Was it a case of heightened anticipation that left us feeling disappointed with this 3D movie?
Were we led to expect the impossible by the 98% ratings?
Or was the movie Up just OK.
Who can say for sure.
But one thing’s for certain.
Never again, folks.
Never again will we be swayed by the ratings on a stupid rotten tomato or potato web site.
What do those schmucks know.
Putzheads, all.
Bottomline Impression
After a long spell, we saw a 3D movie and we felt shortchanged.
Now, don’t get us wrong.
By the standards of our stinkin Bollywood or Kollywood movies, Up is a decent movie. And surely hell has to freeze over before our Indians can make an animation movie a tenth as slick.
We will even grant that Up’s story, while not completely engaging, at least holds your attention for the first two-third of the movie.
The story in a nutshell is that of the old widower Fredrickson going off on a long-anticipated adventure trip to Paradise Falls in South America.
A trip that had been planned by his late dear wife Ellie but was never done when she was alive because mundane day-to-day concerns kept eating into their savings.
What 3D
But more than the story itself what left us most disappointed was the 3D aspect of the movie.
When you wear those 3D glasses, you tend to expect a lot.
You know, some nice, clever little tricks that make you go Wow.
Alas, there is no Wow element in this movie.
Once we donned our 3D glasses our expectations rose into the stratosphere but as the widower Fredrickson’s house pulled by the balloons climbed high into the clouds and then drifted south, our pleasure in the movie too drifted south.
We don’t know about you but for $8.50 (matinee ticket prices for a 3D movie), we expect a lot more.
Hold on, Now
What we’re describing here is our experience of the movie, one seen through adult ‘been there, done that, seen it all‘ eyes.
Maybe, kids will perceive a magic in the movie that eluded us.
If you’ve some snivelling lil’ brats, why not take them to Up and see if Russell the young wilderness explorer, Kevin the bird and Dug the dog can keep them engrossed for 90 minutes.
Up (3D) Review – OK, Kinda added by SearchIndia.com on
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from what i hear, the characters here are more expressive then any bollywood actress…
“Was it a case of heightened anticipation that left us feeling disappointed with this 3D movie?”
i know how you feel, the same happened to me with slumdog millionaire.
ps – check out drag me to hell. Sounds delicious.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Drag Me to Hell is still running everywhere in theaters here. We might still see it.
Did Drag Me to Hell release in India?
Yeah, I was afraid so.. Even Ratatouille had some insane reviews.. but I ended up disappointed..
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ratatouille/
For Drag Me To Hell..
Take your most easily-queasy squeeze.. you’ll have a good time.. or sit next to a beautiful gal/guy depending on your preference.. she/he may jump on to you accidentally instead of jumping to her/his partner.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
BTW, some scenes looked brighter and better without the 3D glasses but some were out of focus without it.
Will try to see DMTH in the middle of this week or next.
Now that the Bollywood strike is over, the floodgates to garbage have reopened. 🙁
I saw a movie called Bolt 3-D.. kids loved it.. but I wasn’t much impressed with the 3-D.. maybe with old age, we don’t enjoy (some sort of visual disability?) the 3-D effects as much as the kids..
I saw My Bloody Valentine on DVD 2-D.. that is a movie that should have been watched in 3-D.. one of the victims got this review from the Variety magazine..
“Betsy Rue deserves some sort of Good Sport prize for remaining feisty and formidable during what may be the longest sustained sequence of gratuitous nudity in the history of slasher cinema”
I regret missing that scene in 3-D.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
There’s no such thing as gratuitous nudity in movies. Our ticket price may not include popcorn but nudity is included. 😉
I watched it last Monday without popcorn.. redbox=gratuitous
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Good. You bring honor to the cheapo community of desis.
BTW, we have yet to pay even a single $ to RedBox!
Please do write more about the life style of CHEAPO DESIS. I guess that one thing we INDIANS are good at is SAVING. Only the JAPANESE can beat us in this regard 😉
Long live CHEAPO DESIS 😀
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Here are some of the traits of cheapo desis in the U.S.:
* engaging a hooker for a quickie in the car because desis are too cheap to rent a room in a hotel
* shopping in thrift stores (used goods store)
* picking up things (TV, sofa et al) that other Americans have kept on the curb for pick up by the trash-man
* stealing Internet access from neighbor’s unsecured wi-fi network
* renting from RedBox only on Monday because it’s free
* stealing Dish/DirecTV by buying some stupid set-top box from Canada and then getting the code from the Internet
* eight H1B/L1 visa holders living in a 2-bedroom apartment
* bachelors sleeping on newspapers spread out on the floor in Forest Hills apartments (Queens)
* clipping savings coupons like crazy
* concept of leaving tips is alien to them
* constant competition among desis to find the cheapest calls to India
* forever late in paying bills in futile hopes that the bill-sender will forget them
* skip breakfast and coffee and hog on the free bagels/doughnuts/coffee in the office kitchen
* subletting the apartment for three weeks when they go to India
* scrimp on food even for the kids
……and the cheapo desi list of goes on ad infinitum
The 3D aspect was disappointing but over all I liked the movie.
Story, Screenplay and the characters do not disappoint me … Some sections of the movie were insanely hilarious you got to agree with it..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Yes, some scenes were indeed sarcastically funny.
Up was not a bad movie overall.
It’s just that because of the sky-high ratings our expectations were also sky-high and so we felt letdown.
The 3D was a joke. We constantly removed our glasses to see what we were missing. And as we said in the above review, the images were often brighter without the glasses.
the same feeling we had with Avatar [3D] in one of the theatres here
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Funny.
You still didn’t review Watchmen, did you? Please do try to review Watchmen, along with the latest STAR TREK film. I am sure you will not be disappointed with either of these films.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Watchmen is not playing in theatres here nor is it available on Netflix yet.
So we’ll have to wait for the DVD to come out.
SI,
In the list of cheapo desis – this should be on the top of the list: neighbor mom making sandwiches for her daughter for all 5 days of the week for lunch and then for the weekends makes upma (its been the same for at least the 2 years that we have known them). The sandwich is pathetic too – 2 slices of tomato, little green leaves, and some amount of sauce. The kid gets to eat cereal in the morning and trudges along to school gingerly.
(PS: The hubby is well employed and settled here.)
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Added scrimping on food for the kids to our original response to the comment here.
No wonder our desi kids look like Stan Laurels alongside the Caucasian Oliver Hardys.
SI,
Another thing – do watch “Watchmen”.
Really boring movie.
For readers like me, it would be great to read your take (your angry diss actually) on it.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
It’s not running anywhere now, at least not in theatres in our area.
Some Indian readers of SI (as in living in India) seem to think highly of Watchmen.
BTW, Watchmen DVD is releasing only in late July.
So, it’ll be at least 60 days before we can see the movie.
sumeshy – that’s the recipe for spelling bee success!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not true.
Aishwarya Pastapur and Anamika Veeramani look like well-fed kids raised on a healthy diet of organic food.
They did better than the skinny Las Vegas desi girl.
I enjoyed the 2-D version of toy story in the 90s, when you were ……..
http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/toystory1and2
yet to watch Up.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not much into animation. Even now.
Just doesn’t give us a rush.
Toy Story 1 & 2 both 100 in RT.. still not swayed?
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Not swayed from a personal predilection perspective but will likely watch them…more for gaining a well rounded knowledge of the film business.