Our Hospitality
Buster Keaton – genius of film and comedy is one of my inspirations and one of the best film makers of all time. If you research him you would see how his love of film created techniques that are equal to anything Lucas did (given his time period of course). That being said, his movies are also fun!
This one isn’t one of the best, but anything Buster Keaton is light-years better than most. The concept here is that 2 feuding families are killing each other. Keaton’s father sends him away when he is a baby and when his father dies, Keaton has to come back home.
On the train ride home he meets a girl and they like each other – a lot of funning things happen here in this first act, but I wont get into them. Once they reach home Keaton is invited to the girls place for dinner. The problem is that the girl is actually the daughter of his family’s enemy and her father and brothers are trying to kill Keaton.
Keaton doesn’t know this, but when he comes to dinner – he quickly learns the truth and that he has a big target on his back. The brothers think this is a good time to kill Keaton, while he is in their home distracted, but their father wont let them. He explains that while he is a guest in their home, they must show him their hospitality. They cannot kill Keaton until he leaves the home.
The majority of the film is now about Keaton trying not to leave the home! His stalling tactics are hilarious and he ends up spending the night, and he just wont leave. Funny things happen, like when the girl loses her sheet music by a gust of wind, and Keaton has to go outside to get it. Her brothers get their guns ready to shoot Keaton the moment he steps out, so he has to be clever in getting the sheet music and returning back alive.
I wont spoil all the jokes, but there are bunch and this is a must see for sheer entertainment value.
I will say that if you have seen some of Keaton’s masterpieces (the General, Sherlock Jr.) then this isn’t as good, but if you haven’t seen any of his work then this a good place to start.
4/5
J-Man.
I didn’t mind the first Twilight and I have reviewed it on this site – I gave it a 3.5 – looking back I think I was overly generous, but that’s because I thought the movie would suck ass, and when it didn’t I ended up giving it a higher score because of it.
But since I saw it in 2010 I have had no desire to re-watch it (I just re-watched Tim Burton’s Batman for the 30th time, so you know I love it!). My not re-watching it doesn’t mean its bad though and overall it would still get a 3 – just barely mind you.
New Moon
I would say that New Moon is equal to part one, maybe a bit worse. I say worse because its the same damn movie but with Jacob now. He is a werewolf, but don’t worry there is no graphic transformation scene, they just morph into giant-sized wolves. That explains why they don’t wear shirts, it does not explain how they get their pants back, but maybe it’s like the old Incredible Hulk cartoon, where they just morph back.
In any case Bella is torn between Jacob and Edward – this is the killer of the first two films. Every other scene is her trying to decide between them, or asking Edward to just bite her, and he refuses, then says he will do anything for her. Then he says that she is his reason for living, but wont bite her. She wants to be bitten but he wont, then he agrees to bite her if she marries him, but she wont marry him.
This is what is referred to as bad writing. THIS DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE! Why don’t they just get it over with! All this is inter-cut with pointless scenes of Bella talking to her father, who constantly offers no advice and is always trying to find a mysterious killer – but can never find him. I thought he was a good cop?
That all being said there is some cool stuff in these first two films and I feel that I could take them both and make ONE good film, instead of two so-so ones. Part 2 really drags though as we have seen it all before.
Eclipse
Eclipse on the other hand is a really good movie!
I don’t know what happened and why part 3 all of a sudden got interesting. I guess because the love triangle is now only a subplot as Victoria (villain from previous films) is amassing an army to take down the Cullens and Bella. So they have to team up with the wolves and take care o business (TCB).
I liked the team up and thought that this movie was really exciting. Of course it still has dopey love story elements, which if they weren’t so repetitive as the first 2 films would be ok! I don’t mind a love story if it is told well, and part 3 handled it much better. Bella finally makes the only choice she could and we get on with the story here. I like that there is an actual story to follow – figuring out who the killers are, what they plan on doing, and the final battle is pretty darn cool! I actually liked Bella, Jacob and Edward in this one, and Victoria is a kick ass villain! I also liked how we got more back-story for each of the Cullens – this is what the other films should have been! Sure, keep the love triangle, I mean that is Twilight, but have something more in there! If you want simple but well written love stories I can recommend any number of Bollywood flicks that will make you cry your eyes out. I have even teared up during some.
All in all part 3 really picked up the franchise and lets hope that 4 and 5 will be good.
Twilight – 3/5
New Moon – 3/5
Eclipse – 4/5
J-Man.
Highschool of the Dead.
So we have the Japanese take on zombies. This is what Anime was meant for! Good story, cool characters, tons of gore and violence, swearing and nudity all rolled up into 12 episodes of mayhem!
Now I will say that towards the end of the series (or season if you will) things did get a bit weird, when you have 12 mins devoted to a girls bath scene – you start to kind of wonder what this has to do with zombies and surviving the apocalypse, but in the end this is a great series to add to your growing Anime collection.
I realize that not too many people who read this blog collect Anime, but maybe they should! And if you want to start, this is a good one to start with!
Save Akira for when you get more advanced!
4/5
J-Man.
Freedom Writers.
True story based on a teacher that went in and changed students lives. These students were all into gangs, drugs, drive bys etc, and she helped them achieve.
I know its generic, but it’s based on a true story – which, for me, usually means whatever, but I liked this one.
I am actually a sucker for this genre, I love “teachers who make a difference” movies, To Sir With Love and Lean on Me are probably my two favourites, but this one was just as good and Hilary Swank was great as usual! I am a fan of Hilary Swank even though now-a-days she isn’t around as much.
She was believable as the teacher, and the students weren’t too fake either. And the book the students published (of their journals – hence the “writers” part) is actually available to buy!
Good Movie.
3.5/5
J-Man.
In Time.
You’ve heard that time is money? Well in this movie it really is. In Time is really about immortality and using time as a means of currency. If you are rich you live forever, if you are poor, you die at 25-26. The way that time is transferred and used is not explained too much, something I think is a negative, but it’s not a deal breaker.
The way it works (in very loose terms) is that when you reach 25 your clock begins. You get 1 year of time and then you have to start paying for stuff with the time you have. A cup of coffee is 2 minutes for example, or a bus ride is 1 hour etc. The rich get more time and live forever (never aging past 25) and the poor die quicker. It’s basically a Logan’s Run situation where they want people to die off as a means of population control. You can gain more time, if you win at gambling for example, or you can fight for time – sort of like arm wrestling, but your time is at stake. There are Timekeepers (police men), there are Minutemen, who steal other peoples time and so on.
The movie isn’t as smart as I thought it would be but it is way more exciting than I thought! This was one fun movie! I really enjoyed it and I think the suspense created with the use of time was amazing.
For example there is one part where Justin Timerlake (amazing in this film btw – good job!) is playing Poker and he has gambled all of his time and the clock is counting down seconds as he waits for his opponent to reveal his hand. Another great part was where his mother is running towards him (played by Olivia Wilde) and she only has 10 seconds left to live, but Justin can give her more time if he can only get to her!
Another cool thing is that people with lots of time (decades or even centuries) never run. They have all the time they need so they never run to get somewhere – this is something that plays a part in the story too.
Going into this I was thinking it would be a fun movie, with a neat idea. It reminded me of Gattaca in a way, a less futuristic future (if that makes sense to you). But I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did! Timerlake was just great and really believable – he’s got the beginnings of a good movie career! Amanda Seyfried was great too – not annoying like most young girls and Cillian Murphy was just fantastic as always. Actually all the actors were great!
This is a total package movie for me. Good action, story, acting, suspense, good job to all involved.
I will buying this on bluray large!
4/5
J-Man.
So, in case you're wondering, this isn't a movie review...it's a rant. It is a movie related though, because I've noticed a disturbing trend recently. You might laugh and say "recently" because this has been going on for a while now, but it sometimes takes a while for me to composite my thoughts and get everything down in print. It has to do with cell phones.
Now wait...I know, I know. It's not about talking on cell phones during movies. That's been taken care of, at least there seems to be enough courtesy in the world to ensure that's not rampant. However, there's been multiple usage of cell phones/iphones/blackberry's/whatever other gizmo is on the market, as far was flipping them open and text messaging. Now, let me take a step back here.
Growing up in the eighties and early nineties, I didn't own a cell phone. The quality of my life wasn't terrible or anything, at least not because of the absence of a cell phone. I know that cell phones are very useful, especially in case of emergency. However, what is becoming more of an emergency is people talking on their cell phones at completely inappropriate times: driving and not paying attention to what they're doing, people walking into walls or in one case in Long Island, an open manhole, etc, etc. Okay, but then you add text messaging, where you have to look down, so you're entire attention is away from what you're doing and it's worse. This is just the obvious inherent danger of text messaging at inappropriate times.
However, flipping open your cell phone to check your Facebook or Twitter during a movie is not just rude, it's dumb and it's actually physically dangerous. I'll tell you why in a little bit, but the thing that really stands out to me immediately is how much of a step back we've all taken in terms of communication, in general. Way back in the day, people mailed letters to other people as a way of communicating with far-off, long-lost people. Then, Mr. Bell gave us the telephone, a more immediate form of communication. Then we had email as a major form of communication, which to me is just another form of letter writing, only a little quicker. Then cell phones, so we're back to using some sort of phone...and now text messaging. So now, we're back to writing letters, except we're not necessarily doing it at desk, anymore. So, how have we moved forward? To me, we're going backwards, we're if anything, communicating less effectively with all these gadgets. Which is better, talking someone physically using a phone or sending someone a damned text?
Anyhow, back to the theatre. So, it's obviously rude. I mean, I'm sitting behind some teenager who can't keep their phone closed for more than 5 minutes (in the case of the recent Three Musketeers movie) and it's like...a blinding light in your eyes. It disrupts your attention to the screen, it blinds you, if the angle is right and it annoys the living piss out of you. So basically, every time you find out what your friend is making for dinner by checking your Facebook in a movie theatre, you are seriously inconveniencing the people around you. That's one.
How is it stupid? Think about it. You're paying $12 for the experience of sitting in a movie and seeing it. You're then taking time away from this experience to check your text messages, which you can do for free outside the movie theatre. So, you're basically wasting $12 (more or less, depending on when you're going and what format you're seeing the movie in), but in any case, you're throwing money away. Now, let's say you see 10 movies a year at an average of $12 a movie. That's $120 a year you're wasting, for no reason than you're own inherent stupidity.
Now, the dangerous part. I spoke to a family friend yesterday and the subject of text messaging during movies came up. He told me that the last 3 or 4 times he's gone to a movie, he's seen altercations between people during a film, with the entire point being people being bothered by the shining light in their face because someone had to check their text messages and then text back. See, you don't know the person behind you. You don't know their mindset, their personality. You don't know if they've had a bad day or not. You don't know if they're carrying weapons. That's a lot you don't know to just whip out the cell and see if you're friend is coming over three Saturdays from now. I've seen altercations as well and I've also heard how one guy is actually suing another movie patron because she told him to stop texting during a movie as it's disrupting her. See, if you want to text message, do it in your home, while you're big screen television and blu-ray is showing whatever mindless garbage you just bought from Best Buy. That's fine, it doesn't disrupt me. But the bottome line is, there's enough rude behaviour in the world, that people are just getting fed up. That tolerance level isn't there like it used to be. Do you seriously want to put any of that at risk because you can't control your urge to check your phone for ninety frigging minutes?
So, there you have it. My view on this latest, annoying trend in theatres. I know it's not going to stop, no matter how many times I bleat this on the internet. Sadly, maybe it will take someone shooting someone else in the theatre for people to get a message. Maybe not. Who knows. All I know is, I paid my money to watch the movie, not be constantly reminded you're checking your messages. So, maybe you should do us all a favour, you text messagers, maybe you should restrict your trips to the theatre to only once or twice a year and hey, maybe you could even leave your little playthings at home or in the car. It would probably be the first considerate thing you've done in a long, long time.
- Stephenstein
Waiting for Superman.
This film isn’t about Superman, but it starts with Geoffrey Canada (educator) talking about how when he was a child growing up he believed in Superman and when his mom told him that Superman wasn’t real, he was horrified. Horrified because there was no one out there that was going to save him, or anyone else.
This documentary is about the educational system in the United States; well “educational” system is more the appropriate term. Most kids in the US go to public school and most of those schools are known as dropout factories; where kids go on to become criminals or just poor with no chance of finding a job.
If you are rich enough your kid can attend private schools and have a better chance but most of the time kids are being screwed out of an education.
Why?
Well for one thing some teachers are just bad, but they cannot be fired. The union is so powerful that a teacher can never be fired, unless they do something really bad. The film gives this stat – 1 out of 2500 teachers are fired for bad teaching skills, where 1 out of 96 lawyers are fired because they suck.
Another interesting point is that some dropouts often become criminals and spend an average of 4 years in prison which costs the government 132 Grand, well for 100 Grand the government could have paid for them to attend a private school and maybe the person would have become something more by contributing back into society.
I wish the film had more facts like this, but there is a lot to cover in 100 minutes.
I recommend seeing this film like the movie Sicko – it’s just interesting to see how other countries deal with education and how the most powerful country in the world (whose educational system was number one until the 70’s) has gone down so much!
3.5/5
J-Man.
