As great as Alan Rickman is, I had the misfortune of catching Bottle Shock on the plane, and I assure you it is not even worth a rental. It's an entirely laughless comedy, and the aforementioned contrivances are painfully absurd. Save the time and money for one of Rickman's good movies.

G.I. Who?

Yeah I think that's a valid point, but the reason I take issue with your usage of the term "Bollywood" is because I think that sort of confusion might be partly responsible for engendering the defensive feelings of "jealousy" you talk about. I think most Indian audiences would agree that there is nothing really "Bollywood" about this movie, and maybe the fact that some Westerners are throwing the term around and saying things like "Slumdog is the best Bollywood film" is offensive to them because it demonstrates 1) A fundamental misunderstanding of a huge component of their culture (their film industry) and 2) The co-opting of a uniquely Indian cultural art form by a foreign entity (and if you know your colonial history, it certainly doesn't help that Danny Boyle is British).

In other words, if Indians perceive that the rest of the world thinks a Western movie is the best example of a film genre they created, it's entirely understandable that they would take offense, especially if the rest of the world seems to have little understanding of that genre at all. Imagine an Indian man telling a dude from Hong Kong that "From Chandni Chowk to China" is the best Wuxia film ever made, except it was made by Bollywood and not China. Well, of course he thinks that, it's a movie made specifically to cater to the Indian man's tastes, but is it an accurate representation of the Wuxia genre? Mr. Chen might be more qualified to answer that question than myself.

Sorry for the essay...

No I got that, which is why I included the bit about the term being reappropriated to mean something more than just being made "by Bollywood." I still disagree with your point, and I think you'd have a very hard time drawing any sort of comparisons between Slumdog and other Bollywood movies, beyond the fact that it is a love story set in India. If you watch this movie back-to-back with something like Dostana, a "traditional" Bollywood movie released around the same time as Slumdog Millionaire, I think the differences in tone, subject matter, and execution present themselves pretty clearly.

Slumdog is not a Bollywood film. That term means more than just "movie set in India." In fact, many Bollywood films are not even set in India. Bollywood refers to the Indian film industry (their Hollywood), so strictly speaking, a Bollywood film is primarily defined by the fact that it is made or financed by that industry. Really, though, the term has sort of been reappropriated to refer to a film made in India that prominently features song and dance numbers set to poppy music, which is certainly not descriptive of Slumdog Millionaire.

Not sure what you're getting at here. I have no problem with someone's controversial opinion as long as that person is able to justify it intelligently.

I don't really think it's a matter of opinion. A profession is what you make it. If people can earn a decent living (or at least one they are comfortable with) by film blogging, then it doesn't really matter what you call it.

That said, these videos do not demonstrate a great deal of professionalism coming from either Alex or Devin, and certainly not from Slashfilm for posting the "story." I enjoy reading the site for the film news and commentaries, but I'm not interested in personal quarrels.