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.