Simon Shareef’s Notebook

The Hell with Martyrs

4 Jul 2009

Would you believe it I am actually writing this 2 weeks after watching the movie and still my heart starts a heavy pounding when I think about it.

Yes, Martyrs, the French horror flick by director Pascal Laugier has left a permanent feeling of discomfort within me. It is not so much your average fear as in Friday the 13th kind of fear. No, this was a perversely darker fear. When I watched it I actually felt breathless and like a child I yearned to be held, comforted and for morning to arrive and light up the world and for birds to sing.

The only other movie that even remotely made me feel this way was Fincher’s brilliant film Seven. I remember taking the tram ride home after watching Seven and feeling a terrible fear of the world.

Martyrs made me feel 100 times worse.

This movie takes the genre to a new level. It is difficult, even after 2 weeks, whether what I feel about this movie is supposed to be a positive interpretation or a negative indictment of the story.

Speaking of the story, this movie is best interpreted as 2 stories in one. There are two halfs and the last half, for me, was more shocking than I expected. I found myself watching helplessly, feeling guilty and ashamed to be human almost. How could we be so mindlessly violent and heartless?

And indeed, we are, are we not? And the bottom line of all forms of violence and torture is pain and therefore suffering.

What if we transcend this pain? How does one do that? And if we did, can we see beyond this reality where there is a constant battle to survive and avoid pain? Religion makes good use of imagined pain: the fire and other tortures of hell. Religion works on blind faith disguised as truths and whether we believe these “truths” is irrelevant in this life because the pain is in the afterlife.

Martyrs on the other hand is about using pain to find that truth. Martyrs is the inverse of religion.

I dare you watch it alone and not think about it for days after.

(7) Comments

Let there be light, helloo!

In: Funny

15 Jun 2009

I just got this from Pharyngula and I must say, what a refreshingly hilarious show this is. It is original (or is it?), quirky to just the right level, and just damned funny. Kind of old seeing how the first season was 2 years back. I suppose Mr. Diety forgot to enlighten me on this whole thing!

Anyway, watch all the episodes of Mr. Diety.

Start here:

Or go directly to the channel page or Mr. Diety’s website.

(2) Comments

12 Rounds of Stupidity

In: Video

13 Jun 2009

I consider myself pretty good at selecting good movies but after last night’s movie I realized I was taking it for granted and being foolish.

See, last night I went to purchase a movie from one of the hundreds of pirated DVD outfits in town and asked the guys there for suggestions as I didn’t see any instantly recognisable movies on the shelf. So the guy there, who I admit is pretty good at marketing his product, handed over a movie he said was just too good to be missed.

It starred a man who the shop dude really liked very much. I never heard of this actor before. Apparently John Cena is very famous and this movie titled “12 rounds” was the action flick of the year. Now that I think about it, the marketing guy’s next suggestion was a dead giveaway to his taste in movies. I should have known better. Tell you later what I mean.

Anyway, this “12 Rounds”, is by far the worst movie I’ve ever seen. John Cena’s pectorals do more acting than he himself ever could. In fact, his supporting cast did a far better job, doing so almost to the point that it felt like Mr. Cena was constantly stumbling into the set of another, far better movie starring the supporting cast. I think in a couple of scenes the supporting cast were even surprised to see Mr. Cena there at all. Mind you, when I say the supporting cast I do not include the most forgettable villain in all of movie-making historys. I’m serious!

The storyline is thinner than the air at the top of mount Everest and completely and utterly pointless. Everything about this storyline is pointless. So much so that I think it might have put a fair bit of my braincells into a state of permanent narcosis. You know how in good action movies involving the beat cop and the psychopathic criminal at least try to establish a relationship between the main characters and then it makes it possible for you to empathize with the cop (or the villain) and therefore the movie becomes a little less painful to watch? Well, this is the total opposite of that.

Throughout the movie you will keep asking a question repeatedly. And it has nothing to do with the plot. You’ll be asking, “Why am I watching this movie?”.

Well, good news is that I don’t know how the movie ended because the sheer stupidity of it all simply paralysed my nervous system and I fell asleep half-way through.

So, what was the dead giveaway from the guy at the shop? The next movie he recommended was something starring Dolf Lundgren. Go figure!

(10) Comments

Veiled Supervillains

In: Interesting

7 Jun 2009

I didn’t realize this until very recently but some of most heinous supervillains from my childhood actually wore burkas. Or more precisely: hijab. So let me present to you…

The all powerful Dr. Doom...'nuf said!

Mumm-Ra the Everliving...grrwwwl!

Skeletor from He-Man posing a menacingly effeminate gesture

(9) Comments

Then and Now

In: Music

3 Jun 2009

The song is Painted in Black by The Final Revelations performing live on stage at the Olympus theater way back in 1994 in a concert called Painted Sound Illusion. The bassist, on a beautiful Fender Jazz Bass, looks familiar, ahem. Oh the headbanging! Good grief!

The song was composed and written by Fasy while the bass runs were created by the bassist in collaboration with Fasy. On the drums is “Bays” Ahmed.

This is the same song played by Fasy Live on their video release. The song has changed little in melody in the 15 years since it was first performed in the above video. A slight change in tempo, solo and arrangement is noticeable in addition to a missing bass riff right before chorus.

(6) Comments

Video: Masters of the Surf

In: Video

26 May 2009

Here’s a new video of surfers at Raalhugandu. Enjoy the view. And don’t forget to turn up the volume a little.

You might want to check out the same video on Vimeo. The quality seem a little better somehow.

(3) Comments

Blueberry Girl

In: Inspiration| Video

17 May 2009

A beautiful poem written and read by Neil Gaiman – the wordsmith and conjuror of magical lands, who showed me that there’s a wonderful world undiscovered and untouched and it is called Imagination.