Slumdog Millionaire and a few other films

This is the much-touted new film from Danny Boyle, which won some Golden Globes last week and is up for loads of Baftas too. We went to see it as a team outing in appreciation of all our hard work before Christmas.

I honestly thought it couldn't live up to the hype, and yet somehow it did. The cinematography is fantastic. The storyline is a bit twee, but well-written. There's tension and drama and a happy ending which is nice. It manages to convey the sense of India as a place where extremes of wealth and poverty exist, where opportunity and cruel exploitation both occur.

But even though it all works out in the end, it doesn't glamourise the poverty of the slums, or how hard it is to escape. I thought the saddest part of the film was when the hero Jamal meets a boy he knew from the begging ring he used to belong to. This other lad was deliberately blinded because blind beggars earn more money. "You were saved," he tells Jamal, "and that's the difference between us..."

Jongudmund's rating: 9/10 Go and watch it

Some other films

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Hmmm, they've changed the opening Star Wars music. Bad sign. It's about Anakin and his young 'spunky' sidekick. Uh oh. Jabba the Hutt has a son who's been kidnapped and looks like a cutesy slug... what is going on here?
Jongudmund's rating: 2.5/10 One for hard core fans only, and even then...

Futurama: Bender's Game
I'm not really sure where these feature length movies are going. This one turned into a spoof of Lord of the Rings, but that's been copied/parodied so many times it seems a bit lame to try and send it up again. Although the cavern full of annoying Morks was quite funny. Na noo na noo.
Jongudmund's rating: 4/10 Another one for the afficionados and no one else really

Ella Enchanted
It might just be me but I felt the idea of a girl being enchanted/cursed to be obedient to whatever anyone said disturbing and creepy. Good thing she doesn't live in the real world or she'd wind up in some pretty horrible situations, especially if she was as pretty as Anne Hathaway. The fairy who cast the obedience spell on her never really got her comeuppance either, which annoyed me.
Jongudmund's rating: 4/10. Watch 'Enchanted' instead.

What happens in Vegas
1) I've been to Vegas and it's nothing like this. 2) You can't just get married on a whim in Vegas - that's a myth. You're thinking of Reno. 3) Does anyone out there actually think Cameron Diaz is hot any more?

Actually once you get past it's premise which can't happen, this is quite funny. Some bits of it made me laugh and some made me cringe inwardly, but in a good way. Oh, and if you have nuts and you know what it's like to be whacked in them, there's an eye-watering scene just before the credits. Watch out.
Jongudmund's rating: 6/10 reasonable DVD night in