millionaire” came out of (almost) nowhere and rose to the top during the 2008 awards season. I say “almost” because director Danny Boyle was already known for such films as “Shallow Grave,” “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later.” But “Slumdog Millionaire” made him even better known. Heck, nearly every single member of my family saw this movie, and that never happens. One of the real treats of this film is the performance by the youngest children who are excellent as children put into a precarious position in their lives.
Some of the scenes of abuse and the rough life of the slums can be hard to watch for some, so let those be forewarned. How accurately does this film depict reality for people in cities like Mumbai? I can’t really say. There is criticism that this movie is unfair in its look at the brutal trials these children undergo, that it only shows the absolute worst but come on, how many films have ever been a perfect mirror? “Slumdog” did not purport to be reality any more than “Sex and the City” tried to be a documentary of life in New York City. (And thank God.) I love this movie. Ably assisted from the charismatic Dev Patel and Frieda Pinto as well as more established actors such as Anil Kapoor and Irfan Khan (who was wonderful in 2006’s “The Namesake”), this tale is one for the ages. I’m glad to see that so many other people responded to it as well.
1 Stars Where are the special features?
I received this DVD today (a day early, yay!) and I’m really disappointed to find the special features are missing! The back of the box says the disc contains a making-of featurette, 12 deleted scenes, and director commentary. I can’t find these features anywhere on the DVD though! The only “features” are trailers for other movies. Did anyone else notice this problem? Unless I missed a menu option, I’m thinking they’re missing, and this is truly disappointing.
Another problem is the subtitles. The DVD version retains the “boxed” English subtitles from the theatrical release, which are, of course, terribly small on a home TV. If you select English subtitles from the menu, it only gives them to what isn’t already translated, i.e. song lyrics.
Five stars for the movie itself but only one for the DVD.
5 Stars A Genuine Message of Hope
Brilliant film! Captivating, sincere and sensitive. It’s a genuine message of HOPE. However, I think it should have a linearity concerning the use of the language. I’ve noticed that 50% of this movie alternates between English and Hindi. Why this? From a scene to another, little boy Jamal is speaking his native language, and suddenly while showing the Taj Mahal to that old couple he is speaking a flawless English. It is not clear to the viewer, but I can bet that if this movie had had been entirely filmed in Hindi, probably it would NOT have taken the attention from the U.S. public audience and it would have finished ignored by the Academy. And as well, like a few other brilliant films it would be forgotten in time. But our “slumdog” here and the rest of the cast speak English fluently and they’ve made “History” this year.
5 Stars When the glory and cosmic justice exceed the misery and hopeless !
“Slumdog millionaire” is a modern fable, an amazing fairy tale in the middle of the hopeless and the misery in one of the most overpopulated and unhealthy cities of the world.
The genial idea to blend the brutal conditions of living of a good part of childhood around our world, remits us forcefully to those times of the Italian Neo Realism (De Sica’s The shoemaker , Rosellini’s Germany year zero) and the two sublime French masterpieces (Rene Clement’s “Forbidden games” and Truffaut’s “Four hundred blows”) with the splendor of the fifteen minutes of bombastic glory when the right answers collide with transcendental and random events of his miserable existence.
Jamal is a motherless and homeless child whose hazardous existence walks at the razor’s edge day after day. The countless obstacles he has to surmount will never make him to miss his romantic dream: Latika. So, he will keep an admirable personal ethic despite the abominable corruption and nasty social surroundings.
Danny Boyle (whose previous cinematography experienced a dramatic turn with this masterwork) captured faithfully, the misery and the glory through a perfect edition whose dynamic rhythm process engaged the viewer from start to finish.
With all fairness this film imposed itself above the rest of their competitors.
5 Stars Great film
This is definitely the best film of 2008 along with the dark knight. Very smart and quite original, i recommend this film for everybody.
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews