Everything else is just made up
I had a chance to see the Social Network this past weekend. While it was a good movie and one that I can recommend, I don’t think it bears much resemblance at all to the real people and events. First off, neither the author of the book the film was based on nor anyone connected with the film ever spoke with Mark Zuckerberg. So you can’t tell me that Jesse Eisenberg’s portrayal is even remotely close to the real person. In fact, the portrayal I saw was more like the guy from the Big Bang Theory.
I recently went to Blockbuster and walked out with two movies. The first was Hot Tub Time Machine. The second was a movie I just happened to see on the shelf titled The Wronged Man. Now I can’t defend my choice of Hot Tub Time Machine. It looked like it might be funny. It had John Cusack. It had a picture of a scantily clad woman on the DVD cover. So how bad could it be? Okay, it was bad. It was beyond bad. It was a one line joke that wouldn’t have made it as a SNL skit.
Since I’m writing this post on Easter Sunday, it’s only apt that I mention that this is a story about a crucifixion. A woman is falsely accused of adultery by her husband for the sole reason of him wanting to avoid having to pay her anything in a divorce. It’s a story about religious fanaticism, but it’s also a story of how easy it is for a mob mentality to take over.
How did this film not get more attention? Matt Damon was great. The script was original. It’s one of those almost too strange to be true kind of stories. The movie reminded me a little of another film about a quirky character based on a real person – Flash of Genius by Marc Abraham about the guy who invented the intermittent windshield wiper.
This is one of the better sports films I’ve seen in a while. The last football related film I saw was Invincible with Mark Wahlberg. That story was also based on a true story, but the true story aspect was lame. The main character’s main claim to fame was that he played a couple of games on special teams. The climax of the film was when the main character scores a touchtown on a fumble recovery after a kickoff. The filmmakers glossed over the fact that the resulting touchdown was nullified because he had stepped out of bounds.
The film Amelia is about fame as much as it is about Amelia Earhart. Her story is an example of how publicity and the right slant can catapult someone into the spotlight. She was at the right place at the right time and happened to meet the right person, George Putnam. Her initial claim to fame was that she was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic. The fact that she was a passenger didn’t seem to make much difference. She was promoted as Lady Lindy and a star was born.
I am drawn to stories of injustice, especially those dealing with wrongful conviction. This story is about prosecutorial misconduct with an underlying theme of racism. The case in question here deals with the practice of one Texas District Attorney who orchestrated drug raids in poverty stricken black neighborhoods where they rounded up just about everyone in sight and then charged them with drug trafficking. They did this with little or no evidence.
I’ve been duped before by movie critics who apparently have never read the children’s story The Emperor’s New Clothes. So let me be the first to say it: the emperor is naked. He’s not wearing a stitch. If this movie doesn’t show an 80% drop in ticket sales by this time next week I’d be surprised. Film critics apparently can’t think for themselves. They all jump on a bandwagon and no one has the guts to jump off and say “wait a minute.” Here are just a few of the movies that I’ve been duped into seeing: Eyes Wide Shut, The Blair Witch Project, Open Water, Borat.
This is a foreign language film that tells several related stories concerning the Israel/ Palestine conflict. In particular it deals with a massacre that ocurred in September of 1982 at a PPalestinian refugee camp. The film is unique in a number of ways, the most important of which is the fact that it is entirely animated, except for the last few minutes of the film.
There have been so many sports movies of late that it’s hard to avoid scenes that haven’t been done a hundred times before. They all follow the same basic format of the disadvantaged athlete (or athletes) who overcome(s) great obstacles to achieve great things on the field, track, court, or rink. The filmmakers were aware of this and did everything they could to avoid cliches.
My first impression of this movie was how real it felt. Take for example the sets. Too many films today look staged. Even Spielberg has fallen into this trap. There are some scenes in the last Indiana Jones movie where everything on the screen looks like a storyboard with actors standing in designated spots, under artificial lighting, on sets that look like sets. You won’t get that impression with this film. This film looks and sounds like it was filmed on location.
