Borat (2006)

This is one, that has been on my to see list, as well as my to avoid list.  A while back, I took a job that involved working with some kids from different countries (actually, 3 different countries).  There was a group of four kids whom I didn't realize were all from the same country, Kazakhstan.  I ended up spending a lot of time with those kids, a lot of it playing durak, a card game which they taught me that is very popular in the region.  They had GREAT disdain for this movie, which is understandable, but I was also curious if the film deserved it's nefarious reputation.

The film seem to have been entirely created by having Borat present himself as a legitimate Kazakh, and speaking in poor English with wild points of view to various people he encounters.  It seems that no one he encountered was in on the joke, making their reaction both natural and quite shocking at times.

This reminded me of the portion of the film Bad Grandpa that I saw.  That character was presented to unaware people, taking outrageous actions which caused them to have odd reactions.

Borat (the film) was quite hard to watch at some points, as you could feel the uncomfortable positions the people were being put into.  This is something I couldn't do.  I wouldn't be able to mislead those people so, and stay in character.  Too much sympathy would well up and I would have to break the truth to them.

It was also interesting, as it brought out the good in some people and the bad in others.  Some tired to be kind and understanding of his odd points of view and lack of understanding of American culture.  Others relished in agreeing with Borat's suggestion to wipe certain countries off the map.  More than a few walked away (one even running away) in disgust and one group even called the police on him.

After reading about the film, it turns out the film was a great tourism boost for Kazakhstan, which is pretty ironic, considering that none of it was filmed in Kazakhstan.

While I am certainly no expert on Kazakhstan, this film did a very poor job of accurately portraying the country.  The people in the country looked much European (which they were) where was Kazakhstan as a majority of it's citizens have an Asian ethnic background.

Sacha Baron Cohen just wanted to portray a backwards country.  It is unfortunate he choose the name of an actual country to do so.  He could have used the name of a fictional country and avoided upsetting an entire country.  Surely the people he filmed wouldn't have known the difference. None of them could have found Kazakhstan on a map to start with.

To Be Takei (2014)

I had only just heard of this film, and of course involving George Takei is what instrested me.  I was surprised to find that it was playing at the museum down the street from me, so I took my first trip to the movies in over six months and went to see this film.

I ended up being about half an hour late for the film, which strangely worked to its advantage.  When I arrived they had just begun reviewing George Takei's work on Star Trek.  That segment was quite funny and the rest of the film continuted to be interesting and informative.

When I got a chance to go back and see the first half hour that I missed, it was certainly very informative, not only about George Takei's life and career, but also the coverage of the topic of the American Interment camp for Japanese Americans during WWII.  It gave you the understanding that those people had everything taken away from them as well as the prejudice they faced after being released .  This film can lets us begin to understand the depth of the troubles those people were put through.  Being that the first 30 minutes of the film were much more serious, it may have led to a darker attitude when watching the rest of the picture and detracted from out enjoyment, which is odd to say, as the whole audience was laughing out loud as I arrived in the theater at that 30 minute mark.

Space Station 76

I had never even heard of this film before stumbling upon it, and the retro theme is what interested me.  It was a fairly interesting concept, having dated technology and attitudes placed in a high tech (low tech?) space station.

The first half of the film was rather slow and actually had really lost my attention to the point where was going to turn off the film, something I NEVER do.  But it was just a build up for a soap opera type situation, which built up to an fairly interesting conclusion.

Ted's robotic arm (being a Nintendo Power glove) seemed rather ridiculous, especially when it malfunctioned.

One other short coming of the film was the conclusion.  It would be nice to have some kind of resolution between Jessica (Liv Tyler) and Sunshine.

Going Cardboard (2012)

Knowing next to nothing about the "board" games that have been coming out recently, I thought this documentary would enlighten me.

The film started out well, as a history of the new board games, which apparently were a big hit in Germany to start with, and rather hard to come by in the US.  It also was interesting to hear about the problems faced by some individuals as they attempted to get their games published.

Unfortunately, once the film passed the middle point, it seemed to break down into people merely stating how great they felt various board games were, without giving any reason for the enjoyability of those games.  Also, the game play of any game was never explained, leaving reason for the popularity of these games still a mystery.

Dam Busters (1995)

I recently watched some kind of criticism of Star Wars, in which the narrator mentioned that the Death Star trench sequence in Star Wars was taken from the movie Dam Busters, about a British plan to destroy dams in Germany during WWII with a new technique.

George Lucas certainly did not do a shot of shot rip off, and the paralells wouldn't occur to a casual viewer.  Still, the there are similaries with the concept and several lines of dialogue are nearly taken word for word, including having one of the pilots named Hutch.

While the film is quite good, it did seem a bit long, especially getting to the action.  It was fascinating to see the development of the idea, as well as all the red tape Barnes Wallis had to go through to get his idea funded and allow for testing.  It was also amazing at how British everyone was, which seems like an odd statement to make.  But, all the characters seemed to be apologetic as well as Barnes being slightly self deprecating at times.  They all avoided criticism of each other, in a way that only British will do.