Slumdog Millionaire
The big winner at the 2009 Academy Awards (eight Oscars in total, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay) is Danny Boyle's (Trainspotting, Sunshine) Slumdog Millionaire.
Jamal Malik (Patel), born into dire poverty, is an 18 year-old orphan from the slums of Mumbai. The nation is watching as Jamal climbs that little ladder of cash on India's 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?' And climb he does, eventually one question away from winning the jackpot: 20 million rupees. But then the show breaks for the night, and police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much?
The police spend the night probing Jamal's past, recounting his life in the slums where he and his brother grew up, of their adventures together on the road, of vicious encounters with local gangs, and of Latika (Pinto), the girl he loved and lost.
- Director:
- Danny Boyle ('Trainspotting', 'Sunshine')
- Writer:
- Simon Beaufoy
- Cast:
- Dev PatelAnil KapoorSaurabh ShuklaRajendranath ZutshiFreida PintoIrfan Khan
Reviews & comments
Variety
pressDriven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, Slumdog Millionaire is a blast.
The New York Times
pressA gaudy, gorgeous rush of color, sound and motion, “Slumdog Millionaire,” the latest from the British shape-shifter Danny Boyle, doesn’t travel through the lower depths, it giddily bounces from one horror to the next. A modern fairy tale about a pauper angling to become a prince...
San Francisco Chronicle
pressThe movie takes audiences to the poorest sections of India and shows a level of poverty and human misery that's almost beyond our imagining - and yet so pervasive that people seem to take it in stride, as an unalterable fact. The movie provides an indelible education into how other people live, and that's a noble function. We get the range of modern Indian life, from the technological sophistication of its television stations to the primitive shacks in which people live in crushing proximity to one another. The film is so vivid that you can almost smell it, and there are images that will linger with viewers for a long time.
Roger Ebert
pressWhen I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher summit.
Los Angeles Times
pressA Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way, was made on the streets of India with largely unknown stars by a British director who never makes the same movie twice? Go figure.
Hollywood Reporter
pressWhat's perhaps most fascinating about the film is Boyle's relentless focus on the realities of present-day India as a vehicle for his spectacle and laughs.
Film Threat
pressAbsolutely perfect family entertainment for anyone over the age of ten. It is a celebration of not just the usual triumph of the human spirit, but a celebration of the human experience.
Empire Magazine
pressDanny Boyle's finest since "Trainspotting." In fact, it's the best British/Indian gameshow-based romance of the millennium.
It's easy to be cynical and see this as yet another holiday in someone else's misery, but Danny Boyle rarely disappoints and this delivers on every level - from acting, cinematography and a script that veers just the right side of feel-good-schmaltz. Boyle is the Scottish Alan Parker - attempting something different with every movie and unafraid to dabble...
O.M.G. I am so thankful I don't live their life which if course is real!!! What a movie. Thank you to all who made this movie. I wish I had a magic wand to pass over that terrible terrible evil place where people are commodities like fish in a market. It was a brilliant movie with a great hollywood story drenched with real life.
Well this is a first for me, I've never given five stars to a film on Flicks before. This movie has prompted it because it really is faultless. Rarely have I ever been completely captured end-to-end through a movie. The pace of the film, often the problem with uplifting human dramas, never lets up and we are thrown from one brilliantly executed scene to...
I agree with those who found this film disturbing. it's not "enchanting", certainly not "feel-good" Gratuitous violence, brutal treatment of children, utter squalor...yes, probably daily life for millions of people, who dcertinly don't deserve it, and we should all be aware of that. But it is advertised in a way that made me expect quite a different...
It is a movie that I wasn't going to see, but glad I did. Amazing. Highly recommeded a must see. Do not miss it. Full of action, amazing story. Still do not want to go to India, this film confirmed that.
The older I become, I am coming to the conclusion that the poulous are being 'dumbed out' with an over exposure and acceptance to television. In my view, the awards this film collected are puzzling and largely undeserved. Couldn't help notice the Miami colours- green & lilac-through out most of the film, not to mention the movie offering absolutely no...
I honestly don't know what all the fuss is about with this movie. Sure, you get to have a little look at life in the slums - but peeping over the fence at the poor people just isn't enough to keep a movie afloat. The story is weak, the characters aren't that interesting. If this had been set in LA not Mumbai, it wouldn't have even made it to Monday Night...
Variety
pressDriven by fantastic energy and a torrent of vivid images of India old and new, Slumdog Millionaire is a blast.
The New York Times
pressA gaudy, gorgeous rush of color, sound and motion, “Slumdog Millionaire,” the latest from the British shape-shifter Danny Boyle, doesn’t travel through the lower depths, it giddily bounces from one horror to the next. A modern fairy tale about a pauper angling to become a prince...
San Francisco Chronicle
pressThe movie takes audiences to the poorest sections of India and shows a level of poverty and human misery that's almost beyond our imagining - and yet so pervasive that people seem to take it in stride, as an unalterable fact. The movie provides an indelible education into how other people live, and that's a noble function. We get the range of modern Indian life, from the technological sophistication of its television stations to the primitive shacks in which people live in crushing proximity to one another. The film is so vivid that you can almost smell it, and there are images that will linger with viewers for a long time.
Roger Ebert
pressWhen I saw "Slumdog Millionaire" at Toronto, I was witnessing a phenomenon: dramatic proof that a movie is about how it tells itself. I walked out of the theater and flatly predicted it would win the Audience Award. Seven days later, it did. And that it could land a best picture Oscar nomination. We will see. It is one of those miraculous entertainments that achieves its immediate goals and keeps climbing toward a higher summit.
Los Angeles Times
pressA Hollywood-style romantic melodrama that delivers major studio satisfactions in an ultra-modern way, was made on the streets of India with largely unknown stars by a British director who never makes the same movie twice? Go figure.
Hollywood Reporter
pressWhat's perhaps most fascinating about the film is Boyle's relentless focus on the realities of present-day India as a vehicle for his spectacle and laughs.
Film Threat
pressAbsolutely perfect family entertainment for anyone over the age of ten. It is a celebration of not just the usual triumph of the human spirit, but a celebration of the human experience.
Empire Magazine
pressDanny Boyle's finest since "Trainspotting." In fact, it's the best British/Indian gameshow-based romance of the millennium.
It's easy to be cynical and see this as yet another holiday in someone else's misery, but Danny Boyle rarely disappoints and this delivers on every level - from acting, cinematography and a script that veers just the right side of feel-good-schmaltz. Boyle is the Scottish Alan Parker - attempting something different with every movie and unafraid to dabble...
O.M.G. I am so thankful I don't live their life which if course is real!!! What a movie. Thank you to all who made this movie. I wish I had a magic wand to pass over that terrible terrible evil place where people are commodities like fish in a market. It was a brilliant movie with a great hollywood story drenched with real life.
Well this is a first for me, I've never given five stars to a film on Flicks before. This movie has prompted it because it really is faultless. Rarely have I ever been completely captured end-to-end through a movie. The pace of the film, often the problem with uplifting human dramas, never lets up and we are thrown from one brilliantly executed scene to...
I agree with those who found this film disturbing. it's not "enchanting", certainly not "feel-good" Gratuitous violence, brutal treatment of children, utter squalor...yes, probably daily life for millions of people, who dcertinly don't deserve it, and we should all be aware of that. But it is advertised in a way that made me expect quite a different...
It is a movie that I wasn't going to see, but glad I did. Amazing. Highly recommeded a must see. Do not miss it. Full of action, amazing story. Still do not want to go to India, this film confirmed that.
The older I become, I am coming to the conclusion that the poulous are being 'dumbed out' with an over exposure and acceptance to television. In my view, the awards this film collected are puzzling and largely undeserved. Couldn't help notice the Miami colours- green & lilac-through out most of the film, not to mention the movie offering absolutely no...
I honestly don't know what all the fuss is about with this movie. Sure, you get to have a little look at life in the slums - but peeping over the fence at the poor people just isn't enough to keep a movie afloat. The story is weak, the characters aren't that interesting. If this had been set in LA not Mumbai, it wouldn't have even made it to Monday...
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