JoeThis is one of the better political movies that I’ve seen. Unlike many of its genre peers, Blood Diamond avoids self-righteousness and sacrimony and hits hard on its message.
Having heard the term “conflict diamonds” before, I knew that they were bad, but I never really understood why. The movie does a great job of making really foreign concepts, like children soldiers, completely relatable and understandable to American viewers.
It’s definitely a powerful film with strong performances and a message that truly affects Americans (particularly those of us who are getting married…)
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EmilyWell, if you are a girl with a diamond or several on your finger, you might want to think twice before seeing this downer of a movie. It does however put into perspective the diamond market and the lives it costs or did cost at the time. It was an action packed thrilling movie full of bloodshed, deceit, and greed. But overall, I enjoyed it. However, I did feel extremely guilty about my diamond and considered selling it. Until of course I realized how pretty it is. What can I say, diamonds are a girl’s best friend. But back to the point, this movie made me really think about the evil in this world and the greed in this world. It was very interesting and presented moral delimas that cannot be solved. Good movie, and as always, Leonardo Dicaprio was handsome!
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Joe:Emily:Blood Diamond Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly, Djimon Hounsou
Directed by Edward Zwick
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Blood Diamond
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Unforgiven
JoeI’m going to have to disagree strongly with Emily on this one. Unforgiven is one of my favorite Westerns, mainly because of the reasons she doesn’t like it. Clint Eastwood won his first directorial Oscar for his job on this and it was well deserved.
Evil may reign, but that’s true to life; our world is fallen and evil. I enjoyed seeing the conflicted characters struggle through the adventure involved in bringing some measure of justice to a victimized prostitute. But, there was more to it than just that. What is appropriate justice and who is it actually for? On this viewing, I actually found that the evilest character in the movie is the head prostitute, played by Frances Fisher. On several occassions, she dismissed fair punishments that the actual victim seemed pleased with, in order to satisfy the anger that she had for being a prostitute.
This issue of justice is constantly on display in the film’s many conflicts. Is Gene Hackman’s sheriff character justified to beat the tar out of any assassin coming to his town? What are the limits to preventative justice? Unforgiven doesn’t give any easy answers, because there aren’t any. There is very little in this movie’s world that is pure good and pure evil, and we have to answer these questions on our own.
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EmilyHorrible movie, no plot, stupid ending, and evil reigns. That about sums up my opinion of this disappointing movie. Maybe I just didn’t understand it, but it was my least favorite movie of the year except perhaps for Indiana Jones.
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Joe:Emily:Unforgiven Clint Eastwood, Morgan Freeman, Gene Hackman, Richard Harris
Directed by Clint Eastwood
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Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
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Marley & Me
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The Dark Knight
JoeOK, so this was the second time I’ve seen the film, and let me just say that it took two sittings for me to fully appreciate this sequel. The action sequences are amazing (especially on Blu-Ray) and the basic plot is the most engrossing comic book adaptation I’ve ever seen. That being said, it took me a second viewing to really concentrate on the moral questions and issues the film addresses. *SPOILER ALERT* Nolan goes out of his way to emphasize that Batman is no hero in our most basic understanding of the word. Harvey Dent is that hero. The problem with that is when Dent is thrown a curveball and things don’t go according to his plan and when he finally breaks, he loses it. In terms of Christianity, Dent is a good metaphor for Christians who cannot leave room for grey. When the black and white world collapses around him, his faith collapses along with it. The world is f’d up, and we’ve got to learn to deal with it. The only one who ever did that effectively was Christ. Batman and Gordon are probably the closest we can come to effectively dealing with it by ourselves. *END SPOILER ALERT* Anyway, beyond the film’s moral implications, it’s an incredible piece of cinema. Morgan Freeman, oscar-winner, signed on to play a role where he is in maybe 15 minutes of the movie. That’s how good and deep the cast is. All that being said, the movie is amazing, and it only took a few viewings for me to realize. I’m just a slow learner, I guess. |
EmilyAs I sit here trying to think of what to write in my review, all that comes to mind is Dude movie. This action film is definitely a movie targeted towards men who love action, thrill, violence, and amazing car crashes. However, as a female who shies away from action films or dude films in general, it wasn’t a terrible experience. Being the second time I have seen this movie, the Joker still creeps me out, Two Face is disgusting, and Batman is, well, the good guy. This movie does pose some interesting moral delimas. How good are people’s hearts? Would you kill another man to save yourself? Is the human race evil at its core? So overall, this movie is a neutral for me. Not a thumbs up or a thumbs down. But girls, if your man wants you to share in this dude movie experience with him, it does have some entertainment factor. Not a bad movie to see in order to get a chick flick veiwing in return.
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Joe:Emily:Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Michael Caine, Morgan Freeman, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal Directed by Christopher Nolan |
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White Christmas
Given that it’s nearly Christmas, we’ve started watching almost exclusively Christmas movies, and so we’ll be reviewing some classics. Here goes.
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Burn After Reading
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