Week 8

Recently, I watched the movie The Wizard of Oz and found it to be, as usual, one of the best movies to be made in the history of cinematography. As you can tell from the preceding sentence, I really like this movie and watch it multiple times every year. I recommend this movie to anyone who isn’t a negative or anti-happy-sentiment kind of person. This movie has a positive pull to it, and is a great movie for people of all ages. The main audience of this film is generally children, but it is also a text that is relatable to adults as well.

To those who are not familiar with the film, The Wizard of Oz is a story about a girl from a small farm in Kansas named Dorothy Gale who is unhappy with her current situation in Kansas. She lives at the farm with her Auntie Em, and Uncle Henry along with their three workers who are her only friends around. In the beginning of the film, we are told through Dorothy how she wishes she could live “Somewhere over the Rainbow” where life is new and exciting and not at all like her home in Kansas. She is then magically transported via “twister” to the Land of Oz where everything is different and new. It is there Dorothy faces conflicts with a Wicked Witch and must survive with the help of her new friends the Tin Man, Scarecrow and Cowardly Lion. The movie ends with a heartfelt family life-lesson and leaves the viewer in a happy state of mind.

In my opinion, the overall tone of this movie is self-discover in regards to who you are as a person and where you’re true home is. If you are at all interested in watching a movie with these kinds of discoveries then The Wizard of Oz is the movie for you! I have deducted this by the way people have reacted with me when we watched it together. A common subject that was discussed was how family is something very important to whom we are as people.

         The main text and language used in this movie was mostly formal English. There were a few parts where some slang words would be used, but a majority of the movie was formal and quick to comprehend. The directing of this movie was also done in a formal way. There weren’t many “odd angle shots” or random scenes that didn’t make any sense as some films today have. An example of a less formal kind of directing as compared to the directing of The Wizard of Oz is The Blair Witch Project. In that movie the directing is a more modern technique where a smooth transition is not necessary all of the time. Personally I rather watch a more professionally directed movie than an informal one.

Being classified as a “classic” movie, it is not surprising to see that this movie was originally aired on T.V. in 1939. Because the film is an older movie, some people feel as if the movie’s plot does not relate well to our current situation. In reality, I believe that many of the topics that were covered in the film are still relevant to today’s society.  For example, government was a key component to the movie’s plot because of the economic situation that engulfed the United States at that time; likewise today government still plays a huge role in our lives and shares many similar issues as those shown in the original movie. The Wizard of Oz was made during the 1930’s in the middle of The Great Depression when the government was viewed to be evil and rich. This sentiment was portrayed in the movie through the Emerald City when Dorothy goes there to receive help to go home, and she finds that the Great Wizard of Oz (who resides in the Emerald City) has no means of helping her unless she kills the Wicked Witch. This task is similar to the situation that the people in America had to face where they needed to find a way to find work in an economy that was floundering without any help from the government. This is just one example of the many different symbols used in this film to relate this magical world to our world.

Overall, the movie The Wizard of Oz is a fun-filled family style movie that is meant for people of all ages who (like I said earlier) are generally happy people and enjoy life.

Review on Amazon 

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2G11HEYK5KZDA

       pen-name: Leesie-Girl92

Word Count: 722

Week 7

              As any other college student is portrayed to do during spring break, I’m going to……..FLORIDA! More specifically Naples, Florida. I am so excited that I have woken up multiple times this week thinking that it has been Friday and I get to go home and catch my plane the next morning… I have been sadly mistaken every morning and has been putting a damper on each day it happens. Luckily, tomorrow it will actually be true and I won’t have to be sad! Yay! I’m going down there with my three friends from Purdue, and our goal is to fix this problem of paleness. It’s a horrible disease that encompasses a good majority of people today, but I am going to fix this and come back with a tan! There is also a good chance I will probably come back with sunburn, which would totally suck, but it happens almost every time due to my stupid Swedish ancestors who thought having light hair, eyes and pale skin was a grand idea. It’s not; I look like a ghost during winter, then a lobster during the summer sometimes. It’s a sad life… sniffle sniffle.  So, to prepare for this wonderful vacation I am going to go on I need to remind myself of what I need to get done before I leave, and here it is: go home, get my hair cut (bangs in face=bad idea), go to target, buy travel stuff, get a dress :) maybe some sandals… yea I’ll get some, and finish it off by getting a Shamrock Shake at McDonalds. I have been craving these Shamrock Shakes for WEEKS!!!!! And this stupid diet I’ve been on has not been helping this craving either. In order to follow my diet and still have the shake, I’m planning on not having any carbs Friday; only fruits and veggies and treat myself when I get home. I’m so excited for this shake, and break (hey, that rhymed!!) its ridiculous! Yay for spring break!

Word Count 333

Week 6

Today, Eileen and I took a lovely little stroll out in the beautiful weather (who knew that March would start off with a sunny, and semi-warm day!? Not this girl!) to the cute little store entitled, The Movie Fan. I had never been in this store before, but I had heard that it was THE place to rent movies. I expected it to be something like a small business I had at home that rented movies, but I was blown away by what I encountered instead! We walked in and immediately I knew that this place was like nothing I have been to before. My initial response was something like “ Ohmygoodness. This place would be a great place for the TV. show Hoarders to tape! Not that I didn’t like it there, it just had sooooo many racks and racks of movies and videocassettes!! It reminded me of my childhood and watching all of my Disney movies on VHS… I just had a moment. Anyways, I was extremely surprised to see the amount of movies out there that I have never heard or seen! This place is truly a unique store, and I give the owner so much credit for finding all of these movies! Like seriously, where does he find out about all of these movies? If it is not advertised on T.V. or on a billboard or even online I have no clue it is created or even viewed by a certain audience. My favorite part of the whole experience was going to the Family section of the store and re-living my childhood with all of the children’s movies I totally forgot about! All in all, this was a great experience! I foresee The Movie Fan and myself spending some much needed quality movie time together in the near future.

Word Count: 303

Week 5

           I am currently sitting in my room watching Friends (one of the best sitcoms ever to be televised) and I’ve decided that I want to live in an apartment with all of my friends and be like Chandler, Joey, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe and Monica! How great would it be to live with all of your friends in the same apartment building as you!? If you’re thinking pretty dang awesome, you are on the right track!! It would be like one big party everyday (if I feel like seeing them that often, which I would have the power to do since I’d have my own room) and I would always have access to a support system for whenever I need to talk things out to people. I also wouldn’t mind having the personality types as those seen on Friends, such as Joey. Joey’s carefree personality and unfortunate lack-of-knowledge would not only bring joy to my life, but a whole lot of laughter! I can only think of the possibilities! Also, having a clean freak such as Monica wouldn’t be a bad thing either because then I wouldn’t have to clean! I have cleaned enough at home that I do NOT want to do it again!  I think I have cleaned my house a good 4 times over winter break at the expense of my mother telling me to. So, yeah… I’m done with that now. Not that cleaning is a bad thing, I do enjoy having a sterile environment to live in, but shouldn’t chores be rotated so the same person doesn’t have to clean the same thing or the whole house every time they are asked to clean?! My family seems to neglect that thought completely and I think I am going to bring it up the next time I am asked to clean the whole house. Good plan? I thought so : ). But back to Friends, that is my goal for the future as of now, and I sure hope it happens!!!!

Word Count: 334

Week 4

I saw a poster the other day advertising a new movie that is about to come out entitled This Means War with the extremely cute guy from Princess Diaries, Chris Pine (yes, he is that gorgeous man who has those electric blue eyes, and stunning smile!) and the other semi-decent looking fellow from Inception (the one with the very sexy foreign accent) and the ever beautiful Reese Witherspoon and I was very much intrigued by the prospects of this movie! Not only does this movie appeal to me because of the two male actors and Reese Witherspoon, but also the graphics used to commercialize it are eye catching and grasp my attention. The action shots portrayed by the movie also caught my attention showing me that it will be a movie that I should want and like to watch. By the use of these graphics and some text to show the title of the film, I would say it has successfully caught my liking, even with my more speculative eye since we have been analyzing texts.

            In general, I approach these texts differently since we have been working with them in class by being more aware of how commercials can sway your opinion and perception of an object or film or whatever. Even though pictures may be enticing to my eye, I now am more critical on what they are selling me and how it would be applicable to my life.  There is always the chance that these commercials could completely trick me and actually be selling a shotty product, but if that so happens then, I think that company deserves the credit for getting me.

            P.S. I am currently watching Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog and I thought this movie was going to be about a superhero doing stupid things around his home because of the picture on the cover, but I was wrong. This movie is extremely odd, but kind of funny. If you have nothing to do for a night, maybe watch this. It’s just that odd but funny!

Word Count: 339

Week 3

I recently watched The Woman in Black, and I found it to be one of the worst “horror” or “thriller” films I have ever seen. I am easily scared by pretty much anything, and I was expecting to be on the edge of my seat for this movie… I was sadly mistaken. Daniel Radcliffe only said about 40 lines throughout the whole movie, and the remainder of the movie he was meandering around a backyard forest chasing after a woman dressed in black garb while making distressed faces.  Really Daniel?! Your first movie outside of Harry Potter and you do this? I’m disappointed.  I was scared a total of, maybe, two times in the hour and a half long movie. After our time we spent dealing with visual rhetoric, I approached this in a more analytical way, which is why I may be just a little bit more critical about this movie. Or maybe it was just a sucky movie. Either way I think it could have been executed much better by means of the dialogue and also the visual appearance of the set. I couldn’t really get and understanding of what time period the plot happened in, and it really confused me leaving me unsure about this movie as a whole.

Now on the other hand, I also watched the movie Titanic last night I was, as always, extremely pleased with what I saw. Not only does Leonardo DiCaprio do an outstanding job playing Jack, but the movie as a whole gives the right idea about the time period and interactions that existed in that time.  In comparison to The Woman in Black, I think Titanic upstages that movie in more ways than one, and it’s not just because Leo is much more attractive than Daniel (but it was a contributing factor) but it’s plot line and set was more explicable and understandable to the audience.  To sum it all up, Daniel Radcliffe needs to stick to magical fantasies and Leo needs to marry me. Yep, that’s it.

Word Count : 339

Week 2.

The two channels I watched for commercials were TBS and TNT. It’s quite obvious that each station is geared to a different type of audience. On TBS I watched The Big Bang Theory (honestly one of the funniest tv shows I’ve seen in awhile), which is geared to an audience of teenagers and mid-life adults (women mostly). With that target audience it is natural to see that a majority of the commercials I saw were mobile phone commercials advertising their newest “smart phone” trying to get every teen to believe that without that phone they are going to die in social Siberia.

On TBS I watched Bones, which is a more serious show that has an expected audience of sci-fi geeks (such as myself) and people who like murder mysteries and a good action show. The commercial that literally took over this station was the Pillsbury products. I guess that people who watch this channel and these types of shows have a reputation for having quite a sweet tooth or else these cookie and biscuit commercials wouldn’t be so popular on this channel!

Now, it’s getting to be really late that I’m doing this and the one commercial that I keep remembering is the stupid Tostitos commercial with the talking bag that does the little shimmy dance. After watching it a few times, it’s making me really hungry and this is posing a real problem because I really shouldn’t eat anything right now because it’s so late, but those chips just look so good especially with that salsa! I really hate these commercials… all they do is make me eat which is not what I need to be doing.  But it just looks so good… one chip couldn’t hurt. Right? Maybe I shouldn’t keep all of this food in my room… that might help. Yea? Alright, I found my goal for the weekend: get rid of this junk food. I’ll see how well that goes over.

Word Count: 326