Cyberknight Masao Kawata
This film starts with a vain and spoiled male dog, the title Romeo, singing and dancing, in a very sexist performance, with bitches kissing him like he was a king. The horrible pop song lasts much longer than it should and, when it's over, we find out that it was a tale of said dog about how his life was, before he was kicked out by his owners. After such a nasty presentation of the character, it's absolutely impossible to sympathise with him. Instead of been kicked out, he should've been "put to sleep"...The rest of the plot is just dumb. Romeo is attacked by a gang of stray dogs (plus a cat and a rat), which start fighting each other for no good reason, instead of beating the hell out of Romeo. Romeo becomes an Eddie-Scissorhands-like and trims the dogs, for no reason, making them his friends (I wondered where he kept those scissors hidden). They decide to start a business of dog hair cut, when Romeo discovers they have to pay (with bones, the currency) for "protection" to a mobster. Romeo refuses to pay, fights the mob member and... nothing really happens (clearly, the kingpin is not a Corleone). Romeo meets a bitch on a roof top (yes, those dogs climb up house roofs like cats, and sing horrible pop songs), harasses her and is (obviously) ditched. More nonsense follows until an animal control team shows up and tries to arrest all the strays. For no clear reason, Romeo decides to save the kingpin from being captured, what eventually leads him to become the roof-top-singing bitch's "dogfriend". The end (more or less, keep reading).The plot makes little sense, with lots happening for weak or no reason and, worse, going to absurd and/or stupid directions. It is about an hour and a half long, with about half of that filled with horrible musical performances (awful pop songs with ridiculous choreography).And when you think the musical acts are the worst part of the film, you just find out that it's also a comedy! The visual jokes are all kitschy, forced and embarrassing, like when the kingpin screams to Romeo, the camera zooms out to show the planet Earth, and everything is distorted by the boom wave of his voice (yeah, sound waves in space... pure comedy...)Technically, the film is also a disaster. The animation is awkward, like in the "ReBoot" computer animated television series, but that was in 1994, one year before "Toy Story". To simplify the animation, I guess, there is a lot of close-ups of the characters (so, there is a lot less to animate and render). Actually, the fourth wall is put down a lot, with Romeo talking to the camera, annoyingly. Movements disregard gravity, mass, momentum (like the Velociraptors of the first "Jurassic Park", they also didn't know the meaning of mass or gravity) and friction, so it's not seldom to see characters "sliding" on the landscape. And when it reaches "The End", and you think nothing else could make it worse, the credits roll and you are presented with "deleted footage", like in the credits of a Jackie Chan film, except that they manage to be even less funny than the original scenes! They are like bad jokes that someone (that didn't "get" them) makes worse by trying to explain them, with more unfunny jokes...It's absolutely unbelievable that this is a Disney production. I mean, after rising from the dead by the end of the 20th century, Disney became one of the biggest producers of cinematographic content of the beginning of the 21st century, eventually engulfing Pixar and acquiring the "Star Wars" franchise. When I saw the 3D CGI castle and heard Disney's theme song, I thought it was some kind of joke, I really expected some character would jump up screaming "gotcha!", but no one did, it is, indeed, a Disney production! This film is as embarrassing as those anti-Nazi propaganda films Disney produced during WWII, except this one has no war to blame for its failure. I simply cannot understand how this has an IMDb score above 5, as it is as bad (or maybe even worse) as other computer animated disaster, like "Plumiferos" (2010).
shariqq
I ended up watching this yesterday while a few of us had 2hrs to kill before dinner. Seems, it is the only excuse you can really have to watch this movie. It really is not worth the effort to take time out, drive to the cinemas and dedicate a part of your evening for Roadside Romeo - it will be too much of a disappointment.The bad: - Animation might be a big step for audiences used to only Bollywood movies, but it's not really much for international audiences, even when compared to a decade older Pixar. - Too many songs!! What in the world was the director after, we have no idea. Possibly nothing else to fill in the gaping holes of the narrative. - The painfully overused and redone masala story that now every Indian is born with the knowledge of. - Bad (or mediocre) voice work by most of the cast incl. Saif & Kareena.The good: - Javed Jaffery. Actually, he can do a lot better than he has done here, but it still is very good. The guy is hilarious as the Madrasi-accented top-dog "Charlie Anna", accompanied by three bitches he calls Yangels - "Charlie's Yangels" - and he names them.... Silk Sunitha, Nylon Nandai & Polyester Padmini!! - Sanjay Mishra as Chhainu, Charlie Anna's sidekick. This is a gifted comedian, and possibly the strongest character in the movie. Even in his relatively smaller role, he does such a great job with his Tapori-ishtyle quips. - Kiku Sharda as Hero English. Again, a small character, but with such great humor in him. He has a tendency to repeat everything he says in a literal word-by-word English translation. For example, he announces "Charlie Anna aa gaya!! Charlie Anna come go!!" or the hilarious "Wo tumko Jaan se maar dega! He will hit you with life!"Apart from this, there is one good idea of the dog-world in the movie, that explains why dogs love to howl so much in the middle of the night (it's a game they play!)All-in-all, an easy one to forego. But equally easy to sit through if you have to wait for 93 minutes.My rating --> 2 of 5.
springsunnywinter
I was beginning to think that Yash Raj Films were losing their touch after delivering a list of box office flops which is Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Aaja Nachle, Tashan & Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic but not after watching Bachna Ae Haseeno & Roadside Romeo. Roadside Romeo is the film which set to launch the animation era in Bollywood is co production between Yash Raj Films and Disney. The love story, revolving around talking dogs, has the voices of real-life couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor.The film was really good, funny, lively and keeps a smile on your face throughout. I intended to see it because it is the first proper animated film of Bollywood and that is a milestone. Javed Jaffery has given the best vocal performance of the comic villain Charlie Anna who is a bulldog. The animation was really great although it can't match with Pixar animation but still it's good for a Bollywood movie. It has all the Indian masala like music, songs, dancing and a love story but it wasn't long and was about 1 hour 40 minutes. The songs were really good that will get better after you watch the film. Overall this is an absolute entertaining flick for all the kids & adults.
