the boy in the striped pajamas

this movie is about this cute little boy named bruno. his family lives a very privileged life, and his father is in the army working for Hitler. the family has to move out to the countryside because bruno's father was needed to be stationed there. the transition is hard for everyone in the family, except the father it seems. bruno's sister becomes nazi-obsessed due to a cute soldier who works around the house. bruno is left to play on his own, isolated from the world.

bruno notices that there are kids at a farm that he can see from his bedroom window, and wants to go play with them. when his parents hear of this, they board up his window. bruno doesnt really understand it, and just wants to go adventuring.

as the movie goes along, bruno slowly sees his father for what he truly is. he secretly meets a little boy, shmuel, at the "farm" (concentration camp) and becomes friends. their relationship is very sweet, and sad at the same time. especially once bruno learns he isnt supposed to talk to people from the farm since they are all evil jews.

the movie portrays the Holocaust very well, and gives us a glimpse of how twisted life was then. it is heart wrenching, especially at the end. the whole film was done excellently, with great acting, sets, cinematography, etc.

a beautiful movie, i recommend it.

the grade: A

the taking of pelham 123

[sorry we havent posted a lot lately. we'll try to make it up to you]

in this movie, john travolta and his little gang hijack a subway train. denzel works as a train operator person (he sits at his booth and makes sure the trains are all going smoothly, etc). when denzel notices that train 123 is stopped, and shouldnt be, he tries contacting them by radio. finally, travolta responds and explains the hostage situation. they demand $10 million from the mayor, and have a time limit of an hour.

so first of all, there were so many unrealistic things that it made the movie seem stupid. for example, there was a sniper who was in position where he could kill a guy, but his superiors told him to wait. then, a rat goes up his pant leg and allegedly bites him, which causes the sniper to fire, kill someone, and gets all the the bad guys mad. ok, ever seen the movie shooter? snipers are trained to not let anything distract them!!

also, this movie was so typical that we were hoping for a twist. it just made it a little on the boring side. everything we thought could possibly be a twist didnt happen [and if it had, the movie would have been more interesting]. the only thing that could be considered a twist was something we all called near the beginning. therefore, not much of a twist. nice try tho..

most of the actions done by everyone in the movie just didnt make sense. characters would do something that was so stupid, or pointless, etc. one time they randomly showed the major do a little cough, and then cut away to another scene. we were all like what!? was that an editing mistake or something? it made no sense at all (like most of this movie).

i felt by watching this movie at least a few brain cells died. maybe several, im not sure. it was just weird, stupid, boring, etc. i dont really recommend it.

the grade: C-