Slumdog Millionaire

So I finally watched Slumdog Millionaire. Jon tried to get several of us out to see this movie a few weeks back, but since I heard nothing of the movie, coupled with Jon encouraging us to see it, I was completely against it. Much to my own chagrin, I must admit that it was an incredible movie. Some of you may be familiar with the director, Danny Boyle, but most of you probably are not. He is probably best known for 'Trainspotting' but I love him most for his work in 'The Beach' a DiCaprio favorite of mine. If you like Slumdog and are sort of into Sci Fi, I highly recommend 'Sunshine' which is another movie of his that came out last year that flew below most people's radars.

Back to the movie, its based on a 'slumdog' uneducated man that is on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. Since the Indian Rupee is worth next to nothing, instead of a 1,000,000 rupees, its actually 20,000,000. But that's not the point. You wouldn't think of it at first, but the director but a different spin of a coming of age story. The whole movie is based on flashbacks that the main character, Jamal, has in order to answer the questions that are asked of him on the show. The story is definitely engaging and you are very interested in what is going to happen next. So what are the downfalls of the movie? The 'best friend' character is a stereotypical bad brother. He's there with him through thick and thin, but is willing to hurt his brother in order to benefit himself. Also, it's somewhat predictable. I won't say that the predictability factor is a complete downfall, however, I personally thought it was one of the attractions, as well. I'm not sure if its just me, but when you have a coming of age story, everyone always wants a happy ending, and there were a few situations throughout the movie that you knew would have to go a certain direction.

I consider this a must watch and give it a rating of 5 Manatees.