Thursday, June 23, 2005
Gluttony!
If it’s possible to commit movie gluttony, then I’m guilty as charged!!!
I watched 8 movies in the span of 8 days!!! In fact, on Tuesday and Wednesday itself, I watched 4 movies!!!
And mind you – all 8 movies were really, really good! Except for Episode 3 and Alien 3. Alien 3 was better than the former!!! But Episode 3 I had to watch, as I watched the Original Trilogy after that! More about Star Wars in another blog.
This week, I watched Alien 3, Coach Carter, Batman Begins and Mr. & Mrs Smith.
Coach Carter
Excellent! Highly recommended. I missed the starting tho, no thanks to me always-and-perpetually-late mate! But he made it up by getting a t-shirt for me from Phuket!!!
In fact, thanks to this movie, I actually started to watch NBA again! I used to be an NBA fan – way, way back in those days long gone. We used to be crazy over basketball. We’d play after school ends, at bout 2 pm in the hot blazing sun!!!! I remember once when I went to get a ball from the Quarter Masters’ room, the QM teacher (who oso happen to be the infamous discipline teacher) was surprised to see me wanting to play. He’s an Indian man. So wif a smile on his face, he handed the ball to me and told me not to play in the hot sun too much or I’ll end up as dark as him!
Back to the movie. Great. It is based on this basketball coach plyed brilliantly by Samuel L. Jackson (yeah, none of the Mace Windu s***t here). He entered a contract wif his high school basketball team that they must do reasonably well in their studies in they were to play basketball. They didn’t and Carter actually banned them from playing – much to the dismay of the School board, parents and students alike as the team was playing really weel – undefeated all season!
Wat I really liked about this movie is the values it upholds. It has been so long since I watched a movie like this.
There are simple small things like how Carter refers to his students as “Sir” and speaks respectfully to them. And he teaches his students to be respectful to others too. He gave them a hard time for taunting the opposing team when they were winning easily. When one of the students said that the other team started it first, Carter told them that they did not need to carry it on. They could show class – the kinds that true champions have.
It oso emphasises on Carter’s long term vision. Sure, these kids are good in basketball but wat is even more important is their future – and that is why studies take precedence. He doesn’t want them to end up in jail or dead – as the statistics show.
Then there is the team-aspect. No divas. If one suffers, all will pay. In one wonderful scene, one of the students wanted to join the team. But he was too late. So Carter told him that if he could do all the running and push-ups which had been done (comes up to thousands!!!), he would take him in. When the student tried but couldn’t, the rest – touched by his perseverance all offered to do it for him! And they did.
Another thing was how Carter stood by his values – no matter wat happened, even when he was persecuted by the town people! There was one scene when it showed him just losing it – and you know that Sam Jackson is very good at these kinda scenes!!! I could almost feel for him – here he was, trying his best to change the lives of the students. Instead of getting applauded, he gets condemned.
***Spoiler ahead – to read, kindly use your mouse and highlight the following paragraph***
And finally, it did not have a “fairy-tale” ending. Yup, they lost their biggest match. But they won sumthing more important – the respect of their opponents, the love of their fans, the pride of their coach and the understanding of wat is more important in life.
Oh, it oso had some great basketball scenes – it was quite embarrassing but I actually reacted to some of it!!! Like the block made by Battle, one of the students. Or when the last second sky hook by Carter’s son, Damien, dropped into the basket! Whoa, I shouted wif my hands lifted up!!!! I was cheering along like crazy.
Now tt’s a good movie – if it can get me involved like that!
Quotes:-
”Life is full of choices. Choose Carefully” (seen on a poster in Carter’s room)
Timo Cruz: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our dark that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. Its not just in some of us; its in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Pics from Cinema.com and Filmhai.de
p/s – cheers to Jess who went early to get the free tics for us!
p/p/s – will talk bout the other movies later
I watched 8 movies in the span of 8 days!!! In fact, on Tuesday and Wednesday itself, I watched 4 movies!!!
And mind you – all 8 movies were really, really good! Except for Episode 3 and Alien 3. Alien 3 was better than the former!!! But Episode 3 I had to watch, as I watched the Original Trilogy after that! More about Star Wars in another blog.
This week, I watched Alien 3, Coach Carter, Batman Begins and Mr. & Mrs Smith.
Coach Carter
Excellent! Highly recommended. I missed the starting tho, no thanks to me always-and-perpetually-late mate! But he made it up by getting a t-shirt for me from Phuket!!!
In fact, thanks to this movie, I actually started to watch NBA again! I used to be an NBA fan – way, way back in those days long gone. We used to be crazy over basketball. We’d play after school ends, at bout 2 pm in the hot blazing sun!!!! I remember once when I went to get a ball from the Quarter Masters’ room, the QM teacher (who oso happen to be the infamous discipline teacher) was surprised to see me wanting to play. He’s an Indian man. So wif a smile on his face, he handed the ball to me and told me not to play in the hot sun too much or I’ll end up as dark as him!
Back to the movie. Great. It is based on this basketball coach plyed brilliantly by Samuel L. Jackson (yeah, none of the Mace Windu s***t here). He entered a contract wif his high school basketball team that they must do reasonably well in their studies in they were to play basketball. They didn’t and Carter actually banned them from playing – much to the dismay of the School board, parents and students alike as the team was playing really weel – undefeated all season!
Wat I really liked about this movie is the values it upholds. It has been so long since I watched a movie like this.
There are simple small things like how Carter refers to his students as “Sir” and speaks respectfully to them. And he teaches his students to be respectful to others too. He gave them a hard time for taunting the opposing team when they were winning easily. When one of the students said that the other team started it first, Carter told them that they did not need to carry it on. They could show class – the kinds that true champions have.
It oso emphasises on Carter’s long term vision. Sure, these kids are good in basketball but wat is even more important is their future – and that is why studies take precedence. He doesn’t want them to end up in jail or dead – as the statistics show.
Then there is the team-aspect. No divas. If one suffers, all will pay. In one wonderful scene, one of the students wanted to join the team. But he was too late. So Carter told him that if he could do all the running and push-ups which had been done (comes up to thousands!!!), he would take him in. When the student tried but couldn’t, the rest – touched by his perseverance all offered to do it for him! And they did.
Another thing was how Carter stood by his values – no matter wat happened, even when he was persecuted by the town people! There was one scene when it showed him just losing it – and you know that Sam Jackson is very good at these kinda scenes!!! I could almost feel for him – here he was, trying his best to change the lives of the students. Instead of getting applauded, he gets condemned.
***Spoiler ahead – to read, kindly use your mouse and highlight the following paragraph***
And finally, it did not have a “fairy-tale” ending. Yup, they lost their biggest match. But they won sumthing more important – the respect of their opponents, the love of their fans, the pride of their coach and the understanding of wat is more important in life.
Oh, it oso had some great basketball scenes – it was quite embarrassing but I actually reacted to some of it!!! Like the block made by Battle, one of the students. Or when the last second sky hook by Carter’s son, Damien, dropped into the basket! Whoa, I shouted wif my hands lifted up!!!! I was cheering along like crazy.
Now tt’s a good movie – if it can get me involved like that!
Quotes:-
”Life is full of choices. Choose Carefully” (seen on a poster in Carter’s room)
Timo Cruz: Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our dark that most frightens us. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people don't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine as children do. Its not just in some of us; its in everyone. And as we let our own lights shine, we unconsciously give other people to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Pics from Cinema.com and Filmhai.de
p/s – cheers to Jess who went early to get the free tics for us!
p/p/s – will talk bout the other movies later
// posted by imissw @ 12:33:00 pm 
