Monday, September 19, 2005

odds and ends

sudu kalu saha alu (shades of ash)

after putting it off for a long time i finally went to see this film last monday. it is one of the most depressing i have seen. we are treated to a group of people wallowing in self pity and victimhood who don't even make the slightest effort to get out of it. at the end one feels zero sympathy for them. everybody who tries to make something out of themselves are portrayed as criminals capable of committing every crime under the sun, from child abuse downwards. (that is every one of them is accused of every crime. really).
some people trash hindi films as fairy tales removed from reality, well this is the opposite. it's a story about a hell wholly removed from reality. that is a pity because it features the sri lanka's top of the line acting talent.
people in it are not really humans because humans even when the world is a chaotic hell have hope. this film doesn't.

war of the worlds

here spielberg has managed to emulate the original novel so well that we are left with a completely forgettable pedestrian film. i have been trying to remember the original novel (which i read long time ago) for some time and apart from the fact aliens there came from mars by way of a cannon i didn't remember anything. this in spite of it being the mother of all alien invasion stories (h g wells however got the correct formula for the genre. if you think about it they all follow the same path down to the defeat of the aliens by a virus(whether biological or artificial). anyway i am sure i will remember nothing of this film two year from now. well done spielberg!

elections

it seems angela merkel has won the german election. last week koizumi won the japanese election. soon we will have nicolas sarkozy as president of france. and republicans are set to control at least two of the three branches of u.s. government for years to come. see the pattern! we are witnessing crunchy reform minded center right governments replacing either soggy center right or center left governments all over the place. are we at the threshold of a paradigm shift in the world's ideological politics? hope so.

flat tax

german election campaign was full of it, british tories are debating it, what was decade ago considered a wacky idea, is now in the political mainstream. all of this is due of course to the highly successful implementation of flat taxes across the eastern and central europe.
it's an idea that should be taken seriously here too. but with a general population that seem not to be aware and incapable of understanding even the simple fact that our national debt is higher than the national income, will any debate on this feasible?

teachers

some teachers were sentenced to jail for punishing a student. about time too.
our schools seem to be designed to crush out creativity, individuality and independence from students. recent intake of those useless job-beggar graduates as teachers will only make it worse. what can and will such people teach?

6 comments:

of a cuddlywuddly & a monstrously cute creature said...

Er...don't think you remember wells' novel...it's nothing like it...Spielberg has changed so much...you must watch the older version of 'war of the worlds' scrumptiously super duper...
however, didnt like this one so much...

sittingnut said...

yes i think i should watch the old film. and yes i didn't remember the novel that was the point.

Anonymous said...

are you really surprised? sinhalese movies all suck. infact srilanka doesn't even have a movie industry its the hindi movie industry that dominates. sinhalese movies are characterised by boring storylines written by dead beat sinhalese directors who have nothing to offer to world cinema or the country. the actors and actresses are all butt ugly. i think it would do the country a favour if all these shoddy crappy sinhalese movies were flushed down the toilet. movie making is not the strong point of sinhalese.

sittingnut said...

talley:
since you decide everything based on directors race why do you bother?

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