Movie Review #1

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I was really looking forward to this movie. It came from the director of Fight Club and Se7en (both phenomenal movies) along with Zodiac (supposedly good, but I haven't seen it). The preview made it look epic, emotional, beautiful, amusing, and extravagant. It lived up to some expectations but fell short on others. Here's my quick synopsis:

TCCOBB felt like a mixture of Forrest Gump and Big Fish. It had the story structure of both, following a person as they grow up over the decades and told by a dieing narrator (like Big Fish). It was a movie about history almost as much as it was about Mr. Button, though the historical narrative was more contextual. It's biggest fault though? Even though it took from both movies, it wasn't as gripping as either. The chemistry between Brad Pit and Cate was nonexistent. The characters tried to be round but never changed all that much. I didn't care about Cate's character at all. I felt zero attachement to her and didn't care if she had died at the beginning of the movie. She tried of be like Jenny of Gump and failed entirely. If that one relationship between the two main characters had worked and if I had actually cared about it, the movie would have been amazing, but because the movie was so based on that relationship and because that relationship failed so miserably, the movie was merely okay.

A few quick tips for the director: Get rid of Brad Pitt. He's great in your other movies, but you should have chosen a no-name. The entire movie I felt like I was trying to figure out how they were going to make Pitt look younger or older. If they had picked a no-name, I would have ignored the obvious special effects and probably would have viewed Benjamin Button as a relatable person rather than Pitt with special effects. Next, get rid of Cate, already told you why. She just didn't work in this movie. Finally, cut about a half hour out of it. Preferably of the middle. The relationship with the swimmer was useless and uninteresting.

Some quotes from other reviewers that I agreed with:

• "Not nearly curious enough."
• "...has all the features of greatness except the magic."
• "Its failures are spectacularly highlighted by its overwhelming ambition."
• "It works - kind of - but it takes its sweet time in getting there and leaves little behind truly worthy of remembrance."

And finally... 

• "It's like a box of chocolates, but with hollow centers."

Potential based on Preview: 10/10
Actual movie: 6.5/10

SO MUCH DANG RAIN

Seriously. It won't stop raining. It's absolutely nuts. I don't even remember when it started. I remember finally being done with exams around the 5th and it raining the day after until now, maybe one or two days of break. It's been awful and nasty and rainy and crappy outside. I hate it so dang much. It's supposed to keep raining through Saturday also. Supposedly Sunday will clear up, but I have trouble believing that. Rain destroys any motivation I have too. I have stuff I should do and need to do but all I want to do is to sit in front of various entertainment screens. It's actually been worse than this summer was, if that can be believed.

Watching Dimitri Martin right now, and he literally just said this:

"I used to get bummed when it rained, but then I realized it's God's way of washing off hippies."

I laughed, that kind of helped, but it's still effing rainy.

Next negative topic: I woke up sick this morning. Sore throat. I was supposed to go work out for the first time in a few weeks, grab lunch, be productive, etc. Nope. I was sick. And it's gotten worse as the day has gone on. I've been taking Zicam, Sudafed, Excedrin (had a headache or two throughout the day), cough drops, vitamins (to boost the immune system), juice, whatever. I feel like I'm taking too much, but I feel like I need it all and I seriously want to kill this sickness. Hopefully sleeping tonight will make it somewhat better. There's a tacky sweater party tomorrow night over at Cathy, Tasha, and Katy's place, like 60 people going, and I actually planned a lot as to what I'm going to wear, bought a dirty santa gift, etc, so if I'm took sick to go to that it'll stink. Bah.

This was negative tonight, sorry, oh well.

I seriously cannot wait for Unveiled. Oh my goodness. I'm always more excited for it than I have for Christmas. Is that weird? It's always so much fun. Seriously, I can't wait. That's what I'm looking forward to right now - that and not being sick anymore.

Cholera, a World Away

When I was in middle school my family decided to join up with World Vision in supporting a child overseas. Honestly, I don't remember the little boys name who we "adopted" (it's a weird African name), but we've been getting photographs of him, updates on his schooling, and drawings/letters from him a few times a year since then. This August we got the same packet we always get - some drawings that he drew, an update and a writeup from the person who is "in charge" of his World Vision Supported School in Zimbabwe, and a picture of him. One issue though - the picture wasn't of him. It was as obvious as can be, it was NOT him. The drawings were 10x better than his previous drawings. Everything about it just seemed wrong.

I didn't know about this until a few weeks ago, but Mom and Dad have been worrying for a while. They of course called World Vision up. It could be a clerical error of course, paperwork could have gotten mixed up, who knows. World Vision responds and is extremely concerned. Apparently this very very rarely happens (but it has happened). They express concern and put forth an effort to track down the child. We don't hear anything. We call back, they say that they have had a hard time tracing. We decide it'd be a good idea to look stuff up in the news. As it turns out, the crazy election stuff over there apparently hasn't been good for mission organizations. In July, World Vision and many other organizations are kicked out of the country by the "president" who is trying to keep power even though he lost the election. We put pieces together and figure that is probably why we haven't heard anything.

Okay, so when I find out about all this a few weeks ago, we start hearing news stories about Cholera in Zimbabwe (actually, we are just reading news stories online, U.S. news channels never has any news related to any actual world issues). 50 something deaths, a few hundred others sick, all from around the exact area of Zimbabwe that our child is from. Obviously we are worried. World Vision is kicked out, Jimmy Carter wasn't even let in the country when he wanted to help a few weeks ago, and now Cholera. What is going on? Just today I saw another news update about Zimbabwe (from BBC World, man, I hate that America cares only about itself with news!). 978 people have now been killed. And we still don't know anything about our child.

So what's this all about? I don't know. Just keep Zimbabwe and our child in your prayers. A world away has hit home. It's also a throwback for me this summer when BBC World News is the only thing I ever watched on TV, and Zimbabwe was always the top story. World Vision may be back in the country now, I don't know, they usually don't post news stories about mission organizations going into countries, mostly just when they are kicked out. But pray that World Vision will be let back in. I'd like to get a picture of him on here, but I don't have one.

Yep, so that's what's on my mind right now after seeing that most recent 978 death news story.