Kites :-/

There's something to be said in favour of internet movie streaming. If I had spent good money on watching Kites in a cinema, I would have kicked myself!! This movie could not have been more predictable if they had tried to make it so!
For example, one scene goes like this:

HR, BM and a sidekick have just gotten away(again) from the goons who are in hot pursuit. Time for a song and dance break for HR and BM, while sidekick goes off to get fake passports made.
Sidekick rushes to HR and BM's house (by which time the song gets over), stands outside a window and screams "I have your passports"
HR and BM grin stupidly at Sidekick.
Sidekick grins back even more stupidly at HR and BM.
Everybody continues grinning stupidly at each other through the glass for a minute without making a move. (you can actually feel the next part coming, the way they all grin at each other through the glass)
And then - bham (surprise!) - sidekick's brain's are splattered all over the window, the goons appear and HR and BM make a run for it. [I had easily 30 seconds to turn my head away - it was that obvious!]


And eventually it turns out that the passports are completely irrelevant to the plot(except maybe as an excuse to finish of sidekick/third wheel). 

The rest of the plot(!?) was just as senseless. HR in the initial scenes as a small time crook/dance instructor, looks and talks like Brad Pitt in Snatch, but the accent and look change very quickly without any explanation. KB plays a casino owner who without hesitation cuts off the ears(before killing) of someone caught cheating in his casino, but says "you have to know when to leave the table" when BM and HR, who are engaged to his children decide to elope with each other, after knocking his son out cold!

The movie is hyped and sold as a "love has no language barrier" romance, but it turns into a chase-n-run after the falling in love bit is quickly dispensed with by using a song, even before the first half hour of the movie is over. The rest of the movie is only made up of not very heart pounding chase sequences.

Maybe I'm just ranting because there was no happy ending for consolation either!
 

@HR: There's a very fine line between having a greek god like physique and looking like Marvel comics mutant. Please tread carefully :)

....Fire in the Sky

Two very different, very spectacular sunrises - just a couple of days apart this week!

How to train your Dragon

Loved it! H2TYD was (too?)short, sweet, funny, witty and sarcastic, poignant, moving, layered, beautiful, and so very visually stimulating! The flight scenes were spectacular! - specially when Toothless, Hiccup and Astrid soar through the clouds and the Aurora Borealis. I loved the hot air balloon/plane ride scene from The Mummy Returns and before that ages ago the flying carpet scene from the Disney movie Aladin. And this one was just as exhilarting!
S was just as engrossed as me for the full length of the movie, and that says a lot about H2TYD . This is the guy whom I've to nudge awake during Ice Age, Shrek and other such movies :)
The only tiny little complaint - I wish the dragons themselves had a little more IQ, rather than ending up as "pets" finally.

Going to watch it again, this time in French with subtitles, if I find one uploaded on the net :)

Someone: "But those ships never return..."
Someone else: "We are Vikings, it's an occupational hazard"

P.S. I watched the 2D version

The PNRs have landed!

Mr. and Mrs PNR are here! And since the moment they've landed I've been going overboard saying things like "Look Ma, I can cook, I can clean, I can organize,....... I can manage a house (petite apartment to be exact :)". To the extent that Mr.PNR who is normally my #1 fan, made a sharp "Ma's been doing this for 30years" comment, when he caught me giving mummy some cooking "tips" :)). The last 3 days have been simply awesome. It is soooo great to have them here with S and me. Pa btw celebrated his 65th b'day travelling more than 6000 miles over 2 continents and transiting through 4 countries. Ma though wasn't two happy about the 2 beers and couple of glasses of wine he indulged in along the way :) But they got to Lux safe and sound and happy :)

The crazy Luxembourg weather has been playing spoilsport though - grey and dreary doesn't begin the describe the unexpected cold spell we've been having. And after this morning's walk around the city centre, I get the feeling Pa and Ma would rather sit indoors and drink lots of hot tea than venture out in the cold again :((


@Sparto: Wish you were here - it's the only only thing keeping this reunion one notch below perfect.

The aftermath of Eyjafjallajoekull

Found this picture on FB today :))

A volcano who's name I can't even pronounce has turned Europe into Mordor since the last few days, but alteast one person sees the funny side of life :)

On a serious note: Ma&Pa are travelling to Lux in 3 weeks time. Here's hoping that the ash over Europe clears by then and they have a smooth journey here.

Parle-ing Francais!

It's now the third week of French classes for moi :) And it is easily the most fun I have had in a classroom. Sort of like being in a live version of that old British comedy series where a group of foreigners are learning English in the UK. This is like the French version :) The class composition is something like this - 2 Indian women (including me), 3-4 people from South America and Mexico, 1 Serb, 2 Russians, 4 Arabs, and a couple of eastern Europeans. There is no single common language that the class speaks as yet :) So Prof. Alex teaches the beginner's French class in French!! A very very animated French, to be precise. Like French+dumb charades. For example, "J'aime le chocolat" is accompanied by a 'yumyumyumyumyum' and a tummy rub! And as for the rest of us, each of us speak French with our own unique accents :) Poor Monsieur Alex! (He's quite a linguist though - we've come to realize he teaches English too and probably speaks a few other European languages as well ) But I've realized that this is quite an effective method of teaching. We've quickly developed an ear for the language and we have no choice but to use French to communicate within the class :)

For the love of books :)

Somewhere in her email today was this line - "Sigh! sometimes i wonder y i read those classics...its so hard to ignore the heroes of yore..". I smiled. Because I blame the books too, for many many things :) For things ranging all the way from incurable romanticism to hypochondria. For the rose tinted glasses and the real ones too :) For the love of happy endings and for the depths of misery when things end no-so-happily :(. For being a bit of a drama queen at times. For the total inability to take things at face value. And of course like she said for expecting men (S to be accurate) to be Rhett Butler, Roark, Darcy, and many others all rolled into one :))))