ENDHIRAN (ENTHIRAN) THE ROBOT

ENDHIRAN (ENTHIRAN) THE ROBOT

I have no idea why people are saying this is a 'bad' movie. In no way is this film a 'bad' movie, it isn't even a 'bad' movie that is so 'bad' it is 'good.' It is a work of sheer genius. Its absurdity is absolutely intended, and this film is really...quite amazing. It is an action movie, an action comedy, a romantic comedy, and a sci-fi (in the true sense of science fiction) thriller. Overall, I laughed until my sides hurt, and most often with the movie and not necessarily at the movie. It is also a 'musical' which believe it or not I actually liked, however it tends to run a little long, but it works, by god it does work!

This movie reminds me of old movies like IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD, and comedies which had interesting and funny characters which you just love to watch. Sure there's a lot of things in this movie you might have seen something similar to before, but this thing takes it somewhere. It reminds me of what movies used to be. Movies which didn't simply attempt to reach every audience for a ticket, but reached out to various dimensions of the audience, and its feelings about all sorts of various things, and tying these things up in such a way as to give them something to ponder by a song or a memorable scene which you can go over in your mind again and again, I felt like a kid again. It isn't a rushed 'product' for mass consumption, but it is for mass consumption.

There is a lot in this movie that goes beyond insane gonzo comedy, and superficial comments about relationships or love. It doesn't contain the meaning of life, but it is what it is, and like movies of old, it stakes its claim, makes its point and leaves you with a lot to remember, all sorts of fun things which--mind you, have everything to do with the plot. It has a story to tell, the story isn't the vehicle, it is the story. Crazy or not, this movie is Iconic. Sure we've all seen robots before, and we've even seen them fall in love, but this movie puts pieces together which makes them stick together and work like a dream. It isn't easy to describe what this movie is compared to the crap we watch these days, its a real movie. "Oscar" winners have almost become a formula, and the drama in them very pretentious. Comedies don't really make you laugh at yourselves anymore, they're sadistic and cruel, they don't make you look at yourself, they make you want to laugh at the suffering of people you hate. Movies like MACHETE contain a few ideas but no real story, and all too many 'comedies' are simply throwaways. This is a movie which contains so many things to enjoy that I feel obligated to tell people what it was that I experienced. It is also a very 'contemporary' film, this movie knows how to take you for a ride, and make you laugh, and even make you consider a few things in a way that we may all so fondly remember the way we did as children.

It goes so over the top, it becomes a Bugs Bunny cartoon, but it maintains a focus on a certain dimension of reality in which it exploits to share to you its message. It also has a science fiction plot which is neither there for the sake of providing merely a vehicle for action and violence, or cheap sex jokes, it is there to co-exist with the romantic-comedy plot which has very much to do with what its all about. In the end it isn't just a cheap movie about 'getting the girl' nor is it a political diatribe about the evil of technology, it combines all these elements in a style which Hollywood simply doesn't understand anymore because dumb arrogant kids are making the movies these days. This is not a disposable movie. It stands mightily, towering over TRANSFORMERS and AVATAR because it is able to both combine a classical story with what is the most contemporty entertainment, in such a way as to entertain not simply various kinds of people, but various dimensions of a single person watching it. It doesn't just blend elements or genres, it puts them together to find all the points within a single audience member to make a very unique and new kind of moviegoing experience, or a very old one. It's reaching out to different parts of you. I don't think people realize what they've done here. It isn't just BICENTENNIAL MAN on steroids, or 'amped' up like they do in Hollywood, what it's amping up is all for a reason, sometimes even if that reason is to go batshit crazy and make you laugh. What strikes me is that none of the scenes are really self-indulgent, they're not simply there to show you a robot do x, y, or z like in so many movies these days, they're there inside the movie, serving the plot, serving the story. Outlandish things that happen turn into more development of characters or plot, musical numbers which appear and become berserk absurdities wind up being part of the plot, crazy action moments develop characters, and dimensions of the plot... you simply do not see this anymore in so many vacuous Hollywood movies these days.

I went for the gonzo action scenes, but I like sci-fi, so I followed that along, but I also got a kind of Peter Sellers romantic comedy, and I thought I'd just simply laugh at what was going on, wondering just what the hell these people were thinking, and laughing about it, but I got something else as well, a trip to old movie-land, where a story is a story, and kind of one of those which you don't forget, like when you were a kid. So you see, I loved this movie, I understand now the devotion of its followers, I've never seen a film by this filmmaker before, but whatever he's done here, it is true genius, they worked hard on this. (2 years).

It certainly relied on many images that are somewhat familiar, but it did something with all of them. It certainly has certain elements we've seen before, but it's done something we really haven't seen before with them. This is one of those movies which makes you want to buy a T-shirt for the movie, to somehow contain your memory of what is a truly iconic character, Chitti. In both a schlocky cult B-movie way, as well as something you just sense as being one of those things that is going to be around because it makes sense for it to be around. HAL 9000, The Terminator, Robocop, C-3P0, the Metropolis robot, there have been a lot of movies about robots--and only a few get to iconic status, this is one of those movies. Chitti is so memorable, I just can't get him out of my head. His movements, the humorous way he does things, and the misunderstandings you'd expect from a robot. This didn't work in TERMINATOR 3, because it didn't belong in TERMINATOR 3, but in this movie, it has the story and tone, and setting to back it up, and it is magic. It is the territory 'THE TERMINATOR' never should have ventured into, and what McG tried to bring back, was the lethal horror of a killer robot. In that setting, it should have been just that. In this movie, it plays on the lethality, but this lethality is funny because of its outrageousness, Chitti has not just gone berserk for no reason, or to simply have a robot threat killing people, and so it allows us to see the absurdity without really idolizing Chitti, he's kind of a hero in the beginning, and when he's bad, it isn't that he's really scary, but he's comically diabolical in a remote way, we're thinking, shit that robot's insane!!!! Too many people really identified with the cold-blooded Arnold rather than simply view him as the diabolical threat he was supposed to be, but that could be just us Americans. Bicentennial Man is too Forest Gump...What we have here is a character study of a wacky robot, because an artificial human would be exactly that, and like DATA from Star Trek, he's going to do funny things like run into walls, and misinterpret information, and we're not really like that, but the mayhem he's capable of is truly our own stupidity, and sometimes that's something to laugh at. We can never allow Chitti to exist, because if we do, he will break our hearts, but somehow we know, some idiot really truly is going to make it happen, because we really are that stupid. The tone of this movie simply isn't just some sort of parody of the Terminator, and it isn't trying to be the Terminator, it is its own new self-contained idea, which plays with as many things as it can before its over with. This is why it is cinematic greatness.

Really, I could say a lot about this film, its entertainment value, cultural value, and insanity value is utterly amazing. Sequel? I'll be right there, but how they are going to top this movie I have no idea. How do I describe it? It is a blockbuster action movie that is 1000 times better than Transformers 1, 2, 3, and as many movies that Michael Bay could ever make before he dies. I was 'with' the whole movie, the whole way through, I liked the characters, the villains, the action, the humor, everything, even the technomusical numbers were funny. You don't even have to be a completely insane B-Movie fanatic to enjoy this movie, but you will have to read...maybe that's why people don't like it. Subtitles...oh...yes...Americans have a problem reading, so they'll miss out on one of the great films of the first decade of the 21st Century, and that really is what this movie sort of describes to me, it is a true 21st Century movie. It is almost like Charlie Chaplin looking ahead to the 40s and 50s, and making a movie about what he sees could happen. That is how I know what kind of movie this is, it has a Chaplinesque storyline, and commentary. You have to ask yourself, what was THE GREAT DICTATOR all about? A funny movie about Hitler? A zany comedy about the Holocaust? There's something going on here, and it isn't just gonzo, though it works if that's all you want it to be. Idiocracy tried to be a 'futuristic comedy' and sort of worked... and I hope if anything, this movie will inspire hundreds of more 'futuristic' comedies, because its one thing we need in the world is humor, combined with a look ahead to our future, and this film's tone is completely right about how to do it.

I am seriously having trouble finding a high quality 'official' DVD release for this film, and I would be particularly pissed off if none of the largest movie companies do not release it here in the states.

I call it an impressive work of genius, I want to see it on the big screen. I want to see this become a phenomenon, I want this movie to blast everyone in the face the way it did me. I haven't had that much fun watching a movie in years, it took me back to the old days, when I loved watching movies at the theater. They didn't pay me to write any of this shit, it is the truth. What else can I say...YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS MOVIE!