The Cider House Rules

Movie lines are very important to movies. They can either make a person remember funny parts of a movie or they can make a person think about the lesson of the movie and learn from the line. In The Cider House Rules there were many different lines that stuck out. The line about doing right by doing something wrong, plays a big part in the movie.
I think that the line teaches a lot to Homer throughout the movie. Homer never understood why Dr. Larch said this about the abortions that he performed until Homer was in the situation where he had to perform an abortion. I think that Dr. Larch understood the true meaning of the saying from the beginning of the movie because he could see why these girls were wanting abortions and that in a lot of cases it may not have been to the girls choice or the girls fault that they got pregnant. Homer believed that the girls just needed to control themselves better and he never realized that some girls were able to control themselves but that they still became pregnant because of events that weren't their choice. Homer learned the true meaning of this saying when he performed the abortion on Rose.
I think that the saying also is present in the movie when Dr. Larch lies to the children when Fuzzy dies. It was wrong of him to lie but at the same time it was good for the children to not know that Fuzzy had died and to believe that he had been adopted.
The saying also was present when Homer left the orphanage. It was wrong of him to just leave so quickly and to leave everyone that loved him behind. However, since he left he was able to realize that abortions weren't always bad and that the children really did need him. If he wouldn't have left he may have never realized how much he was needed at the orphanage.
The one other time in the movie that I think could be related to this saying was when Candy cheated on Wally while he was at war. Her cheating on Wally was a very bad thing of her to do but at the same time it helped Homer a lot to have a friend that he could confide in. Also, it made Candy appreciate Wally more when he came back and she was finally able to realize that what she had always been doing was wrong.
I thought that this was a fantastic movies that have many lessons that can be learned from it.

Little Miss Sunshine

First off, I have to say that I thought that this was a fantastic movie! The family in the movie was absolutely hilarious. The producer and director did a great job with capturing every aspect of a completely dysfunctional family. I thought that all of the obstacles the family ran into added a great comedy aspect to the movie. My favorite parts of the movie would have to be when the family "stole" the deceased grandfather out of the window of the hospital, the family having to push start the van, and Olive doing a seductive dance at the beauty contest. I think that everyone would be able to relate to at least one of the dysfunctions of this family. This movie helps remind people that no one has a perfect life or a perfect family. I think that viewers were supposed to leave this movie realizing how much love a family still has for each other even when they aren't perfect.
I thought that the filming of this movie was very good. It captured great emotion, especially those of Olive and how she was oblivious to most of the problems amongst her family. I also think that the actors and actresses did a great job "being" their part in the completely dysfunctional family. I think that the seductive dance was a great way to end the movie, it was also surprising because throughout the whole movie the viewer is wondering what this little chunky girls talent could be and then at the end you finally are able to see it.
Overall, I think that this is a great family film that combines both comedy and unconditional love of a family all into one amazing film.

The Full Monte

I thought that this movie was very interesting. It was a good movie but at the same time it was a little shocking. It took me off guard when the men actually started to take all of their clothes off. However, after getting past this point of the movie, I thought that it was an excellent movie. I think that one of the main things the director/producer wanted people to get out of the movie was for people to see how much a parent will do for their children. I thought that this movie portrayed that lesson very well. Gaz wanted to be able to see his son so bad and you could tell that he was willing to do anything, even the "full monte," in order to achieve that. I enjoyed how much humor there was in this movie. I producer was able to capture a great lesson in this movie while at the same time incorporating some great laughs. The Full Monte definitely keeps the viewers attention throughout the entire film. I think that another lesson that could be learned from the film is that if you set your mind to something, anyone can achieve anything. No one would have ever thought that the group of men would have been able to pull off a strip show let alone make money on it. But they all had their minds set to it and they were able to achieve both things.
Overall, I think that this was a great, entertaining film that has a lot of lessons that can be learned from it.

Amelie

I was very shocked at the beginning of the movie, in America we aren't used to movies so openly talking about sex in the way they did in Amelie. We also aren't used to movies talking about orgasms as much as this movie did. That had to be the one thing that really stuck out to me as being very different with this movie. It was also different to watch a movie were you have to read subtitles the whole time; it was only the second movie I had ever watched that was this way. I think it is kind of neat in a way because you have to pay closer attention to the movie but at the same time I don' t care for it because you can't concentrate on the picture (or movie) as much because you are too busy trying to read the subtitles. I thought that the movie had good humor in it which is something that I think would be harder for a director to do in a movie that uses subtitles rather than the audience just being able to hear the jokes/humor.

I think that the movie is about a girl who has been lonely her entire life because she has lacked the love and compassion that she needed from her dad. Once she is older she decides to use her experiences of loneliness to help others around her. She first does small things to help people but then she discovers someone who is as lonely as she once felt (the man from the movie store) and she makes it her mission to help him. Amelie doesn't want other people to feel lonely because she knows how horrible that can feel. I also think that she might be helping these people because it makes her feel like she has a purpose and it probably made her not feel as lonely herself.

I think that we could learn from Amelie to take our own experiences and use them to help better other peoples lives. I also think that we could learn that you don't always need to be recognized or known about when we are helping people. We need to help people as an act of kindness not as a way to get recognition for ourselves. Amelie shows us this because she never let the man from the movie store know who she was that was helping him.

Hotel Rwanda

I learned what the genocide in Rwanda was all about. It started because of the tension between two tribes in Africa. After the president of the country died after his plane was shot down, the one tribe set out to kill everyone of the other tribe. I learned that people experienced the genocide in many different ways. Imaculee's experience was much different than Paul's. Imaculee was stuck in a small bathroom with other girls unable to move much at all and not being allowed to speak. Paul was helping to save many people by hiding them in his hotel and providing for them. Paul used a lot of his own money and his own belongings in order to help others. In Imaculee's story, I learned that people can put a lot of faith into God and that things happen for a reason, like the fact that she came home from school for Easter, that is something that saved her life.
In my lifetime, I witnessed the tragedies of September 11th. I witnessed media from the TV, the internet, and the newspapers. I also heard "media," or stories, from other people. I think that the most reliable media was the news on TV, the articles in the newspapers, and articles on the internet that were from news sites. The media that I had a hard time believing was the articles that were placed privatley on the internet, because I didn't know how much authority the person writing the article actually had. It is also sometimes hard to believe things you see on the internet because pictures can be altered so much on the internet with all of the different photoshops on computers now days. It is also hard to believe things that you just hear other people talking about. When people are just talking their stories can change because they might not remember the facts exactly right or they may include their own interpretation and tell it as though it were factual. I think that the most emotional ones were the stories on the TV, the news, because you were able to see pictures and sometimes pictures can say more than words, because you can actually see the suffering. These are also what I remember most vividly because of the pictures, they stick with a person longer. I don't think that it the media changed how I looked at the event because without the media I most likely wouldn't have known about September 11, except if I heard others talking about it.
I think that it is very important for directors to stay as close to the truth as possible because for someone who hasn't ever heard of the event otherwise will tend to take what the movie says about it as factual. For example, if I wouldn't have heard Imaculee talk about the genocide, I would have believed that how the genocide was portrayed in the movie as the truth of how everything actually was. I understand that directors and writers need to change some details to add suspense, drama, or excitement to movies. However, they need to stay close to the truth because many people put a lot of faith into movies that say they are based off of real life scenerios and they will believe everything that the movie says, as though it were the truth.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Raiders of the Lost Ark was a decent movie. I was able to tell that it was an older movie because the special effects were not always the greatest, however, some of the explosions did appear pretty real. I can see how this movie could have been a stepping stone to action movies today because it had action and fighting to it but at the same time it had a good story line to keep people of all interest interested in it. I thought that the booby traps added some very neat things to the special effects of the movie. The movie was certainly entertaining and I can see why it was such a hit at the time especially if people weren't used to seeing movies with non-stop action. I also liked how there was humor slipped in with the action at different times.
In the review by, Roger Ebert, there are a lot of good points brought out. I think that the movie had a lot to do with Hitler and I think that there was significance behind the fact that Indy got the Lost Ark in the end instead of Hitler, much like how Hitler was defeted. I think that Americans liked how the Nazi's were mimiced and how there was satire in the movie because of how we were against Germany and the Nazis.
I think that there was supposed to be some symbolism in the snakes and spiders that appeared in the movie all of the time. I'm not sure what it would be but I think that it could be a representation of Hitler and the Germans and how they weren't liked but they still managed to be able to sneak around.
The theme of the movie had to do with both the plot and a character. The plot dealt with Hitler and how he wanted to get the Lost Ark. At the same time, however, the theme focused on Indy and how he almost single handedly found and saved the Lost Ark. I think that it is an exciting movie because it is the type of movie that some people would wish were true. It was also a movie that kept you interested because you never knew what or where the next scene would take you. You didn't know if Indy would be speeding down a road, facing a pit of snakes, dodging booby traps, of swinging from a vine.

Good Will Hunting

I thought that the movie, Good Will Hunting, was very good. I thought that it was good because it isn't like a lot of movies that I watch. I think that part of the central message might be that a person needs to find who they are and once they find and accept that they are able to go far with their lives. I think that there was credibility to the movie because it is something that definitely could be true. I think that the story line was exceptional, with having a troubled teen who doesn't think he can go anywhere in life and then having two guys, who are complete strangers to the boy, believe in him and show him that he is able to do great things. I thought that it was interesting how they added in how the psychologist had the same type of upbringing as Will did. I think that the movie could help people in society who think they can't go any further with their lives once they see what Will ended up doing with his.
I think Prof. Lambeau was the hero in the movie. He wanted to help Will and he sought out Sean in order to help him. He met the challenges of Will not cooperating with the previous psychologists and the troubles of when Sean told Will that he quit. I think the point where Sean told Will he quit was also the climax of the story because Will was not cooperating up until that point and it was after that incident that Will finally decided that he wanted to do something with his life and he finally allowed Sean to help him. The problem was resolved in the end by Will getting a job and deciding that he was going to go somewhere and be someone in his life. I think that Sean could have also been considered a hero because he did a lot to help Will and he made it his personal goal to be able to help Will.
Overall, I would recommend this movie for others to watch.