Movie Review of Ashtanga, NY: A Yoga Documentary

For my research paper topic, I choose to explore the practice of meditation. Meditation is a discipline that focuses the mind on awareness or a certain thought. When one thinks of meditation, the first image that often comes to mind is of a figure sitting on the floor in a quiet and tranquil area, with eyes close and feet crossed. The described meditating procedure is a common way meditation is practiced, but not the only way. Yoga is form of meditation that involves a series of postures and stretches that are made in sync with the breath. Yoga is thought to bring a variety of benefits to the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of one’s life.

For this reason, I choose to use a film called Ashtanga, NY: A Yoga Documentary to aid me in my research paper. I would agree with the title in consider this film to be a documentary because only real life footage was used to make it. This film was initially created to document a month long yoga workshop that was taking place in New York. However, during this workshop, the tragic event of 9/11 occurred. The documentary then takes an unexpected twist to show the affect yoga had on these traumatized New York citizens. The documentary interviewed a variety of participants, as well as the teachers of the workshop, to get an understanding of what their impression of yoga was. In addition, there was a vast amount of footage showing movements and postures that are involve in yoga. With the exception of a few aspects, I believe Astanga, NY proved to be a well produced and informative documentary.

Midway through my first viewing Astanga, NY, I realized how well made this documentary was. It gave off a very soothing and calming vibe throughout the film. This may have been due to the appropriate music that was played during the documentary, as well as the lighting it was shot in. Most of the scenes were shot in rooms that were eliminated by bright sunlight. In addition, the documentary captured the participants of the workshop in their most natural state. You could see and almost feel the concentration and focus these people had while doing their practices. This documentary did an excellent job of using a style of filming and producing that was befitting to the topic of interest.

For the most part, I thought that Ashtanga, NY was an interesting documentary to watch. I really enjoyed seeing the different yoga positions being practiced. Some of them looked extremely difficult to do, and it was impressive to see the workshop participants maneuvering their bodies in ways that I would never have imagined. I was also very intrigued by what the interviewed participants said about their experience with yoga. I plan to use their insights on yoga to strengthen my research for my paper. On the other hand, this documentary was not as inspiring as I would have hoped for it to be. When I found out that this documentary was made in the midst of 9/11, I was eager to see how yoga meditation was used in such a tragic event. The film did show a chanting practice that took place in reverence to those who were hurt and killed by the plane crashes, but to my surprise, only a small portion of the documentary was attributed to affect yoga had on these dismayed citizens. Overall, I am glad I viewed this documentary. It may not be my most valuable source for my paper, but it did give me a better understanding of yoga meditation as a whole.

Enough, directed by Michael Apted, is a story of a mother who is on the run from an abusive husband. Slim Hiller, played by Jennifer Lopez, is a struggling waitress who meets the man of her dreams while working at the local diner. After a short amount of time, Slim and Mitch get married and their life seems to be perfect. Five years later and after giving birth to their daughter Gracie, Slim finds out that her husband is having an affair. She often catches Mitch staying out late with other woman and lying about the situation. When Slim confronts her husband about the affair he slaps her and punches her in the face, knocking her to the ground. Mitch continues to beat Slim and put Gracie in danger until her friends take matters into their own hands. Slim and Gracie attempt to escape with the help of her previous boyfriend, Joe and her friends from the diner. Her husband and a gang of men pursue her relentlessly, finding her no matter where she goes. Slim goes to all walks to escape her abusive husband, even cutting her hair and changing her name. After Mitch attempts to kill Slim and their daughter multiple times, she goes to her last resort. Ginny, Slim’s best friend, takes care of Gracie while Slim is forced to fight back against her husband. With the help of her father’s money, she takes self defense lessons and becomes mentally and physically unbeatable. After setting Mitch up, they engage in a physical and psychological battle. Slim shows her husband that she has had enough by beating him and ending their marriage by killing him. In the final scene of the movie, Slim is seen holding hands with her former boyfriend, Joe. She realized that there really was something out there that was better for her. She ended her husband’s life, but gave herself and her daughter the opportunity to live again.
The film Enough is both a drama and thriller. The movie keeps the audience in suspense throughout and often makes the viewers jump in fear. Viewers never know what is going to happen next and it keeps the audience on the edge of their seat. It is powerful to watch a film about a woman that goes from running for her life to being strong enough to fight back in her own defense. Jennifer Lopez gives an amazing performance as an action hero in the movie. The movie was well directed by Michael Apted and well thought out to add to the suspense. Billy Campbell, known as Mitch, portrays the perfect psychotic and abusive husband. His dark personality and attitude makes his character believable. Tessa Allen, also known as Gracie, is simply an innocent child that plays the perfect role of being full of fear. All aspects of the film were nicely put together to keep the audience in suspense and on their toes.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and thought it was a great story of a woman’s strength and power. Slim wanted a better life for her child and for herself. Most women that are in abusive relationships live their lives in fear and never settle for anything better. They often don’t tell friends or family and most importantly they often don’t report it to law enforcement because they are scared. In Slim’s case, her husband had all the money in the world to keep himself out of jail and on the streets. I found the movie extremely moving because it shows that men don’t always have the strength and power over a woman. I also found the film interesting because I am researching what causes men to become abusive and what possesses them to want to harm the people they apparently love. Enough showed that women across the country should take stand and remove themselves from abusive and harmful relationships when they really have had enough.

Bowling for Columbine
In the documentary Bowling for Columbine, the film looks at the United States and points out the problems with gun control as the American people, at the time, gave away arms freely to anyone. The film is a chilling and humorous documentary from the provocative director Michael Moore. In the documentary, Michael Moore had turned the focus to the issue of gun violence in America. The documentary starts off with Michael Moore opening an account at a local bank that offered a free gun with any new account. The point being behind that part of the movie was to make the statement that even after massacres such as the Columbine shootings, that people still don’t get the realization that its not safe and not right to hand out free guns to people for no apparent reason. The documentary portrayed the stupidity and reason behind American’s who own guns and the danger we as Americans portray and don’t think about when it comes to gun control and making the world a safer place. His focus is gun violence, but mainly more towards the cowboy culture, the NRA, the staggering number of gun-related murders in our country. He provokes the American people to challenge the fact that there is nothing wrong with the American way. Starting in his home state of Michigan, he interviews members of a local militia and talks to the Oklahoma City Bomber Terry Nichols brother about Second Amendment issues. From there, he moves to Littleton Colorado, speaking with survivors of the Columbine tragedy, as well as figures such as Marilyn Manson, whose music was once cited as a factor in the Columbine massacre. He then shows us of the NRA's ill-conceived Denver rally, just a few days after the Columbine shootings.
This film fits into the genre of thrilling realistic documentaries. The film not only showed us what is wrong with America but also the kinds of people who are behind the problems. Michael Moore showed and challenged the fact that guns are something that needs to be handled more carefully. In my opinion the film struck me hard. The documentary displayed the fear of the Americans and the psychotic people out in the world who carry guns. Michael Moore showed problem and clearly showed how America handled the problem. Columbine was used as a way to get the point across that the American way of life is a way that harms and kills people. In the film, Michael Moore showed NRA rallies, and the people behind they’re corporations and how they use the violence as a way to put fear into the hearts and minds of the people, then telling them that everyone needs a gun to protect they’re families from the people who will attack them. Columbine was the point in time where America realized that guns are given away to freely in America and they end up in the hands of the wrong people. The film showed how America reacted and how, we as a country played the blame game and blamed anything violent for the reason and cause behind Columbine. The blame was put on violent music, video games, movies, and pictures.
Michael Moore was the director of the movie. His past works consist of Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko. His movies are based on problems in American society and how they affect the American people. His view on American politics are liberal and strictly for the people. In the documentary Bowling for Columbine he pointed out the views of the people and asked the question is anything going to get done about the frugality of guns in America.
In conclusion, the documentary Bowling for Columbine, filmed and directed by Michael Moore, was powerful, provocative, and brought up the good points about gun control in America. As a nation we lack in the area of keeping control over guns and to many massacres happen because guns end up in the wrong hands. In my opinion the movie hit me hard and helped me to realize my fear of guns and frugal our nation is with them. Since Columbine many more school shootings had taken place and more and more innocent people have died due to the lack of gun control. Michael Moore’s, Bowling for Columbine, should be a movie to think about.

The count of Monte Cristo.

In my dorms, the front desk offers DVD rental services. When I went there to find a movie that could be related to my final paper I couldn’t really find a movie that could be related directly. My final paper is about video games addiction and there was nothing about it, so I was confused for a while. Then I asked the front desk officer, that time there was a girl called Julie, which movie according to her is the one that makes people “addicts”, the one she would recommend me to watch and she answered promptly: “The count of Monte Cristo”. I had never watched that movie, but I read the book and I knew that “The count of Monte Cristo” was a rousing, impeccably crafted adaptation of Alexandre Dumas pere's literary classic, so I decided to choose that movie to write a review.

The story is revitalized in the movie by director Kevin Reynolds and screenwriter Jay Wolpert in 2002. The movie focuses on a French sailor named Edmond Dantes. On a trading trip back to Marseilles, Dantes’ home city, Dantes had the misfortune to stop at the island of Elba, the home of the exiled emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, to find a physician to help the dying captain. Napoleon asks Dantes to deliver a confidential letter for the price of Napoleon’s physician and Dantes agrees. That night the captain dies. With his captain dead, Dantes arrives in his home city port. He is excited to be reunited with his family and friends, and eager to marry his fiancée, the beauty Mercedes. He is also proud of his promotion to the new captain for the effort to save the captain. Edmond's good fortune inspires jealousy in those close to him. His promotion to captain offends the ship's purser, Danglars; his relationship with Mercedes inspires the jealousy of Edmond’s best friend Fernand Mondego, who wants Mercedes for his own. The haters conspire to have Edmond arrested on charges of treason and thrown into a political prison called the Chateau D'If. Dantes spends many years suffering in solitary confinement, although he eventually meets an elderly priest prisoner who educates him while they plan their escape. Moreover, this prisoner tells Edmond about a fabulous treasure that could be his for the taking. Eventually, Dantes escapes and embarks on a series of adventures that finds him returning to seek revenge against his enemies under the name "Count of Monte Cristo".

Since the story takes place in France, Italy and islands in the Mediterranean and the Levant during the historical events of 1815–1838, so the historical setting is a fundamental element of the movie. Also, since the movie is primarily concerned with themes of hope, justice, revenge, mercy, and forgiveness, it is a part of genre of adventure.

The movie is a very short description of Dumas' novel; obviously there were difficulties in translating "The Count of Monte Cristo" into a two-hour film. The revenge plots Dantes formulates against his enemies alone are of such length and complexity that it would take hours to encapsulate them on the screen. There is just too much detail, characters, and sub-plots in the novel to work with. However, as the screen writer Jay Wolpert claims: “movie never tries to be a literal interpretation of the book”. In some ways deviating from the book does make the story more compelling. For example, Edmond's interaction with the smugglers directly after escaping is an entertaining part of the movie, but it is not even in the book.

There was obviously a lot of work put into the way this movie looks. The cinematography is great. The film has a good acting and the set and the costuming are gorgeous. Overall, it is a good movie. Love, friendship, betrayal, long suffering, fantastic escape, instant riches, revenge - everything you need for a great adventure, plus a deeper meaning to ponder. I would definitely recommend everyone to watch the movie. The movie really made me an “addict” for the entire time of the movie.

Joshua McCleerey
Ekeama Goddard
English 106 section
March 31,2008
The God Father part 1: Leave the gun. Take the cannoli
5/5 stars!
The Godfather is based on the book by Mario Puzo . The movie starts off with a wedding. You quickly see however that the family is into organized crime- in this case the Italian mafia. Don Vito Corleone (the head of his crime syndicate and his family) is eventually shot but not killed raising the tension between all the other Italian crime families. Although the second oldest son is set to take the mantel of leading the organization, after the shooting its becomes clear that Sonny is too emotional. With the oldest , Fredo, being considered unfit for taking on the leadership role, it is left to Michael Corleone to very reluctantly to take the mantle of leadership of the Corleone family and help it survive in a quickly changing era. As Michael begins to lead the business he begins trying to lead them into a new direction and new place for the future of the family.
This is by far a masterpiece film. Although there is plenty of action, unlike other “mobster” films this one paints a harsh reality of organized crime. Hiding out, family deaths, corruption and betrayal are all dangerous and a part of how organized crime works. Although the story seems at the beginning to focus on Vito Corleone, the movie itself focuses far more on Michael turning down his life away from the family business. One of the aspects that makes this film worth five stars rather than four is the transformation of Michael from when you first see him at the wedding and the Michael you see at the very end of the movie.
The genre of this movie would almost certainly have to be drama. The action sequences come second to the tense and harsh struggles of the Corleone family. Romance in the movie plays a very small part. When so much of the focus is on the decisions of characters classifies it as drama in my opinion.
The acting in this moves is fantastic also. I can not even picture most of the characters played by others as well. Marlon Brando( Vito Corleone) does an excellent job and makes the audience see just how much power is behind the harsh whispery voice or the frail looking movements. This gives you feeling that the guy is so used to power that he no longer needs to show it. This is doubly shown when those outside the family speak to him in something beyond a formal tone that is closer to reverence.
There are several other parts about this movie that make its claim as an epic true. The music in this movie is superb matching the tone and feeling of the movie perfectly. That they kept the time period the same as the book and had very believable props and backdrops for that time add to this movies sense of realism greatly. Also, the scenes dealing with Italy directly are excellent. I have never been to Italy, but when you mention small towns in Italy, the way its presented in The Godfather is the mental picture I get. Al Pacino (Michael Corleone) does an excellent job of showing the change in Michael and creates a feeling of similarity with his father. It also creates the feeling that he was always meant to be the successor whether he or his father wanted it or not.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was released on 2005, based on the 1964 Roald Dahl children's fantasy novel. The film was directed by Tim Burton and stars Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka and Freddie Highmore as Charlie Bucket, and is the second film adaptation of the book. Through the setting of the film, it appeared to fit perfectly into the fantasy and perhaps comedy genre. All the magical events and fully imaginative characters throughout the film reinforced its fantasy perspective. Dahl’s touch on several humorous scenes, such as the whipping of cows to produce whipped cream and the television teleport with the oversized chocolate in that the chocolate teleported would turn out small, all added in the comedy aspects.

The movie started out with Willy Wonka, the owner of the Chocolate Factory, laying five Golden Tickets on chocolate bars, which are wrapped with other bars and sent out by trucks across the world. With the possession the Golden Tickets, five children could visit the Chocolate Factory, and in addition to that, one of them would receive a mystery price from Wonka at the end of the tour. The Chocolate Factory was closed down with all its workers fired because of the spies who infiltrated the factory years ago. Then, one day it mysteriously re-opened, though no new workers had been hired.

Soon, through the news, Charlie found out about the four children who found the Golden Tickets as he failed to obtain one through the chocolate bar he received from on his birthday and the one he purchased with Grandpa’s hidden gold coins. At last, Charlie found the last Golden Ticket through the chocolate he purchased with the 10 dollars he found on the floor. Although Charlie initially offered to sell the ticket for money in helping out his family’s financial situation, after Grandpa’s comment on "only a dummy would sell the ticket for something as common as money,” Charlie kept the ticket and chose to have Grandpa go on the factory tour with him.

The next day, the group of children with the Golden Ticket arrived at the Chocolate Factory for the tour and was greeted by a creepy-looking puppet show which later on blew up into flames. But that wasn’t the only catastrophe. Throughout the tour, the four other children were eliminated one by one as they incur a variety of “accidents”. Starting with Augustus who drank and fell into the chocolate river then sucked away by the pipe, Violet was then turned into a blueberry as she ignored Wonka’s warning and continued chewing the experimental gum, Veruca was attacked by squirrels as she tried to capture one from the Nut Sorting Room, and finally Mike was shrank into miniature size as he teleported himself over the television. Each time an accident took place, the Oompa-Loompas would perform a song.

After the elimination of Mike, with Charlie as the only child left, he became the winner and was entitled to receive the mystery prize of the inherence to the Chocolate Factory. Yet, as attractive as the offer sounds, Charlie turned it down because he would not leave his family behind. With that, Charlie and Grandpa went back to their house and continued their usual life. One day, as Charlie encountered Wonka again at the shoe-shinning booth, Charlie urged Wonka to face his past and revisit Wonka’s dentist father. With that visit, Wonka was finally able to overcome his childhood struggle, rebuild the relationship between him and his father, and realize the value of family hood. The movie ended with Charlie's house and family relocated to the Chocolate Factory with Wonka, living happily ever after.

Critics claim for the movie as an “eye candy” of the sweetest sort that attempts to hide its shortcomings with fancy effects. They were disappointed at Burton’s adaption on surrealism into the movie’s setting, eliminating the movie’s intended world of pure imagination, and result of an abundance of irrationality. With acknowledgement of Dahl’s disguised subversion and mocking reflection on modern parenting made his novel all the more potent and surprising, when comparing the two versions of the movie produced, the critics found Burton’s inclusion of the delightful misanthrope to have better captured the original theme of the book than Mel Stuart’s 1971 version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Yet, they were disappointed at the happy ending created by Burton, as it forced this sarcasm apart. As their final suggestion, they declared Charlie and the Chocolate Factory as worth seeing for only once in credit to its phenomenal special effects.

I personally found the movie to be very entertaining and greatly admired the amazing special effects and fabulous acting of Jonny Depp. Having read the book or the original story during middle school, I had my mind set up with an expectation of the movie before I walked into the theater. Through the movie previews and advertisements, I was expecting the movie to be aimed for children. It was really shocking to me when Willy Wonka first appeared with his frightening custom and when the puppets blew up and half melt from the heat. I was also shaken by the terrifying songs put together by the Oompa-Loompas after each accident. Despite these surprises, I still consider this movie to be very compelling and worthwhile, just that perhaps its advertisements were aimed toward a wrong group of audience.

“Drop Dead Gorgeous” was filmed in 1995. This marked the fiftieth anniversary of the nation’s oldest beauty contest, The Sarah Rose Cosmetics American Teen Princess Pageant. The film shows a documentary in which a film crew was sent to a small town in Minnesota to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary. The film was based in Mount Rose, Minnesota with Gladys Leeman, former pageant winner, as Local Chairman. Her daughter, Rebecca Leeman, competes in this year’s pageant. Amber Atkins was also a pageant contestant this year following her mother, Annette Atkins, former pageant winner, in her footsteps. Throughout the film, Amber Atkins and Rebecca Leeman are the main rivals. The Leemans are the richest family in the town and they do everything they can to make sure Rebecca wins the pageant.
The beginning of all of the nonsense that goes on leading up to the pageant was the death of Tammy Curry, pageant contestant, when her tractor blew up while she was riding it on her farm. A picture of Tammy Curry was put in Amber’s locker with the writing “You’re next,” written on the back. Then, love interest of Amber, Bret, is shot between the eyes and killed. Rebecca Leeman is shown practicing shooting the guns that her mother gave her for their shooting range. To make things even worse, there was a fire in the Atkins trailer and her mother was severely burned and placed in a hospital. Amber wants to quit the pageant at this point, but her mother says she can’t because she sacrificed everything for her and wants her to get out of this town and have a great life. On the night of the dress rehearsal, one of the pageant contestants switches numbers with Amber and while was performing during Amber’s original time, a light fell and hit her on the head. She could not continue in the pageant and was pronounced deaf. During the pageant, Amber’s talent, tap dancing, dress was stolen and she was almost unable to compete, but one of the other contestants dropped out so Amber could wear her costume. In the end, Rebecca took the crown with Amber as runner up.
After the pageant was over, there was a parade in the town for the winners. Rebecca Leeman was riding on a swan float made in Mexico. Her mother, Gladys, lit one of the firework decorations and caused the entire float to blow up and kill her daughter, Rebecca. Gladys started yelling and confessed to all of the crimes committed leading up to and during the pageant and was placed in prison. Amber was then named winner of the Sarah Rose Cosmetics Teen Princess Pageant and went on to compete in State competition. She won by default as State as well when all of the other contestants got food poisoning from the shellfish that was served as their meal. When the State winners got to Nationals, they discovered that Sarah Rose Cosmetics was closed down. Amber Atkins went on to become a news reporter and became famous on television just like she always dreamed of.
“Drop Dead Gorgeous” is in the comedy genre and I believe some parts are funny, but others are quite disturbing. A lot of the scenes such as the ones showing death, blowing up, throwing up, burning to death, getting a concussion as well as others, are much more disgusting than they are funny. On paper they seem like they would be funny, but when you see the scenes, they are not as funny as they were meant to be. I believe that this film should be in the comedy section, but overall it is not very funny. It seems to me to be more of a spoof on beauty pageants, much like the movies that make fun of scary movies, “Scary Movie.”
The director of the film did very well in choosing how to film the movie. Since the movie was supposed to be filmed by a small film crew making a documentary, the filming was a little shaky as if the camera was held instead of very steady professional camera crew. The director also made a good choice in making the crew become seen as if they were a part of the movie instead of just filming it. The film crew interacts with the actors and makes it more believable as a documentary. I also liked the choice of actors and actresses. They all did a great job in portraying their role and looked like normal people and not people acting in a movie. The director did a great job in making great choices for this particular film.
I enjoyed “Drop Dead Gorgeous” and would definitely watch it again. It was not the best film I have seen, but it was amusing and not a typical Hollywood movie. I like the type of movies that you can’t predict what will happen and if you try, something bizarre throws your predictions completely out of where you expected them to go. This movie was so unpredictable and every plot movement seemed to come out of nowhere. “Drop Dead Gorgeous” was a movie with a mind-boggling plot I would never expect simply by knowing the name of the film.

The topic I chose for my final paper is illegal music downloading. I couldn’t find a movie that dealt with the issue of illegal music downloading. Therefore, I went to google.com and found a video that was almost an hour long, and dealt with the issue. The video was a documentary called, Steal This Film: Part 2. It was created on December 31, 2007. J.J. King worked on the production and the direction of the film. Alan Toner, J.J. King, Jan Gerber, and Sebastian Lutgert worked on the concepts of the film. The research for the film was done by Alan Toner, J.J. King, and Luca Lucarini. The whole concept of the documentary is to explain the ways that we produce, distribute, and consume media. One of the main arguments that was presented in the video was, “Is it good or bad that there are now laws which make it harder to get information that’s not your own, and sell or use it"? This film relates to my final paper because I want to know exactly why consumers chose to download illegally. Many people spoke about their views on the subject throughout the documentary. Chairman Dan Glickman says, "Piracy will never be stopped. We just have to try to make it as difficult and as tedious as possible. And we have to let people know there are consequences if they are caught". Attorney Fred Von Lohmann believes that, “law enforcers sue a few people and then punish them severely in order to intimidate a larger number of other people". Law enforcers think that intimidation alone is enough to change peoples’ behaviors, but as we all know it’s not enough. One of the quotes that were said in the video was," Intellectual property is the oil of the 21st century". Mark Ghetty, owner of Ghetty images, is the owner of this quote. Although Ghetty himself was not in the film at all, Sebastian Lutgert explained what the quote means to him. He basically explains that the quote means war, meaning that we fight for our rights to use natural resources. I agree with this quote. I believe that people want to use any resource that’s available, no matter what the cost. If it’s available, we want to use it.
This film compared downloading music illegally to the history of printing. When printing was first invented, printers were the ones being sued for people stealing other’s ideas, just like how record companies were the ones being sued for people illegally downloading. People began smuggling books because they simply didn’t want to pay for them, similarly to people stealing music today because they don’t want to pay for it. Illegally downloading isn’t the only form of, “stealing music” that was discussed in the film. When someone copies a CD from somebody else, this is considered to be stealing too! Consumers have many reasons why they decided to illegally download.
Technology advancement has made it very easy for people to want to copy and share music. According to the film, that’s one of the main reasons why people choose to do so. Another reason is that people love to network with one another. According to Attorney Fred Von Lohmann, “People like the fact that nobody’s in charge of networks, and everybody is in control over their own communications”. It’s so fast and very inexpensive to make copies and distribute them. The film stresses that piracy will never stop because: People like to communicate, share things, and transform things. In the video, down loaders of this illegal activity gave their thoughts and opinions.
Many illegal down loaders were interviewed. A few unknown people in the film were music producers who make their own music. They say they like the fact that they can make music, download it onto the computer, and have others download it. To them, it shows that people like listening to their music. One unknown producer talked about how he likes the fact that people like to remix the songs that he makes, because once again it shows that people like his music. Once one copy of music, etc. is put onto the internet, many copies can be produced.
If one copy gets onto the net, then it suddenly becomes available to everyone to use. There was a funny example of this that was shown in the film. A girl and her mother went to a pet store to get a rabbit. The prices of the rabbits were too high, and the man at the pet store refused to sell the rabbits for any price cheaper. Somehow two of the rabbits got lose from the cage. The little girl then grabbed the rabbits and ran out of the store. This is obviously considered to be stealing. That whole scenario relates to people illegally downloading, and the film stressed that. Like mentioned before, if people feel that the prices of buying a CD is to high, then why not download it online for free? Then more people will download from that source, and so forth. There isn’t just, “one”, computer that’ll stop piracy. In order to completely stop piracy, we would have to go to every single computer and block access to illegal downloading, which seems to be impossible. Trying to find the film’s genre was confusing for me.
The film didn’t have any particular genre, since it wasn’t a movie. It was a documentary. Therefore, it just talked about the issue of illegal downloading and sharing information and how others felt about the issue. There was no action, adventure, comedy, etc. that was presented in the film. I did critique the way the director and others in the movie were.
The director and all of the other people in the film weren’t dressed in any particular way. Some of the people who had more importance were dressed up in a business-like way. For example the attorney and the director himself were dressed business-like. Those who were interviewed from the street were dressed in casual wear. After watching the entire film, I formed my opinion of the film.
My overall opinion of the film is I liked it. I liked the examples that were given throughout the movie. Like I previously mentioned, the rabbit example was one of my favorites. I found it to be funny because it’s a great example of exactly how music starts to spread illegally. The fact that the film interviewed real consumers that illegally download was interesting to me. I myself have illegally downloaded in the past, so I feel like I can relate to these consumers and their opinions on it. It’s so easy to download illegal that it becomes hard to resist at times.

The Day After Tomorrow
The movie “The Day After Tomorrow” is a thrilling movie about the effects of global climate change when they are applied to the world within the time span of 10 days. In the beginning of the movie, The northern arctic shelf breaks off dumping a massive amount of cold water into the northern Atlantic Ocean. This continues and brings cold arctic water into the Northern Atlantic Current causing massive temperature drop. After this, a massive chain of events occurs in which the world is affected by climate changes.
As time goes on, storms develop that are extremely severe. Multiple tornadoes occur at the same time and devastation takes place all over the world. Hurricanes even form over land. Then these storms combine to form three massive systems that cover the entire world. They bring super-cooled air from the troposphere to the sea level freezing everything instantly.
Throughout this chain of events, a boy named Sam is stuck with his friends in a New York public library. His father Jack is a professor and studies geology and says that the entire northern hemisphere is going to freeze and needs to be evacuated. Refusing to listen to him, the Vice President of the United States ignores his advice. As time goes on, Sam and his friends try to survive in the library as Jack comes after his son.
The story concludes with most of the world running to the south. Jack finds his son Sam and they reunite. It was a good movie with an action packed genre.

Andy Bigler
ENGL 106 sec 40/03
Emeaka Goddard
March 31, 2008
Tron
We all think and dream about worlds beyond that which we can see, and for decades Hollywood has been feeding our desires with its cinematic performances. Tron is one such movie which panders to our more whimsical notions. The main defining feature of Tron is that the main character, Kevin Flynn, is digitized with an experimental laser beam and transported to an electronic world. The movie Tron was one of the first films to have a video game related plotline and was one of the first films to extensively use computer graphics.
The main character of Tron is Kevin Flynn, a brilliant software programmer who once worked for the software mega-corporation ENCOM. He created several video games on his own time on the ENCOM mainframe with the hopes of eventually starting his own gaming company. Before he presented his work, however, it was stolen by another programmer, Ed Dillinger, who presented it as his own work. The story starts three years later. Dillinger’s stolen programs have gotten him a series of promotions which put him in position to fire Flynn. Now, ENCOM is mainly run by the Master Control Program (MCP), which is an artificial intelligence program that started out as Dillinger’s chess program.
Flynn is now running a video game arcade and in his free time he is hacking into the ENCOM mainframe using his old Group-7 security password to find some evidence of Dillinger’s thievery. One of his programs, Clu, is caught by the MCP and “de-resolved” (in the computer world, essentially killed). The MCP then makes Flynn’s snooping known to Dillinger who authorizes the MCP to shut down access to all Group-7 members. This accidentally locks out a current employee Alan Bradley. When Alan goes to speak with Dillinger, he reveals that he is working on a program named Tron which would not be a part of the MCP but instead be used to monitor all communications between ENCOM and outside systems including the MCP’s actions. Dillinger dismisses Alan and is confronted by the MCP. When Dillinger attempts to assert control over the MCP, it blackmails him with the information Flynn is after. Alan now goes to his girlfriend Lora, who is working on the experimental laser which digitizes an orange, causing it to briefly disappear.
The two then go to Flynn’s arcade to warn him that Dillinger has caught on to him. Flynn, Alan, and Lora then go back to ENCOM so Flynn can forage them Group-6 access to find the information he is looking for and to allow Alan to finish his work on Tron. While Flynn is hacking into the MCP at Lora’s terminal which for some unexplained reason has the experimental laser pointed right at it, the MCP takes control of the laser and uses it to digitize Flynn. Flynn materializes in the digital world and is taken to a holding cell where he meets the actuary program Ram. Then Flynn, Ram, and other captured programs are taken to meet Sark (who looks like Dillinger). Sark tells them that they can either join the MCP or fight in video games until they are de-resolved. On the way back Flynn sees a program named Tron (Alan’s electronic counterpart), who Ram says fights for the Users.
Flynn, Ram, and Tron are taken to the Light Cycle arena, a game where the trail a Light Bike leaves is essentially a wall. Flynn forces one of the opposing Light Bikes into a wall of the arena breaking open a hold through which he, Ram, and Tron escape. They head for an Input/Output tower so that Tron can communicate with Alan, but the MCP’s Tanks separate Ram and Flynn, blowing them off their Light Bikes. Flynn and Ram take cover in a damaged Recognizer which after the Tanks are gone, Flynn finds that he can partially reform and activate. Ram who is fatally wounded asks Flynn to help Tron just before he de-resolves. Flynn uses the Recognizer to fly to the I/O tower where he crashes, unharmed. At the tower, Tron finds Yori (Lora’s electronic counterpart) and they together sneak into the port with the help of the keeper of the tower (the counterpart of Lora’s coworker who started ENCOM in his garage). There Tron gets the necessary data from Alan to destroy the MCP. They then narrowly escape Sark’s forces and steal a Solar Sailer which travels along a beam of light and will take them to the MCP. Flynn, who disguised himself as one of Sark’s troops using one of his never really defined or understood (either by himself or the viewer) “User powers”, is then discovered by Tron to have stowed away on the Solar Sailer and pulled onboard from where he was hanging.
Flynn then reveals to Tron and Yori that he is one of the Users. Just before they make it to the MCP, Sark rams the Solar Sailer with his ship and captures Yori and Flynn. He then detaches a smaller ship (on which Tron is hiding) and the Sark’s large airship begins to de-resolve. Flynn, with his “User powers”, keeps the ship and Yori from completely de-resolving and Yori flies the airship toward the core of the MCP. Tron at this time fights Sark and severely damages him. Tron then attempts to get the destructive data into the MCP, but is repelled by spinning shields. The MCP then makes Sark grow very large and attempt to crush Tron. Flynn then throws himself into the pillar of light above the MCP distracting it long enough for Tron to find an opening in the shields. With the villain defeated, the coloring of the world is changed in the happily ever after sort of way, and Flynn is de-digitized back in the same position he was in when he entered the digital world. The information he needed is printed out on every computer. Flynn gets Dillinger’s position and more and everybody lives happily ever after.
This film at the time was a step forward in visual effects and is one of the first steps to the wide use computer graphics that is seen in modern movies today. The actors did a good job in the rolls they played, keeping a delicate balance between man and machine in their on-screen personalities. Overall I liked the movie and would consider looking up a sequel if such exists. This movie doesn’t really have any distinguishable moral or message, but is still a an entertaining experience.