Movie Review

Battle: Los Angeles

This movie is your typical end of the world as we know it thanks to some unknown extraterrestrial invader movie. It starts out introducing you to the Marines who you know will be the ones that will be in the group that the movie will follow. The Marines get called to battle after a series of "meteors" landing near many large cities in the world turn out to be something other than meteors.

A small sub-group is sent in to recover a unknown number of civilians at the police station in Los Angeles. They have 3 hours to recover and get out of the blast zone before the bombs are dropped to level the area and destroy the invaders.




Spoiler Alert!!!!



There are several times throughout the movie in which all hope is lost and it seems as though the aliens are going to win. In the end, in an Independence Day like turn, the command center is discovered and destroyed.

Overall, despite the predictable turn of events, the movie was very good and held my attention. There are some great fight scenes and the 2 hours goes by without a glance at the watch. I recommend seeing this in the theater for the great fight scenes.

Movie Review

Waiting for "Superman"

I grew up in a small town that lacked a great educational system, so I could partially relate to this movie. The only difference for me was that I was fortunate enough to have parents who were able to afford to send me to a better school. Now, mind you, my parents weren't rich, they just were able to make the sacrifices with their careers or mortgage on their house in order to send me and my brother to school. If it weren't for that chance, I know I would not have made it as far as I did.

With that being said, I have heard there are several flaws in the movie itself. My opinion is that these "flaws" were added for dramatic effect, but they do not take away from the overall impact that the decline in our education system is having on our children.

Or is it a decline in the education system? It used to be normal for a percentage of graduates to go into skilled trades, but in this time, everyone wants a college education. I am not saying that everyone doesn't deserve a chance at a college education, I am just suggesting that maybe some of the numbers are a bit skewed.

Taking all of that into account, I know that moving me from one school to another made a big impact on what I was able to do with my future. I want the chance to give those same opportunities to my children one day.

Movie Review

Never Let Me Go

This movie is about a world in which disease has been eradicated. This has been done through the creation of donor bodies which are created to give their organs to the humans of the world who need them. This movie follows three friends through their time growing up as donors.

This movie was powerful. I was very moved by the overall love story and the power of creating "bodies." You never get to see the real humans to see how they differ from the bodies, but in my opinion, these were not the soulless bodies that the creators wanted them to be, as was proven by the love that could be created. I don't think this will ever become a viable choice for our world, but the story was extremely powerful.

Movie Review

Cyrus

Cyrus is billed as a comedy about a man who falls in love with a woman who has an adult son living at home. As the relationship gets more serious, the son enacts plans to separate his mom from the guy because he is jealous of the time he is losing with her. 

I was disappointed in this movie. It was not good as a comedy or as a drama. I felt that the movie moved slowly and the stunts pulled by the son were not entertaining. Its not a movie I recommend seeing.

Oscar Wins 2011

4 Wins for King's Speech

1. Best Picture

2. Best Leading Role for an Actor - Colin Firth

3. Best Director - Tom Hooper

4. Best Original Screenplay - David Seidler

I haven't seen this movie yet, so I can't offer my opinion on how good/well deserved it is, but it is on my list of movies to see.

4 Wins for Inception

1. Best Sound Editing

2. Best Sound Mixing

3. Best Visual Effects

4. Best Cinematography

I saw this movie in the theater and then bought it on Blu-Ray. It is a great movie, really makes you think, but you have to watch it more than once. I feel it was well deserving of its Oscar wins

3 Wins for The Social Network

1. Best Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin

2. Best Film Editing

3. Best Original Score - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

I really loved this movie. I joined facebook when I was a sophomore in college, right at its beginnings (dates me huh?) so this movie represented something that I could directly relate to. As you know from my previous post, after I saw this movie, I went and bought the book. Its a really interesting story that applies to my generation as something that revolutionized it.

2 Wins for The Fighter

1. Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale

2. Best Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo

I haven't seen this movie yet either, but did you see Christian Bale's acceptance speech? So sweet how he choked up when thanking his wife!

2 Wins for Alice in Wonderland

1. Best Art Direction

2. Best Costume Design

I saw this movie because I love anything with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. You cannot go wrong with that combination. I thought that it was well deserving of the Art Direction and Costume Design Oscars.

2 Wins for Toy Story 3

1. Best Original Song - "We Belong Together" by Randy Newman

2. Best Animated Feature

I saw this movie and loved it. Its been 15 years since the first 2 Toy Story movies were out and I loved those movies growing up, so this movie took me back to a simpler place.

1 Win for Black Swan

1. Best Actress in a Lead Role - Natalie Portman

I haven't seen this movie yet (I can't convince the bf to go see a movie about the ballet) but with all its hype, I expected it to take home more Oscars. I guess we will see how my opinion changes once I see it.

1 Win for Wolfman

1. Best MakeUp

This movie was not a good movie in my opinion, though the makeup had to be amazing to produce it. I am just a bit surprised that it took home and Oscar.

Movie Review

You Again

This past week I rented two movies (this one and Cyrus - to see my review). I enjoy the guilty pleasure of a romantic comedy even if I know they aren't the most thought provoking. This movie follows two high school rivals that meet again when the popular one announces her engagement to the nerdy one's brother. To make matters worse, the popular girl's aunt and the nerdy girl's mom were rivals as well.

The movie overall held my attention through out. It followed the typical cliches that are found in romantic comedies, but I expect that out of a romantic comedy and want that when I pick that type of movie to watch. The only part that truly disappointed me was the ending.

Spoiler Alert!!!!

I did not like how suddenly the four girls became friends and how suddenly the brother forgave his fiancée. There was a lack of plot development between the big end fight and the making up. A several year rivalry is not going to just be OK because you catch the other girl eating cheese out of can.

Overall, I recommend this as a good romantic comedy, but do not have higher expectations than that.

Book Review

The Facebook Effect

by: David Kirkpatrick

After watching The Social Network, I was interested in learning more about the story behind the beginnings of  Facebook. I remember when I set up my profile in my sophomore year of college, and I have been loving it ever since. I heard that the book by David Kirkpatrick was a more accurate account of the story behind Facebook than The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich which is the book from which the movie is actually based so I choose to read The Facebook Effect.

Synopsis From Barnes and Noble: 

The inside story of Facebook, told with the full, exclusive cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg and the company's other leaders.

IN LITTLE MORE THAN HALF A DECADE, Facebook has gone from a dorm-room novelty to a company with 500 million users. It is one of the fastest growing companies in history, an essential part of the social life not only of teenagers but hundreds of millions of adults worldwide. As Facebook spreads around the globe, it creates surprising effects even becoming instrumental in political protests from Colombia to Iran.

Veteran technology reporter David Kirkpatrick had the full cooperation of Facebook s key executives in researching this fascinating history of the company and its impact on our lives. Kirkpatrick tells us how Facebook was created, why it has flourished, and where it is going next. He chronicles its successes and missteps, and gives readers the most complete assessment anywhere of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the central figure in the company s remarkable ascent. This is the Facebook story that can be found nowhere else.

How did a nineteen-year-old Harvard student create a company that has transformed the Internet and how did he grow it to its current enormous size? Kirkpatrick shows how Zuckerberg steadfastly refused to compromise his vision, insistently focusing on growth over profits and preaching that Facebook must dominate (his word) communication on the Internet. In the process, he and a small group of key executives have created a company that has changed social life in the United States and elsewhere, a company that has become a ubiquitous presence in marketing, altering politics, business, and even our sense of our own identity. This is the Facebook Effect.

My Review:

I enjoyed digging deeper into the business behind one of the most popular sites on the internet today. Facebook is closely associated with college for me and a way that I am able to keep up with friends who have moved away. I also love learning more about the behind the scenes of things I am interested in. This book delved into the way that Facebook was started in the Harvard dorm and how it moved out to California and grew. Learning about the decisions that Mark Zukerberg made in the course of the business as an accidental CEO helped me understand the changes that Facebook as gone through over the years and took me down memory lane. If not for the personal relation to this story, this would not be a book I would have typically enjoyed because it is focused much more on the business aspects of the company than on the changes that occurred to the site or the personal feelings of Mark Zuckerberg.

Overall, I recommend this book if you are into business or if you, like me, want to learn more of how Facebook came to be. Don't expect this to be a more detailed account of the movie.