where: CENTURY 25 UNION LANDING & XD in Union City, CA
when: Saturday, May 29th, 2010
show: 7:45 p.m.
costs: $11.00 + $4.00 small Diet/Zero ( w/ Barq's & Cherry flavors ) Coke + $12.42 dinner @ Fresh Choice Restaurant before the show ( + $1.00 tip ) + $4.00 Bridge Toll = $32.42
auditorium: 22
seat: 5th row, 6th column
synopsis: In this tragic love story, a Las Vegas entrepreneur marries female illegal aliens for a fee so the women can apply for citizenship. But he is smitten by one of his eleven "brides" who is about to get married to the son of a crime lord. As they try to annul their marriage, events go from bad to worse. Soon, they are running for their lives and falling madly in love with each other in-between car chases and shoot-outs.
noteworthy scenes: 1.) Train car; 2.) Honeymoon scam; 3.) Limousine; 4.) Break-dance competition; 5.) Skin diving; 6.) Introduction; 7.) Love and music; 8.) Forty-two dollars; 9.) Fashion shoot; 10.) Sailing; 11.) Shadow puppets; 12.) Cellphone; 13.) Cheaters; 14.) Translation; 15.) "Goodbye, Poverty"; 16.) Rain; 17.) Family portrait; 18.) Friends; 19.) Train; 20.) Get-away; 21.) Hot-air balloon; 22.) Kiss; 23.) Mrs. Linda Ray; 24.) True identity; 25.) Bank; 26.) Van; 27.) Same jail term; 28.) Foreign words; 29.) Shoot-out; 30.) Car chase; 31.) Convertible; 32.) Ransom money; 33.) Wedding; 34.) Unwelcome guests; 35.) Bullet wound; 36.) Cornered; 37.) Stand-off; and 38.) Sea cliff.
audience reaction: The audience seemed to like it.
recommendation: This is strictly a rental since the script for, and the directing of, this movie both lack polish.
spoiler alert! The Immigration and Naturalization Service ( INS--I don't know what it's called now ) checks-up periodically on citizens who marry foreigners. You cannot marry someone and a short time later ( minutes or hours ) divorce that someone--it simply doesn't work that way! The INS would know about it, sooner or later. This movie is only two hours and ten minutes long, so why does it have an intermission break? And a very short one at that, I might add! As J ( Hrithik Roshan ) reached for the dangling rope from his speeding truck, that rope should have whipped his hand and/or friction-burned it--simple physics. The cops wanted an interpreter for the Filipino couple because they couldn't speak English--Bull! English is one of the three major languages in the Philippines ( Cebuano and Tagalog being the other two ). Any Filipino who has enough money to travel abroad is well-educated and can speak English. Of course, the hard accent that some Filipino tribes use in speaking English is an altogether different matter! Ha, ha, ha. In the shoot-out with the biker gang, the cops just stood there on the stairs instead of ducking for cover. The cops just stayed directly behind that big rig which was hauling cars when they knew what J was gonna do with each and every car. As they rode in the convertible, no wind noise could be heard. Natasha ( Barbara Mori ) wasn't paying much attention to the road in the car chase. And I was disappointed when I realized that the good guys and the bad guys do not get together to do a typical Bollywood-style "song and dance" ending.
fyi: Hrithik Rosan has the best-looking eyes that I've ever seen on the big screen. His eyes are not blue, not green, not amber, not brown and not violet but a combination of all of the above. And the camera lingered on his eyes in the clear broad daylight scenes to accentuate the effect. If Hollywood--or Bollywood, for that matter--ever decides to do a new Jesus Christ movie, Hrithik is the man for the job, based on his eyes and exotic good looks.
Unfortunately, Hrithik has a deformity--easily fixable, mind you! He has a vestigial digit attached to the lateral side of his right thumb. Hey, dude ... you're rich and famous now! Why don't you have a surgeon remove that thing? You're not keeping it on for good luck, I hope.
The Ending Credits lists a man named Joseph Stalin. I wonder if he's in any way related to the genocidal communist dictator.
word of advice: You can't buy love.
tidbits: I decided to see this "Bollywood" movie after my Kriya Yoga group practice session ended for the day.
