Time to unwind?

The Naked Gun (2025)
Director: Akiva Schaffer

https://thatnerdshow.com/the-naked-gun-2025-
review-by-marcus-blake/

Sometimes you need to break away from it all and immerse yourself in something away from what is expected of you. All the decorum, needing to behave in a particular manner and displaying an appropriate demeanour, can be quite tiring. This is the time we indulge in something stupid, something like slapstick or farce comedy.

One particular comedy in this genre that I enjoy is the ones made by Mel Brooks. 'History of the World Part 1' was not literary stuff. The moviemakers never had the students of history in mind for them to learn history. It was just a salad bowl of overlapping worlds, without considering anachronisms. Alexander of Macedonia appeared in the same timeline as Julius Caesar. 

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082517/

For so long, I thought that Alexander's horse's name was Miracle. I vividly remember the scene when some thieves, escaping from the Roman court and harem, get cornered. When they realised that their goose was cooked, one of them uttered, "Now only a miracle can save you!" Sure enough, a majestic white horse materialised out of thin air, ready to take them away. That was supposed to be Alexander's horse. History tells us that Bucephalus, Alexander's horse, was probably black, with indentations on the head like an ox.

Another memorable scene was when the thieves were hiding amongst the eunuchs. The king's men had an idea to weed them out. He summoned an exotic dancer to strut her stuff before he uttered his iconic line, "If all goes well, nothing should arise!" Sure enough, the thieves failed the test.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095705/

The 'Naked Gun' franchise has churned out three feature films, a TV series (Police Squad!) and even a computer game. Leslie Neilson used to appear as a spaced-out cop, despite being aloof of everything around him and causing destruction, he still ends up solving cases and gaining praise from everyone.

Neilson, who began his career as a serious actor, discovered his niche in the role of Frank Drebin, a bumbling police detective, in the TV series (1982) and on the big screen (1988-1994). Neilson died in his sleep in 2010, aged 84.

The fourth instalment of the Naked Gun had been in the pipeline for quite a while. After much delay, it is finally out, with Liam Neeson, known for his no-nonsense, scorned father roles, starring as a father whose daughter was kidnapped (in the 'Taken' series). This swashbuckling actually did a good job at deadpan comedy. His 'partner-in-crime' and love interest is 'Baywatch' babe Pamela Anderson, who proved that she is more than a red swimsuit donning lifesaver, running in slow motion against sunset coloured beach. The chemistry between the two is palpable. Liam, Leslie's son, is continuing his father's job of busting criminals.

A good vent. 7.5/10.

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A comedic tragedy?

Tourist Family (Tamil, 2025)

Written and Directed by Abishan Jeevinth

I never knew that something as sombre as economic migrants fleeing illegally for greener pastures could be transformed into a comedy. This film is a testament to the idea that such a production can be made. 

There is no doubt that economic migrants making the difficult decision to uproot themselves from familiar surroundings and slip under the cover of darkness into a foreign land in search of a better life is no pleasure cruise. However, we must understand the desperation that drives them to take this risk. 

Despite the serious subject, the storyteller successfully presents their narratives in a light-hearted manner. Comedic situations arise when we least expect them, diverting the occasional tense buildup. 

A family of four - parents, a teenage son, and a preteen son- boards a boat from Sri Lanka and reaches Rameshwaram in the dark. The boys' maternal uncle, who had escaped to Tamil Nadu much earlier, is their sponsor. He arranged for their landing and accommodation. Unfortunately, from the very beginning, the family is intercepted by the Tamil Nadu police. The police constable, himself of Jaffnaese origin, who caught them, took pity on their ingenuity in escaping poverty that had struck Sri Lanka and let them go. 

The illegal immigrants arrive in a housing colony, as arranged by the uncle. Of all the places, they end up renting a room owned, of all people, by a police inspector. Although they believed their thick Sri Lankan accent would give them away, the inspector naively assumed they were Malayalis. Shortly thereafter, the refugee family became close to the other occupants of the colony due to their affable nature.

Meanwhile, a complainant turns up at the police station after losing his pet dog. The constable who let the illegal immigrant go, remembers seeing the dog with the Jaffnese. Then a bomb blasts off at a dumpsite, suggesting it could be the work of Sri Lankan terrorists. The constable is taken aback. Could he have made a major snafu? The hunt for the possible dangerous terrorist family goes full force.

Migration has been a part of human civilisation. People have always moved from point A to point B, influenced by various push and pull factors. The émigrés would typically assimilate into their newfound land. Integration was not an issue then. Recently, the new-age immigrants have arrived with a different mindset. They come in with a chip on their shoulder, look down on their hosts, and want to supplant their system. They fail to recognise that the hosts had something good going while the newcomers are there because they have messed up their own country and sought refuge elsewhere. If their own system were so great, they would be ruling the world.

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A criminal demigod

Clark (Swedish; 2022)
Miniseries S1, E1-6

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12304420/

I came across this miniseries after reading about Stockholm Syndrome. Clark Olofsson is the man whom the bank robber at Norrmalmstorg, Stockholm, in August 1973, wanted to be released from prison as part of the deal to free the hostages. We all know how it all went terribly wrong. The robbers were confined in the bank vault and were smoked out with poisonous gas. 

It was the heady time of the late 1960s and early 1970s. The generation had a rebellious streak within them. After witnessing the world annihilate itself in World War II and observing their contemporaries bomb Vietnam to smithereens, they became disillusioned. They regarded anti-establishment acts as heroic. Bank robbery and plane hijacking were seen as political expressions. 

Clark Olofsson was born into a dysfunctional family. His father is an abusive alcoholic, and Clark receives far more whippings than affection. He spends most of his time trying to stay alive amidst his father's beatings, scoldings, and occasional drownings. His mother is preoccupied with shielding him from his father and is ultimately institutionalised due to mental illness. 

Clark starts his life engaging in little mischiefs, stealing, breaking into houses, and cheating. He can be described as manipulative and narcissistic. He enters and exits the prison system as if he were entering a saloon. He also successfully escapes from prison. During his imprisonment, he wooed various ladies and sowed his wild oats. He ultimately achieved demi-god status after robbing a bank. The media went wild when his cellmate robbed Kreditbanken at Norrmalmstorg, and he was brought into the bank as part of the negotiation.

The entire story is narrated lightly despite the weighty subject matter. The six episodes explore his family dynamics, relationship with his parents, and troubled childhood.

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Police, leave them people alone?!

Naalu Policeum Nalla Irundha Oorum (4 Policemen and a peaceful town, Tamil; 2015)

Directed by N. J. Srikrishna

This full-length comedy came and went without creating much of a storm. Naturally, it received little rave review. All the actors were very green, except for Yogi Babu, who did not play a vital role here, anyway.

The story is a comedy of errors, poking fun at how the police's assertion of their importance screws up the peace of an already peaceful village.

The small township of Porpandhal is so peaceful that it has received Best Village awards for years. There is no crime, and the police station sees no need to open on Sunday. The four policemen there lead cushy lives, working from 9 to 5 and playing board games all day.

The police HQ takes notice. It plans to shut down the station and transfer its staff to Ramnath, an area notorious for serious crimes. The policemen panic. They try to justify their presence by creating petty issues here and there.

Little did they expect what would finally pander with their little tweaking. They send out a petty thief to steal the village committee's collection monies, making the police appear as heroes when they retrieve the loot later. They hoped this would prevent the police station from closing and allow them to maintain their leisurely lives.

Unfortunately. the money that the thief stole got burnt in a fire. The committee chairman accuses the shopkeeper whose shop was razed by fire as the thief and of lying by purposely burning down his shop to hide evidence.

When the police tried to intervene by making the temple priests as mediators, a stash of dirty magazines was found planted in the temple grounds instead, angering the temple committee members. They, too, go ballistic against the rest of the villagers.

At the end of the day, the once exemplary peaceful village now becomes a war zone. Everyone ends up in arms against one another. The policemen, though, get their wishes fulfilled. They stay put.

Everyone is trying to prove their worth. A doctor is worth his degree only if people fall sick. A mechanic will be out of a job if everyone's vehicle is maintenance-free and immune from breakdowns. In the same way, lawyers will be jobless if no one runs afoul of the law. Lawyers may also turn a non-issue into a national crisis; leave it to them. The same goes for the police, too; so much power and nowhere to flaunt it can be pretty intimidating.

Respect is earned. People are free to respect each other if they think their existence is respected. Try greeting a random guy on the street. Invariably, he would reciprocate your salutations unless he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia or believes there is a catch.

The moment the other party thinks that he is taken for a fool and feels cheated or discriminated against, that is when all human decencies end. The experiment was done by a third-grade school teacher, Jane Elliott, in 1968 after Martin Luther King's assassination highlighted this effect. She wanted to show how it felt to be discriminated against. The all-white class was divided into two groups- the blue-eyed and the brown-eyed. The blue-eyed students were given preferential treatment and compliments. The experiment was reversed but only lasted two days. From the short experiment, she found how easily people deemed 'inferior' fitted into the role so quickly and saw how fast the mild-mannered students in the 'superior' 'group became devils.

The lesson learnt here is that everything is honky dory when each other's liberty is respected. He flips when one's position is threatened or feels he is taken for a pushover. The suppressed reptilian mind awakens, and like Pandora's Box, evil thoughts and actions will be unleashed. All shields will be up to ward off anything that resembles hostility. The societal-imposed social inhibitions go out of the window!

May not! The Wokes and BLM sympathisers seem to scream from the depths of their lungs to de-fund the police. They argue that having a police squad is damaging to the existence of the minorities in the country. Alternative? Let looters have a field day, businesses finding it not cost-effective to apprehend or persecute offenders with minor thefts or simply close their retail stores and opt for online businesses only. 

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Unsolved murder mystery

Auto Focus (2002)

Director: Paul Schrader

Hogan's Heroes used to be a regular feature on RTM's slot for late-night comedy. It did not leave much of an impression on our minds as it dwelled with something quite uninspiring, in our minds at least. It was about a wise-cracking American General and his staff who were imprisoned in a German POW camp during WW2. They tried to outwit their captors, spy upon them and sabotage their every move. It went on for six seasons. 

The main character, Robert Crane, or rather his death, appeared in one of the crime podcasts. Initially a family man and a church-going Catholic, he got the acquaintance of John Henry Carpenter. Carpenter was an electronic techie who introduced Crane to the then-nascent home videos in the 1965s or so.

As the film puts it, both developed a symbiotic relationship. Crane, through his good looks and contact with showbiz, got in contact with girls, and Carpenter would set the recording devices to record their sexual acts. Over the years, the sheer number of tapes in their collection hit the roof. 

Crane's offers dwindled after Hogan's Heroes. Money troubles crept in. His wife divorced him. He married his co-star, with whom he was already in a relationship. He moved around performing at dinner parties whilst feeding his sex addiction. Carpenter was his partner in crime, helping out in imprinting their trysts on tape.

Crane was found dead, bludgeoned to death and strangled with an electrical cord. Even though Carpenter was high on the suspect list, his crime was never proven. It is believed that they had a falling.

Man's (and women's) curiosity about the forbidden probably started from their stay at the Garden of Eden. Voyeurism must have ensued moments after their banishment from there when Adam became curious about Eve's appendages. As more offspring sprung, rules had to be laid, adding curiosity to the young minds. The subtle art of voyeurism found its place in society. What started as yellow literature in print and illustration has morphed to capture more minds through CCTVs, tapes and now hand-held devices. 

Apparently, there is no shame in viewing it on the sly. Due to its ease of access, everyone is watching it anyway. But God forbid if someone is caught consuming or assumes the role of performer, willingly or otherwise, the whole shebang of shaming and victimisation befalls upon them. It is now perfectly healthy to have a wedded couple in their birthday suits as part of their wedding photoshoot package. YOLO.

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The truth will set you free?

Dead to Me (S1-S3, E1-10; 2019-22)
TV Series

The fallen will often be pacified with the conviction that truth will eventually prevail. If someone is accused of something he did not do, he will find solace in telling himself that the truth will set him free. Everybody thinks the Universe will take its own sweet time, but justice will meted out in the end. 

Everyone is told to look at the bigger picture and concentrate on winning the war, not merely the tiny battles. At least, this is what the lawyer will advise his client. The truth will not come out breaking through the walls with a flying cape to save the day. It has to be fought with tooth and nail. Court cases are won by shrewd legalese minds with all the money they can continue paying. The promise of justice at the higher courts is shrouded by the need for more retention fees.

Therefore, I have come to think I will follow the wise words of the not-so-wise Malaysian parliamentarian who went Hansard saying, "It is not wrong to take a bribe; it is also wrong when you get caught!" One has to look in all directions, cover the bases, dot his 'i's and cross his 't's as and when he is caught in a potentially incriminating situation or even commit a crime himself. Even if he does not get away scot-free, his defence team can at least create an element of doubt in the prosecutor's arguments. 

The law is such a pain that it favours those in power. Even God cannot save his priest, as witnessed by the numerous pending court cases. The only thing that is keeping them away from being cooped behind bars is not God's grace but good old-fashioned moolah that gets them good representations!

This dark comedy starts with a mother of two, Jen, a realtor, mourning over the death of her husband. He was hit by a speeding car at 2 o'clock in the morning. Jen attends a support group where she befriends Judy. Unbeknownst to Jen, Judy was the driver of the hit-and-run vehicle. Judy, remorseful of her act, tries to make amends with Jen. Meanwhile, Judy herself is moaning over her five previous miscarriages and her imminent divorce. 

Things become complicated as police investigations hit an impasse. The plot thickens as Jen finds out his loving husband had an affair. Judy discovers that her husband is involved with the Greek mafia. Meanwhile, an argument with Steve ends with Jen killing him and hiding his body in her freezer. The story becomes increasingly complicated with Jen covering her crime, Judy concealing her accident, and both developing an unbreakable bond. Only on the TV/silver screen, a morbid subject like death and murder can be turned into entertainment. And a perfect crime is actually possible.

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We all hear voices!

Maaveeran (2023)

Written & Directed by Madonne Ashwin 

"I am not doing it; it is the voice in my head. It is telling me all the time to do things. I am sorry!" says the hero. 

"You are telling me someone is telling you things," says the crooked badass politician as he slid the throat of his political manager. "This guy (pointing to dead man) has been nagging for 22 years. Don't do this, do this, not like that..."

That pretty much gave a perspective to the message hidden behind the movie's story. 

We are inundated with commands all the time. As toddlers, voices told us to watch our steps, be careful. As school children, we were warned not to forget to finish our homework. As teenagers, we got an earful for lazing around. Then we were told to get our lives together. Yet another forewarning that we are marrying the wrong person, and it goes on. Not to forget the inner voice that keeps harassing us that we would be punished for wilfully doing something 'against our conscience'. 

Then we sometimes must listen to both sides of equally compelling arguments to make a final decision. It takes work. 

Remember the other (they say better) half who constantly reminds you that we are forgetting this and failing that and are not good enough. As if the constant voices from your mother are not gruelling enough, in adulthood, we have to deal with our spouses, bosses and contemporaries. This and that, and the inner soul tickles every now and then. The constant battle between your heart and brain is quite deafening. 

Still, we are all left lonely. 

So, when somebody without form just appears out of the blue to talk to us, gives direction on what to do and goes to the extent of predicting what will happen next in your life, would it not be a welcomed godsend? Sadly, most people do not think so. We want agency over our lives. We rather experience life, the thrills, the spills, the falls, warts and all.  

This 2023 movie is a sci-fi Tamil comedy. It is interesting that these days, a family-fare movie can be so violent and still be accepted as normal. Violence is mainstream, and a machete or knife is always lying around. Pacifism is no longer a virtue. It no longer brings back the status quo. One must fight to claim and reclaim what is his. This is the new Hindu teaching, which was proposed by Subash Chandra Bose when he opposed Gandhi's Satyagraha and established INA. Godse justified Gandhi's assassination by suggesting that nature is violent and that there must be cataclysmic violent events for change to happen.

Sathya, an unassuming young man, is a cartoonist contributing to a local newspaper. He likes to keep his nose clean from controversies after seeing his father fight the unwinnable war against the establishment and losing his life. Unlike the character in his cartoon, who fights for justice, Sathya likes to avoid confrontations.

When his family is relocated to a shoddy low-cost apartment built by corrupt politicians, the dwellers of the flats fight back. Sathya tries to pacify everyone. 

After a lot of family melodrama about his cowardice, Sathya attempts suicide. He escapes death but somehow hears the character of his cartoon, Maaveeran, speaking and guiding him to bash up and defeat the politicians and his goons. An entertaining movie.

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