I Will Stand For Our Country and My Views!

Last week in class after the election, I was honestly a bit upset.  I have seen many previous posts on both sides of the political spectrum, but there needs to be an end to this name calling and stereotyping.  I know that everyone has their own personal views and opinions on how to live their lives and that is fine.  If we do not speak out on politics in class or rarely mention it, then why did we bash one side for the majority of the class period.  I will admit that I voted for Trump! And I am proud to say that!  If you go around and call people a racist, white supremacist, women hater, or any other names ever mentioned then you are just as low as them.  Most of us including me did not vote for Trump over Clinton because they hate a specific group of people, but rather are sick of seeing our nation go down the toilet with taking jobs away from American citizens who work for their pay, get hurt by Obamacare, or even possibly lose an important original amendment to the Constitution.  You can go ahead and call me and others what you want, but does that really make you any better of a person?  If we just sit down and have a one-on-one personal and logical discussion rather than bashing each others views and opinions or converting to violence, then our nation might become better than it is currently.  Please give our new President and all those who support his views a chance before calling them names.  (This post is not meant to offend or bash anybody's personal views or decisions, just the mere fact that we should love one another and discuss our differences instead of resorting to worse ways.)



     

Finding Dory - A Pixar Sequel

I recently watched the movie Finding Dory that continues on with the former beloved family film, Finding Nemo.  This film is one of my most desired movies to ever watch because of the anticipation that was built up from its trailers a few years back.  I remember saying...2016....that's never going to get here soon enough.  Well, we are at that time and almost through another great year in the film industry!  Finding Dory did not disappoint in its climatic build up from its previous film.  I thought that the plot development and story line was going to be similar to the first one with the same characters, but I was completely thrown for a loop.  If you ever have watched the first one then you know what I mean when I thought that Dory would be lost due to her short-term memory loss.  That was not the plot at all, instead it consisted of Dory's trek to find her parents that she vaguely remembered.  Yet with the help of her other family in Marlin and Nemo, she was able to find her way to her lost parents.  She even went as to not only piece her memories together and find them, but also became the hero and saved everyone.  This film was a great family film that kept you wondering if Dory could ever find her way "home."  I believe that the moral or concept of this film was to show us that even if no one believes that we can defeat our obstacles, we should not let that hinder us and "just keep swimming."

Kubo and the Two Strings - Animation at its finest

I finally have gained up enough courage to branch out of my "movie box" and watch an animation film that was recommend in class.  I personally do not enjoy many animation films, but I was pleasantly surprised with how well this stop-motion animation film set with me.  This film did a great job with the flow of the story and keeping its audiences attention.  The plot itself was a bit cliche because of the quest for three items that he had to retrieve.  However, the images of the characters were well-developed, and I thoroughly enjoyed their personalities too.  My favorite character in the movie, despite popular opinion, would have to be the monkey played by Charlize Theron because of her comedic and strong display of her persona.  The ending was very well done, and I thought that it brought out the moral of the story perfectly.  We should all give each other a second chance at life because God did that for us through his unconditional love.  This is what family really is all about and this animation film fits into that statement perfectly.  I would highly recommend this film to anyone that has spare time and is up for a shockingly unique film.

Media Age Vs. The Printed Word

The world that we live in today is transitioned into an image-based and technology-minded era.  We have forgotten and lost site of the true value and context that the printed word and face-to-face communication can give us.  Our stereotypical daily routine consists of getting up in the morning relying on technology and television to start our days, going into the office or even school and being surrounded by media, and when we finally get home we stick our noses in our smartphones or tablets and turn on Netflix.  After the day is over we might listen to music or watch some more television as we drift to sleep often relying on our Siri alarms to wake us up.  It amazes me on how much we rely on this new era of technology and media to get our news or just communicate in general.  Television has de-contextualized information to make it easily consumable and that is why we saw a shift from the printed age into a visual image-based age.  Books and the printed word have a lot of truth to them and if we quit focusing on a person or famous news reporter as the source for credible information than we might become more attentive to the true meaning behind television or other media forms.  I am not blogging on this to bash any form of television or films but just to point out the mere fact that not being in a printed age is damaging our intellectual ways of communication.

Hocus Pocus - Happy Belated Halloween!

It is a few days after Halloween, which is one of my favorite holidays, and I want to tell you about a film that I enjoy to watch as a tradition every Halloween Eve.  Many of you have probably heard of or watched this movie before and have an opinion on it.  However, I want to tell you on why I have it as one of my top movies of all time.  This movie to me was a childhood memory and one that I will always have a bit of a bias for.  Hocus Pocus was created in 1993, which is the year that I was born, and stars big names such as Bette Midler, Sarah Parker, and Kathy Najimy.  The movie is based around three witches from Salem, Massachusetts who died for sucking the lives out of children and practicing witchcraft in 1693.  They were sentenced to death but put a spell on themselves to rise back from the dead for one night on Halloween Eve if a virgin lights the Black Flame Candle.  The rest of the story involves a few teenagers attempting to stop the witches from becoming immortal after lighting the Black Flame Candle and reviving them from the dead for one night almost 300 years later in 1993.  The plot of this film maybe a little cliche, but I will always enjoy the comedy, music, and fantasy realm of it.
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Hedgehog in the Fog - A fantasy environment

I remember watching this animated film in class and it has stuck with me ever since.  The Hedgehog in the Fog was created in 1975 by Yuriy Borisovich Norshteyn and is deemed as one of the greatest animated shorts of all time.  The authenticity, unique style, and approaches that Yuriy brings to his films are why they stand out on their own.  The Hedgehog in the Fog in particular is one of his best films ever produced due to its unique visual qualities and background.  The tale of the hedgehog starts out with his journey to see his friend, Bear Cub.  Hedgehog along the way to see his friend runs across a white horse standing in the middle of a thick fog.  He decides to go and help the horse and ventures into the fog himself.  He then finds himself lost as he cannot find the horse or any trail to his destination.  He then continues his adventure and runs across several mythical creatures as well as a loud voice yelling his name.  As he is frightened and frantic to find where the voice is coming from, he falls into a hole by a tree into a river.  The hedgehog decides to float down the river and give up all hope of arriving to see his friend, and knows he is about to drown.  That is until a fish or some other swimming creature helps him get back to shore and on his way to see Bear Cub.  This film to me relates to the dangers but also the different experiences and people that you can meet along a spontaneous adventure.

Geri's Game - A Pixar Short

I have already previously written on a Pixar short film for my reading quiz portion.  However, I have loved this particular one my whole life, and it brought back memories when I got to see it again in class.  Geri's Game, an animated short film that was depicted directly before the movie A Bug's Life (1998), shows an old man at a park in the autumn season playing a game of chess by himself.  I always wondered how there was two different versions of him in the film and thought that they might have been twins.  That was at least my thoughts as a young kid watching this short film.  I was laughing uncontrollably when Geri with the black chess pieces was dominating the other Geri with the white chess pieces.  It was a great plot turn when Geri decides to fake a heart attack and switch the board around in order to trick his counterpart and win the game.  This plot twist is what made the short film so attention-grabbing and comedic.  The meaning that I got out of this short animated film was to always enjoy yourself and life as a whole before it catches up with you.

Alice Through the Looking Glass (Movie Review)

I recently watched the movie Alice Through the Looking Glass and was pleasantly surprised on how much I liked it versus the one made six years ago.  Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved the original Disney animated film as it was my favorite one.  So it's safe to say when the new one came out this year I was very excited and intrigued on how they would twist the story of Alice into a new and exciting way.  Alice Through the Looking Glass, which was directed by James Bobin and starred Mia Wasikowska (Alice), Anne Hathaway (White Queen), and Johnny Depp (Mad Hatter), begins by showing Alice as a brave sailor and captain of a ship that isn't afraid of the impossible.  This is the motto that she lives her life by because of her past adventures in Underland.  However, when she arrives back to port she comes to find out some tragic news that she will not be able to captain her father's ship anymore.  As she is saddened to hear the news, Alice flees for an abandoned room and locks the door behind her.  Alice finds herself upset about the devastating news as she stares into a mirror wondering on what she will do next.  Then suddenly the mirror begins to shimmer, and she escapes the reality of her own world by slipping through the mirror to Underland.  This movie starts to shape and form around the former film in 2010 by creating another problematic scenario for Alice to solve in Underland as well as showing the viewers the past world of Underland.  Towards the end of the film, Alice saves the day and returns to her own world in hopes of solving her own problems there as well.  I love these films because it reminds me that whatever our dreams or ambitions are in life that we can always tackle them and achieve victory!
 

For the Birds - Reading Quiz 2

This Pixar animated short film really caught my attention as I feel it can relate to a lot of people in life.  For the Birds was a Pixar short that was directed by Ralph Eggleston and produced in 2000.  This film to me was amazing not only because of the difficulty of the texture and techniques that they put into the film but also the man days that they must have poured into it.  The amount of time truly spent on short films let alone Pixar's movies, Toy Story (36 months), is crazy to fathom.  I grew up on such movies and shorts such as Geri's Game, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles.  To now fully understand how much creativity, time, and team work that it took for these films is humbling.  The reason I chose For the Birds, however, is how it relates to a lifestyle of getting picked on as a child.  The big bird in the film desired to join in on the fun and perch with the other little birds on the telephone wire.  Throughout the film, all the little birds wouldn't let the big bird join in on the fun.  Even when he attempted to they treated him poorly and pecked at him until he fell.  The ironic part in this film was that it was the little birds (bullies) that got made fun of and the big bird (child) that enjoyed the last laugh.  The ability that this film had in connecting to us as an audience as well as making us laugh was what caught my attention and retained my interest.

Au Jour - An empty hole

This short film by Marie Paccou can definitely relate to a lot of people.  At first I thought the film was a bit weird but when I caught on to the meaning, I quickly was sympathetic for both the woman and the man.  This film to me showed how a relationship should be essentially a union of two people, but some people may have different problems that might separate them in the end.  When the woman and the man were slurping up their soup together after carrying up the groceries, I understood how great the relationship was for them.  In seeing how the other neighbor couple was, I had a mixed emotions at the time on the film.  Towards the end of the film, when the man walked out on the woman and created a hole, it all became clear to me on why I think it was created.  This animated film depicts the "hole" in us that we have when one enters and later exits our life.  Relationships are hard and I have felt this pain multiple times through both dating people and loved ones that have passed.  The way I cope with these moments of grief and pain is to focus on the one true relationship that matters, which is my relationship with Christ.

The Visit - A plot twist

I recently saw the movie The Visit which to be honest I have been wanting but dreading to watch for quite some time now.  The reason for this is because I am not a huge fan of horror films but I do enjoy them on occasion.  The Visit is played by Olivia DeJonge as Becca and Ed Oxenbould as Tyler, which are the grand kids.  The grandparents are played by Deanna Dunagan and Peter McRobbie as Nana and Pop Pop.  The plot of the movie was interesting to me because I always loved staying the night at my grandparents on the weekends.  The Visit begins to explain how the siblings mother ran away from her parents at the age of 19 years old and never spoke or contacted them again.  But now that the kids are a bit older and curious who raised their mother, they plan on a visit to their grandparents for a whole week.  Their mother lets them do this and sends them off by train to go meet their grandparents.  Everything seems well at first with the meeting of the grandparents but then evening comes and they begin to see weird behavior from the grandparents.  Towards the end of the film is when the twist comes in that grabbed my attention in how well the film was made.  It ended up that the mother had never saw who her kids were actually staying with until they showed here by a Skype call.  This is what made my heart skip a beat and not the actual scary parts of the movie as much.  We come to find out that the old couple they have been staying with killed the kid's actual grandparents and just wanted a "fun" week for his wife, Nana.  Eventually the kids escape the house safely and all is well.  This horror film to me was one of my favorites that I have ever seen and had a great plot turn to it that kept you on the edge of your seat.

Duel - Disallowing kids to explore

The Duel by Pavel Koutsky, produced in 1997, is an animated short film that shows kids growing up in a society where there is a boat load of information available to them.  However, they experience the information being crammed and "funneled" into their brains.  This to me was showing that the information being fed to them was not the information that they necessarily wanted to read or learn about.  As a kid we have a strong imagination and desire to keep that.  However, as we grow up we tend to lose this "fantasy world" that lives inside us.  To state that this is a bad or good thing is not what I wish to argue, rather as I watched the film I began to understand it as information that was changing us.  We see this depicted in the film a couple times both when the boy is looking at the "playboy" magazine and at the fictitious, fun novels that he was enjoying to read which was taken away from him.  The information that we desire to learn should be consumed as well as the information that is required by our superiors in life.  If this happens, I feel as if there would be no retaliation from becoming an adult.  The information that we grasp a daily basis should be both formal and intuitive as well as fun and entertaining.  By having both of these types of information within us, I feel as if it keeps us in a sense as a child still which is a good thing.


 
    

Sand Castle - Creation at its finest

As we began to watch Sand Castle in class, one thing began to spark my attention right away.  The man-like figure that was "playing" in the sand.  He began to create all different kinds of animals, and I began to wonder why he wasn't creating any other man or woman like himself.  Then the concept of the film hit me.  I realized that the film was representing a god-like figure that had created all other creatures.  Each creature had their own special ability in order to help build the "kingdom" or "castle" together as one.  The snake could burrow through the sand and make holes for air, the starfish could smooth out the sand, and the rock-figures could build the sand up with their strong hands.  To me this represents us as creations of God that are all built in our own unique ways and are all a valuable part in helping to further his Kingdom.  Towards the end of the film, it was interesting to me how the main figure helped all of his creatures into the castle and was the first to sense the dangerous sandstorm that was brewing ahead of them.  I related this to how God protects over us because of his eternal and unconditional love for us.  It was a sweet and unique film on portraying how creation was meant to be a good thing and live happily as one big family.

10 Cloverfield Lane - An attack on the world

I recently watched the movie 10 Cloverfield Lane starring John Goodman and Mary Elizabeth Winstead.  In all my years of watching movies upon movies, I can truly say that this movie depicted the end of the world in the most exciting and intense way possible.  At first I didn't know how John Goodman, who previously was know for his role in Monsters Inc. as the voice of Sully, could portray a mean, deranged man.  However, as the story began to unfold my worries were put to ease.  In the movie, Michelle (Mary Winstead) was an engaged woman who just happened to be driving on the highway after an emotional break up with her fiance and wrecked her vehicle because of it.  She wakes up in a bunker to notice that she is chained to a wall.  Howard (John Goodman) tells her that she is safe in his bunker and cannot ever leave until it is safe.  We discover that there was a chemical attack on the world as they knew it and was eating away at the lives of everyone above ground.  However, Michelle is determined to find her way out and Howard is depicted as the crazy, mad man that won't let her leave.  The end of the movie and her eventual escape from the bunker is what sparked my attention.  As a viewer of the movie, I was excited that she escaped Howard's bunker, but it quickly turned your feelings upside down when you see that it is an actual extraterrestrial invasion and not a chemical attack.  The movie ends with her escape from the farm of 10 Cloverfield Lane and goes to help the other survivors instead of worrying about her safety.  This ending to me in ways were great and it added to the effect of not truly ending that way you can let your mind wander on what would of happened to Michelle if she had chosen a different path. 

Sully - Hero or Fraud

I recently went to see the movie Sully in theaters which I would highly recommend to anyone.  I walked into the movie theater not knowing much information at all about the crash or even what caused it.  This movie really opened up my eyes as to what a real life hero looks like and also may feel like.  It began by Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger waking up to a frightening plane crash in New York City which we all know never actually happened.  The movie then proceeded to depict the actual situation of the plane crash and everything that transpired leading up to boarding Flight 1549.  I never knew that a flock of birds could damage a plane's engines so badly and was shocked at how calmly the pilot handled the situation.  The most inspiring part to me is how during the whole time that he was plummeting towards his imminent death, he was focused on all of his passengers' safety as well as his flight attendants.  As a hero is defined at least, I believe that Sully's qualities and the way that he handled the crash is what made him a hero not just landing the plane safely in the Hudson River with no one harmed.  The film really got into the mind of what Sully must have truly been going through with the publicity of him being depicted as a hero yet his job at stake with the NTSB not believing that there was no alternative way to land safely.  Overall, the film showed me that just because we label a person a hero, he may not feel like one.  I think Sully and every human soul aboard that aircraft was the hero and nobody should be mistaken as a fraud.

The Shallows

I recently watched the film, The Shallows, which came out just this summer.  At first, I pictured this film as being just another cheesy film about a shark attack trying to compare to the great Jaws movie.  Instead it was something completely different than all of the other shark movies that I have watched throughout my life.  It depicted a medical student, Nancy Adams (Blake Lively), as a young woman trying to escape the grief of the loss of her mother by going to a secluded island to surf.  This depiction of paradise for Nancy takes a turn for the worst and ends up being a horror of a place for her.  This all occurs when she decides to take one last surf by herself and ends up getting bitten by a great white shark.  She escapes the shark and proceeds to swim to the nearest rock, which is 200 yards offshore.  After using whatever she had on her, which ended up being her jewelry and shirt, to heal her injury, she attempted to find a way to escape the shark.  The interesting part to me in the film that caught my attention was a bird with a broken wing that stood beside her throughout the whole time that she was being hunted by the shark.  This to me signified a greater meaning in the movie as I saw the bird as symbol of hope for Nancy to fight for her life and get off the rock so that she could reunite with her family back home.  After all of the struggle, Nancy escapes the shark and ends up being able to safely get back home to see her family.  The amazing part of the film was when at the end you see her and her family going back to that same beach to surf again without fear of any kind.  Overall, the movie was a well-thought out movie with a deeper meaning that is brought to the surface.




 

Middletown: Life in a small town

Middletown, originally produced by American playwright Will Eno in 2011, is a play about a small town going through the ups and downs of life together as a community.  I attended the play on its invited dress rehearsal night, Thursday September 22nd at 7:30 in the evening.  As I sat down in the audience ready for the play to begin, I did not know any background about the original play or what it was even about.  I began to analyze and watch how each individual character portrayed their part.  I thought that the mechanic part, played by Huntington University's own Riley Newsome, did a wonderful job as he made his part come alive and got the whole crowd laughing.  The play to me seemed to be about how a small community, like Middletown, can come together as one through all the pain, humor, and joys of life.  Every character had their own personality yet they all seemed to get along, except for the cop and the mechanic.  The major parts played by Sam Jones and Kaeley Osterman, as Mrs. Swanson and John Dodge, were played exceptionally well as they brought their own characters to life.  The ending of the play is what really took me for a turn as John Dodge died and new life was born.  This play was an exceptional portrayal of how life can really catch you in the "middle" and make you think what it really means to live or die.  I would highly recommend it to those who have not yet seen it.

Bunny: It's time to go home

Bunny is a great short film about the afterlife.  Produced by Blue Sky in 1998, Bunny is a film about an elderly female rabbit that is being annoyed by a moth that keeps flying towards the light in her kitchen while she is trying to cook.  This pest of a moth is showed the door and she shuts off the outside light as well.  Later on in the film, the moth persists that it gets in and flies through the window but later gets swatted into the batter mix that she is preparing.  She is so angry at the moth, that she decides to stir it up and shove it into the oven.  The part in the film when she goes to sleep awaiting the timer and then wakes up to a blue light coming out of the oven is when I realized what the meaning behind the short film truly was.  As the bunny crawls through the oven and into a "new world", its meaning to me was that she died in her sleep and went into the afterlife.  It all made since at the end of the film when they showed the picture of her and her husband together at last.  This film to me was symbolic of us wanting to reunite with other loved ones that have gone but refusing to actually let go of life ourselves.
 

JOY - Do What You EnJOY

I recently watched the film Joy and let me tell you it's nothing short of a joy to watch.  I honestly picked up this film to watch just because I love the actress, Jennifer Lawrence, and how she can fit into any role in my opinion.  This movie starts out with a family that is divorced and a mess living under one small household.  Joy is taking care of her widowed mother, who watches soap operas all day, as well as her two children, divorced husband, and takes on a full time job at her father's shop.  The film's meaning quickly becomes apparent as it reflects upon Joy's childhood when she was happy and a creative child.  A bit into the film she starts to do something about her unhappiness and discovers that it is because her family held her back from her true potential of being an entrepreneur and business tycoon.  She sets her mind on a new invention, which is a self ringing mop, and at first fails to get it sold.  She then goes onto live television to have it sold by one of those quick selling commercial loops by other actors and actresses and gets into a huge debt.  Her drive and determination to succeed in her idea is what gets her out of bankruptcy and contract disputes.  She eventually succeeds to a point in where she moves out and is one of the most successful business tycoons in the region.  Her family at first doesn't support her idea at its first failure attempt but eventually is very supportive.  This to me has a deeper meaning than I ever expected it to have.  I believe that the film is trying to use this true story based on someone that was in a dark place in her life, in order to encourage other people like Joy to go out and live their dreams.  I highly recommend this film to anyone who has experienced the question of what their life means or just simply is just in search for a good film.

Lunch Date (Racism/Comedy)

Lunch Date was a film made in the 1990's and was shot in New York City at Grand Central Station.  At first, I was not sure on what it was about but then after she missed her train because of the guy that she bumped into spilling all her belongings out on the floor I began to pick up on it.  I pieced it all together after noticing "who" she bumped into, being a black gentleman, and when she was a few dollars short on purchasing the salad yet received it by a white gentleman.  The time frame in which it was shot being a Black and White film got me thinking.  The amazing part about this film is that all along you feel sympathetic towards the old white lady which is the opposite of the way you should truly feel.  When she gets to "her" seat to eat "her" salad after getting up for a short second to grab a fork, she is shocked to see a black man chowing down on "her" salad.  They begin to share the salad and the black man even buys them coffee.  After sharing a lunch with the gentleman, she rushes to her train but forgets her bags back at the diner.  She rushes back to get her bag and sees it on her actual seat along with her salad that was there all along uneaten.  The comedy that was implemented into this film along with the racial tension against Blacks is truly astonishing and represents that all people can be caring regardless of their race.