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.