Million Dollar Arm

BAM, look who's back with another movie review!  My mom and I saw Million Dollar Arm today, and I just had to post about it.  So, I'm not a fan of sports (anyone who knows me is probably making a fake gasp of surprise right now), but I have to say I still enjoyed this baseball movie.  Of course it was about more than just the game of baseball, which I will now get into, while trying to stay away from spoilers.  Million Dollar Arm is based on a true story of how sports agent J.B. Bernstein recruits a couple of Indian boys named Dinesh and Rinku to learn to play baseball on a short time (and financial) budget.

The fish-out-of-water scenarios that ensue when Dinesh and Rinku first arrive to America were a source of multiple laughs; those scenes make the movie humorous, though not overly so and not in a particularly witty kind of way.  I really sympathize with Dinesh and Rinku, although frankly I did not like J.B. all that much for most of the movie.  But that's J.B.'s character.  He starts of as a playboy who only cares about business deals and continuing his comfortable bachelor's life, but he does shape up as the movie progresses (perhaps predictably, but I'm glad he redeems himself).  The most interesting part was that the romantic subplot between J.B. and his next-door neighbor Brenda is based on their real-life relationship.  I thought that was just mixed into the movie to make it interesting.  The movie's not a documentary, so obviously not all the details are accurate, but at the very least, J.B. and Brenda's relationship is.

There were a few really cool shots, especially when the boys are pitching, and the way those scenes were set up made me feel really tense/nervous for them.  The fall-down-get-back-up-again theme, paired with the message of family and working hard, come together for the inspirational story that I'm sure they were aiming for.  All in all, I don't have any real complaints about this movie and genuinely enjoyed myself despite it not being the typical kind of genre I go for.  You should check it out if you head to the theater any time soon.  Meanwhile, be on the lookout for my review of Maleficent, which I'll be seeing next Saturday with my family.

Double Movie Review

Last Saturday, I had an awesome double sequel premier which I have not had the time to post about until tonight.  I kicked off the morning with a sensory friendly showing of Rio 2, which, frankly was not quite as good as the original.  But they never are anyway.  I would say Rio 2 is a movie meant for kids, so if you aren't one, I wouldn't particularly recommend it.  However, if you're a parent, I will tell you that the movie is probably entertaining enough to get you through the day.  Also, the bird villain from the first Rio movie (I can't remember his name) was (for me at least) surprisingly more comedic relief than a source of true antagonism like in the first movie.  I found that to be an amusing twist, and his frog friend was absolutely adorable.  Also, Bruno Mars' voice is in this movie.  I think that bumped up my rating for this movie by about 10%.

Saturday afternoon, I had the privilege of seeing Captain America 2 with Grace, Sophia, and Jennifer at Edwards Cinema.  There were many things that I liked about this movie, including: the bits of humor, Natasha's sassy banter with Steve, the cameo appearance of Peggy Carter, and the introduction of Falcon (finally, an Avenger who's a person of color!).  The winter soldier was super bad-ass pardon my French, but there is no better way to describe him, and if you read the comic books you'll know why seeing him interact with Steve made my heart ache a little actually a lot.  What I didn't love about this movie was that it was really, and I mean really violent in comparison to the other Marvel movies I've seen.  If your name is Elijah Jones, I can see why that would actually be a bonus, but for a girl who generally likes to see rainbows and sunshine in movies… not so much.  It's an action movie, so if you like that, Captain America 2 definitely for you.  And finally, confession time: Chris Evans speaking French is the sexiest thing I have ever heard… and I feel absolutely no shame in saying that.

Footprints

If you've been following me since the beginning, you probably remember my poem "Like Footprints" (if not, just click here).  I have progressed a lot since the day I posted it, and after a semester of poetry at Pomona College, I've decided to do a complete rewrite.  In fact, I'm not even sure if it's fair to call it that, since the only thing I've kept in this new poem is the idea of footprints in the sand.  Something that I miss from the original is the rhythm that it had to it, but I think there are some great things about this poem as well.  Some changes are probably going to be made to this poem after the poetry workshop on Tuesday, but I thought I'd just post the most recent version I have now.

Footprints

Your footprints in the sand
Are swallowed by the seawater

Palm-palm touch
My hand hangs in the air, waiting

I miss your sticky fingers
Glued onto mine in a flesh mesh

My soles slap-slap the pavement
The echo of your footsteps ping-pongs

My hand ventures into the casket
You're frozen in all kinds of ways

One day these black-clad figures
Will live, forget life, but

I can't unremember
Your print's still stamped on me

An Announcement

Hey readers, just a quick announcement that I am making a small alteration to this blog.  Tomorrow I am changing the privacy settings so that only select readers can log in to read my blog posts.  I want to give you the heads up before I actually change the settings.  If there are any technical problems and you can't log in, shoot me an email and we'll figure things out.  Happy Internet surfing!

Mind Adrift

Hiya, guys!  Whaddya know, I'm making a post in the middle of the school week (I'm currently procrastinating my homework… shhhh!).  It's for something important, okay?  I'm thinking about submitting a poem to the Scripps College Journal.  I've already gotten my poetry class's opinion three times and my twin's opinion one time.  Before I do the daring deed and turn it in, I want my lovely followers' opinions.  The deadline to submit is coming up quick, so please reply soon.

Mind Adrift

sometimes it goes too far
but it still has yet           to touch

resting my head in
the hollow of your chin

tucking my arm into
the fold of your elbow

sliding between the gaps of
your slightly parted fingers

mingling my legs with yours
skimming the edges of you

Single Moms' Club

Y'know, I've never not liked a movie I reviewed on this blog.  That is, sadly, going to change today.  The fact that right now I have trouble remembering anything I did like in the movie does not bode well for my review.  Give me a minute to think…  Oh, I liked the character Lytia, played by Cocoa Brown.  She is very strong-willed and sassy, and won't let herself be easily pushed around; I found her entertaining, but not enough to rescue my opinion of the movie in its entirety.  I think I laughed once (maybe twice?) watching the group of single moms forming a support group, falling in love, bettering their relationships with their kids, etc. etc.  All this sounds wonderfully heartwarming (I did tear up seeing one of the poor kids cry about his drug-addict dad), but in the end it didn't have as much lasting emotional and mental impact as Saving Mr. Banks.  Because there were so many characters, the relationships and character development felt extremely shallow.  Sure, there is a happily-ever-after at the end, where everything is hunky-dory with the kids and all of the moms are dating hot guys (that eye candy was a benefit to seeing this movie); however, the movie as a whole is simply not memorable.  I'm not going to wake up tomorrow thinking about this movie, and in fact, I'm not sure I'll ever think about it again as soon as I post this.

At the end of the day, I wish that I had tried harder to convince my mom to watch Divergent instead.  That would've at least meant seeing Theo James shirtless.

Pro-Life? Pro-Choice? Any Alternatives?

I decided to make a post about a particularly touchy issue in our society, which has been on my mind for the past few days.  If there is anything I have written that is offensive or is said in error, I apologize.  Before I actually begin, I want to make it clear that this post is not intended to be an argument of pro-life or pro-choice, but rather a suggestion of a new (actually it's not that new, but it's still good to bring up) approach to supporting women in need.  You see, while I understand the concerns about the life of a fetus/unborn child in the argument about abortion, I can't ignore the life of the woman that supports it.  Granted, there are some women out there who use abortion as another form of birth control even when they have the means to support a child.  With them I think I will disagree.  However, there are also women who don't see it this way, but their lives are endangered by the pregnancy, or they are the victims of rape, or they simply do not have the resources/support group necessary to go through with the pregnancy.  People - especially us Christians - can do a lot better than simply telling a woman that abortion is a sin and then leaving her on her own to deal with pregnancy, motherhood, and the difficulties that come with them.

Thankfully there are pregnancy centers out there that help women with unplanned pregnancies, but one that especially stands out to me is this pregnancy center.  It stands out because one time, New Heart church members (including myself) visited the Living Well Pregnancy Center to clean up the building's rooms and organize its supplies.  I remember that my mom thoroughly scrubbed their bathroom to a whole new level of cleanliness.  I'm sorry that we never made another visit to help them out some more, because I feel that what this and other pregnancy centers do is a better way to encourage life than simply saying "I'm Pro-Life, and you should be too."  The pregnancy center's mantra "You Are Not Alone" is undoubtedly a more encouraging message to hear.  I think the website best phrases what this center does by saying, "our mission is to provide alternative services and practical solutions to each woman facing an unplanned pregnancy, in order to allow her to make a rational decision without the undue pressure of her other circumstances."  The center even provides post-abortion counseling, showing love even to the women who decided to go through with abortion.  I can't tell you how great Living Well's mission statement is, nor how much better our time would be spent supporting Living Well than condemning women who choose abortion.  I do want to note here that I'm not saying all people who express Pro-Life views are condemning, unloving, or unhelpful people because that's really not true.  I simply want to point out that supporting organizations (with time, money, whatever is on your heart to give) seems a more effective and active way to save lives (and I'm not just talking about the lives of fetuses).  So, Pro-Life or Pro-Choice?  I think the real question should be if we're Pro-Help.

Thank you for reading my personal thoughts on this, and understand that I am in no way trying to guilt-trip anyone into volunteering, donating, or anything like that.  It's just something that I felt needed to be expressed and pondered on, if even for a moment.