Alive and kicking, barely

So, as you can imagine, I have been extremely busy during the past few weeks and don’t see how that’s going to change any time this semester. CAT preparations and my department have conspired to make my life a living hell. But I do not wish to torture the few remaining readers of this blog with the details. This post is a combined review of all the summer movies that I caught up with really late.

I saw a grand total of three movies in the past month – very depressing, I know. Knocked Up had all the right buzz and Judd Appatow seems to be everywhere these days. While the movie was infinitely better than run-of-the-mill slapsticks, the ending was not convincing enough for me. But another Appatow production, Superbad, was super awesome – as any movie that has Michael Cera ought to be. Basically Cera played a character not unlike George-Michael Bluth while Jonah Hill was a male version of Maeby Funke, except that they are not related. As many reviewers pointed out, you cannot miss the strong “chemistry” between them. The Bourne Ultimatum is the best action movies that I have seen lately. A rare example of a threequel being better than any of the preceding movies.

Also appreciated in the past weeks was Season 1 of the HBO series Rome. This is the kind of series that sets HBO apart from its competitors – excellent writing, acting and production values. If anyone knows where I can find Season 2 online, please let me know. And in a mock-tests induced depression over the last weekend, I finished watching this series called My So-Called Life that exceeded all expectations I had for a show about teenagers in high school. Claire Danes was simply superb in it, and it’s a pity that it lasted only for one season. Why is it that all the good shows get cancelled so early?

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Meanwhile, seniors who passed out of the institute last year keep IMing me to find out what’s new here in Roorkee. Nothing much has changed here, except for this new brilliant money-making plot hatched by the evil geniuses at our department – a Lipton tea vending machine right next to our classes. They must make enough money out of it, to start refusing grants from the Ministry of HRD. On the plus side, all the coffee keeps me awake in class.