Julie and Julia

Renting a movie at Red Box is cheap, easy and very convenient. This weekend, I rented the movie, Julie and Julia. The story goes back and forth from past to present and runs parallel from each other's story. Julie Powell's story is in relation to Julia Child's life. She mentioned, "I was a government secretary and Julia was a government secretary. She's loves to cook and I live to cook". She makes the connection that she is similar. This point in the movie is the turning point and the definition on the movie. Julia Child's story begins at the beginning because it acts a introduction for the movie. The best actress in Julie and Julia is Meryl Streep because she added the third ingredient to being a good actor. She made her personality the same as Julia Child's personality. Compare her voice with Julia Child's actual voice and you can see no difference because she is the perfect actress for a part in this documentary and non fiction movie. The movie portrayed Julia Child's life extremely well because it showed how Julia Child influenced the world. The movie tells us that if a person can influence another person, then it can influence the entire world. It showed how She influenced Julie Powell into enjoying cooking. Julie Powell was able to accomplish a goal and write a book and had fans. The movie is not a summary of Julia Child's life,instead it is about what are achievements were and how she took a stand in society and what happened in her lifetime compared with Julie Powell's life.

Julia Child told us that society at that time was very complex about race and communism and that France was famous for its food and culture. Joesph McCarthy was mentioned in the movie and how he would interrogate people in the state department. He was ruthless by locking them up in a room with no windows for three days. Julie Powell told us about how society was after the terrorist attack on 9/11 because she was handling these person to person relationships.

For most people, cooking is a tedious task that people do all day because their family needs to eat. However Julia Child influenced Julie Powell about having fun with cooking and if you fail then keep on going forward. Julia Child's cookbook showed her how fun cooking can be because she was doing it as a hobby. Julie Powell tried it as a hobby and she became less stressed out to a happier mood. She changed her entire mindset about cooking and life. Have fun in cooking and you will enjoy it more. Some people say how do you have fun while cooking? I told them that you should improvise on some recipes. Julia Child improvised and Julie Powell improvised as well. Recipes can be changed accordingly to your personal eating habits. Some people like more oil and some people like less oil. Does it matter? No it does not because improvising is a way of being creative and thus having more fun.

I believe that through Julie Powell we learned the influence of Julia Child in the world today. Now cook for fun! Enjoy your weekend with a fun filled dish!

The Spy Next Door

Recently, I watched "The Spy Next Door" at AMC theaters. Since I watched the movie in the morning at AMC, the ticket price is only $6.00. Twenty years ago, that was the price of general admission in the afternoon. The movie starred the "old" Jackie Chan, George Lopez , and Billy Ray Cyrus. Jackie Chan is the dominant role in this action packed comedy. Jackie Chan is always in action packed comedies. My favorite action packed adventure comedy is Rush Hour 1 and 2 because they were able to fluently bring together three kinds of movie genre. The Spy Next Door makes a good third best action, adventure comedy because the story has been used before, Jackie Chan is getting old, there is no new use of technology, however it made me laugh spontaneously.

Not only is watching movies in the morning cheap, but it gives me a wake up call. I love a good laugh in the morning because it makes me happy throughout the day. The Spy Next Door was able to make me laugh spontaneously because the humor is not "squeezed" into the movie. Comedy movies like the Pink Panther 2 had nose pinching laughter because they forced us to laugh. The humor was tickling humor. Tickles are usually forced and the humor in The Spy Next Door allowed us a second to think and laugh. There was no forced laughter or bad comedy acting. I enjoyed Billy Ray Cyrus' funny southern accent and southern phrases funny because people do not normally talk like that. Jackie Chan's Chinese American accent was funny because he talked normally and tried to be fluent. Playing a part in a major movie is good for his resume, however this movie will hurt him. He can sing and act and be funny in a spontaneous way. Billy Ray Cyrus is a Television show actor , so he has no experience with motion pictures. He has played as a father in the 2009 movie, Hannah Montana The Movie, however he was horrible. I think he was better in this movie, than that one. George Lopez is a television host, so he's not good at acting in this movie either. He played a double agent and a traitor to the Central Intelligence Agency. He was not funny and acted mediocrity.

I am not saying that this movie is good because the story has been used by "The Pacifier". A secret agent goes to babysit a family of kids that he wants them to like him because he likes their mom. Then villains go after him and the kids that he babysits. The villains act too friendly in this movie because the movie is aimed at kids. In my opinion, this movie deserves a C for mediocre because Jackie Chan has played a part in many movies like this. He has acted in the Rush Hour trilogy, so he deserves a better movie to be in. Rent the movie, don't buy it.

China's Uygurs — National Geographic Magazine

China's Uygurs — National Geographic Magazine
National Geographic is talking nonsense about Han majority coming into the province of Xinjinag. Xinjiang has been part of China for thousands of years. This land has always been ours and the Uigurs are part of the Chinese family. However family don't kill other family members. That is wrong on all levels. Xinjiang Uygurs are miniorities that purposely kill people and destroy public property. They sent buses and cars on fire. They killed hundreds of people. This is a terrorist attack. If they want to get a message across , then they can submit emails, phone calls or peaceful protests, but not by violence. "Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only love can do that. Hate cannot be driven out by Hate, only love can do that"(Dr. martin Luther King Jr). You cannot fight fire with fire because the end resault is a bigger fire that rages on from both sides. The Central government only ended the fire by calming the Han majority and the Uygur minority. They did not contribute the violence in any way. I will reiterate that they did not contrbute to the violence in any way. The fault was in the Uygurs.

Avatar

Around the world, people are enjoying James Cameron's latest masterpiece, Avatar. Avatar is a good movie because it has a high box office grossing. The movie has earned $1 Billion dollars worldwide and growing. It has the potential to overtake Cameron's last masterpiece, Titanic because Avatar was much more interesting. An Avatar is a remote body that is a mix of the Na'Vi DNA and human DNA. When I watched this movie at AMC theatres, I was intrigued by the natural environment , the vivid battle scenes, and the blooming romance.

Since the beginning of the 21st Century, environmentalist has warned us about global warming and taking care of our plant because it is becoming like a waste dump. It is always the human imagination to have a planet that is not polluted and it has all the environmental things that we enjoy. Avatar makes the audiences envious of Planet Pandora because it has no pollution, it has beautiful trees, mountains, skies, and animals. I loved the floating mountains because it looked so pure and beautiful that I became very envious of the characters that were in it. The floating mountains made me feel the nostalgia that I am still drawing imaginative creatures and planets. Americans go to the movies to enjoy a movie and take some time to relax. Avatar lets us feel the cool breeze of air and fresh unpolluted air. Avatar makes us feel like everybody is in heaven. In some ways, Pandora is a good representation of heaven because it has the environment that we enjoy. When I saw humans destroying the planet, I would have stood up against my own race because foreigners have no right to come and take the natives' land.

The battle scenes with the natives against the humans were extremely vivid because there was dramatic music, flashing scenes and slow motion shots. The battle scenes show that one human can change the way others view an entire race of humans. If they can teach one human to like the natives' planet, then the time to teach him or her was worth it. I really liked how Avatar had the confidence to take on the big bird. He had the courage and the assertion to do it. That scene portrayed him as a persevered and strong guy. My absolute favorite scene was when he jumped off the bird and went on to the big ship. He was killing the people with the motivation to protect their planet. He had the look on his face that said, " No body can stand in my way". The scene was extremely intense and I got extremely excited. All good movies need music that can get us excited.

As a student in filming, I know that music is an essential part in movie making because it builds a mood and it says more things than the speech dialogue. Music tells us the romantic parts and the dramatic parts. It helps us distinguish the two from each other. Music is the heart and soul of everything. Music is abstract and it helped Avatar to become more abstract than more realistic. When they were passing by the floating mountains, the music was very soft and happy because these mountains were the most beautiful things in the universe. The music was very joyful in the scene with Jake running for the first time in five years.
In general, Avatar is a fantastic movie that I would love to watch many , many times.