City of God: Revisited

I didn't sleep very well last night, for three reasons. My cousin's over here, and he wanted to watch Steven King's The Stand. So we watched the first 3 episodes (about 90 minutes each) and I couldn't keep my eyes open for the 4th (though I wanted to so badly). So I "went to sleep", actually I came and read my email, which includes the comments people wrote on my "City of God" thing. So I felt kinda bad about what I had written, and I knew that Nguyen was right in that I should use more detail because only doing so can you give a good movie review. Otherwise your just talking around certian issues/plot/etc... Plus, there's now way I'm going to get better as a writer or reviewer or whatever if I don't A)take critisicm or B) improve my style which is a slight point of this blog to begin with. So I had all that running through my head, and I went to toadpizza and enjoyed it thoroughly but didn't read it very carefully, just enough to be jelouse of your writing style. So I went to bed feeling dispondent over my post, and responses and ablity plus, I was still abit wigged out over the movie that I had watched and when I did get to sleep I drempt of "the end of the world" and a huge stand between Good Vs. Evil, and it's not the type of dreams I usually, have.

So today I woke up, and wanted to at least finish The Stand (which I haven't done yet) but Naomi and I need to drive my cousin back to Pittsburgh first. I just thought I'd clear up some stuff about my impressions on City of God, and there will be some spoilers, so if you are an anal freak (like I am) about not wanting things spoiled --DON'T READ THIS-- because Anal Freaks (like me) get annoyed when the slightest thing is spoiled for them. There could be some medium spoilig here so you may get more than slightly annoyed you might want to chainsaw my car in half.

So first off, I did really like City of God. It was a good movie. I liked at 2 or 3 of the characters supremely, and I understood all of them. The story tells a grisley tale of a boy growing up in the slums of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil-- just in case). His life (and the lives of all the other inhabitants) are dominated by the gangs that traffic marijuna, cocain and guns througout the neighborhoods. Rocket, or narrator and main character tries to stradle the fence between gangster and straight lace citazen. As you could imainge this becomes increasingly more difficult to do as he intertwines his life with fringe gangsters and girls. (Getting involved with girls can always lead to a downward spiral... (just joking) ;) so that's the plot.

I mentioned yesterday that I liked the movie because of the structure. That's still true. The structre takes you on wild race, and dosen't introduce you to the salient characters until it becomes absolutly necessary for you to meet them. It's genius.

The other thing I like about the movie, is seeing A) another part of the world, and B) I'm alway impressed with showing grisley scenes that make the audience feel uncomfortable. This movie has a few of these type things, but the most haunting to me (and thus most effective and maybe "best") is the one I'll describe for you. There's this bad gangester war lord guy, Li'l Ze right, and he basically rules the streets in The City of God. Well this "little" gang called The Runts starts messing up his turf. The Runts are 8-10 year old kids. They carry guns and vandalise, and basically wreak havoc on everyone. So Li'l Ze wants to send them a message, and he corners 2 of them, and asks each of them, do you want me to shoot you in the hand or foot? It was really nonchalant too, like he was asking "where's the wal-mart"? He then shoots a kid in the foot, and these little boys that act so tough, (but are literaly little boys) are now crying like a little boy would. It was a moving picture of the lifesyle these boys live, and a the fact that all of them are in WAY over their heads, even though they pretend not to be.

The other interesting factoid about the movie, is that when Li'l Ze is in charge of his area without being challenged by others, the whole slum is relativly safe. Street crime went down, people were walking the streets at night, no one felt unsafe, until someone tried to take over Li'l Ze's territory. The point is, I wouldn't have thought that by encouraging drug dealing the city would be safer than by trying to bust it. Did that make sense? It was just an interesting realization you know?

So the bottom line is, I did enjoy the movie, (though I watched Million Dollar Baby and though it's more depressing I think I liked Million Dollar Baby more, though I wouldn't take either of them on a desert Isle and watch either of them forever.) I liked it very much. I just can't feel like I should recommend it to people, because of the content. But Ben, I'm VERY glad you watched it, seriously. I think it's important or at least good for people to get out of their comfort zones when watching a movie, this movie certianly did that for me, and I imagine it did for you too, as it would all of you.

Keep it real. Dre :)

ps- (I hope I don't ruin it but this post is spelling error free, I just worded it, and it had no spelling errors. Whopee I didn't get my masters degree for nothing...)

City of God

First of all Ben James, did you see this movie? (I'd be shocked if you did and would recommend it (or possibly) I'm honored because you know my likes and dislikes so well that you know what to recommend to me.) But really I'm thinking (not because you don't know me but because I know you) that you haven't seen the movie.

Let me start off by saying I don't recommend it to anyone. Not because it wasn't good, because it was a very moving picture that told a unique story, with creativity and social impact. The good things about the movie, really the best thing about the movie, is the structure. It's like an ideal "Andrei story". (The way I WISH I could tell stories, and rarely do, but most often fail to do.) The movie begins, in the middle of the action, and you have to be given back ground info to catch you up. But (in typical Andrei fashion) you're given like 7 or 8 different threads of plot and the whole "puzzle" isn't put together until the end. (This is how I wish my stories would end up too. However, usually I flounder around for awhile, and then end the story abruptly and the listener is just confused. That's on a good day. :) So the movie is well structured, it's also really interestingly shot. The camara work and color is vivid and intense. I liked that about the movie too. Really I liked pretty much everything about the movie. I just can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. Everything that could make a movie rated R, is in this movie. It's very strong language wise, (though it's subtitled so you can soften the words in your mind, your still taking them in) it's also extremely violent and harrowing. It's a violence that sticks with you because of the nature of the film. I feel like I need a shower now to wash the feel of the movie off of me. (Maybe it's my B.O. actually.)

So don't watch the movie (unless you really want to just remember I didn't recommend it watching it is up to you...) but if you do, lets talk about it.

thanks for your time. Dre- :)

An opportuinty like no other

My dad learned of this opportunity through Moody Raido (which he listens to faithfully). A foundation is looking for Chirstian based movie scripts. They're looking for never before published writers, and will write a movie that honors the Lord and doesn't curse and stuff. The details are found at the link above or right here. http://www.kairosprize.com/kps06/ January 6th is the deadline and 3 people get cash prizes as well as having their scripts shipped to "Major Hollywood Studios". I think it's pretty cool. It's definatly worth checking out. I'd be happy to collaborate with anyone, if they were willing, or not whatever. Just wanted to let you guys know about it. We can at least use this as a springboard to pray for the film industry, that God would be glorified in it, and that we could have an impact in it ourselves.

Isn't God AWESOME!
dre :)

"Serenity HERE and Now"

This may not shock anyone who knows me but I have to poop. So I guess the length of this post will 100% depend on the exact moment my pants explode. Opps. There they go... I BRB... I gotta clean this up and get the Fabreeze... hold on. My sister just said and I quote "It stinks spray it or something...".

Anyway, since we're on the topic of poop, I'd like to tell you what I think is poop. People, telling you spoilers or even implying spoilers in a movie review. I just want to know if it's good or not, so I usually don't read reviews of movies until after I've seen the movie. I just want to let you all know, that if you read my "reviews" (lets be honest they're not even that...) this is a spoiler free zone, so have no fear.

So on Friday, I went on the affore mentioned date (read Puddletype for "the whole sordid story") with my sister. It was fun. We went to a mall and I bought her stuff, and then I took her to dinner. (The date was going supremely well at this point) then we went to the movie Serenity. --Naomi doesn't like Sci-fi and I could sense she wasn't enjoying the picture-- I however, really did enjoy myself.

I'm sure that you're all aware that Serenity is based on the short lived tv series Firefly. This show had the total package. The writing was original and their storytelling was fresh. There were always nice unexpected twists, as an audience member you just strapped in and went a long for the ride. The show found a balance between action scenes and scenes of emotional outpouring. It was not a mindless Science Fiction television series. The plots were tight, there wasn't waisted space, it was enjoayble in virutually everyway. All these peices fit together and what made them work so well, was the cast and characters. They all had the skills to make you laugh and cry in the same ten minute span. It was beautiful storytelling. So that's my take on the tv show. Now on to the movie right?

Serenity, is a fun movie. It has the characters (my sister just gave me a fruit roll up... I'm so stinkin' lucky) that we've all come to know and love. It also it has more money so the pretty cool fight scenes from the tv show, are now extended and beefed up by the budget. The costumes look better, the whole ship and world they live in looks fantastic. It sounds SO MUCH BETTER, the sound is the most outstanding thing in the movie. Joss Whedon (director/writer/producer) uses silence in the most effective ways. It's bizzare because it's like he uses silence to engross you further in the action. It just worked for me. I loved the music and the silence.

The movie is also 2/3 longer then an episode of the tv show. So they really had time to develop a plot and flesch out the action sequences. However, the movie is not a longer version of the tv show. They have one storyline going the whole time, and do not worry about subplots or side jokes that do not directly effect the primary plot. And this was a sort of frustration for me, because I feel like the audience missed out on the brotherhood and togetherness of the crew. The show is most fun when they're all together goffing off, and you're enjoying the oneliners because you know and love the characters. I guess I just missed the homieness of the tv show. I enjoyed the special effects, and the plot was very poignient and directly tied into the television series (so that was cool). There wasn't an atrophy as far as the final product is concerned. I just didn't like seeing the characters that I love relogated to a backgroud figure. It just made me homesick for the show. The film watching exprience was a good one (though I had to get up and use the restroom once and it kinda took me out of the movie when I got back... I can't stand leaving the movies to use the restroom, so you have to imagine it was a 'pants exploding' type situation.) it was a really well made movie. It'd be nice to see it do well financially, and possibly see another one of these monkeys sometime soon, or a revival of the tv show like they did Family Guy. Anyway, give it a shot, or if you want you and I could watch the whole dvd series (only like 14 episodes) and then we'll go see the thing together. (and I won't poop myself or make you pay for dinner so it's a win win situation.)

dre:)