Human Trafficking - Made You Think Again

I wrote an article not too long ago about movies that make you think – about love, money, life. The other night I watched "Human Traffic" and it topped all the movies I've seen in a while. This movie made me think about just-about-everything.

Single mother Helena, from Prague, meets a romantic, successful man who invites her to spend a weekend in Vienna. On arriving at a big mansion, Helena finds out that the wonderful gentleman actually set her up to be a sex slave.

Sixteen-year-old Nadia from Ukraine is selected by a modeling agency that helps her get a passport. She travels to the United States with the other selected candidates. Freshly off the plane, Helena tells her that her dreams of being a model are no longer possible as she has just been lied to and cheated and is going to be used to sell sex. These young girls are brutally beaten and raped and told their families will be harmed if they try to run away or contact police.

American twelve-year-old Annie Gray is staying in the Philippines on a holiday with her parents. While she is out shopping with her mother, she wanders towards a young boy selling jewellery and is suddenly abducted. She too is going to be used for sex.

Joining Annie are is a young girl from the Philippines whose parents have reached such poverty they sell her to a local man. Later on, the young girl suffers from meningitis and is killed before she can infect the other children.

Meanwhile, the families of these young people each tries to help in their own way. Helena's mother looks after Ivanka, Helena's 3 year-old daughter. Annie Gray's mother stays on in the Philippines and joins a not for profit organization that battles sex slavery. Nadia's father finds a way to go under cover and join the group of traffickers in order to save his daughter.

This movie made me question so many things my head was buzzing by the time I went to bed.
• Could this happen to me?
• What would I do if this happened to me?
• What would I do if that was my child?
• How can I prevent this?
• Who would do such a thing?
• Is the money really worth it?
• Why did no one help them? Are people so cold and wrapped up in their own lives?
• What did these young girls ever do to deserve such a thing?

The movie also showed police participants in these brutal activities, which made me think that terrible people come in all shapes and sizes.

The movie ended well, THANK GOODNESS! I don't think I could have managed to sleep for the next 6 months if it hadn't. The man responsible for terrorizing these girls was shot in the NYPD raid of one of his houses, the enslaved girls were rescued and Nadia went home with her father. But just as an afterthought, so that you all know, before the credits rolled, came the shocking news that over 800,000 people are enslaved this way every year, all around the world. Human trafficking is the third largest criminal activity in the world. These organizations only grow because there is a demand and people willing to pay for sex and the innocence of young children.

I think this movie raises important points. It tells us that so long as there is demand for paid sex, someone will find a way to supply it. We should all be aware that such things happen. Before watching this movie, it might have registered that it happened to a few unlucky people, but now…800,000 people cannot be ignored. Be aware, and be careful. I sincerely hope that the only time I, and everyone else, ever have to combat such an issue, will be while watching this movie.

Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.

The Golden Compass – The Best Movie this Boxing Day

In the past couple of months I have seen at least 20 different movies. I've seen movies such as "Heaven's Fall" and "Flyboys". I watched "The Ron Clark Story" and even children's movies such as "Zoom". Of all those movies, one of the very few that I liked was, surprisingly, "The Golden Compass" which was released this Boxing Day.

Based on the first story of a trilogy by Philip Pullman, "The Golden Compass" is about a young girl by the name of Lyra Belaqua (Dakota Blue Richards), who is the subject of a prophecy concerning the fate of the world. The movie is set in a parallel universe in which humans are accompanied by Daemons, an animal representation of their souls. Mrs. Marisa Coulter (played by Nicole Kidman) explains to Lyra that long ago when the people first disobeyed the 'Authority', a particle called 'dust' was created. As children become adults, 'dust' contaminates them through their Daemon. A sinister religious body called the Magisterium (of which Mrs. Coulter is a strong part) tries to create a population that will never question their authority by a process called intercision. Intercision separates children from their Daemon before they can be contaminated by 'dust', leaving them confused and easily controlled. Meanwhile, children are being snatched up off the street by kidnappers called 'Gobblers', to a facility in a vast ice-land so that they can be separated from their Daemon and a new, compliant generation can be created.

The movie showed some witty examples of human characteristics. One fantastic depiction of childhood and growing up was the Daemons. Young children's Daemons can change shape into any animal they choose. As each child settles, chooses a path and makes their life choices, so will their Daemon. Adult's Daemons settle into one animal shape and do not change. This explains children's indecision and how they are easily impressed.

A scene, in which one of the children escapes from the intercision facility, sheds some light on the whole 'soul' business. The child has been separated from his Daemon
(soul) and is confused, weak and deathly pale. This perfectly depicts the phrase 'to lose your spirit'. When someone is so lost and confused, they have no faith in anything, they may still be alive but they seem to walk around in a stupor, with no direction and no hope, they 'lose their spirit'.

Many recent movies have been dramas, and even romantic ones, that have tried to portray a more realistic scenario by ending on a sad note. They show stories about how bad things happen, not necessarily at the fault of the hero or heroine, and unlike it is often portrayed in fairy tales, it cannot always be fixed. While this is very true in real life, I personally don't find it particularly appealing in a movie. I think we go to the movies for a bit of a break from our lives, for some hope, and even to see someone else's life take a turn for the better, so that we may have faith in the world.

"The Golden Compass" showed all of the things I love in a movie: great actors, fantastic visual effects, amazing scenery, a great story and a good ending.
As one of seven different movies released on Boxing Day, "The Golden Compass" was given the Boxing Day Crown. Other movies released on the 26th include "Alien vs Predator: Requiem", "Enchanted", "Atonement", "PS I Love You", "No Country for Old Men" and "Served the King of England", but it was "The Golden Compass" that came in at the top of them all with over $1,613,225. Rightly so!

Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.

How Do Kids Choose Movies

How do kids choose their movies? It's a question many parents ask themselves. Young kids (and many adults) are so stressed about watching each movie the minute it hits the big screen that enormous queues are formed and tickets sell out before you even get half way to the door.

40 years ago, movies were not a big part of everyday life. In the 60’s, kids spent more time outside, or reading and socialising than they do today. Movies back then were a luxury not everyone could afford. When it could be afforded it was only ever at the cinema. Over the past 40 year period, movie watching habits have changed dramatically. In 2000, there was a major shift. From one channel televisions and occasional cinema outings, now-a-days children can watch any of a number of different channels and going to the cinema is a common occurrence. In the past few years, movie watching has become very popular and easy to access; families can borrow movies from the video store, from the library, download them from the internet and watch than in the comfort of their home. New movies come out in the cinema every week.

WHY do kids choose movies?

Today, movies have become a measurement of social standing. Children who haven't seen a certain movie are "way uncool", and are perfectly aware of what they have missed out. The other children in their class will make them aware of exactly what goes on in every movie. This creates a lot of pressure on parents. All you need to do to understand how serious the pressure is, is simply see the massive queues at the cinema on the release dates of every new movie. It is very hard for people, and especially young kids to wait a week or two weeks after the release of a new movie to go and see it. Just the thought of missing out, or being the last person to see the movie is quite stressful.

There are many movies targeted at young children that come out regularly. For movie makers, children's' movies are a great investment since young kids are such a big market. Every time kids go to a movie, at least one grownup must join them. This more than doubles the profit, not to mention the sales of related products that get sold after the movie – McDonald toys, figurines etc.

Movies today are advertised as far back as a year in advance. Posters are put up in every spare space, in shopping centres and food-courts. TV ads for certain movies start as early as 6 months before a movie comes out. Even 3-year olds can tell you they are going to watch a movie that will come out in 6 months. School holidays are especially hard for parents since most movies come out during the school holidays. Sometimes, over a period of two or three weeks or holiday, there are over six movies to watch. In the local cinema there is only a two to three week window in which to watch all the movies that have come out. Young kids are afraid to miss out. Missing out is a very hard feeling for young kids to deal with and this puts pressure on their parents.

A good way to help parents handle the pressure is to assure kids they will be able to see the movie later. The movie will still be there in a week, even too weeks. If its not, it probably wasn't worth it, and if they still want to see it, it can be borrowed from the video store or downloaded at a much cheaper price. Knowing this will relieve the stress of missing out on that great movie that everyone's raving about and when you go to the cinema, you won't have to wait in line for half an hour and you'll definitely have a ticket when you get to the desk.

Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.

Made You Think

Of all the different movies out there, I like to watch the ones that make me think; about money, and friends, work, love and even life itself. At the end of these movies I always ask myself, “What would I do, if this were my life?”.

One of the movies that made me think the most about my beliefs towards life and death was a movie called “Tuck Everlasting”. The movie was about a young girl who came across the Tucks, a family living in the woods owned by her family. As it turns out, the Tucks had mistakenly drunk from a fountain of youth, granting them immortality. They had already been alive over 100 years. The young girl fell in love with the youngest of the Tuck boys and was given the chance to choose immortality. But as Mr. Tuck told her “What we Tucks have, you can't call it living. We just... are. We're like rocks, stuck at the side of a stream”. While the young girl pondered the chance for immortality and a life with the young Tuck, Mr. Tuck said to her, “Don't be afraid of death, Winnie. Be afraid of the unlived life”.

If you had the choice between living a full life and dying eventually or living eternally, what would you choose?

“Equilibrium” mad me think about the quality of life. Set sometime in the future, the government has eliminated war by suppressing emotions. Books, art and music are forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death. There is no love in a society like this, no friendship and no affection. There is no appreciation and no respect for others, no freedom of choice and very minimal individuality. Indeed it’s true that love is messy, and feelings can get out of hand, but for all their flaws, is life really better without emotions?

If you could choose to eliminate emotions, to think only logically, would you be willing to forgo all your feelings in order not to feel pain?

“The Matrix” takes another angle altogether. Thomas A. Anderson discovers that human life on Earth is nothing more than an elaborate fa?ade created by cyber-intelligence. The world we live in is an imaginary program made to give humans the illusion that everything is alright in the world while they are used as fuel for The Matrix. So while we walk around doing our everyday things and contemplating the meaning of life, does the world we live in really exist?

Assuming life does indeed exist, is it set in stone and unchangeable? “The Butterfly Effect” tells the story of Evan Treborn. Evan has the power to go backwards in time and change the past in order to prevent pain and suffering in the present. As he quickly discovers, it’s not as simple as changing one persons life. Every time he changes one thing for the better, something worse happens to someone else. Only when he finds a scenario where he doesn’t interfere, can he find the best solution.

If you had the power to change your past to make your present better, at the chance that you would hurt someone else, would you do it?

While all these movies are generally fictional, they ask the hard questions. Do we really exist? Can we change the past? Does love last forever? Is beauty everything? Does everything we do only affect us? Do we appreciate what we have?

If this was your life, what would you do?

Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.

Books or Movies

Have you ever been disappointed by reading a book and then watching its film? Have you ever watched a film and then read the book that it was based on?

Many movies remain very true to the book. Others only follow the core of the book’s story, while mostly taking poetic license with the plot and the characters.

There are many reasons that make these movies what they are. For example, the length of the movies is set to be between one and a half to two hours, while books come in different lengths, from short stories to long 600-page books spanning several generations. In the past, full length movies were about an hour and a half. They even had an intermission in the cinema to allow people to take a break and buy some refreshments. Nowadays, full length movies take up to two hours without intermission.

Many descriptions in books, such as scenery, can be presented in a few seconds in a movie. In books, this may require many words. In a movie, one picture is indeed worth a thousand words. On the other hand, many feelings or thought descriptions are not as easy to present in a movie.

While reading a book, the reader has the freedom to imagine the characters as they like while in a movie, the director and the casting crew will make that choice for the viewers. This often leaves big gaps between the choices. There is a whole industry of casting whose job is to find the actors that are most likely to fit into most people’s imagination of the characters, but even the best selections cannot fit everyone’s style.

When comparing books to full length movies, there is always the dilemma about which parts to include or omit. In films like Eragon, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, the books included many details that the movies did not. This is a typical situation as books always contain more details and descriptions and the chance that the reader and the director or the script writer will choose to include the same details are low.

People can be divided to two groups, the ones that like to see the movie first and read the book later and those who like to read the book first and watch the movie after. Watching and then reading gives you all the details, but takes away the surprise, because you already know the main plot and the ending by the time you read. Watching after reading allows you to experience a different interpretation of what you have read, imagined and experienced but may result in disappointment from the movie.

Most people like both reading and watching to have a complete experience. All they need is to take into consideration that there are advantages and disadvantages for each option: reading and watching or watching and reading.

One particular challenge for the book-first approach is that by the time you are finished reading, the movie may not be showing in cinemas anymore. Fortunately, Internet technology has made it much easier to get your hands on any movie whenever you like. Every person with a computer and access to the Internet can easily download full length movies and watch them at the comfort of their home. While in the past, going to the movies cost money (for tickets, travel and perhaps babysitting) and took time, today, people can download any movie they like and watch it whenever they like for close to nothing.

If you're going to read your next book then stop and download that movie from the internet.

Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.

Merry Movies

One of the most common movie genres that stretches from as far back as the silent films is Comedy. Comedic movies are designed to amuse and entertain through humorous exaggeration of situations, actions and human characteristics. In essence, they are intended to make you laugh!

Some movie watchers say that Comedy movies portray situations that don’t correspond with anything real and generally ‘just aren’t serious enough’. But who said serious is best?
Not only for the purpose of having a good time and rejoicing in the misfortunes of the characters on screen, Comedy movies are one of the best ways to laugh.

Research shows that laughter relieves stress and muscle tension, strengthens the immune system and reduces the risk of heart attack. Even respiratory problems, high blood pressure, viruses, tumors and other illnesses can be relieved with laughter.

According to some articles, studies have shown that patients that have a clown present prior to surgery had less anxiety. This reduces the risk of complications.

A Dr. Norman Cousins wrote a book about how he recovered from a life-threatening tissue disease by watching Comedy movies. "Laughter is an antidote to apprehension and panic," wrote Dr. Cousins.

During Christmas time, everyone is stressed about just about everything. How much the tree cost, how many presents they still have to get, dealing with family relations, last minute party details and why the dog keeps chewing the tinsel. On top of that the flu always seems to go around, your back aches from cleaning, you haven’t slept in 3 days and it’s nowhere near over.
When all is said and done, take the time to watch a Comedy movie. Reduce your stress and strengthen your immune system. Laugh at the ridiculous behavior of some people and the magnified scenarios of day to day life.

Christmas is a time of laughter and merriment with friends and family. For those celebrating at home and even those who are just taking a quick breather before going back to work, celebrate the Christmas season or end of year with a surge of laughter in order to begin 2008 with a smile on your face and a positive attitude.

Tsoof and Eden love to download full movies from the Internet.