A laugh riot

Watched the The Gods Must Be Crazy I & II  movies over the course of the week. The films were hilarious. Had a story track, action, fun and loads of laughter. Never mind that some aspects of the movie were condemned for racism, but I did not feel so.

The Gods Must Be Crazy - I 
The movie starts with a Coca-Cola bottle (glass, and not plastic, mind it) being thrown off an airplane flying somewhere over the Kalahari desert. It is picked up by a group of bushmen as a gift from God and they find some use for it in their day to day life. The interesting thing about the bushmen is that their way of living does not have the concept of ownership / property. There is only a single bottle, and everyone wants to use it leading to a rift in the community. Our hero (Xi, a bushman) wants to throw the alien object at the end of the earth so that it doesn't come back. He makes his trip across the vast and amazing expanse of the Kalahari and his adventure and what he sees on his way are the object of this movie.

Some of the rib-ticklers in this movie.

• The broken down Land Rover which is used by Dr. Steyn, who is a biologist working in the game reserves to pick-up Kate, who is coming is as a teacher.
• The Land Rover landing up on top of the tree.
• Bumbling Dr.Steyn at the village school.
• How Xi, Dr.Steyn and M'pudi (Steyn's assistant) outwit Sam Boga and his group in rescuing the children held as hostage.

The Gods Must Be Crazy - II
The sequel has more fun than the first one and the slapstick comedy never fails to deliver. This time however, Xi's kids, out of curiosity, track a truck wheels' impression on the ground, sight a poacher's truck, get on to the truck and being driven off. The movie moves forward in Xi trying to rescue his children.

The side track in this movie is that of Ann, a lawyer who is in the game reserve for a lecture, Dr. Stephen who is a game tracker and two soldiers, one a Cuban and the other, from Angolan border patrol who try to take each other hostage to go to their destination.

The laugh and fall off the chair scenes here are

• The hyena laughing at Ann when she first sees it and her mis-understanding(s) with Dr.Stephen on animal behavior.
• Dr.Stephen and Ann steal an ostrich egg.
• Ann at the windmill water spout with the monkey.
• The Cuban and the Angolan trying to outwit each other in taking each other hostage.
• Dr. Stephen and the persistent skunk.
• The two poachers (bumbling) driving around losing direction in the Kalahari.

There is a lot of drama here in that the bi-plane in which Dr.Stephen and Ann return back to the reserve hotel gets caught in a thunderstorm and are left stranded in the middle of the desert. Xi's younger son gets separated from his brother and having a hyena to defend off. There is a lot of cris-crossing of the different themes.

In my opinion, watching movies like this should be shorn of seeing the movie as a critic. Kids who where watching the movie were rolling in laughter, no-hinds barred crackles, leaving them teary-eyed at the theatrics that was being enacted. Enjoyed this movie along with them and it is worth seeing again and again for the sheer joy of unadulterated fun for around 3+ hours for the two movies. Definite watch for kids and the grown-up kids too.

Mmm... Nice to be a kid again.