Life of Brian

          To start off this movie was nothing like I thought it was going to be. By reading the reviews for Monty Python’s Life of Brian I was expecting something a little different. The movie started out by showing the three wise men from the famous biblical story coming to bring gifts to be new born Savior. Little did they know, the three wise men were not led to the right stable. They said to the woman a star had brought them there and could not possibly be wrong. The woman went along with the story even though she knew they were in the wrong place. After the gifts had been given the wise men were about to leave, they realized they were in the wrong place and took the gifts to the right place. The little baby in the stables name was Brian. As we soon find out he is the main character of the movie.

            The next scene shows Brian and his mother in the very back of the crowd listening to one of the most important speeches in history. But, since they are so far back they can’t hear anything. What they can hear is getting muffled by all the people being so loud and not really listening to what is being said. Brian eventually get mixed up in some big mess after selling some snacks to people at an even at the coliseum. Brian eventually gets crucified for all the wrong reasons.

            I must admit I did not like this movie as much as the other two we have watched. The way the humor was presented was not what I was expecting at all and did not really make me laugh. This type of humor is just not something that I enjoy watching. From reading the reviews I thought the jokes were going to be really in your face and happen at a fast pace. I also was not fond of this movie because for me it was hard to understand what the actors were saying. By not being able to easily tell what was being said it made the jokes have less of an impact.

            Overall this movie is honestly not one I would watch again. It’s not that the movie was bad; it was just not something that I personally like. Yes, it did have some parts that caught me off guard such as when one of the members of the group of people in the black cloaks said he wanted to be a girl and keep standing up for women’s rights because he wanted to be one. I was not expecting that at all. In the time period this movie was set that never would have happened. Even in the 70s when this movie was made this is not something that was very common. Another part that made me kind of chuckle at just how crazy this movie was when at the very end the guy started singing “ always look at the bright side of life”. This was very ironic considering they were all hanging of a giant cross. This movie had some surprising parts and some that I personally just did not find funny. But will still lead to a good discussion in class.

The Spoils of Success

          Just by looking at the cover of the “Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter” DVD I knew it was going to be interesting.  Over all I enjoyed this film much more than “Modern Times”. It’s not because “Modern Times” was bad in any way, I just felt like this one was more relatable. The way the movie opened with all the advertisement was one of my favorite parts in the entire film. The car that was supposed to be such a great deal, but was falling apart, and the hair serum that was supposed to make your hair super soft and silky made it hard and crunchy. The advertisements were saying good things about the products, but the audience could clearly see they did not do what they were supposed to be doing. It really made me laugh because they are just like some of the commercials we still have today. Hopefully nobody believes that shaking a mystery powder on their food is magically going to make you lose weight without having to do anything but eat their favorite food.  The advertisements are completely false, but consumers will buy anything if they think they will look like the models on TV.

            Another thing I noticed about the film is how the idea of stepping on people and doing anything to become successful is still very true today. Jenny went to extreme lengths to fight for Rocks attention once Rita had decided to use him for revenge on her old boyfriend. Rock knew what he was doing to Jenny but went along with it because he knew Rita would sign the contract and he would become vice president of the company. Rock did not stop until he reached the giant office with his own personal bathroom. Rock eventually became what he considered to be successful.

            One of the only things I did not like about the movie what how stereotyped Rita was. Yes, I understand she is a blonde movie star but really I felt like it was too much. The little noise she made throughout the movie started to drive me crazy. Maybe it’s because I’m a girl but I did not find it attractive at all. If guys are willing to deal with a girl making a silly noise for attention they don’t seem to be looking for a girl with anything more than a nice figure and bleach blonde hair.

            Over all I felt like the movie was funny and correctly portrayed what can happen to someone who is suddenly thrown into a large amount of power. Rock chose to have success over having is fiance Jenny. He got what he wanted at the beginning of the movie, but I am not fully convinced he was completely satisfied at the end of the film. Success can very easily spoil someone who has strived for it their entire life. They can forget what is important in life and become just like the high powered executive they disliked when they first started out.

Modern Times, Julieann Lopez

        As I first began to watch "Modern Times" I was not very excited. I was thinking to my self it was not going to be very good because first of all it is a silent film, and second it was from the 1930s. The only other silent film I have seen is "The Phantom of the Opera" also from the 1930s and to be honest I don't think I made it through the entire movie. I was in 8th grade, so naturally I thought I was "too cool" to watch a silent movie. But as I continued to watch "Modern Times"  I found myself getting more and more interested in it.
        The story of people struggling during the time of The Great Depression is not very unique. Charlie Chaplin struggles to find a job after he is fired from the factory and eventually ends up in jail. When he is released things don't get much better. For the rest of the movie the audience gets to see the everyday struggles of an everyday person in the 1930s. As Chaplin finds love things begin to look more optimistic, but do not come perfect my any means. They both have hardship but are able to look at the bright side of things. Even though this movie has a serious message about trying to make it in one of the hardest periods of American history, the audience can find some relief from the comedy also in this movie. It give the audience a time to relax and also find the light in a dark place.
        The movie also made me think about how far we have come with technology. The "new" feeding machine would be considered way out of date now, but to them it was the absolute newest thing. Technology advances so fast in a short amount of time. If we think about it the 1930s were only about 80 years ago, and now we have computers that can fit in our hands. The technology in the movie seems so ridiculous to us because we know how far its come. But, I must admit, having a machine that can feed us would be pretty awesome! But knowing how society is today the machine would probably get taken advantage of and aid in the already huge problem of obesity in out country.
        When the movie was over, despite how I felt at the beginning, I was glad I had just watched a piece of history. We do not fully appreciate how far technology has come until we look into the past, and can see where we came from to get where we are today.