Review: Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Saturday, December 27th, 2008 | Movies, Reviews

Finally a movie off the beaten track: Jamal, a young guy from the slums of Mumbai (a slumdog), get’s the chance to participate in India’s “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?” and is only one question away from winning the game. But when the show breaks for the night, police arrest him on suspicion of cheating; how could a street kid know so much? A series of short stories explain the key to each and every answer he gave during the game.

What follows is the rather heart-breaking story of Jamal’s childhood, how he lost his parents, found his one true love and had to constantly struggle with criminals who exploit orphaned children in India. This part is really well done and quite shocking for somebody who grew up in a well protected area. Children being mutilated just for being more piteous while begging to earn more money? This is plain sick!

Based on the award winning book “Q and A” by Vikas Swarup. I guess the book might not have the (minor) flaws of the cinematic instalment.

At first I thought the movie was great* (8) then it dropped to just good (7) half way trough (the part between childhood and the grand finale is too much of a Hollywood mainstream flick IMHO), getting better at the end again, thus I rate this one:

7.5/10 – definately worth looking (I gave this on an 8 on IMDb, no .5 allowed there)

* I was thinking about my scale:

0 – there is no such thing as a 0, this is equal to not voting at all
1 – so bad it’s almost good
2 – Death Race (2008)
3 – a pain
4 – just below average
5 – average
6 – just above average
7 – good
8 – great
9 – awesome
10 – legendary (did I mention I got the Bro Code for Xmas?)

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