Smart People

Tagline: Sometimes the smartest people have the most to learn.

This is an independent film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 where the rights were acquired by Miramax Films. The main characters are played by Dennis Quaid, Sarah Jessica Parker, Ellen Page (!), and Thomas Haden Church. I picked this movie up on a whim hoping it would be watchable. It turned out to be amazing.

This movie is about a professor who is a witty pompous widower and his journey to become more...sociable. His daughter, played by Ellen Page is a senior in High School and got accepted to Harvard. She is very found of her father and he is her role model, she doesn't have any friends, except for her step uncle who paid a surprise visit and is not living with them. Lawrence, the professor, meets a former student and starts to fall for her. His personality causes a lot of ups and downs in their relationship. In the end he learns a lesson and everyone is happy.

I liked this movie because i felt smart while i was watching it (haha). All of the large vocab words and grammatically correct speaking gives me a sense of hope for quote unquote normal people. The plot was simple but still interesting because of the script and intricate characters. My favorite was either Vanessa Wetherhold (Ellen Page, the daughter) or James Wetherhold (Ashton Holmes, the step brother). This movie may never be as popular as some but it is still worth watching.













Favorite Quote: Vanessa Wetherhold: Theresa Sternbridge practically runs a soup kitchen and she's always seen posing in photos with crack babies and dying, old, crusty ladies. And do you know why? She scored in the 45th percentile on her SAT. People like you and me don't need to compensate.

Good Will Hunting

The writers of Good Will Hunting were Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, two of the main characters. It started out as an action-thriller movie, which is definitely not how we know it today. After considerable revision and suggestions the movie turned into the award winning film we all love.

Good Will Hunting is about a poor self taught genius from South Boston who has emotional problems bottled up from his childhood abuse(Matt Damon). He works as a Janitor at MIT and gets discovered by a math professor who takes him under his wing. Will gets forced to go to therapy and develops a very good relationship with his therapist(Robin Williams). He ends up finding a girlfriend, who he pushes away in fear of getting to attached. In the end everything always seems to work itself out.

This is such a good movie because even though it has a basic story line there are a lot of extra memorable moments that happen along the way. It is so interesting because you get to watch Will unfold throughout these therapy sessions that reveal more and more about him each time. I can't help but cry every time during the last therapy session. This movie is just a classic that everyone must see.

What my Blog is about.

This blog is basically all of my entertainment recomenations to you. It is full of my favorite books, movies, and television shows. I try to give them a fair review but they might be a bit bias on my side becasue i only write about things i really like. Maybe i should change that but i would feel bad writing negative comments about anything that someone has put so much work into. Basically you can come to my blog for ideas about what movies to see or books to read. and you can also check out some of the music.

The Kite Runner

It is about a boy from Afghanistan who is haunted by the guilt of betraying his friend, who is the son of his fathers servant. The book takes place around 1989 when the fall of the Afghanistan monarchy occurred, which takes place in the novel.It is a very well written and interesting book especially for being the author, Hosseini's first novel. He has written two more books, one is a sequence to The Kite Runner called A Thousand Splendid Sons. I haven't read it yet but i hear it is even better then the first one.The Kite Runner was made into a movie which came out on DVD in march. It is a great movie and it's even in the original language of Afghanistan so it has subtitles. The movie, of course, isn't as good as the book because books are always better but it still is a must see.The book is challenging mainly because of the setting being in a different country with the whole different culture. However that was my favorit part about the book the fact that it was different then most books I have read read. Sometimes you have to jump out of your element. Even though i will probabaly never visit Afghanistan i can still read about it and pretend like i'm there.

The Garden City

Missoula, Montana
Known as the Garden City, Missoula is supposedly the place to be.
One of my school administrators, Mr. Maxey, whose opinion i highly respect, told my friend and i that we had to visit this majestic place. When i first heard it was in Montana i have to admit i was a little turned off. So i decided to do some research.
It has a thriving art scene according to wikipedia. The international wildlife film festival is held there. I guess one of the members of Pearl Jam is from Missoula, Aubrey would find that interesting (my friend who is taking this trip with me).
It is the second largest city in Montana and is home to the University of Montana. It is some sort of sanctuary for bicyclist because of the American Bicycle Association's location there.
The college town aspect of this city is so far the most appealing feature to me. I feel like it would be an interesting place to take a road trip to.
Aubz and i will plan one during spring break and then i'll tell you how it went.

Fargo

The only thing i have to say about this movie is that it was produced by the Coen Brothers. They are famous for movies overloaded with plays on stereotypes and over the top movie conventions. Fargo is no exception, this true story comes to life on the screen and it seem to pull you right into the movie.
Fargo is about a car dealer, Jerry, who gets himself into a bit of financial troubles. Jerry comes up with the plan to have his wife kidnapped and held for ransom to be paid by his wealthy father-in-law. The kidnapping doesn't exactly go as planned to say the least and Jerry has to sit back and watch everything happen.

To say the least their are a few murders and allot of blood shed. The genre is kind of a blur between a few things: crime, drama, thriller, and I'm sure a couple more.
My favorite character is Marge Gunderson, who is the pregnant cop sent to investigate the first round of murderers. Her character brings this whole movie together and plays a key role in the plot. She is played by Francis McDormand who is an academy award winning actress.

This show intrigues me to an extent that i am almost embarrassed. Every aspect of it is so interesting and entertaining. I don't really know if it is fake or scripted but i don't want to know i just want it to stay exactly how it is. The whole aspect of having someone with completely different morals, values, and living habits, come into a strangers home and tell them how they should be living is fascinating.
When you watch the show, the things that are different and some would say wrong with the family seem so obvious. However when you take a step back and think about your family, you wonder are there things like this in my family that i dont even notice? I always wonder that. What would america think of my family and the way we live?
The way the show has its up and downs and always comes to a resolving end is great. The families always change for the better.
Also i think it is the way that they are filming everday american families that makes the show so popular. Everyone wants to know what other people's families are like and they compare thier own with them. I am not a big fan of stupid reality shows that are either obviously scripted or that have no point to them at all. However wife swap is different.

Hot Rod

This is a film that will definitely never fail to produce a good laugh. Hot Rod is about Rod Kimble, a teenager who has never really grown up, and is aspiring to be a stunt man. He is played beautifully by Andy Samberg, an American stand-up comedian.

The plot consists of Rod trying to raise money for his dying step dad. However, he wants to save his life not to be a good son, but because he wants to someday win their never ending battle of beating each other up. Rod uses his stunt man abilities to raise the money, the only problem is, Rod doesn't really have any stunt man abilities. To make things worse he finds out his dead dad was never really a stunt man, which has been his inspiration for everything his life revolves around.



This movie is full of laughs and enjoyment. It is the kind of movie you can watch over and over and fall in love with it more each time. If i could memorize everyline to this movie then my life would be complete.

Rico: I'm freakin pumped! I've been drinking green tea all goddamn day!

Hypnotic

You are sitting in a velvet read fold up cushioned seat, a line of people are on your right and on your left. A Crowd is staring at all of you while a large man keeps repeating, "You can only hear my voice tune everything else out," in a pathetic attempt to hypnotize you. Of course your mind is far from only listening to his voice. You are wondering, Is this working...I have to go pee...wait PAY ATTENTION...Everyone is starring at me. Then the hypnotist says, "On the count of three you will fall asleep...One...two...Three." Everyone, including you, drops their heads and seem to be asleep. You aren't asleep at all though, you just did this so you wouldn't look like a fool in front of everyone.

This scenario has happened to me twice. Once in eight grade and then again this weekend at my amazingly great work party, i went solely for the free food/gift but decided to join in on the fun and try to get hypnotized. A quarter of the way into the presentation i decided that it definitely hadn't worked and I walked off stage, the person sitting next to me quickly followed. I had noticed that a few other people had walked off earlier. As a watched the rest off the show i couldn't help but think half of them were faking the whole thing.
I don't think that a person can't be hypnotized i just think it takes a certain kind of person to do this and also a very well practiced hypnotist. The kind of person has to be able to be completely relaxed and be able to clear their mind. This is my flaw, i cannot not think if i was forced. This is a very interesting topic, hypnosis is. In fact we just learned about it in Psychology a little bit ago. There are two theories of what happens to a person when they get "hypnotised". Some people think that hypnosis is a unique physiological state, one that a person cannot enter without the help of a hypnotist

Hypnosis researchers believe that hypnosis involves social influences and a special state of dissociation consciousness. So the subjects are partly doing what they are doing to satisfy everyone else but also their mind is separate from the conscience. It's kind of like when you are are getting tickled. If you concentrate hard enough you can disassociate the sensation with the feeling and it won't tickle. This is the same thing that happens with hypnosis.