Your life story

I've recently realized why I like movies so much.

It’s the same reason why I like books. I like the stories, to see how a character’s personality develops, the choices he makes, the struggles he goes through, his indecisions, his vulnerability, how his life’s story progresses in the two hours that I have my eyes on the screen and ultimately, I like to see his happy ending.

When I was a child I always wished that my life were like the movies I watched or the books I read. Things seemed so much simpler, so much nicer and definitely seemed to happen a lot faster than in real life. The truth is, I liked watching movies back then because it helped me escape my own life, my own reality.

Of course my reason for watching and liking movies have changed, but the more I practice this hobby, the more I see that our life is just like a story in a movie or a book.

Your life is a story that started years ago. For many people it has been a sad one from the beginning. Since we don’t choose the family we are born into, the parents we have and the financial conditions we grow up in, for some time everything in our lives depend entirely on someone else’s decisions.

But the day comes, as it does for everybody, when we are capable of making our own decisions, when we don’t need other people to guide us between right and wrong, between good and bad, when regardless of our young age, we start thinking for ourselves.

Up to that day, someone else was “writing” your story and whatever bad thing happened, there was nothing you could do about it. But that day comes and now you are the one filling the pages of your life.

Unfortunately some people choose to continuing blaming others for all the bad things that happened to them or the things they didn’t have. Some just live life as it comes, they don’t believe it can be any different from what has been so far and others still, think that now is not the time to make any serious decisions, that they are too young and therefore should enjoy whatever good thing they can get. Very few choose to take their story in a different direction than most people.

Eighteen years ago I decided to change the course my story was going. I gave my life to God and since then, each day, He’s been helping me write a better story than what it had been up to that moment. There have been heartaches, disappointments and struggles just like in any good plot, but there has also been victories, unexpected blessings, happiness, a lot of laughter and even a prince :) And with His help I’m going towards my happy ending.

Everyone wants a happy ending, but not even in movies the story goes from “once upon a time” to “they lived happily ever after”. There is a lot to be filled in between and you are doing that in your own life.

Each day you are writing a page of your story, you are making decisions that will take that story somewhere. And where is it going?

Today and everyday are just blank pages in the book of your life and YOU are the one holding the pen.

What will you write next?

Despicable Me 2

No, this is not a repetition of last week’s review. This is about "Despicable Me 2" :)

Let me start by saying that I LOVED this second movie even more than the first!

It’s so so so funny!!! I think one post wouldn’t be enough to describe how entertaining watching this movie was.

To tell you the truth, I cried from laughing so much. Twice!

There are two scenes in the movie that are just too much. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t even keep my eyes open. I felt like a little kid!

So before I say anything else, let me say this:

GO WATCH THIS MOVIE! Take your kids, invite your husband, go with your friends. You will not regret it!

But you should really watch the first one first. It will make more sense and you will see how the second really complements the first ;)

And the message is just on point. It really spoke to me…

The first movie showed the importance of having and giving value to a family.

This second one reinforces that idea by making a stronger point that some people seem not to give a lot of importance to. 

If you know a little about the story, you know that Gru (the main character) adopts three little girls, Margo, Edith and Agnes, thus changing their world forever. Now they have something they could only dream about before: A real home and a father to come home to. Someone who loves them, watches over them and will be with them always.

So now they are happy, right? They have everything they ever wanted. They have a family.

Really?

Let me show you a conversation in the movie that made me think twice about that.

Agnes, the youngest of the little girls (and the most adorable one) is having a hard time rehearsing for a school play. The play is about mothers (for mothers day I think) and she just can’t say the lines naturally enough. Whenever she tries, she sounds like a robot. So here comes her father to her rescue. The conversation goes more or less like this:

-        - I can’t do it!

-        - You just have to keep trying Agnes.

-        - I don’t think I should be part of the play anyway.

-        - Why not?

-        - I don’t even have a mother…

-        - Well… then why don’t you just use your imagination?

-        - You mean I should pretend that I have a mom?

-        - Exactly! Can you do that?

-        - Yes! I do that all the time…

And here’s my question to all the readers of this blog.

Can you see what I see in that conversation?

Does it speak to you as strongly as it does to me?

What does it tell you?

Man of Steel

Who has never seen a Superman movie? Who does not know the story?

Some people apparently don’t… one of my friends didn’t until this last one came out (I know… shocking lol) O_o

But I’m not here to tell you about the story; it’s the same as the ones before. I’m here to point out the reasons why I liked this one so much, why I would definitely watch it again and why, in case you haven’t yet, it might be good fun to go see it.

Superman’s real father is quite the warrior himself. I remember in the previous movies, sending his son away involved a lot of emotion. In this one however, he is more decisive and courageous. He even fights!

I think they chose the perfect actor for the role. He portrayed it very well :) Not to mention that they finally got rid of the curl on superman’s forehead. It was ok back in the 80’s but they still used it in the 2006 movie… come on!

I really like the relationship between Clark and his adoptive father. He believed in him so much! And even though he didn’t understand his son’s powers, he always made him see it as a positive thing. He made him feel especial and not “weird”. He believed in him, in his potential, in what he could become. It would be nice if all kids received such treatment from their parents nowadays. It would make it easier for them to believe it themselves…

Superman is not as confident as in the previous movies. He doesn’t think he was all that. And this is one of the things I liked the most about it.

There’s a scene in the movie where he doesn’t know what to do. He is not sure if he could trust and then someone tells him:

“Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.  Trust comes after.”

Confidence was something he had to build up with each step he took, with each decision he made and with each enemy he faced.

So to sum it all up, I liked this version of superman because it shows more than just an alien who had super powers. It shows his indecision, his vulnerability, his fears and most importantly, his decision to believe despite all that.

Now, there’s something we can all relate to ;)

And to finalize, there is a sentence his biological father says in the beginning of the movie. He says:

“You will give the people of Earth an ideal to strive towards…”

This sentence stayed with me ever since. I really like it, but the reason I do has nothing to do with superman ;)

Fast and Furious 6 – Two reviews and a question

                     

Since I watched this movie I’ve been thinking on how to best express my opinion about it, and I came to the conclusion that it is quite difficult to do it in one review only.

So I am going to write two: A good and a bad review.

Good Review

I’ve watched all the Fast and Furious movies, except the Tokyo one (for some reason I still have no interest in watching it) and when I watched the trailer of Fast 6 I immediately wanted to watch it. They were bringing the whole team back. They were even “resurrecting” Letty, which in my opinion was quite a stretch but a smart move nonetheless.

So I went to watch it and this is no doubt an action movie. It has action from beginning to end. From one scene to the next you find yourself at the edge of your seat or biting your nails, or wondering what’s going to happen next.

And it has a lot of funny parts, which is a plus in any movie. I laughed quite a bit throughout.

Everything else is the same as the previous five movies, fast cars, races, fights, you know…

That’s it for the good review, now moving on to the bad.

Bad review

The movie has no plot, no interesting story. The “plot” you see in the trailer is the one you will see in the movie. Nothing more, nothing less.

But there they are living the good life, enjoying all the money they stole in their last “job”, until the police comes knocking at their door asking for their help. These criminals are so “good” at what they do, that not only do they get away with whatever crime they commit, but they are also needed by the police, who apparently is not competent enough to do their own job. So now it’s criminals trying to stop other criminals… uh huh…

They portray the team of “good” criminals in such a way that they make them look good in the audience’s eyes. As if they have principles, as if who they are justifies what they do.

The guy says, “Everyone has a code. Mine is family”. Meaning that stealing, killing, breaking the law and whatever other crime you might commit is ok as long as you do it for family. Are you kidding me?

And the funny (for lack of a better word) thing is, after all their wrongdoing, they gather together at the table to have a meal and they all join hands and thank God for everything they have. WHAT? I’m not even going to say anything about that.

The Question

 Fast and Furious has a lot more wrong messages. It has wrong messages all over the place. Everywhere. All the time.

If you’ve already watched the movie, can you guess what they are?

If you do, just leave your comments below.

Sure it’s a cool movie, fast cars, tough guys and all, but the core message? All wrong.

Oh and one last thing, does it bother anyone else that no one really cared about what happened to Gisele at the end apart from the Japanese guy, or is it just me? O_o