Escape to the Movies: Dhoom 3

[Skeleon]

Hey if you don't mind me asking, is Bollywood big in Germany, or do people prefer seeing German movies?

I'm not too sure, honestly. I never got into Bollywood, but some girls were apparently really into those movies (the love story and singing ones, I mean). Dunno how big of a trend it is, though.

As for German movies? Nah. Most people watch Hollywood or other international stuff.

There are some good German movies ("Knockin' On Heaven's Door" I really like, "Lola rennt" is very interesting and "Das Experiment" was good) or movies that capitalize on German comedians and their popularity and the like ("Der Schuh des Manitu"), but overall mainstream German film-making seems to focus on TV-crime movies and soap operas and the like, I think. Although I'm not the best person to ask because I watch so little TV.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

Hey if you don't mind me asking, is Bollywood big in Germany, or do people prefer seeing German movies?

I'm not too sure, honestly. I never got into Bollywood, but some girls were apparently really into those movies (the love story and singing ones, I mean). Dunno how big of a trend it is, though.

As for German movies? Nah. Most people watch Hollywood or other international stuff.

There are some good German movies ("Knockin' On Heaven's Door" I really like, "Lola rennt" is very interesting and "Das Experiment" was good) or movies that capitalize on German comedians and their popularity and the like ("Der Schuh des Manitu"), but overall mainstream German film-making seems to focus on TV-crime movies and soap operas and the like, I think. Although I'm not the best person to ask because I watch so little TV.

Ah, ok thanks. Is there any German actors that you would say are worth watching? The only guy I know is Til Schweiger.

 

[Wolfenbarg]

Wasn't Slumdog Millionaire also a Bollywood movie?

I mean, it may not have some of the more... stereotypical elements of Bollywood, but given that the author, cast and even music is Indian, I wouldn't rule it out as "the first Bollywood production successful in the west".

Slumdog Millionaire was a western film made by a western director. It's nothing like any Indian movie I've ever seen, and I can tell you that most Indians *hated* Slumdog. Indian movies glorify wealth and affluence in a way that makes the US look tame. Their stars are all fair skinned and extremely wealthy, doing their dance numbers and even action sequences in very large and elaborate locations. Slumdog Millionaire on the other hand shows nothing but extreme poverty. It's basically anti-Bollywood.

 

[DrOswald]

Utah. Foreign films are a no-no for this market. Damn, I hate the assumptions the people who market and distribute these films make.

Yeah, I know. I also live in Utah and there is no one showing this that I can find. I want to go to this if only to show that there is a market for this sort of thing but the assumption is already in place that it cannot make money so they don't even try and I can't prove the assumption wrong.

 

[MarsProbe]

I was like "Wut?" when I saw this as the week's review, but now I kind of want to see it. If only to see the actresses who are "so hot it almost hurts to look at"

My thoughts exactly That young lady we see dancing in the white t-shirt about 3/4 times in this review seems quite easy on the eye. Sadly, a quick search reveals this film to only have precisely one showing in one cinema relatively nearby. Probably won't be able to catch it then, I guess.

 

[RJ Dalton]

Utah. Foreign films are a no-no for this market. Damn, I hate the assumptions the people who market and distribute these films make.

Yeah, I know. I also live in Utah and there is no one showing this that I can find. I want to go to this if only to show that there is a market for this sort of thing but the assumption is already in place that it cannot make money so they don't even try and I can't prove the assumption wrong.

The film industry seems to operate on a principle of constant self-fulfilling prophecy. If they believe something can't make money, they won't show it in a lot of places and - surprise, surprise! - it doesn't make money.

 

[Seracen]

Cannot find this in any theater near me. Oh moviebob, how you tease me so!

Go to your local Indian grocery store. They probably have it on DVD. America is the last place to get this, so the International releases have been out for a while, I think.

Ah man, good stuff. I remember watching my first shoot-em-up Bollywood film way back in the day. They've gotten a whole lot funnier.

For a fan of the old 80's style cop films (Lethal Weapon being the best example), it pleases me to see someone picking up the slack.

 

[Kahani]

I am curious why this movie is the first Bollywood movie to become a hit in America considering how insane it looks

I'm more curious in the opposite direction - I can't see why it's the first to be a hit considering that it looks exactly the same as every other Bollyfood film. Over the top melodrama, over the top unrealistic action, randomly busting into song and dance, and constantly jumping in tone and style between all these and more. Those aren't unique selling points for this film, it's just a description of Bollywood as a genre. Some are certainly better than others, but there doesn't seem anything particularly special about this film that would suddenly make this well established style popular with Western audiences.

 

[thesilentman]

Huh.

I originally thought that Bob was going to rip this a new one (face it, I'd like to do that because it's not exactly portraying itself as something that I'd watch), but I was surprised. I think I'll go see it just to let my brain relax.

 

[btbushi]

Dhoom 2 is where it is at. And i'm not joking. Everything is perfectly crazy, and is also perfectly believable. The villain is AMAZING and is truly a thief, plus, it also has incredible chemistry : the romances are very well done and intense. The ending is VERY satisfying, the endings of both 1 & 3 leave you with an incredibly bitter taste. I must urge every one here to watch 2 first, then go into 3.

trailer for 2 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrFkjw0WcQ0

Dhoom again, you're gonna be with me on a roller coaster ride?

Reference aside, Dhoom 2 was amazing (in part due to the antagonist's actor Hrithik Roshan). If people are interested in further Bollywood films, my highest recommendation would be to Om Shanti Om. Not only does it do the genre hopping Bob alluded to, but it's actually pretty fantastic and relatible.

 

[Gorbachof]

"Pack it in Folks, this is the peak."

Right over my head, if anyone knows what that means, I'd appreciate it.

Is getting a LEGO version somehow a representation of when an IP is at it's highest?

 

[cefm]

I think I'd rather that someone caught me watching porn than Bollywood, as I'd be less embarrassed about it.

That said, I would be curious to take a look at this film (with suitable anonymity and only in private).

 

[Barbas]

Forgive my impaired hearing, but did you refer to the main leads as "Jai Dickshit" and "Ali Ackbar"?

Seriously, I don't want to believe it, but I can't find the correct spelling of their names anywhere.

 

[Yuuki]

Do not watch this unless you have some kind desperate desire to find out what Bollywood is like. Bollywood action flicks are 99.9% eye-wateringly embarrassingly bad. Cheesy stuff & cliches from 10-20 years ago is what they considers "modern". The movie is just dumb and not in the "woo look how crazy we are" way, more like a "woo look at our endless plot holes and nonsensical low-budget stunts" way.

Bollywood is having a bit of a dilemma with modern action movies because a big chunk of their audience are rural village-folk who will have trouble understanding what's going on. There's also the issue of budgets, most movies are made on absolutely shoe-string budgets and churned out by the hundreds (no seriously, HUNDREDS) every year with 99% of them being utterly insubstantial.

The special effects are something you would find in movies from 5-10 years ago, the songs make NO SENSE because they rarely have anything to do with what's going on in the movie (it's not a musical). In Bollywood movies you can go from an absolutely serious scene to the main character(s) suddenly dancing & singing with 100+ people changing clothes and sets every few seconds...then everything can go back to seriousness again, as if the song never happened. It's literally some kind of arbitrary requirement stapled into almost every Bollywood to "cater" to the Indian audience (and serving no other purpose) and the Dhoom series is no different.

I could probably go on but if MovieBob has made people curious enough to check it out, then go right ahead.

Now Bollywood comedy & family movies, THOSE are what I could probably recommend. The massive drama and over-acting done suits those genres...except that Americans won't really get Indian comedy .

Forgive my impaired hearing, but did you refer to the main leads as "Jai Dikshit" and "Ali Ackbar"?

Seriously, I don't want to believe it, but I can't find the correct spelling of their names anywhere.

Jai Dixit and Ali Akbar, you could've just googled "Dhoom 3 cast"
But the english spelling really doesn't matter because people outside that continent have extreme difficulty pronouncing Indian syllables (hence many asians change their names to english ones after migrating). I almost choked laughing while hearing Bob trying to pronounce those names as if he was completely familiar with them hahaha

 

[Antsh]

The Regal near my house plays a lot of Bollywood stuff (a lot of Indians in NoVA), so I assumed this was another one they would always show.

 

[SoMuchSpace]

Do not watch this unless you have some kind desperate desire to find out what Bollywood is like. Bollywood action flicks are 99.9% eye-wateringly embarrassingly bad. Cheesy stuff & cliches from 10-20 years ago is what they considers "modern". The movie is just dumb and not in the "woo look how crazy we are" way, more like a "woo look at our endless plot holes and nonsensical low-budget stunts" way.

Bollywood is having a bit of a dilemma with modern action movies because a big chunk of their audience are rural village-folk who will have trouble understanding what's going on. There's also the issue of budgets, most movies are made on absolutely shoe-string budgets and churned out by the hundreds (no seriously, HUNDREDS) every year with 99% of them being utterly insubstantial.

The special effects are something you would find in movies from 5-10 years ago, the songs make NO SENSE because they rarely have anything to do with what's going on in the movie (it's not a musical). In Bollywood movies you can go from an absolutely serious scene to the main character(s) suddenly dancing & singing with 100+ people changing clothes and sets every few seconds...then everything can go back to seriousness again, as if the song never happened. It's literally some kind of arbitrary requirement stapled into almost every Bollywood to "cater" to the Indian audience (and serving no other purpose) and the Dhoom series is no different.

I could probably go on but if MovieBob has made people curious enough to check it out, then go right ahead.

Low budget stunts?

it seems that you have zero understanding of the current scene yin Bollywood, and the part about the rural villagers and whatnot plus budgets is PURE BS. I have grown up in India and currently reside here, and while i'm no movie buff i can totally say that what you said is ABSOLUTELY wrong, and you have no understanding about the budgets and reality about Bollywood. You couldn't be farther away if you tried.

 

[The Great JT]

Took long enough to make a Simpsons Lego collection...

But anyway, Dhoom 3 looks like a blast.

 

[Yuuki]

Low budget stunts?

it seems that you have zero understanding of the current scene yin Bollywood, and the part about the rural villagers and whatnot plus budgets is PURE BS. I have grown up in India and currently reside here, and while i'm no movie buff i can totally say that what you said is ABSOLUTELY wrong, and you have no understanding about the budgets and reality about Bollywood. You couldn't be farther away if you tried.

Then at least take the time and educate us about the "reality" of Bollywood, don't just call people wrong and leave it at that.

Reading your reply at least you look like you're capable of discussion, so please do explain to us the current state of Bollywood especially when it comes to "masala" films like Dhoom series
Discussing Bollywood movies with people who are from there can sometimes get a bit hard. Especially when a lot of them can barely communicate beyond "fukkkkk uuu madar chode bollywood > hollywoodd mothrrfukar" (no seriously, you should see youtube comments from Indians) or they never even respond

As far as I know, any Bollywood movie featuring 5 songs and a couple of big-name actors will get MILLIONS of views no matter how terrible it is, thanks to the 1.2 billion+ population and countless others worldwide. It's all about the actors and songs, the movie hardly matters. Especially the lubby-dubby romance ones, there seems to be a new one every 1-2 weeks. That's kinda reflective on how Bollywood mindset works, quantity over quality. Pump out TONS of movies and you eventually end up with one or two half-decent ones, I've lost count of how many times I've heard the line "it's a flop".

More proof I have of shoe-string budgets is how animated movies barely even exist in Bollywood, because the budgets are so small it's borderline impossible to make a fully computer-generated movie even remotely close to what Disney or Pixar can put out. I think the top 10 animated films even in India ITSELF are all Disney/Pixar productions lol.

 

[madagaskar_sky]

Do not watch this unless you have some kind desperate desire to find out what Bollywood is like. Bollywood action flicks are 99.9% eye-wateringly embarrassingly bad. Cheesy stuff & cliches from 10-20 years ago is what they considers "modern". The movie is just dumb and not in the "woo look how crazy we are" way, more like a "woo look at our endless plot holes and nonsensical low-budget stunts" way.

Bollywood is having a bit of a dilemma with modern action movies because a big chunk of their audience are rural village-folk who will have trouble understanding what's going on. There's also the issue of budgets, most movies are made on absolutely shoe-string budgets and churned out by the hundreds (no seriously, HUNDREDS) every year with 99% of them being utterly insubstantial.

The special effects are something you would find in movies from 5-10 years ago, the songs make NO SENSE because they rarely have anything to do with what's going on in the movie (it's not a musical). In Bollywood movies you can go from an absolutely serious scene to the main character(s) suddenly dancing & singing with 100+ people changing clothes and sets every few seconds...then everything can go back to seriousness again, as if the song never happened. It's literally some kind of arbitrary requirement stapled into almost every Bollywood to "cater" to the Indian audience (and serving no other purpose) and the Dhoom series is no different.

I could probably go on but if MovieBob has made people curious enough to check it out, then go right ahead.

Low budget stunts?

it seems that you have zero understanding of the current scene yin Bollywood, and the part about the rural villagers and whatnot plus budgets is PURE BS. I have grown up in India and currently reside here, and while i'm no movie buff i can totally say that what you said is ABSOLUTELY wrong, and you have no understanding about the budgets and reality about Bollywood. You couldn't be farther away if you tried.

You gotta explain your answer or you get a D-.

Also, for the rest of you, if any of this sparked your interest in Bollywood I would recommend 'Agent Vinod', a sort of Indian take on James Bond and Bourne Identity spunk baby. Don't expect too much, but 'I' think it's good.