Review - Million Dollar Baby

on Wikipedia
directed by Clint Eastwood
Winner of the Oscar for:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor


***

RELEVANT

Apparently one of the major criteria for winning Best Picture is "be depressing". I just watched Baby on Netflix this weekend, but I remember when it first came out. They were basically promoting it as "chick Rocky". This movie is not "chick Rocky". It's about a whole lot more than boxing. Baby is an extremely well made film. The acting by Eastwood, Swank and Freeman is all phenomenal. Just don't think it's a popcorn flick. I made the mistake of pressing Play at about 9 o'clock one night. I had to stay up and watch SNL afterward just so I wouldn't go to sleep bummed out. Do yourself a favor and see this movie for the great acting. Then send it back to Netflix.


***


Clint Eastwood

Frankie Dunn, a boxing trainer and gym owner. He's managing a fighter, Big Willie Little, who's right on the cusp of a title shot.




Hilary Swank

Maggie Fitzgerald, a 31 year old waitress who decides she want to fight. She shows up at the gym intent on convincing Dunn to teach her how to fight, despite his insistence that he "doesn't train girls".





Morgan Freeman

Eddie "Scrap-Iron" Dupree, a former boxer who lost his eye in his final fight. Dupree runs the gym for Dunn.

Review - Ender's Game

on Wikipedia
written by Orson Scott Card
published in 1985
winner of the Hugo & Nebula Awards

***

SHELF-WORTHY

Read this book. I recently decided I'm only giving books as gifts from now on. If you haven't read this yet, and you're in line to get a gift from me, go ahead and expect this. Did you like Harry Potter? You'll like this. Do you like Star Wars? You'll like this. To Kill A Mockingbird? Read Game. Basically, I have yet to find anyone who has read this book and didn't enjoy it. If you try this book out and hate it, there's probably no reason for you to come back to this blog. I don't care if you don't like SciFi. I don't care if you think aliens are silly. Do me a favor and read this book.

***

Ender's Game is set in a near-future version of our world. At some point after our time, Earth was attacked by an alien race. The attack was barely repelled, and since then humanity has joined together to carve out a place in a less-lonely world. One big part of the paradigm shift is the creation of Battle School. The International Fleet (IF) was created to protect Earth from outside forces, and the IF built a space station in Earth's orbit to train its future leaders.

All human children are now tested at an early age, and the best and brightest are sent to Battle School when they turn five or six. The curriculum consists of advanced academics as well as typical military training, modified for space. The novel's protagonist, Andrew Wiggin, is known as Ender. He has been selected for Battle School, and the story revolves around his experiences leaving home and entering the military.

I won't go any farther than that into the plot. If you want to spoil yourself, hit the Wiki link. Game is great because it doesn't assume that kids are stupid. It looks at harsh circumstances, and growing up faster than you might have planned. It also has eight sequels if you fall in love with the world or the characters. The reading sequence is a little tricky, but I'll get to that in a future post.

If you've read Game, or you read it because of this post, please post comments below. If I actually get some comments I think I'll figure out the book's "birthday", and then just post a link back to this entry every year. Sometimes people trust a crowd more than an individual.

Review - "Slumdog Millionaire"

on Wikipedia
on IMDB
Directed by Danny Boyle
Winner of the Oscar for:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Score
Best Song
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Film Editing
Best Sound Mixing





Dev Patel as Jamal







Freida Pinto as Latika









Madhur Mittal as Salim








I finally watched "Slumdog Millionaire" Saturday night. It's the story of Jamal, his brother Salim, and his soulmate Latika. They all grew up in the slums of Mumbai, and some really awful stuff happens to them along the way.

The movie actually starts when Jamal is in his early 20s. He's on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?", he doing really well, and someone assumes that means he's cheating. That's when the flashbacks kick in, and they go all the way back to Jamal as a wee lad.

Slumdog was marketed here in the US as an uplifting story. I guess it's a pretty happy ending, but I was so bummed out by the time I got there that the ending was basically just enough to get me back to neutral. The movie won a truckload of awards. It shows how rough heartbreaking-ly rough parts of India can be. I can see why some people really liked it. I wasn't one of those people.

"Slumdog Millionaire" goes on my Significant list. It won the Oscar for Best Picture, and it was on every major critic's Top 10 list for 2008. It's the kind of movie that people will bring up over dinner for the next six months because it just came out on DVD and it wasn't in theaters nationwide for very long. Rent it or throw it on the queue when you get a chance. That way you can be part of the conversation, but you won't have spent 20 bucks.

Review style

I'm not a really harsh reviewer by nature. Sometimes something just really gets my goat and I'll rampage, but for the most part I have four classifications for stories.

1. Shelf-worthy - Basically, I liked it so much that I want to plunk down the cash for the Blu-Ray or the hardcover.

2. Entertaining - This means I was entertained. Clever title right? Maybe it was a cool story, or the graphics were awesome, or it has one or two really great sequences. I'm glad I spent the time/money on it, and I think you might have fun with it given the opportunity.

3. Significant - This means that I'm glad I experienced it, but it wasn't much fun and I'd just as soon never experience it again. This category is full of Oscar-winning movies and books you were assigned to read by some teacher at some point in your life.

4. Junk - Have you ever said to yourself or your friends "Well, I'll never get that 2 hours back" and been 100% sincere? I mean, you really wish you had been re-shingling your roof in August rather than watching that movie or attempting to read that book. That's this category. It wasn't pleasant. It wasn't relevant. It was junk.

\ˈner-ə-ti-ˌvȯr\

narrativor

One entry found.

Main Entry:

nar·ra·ti·vor

Pronunciation:

\ˈner-ə-ti-ˌvȯr\

Function:

noun

Date:

2009

1: someone who subsists on stories


***

OK, I actually stole the concept of the word from author Patrick Rothfuss. He referred to himself as a "narratavore" in an interview in the summer of 2007. I love the concept, but I take some issue with his spelling. Also, he already has a blog and he's a working author, so I don't feel too bad about borrowing the idea.

Basically, I love stories. I read all kinds of books. I go to the movie theater so often that some of the employees recognize me. TiVo allows me to watch an embarrassing amount of television. That brings us to Netflix. Ah, Netflix. I've avoided your siren song for a decade now. That chapter has closed. I tell myself maybe I'll go to the theater less frequently now, but I think I'm just trying to fool myself.

I don't think my life is all that interesting, but I come across a bevy of fascinating stories during my weekly grazing. That's why you should read this blog (theoretically). I'll tell you what I think after I watch a movie, or read a book, or...see a play? Maybe? If something interesting does actually happen to me, I may through that in, too.