Smile Aim Shoot

Some time ago when I was in Hyderbad. I went to watch 'Mangal Pandey' at Prasads and while going to the loo saw this poster(for a photo competition) right above the urinal. Whoever though up the pun 'Rock on mate !!' :)

First On-the-Job Lesson

It happened like this.

I was just a few weeks into my first ever job in my life and my boss asks me to accompany him on a meeting. I happily trudge behind him into the meeting. Few minutes into the meeting he passes me a note which says something like "Don't fall asleep. Meetings can be boring". Ofcourse I did not see the truth in that statement till after a while...

Chinese...Japanese...

Chineese...,
Japaneese...,
Dirty knees...,
Look at these...

This is a little rhyme I picked up from a movie called "The Devil's Rejects" which, by the way is a movie I wouldn't recommend to anyone (If you are a fan of mindless killing, illogical story or bad language go right ahead). Don't worry this isn't a rant about the shortcomings of that movie instead its about situations when I really enjoy a movie.

1. When I miss the good part in beginning of the movie

This may be slightly weird but its true for me (atleast when Star Movies & HBO were available without CAS :(...). In some cases I still do not know the movie title yet !! I think this is mostly because it gives me something to to imagine as to what would have happened earlier which is leading to the current chain of events in the movie. I'm no Sherlock Holmes so I'm usually wrong.

2. When I don't recognise the lead actors

I've an almost encylopaediac memory of most Hollywood actors including those who act in television serials (courtesy Star World :(...) so, this is a really rare case.

3. When its a lazy weekend afternoon

This is the mostly because everybody else is feeling to lazy(napping...) to snatch the remote away from me and, there are no interruptions like pesky telephone calls for the same reason.

Now some movies that I saw in these situations that I liked...

Mockingbird don't sing -- story revolves around a young adolescent autistic(?)(or mentally challenged) girl just on the verge of puberty. Her therapist (a famous doctor) is a firm believer of some hypotheses that states that if such children cannot be taught basic language skills before puberty they can never be trained in the language (or some such thing) and a rookie researcher who develops an attachment to the girl and wants to disprove the hypotheses.

The Game -- about a guy (Michael Douglas) getting a birthday gift from his brother (Sean Penn) who buys it from a company called CRS (Consumer Recreational Services) and the harrowing life changing experiences that he goes through. You wouldn't want a practical joke like this played on you.

3000 Miles to Graceland -- about a bunch of gangsters who are also Elvis Presley look-alike enthusiasts. One (Kevin Costner) even thinks that he is one of the illegitimate sons of 'The King' himself and the softie (Patrick Swayze) who falls for a swindling prostitute (Courtney Cox of 'Friends' fame) and her 'enterprising' young son.

Scent of a woman -- blind man (Al Pacino) takes a adolescent young man on a journey to New York(???) of self-realisation for the both of them.

..... -- goofy lawyer (Jeff Daniels) is forced by circumstance to stand in for a comedian in some remote town (the comedian is left defending some lawsuit which originally had to be handled by the lawyer)...falls for a girl in a trailer (Charlize Theron) who is a college dropout (who decides to stay in a trailer rather than go home after flunking college)

..... -- budding cartoonist who spends an evening comforting a girl who got dumped thinks she's in love with him so, begins working in the girls hostel to further the relationship...even works as a delivery boy in the hostel to find that his affections are returned by the first girls room-mate...exposes the peeping tom hostel superintent and finds true love in the room-mate. Importantly, he has a friend who has weights suspended from his balls in the hope of a better scoring chance ;)

Gattaca -- sci-fi story of a normal human (Ethan Hawke) in a world of genetically engineered humans for specific lines of work. And how he beats the system to fulfil his dream of going to space by borrowing bodily fluids, hair and dead skin cells from a disabled genetically engineered human (Jude Law).

And many more...If you're still wondering what 'Chinese...Japanese...' has to do with any of this well, nothing actually the rhyme was so catchy and had wrapped itself around my head that I got rid of it here :)