Folks, of recent, I have started writing a column called ‘Surfbored’ in the After Hrs section of the Jaipur edition of DNA. It is published every Saturday. Here is the second of these articles, published on August 14. I review random but interesting websites. Your inputs, on which interesting and offbeat websites to review, are also welcome! Meanwhile, following is the text of the article:
Movie mistakes or trivia, this site is near perfect...
Tired of that wise-cracking friend who rants on and on about how 'good' English films are, and how our Bollywood, Tollywood, Kollywood or whatever cannot even hold a candle to them? Look into www.moviemistakes.com , and the next time that friend opens his mouth, flood him with the mistakes of the film that he is extolling!
And, in case, this friend is ribbing you about how little you know about certain classics or cult films, look up the trivia sections. You will be surprised to read that Brad Pitt tore his Achilles tendon while playing Achilles in Troy, or that the hands shown drawing Rose's charcoal sketch in Titanic actually belong to James Cameron, the director of the film!
However, the biggest draw of the site is treasure trove of filmy mistakes it lists. The contributors include not only those running the site, but also fans and members of the site's services. They seem to have found out 390 verified mistakes in the Vietnam war classic Apocalypse Now, currently the highest for any film on the website. The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and all their sequels also feature prominently on the list of mistakes.
The site has a section for the 'best mistakes' in films, and another for the best of these mistakes that actually have pictures of them to prove the point!
Even the popular sitcom Friends, or TV's longest running animation series The Simpsons, are dissected for mistakes and trivia. And, of course, if you spot something that could be a mistake or a trivia, there is always the section on questions, where you put up your query, and someone else answers it.
The really good thing about this site is that when one is viewing the mistakes of a particular film or TV show, other features of the film, like its trivia, questions and quotes, are just one click away! Besides, the website seems to use an intelligent algorithm to suggest five other films a user might like if it is viewing a specific film.
The downsides are the high number of ads that sometimes clutter the display and the repetitiveness of the films listed. Also, the process of submitting mistakes is awfully complicated, but one can understand that. The site-authorities did not want spamming.
All in all, this is one website that should increase your Hollywood IQ quite a few notches. And, if you are lucky, you might come across the mistakes in some Hindi films as well, like I did with Dus!
Happy mistake-hunting, folks!
Credit: Arkadev Ghoshal
Postsecret, FML
ReplyDeleteGreat man, amazing. Just feel proud someone so young getting recognition for this work. I like the column a lot and will look forward to your next articles. should pursue a career in journalism. You will be very successful. Read this week's column on cracked.com. These kind of bizzare sites earlier used to appear in the main paper sometimes.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I am sure you are getting paid for this. (how much?)
Just joking:)
Keep up the good work.