Movie Review for 42: The Jackie Robinson Story and An Apology to Men With Color Other Than My Own

As I was writing the book review for To Kill a Mockingbird a particular instance which occurred when I was a busser in a restaurant kept cropping up in my mind. I went back and scanned through that book review and didn't deal with that instance there. Watching this movie made me remember it again.

There was a man I worked with who was good looking, well put together and, as I was around him more, I began to think of as sort of a “Renaissance Man” of the restaurant business. If someone was sick or didn't show up, he seemed to be able to take anyone's place. He was hired as the dishwasher but he also filled in for the prep cooks, the cooks, and helped me as a busser a few times.

The first time he helped me with bussing he said something like, “I don't want to work this position, anything dealing with money. If something goes missing, they'll look at me.” He was nervous about the tips being left on the table, he felt that because he was black he would be suspect.

A couple weeks later one of my fellow bussers was fired for stealing tips...and he was black. Supposedly one of the waitresses saw him do it, but I still felt it was unfair that I didn't even seem to be a suspect, they didn't question me or anything.

Anyway, that situation gave me a personal experience into the fact that the work Atticus started on in To Kill a Mockingbird hasn't been finished yet, justice is still not blind and people are not blind in ways they should be. And I am sorry for that. I am sorry you are still more likely to be suspected because of the color of your skin. I am sorry we still see colors in ways we shouldn't, that we still attach certain attributes to people because of how they look. In other words, I am sorry prejudice is still a problem, even after all this time, even after all that has happened and all the supposed growth.

Onto the movie. I am not good at history, especially history regarding sports, but from the brief reading I did, it seems the movie stayed true to the story, even if all the particular instances in it were not exactly correct. Whether you like baseball or not, it's a movie worth watching because it was a wonderful story of courage, not just of Jackie, but of so many around him.

I don't know how accurate Branch Rickey's character was or the reasons behind what he did, if they were noble and for the love of the game or about eventually making more money. Whether they were noble or not, it took guts to do what he did and it took smarts to choose the right player for that historic role.

I admire Jackie's wife, admire her for loving him and supporting him, even though she probably worried every time he walked out the door, every time he stepped up to bat, every time he went on the road.

I admire the players on Jackie's team who, over the course of time, were united. Who started respecting Jackie as they got to know him and his abilities.

And, of course, I admire Jackie Robinson, who held true to his word and didn't fight back, and in so doing showed that he was more of a gentleman than those white men who hurled abuse at him.

The acting in the movie was superb. Chadwick Boseman did a wonderful job of playing strong and independent Jackie (which sounds true to the real man), Nicole Beharie was beautiful, fun, strong, and charming in her role as Jackie's wife, Harrison Ford perfectly mixed the gruff old man and someone who deeply cared about baseball and people, and the cast in general just did a splendid job.

It's a movie about baseball, yes, but it is also about so much more. It's about breaking down barriers, overcoming prejudices, having the courage to not fight back (when fighting back would only make things worse), changing mindsets and changing the world. Even if you're not particularly a baseball fan, I still highly recommend it.

Movie Review for Ender's Game

What it's about (for those who haven't read the book): Earth was attacked by aliens called Fomics (commonly referred to as Buggers because of their appearance), within a very short amount of time, they had killed millions and scorched a lot of Asia. A hero emerged and, in one battle, did something that caused humans to win the war.

In preparation for our next encounter, the International Fleet was organized and started searching for, testing, monitoring, and recruiting children from around the world to go to Battle School (a space station where they begin their military training).

The story follows Ender Wiggin, humankind's best hope, and maybe last hope. As well as being brilliant, he is chosen because he has both a ferociousness and an advanced sense of empathy. The powers-that-be hope this combination will allow him to understand the Buggers enough to defeat them.

In Battle School Ender quickly distinguishes himself and rapidly becomes a leader of an “army” with faithful followers. This is one of the most major areas where the movie is lacking, in the book you learn why those under Ender come to trust him and love him enough that they say they would follow him anywhere, but in the movie this whole time period is rushed. With a few words and gestures of Ender, they did a fairly good job hinting at these things, but I didn't feel it was enough.

Time is running out, so Ender's training is increasingly sped up and he soon finds himself at Command School, the last stop before he is put in charge of humanities military forces.

Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow are two of my very favorite books, I've read them both three times. Despite this, I tried my best not to have expectations going into the movie, but of course I couldn't avoid some.

First off, because they couldn't find any real kids who were young enough to fill the roles appropriately, they basically aged all the Battle School students by about 3 or 4 years, as compared to what their ages were in the book.

As always, in movies taken from books, there were a few small things that seemed unnecessarily changed that wouldn't have been hard to keep the same and, as always, those small things bugged me.

I am huge on character development, I don't care if it makes the movie two hours longer, I would rather the characters be well developed. For the sake of time and courtesy to those who don't want to sit an hour learning about a character, they didn't let you get to know everyone; which I thought was a loss, but others may not agree. I'd be interested to hear an outsiders' (aka someone who hasn't read the book) view who doesn't know all the back stories, did you feel you got to know people well enough to get attached to them?

If you read and loved the book, it kind of felt like they had the whole story on fast-forward. Saying that, I think it was a fairly good “abridged version” and stayed true to the basic story. As a stand-alone movie, not compared to anything, I think it was quite good. It was exciting, had cool special effects, fairly good acting, and a good and surprising story.

As with other movie reviews, you can go look at content rating for yourself.

Movie Review for Gravity. Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney...but really only Sandra

The good: The movie kept you on the edge of your seat almost from the first scene until the end. There was practically constant action and/or tense moments. It did a wonderful job (coming from someone who has never been in space) of conveying some of the terror and helplessness one would feel up there if things started to go wrong.

The bad: You would think with one character dominating about 80% of the movie, you would feel like you got to know that character and would develop somewhat of an attachment to them, but I didn't, at least not as much as I wanted to. I'm not saying Sandra didn't do a good job or that her acting was bad, the writers, in their desire to keep the action moving, sacrificed character development and background stories.

I felt the ending was a little anti-climactic. Yes, the largest physical difficulty was solved, but from what we find out about Sandra's character, she's got a lot of issues. I suppose we are meant to be left with a sense of hope, that Sandra realized how precious life is and began to really live...but you don't get to see any of that, you have to imagine it all.

Wow, normally my posts turn out to be really long, I guess I just don't have much to say about this. If you're looking for a thrill ride that's a little introspective, then go see this movie. If you want something with a good story and character development, then pass.

I'm not even going to try to address any of the scientific aspects, because I know nothing about them. I know some scientific people have a hard time watching Gravity because of various issues.

Since there's already ratings, I'm not going to rate this like I do in book reviews. It's “Rated PG-13 for intense perilous sequences, some disturbing images and brief strong language.” As far as people liking it, on IMDB.com it has a rating of 8.5 out of 10 according to more than a hundred thousand people, so I guess a lot of people liked it more than I did.

Review for the movie Now Is Good with Dakota Fanning and Jeremy Irvine

I do not remember exactly what was said which brought about the comment, but recently my brother told me, “I think Dakota Fanning is under-appreciated” and I would have to agree. I think she was amazing in I Am Sam, Man On Fire, Hide and Seek, and The Runaways. Now, I will add this one to the list. First of all, her British accent was so convincing, I looked her up to see if she was British, and she's actually from down south in Georgia. But enough about her and on to the movie.

Near the beginning, this movie reminded me of A Walk To Remember, except without a lot of its innocence. Later on I started to enjoy it for its own sake, and forgot about comparing it.

On IMDB the storyline/plot synopsis simply says, “A girl dying of leukemia compiles a list of things she'd like to do before passing away. Topping the list is her desire to lose her virginity” and while this is partially true, throughout the movie Dakota's character, Tessa, realizes that some of her list is a little silly, as she falls in love she adds things she knows she will never accomplish, “...a joint bank account, listening to you snore for years and years, to go to a parent's evening and [find out] our child's a genius, actually all three of our kids...”

As well as having a good script, the cinematography is wonderful, the music is well done, and it is, overall a very beautiful movie. To someone who isn't a hopeless romantic (which I am a most hopeless romantic) some of it may seem a little unbelievable, I mean, what late teen/early 20-year-old guy would really fall in love and be so committed to a girl he's newly met and soon finds out is dying? But besides that, much of it is very “real:” the mother just can't handle it, has moved out and doesn't really deal with any of her daughter's sickness; and the father, though he's doing his best, most of all just feels utterly helpless. Some people may think Tessa's little brother is quite heartless how he talks about her inevitable death, but it's just something he's grown up with, knowing that his sister is going to die. I like how the father is always slightly horrified by his remarks, but Tessa is always just a little amused.

Here is a quote involving Tessa and her love interest that I really like, because, as we die, isn't this what most of us want:

“Stay with me, stay the nights.” “What do you want from me, Tess?” “Night time, sleeping together, waking up together, breakfast.” “What do you really want?” “I want you to be with me in the dark, to hold me, to keep loving me. To help me when I get scared, to go right to the edge and see what's there.”

In summary, I think this is a movie which is beautiful and heartbreaking. Though it leaves you feeling sad, it is a sweet and warm sadness. If you like romantic dramas, I encourage you to check it out.

Instead of giving it a content rating myself, I will just put the MPAA rating. Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material involving illness, sexuality, and drugs, and for brief strong language.