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?

Despicable Me

* This review is for the first movie. For the second one, come here next week.

“Rapha, did you know that you talk just like the Minions?” – said my friend.

“Minions? What are Minions?” – I replied.

“You know, from the movie ‘Despicable Me’? The yellow creatures?”

“Really? I never watched that movie. How do they talk?”

“They don’t talk. Well they do, but you don’t understand them.”

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha…

If you’ve seen the movie you will know that my friend wasn’t insulting me. And if you have ever talked to me, you will know that what she meant is that I’m very expressive when I talk…  that sometimes when I talk I am better understood by my expressions and gestures than by my actual words :)

Needless to say, her comment made me extremely curious to watch it, even though I’m a not a huge fan of animated movies, but I did.

And I LOVED it!

It’s the story about this man who, since he was a boy, dreamed of going to the moon and making his mother proud of him. He craved for her approval.

But nothing he ever did made an impression on her. So since being good didn’t work, he decided to be bad and become a famous villain. He seems to be heartless and care about no one, except the scientist who helps him in his inventions and the Minions (the yellow creatures we were talking about) who help him in his plans.

Then he crosses paths with three little girls who live in an orphanage.

He doesn’t care about them, but because they are the only ones who can help him with his latest plan, he decides to adopt them. And now you have to watch it to find out the rest ;)

The whole movie is very nice and so, so funny! I laughed so much! And I simply fell in love with the Minions hehehe… But what I liked the most about it is the message it conveys. Even though it’s a movie made for kids, it seems to me that the message was more directed to parents.

It clearly shows the importance of a family.

Some of us are brought up in a nice and caring family, others unfortunately are not, but it’s us who decide what we are going to do with that. Are we going to be cold, angry, bitter and treat our own family the way we were treated? Are we going to give more importance to the things in our lives than the people in it?

Whether you received a lot of love or not when you were growing up, someday you will have to make a choice of who YOU want to be for your family and your kids.

There are many things that are important and necessary in our lives, but everyday we have to choose what’s MORE important. For some people, it’s their studies, their careers, establishing themselves as a professional in the field they chose. For others is making a lot of money or being famous. Some others consider their family the most important thing in their lives and for some, God is the most important One.

But it doesn’t really matter what we say it’s the most important thing. We may think it’s something when in fact it’s something else. So how do we know for sure?

It’s not what we say that shows what we REALLY want. It’s what we do. Everyday.

Then you may ask: “And you got all this from a cartoon??”

Yep!

Believe it or not.

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 ;)

Real Steel

There are currently no good movies to watch in the theaters and so without much option, my husband took me to watch Real Steel.

I wasn’t too excited about it because, let’s be honest, robots boxing? Not interesting…

But I really liked it!

It’s the story of this man who after making all sorts of wrong decisions in life sees himself for what he really is, a failure. When things couldn’t go any wrong for him, he finds out his girlfriend of 10 years ago died and left their son, who he never cared about, without both parents. He has no money, no bright future to look forward to, no chance to make things right… But can his son’s presence change the way he sees life?

You leave the theatre thinking of how important the presence of a father is in his child’s life and how devastating it can be when he is not present.

I totally recommend it for the whole family; this is the kind of movie you can actually take your kids to watch! And as the story between father and son unfolds, you even start enjoying the robots fighting… trust me lol

The Fighter

After weeks of not being able to post anything on this blog, here I am to tell you about The Fighter.


All I can say about this movie is that it is hilarious, I laughed the entire time! But the thing is that it's not a comedy, it's supposed to be drama, but I couldn't help myself. The situations and the conversations (more like yelling) are so real that they are funny.

It's a true story about two brothers who play boxing. The older got famous at one point in his life after winning a fight against a famous fighter, but that was all he achieved. Now comes the younger brother trying to follow on his footsteps.


Just think of a big family; everyone talking at the same time, always having an opinion about everything and always, always arguing about something... This is what you see in The Fighter... a lot! And that's what makes it so interesting, so real. The actors portrayed the characters really well, specially Christian Bale, who in my opinion, was the funniest of them all.


I liked this movie very much, would definitely watch it again but I cannot say that it is inspirational but it shows the reality of people's lives. So if you just want to be entertained, this is the movie for you!