A movie marathon of sorts (spoilers)
Somehow this weekend I managed to watch three movies in 24 hours. I'm not sure exactly how I managed to do so, but I enjoyed it. My best friend Amanda slept over on Friday night (it was a spur-of-the-moment plan; she was originally just going to come over after school for a few hours as usual, but then I invited her to sleep over, too, and surprisingly she was able to) and my dad took us to the video store to rent some videos. I ended up getting Monster and Frida (this was completely my decision; Amanda refused to provide any input in the choices, which she regretted after watching Monster).
We watched Monster first, which was based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute turned serial killer. It was incredibly disturbing. A few people have asked me whether it was good or not, and I really don't know what to say. I'm glad that it was already replaced in the "Movies Seen Recently" section because I have no idea what I would rate it. Aileen (Charlize Theron's character) killed seven men over the course of the movie, although not all of the murders are shown. The first murder was absolutely justified, and I'm sure anyone in her position would have done the same thing. This particular man picked up Aileen, a prostitute, from the highway and brought her in the woods to supposedly have sex with her. Instead, he knocked her out, tied her up, raped her, and poured rubbing alcohol on her wounds. Before he was able to carry out his ultimate plan of murdering her, Aileen somehow managed to escape and shoot him several times with his own gun. This ordeal severely affected Aileen's mental state and lead to her commit the six other murders. Each killing was less and less justified, especially the last in which her victim picked her up from the highway not to have sex with her but to help her. He died while begging for his wife and children. Aileen was ultimately arrested and sentenced to death.
As someone who is against the death penalty, I of course do not believe she should have been executed. However, this is one of those cases that I'm not completely sure. The first killing was justified, yes; the others, however (at least the others that were shown in the movie), were not. But most importantly, Aileen was not in a healthy mental state, and I think she could have easily plead insanity. On the flipside, I also think that she should absolutely have been held responsible, which she was, so in that case the insanity plea is not possible. In the end I'm still not completely sure of how I feel about this, except that she was undeniably a threat to society and nothing less than a life sentence would have been acceptable. Of course I am only going by what I saw in the movie, and obviously the real story was probably altered a bit for Hollywood. For example, in the movie Aileen's girlfriend was Selby (Christina Ricci's character), but in reality her girlfriend was Tyria Moore, who looks nothing like the petite and attractive Christina Ricci and has been suspected of being involved in some of the murders.
I'm not sure if I would recommend Monster, but if you do want to watch it, be prepared to be extremely disturbed.
The next day, on Saturday, Amanda and I went to the mall to see 16 Blocks. It was pretty good, but not excellent. It was somewhat predictable and boring at parts, and the action wasn't extremely thrilling. The ending was bordering on too sappy and perfect (though I'm not complaining; I like happy endings). What really sold this movie for me was Mos Def's character, the witness that several cops wanted to eliminate for fear that his testimony would ruin their careers. His character was a little annoying at the beginning of the movie (which was intended), but by the end I absolutely fell in love with him (also intended). He is one of the most lovable characters featured in any of the movies that I have seen recently. The character was perfect, and Mos Def did an excellent job portraying him. I did enjoy this movie, though I would probably only recommend it as a rental.
Amanda's parents picked her up from the mall, so when I returned home I watched Frida... and I absolutely loved it. This is definitely going on my list of favorite movies. It was long, but it was a great story. Frida Kahlo lead an amazing life and she was an incredibly interesting person. A lot of the things that happened to her were and still are taboo, such as her and her husband Diego Rivera's communist beliefs, her occasional lesbian trysts, and her affair with communist leader Leon Trotsky. The movie was completely honest and did not try to hide or sugarcoat the truth. Also, her paintings usually depicted scenes from her own life, so several times throughout the movie a few of her paintings were amazingly and accurately personified. One of the most ironically beautiful scenes in the movie was the trolley accident that greatly affected her health for the rest of her life. The last shot of the scene showed her sprawled out on the floor, bloodied and covered in gold leafing from a painter on the trolley. After the accident she was nearly crippled, with 11 fractures and several broken ribs and a broken spinal column, among other injuries. An iron handrail had impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, leaving her unable to bear children (which she realized after a particularly gruesome miscarriage). She was in a full-body cast for months, and would often experience relapses later in her life which would leave her hospitalized for months at a time, and also causing her to undergo nearly 35 operations (including the amputation of all of her toes on one foot due to gangrene) throughout her lifetime.
Overall, Frida was an amazing movie and I would recommend it to anyone. Salma Hayek was spectacular, and no one else would have been acceptable for this role. I really want to buy the DVD so I can watch it again.
Anyway, now that I've written more about movies than I ever thought I could, I shall move on. Today track was supposed to start. And it did, but I wasn't there. I was planning on it, but none of my friends could go and this week's practices are optional anyway, so I just decided to stay home for today. For one last day. Besides, I hardly got enough sleep last night to allow me to function properly in school, let alone survive a whole track practice. Tonight I'm really going to try to get to bed by 11, because less than 7 hours of sleep would not be a good idea.
Well, this post is long enough for a few days, I believe. Hopefully I will still have time to blog regularly once I start going to track. Until then, adios.
We watched Monster first, which was based on the life of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute turned serial killer. It was incredibly disturbing. A few people have asked me whether it was good or not, and I really don't know what to say. I'm glad that it was already replaced in the "Movies Seen Recently" section because I have no idea what I would rate it. Aileen (Charlize Theron's character) killed seven men over the course of the movie, although not all of the murders are shown. The first murder was absolutely justified, and I'm sure anyone in her position would have done the same thing. This particular man picked up Aileen, a prostitute, from the highway and brought her in the woods to supposedly have sex with her. Instead, he knocked her out, tied her up, raped her, and poured rubbing alcohol on her wounds. Before he was able to carry out his ultimate plan of murdering her, Aileen somehow managed to escape and shoot him several times with his own gun. This ordeal severely affected Aileen's mental state and lead to her commit the six other murders. Each killing was less and less justified, especially the last in which her victim picked her up from the highway not to have sex with her but to help her. He died while begging for his wife and children. Aileen was ultimately arrested and sentenced to death.As someone who is against the death penalty, I of course do not believe she should have been executed. However, this is one of those cases that I'm not completely sure. The first killing was justified, yes; the others, however (at least the others that were shown in the movie), were not. But most importantly, Aileen was not in a healthy mental state, and I think she could have easily plead insanity. On the flipside, I also think that she should absolutely have been held responsible, which she was, so in that case the insanity plea is not possible. In the end I'm still not completely sure of how I feel about this, except that she was undeniably a threat to society and nothing less than a life sentence would have been acceptable. Of course I am only going by what I saw in the movie, and obviously the real story was probably altered a bit for Hollywood. For example, in the movie Aileen's girlfriend was Selby (Christina Ricci's character), but in reality her girlfriend was Tyria Moore, who looks nothing like the petite and attractive Christina Ricci and has been suspected of being involved in some of the murders.
I'm not sure if I would recommend Monster, but if you do want to watch it, be prepared to be extremely disturbed.
The next day, on Saturday, Amanda and I went to the mall to see 16 Blocks. It was pretty good, but not excellent. It was somewhat predictable and boring at parts, and the action wasn't extremely thrilling. The ending was bordering on too sappy and perfect (though I'm not complaining; I like happy endings). What really sold this movie for me was Mos Def's character, the witness that several cops wanted to eliminate for fear that his testimony would ruin their careers. His character was a little annoying at the beginning of the movie (which was intended), but by the end I absolutely fell in love with him (also intended). He is one of the most lovable characters featured in any of the movies that I have seen recently. The character was perfect, and Mos Def did an excellent job portraying him. I did enjoy this movie, though I would probably only recommend it as a rental.Amanda's parents picked her up from the mall, so when I returned home I watched Frida... and I absolutely loved it. This is definitely going on my list of favorite movies. It was long, but it was a great story. Frida Kahlo lead an amazing life and she was an incredibly interesting person. A lot of the things that happened to her were and still are taboo, such as her and her husband Diego Rivera's communist beliefs, her occasional lesbian trysts, and her affair with communist leader Leon Trotsky. The movie was completely honest and did not try to hide or sugarcoat the truth. Also, her paintings usually depicted scenes from her own life, so several times throughout the movie a few of her paintings were amazingly and accurately personified. One of the most ironically beautiful scenes in the movie was the trolley accident that greatly affected her health for the rest of her life. The last shot of the scene showed her sprawled out on the floor, bloodied and covered in gold leafing from a painter on the trolley. After the accident she was nearly crippled, with 11 fractures and several broken ribs and a broken spinal column, among other injuries. An iron handrail had impaled her abdomen, piercing her uterus, leaving her unable to bear children (which she realized after a particularly gruesome miscarriage). She was in a full-body cast for months, and would often experience relapses later in her life which would leave her hospitalized for months at a time, and also causing her to undergo nearly 35 operations (including the amputation of all of her toes on one foot due to gangrene) throughout her lifetime.Overall, Frida was an amazing movie and I would recommend it to anyone. Salma Hayek was spectacular, and no one else would have been acceptable for this role. I really want to buy the DVD so I can watch it again.
Anyway, now that I've written more about movies than I ever thought I could, I shall move on. Today track was supposed to start. And it did, but I wasn't there. I was planning on it, but none of my friends could go and this week's practices are optional anyway, so I just decided to stay home for today. For one last day. Besides, I hardly got enough sleep last night to allow me to function properly in school, let alone survive a whole track practice. Tonight I'm really going to try to get to bed by 11, because less than 7 hours of sleep would not be a good idea.
Well, this post is long enough for a few days, I believe. Hopefully I will still have time to blog regularly once I start going to track. Until then, adios.
posted by Patricia at 7:16 PM
1 Comments:
Frida is so good, I wanted to see monster, but after your review, I don't know, and I wish I hadn't read your thing about 16 Blocks, cuz I wanted to see it. Hahahahha
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