tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186118329509553435.post869997538018993003..comments2024-03-09T15:11:29.350-08:00Comments on Exotic and irrational entertainment: Why Chennai Express is disappointingPessimisissimohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04223566131580795337noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186118329509553435.post-32257525567959008632014-01-26T16:16:54.206-08:002014-01-26T16:16:54.206-08:00FC, thanks for your kind words. I do think that th...FC, thanks for your kind words. I do think that the experience of seeing a movie, and especially a comedy, in a theater with an audience is fundamentally different from watching it on DVD. Seeing movies on the small screen mercilessly exposes their weaknesses and neutralizes the impact of space, color, and spectacle. It's one reason I've never been tempted to watch <i>Lawrence of Arabia</i> (1962) or <i>2001: A Space Odyssey</i> (1968) on DVD. <br /><br />As <a href="http://exoticandirrational.blogspot.com/2007/12/chak-de-india.html" rel="nofollow">Pauline Kael once wrote</a>, "If you watch a great movie on TV, you will be committing an aesthetic crime, of which you are the victim." Not that <i>Chennai Express</i> is a great movie, but I can imagine its comedy, color and spectacle working better on a large screen in a packed theater. That your feelings about the movie parallel mine, though, suggests that I'm not just responding to the diminishment effect of seeing it on DVD.<br /><br />I think I may just be allergic to Rohit Shetty's style of filmmaking. We didn't much like <a href="http://exoticandirrational.blogspot.com/2013/07/second-and-third-generation-stars-and.html" rel="nofollow"><i>Bol Bachchan</i></a> (2012), and I haven't been tempted to see <i>Singham</i> (2011) or any of the <i>Golmaal</i> series. That Shetty's next two films are <i>Golmaal 4</i> and <i>Singham 2</i> will probably mean that our avoidance will continue. In fairness I should point out that his films have found large and appreciative audiences; on the evidence of <i>Chennai Express</i>, though, I just don't think I'll ever find myself among them.<br /><br />Thanks for your comment!<br /><br />P.Pessimisissimohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04223566131580795337noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9186118329509553435.post-3410754363708795872014-01-25T09:17:50.124-08:002014-01-25T09:17:50.124-08:00P., I think this is the best rundown of Chennai Ex...P., I think this is the best rundown of Chennai Express' failings I've seen yet. I happened to see it in the theatre with my sis, and that certainly influenced my experience. I don't know if I would have got through the film if I had watched it online, and yet, it was a nice "middling" entertainment at the time. <br /><br />But honestly, given the huge budget--and the point you made about "throwing away the best bits, lingering on the worst"--I think it was fairly disappointing. The film had so much it COULD have done with its' own material . . . and yet, whenever it started treading toward anything truly interesting or amusing (the pretending to be a married couple/sharing a bedroom scene) or the scene you mentioned in the storeroom . . . it was got about a fifth of the screen time allotted to the action sequences or the fight scenes. Every time I thought I was going to see a genuine screwball comedy sequence, it turned into a slapstick caricature of one, rather than the real thing. Like someone tried to cartoonize My Girl Friday. <br /><br />One can't help but compare it to DDLJ, yet, while I appreciated the slightly better female agency in the film (in Deepika's character), and the story certainly didn't idolize the role of the authoritarian father (as DDLJ did), you said it best when you asked, "Where's the dil?" We could almost call this film a nice response/homage to DDLJ . . . EXCEPT for the fact that DDLJ is ultra re-watchable, and Chennai Express just isn't at all. Not for me at least. My sis might beg to differ ;)Filmi~Contrasthttp://filmi-contrast.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com