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Captain Phillips (2013)
Tom Hanks looks like the man he portrayed in the film.
This movie hurt all the feelings inside. It was a very tense movie. I could never put myself through that much anxiety ever again. That's not to say it was a bad movie. It was just very tense and it was hard to watch. I know that it's based off of actual events and it blows my mind that something like that would happen. The Somali people were so desperate that they felt they had to take over ships and take hostages to make money. And they made a lot of money. Most demanded millions of dollars to free a hostage and many pirates took more than one hostage. These people were so desperate to make money that they would take over a boat to take the crew as hostages. Most didn't steal any of the cargo.
Captain Richard Phillips (Tom Hanks) is just doing his job as captain when four Somali pirates board his ship and take him hostage. They demand money and Phillips gives them all the money onboard the ship which amounts to about $30,000. But the pirates aren't satisfied with only $30,000. The crew of the ship captures the leader of the pirates and try to have a hostage exchange, but it doesn't quite go the way they planned. Captain Phillips is not released and the pirates leave in a lifeboat. As the pirates get closer to land, the navy is called in and surround the small lifeboat. The pirates then demand $10 million for Captain Phillips to go free. The negotiator on board the ship tries everything he can to satisfy the pirates and get them to release the hostage. They won't budge. Phillips escapes for a matter of minutes when he tells the leader of the pirates that he needs to go to the bathroom. They let him out of the boat enough to go to the bathroom as there isn't one in the lifeboat, and he pushes the pirate standing outside with him into the water and jumps in going the other way. He tries to escape the pirates and hopefully swim over to the Navy ship. He doesn't make it and the pirates beat him up a little when he gets back to the boat. This whole time Phillips stays relatively calm. He doesn't snap until the pirates tie up his hands and hoist them above his head. Then Navy snipers shoot three pirates on the boat, because at this point the captain of the band is on the Navy ship waiting for Somali elders to arrive for negotiation. Captain Phillips really loses it after the pirates are shot. All four of the pirates were between the ages of 17 and 19 years old, and Phillips was beginning to become close with the one that had stepped on glass while trying to find the crew of the ship they'd hijacked. The last ten or so minutes of the movie is of Captain Phillips receiving medical attention from a Navy doctor on the Navy ship. You see him crying as the doctor asks him questions about how he's doing and he tries to answer her questions through the tears. When she asks him if all the blood on his body is from the cut on his forehead, he whimpers and tells her that it isn't all his. That just makes your heart break for him. He held it together for a really long time.
I enjoyed the movie, but I probably won't ever watch it again because of how intense it was through the whole thing. I was feeling a lot of stress just watching the movie and I can't imagine what they were actually feeling. I know it's just acting, but I was convinced that they were all terrified through the whole thing. Tom Hanks looked a lot like the real Captain Richard Phillips, so I'll give them that much. Even if the movie wasn't totally historically accurate, it was a good movie and it go the message across.
Miracle (2004)
Still Confused
I'm not a hockey fan, so I have no idea what the rules are in the game. That makes this movie a little hard to understand. It's probably a good movie for people that know hockey like the back of their hands, but for someone that's clueless, it's not a great movie. The music helps you feel the tension at the games, but if you don't know what's going on, you don't know what the tense feeling is for.
I think the movie is about an Olympic hockey team in the 1980 Olympics, but other than that, I don't know. The coach yells at the team a lot and makes them do a lot of drills that make them extremely tired, but they do it anyway. That's not without complaining though. The first few drills got quite a few complaints from the team.
Spoiler alert: they win the final game against the Soviet team, but if you research the USA Olympic hockey team in 1980, you'd figure that out yourself.
I'm not a hockey fan, so I have no idea what the rules are in the game. That makes this movie a little hard to understand. It's probably a good movie for people that know hockey like the back of their hands, but for someone that's clueless, it's not a great movie. The music helps you feel the tension at the games, but if you don't know what's going on, you don't know what the tense feeling is for.
I think the movie is about an Olympic hockey team in the 1980 Olympics, but other than that, I don't know. The coach yells at the team a lot and makes them do a lot of drills that make them extremely tired, but they do it anyway. That's not without complaining though. The first few drills got quite a few complaints from the team.
Spoiler alert: they win the final game against the Soviet team, but if you research the USA Olympic hockey team in 1980, you'd figure that out yourself.
Remember the Titans (2000)
Sheryl Yoast was more of a coach than her father was
Set during the aftermath of the Civil Rights movement, a Black man is hired to be the assistant football coach in a desegregated high school. Black students want to play football with white students, but the white students don't want the black students to play. The coach doesn't really want them to play either, but there isn't a lot he can do about that. Racism is still a large part of the everyday. Coach Boone, the colored coach, sends the boys that want to play to a boot camp and it really helps them get close as a team. All the white boys have to sit with one of the colored boys on the bus and share a dorm room with their bus buddy, there is quite the protest for the first few days and it takes Coach Boone yelling in all their faces to get them to shut up. Boone does a lot of yelling in their faces throughout the course of the movie and it is really funny to watch. The head coach hates that Boone is yelling at the boys. He thinks that it'll make the boys afraid of him. Boone tells the head coach that he doesn't care what the boys think of him. They need to learn how to work together. It isn't about black or white while they are on the field. They are just a football team there to win the game.
Coach Boone is a little mean to the players, but they need to learn that your coach can't always be your friend. It doesn't work like that. Just like your boss or your teachers can't always be your friend. They are your teacher or boss first and foremost. Not every person in your life is going to be your friend. That just isn't how life works. The team has to learn that they are a team, no matter what their skin color is.
I'm aware that there are many historical inaccuracies, but they can be easily overlooked because the overall quality of the film is superb. The daughter of the head coach is honestly my favorite character. She was doing exactly what coach Boone was doing and her father got mad at her because she wasn't the coach. She was more of a coach than her father was. Her father was only concerned about being the players' friend. He wasn't worried about being their coach. Sheryl didn't care. If she thought that the players weren't working hard enough, she'd let them have it and she gave it to them hard. Definitely not their friend. Coach Boone was very similar and after Sheryl watched him coach a few times she gave him her seal of approval. I wonder if her dad ever got that.
Overall a really well-done movie. Can't just watch it once. There is a fair amount of racially offensive language mostly directed at Boone and his colored players. One player's girlfriend dumps him because he wants to spend time with one of his colored friends instead of going to the lake and doing whatever.
Marshall (2017)
way to use a pen and water to prove a man's innocence
I'm really angry with the people that beat up Sam and the judge guy not letting Thurgood speak during the trial. That was annoying. It was hard to watch how Mrs Strubing lied to the court because she was afraid of what her husband would do if he found out she had sex with another man. The family's servant and a man of color. Mr Strubing was already abusive and the affair would have no doubt made the abuse worse. What made things worse for Joseph Spell was the fact that Mrs Strubing cried rape. The whole thing was consensual, but he was a colored man. If word got out about the truth of the situation it would mean he'd be killed. He had a wife and kids and the affair would have really hurt the reputation of the family. Not like the trial didn't already do that.
The biggest thing I felt the movie lacked was how the relationship between Joseph Spell and Mrs Strubing was affected after the trial. It would have been nice to know how Mrs Strubing's husband reacted to the whole thing. You saw a little bit of it as the couple exited the courthouse after the jury gave the verdict, but that was all you saw of their relationship. The whole trial Thurgood Marshall was not allowed to speak because the judge was a racist. Instead he had to somehow get Sam to say what he needed to say. The best part was the end when Sam was explaining why Joseph was innocent with the pen ink in the cup of water to prove just how much doubt there was with the case.
West Side Story (1961)
I don't like it
I have very strong, negative opinions of this movie. So strong that I'm not even going to bother rating it. it deserves a zero and I'm really disappointed by the fact that so many people love this move. It doesn't deserve anything above a zero. How could people rate it a 10? A lot of the music in the movie is not the actual actors doing the singing. All of the singing is just voice over and this is really obvious for a choir person. I've been trained to recognize this stuff. You don't even have to be a choir person to know that they aren't really singing. During the songs, the characters that are supposed to be singing are not straining at all with the high notes. It is really obvious that they are just, for all intents and purposes, lip syncing. You see that there is no voice being used as they sing. I watch people sing all the time. I know what it looks like when someone is lip syncing versus actually singing. I noticed a lot that maria would sing a high note and make it look impossibly easy. It looked that way because she wasn't actually hitting that note. It was a different person singing for her. If you are going to lip sync, the least you could do is try to make it look like it is really you singing otherwise you can't convince choir nerds. I know I wasn't convinced that she was actually singing.
The costumes weren't bad given the time period the film was made and the time period they were trying to portray. Maria drove me crazy in general. Her costumes were pretty accurate for the time period, but her character drove me insane. Who goes back to their "true love" after they kill their brother? Maria was angry with Tony for all of two seconds and then she immediately forgave him without a second thought. She asked Anita to tell Tony that she would be late to meet him, but Anita got attacked by the Jets, the gang that had killed her love, and lied to the store manager. She told him that the boy Maria was supposed to mary found out about Maria and Tony and shot Maria. Instead, Chino, or whatever his name is, wanted to kill Tony. When Tony is told that his beloved has been killed he wants Chino to shoot him. Then he sees Maria and he still gets shot. Then Maria gets really angry with the gang and takes Chino's gun and starts pointing it at both gangs. If Maria had just told Tony to leave her alone after he killed her brother, he wouldn't have cared if he got shot or not. Or they could have just not met at the dance and the whole thing never would have happened. Honestly though, if your love killed your brother, would you forgive him in an instant just because he said he didn't mean to? I know I wouldn't. I would have told him to get out of my room and never come back. He just killed my brother. The logic in some of these love stories is ridiculous. "I love this man and I will do anything to be with him. Then when he kills my brother, I'll forgive him as soon as he says he didn't mean it." Who does that? Not me.
Maybe a masterpiece when it first came to the movie theatres, but now it is a terrible rendition of the Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. I think I like the actual play a lot better. Yes, I have read it in its entirety, and I prefer it to this movie. It just isn't my cup of tea.
Apollo 13 (1995)
"Houston, We've had a problem."
Based on the NASA mission, this movie follows the flight of the space shuttle Apollo 13. The movie is really heavy in way of emotional moments. It is rated PG because of the emotional intensity. One of the astronauts goes into space while he has a baby on the way and coming soon. His poor wife has to worry about what'll happen to her husband in space, but she can't worry too much because of the baby. One of those movies you have to watch again and again.
Although not recommended for children under 12, it's a spectacular recreation of actual events. There is a considerable amount of language and a couple questionable scenes that are easily fast forwarded through, but isn't really that bad. Parents of younger children may want to watch the movie first before letting their children watch it. For all the young kids watching the movie, there is no need to be fearful for the lives of the astronauts. Spoilers: they make it back to earth safely, just not quite in the way mission control would have liked them to. They are unable to land on the moon because of the oxygen tank explosion among other problems.
The screenplay is phenomenal. Every scene that the astronauts are weightless is real weightlessness. The director used the Vomit Comet to get the effect of being weightless. The shuttle that is used in the movie is inside the belly of the Vomit Comet, an airplane that NASA uses to train astronauts how to handle being weightless while in space. The weightless feeling only last 25 seconds out of a 65 second flight. The crew of the movie had to take multiple shots of the same scene to get enough for the movie. For the time period, these were high tech special effects and knowing that the actors are really weightless makes the movie even better. Most space movies in which the actors are in space, the weightless effect is made by using strings attached to the actors to move them in a weightless manner. It's rather interesting to watch a movie after seeing it once and knowing the second time that the astronauts are really weightless.
Hidden Figures (2016)
"I read between the lines."
Hidden Figures follows the lives of three of the African-American women that work in various departments for NASA. Katherine Goble(Johnson) is a computer that moves to the space task group because she's really good at analytical geometry. Her job is to check the work of other people in the group, but she can't see all the information so she can't check their work efficiently and Paul Stafford is a jerk about it. When she figures out why the Atlas rocket didn't get high enough she got yelled at because the calculations she used were classified and blacked out with a Sharpie. She leaves at the same time everyday to go to the bathroom and she gets yelled at for that so she yells at them because the closest colored restroom is across the campus. "There are no colored bathrooms in this building, or any building outside the West Campus, which is half a mile away. Did you know that? I have to walk to Timbuktu just to relieve myself! And I can't use one of the handy bikes. Picture that, Mr. Harrison. My uniform, skirt below the knees and my heels. And simple necklace pearls. Well, I don't own pearls. Lord knows you don't pay the colored enough to afford pearls! And I work like a dog day and night, living on coffee from a pot none of you want to touch! So, excuse me if I have to go to the restroom a few times a day." She had every right to be angry. The bathrooms that were available didn't have the "colored" label on them and it would have been frowned upon to use one that wasn't labeled for her to use. She could've gotten into big trouble and her whole goal was to stay out of trouble. Except when she figured out why the Redstone rocket and the Atlas rocket kept failing because she held the paper up to the light to see what had been hidden from her. She got the answer right so, why did it matter so much that she "read between the lines". She got the answer from what she was given, not necessarily what she could see. After she explained why she went to the bathroom at the same time every day, Mr Harrison is seen with a crowbar taking down the colored sign on the bathroom at the west campus. When they finally get to the point of sending someone into space it's her idea to use old math to figure out when exactly to have him do whatever to get back home. Katerine was one smart cookie.
Mary Jackson wanted to be an engineer but she couldn't because the white community changed the requirements. She had to take classes at an all white high school and she couldn't do that without going to court. She makes a really good argument when the judge asks her why he should let her go to that school.
Dorothy Vaughan just wanted to be supervisor over the West Computing group, but the white manager lady kept declining her application. When NASA gets the super computer, it's because of her that it even starts working. She becomes supervisor at the very end of the movie.
Selma (2014)
Mega OOF!
A movie about Martin Luther King's march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, Selma is an inspiring movie full of twists and turns. It's rating of PG-13 is because of the violence that's shown and the language that's used. But it's based on real events that actually happened.
Set in 1965-ish amid the height of the Civil Rights movement, Selma is an accurate portrayal of what happened during the time. The amount of violence shown in the film is definitely not for everyone as it gets really bad, but those things actually happened. A peaceful march turned violent because racist bigots got butthurt that a bunch of colored people were marching peacefully, obeying the laws of the road using the sidewalks and crosswalks, not impeding traffic or doing anything illegal. Nowhere in the constitution does it say that black people aren't allowed to assemble peacefully. They were using their Constitutional right the a peaceful protest, but stupid white people got offended. Nowadays if someone tries to peacefully protest using their constitutional rights for their rights, nobody tries to kill them. Except the stupid people that can't handle being wrong.
Night at the Museum (2006)
'throw the bone' "what bone?"
This is one of those movies that I grew up watching. It came out in 2006 and it's just one of the first movies that I remember watching as a kid. This and Land Before Time, but we don't need to talk about that one.
Starring Ben Stiller (Larry Daley), Robin Williams (Theodore Roosevelt), Owen Wilson (Jedediah) who also stars as Lightning McQueen in Cars, Rami Malek (Ahkmenrah) and many others, this is a classic. Directed by Shawn Levy this is a great family film.
Larrey Daley, a divorced father who will be unable to keep seeing his son and is going to be evicted if he can't find a job, gets a job as a night guard at the Natural History Museum. The three old guards are ready to retire and need someone to take their place. On the first night, Rexy the T-Rex is the first exhibit to come to life. Surprised by this, Larry consults his instruction manual and it tells him to "throw the bone" and Larry's first thought is "what bone?" Rexy gives Larry a bone to throw and Larry throws it, realizing that the dinosaur behaves very similarly to a dog. As the night progresses Larry finds that all the exhibits come to life and now has to figure out how to make all of them happy and do his job effectively. There's only one catch, none of the exhibits can be outside after the sun comes up or they'll turn to dust, as Larry finds out when one of the exhibits makes it outside and doesn't return to its place before the sun rises, turning to dust. Larry figures out how to keep all the exhibits entertained and uses that on his next shift. When he takes his son the the museum to see what he does, nothing happens and his son thinks he's really lost it this time. Poor kid. If I was in the same situation, I would think my dad was crazy too. It's okay. Larry has to find the tablet thing that makes all the exhibits come to life before it's too late. The father-son team go on an adventure to get the tablet back from the three former night guards. They get it back and the museum starts having night tours. The end.
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)
"Oh what a lovely lonely man"
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is another one of those movies that is as timeless today as it was when it first came out in 1968. It's a movie that I've seen multiple times and still can't get enough. My first memory of the movie is when I was about ten years old I was watching the movie with my youngest siblings who were about 3 at the time. One of them turned to me, during the song in which the Baron and Baroness were trying to get rid of each other while singing about how they were the perfect pair using pet names for each other, and said, "why did he open that door in the floor?" I laughed and said nothing because I had no idea why he did it either. Sorry kid, I can't answer your question if I have the same question.
Caractacus Potts is a wacky inventor who also happens to be the father of two young children. His inventions often get in the way of him being able to do the things that a good father can. After his children, Jeremy and Jemima, almost get hit by Truly Scrumptious in her motor car, she takes them home and yells at their inventor father for not having them in school and letting them run around in the streets where they could have been killed. Mr Potts yells at her for yelling at him and telling him how he is supposed to be raising his children. After a bit of yelling between them, Potts gets one of his Toot Sweets from his machine and complains about the holes that aren't supposed to be there. Truly tells him that the boiling point of his sugar is too high and he yells at her for that too. Truly leaves and the dog starts to chew on the candy making it whistle in the process. Mr Potts suddenly has the idea of making them whistling candies. He takes them to Mr Scrumptious who happens to own the largest candy factory in town and is Truly's father. That sure threw Mr Potts off. He wasn't expecting that. He'd just yelled at Truly for not knowing what she was talking about and just found out that, yes, she does know what she's talking about. That must've been a hard hit to the ego. His two children want this famous racing car that won a bunch of races and Mr Potts uses one of his inventions at a circus to earn enough money for the car. The invention is attached to a bicycle and is supposed to give fast hair cuts. A customer gets a haircut but Mr Potts starts laughing and pedals really fast, which ends up ruining the man's hair. He starts running from the guy and participates in one of the dancing acts, receiving a bunch of money from the performance. Then, he buys the car and brings it home to get fixed up. After the car is all fixed the trio goes out on a picnic and rund Truly off the road. Mr Potts carries her out of the pond where she ended up after getting run off the road. Truly joins them on the picnic and Mr Potts tells a story about a king that wants the magic car. The story takes up the remainder of the movie.
As timeless today as when the film first hit the big screen, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a must see for any age. It's a perfect example of the way a child's imagination works. I don't know how someone could dislike this movie. I still enjoy it to this day and I remember watching it on an old VHS tape before my parents bought the dvd version.
American Graffiti (1973)
I give it a 1/10 only because I can't give it a zero. Probably not a movie I'd ever watch again by choice.
American Graffiti is supposed to take place over the course of one night. The story is disjointed and the plot dragged. You find out at the end that two of the characters died shortly after the film takes place, but you have no idea why that matters because there is absolutely no character development. George Lucas directed the film and I was disappointed, to say the least. I don't know what I was expecting because I'm not a fan of the Star Wars movies and this one was directed by the same person. Maybe I was expecting it to be better because it was made before the Star Wars movies. How many Star Wars movies are there now? If all that stuff happened in one night, the '60s must have been a party because that doesn't happen as much now. I had no clue what was going on through most of the movie and I couldn't figure out why this movie made so much money. How is this movie a classic? I have no clue.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971)
This is the stuff I grew up with
I grew up watching this version. I've never read the book by Roald Dahl, but i liked this movie. I'm not a huge fan of the new version because Johnny Depp isn't one of my favorite actors and the way Wonka is portrayed drives me crazy. I always felt like Wonka should be the person that he's portrayed as in this version.
He's a nice candy maker that hides in his candy shoppe. Then he invites five people to go into the shoppe only if they find the golden tickets hidden in his candy bars. When Charlie finds a golden ticket, he decides to take his grandfather with him as the only guest he's allowed to bring. They have the tour of the candy shoppe and are the last ones left at the end. At some point Wonka promises one of the five the candy factory, but refuses to give it to Charlie because of the fizzy lifting drink scene that he doesn't reveal that he knew about the incident until the very end of the film. Charlie feels guilty and returns the everlasting gobstopper which was all part of the plan. Wonka was waiting for one of the children to return the gobstopper and Charlie was the only one left at this point. Wonka gets super excited and exclaims his congratulations. At this point Charlie is super confused by this and when Slugworth comes through a door. Slugworth had asked Charlie to give him the gobstopper at the end so he could figure out how it was made. Charlie learns that Slugworth really works for Wonka and it was designed as a character test. Charlie gets the factory and the movie ends with the famous glass elevator scene.
Having grown up with this version, I was quite disgusted by the way the film was redone with Johnny Depp. I've heard that the new version was closer to the book, but I really don't care. I like the old version a lot better. But it's all a matter of opinion.
A League of Their Own (1992)
"there's no crying in baseball!"
A League of Their Own is World War II era film that follows the lives of 64 women as they start an All American Baseball team when the men go to war. The men were at war. What do you expect the women to do sit and wait for the men to come back? They'd get bored. At this point in history women filled the jobs left behind when the men went to war. Baseball was one of those things that America really loved and they couldn't let it stop indefinitely. Baseball scouts are sent to various cities to recruit the best players that they see because the women played baseball in their free time. Kit really wants to play on the team but finds herself in the shadow of her older sister Dottie. The scout only agrees to let Kit be on the team if she can convince Dottie to come with her. Dottie agrees to join the team and whitnesses the cruel treatment of another girl who isn't "pretty". The Scout refuses to let Marla Hootch on the right after he watched her play and break three windows in the process. The women that want play baseball go through really rough "auditions" to make it on the team. Multiple women don't make the cut for the team and are shooed off the field by the coaches. Out of the 100+ women that try for the team only 64 make the cut. Four teams. 16 players on each team. Anyone that doesn't make the team is kicked off the playing field. The women go through the season and Dottie and Kit have some sibling rivalry along the way and end up getting split up towards the end of the season.
I genuinely enjoyed the movie because there was a decent amount of action and humor. I'm not fluent in baseball jargon so I had no clue what all the hand signals were that Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) was using or what they meant. But that didn't take away from the entertainment value of the film. The uniforms that they were required to use was the best part of the film. I loved Doris' reaction when they were shown what they had to wear for the games was priceless. "How am I supposed to slide in that?!" my favorite line in the whole film was "there is no crying in baseball!!" after Jimmy was a jerk to one of the players that was having a hard time pitching or catching or something. I don't remember what the problem was, but Jimmy was a jerk when he was chewing out the girl. I felt so bad for her. Then they all ended up being friends and they all lived happily ever after. The end. I give this movie a nine because it wasn't perfect.
Thirteen Days (2000)
meh
Thirteen days is about the Cuban Missile Crisis and how president Kennedy handled that situation. The story was hard to follow and the movie kept going back and forth between color and black-and-white. I started to get really irritated by the fact that it kept going back and forth. This movie had close to no entertainment value. I don't know enough about the crisis to know if the movie was historically accurate or not, but I didn't really care because I was asleep. I couldn't stay awake because the movie dragged. The only movie that surpases this one in dullness is The New World. Not a movie I'd watch again by choice.
Walk the Line (2005)
Vivian was never a good match anyway
Walk the Line is a movie about the early career of Johnny Cash. Early in his career he gets addicted to drugs, in the from of pills in his case, like so many popular singers have. The only reason he stops, and that isn't for very long, is because June Carter flushes them all down the toilet after his first overdose on stage. Then his father yells at him for being "a pill poppin' rock star" and he goes right back to them, but June saves him as he goes through withdrawls after getting his tractor stuck in the mud. Through it all June stays by his side. She doesn't always like it but she stays. Vivian just yells at Johnny for one thing or another. She yells at him for singing with his bad before they record their first song. She yells at him for not selling anything when they first get married. She yells at him for being an addict. She yells at him for talking about the tour. She yells at him for coming home. She yells at him for being away. She yells at him for hanging up pictures of his band that also have June in them. She yells at him for everything. No wonder their marriage didn't work out. If I was Johnny Cash, I'd want to be away from her as soon as possible. When Vivian leaves with their children, I felt the wrench that Johnny must have been feeling. He was trying to make her happy. She yelled and blamed him for everything. When they get into the final fight that the children see. He gets up and tries to console the children. Tries being the key word. Vivian is just broken down on the floor crying. She doesn't even try to apologize. Johnny sees that he can't get through to her and he walks out of the kitchen. When he hears the car start he begs Vivian to keep the children out of it and chases the car down the street, but Vivian is beyond hearing.
I knew quite a bit about Johnny Cash mostly because he's one of my mother's favorite artists and she listens to his music all the time. I knew that at some point Johnny Cash married June Carter, because towards the end of his career his wife's name is June not Vivian. I feel bad for him. He tried so hard to make everything work out with Vivian, but there's only so much you can do when you only date someone for a month before you marry them. Johnny's real name was J R Cash, but when he enlisted for the Us Air Force the recruiter wouldn't let him enlist with just initials so, he changed his name to John R Cash. His most famous song wasn't a song he wrote. I was irritated by the way Johnny's father treated him after Jack's death and for the rest of his life. Everything he tried to do was to get his father's approval and he never got it. June stayed with Johnny through his overdose to his rehab in the cabin in the woods. Even though she wasn't his first wife, she treated him better than Vivian ever did. Vivian just wanted him to make money like a normal guy and never wanted him to talk about the tours. June was with him every step of the way. From their first meeting when her dress got stuck on Johnny's guitar strap, to her last moments.
42 (2013)
How does Jackie not sucker punch that other coach?
After watching this movie, how could one not be inspired by Jackie Robinson. I could not have stood around and let the other coach throw racial slurs at me and not yell at them. My favorite line in the movie is when Jackie asks Rickey, "you want a player who doesn't have the guts to fight back?" and Rickey responds, "No,no. I want a player who has the guts not to fight back." as Rickey explains later, "Echo a curse with a curse and, uh, they'll hear only yours. Follow a blow with a blow and they'll say, 'The Negro lost his temper.' That 'The Negro does not belong.' Your enemy will be out in force... and you cannot meet him on his own low ground." During this time a black person could curse at a white person even if the white person started it. It became the black person's fault. When asked what Jackie will do if they throw at his head, his response is simple. "I'll duck." he never got angry on the field because of what people were saying about him. he screamed in the tunnel, but that doesn't count. So many black people were only allowed to play in a black only team against other black only teams. I'd seen the movie before watching it In my history through film class so I already knew what would happen. Stupid white people. Maybe I shouldn't say that because I'm white but whatever. overall a great movie, even if you have absolutely no knowledge of major league baseball.
Back to the Future (1985)
Another great performance by Christopher Lloyd
I know I've seen this movie before but I couldn't remember when or what happened. I kept getting it confused with Flight of the Navigator, a very similar movie in which a 12 year old boy disappears for eight years and suddenly comes back having not aged at all. Set in very similar time periods, it was easy to get them confused. Both are about time travel. One goes to the past and almost messes up history. One goes to the future after being gone for an extended period of time. Neither character look like they've aged. Marty is only in the past for a week, so you can't really age that much anyway.
When Marty McFly travels back in time to 1955 and spends that week with inventor Dr Emmett Brown who he knew in 1985. When Marty saves his father's life and gets hit by his grandfather's car, he has to figure out a way to get his parents together so that he'll still exist in the future. His father, once a poor businessman who gets bullied by his boss, becomes a wealthy author whose childhood bully becomes an employee and has to wax his cars.
After reading some of the Goofs on this site, I learned that there were quite a few historical errors, mostly relating to when a particular thing was first introduced to society. Silly things like a Pepsi thermometer in the soda shop that wasn't introduced to society until a couple years later. Or the type on a poster that wasn't around that year. Or the vibrato thing on Marty's guitar when he's playing at the dance. I've seen Flight of the Navigator a movie that takes place in 1986, a little more than a year after this movie.
Christopher Lloyd as an actor is awesome. He's played many roles in many different movies and TV shows. He voices the Hacker in the children's series Cyberchase. He's the criminal guy in Dennis the Menace. He plays as Doctor Emmett Brown in all the Back to the Future movies. He's the professor in the second season of the BYUtv series Granite Flats. He voices Rasputin in Disney's version of Anastasia. Those are just the movies and tv shows I can think of off the top of my head. How many movies has this guy played in? He plays all of his roles beautifully and I would definitely watch other movies that he's in. He's a great actor. He seems to get a lot of roles for villains and crazy old people, but he plays them well.
Love, Kennedy (2017)
Not just a movie created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
This review contains spoilers. some not necessarily related to this particular movie.
I am a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, as we prefer our original title to the offensive nickname "Mormons." I have had many people tell me they hated the film because of the "Mormon"-ness of it. I politely correct them by saying, "I understand you only know me as a Mormon, but I prefer being called a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That is the name of my religion." I also have to shoot down people of the opinion that as a church we do not tolerate those of other religious beliefs. On the contrary. We are encouraged by our prophet, or the leader of our church, to explore other religions and even attend their meetings. We want to know what parts of the gospel other religions know and what versions they believe in. I'm not saying that just because we are not of the same faith I can't talk to your or be your friend. I have many friends that are not members and I love them just the same. We are all children of the same God and he loves us no matter what our faith is or what we believe. That'll never change.
Enough about my church, let's talk about the movie.
The family in the movie is a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints family. do some research on the real family and you'll figure this out.
Take away all the religious references and this movie is about a girl with a terminal illness. It's called Battens disease and it's always fatal. It deteriorates the nervous system slowly and there isn't much you can do when the nervous system is deteriorating. Anyone who knows what Battens disease is knows that Kennedy will eventually die. That's just how life goes. You live. You die. We will all eventually die. Being angry because the protagonist dies isn't a reason to hate a movie. Saving Private Ryan, The Great Gatsby, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, to name a few. Movies kill the protagonist all the time.
The amount of religious content pertaining to one religion isn't a reason to hate a movie, either. There are tons of movies out there created by one religious group. Not all of them are as obvious as others, but they are out there. Many movies are religion based and people don't hate them. But there are so many people out there that will hate a movie just because the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints made it. Really? You can't just accept that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints makes good movies too?
All hate aside, I loved the movie. You'll definitely need at least one box of tissues, maybe more, to get through it. Don't just focus on the religious basis of the film. You are more likely not to give this movie a chance if you focus solely on the religion that created it. It's based on a true story people. Get over the religion that doesn't happen to be your own.
Mary Poppins (1964)
Mary Poppins - Practically Perfect in Every Way
Mary Poppins is one of those movies that you just can't get sick of watching on a never-ending loop. Julie Andrews stars as Mary Poppins, a fun loving yet firm nanny who doesn't take crap from anyone. Jane and Michael Banks are the children of the wealthy Mr Banks who, believe it or not, works in a bank. Dick Van Dyke plays Mary's friend Bert, who has a different job everyday, and Mr Dawes Sr, who works at the bank with Mr Banks. Jane and Michael just want their father to pay attention to them. they run away multiple times, driving away many nannies. When Mary Poppins comes to answer their advertisement that Mr Banks ripped up and placed in the fireplace so carefully the night before, Jane and Michael learn what life is really about. That "just a spoonful of sugar" does help "the medicine go down." All their escapades before were to get their too busy to pay attention father to pay attention to them. They needed a father, not a banker. When Mary takes the children on their first outing they meet Mary's friend Bert, who's a chalk artist that day and a chimney sweep the next. The children really start enjoying their outings and when they try to discuss them before bed Mary pretends she doesn't know what they're talking about.
Not just a movie with a great story, Mary Poppins deserves a 15/10 stars. I'll never become tired of this movie. I have yet to watch Mary Poppins Returns and to be honest I don't really want to. Without Julie Andrews as Mary and Dick Van Dyke as Bert, I don't have high hopes for the sequel. Mary Poppins doesn't work without those actors in their roles. Why can't film writers stick with the tried and true. this movie should be treasured, not remade.
Race (2016)
What a movie
I've watched many a movie about how a person of color changes the world's definition of spectacular. RACE is no different. A movie about how Jesse Owens defies odds through racial discrimination and segregation. He participates in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany amid the conflicts leading up to World War II in Nazi Germany. Jesse wins four events in a single Olympics that year, proving that despite the color of his skin he's a natural runner and can do anything he wants to. Because the United States was still segregated during this time, it was harder for Jesse Owens to gain the respect of others around him. He was a man of color participating in a white man college. That wasn't something that usually happened during that time because of the racial discrimination. When asked about his name Jesse responds that his name is actually JC but a teacher pronounced it wrong and he didn't have the heart to correct her. A brilliantly made movie about how hard life can become. I liked that they didn't sugar coat things. They portrayed what life was like during the time.
Cinderella Man (2005)
they got the turtles!!!!!!!
I watched this movie for a class because that's where I watch most of the movies I watch in my life. I thought it was a great movie and I wouldn't have been able to do what Braddock's wife was able to do. she kept her anger in check even when James's last competitor insulted her to her face and basically said that if he won he was going to take her to be his own wife. he already had like three. I wouldn't have just hit him in the face with a drink I would've started a fight with him, and probably would've lost, but whatever.I wouldn't just take it like she did. She knew that her husband could potentially die in the fight and I wouldn't be able to handle that pressure. oooooooooooooof.
Wonder Woman (2017)
Steeeeeeeeeeeeve!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Aaaaaarrrrrgh!
Ready for the salt, because here it comes... you can't just kill the main character's true love!!! It destroys the entire movie. What the freaking crap?!?! Not cool. I want to know why people think killing off the true love is a good idea. You can't do that. I would say I want my money back, but I didn't pay anything to watch this movie. I watched it in school for my History through Film class. Too late to back down now. The movie's already over.
Anyway, the movie overall was pretty good. But I don't know anything about superhero movies so... I liked the movie.
Diana "Prince" is an Amazon, a form of humans that were preserved by the gods to protect the rest of the human race from the God of War, Ares, who seeks to corrupt them. They were given a weapon from the gods that Diana calls a god killer. Little does Diana know, she's the god killer. Only a god can kill a god. Diana's mother doesn't approve of her going to the real world especially because she'd be going with a man. The Amazons are women only. Most of them have never seen a man before Diana saves Steve when he's shot out of the sky and falls into their ocean.
Diana goes to the real world with Steve and they attempt to kill Ares and stop World War I. the majority of the movie consists of Steve trying to explain to Diana the way humans think and why they do the things they do. Whe Diana kills who she believes is Ares and the war doesn't stop, she yells at Steve and his response is, "Maybe Ares or no Ares, that's who we are." Diana gets even more upset with him and basically tells him to leave her alone. So, he leaves her alone and tries to stop the Mustard gas from being delivered to the Germans in the trenches. Mustard gas had just been invented and was to be used to win the war. Then Diana meets the real Ares. he taunts Diana and tries to get her to join him. Her mother had told her before she left that the humans didn't deserve her. Diana repeats this to Ares and hs response is, "She's right. They don't deserve our help, they only deserve destruction." Who does Ares think he is? Anyway the have a giant fight. Diana gets knocked across the compound. Steve comes to her rescue, professes his love and leaves to make the airplane explode. Killing himself in the process. Because that was smart. When Diana sees the plane explode, the anger she felt towards Ares gives her the strength to defeat him and she goes back to London to work forever without her love. What the crap?!
Iron Jawed Angels (2004)
eat the eggs in a tube shoved down your throat.
I feel this movie is overrated. i mean it has a good message, but the way they executed the film was poorly done. not worth watching again. the costumes and choice in music seemed out of place for the time period.everything seemed very modern and the story dragged. Alice Paul was a fighter. even when she was being force fed eggs, she fought it. it wasn't until they plugged her nose that she opened her mouth because she couldn't breathe!!! what the freaking crap! but the cause was for liberty. the very thing that we left great Britain to receive. they were willing to die for their rights. rights that were given to men, but not women because they were thought of as property not people.
Newsies (1992)
Extra! Extra! the Newsies will finally be listened to!
I'm going to warn you now, this review is going to be long.
Finally watched this movie all the way through and I have to say there's quite a mix of emotions. I was so angry when you saw that Jack joined the scabs because he wanted a free pass out of jail and to be a free man/boy/whatever. I don't know. You never find out what he did to get arrested in the first place. Obviously it's something that happened before the movie took place, but who knows. Jack keeps running from The Refuge warden guy, who only runs the place for a government paycheck. He's had it in for Jack ever since he escaped The Refuge. Jack even gets the new kid and his brother to run. Why? Because Jack doesn't want to be put back in jail. Then there's a rally and a lot of the Newsies get arrested/ fined anyway and Jack is charged with a whole bunch of stuff and goes back to jail. Then the owner of the newspaper makes a deal with him that if he becomes a scab, the guy will basically bail him out of jail and clean his record. That night the new kid breaks him out of jail and Jack goes completely nuts. He doesn't want David, the new kid, to get put in jail for breaking him out because David has a family that he could go home to and being put in jail could completely ruin their reputation. So Jack goes to jail and the next day he's a scab. The Newsies are furious, and rightly so. Jack was their leader. Now he's on the opposite team. Why? Because he wants a "get out of jail free" card!! He has to sleep in a really dusty room and he can't fight anyone or he'll just end up back in jail. Then David and his younger brother and his sister, maybe older, start getting attacked by some of Jack's fellow scabs and what does Jack do? He fights them! So much for being free. There's also this newspaper writer guy that helps the Newsies become famous. The intrepid trio go to the news guy and ask for his help, but he's already been re-assigned to a different area an the owner of the newspaper doesn't want any more articles to be written about the Newsies' strike. The news guy agrees to printing one more story, but worries about how it's going to be printed. Jack then reveals that he knows of a printing press that they could use. The only catch is they can't get caught because it belongs to the newspaper owner guy. They go to where Jack has been staying and spend the night printing papers. The next morning they get all their Newsie friends to help them distribute the papers to other kids that work in sweatshops and other similar working conditions. They need all the help they can get to be listened to. Suddenly it isn't a newsboys strike anymore. It's a strike for all kids that have inhumane working conditions. Spoiler alert, they finally have enough voices to be heard and they beat the newspaper owner guy. Yay!!
The Alamo (2004)
it's time for you haters to stop hatin'
This movie was awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I started reading reviews before I write any and I must say, you guys make me sick. What did this movie ever do to get so many harsh, crass, cruel, barbarous, savage, etc. reviews. This movie was a good mix of history and Hollywood. I didn't know a ton about the history of the movie, but I definitely know more after seeing this movie than I did before. I don't understand why there are so many haters. All of you are haters! What gives? Do you really think someone is going to care that you don't think the movie was any good just because they don't like how certain characters were portrayed? It's time for all of you haters to get off your high horse because you don't like the acting. I don't understand what is wrong with you people.
If you still think the movie was so bad you would tell your friend not to watch it, I hope you'll reconsider that choice. I can't believe what you guys are doing. You really think that I want to hear all the bad stuff you have to say about a movie that deserves 10+ stars?
Enough about how sickened I am with all the negativity around here. Now it's time for me to explain how I felt about the MOVIE.
The movie was glorious. If you've read my review on "The Crossing" you'll understand that I have a dark sense of humor. If you haven't, well, now you know. I loved this movie. I watched it in class and I would definitely watch it again. I will say, if you have a weak stomach, it's not a good idea for you to watch it. There is a lot of stabbing and death in the movie. One guy gets stabbed a bunch of times towards the end even though he's lying in his deathbed. Do they really think he can do them a lot of harm? I mean, he does shoot at them and hits TWO of them and there were how many? All of the soldiers of Santa Anna's that got into that room stabbed him at least once. They must have been thinking, "Well, he's already dead. Let's just make sure he stays dead." What the freaking crap?!?! He's dead guys. You killed him. You can stop stabbing him now.
Santa Anna's army had been shooting at the Alamo for a long time before he finally decided to attack them in the middle of the freaking night! What the freaking crap! I don't care that the Alamo are trying to take Texas away from you, why can't you leave the americans alone?! This movie isn't trying to paint a picture of how barbaric the army of Santa Anna was. If you know the history of the event, you know that the army of Santa Anna was full of barbarians. I hate the lot of them. Just add insult to injury, why don't you?
The death of David Crockett was really sad, but his last words were pretty great, "I must warn you, I'm a screamer."
There were so many young men that didn't deserve to be massacred like that. All these boys wanted was freedom. They were fighting for their freedom and a lot of them were brutally massacred for it. Then Sam Houston's army shows up and defeats the army of Santa Anna in 18 minutes. Something that the people in the Alamo could only dream about. Maybe if Houston's army had arrived sooner, the Alamo may have been saved. Maybe.