Wow! What a great movie. Keira Knightly! What a hot woman. She is so beautiful.
I really like this movie. The way they played with the timeline in telling the movie and using different perspectives, very interesting. Also the soundtrack was very interesting, using the typewriter as a musical instrument, and using different characters in scenes to introduce music was really interesting. It was almost a musical in that aspect, very well done.
It was a love story, that was presented very organically or flowingly. But it was also a train wreck, as many true love stories are. The male love interest mistakenly getting into trouble, suffering because of a child. But the child also had a crush on the male love interest.
And the way the problems were both resolved and unresolved at the same time, amazing. Pulling out at the end to show the author at the end, explaining what "really" happened. A very well put together movie. A true tragedy, as many love stories are.
Sunday, January 13, 2008
The Bucket List
I went to this movie tonight with 3 other people. This movie was pretty much about death. Two old fellows that are terminally ill, played by two great actors, Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
My thoughts on the movie, typical of our culture, showing a list of things, not all, but many that only a rich man could accomplish before his death. Typical, because we live in a consumer culture. This movie says that only a life filled with consumption is worth living.
Of course it does show that family is important, but they do not really focus on that. Most of the film is spent showing these two old guys doing expensive activities and eating expensive foods in expensive locales.
Then in the end, they have this epiphany that family is important.
They also played with the idea of atheism and faith. Morgan's character had faith, while Jack Nicholson had none. It might have been a more interesting movie if they had Nicholson, the rich guy, having faith, because he seems to get whatever he wants financially, and then the mechanic character with no faith, and then have the mechanic convince the rich guy that there is no god because in the end, they are both in the same place, but I guess that would not be as "nice" of a movie. Have them both with not enough strength to carry out the bucket list in the end.
I guess the other thing I did not like about this movie is that it was over advertised. I feel that I have seen it already because of all the commercials showing most of the good parts of the movie in order to get people into the theatre. As if two great names are not enough, three actually if you count Rob Reiner, the director.
Oh, and one last thing, the blue screen or green screen, or whatever they are calling that technique now, where they have a character in a location, but he is not there and they transpose the background behind them. They did not do that good of a job on that in this film. You could tell here and there that they weren't really there, like when they were on top of the pyramid.
My thoughts on the movie, typical of our culture, showing a list of things, not all, but many that only a rich man could accomplish before his death. Typical, because we live in a consumer culture. This movie says that only a life filled with consumption is worth living.
Of course it does show that family is important, but they do not really focus on that. Most of the film is spent showing these two old guys doing expensive activities and eating expensive foods in expensive locales.
Then in the end, they have this epiphany that family is important.
They also played with the idea of atheism and faith. Morgan's character had faith, while Jack Nicholson had none. It might have been a more interesting movie if they had Nicholson, the rich guy, having faith, because he seems to get whatever he wants financially, and then the mechanic character with no faith, and then have the mechanic convince the rich guy that there is no god because in the end, they are both in the same place, but I guess that would not be as "nice" of a movie. Have them both with not enough strength to carry out the bucket list in the end.
I guess the other thing I did not like about this movie is that it was over advertised. I feel that I have seen it already because of all the commercials showing most of the good parts of the movie in order to get people into the theatre. As if two great names are not enough, three actually if you count Rob Reiner, the director.
Oh, and one last thing, the blue screen or green screen, or whatever they are calling that technique now, where they have a character in a location, but he is not there and they transpose the background behind them. They did not do that good of a job on that in this film. You could tell here and there that they weren't really there, like when they were on top of the pyramid.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
Coping with Babylon: The Proper Rastology
I watched this DVD the other day. Pretty interesting documentary about Rastafarianism. I did not know much about the Rastafarian movement prior to this movie.
I am sure I am going to butcher this, but this is what I found out. Rastafarianism is a non-cohesive religious movement that is based mostly in the Caribbean area and Jamaica in particular. They have loose held beliefs that include an idea that A. Salasie, a black man that became a king in Africa during the 20th Century was somehow a living god. That in revelations it speaks of A. Salasie and predicted or foretold his coming. That within Rastafarianism there are several movements, including, but not limited to, the 12 Tribes, Nyabingi (which I guess is a movement that Bob Marley was part of, and they mingle with other people in the world). That it is a black theology, meaning that god is black. On a side note, Mussolini invaded A. Salasie's country during his reign and many Rastafarians were offended by the lack of support for A. Salasie during that event. Smoking marijuana is a sacrament to them.
I love Bob Marley's music, and that is the main reason I watched this documentary to learn more about the man and his religion.
I am sure I am going to butcher this, but this is what I found out. Rastafarianism is a non-cohesive religious movement that is based mostly in the Caribbean area and Jamaica in particular. They have loose held beliefs that include an idea that A. Salasie, a black man that became a king in Africa during the 20th Century was somehow a living god. That in revelations it speaks of A. Salasie and predicted or foretold his coming. That within Rastafarianism there are several movements, including, but not limited to, the 12 Tribes, Nyabingi (which I guess is a movement that Bob Marley was part of, and they mingle with other people in the world). That it is a black theology, meaning that god is black. On a side note, Mussolini invaded A. Salasie's country during his reign and many Rastafarians were offended by the lack of support for A. Salasie during that event. Smoking marijuana is a sacrament to them.
I love Bob Marley's music, and that is the main reason I watched this documentary to learn more about the man and his religion.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Charlie Wilson's War
Another movie about Afghanistan. Charlie Wilson, it seems, was a Texas congressman, that was on some pretty powerful committees during the eighties, and was involved in our cold war struggle against the Soviets in Afghanistan.
This movie was kind of interesting and I learned some things about the cold war. One thing was the need to supply weapons to people that would appear as if they were captured from the Soviets. If we were so blatant and just gave the Mujahadeen American weapons, it would just be open war against the Soviets, but by supplying only Soviet made weapons, or Soviet knock-offs, we hide our involvement.
I did not like the way this movie rubs the Soviets' noses in what happened in Afghanistan. There are still Russians that are alive and in power that may have been negatively affected by Afghanistan, but gleefully rubbing their noses in it with this movie, we are engendering their anger. Reminding them of the past. The last thing we need is a bunch of Russians running around hating us.
The movie did attempt to show that Wilson wanted to rebuild Afghanistan, which may have ended up avoiding the World Trade Center being destroyed. Unfortunately we did not do that. We rebuilt Europe and Japan after WWII, but did not see fit to rebuild Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out. Big mistake.
This movie was kind of interesting and I learned some things about the cold war. One thing was the need to supply weapons to people that would appear as if they were captured from the Soviets. If we were so blatant and just gave the Mujahadeen American weapons, it would just be open war against the Soviets, but by supplying only Soviet made weapons, or Soviet knock-offs, we hide our involvement.
I did not like the way this movie rubs the Soviets' noses in what happened in Afghanistan. There are still Russians that are alive and in power that may have been negatively affected by Afghanistan, but gleefully rubbing their noses in it with this movie, we are engendering their anger. Reminding them of the past. The last thing we need is a bunch of Russians running around hating us.
The movie did attempt to show that Wilson wanted to rebuild Afghanistan, which may have ended up avoiding the World Trade Center being destroyed. Unfortunately we did not do that. We rebuilt Europe and Japan after WWII, but did not see fit to rebuild Afghanistan after the Soviets pulled out. Big mistake.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
Kite Runner
I actually saw this movie with 4 people. Very rare for me. I probably would've eventually seen this movie, but not in the theatre.
My concern about this movie was that it seemed, from the previews, to be propaganda to make us feel good about what we have done and are doing in Afghanistan. Of course, I went in with that prejudice and feel that in many ways it is kind of true.
In a nutshell the movie spends much time telling us that the Taliban is/were child molesters and child rapists. Not only child rapists, but male/male rapists. This all maybe true, but it is interesting that a movie would be made saying this about a group that harbored a group of men that took down the World Trade Center. I am certainly not complaining here. I have no sympathy for the Taliban, or anyone that harbors people that attack the United States.
The other part of this context is an article I recently read about warlords in Afghanistan that seem to focus on young boys, especially dancing boys, as objects of their sexual affection. It seems these warlords hold contests, kind of beauty contests for their boys. So, it would seem that this is part of this Afghani culture.
Kind of an uncomfortable movie to watch. Especially the rape scene and the main character's yellow bellied reaction to it, by not attempting to help his friend and then turning against his friend, who ended up being his brother.
It was an interesting movie in that it shed some light on Afghani culture and their struggles against the Soviets.
My concern about this movie was that it seemed, from the previews, to be propaganda to make us feel good about what we have done and are doing in Afghanistan. Of course, I went in with that prejudice and feel that in many ways it is kind of true.
In a nutshell the movie spends much time telling us that the Taliban is/were child molesters and child rapists. Not only child rapists, but male/male rapists. This all maybe true, but it is interesting that a movie would be made saying this about a group that harbored a group of men that took down the World Trade Center. I am certainly not complaining here. I have no sympathy for the Taliban, or anyone that harbors people that attack the United States.
The other part of this context is an article I recently read about warlords in Afghanistan that seem to focus on young boys, especially dancing boys, as objects of their sexual affection. It seems these warlords hold contests, kind of beauty contests for their boys. So, it would seem that this is part of this Afghani culture.
Kind of an uncomfortable movie to watch. Especially the rape scene and the main character's yellow bellied reaction to it, by not attempting to help his friend and then turning against his friend, who ended up being his brother.
It was an interesting movie in that it shed some light on Afghani culture and their struggles against the Soviets.
Sunday, December 16, 2007
I am Legend
I enjoyed Will Smith's version of I am Legend. It certainly deviated mightily from the book and the other cinematic versions of the book, but it was still good.
They decided to go spiritual with the story with some type of a happy ending. The book ends with the main character being executed by the new breed of humans that exist and do their thing only at night.
This movie ended with Will Smith's character solving the problem with science and for some reason he sacrifices himself prior to passing on the cure.
I enjoyed the use of Bob Marley music as the soundtrack to this movie. I have been on this Bob Marley kick lately myself.
They decided to go spiritual with the story with some type of a happy ending. The book ends with the main character being executed by the new breed of humans that exist and do their thing only at night.
This movie ended with Will Smith's character solving the problem with science and for some reason he sacrifices himself prior to passing on the cure.
I enjoyed the use of Bob Marley music as the soundtrack to this movie. I have been on this Bob Marley kick lately myself.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Hitman
I have played pretty much all of the Hitman games in the series and enjoyed them. I was looking forward to this movie until I learned that Agent 47 was going to have a love interest. I mean the guy is a ruthless killer, how is hollywood going to make that make sense without changing the character drastically.
They did a pretty good job with it. One of the lines, I will paraphrase here, was really nice, something like, be quiet or I will put you back in the trunk. And of course there is a dead body in the trunk that he took her out of. So, it was real to the character, a ruthless cold blooded killer.
There were some pretty good visuals that pointed back to the game. I wish they would've done more of that kind of thing. But all in all, for a relatively obscure video game character like Agent 47 to be made into a film, it was good.
It is impossible for me to think of this movie in an unbiased way. I have no idea how someone would view this movie if they had not spent hours with the character during a video game.
They did a pretty good job with it. One of the lines, I will paraphrase here, was really nice, something like, be quiet or I will put you back in the trunk. And of course there is a dead body in the trunk that he took her out of. So, it was real to the character, a ruthless cold blooded killer.
There were some pretty good visuals that pointed back to the game. I wish they would've done more of that kind of thing. But all in all, for a relatively obscure video game character like Agent 47 to be made into a film, it was good.
It is impossible for me to think of this movie in an unbiased way. I have no idea how someone would view this movie if they had not spent hours with the character during a video game.
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