Red Dawn

So, you're probably thinking that I'm talking about the 2012 Red Dawn, but this blog post is about the 1984 version of Red Dawn. The film stars prominent actors in the 80's including Patrick Swayze, C. Thomas Howells, Jennifer Grey, and Charlie Sheen. The first time I saw the film, I was vacationing in Florida. It was on television and for some reason, there was an encore presentation after the first presentation, so I watched it twice. I remember just crying after I saw it the first time, it was so sad.

Red Dawn is a made up story about the Cold War in which communist groups from the Soviet Union, Cuba and Nicaragua take over the United States; as a result, a group of teenagers have to leave home and hide in order to keep from being imprisoned. After killing some Soviet troops that they come across in the woods, they decide to form a rebel group called "The Wolverines." As the Cold War heats up, and the communists groups are taking over more and more of the US, the Wolverines join forces with military groups and organize an armed resistance against the intruders. And of course, I am not going to give away the ending, so you'll just have to watch it to see what happens.

I typically like most genres of films. Okay, that's not completely true, but I am open to watching different types of films (except fantasy films. I can't stand those. No offense.), and usually, war movies just depress me as this film did but it's just a terrific, terrific movie, and I guess you learn some things about history even though this is entirely made up, it has some Cold War elements/facts in it. I really enjoyed it because I"m a big fan of eighties movies, and this film, in my opinion, is a notable eighties film. Overall, I think Red Dawn is an extremely well done film, and you should definitely check it out.

A Clockwork Love

Hope you had a good week! This week, I'm sharing a video that some friends of mine created during the course of this five day school week. So, this week, we had some British exchange students visit from England which is why we had to do this five day video project. It was super duper cool having them visit. It was just cool having people with cool accents around.

Anyways, for this project, we were split up into groups and given each a prop and we had to use that prop to come up with a story. I worked with Ruth, Katie, and Emily Palmer, our British exchange student (who was super awesome). We had a box full of old science tools like plastic pipes, some weird metal thing and two clocks (or maybe they were meters of some sort). We decided to create a video about a mad scientist who creates a robot with whom he falls in love with; however, she does not know how to love so he re-programs her she can. But then, she falls in love with someone else. We're happy with how it turned out and we had so much fun putting it together.

We used a DSLR to film and used Final Cut Pro to edit. We put a filter on it so at the beginning, it would be cool colors, but when she comes alive, the color becomes warmer, which we thought would add to the effect of the whole video. At times, this project was really stressful but overall, it was so much fun to put together and I just had a blast. Here's our video. Enjoy!!!!! Oh, by the way, it's called A Clockwork Love.

Sleepless in Seattle

In honor of Valentine's Day that's coming up super duper soon, this week, I'm going to write about a cute-sy little rom-com that I'm sure many of you have heard of; Sleepless in Seattle. Sleepless in Seattle is one of my favorite movies and to me, it just never gets old because it's so cute!

Sleepless in Seattle is about a recent widower named Sam Baldwin who lives in Seattle, and how he fatefully meets the woman of his dreams, Annie Ryan, who lives on the other side of the country in Baltimore after being on a call-in radio show. Sam's son, Jonah, sees his dad's inability to move on from his mother's death and his inability to be happy; as a result, Jonah calls into one of those call-in radio shows and tells the radio announcer, "Dr. Marcia Fieldstone" about his dad's predicament. Sam is outraged at first but ends up telling his whole story of how he fell in love with his wife on the air. On the other side of the country, journalist, Annie Ryan, is happily engaged. She is driving to her fiance's family's house and hears Sam's story on the radio. She finds herself in tears by the end and wonders who this man really is. Meanwhile, in Seattle, Sam becomes an overnight sensation. Millions of women from all over send him letters asking him out. Annie decides to send him a letter which he ignores at first; however, Jonah senses that there is something special about Annie and decides that he wants her to be his "new mother." With Jonah's meddling, Annie and Sam....well, I'll let you find out what happens at the end. Here's a clue: it's inspired by An Affair to Remember.

I promise you, this film is just hilarious and heart-warming. I know that sounds cliche, "heart-warming" but there's really no other way to put it. It's one of those feel good flicks that's great, especially around this time of the year. And also, Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks equals brilliant! And the kid who plays Jonah, Ross Malinger, he is sooo adorable! Sleepless in Seattle is just totally adorable, and you should definitely watch it at some point. Here is the trailer. And also, Happy Valentine's Day since I probably won't be writing a blog post until after then!