Blind Side: The Take Home Theme.

I rarely have time for movies, much less do I have time to review them. But I saw Blind Side on a whim yesterday, and it left me with a strange ambivalence of emotions. While most people walked out of the feel-good movie inspired and hopeful, I walked out thinking about the deeper implication of the movie's message. (*Just so you know, this entire entry will be a spoiler. Don't read it if you plan on seeing the movie and want to be surprised.*)

Blind Side follows a disadvantaged youth known as Michael Oher, or "Big Mike". He is a quiet boy with almost no formal education and seemingly no personality. His story is that he came from a crack Momma who had at least 12 kids and abandoned most of them. He was taken from her and put into foster care, but he would always run away and come home to her. We don't find this out until the middle/end of the movie, but it's important to theme and the overall story.

The movie begins with a black man bringing both his son and Big Mike to a private Christian school. He talks the coach into letting both boys in because Big Mike can play ball and could be an asset to the football team. After some fighting with the educated white folk, they let the boys in. Moments later, the same Black Man is heard fighting with his girl about letting Bike Mike stay with them--and suddenly Big Mike is on the street.

Then comes to the rescue Sandra Bullock, the educated designer whose family is incredibly well-to-do from their 85 different Taco Bells and KFCs they own. She brings Big Mike into their home and eventually gets him to come out of his shell as he becomes part of the family. Everything is as predictable as it could be spoon fed to an audience of Americans--he gets his first bed, his white momma reads him a children's book, he suddenly makes the football team the best in the league, and suddenly colleges want him.

I'll save you the rest of the story. You know what you need to know. In the end, he becomes successful, makes it to the NFL and he has his happy white family to thank for the opportunity. But that's the problem. To me, the take-home message of the movie is given away within the last few seconds of it. They show an article where one of Big Mike's homeboys is shot back in his neighborhood, and they discuss how he, "...was very talented at sports". What is the implication of this? Why did the director do this? In a subtle way, it's almost as if they are saying, "There are a lot of talented black people out there. Let's get rich white people to round them up, give them an education and make them go entertain us with sports!"

I'm aware that that is not the goal or purpose of this movie. And I'm certain that the real Michael Oher (since this was based on a real story) and his family were very genuine in their relationship. But the movie makes it seem like black people are useless to society and will ever be stuck in a rut unless a rich white woman comes along and picks one of them up. I'm sorry to say it like that, but that's how it is.

Further problems with the movie include the juxtaposition of black culture and white culture. When they show white culture, they show a fun and exciting football team supported by cute white cheerleaders rooting for their school. When they show black culture, it's hoodlums on the street carrying guns and making inappropriate passes at women. Where were the black role models? Why was it that every portrait of white culture in this movie was shown in a progressive light, whereas every painting of black culture was as if they are a diseased and filthy kind of people? When did they ever show the camaraderie of black communities, the lively churches, the caring barbershops, the groups of black men and women that lovingly spend time together? In every scene where there was a black person, there was a negative stereotype: a laundromat, the projects, the crime scenes, etc. And that just ain't right.

There are without-a-doubt enormous problems with our society and its view on racism. The other day, one of my co-workers boldly declared, "Today, racism really does not exist anymore." I almost spit out my coffee. This is simply not true--where you are born and what color you are are both incredibly indicative of the life you will have. Our society needs to stop playing as if this is not true. We like to sweep the millions of disadvantaged minorities under the rug and go see a movie like Blind Side to feel good about ourselves. Instead of seeing movies about the mixing of classes, we ourselves need to step up to the other side and start mingling with people who are different from us.

This story is a diamond in the rough, a million in one odds. While truly a great story of how one family believed in a person when he didn't believe in himself, it only highlighted the deep problems we have in this country--we are a country of feel-good people that would rather watch a movie about people doing great things instead of actually doing great things ourselves. And unless we change this mindset, racism will always exist in this country.

Scary Mary--Trailer.

It's like 3 years old, but I still love it.

Slumdog Millionaire Trailer.

Next Wednesday I will celebrate the end of the quarter by seeing this movie. I simply cannot wait.

Review: Religulous.

So, like any good Atheist, I made a point to see Religulous. Overall, it was great. There were many times my friend and I could not stop laughing. There was nothing Earth-shattering, but he raised the questions I've asked for years now, and the answers simply cannot be found.

• Did Jonah really live in a 'big fish'? How is that even possible?
  
• Did Adam and Eve really get deceived by a talking snake? Does that story even make sense?
  
• Isn't it strange that the story of Jesus is found through many different time periods? (Horus, Vishnu, Mithra, etc.)
  

And so on and so forth. But there are so many deeper questions beyond just the obvious ones. (Really, if you literally believe that a 900-year old man boarded two of each of the million or so animals in this world onto a single boat and lived on it peacefully for 9 months while the entire Earth was flooded...well, I really can't reason with you. You don't believe in reality. You don't believe in reason. You don't believe in logic. How can I reason with the unreasonable?)

The movie circumvented the deeper questions in order to be comical, which it was. The audience was laughing for most of the movie. But, I just got the sense that the movie was dumbed down for American audiences. I wouldn't ever call it a documentary, since little research was put into it. Sure, they quoted our founding fathers who were profound haters of state and religion mixing. Yes, they of course did research about the other stories of Christ that have been around for centuries before they claim he existed. But, this movie is just a bunch of silly interviews with morons, and the purpose of it is to make religion look dumb. (Which it already does on it own, though fools still flock to it.)

I wanted more. More substance, more facts, more knock-it-out-can't-deny-it-science. I wanted an actual documentary, not a comedy. And, although funny, I don't really feel like I learned anything. All I got out of it was more dismay about this country's leadership and this country's populace. When 61% of Americans literally believe that Polar Bears, Penguins, Kuala Bears, Sheep, Aligators, Flamingoes, Anteaters, Bison, Walruses and Goats all lived on a boat for 9 months (without a shred of proof), I'm already pretty darn terrified for where this country is headed. Throw in a movie like this, and my bags begin to look like they need a permanent vacation.

A Thank You Letter.

I would like to take this time to thank someone who has been on my mind recently.

I don't know your name, but thank you, my friend. Yes, you. Thank you for picking up my cell phone that I left at the movie theatre. That was so kind of you! Thank you for picking up that phone and, instead of returning it to its rightful owner, running off with it. That was so cool of you, you cool thief! Thank you for taking that phone of mine and making no effort to return it to me.

Cool thief, you are the best. You're just so cool! Instead of stealing the phone and selling it in on Craigslist, you decided to make phone calls with it. Thank you! Thank you for calling my dear father and telling him that my phone was in fact still at the theatre. Thank you for making me leave work early to go to the theatre to find out that they, in fact, did not actually have it. Yet again, cool thief--so awesomely cool of you! Thank you!

Thank you, cool thief, for continuing to call family members telling them the phone was really at the theatre and instructing them to tell me to yet again return to the theatre to get my phone. Thank you for instructing them to tell me to be really pushy in order to prove it was me. That was such a great story you made up about a lot of people coming to the theatre looking for "lost phones". Thank you, cool thief, for making me abandon my studies, leave the library and walk a mile to get to the theatre before they closed. The looks on the employees' faces were priceless! They really didn't know what to say!

Thank you for, after wasting even more of my time, calling many of my friends and leaving messages like, "Wazzup my ni**a!!!!" or "I HEART C%CK!!!". Cool thief, what would I have ever done without you? I would never have had to e-mail so many people apologizing for the mass-text involving me and my "friend" Mary Jane. Apparently according to you, she's a flamer! Baha! You, cool thief, made all of this possible. You and that wit of yours!

Thank you, cool thief, for making me not cancel my phone for multiple days, leading my sweet concerned mother to call my own job to find out if I were still alive or not. Without you, this would never have been possible! Thank you!

And lastly, cool thief, thank you for just being you. Cool thief...You are just so cool!

(Inspired by Joe.My.God)

The (Long) Dark Knight.

That was one long ass movie.

Oh and it was good, too.