Monday, December 7, 2009

Law Abiding Citizen


"A brilliant man orchestrates  series of high-profile murders that grip the city of Philadelphia - all from inside his jail cell. The prosecutor assigned to his case realizes he is the only one who can end the reign of terror"-www.imdb.com


The movie confuses me to what the writer is trying to tell his audience.  Is it that the justice system has loopholes? or the fact that we should take justice in to our hands? At the end of the day, what good came out of it?  Wrong is wrong whichever way you put it. The scheming of Gerard Butler reminded me of Prison Break . 

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Julie & Julia


"Julia Child and Julie Powell - both of whom wrote memoirs - find their lives intertwined. Though separated by time and space, both women are at loose ends... until they discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible" - www.imdb.com
   This is not the type of movie that I would watch but because it had good ratings and it being a true story I gave it a go. I'm surprised. Isn't the whole story about finding meaning to life? Julie goes the distance to find some value in her life and she identify's Julia as the person who gives her that value. Julie tells the reporter that she practically talks with Julia and that she feels her presence. Finally she thanks Julia for lifting her up from the pit she was in. 
   I wonder where Julia got her strength to pick her self up and also encourage others who were with her. Then again I also admire the husbands of these two obsessed women who had patience to let them have their high. Julia is portrayed as this perfect image of a human being which I'm wondering if exists at all. Julie's husbands actually spells this out at a point saying that only the Julia in Julies head was perfect but the real Julia who didn't find her blog very amusing might not be. Is human failure a flaw in us or are humans anyway limited beings? 
   These days we find people being worshiped for their deeds and courageous acts but aren't they also regular humans beings who hold similar characteristics? Julies purpose for life ended when the cook book ended. How are we to find purpose to our entire life? in other words, is their a purpose to our lives or are we just creatures who are destined to just die away? 

Monday, November 30, 2009

My Sisters Keeper


"In Los Angeles, the eleven year old Anna Fitzgerald seeks the successful lawyer Campbell Alexander trying to hire him to earn medical emancipation from her mother Sara that wants Anna to donate her kidney to her sister. She tells the lawyer the story of her family after the discovery that her older sister Kate has had leukemia; how she was conceived by in vitro fertilization to become a donor; and the medical procedures she has been submitted since she was five years old to donate to her sister. Campbell accepts to work pro bono and the obsessed Sara decides to go to court to force Anna to help her sister." - www.imdb.com
     A very touching story line which is created around a family. I remember feeling in a similar way when I finished watching A Walk to Remember. The whole picture of death leaves us in tears and with the question of why did she have to die? Can people find any meaning to death? is it the end of existence? Anna ends saying that she hopes she will meet her sister again, is their another paradigm of existence after death? 
    Is their anything wrong with the stand the mom took for her daughters protection? Do you feel that Kate should have fought more? What is the whole purpose of living? We are going to die someday. Is the quality of life measured by how long we live? 
        Movies like this and Slumdog Millionaire makes me wonder if we end up with an emotional high and just forget about the fact that these things really happen. Does a portion of the profit gained by this movie go to treat cancer patients? 
      The movie is based on a book by Jodi Picoult which ends differently..When Anna gets her emancipation she dies in a car crash and kidneys are anyway given away to Kate. I'm wondering why the story line was changed and Kate had to die. What if Anna didn't die of a car crash but died in the Kidney transplant operation. Maybe its too much of a tale to believe that she sacrificed her self for her sister.
      Sacrifice seems as something very unusual and makes us wonder why? Maybe because we don't how to respond to such love. What if someone underwent a punishment that we were supposed to go through or someone was wrongly accused and killed when I was the real culprit. How do we respond?

Friday, November 20, 2009

50 First Dates


"Henry Roth lives in a Hawaiian paradise with the company of endless women with no strings attached. This is until he meets Lucy Whitmore. Both Henry and Lucy enjoy the company of each other and feels the start of a serious relationship occurring. Approaching Lucy the next day, Henry is confused when Lucy fails to recognise him. This is the moment Henry discovers that Lucy actually suffers from short term memory loss and can't remember each individual day. Henry won't let this stop him and is prepared to make her fall in love with him all over again, each and every day" - www.imdb.com
    Ladies !!! Do you want this man to be your lawfully wedded husband ? Isn't Henry Roth the most romantic guy? I wonder if doing this film made Adam Sandler think of his own relationship and improve on it. I felt very challenged by his persistence and determination for the sheer fact that this might be what women expect. Or is it? Is this the mark set by women for all men? Does watching this make single women feel that "I know he is out their somewhere". Do you think Henry would have gone through all this if Lucy was not attractive?
   It was amazing to see Lucy's father and brother going through the routine everyday just to keep Lucy happy. Does dads and brother like Lucy's exist? They actually do. The love and care of the family structure is one thing realistic about this movie. Have you ever thought how hard it must be to look after a disabled child or a child who is mentally handicapped?  tendency is to identify with Lucy and wish that someone would love us but isn't it the other way around? Lucy however finds a husband to love her and take care of her but aren't their so many like Lucy who are waiting to be accepted by society and waiting to be loved by someone? Does the movie challenge you to be sensitive to people like Lucy?   

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Up


" A young Carl Fredrickson meets a young adventure spirited girl named Ellie. They both dream of going to a Lost Land in South America. 70 years later, Ellie has died. Carl remembers the promise he made to her. Then, when he inadvertently hits a construction worker, he is forced to go to a retirement home. But before they can take him, he and his house fly away. However he has a stowaway aboard. An 8 year old boy named Russell, whose trying to get an assisting the elderly badge. Together, they embark in an adventure, where they encounter talking dogs, an evil villain and a rare bird named Kevin" - www.imdb.com


Wow !!! This was such an adorable movie. The love shared between Carl and his wife was so sweet but isn't it a bit unrealistic? Why go to all that extent to keep a promise to someone who is not even alive. What does Carl gain out of it? a sense of satisfaction that he was able to please his wife or is he re-living a dream. Then again, it must have been mighty hard when so many barriers stood in the path of achieving it. Maybe the diversions actually brought him closer to what he wanted. 
There is much to learn about knowing our choices and picking the correct one.   

Surrogates


"People are living their lives remotely from the safety of their own homes via robotic surrogates -- sexy, physically perfect mechanical representations of themselves. It's an ideal world where crime, pain, fear and consequences don't exist. When the first murder in years jolts this utopia, FBI agent Greer discovers a vast conspiracy behind the surrogate phenomenon and must abandon his own surrogate, risking his life to unravel the mystery" - www.imdb.com


    The first thing that came to mind when watching this movie was that its very fictional and no one would want to live like this but now I'm questioning my thoughts. If I was given the opportunity to portray a perfect model of myself to the world will I take that choice? Wouldn't we all?
I have heard many saying that they will give anything to be fairer, inches taller or have a better figure to the extent that an unnatural process like plastic surgery is also an option. Surrogates give the option of completely replacing your self by something totally unnatural. Can a robot replace a human being? Technology is moving towards building Artificial intelligence to replace humans in many tasks, but is it ever possible? 
   The movie reminds us that humans do have flaws but thats what makes us human. People try to hide behind their masks, afraid of revealing true self but its then that the true relationship begins. The Surrogate was similar to the virtual character we create for ourselves in a social network (eg.facebook). We communicate through technological means and use informal communication. What about the value in meeting up people and building friendships? Is that too old fashioned? People are more an more becoming addicted to virtual reality where they don't deal with face to face confrontation and lose the inherent capability of building relationship with the fellow species. Maybe the world is moving so fast and time is of the essence that relationships don't matter, its the survival of the fittest. Is it really meant to be this way?    
   

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Orphan

The plot is creative but not sure whether its very realistic but anyhow the attempt is admirable. It does remind me a bit of typical seduction movies where a family is broken apart by the new housemaid. I thought the child was brilliant and has a bright career.

The characters of both women represent people dealing with love. Esther is in need of love and Kate needs to give her love which is bottled up inside. The man in this film plays a very weak character of a man who wont decide anything for himself.

Until the plot is unraveled the child is presented as pure evil and one might actually ask if children are born evil. Well that takes us into the question of what is evil? Is evil something which was meant to be part of this world? or is it something alien to this world? Some people believe that the world was created, then whats the purpose of evil in this world?