movie time - part 2

watched 'Sherlock Holmes' played by Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law.. it can only be described as a travesty of the original image of Sherlock Holmes... Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must have turned over in his grave.. it was absolutely despicable..

i have nothing against the actors - robert downey is pretty good, as is jude law.. i have nothing against the direction and portrayal of tense situations.. i would have watched this movie happily and even appreciated the suspense were it the movie of a completely new fictional character who the movie writer just made up...

but unfortunately this is not true.. they are trying to portray Sherlock Holmes! and i have this indelible image of him.. have read all the books and have the complete anthology back home in India.. have read those books as a kid and completely cherish them..

Sherlock Holmes - he is not a man of action - he can fight if he needs to but not crassly like in the movie - every chance he gets.. he makes brilliant deductions and only describes the conclusions.. and gives the details behind it only if he is asked to.. he does experiments on many things but only when he needs to.. he is not described as extremely dirty is any of the books..

the movie makes him look like a bumbling idiot and goofball who is capable sometimes of making good deductions and seems to be dependent on Watson more than he should be.. and the encounter with Irene Adler is horrible.. the whole experienced wasn't one i'd go thru again..

i do not discourage making of period movies with suspense and thrilling incidents... but just the defacing of the indomitable spirit and image of a beloved storybook character

movie time... part 1

saw 'what's your rashee' last weekend... finally!
as with most Ashutosh Gowariker movies some of the prevalent social issues and situations came to light in the movie.. a flash of the Indian spirit - you could call it.. and also some scenes that can only be described as pseudo-emergencies... a relatively normal situation heightened and portrayed as more tense than it really is.. his signature is very clear..

the storyline was not that impressive.. Priyanka Chopra did a decent job.. but the issues i was talking about: like girls not being let to study further, marriage being the only way of escape for some girls.. i dont know if it's still there in India, not in major cities but may be in villages?

i don't believe much in zodiac signs as a sure indicator of a person's nature or behavior.. but observe some things sometimes..

why i love google - part 1

Google is one company most adored.. different people have different reasons.. and i have many..
take this for instance: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/02/google-acquires-aardvark.html
aardvark searches with social context (was reading the white paper).. is something that is really cool and until further tuned slightly bumpy.. i just adore it that google invests in such cool things.. some turn out great, some don't... but they invest in future and nobody can predict exactly how it would turn out..
must read lawrence lessig's stuff some time..

50 states

was watching the tahnksgiving episode of friends (7th season) where ross tries to remember the name of all 50 states.. so was trying to recollect the names myself.. could only remember like 45 of them..

here are the ones i could remember:

1. illinois
2. pennsylvania
3. maryland
4. new york
5. indiana
6. wisconsin
7. iowa
8. nebraska
9. new jersey
10. massachussets
11. connecticut
12. ohio
13. vermont
14. new hampshire
15. georgia
16. alabama
17. arkansas
18. kansas
19. missouri
20. oklahoma
21. california
22. nevada
23. utah
24. texas
25. new mexico
26. florida
27. tennesee
28. north carolina
29. south carolina
30. rhode island
31. north dakota
32. south dakota
33. washington
34. d.c
35. virginia
36. arizona
37. kentucky
38. minnesota
39. mississippi
40. montana
41. colorado
42. west virginia
43. wyoming
44. idaho
45. michigan

forgot:
- delaware
- maine
- alaska
- hawaii
- louisiana
- oregon

not bad i guess... left all the ez ones..