-This is sorta true about the death of the mini-mini studios and the rise of the mini-major. It’s also irrelevant in shooing away the fact that Fox Searchlight sure has a lot of money to market a film like “Slumdog Millionaire” to a likely $100 million gross. Was word of mouth going to do that on its own?

-Danny Boyle is still considered a guy studios are interested in. He’s got a solid body of work that speaks for itself. He’s a B list guy because he may not do big blockbusters, but his movies generally make money and are well-liked by critics. Before Slumdog, if you were to tell people Boyle was directing Benjamin Button, or X-Men 4, or whatever property is out there, most would be very pleased.

-Obviously Americans have no fucking clue who Anil Kapoor or Irfan Khan is. But could a guy like Mark Duplass afford them? Do you think they could be convinced to star in a microbudgeted Harmony Korine film? I don’t have the numbers, and if someone does they can correct me, but there had to be some generous sums of Eurodollars to convince these guys to play second banana in an English-financed movie made in India.

-“Widely reported” budgets are unreliable. But “Slumdog” probably wasn’t an expensive film. The marketing was probably upwards of $30 million, though, you can count on that.

Plus, this wasn’t exactly the most CHALLENGING material. I’m not singing hosannas because a small movie made it through if the small movie wasn’t as good as a number of big movies produced in 2008.

MIA multi-platimun? Not on this planet she isn’t. Outside of NYC, London and Los Angeles she couldn’t get arrested. Selling out many gigs in Bosie?

Danny Boyle “A” or “B” list? I don’t think so, his last movie Sunshine got a limited release, and basically went straight to video, and no one saw it.

and how much do you seriously think those “huge” Indian name-actors got paid? Brad Pitt type money?

the biggest movies in Bollywood have around a $25 million budget, so figure what the actors get paid from that.

and ask any American to name an Indian actor? Means less than zero here.

It’s widely reported that the budget on Slumdog was $15 million.

love it or hate it, fact is it had 1/10 of the budget of Button and was passed through studios, and nearly went straight to video, because they could figure out how to market it. Which in itself is a reflection of the state of the US film market.

and so yes, compared to $150 million Button, with an “A” name director, the writer of Forest Gump, probably the biggest movie star in the world and Paramount treating it as their prestige picture of the year,

yes fact is, even if you think this is creatively a turd of a movie, facts are facts, and maybe it is the little movie that could.

I fail to see the “little movie that could” thing from “Slumdog Millionaire,” which, picked up by WB or Fox, was still going to be released by the “indie division” of a megahuge conglomerate, and backed by Eurodollars and directed by an A-List (B+ at least) director like Danny Boyle, who I still like. Also, the “no name actors” you mention are fucking HUGE in India, and did not come cheap. Not to mention the fact that it emerges from one of the biggest movie markets in the world, and features music by platinum selling artist M.I.A. I mean, champion it all you want, but I call bullshit on “the little movie that could.”

Love Slumdog or hate it, I’d rather see a lower budget film, with no name actors, that struggled to get released get the attention of an Oscar than the bloated oscar bait Benjamin Buttons of this world.

For me that was $150 million spent with truly nothing to say.

The erudite Walter Chaw FINALLY took time out to put the film on blast… http://filmfreakcentral.net/screenreviews/gomdog.htm . He’s 800% correct, wording my emotions about the film in ways I could only dream.

But I’m calling it this year’s Crash.

Explain that to me. (Oh right, it’s set in India. How innovative and fresh.)

The first third of this film is interesting (actual Indian children, non-actors) but the realism gives way to a bland, naive protagonist and overtly sentimental love story devoid of any complexity or character.

She’s beautiful. He loves her. His luck gets him the girl and the money.

I’m sorry but any film guilty of committing the following ham fisted dialogue is worthy of absolute ridicule:

Jamal: “Run away with me.”
Latika: “But what will we live on?”
Jamal: “Love.”

GAG.

This film is a poor bastard’s City Of God.