Thursday, 30 April 2009

The Wedding Singer - Popular Criticism

This funny 80's musical comedy has left the nation crazy about the 80's music. Like other film reviews this also had the plot summary and their love for the movie. The review for this movie were both positive and negative, as many have seen Adam Sandler in similar roles. However on the other hand other viewer's thought Adam Sandler's performance was very effective as the viewer's were well pleased with how he portrayed his character.

Youtube reviews:

fembotprincess

I love this movie! Adam Sandler is great! However, Click and You Don't Mess With the Zohan and his newer flicks coming out don't compare with some of his older gems. Bring back Happy Gilmore, 5o First Dates, Anger Management, Going Overboard, Mr. Deeds, and of course, this one! His movies today aren't the same as they were, but he is still a funny slapstick comedian.


Man On Fire - Popular Criticism

Reviews for this film were mostly positive but there were a few negative points that were raised for various reasons. Denzel Washington play's the role of a bodyguard who has the order to protect a young girl but as things go wrong he is determined to find and kill the ones who try to kidnap her. His performance has left its audience wanting more from this genre. However on the other hand the odd points that were raised were due to the violence shown through the dramatic structure of the film.

Best film of the year, 12 February 2005
10/10
Author: Sam Deakin from England

This has to be one of the best, if not the best film i have seen for a very, very long time. Had enough action to satisfy an fan, and yet the plot was very good. I really enjoyed the film,and had me hooked from start to finish.

Added blood and gore in there, but brought the realistic nature of what happens to the front of the film, and even had a tear jerker ending for many people i should think.

It is a must watch for anyone. Seen many reviews, slating the film, but to be fair, most the films that get bad reviews, turn out to be some of the best. this proves it once again.

Rent this film, buy this film, just go out and watch this film. You will not be disappointed.



The Best Film of 2004!!!
, 5 June 2005
10/10
Author: El Charro from Caracas, Venezuela

There are many reasons to watch this movie: to see the reality that whips Latin America with regard to the kidnappings thing, the police corruption at continental level, among so many realities that we live the Latins.

The performance of Denzel Wahington was brilliant, this guy continues being an excellent actor and that it continues this way. Dakota Fanning just by 10 years, an excellent actress has become and I congratulate her. The rest of the movie was of marvel, I have it in my collection.

I hope that they are happened to those producing of Hollywood to make a movie completely in Venezuela, where they show our reality better with regard to the delinquency, the traffic of drugs or the political problems. They have been few the movies that they play Venezuelan land (for example: Aracnophobia, Jungle 2 Jungle, Dragonfly) they should make more, as well as they make in Mexico.

The song "Una Mirada" I hope that it leaves in the soundtrack, it is excellent. My vote is 10/10

Hitch - Popular Criticism

The reviews were extermly positive as most of the success lies in the cham of the both actors 'Will Smith' and ' Kevin James' for their performance.
However the following criticism was made about the chosen cast : Eva Mendes was given the role opposite Will Smith because the moviemaker was concered about the public's reaction if her part was given to an white or African American actress. His saying were that he feared that a black couple may put off the audience worldwide whereas an white/African American combo would create issues in the US.

By Jeannette Walls
updated 2:48 a.m. ET Feb. 24, 2005

“There’s sort of an accepted myth that if you have two black actors, a male and a female, in the lead of a romantic comedy, that people around the world don’t want to see it,” Smith told the British paper, the Birmingham Post while promoting the flick overseas. “We spend $50-something million making this movie and the studio would think that was tough on their investment. So the idea of a black actor and a white actress comes up — that’ll work around the world, but it’s a problem in the U.S.”

Primary Research

There are five methods that can be carried out to go through the primary research. They are the following :

Questionnaires
Semi - Structured Interviews
Structured Interviews
Unstructured Interviews
Group Interviews

For my research i will be carrying out the followng method to get collective views on my theory:

* Semi - structured Interviews

This will allow me to expand on different topics that are related to my issue as the interviewee is put to an ease and are able to open up with certain matters and also sensative issues can be raised and avoided.

I will have 10-20 participanst in the age group of 16-20 with mixture of both gender.

The Wedding Singer - Institutional Data



The Wedding Singer :


Directed by Frank Coraci
Produced by Robert Simonds
Writen by Tim Herlihy
Staring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore
Music by Teddy Castellucci
Budget of $21,000,000
Released on 5th of June 1998 (UK)
Genre : Comedy, Romance, Music
Awards - 5 wins and 7 nomination(MTV Movie Awards, BMI Film Music Awards and Blockbuster Entertainment Awards)
Location of the film setting - Embassador Hotel 3400 Wilshire Boulervard, Los Angeles, California USA
Production Company - Juno Pik, New Line Cenima and Robert Simonds Production
Distributors - New Line Cenima 1998 USA (theatrical)

- Fox Network 2005 (USA TV) broadcast premiere

Movie connection - Remade as 'Kahin Pyar Na Ho Jaye' (2000)


Directed by K. Muralimohana Rao
Writen by Sanjay Chel
Genre - Family, Comedy, Romance
Staring Salman Khan and Rani Mukerji
Music by Himesh Reshammiya
Production Company - Siddhi Vinayak Creations
Distributors: - Eros Entertainment USA 2000 Pvt. Ltd.

Bollywood Influences Western cinema - Musical

Western musical genre movies :

Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Enchanted, Across the Universe, Mama Mia and many more.
- Bollywood muscal 'Lagaan' 2001 was nominated for the Academy Award for the foreign Language film, and two other films 'Devdas' 2002 and 'Rang De Basanti' 2006 were both nominated for the BAFTA Awards for best foreign Language films. Danny Boyle's 'Slumdog millionaire' that won 4 Golden Globes and 8 Academy Awards was also directly inspired by Bollywood films

Man On Fire - Institutional data


'Man On Fire'

Director - Tony Scott
Produced by - Lucas Foster Arnon Milchan and Toy Scott
Writers - A. J. Quinnell (Novel) , Brian Helgeland (Screenplay)
Genre - Action, Crime, Drama
Staring - Denzel Washington and Dakota Fanning
Music by Haary Gregson - Williams
Release date - 8th of October 2004 (UK)
Awards - 1 Win and 6 Nominations
Locations of film setting - Los Angeles, California USA
Budget of $70 million 
Production Company - Fox 2000 Pictures, Regency Enterprises, New Regency Pictures, Scott Free Production and Epsilon Motion Pictures

Distributors - Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporations 2004 USA (theatrical), Paramount Pictures (Germany) & British Broadcasting Corporations (BBC) UK T.V First national airing (BBC1)



Movie Connection - Remade as ' Ek Ajnabee ' (2005)

Directed  and Written by Apoorva Lakhia
Produced by Bunty Walia and Jaspreet Singh Walia 
Released on 17th November 2000
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama, Crime
Music by Vishal - Shekhar
Staring Amitabh Bachchan
Location of the film were Bangkok and Thailand
Production Company - G.S Entertainment
Distributed  by G.S Entertainment 

Monday, 27 April 2009

Definition of Bollywood movies

Most Bollywood movies consist of these conventional aspects :

- Main theme of 'Romance' that mostly leads to love - triangle
- Most of the movies are musicals as it contain a large fraction of the movie with music and dances
- The film's music is released in advance or the benefit of gaining more audience
- Mixture of genres are displayed in the 3 hour long movie for example Romance, Comedy, Love - triangle, Thrills an any more
- They also consist of 'Intermissions' due to the long length o showing
- They have actors being able to fight off villains on their own
- Common story lines are - star crossed lovers and angry parents, family ties, love triangle, sacrifices, loss of family, betrayal of family members and many more
- Plays a major role in fashion

Tuesday, 21 April 2009

Bollywood - Western Europe and the Americas

Bollywood has experienced a marked growth in revenue in North American markets, and is particularly popular amongst the South Asian communities of such large cities as Chicago, Toronto and New York City. Yash Raj Films, one of India's largest production houses and distributors, reported in September 2005 that Bollywood films in the United States earn around $100 million a year through theater screenings, video sales and the sale of movie soundtracks. In other words, films from India do more business in the United States than films from any other non-English speaking country. Numerous films in the mid-1990s and onwards have been largely, or entirely, shot in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and Toronto. Bollywood's immersion in the traditional Hollywood domain was further tied with such films as The Guru (2002) and Marigold: An Adventure in India (2007) trying to popularise the Bollywood-theme for Hollywood.

The awareness of Hindi cinema is however more spread in the United Kingdom, where they frequently enter the UK top ten. Many films, such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham(2001) have been set in London. Bollywood is also appreciated in GermanyFrance, and the Scandinavian countries. Various Bollywood movies are dubbed in German and shown on the German television channeRTL II on a regular basis. A considerable number of Hindi movies has been shot in Western Europe as well, particularly in Switzerland, starting with Dilwale Dulhania le Jayenge.

Bollywood's popularity, however, is not greatly matched in the non-English speaking countries of South America, though Bollywood culture and dance is recognised. In 2006,Dhoom 2 became the first Bollywood film to be shot in Rio de JaneiroBrazil. The feeling was reciprocated as Latin America's largest theater chain, Mexico's Cinepolis, was considering expanding its domains outside the Spanish-speaking areas of the continent as it appeared to be bound for Bollywood.

Reflection of Hollywood movies and Bollywood - Marigold: Hollywood love, Bollywood style

MUMBAI: Hollywood's here to make a $10 million Bollywood musical. AndMarigold has romance, comedy, songs, dance sequences — the works. 
The story in brief: An American heroine comes to India to work in a low-budget film, and falls in love with the choreographer, played by Salman Khan. Inspired by a stay in Chennai, American writer-director Willard Carroll hit on the idea of making an English-language love story that incorporated the energy, color, lavish song-and-dance numbers, and old-fashion melodrama. As a genre, Bollywood is renowned for featuring some of the more beautiful actresses on earth, so it's a socio-cultural curiosity that "Marigold" has a fair-haired heroine who casts such a potent spell on all those around her. Is it a taste for the strange on the part of the Indian male? Or presumption on the part of the filmmakers? That the very American-looking Larter should become such an exotic creature when taken off her usual turf is something to reflect on.

marigold.jpg

Friday, 27 March 2009

'Hitch' And 'Partner' - Comparison between both movies - Institutional Data:

Directed by Andy Tennant
Produced by James Lassiter
Staring Will Smith
Music by George Fenton and Alan Elliot
Genre : Comedy and Romance
Budget : $70,000,000
Distributed by 'Columbia Pictures' - an American film production and distribution company - Independent but also owned by Sony and Coca-ColaCo. (Parent owner Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group)

Inspired the Bollywood Industry to go on creating the movie 'Partner', which was the remake of 'Hitch'







Directed by David Dhawan
Distributed by K Sera sera - an Indian entertainment distributor and producer - producing media for cinema, television and software - established in 1995 as Garnet Paper Mills Limited
Produced by Sohail Khan (Salman Khan's brother) :- (production started in 1997 with the action flick 'Auzaar') and Parag Sanghvi

Genre: Comedy and Romance
Music by - Sajid Wadjid
Extended version of 'Hitch'

Remakes of Hollywood movies:

Here are some of the Hollywood movies that have been remade by Bollywood:

Chori Chori - Houseguest
Pyar To Hona Hi Tha - French Kiss
Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega - While You Were Sleeping
Saaya - Dragonfly
Paap - Witness
Aetbaar/Inteha - Fear
Ghulam - On the Waterfront
Dil Hain Ke Mante Nahin - It Happened One Night
Yeh Dillagi/Dillagi - Sabrina
Qayamat - The Rock
Ajnabee - Consenting Adults
Kitna Hai Dil Baar Baar - Meet The Parents
Baazigar - A Kiss Before Dying
Kaante - Resouvir Dogs
Deewaangee - Primal Fear
Ek Ladka Ek Ladki - Overboard
Kyunki Mein Jhooth Nahi Bolta - Liar Liar
Hum Kissise Kum Nahin - Analyze This
Awara Pagal Deewana - The Whole Nine Yards
Shakti - Not Without My Daughter
Dushman - An Eye for An Eye
Mann - An Affair to Remember
Akele Hum Akele Tum - An Affair to Remember
Chachi 420 - Mrs Doubtfire
Kahin Pyar Na Ho Jaye - The Wedding Singer
Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai - My Best Friend's Wedding
Humraaz - A Perfect Murder
Pyar Tune Kya Kiya - Fatal Attraction
Chor Machaye Shor - Blue Streak
Ssshh! - Scream
Kuch To Hai - I Know What You Did Last Summer
Pyar Ka Saaya - Ghost
Chura Liye Hai Tumne - The Truth About Charlie
Jism - Body Heat
Daraar/Agnisakshi/Yaraana - Sleeping With the Enemy
Sauda/Judaai/Karobaar - Indecent Proposal
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar - Breaking Away
Murder - Unfaithful
Judwaa - Twin Dragons
Josh - West Side Story
Dil Hi Dil Mein - You Got Mail
Fareb - Unlawful Entry
Hum Tum - When Harry Met Sally
Tere Jado Chal Gaya - Perfect Picture

Is Bollywood coming to Hollywood? - CNN Report

Mumbai, October 5: An Indian producer is remaking Cellular, the 2004 Hollywood movie about a kidnapped woman who calls a stranger off her mobile phone and begs him to save her life. Speed, which is being directed by Vikram Bhatt, is the latest Indian movie to borrow from the West.

"It is a very unpredictable film with a lot of twists," said actor Sanjay Suri, although many of those twists will be familiar to fans of the original, which starred Kim Basinger.

Other Hollywood homages include Partner, a recent box office hit, which was modelled closely on the Hollywood movie "Hitch", starring Will Smith.

Akele Hum Akele Tum (I Am Alone, You Are Alone), Kaante (Thorns) and The Killer are adaptations of Kramer vs. Kramer, Reservoir Dogs and Collateral respectively. Hollywood in turn has recently been looking to thrillers and horror movies from eastern Asia for inspiration.

International Movies:

Hollywood often has used international styles and filmmakers to its advantage. In its early days, the U.S. film capital embraced European directors such as Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir. The 1960s saw the influence of French New Wave cinema. Japanese films inspired "The Magnificent Seven" and "Star Wars"; Hong Kong works inspired Hollywood blockbusters such as "The Departed" and "The Matrix."

"Slumdog" isn't even the first film centering on India to attract Hollywood's attention.

"Indian cinema has been around in the United States since Satyajit Ray in the early 1940s," Lovece said. Ray, who won the Academy Award for lifetime achievement in 1992, made films in Bengali, a language spoken in eastern India. Despite that fact, his movies, notably "The Apu Trilogy," have had universal appeal.

Since Ray, many Indian actors have emerged on the Hollywood scene. Aishwarya Rai, one of Bollywood's leading ladies, starred in 2004's "Bride and Prejudice" and appeared, more recently, in "The Pink Panther 2."

"India's movie stars are essentially the country's ambassadors," said Gitesh Pandya, box-office analyst and founder of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "A lot of people going to see ["Pink Panther 2"] are learning about Bollywood through [Aishwarya Rai]."

From Ray to Rai, Indian influence in American cinema is vast. Many Hollywood films also have been influenced by Bollywood. Baz Luhrman's 2001 musical "Moulin Rouge," a tragic romance told with song and dance, borrows heavily from Bollywood.

"These big, epic numbers are very reminiscent of Bollywood," Newman said, also referring to "Chicago," "Mama Mia!" and "West Side Story." "Musicals have always been part of the tradition of American cinema, and Bollywood really just took it to the next level."

Hollywood films such as 2008's "The Love Guru" and 2005's "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" -- which ends with a musical dance number -- also borrow from Bollywood, Newman said, but are comedies that parody the enchantment in Bollywood films.

"There's innocence and playfulness in a lot of the cinema in India," he said, which is why Bollywood, in its authentic form, would not appeal to American audiences.

"We're a little more cynical," said Newman. " 'West Side Story' is kind of laughable by today's standards. ... But, for some reason, in India, that innocence is still acceptable."

Joshi said the cultural differences between Bollywood and Hollywood could make it difficult for Bollywood films to cross over to America.

"India is still clinging on to its social values, which explains Bollywood's success everywhere but in America," she said. "Bollywood films don't have any kissing in them or tend not to. Warner Bros. used to make movies like this in the past. ... If it's ready to ready to return to its roots, then it's ready for Bollywood."

American audiences may want to explore Bollywood films after seeing "Slumdog Millionaire," Pandya said, but it is unlikely that they will find another film like it.

"The film is obviously very successful, but it is its own entity so it doesn't necessarily mean that people in this country will wake up to Bollywood overnight," he said. "Bollywood is not for everybody. ... People who love to see Adam Sandler movies are not going to line up to see Bollywood films."

Question

My Critical Research Study will be based on the following question

"How Bollywood films assimilate the output of Hollywood films"

My 3 text are:

'Hitch' 
'Man On Fire' 
'The Wedding Singer '