Unbroken: Book Review

When I first started reading the book Unbroken, I was intrigued and somewhat related to the character Louis Zamperini. It started out as just a telling of the boy's childhood growing up as a trouble making juvenile delinquency that would get into mischief all the time. First, it just started out as small brawls of fights with other peers, but soon turned into breaking into homes, smoking, under aged drinking, and then fleeing from the police.

When I started getting further into the book, I was very excited and brought in by the story of this trouble making boy in a run down town, developing into a world class runner and Olympian. It is the usual pity story of a poor, troubled young boy rising up to be a something in the world in the first part of the book, but then puts a unusual twist on this aspiring, growing hero story. Zamperini decides to enlist in the Army Air Corps during World War Two.

I was extremely surprised to see this very common story of the poor, trouble making kid aspiring to a heroic figure and Olympian, turn into a war story with him being so near death in several circumstances. It was so intense during the crash of the plane and him having to survive weeks in the ocean on a raft. But on top of that, I was thrown into the horrifying experiences he had while being held captive by the Japanese during the War.

First day in the camp he was sent to by the Japanese troops, he was lined up with the other captured United States soldiers and the commanding officer of the camp comes up to him and tells him to look at him. Zamperini refuses. The officer raises his voice, “LOOK ME IN THE EYES!!” Still Zamperini refuses and remains hold of his dignity. Then, the Japanese officer raises his bamboo pole and strikes Zamperini in the eye and repeats himself. Zamperini looks at him, but not in the eyes. Now the officer tells Louis not to look to look at him. Luois keeps his eyes fixed on the officer. The officer then repeatedly strikes Louis in the face until his eye is black and nose is broken. This is only one of the few situations Louis Zamperini is faced with while at this horrifying camp.

Overall, my experience reading this book was pretty much awh inspiring. The more I read into the book, the more I wanted MORE of the book. It just amazes me that this book was based on a true story. Definitely an amazing read.

Anchorman 2 Movie Review

I watched the original Anchorman movie when I was about thirteen years old and it was one of the funniest movie's I remember watching with my stepdad and stepbrother. When I heard that they were going to make a second movie, I was really anxious because I knew that it was going to be either hilariously great, or just plain terrible. In this case, I was right in both aspects in a way.

The sequel bases itself in the ‘80s New York hallways of ‘GNN’, the first 24-hour news-network and the new home for Ron and his team, who predictably thrive in the dawn of media fluff and infotainment. There are new rivalries for Ron to contend with, including slimy bigwig anchor Jack Lime (an ever reliable James Marsden), who takes over the reins from Vince Vaughn as the biggest bully in the media playground.

One thing I didnt like as much in this movie was that it focused a little too much on the main character of Ron Burgundy. I mean, yes I know, the first movie was called "The Legend of Ron Burgundy". But that doesn't mean this next movie had to completely focus on him almost the entire time as well. I would have liked to see some more funnier scenes from the other members of the news team's lives.

I mean Paul Rudd’s Brian Fantana gets a couple of good bits but his character is mostly shoehorned into old gags, while David Koechner’s Champ Kind starts off strong but fades quickly into the background.

There’s no big sense of loss, however, as Steve Carell’s Brick character has always been the favourite, and this time he gets his own romantic sub-plot involving an equally brilliant Kristen Wiig, whose vacant flightiness is a great match for his unique brand of boyish insanity. Brick's parts in some ways were some of the only times I actually truly laughed out loud during the movie. Some of the film’s strongest scenes involve these two trying to emotionally – and physically – connect, and I was left longing for a double act spin-off.

Overall I think Anchorman 2 was a pretty funny, overlong comedy that ultimately takes the flavour of the first original film and amplifies it. While it would have been nice to have seen a little more attention paid to the rest of the central cast, Ferrell does a fine job carrying most of the film’s considerable weight on his manly shoulders. Let’s hope we don’t have to wait another nine years for the next one.

  

This is the End Movie Review

The last few movie review I have done were on some action packed movies. This review I am going to do will be talking about the hilarious movie called "This is the End".  I watched this movie about a month after it came out when my friend rented it and had a whole bunch of people over to watch it at his house. I had never heard of the movie when he told us about it but I had nothing better to do that night so I came over just to hang. But, the moment the moment the movie started, I knew the movie would be hilariously funny because of the wide set of comedic actors that were introduced within the first 15 minutes of the movie. Jay Baruchel, Seth Rogen, Danny McBride, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, and James Franco are just a few of the famous comedic actors that play roles in the movie.

The story starts out with all of these famous actors getting together at a huge exclusive party at James Franco's house. The rest is pretty simple. Jay Baruchel comes to visit Seth Rogen in Los Angeles. The good friends have grown apart as Jay doesn't care for the LA lifestyle and Seth's new Tinseltown brahs. In an effort to bridge the gap, and encourage his two worlds to live in harmony, Seth brings Jay to a get-together at Franco's modern-art filled house in the hills. As we know, globally scaled mayhem ensues. The rest of the film finds the motley crew struggling to discover what went wrong and survive without losing the last, or only, vestiges of their humanity. 

All of a sudden, the earth starts to shake and huge beams of light start to beam down from the sky and takes people up. These actors (not surprisingly) aren't beamed up and the evil Satan himself and his beast rise of the of the earth and cause chaos on all of the earth. The actors find themselves in Franco's house finding ways to survive by smoking dope and getting in many bro fights and make-ups. Heck, even Emma Watson shows up halfway in the movie to put in her comedic two cents!

The cause of the apocalypse, which you may have already guessed but I won't tell you, may throw some people off. There is an actual "message to the movie, which is again, very simple. It is pretty much the lesson to not be a generic "Hollywood d-bag" or a d-bag at all, so that apparently in the future, you can be a BIG d-bag, for a really long time. 

I Am Legend Movie Review

When I first watched the movie "I Am Legend" was when I was about 11 years old with my mom and the minute it got to the part with the screeching zombie humans I was out of the room. But, a few years later, I matured a little more and decided I was ready to watch it again, and it turned out to be a really great watch.

The movie stars Will Smith as almost the only character in the entire movie minus the flashback scene that explains how he got to be apparently the only human left on the face of the earth. But he soon finds out that isn't the case.

Smith plays Robert Neville, a scientist who is evidently the last human on Earth. As we learn in a prologue, humans have discovered a cure for cancer; but flash forward several years and it turns out that the supposed "cure" has either killed those to whom it was administered or turned them into light-fearing, superhuman monsters called Dark Seekers. Spending his days searching for a cure and hunting in the abandoned streets of New York City, Robert is slowly becoming consumed by his isolation. But after he apprehends one of the Dark Seekers, he discovers that he has become part of a dangerous cat and mouse game with the monsters' alpha male. As the Dark Seekers close in on him, Robert races to find a cure while trying to regain the humanity he ironically lost in the lonely process of trying to save humankind.

In his adventures throughout Manhattan trying to stay alive and find cure for this terrible plague on mankind, he comes across what seems to be the proof that he isn't the only one left in the world and there may still be hope for the human race after all. He meets a woman and her son that have been doing their best to survive in this rundown world just like he is. Together they work together to keep each other alive and possibly, just possibly, save the world from the terrible sadness and destruction that has fallen upon it.

Overall this movie does a fantastic job with the action scenes, special effects, and depicting the world of what could happen if we keep doing destructive things to it and what could happen if we aren't too careful with our scientific discoveries and experiments. 

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Review

The classic book is known to millions worldwide. It starts out at a peaceful and happy time in middle-earth, or so many believe until the word that a necromancer is on the rise. This is when a band of 13 dwarves and the all famous Gandalf the Grey come knocking on Bilbo Baggins’ door. They ask this meek, comfort-loving hobbit to leave his peaceful home in the Shire behind and join them on a dangerous quest to reclaim their homeland which was taken from them long ago by a monstrous dragon by the name of Smaug.

I could not believe how amazing the director Peter Jackson did on the movie The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I, of course, had watched all of the Lord of the Rings movies hundreds of times with my brother, dad, and friends and couldn’t get enough of them. But when I heard they would be coming out with a Hobbit movie, I was ecstatic. I had of course read the book and knew what the movie was going to be about, but I was curious on how they would fit that book into one movie because it was so extensive and pretty much every part of the book was important to the plot. That’s when I found out they were making it into a trilogy and I was over the top excited.

The Hobbit movie runs for a full 160 minutes where you would think you might get a slight bit bored at the beginning based on the book for the first hour but surprises you with a whole mix of emotions and scenes that will make you laugh, feel sympathetic, and heroic. The first hour includes an amusing invasion of the dwarves into Bilbo’s home and their song and slapstick dinner. Then makes you feel sympathy for the poor dwarves as they unravel the story of their home being taken.

After long thought, the next morning Bilbo races after the dwarves to join the pack and act as their burglar against mighty Smaug. Once the quest begins, you are thrown into a relentless series of chase and action scenes, from hungry trolls to the magnificent city of Rivendell to the fateful encounter with Gollum to get the ring.

All of these amazing and important scenes add up to a pretty well done movie overall. I was overly thrilled to finally be back in middle earth again and I am eagerly awaiting to see the next two parts of the epic trilogy.

Guardians of the Galaxy Review

He eventually finds himself in an old tomb, rocking out to his rock and roll tapes that his mother used to give him before she died, trying to find a small silver orb to sell for a high price. Suddenly, he soon finds out that everyone who is anyone in the galaxy wants this particular item. It could mean the difference of life and death of every being in space.

I watched the movie Guardians of the Galaxy finally for the first time with my family a couple days ago and I have to say, it was one of the most exciting and hilarious movies from marvel in quite a while that I’ve seen. Making this movie was a pretty risky move by Marvel because unlike Spiderman and Captain America and the Hulk, the “Guardians” a relatively unknown to a lot of people. But, this particular risk paid off big time for them.

The whole movie is basically about Peter Quill, an earthling that was abducted as a child and raised by bandits or scavengers from space and grew up in the stars. He eventually makes a name for himself which people know him as a self-styled outlaw called “Star-Lord” and spends his days raiding areas in the galaxy for precious and valuable trinkets and objects to sell and make a living for himself.

He soon meets Gamora (a green being that was an outlaw of an evil empire that wants to use the orb to destroy everything, Drax (a huge man type giant who’s family were killed by the race that wants the orb, and Rocket and Groot (a genetically altered raccoon who uses big guns to get what he wants, and a interesting being made completely of roots, plants and trees who is just along for the ride). They are all thrown together in a prison out of circumstances and misfortune.

After working together to escape the awful prison, they feel all at once epic and intimate as a team. They try and work out their differences to extreme fights and arguments to eventually forge bonds of amazing friendship.

Not one character in this movie outshines another in this amazing group called the Guardians of the Galaxy. They all share their heroic and somewhat unheroic moments at different times throughout the movie. They fight each other, fight their enemies, and eventually fight for one another to save the galaxy.  

Blog Change

As you all might know, for the last few months now I have been writing all of my log posts on music and songs and different artists that I and you viewers might think to be talented or interesting. I decided now that I am going to switch things up a bit and broaden my topics for my different posts to just culture in general. This will include movies, maybe books, youtube videos, and still include some music.

First off, I just want to say to some of my viewers that I won’t be eliminating the topic of music out completely. It has just been getting harder for me to find artists and songs to write about and keep my posts intriguing and also somewhat lengthy to give you great information even though there are billions and billions of artists and songs out there. 

I feel like broadening my topic to include books and videos and movies will not only make this blog even more fun to read, but also show what I really wanted to accomplish by creating this blog which was to show to the world all the different ways we as people express ourselves through our culture.

Movies are a great way that people express themselves and their culture a lot because it just shows how we think about different scenarios and events and how creative the mind can be. There are so many different genres of movies that can have even their own branched out topics from them. There are your basic action movies: hero’s, killers, suspense, fighting, murders, spies, ect. There are your comedies: romantic, action comedies, stupidity/dumb, ect. There is also your horrors, romances, dramas, chick flicks, and cartoons.

Now youtube videos I could go on forever about. New videos go viral every week! Most are stupid and hilarious and I could rant all day long on them and the rest are either surprising or sad that have some story behind it.

Books will be a little had for me to write reviews on because I wouldn’t want to spoil the book for anyone that hasn’t already read it. But I will try my best to give out some good reading ideas for everyone and put in my opinion on some of the things I’ve read.

So as you can see, I won’t be having much more trouble finding ideas to write for you guys anytime soon. I’m pretty much set.