RA-ONE: THE NEXT LEVEL, ? Rating ( 2 hr & 36 min )

where:  UA EMERYVILLE STADIUM 10 in Emeryville, CA
when:  Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
show:  6:15 p.m.
costs:  $11.00 Ticket + $1.00 medium Popcorn ( upgraded from a free small popcorn on my movie watcher rewards card ) + $4.00 small Zero Coke = $16.00
auditorium:  4
seat:  6th row, 12th column


synopsis/overview:  A milquetoast father, Shekhar ( Shah Rukh Kahn ),  yields to his only son's request:  A computer game in which the bad guy cannot be defeated.  But the computer game character, RA-ONE, is programmed with Artificial Intelligence and soon takes on a life of its own then escapes into our world with only one thing in mind:  Finish the interrupted game by killing the other player,  Shekhar's son, Prateek ( Armaan Verma ).


noteworthy scenes:  1.) Rays; 2.) "Girls fall for me"; 3.) Fight; 4.) Set of keys; 5.) Jackie Chan; 6.) Thesis; 7.) Dude; 8.) Bad; 9.) Computer class; 10.) Random Access, version ONE; 11.) Smile; 12.) Mugger; 13.) Synchronization; 14.) Game demo; 15.) Dance; 16.) "Lucifer must die"; 17.) Suit synchronization; 18.) Rose; 19.) ID card; 20.) Funeral; 21.) Birthday gift; 22.) 'Phone call; 23.) "I don't like Chinese"; 24.) Chase; 25.) Junkyard fight; 26.) Spin-out; 27.) "Okay, mom, let's go"; 28.) Airport; 29.) Fight with the taxi cab drivers; 30.) "Hi .... 'Bye'"; 31.) Mosquito; 32.) "Bad hair"; 33.) "Paradise condom"; 34.) Stand By Me; 35.) Hospital room; 36.) "Power Yoga"; 37.) Nose; 38.) Red cubes; 39.) Alter thoughts; 40.) "Hug her"; 41.) Annual festival; 42.) "Sizzling siren"; 43.) Runaway train; 44.) Lord Ganesh; 45.) Death match; 46.) Multiple enemies; 47.) Shadow; 48.) Absorption; 49.) "Goodness lives on"; 50.) "I'm on"; and 51.) Bonus Out-Takes and Scenes during the Ending Credits.

favorite scenes:  I liked the Bollywood Dance scenes with all of those beautiful dancers.

I liked the Junkyard Fight scene.

audience reaction:  The audience, mostly Hindus,  really liked it.  ( I wonder if any of them could tell that there was a Yogi in their midst.  Ehh ... Yogis to them are probably a dime a dozen! )

recommendation:  Despite a weird beginning, this Hindi movie with English subtitles gradually settles into its intended genre later on but with Bollywood dancing thrown into the mix.  It is all done in fun, of course.  And I think that its intended target audience range in age from young teens to young adults.

spoiler alert!  Why couldn't that ample-breasted woman feel the set of keys fall down into her cleavage? Why didn't anybody notice the dead body dangling from the ceiling in the game design room at Baron Industries?  How was Ra-One able to ride a motorbike if it wasn't programmed for motorcycle riding/racing in the first place?  That car would not have been able to crash through a double-decker bus in real life!  The female Bollywood dancers looked suspiciously non-Indian--even the ones in Mumbai!  So, let's see if I got this right ....  A Good Guy has to have Blue Eyes!  Yeah, right ....

fyi:  This movie started without showing Movie Previews but showed a lot of ads, instead.  And, because of its length, there is a 15 minute ( ? ) intermission somewhere in the middle.

Watching this movie will remind you of some of Hollywood's major blockbusters:  Terminator, Matrix, Iron Man, and even Spider Man--and, maybe, even a little bit of Tron thrown-in for good measure.

A scene in an Indian house in Mumbai ( f.k.a. Bombay ) shows G-One reading the book, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda, the brother disciple of my Yogi's Paramguru of the Yogoda Satsanga Society lineage established by Sri Yukteswar.

The theatre staff really made quite a production of this movie, with x-mas lights and movie posters decorating the auditorium hallway.

word of advice:  A look-alike is no substitute for True Love.

tidbits:  The concessions counter clerk, Ernest, asked for another one of my Cine-Man calling cards because he misplaced the one that I gave him last week.  I hope that he won't lose this card this time around and I hope that he'll get to finally check-out my movie review blogsite.

You can tell if you're finally a regular movie patron if the concessions counter clerk knows exactly what kind of drink it is that you will buy:   A small Zero Coke with four ( yes, 4 ) ice cubes!  Heck, I ain't paying four bucks or more for a cup of "flavored" ice cubes!

Some Chinese girl who was in the same auditorium with me almost went into the men's room during the intermission.  I had to show her where to go to find the ladies room.

A third of the theatre's parking lot was cordoned-off for some black-top work and repair.

I parked in the parking lot to the right of this section.