How to Train Your Dragon

Hiccup on his awesome dragon, Toothless.
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This week the random number generator gave me 174. That corresponds to How to Train Your Dragon. Now, some people may have been upset about getting an animated movie, but I absolutely loved the opportunity. I think there's something that a lot of film creators are able to get out of kids movies that real movies miss. Up, The Incredibles, Lion King, the list goes on and on. Maybe it's the innocence, maybe it's the subtle undertones put in the movies so parents can enjoy them too, I don't know. All I know is that kids movies are awesome.

How to Train Your Dragon follows the trials of Hiccup (yes, I know a ridiculous name, but it's explained in the movie) as he tries to become a Viking like his father, the ruler of their village by killing dragons. He's very unlike everyone in the village, but he still tries to make his dad proud. Things get extremely tricky when he downs the most elusive of dragons, and essentially becomes friends with it. Without giving too much away, there is of course a happy ending, but that's not what I want to focus on.

What I found so great about this movie was that it displayed a strained father-son relationship in the midst of everything else it was doing. The relationship was not the main focus of the movie, but it was the main motivation behind almost all of Hiccup's actions. There is only one mention of the mother, but she is obviously out of the picture, and it's hinted at that she is dead. I would have liked a more direct confrontation of this HUGE issue considering a young boy's development, but it is a kids movie, so I understand. The handling of the relationship between Hiccup and his father is exceptional. Much better than that in most "adult" movies. I was extremely happy with this movie and would recommend it again and again.

Worth your time.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One of my favorite lines from the movie.
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The random number generator gave me number 10 this week, and that corresponds to the film "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest." It just so happens that my mom had advised me to see this movie about two weeks ago, and seeing that I highly regard my mom's taste, I was excited to see if I felt as highly about this movie as she did.


The basic premise of the movie is that we follow Jack Nicholson's character who everyone calls Mac, a new patient at a mental health facility who we learn is not in the institution because he is crazy, but because he would rather spend his days in a mental hospital rather than a prison. He has a long history of fighting, and that doesn't leave him when he comes to the mental facility. We basically follow his escapades throughout his stay at the hospital, which are pretty outrageous. The star of the movie, to me, is Chief. Chief is a Native American who must be at least 6 and a half feet tall. He doesn't talk to anyone, but follows Mac's instructions in how to play basketball. As the movie continues, we witness possibly one of the deepest and most complex movie relationships to ever exist.


The strange part about this movie is that it's listed as a drama, but it's not quite that. There are moments when I laughed out loud. But the movie is far too dark to be considered a comedy. It's somewhere in the middle, but definitely not the definition we give to sad romantic comedies, a dramedy. It is something completely different, and I have never seen a film that confused me emotionally, but that I still thoroughly enjoyed. The only one that compares is "Inception," and that's for entirely different reasons.


"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" depicts the mental health industry in a stark way, but isn't trying to critique it at all. There are no true heroes, there isn't much of a traditional plot line, the differences between right and wrong are as gray as can be, and by the ending you won't know who's side you are on. But that doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic ride.


Worth your time.

Life of Brian

This week, I got the number 166 from the random number generator, and that corresponds Life of Brian. This movie was made by the immensely famous comedy group, Monty Python. My dad was a HUGE fan of Monty Python, so I was pretty excited, since I'd never seen any of their work. All I really knew about them was that their works are very inappropriate.

The hilarious final scene. i.telegraph.co.uk

And boy was The Life of Brian inappropriate. The film follows Brian, who was born on the Original Christmas, and is mistaken for Jesus his entire life. This results in hilarious situations when he gains a following he doesn't desire. Every time he attempts to rid himself of his parish, so to speak, they find various miracles and signs that they interpret as more important than his actual words.

This movie is obviously not for those who can be easily offended in their religious beliefs. I believe in God, or more I believe that the sheer unlikeliness of our lives would require some type of creator, and I perceive that creator as God. I'm not super religious, I sometimes pray and occasionally read the Bible (the armchair preacher), but am not a fundamentalist by any means. I don't take the Bible as pure fact. With that said, anyone who is extremely religious will be offended immediately at the start of this film, and probably all the way through. I found the antics of the characters to be so ridiculous that it was hilarious. But that's me, and I'm not super religious. I can see why people would be offended, sympathize with that, and would urge them not to watch Life of Brian.

As I said, Life of Brian is so ridiculous I couldn't help but laugh. With characters like Biggus Dickus, who has a horrible lisp, or the final song "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," played while many characters are being crucified, you can't take this movie seriously. And as long as you see it how it really is, a comedy trying to be as silly as possible, you'll have as good of a time as I did.

Worth your time, if you're not super religious.

The Wrestler

For this week, I watched number 202 on the top 250, The Wrestler. Now, I had already seen the last scene of this movie when I was on vacation a couple years back, I walked by as my sister was just finishing up watching it. I was pretty excited to get the chance to put some flesh around the ending I'd already seen, which I thought was pretty good.

Mickey Rourke, giving the performance of a lifetime.
philmology.org

The basic premise of The Wrestler is that we follow Mickey Rourke's character, a professional wrestler called "the Ram" who has long passed his prime. He suffers from all the abuse his body has taken over the years, and a doctor tells him he needs to stop wrestling or he will face severe consequences. We follow the Ram's trials to fit into normal society, his attempts to connect with his daughter, and his love advances towards a stripper.

First things first, Mickey Rourke is absolutely fantastic as the beaten-down wrestler. You forget you're watching a movie and start to truly consider Rourke to be the Ram. It reminded me of a biopic, because it seems so real. I read that Nicolas Cage was going to be given the role, and I think we can all thank the heavens that didn't happen (nothing against Cage, but he hasn't been in a great film in a loooonnnnggg time). The line that got to me most was when the Ram was talking about how hard it was to cope with life away from wrestling. He said, "The only place I get hurt is out there. The world don't care about me." I thought, among other powerful lines, this quote made The Wrestler transition from just a good sports movie, to an incredible overall film. We can all on some level connect with transitioning to an unfamiliar part of the world and recognize how difficult it can be.

For some reason, I did not become as emotional involved to The Wrestler as I thought I would. There were many scenes where I would usually be bawling, but I held it in this time. Not sure what it was, but I felt the emotions all the same.

Worth your time.

Pulp Fiction

The iconic image of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson
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The random number generator gave me the number 4 for this movie, and that corresponds to Pulp Fiction on IMDB's top 250. I've been told many, many times to watch this movie, but could never truly get up the motivation to make it happen. It didn't really excite me from its premise, a crime film basically just following the actions of John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson's characters. I didn't really hold John Travolta in the highest regard for acting before I saw his performance in Pulp Fiction but I was sure swayed by what I saw. And as a whole, I completely underestimated what Pulp Fiction really was as a movie.

Pulp Fiction follows the classic Tarantino formula: lots of dialogue to develop the characters and a nonlinear plot line. I love nonlinear plots because I don't think the human mind is meant to simply think in terms of A-B-C. Sometimes it comes out B-C-A, or whatever other formula there may be. And the idea of knowing the ending of the overall story, but continuing on with the plot of the movie is so innovative and risky. There has to be enough in the story to entice the audience to keep watching the film if they know what's going to happen to the protagonists.

What, among many other elements, I feel made Pulp Fiction special was how easy it was to watch. I've said this before to describe other movies, but Pulp Fiction runs around two and a half hours and it felt so much shorter. When it was over, I was shocked at how much time had passed. I can't tell how exactly filmmakers are able to achieve this, but it seems to be present in almost every great movie. I think part of it is creating a story or narrative rather than only a movie. Also, the character development has to be fantastic. The audience has to be completely interested and almost desperate to see what happens next to the characters. Pulp Fiction does this so well its almost unfair. Whether it's the pretty crazy story of Butch trying to escape the far-reaching grasp of a powerful gangster, the hilarious banter between Vincent and Jules, or Mia's trials with drugs, every character is easy to relate to and adds complex elements to the plot.

This not only is worth your time, but should demand it. If you haven't watched Pulp Fiction, I suggest seeing it as soon as you are able to. You won't regret it.

The Matrix

This is another one of those movies I've just been waiting to see. It is #20 on IMDB's top 250 and I was thoroughly excited when I saw this was what the random number generator gave me.

wikipedia.org

The basic premise of The Matrix is that our entire reality is a construct by autonomous robots that engages us so much we perceive it as reality. All humans are actually encased in devices that allow the robots to live off of our heat and energy produced. Keanu Reeves plays the protagonist who is seen as the chosen one, a person gifted enough to lead the humans in this war against the robots. We follow his journey as he battles to find out if he actually is the chosen one, his coping with this new reality, and the crushing pressure that the future of the human race is potentially all up to him.

The Matrix reminds me of Inception in that it made me reevaluate my entire perception of reality. Just as Inception made me think this life could simply be a dream, The Matrix made me think this life is all made up by evil autonomous robots. This can be somewhat distressing at times, especially late at night when I think the divide between reality and whatever else there may be is thinnest, but I always end up truly valuing the experience. When a film can make someone think about their role in society, what the future of our society may hold, or what society does/doesn't do for them, I think it has the chance to go beyond simply a commercial success. The Matrix offers a fair warning to our future, as the technological advances could end up hurting us (hopefully not in a way that imprisons us for our entire lives). It also warns about the dangers of mindlessly going through life, as this is as good as being controlled by these robots. Overall, The Matrix makes for a great watch and some lengthy discussion afterwards.

Definitely worth your time (if you are willing to possibly question your existence afterwards).

The Godfather

This week, I have to admit to violating my rules a bit. I saw that The Godfather was going to be on TV and decided I had to watch it. This is one of, if not the most, iconic movies in America cinema. People have been telling me for years that I am a fool to have not seen this movie earlier. So, I sat down, flipped on the TV and watched away. And I didn't think it was all that great.

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Before I get crucified for saying that, allow me to explain myself. First things first, this movie is long. Very long. I was watching TV for four hours. And that's where I feel my problem with The Godfather lies. I learned that watching a movie as intricate as this on TV was a huge mistake. The commercial breaks made the plot line incredibly difficult to follow. I also had the volume jacked up pretty high, but still found myself missing some of the dialogue. Maybe that is just due to me usually watching movies and such on my computer with my headphones in, but that is unrelated.

For the movie itself, I can definitely see why people would like it. As mentioned, the plot line is so intricate. I actually had to pull up the Wikipedia article near the end of the movie just so I knew what was happening for the ending. And the acting is world class. Marlon Brando is perhaps my favorite actor of all time, and he was so superb in this role. I knew Al Pacino was in The Godfather, but it took me halfway through to realize who exactly he was. He didn't talk or look like the Al Pacino I have grown accustomed to, so that was a bit of culture shock.

If you aren't paying close attention to The Godfather, like me, then you will surely miss out on all the good this iconic film as to offer, as I did. I definitely plan to rewatch it, just to get a full experience of this movie. Every small, seemingly unimportant little action proves to be ultimately important. If not for the plot itself, then in the forming of the characters. The characters are so full and robust in The Godfather, they feel like real people.

Worth your time, if you have the adequate time and attention.