Planes, Trains, and Hurricanes...I Mean Automobiles...Sorry

"You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I'm an easy target. Yeah, you're right, I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you... but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me; I'm not changing. I like... I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get"

Looking for a light hearted comedy to watch with your family or best friend on a late night? This is definitely the movie to pick up. Full of comedy and moments that are sure to make you wonder whats going to happen next, this movie proves itself to be a holiday classic. When it comes to monologues such as the one given by John Candy, the delivery is so rich and believable that you truly begin to develop feelings for the characters on a deeper level. Not to mention the unpredictable plot that our protagonists must go through which leaves the audience on the edge of their seats.

Throughout the movie the characters struggle to achieve their destination of Chicago to enjoy a thanksgiving dinner with their family. This goal is of course halted by constant mistakes and unforeseen events that happen to occur to them constantly. Some of these events include, having their car burst into flames, loosing all their money in said fire, etc... Ultimately, they reach their destination and in a twist they end up enjoying a wonderful thanksgiving dinner together. 

    

Man on wire by Walatsebi Kofi-Mensah Lomotey

Phillipe is crazy!!!!! What kind of hobby is this! I would never do this even if you gave me a million dollars. Phillipe Petit is THE Man on Wire and also THE craziest sane (I think) person I have ever seen.His hobby, actually his lifestyle is walking on a wire really high up in the air, like hundreds of feet. The first building he walked across is the Notre Dame. Norte Dame is 315 feet tall!!! I'm afraid of heights. Just watching this would have man my stomach turn. Then he wants to go on and walk across the twin towers!!!! Phillipe es muy loco! THATS 1,362 FEET!!!! Thats 1/4 of a mile high into the air! Im scared when I go on downtime at lake compounds, imagine how I would react when I'm that high in the air.
This was a pretty good movie. I don't usually enjoy documentaries but this one was really interesting.

Sugar by Walatsebi Kofi-Mensah Lomotey

Sugar is a dominican baseball player that had the chance to play in america. He was a pitcher with a nasty curve. American baseball is very competitive. Sugar competed as much as he can. Being a pitcher is one of the hardest position in baseball. If you mess up your form, its easy to get injured. Sugar was good, at first. He was on a roll and made a pretty good name for himself where he was. Then he downgraded until the point that he started using drugs to make him play better and focus. He was so desperate and performing badly that he was replaceable and before his team got the chance to send him back to the dominican republic, he snuck off the bus and went to New York to go find his friend that was once in the same situation. I think Sugar made the right choice because he wants to be... free. I would have done the same thing.
So when he got to New York he found a "job." He had the chance that most people in south America wish for and that is a chance to work had in the US and send money back to his family.
I think the moral of this movie was that you don't have to "Make it in the big times" to be successful. There is always some good in what you do as long as your trying.

The Seductive Sensations

Far different from any other film we have watched so far in Intro to Film Studies, Chicago is a musical centered around two aspiring performers: Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly. But there's one big obstacle that stands in their way: they both are murders. Roxie slayed her spouse, and Velma slaughtered her sister (say that three times fast) along with her husband as well. At first, I wasn't too sure if I would like this film, but as it progressed, I began to catch onto it. The movie is set up in a way in which reality and the womens' dreams of becoming actresses go hand in hand. It's a mix of real life and a stage show, which can get confusing at times until you realize what the director's intention is.

One common theme that I noticed in this film is that the women have the power. This was extremely evident when all of them were singing in jail, while on death row. They put on a huge production, called "Cell Block Tango". Each of them told their story about why and how they killed their husbands, and I found it hilarious that one of them got so aggravated when her husband was chewing (no not chewing, POPPING) his gum. I mean, who kills someone over gum? At least the rest of the women had more valid reasons, such as finding out that their husband was cheating, or being accused of cheating themselves. But either way, it was clear that the men weren't very powerful in their relationships. In another one of the songs, the lawyer (Billy) was the star of the show, yet his voice wasn't very powerful. I could barely hear him, yet the women were loud and clear. No character summarized this better than Queen Latifah, or should I say, Mama, as she commandingly strutted across the stage singing: "when you're good to Mama, Mama's good to you".

There's just one thing that threw me off a little bit with this film - it is set in the 1920s, yet the video looks so high-quality since it was filmed in 2002. It felt a little weird to me, especially since I've gotten accustomed to watching older movies in Film Studies, but undeniably, it isn't set in modern times. There are no smartphones, no HD televisions, no computers, and none of the other modern commodities that most of us live by. But there are cameras and newspapers (what are newspapers? People actually used to read those?) as well speaker systems and microphones.

I am looking forward to seeing what happens next in Chicago, and how Roxie and Velma end up. Will they rise to fame? Or will they fall to the death row...? 

Psycho

I really enjoyed how suspensful this movie was. It really kept me hooked on it because it was a mystery who the killer was. Honestly I thought it was the guy from the beginning but the part of when the "mom" comes out the room and kills the detective really threw me off and also when the owner of the hotel was carrying his mothers body downstairs made me think it was really her. 

I liked the part where the lady entered the house looking for the mother because I really thought she was alive. After she saw her and noticed it was a dead body I knew her son was going to try and kill the lady. 

It was pretty cool how he was him and his mother at the same time because when he talked in her voice it makes it seem like it's two people having a conversation. 

OOOOOOO WE HEADING DOWN TO CHICAGO TONIGHT!

"oh wow i just noticed the women had guns" - Shawn Luzzi, as he does this blog post during some free time.

I have to be the one to admit, I'm not the biggest fan of musicals, especially ones that have musical scores right after one another. However, this film is definitely shifting my mind set, if by just a little bit. The premise of this film seems to be that two specific women, Roxie (left) seems especially desperate to hit the big stage, and ends up getting thrown into prison after a mishaps with a random stranger, Freddy, who promised her to help her get to the big show in turn for some LOVELY INTERCOURSE.

What caught me the moment I watched this film is that the music scores are always films seperate from the story in the film. Like, the singing and such will happen on a random stage while sometimes the shot may go back to the story for some other shots and such. Though it kinda seems out of place, and may through some off of the movie, what pulls me back in is how creative these musical numbers are, especially "We both reached for the gun", as the reporters and Roxie are visualized as puppets with Billy (middle) controlling her as the rest of the reporters. This could introduce an interesting theme of control, especially as he bends the real story of how Roxie got arrested into a fantasy to help her become famous.

Either way, this film has interested me, and I'm curious to see what the rest of this musical has in store. 

Rocky by Walatsebi Kofi-Mensah Lomotey

Rocky is a movie of the american view of an under dog. American is known as the ultimate underdog when the 13 colonies took down big bad Great Britain. Rocky is a small town "south paw" fighter that fights because he can't sing or dance. He got heavy feet but a strong punch and nicked named The Italian stallion. This low time fighter has the chance to fight the undisputed heavy weight champion of the world, APOLLO CREED!!!!! I love Apollo Creed, thats my boy!
One thing I found interesting about Rocky is that he gets hit in the face like crazy. He doesn't block punches yet he has never broken his nose. Thats ridiculous!!!
For those of you that don't know, this movie is based on the fight Chuck Wepner vs Muhammad Ali. Chuck Wepner, the real rocky, went fifteen rounds with the "The Greatest".



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9zdQzoUCY0
Heres a clip of the real rocky.