- Gladiator
- Inglorious bastard
- Little miss sunshine
- Munich
- Memento
- Cinderalla man
- Ratatouile
- Departed
- Thank you for smoking
- A good year
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Top 10 English Movies of the Decade - Hashique's Take
Here are Hashique's picks.
Top 10 English Movies of the Decade - My take
How did I come upon this list? My focus was on impact. Which movies changed their genre, changed film making, told unique stories?
So, here are my top 10.
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
For redefining fantasy movies. Forever. In scale, in detail, the LOTR trilogy is a classic.
In the story telling section, my picks are:
Memento
For redefining how a story can be told to a film audience. Memento's reverse chronological timeline was incredibly bold. Memento has since been endlessly (and horribly) copied.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
For telling the story of a man trying to save his memories. And for having the incredible creativity to actually show how someone's memories can be erased. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Hotel Rwanda
The Schindler's List of this decade. If you were not nauseous when Don Cheadle drives over thousands of dead bodies, you are definitely not human.
On the fun side, here are three picks
Batman Begins
For portraying Batman as he should have always been portrayed. Darkly. The menace of Batman was never so apparent. Disclosure: I am a childhood Batman fanboy.
Bourne Ultimatum (and the series in general)
For reinventing action films. Remember the Waterloo scene. All other action movies will forever be compared with this gold standard.
Ratatouille
Pixar took story telling so many steps forward with their films this decade that it's astounding. To have the courage to follow through on the whimsical idea of a rat who loves gourmet food & cooking and offers deep philosophical advice is itself praiseworthy, but they also made this film that has a heart.
The Incredibles
Another one from the stables of Pixar. Again, a new take. This time on super heroes. The brilliant take of, what if super heroes were hiding amongst you trying to get on with their lives as gasp! insurance claims processors?! And how would you feel if you were slighted by one of them? Fresh take on super heroes.
District 9
Well, notice there aren't ANY sci-fi films here at all. What a pathetic decade! Well there was Star Trek, and countless Star Wars movies but I'm not a trekkie. I would have picked Minority Report in the sci-fi section, but then came District 9. If anything, I loved it for it's contradictions. Alien movie where humans ghetto off aliens? Check. Highly advanced aliens who love to eat garbage? Check. Lurking sub plot of apartheid? Check.
Honorable Mention:
So, here are my top 10.
Lord of the Rings Trilogy
For redefining fantasy movies. Forever. In scale, in detail, the LOTR trilogy is a classic.
In the story telling section, my picks are:
Memento
For redefining how a story can be told to a film audience. Memento's reverse chronological timeline was incredibly bold. Memento has since been endlessly (and horribly) copied.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
For telling the story of a man trying to save his memories. And for having the incredible creativity to actually show how someone's memories can be erased. Breathtakingly beautiful.
Hotel Rwanda
The Schindler's List of this decade. If you were not nauseous when Don Cheadle drives over thousands of dead bodies, you are definitely not human.
On the fun side, here are three picks
Batman Begins
For portraying Batman as he should have always been portrayed. Darkly. The menace of Batman was never so apparent. Disclosure: I am a childhood Batman fanboy.
Bourne Ultimatum (and the series in general)
For reinventing action films. Remember the Waterloo scene. All other action movies will forever be compared with this gold standard.
Casino Royale
For reinventing 007 after he had become boring thanks to Mr.Brosnan. The raw energy & unbridled arrogance meant this was the 2nd best Bond (after Sean Connery, of course) and in it's own right, an excellent thriller.
Pixar took story telling so many steps forward with their films this decade that it's astounding. To have the courage to follow through on the whimsical idea of a rat who loves gourmet food & cooking and offers deep philosophical advice is itself praiseworthy, but they also made this film that has a heart.
The Incredibles
Another one from the stables of Pixar. Again, a new take. This time on super heroes. The brilliant take of, what if super heroes were hiding amongst you trying to get on with their lives as gasp! insurance claims processors?! And how would you feel if you were slighted by one of them? Fresh take on super heroes.
District 9
Well, notice there aren't ANY sci-fi films here at all. What a pathetic decade! Well there was Star Trek, and countless Star Wars movies but I'm not a trekkie. I would have picked Minority Report in the sci-fi section, but then came District 9. If anything, I loved it for it's contradictions. Alien movie where humans ghetto off aliens? Check. Highly advanced aliens who love to eat garbage? Check. Lurking sub plot of apartheid? Check.
Honorable Mention:
Inglourious Basterds
For taking a WW-II movie, injecting the Wild West into it and producing an alternative reality for the end of the war. But in terms of impact on film, no where near QT's masterpiece - Pulp Fiction.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Predictably Irrational in the electronics store
Two things happened that led me to write this blog post.
One, I've just read (heard actually, through an Audible Audiobook) Dan Ariely's excellent book - Predictably Irrational http://www.predictablyirrational.com/.
Two, newly sensitized by that book, particularly about Relativity (not the Einstein variety, the common variety), my recent visit to an electronics store (Reliance Digital) was a nice eye opener on what retailers do to convince, confuse & corrupt us into buying what they want us to buy, rather than what we want to buy.
As I walked to the DVD player section of Reliance Digital, I was greeted by shelves full of DVD players from every manufacturer imaginable. The Sony's & Samsung's rubbed shoulders with the Onida's & Mitashi's. I was looking for a particular combination of features and specifically a Phillips DVD player (probably because I have one myself. NOTE: That would be Anchoring in Ariely's book).
The sales person came forward, heard my desired features list - DivX compatible, USB reader capability & HDMI output - and took me to the shelve that had two DVD players.
"This is the Philips DVD", he said. "DivX compatible, reads USB & has HDMI out." I asked him the price and he mentioned what was well within the budget I had in mind.
"But this", he said, pointing at the DVD player next to the one he was showing me all this while, "is the Phillips DVD. All the features of the other model PLUS the glossy exterior finish, a FREE HDMI cable and picture Upscaling".
At this point, he was joined by another sales person. He repeated the glorious features of the second model and I found upon asking, that this 'advanced' model was pricier by a whole 67% when compared to the first model.
Then came the killer blow, the one Dan Ariely warns us against in the book.
The first sales person said - "It's only XXX.XX more than the less advanced model. Go for it. It's the best!"
What is happening here?
According to the book, the cheaper, less functional DVD player is a decoy. It's there to make the feature rich & more expensive DVD player look better as well as create a price point in your mind, what Ariely calls Arbitrary Coherance.
If the less functional DVD player is 5000 rupees for e.g. you would expect naturally that with the 'advanced glossy finish & the FREE HDMI cable' the more functional DVD player would be some what pricier.
The other thing that happens is that you compare the prices with each other, not individually. So, rather than think that you are about to spend 7000 rupees on a DVD player, you think you are going to spend "just 2000 rupees more than the less attractive mode". This allows you to rationalize the decision to pick the more expensive item.
So next time you are out shopping, consider how the items have been laid out before you. Try & pick the decoys and avoid buying something just because it has been placed next to a somewhat inferior version of itself and has smooth talking salesmen/saleswomen showing you just how little more you'd end up spending to get a 'superior' version!
Happy Shopping! :-)
One, I've just read (heard actually, through an Audible Audiobook) Dan Ariely's excellent book - Predictably Irrational http://www.predictablyirrational.com/.
Two, newly sensitized by that book, particularly about Relativity (not the Einstein variety, the common variety), my recent visit to an electronics store (Reliance Digital) was a nice eye opener on what retailers do to convince, confuse & corrupt us into buying what they want us to buy, rather than what we want to buy.
As I walked to the DVD player section of Reliance Digital, I was greeted by shelves full of DVD players from every manufacturer imaginable. The Sony's & Samsung's rubbed shoulders with the Onida's & Mitashi's. I was looking for a particular combination of features and specifically a Phillips DVD player (probably because I have one myself. NOTE: That would be Anchoring in Ariely's book).
The sales person came forward, heard my desired features list - DivX compatible, USB reader capability & HDMI output - and took me to the shelve that had two DVD players.
"This is the Philips DVD
"But this", he said, pointing at the DVD player next to the one he was showing me all this while, "is the Phillips DVD
At this point, he was joined by another sales person. He repeated the glorious features of the second model and I found upon asking, that this 'advanced' model was pricier by a whole 67% when compared to the first model.
Then came the killer blow, the one Dan Ariely warns us against in the book.
The first sales person said - "It's only XXX.XX more than the less advanced model. Go for it. It's the best!"
What is happening here?
According to the book, the cheaper, less functional DVD player is a decoy. It's there to make the feature rich & more expensive DVD player look better as well as create a price point in your mind, what Ariely calls Arbitrary Coherance.
If the less functional DVD player is 5000 rupees for e.g. you would expect naturally that with the 'advanced glossy finish & the FREE HDMI cable' the more functional DVD player would be some what pricier.
The other thing that happens is that you compare the prices with each other, not individually. So, rather than think that you are about to spend 7000 rupees on a DVD player, you think you are going to spend "just 2000 rupees more than the less attractive mode". This allows you to rationalize the decision to pick the more expensive item.
So next time you are out shopping, consider how the items have been laid out before you. Try & pick the decoys and avoid buying something just because it has been placed next to a somewhat inferior version of itself and has smooth talking salesmen/saleswomen showing you just how little more you'd end up spending to get a 'superior' version!
Happy Shopping! :-)
Friday, November 20, 2009
Google Chrome OS - All the links you could possibly want
- Introducing Google Chrome OS [Official Google Blog]
- What does Google Chrome OS look like? [Youtube, official Google Chrome Channel]
- 5 Things Google Chrome OS will do, for your netbook [Wired Magazine]
- Will Google Chrome OS kill Windows? [Mashable]
- What Google Chrome OS means for netbooks, and why M$FT needs to be scared?[Crunchgear]
- Try Google Chrome OS yourself. Now. [Techcrunch]
- Google Chrome OS - The VMWare Image [gdgt]
- Gizmodo weigns in on Google Chrome OS [Gizmodo]
- Engadget weighs in on Google Chrome OS [Engadget]
- Ditch your hard drive, the future is the web [Wired Magazine]
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Commute to Embassy Golf Links (EGL) from North Bangalore
View Larger Map
That took me over an hour to do. The stretch from Indiranagar BDA Complex to the turning to Indiranagar 80 feet road is full of potholes & pillars under construction for Namma Metro. The part from the end of 80 feet road where you turn right to get to 100 Feet Road is also time consuming, owing to heavy traffic through narrow, winding lanes.
Not a good strategy to follow at all. My commute time was 0905 - 1010 hrs. That is, by 1010 hrs, I was parked within EGL.
Here's what I did, on a whim, on the way back.
View Larger Map
This took much much lesser time. Starting at around 1745 hrs, I was home by around 1830 hrs.
Will be taking this route home from now on. If you live somewhere in North Bangalore or have to go that way one day, take this route. It's pretty nice, good roads.
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