Very seldom does a movie inspire me to think…this one did.
Sunday mornings are usually lazy. While reading the newspaper on the Saturday before, I’d come across this movie with one heck of a star cast and I just had to see it. Ben Kingsley, Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Josh Hartnett, Lucy Liu….had to be a great movie. We decided to catch the early morning show on Sunday….LUCKY NUMBER SLEVIN!
The movie turned out to be rather disappointing…more like a Quintin Tarantino without the suaveness and the punch. Maybe I was just expecting too much….the plot was weak and much too predictable. When the movie scores is the performances in spite of the insipid plot and the dialogues….some of the best one’s in a long time. There was this one dialogue which really got me thinking….but first, here’s what the movie was about ….
A good-looking dude with a broken nose is crashing at his bud’s apartment when a mob boss calls him in for a visit. It’s a case of mistaken identity, you see, and the good-looking dude is now forced to kill someone or else…he’s a dead man himself. And as if all that wasn’t enough, the other mob boss in town also calls him in for a visit and gives him (well, the person they think he is!) 48 hours to pay up on some hefty debts. What ensues is a whole lot of jabbering and killing.
The movie begins with a man in a wheelchair (Bruce Willis) telling an inexplicable story to a stranger in an airport lounge. The story involves the story of a fixed horse race, and there is mention of the Kansas City Shuffle… when the crown looks left u go right and do ur thing….
Josh Hartnett, playing Slevin, arriving at the New York apartment of his friend Nick, and being mistaken for Nick by hired goons working for The Boss (Morgan Freeman). The Boss, played by Freeman with his usual suave charm, tells Slevin (or Nick) he owes a lot of money, but the debt can be forgotten if he will kill the son of The Boss's rival crime kingpin, Shlomo ,The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley). In no time at all, Slevin/Nick is hauled by an alternative set of goons before The Rabbi, who makes him an alternative offer he can't refuse.
I ain’t giving out the end here coz if ur interested go catch it….Here’s the dialogue I was rather impressed by…
Slevin is taken in by Rabbi. This is almost immediately after the Boss takes him in and asks him to kill the Rabbi’s son. (Its not exactly the dialougues…but the meaning is what matters here)
Rabbi: You look worried
Slevin: Should I be worried?
Rabbi: U should. You owe me $33000.
Slevin: I do?! Boy…do I feel unlucky today!
Rabbi: That’s relative….don’t u think? If you don’t pay up in 48 hrs, you might end up thinking you were lucky today! You see, probably yesterday you thought that you were unlucky coz you got mugged, today u might think yesterday was better and today is unlucky for u. Man is never happy…is he?
Slevin: I guess not! So how do u justify urself being a Rabbi and doing what u do?
Rabbi: U see, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I live on both the sides…..So u see, I always have green grass!
I love what the Rabbi has to say… and it made me think. Why do we end up wasting today
thinking that we are not having the best of days…maybe its better than the days to come!! Why not enjoy the green grass that we have? And if u don’t…move to the other side!!
Let’s do the Kansas City Shuffle……… Why be ordinary when u can do more much more?
Thoughts…just thoughts!! Now is not forever!
The movie turned out to be rather disappointing…more like a Quintin Tarantino without the suaveness and the punch. Maybe I was just expecting too much….the plot was weak and much too predictable. When the movie scores is the performances in spite of the insipid plot and the dialogues….some of the best one’s in a long time. There was this one dialogue which really got me thinking….but first, here’s what the movie was about ….
A good-looking dude with a broken nose is crashing at his bud’s apartment when a mob boss calls him in for a visit. It’s a case of mistaken identity, you see, and the good-looking dude is now forced to kill someone or else…he’s a dead man himself. And as if all that wasn’t enough, the other mob boss in town also calls him in for a visit and gives him (well, the person they think he is!) 48 hours to pay up on some hefty debts. What ensues is a whole lot of jabbering and killing.
The movie begins with a man in a wheelchair (Bruce Willis) telling an inexplicable story to a stranger in an airport lounge. The story involves the story of a fixed horse race, and there is mention of the Kansas City Shuffle… when the crown looks left u go right and do ur thing….
Josh Hartnett, playing Slevin, arriving at the New York apartment of his friend Nick, and being mistaken for Nick by hired goons working for The Boss (Morgan Freeman). The Boss, played by Freeman with his usual suave charm, tells Slevin (or Nick) he owes a lot of money, but the debt can be forgotten if he will kill the son of The Boss's rival crime kingpin, Shlomo ,The Rabbi (Ben Kingsley). In no time at all, Slevin/Nick is hauled by an alternative set of goons before The Rabbi, who makes him an alternative offer he can't refuse.
I ain’t giving out the end here coz if ur interested go catch it….Here’s the dialogue I was rather impressed by…
Slevin is taken in by Rabbi. This is almost immediately after the Boss takes him in and asks him to kill the Rabbi’s son. (Its not exactly the dialougues…but the meaning is what matters here)
Rabbi: You look worried
Slevin: Should I be worried?
Rabbi: U should. You owe me $33000.
Slevin: I do?! Boy…do I feel unlucky today!
Rabbi: That’s relative….don’t u think? If you don’t pay up in 48 hrs, you might end up thinking you were lucky today! You see, probably yesterday you thought that you were unlucky coz you got mugged, today u might think yesterday was better and today is unlucky for u. Man is never happy…is he?
Slevin: I guess not! So how do u justify urself being a Rabbi and doing what u do?
Rabbi: U see, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. I live on both the sides…..So u see, I always have green grass!
I love what the Rabbi has to say… and it made me think. Why do we end up wasting today
thinking that we are not having the best of days…maybe its better than the days to come!! Why not enjoy the green grass that we have? And if u don’t…move to the other side!!
Let’s do the Kansas City Shuffle……… Why be ordinary when u can do more much more?
Thoughts…just thoughts!! Now is not forever!
4 comments:
well u told me abt d dialogues ydtrday only thing ws u cudnt recall dem in detail... and i do agree with u... the dialogues r awesome... and yeah, they gt me thinking as well... very well thought out and well written post... and trust me - ur nething bt ordinary... so i dnt think u shd wrry abt tat...
hmmm....i'd like to believe that i'm ordinary doing the ordinary things right........well u dint tell me...wht did "U" think abt it???
i think... i think... i dunno wt i think... i need a kick in the head... i like wt the rabbi says... he grass is greener on the other side, so i live on both sides... i wish tho tat it was tat easy a thing to do in everyday life... cuz theres gonna b a situation whr even he is gonna hv 2 tk sides...
hey...hw fair is it tellin ppl with examz to read posts bout movies??:(
m gonna comment aftr mah examz nw!!
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