Surfwise

IMDB

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Release: (2007)

Runtime: 93 Minutes

Starring: The Paskowitz family

Doc Paskowitz is straight up crazy.  Basically, he leaves his job as a doctor in Hawaii moves into a small camper and has nine kids with his wife.  They then drive around the country for twenty years surfing.  That is pretty much the least of his crazy though.  That sounds pretty cool.  Right now, if you haven’t heard of him before, you might think it sounds like a good idea.  To really demonstrate the full extent of his crazy, I’ll say that the movie starts with Doc, at 84 years old, stretching on his balcony in the nude as he answers some questions for the camera.  You’ll have to see it to find out the rest.

So is leaving the monotony of society to live a primitive life worth it?  I think Doc was tired of the fake life of high society.  He was not captivated by the lure of success and realized that with the amount of effort he put into making his living, he had no time to enjoy it.  I think there is part of all of us that can relate to that.  The question is, where on the line between the two extremes is ideal.  Obviously, avoiding society and responsibility has its consequences.  When someone would get injured, they were in a lot of trouble, even having a doctor in the family.  As far as being a good father, the children who are all adults now have said they were not prepared to be members of society and once his dream ended, they were the ones who suffered.  So maybe the balance is somewhere between a stressful job with lavish house and a nomadic life in a trailer.

Accessibility: 6

Technique: 4

Thought Provoking: 8

Originality: 5

Entertainment: 7

Lord of War

Fancy some tea?

IMDB

allmovie

Release: (2005)

Runtime: 122 Minutes

Starring: Nicolas Cage

This one is about a guy that decided to sell weapons to make some good money, because he figures, people will always need weapons.  Eventually he moves away from legal selling into the realm of weapon trafficking.  He lives a lavish life, always one step ahead of Interpol Officers.  Eventually, like every movie of this sort, he hits the wall and we find out what a guy in his situation does in a tight bind.

The issue presented here is the ethicallity of arms dealing.  Should someone be selling weapons, even if legally.  We find out throughout the movie that governments will sometimes use these illegal arms dealers to supply weapons to the enemies of their enemies.  We all now know how silly it is to help someone get to power on the other side of the world, hoping they will help us later. (Afghanistan?  Iraq?)  Basically, the guy in the movie is right, people will always need weapons.  There will always be someone that wants power and money, and weapons help them get it.  As long as they are there, their enemies will have weapons as well and a wake of death will follow.

Accessibility: 8

Technique: 7

Thought Provoking: 8

Originality: 7

Entertainment: 8

In Debt We Trust

IMDB

Release: (2008)

Runtime: 90 Minutes

Starring: Some broke people

This one is about how companies have worked to create advertising and legislation that encourages people to borrow money.  It tells the story about how borrowing money puts people in a cycle that is hard to get out of.

I bet if I asked all of the people struggling to make ends meet, they would say that an extra $500 a month would do it for them.  I would also bet that these people would themselves have a wide range of incomes.  See, the thing is, the more we make, the more we spend.  We are always looking at the next thing, either because of status, comfort or some perceived need created by a brilliant marketing team.

I am not unsympathetic nor am I above this.  I, like most college graduates, will enjoy sending checks to cover my student loans for the next long while.  I don’t think that is where the problem is though.  One of the women interviewed said something along the lines of, “I’m used to a certain life style, that’s how I grew up.”  That’s where I think the problem is.  Its ok if you don’t have much money, it might even be better.  Who are you trying to fool though, driving a car too expensive for you and buying the most recent technology.  Really, what do we need.  Break down all of your expenses.  Really just food.  But we can throw in; rent, utilities, transportation and insurance.  How much living space do we need?  What kind of speakers?  How about rims?

Of course big business wants you to buy those things.  Of course they will tell you that you need them to be looked at a certain way or to live comfortably.  But you can break free of that.  How many of the things that are in your closet do you actually wear, how many things in your garage do you use?

This film puts a lot of blame on the companies that encourage debt, and yes that is wrong, but it takes two…

Accessibility: 4

Technique: 3

Thought Provoking: 7

Originality: 5

Entertainment: 2

10 Yards

IMDB

Release: (2008)

Runtime: 90 Minutes

Starring: A bunch of Fantasy Football Playing guys.

So here is the premise, some guys play fantasy football every year and have been doing so since college.  It keeps them communicating.  One of them is unemployed, one is heart broken and one sells C02 detectors.  There are some other people, but we don’t see much of them.  They play games and one of them wins the league.

It was sort of like this one couldn’t decide if it wanted to be about the history of Fantasy Football or if it wanted to be the story of how the game kept friends together.  They shot at both and did a decent job, but I felt there was not too much focus.  It was pretty low budget, using the same cut scene graphics repeatedly.

The part I felt was the strongest was the history and impact of the game on the actual sport and its fans.  Basically after watching this I felt like I should sign up for a league.  Then I realized that to be good at it, I would need to watch sports games, fill my head with names and stats then be held in a state of pointless tension throughout the fall and winter.  I decided to not play.

I think people have reached the point where they have too much free time.  This is first obvious by the fact that I am writing this, second, by the fact that some people spend hours basically seeing who can best predict things about a game that used to be entertainment enough in itself, and before that was a thing to do.  So now we have people that not only do not play football, but who do not solely watch it, they watch people watching it.  Wow.

I guess if that makes you happy, then you should be able to enjoy it, but from what I saw, most people were upset and stressed by it.  Do I need that?  No thanks.  Do you?  I guess we’ll see.

Accessibility: 4

Technique: 4

Thought Provoking: 3

Originality: 3

Entertainment: 3