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samiv_03
Reviews
The Family That Preys (2008)
Rating, schmating
This is a good movie. I saw it on TV after failing to get my husband to go with me to see it in theaters. And you know what? He got just as fascinated as I was.
This movie goes a long way to show that everyone has problems, secrets and opportunity. While many movies in the same genre stick to the "mistreated woman" template, this one goes deep enough to show that sometimes the men are taken advantage of. Sometimes the wealthy are miserable and the poorer content. And sometimes, we can find the steel in our spines and get back up and keep going after being ripped apart. And sometimes we can't.
My review doesn't cover specifics, that's not what I like to do. I like to tell you enough to make you curious and get you to try something out.
Fireproof (2008)
Great story, spotty acting
I liked this movie. It shows the real aspects of life between a couple who have spent their entire marriage moving apart. It shows the self-centered attitudes we have all too often that just get in the way of what we really want.
Both husband and wife want to feel valued and loved. Both want to be appreciated. It takes outside intervention in the form of a father daring his son to follow a dare. Daring him to try and be a better man without looking for reward or acknowledgment. These things force him, and the audience, to consider the why behind what we do for and to those we love.
The story is great, the acting is...not so much. If you can get past some awkward acting, the movie is definitely worth watching.
I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009)
Stereotypes are stereotypes for a reason
I watched this movie on cable. I didn't pay to see it in the theater or from Redbox or anything like that. And you know, it was worth it. Despite all the bad reviews and negative press, Tyler Perry knows how to make a movie that we will sit through just to see the bad guy get theirs. And these are not supervillains, or anything like what you see in most movies, these are the run of the mill badguys. The guys who make you happy that you don't know them or if you do, make you feel bad about knowing them. These are stories about the everyday kind of badguys who make us want to slap someone we know for doing exactly what is on the screen. That is why Mr. Perry makes money off of "bad" movies. He tells the stories he knows or knows of and that makes them something we can relate to and feel, maybe not good about but definitely familiar with.
Jôi-uchi: Hairyô tsuma shimatsu (1967)
Simple, tragic and beautiful
I don't know anything about cinema. I haven't studied the director's work, or the actors or the detailed history or culture of Japan. I do know that I liked this movie. It is a story of power, the abuses thereof and the conviction it takes to stand against the use of power to dictate any human being's fate. Lady Ichi's past is the crux of the story's conflict. The Sasahara family is divided on how and what decisions should be made pitting brother against brother and husband against wife. Yogoro and Ichi's deep love for one another reignites Isaburo's spirit and fuels the fire of rebellion within them. Not world changing, all out rebellion. Rebellion in the form of their refusal to accept that a person can be treated as a commodity.