Faith through Film and Fiction

I watched Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. The movie follows Rick a guy who owns a night club as runs back into the love of his life who left him in Paris and her husband. Rick has the papers that could save her and her husband from the Nazis and has to decide weather to do the noble thing or the selfish thing. This movie has the most quotable lines ever in cinematic history like "Here's looking at you kid" and "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship". It's rated the highest in romantic movies and if you want to see a tearjerker watch this. I like the pan out of the camera at the end. Rated 7/10.

I watched Brooklyn with my mom whose really into genealogy and our roots go back to Ireland and she loved it. The story tracks a young girls as she leaves her county in Ireland to go find work and get a better life in Brooklyn. There she finds a young Italian man and they hit it off and she ends up marrying him  only to find out her sister died and her mother back in Ireland is now alone. She takes a ship back to Ireland and tends to her mother while feeling attracted and getting a marriage proposal from a guy who wouldn't have looked her way before she left. She ends up leaving home and returning to Brooklyn to be with her husband.

The historical content of the film was interesting to look at. She got her job from a pastor in her church and that is how she got hooked up with the connections for America. The tensions between the Irish and Italians was funny to see. As well as the position of women in the workplace. My favorite scene was the Coney Island scene where she learned how to put her bathing suit on underneath her clothes.

If I could rate this movie I would rate it a 8.2/10 because I'm Irish.

Bratz on Imdb got a rating of 2.8, and now I know why. The Bratz movie is based off of the dolls you can buy at Toys R Us but they're now placed in high school with a stereotypical plot of popular kids vs the nerdy kids.The actors aren't even D list they're less that that, and they act fake during the whole thing. It was like watching a Disney show turned in a movie but put on drugs. It reminded me of that Brittany Spears movie Crossroads where the acting is mediocre as is the plot.The weird thing was how hyper sexualized the costumes were for a movie targeted towards young kids. It advocated disobeying your parents, dressing like a slut and stealing other girls boyfriends. Watch with a friend for a good laugh. Rate 3/10

For this review, I threw it back to a classic: Spirit Stallion of the Cimarron. When I was younger and obsessed with horses, Spirit was my favorite movie. I loved the soundtrack by Hans Zimmer who has worked on movies such as Gladiator, The Dark Knight Rises, and Interstellar.

Spirit follows a wild mustang a leader of the pack as he is taken from his home to work for the US government. He manages to escape the compound they try to bridle him into and meets a Native American named Little Creek. Him and Little Creek then go on to outrun the US patrol and the climax features Spirit jumping over a ravine. The movie puts the US Government in a negative light as it shows them expanding into the mustang homeland with trains and slaughtering Native Americans who are featured as peaceful.

Voice acting is done for Spirit by Matt Damon and I'm in love with Matt Damon. He should have won the Oscar this year but that's another story. His rich voice makes you fall in love with Spirit and makes you have a crush on the horse.

I would give this film a 10/10.

For my choice movie, I decided to review Magic Mike XXL. I am hoping this review convinces you to take this film seriously and watch it. I really enjoyed the sequel to Magic Mike a lot more than the original because I think the plot and acting was 10 times better. The second movie was more comedic and flowed a lot more than the first one. I think a lot of people actually enjoyed this movie due to its humor, along with the strip scenes. Of course, the dance scenes are what the movie is known for, but not only because of the shirtless men. The actual dancing in this movie is pretty outstanding. The final scene involves Twitch and Channing Tatum dancing together and it is almost like a scene out of one of the "Step Up" movies. Along with the dancing, Donald Glover uses his phoneminal vocal chords to serenade multiple girls, which should be enough of a reason to watch this movie. There were not any stand out film shots, except the during some of the dance scenes obviously. I would rate this movie a 8.5-10 for its excellent humor and captivating dance scenes.

I decided to watch this movie because I remember really enjoying this movie as a kid and I wanted to remember why. One thing that shocked me was that Matt Damon starred in it. I never knew that! I don't really know why I loved this movie so much, but it always used to captivate me. I think the soundtrack of the movie had a to to do with that. I think the soundtrack on this film really enhances the plot and makes the audience feel. Each song ties into the scene perfectly. I also really enjoyed how the animals were portrayed. They were not silly cartoons, they had meaning and purpose. It is easy to get attached to a certain horse. One thing I find interesting is that even though the main characters are horses and all look relatively similar, I never felt confused about which horse was which. Even the way they acted stayed true to their character. I'm glad I watched this movie again because it made me remember why I liked it so much as a kid.

Alright so for my movie I choose to watch Commitment. Commitment is a South Korean action/thriller about North Korean spies. I've been wanting to watch this movie for a while and this was the perfect excuse to do so. Ok so this movie can be really confusing if you aren't at least a bit familiar with the conflict in North Korea and between NK and SK. It also helps to know a little bit about or be a bit familiar with SK film. Now for me it wasn't hard to understand the majority of the time.
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Alright because I'm about 99.99% sure no one has seen this I'm gonna summarize so here come some spoilers (I would recommend this movie tho so if you don't actually want spoilers don't read js).  Ok so the movie starts off with a man who is a North Korean spy who leaves this little place an old woman cooks food for NK spies(she is also a spy) and gets betrayed by the North to the SK government who kills him. His two kids are then sent to a labor camp because of this. The son, Ri Myung-hoon, is offered a chance to get him and his sister, Hye-in, free by become an assassin for NK. He undergoes strict training for two years before being sent into the South as a defector. Here he is adopted by two other NK spies and enrolls in a high school, under the name Kang Dae-ho. He gradually becomes friends with the bullied girl he sits next to named Hye-in (same name as his sister). The class bullies also pick on Dae-ho a bit too, stealing his wallet, except he keeps a picture of him and his dad and sister. Myung-hoon(Dae-ho) is a very quiet, serious kid, even in action. Eventually he gets his first mission, to kill an assassin from Section 35 who has been killing sleepers from Unit 8, Unit 8 is the unit Myung-hoon is in, and his "parents" among others. He starts to interrogate people, first a gym owner who he shoots in the leg than breaks his neck, a butcher who he is also killed until he gets the dudes license plate and follows him looking like a total badass. He gets in a little chase and shoots the windows of the dudes car and shoots his arm but has to walk away once the dudes car crashed. Alright so back at school the guys are being really mean to Hye-in one day and Dae-ho beats the crap out of the five or six that were there. Hye-in doesn't come to school so Dae-ho finds her and she asks him for a favor- sign a consent form so she can work at a dance studio and achieve of her dream of becoming a professional dancer. He does.  While Myung-hoon is out some section 35 people come and kill his adoptive parents and steal the "package" aka a lot of money. One stays, this is the dude Myung-hoon is supposed to kill. When Myung-hoon they get into a big fight and he kills the dude then blows up the house to try to destroy evidence. He waits for his next mission and he meets the old lady that his dad was with right before he died. He spends a lot of time there and eventually she tells him to call  her "Granny". He gets his next mission and is told that after this he will get to come home. Ok so some action scenes later he's killed the people and got the package back which is now all diamonds. So he gets ready for his boat ride back. Now back in NK a power struggle is happening. Basically it is decided that Unit 8 is to be destroyed as Kim Jung-il is dying and Kim Jung-un is going to come to power. Ok so once they get on the boat the dude that is supposed to take him back stabs him and tells him no one ever goes back, they fight Myung-hoon kills the guy but is badly injured. He takes his stuff and the package and ends up on Hye-in's outdoor patio, where she finds him and nurses him back to health. At this point it is all over the TV that him and one other dude are NK spies and are at large. Eventually he meets his original trainer (who is betraying him). They're on a roof top and they have his sister in the car. Hye-in the friend calls the SK government when she see Myung-hoon leave so they're also following him. Basically a fight ensues with SK, NK, and Myung-hoon. The car that his sister is trapped in gets stopped by SK, but Myung-hoon has to leave so he can stay alive. The NK capture the friend Hye-in and hold her for ransom. Myung-hoon talks to his sister over the phone and then goes to save Hye-in. Before he goes into the warehouse he calls this one SK agent Jung-min whose actually an ok guy, and just leaves it on his motor cycle outside the warehouse. Then a whole huge fight scene follows of him killing tons of NK spies and hiding out with Hye-in in this half glass room box thing. He throws a grenade out and it kills almost everyone except for his former trainer and one agent. They try to leave but the one agent grabs his foot and pulls him down and starts choking him, also at this point I think he'd been shot twice. She hesitantly does and as she leaves Jung-min shows up and runs inside. Myung killed the NK agent but his former trainer has a gun pointed at him and he at his trainer. Climatic three person stare off, the trainer dude gets shot and killed, but Myung-hoon gets a bad shot to the torso. Jung-min buts him in his car (with Hye-in who is putting pressure on the wound) and drive towards NK( I think this part was a bit confusing) and he dies in the car. The movie ends with Hye-in meeting Hye-in and them going for a walk.
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Alright on to the actual review. OK so I really liked this movie and not gonna lie I cried a lot towards and at the end. Alright so I liked the plot I thought it was a pretty good, but fairly standard for a SK thriller with the whole NK v SK spies and agents, but in there defense Hollywood does it too so it isn't too surprising. I thought that the action scenes where well done in my opinion and I didn't think there was ever too much or too little. I never felt like they just threw in some action cause the movie might be getting boring. I think the characterization was good and some had a lot going on but it just wasn't developed enough too me. My major complaint is that from what the audience sees it doesn't seem like Myung-hoon and Hye-in(the friend/romantic interest) had developed that much of a connection to have that strong of feelings for each other, there just wasn't much to create a super strong relationship like they had. I thought this movie did a great job with some morals, with the whole greed, loyalty, honor, love, morals stuff they had going. I thought the setting was good as well. And I save my favorite thing for last the ACTING. Honestly it was just fantastic in my opinion, and I mean almost everyone down to the smaller characters, the acting was super. The male leads name is Choi Seung-hyun also known as TOP, and he is actually a rapper in a very very famous Korean boy group by the name of Big Bang. I knew of him from his musical career so I was interested to see him acting and I was not let down. His character is quiet and doesn't have a lot of lines and but he still manages to show his emotions so eel through his body language and especially his eyes. He managed to make me feel for his character fairly easily even though he didn't speak much. All in all this movie was pretty good, it had some flaws but in my opinion was very well done. I'd give it an 8/10

Lauren Slouffman

Ok hey!!!!! So I watched Harry Potter because I friggen live Harry Potter. I never read any of the books at all. But the movie are bomb. I watched the chamber of secrets and the think that what really makes these movie so great is the music. We watched a documentary about it in class and they said how the music is iconic and it's true. Absolutely true. Watching one of the films takes me back to my child hood. It has a specific feeling about them. And I love the cast so much. They use characters to make it feel like you are in the movie. And he uses warm colorS in general except when something terrible is about to happen. Then he used very cold and dark colors when Voldemort was coming as a sort of warning it felt likeX they are so well done. And so timeless I love them. 10/10

I'm watching Apocalypse Now to kill two birds with one stone: write a review in this class and be able to see the whole movie so i can get exempt from my english exam. I wasn't expecting the movie to be 3 hours long but i watched it anyway. The movie, like many others i've seen this year, is set in the Vietnam war. This is a really ripe setting for a lot of movies because of the social and political angst that was going on at the time in contrast to the counterculture back home. On my initial viewing, the movie had just lost me. A lot of stuff isn't really explained, but i understand why i'm supposed to be watching it having just read Heart of Darkness. This movie was obviously made in response to it and features similar themes, from aesthetic similarities to plot similarities to philosophical ideas and morals being projected through the characters and the situation they find themselves in. People like to say that the whole movie is made worth it just from the ending, and while the ending is spectacularly eerie, i think it pairs really well as a follow-up to reading heart of darkness. I would recommend this movie to anyone who has read heart of darkness and liked it, but not to anyone with a short attention span.

For my free choice movie I watched a musical. The musical was mama Mia. A musical composed entirely out of Abba songs. The movie was pretty good. The acting was convincing enough for what the movie was with the exception of the mother played by Maryl Streep who did an exceptionally good job with her performance. In the movie the daughter, Sophie, is getting married. Sophie never new her father and had been told her whole life that her father was a man named Sam who had to leave to marry someone else. However Sophie discovered the lie thanks to her mother's old diary. This diary contained tales of her mother's .....'s with 3 men over that summer in which she was conceived. Sophie goes on to invite all 3 of them to her wedding in order to discover who her real father is. This touching story like all movies of its kind ends exactly how you'd expect it to. The setting was Greece and was beautiful. The singing was pretty good except for 1 of the dad's who just couldn't sing. I'd give this movie a 1/1.

Mamma Mia (2008)

I watched Mamma Mia because who doesn't need a good throwback to ABBA every now and then.  I decided to watch it when Alec told me he did not know what the band ABBA was, and I remembered this movie had Meryl Strep so it has to be decent.  The story was very cute and had really good incorporations of the music.  The setting was also beautiful because it was Greece even though the only people in the movie are either American or British which was really weird actually.  The comedy was definitely there even if it was a bit cheesy at times, but the movie did have good characters.  I was pleased with the ending where Sophie decided not to marry her young love and maybe wait a bit before doing that, but however her mom did have to marry her dad as soon as they found out who it was which was kind of disappointing.  I really did like the premise of the plot and how it everything about her having possibly three dads was very light hearted rather than centered around her mom being ashamed or anything like that.

7/10

Can we just take a moment to appreciate Audrey Hepburn.
I decided to watch Charade for my choice movie; and what a great movie it was. The writing and plot line is fantastic, and keeps you interested throuhgout the entire movie. Just when I thought I had the movie figured out it changed directions.
I bet Joshua wants the money too.
Called it. I'm surprised they let that go this early in the movie. Wait maybe I'm wrong.
Who's lying who's not we can't tell!!
I love that Audrey Hepburn's character is a stress eater because same.
The music is not my favorite. It was fine, but when people were fighting it was still soft and had a very slow build up until the end of the fight causing it to feel a bit awkward.
Alright so Captain Hook just died (I don't know his name so we'll call him Captain Hook). Since he was killed in Dial's room the obvious suspect in Dial, but that seems a bit too obvious.
Hunch Back of Notre Dame reference yes.
The dialogue between characters, specifically Dial and Lampert kept me intrigued for the entire movie.
The plot also changed several times, killing off multiple people, and keeping the viewer on their toes to see what happened. I really enjoyed this movie, as it isn't the type of movie I usually watch, but it was fantastic.
I rate this movie a 9/10

Some sci-fi films draw you in with alien invasion, epic space battles, and a fight to save humanity. Others draw you in with a dystopian society and the ethical questions raised by this society. This is the kind of film that is Gattaca. A film lacking dramatic fight scenes or a grand sense of scale, this is a unique sci-fi because of its focus on the individual. Films that do this well, like Blade Runner or Alien, typically are very good and Gattaca is no exception. Gattaca poses some serious ethical question of designer babies and provides a description of some discrimination faced by people even today. The film's ending is bittersweet but only because of the writing's ability to allow viewers to connect to the characters. The setting is beautifully underwhelming demonstrating a realistic futuristic setting. This film is a great watch, providing a challenging film questioning the morality of creating a baby the way that you want while providing a thrilling tale about the power of the human spirit.

I decided to watch this film because the preview really grasped my attention. It was a longer movie than expected and at points was kind of slow but I thought the acting done specifically by will smith was really good. He played his part very well especially with having to do an accent. Since this movie was based off of something true it made watching it that much more interesting. Also it was neat how the film seemed to include real footage from different football events. Since the movie was about things so common such as football and concussion I think the movie was very relatable to its audience. The only thing that bothered me about the movie was how softly some of the actors would talk so there was a big volume difference in some of the scenes. Overall I really enjoyed this movie and found it very interesting, rate 7/10.

          This film was watched on a long car ride and passed the time very quickly. This is one of the most entertaining thrillers I have ever watched. This story is one of the most entertaining, gruesome, and innovative plots I have ever witnessed. The themes of corruption of seemingly holy, moral topics is so intriguing. The inventive murder scenes are terrifying and memorable. This movie scarred me even as an adult (kinda). The climax of the story and the drama were set and drawn out perfectly. The acting in this film was phenomenal. I was impressed by the young gun cop that Brad Pitt played and how well he meshed with the older, almost retired Morgan Freeman. Perhaps most impressive was Kevin Spacey who does not even come into the movie until at least halfway through. His character is one of the most disturbing villains ever. He is so unwilling to change his corrupted beliefs that he sees as morally right. He sees himself as a Good Shepherd, but is a horrific serial killer at the same time. He is so soft-spoken and calm, but one can only imagine what goes on in his messed-up head. Also, the movie does an incredible job of hinting at his identity for a while without showing it much. The camera work creates perfect effects at the final scene as well. Watching Pitt go to the box while seeing Spacey in the desert with the distraught Freeman is awe inspiring. This is one of the darkest films I have ever seen and recommend it but not for the faint of heart. I give it 9.5 cans of spaghetti sauce of out 10.

For my movie this week I watched the minions movie. I absolutely loved both despicable me movies and admittedly find the minions utterly hilarious so I was beyond excited for this movie. And the opening did not disappoint, with a series of short, quirky and comical bits of the minions steering the most evil people of all time into disasters. However the movie soon takes a somewhat disappointing turn. I never thought I would say this as a negative manner, but a plot begins to develop. the thing that made the minions so funny was their nonsensical slapstick style of humor. So the development of some half-baked plot which centers around the minions being manipulated by Sandra Bullock into stealing the queen of England's crown and then fighting back against her betrayal of them. While there was nothing in particular wrong this plot, it was nothing special either. If you put the minions in a traditional box and expect it to be a particularly compelling movie, you're going to be disappointed because that is by definition a departure from what makes the minions work. This movie had some incredibly funny moments, such as the beginning or Nixon's billboard or when Bob becomes the king of England, but on the whole the movie is just kind of null and void, it isn't bad by any stretch of the imagination, but it simply pales in comparison to its potential and the amazing movies that came before. I would give this film a five out of ten and would only reluctantly watch it again.

Over this past weekend I watched The Other Guys. It is a personal favorite of mine and seems to never get old. I think the combination of both Mark Wahlberg and Will Ferrell is absolutely hilarious. I noticed some very interesting camera techniques used throughout the film, especially at the beginning when the two primary cops jump off a building. It gives a very interesting perspective of the fall to the viewers, but then ends extremely abruptly when they both hit the ground and die. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who likes to laugh, it is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. There were maybe a few things that they could have done to improve it, but overall fantastic. I would rate it a solid 9/10