#jonathannewton Rebel Without a Cause

Rebel Without a Cause is a very suspenseful movie that portrays Jim Stark's (James Dean) lifestyle as he moves into a new town. Jim enters a new town and gets into lots of trouble as he begins to socialize with a pretty girl who socializes with a troubled clique. Overall Rebel Without a Cause is a great representation of how teenagers lived in the 1950's. One thing overlooked may be how each character dresses in this movie. Each character has a different type of clothing style that still relates to how people would dress in that time era. James Dean has a preppy type of look, while Judy has more of a biker type of style.

This movie portrays how these young teenagers wanted to live more independently. The social issues of each of these students causes them to realize that they all have something in common,theyall have some type of family issues. For example, you can notice how throughout this movie Jim constantly questions his father about how to become a real man. Judy is having issues figuring out that she is growing up and taking denial from her father. Plato does not live with either of his parents, but lives with his maid and has family issues because he has never had a full father figure during his lifetime.

Overall, Nicholas Ray had done a great job on this classic by giving it a black and white type of feeling while keeping this movie in color. He had also done a great job by giving teenage students something to relate to during this time period of the 1950's. I would recommend this movie to anybody who likes a classic type of feeling and would like to know how teenagers lived during the 1950's.

Breakfast Club Blog

This is film directed and written by John Hughes, starring Emilio Estevez, Paul Gleason, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, and Ally Sheedy. This film takes place in a highschool where the following five students are spending their Saturday in a library for detention. Each of these indivuals are apart and from different worlds. These highschool students are very relatable to at least one highschool peer we may have had an encounter with. These actors potrayed their roles well because this is one of the best coming-of age movies. They're all just a bunch of highschool students that so happened to do something that got them in trouble, and resulted to them dedicated one of their precious Saturday's to a day in detention. The principal assigns them as a punishment an 1,000 word essay explain "Who they are". They had eight hours to complete this assignment. At first it's just a clashing of their different worlds into one another's which causes tension, awkward silence, and keeping to themselves. But as time goes by they get antsty, and bored. All of them then smoked weed they loosened up, and opened up. They all share their stories, and why they are spending the day in detention. They then realize what they all have in common is wanting to be nothing like their parents, and having strained relationships with their parents. Allison admits to being a compulsive liar, Andrew can't think for himself, John gets abused at home, Brian attempted suicide because of a bad grade he got, knowing he'd get in trouble at home for it, and Claire is suprisingly a virgin (comes to a suprise because of the group of friends she has). John then verbally comes for Claire by stating she comes from a rich dad so she would never understand his lifestyle. He pushes her to the edge where she shouts back and breaks down in tears. After this they share the reasoning behind their personalities, as well as tears, laughs, and shouting. After this scene they all form a friendship with one another. Claire then makes her move on John an. they share a romantic moment. This is closer to the end of the movie, as it comes to an end Brian quickly writes on a paper the assignment that they were assigned before the principal returned. Detention is over and all of their parents came to pick them up, Allison and Andrew shared a kiss as well as Claire and John. She gives him her diamond earring to keep, and ripped a piece of a jacket for her to keep. The principal picked up the letter which read "In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions: A brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess, and a criminal" where at the bottom Brian signed "The Breakfeast Club". While John crossed the football field; shades on, walking cool, on his way home he threw his fist in the air and the movie ended with a freeze frame of this scene. Up to this point I am still clueless as to why Brian referred to himself and the rest of them to "The Breakfast Club" but I enjoyed this movie it's a very good film.

The Breakfast Club - Jesus G

The Breakfast Club

     Given the fact that I've never watched this movie and only picked up on it half way through it, it came out to be a very interesting movie due to the clash of different personalities. This is what I believe made the movie very unique as it create a falling apart family sort of feel. 

     There was your nerd styled character, Brian Johnson, who was arguably the smartest academically. He used some logic but also deals with a lot of stress, He is greatly portrait by actor Anthony Michael Hall, as he was actually the youngest male actor in the movie. Smart, young, overachieving but all due to the amount of stress and pressure that is on his shoulder. There are people who can relate to this character as it shows the true reality of high expectations. No one is to say that is bad but can be damaging. This was greatly reflected on this character as he was what was expected of him but paying the price of wanting to end his life.

http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/misc/cameos/breakfast_club/index.html

     On the other hand, you have John Bender (pictured above on the right), played by Judd Nelson, played the bad boy. at the time being 25 years old. He was greatly portrait and presented pretty great as the attire that he wore presented his stereotype quite well. He seemed to be the one to do as he wants and almost calls that place home because he attends detention every Saturday. He expressed himself in this was due to the lack of healthy environment, as he stated that he got a pack of cigarettes for Christmas at one point.  I'd say that this was a good representation of what your typical rebel is as they are looked down upon from just about every other social clique and uses substance one way or another. 

     I bring the attention of these two characters because this movie ties well, with what I believe, the theme being that everyone, no matter how they present themselves, go through some sort of social pressure, and no one ever really has it is.

     On one hand, you have the bad guy, Bender who with all that he goes through, create a rebellious character into himself. He goes against authority and doesn't do what is asked of him. On the other hand, Johnson, was the polar opposite of him as he did ask of him and due to all this pressure, he wanted to end his life with a flare gun, hence the reason he ended up in this detention. So going back to it, it shows the different types of people in schools and how they are. It shows not only how they present themselves in the school environment but as well as their home surroundings. This created a movie that not only goes on face value but goes in depth of who we are as people and more importantly, why. 

     This movie did a great job on creating a theme of teenage pressure and portrayal. We, as teenagers, cope with all the differences that is asked of us, in different ways. Some of us will show it in a negative way by going against the authority and being disrespectful, some of us will meet the expectations while tearing ourselves apart, some others will turn out to be very quite and shy, some will be a class clown and this is all causes of the way we are raised and coping with the amount of pressure that is asked of us. The Breakfast Club was a great movie in the sense that it succesfully took the main typical students in a public school and explained in depth how they end up the way they do.  This movie was one of my favorite movies despite the fact I started watching it late. 

Jonathan Newton:The Breakfast Club

The breakfast club , written by John Hughes , contains a group of troubled students. These students live different school lifestyles but still connect due to the fact that they have some type of personal issue at home. For example, Andrew and Claire are considered as one of the popular kids in their school but what nobody really knew was the issues they had at home. Claire's parents constantly used her as a weapon against each other. Andrew was a good kid who always obeyed everything that his parents said to do.Allison in this movie is known as a basketcase and nobody really socializes with her often, but they never really knew much about her personal life and how her parents ignore her at home. John was considered the criminal in this movie but was never really known as the sincere person he can really be. His parents never really cared much about him and that had turned him into the person he is today. Lastly there is Brian who is the straight A student who was always known as the brain. He is very intelligent but not a hands on type of student.

 What I like about this movie is that it can still be compared to people in schools today. Each one of these students come from different cliques but still represent the same school even though they had never even socialized. Even in metro you can pick out 5 people in 5 different cliques and I bet they really do not know anything about each other at a personal level. 

Overall this is a great movie that portrays real life school scenarios and how issues at home can effect what type of person you can become and how you can be surprised about how much you have in common with another person who you would think lives a completely different lifestyle.

Breakfast Club- Courtney Bell

The Breakfast Club is a very good movie. I actually never seen it until now. I think the big idea of the movie was basically showing every body's stereotype and how the got that stereo type. It focuses on the story of their lives and the weird things each individual do. Each student talks to each other and learn more about each other and realize what they do and don't have in common. 

My favorite part of the movie was when they all was talking about what troubles they go through at home. just because your popular or you have bad behavior or your quiet or something doesn't mean there isn't any problems at home.

Breakfast Club

The movie The Breakfast Club was a very good one, though I've heard many people quote lines from that movie and people say it was a good one I've never seen it until now [run-on]. In my opinion, I think that the main focus of the movie was to show that all the stereotypes [one word] of how people look is not really how things always are. "You can't judge a book by its cover" has been one of the most heard phrases in my life [cliche?]. It has also helped me as well. This movie added another reason on why not too [one "o"].

My favorite part of the movie was when they were explaining how their at home life was. I can connect to this because even though people think I have money or am just a perfect kid, I'm not. I've gone through things; my at home life is far from perfect. People sometimes put on an act so people don't think any things wrong. But another phrase I hear a lot is the people who smile the most went through the most. You can't always assume that's my biggest pet peeve [a little confusing]. Bender assumed a lot about the others. For example,  about Andrew that he was Mr. Perfect and because he was a good athlete he did everything his dad wanted him too. It really wasn't like that his dad pushed him too hard he didn't enjoy it. Sometimes kids are forced because of there parents or aren't pushed enough like Bender whos parents don't care about him and tell him he's a failure. This movie is probably up there with my favorites now and I will definitely end up watching it again.

Anthony,

I would add to and break up your second paragraph and add a relevant image.

MM

The Breakfast Club, Elaine N.

This movie will always be my all-time favorite movie. In particular this movie touches on what high school is when it comes to friends and cliques . Each kid is part of a different social group: Claire belongs to the popular girls; Andrew belongs to the jocks; Brian belongs to the nerd group; John belongs to the dropouts because of his bad behavior; Allison would be a "nobody " because she has no friends at all.

It is sad that high school can be full of stigmas for certain kids. We should be allowed to explore friendships in our four years. The students I believe exhibit every type of behavior a high school student experiences . John would be the rebel for no apparent reason, every high school students at one point deal with wanting to go against every rule in the book. Claire and Andrew feel peer pressure by the other members of their cliques. A pressure every student feels, the pressure of wanting to be accepted.

Overall, this movie is all about the kids who never would have crossed paths. But at the end of the day learned something new about each other and that no one is really better than each other.  I would recommend this movie to anyone of any age it is just a good enjoyable movie, anyone can relate to.

As a high school student myself, I can fall into many stigmas. But I tend to stay away from the title by being a person with many friends and hangout with many groups. Honestly, I hate the title of being "popular", it makes me feel superior to others, which is not what I want to feel like around my friends and other people.

High school students usually go through a stage of being a "rebel" refusing authority orders. I think it is because we are  young and trying to find ourseleves.

Rebel Without A Cause (Laszlo)

Based on my first viewing of this movie, I'm not sure what to think. The plot seems to be a little hard to follow; it's back and forth between emotions and the constant music that plays throughout [consider revising; awkward syntax]. Watching this so far, I'm reminded of when we watched Psycho. Not sure if that's the music only or if it's the idea of death and the suggestion from Judy and the parents of Jim suggest running away.

I like that Dennis Hopper is in this movie, although I'm pretty sure his acting career isn't that far off the ground at it's production. Monahan was nice enough to point out that he was in the film. I've only seen him with long hair in Easy Rider and current [more recent] pictures of him with white hair.

The scene where Plato is mugged for his address book is a little amusing to me simply because they didn't have phones [be more specific] back then and my first thought was about why he had an address book with him to begin with and then it occurred to me that, duh; they don't have phones.

About the production of this movie, I have to question it for two reasons; the aforementioned lack of attention and a scene (until the point I've viewed it to now) where Jim is laying upside down on his couch and the camera shows an upside down view of his mother coming down the stairs and in the same shot, the camera straightens out. On first thought, one would think that the camera is meant to represent Jim's point of view but after the camera straightens out you can see the mother crouch down to a still upside down Jim. I've yet to figure out the significance then of the camera view.

Probably stereotypical of the time period, but the leather jackets all seem to be worn by the bad guys - the guys trying to (avenge Buzz's death?)

Man On Wire

The documentary Man On Wire is a 2008 British American documentary film. This film was directed by James Marsh, the documentary was shot in 1974 about a young man named Philippe Petite who is a self taught wire walker who was 18 at the time discovered that the Twin Towers was being built so it was his goal to walk across, he was so determined he practiced all the time. He made plans to help him succeed his goal of wire walking across the Twin Towers. I was so fascinated to see such a young man at the time so interested, determined, and dedicated to wire walking. He put all his time and effort into something he loved. He taught me a lesson watching this movie, to always follow your dreams and to never give up, no matter how hard it might be, just don't give up.

Trains,Planes and Automobiles: Elaine N.

This was by far the funniest movie I have seen that dealt with bad luck.  At first I was sort of confused on how Del was so quick to become comfortable with Neal on a plane ride. I could relate to those people who speak to you on a plane. But in reality you want to be left alone to relax and enjoy the ride. The film really had me thinking on how sometimes these bad things do actually happen to people. An example, would be the plane getting delayed, it is terrible because one just wants to get to their destination. But the weather always causes it usually being snow. Neal, I imagine has never had an encounter with someone like Del since he gets creep out many times. It was funny how Del is a crazy sleeper, snoring loud and just being a mess. But the movies not only has funny parts, there is also emotion, heart warming scenes. The last scene was finally when Neal had an eye opener moment. He realized Del's wife had passed away and he had no where to go for the holiday. 

A word I would use to describe this movie would be a coincidence because after the men always agree to stay away from each other it just so happens they end up back together. My favorite scene would be when Neal drops those 17 F bombs at the rental car place and when he finally gets home. The scene that was full of bad luck was when the car caught on fire and was still taken for a drive through the cold.
I would recommend the movie and it is really bad since its rated R, it is only because of the language in the movie. The movie is enjoyable and will have you laughing. 

Alien- Corey R.

The concept that is "leave no man behind" is not in my vocabulary. In the movie alien, 7 crew members were in hyperbolic sleep on their space tow truck, the Nostromo, when the ships motherboard, Mother woke them from their sleep to go check out this distress signal that the ship picked up. Wanting to ignore the signal because they were on their way home from a 7 year expedition in space, the crew members went back to sleep but Mother woke up the crew again, saying that they wont get paid if the dont check it out. So the crew checks out the planet that the signal came from, but upon landing, the ship was damaged. The crew was stranded on the planet until the ship was repaired. So some of the crew members decided to explore the planet. Upon exploring, they found a desolate spaceship, the origin of the signal. Ripley, a member who was 3rd in command of the ship found out the distress signal was actually a warning telling them to stay away but it is too late some of them members had already boarded the alien ship. Once they reached the alien ship, one of the crew members Kane, found a crack in the ship, inside the ship he found many eggs. Being curious, Kane observed on of the eggs and an alien popped out and attached to his face. Ripley not knowing what happened she insisted that they stay in quarantine for 24 hours until everything is set. But Ash opened the latch and let them in. Have you ever stopped to think, that if Ash never opened the door, Kane would have died out there and most of the Crew would have been save.

Psycho - Elaine N.

 

Psycho, was the best movie I have seen in black and white ! The film had me thinking so many things at once. When I saw the title Psycho, I imagined it would be the main character Marion or Sam since Marion really wanted to show their relationship publicly. Marion to me was the Psycho because she stole $40,000 and bought a new car asap. The cop that pulled her over had some type of suspicion towards because he followed Marion to the dealer, which was strange. Then, the hotel comes to play and off the back Norman is extremely weird. It was as if he had never seen a women by the way he would stare at Marion.
The way Norman would talk about his mom it would be in the tone as if very low and not much said about her.  But he was proud to say a son is a mother's best friend. Which was strange because not every son and mother relationship is like that especially because he is an adult.
When people would go into Norman's house, I knew for a fact they were going to die. I did not expect Marion to die in the shower, I thought it would be because she was in the house.
I never expected Norman's "Mom" to actually be Norman himself. I knew he was strange but wouldn't expect him to have Dissociative Identity Disorder, meaning multiple personality disorder. I liked the ending because it was unpredictable,

Prior Film Experience: Submarine

At first glance Submarine is a pretty average coming of age film with a protagonist of a sub par teen boy, whose goals are to lose his virginity before his sixteenth birthday and to keep his parents together. This movie is cliche in the sense that it kind of mocks cliches. Like every other teenager, Oliver, is self obsessed, but not in an overly obvious way. From the very beginning of the film he admits that he imagines how people would react to his death. He pictures candlelight in memory of him at his school and girls sobbing over his death. In this fantasy he comes back saying, "Don't ask how. Just know that I'm more powerful than ever." This scene really gives you the feel of the dry almost cynical humor that ensues through out the film.

 This movie focuses a lot on Oliver's budding relationship with Jordanna, who is at first seen as a manic pixie dream girl with no purpose other than to take Oliver's virginity and up his social ranking. Since, Oliver is our protagonist we view her as he views her. He obviously sees Jordanna through rose colored glass as exemplified in the cheesy montages of their time together set to Alex Turner's melancholy soundtrack (which by the way is probably the main reason I love this movie). Then we discover how dynamic of a character she is once she confesses to Oliver that she's been struggling with her mother having a terminal illness. He realizes she has her own problems and is her own person, not just an extension of himself.

This movie not only realistically portrays adolescence through it's plot and characters' actions, but is also visually honest. The teenagers in this movie actually look like teenagers and the cast isn't unrealistically attractive. Submarine is relatable, full of great quotes, and has fantastic music, that make it a must see movie.

Planes, trains and Automobiles

What happens when two men from two totally different worlds meet? If you're not already guessing, trouble! In this hilarious Fillm fit perfect for the holidays, directed by John Hughes; a man named Neal Page (Steve Martin) is just trying to get home to his daughter to honor her thanksgiving dinner request when at every turn he's seems to come in contact with a heavyset talkative Man named dell Griffith (John Candy) over and over again.   The story starts off with Neil, On his way to the airport to catch a flight home but first he had to catch a cab outside and ended paying a very greedy man $75 for a cab he couldn't catch. That's when he first noticed the goofy Del, "steal" his cab. Neil began to chase after the taxi driver and Del screaming "give me back my cab, that's my cab!!" When Neil finally got to the airport he saw Del again who was extremely apologetic, and at this point Neil was anxious to just jump on a plane and go! When he got on the plane the flight attendant made his day much much worse stating that there were no more seats in first class and she would be more than happy to direct them to a seat in coach, when Neil had already paid for a seat in first class. After admitting defeat and was ready for coach, the only seat left was next to Dell Griffith. The man who would manage to ruin the next few days for him, time again was on the plane with him. As the adventure goes on , Neil grows more and more impatient with Dell and the rediculous things that continue to happen to the two. Over time Neil develops a soft spot for Dell and begans to realize that Dells his best friend. The story ends with the two finally making it to Neil's house for thanksgiving dinner. I definitely highly recommend this film to watch during the holiday season. 

Sugar - Emanuel Luck

Sugar is a movie where a Dominican baseball player has the ability to go the America the land of the free, the land of he great to play baseball for the minor leagues and depending on his skill the Majors.  Sugar gives the viewer almost a back story of his life and lets us watch how he progresses as a baseball player from when he started in DR and how far he has gotten now.  In this movie we get to know the main character on a level that most movies can not provide.  As the movie develops we learn his weakness and how they seem to out weigh his strengths.  While for most of the movie his ability to accurately through a ball gets him recognition the minute he has any real challenge he seems to lose his edge.  While it is true that he got hurt not allowing him to train physically, it was never his body that was the issue it was his mind.  If he trained his mind while his body was recovering he would have been able to play on a level never before thought possible.   

Overall just like any other movie it has flaws but overall it was really good.  It had drama, action, character development, struggle, and most importantly a change for the better for the protagonist. If I could rate this movie I would give it a 6.9/10.

Rocky - Emanuel Luck

Rocky has to be one of those movies that foreigners see and think "Ah this is what America must be like".  While Rocky is an all Time American Classic, there are a few things strike me as odd.  The first one being that the only reason Rocky was chosen to fight Apollo Creed was because he was white, his name the Italian Stallion was the reason he was chosen not because he was a great fighter or any thing of that value, he was just white and the champion who was black thought it would be a great idea.  Another thing that struck me as odd was how Rocky had on of the best training montages in all of American film.  His training was iconic and inspiring and I am pretty sure it caused at least one person to leave his seat and do push ups and the aisle of he movie theater while watching it.  I do not know how they did it, but much like everything else on the planet we do not understand I suspect either aliens or Illuminati.

Rocky to me even though it had a few issues here and there is one of the best actions movies of its time and raised the bar pretty high for any other movie that came after it. If I would rate this movie I would give it 7.8/10  

Prior Film Experience- Emanuel Luck

I always had a thing for movies and I really do enjoy watching them.  Movies have a way of taking you out of reality and putting you into the director's world; how he/she see’s things or how they want the world to be.  One of my favorite movies is The Matrix and lucky for me it is a trilogy.  The whole entire concept of the movie was taking the viewer out of his comfort level and showing him a possible universe.  The Wachowski Brothers created a world that they thought of, then created it.  To me that is just incredible I would have never been able to create something of that level, in some sense they seem to see the world in a different type of way.  Often times when viewers watch this movie they see just what is presented in front of them.  But most of the time the director and producer have done more than just what they have put in front of you.  They have hidden a message that only few see and only viewer can get.  Maybe that is why I love the Matrix so much. It had tons of hidden messages just waiting to be discovered.  I remember one time I was watching a short film on the analysis of the Matrix and this guy went in on just one small scene of the Matrix, like he spent at least 12-14 minutes just talking about how the glasses wore when Neal was offered the pill had two different outcomes. The first lenses showed if Neal denied the pill and how he flips off Morpheus then walks away, and in the second lenses it shows Neal accepting his fate as the chosen one by taking the pill.  But to me that is the crazy thing. If you didn't look for it you would have never found it almost like a secret hidden right in front of you.

Often times when you think about movies, your favorite movie might appear, or a scene from an iconic movie might pop through your head but to me the question often is, what was the movie suppose to do for me as the viewer?  When I saw Selma, I was inspired.  I left the movie theater feeling as if I could do anything, and that I was proud to be a black man.  The movie also did something for often races watching it though, it showed and gave a glimpse of the black struggle making it uncomfortable for them so that they could one better relate and two not forget when they left their seats. And to me that is what a movie is supposed to do. It is supposed to bring out emotions and change views and change hearts, even if it was just for the few hours screen time it had, it was suppose to do something, something important, something that would allow me to be taken out of my world even if it was only for just a short time.

Alien - Alyssa Beckam

Alien is a science-   fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scottt this movie is about a alien that stalks and kills the crew of spaceship except one the main character Ripley and cat that happens to be in space also.I really don't watch science fictions movies and This movie had to be my least favorite movie so far it didn't catch my attention whatsoever but I recommend people who like science-fictions horror movies to watch this movie.

Psycho - Alyssa Beckam

In this movie Psycho directed by Alfred Hitchcock a phoenix secretary Marion Crane stole $40,000 from her employer to run away with her boyfriend as she was escaping she went to the car dealer she traded her car in so she can buy another one and as she was at the car dealership the looks on her face looked guilty and suspicious which made the cop and car dealer ship owner look at her some type of way but they let her go anyways and as she escapes she goes to this motel call bates motel and that when she got introduced to Norman Bates as shes checking in at the motel she goes by an alias when checking in as they started talking he invited her to dinner its obvious that Norman has a crush on Marion and compares her to a bird . It was interesting to see how she would act guilty and suspicious around the cop and the car dealership owner but can act perfectly fine towards Norman and have a conversation with him but throughout the scenes I noticed that Norman would be acting weird and a little off . In a conversation that Norman and Marion had she tells him that shes going back to Phoenix as scene goes on she got in the shower she was stabbed continuously but as she was getting stabbed continuously you cant see who was doing the stabbing but it was either Normans mother or Norman who was doing the stabbing you could only see the shadow of the person but turn to find out it was Norman dressed up as his mother. This movie had to be the most twisted and suspense movie I ever watched but it was one of my favorite. 

Elaine N. Touch of Evil

At the beginning of the movie, I was confused on the fact of the bombing and how at the border the guards did not check the car. Also, the guards are the border did not acknowledge he women in the car when she said she hears a ticking noise in her head. Then,  the car blew up like the guards could of tired to prevent the bomb from exploding.
  I also had a weird feeling of the detectives.  I was not a big fan of the movie because of the plot. I did not like how the main detective Quinlan in blaming an innocent man for a crime he did not do. It was easy to tell he moved items in the bathroom to make it seem like there was actually some potential evidence.  
Also, Vargas wife is so easily persuaded by those Mexican men and held her "hostage" but did not really hold her captive. She allowed herself to be taken somewhere not public with the men because their conversation had to deal with her husband, it was that easy. 
The ending was well played when Vargas and the other detective got Quinlan to say his plan on tape. I knew he was going to die because if not he was going to kill someone else since he was drunk or seemed to be acting like he was.
Rotten Tomatoes has a high 93% of audience who enjoyed the movie. I would of liked the film if it was done differently in how the plot was protrayed.

Stardust: An Unusual Twist on Common Folktale

The 2007 romantic fantasy adventure film, Stardust, from Paramount, is directed by Matthew Vaughn and based on the novel Stardust by Neil Gaiman. It comprises of an ensemble cast including Charlie Cox, Michelle Pfeiffer, Claire Danes, Robert De Niro, Mark Strong, Sienna Miller, and many more. The film is narrated by Ian Mckellan. In 2008, it won the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form. It has mainly received positive reviews and grossed $135.6 million on a $88.5 million budget.

The film starts off with two separate worlds, divided by a stone wall. This wall divides the magical world from the normal world. There is a wide open gap in the wall that is guarded by an old man with a staff, a man who Dunstan Thorn out witts and manages to get passed. Dunstan enters the magical world, coming across a village where he comes across a slave who says she is a princess. She gives him a white flower that she says will give him protection and he in return tries to free her. She cannot be freed, the chain cannot be broken. She in return wants a kiss. They enter the carriage and close the doors. Nine months later a baby was left at the wall for Dunstan, his name: Tristan.

The film jumps forward eighteen years later to Tristan working as a shop boy and in love with a girl named Victoria who does not return his love.

He takes her to a field for an early birthday present and there they see a falling star, to convince her not to marry another he tells her he will cross the wall and retrieve the star for her.

She agrees. He sets off, only the guard is prepared for him this time and he doesn’t get passed.

Tristan learns the truth about his mother and reads the letter she left him, in it she left him a babylon candle that when he lights it he just has to think of where he wants to be and it will take him there.

Meanwhile, the star is in a crater on the magical side of the border and the star is a person. She was knocked out of the sky by a necklace that the king of Stormhold threw, claiming that the son who recovered it and returned it to the ruby color would be his successor, right before his death.

Tristan crashes into the star whose name is Yvaine, although first unaware she is in fact a star.

In this film everyone is after the star, for she will bring eternal life in an unconventional way. Tristan and Yvaine face many obstacles in this spellbinding adventure full of twists and turns including three trickster killing sister witches, pirates with a cross dressing captain, and prince brothers vying for the throne.

This film is truly out of this world. It’s very unique, I’ve never seen another film like it. Ultimately, it has a beautiful ending and can be considered a sweet film, even with all the wacky bits and pieces leading up to it.

The American Dream in Rocky and Sugar

Rocky (1976) sports drama film directed by John G. Avail dawn and both written and starring Sylvester Stallone. After finding out our class was going to be watching this movie I was excited, being that I had never seen the film before and knowing it was legendary. This film tells the story of the American Dream, started boxing at age 15 the Italian Stallion (Rocky) was basically an under dog. In the beginning of the film Rocky was called a bum not only by people in his neighbor hood but also by one of his previous trainers. Which he saw his self as something more and that's what he wanted to show people, "All I wanted to do at any fight was prove I was no bum, that I had the stuff to make a good pro". Which he later got to do so after getting the shot at the world heavyweight championship against Carl Weathers as Apollo Creed an undefeated fighter. But this whole opportunity was to prove that's America is still a land of opportunity. Which is similar to the movie Sugar 

Another sports drama film. Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Miguel Santos aka Sugar being played by Algenis Perez Soto is a Dominican pitcher struggling to make it into the big leagues and helping his family out of proverty. At age 19 Miguel gets his break to the United States and plays for the minor league system. In both films they seem to be about heroism and realizing your potential, taking your best shot and sticking by your girl. Rocky is in love with a shy girl (Talia Shire) who he ends up being with, she ends up staying by his side through the whole fight, sugar sticks by his girl also while he's in the U.S and she's in Domicinan Republic. Both of these films have twist to them which I believe makes them more valuable. In Rocky towards the end of the film most people will guess Rocky will end up winning the fight against the undefeated Apollo Creed but he doesn't, in Sugar the cliche ending would be Miguel making it into the major legaues. But in both films that isn't what happens, it's about what it took to get there, the effort, actions made after. This is why I believe both films are great, you can still be an underdog without saving the day, you can still be a man worth more than a good hand for pitching.