The Terminal

[mutinyco]

Considering what REALLY happened to the porn industry and John Holmes in particular, by ending Boogie Nights with Dirk reconciling with Jack, Rollergirl going back to school, and Buck having a baby and opening his store with a commercial directed by Amber -- IT IS very much a "happy ending".

[Pubrick]

hmm, so by that logic.. every movie has a happy ending because reality is always worse.

[mutinyco]

Yes. Exactly. Even Dr. Strangelove.

[Alethia]

1941 as i recall didnt have a happy ending.  their house fell off a cliff and robert stack said "it's gonna be a long war..."

empire of the sun didnt have a happy ending at all

schindler didnt have a happy ending, just a hopeful one

[mutinyco]

Yeah, there's a difference between a happy ending and a resolved ending.

[Jeremy Blackman]

Yeah, there's a difference between a happy ending and a resolved ending.

Which is the difference between Boogie Nights and The Terminal?

[Pubrick]

this endings debate is really stupid.

there are degrees of happy and bad. Happiness, is that a good ending? everyone went through the traumatic experience and it SPOILER ends on the kid cumming? this is rhetorical.

all the best directors hav their trademark endings, it's one of the things u can always count on. Spielberg endings, like Scorsese endings, like Kubrick endings can only be defined as that. the qualities which define the ending are the same as hav shaped the movie. scorsese's is redemption, pta's are too. there's no reason to narrow it down into an either/or situation unless ur talking to a baby.

so this whole hang-up of either happy or sad is really headed nowhere.

[mutinyco]

It's headed up a grazing pig's ass in Hertfordshire.

[Alethia]

u think dirty thoughts

[mutinyco]

A little tidbit to backup my theory it will be a low simmer hit... it had only a 29% drop from its opening week, which is VERY good. Compared to its $18 million opening, it did $13.5 million in its second. I expect it to hover, never doing huge numbers, but enough to make it comparable to both Road to Perdition and Seabiscuit as mid-summer Dreamworks successes.

[tpfkabi]

i finally saw this. i thought Kumar was quite funny. you can tell SS had the Royal Tenenbaums DVD.....he used one of the DVD extras in the film in the nice little dinner scene............i've already forgotten the ending and the Hanks/Z-Jones resolution......hmmmmm..........i don't really remember any of the score either.......i'm not sure if this is DVD purchase worthy or wait for used copy worthy

this reminds me......i need to get the Entrapment DVD and watch the black suit training sequence

[Alethia]

we all need to watch that sequence

[MacGuffin]

Sneaking Into The Limelight

As he proves again with "the Terminal," Kumar Pallana has a way of making the most of his character roles.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Possessing perhaps the greatest deadpan expression since Buster Keaton, Indian-born Kumr Pallana stole every scene in which he appeared in the 2001 comedy "The Royal Tenenbaums" as Gene Hackman's loyal, albeit eccentric, valet. As he even manages to upstage Oscar winner Tom Hanks in Steven Spielberg's comedy "The Terminal" as Gupta, an airport janitor with a deep, dark secret and a mistrust of everyone.

Though Pallana's movie career spans only the past decade, the energetic 85-year-old has been performing most of his life, making money for his family by traveling to India, Kenya and South Africa to perform feats of balance and yoga.

Pallana brought his skills to New York in 1946, where he developed a one-man show, juggling rings, spinning plates, doing rope tricks and magic. As Kumar of India, he toured Paris, London, Madrid, Casablanca and Las Vegas in the 1950s and '60s and even performed on "The Mickey Mouse Club" and "The Ed Sullivan Show."

He and his family eventually settled in Dallas, where he and his son operated a yoga studio/cafe called "The Cosmic Cup," where regulars included University of Texas students Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson. When it came time to make their first film, "Bottle Rocket," they gave Pallana a part. He's also appeared in Anderson's "Rushmore" and "Tenenbaums."

Though he's a man of few words on screen, the self-educated Pallana talks a blue streak in person.

Your family was involved in fighting for freedom from British rule in the 1930s.

When I was 12, my brother was into politics. He was a freedom fighter, so he was captured. In those days, they could beat you up and take your house [f you were arrested]. My father lost his business. My father was car dealer. We had servants and cars. So when he was captured, our house was locked up and we had to leave.

Did you start to perform after your brother was arrested?

In 1935-36 I left my home and traveled in India. I had to do some shows to help my family. When I left the home, I don't have any education that I can work in the office or anything. I had an interest - if only I can become a singer or an artist to help family. I wanted to become an actor, but it was very hard. When you don't have the education you don't [know] that you had to train to act, dance or go on the stage. So when I left home and went to Bombay [movie] studio, I couldn't get into the gate. I started traveling, and I started doing shows in the schools - not in the streets. I think family pride had something to do with that. I started balancing one plate and doing handstands.

You get to do your juggling and plate-spinning in "The Terminal." Was that scene written in the script for you?

Tom said, "Let's put it in."

You couldn't get into a movie studio in Bombay in the 1930s, and here you are working with Hanks and Spielberg.

They have energy. I worked with other people [in the film industry], but some people have the ego - they chant "me, me, me." But [they are] the other side of the coin...so humble and so kind. It's like working with a family.

How did you end up in Dallas?

I moved because my wife didn't like the show business. She said I don't like our children to be gypsies. We ended up in Dallas. I don't know. It was just destiny.

Did you get any work in Dallas?

The Dallas agent used to call me. They had what they called a stag party with strippers. So they used to call me in, in case the police come. I would then juggle and do my act [if the police showed up]....I used to work with a lot of burlesque shows.

Burlesque shows?

It is job, dear.

You got your second career due to Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson.

They would come in [the cafe] and talk to me. They said they were shooting a movie and are you interested in being in it. I said yes. They were nice kids.

[tpfkabi]

there was also a line about stabbing someone in the chest in the Terminal, too.......perhaps also inspired by TRT?

[MacGuffin]

For the most part, I'm with mod-age's review (on Page 7), although I would give it more than a C. Great scenes of humor. I really got lost in Hanks's performance and just saw the character. The Zeta-Jones storyline, well, I just didn't feel her character was fleshed out well enough. And when Hanks's char. started persuing her, the film seemed to lose all the mystery and charm that was Viktor before it. Certain scenes felt like 'only in the movies' moments (being hired as a construction worker, for example). But I really liked Spielberg's use, as he does so well, of no dialogue and letting visuals do the storytelling.