Four Eyed Monsters
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"Our unending journey is found by simply closing our eyes!"
Personal statement: Hello, I guess this is suppose to be my personal statement. If it's personal then why am I writing it for display to the public on my little site I have here? I don't know, but since it's personal I guess i'm going to have to continue talking to myself while greeting others simultaneously. How is this achieved one might ask? Well, hello to you and hello to me. I don't know but this seems pointless, like it's something I might look upon years from now and shake my head in disappointment. So I should probably just end with a statement. I love movies, films like many of you. I want to write and direct many films in the not too distant future like many of you. But most of all I want to finish this personal statement like most of you want me to. That rhymes! <script type="text/javascript" src="http://widgetserver.com/syndication/subscriber/InsertPanel.js?panelId=14733aec-32e6-45d0-97f3-fd0cc9f23554"></script><noscript>Get great free widgets at <a href="http://www.widgetbox.com">Widgetbox</a>!</noscript>
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  • Reaching the other side

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    The Bridge  (2006)

    Looking back at all of my movie going experiences in the past and comparing it to this film I have come to the conclusion that experiencing this film was truly one of the most engaging experiences of my life. From the very beginning they show how mysterious this bridge is and how it draws people seeking a solution to it. Uneven people go here to end their sadness and confusion. We see them jump off of this bridge as if they are entering a better place. They dont rely on showing people jump off of the bridge into the ocean. Instead they focus on what these people were like by interviewing their families and friends.

    The study of the human mind is very interesting. This is the study of the mind of people that saw no hope and no other way to continue living so they found that the best way to end this was to jump off of "The Golden Gate Bridge". The camera is looking at the bridge 24/7 for about a month. They filmed over twenty deaths of people jumping off of the bridge. We dont see all of them which was a wise decision on the directors part. We just see the ones of the families that were interviewed.

    We don't really think about this as much as those that actually consider shortening there life by choice. Most of these people aren't insane or anything. They just couldn't find any other way out of how they were feeling. We get a fascinating look at an interview with a man that actually jumped off of the bridge and survived. He talks about the experience and that right after he jumped that he wanted to live and luckily he did. Now he is trying to help suicidal people all around America.

    This story is disturbing at points and yet incredibly intriguing. Towards the end of the film I began to look back at the end of "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon". I'm of course talking about when the princess knew of a bridge that if she jumped off of she would be able to join her teacher whom had died. She made this choice because she saw no other way to complete her life. She knew she would never come back but know one could change her mind. You can't change people because when someone wants to take their own lives they have made the biggest decision of their lives. Many of these people believe that they will be going to a better place. With all of the mystery in this world how can you prove them completely wrong. Only the one that created the person that made this decision can know. We can only wonder..........


  • Sticking it to the man

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    Norma Rae  (1979)

    Take a stand against what you know needs to change! This is a film about reclaiming your life and being challenged by the corporations that want to control it. Now, this isn't your typical Hollywood movie because this one doesn't revolve only around love and happiness. This is a statement against one of the main problems in working society that continues to create an endless struggle in America today.

    Sally Field is the main focus in this film and she truly is at her best. Her characters name is Norma Rae and she works at a low paying job in a cotton mill. They say people tend to take a stand when they've been pushed to their absolute limit. Well that happens to Norma when she discovers that her mother can no longer hear because of the ongoing uproariousness of these powerful machines in the cotton mill. She wants some sort of justification from the cotton mill but they act like nothing is wrong.

    Right about that time she discovers a kind man named Reuben who comes to her families house that she resides at at the time. He is a union organizer and her father does not trust him, all the way to the tip of his shotgun. She runs into him later on at a hotel and she becomes somewhat intrigued with him. She soon finds that he can give her and the rest of the workers at the cotton mill better pay and finally some justice.

    She hands out all types of information about the union to all of the people in this small town. Life gets harder and harder for her because of all the trouble that comes with a much needed change. She works night and day on this union in hope of one day seeing a change for the better. Reuben and Norma both become very irritable around eachother because they have spent so much time around eachother in fighting a system that doesn't want to be changed.

    The most powerful scene has to be when she is fighting the managers in the factory because they won't let her write down one of the statements hanging up on the wall. The statement on the wall is one that they don't want people to read, so they have hidden it for quite a long time behind large boxes stacked on top of one another. She then walks into one of the vast machinery rooms were hundreds of workers are working the machines. She stands up on top of a table and holds up a sign that simply says,"UNION." She holds it high above her head and presents it to everyone. Slowly but surely the factory workers know what they need to do, so they begin to turn off their machines. Then the managers bring in the police to take her off to jail. By that time everyone has turned off the machines until all you can hear is the police taking her away.

    The film ends with a happy ending and an unresolved one, just like life. Not every part of our lives have "convenient" answers or appears significantly complete. Not everything in this story is crystal clear except for it's main goals that they push to get across and that's because this is a realistic film. They spared all of the convenience and cliches that most Hollywood movies feed off of. This film is a statement which is without a doubt quite rare for Hollywood.

    Seeing all of these people struggle and knowing that this still happens everywhere can really push you to want to take a stand. This film made me think of the struggles in life that people must endure. So I would like to end this review with a statement of how I felt after viewing this film. The hardest things in life are those that we must endure to embrace the greatest things in life!   


  • In the Darkness

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    There are documentaries that can change the way you view life. That can lead to what religion you believe in. If this documentary doesn't change how you look at Catholicism then you either suffer from a mental condition or you just didn't SEE this documentary. "An Inconvenient Truth" is probably the most important documentary today and "Deliver us from Evil" is not far behind. To see this documentary is to see what has not changed for a very long time and it's something that can be changed unlike war.

    This is a documentary about Oliver O'Grady and the families he has affected very deeply in one of the most disturbing ways possible. It is also about how the Catholic Church refuses to do anything to stop this from happening. It's truly incredible that this goes on and all of these catholic priests and bishops act like nothings wrong with it. How senseless are these people? This is the kind of film that can enrage people and want them to make a difference. Talking about the film probably won't make you want to take a stand but watching these people talk about it in this amazing documentary will definitely make you think about it. This should be seen by everyone, religious or not. This should be seen by people who care about children and care about their safety.

    Amy Berg interviews Oliver O'Grady and he is very open about saying that he has molested children and raped them. He seems to be fine with all of it and he understands that it's wrong but it doesn't stop him from doing it. We find that he has raped and molested 100's of children and he is now walking around Ireland without anyone keeping an eye on him. We see him talking about how he likes seeing children in their underwear and seeing them naked. He talks about this openly while standing right outside of a children's playground. Truly disturbing. Then we meet some of the families that have children who have been raped by O'Grady. They are all truly heart wrenching and very real. You can tell that what O'Grady has done to their children has affected them all and seems that they will never heal from the past. One man won't go inside any Catholic church because of how much this has affected him. We see him talking about when he first found out that his daughter was raped numerous times. That one scene is so powerful that it's as if everything around you disappears and this one man is the only thing you can see. You see the affects all of this has had on the children, now adults, and how this has deeply scarred them for life. Just remembering these incidents makes them break down to were they can barely speak.

    This is an emotional journey that needs to be seen by and everyone you know and this documentary will not be forgotten in your mind. Amy Berg has created a mesmerizing masterpiece that is in some ways a philosophical outlook on life and religion. This is not a simple story with simple answers. It's an extremely powerful film that hooks you in within the first 30 minutes and will not let you go even if you agree with Catholicism in the beginning. Some of the greatest documentaries are either mesmerizing and fascinating or they present an issue in a particular way that's in urgent need of change. This documentary is both and that's the kind of power that may very well change your life and how you live it! 


  • Mr. Farley

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    What a great tribute to the late great Chris Farley. This really shows what he could do and still can through our laughter. He was so funny and he made every one around him laugh. I don't remember who said this but a man said that one day the writers at SNL were feeling down because they were trying to come up with some funny ideas for the show and Chris Farley jumped up on one of the tables, took his shirt off and started doing a "sexy" dance. It made a lot of them smile and laugh. This man made fun of himself because he found that that was the funniest thing anybody could do. Comedians have copied that technique for quite a while, but I have never seen anyone put that technique to better use than him. He was and is a legend and this a collection to cherish.

  • Not much

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    Black Sheep  (1996)

    I can't say that this was a good film, but at the same time I can't say that Chris Farley wasn't funny either. Chris Farley usually plays the same dumb, clumsy character with the heart of gold n most of his movies. This one is no different from the others. A lot of the jokes are like the ones SNL are trying to do, they suck. It all depends on how funny the comedian can make it and here Chris Farley makes it sometimes funny. There's not much else to say here, it's a simple story with a simple idea. The main and only reason to watch this is to just enjoy watching Chris Farley be silly. You may not like his type of humor but I do and I wish I could see movies that he's in coming out every year. But that's not possible. So whenever I want to be reminded of how funny this guy really was, all I have to do is watch one of his movies or watch him on SNL. I believe people will always remember him because he was, in my strong opinion, one of the funniest people to ever live on this earth

  • Growing up

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    The Motel  (2005)

    What a gem this one is. You can tell this a  personal story by this talented new writer/director Michael Kang. The story is told very carefully and with much grace. At first you may think, oh no they might exploit this time of every boys life, but there's not a hint of that. Some scenes are uncomfortable while most of them are quite hilarious.

      The story begins by showing this chubby young asian kid walking to his destination, the motel. He stays there with his mom, grandpa and of course his annoying little sister. Everyday he cleans these motels rooms, no matter how disgusting they are. He doesn't really like his sister and really thinks of her more as an annoying dog that follows him around. He doesn't really like his mom very much because she seems to be negative towards him a lot of the time. He's basically neutral with his grandpa and doesn't get much help from him. Who can help him?

      One day a drunk middle-aged man with a prostitute comes stumbling into the office, were the boy seemingly spends most of his time, and tells him to pick a card. So he grabs a credit card out of his wallet and swipes it as the man walks off into room 15 with the prostitute right beside him. The card is denied so he takes it to the man without telling his mom so that she wouldn't get angry at him. The boy develops a sort of fascination with this man that seems to bring a countless number of prostitutes into his motel room. As the boys curiousity builds, he eventually starts a friendship with this man. They are two people looking for happiness but just don't know how to find it.

      Now the adventure begins as the two hang out and do things ranging from stupid and hilarious to desperate and life changing. The man teaches the boy all that he knows, he just doesn't really know how to teach him. It's almost like he wants to fill the gap that the boy has had of never having a father figure. But he soon finds that that isn't possible, he's unable to help him because he cannot help himself. They are both trying to find there way through the darkness.

      The boy hangs out around a dumpster in the parking lot of a restaraunt where a girl works at that he hangs out with every so often. They have a little brother big sister relationship. He sometimes doesn't know how to act around her which can bring some akwardness in there scenes. He's at the age of experimentation and she's way ahead but he doesn't realize that, yet they have a bond that keeps them friends.

      The story is told in a way that not a whole lot of directors are able to create just right. If you got the director of K.I.D.S. to make this movie, it might be an exploitation film and it would be horrible. It all depends on who directs this kind of story and Michael Kang was the best man for the job. There's a subtle touch to this film that creates the kind of atmosphere that all boys explore somewhere in life. We may not like all of it and we may just want to run away from it all but it's apart of our lives. It's the life that bring us joy and laughter and redemption and too many emotions to describe. And to see this one boy go through one of the hardests times of a boys life, it can show us understanding, but most of all it can show us healing!  


  • Happyness

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     Before I saw this movie, I knew basically what it was going to be about. Being a pretty good speller I wondered why they spelled happiness with a y. Then I began to think, it's about a man and his son that are probably going through some hard times. Father and son being together = happyness. As if they're saying there's no I in the word happiness if a father and son truly love eachother and are together. Like there's no I in the word team. That may not be what they intended the audience to think but I believe it fits the story quite well.  

     Will Smith plays Chris Gardner, a struggling man just trying to make enough money for him and his son to live in an apartment or hotel. His wife leaves him and that's why it's just him and his son. We've seen this type of setup before about a man just trying to survive and we see him eventually overcome his seemingly impossible obstacles.  Yet this movie shows us how things really are in this man's world. They don't try to sugar coat these people. They show this man trying to get all over this city in the nick of time. He doesn't always make it in time, is that predictable? I don't really think so.

     Even though some events may be predictable, they still show these people as real people with real problems. Not some action star who barely makes it on time, everytime before the whole city is blown to pieces. It's about one man and his love for his son and there journey together. It's truly amazing how Chris is able to wake up everyday, go out into the city, work his ass off  and still be able to wake up the next morning without a bit of hesitation. This is an inspirational story for anyone struggling in their life.

     With the story aside and all the "predictable" outcomes. Will Smith does an incredible job. The movie would not be as touching and interesting if he were not in this movie. Ever since The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, he was an interesting actor. Just watch the episode were he bought some speed to stay awake and Carlton eventually tried some, thinking it was for headaches. Watch his acting when he's confronted by the whole family about it. He's already been nominated for best actor at the Academy Awards for his incredible portrayal of Muhammed Ali in "Ali". To put a cherry on top, he has made some records. How many rappers have been nominated for an Academy Award for best Actor twice. But he's not a rapper, he's an Actor.

     So if you don't watch this movie for the story, at least watch it for the acting. I promise you that you will agree that Will Smith gives a great performance. Just watch the end when Will Smith's character finds the long awaited conclusion of what he's worked incredibly hard for. They could have made it any other way, but they chose a subtle reaction from Will Smith with an immense amount of power. That one scene is worth the entire price of renting this movie.               


  • The jigsaw is back

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    Saw II  (2005)

     The first Saw was about a group of people that, from a serial killer's perspective, were taking advantage of their own lives or some other "sin" they were committing. So it seems this man named jigsaw decided that he should be the one to teach these people a lesson to change their ways by "playing a game" with them that involved, you guessed it, death. Of course they put twists and turns in the movie to keep you at the edge of your uncomfortable seat. Now that he's still alive, barely, they made a sequel titled, what was it again? Oh yeah, it's named "Saw II". After watching a guy walk through razor blades and having stomach acids bursting out of him on the 1st Saw, I was skeptical about seeing Saw II. One of my friends kept telling me that Saw II was a lot better than the 1st. Then on the Christmas of 2006, one of the presents presented to me was Saw II. So after about a month I decided to watch it. When I finished the movie, I wanted to thank my friend for getting me to watch this because now I have another movie to add to my 5 most hated movies of all time. This movie is pointless and goes nowhere. I knew there was going to be violence but I thought it would have a point for the violence that it presented. I was depressed when the movie was over because there was no good in it. None of the people knew how to work together and they didn't trust eachother at all. They were all just selfish people that couldn't deal with others no matter how urgent the event was. The dad that was the one that put many of those people in jail was a complete moron. He wanted to get his kid but the only way he knew he could was by talking to jigsaw but he was so arrogant that he wouldn't even talk to jigsaw until it was towards the end of his kids life. It's as if they picked all of these people that don't have hearts as well as brains to interact in a horror movie with a twist ending. How much thought needs to be put into that?  Of course someone lived at the end, which wasn't really a suprise because they kept him in the movie for so long, but we don't care that he lives because they don't show him as a real person with feelings and a brain. They just show these characters, that we have seen in hundreds of movies before this one, and how they die, wow. How thought provoking. Stephen Hawking must be scratching his head on this one. Of course there will be people that love this movie because it's disgusting and there are a couple twists to keep the viewer interested. But if we go to a movie to be entertained, wouldn't it be better to see something with people that we can connect with instead of these robots on screen programmed to be afraid and then be angry and that's all we see from them. This movie is a piece of crap and anyone who sees it will not be affected by it in a positive way, even if it's subconsciously.   


  • Hear and speak the music

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     What can you analyze on an experimental film, if there is no other like it for you to relate it to? The title describes the obvious of how many short films are on this study of Glenn Gould. It isn't so much about his problems but more about his music. The film starts off by showing a vast winter land with a seemingly insignificant man in the distance. This is the first film and it shows him walking all the way up to about 20 feet in front of the camera  The interesting thing about this scene is not that it isn't edited, but as he walks closer to the camera, the volume of his music increases. It's as if his music follows him wherever he goes and he wants it that way. That's when you know by the first scene, that all of these films are about how much this man is absorbed by music. We visit his childhood and how he started to really absorb classical music. Then we see him growing older and conducting music in his head constantly or playing it on the piano. Many composers may be like this, always playing music live or in their head. But this man is different, based on all the previous composers portayed on the screen. You slowly find out that this man not only composes music with musical instruments but with people talking. For example, In one of the films, he is in a restraunt sitting at a table. He zones in on this one man's voice talking about his job. Then, with that man's voice still audible, he begins to listen to a man speaking in french. Now that he is simultaneously listening to these two men talk in different languages he then begins to listen to these two other men across the room talking. So, now he's simultaneously listening to four men talking(so is the audience) and this is when he begins to conduct. It's as if we are watching and listening this man compose a new kind of music with a group of people just having everyday conversations. This is a very intelligent man and we see his genius through his words but it's as if he speaks to us mainly through his music. The movie will lose many peoples interest if they aren't interested in his music or the study of a composer. There are real interviews with family and friends of his and they talk about what they think of him and his music. I shouldn't give too much away, so I will end this the way the film ended. We see him in the same location he was on the first film, out in the vast winter land. This time he is in front of the camera and he begins to walk away, like he came to us so that we may see parts of his life like parts of his music. Only this time when he is in front of the camera, his music is at full volume. It stays that way even as he walks off into the distance. What they are saying here is that even though he has left, his music will forever remain with us.                                                      


 

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