Slumdog Millionaire

So, first of all, if this movie is any indication, India is an absolute wasteland full of falf-naked kids playing in piles of garbage, shit, and dead animals in the midst of ongoing religion-based riots being subdued by a brutal and savage police force with no regard for justice. Also the food is pretty spicy and gives white people diarrhea. But now that I've gotten my "for the love of one thousand gods, stay the hell away from India" message out of the way, I can get down to brass tacks and praise this for being an excellent movie. I can't think of a 2008 movie that I enjoyed more than Slumdog, and thus, I would have to agree with and stand by its designation as that year's best picture. This is the second time I've seen the movie, having done so two years ago during its theatrical run, and it was no less engaging or entertaining this second time around. I've finally decided to embrace, rather than scoff at, the Bollywood dance number that comes during the movie's ending credits, and since that was always my biggest problem with this movie, I'm left without anything to complain about. This is practically a perfect movie, and although it doesn't stand among my top ten or twenty of all time, that omission has more to do with my own personal tastes and preferences than with this movie's shortcomings. For example, City of God was a very similar movie, and as I overstated in my review of that film over a year ago, I liked it more than I liked Slumdog. But if you haven't seen Slumdog, you should definitely go out of your way to do so. It has more or less universal appeal and is well worth the two hour running time.