The Illusionist

This week I had the opportunity to review the movie "The Illusionist". Which is the story of a young man that is fascinated by a magician when he is young. He is a peasant child that makes it big in show business. Later he runs into the woman he loved as a child. She is then engaged to a prince, who is very abusive toward her. The illusionist doesn't dare cross the prince in fear of ending up in jail. He devises a way for he and his love to escape. This movie is really good, but you have to pay close attention to the story line. It's a movie that makes more sense at the very end. I give this movie my thumbs up of approval.

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

This week I had the opportunity to review the movie "The Assassination of Richard Nixon." I have to be honest I wasn't too impressed with this movie. It's the story about the attempted assassination of Richard Nixon. It starts out with Samuel J. Bicke who starts working at a furniture company. He idolizes Richard Nixon and calls him the best salesman ever. Bicke wants to start a company of his own and applies for a loan and is denied. His ex-wife won't take him back and he goes into a depression. He blames all of his troubles on Richard Nixon and decides he wants to kill him. He plans to hijack a plane and crash it into the white house. He manages to get on the plane and shoot a few people, but is shot himself before anything can happen. I found this film to be depressing and too graphic. I would not recommend it to anyone. It gets a big thumbs down from me!

Forrest Gump

I have a history class that allows me to view movies that relate to the time period that we're studying. I was fortunate enough to view "Forrest Gump" recently. I had forgotten what a great movie it really was. Tom Hanks earned his Academy Award for this one. The movie depicts the story of a young boy that seems to be slow, but is really fast in many ways. As he goes through his life he plays college football, get's a college degree, joins the military and serves in Vietnam, and ends up owning a successful shrimp company. The movie is a combination of all sorts of genre. It has comedy, romance, drama, and war. It was definitely one of the best movies ever made in this bloggers sight. If you've never seen the movie I highly recommend it to be on your to do list.

Citizen Journalism Update

Recently I posted the video of my neighbors fire on youtube by the request of my neighbors. She had mentioned talk that she was thinking about filing charges against the fire department. Apparently she feels that they didn't respond quick enough to the fire. She also mentioned that the day of the second fire the captain had told her that it looked suspicious. I remain neutral on my thoughts. I'll post the videos on my blog, and you tell me what you think about the response time and how the department deals with the fire. I'm trying to gather more information about the fire and the investigation. As that information becomes available I will post more about it. The cause of the second fire is still under investigation. I do know that my neighbors have used all their vacation time in order to handle matters with their home. Not to mention they lost a lot of items that carry sentimental value. Let me know what you think about this.

Citizen Journalism

I've been wanting to blog about this for a few weeks now, but I haven't had the chance to talk about it. A few weeks ago my neighbors house burned down. The first fire started on September 11, which was rather ironic. It started from a straightening iron in the master bathroom. Firefighters managed to put the fire out before it did too much damage. The next day I had just got home from work, and my mom yelled to tell me that the neighbors house was on fire again. I grabbed my video camera and managed to capture footage of the entire fire. Unfortunately it burned down the entire home. I noticed that the news crews didn't show up until after the fire was put out. I called the Fox 13 and asked if they would be interested in footage of the fire. I submitted a small clip of footage that I had taken. Later that evening I noticed that they had used my footage on the news. My name was in a little box up in the corner of the video. It was a really cool experience to have something I had done be on the news. It is most unfortunate for my neighbors. Most of the neighbors had a fundraiser to get supplies and clothing for them. It's great to see members of the community reaching out to each other. Thankfully no one was hurt from the fire. The next week I had firefighters showing up at my door wanting a copy of the footage. They want to use it as part of a training video. That was pretty exciting to have happen as well.

Change of Pace

This week many television shows are starting new seasons. One of my favorite shows, "Heroes", started into its forth season. I was really impressed with the show up until season three. I was very disappointed with the show in season three, because they began to change the characters too much. The story got messed up somewhere along the line as well. Some of the main characters lost their abilities and gained new ones. The reason why people liked the show so much to begin with, was because of their abilities. I think if they're going to have a successful forth season, they're going to have to really draw the attention back to those characters. Plus if people have a problem with the show's storyline then they just shouldn't watch.

Alice in Wonderland

Disney recruited Tim Burton to direct an upcoming fantasy classic: "Alice in Wonderland". Burton has also recruited one of his usuals: Johnny Depp. He will be appearing as the infamous "Mad Hatter". Burton always seems to add his own flavor to his films. In the remake of the classic movie "Planet of the Apes", Burton helped design sets, costumes, and props. It will be interesting to see what Burton cooks up for us next. I personally look forward to this film, especially from an artist like Tim Burton. I enjoy the "creepy" vibe that each film carries with it. Johnny Depp is the type of actor that can pull off almost any type of role he's presented with. He usually ends up becoming the trademark for the characters he plays. One character for example that we'll always recognizing him as is the infamous "Captain Jack Sparrow". If you thought "Alice in Wonderland" was creepy to begin with, it's about to get even creepier. Although the film will not be released until March of 2010, trailers for the film have already been released. Stay turned! Who knows what else Tim Burton will cook up for us next.

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/aliceinwonderland/