The Karate Kid (2010)

I was pleasantly surprised with the remake of the Karate Kid movie. I have enjoyed Jackie Chan in many of his movies and I thought Jaden Smith did a good job in The Pursuit of Happiness. One of the opening scenes was of Jackie Chan's character eating ramyeon and being disturbed by a fly. He puts down the noodles with his chopsticks and follows the buzzing ready to snatch the fly out of thin air Mr. Miyagi style but at the last second he smashes the fly with a fly swatter in his other hand. Hilarious ode to the previous movie's most famous scene. But what made this movie great is that it was distinctly different than the previous 1984 Karate Kid movie. One key difference is that the film is set in Beijing China and not Southern California.

Salmon Fishing on the Yemen (2011)

It's a great movie but kind of a cheesy love story; it was too cute for Scottish fly fishing and Environmental scientist Dr. Jones to name a newly created fly the Chetwood-Tolbot; the girl he's infatuated with in the movie. The narrative of introducing salmon to the Yemen River after a dam is complete was interesting. The movie discusses whether the environmental conditions would be feasible for native salmon to survive on the Yemen River; the answer being yes hinging upon the presence of the dam. Salmon need a water temperature that is only allowed in a hot region of the world with the presence of a dam. This movie evaluates whether an established scientist can be a man of faith. The Shiek calls out Dr. Jones at dinner. Although Dr. Jones isn't publicly participatory in a religion the Shiek highlights that he is a man of faith because he will spend so much of his time at one end of a fishing line hoping that he will get a strike on the other side. The only thing that draws him back to the river after a day of being skunked is faith. An Islamic Shiek brought up the discussion attributing fishing to religion but it is a connnection that is very common in the Christian faith. Whether you reference Jesus Christ telling Peter that he will retire his career in fishing on the Galilee and follow Jesus for the rest of his life being "the fisher of men." Or in 1990's movie "A River Runs Through It" when the Presbyterian Minister father tells his sons that the water has shaped the river for thousands of years and underneath the water inside the rocks is the word of God. And if you listen carefully enough you will be able to hear it. What draws fly fisherman to spend their entire lives at the end of a fishing line picking up the rhythms of God might be similar to the benefits of the practice of Yoga. It's soothing, it's rhythmic, and it makes the participant feel better afterwards. Some can say that those characteristics are the same in organized religion. The movie also covered whether or not farmed salmon would have the know how to be able to survive in the wild; struggling incubation genetics and lack of learned behavior. The movie highlights that through technology mankind is able to achieve magnificent things such as allowing a rich Shiek to catch bigger fish than trout near his home. But it also shows that through man's stretch for the magnificent there are trials and tribulations such as fundamentalists Islamic Jihadists blowing up the very expensive dam. Overall it was a very enjoyable movie to watch and covered an area of the world that might be hostile to the West but also has a peaceful beauty that can be found and universally relatable in nature. So this movie covers an Environmental issue from an ethical standpoint as well as a feasability standpoint. First, is it scientifically possible to fish for salmon on the Yemen River? Then the next question the movie poses is should we. The protagonists are basically introducing an animal species to an environment in an unnatural way and the existence of the animal, given their water temperature requirements is precedent on the creation of a man-made dam.

Django Unchained (2012)

Quentin Tarantino is definitely at the top of his game as a director. This movie is on par with other great Tarantino movies such as Inglorious Bastards, Pulp Fiction, and Reservoir Dogs. The movie had great performances by actors Leonardo Dicaprio and Samuel L Jackson. I think that Samuel L. Jackson should be a contender for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars with his role as Stephen the head household slave. Stephen's complete disregard for other black slaves and his blind public support for owner Calvin Candie brought a dynamic to the movie that I think viewers today can only look on in astonishment that relationships like that might have existed in the 19th century Antebellum South. Christopher Waltz had another great performance as Dr. King Schultz. The Germanic legend of Siegfried and Broomhilda and how it plays out at the Candiland plantation really brings depth to the narrative plot. Not to give away too much of the ending but Dr. Schultz screws over his friend Django by not shaking Candi's hand as a pivotal point in the movie. However, in thinking about the situation after the movie I admire that he did shoot Leonardo DiCaprio's character Candi. It showed that Dr. Schultz's devotion to the law even when his personal convictions of public decency were being pushed to the limits was trumped by his own personal convictions or right and wrong. Dr. Schultz's had no problem shooting the sheriff if front of all it's citizens because he was WANTED criminal. But in shooting Candi he was disregarding country and state laws of murder and taking on the frontier western code of personal vigilantism into his own hands because he despised Candi as a human being. I also thought this movie had a lot of themes that are relevant today. Although slavery is long gone from the Southern United States there still is emphasize on placing monetary values on things that are difficult or deplorable to do so. In the movie there was a lot of business discussion about a human being's (slave) worth in dollars. Today we are also seeing discussions about placing monetary values on things that are difficult to comprehend, such as certain complex insurance products or even the monetary value of the pollination process bees are responsible for. Although the movie needed comic relief I think the pre-KKK raid on Dr. Schultz's dental wagon was awkward and overreaching for an easy laugh. The scene had a weird South Park reference. One of the raiders references Cartman from the South Park cartoons with the phrase "Screw you guys, I'm going home." Besides that scene the overall flow of the movie was good and had a steady mix of light humor; including Django's blue Austin Powers outfit. What this movie was best at was conveying the main theme, at least the one I interpreted, true love triumphs even when your personal identity and sense of humanity are stripped away from you living the life of a slave. Stories like this reveal a true human quality that is common to all and shows examples of the great lengths people will go through for true friendship or the one's they love. It's an inspiring story because it shows that it is difficult to strip away all of a human's spirit even if they have lived through a lifetime of inhumane conditions.