The Host

Overall, it was an impressive film.  I liked it. Some things that boggled me though were how come only some people got infected by touching the monster and how come the people weren't affected by the Agent Yellow, which is similiar to Agent Orange, I assume? I think what caused the american, Donald to get infected by something was not because he 'touched' the creature but was because the creature probably spitted some kind of poisonous saliva on him.

There are some things I'd like to talk about before I get to the theme of the movie. One of them is the special effects which, for a Korean film, it was very believable. The way the creature looked, you would think the special effects came from ILM or WETA DIGITAL or DIGITAL DOMIAN but no. The scene that was literally suspenseful and grabbed me was when the creature first emerged out of the water. That was impressive and a helluva way to start the movie. I liked the shot where Hyun-seo was grabbed by her father after she came out of the concession stand and they were running in slow motion away from the creature with the crowd running around them. Because it seemed like everyone was running in slow motion but the creature was running fast, which sort of reminded me of dreams because usually when you're chased in your dreams, you're slower than the person chasing you.

I liked the main character, the blonde haired Gang-Du, and how childish and irresponsible he was at the beginning of the film with his family and daughter and throughout the film, after he realized that his daughter was still alive, he literally grew into a man or father in order to save her. Also, how each family member had their own sort of problems, like the sister not being able to 'let go', which had to do with her archery and at the end, she literally saved the day by being able to 'let go' and fire the arrow when it was needed.

Another scene that I love was the scene where the brother, Nam-il arrived at the 'funeral' where the family is grieving and crying. I know it's not suppose to be funny but for some reason, I couldn't stop from laughing the entire time, especially when the brother got pissed at the photographers and swing at them when they were taking pictures and when he started hitting and kicking the Gang-Du.

I think the theme of this film has to do with family and their journey to come together by setting aside their careers and differences in the time of a tragedy. They had to come together as a family in order to save Hyun-seo. At the beginning of the film, Gang-Du was basically a kid himself with a kid who probably was being raised by her grandparent, instead of her father and by the end of the film, we see a physical and emotional change in Gang-Du. His hair is natural and he seems to be much more responsible in the last scene with him making dinner for the orphan boy, whom I presume he took in, and instead of watching television, he sat down with him and eat dinner while keeping a watch on the horizon.

Also, I forgot to touch upon the beginning scene which has to do with the theme also, to me, anyway. It seems that a lot of our problems start in labotories and society ends up with the filth that the scientists basically flush out. The creature was mutated, due to the chemicals the lab assistant (who committed suicide by jumping into the water at the beginning) flushed into the sewer system so it's apparent that the symbolism in that is one that brings America to my mind. In my opinion, the scnes with Gang-Du  in the hospital reminded me of the way our government seems to take control of us when they shouldn't, adding to the 'police state' dilemma that most of our enemies claim is the reason they hate us. So, to me, the theme of the movie is twofold: one having to do with a singular family coming together as one and putting aside their differences in a tragedy to save their sibling and it also has to do with the way the government treats the citizens in the time of a tragedy, almost as if they cause tragedies to happen just so they can take control, which is sort of like with the airline scare right now with passengers being X-RAYed.

Code Unknown

I didn't fully understand this film. Maybe because there were so many stories in the film dealing with different characters. But the one story I did follow was the character that Juliette Binoche played. I know that she was an actress and her boyfriend was a photographer. What struck me during the film and caught my attention was the scene when she thought she was auditioning for a film but the guy behind the screen told her he was going to kill her by flooding the room with gas. What was so traumatic and dynamic about this scene was that the camera stayed on her face the entire time and we were made to watch her emotions and expression as he was telling her this. So it was almost like we were the ones telling her and almost like we were the ones being told, as if we were staring into a mirror and he was behind it. Another scene that was impressive was the beginning scene with Amidou, the black guy, who grabbed Anne's nephew because he thought he was insulting the homeless man by giving him the sandwich. I liked this scene because there were no cuts or edits during most of it or all of it and we were made to watch it as if we were pedestrians on the street watching it take place. Another thing that was cool about this scene was that it was the scene that featured our main characters who were all in it and altered all of them in some way. It was sort of like the catalyst scene.
I was more so confused by the beginning and ending scenes featuring the 'sign-language' kids. I don't understand sign language so I didn't understand why they put in in there.

I think one of the themes of this movie, to me, is sort of like the title of the film: incomplete takes of several journeys. Sometimes in life, a singular moment involving several people can change them forever, even if the moment isn't as significant or dramatic as one might think it should be. I think in this case, we were dealing with people who weren't acting on their impulses to do what they wanted to do in life or they were, but there was something holding them back from committing to it fully. Like I said at the beginning of the film, I didn't fully understand the movie so I can't comment honestly without coming across as not knowing what I'm talking about in some way, because in truth, I don't. I'm just trying to elaborate on some things that I did understand and catch on. But a theme that I can honestly comment on that I caught was people being altered by a movie that changed them in the way that they needed at the time because most of them were lacking the ambition to change themselves or if they were changing themselves, this moment gave them the extra boost.

Moolaadé

This film in particular I didn't like too well. I liked certain aspects of it liked the rebellion of the female characters making a stand against the men for what they believed in. There was a scene that I LOVED where Colle was being whipped by her husband, I think it was, because the other men told them to take care of his wife. And no matter how many times or how hard he hit her, she still stood there and kept taking the blows even though I know it must've hurt like hell.

For some reason, when I was watching this, I started thinking of The Color Purple, which is one of my favorite movies. The themes in both movies, I think, are similiar because at the heart of both stories it is about the black movie overcoming struggles and adversity. Not to mention, I think that black women have it the worse in life because number one, they are black and number two, they are women and women have it hard anyway because everyone thinks of it being a man's world and some people even think of it as being a white man's world. But I don't see why they wanted to continue the female mutilation, which was what is was, not a purification process they said it was. I mean, if you're in a civilization, you want it to continue and flourish but I mean, I guess I could understand it if the women weren't good women and were lacking in the intelligent department or something but even still, as a man, I would want a son to continue my name and legacy.

I think the theme of this movie has to do with opposing authority. Like for instance, Colle opposes the idea of circumcision, known as the purification process by the men and she is ridiculed by the men because if I remember, didn't she NOT MAKE her daughter do it? It's sort of hard to follow the story and small parts of it when it's in a different language but I think I remember that.

What struck me about the film when I was watching it was how unbelievable slow and boring the first prolly 3o or 40 minutes of it was but after that, it started to pick up the pace and it wasn't until The Store Owner, Mercenary stood up and made Colle's husband stopped beating her. Then I become interested because it's almost like he was a catalyst for the change that happened in the movie after that. Like he was what caused the women to stand up for themselves. It usually only takes one thing in someone's life to make them change forever so I really dug that.

Transpotting

I sort of liked this film. Not too much but it was entertaining. Some aspects of it were better than the others but one scene that I didnt like was, yeah like most people, the scenes with the baby and ultimately the death of the baby. That bothered me because RIGHT AFTER it died, the mother asked for a hit so it's astounding to me that drugs can have that affect on people to that degree, to give up on their care for their offsprings and fixate on their addictions. I liked how EWAN and his friends in the movie did things that rejected society, because at the beginning, it that monologue (choose life) it seemed like he DIDN'T want to do the lists he listed but at the end, after he got the movie and decided to move to the states, I presume that's where he was going, he said HE WAS GOING to do those things and accept them. Interesting. What surprised me about the actual film was the pre-production - because after watching the making of the film, it surprised me that SO MUCH went into making the film like wardrobe, music, and props. This film, even though it was well-directed and well-edited, looked like NOTHING went into making it - it looked like low-budget but I guess that's why is was well-recieved by the critics because it WAS SO low-budge and still came out good with the script, acting, soundtrack and look of the film.

I'm familiar with the actor Robert Carlyle who played begbie! Good actor! I've seen him in THE BEACH, which is another Danny Boyle movie with Leonardo Dicaprio and Formula 51 (I think it's called) with Samuel L. Jackson. I liked his character, I think it's a stand out, especially with the bar scene which was hilarious but --

When it comes to the theme of the movie, I think it has to do with growing up and leaving behind childhood and your friends. Sort of like American Graffiti in the scene that when they say 'Can't be seventeen forever'.
Another theme I caught on was that RENT BOY hesitates to grow up and stay young because of the pressure of being an adult like with bills and all that and I guess, the dependent on drugs keeps him in a state of adolescent bliss to block the feeling of numbness of mental fatigue that being an adult would bring on young adults.

Lady Vengeance

HATED IT AT FIRST! BORING AS HELL until --

THE ENDING! Then I started to pay attention and not want to curse myself for coming to class that day because that ending was awesome - a little too long and overdown but awesome because it reminded me of SAW a little bit, in the idea that 'yeah, they're making him pay for what he did' which I thought was cool but either I wasn't paying attention at the beginning (I'll admit, the muff-diving scene turned me off and on at the same time and after that, I honestly wanted to leave or go to sleep for some reason) but I felt like I could've made a better ending to that film for some reason. Like on the way home, I kept thinking about it and what I would change. That main character was hott, too and very good actress - REALLY impressed me! But seeing those kids cry when they were killed sort of made me mad like the old guy sitting next to me mentioned his little 'hoo-hah' about he'd kill that man without hesitation or care, which I would to and actually sit there and wait for the cops to come and tell them I did it and if they don't like it, they can drink some Cyanide in red kool-aid!

The theme of the film, to me, would have to be that of revenge and vengeance. There is no question.

Like I said earliar, the beginning of the film was tedious and you couldn't really understand it because you didn't know know where it was going or really what happened until the film went along and got closer to the ending. It could've been because it was in a different language, though or just me. But yeah, revenge definately had to have been the theme but it was well-deserved revenge. It was like the revenge in a movie like The Road To Perdition with Tom Hanks - the kind that seemed justifiable in the end, but what was genius about it was that, the girl actually showed the parents of the children that THAT MAN actually killed their parents and then she let them decide what to do. That was genius!

Hero

Loved this film! Not so much as I think I should but I do love the look of it, more so than anything else because honestly the action seems a bit supernatural or ethereal in the sense that, 'okay, yeah impossible but I'll go with it for now' whereas in the MATRIX (which it reminded me of), we felt the action was possible because ... well, it was IN the matrix and since NEO is THE ONE, he can do that shit.

I liked the scene where the girls were fighting in the forest with the leaves! Shit man, that was cool as fuck like literally because I look at films from a filmmaker's perspective and I couldn't figure out how they did nor do I think I want to. But yeah, there was certain things about this film that I liked, which was basically the soundtrack and cinematography, which I think it won awards for but I'm not sure.

After I watched it, I tried to find the script online but I couldn't because I like to read screenplays after I watch films but yeah, dude, I liked this film but probably wouldn't watch it again and again but if I'm on a plane and flying to LA and it's on, I'd watch it!

There is a phrase that came to me with this film which is 'it's better to die on your feet than live on your knees' but oddly, some of the main characters thought different. All but JET LI'S character who was bent on destroying the emperor out of revenge of what he did. But even he struggled later on during the film, I guess, because of the other characters trying to talk him out of it. Even the couple fought against each other in accomplishing the task. The theme of the film comes off as tyranny and totalitarian because the emperor did have control over everyone else, didn't he? I think I caught that.

'THE RETURN'

Okay, this is honestly one of the best movies I've ever seen!

I'm not going to review the film from a filmmaker's point of view because I didn't watch it from a filmmaker's point of view and I ALWAYS, ALWAYS watch movies through a filmmaker's eyes!

The way the film looked was sort of low-budget but that didn't take anything away from the story nor the film itself! It just made it seem more impressive because it lookeded like a film that my friends and me could've made. Omigod - I haven't stopped thinking about it since I saw it. The ending of the film hurt to watch because I think I know what was in the box. I grew up never knowing my mother so the relationship between him and Ivan was sort of like mine and my father. The soundtrack of the film, which I think was only several instrumentals is absolutely captivating and at the end of the film, the music helped make the ending as superb as it was! It was odd that that THE FATHER never really showed love but some fathers are like that - they love their children but have a hard time showing it. Especially fathers to sons. But I could see the love in the father's eyes sometimes - like for instance, when IVAN told him he was nothing and he said you're wrong, son (I THINK WHATEVER WAS IN THE BOX had something to do with the father replying to this like he did).

I think also what was in the box was something that he wanted to SHARE with his sons - something that described me or was something that maybe his father gave him. Something that would help his sons figure him out since they didn't know him.

But all in all, man, such a great film, it made me want to BE a father for some reason and have sons and just
love them. I will buy this movie and watch it probably watch a month - it's like The Shawshank Redemption - a movie that I will watch over and over and share with others!

The theme of the film to me has to do with the universal tales of fathers and sons, meaning a lot of times in life with everyone, there is this sort of rebellion we have against our fathers. Either we don't want to be like them or we feel compelled to BECOME SOMETHING because they put high expectations on it. But with this one, I think it has to do with never getting a chance to say what you want to someone you love or need to say. But it's strange because some people believe that there never was a father so if that's the case, the theme of the movie is letting go of their father and moving on. If that's the case, it has to do with them going on this trip to become men and grow up and leave behind the need of a father.