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Thursday, October 23, 2003
the magdalene sisters
 starting with the movie i saw on friday night: "bowling for columbine". this is a brillian documentary where michael moore - the film maker - explores the big question: why america produces such a greatest number of violence and deaths resulting from fireguns. the country is also known for another specialty: mass murders that are often committed by very young people.
it begins with moore opening an account at a bank where there's an incentive program: u open an account and u get a gun. *no fooling* the bank is also a licensed gun dealer! this film is insprired a part by the columbine high school massacre in colorado where 2 students opened fire on their friends before turning the weapons against themselves. 15 died: 14 students and 1 teacher. and before the shooting the boys went to a BOWLING class (moore sarcastically questioned whether bowling should be blamed of this killing). it was also the same morning when bill clinton dropped extensive boms in kosovo. moore then wondered about the reasons behind this violence. is it the rock music (rocker mr.marlyn manson), violent films, or history? i agree with the rocker manson's saying when moore interviewed him. he said..."maybe it wasn't the media or music, maybe it was the actions of the u.s. while we were dropping bombs, so were they. what's the difference?" moore also interviewed the author of "the culture of fear". he's talking about the 'making money oriented' tv news programs. if it bleeds, it leads. the whole idea is to capture the audience with shocking and provocative stories to keep them watching. tv news is full of murders, rapes and fires, and it surely drives a lot of FEAR. we're living in a culture of fear - he said. fear of violence. fear of disease. fear of war. fear of our neighbors. fear of black men. it is FEAR that makes american kills each other. the author said, while the real nation's murder rate declined, the number of murder stories on tv increased much much more. how can u stop this culture of fear from entering your own home? what can we do? not watching tv??  the statistic fact is powerful by the way. the movie notes that u.s. have a highest records of firearm homicides. it's more than 10.000 a year (compared with only 100s in canada). (moore also traveled to canada interviewing the residents and city officials and he found that the canadian doesn't even lock their doors!) the ironic american policy history is also cited: america trained osama bin laden and his army to kill soviets, america gave $ to saddam husein to defeat iranians, america secretly financed iran to defeat iraqis, and so on until the sept 11 disaster planned by osama and his cia trained armies, plus several "helps" u.s. did on solving government problems all over the world.
one of special interviews was made with the nra president who is also a pride actor. the nra (national riffle association) does not believe in any forms of gun control and supports the right of gun owner to purchase and sell any forms of guns. the actor was speechless and even walked away when moore questioned him regarding the highest statistic of america's firearm violence. moore also shamed him for showing at one nra campaigns immediately following the columbine massacre. moore has such a talent of interviewing people that this nra president came close enough to unmasking himself as an uncaring racist. in animated history of america, moores links the nra with the ku klux klan. oh, and there's also a highlight scene when 2 columbine survivors, accompanied by moore, ask k-mart not to sell any more bullets. they finally get promise from k-mart's management of a total withdrawal of bullets from the store within 3 months. too bad the massacre had to be happen first. well, it's definetely a movie all americans should see. stelly @ 11:33 PM Wednesday, October 08, 2003 jeepers creepers!
 on saturday night i watched "the italian job" which is full of chasing scenes. only once in the beginning the scene is so calm - it is when they shoot the beautiful venice canals. but soon its intense tension kept my adrenaline pumping. new bmw mini coopers become the stars in the movie, and also charlize theron. i've seen her movies before like the devil's advocate, that thing u do, the astronaut's wife, the cider house rules, men of honor, and sweet november. the last movie is the one i'm going to talk about.
 it's a sweet and charm movie which reunites charlize and keanu as lovers. charlize is a charming person who brings out the best in everyone she meets. she is a free-spirited woman who is full of "joie de vivre" (joy of life) spirit. she has a strange habit of taking a new lover every month. she moves them into her appartment, uses her gift to fix them psychologically and then moves on to the next fella.  keanu on the contrary, is a workaholic advertising executive with a cell phone permanently attached to his hand. he is so self-centered, arrogant, and cares only about him and his job. he can get all the money and sex he wants, but has an empty and shallow relationship with his girlfriend. when charlize meets him, she directly sees him as her new project. so she convinces him to spend a month with her so that she can help him overcome his unresolved emotional issues. she promises to show him what life is all about : to enjoy the simple pleasures life has to offer, to take time to hear the birds singing, to learn to slow down... she promises to change keanu's life for the better in 30 days beginning on nov,1. after 30 days, he is free to go back to his fast-paced life and forget all about her.
 keanu finally learns what it means to live and love and *as always* falls in love with her. *surprise surprise* charlize is dying of cancer. that's the reason behind her fear of commitment. because of her cancer, she has now quited her former fast-paced life to live for the moment. she believes life is great and wonderful adventure meant to be enjoyed and treasured. she then focused her life on having fun and helping as many people as she can. a month is long enough to accomplish her objective and short enough not to be serious.
one thing i don't agree in this movie is that charlize's character doesn't have hope in god. her hope in in this life only. whereas as christians, my hope is in god who loves me. *jesus, i trust in you* however, this film leaves us a positive message: we should take time to recognize the beauty of life and treat others kindly. "it is better to have love and lost than to never have loved at all" (alfred lord tennyson) stelly @ 10:09 AM | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
it's review time again, folks, and today we're going to ireland, in the mid 1960s. this film is not fiction. it tells the real fact about a church-run asylum in ireland (run by sisters of mercy), where catholic girls were sent by their families, for years, sometimes lifetimes, for unjust reasons. the story centers on 3 teenage girls who were sent to the asylum to be spiritually rehabilitated from their "moral crime". in the film's first scene, a handsome young priest is singing at a wedding, pounding the bodhran (irish drum). *i love this scene as it adds so much to the dramatic opening*
the girls were forced to work in laundries for 8 to 10 hours each day, 7 days a week, under the strict supervision of the nuns, with 100% of the profits going to the nuns. they're living under lock with no rights, no freedom, no privacy, and no contact with the outside world. they had almost no chance of release. if a girl tries to escape, her head is shaved. while the nuns eat plenty of meals, the girls only get a bowl of very simple food. and when the nuns get bored, they torment the girls by ordering them to stand naked while they vote on who has the smallest breasts and most pubic hair. even a priest has taken sexual advantage of a mentally disabled girl who is sent there by her family who thinks she might fall victim to men if not institutionalized. *how ironic*
last night i saw this not-so-good movie, jeepers creepers 2. i was actually expecting a horror movie but what i got was a flying demon who appeared more than he should. the teen conversation is so bored and dumb. no wonder there are only 7 of us in the theatre. but what does jeepers creepers mean? hopefully it's included in my cambridge dictionary. it's an exclamation expressing a surprise. it's similar to "gosh!" or "gee!". *jeepers, what a movie!* and it's getting interesting when i extended my search to the internet. jeepers creepers is an old-fashioned phrase that was used in the 1920s and 1930s. people rather say it instead of cursing. and in the 1930s, there was a hit song called "jeepers creepers", which is about a young woman's beautiful eyes ('peepers'). its phrase 'jeepers creepers, where'd you get those peepers?' is still widely known. *interesting, huh?*