A semester and some months with Thomas Friedman

I have spent a semester and some months in Thomas Friedman’s Video Production class. My associates and I decided to take this class as an ongoing secretive experiment as to whether or not this man was capable of teaching his pupils anything. Through countless amounts of pointless classes, we have determined four things.

1. The man is a failure and the only thing he has succeeded with in his life was getting a B-movie made from a poorly written script. (See: Being From Another Planet)

2. This man is incompetent and foolish, he projects his failures and ignorance onto his students who have completely disconnected with him and continue to push him away.

3. This man has no culture to him and is swayed with “movie magic” and other foolish things in movies put in in hopes of boggling the dim-minded. Movies like Mission Impossible 3, The Illusionist, and The Good German all serve as nothing more than video aquariums for the stupid.

4. And finally I present you with proof of our last finding. As you can see by the following chart, unless Tom Friedman changes his ways no work will ever be done in his class. This is scientifically proven, it is not a social defect.

Children of Men

Children of Men might be my favorite movie of all time. It is definitely the best I’ve seen in many years.

Based on the novel by P.D. James, this shows an apocalyptic world and humanities incapability to accept the fact that the human race will die off in 100 years. Due to polution, diseases, and epidemics women have become infertile and can no longer have babies.

Theodore Faron (Clive Owen) must help a pregnant girl (Claire-Hope Ashitey) get to The Human Projects so she can have her baby and create a new society.

The way this film is shot is absolutely beautiful and revolutionary. Not only will the sets take your breath away, the way it is shot will make you feel as if you’re right there experiencing it all. It seems like Alfonso Cuarón broke every rule of film making in this movie and in turn recreated the genre.

I believe we can truly see Owen at his best here. Along side Julianne Moore, Michael Caine, and Chiwetel Ejiofor their performances prove to be superb.

With many twists and turns and intense warfare this film definitely fulfilled my violence needs. If you aren’t wide-eyed on the edge of your seat by the end of this movie you didn’t see it. I give this a 10/10 and stand by statement that this is the best movie of the year.

A Scanner Darkly

This is quite possibly my favorite movie of this year. All that competes is Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, and maybe a few other independent films.

This story was based on Philip K. Dick’s novel. A satire on the modern age and its drug influences. Dick believed this is what our world would become. We focus on a narcotic’s agent Bob Arctor (Keanu Reaves) who goes undercover to live amongst the drug users. He however gets mixed up in this and takes too much of ‘Substance D’ and begins to lose touch with reality. We follow his daily routine and begin to feel the same way he does as the story progresses. Now I’m not a huge Keanu Reaves fan but I have to say he pulled this role off well. Personally, I think this is his best role to date. Robert Downy Jr. also plays a great character as an insane drug peddling paranoid genius. However, my favorite character and why I’d see this film again, would have to be Rory Cochrane. He plays Charles Freck, a junkie that is so far gone that he makes Downy look normal.

The movie is animated, it is vectored which adds a very surreal and dreamlike feel to the movie. I think it would not be what it is without the vector effect. I could watch it over and over just to gaze mindlessly at the art.

If you want a serious mind trip that will leave you wondering why reality is so boring see a Scanner Darkly. If not, see it for the vector magic. I give this a 8/10.

Stranger than Fiction

Most of the people I’ve talked with who have seen Stranger than Fiction either hated it or loved it. Those who hated it said it was boring and not funny. But those who loved it said it was hilarious.. hmm.

Stranger than fiction is about Harold Crick (Will Ferrell) who suddenly begins hearing his own life narrated through a voice no one else can hear. The movie mainly focuses on minor details most directors would not bother showing (such as Ferrell brushing his teeth). Most overlook the simplistics of this movie. But this is very much a character piece (such as The World’s Fastest Indian).

We follow Crick through his every day life and how precise he must make the world around him. I also enjoyed how pessimistic this movie is and the view of the world it has. The script was very well written and has lots of biting and harsh sarcastic humor that most movies don’t give me.

Dustin Hoffman played my favorite roll in the movie as a literary professor, he was one of the most sarcastic characters in the piece. Along with Emma Thompson who played Ferrell’s author. Oh yeah and Queen Latifah but why the hell was she in it anyways..

So if you have a five second attention span go rent Mission Impossible 3. But if you enjoy sophisticated humor and clever scripts see Stranger than Fiction. You’ll either hate it or love it. I give this a 7/10.

First entry

I’ll probably use this to review movies/events/games. Maybe more, but I don’t know yet.