Mona Lisa Smile

                 Okay if you ever met me, the movie Mona Lisa Smile would probably not be the first movie you think to recommend to me, but that is exactly what my friend Kayla did. Let me give you a brief premise of the movie, a female art history professor in 1953 who looks to push social norms of women. Doesn't sound like a man's cup of tea, right? The weird thing is that this movie kept me captivated.

         I will admit I can sometimes be one of those people that play a game or text during movie. NEVER in a movie theatre, but slap me in the living room and there is too many distractions (good thing I am great at multi-tasking!). I never once got distracted watching this movie. I even started the movie at 1:00 am and got through an hour and a half of the movie before I passed out.  With this in mind, the movie is not an action thriller, but there is something else to captivate you.

       The opening scene of the movie begins with a voice over exclaiming “She came to Welesey to make a difference”. And then she teaches her first class all her students, whom are all women, describe all her pictures before she can ask a question. I loved this opening scene because you knew that this teacher was going to challenge the girls from then on and that is exactly what she does. She challenges to not only know the history but to have their own opinion of the art. This idea of  women having their own opinion in that time period clashed with what women were supposed to do; get married. You know that the art professor was successful when the student who showed her the most opposition, turns to her in the end.

          Okay so I am going to spoil two movies in one blog post, but when I was watching this movie I kept thinking about Dead Poet’s Society with Robin Williams (RIP). Essentially I think that this movie is the women version of that movie, and I mean that as a compliment not an insult. I think matches that classic movie very well! In the end of Dead Poet’s Society, his students stand on their desks exclaiming “O’ Captain, My Captain” as the teacher packs up his desk and leaves. In Mona Lisa Smile the art professor leaves at the end of the year and as she is being drove away she looks back. Looking back she sees all her students riding their bikes after her car waving. These ends are very similar but both also very heart-warming!! I would definitely recommend this movie to anyone that enjoyed  Dead Poet’s Society, although guys will have to keep in mind it is a chick flick.

Mr. Nobody

          Alright folks, netflix brings you  some interesting movies. This is why I created the netflix experience challenge! The only problem is that sometimes it can get a little confusing, like if you have ever seen Donnie Darko. In fact, many reccomendors thought  Donnie Darko would be a great movie for me to watch. Unfortunately I have seen that movie before so it couldn't be  part of the challenge. IT IS A MOVIE TO WATCH THOUGH! It is one of those cult- classic movies. VERY UNIQUE!

      Mr. Nobody, is a movie that is very unique too. It can be confusing and bounce around a lot, but that is part of the charm of the movie. It really makes you think, so I am going to tell you what it made me think about rather then what happened, because it really is what you take away from a movie! What I took away from the movie is that there is  always a choice and that choice can alter your life drastically. The nice spin that the movie put on  that idea though is that each life is the right choice. In several of the plot lines of his life, he is in a married to different women. Is this a great plot line. I mean it blows fairy tales out of the water with the idea that you have only one true love. I liked this portrayal of love. Every fairy tale doesn't just have to be one chapter, many different aspects. I mean that is a real comfort to high schoolers that just have gone through a breakup. They thought person was their " one and only" but in reality it was their " one and only" in that time span or reality. Once they grow up more they find their " one and only" in that reality.There were certainly different marriages that seemed happier than the other, but they were all the right marriages for the person that had made that choice. For example, if I decided to not go on a field trip tomorrow and instead drive to see my girlfriend.  That is the path I chose to take and that life will be different than the one if I had chosen to  go to field trip where I might have been inspired to leave my old life behind to become a geologists. Each decision is important. You can see why this can get a little confusing in the movie. Overall, I am glad that I decided to watched  Mr. Nobody, and I can't wait to see how that decision will affect my life!

Planes, trains and automoblies

        What looks like a classic comedy,  with Steve Martin and John Candy, turns out to a pretty funny comedy with a lot more swearing then I thought! This time I watched this movie with the all of my family, by which I mean my mom and I watched it while my brother was  asleep for most of it. Now he was sleeping before the movie began, so don't take that like  the movie was that boring! In fact it wasn't very boring at all. I will admit that it wasn't jam packed action, but it did have some explosion... including their car! One of the funny aspect of the movie, at least  to my mom and I is that the film is old enough to show smoking in doors and no cell phones. John Candy's character  smokes inside throughout the movie and it just makes the movie seem a lot older. I think that older comedies are more funny though because they aren't just focused using dumb things as their humor, like Step Brothers. For example, Steve Martin is a businessman determined to be a good family man by being at home for Thanksgiving. He isn't just some dumb guy who dumb things... I know very descriptive. But the point is that the characters have something pushing their emotions and motives. The movie in fact is surrounded around the idea of John Candy's character trying in hilarious ways to get Steve Martin's character to home in time for Thanksgiving. They try flying, the train, the bus and rental cars all with some sort of set back in their way.

         John Candy plays  a man who never shuts up and the annoying counterpart of Steve Martin's character, who is a wealthy businessman who seems like a workaholic. As they get to know each other throughout their journey, it seems that their is more to Candy's character that meets to eye. In fact, it is not until the end of the movie do we and Martin's character that the Candy character's wife is actually dead and that he is extremely lonely. Yes, I know not something to be happy about, but i loved that about the movie. The death of his wife clearly motivates the character to help and hang on to some sort of friend that he has made. It gives the whole hilarious journey a purpose for the character. In the end, Martin's character invites Candy's character in for thanksgiving to have it with his family. This is the perfect ending! I know it is a little to happily ever after, but it proves the movie wasn't just out for laughs, but also for emotions. I think that is what makes it a great comedy! So I would definitely recommend this to anyone who wants movie with laughs and emotions!

VHS viral

    Okay so modern society has left the VHS life a long time ago. I mean  we have netflix now, why would we need a VHS! Well the idea behind the VHS movies is short horror films on separate VHS tapes ( the fact  that they are still used is scary enough!) which are found and played by some normally mischievous people whom broke into someone's house. I mean what great robbers or investigators don't sit down and watch the people's home videos?! Okay besides that point the films do a great job of telling different stories. The major flaw in the first two is that.... a form of skype and head cam are recorded on a VHS. Now I'm not tech savy but I don't think that is possible!

     Okay, okay... I know I have just been ranting about how somethings don't make logical sense, but I guess it is a horror movie and they don't have to make sense. All in all, I really like the first two VHS movies, so I was excited to see this VHS viral which sounded like it would follow more logic. And I was right! This time it was filmed on phones and other modern technology, without the use of a VHS. I think the idea is that at the very end of the movie, all the clips are uploaded to the internet...a little confusing but it worked!  Let me say, I said the movie was more logical not less weird. I won't tell you when this happens but I will warn you there are demon penises. Demon penises in a parallel universe.Yup, demon penises. What a breakthrough in film! Good thing it is only in one of the films. The first  short film involves a scary magician with a real magic cloak. Like fire and disappearing out of thin air, kind of magic Who doesn't like some good old evil magic? I enjoyed that one probably the most. Another short film included Satan worshipers in Mexico being beat up by a bunch of high school skateboarding wannabes. All great... original ideas and I think the films are shorter then the ones in the first two movies which I liked. Overall, I think that the VHS trilogy should end now but I will have to say that all three movies made pretty interesting horror films. I recommend it as easy going movie to watch some friends that like horror movies, but not terrifying movies.

ABCs Death of 2

       I want to start this review that I don't recommend the first ABCs of Death, to anyone! It is a interesting movie, and great horror movie concept, but once you get to the letter L.... you might want throw up! Let me explain the concept of the movie first. So the idea is a single horror director is assigned a letter and needs to create a movie that centers around a word that starts with that letter. For example, letter A in the first movie stood for Apocalypse  or  like F stood for Fart ( yeah that was weird). And L STANDS FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU DON'T WANT TO WATCH. I can not stress that enough.  Having watched L and all 25 other letters in the first ABCs of Death, I was weary of watching the second one.

      I found the second one to very interesting though. None that even came close to the disgusting-ness of the the first letter L. The clips seemed to be a lot shorter in this movie which I think was to its benefit. I will share two of my favorite letters in this movie, but hope that won't stop you from watching it! In fact, guessing what the letter stands for  while you watch the short film ( the word is revealed after the short film) is half of the fun of watching the movie! The only challenge is that some of the words that were used, were words that we didn't know. So before watching this movie   brushing up  in dictionary and the alphabet is recommended. For the purpose of the keeping that thrill for you future viewers, I will not tell you what letter corresponded to my favorite short films.

     I always look for one that is not scary, but funny and a psychological thriller, of which I found two that I really liked. The first one was of two men stranded on an island. A woman washed on the beach and you instantly think.... they are going to kill each other over her. Sure enough the two start fighting as the one the girl likes is holding a coconut ready to kill his friend, but instead throws and kills the girl. Flash forward to the next morning there is a grave and " Need Beer" written on the beach with stones. I LOVE IT! A big plot twist and something definitely unexpected in a group of horror films. I'll just give you a taste of what my other favorite is on.... and let your imagination take it away. Cured zombies bringing the survivors to justice. Never even thought of something like that! It definitely was a great watch and I would highly recommend this one over the first one!

Insidious 2

Okay so I have watched several horror movies lately and by lately I mean in the span of two days. The horror movies I have watched are VHS Viral, ABCs of Death 2 and Insidious 2. Yes, these movies are sequels, but I have never seen them! I have seen all the movies before them. I think that is the beauty of netflix though. These movies weren't recommended to me by my facebook friends BUT my brother and I just randomly started watching them. I never used to watch horror movies, but it is kind of a way to see some interesting movies. Keep up with the blog to see the ABCs of Death 2 and VHS viral reviews, but this post will be on Insidious 2 since it is the one that is still making me paranoid something is in the shadows.

      At this point I should warn you of two things. This movie is scary, if you didn't already pick up on that and this blog post HAS SPOILERS! Considered yourself warned. I loved the first insidious movie, even though I wasn't planning on seeing it the first time. I was kind of forced to run a viewing of it at my school, because the normal folks didn't want to watch it. It is creepy but it creates a whole new world o explore and see get created as the movie goes on. I was hooked and I would have seen Insidious 2 sooner if for some reason I though someone told me it was a bad sequel. So when I clicked on it tonight, I expected it to be somewhat disappointing,

     I was wrong! The movie did a great job of still being creepy and connecting to the first movie. Not just with similar plot lines but also characters actually affecting what happened in the first movie. I don't know if this movie was  actually shorter than the first movie. I don't think the plot line had so much suspense or maybe it was because I guessed the plot half way through, but that didn't stop the enjoyment. It still created something new and intriguing for the viewer. There are only two down sides to the movie in my point of view. The beginning seems to have a voice over as they portray a character in the first movie as younger. A for effort but still slightly annoying. The second let down was the ending. I get the movie is a horror movie, but it could have ended somewhat happily which for most of the characters it does! However the movie ends with a character looking up to a dark shadow and says " Oh My God!". SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?! It was obvious that they just wanted another movie so they wanted to end on a cliff hanger, but I think it ruined the closure the movie was giving. I'm not going to say I won't see the 3rd Insidious, which I heard is already out, but I definitely will not have my hopes up for a great movie! Hopefully I will be surprised again!

Bronson

     When I decided to take up this netflix experience challenge, I knew my main recommendor would be my movie obsessed brother. His challenge was trying to find movies that we hadn't seen together and was on netflix. He did succeed with finding several movies that I haven't seen AND I was fortunate enough to watch it with him! The family tradition lives on through netflix!

     The movie we watched and he recommended was Bronson,  a British film about British most famous prisoner Charlie Bronson. Boy, did the movie keep me capitive-ated! What interested me the most in this film is how the movie was structured. I at first was a little disappointed that the movie was not a play by play action movie. It was more of Charlie Bronson telling the story of his life and showing some scenes from it. My actor of a brother explained it to me about a one  fourth of the way into the movie that it is more like a one man play. Having that perspective, the movie gave nothing to disappoint.

     Charlie Bronson is played by Tom Hardy, the actor of Bane and a part in Inception. Watching this movie, where Hardy is bald with only a mustache but often shows off his huge muscles, I saw a lot of the character Bane in this film. Perhaps Hardy used part of his part as Bronson to prepare for Bane, but I much prefer Bronson over Bane although I wouldn't place any bets on a winner of  a fight. Bronson love to fight and surprisingly he likes to do it nude. Perhaps that is somewhat of a warning that if you watch this movie, you will see Tom Hardy's penis. Although I am reassured that after you watch the movie several times, it doesn't phase you as much.

     What I think made this movie unique is that it didn't really answer any questions. Why does Bronson feel the need to beat people every time. Well you know he likes the idea of fame and being known, but is it through fighting and being in prison? Well I don't think anyone knows that but Bronson so no one else could answer it, not even a movie about him. The movie ends with this statement appearing on screen: Charlie Bronson is Britain's most famous prisoner having spent 34 years in prison with 30 of those years in solitary confinement, his release date has still not been determined. SO naturally I hit the YouTube and there many interviews..... on Tom Hardy talking about how he met and talked to Charles Bronson. I would definitely recommend this movie to everybody and hope they appreciate the uniqueness of this great movie.