Thank you

A lot got said in class about the movie Kung Fu Hustle. The first one that I liked was how the loser became "The One". I loved how the movie did this, and I guess that it happens in a lot of movies. In the beginning of the movie he has nothing, he is the loser, but there is something special about him. He just has to find out who he is, and his place in the world. He plays this bad tough guy in the movie, and then he turns out to be the good guy in the end that fixes everything for the "good" people. He was bullied when he was little and he was scammed by the homeless man. He didn't have much in life, but then he "hatches" and becomes the man that he was made to be.

This movie also incorporated so many different movie Genre's: There was the western's with the whole town and the two groups of people coming to fight each other. It was like two gangs, like in the western movies when a gang of bad people come into the town and everyone closes the windows and locks the doors, and there is another gang that tries to stand up to them but then they pretty much all get killed. Another Genre that they had incorporated was the silly cartoon type "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", by having them run really fast like the road runner, and the guy having really big lips, and when he had about 7 knifes in his body and his friend pulls one out and sticks it back into him. Another one was the Matrix/ Star Wars type of movie where they do all of the crazy stunts, and have people floating in the air and kicking people through walls. (Which the effects were really cool I thought!). Then it had the blues brother's guys in it, and it reminded me of that genre.

Also, of course it incorporated Kung Fu movie genre. But it wasn't the same as most Kung Fu movies, maybe I haven't seen that many of them. But this one was so over dramatic. Everything was blown up so much. The Screamer, the toad, the punching of metal, playing the guitar hard enough to throw knifes, they were so over dramatic! But they did stick to the typical master story about how they have their own unique style, and special talent. Which made the movie more like a regular Kung Fu movie. The movie seemed to be making fun of Kung Fu movies, by over dramatizing everything and making it comical instead of serious fighting for a serious reason.

The movie that I would compare this movie the best to would have to be a very corny comparison, but Citizen Kane. I have to say that because no one knew what he was talking about by saying Rosebud, and in the end we find out that he has carried this sled with his since he was a child, but no one else ever found out. In Kung Fu Hustle it was the lollipop that was the childhood symbol. The girl saved it since she was a child because it was the only thing that she had to remind herself of him. In the end he drew a picture of a lollipop and no one understood what he meant by it, and we knew what he was talking about. It's the idea of telling the audience something and never letting the characters know about it. It is a very interesting way of making the audience feel special. Because they know something that the characters never find out about.

"Fuck me sideways with a ChainSaw"

Favorite quote from this Movie. haha

Ok I'm going to repeat myself when I say that I really thought this was going to be a split personality movie. I think that would have been a great ending to this movie, finding out that that kid never really existed and it was her second personality instead. So i was kind of disapointed in the ending becuase I was all excited for it to end like that

I also loved the idea of the red scrunchy being the "symbol" of the bitch of the school. Who ever wore that scrunchy was the leader of this mini society.

I also wanted to say that I thought JD was kind of the hero. I know that sounds kind of sedistic but oh well. I mean thinking back into my highschool there were a lot of snobby rich girls that I would have loved to just knock off. But of course I didn't. I just thought that he took all the normal kids dreams and mad them a reality. I know that sounds terrile but have you ever thought to your self oh man what I would give to get rid of this person... I just always hoped they'd move, but he took it a step further.

Also, I loved how they added the little girl crying at the funeral. That really made my heart melt. Because no matter how much I hated someone and thought it would be great if they were just gone, I always thought of their family. We had a few kids die in our highschool, and the overwhelming sense of sadness of their family and close friends was always too much to bare. I felt so bad for that little girl who was probably the little sister of one of the boys. I couldn't imagine if my older brother died in highschool. I would have never gotten over it.

They also made the suicides sort of heroized. They got the day off of school they had parties and school rallys. It wasn't sad at all.

I also wish that in the end she would have killed him instead of him killing himself. It would have also been a better ending to the one that they had I think. His dad had a lot of problems and you almost wish the mom would have killed him so the son didn't have to deal with the father his whole life. I felt bad for JD because of how he was raised because without his father in his life I don't think he would have turned out like that.

Thats all for now!

Shaft

This movie was pretty good. I still didn't like it as much as I enjoyed Vanishing Point.
When we got talking in the beginning of class I was preparing my self for a lot of violence and sex in this movie. Then when we got done with it, it didnt have as much action in it as I wanted. Yeah a few guys died, a the bottle over the guys head, guns flying everywhere. But it didn't have the same effect, Shaft always being one step ahead of everyone made it less exciting. I did like how he always had a comment, for everyhing that got said to him that mand had something to say. He was always on his toes with his comments.
There was a lot of stereo typing in this movie too. The mafia guys were all white, the cops were white, the bad guys were black, and Shaft was black. The way woman were treated in this movie was another reflection of how black men treated them. "I'm going to get laid hahahaha" he really just liked having sex, not a relationship. If there was any violence it seemed to be from the black guys, and the black guys were a lot bigger, stronger than the white guys. The white guys were all running around like chicken's with their heads cut off, while the black guys are always one step ahead of the police.
I guess I'm not really shure what else to talk about this movie. It was ok, but it really didn't stand out to me. I didn't think there was a lot to really talk about. It was a racism stereotypical movie. With a little bit of suspense, and kidnapping. I don't know, I guess I'm just drawing a blank with what to talk about.

I'm so sorry this is sooo late, I got called into work at like 8am this morning and didn't have time to post it before I went in!

Ok... sorry again for it being Late.
Vanishing Point... Wow. Really thats all I have to say about this movie. haha Just Kidding but it was really just wow.
First can we just talk about Super Soul? He was my FAV character in this movie. He was so full of life, and he didn't let anyone tell him "no". He wanted to do things the way he wanted them done. And even after the police caught him listening in on the scanners, there was nothing they could do about it all. He was so strange. He had like ESP with Kowalski, its kind of that blind 5th sense that gets portrayed alot in movies. I LOVE IT!
Ok, then Kowalski. He was soo messed up in the head. He had so many problems happen to him in life, and he didn't know how to deal with all of them. I think that was the reason why he wanted to just drive, and do it so fast. It helped him forget everything bad that has happened to him. We said in class that he was an everyday man, but something tells me that he really wasn't. I mean not that he was a famous guy or he had a lot of money, or anything like that. But he's had more bad things happen to him in his life than the everyday man. He just kept getting Shit on by his own life. He was a loser in his life, he never did amount to anything. He lost races, his job, his wife, he fought in a war.
The road represented life in so many ways. Not just his own but everyone elses too. It sybolized freedom, and going where you want to go. But it also symbolized rules and limits to even your own body. He tried to break all these rules. He was "sticking to the man", he wanted to not have athority in his life, and just do whatever he wanted. And even in the end, he pushed his own body the the limit by killing himself. I can't imagine what goes on in your head right before you kill yourself. He had to have so many mental problems.
Then there was the naked girl on the bike. I think that she was a big part to this movie because she represented what he wanted to be. She was so free and careless. She was naked on a motorcycle in the middle of the desert living in a shed. I mean how much more free can you get than that? I think that she was what he wanted to be, but he didn't see it. He couldn't get past the part of driving fast to slow down and take control of his own life. So in the end he had lost all control of his life. He would have had nothing left if he would have stopped that car. He would have been in jail with the lowest amount of freedom a person can experience. He had nothing to lose by killing himself because he had nothing left to do.
Thats all for now... Again... I'm sooooooo sorry this is so late.

"shoot first ask questions later"

Dr. StrangLove... First of all this is a strange name for a movie.
Now that that's said we can move on. I would like to point out that there never seemed to be anyone driving the plane. It kept showing people looking at the controls, and every once in awhile the pilot was flying. But he seemed to get up alot and walk around without anyone driving.
I love how they play the same song throughout the entire movie. Johnny comes marching home. It's the clique war song. Just like this is a combination of a whole bunch of war cliques all put together to make one movie. There are so many things about this movie that remind me so much of other war movies... You've got the trucks, the sonar, the plane, the meetings of all the men that aren't fighting this war. Which I think is funny in just about every war movie. They never seem to have someone that has been in battle, its always just the president, his office, and some other higher ups. Noone asks the guys that are actually fighting the war what they think.
I loved the list of things that they had in their survival kit : Mini bible, 3 lipsticks,3 nylons, and a bunch of other random stuff. Like any of these things would help if they droppped a nuke right under themselves. They were basically suicide bombers, and they didn't even know it.
I'm learning about the Cold War in one of my other classes, so it was kind of funny to see it played out in this movie. With the whole comi's won't drink water so they have to trick them, because all they drink is vodka. And when he says "the red coats are coming" it has so much meaning to American's because we think of the war for independence against the British. So it's kind of like the war for independence against communism. This movie looked at the cold war from a different point of view, and it may have been funny, but the meaning behind the movie was a very serious one.
The part where the Air Force is attacking it's own base seems redundant to me. How Mandrake has to convince the guy not to kill him because he has to call the president of the U.S. but he can't get connected. Then he couldn't come up with enough change to make the call.
I also thought it was strange that there were almost no women in this movie. There was the "sectretary" in the beginning of the movie. After that one, there was only phone calls to women, and pictures of women in the plane. I think it had to do with the deffinite homosexual tone that this movie is portraying.
I think that's all for now... Until next time.

La Dolce Vita

Ok, first I'm going to start out with saying how stupid some girls can be. If the guy doesn't love you and tells you he doesn't love you, get out of the car and move on with your life. The end of the movie where Marcello and that woman were in the car and he said they had been bickering for like 4 hours I wanted to freak out. I agree he shouldn't have hit her, and yelled at her so much but Man! Ok, I'm done with that tid bit.

Next I'm going to add that I really didn't understand this movie. I guess I was getting confused between all the females that were in the movie. It seemed like in the beginning of the movie everyone loved Marcello, he had all these woman after him, all of the Paparazzi always following him. But at the end of the movie it all went down hill. He had no woman, he had seemed like he lost his own mind at the party.

I really have nothing else to say about it. I didn't see the connections between the beginning scene and the ending scene. I really am drawing a blank about anything else about this movie. I don't know. This movie is really hard to talk about, expecially because we didn't get to talk about it in class. I was so lost all throughout the movie and had absolutly no idea what it was trying to say to me. I'm sorry that this is such a bad Blog, but help is much needed and would be greatly appreciated if someone could just help me out.

Hotel California

This movie was very hard to understand. Not only that but a very tall moved into the front of the classroom where he didn't sit before, and I couldn't read the subtitles very well. Not that it would have helped much because the entire movie didn't make such sense to me.

The reason I titled this Hotel California, was because this place that they were staying at reminded me of the song where once you come in, you can't get out. With all the repeating of the sentences, and he kept saying that there were all these long hallways with no end. Also all the people with their mouths moving but nothing coming out. The music was very dramatic all the time, and the flash pictures of the woman kept making my mind think weird things. Like when she fell onto the bed and it showed her falling from like every angle around her, and when she died, it did the same thing except the picture seemed to change. It was like all of these people were ghosts stuck in this purgatory. It was very dream like, very much like a guy trapped in his own mind without knowing it. He just cannot win in this movie. He can't win the girl, he can't win the game, and he doesn't know what he wants.

He was very much obsessed with this girl that didn't seem to want anything to do with him. He wouldn't leave he alone the entire movie, and he had all of these photos of her in a drawer. And he kept losing the game to her husband. But if they seemed to know each other, and he seemed so in love with her, you'd think they would be comfortable with each other, so why the Vu formality? It's similar in Spanish, and we hardly ever use the formal tense of Spanish.

This movie really didn't make any sense to me at all. I know that we weren't suppose to try to catch the "moral of the story", but it's hard not to. We are so use to "getting something" out of the movies that we watch, that it's hard to watch a movie and not look for the plot of the story. I didn't feel like I got anything out of this movie. There was no story to it, it was just a bunch of random stuff thrown together into an hour and a half of film.

Thats all for now. Sorry I didn't have anything intelligent to say about it, but I really couldn't find an Inner Meaning to the movie.