emfiliane

I enjoyed watching this movie upon release, in Imax 3D no less. The CG was breathtaking, the battle thrilling, the sound earthshaking, and overall it was a worthwhile way to spend a ticket. It isn't particularly groundbreaking story-wise, it was never meant to be, but it was an exciting romp.

I enjoyed watching Lion King for adults again, recently, but I guess I pretty much immediately recognized it for what it is and switched off my critical thinking.

If you're looking for a serious movie, avoid. If you're looking for a Bollywood drinking game, this is perfect.

A big chunk of it was paint-by-numbers melodrama and breaks into song at the least appropriate moments (I did enjoy the music videos, as entirely out of place as they were; 2 of 3 stars came entirely from that). I won't spoil the movie, but suffice it to say that no Bollywood tropes were harmed by the end.

The story began quite confusing and disjointed, progressed to making a little more sense by the middle, and then started falling apart completely as Neetu Chandra's increasingly laughable attempts to depict a crazy person reared their ugly head. Wide eyes are just not enough to carry a whole performance. I put a big chunk of the blame on director Jag Mundhra, who obviously made her act that way and allowed such a silly script.

I was hoping this would be one of the first genuinely gripping Indian thrillers, but it was just a series of old clichés instead.

The occasional puns on English weren't bad, though the mention of Welbutrin as a treatment for schizophrenia had me cracking up; if anything, Welbutrin would probably worsen that, it certainly isn't an anti-psychotic at all.

There are a few brief redeeming qualities to this pair of movies. First, Ji-hye Ahn and In-hye Oh ARE hot as hell, and bare their chests, and that alone almost makes it worth it if that's what you're here for. There were several moments of weird surrealism in the first (Red Vacation) and one particular scene of uncomfortable drunkenness in the second (Black Wedding) that almost sold the movie for me, if it hadn't been for all the filler.

Unfortunately, the first film feels like a director's first film, lingering on every shot for no particular reason, just because Criterion movies also lingered with purpose. At least it tried to play up a bit of camp, and it would have been much better if it had more. The second suffered from a lack of direction and nonstop shakycam: every scene is hand-held instead of set on a tripod. Combine with a banal story, that only gets interesting in the last five minutes, and it's really hard to sit through. Almost every moment of both segments felt like a chore just to watch, so little happens with so little meaning.

The video quality is atrocious, even for Amazon video. Not only is it not HD, it's such low quality SD that it looks like a 1CD XviD download from 2003. All of the beautiful scenery in the first segment is utterly spoiled by the low quality. That may not be the director's fault, but this is how many people will watch it, so it's valid. Amazon video is horrible.

Ultimately, whether it's drama, comedy, weirdness, or nudity that you want, you'd be better off getting it elsewhere.