Taken

The main focus of my critical essay will be the movie “Taken”.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCbDUREBwUg

Taken is the kind of movie that interests basically everyone. It is action packed and even kind of funny at times. It definitely kept me interested the entire time. I was going “OH NO! KICK HIS ASS! RUNNNNN!” for over half the movie. It was intense, yet had a happy ending. It was the perfect movie. The whole thing is about this girl who gets taken from her hotel in Paris, along with her best friend while they were on vacation. They end up getting put on drugs and sold as sex slaves by this huge group of criminals for money. Throughout the movie her dad is tracking these men and killing like everyone he encounters because they are all part of trafficking these women. They show how he uses his skills from his former life of being a spy to undermine these criminals. He has connections everywhere, and spy equipment. And let me tell you. His skills are so impressive. He is killing these people left and right, 24/7, all the time. It is rather amusing to watch because he is so slick. It is like he can see someone coming from a mile away at all times, and is ready for whatever they bring him. Liam Neeson is a phenomenal actor; he is intense and completely focused. He is very good at what he does. He’s one of those actors where you feel like your actually part of the movie, or at least you get a feel for the movie because it seems so real. This movie was a good example of just how far one will go to protect ones family, and just how badass you can get when you are in the heat of the moment.

One of the main reasons why I love this movie is because it shows just how strong that love between father and daughter was. Even though he was not a huge part in her life, and his relationship between him and her mother sucked. She still meant the world to him and he was willing to do literally anything to get her back. He put everything aside in his life in order to put his family first. His sense of protection for his daughter was so strong that he stopped at nothing to find her and bring her back. Trafficking is still a huge business today, 90% of humans trafficked are women, 50% of those, are kids/teenagers. That is so sad. This movie was equally interesting as it was informative. It attempted to make you aware of what can happen, and did a good job. But I do highly recommend you go watch this movie. I loved it. And you know what, I’m thinking you will too:) 

4 comments November 5, 2009

Michael Moore

Not a stupid white man: the democratic context of Michael Moore’s documentaries, is the name of the essay I decided to read and summarize. It is basically about how controversial Michael Moore along with his movies, speechs, and books are.  He is often perceived as a menace to democratic procedures.

In 1988 Michael released his first documentary called Roger and Me, it was about how the automobile industry was responsible for the impoverishment in the directors hometown of Flint, Michigan. Then after that Moore began to work in the tv buisness for awhile and ended up coming up with the feature canadian bacon in 1995,  a movie about the President of the U.S.  facing an approval rating plummeting almost as fast as the economy. Desperate, he approves a ludicrous plan to create a new “evil empire”… Canada?

However, he gained his popularity with the movie Bowling for Columbine in 2002, an investigative story that takes the people that watch to from the origin to the consequences of violence in American through the april 1999 shootings at columbine highschool in colerado. The “violence” documentary earned Moore two awards: the Special Prize of the fifty-fifth Cannes Film Festival and an Academy Award in 2003. His acceptance speech is remembered well for the words, “We live in fictitious times. We live in the time where we have fictitious election results that elect a fictitious president. We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons…. Shame on you, Mr. Bush. Shame on you.”

Michael Moore is not ashamed to say exactly what he thinks, Not only does he send the message, “Look, this is what really happens, and in most cases you are not aware of it,” but usually he indirectly adds, “This is what I found out about the situation.”

Some quotes that I liked in the essay are,

“The political dimension of the reflexive project lies partly in the way such films imply that people’s memory perception and interpretation of events are distorted by the stereotypes … that circulate in our culture”  -I like this particular quote because it is honestly true. different stereotypes perceive things in very different ways, and there are indeed many various stereotypes in our culture.

Another quote I find interesting is

“Immoral behavior breeds immoral behavior. When the President commits the immoral act of sending otherwise good kids to the war based on a lie, this is what you get.” – this quote is also very true, considering the way kids are raise is how their going to grow up, and being sent to war on the bases of a lie. Is not okay. Sending kids to war period is not okay.

Add a comment October 20, 2009

Bride Wars!

Bride wars is the type of movie that girls make their boyfriends go see with them, and the guys actually end up enjoying it. Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway are the perfect match to play these dueling bridzillas. Its funny and entertaining, that when they finally get a meeting with new yorks most known wedding planner, they get ready to have the wedding of their dreams. Both women have been deaming about the perfect wedding in June at the Plaza with eachother as maids of honor. But due to a screwup on account of the wedding planners assistant, their nuptials are planned for the exact same day. It never quite says why this is such a big deal, but you can bet that two women, with the same idea of a perfect wedding, on the same day, is going to be disasterous. Neither one will budge, so it leads to an epic battle of the bitches. One dyes the others hair blue, then revenge is taken at a tanning salon, and before you know it their not speaking to eachother at all.  Ditrected by Gary Winick, Bride wars cant really be called a romantic comedy considering the grooms to be are in the movie about as much as your typical waiter. This movie is entirely focused on the fact that two bestfriends are making the wedding itself far more important than the marriage. But, none the less Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway make this movie entertaining as hell, and I would recommend that you go see it and make your own opinion. 🙂

Add a comment October 9, 2009

Blog Post 1-Commercial

Okay so those Glade commercials, I think they are so cute. Those commercials are some of the best ever. Im guessing they mostly appeal to women considering us girls are usually into candles and good smelling spray, but hey! Who doesn’t want to watch a commercial thats somewhat interesting and promotes something you know is good. 

Like this one:     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4jScvBuGHI

Shes so excited for her friends to come over and see how amazing her house smells. Until they find out its Glade and she can’t have the credit for having an AMAZING smelling house. What I love about this commercial is that its true, Glade is amazing, i buy their product all the time. It smells good and keeps your house smelling fresh. hah. now i just sound like im promoting it, rather than writing about why I chose it. This commercial is well done though, Dori Kelly is the perfect person for it. She just looks the part. She does such a good job of not making the commercial boring. You know those commercials that go on and on about how great their product is and what great things it can do, well this commercial doesnt. It shows you how good it is and makes watching it interesting in the process. I really like how these commercials take place in a setting that people can relate to. It looks as if it could be real, Yes, yes i know thats the point of the commercial is to look real. But this commercail in particular I feel like people can really picture themselves using the product, and showing their friends.

🙂

2 comments September 29, 2009