as you like it AND all's well that ends well OR much ado about nothing.

one of the other students i am with here watches hindi movies at home. three of us decided to go watch a hindi movie at the city's imax. well in advance she went through the newspapers, found one that looked good (a chick flick), went online, found the show times for the theatre so that we would know when to be there, tried to call the theatre but no number given actually ever works and by now we were getting used to that. we got there on time, went to the box office, and lo! the movie was sold out. not only that but all the online show times are completely wrong. the 4:30 show actually started at 4:00so we would have missed it anyhow. the only hindi movie that was showing near to the time was an action movie: "Mission Istanbul" starring (in my opinion) a Keanu Reeves look alike and a Viggo Mortensen look alike as his sidekick.

the basic plot was a journalist (keanu) covering terrorist stories and uncovering a sinister plot by the media to create fear. although the movie was in hindi, there was enough english thrown into the mix ("blah blah blah 13th floor", "blah blah blah hall of martyrs", "blah blah blah i will get your wife back [keanu], i swear it!!!", "blah blah blah go get 'em tiger!") that we could follow it pretty easily. not only that, but there were 3 song and dance numbers that were fully randomness. it was so great.
i thought the movie was excellently amazing. unfortunately the local paper didn't agree, giving it 2 out of 5 stars. it was great in the way that movies such as godzilla were great, perhaps not achieving the desired effect but definitely of entertainment value. what was my favourite part? maybe the mountain dew product placement scene where the 3 goodguys chug their mountain dew, do the classic can crush followed by a thrashing of badguys: hilarious. or the chinese-style fight scenes: golden. or maybe it was the complete randomness of the plans and actions of the characters: so good. i can't decide.
it may have actually turned me on to hindi flicks.

an incident that occurred during the intermission was a little worrisome:
i decided to get a sorbet: fat free, sugar free, dairy free. sounds good, right? so i'm ready to order and the ice cream vender gets a call on his mobile and i have to wait till he's done chatting to place my order. i get my sorbet, i'm in the theatre eating it, then i realize that my throat has started to close up because of it. turns out i'm allergic to whatever the artificial sweetener is that they use in these things.
(as an aside, i may also be allergic to something in the air here, possibly the mould growing in our room - my poor roommate has to listen to me blowing out gobs of green mucus from my right sinus all day and night).
i was a little alarmed and panicky at first - but quickly realized that it was my lower esophagus that was swelling up and not my bronchi, so i had no trouble breathing (which would have been disastrous if it had been the case). so i stopped eating my poisonous treat, informed the other girls i was with (who thought it was hilarious - it actually was in a way) and continued to enjoy the rest of the movie.
from now on i will beware of artificial sweetener and no-sugar, no-fat, no-dairy products while i am here.