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Wild Wild West (1999)
I'm fully aware of the negative review this film has received, but...
"Wild Wild West" will always be one of my favorite movies of all time, let alone, one that stars Will Smith. Perhaps, the people who don't like this remake were big fans of the original series. Well, I was born in the mid-80s, and have zero knowledge of what the original series was about, or who was in it, so I'm only judging this film individually on its own merits.
After 20+ years of watching this one over and over again, I still find it just as hilarious as I did when it first premiered. Not only is Will Smith as "Jim West" extremely cool and comfortable playing the role of a western cowboy, but his comedic chemistry with Kevin Kline is perfect. They constantly feed off of each others humor and maintain the flow of a very blunt, dry style of comedy.
Additionally, and most importantly, I want to praise the performance of Kenneth Branagh, who I absolutely love as "Dr. Arliss Loveless." He is not only the perfect antagonist opposite of Will Smith, who constantly roast one another in crude (typically, racist ways) throughout the film, but his unique ability to be sitting in a wheelchair with no legs, use a Deep South accent, deliver hilarious one-liners and be an evil villain genius ruining people's lives simultaneously is exactly what made me enjoy the movie more than anything.
Oh, by the way, Kevin Kline playing the dual role of "Artemis Gordon" and President Ulysses S. Grant was very impressive. Also, having the sultry and sexy, but very innocent, Selma Hayek on the screen definitely added an extra spice to the film.
So regardless of what the haters may think of this remake of "Wild Wild West," I more than enjoyed it, because the individual performances were excellent, and they all played together very well in a pretty funny storyline.
Two and a Half Men: Weekend in Bangkok with Two Olympic Gymnasts (2005)
By far one of the funniest episodes of the series
Jon Cryer's willingness to portray himself as injured, in the most uncomfortable way possible, makes this episode absolutely hilarious.
While the other storyline in the episode isn't nearly as funny (but entertaining, nevertheless), it still keeps does enough to make it one of my favorites.
Tears of the Sun (2003)
By far, one of my favorite movies of all time
I originally watched "Tears of the Sun" with some friends in 2003, when it was officially released in theaters. I was still pretty young, at the time (16 years old, still in high school), so my knowledge of war and conflict was pretty bleak. Also, this was literally right around, or before, March 20th, which is when the US waged the War In Iraq. I'm not sure if this was just pure coincidence by the Director, Antoine Fuqua, but it happened to line up almost to the day of one of the biggest wars in American history.
Since I was pretty uneducated on what war was back then, the movie really opened my eyes to the brutality of it all, and that only further peaked my interest. One thing I loved was the realness of how the characters interacted with one another, calling each other by nicknames, remaining very stoic in their mannerisms and how they speak, and of course, how they acted like real Navy SEALs, who are known to be some of the toughest members of any branch of the military, because of the particular type of training they go through. I also thought the battle scenes, where both sides are fighting one another, or a sniper is shooting the enemy from a long distance, seemed realistic, and definitely keep me on the edge of my seat. It's not easy to choreograph this kind of stuff, so it looked really convincing to me.
After initially watching the movie in 2003, I had gone several years not seeing it, again, until it was shown on a premium movie channel, which lead to me watching the movie multiple times after that on cable television. I loved the movie so much after seeing it so many times that I decided to buy the DVD, then I kept watching it on DVD, or seeing it shown on cable television. To this day, I still watch "Tears of the Sun" when it airs, and enjoy it, just as much as I always did.
As for the movie, itself, it's a very harrowing story of eight Navy SEALs, who are forced to rescue an American doctor (by marriage), two nuns and a priest out of a village in Nigeria, so as to bring them to safety in Cameroon. Unfortunately, this team of SEALS had just completed a difficult mission, but this next one was expected to be simple and quick. The team is headed by Lieutenant A.K. Waters, nicknamed "LT" (Bruce Willis), with seven other SEALs: James Atkins, nicknamed "Red" (Cole Hauser); Ellis Pettigrew, nicknamed "Zee (Eamonn Walker); Kelly Lake (Johnny Messner), referred to by his last name, Lake; Michael Slowenski, nicknamed "Slo" (Nick Chinlund); Demetrius Owens, nicknamed "Silk" (Charles Ingram); Danny Kelley, nicknamed "Doc" (Paul Francis); Jason Mabry, nicknamed "Flea" (Chad Smith).
Without giving away too much about the film, there are two aspects of this movie, which involve the plot, that have always stood out to me the most: one is positive and the other is negative.
The positive I noticed is how the movie reminds people that members of the military, whose job it is to kill their enemies with bullets and bombs, can also be humane enough to save people's lives, as well. In other words, not all men/women with guns are bad, just because they are involved in acts of violence. They are meant to be in those situations, because they are on a mission to save people from danger, just like a police officer and a firefighter would do. It also shows that people, who live in poorer countries, like Nigeria, Cameroon, etc., are still human beings, and should be treated as such, instead of "packages," as one of the characters refuses to look at them in that way. Many emotional moments in this film depict what African people go through, when it comes to fascist and tyrannical regimes that oppress their people.
Now, when it comes to the negative, I thought it was a little bit of a bad touch to show how there's a war between two huge religious sects, depicting one as being worse than the other. In this case, Fuqua chose to show how the Christian Egbo people (referred to in the movie as the "Egbo Nation") are being victimized and slaughtered in a military coup, backed by a Muslim Fula military General, who has hundreds of thousands of troops at his service. The issue I have with this is that the movie is unfairly portraying Muslims as more violent and extreme, which is a religious stereotype that certain populations throughout the world are convinced is true. In reality, more than a majority of Muslims are peaceful, and aren't in favor of killing people from other religions, as much as the Qu'ran states. The extremists in any religion are going to be violent, regardless of the fact that they're part of any of the Abrahamic religions: Muslim, Jewish or Christian.
Even with that little negative aspect of the film, "Tears of the Sun" will always be a favorite of mine, and I'd pretty much watch it whenever I have the chance. I recommend anyone who hasn't to check it out, as well.
Jersey Shore (2009)
I grew up watching this show in my early 20s and its still entertaining today
When I first heard of this show way back in 2009, I remember watching the hilarious trailers that showed these 8 people in their 20s and 30s working out, tanning, hanging out on the beach, partying in clubs, etc., and I just thought to myself "well, this is a horrible stereotype of Italian-Americans, portraying them as being something they may not all actually be." So initially, I really had no intention to bother with this show, because it looked really absurd and a waste of time. At some point, I started reading stories about how all these big name sponsors are planning to boycott (I believe Domino's Pizza being one of them), because they felt it was demeaning to Italians. Also, then-Governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, spoke out against the show, condemning it, and saying that it doesn't represent the values of the state. Mind you, this was ALL before the show even started... maybe a couple of episodes in, and I honestly thought the show had ZERO chance of lasting, because everyone knows how much of an effect corporate sponsors can have on TV, and keeping the networks financially afloat.
So I might as well watch, before it gets canceled.
Ironically, it was due to all that uproar and overreactions that made me want to actually give the show a chance. I figured, if all of these holier than thou people are already freaking out about something they haven't even really watched yet, it can't be that bad for someone like me, who's in the same age group as these cast members, and needs something entertaining to watch. Not only was I able to immediately relate to these people wanting to be young and have fun, but their lifestyles looked so exciting that I actually used a lot of what I saw them do as motivation for myself to enjoy my life more, and be really outgoing. After watching Pauly D, The Situation and Vinny picking up girls in the clubs, dancing and talking with them, I wanted to follow in their footsteps, and for those 3-5 years, I went out to clubs and partied like crazy, and it was really fun, because it taught me to let loose and enjoy my youth, while I still can. Well, it's been almost 10 years since the show debuted, and I'm still watching these old episodes today, and while I may not be the same kind of partying type that I wanted to be back then, a lot of what they do is still relatable to me today, and is always going to be extremely comedic and hilarious.
It should also be noted that, while these people come off as extremely uneducated, self-absorbed, egotistical and arrogant (some of them can be), they are very close with their Italian families, and they take family very seriously. In fact, one of the housemates, Vinny, has brought his huge Italian family on the show, and to the shore house, multiple times, where his mother cooks a ton of food, and makes the rest of the housemates feel like they are with their own family. That's not to mention that the 8 house mates would have "Sunday Dinner" every Sunday, so as to create that homey family feeling. So, for all the people (who are uptight and want to always see the negative in everything), these individuals might not be your cup of tea, but they are human beings. They don't have STD's, they don't do drugs, they're not on steroids and most of them just want to have fun. Yes, it's true that they're not from New Jersey, and they may have kind of given the Jersey Shore area a bad name, but at the same time, they are having fun and living life, like anyone else in their age group.
There are a couple reasons I wouldn't give Jersey Shore a 10/10, though... first, some of the scenes are edited so poorly that the dialogue makes no sense and you miss out on seeing things that you expect to happen. Maybe this is something that stands out more to me, because I do a lot of video editing... but hey, the producers have to cram in hours and hours of filming into 60 minutes, so I can't blame them really. Furthermore, when it comes to the overall quality of all 6 seasons, I would say that the show started to really get tiring and repetitive around season 4, when they went to Italy. Not only were the storylines getting boring, but it was a lot of the same drama between Ron and Sam, then on top of it, Nicole aka "Snooki," had a major freakout about how her boyfriend Jionni got mad at her, and Mike "The Situation" was starting rumors about how he had sex with "Snooki," while she was with Jionni. All of this just became too much disaster television for me, and definitely not in an entertaining way, like earlier seasons. So after watching the first 3 seasons of the show (which I bought on DVD), I basically stopped watching from the middle of season 4. After briefly checking out season 5, I had zero interest for season 6, which apparently consisted of Snooki living in a separate home from the other housemates, and not partying or drinking, because she was pregnant with Jionni's baby.
I'm only leaving this review now, after years and years of watching, because the brand new season "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" is starting soon, and it looks extremely entertaining, especially since they all look very different, are much more grown up, and some either have kids, are married, or both, but since they're still wild and crazy, why wouldn't I want to watch? The only cast member, who won't be on the show is Sammi Giancola, but there will be a surprise appearance from original cast member, Angelina Pavarnick, who left after season 2, losing the respect of all the other cast members. Watching the new previews and trailers, just like I did when the very first season started, felt like I was being put into a time capsule, and reliving my younger years, again, so it makes me excited to watch. This new season might end up being a dud, just like the end of the last run was (in my opinion), but it's definitely worth giving a shot, based on the overall history of the show.