Waiting For "Superman"

Directed by Davis Guggenheim

2010

Date Viewed: November 3, 2010

I can not say enough good things about this documentary. I don't even know where to start. Basically the education system in the U. S. is in the dumps and this documentary explains why. If you are a parent, if you are an educator, if you care about the future of our country and the education of its kids, then you NEED to see this movie. The schools described in this movie are just like the school that I'm at. It also follows 4 kids as they try to get into charter schools by a lottery. It has been criticized for being too anti-teacher unions and pro-charter schools, but the abuse that I've seen at the hands of teachers, and the fact that nothing is done about it because they're tenured and protected under the union is enough for me to be anti-union as well. Charter schools are not a fix all for the problems in our education system, but there are some really good ones out there that are headed in the right direction. I definitely want to do more research about the issues brought up in this film, but it is definitely a good starting point. Go see it. A



Hereafter

Directed by Clint Eastwood

2010

Date Viewed: October 30, 2010

This movie follows three people as they face death in different ways. The first is Marie, a French reporter who has a near death experience. She is almost swept away by a tsunami, basically dies and sees the afterlife and then comes back to life and struggles to understand what it all means. The second is a quiet London school boy whose twin brother is killed in a car accident and he goes to psychics and different specialists to try and understand where his brother is now. The third is a blue collar guy from San Fran who, as a result of a botched brain surgery, can speak to the dead. He used to make his living doing readings for people, but couldn't live with the dead anymore and quit. This is an EXTREMELY slow paced movie, but it's also really interesting and brings up a lot of questions about the afterlife/heaven/the hereafter. I already know what I believe about Heaven and what happens when we die, but I can see how this movie could be a great conversation starter for a deep discussion on the subject. This is also a long movie, so be warned. B+

What I've Been Watching...

Ok, so I don't really have a life yet here so all I've been doing is watching movies and tv shows, but I've also been really lame and not writing about them... (oh and by the way, I now have 2 friends! So maybe a little less movie watching will be happening...) So anyways, I decided to just give short little reviews of what I have seen. Here it goes:

Grumpy Old Men: LOVED it! Old people are so cute! (especially Jack Lemmon, what a good lookin old man he was!) This movie made me think of home and winter, I loved it! A


L.A. Confidential: This is one of my all time favorite movies. I hadn't seen it in a long time so I was worried that it wouldn't hold up, but it surely did. It's about dirty cops, prostitutes, heroin and gangs. It's set in the 50s and the cast is FANTASTIC. Definitely still a favorite. Go rent it if you haven't seen it yet. A+

Smallville Season 1: I totally got sucked into this show (thanks Bobby)... Season 1 is really good. It reminded me of the X-Files except with teenagers. It is a little too teenagery at some parts and the effects are super cheesy, but whatever...B+

Smallville Season 2: I didn't like this season as much as season 1. They started focusing more on the characters and not on the mystery as much. Plus Clark started to get on my nerves with his self righteousness and his need to butt into everyone else's business. C

Smallville Season 3: This season was better than season 2. It found a good balance between the character story lines and the mysteries they solve. Clark is probably my least favorite character at this point because he's just really annoying, but the plot is definitely thickening and season 3 definitely goes out with a bang. B

Duplicity: I can't remember if I've already reviewed this movie on here or not... This is not the perfect heist movie, but I enjoyed it. I loved Julia Roberts and Clive Owen together, they exude a perfect amount of annoyance with each other and attraction to each other. I also loved Paul Giamatti and Tom Wilkinson as rival CEOs. B+


I can't remember what else I've watched at this moment... but I will definitely add more as I remember... ha ha ha...

The Great Outdoors

"Bear... bear... Big Bear... big bear chase meeeeeeee...! "

Directed by Howard Deutch

1988

Date Viewed: Sunday October 3, 2010

This was a cute movie... Not necessarily the greatest movie ever made, but it was cute and funny in a very 80s way. It's the story of Chet (John Candy) who takes his family out to a cabin in the woods to have a nice family vacation. The peaceful vacation is ruined when his annoying rich brother in law Roman (Dan Akroyd) drops in with his family. There's the usual John Candy/Dan Akroyd-esque silliness, although I was suprised that it didn't have a whole ton of bodily function jokes and only a little bit of language. (Although I did watch it a week ago and I could be mis-remembering...) It was fun, but I don't feel like I need to watch it all the time. B

Flashpoint Season 1

I've been watching a lot of TV shows lately, so I thought I'd throw in some reviews eventhough they aren't movies... Whatever, its my blog so I can do what I want :)

This show follows the Strategic Response Unit on their many cases, most of which involve hostage negotiations (they also have snipers...it's exciting). This show has an AWESOME cast led by Enrico Colantoni (Veronica Mars' dad...). My favorite thing about this show is that it follows the "bad guy" and shows how they can go from being a normal person to just snapping and doing something crazy. The "bad guys" are never nameless generic thugs, they each have a story behind their breaking point. The one thing I didn't like about this show was that each episode starts at the climax and gets really intense and then all of a sudden rewinds to the few hours leading up to that moment. I liked it at first, but then got annoyed and bored with every episode starting the same. I'm excited to some day watch season 2 and I hope it's just as exciting as season 1 was. B

Stand By Me

Stand By Me in less than 20 words:

Goonies like adventure with less fantasy but more adult themes. A classic coming of age movie. A

The Town

Directed by Ben Affleck

2010

Viewed September 2010

I love LOVE Ben Affleck as a director. His directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, is one of my favorites. The Town is his second directorial effort and I definitely loved it as well. Ben Affleck as an actor gets better with age. I'm not usually a fan, but I did like him in this as a conflicted bank robber. Basically this group of guys robs a bank (as they have many times before) and one of the dudes takes a teller as a hostage in case they need leverage when the police show up. They let her go, but took her driver's license and threatened her life if she talked to the FBI. Ben Affleck's character goes to check on her and they end up falling in love (she doesn't know who he really is since everyone had been wearing masks). There are some awesome car chases and a huge shoot out as well. Jon Hamm from Mad Men plays the FBI agent who is after the robbers and his performance definitely made me want to check out his TV show. I also loved Jeremy Renner (as I always do) who plays a total slime bag. This movie reminded me of The Departed, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it was better than The Departed. A