First let me say, if you think you are going to see a horror movie, it is not a horror movie. So let's get that out of the way. As with most of Shyamalan's movies he tries too hard, casts himself in annoying parts in his movies, and often seems to be pretentious with his head up his butt, and he tries to make horror movies that are thinkers, this is really just a thinker. This is a breath of fresh air. His character has a minor part that really isn't a big part of the story (I'm talking SIGNS here), and his head is not too far up his butt, so maybe his last few horrid movies have taught him a little bit about humility.

Now that this is out of the way, let's talk about what a superb movie this was!

If you can't tell already, I really liked this movie. So what is this movie about? IMDb has the synopsis pretty simple and true to the fact - Three girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities, and must try and escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th. This is exactly what the movie is about, with some other story bits added in for effect and story.

DID - Dissociative Identity Disorder, or what used to be Multiple Personality Disorder, or what used to be a case of the crazies, is a case where one person has several different personalities who may or may not know about each other. Usually one or two of the personalities are in control, but often times they aren't always aware of each other so they come forward when the case provides.

Kevin, the actual person has 23 personalities, and while the movie doesn't delve too far into what created his personalities, the audience does see bits in the personalities of who Kevin really is and what happened to cause the splits. Now Kevin isn't the one in charge, even though he is the original personality, the ones in charge have tried hard to push the others back, and with the help of a child-like personality these personalities are able to force their way into the forefront.

When three teen girls are abducted, they must figure out a way to escape, or die. One of the girls, Casey, is apparently the one who understands what it takes to survive, and as the movie progresses we see Casey struggle not only with her own past and present but with her will to live, and escape.

I have to say James McAvoy proved his ability to act just by going through some of the different personalities. The accents, the mannerisms, the different way each personality sits or cocks their heads, he pulled them all off and I could see the changes in the actor, so well done. While I would have liked a touch more about his childhood trauma, I don't think it would have added much to the story as it really wasn't about what created the personalities, it was about Casey, and how Kevin was changing into something greater.

Parts of the movie were humorous, but looking beyond the humor what I was left with was a frightened young boy who was trying his best to not only be noticed but to also be told that he mattered. Child abuse was a heavy topic in this movie, not only through Kevin, but one of the young female characters, and at times it was hard to watch. Hopefully the ending of these stories is as satisfying to those of you who have yet to see the movie, as they were to me.

Lastly, at the end of the movie there is a reference to another of Shyamalan's movies. It isn't in a pretentious "look at me" kind of way, it is more of a nod to another extraordinary character he has created, and for those of you who have watched all of his movies, I think you will appreciate this last little twist.

Do I think you should see this movie? Yes, but don't go in expecting horror. While it does have some horrific scenes, it is really more of a psychological suspense, almost Hitchcockian, but not quite as brilliant. So yeah, go see this, and enjoy it. I did, and I have to say, it not only was a true character study, but it was also the push I've needed to get to work on one of the characters in my last zombie novel. Well done.

Now, I have to say this is not a usual film type for me. I don't usually watch movies involving sports, art house styles, or movies that win a lot of awards, because most of the time I just really don't care. It is like the movie LA LA LAND, I know a lot of people are raving about it, and it has already won a few awards, but it just looks dull to me. I am not a fan of most musicals, not do I enjoy a lot of romance movies, and it seems to have both. This is not me saying I will never watch it, just that I usually don't watch movies that gather a lot of award hype. Often I never really understand why these movies get so much attention. The same was somewhat true with the movie FOXCATCHER.

If you do not know the story behind this movie it is about two brothers, Mark and Dave Schultz, gold medal winning wrestlers, and their relationship with John DuPont. Mark struggles after winning the gold medal while Dave runs a wrestling studio. Eventually John DuPont, of the DuPont fortune, decides he would like to be the center of the wrestling world and hires Mark to help him start a training camp for wrestlers. John has an interesting relationship with Mark, it seems almost like a love hate, and from the movie John really does think a lot of himself, commenting that he is the mentor, father figure, and coach for the young men, and for Mark. Eventually John pushes too far and Mark leaves, his brother Dave takes over, and things twist from there. The last few scenes of the movie are a little out of sync as we watch what is supposed to be John's mental fall and Dave's murder.

This was a quiet movie, and at two and a half hours I felt it was a little too long and a little too slow. Not much happened and in reality while watching I felt they could have done more with the character of John to make the viewer feel uncomfortable with his behavior and slow decline into madness. The murder was the most shocking part of the film, and I did wonder if it happened exactly the way the movie portrayed it.

One thing I do have to say I enjoyed was the fact that they didn't say much about John DuPont before the credits. The movie ended by telling the viewer what happened to Dave, and how his family was, then it told the viewer how Mark was and where how he was, and it only said that John died in prison. I liked that it didn't try to make John the center of the movie, and it didn't say much about his defense or anything, which was awesome.
 
While I can't recommend this movie, it was much too slow and not enough happened to keep me interested. I did learn a little about wrestling, but not enough to recommend a movie of this length. I also am not sure why it won any awards, unless it was for Steve Carell's portrayal of John DuPont.

I don't know how many people have seen this 2011 movie, but it was one of the ones on my list so I decided to watch it. As many of you out there in internet land can tell, I am a little all over with my movie watching. The plot summary I found on IMDb is:
A family with an abusive father, a sensitive son, and a mother out of her depth: we see them when Michael is about 12 and when he's in his 30's, a writer of romance novels, going home for his mother and sister's college graduations. We go back and forth between the two periods: when Michael is a boy, the pressure builds until a break is threatened and there's a fight; during his trip home, there's an unexpected death, and renewed relationships between father and son, Michael and his aunt, and Michael and his aunt's young children. Michael's estranged wife joins them for the funeral.

This is a complex movie, and it is interesting to see Ryan Reynolds in a role that was not in the least bit humorous. I am not sure he was accurately cast as the older version of Michael as he seems to be a little too sarcastic for the role, it seems to be in his voice. For example one line he delivers, "I don't know why, living with him is like Christmas everyday," is so out of place and doesn't seem to make much sense for him to say to another minor character in the movie. It was unnecessary.

The main characters are played by Willam Defoe, Julia Roberts, and Ryan Reynolds. The movie is complex, as are the relationships of the characters. The father, played by Defoe, is a very abusive man, more verbally and emotionally than physically. Roberts plays his wife and throughout the movie she placates Defoe as he abuses their eldest child, played by Reynolds.

I understand that movies like this are supposed to represent real life situations, but I often wonder about this. Throughout this movie there is a child, Christopher, who feels that he is the cause of his aunt's death, but I found him a little annoying. The struggling relationship between Charlie (the father) and Michael (the son) is difficult to watch because I continually wondered how no one stepped in to help the young Michael. Then again, it was a different time, but this too seems like an excuse.

Honestly I agree with many of the critics about this movie. It was long and seemed to take forever to reach a point of interest. The writing was a little cliche. The characters were underdeveloped (the viewer never really learns much about the younger sister, Ryne, or why Aunt Jane had to live with the family for a while). The shifts between the present and the past don't always seem to relate, so the transitions weren't done as well as they could have been.

This is a movie that tried to be bigger and more heartfelt than it was. Even the cast couldn't save it from being dull.

I know GRAVITY is an older movie, and some may want me to review newer movies, but I am a little behind on my movie watching so, sorry about this.

GRAVITY stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as astronauts doing work on one of the stations. As they are working they are informed by Huston that there is a problem and there is a lot of space trash flying right towards them. They attempt to move to a safe location but things go crazy and they are unable to. Their partner is killed, and they are briefly separated, in fact Sandra Bullocks character is sent hurtling through space, where the lack of air will kill you and the cold temperature of space will cause death in seconds. After a series of mishaps, Sandra is the only crew  member left and she is the one who must find a way back to earth, or die in space like the rest of her companions.

The plot of this movie was somewhat lacking. There was almost no character development of any of the characters, so I wondered why I should care about them. If they died, I didn't know them so I wouldn't worry that they hadn't returned to earth, or had their faces caved in by space trash, or any of it all. Even though there was a little character development with Sandra Bullocks character (her backstory involved a tragedy and a child) there wasn't enough to make me wonder anything about her, partly because it wasn't expanded upon, so this little tidbit didn't add much to the story.

I felt as if this movie was made just to show the beauty of space. It was a visually stunning movie, and I did wonder what it would feel like to be basically stranded in space. I am sure I would be beyond scared. If I was hurtling through space with no tether keeping me attached to something tangible I would probably die within the few minutes it would take me to use up my oxygen reserves. The graphics were fabulous, and beautiful. The views of earth as everything was going on was gorgeous. The quick views of space and the rest of the galaxy were superb, and while Sandra Bullock was hurtling through space there were some spectacular images. Even the action scenes were stunning.

So visually this movie was pretty sweet. However, the characters could have used more substance, as they were flat, and honestly I felt that even with the good actors the acting in this movie was sub par for both Bullock and Clooney. This, for me, was not even close to the best work for either of them.

I teach English at a local college, and I really enjoy it. I love expanding minds and I love giving students the opportunity to either learn to love writing and reading, or at least learn to respect it and not hate it.

Here is the fun stuff. Every semester I have student drop out the first day because I "scare" them and make the class seem too hard. On the very first day I go over the syllabus with them and then have them write two paragraphs about themselves, stand up, and read it out loud. This has a purpose but most students hate it and some become afraid because they worry about how much talking in class they have to do. I do require a lot of student participation, if a student doesn't participate I worry they are not learning or that they might be falling through the cracks. Honestly the class is not as hard as it seems at first. And I am not as scary.

I started the class with 25 students, which is the max. Just before class started I was down by two. After the first day of class I am down two more. This is not counting the three who did not show up for the first day. So already, I've gone from 25 to possibly 18 depending on if the three who missed the first day come on the second. Oh my, I just mathed the heck out of that!

The class I am teaching is required, so I do wonder what other classes are like. Maybe I am a hard teacher. Maybe I do ask a lot out of a 100 class. I don't feel like I do, but maybe I love English so much I don't know what is hard anymore!

Besides all of this, I love teaching. It is a lot of work, and I don't think there is a teacher out there who is paid enough for the work they do. If you don't love it, you won't enjoy it. I don't teach for the money (although getting paid is nice), I teach because I want to share what I love with others!

I know there are people out there who are going to disagree with this, but I have to say it anyway because I wouldn't have gone to see this movie if someone had told me what happened. I often try not to put spoilers out there, but there are spoilers in this because I can't really see a way to review this movie without them.

This movie is about how the plans of the Death Star got into the hands of the Rebellion. Literally that is all the movie is about. Now, while this movie was not a bad movie by any means, I question if it needed to be made at all. I should also say I liked it a lot more than I liked THE FORCE AWAKENS, because I felt like that was just a long, long preview for the next movie.

The movie follows Jyn, the daughter of the man who created the Death Star as she tries to find her father and as she is suddenly sucked into the world of the Rebellion. In the beginning the story of her family isn't really defined, we don't really know what happened to force her father and mother to leave the Alliance, but we get a hint. I would have liked a little more detail in the past life of why the family left, and really how. There is actually a lot missing from the story line, at least the back story.

Then for me there was the problem of predictibility. This movie was 100% predictable to me. I knew who was going to die (pretty much everyone) and when they were going to die. There were literally ZERO surprises in this movie, which made me wonder why it was made. It was telling a part of the story that didn't need to be told. Plus, so many people who watched it said it was the best movie ever and/or they cried. I honestly can't say I cried because why would I? I mean if you know who is going to die, and there are no surprises, why would you be upset. The deaths didn't hurt me, and I saw every single one coming, so it wasn't upsetting at all to me.

Maybe it is just me. I have yet to hear one other person say the same things I feel after seeing this movie. Like I said, everyone has loved it and a ton of people have cried. I enjoyed it, the visuals were fun, the droid was fun, the animated characters of Leia and Tarkin needed a little bit of work because they looked fake, but this movie was unnessecary.

That's my opinion. I'm wondering if anyone else felt this way?