Taken

This movie came out last year in 2009. I didn't see it back then, but I caught it on Netflix. My co-worker who is from Albania, told me about this movie which peaked my interest. The villains in this movie are mostly Albanian. To sum up the movie, it's about evil Albanians who are trying to kidnap or have girls "Taken" and force them into a life of prostitution by drugging them.

A retired CIA agent, played by Liam Neeson finally is convinced to sign the consent form to let his teenage daughter who just turned 17 go to Paris with her friend for the summer. As soon as she lands in Paris with her friend, they meet a boy who wants to share a cab with them. He says, "Cabs are so expensive in Paris, do you want to split one?" Through this, he figures out where they are staying and he calls his henchmen to come and abduct them.

The rest of the movie is Liam Neeson shooting a bunch of slave traffickers and killing a bunch of people to save and find his daughter.

I like to read movie reviews on yahoo movies. The Users gave this film an average rating of A+, but the critics gave this film an average of a C. I liked the movie, but the complaints by the people who gave the movie an F, D, or C were all true. Yes, it was predictable, yes, it was unbelievable, yes, some of the main characters seemed too unlikeable and stupid and one dimensional, and yes, it was bad casting.

Yes, the critics were right with a lot of their complaints, all true. But, despite that, it was likable, exciting, suspenseful, and entertaining. I think that's why the average yahoo user review gave it an A+. Despite all those bad things about the movie, it didn't detract it from its entertaining aspect. This movie made me feel a lot of emotions, and it made me get emotionally involved and committed more so than the average movie. It truly was an entertaining flick.

It was predictable and unbelievable? Really? It's a work of fiction! Got news for you, most works of fiction being produced lately are unbelievable, unrealistic, and frankly predictable. That's why it's fiction! But, truth is often stranger than fiction. I saw a movie based on true story about Chanel. Very unpredictable, except for what her career choice would be, and it had a very depressing ending. We don't get the depressing endings much with our fiction do we? We get fairy tales.

RED Retired and Extremely Dangerous

I went to see this movie not knowing what RED stood for. I caught the movie during a matinee. There were a lot of old people in the audience. When I realized that RED stood for Retired and Extremely Dangerous, it made sense as to why there were so many elderly viewers there. When I saw the A Team, there were a lot of teenage boys, and when I saw Takers, which had a lot of black main characters, there were a lot of black people in the audience.

It seems people like to go see movies about themselves. I heard that Buffy the Vampire Slayer didn't get as many male viewers as female, and that the spin off from the show, Angel, whose main character was male, had a lot of male viewers.

If I made movies, to reach the widest audience, I would have characters that were young and old. I would have white, Latino, black, and Asian, male and female characters, etc. I would just try to attract the widest audience possible. But, come to think of it, Angel was a character in Buffy, but that didn't seem to help bolster male viewership. Maybe it matters most who the main character is. In that case I would make my main character be whoever could attract the widest demographic. How boring and strategic though. Losing art for business.

This movie is about a retired CIA agent, played by Bruce Willis, who leads a calm relaxing life, talking on the phone to a girl he has a crush on in a call center. Puttering around the house, having calm relaxing mornings eating breakfast. That all changes for him fast, when he is faced with people trying to kill him. He also finds a list of names through a clue left by a dead reporter. His name is on this list. Most everyone on this list has been murdered recently. In this movie, he has to figure out why they are trying to kill him, and how all the people on the list are connected.

It's an action packed movie, with a lot of investigation work on top of shooting and fight scenes. I kind of liked the movie alright, but, it didn't leave much of an impression and it wasn't too memorable. I also thought a lot of the side characters that hung out with Bruce Willis seemed weird and unbelievable as real people. They were comical though, but It would have been better if they were somehow more normal, rather than strange side kicks. It made the movie more of a joke. The main characters didn't have the fear of someone trying to kill them either. It seemed like they had fun with the circumstances and enjoyed it.

In reality, this movie was a serious matter, they were trying to kill him. "They" being the CIA he used to work for. The CIA can just go around killing people, and on whose orders? This movie showed that the CIA received their orders to kill all the people on the list from almost the top of the government. The reason to have them killed was unethical. The CIA couldn't question it though, they had their orders. Could the government be corrupt like this?

Wall Street

This movie is what it sounds like it's about. It's about someone who works on wall street. It took me into his world. I felt the joy with him as he made a ridiculous amount of money. He got a million dollar bonus! Felt amazed and prosperous right with him. I felt his pain as the world he felt comfortable and blessed in was falling apart when his firm started to collapse because the stock market dropped dramatically. I felt his pain when his boss commit suicide due to the blow of his firm being bought out 3 dollars a share. I was with him when he proposed to his fiance, who, oddly enough hates her father who was an investor, hates wall street, money and investing, but has a fiance who works on wall street.

I was very tied to the main character as if I was living his life and sharing his joys and pains more so than in any other movie I saw. It was a real disruption of my cushy life there to see that market crash. It was a real blow to see my fiance break off the engagement because she was upset that I was seeing her father; who she is purposely estranged with behind her back. I was with him and felt his betrayal when he realized his fiance shunned her father for good reason; when he realised he got robbed and lied to by the treacherous schemes of his fiance's father.

I was with him, when he realised that someone named Brenton sabotaged his firm and pushed his boss to suicide by making up rumors about their firm, and then making those rumors true. I rejoiced in his ability to outsmart his nemesis and find a way to pay back what they did to him and his firm twice!!

In this movie I was pulled into the world of the investment banker. Felt rich for an hour or so. Too bad it didn't last.

Easy A

I need to plan my movie outings more, I just go to the theater, show up, and watch whatever happens to be in my time slot. Now, I had slim pickings this time around. I was between exorcist, the Devil, and other weird Halloween movies. Now, as tempting as that sounds, I was never much for horror flicks. Anyway....

Easy A wasn't a bad movie, but it lacked dimension. It had one plot, and it stuck to that one thread like IRS sticks to your money. It got tiresome and repetitive after awhile. Yes, everyone thinks you are a whore. That's scene one, Then scene two is, everyone thinks you are a whore, scene three...they think you are a whore...what's scene four about? Still thinking you might be a whore. Pretty much summed up the plot of the movie right there for you.

It was about a bunch of teenagers in high school, it was so channel 19 abc family. I could see that movie on that channel. It's something to catch on tv.

I was impressed by the main character, or the actor that played the main character, Emma Stone. She had a strong way of presenting herself, which made the movie watchable. That's a good point, but at the same time, it seemed like she was too confident and adult in the face of all her opposition. She's a teenager, but she acted with the confidence of someone who rehearsed the parts, and prepared the lines. It wasn't real. In real life, someone wouldn't have had that kind of confidence and flare so easily. This could have been a true human story, to show the true plights of society. But, instead it was a story, or a drama, or a drop of entertainment for the movies, or abc family, and it had all the pride of an in your face production.

Persuasion by Jane Austin

Now what made the two main characters in Pride and Prejudice not get together at first was of course pride and prejudice. In this book, what made the two main characters not get together and get married at first was Persuasion. The main character Anne, agreed to be married to Captain Wentworth, but she was "persuaded" that marrying him was a very bad idea. Thus, she called the wedding off.

Her love to be, was so distraught by the rejection, that he moved out of town and was gone for 8 years. Then, he comes back to visit because his sister moves back in the neighborhood. They act prideful and ignore and shame each other as much as possible in the reunion, but the whole book you know for sure that they're going to end up together. And of course, you have to wait until the very, very, end of the book for it to happen, but they do end up together.

Anne was the youngest in the book. She had two older sisters, Mary and Elizabeth. The book describes her family, the Elliots as being rich and upper class. Sir Walter, their father, is really vain and superficial to the point he doesn't even like Anne, his own daughter, because she is not good looking in his eyes. His favorite is Elizabeth. She is very pretty. Mary, Elizabeth, and Sir Walter are portrayed as very proud, vain and materialistic. They are very concerned with social class, wealth, and beauty. They don't listen to or respect Anne.

Anne, however, is well respected by people outside her family. She is seen as the only Elliot not filled with the disgusting Elliot pride. She is seen as the only nice one in the family.

I was bothered throughout the whole book by how some people were respected if you had money, connections, class and looks, and thought of little value or as no good if you didn't have these. Marriages, and all else rode on these things. If seemed heartless, and unethical to me. I was greatly disturbed by their values.

Now these values are muted today, but people are still very much like this aren't they?