Ragman's Review of Slumdog Millionaire

Now before I get to the review proper let me first say this: I liked this movie. I didn't love this movie or think it was so good I wanted to go run over roger ebert, back the car over him, run him over again, get out of the car and curb stomp him, then finally beat him over the head with a sledge hammer like some film critics after they saw this movie I just happened to like it that's all.

Now how much did I happen to like it? was it :

Well you're just going to have to keep reading this review to find out, or scroll down the page either way is fine with me.

Anyhow, the film opens up to our protagonist, named Jamal, getting the living crap beaten out of him by a police officer who wants to know how he cheated on the indian version of "Who Wants To Be a Millionaire." The reasons for this rather harsh beating come from the fact that Jamal has grown up in the slums of india where he was called a "Slumdog", hence the title of the film. Due to the class system in india it is strange to see someone from such a poor area do well on a game show, yet Jamal not only does well he is up to the final question.

But how did he get that far? Well that's the main hook of the movie; you see every question that has been asked on the show has in some way gone back to parts of his life growing up. How does he know the name of a famous movie star? Well he got an autograph from him when he was a young boy. This is what introduces us to the plot which is about Jamal's life in india.

The plot is also where things start to go down hill, well for me at least. The major, major, major problem I have with this film is that it's too predictable in certain areas.

For instance, when the police are questioning Jamal you see a flash of a woman at a train station with wind blowing through her hair. After seeing a couple movies you can probably formulate that this woman is of importance to the main character. After a couple more minutes of this movie goes by you have already seen the main character's mother so you can be sure that these two women are not the same and that she's probably the love interest of the main character. Yet the flash also has a grim tone towards it due to how brief it is and how we have no idea where this woman is at the moment we first see her. This leads to one of four options:

That's my issue, I've seen where this plot is going and I'm a bit annoyed that I am. This doesn't ruin the movie for me, and like I said at the beginning of the review I still like the movie, it's just annoying.

Now with my biggest gripe with the movie out of the way let's get to the good bits. The movie has a very good setting and it moves along rather nicely. While it does have a very formulaic plot it tells it in such an original way that I enjoyed the movie. The overall look of the film is also good, although they've took some stuff from "City of God." All of the actors in the movie are very good. Finally the film had really good pacing and you won't feel ripped off going to see it.

So what would I rate the movie?

Mainly because I just felt the plot was too predictable. Everything else is pretty good and if you can get past my gripes you will enjoy this movie. Even if you are like me you will probably still like this movie, my advice is just don't go into it expecting the holy grail of film.