The Cove

During speech class, this girl gave the most heart touching speech about dolphins. Her topic was on the 2009 award winning documentary called "The Cove," and her speech not only informed but moved the audience (and if not, at least I was moved, and that's something).


According to her, dolphins are lured into this cove somewhere in Japan to be either captured or made into fish meat. Those "fortunate enough" are hand picked to live a life in captivity and forced to perform in water shows. Those who aren't, are simply slaughtered. The documentary gives a lot of bloody disgusting imagery, no pun intended. One of the most famous dolphin trainers, Ric O'Barry, described how one of his Flippers committed suicide on him. Dolphins are incredibly intelligent creatures, whom some scientists say have brains more developed than humans. Dolphins must constantly breathe in survive and one of Barry's most stressed out dolphins decided to end her life in front of him.

Dolphins in captivity are stressed out by their trainers for performance. They developed such high levels of stress that they develop stomach ulcers that need to be treated with drugs. It's no wonder that one of Barry's dolphins pulled the plug on herself. After that, Barry decided to dedicate his life to freeing dolphins instead of training them. Yearly, dolphins are slaughtered in a bloodbath, literally a bloodbath, in this cove. No this is not photoshopped. Predators lure hundreds of dolphins to this area and butcher them. The irony of this is that dolphins are not safe to eat. They have high levels of mercury which can lead to mercury poisoning in humans. I haven't watched it yet but I feel if I do, I'll be very depressed.

Youtube trailer of the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KRD8e20fBo

The Invention of Lying

The Invention of Lying

Synopsis

I watched it yesterday and forgot to blog about it. TIOL is set in an alternate reality in which no one is capable of lying. There is no such thing as "truth" or "lie" because all they speak of is the truth. One faithful day when things turn grimmer than grim, Mark (Ricky Gervais) stumbles upon a revolutionary discovery. He described it as... "saying something that wasn't (true)." The word true is never mentioned because it doesn't exist, so wasn't was the only way he can describe it. It was hilarious because whatever he said, people believed him. He made the most outrageous remarks and people did not question him at all. The story shows how cruel the world can be without lies. People such as Mark get the short end of the stick. Not only do people tell him he's fat, unattractive, but they say the harshest things in his face without consideration of his feelings. On his date with Anna (Jennifer Garner), she immediately told him that she did not feel attracted to him and that she was "out of his league" and they will never go out on a second date ever again. There was nothing he can do but accept it. However, his life turns around when he starts to lie and all sorts of stuff happens.

My life sucks lol.

Thoughts

The movie was definitely insightful. Lying isn't all bad. In fact you get to see what happens when people speak nothing but the truth. People hurt each other all the time and they simply accept it. This movie is also a religious satire. When Mark's mother was on her deathbed Mark tried to comfort her about death and told her that she was going to a better place after death. The doctors over heard his conversation with her and immediately the entire world wanted to know what was after death. He goes on ranting about what happens after death, including there is a "man in the sky" who controls everything. This is a play on religion. Think about it, what if what you believed in was simply made up by someone a long time ago, with the intention of comforting someone during their final hours? I don't want to raise a topic on religion because I'll go on for hours. Back on topic, this movie is definitely worth watching, whether you watch it for the jokes or the way people behave in a world without lies, it will be entertaining.

some tv stuff

Season 4 Ep 7

Watch this episode, I found it hilarious and yet I realize I behave in a similar manner. Malcolm is a genius but all the people around him are complete morons so he complains all the time about everything. One day he decides to keep his mouth shut and just not say anything but the result of his actions (or lack of actions rather) is quite serious. Maybe I should start actually think about what I say before I actually say it... because it's not going so well.





Resident Evil Degeneration was awesome. I've never played any of the video games of its series but watching this movie still made sense. The storyline is exciting (in my opinion) and the characters were really well created. You can feel their fear at crucial moments in the movie and their facial expressions were very realistic. The only character that seemed over the top was Leon S Kennedy, the guy with the pistol. Since he is the main character, he is fearless and pulls all of these stunts that would have otherwise killed him if he isn't the main character. This is also the only movie that actually relates to the game itself, the films portrayed by real actors makes absolutely no sense and those were terrible. I recommend you watch this thing.

Seven Pounds

Seven Pounds--no I didn't gain seven pounds. It's the name of a movie I just saw on PPV.

Way to spend an afternoon, watching one hell of a depressing movie. It's starring Will Smith--the only reason why I was watching it in the first place. The movie starts off really confusing, having many flashbacks and scenes that do not connect. But as I kept watching, the story became more captivating and ever more depressing. I've never seen Will Smith play such a role before and it was quite different from what he's used to (action movies).

As for the story itself, damn it was depressing. Will Smith gave up his life in order to change the lives of seven other people. He selectively picked out people who he deemed deserving of his organs. Smith committed suicide in order to end his own pain (figuratively) and also to help others in need. What's depressing about the movie anyway? I guess its the dying people. Seeing how many people are waiting for someone to die in order to get a vital organ transplant is simply ... depressing.

In sociology class, we learned about how the rich abuse the poor on a global scale. Rich Americans who need organs go to third world countries and buy organs for their operation. Most of them are kidney transplants because a person can live with one kidney. The exploitation is simply sickening. The donors are paid a bare minimum and are missing a kidney for the rest of their lives.

The problem is that most people are too selfish. Who cares what happens to the body after I'm dead? If my body can save ten lives, then so be it. For those people who want to "preserve" their "complete" body, that is simply despicable. How selfish can people be--to keep their organs to rot in the ground instead of giving it away to save other people's lives?

A truly sad world we live in...

YES! MAN

There are so many movies on Dish Network PPV. Anyway I just watched Yes Man and I thought it was hilarious. The movie is about a pessimistic man (Jim Carrey) whose life turns around when he starts answering yes to everything. Aside from the getting a few good laughs from the movie, I walk away getting something else as well. I reflect upon my own life, and hell, I used to live life as a "No Man." I guess I should be even more open minded and do new and exciting things--learn some new tricks and such. Of course, it's always easier said than done.

The Painted Veil

Okay I just watched the The Painted Veil, only because Edward Norton was in it. It's a US movie filmed in China so I was like meh okay I'll give it a shot. It was pretty good. It's not your typical Hollywood movie because the ending is kinda sad.