Death Race

The post-industrial economic crisis in the US provides ample ground for the business savvy woman-warden of the dreaded Terminal Island Prison to turn the place into a money minting place. She pitted inmates against each others in a deadly car race which is broadcasted as “Death Race” to the world via a paysite on the internet. The winner, if there is, any at all, could win his freedom after going through the final stage!

Jensen (Statham) a decent husband and father is framed for murder and sent to Terminal Island prison. The warden (Allen) offers Jensen his freedom if he beats challenger Joe (Gibson). But Jensen thinks that he had met another competitor (Ryan) somewhere before he landed in the prison cell. So with his racing coach (McShane) and bombshell navigator (Martinez), Jensen trumps up an escape plan even as the race takes place under the watchful eyes of the prison warden.

Death Race is full of deafening roar of the cars, big guns and even bigger explosions. Statham looks astonishingly cool in his well toned muscles and sexy Martinez keeps you glue to the screen. The jaw-dropping car chase scenes and actions resemble the making of another part of The Fast and the Furious but with poor scripting and messy editing Death Race looks more of a videogame masquerading as a movie. There is too much special effects that the film could use toons and not actors.

Death Race is a mockery of the 1975-original film, but it delivers extreme fury and action to ensure that it remains entertaining if you deactivate your brainpower.
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English (A)
Cast: Jason Statham, Joan Allen, Ian McShane, Tyrese Gibson, Natalie Martinez
Director: Paul W S Anderson

Embracing male sexuality

Gentlemen: A Lighter Look at the Male Viewpoint
Author: Anil Abraham, Unisun, 2008, pp 90, Rs 150

Bangalore-based doctor Anil Abraham’s Gentlemen is a sidesplitting monologue on the Indian male psychic on sexual transformation. If you have seen the classic play of Eve Ensler’s The Vagina Monologues, you’ll find that you have been to similar grounds. Gentlemen traces the four stages of sexual identification process of the Indian male, particularly that of a South Indian, in a pleasurable way minus vulgarity.

The monologues are divided into five parts — four on men themselves and one by a woman. The first one called ‘The Impotence of Being Earnest’ concentrates on a gentleman’s horror at the realisation that his ‘Mohanlal’ had betrayed him on the night of his marriage to a ‘complete stranger’, despite him having had a ‘hard’ and ‘healthy’ life all through.

Then we have ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ in which a budding young man instead of playing violin plays with his stuff at the discovery of his sexual identity on a rooftop. There’s a lot to look back and grind at the little home-truths here.

Now, a sexually active married man in ‘The Last of the Red-Hot Lovers’ hits out at the ‘needless’ condom. There are some catchy dialogues like “When there is rain an umbrella is OK. But what’s love with a condom? Don’t you think it’s a little out-of place?”

Finally ‘To Pee or not to Pee’ is a satire on the dysfunctional of men’s ‘most guarded tool’. It’s a story about an aged man and how he had to deal with his ever youthful mischievous mind.

Dr Abraham then chooses to have a ‘happily ever after’ play with a no-nonsense woman in ‘Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf?” What’s life without women after all? This section serves as a reminder to all men that with all their machismo, by being born the way they are, their ultimate happiness lies with words like Men-struation, Men-opause and finally Wo-men!

This book maybe small but the issue it contains is much bigger than the phallus — men’s ‘most guarded element’. It is a candid take on men’s sexuality which rarely gets into Indian performing arts and public discussion. Even as the dermatologist in Abraham brings out the often regarded taboo topic in a refined manner the teacher in him equally tackles the issue without impropriety.
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Days of Glory

This French drama based on the lives of Algerian youths who enlisted themselves in the French Army during the World War II is a touching tale of defeat and hope, in the face of victory.

In 1943, four Algerian ‘band of brothers’ join the French Army to fight against the Nazis. These ‘Arab’ soldiers were made to believe that they were fighting for justice, liberty and freedom but regarding their own situation, they discovered that they were less than equal to their French counterparts. Though equally patriotic and ready to lay down their lives for the country, they even had to fight for tomatoes forget about promotion.

The picturisation on fear and courage of the men; the discrimination and also a warm smiles from the French people recounts the love-hate relationship that exists in wartime France and after.

The cinematography is one of the best any war-based films can boast of. The film was nominated for a host of awards including the Academy Awards, for the Best Foreign Film and the Independent Spirit Awards, for Best Foreign Film.

A sincere tribute to the souls of Algerian French war heroes and a look at the inscrutable and ungrateful successive French governments which refuse to give pensions to them despite the Supreme Court’s order. It is said that the French government finally decided to honour them only when the then president Jacques Chirac watched this film. The thematic presentation of the plight of French war veterans aroused the universal hard truths many people had to face when race comes into play.
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French (A/U) (with English subtitle)
Cast: Jamel Debbouze, Samy Naceri, Roschdy Zem, Sami Bouajila, Bernard Blancan, Mathieu Simonet
Director: Rachid Bouchareb

Shortcut to Happyness

English (U/A)
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Kim Cattrall
Director: Harry Kirkpatrick

Based on the classic adaptation of Stephen Vincent Benet and Archibald MacLeish's classic The Devil and Daniel Webster, this film reminds you of how you had taken that long route to miss a C-grade film that your sex-driven friend offered to take you along just because he wanted to see a 'A' graded film.

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