Tag Archives: Flora’s Friday Film

Left me blue

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When I first read the description for The Blues Brothers, I thought it would be the type of movie I enjoyed. It turns out, this “musical crime comedy” wasn’t what I expected. I had never heard of The Blues Brothers, and I was surprised that multiple people had voted for it to be shown. Unfortunately, this got my hopes up.

 

I thought this was going to be a bubbly, stage-musical-esque film, but it turns out that it wasn’t really. There were definitely parts of the film that resembled this – like the first church scene and when Aretha Franklin broke out in song, but other than that, I wasn’t a big fan of the story. Perhaps the main characters, I couldn’t call them protagonists, were too unsettling for me. Maybe it was their blatant disregard for the well-being of others and their own hygiene. Perhaps I just didn’t like seeing morally bad people getting away with all of their nonsense.

 

Really, the two main Blues brothers just got annoying. Their obnoxious behavior got old really quickly. There were surprise Nazis in the middle of the movie, there was a crazy ex who was creating military-grade weaponry, and they somehow were able to outrun whole police departments. I can deal with some suspension of disbelief, but overall it was just too much for me. The characters weren’t likeable enough for me to get the story. I did laugh at certain lines and generally enjoy dark humor and satire, but the Blues brothers didn’t have redeemable qualities. They didn’t care about strangers, but were also inconsiderate to their supposed friends. They misled them about their plans, they ruined one guy’s job, they ruined another’s relationship – all for $5000.

 

Were there definitely messages about religion, racial issues, and the militarization and brutality of American police, I personally didn’t find the film worth watching. HAD Hill mentioned that the cast consisted of a lot of big-name musicians, but I wasn’t that into the music either. Personally, I didn’t see the appeal of the movie, but there are clearly others who enjoy it, so to each their own.

Don’t know why I didn’t watch this earlier

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This was by far my favorite Flora’s Friday Film showing I’ve attended this year. I’ve heard good things about it, but I’m kind of lacking in the movie-watching department. This film came out when I was in high school and had rave reviews, but I never got around to watching it. In fact, I was looking at the list of Best Picture Academy Award winners, and before this, I had only ever seen five – and two of those I watched for the first time in the last year. I’ve enjoyed all of the ones I’ve watched, but I guess they wouldn’t be award-winning if they weren’t good.

Perhaps the most memorable piece of information I had about this film before watching it was that the film rating was bumped up due to the profanity of a particular scene in which curse words were used. When watching the movie, I felt like it didn’t deserve this rating. Sure there was some cursing throughout some parts of the film, but they weren’t really derogatory or violent. Besides the potential language issues, I felt like this was definitely a movie that a family could watch together.

I don’t know how many cinematic liberties were taken in the film, but I enjoyed the story. The film depicts the personal growth of King George VI as he transitioned into power. The beginning starts with a clear depiction of his struggle with speaking. His wife finds an unconventional speech therapist and over time, he opens up about his personal life which in turn helps him psychologically overcome the speech impediment. What I perhaps appreciated the most about the film is that it wasn’t a complete victory and happy ending. It wasn’t like Lionel was able to amazingly get rid of the stutter – it was a long process with setbacks that led to clear improvement, but wasn’t perfect.

Overall, I thought the film taught me some things and reminded me of some things that I don’t often think twice about. For one, I learned that kings didn’t actually have to be known as the names they were born with. Blame my primary and secondary education, but I had no idea that kings would or could assume new names when taking the throne. Another thing that the film reminded me of was the improvement of technology. During the final king’s speech of the film, King George VI is in a room with Lionel and is trying to get comfortable working through a potentially underprepared speech. After it’s over, he exits to take a picture of him sitting at a desk for the radio broadcast, as if that’s how the whole speech was delivered. Thinking at how things are done now, this wouldn’t happen. Things are now live-streamed with potentially multiple cameras, and if he had been as exposed as many public figures are now, I don’t know how history would have panned out.

The film also touched on some pivotal childhood memories that shaped who ‘Bertie’ was. His experiences as someone naturally left-handed and the even more traumatic physical hardships he endured were heartbreaking. It does take works like these to remember that kings, especially the more recent ones, were really just like all of us. I would definitely watch this film again, but probably with subtitles this time. This was really an uplifting movie that put me in a good mood after watching it, and would definitely recommend it to anyone unsure about the film’s premise or acclaim.

Not my favorite

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I had heard good things about The Martian – both the novel and the film – from science fiction fans. Personally, my opinion on science fiction is very dependent on the material and presentation, and when I first heard the premise, I didn’t realize how soon in the future this film was set. It didn’t have the total futuristic feel of some more prototypical science fiction pieces, but it still had a lot that seems way beyond the limit of our capabilities in the next twenty or so years. The unit on Mars, the Hermes vessel, the technology in general seemed beyond the scope of what could happen in the next couple of decades.

Some things were actually quite distracting. For one, the cameras. There were all these cameras with responsive interfaces showing things like the partial pressure and oxygen composition that apparently were equipped to run and record into some memory somewhere a whole slew of vlogs long past what would be needed for the intended mission. And are recordings of everything, as in those consisting of normal surveillance-style shots, a good use of energy? And is it energy efficient to be heating the whole unit up to a temperature that’s fully comfortable? What sort of technological leap had to be made to get all the necessary stuff they brought with them to Mars and have it set up as operationally well as it was.

Other than that, I also had a hard time getting past some of the overly dramatic for no other reason than to be dramatic scenes. Perhaps this was one of the most annoying things about the film. The sounds, the shots, the motions – a lot seemed like it was added for what people might call cinematic effect, but I guess I wasn’t really convinced they were necessary.

One thing we were told to think about was being alone. Being literally alone with no real personal contact with anyone else, not knowing if you would ever see another person again. Personally, I think it takes a whole other type of person to want to survive something like that. I don’t know if I could even think that way. If I were completely stranded and didn’t figure out a reasonable (this is a key word because a lot of the things Watney did before he was safely on the Hermes were crazy) way to make it out alive, I would have just thought about what I might have left behind for people to find in the future, but also to find a way not to have to suffer in my last days alone. The tenacity some people have shown in their fight to stay alive is truly something that’s hard to wrap my head around.

Overall it was an okay movie. Because the movie was set pretty close to current times, it felt believable on Earth but felt unbelievably exaggerated in the extraterrestrial aspects. I probably would not really enjoy watching it again, but it was a decent film with some entertaining moments. I guess if you’re more into survival and imaginative science fiction pieces, this might be a better fit for you, but I guess it didn’t quite hit the target for me.