97% on Rotten Tomatoes
This movie is an adaptation of the memoir by Solomon Northup. It is based on the true events of Solomon's adulthood when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery even though he was born a free man. First set in 1841 in New York, it then shows what he and other African-Americans had to go through during those times and the difficulties of him trying to escape.
It's obviously a very deep story, and it was done quite well. The actor Chiwetel Ejiofor was amazing in this, as well as Michael Fassbender, and we even saw small roles by Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt. It just goes to show that, while racism was still very prevalent in southern USA, not all Americans were cold-blooded racists. Some Americans were decent and stuck up for the slaves, other Americans were decent but due to their circumstances had to still endorse slavery, while others were just cruel and terrible.
The movie isn't that long, its a bit over 2 hours, but it felt tremendously long. The directing dragged on for quite a bit and there are a lot of scenes where not much happens and it's just silence. Nonetheless I think it was a really great eye-opening movie.
Also, my family went back to renting movies so I've got some more reviews to do!
We used to rent from Civic ALL THE TIME, but for some reason we stopped after a while instead just kept buying DVDs and we were at Target looking at $20 DVDs and we were like HANG ON A SECOND! WHY ARE WE BUYING DVDS WHEN WE CAN JUST RENT THEM?!?!
So we went back to Civic and we rented Life of Pi, The Help and Zero Dark Thirty.
87% on Rotten Tomatoes
This is based on the book by Yann Martel about an Indian boy, Pi, who ends up getting lost at sea. His family owns a zoo and they decide to move to Canada, but their ship sinks and Pi is the only human survivor on a lifeboat together with a hyena, a zebra, an orangutan and a Bengal tiger.
The book was extremely detailed (to the point where some parts were extremely boring), describing his life in India to his survival skills at sea. The film, however (and as most films do), cut out a lot of things in the book. I guess that's not surprising but I was quite surprised at how much of his life in India they put, because I thought they would focus more on the survival at sea. But the whole film is very metaphorical and alludes a lot to religion and spirituality, so his life in India when he is discovering different religions is necessary, it's just that I would have liked more of the stuff that happened at sea.
Overall, the beginning bit was a bit boring (since it's the section where he's growing up in India), but the film (and the main character's acting) gets significantly better once the ship sinks. The film was praised for it's visuals and it was definitely pretty amazing considering it was all green screen.
76% on Rotten Tomatoes
This is also based on the book by Kathryn Stockett about African-American maids during the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The book was really great because of the storyline and they portrayal of how three completely different people with completely different personalities and emotions could become friends and work against the racism that was seen back in those days. I think the film was really great at portraying that too, and they left in all the necessary plot points and did a really good job at balancing the dramatic scenes with the humourous scenes. Emma stone was amazing, as well as Jessica Chastain. I think this has got to be one of the best book-to-film adaptations.
93% on Rotten Tomatoes
This is yet another film based on a book (there seems to be a theme going here). It's about the CIA hunt for Osama bin Laden and while it apparently (I haven't read the book) doesn't include a lot of details from the book No Easy Day by Mark Owen, it's based off some of the firsthand accounts of CIA agents that the books includes.
The movie was pretty good and really intense, and the actors were amazing (especially Jessica Chastain, who is so different from her roles in Lawless and The Help). While I did get a bit bored in the middle of the film where it seemed like the operation was getting nowhere (even though I obviously knew it was still going somewhere), the last 30 minutes or so where they actually raid bin Laden's house was really intense.
I think it's also really important that they document this sort of story because at the end you see how empty the CIA agent feels after bin Laden is dead. She worked on this for her whole life, she saw her friends die, she finally was able to pinpoint bin Laden's location, he was killed, and then that was sort of it. She can't get credited for it publicly, no one knows the sacrifices she made (because a movie only portrays so much) and it's just such a thankless job.
It's also interesting to note that they were going to make the film about the long and neverending process of trying to catch bin Laden, but once the news came out that they actually did end up catching him, they had to change the entire script and storyline (obviously). I think they did a really good job and it's definitely a worthy watch.
Apart from that, there isn't really much to talk about since I haven't been doing that many amazing things that are worthy to blog about.
Oh, except that I did this NRMA Driving Course thing and it's pretty good. It costs about $140 for a 5 hour course that lets you reduce your total number of hours by 20 hours, and it still lets you get the 3-for-1 instructor hour scheme thing, so it means you only need 100 hours, and if you get 10 instructor lessons it's only like 80 hours of driving. I know most people just forge their logbooks but I can't and anyway I'm a really bad driver (like, really bad) and I absolutely hate driving so this is good because it means less hours for me!
The course is in two sections: module 1 is 3 hours of theory and module 2 is 2 hours in the car. Module 2 isn't really 2 hours in the car because you're with another student and every ten minutes of driving you stop on the side of the road, the instructor will go through a bit of theory, then you swap drivers. But the good thing is that he still logged 2 hours of driving in our log books.
Further, he even told us about this Keys2Drive program which is part of the NRMA Safer Driving School but it's funded by the Government. So it's one free lesson of driving with an instructor, but the only catch is that your regular supervisor (e.g. parent) has to sit in the car with you.
Anyway, I thought that'd be interesting to share with you guys if any of you are still on your L's and need more hours. Hopefully I can get my P's soon, but like I said I'm a terrible driver and I can't park properly...
Oh and ages ago I found this really cool article that shows you which countries have or don't have health care. You can click on the map on this page to get an enlarged version. I never realised that Iraq and Afghanistan get universal health coverage that's provided by U.S. war funding. Like why would they do that when USA doesn't even have health care?!?!
ALSO! Don't forget, watch My Kitchen Rules to see my friends Shannelle and Uel. They're the Asian couple from NSW and they'll be on TV next Wednesday (the 5th)!
Anyway, that's it for now, until next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment