Guilty Pleasure : Luke Bryan - Country Girl

Have you had your heart broken? Are you burning up in anger at the increasingly chaotic situation of our country? Are you facing an existential crisis? Do you seek some intellectual stimulation that may move you closer towards answering your doubts and overcoming your fears?

Well this is not a solution for those problems. Nope, this is an unabashed, feel-good, country rock-pop, crossover confection for the good times. Slip it into your car's CD player or your mp3 player and you wont regret it. I only did regret it after listening to it for about 50 times over 2 days.

The video is rather underwhelming.  An imaginative choreographer/director wouldn't have let the beats go waste. The editing and light department perk things up a little bit.

"Shake it for the birds, shake it for the bees
Shake it for the catfish swimmin' down deep in the creek
For the crickets and the critters and the squirrels
Shake it to the moon, shake it for me girl"

The sheer inanity and cheekiness brings a smile on the face. Everybody listening to the song BETTER have their feet tapping to the beats or line-dancing.

Movie Review : Red Riding Hood (2011)

 The original 'Little Red Riding Hood' was a thinly veiled warning to young women ‘educating’ them on the (sexual) dangers that unknown men pose should they dare step out of the safety circles of home and hearth. Down through the generations though, this adult tale was scrubbed and sanitized into an ingenuous bedtime story for children. I am sure that it is ranks high on the popularity lists of gift for children. I know I got one when I was being initiated into literacy.

Director Catherine Hardwicke (Twilight) though, is still obsessed with vampires and werewolves. She must have pounced gleefully on this opportunity since so very few tales have anything to do wolves and this one lends itself very easily into an adaptation of the werewolf myth. The screenplay sticks loosely to the original tale and adds in some twists and turns bringing in an element of forbidden love and of course, werewolves. The result is a generic, clichéd fantasy-romance.

Valerie’s sister is found dead, slain by a wolf that has been the bane of the villagers’ existence for years.Meanwhile Valerie is betrothed to the wealthy Henry at her worldly mother’s insistence when she would rather be with her beau, Peter, who isn’t as wealthy. While the two plan to run away, the appearance of a werewolf hunter in their village to counter the increasing frequency of attacks by the werewolf brings the anger and frustration of the villagers to a head. Valerie must confront her fears and come to terms with the many secrets her loved ones hold.

The Twilight influence is evident all throughout. Billy Burke could very well be typecast as parent of the danger-seeking leading lady. Shiloh Fernandez supposedly lost the part of Edward Cullen to Robert Pattinson and here he gets his chance at playing the brooding leading man. He isn't all that much of an improvement over Pattinson and is simply  yet another 'pretty boy'. The supporting cast is adequate but no one really makes a mark – not even Gary Oldman playing the werewolf hunter or Julie Christie as the grandmother.

Amanda Seyfried has been on a roll since Mamma Mia! and while this is another commercial success, her performance is hardly noteworthy. She plays coy, stares wide-eyed at the proceedings, tries to play feisty and pouts all through. It isn’t something we haven’t seen before (Letters to Juliet) and appears to be the extent that her talent can stretch to.

An entertaining enough film for its primary audience – teen and pre-teen girls - and one doesn’t pretend to be anything more.

Movie Review : Nomad - The Warrior (2005)

For today’s review we have the breathtakingly gorgeous epic that is Nomad: The Warrior. This is a Kazakh production, funded by the Government of Kazakhstan and focuses on a historical hero Ablai (Abilmansur) Khan. Ablai Khan was the principal figure in the Kazakhs’ military campaigns against the Dzungars in the 1700s.

This film draws upon his life and presumably adds in a few more elements to make it an entertainer that is accessible to a larger audience.

A local mystic, Oraz warns the leader of the Dzungars that their time will soon come to an end as a leader has been born among the Kazakhs – one who will accomplish the near-impossible unification of the Kazakh tribes and lead them into battle and victory against the Dzungars. The boy is revealed to be Mansur, the son of a local sultan.

Oraz whisks him away to safety when the Dzungars attack the tribe to kill the baby. He raises Mansur as his own amidst a bunch of rosy cheeked little boys who are being trained under his watchful eye. Not even the sultan has a clue as to who in that band of boys is his own flesh and blood.

Mansur has a best friend Erali and they both vie for the attentions of the shy, sweet Gauhar. Gauhar prefers the quiet, intense charm of Mansur to the gregarious flirtations of Erali.

Soon, the time is ripe for Mansur to fulfil his destiny. A series of events lead to the abduction of Gauhar and the capture of Erali by the Dzungars. Mansur must free them, unite his fellow tribesmen and battle his enemies.

The movie was made on a $40m budget and every penny is accounted for onscreen.  Watch this movie for its amazing cinematography if not for its performances. The locations are picturesque, the sets are lush and the costumes are eye-popping beautiful. Of course, there is plenty of eye-candy in terms of pretty people.

I was perplexed at the casting though. The leads are non-Kazakhs.  The thought process that led to the casting of Kuno Becker and Jay Hernandez (both Mexican) as Kazakh heroes is truly fascinating. Jason Scott Lee is of Hawaiian-Chinese descent.

Kuno Becker has a meaty role as the young Mansur. There isn’t much ‘acting’ involved, but he gets to fight –hand to hand combat and swords, ride horses all across the sweeping landscapes and generally be the alpha male of the pack. He is perfect for the role. Indeed, to watch him in this and then endure him in the craptastic “From Prada to Nada” is more than I could bear.

Jay Hernandez (from Hostel) as the playful, noble Erali embraces his part with delight and looks like he is having fun.

Ayana Yesmagambetova as the shy Gauhar is adequate for the role – she doesn’t have much to do but stand around and look pretty. For some reason I found her eyebrows annoying – but that’s just me.

Jason Scott Lee is Oraz the mystic and teacher. I thought he brought a little ‘Buddhist monk’ vibe to his role – not really good or bad though.

While comparisons to Hollywood productions are inevitable, I think this movie can easily hold its own in terms of production values. Screenplay is a different ball game altogether but even that was alright if not terribly original or exciting.

Don’t watch it on a laptop. This is one for the big (ger?) screens.