Movie Review: Temple Grandin starring Claire Danes

I've been following Dr. Temple Grandin the person for several years.  Well, let me qualify that, she's over fifty already anyway.  She didn't just get discovered or anything, she designed the handling facilities for half the cattle slaughtering houses in the country.  She's an autistic who has the ability to remember in pictures and has used her abilities to change the way we deal with animals on the way to slaughter.  I have heard a number of interviews with her and a presentation or two that she's given.  She's a very brilliant person.

To the movie.

Now this is acting.  Acting is worthless when you're just watching the person on screen in some form of themselves.  Claire Danes is brilliant in this film.  Her portrayal of Grandin is very close, her mannerisms, speech patterns, and tone.  She's not perfect, but it's hard to know exactly since the good doctor is a bit older now.  When I heard her opening line in the movie, I said "That's not how Temple Grandin talks, but it's close enough."  Of course Danes portrays her when she was much younger than she is now.  Grandin herself in the special features remarks as to how close Danes' portrayal is.

This is one of those stories you wouldn't believe if it wasn't real.  Grandin has done so much with her life, and she came from a time when autistic children were more often than not institutionalized.  She was the first person to explain what it was like to be autistic.

I absolutely loved this movie and I would recommend it to anyone, and in fact, you should really see it. 

10/10

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Heckler

Heckler is Jamie Kennedy's exploration into hecklers and critics of movies and comedians.  It is a very insightful look into a very critical and overly celebrity possessed culture.

Watch it, it's pretty good.  7/10.  Lot of swearing, but hey, they're dirty comedians, what do you expect.
WiredForStereo

P.S.  Watch the movie and you'll realize why this review is so short.

Movie Review: "The Future of Food"

I've had "The Future of Food" DVD lying around for some time now, but it's one of those things that you put on your Netflix queue and by the time it gets here, you forgot why you put it on there to begin with.  As I was watching it, I think I remembered that Thom Hartmann had recommended it last summer or fall.

But once I got into it, this is the kind of documentary that talks about the things that "The Way" is really all about.  This film starts out by explaining how foods came to be genetically modified and how in the United States GMO crops do not have to be labeled as such even though they may present a significant danger of allergic reactions.

Throughout the film, Monsanto is continually implicated in the continued degradation of the food system through the manipulation of genes and the patents of the same.  The patenting of critical parts of living things is of course ludicrous, but it continues down the same path as corporate person-hood recently has.  The only fighting back that has been done is by a few states who have amended their constitutions.  What really needs to be done is a significant rewrite of the first amendment to stipulate that only humans, living organisms are persons, and that patent laws apply only to inventions or innovations, and not discoveries.

Fortunately, there is some populist backlash against the agricultural corporations.  In the last twenty years, farmers markets have approximately doubled, and thanks to green movements, more and more poeple are trying their hand at growing their own food.  But the problem is, courts have ordered that if a Monsanto owned gene somehow gets into your crops, even if your crops are distant descendants of a single seed blown off a Monsanto seed truck, Monsanto owns it.  Further, a termination gene has been developed that sterilizes the second generation of a seed thus rendering it unable to be replanted.  What happens if this gene is cross bred into other populations of crops.  In a few generations (plant years) an entire species of food plant could be wiped out.

Don't buy the lies that genetically modified crops will feed the world's hungry, it is not the truth and is meant to deceive you and allow agribusiness to continue allowing them to take you to the cleaners.  For years now, the world food problem has had more to do with distribution than with supply.  It is a problem actually created by corporations driving former subsistence farmers off their land and into cities.

It's up to us, like it or not, though I am but a small voice, it needs to be heard.  Regulations on business are not just about controlling business or keeping certain things from happening.  It is about keeping the human as the dominant force on earth, and not business whose only motivating factor is greed.

Overall, I give this film a 9/10, I think the area that could be the most improved is the narrator's voice.  Should have had James Earl Jones.

Grow your own food or buy at a farmer's market.  Your future ability to eat may depend on it.
WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Religulous

Yesterday, I watched Bill Maher's Religulous. I did it not because I want to disprove religion, which he does, and Islam, and Judaism, but I wanted to know what he was all about. I did know a bit, but it's just really interesting to see public figures and paid religious professionals stumble and bumble with questions with obvious answers if they were really honest. But they can't answer the real answer because it doesn't mesh with their lifestyle.

One section I found particularly interesting was the chapter on the DVD entitled "God and Country" if I remember correctly. Bill started the section by asserting that in Jesus' world view, there is no room for nationalism. This is one point where I agreed with Bill immediately. As a true follower of Jesus, there is no "God and Country." There is only God. You want to be a patriot, whatever, but your allegiance lies with God alone when it all comes down.

If you like to see religious people squirm, you'll like this movie. Beware, if you are a conservative Christian, or a very religious person, this movie will make you squirm. It made me sick to my stomach to see all these people claiming to be Christians rather than defending the truth, defending their religion. It was horrific to hear all the really bad answers.

Overall, I'd give this movie about 7/10 based on how it was done, editing, writing etc. But if you are a Christian, this is a must see just because you need to be exposed to this kind of thing.

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Maxed Out

Maxed Out is a little documentary about debt. It explores both personal credit card debt and also national debt. It's a fantastic documentary and features some stuff by Dave Ramsey as well as the man himself. I give it 9/10.

It's available online at Netflix. See it. If you don't have Netflix, you're wasting your money watching movies any other way.

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Star Trek

I don't know how to describe this movie other than by saying it has all the awesomeness of Star Trek without all the campy corniness of Star Trek.

It is packed full of action and drama, but still includes the history and characters we all know and love from the original series through Star Trek 7. There are some interesting new takes on the characters and it is an exploration of what the Star Trek universe we know would be like had something been changed, in this case, Kirk without his father.

The technology has seen a reboot as well. Gone are the panels full of analog switches that we saw in TOS and more realistic technologies like touch screens are here. I also liked the internals of the Enterprise much more than in the past. I don't know where the scenes were filmed, but the inside of the ship was filled with structural components and plumbing like you'd expect to seen in a huge space going vessel. One disappointment though was in the climactic battle scene, Scotty was running around frantically trying to fix things in what I guess was supposed to be Engineering and there really wasn't much there. Bad location or set dressing or something.

Overall a very enjoyable movie. No nudity, a bit of violence (fighting,) little swearing and a lot of good special effects. Casting was good, especially with the inclusion of Leonard Nimoy. It just wouldn't have been the same without the real Spock.

9/10

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Gran Torino

If you see one R rated movie in your lifetime, see The Passion of the Christ. If you see another one, see Gran Torino. In my point of view, this is likely one of the greatest movies of all time. It so much captures my worldview regarding violence, even though it is shown through a quite imperfect man.

Spoilers ahead, I'm spillin' the beans.

The story is about Walt, a very old very grumpy Korea veteran who lives in a neighborhood in Detroit now largely populated by Hmong. He shows a boy what manhood is like, and sacrifices himself for the boy and his sister and the whole neighborhood.

I've been watching some Clint Eastwood movies lately, and I couldn't help but notice that this one follows a kind of form that some of them follow. First you have an unlikely hero or antihero who wittingly or unwittingly helps some people, there is little real action for much of the movie, but some openers to get the story going. One of the people being helped is in some way brutalized by the bad guys which leads up to the climax. And then there is the final shootout followed by the denouement. It reminded me a bit of Pale Rider or Unforgiven except for the way the shootout goes.

This movie speaks to me in the way that it portrays the occurrence of redemptive violence. So many movies are based on revenge, kill the bad guy, get the girl, you win. But life, especially if you are a true believer in Christ does not work that way. This movie demonstrates that violence doesn't solve much, in fact, the only time Walt retaliates, it results in the rape and beating of Sue, the girl who introduces him to her Hmong family. So instead of mounting some sort of war against the Asian gangbangers, he instead implicates them all in his own murder by allowing himself to be gunned down as the only way of ridding the neighborhood of an inescapable negative influence. He says the only way Thao and Sue will ever make it is if the gangbangers are gone for good. As he demonstrates, the only way to successfully achieve that was to sacrifice himself. Really what it promotes is active non-violence, which is where I'm at.

One thing truly demonstrated in this movie is love. At the beginning of the movie, Walt is the grumpiest old man you can imagine, but when he, in a probably selfish move, saves Thao, the neighborhood lavishes love on him until he just can't resist it any more. This leads him to take Thao under his wing and ultimately leads him to sacrifice himself for the neighborhood. No, it's not as pure as Jesus, but it's almost as good as a human can pull off.

You might not expect it, but this movie is funny. In fact, I remember wishing that what they call comedies nowadays were this funny. Walt is hilarious. He spews racial epithets with impunity, he really doesn't care what anyone thinks. He calls the Hmong gooks to their faces, but they don't care, they welcome him anyway. I wish we as a country could let go of race and treat it as a source of humor not hate like Walt does with his barber and construction worker friend. "How ya doin' ya slimy mick bastard?" He didn't actually say that I don't think, but it was something like that. I'm a honky, he's a cracker, he's a wop, she's a beaner. So what. Race is a thing we have to deal with, and it won't be dealt with by ignoring it. Problems never go away that way.

All in all, this is one of the most impactful movies I have ever seen because if it's negative portrayal of redemptive violence. Even in the small cruddy theater I saw it in, there was substantial applause when the film ended. The only complaint I had was the acting was a little thin from some of the Hmong leads, but that was because only one of them had ever acted before. And I guess you could say with all the frowning and stern looks Eastwood gives in all his movies, the look has almost stuck. It's kind of hard to make him look any more pissed than usual, but the general nastiness and pissed offedness of the character does a pretty good job.

Entertainment wise, The Dark Knight was the best movie last year, but with how I perceive the message that I'd like to present, I put Gran Torino in first place. I hope one day Israel figures out that violence doesn't work. I give this movie 9/10 and it would have been 10 save for the acting. This will be a movie that I get on Blu-Ray or whatever technology is in, and it will be a movie my children will watch with me. Yes the swearing is excessive, but that's reality for you and it is easily forgettable. Watch it. I think it would be a fitting end if ol' Clint quit making movies.

WiredForStereo

Movie Review of "W."

Welcome to this the 165th post of The Way by WiredForStereo.

My wife is out of town so I went to see W. (it's pronounced dubya) this evening. I'll tell you now that this isn't a comedy unless you are a Left Wingnut, (I mean like the kind you only see on YouTube) and you'd be surprised how even handed it can be at times.

The main thrust of the story is the runup to the Iraq invasion, and that story is interspersed with scenes stretching all the way back to W's days in Yale. It casts Colin Powell in a good light, even before he came out in support of Obama. There have been some criticisms of the relationship shown in the Bush family, but those aren't the parts I'm interested in anyway.

The parts I am interested in are the parts depicting the Iraq stuff and W's relationship with God. I am a Jesus Freak, and as such I cannot judge whether or not God really called W. to be president as he says He did. I can at certain points doubt whether we worship the same God or not by what that deity tells us.

It's my conclusion that Dubya isn't a bad guy, as many of us now see him. He's just one of those people you know who doesn't belong in the job they have. In his case, his job is so involved that he needs all these advisors and because he really doesn't know what he's doing, his advisors run amuck. He's a smart guy, person to person say, but not like running a country. He'd probably be a great Xerox copier salesman. Some of you know what I'm talking about.

I don't think that history will look favorably on W. The stuff many were excited about him doing and being didn't turn out to be the things we were excited about. His faith based initiatives were a fantastic idea, but he's not done much with them. Hopefully Barry can follow through on his plans for them. And the war as everyone now knows was waged under false pretenses. There were no WMD's, and no Al-Qaeda, but there sure are now.

Good movie if you are interested in such things, I give it a 7/10. Hopefully it comes out on DVD before W. is president no more.

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: The Incredible Hulk

I just got out of the Incredible Hulk, the further adventures of Bruce Banner and a bit of a redo as far as stylistically.

Not a bad movie, just didn't make me wanna go buy the DVD. Some of the little details were ignored which kinda annoyed me, you'd think a $150 million movie would have some ripples when Hulk steps in the water. Though there was a little humor, there wasn't enough to amount to much.

No real sex or nudity, lots of violence but little blood. There are more deaths in this one than the last one, but it is also better than the last one.

6/10
WiredForStereo

Movie Review: WALL*E

This is the story of a little trash compacting robot left on earth for 700 years to clean up all the trash. It's a great story, great sci-fi, excellent animation and a good watch.

This movie will be a great addition to any collection, especially if you have kids. No objectionable content that I could see, and it has a great ecological message, if not a bit exaggerated. It also presents a future where a single company controls everything from food, service, and transportation to the government itself to nearly disastrous effect.

I give this movie 9/10. I have been wanting to see it since I first saw the original teaser trailer like last December or something. A great movie, another Pixar classic.
WiredForStereo

Movie Review: You Don't Mess with the Zohan.

Let me preface this review by quoting a line from the movie.

"Nobody giggles at the Zohan."

Zohan wasn't that great of a movie. I just wasn't attracted to all the screwing of the old ladies. The best parts were done before Zohan gets to New York, and most of them were in the trailer. Too many sexual references, most of them crude, simplistic plot, and the best action was too early in the movie.

3/10

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Get Smart

Okay, I went into this with the expectation that I'd be seeing some cross between Michael Scott and James Bond. It turned out to be more like all of Michael Scott's best traits crossed with Johnny English.

This was a great movie, I do recommend seeing it. There was not much swearing, but what there was was not TV acceptable which was interesting, a few a*holes and a few s words here and there, and most to comedic effect. There were no sexual situations, no blood, no graphic violence. There was however, Steve Carell's naked butt or maybe it was a stunt butt, I don't know.

I'll give this movie an extra point just for having a Patrick Warburton cameo, so it will come in at 8/10. I did really enjoy it, it was funny, but I think I should have seen it in a digital theater for better visual experience, I think the conversion to film kinda messed it up. My advice is to go see it in a digital theater.

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Ok, this is my first new review, my first review of a movie just out. That means I'll have to be careful not to give away stuff, or too much stuff.

This movie is a great adventure movie, it follows in the steps of the earlier Jones movies with big car chases, good action, and a bit of required suspended disbelief. The teaser trailer showed us early on what the opening scene was like, obviously taking place in the hangar where the Ark of the Covenant was stored. Early on, the mystique of the Crystal Skull is enhanced and the aliens introduced. The time period is also well planned out with the immediate appearance of a hotrod with a flat head engine, and going directly into action with the Communists. Slowly the crystal skulls are explained, and double agents will redouble. I didn't expect the ending, but I don't think anybody ever has with an Indy flick.

The big three: I'd buy this movie. There is no sex, quite a bit of action, but not flagrant violence, even through the fights. Most deaths are offscreen. There is only a small bit of swearing, most from the mouth of the young gun.

Communists have complained about their portrayal in the movie, but they just need to chill out and realize that it's fiction, no one really cares about communists anymore, it's become glaringly obvious that communism doesn't work.

I'd give this movie 7/10 but I'll bump it up because I plan on buying the whole set, unless they decide to make more then I'll have to wait a while. So I'm gonna give it 8/10

WiredForStereo

Movie Review: 3:10 to Yuma

What is 3:10 to Yuma? That's what my wife asked me. It is what it sounds like, a train schedule. The train is supposed to take Ben Wade to prison.

Ben Wade is played by Russell Crowe. In my opinion, his is the most interesting character in the movie. He is pure evil, but he recognises honor when he sees it. Honor is to be found in Christian Bale's character Dan Evans. He is a in debt, starving rancher in Arizona struggling to make ends meet when his creditors burn his barn down. He accepts the offer of $200 to help take Wade to the train only because he thinks it's the only way he can save the farm.

This is a good movie, I'll say out front. It is a bit slow at times, the build ups to the action, especially the finale are long. I think it has aspects of both the old westerns, and also the new ones. The old ones because only the good guys can actually hit anything, and the new ones because good doesn't exactly triumph in the end.

I'd like to introduce a term I'll likely use alot in the future and that is EKI. EKI stands for easily killed individual, and this movie is full of them. The most obvious ones are the Marshall's men. In fact, when I saw them I told my wife "they just introduced some easily killed individuals for the finale, it will be over soon." Sure enough, they were all dead in a blaze of cowardice in less than three minutes. There are really only three non-EKI's in the movie, Wade, Evans, and Prince. Pretty much everybody else dies, and even two of those three do. It's really kind of dark.

The standouts are Crowe, Bale, and Ben Foster. The first two you know, but Ben Foster is an interesting guy. I remember him from a show called Flash Forward on the Disney Channel way back in the mid nineties. He has grown up to be quite a versatile actor, from The Punisher, to XMen, and now Yuma.

I guess it would have been nice to have more Americans in the cast, but hey, whoever can do the best job, so be it. I do really like Bale, he's one of my favorite actors, and not just because he's Batman either.

As far as the big three, there's no sex, only a woman's naked back, not much swearing, and plenty of violence with many visible squibs. Any effects used are obvious, to make towns appear, to blow up a horse, etc.

I give this movie a 6/10.
WiredForStereo

New Feature, Movie Reviews.

I've decided to expand my writing to include movie reviews. I tend to see a few movies in the summer, so I've decided that it would be a good idea to share what I thought of some of them, and to give warnings as necessary.

Unlike most reviewers, I'll be commenting from a Christian perspective, including such things as how much swearing and nudity and violence there was. This is so people with children can decide if their children should see the movie. At times I'll also explore other things involved with each movie in my typical haphazard fashion. First movie, 3:10 to Yuma.

Enjoy
WiredForStereo