Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows

            This weekend over thanksgiving break I went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows.  I have been waiting to see this movie for a long time and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised with how entertaining it was.  I have read all the Harry Potter books and I have to admit that I had the lowest expectations for this movie for a couple of reasons.  First off it was only the first part of the book since the book was so long they had to separate it into two different movies.  Second the first half of the final book I found was pretty boring since they were basically stuck in the woods for about three hundred pages.  They condensed the three hundred pages down to about twenty minutes in the movie which was something they needed to do or else people would have probably been bored out of they minds.  The movie was surprisingly action packed and definitely one of the most entertaining of the seven movies made so far. 

            I was shocked when I searched J.K. Rowling the author of the Harry Potter books on Wikipedia and learned about her life.  Along with being one of the best-known authors of all time she is also one of the most well known rags to riches story.  At one time in Rowling’s life when she was just starting to write the first Harry Potter book she was on welfare receiving government aid.  She then went on to produce the most successful children’s book of all time as well as became one of Britain’s richest Women.  She currently is worth more than a billion dollars.  I would say she is doing pretty well for herself.

Here is a preview of the movie if your one of the few that hasn’t gotten to the theaters and seen it yet.  Enjoy!!

Trailer

            

Bakhtin

     Normally when I am assigned readings for English class my goal is to get through it as fast as possible so my mind doesn’t explode from confusion, but one theorist Mikhail Bakhtin caught my attention.  I have never been too fond of reading, in fact I try to avoid it at all costs, but somehow Bakhtin made my hatred for reading a little less severe when he made me look at writing in a different way.  Bakhtin said that a novel is never finished; it is almost like a living thing because it can be interpreted in so many different ways depending on who is reading it.  He also introduced the term “Polyglossia” which is the many languages going on at once during a novel.  There is the language of the author, the narrator, as well as the publisher and editor.  The next time I picked up a book I started to notice how these different languages play off each other and how it enhances literary work.  When Bakhtin discussed how a novel is never finished and how it is entirely up to the reader’s interpretation this made me think about some of the terms we discussed in class and how they are entirely up to interpretation as well.  For example the term Hero is word that is defined by the individual because no two people have the same standards of what a hero is.  Bakhtin made me look at novels in a different way and made me realize how important interpretation is in the reading process.

     You may be asking yourself what the hell I am talking about since this may seem to have nothing to do with the theme of my blog but Bakhtin’s points apply to movies, music, and T.V. as well.  In movies, music and T.V. “Polyglossia” is constantly taking place even more so than in a novel.  This is because you have the voices of the writers, the producers, directors, and everyone else that is involved in the production of this one movie, song, of show.  I can only imagine how difficult it would be to organize all these voices and make it seemed organized. Production of a movie for example involves hundreds of people all with differing opinions.  Taking what everyone has to offer and incorporating it into the film must be extremely tough. Bakhtin made me look at reading in a new way as well as how I watch movies and TV and listen to music.

Weeds

            I feel that since this week in English class I was assigned to debate topic of marijuana legalization it would only be right to talk about the show Weeds.  Now I have such mixed feelings about this show. It is so inconsistent that I can’t even make up my mind whether I like it or not.  Sometimes its great, and then other times its horrible.  I wish the writers would just make up their minds about where they are going with the show that way I can decide if I want to devote a substantial part of my life to watching it.  The general consensus I feel is that the first two seasons were far more entertaining than the third, fourth fifth and sixth seasons.

            If you happened to never have seen an episode or have no idea what the show it is about I will attempt to explain but even I, a devoted viewer of this show, seem to be confused to what is going on at times.  The show stars Mary Louise Parker as Nancy Botwin a widowed mother of two who sells marijuana to make ends meet.  She lives with her brother in law Andy who in my opinion is the funniest character on the show because he not the typical uncle you might imagine being that he often smokes marijuana with Nancy’s seventeen year old son Silas.  If you are debating watching the show I would suggest renting the first two seasons but after that the show starts to just get ridiculous.  After the second season it is just Nancy Botwin getting into more and more trouble with drug deals that the show becomes more depressing than funny. I think it really hit me in season five when she has a child with a Mexican drug lord and mayor that I said where the hell are they going with this.  I think at this point the show is far beyond the point of repair and that it can only go down hill.

            Despite this harsh review of the last few seasons I would suggest watching the first two if you have some time.  Episodes are less than a half hour and the first two seasons were very funny.

Here is a preview of Weeds Season One Enjoy!

Trailer

Jackass

            This weekend I saw if not the dumbest, one of the dumbest movies of my entire life.  The only movies that I can even remember that are remotely as dumb as the one I saw this weekend were Jackass, and Jackass two.   Yes, I am sure you might have already guessed it; the movie I saw was Jackass 3.  You may be surprised when I tell you that I completely enjoyed every minute of this movie.  It literally had me laughing so hard that I almost cried.  It had me debating leaving the theater because I couldn’t catch my breath.  I think the key to my enjoyment out of this movie may have been that I fully expected how dumb it was going to be and just embraced it.  So my first suggestion if going to see this is don’t expect an Oscar worthy performance.

            Now I realize that these stuntmen are getting paid tremendous amounts of money to do what they do but some of the stunts they do are just plain sick.  I honestly have no idea how they aren’t petrified to go to work every day.  Some of the stuff they do is for lack of a better word, messed up.  For example, getting stung by hundreds of bees, drinking human sweat, and getting your tooth pulled out by a string attached to a Lamborghini and that’s just a sample of what went on in that movie.  These stuntmen must just love torturing themselves.

            I would only suggest seeing this movie if you are in the mood for something that’s going to make you laugh and you have a really immature sense of humor like me.  I also wouldn’t suggest seeing it in 3D because I didn’t think that it added anything to the movie, the only thing it did was make my wallet a little bit lighter.

Here is a preview of the movie. Enjoy!!!!!

Jackass 3 Preview

Dexter

            A few weeks ago a friend suggest the show Dexter to me and I figured it’s just about the only T.V. show I don’t already watch so I might as well give it a shot.  I got the first season DVD and within a few episodes I was completely hooked, in fact I finished the first season in about 4 days.  It is packed with drama and is thrilling from start to finish.  I can’t think of any other show on T.V. right now like it and I would definitely suggest going over to your local blockbusters or ordering it on Netflix.

            The premise of the show is that there is a serial killer named Dexter who kills people who are bad but have not been caught by the police.  Dexter is actually not normal at all, he gets urges to kill people and at a very young age his father taught him to direct these urges toward bad people.  Dexter has to put on an act for everyone, including the people he works with, his girlfriend, and his sister.  The only person who knows the true Dexter was his father who died.  The show makes you laugh, surprises you and somehow makes you root for a serial killer. 

            Not only is the story line great, the acting is amazing as well.  The star of the show is Michael C. Hall as Dexter as well as his sister in the show Jennifer Carpenter who is his wife in real life.  This show is definitely worth checking out and I promise it wont disappoint.

Dexter Trailer

The World of Jenks

            If you have happened to turn on MTV this month you may have noticed a new show that doesn’t involve the drunken adventures of Snookie, jwow and the Situation.  This new show is called the world of Jenks.  This documentary series explores the lives of twelve different people who lead completely different lives.  My favorites include a surfer, a poker player, and a professional MMA fighter.  I love the show because these people are completely different than I had expected.  They all have problems and so much more to their lives that anyone could ever see on the surface.  The show is only a half hour show so it keeps you intrigued the whole time and doesn’t drag on like some other documentaries.

            Andrew Jenks the star of the show is a twenty four year old award winning filmmaker.  He got his start doing documentaries at age nineteen when he dropped out of NYU to live in a nursing home.  Yes, I know you are thinking he is a little younger than most people who need assisted living but he wanted to make a documentary on what it would be like to be around people near the end.  The documentary was called room 335 and it was extremely successful winning Jenks awards at the Cannes film festival.  This caught the eye of MTV and World of Jenks was the result.

            The World of Jenks is on MTV on Mondays at 10pm.  Its gives such an interesting in depth view of peoples live that you would never get to see anywhere else.  Oh and I almost forgot when you are looking through the channels to see when the next World of Jenks Episode is on, make sure to avoid watching the Jersey Shore at all costs.

            
Here is the episode on rapper Maino

500 Million Friends

          Last weekend I finally got a chance to see The Social Network, which was without a doubt one of the best movies I have seen this year.  I found it fascinating to discover the story behind this website I use on a daily basis.  It seems as though even days after seeing the movie the story keeps on getting better and better as I replay it in my head. It continues to creep back into my mind and I find it hard to swallow that someone started all this my age.  Yes, I am aware that he was a student at Harvard and this all didn’t happen by accident but still the fact that a nineteen year old started a twenty five billion dollar company is truly incredible.

          As a whole I thought the movie was amazing but there were a few disappointing as well as ironic parts.  For example I was very disappointed that Mark Zuckerberg seems to be such an ego crazy as*hole, for lack of a better word.  Here’s someone that I feel should be looked up to for having such great ambitions at such a young age but after seeing his portrayal he is clearly not someone that anyone should aspire to be.   I am aware that this story entirely factual but wow, it was amazing, it seemed that every word that came out of his mouth was either an insult or some kind of cocky, arrogant, backstabbing remark.  The whole thing was so ironic that a website that keeps millions of people connected was started by someone who couldn’t connect with anyone.  In the movie Eduardo who is suing Zuckerberg states “I was your only friend”, unfortunately business and success were far more important to Zuckerberg than any friendship.  Who knows, maybe that inability to connect is what made him so successful.  These disappointing as well as ironic parts show that this wasn’t smooth sailing into a big pile of cash; there were disappointments, failures, and broken friendships along the way.  I think these aspects are what made the movie such a success.

          I would definitely suggest you take the time to go out and see this amazing story especially if you are a Facebook user, which, lets face it is pretty much everyone.  To give you a little perspective if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world, that truly speaks for itself.  Check out this trailer for The Social Network and I promise that spending the ten dollars to see this film will definitely be worth you while. 

The Social Network Trailer