Never Let Me Go

I occasionally go on Roger Ebert's website to look for new good movies to watch. I had never heard of Never Let Me Go before, but he gave it four stars. I read the first paragraph oh his review, which was part of a synopsis. It sounded interesting so I stopped reading, I don't like to spoil things for myself.

I'm not going to lie, I was tempted to go back and finish the review or read the Wikipedia plot synopsis after I finished watching the movie. I think it was a combination of just not getting some of it, not paying attention to the first bit (I was reviewing Megamind), and the movie leaves some questions unanswered. Alas, I have not gone in search of more information, so my review will be based on what I got (or did not get) from the movie.

The movie starts with:

"The breakthrough in medical science came in 1952.
Doctors could now cure the previously incurable.
By 1967, life expectancy passed 100 years."

Based on this we know that 1952 has already passed, so this is some sort of alternate reality. I like this because if it happened in 2052 for example, there would be all this futuristic stuff, and I've had enough of that for now. The breakthrough is that (this is a little hazy for me) somehow human kind has discovered how to "make people" assumingly not the regular p in the v sort of way, and these people are then used for their organs. They "complete" (die) usually after 3 or 4 donations (sometimes after only 1). We find out later that this people are "modeled" on other people. People that are prostitutes, trash etc (I assumed so that no one would notice them as these donor people).

Now I have a lot of questions about this. How did they make these donor people? (I could have just as easily missed them explaining this, but as far as I can tell, it's not addressed) As far as I can tell these donor people are pretty darn similar to regular people, why isn't there more of a moral dilemma about this whole thing? Why don't the donor people rebel? The Carey Mulligan character says that she is proud of this system (she is a donor person) and even though she has found true love, she just accepts that he has to die to give away his organs. I would like more specifics about this donor process, and ideally about the people they are donating to, we know nothing of these people! And when a donor "completes" I would like to think that the doctors take all thier organs, but it's never said, and that's something that I would have liked to be outright said, I just want to know for sure that they contributed as much as they could.

All of this is happening under the guise of a love story. Keira Knightly and Carey Mulligan are both in love with Andrew Garfield. Keira gets the guy, and they are together from when they are tweens until young adults. When Keira Knightly is close to dying she apologizes to Carey and Andrew for keeping them apart, that she knew Carey and Andrew belonged together, but she didn't want to be alone. Selfish yes, but why they hell didn't Andrew do something? If Carey was his true love, why didn't he just be with her the whole time? Silly.

I do love how subtle this movie is, it just kind of flows, it just is what it is. I don't know how much that makes sense, but it certainly kept my attention. (And I realize that this is contradictory with my complaining about wanting more details, can't I have it all?!)

I rewatched the first half hour of the movie while writing this, and it didnt help any with any of the questions I had. I know this movie is about a bigger picture, probably something about morality and love, but I am so interested in the idea of these donor people and the logistics, I don't want to focus on love, I want to focus on possibility, would this donor person program ever fly? So with that said, I give this movie:

A good movie but I would like more details!

p.s. I read the Wikipedia entry for this movie and found out that it is based on a book. Maybe I'll find more answers there!

Megamind

I just finished watching Megamind, like literally a minute ago, hopefully things will stay fresh.

I have a plan to write a review that compares Megamind with Despicable Me, but finding the words for this blogging thing is much more difficult than I anticipated. I blame the five years of University essays, my prose just isn't what it used to be. So I will give you my initial thoughts on Megamind, and a wonderfully amazing post comparing it to the other villian-turned-good cartoon that came out this year.

I realize that the title of my blog has the word "fart" in it, and my first review is on a cartoon, I will try to up the mature ante in the future.

In the simplest of thoughts, it was a cute movie. The story and the characters were predictable (who came up with these formulas anyways?) Two things I didn't see coming were that Metro Man was still alive (though I should have known that because the commercials show clips of him that I hadn't seen prior to him dying) and that Titan would turn evil (which once again I should have seen coming because Megamind needed a villian to defeat so he could be a hero. I think I just like Jonah Hill so much I refused he could be anything but charming and dorky.) I guess it was an off day for me, it also doesn't help that I watched the first half of it yesterday. Excuses.

Anyways, I fell for Megamind's big green eyes as soon as I saw them, this made him automatically likeable. One source of rare-found lols in this movie came from how Megamind would occasionally put a different emphasis on words (Metro City/Metrocity). Brad Pit's Metro Man could have been anyone, he had little to add except what was needed to push the story along.

One surprise was the quality of music, every time I heard an AC/DC song I wondered how much the production company had to pay for the rights. You don't often get classic rock hits in a cartoon. The movie ended with MJ's "Bad". The dancing was cute.

You get what you expect in this movie: it's family-friendly, parents should be able to sit through it no problem, and a twenty-something took the time to both watch and write about it, so worth your time if you like this sort of movie. Despicable Me on the other hand.... I would pick it over Megamind anyday (more on that to come).

I haven't decided if I should have a sort of rating system, I think perhaps a verdict would be more fitting.

And the verdict is:

Watchable if you like movies like Happy Feet and The Incredibles

Post Number One!

Hello and welcome!

I know that blogs have been around for awhile, but when combining unemployed boredom with baby and marriage obsession I rediscovered blogs. In an effort to be productive and keep my mind sharp I have jumped on the bandwagon, and here we are! (I guess I am as excited as the exclamation point hints... we will have to see.)

 

I think my blog title requires some explanation. I am not a twelve-year old boy, (although I like to think everyone thinks farts are funny) the title comes from the classic The Shawshamk Redemption. The Warden has discovered that Andy is no longer in his cell and exclaims "Lord! It's a miracle! Man up and vanished like a fart in the wind!". It seemed like this quote was everything I was looking for: catchy, funny, and from a movie everyone should know. I don't think I will ever review Shawshank for that last reason given. If you haven't seen this movie, see it. You should be ashamed of yourself, while also questioning how you surivived this long without this movie in your life.

Next time I will review a movie,  I promise.

Vikki