Juno – The Lessons in Life

I went to see the movie "Juno" with my best friend the other day. While it wasn't a movie that showed particularly realistic acting or extreme special effects (both of which I like), it struck a chord with me.

16-year-old Juno MacGuff (Ellen Page), after three pregnancy tests, is finally convinced she is almost nine weeks pregnant by her friend Paulie Bleeker (Michael Cera). While she appears slightly disappointed when it is 100% certain, she takes it surprisingly well. No crying or pity-seeking.

Juno decides to have an abortion but changes her mind at the last minute when she gets to the abortion clinic and a school-mate tells her babies have fingernails and the receptionist tries to give her blueberry flavored condoms. Juno decides to make plans to have her baby and give it to a couple who really want one. With the help of her best friend Leah (Olivia Thirlby), Juno searches in the local newspaper and finds a couple, Vanessa (Jennifer Garner) and Mark (Jason Bateman) Loring, who she feels will provide a suitable home for her baby.

Having decided to have the baby, Juno has to tell her parents. You would expect them to be slightly pissed off about it, maybe a little angry. While they both hoped she was going to tell them she was expelled when she sat them down, they seem surprisingly supportive.

As autumn turns into winter, Juno strikes up a friendship with Mark as she discovers they share common interests in music, film and pop culture. Mark is a commercial composer who has a childhood dream of being a rock star. He has had to set aside his dream for a more conservative life with Vanessa, who wants a child more than anything.

As months pass Juno wages an internal war against her feelings towards her baby's father, Paulie. Meanwhile, Paulie gently expresses his feelings towards Juno and tells her he very much hopes that when the pregnancy is over they can start up their band again and maybe even get back together. At the time, Juno suggests Paulie go out with another girl from their class but when Paulie takes her up on her suggestion, Juno finds herself extremely upset. Could it be that she actually likes the gentle and caring Paulie?

While Juno seemed completely un-bothered by the fact that she was the size of a whale, and the general gist of the story was very left of centre, the morals of the story still managed to sneak around the back and bite you on the nose just as the movie was ending. It was a little bit "in you face" because of the fact that Juno's character was so bluntly honest and rebellious but the main points definitely came across. When you are young and irresponsible the way Juno was, you will most likely get pregnant and have to deal with it. If you decide to be pregnant (and during school at that), students will talk about you behind your back, you will draw attention to yourself, you will get big, you will eat lots, you will have aches and pains and then you will have to deliver the baby. And then towards the end of the movie we also learn that the people who love you for who you are (beautiful, fat, old or hairy) are those worth sticking with.

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

High School Musical – It is all about the moral

There is something to be said about teen flicks and something else altogether to be said about Musical, teen flicks. I am not much of a musical type person and the movies I tend to like lean more towards serious and heartfelt, but I have to admit this is the type of movie that manages to squeeze in jingle-type songs, famous young actors and a gazillion morals all into less than 2 hours. It is quite impressive.

I believe one of the reasons teen movies are suitable for…well, teens, is because there is always some hot young thing to drool over in order to snag their attention, and just in case you did not read the blurb before you watched it, the movie recaps everything under the sun that you could possibly want your kids to know – always be yourself, stand up for what you believe in, support your friends etc.

High School Musical is all about Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), the young basketball captain and Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens), the child Einstein. On New Year's Eve the two are forced to sing together but manage to exchange phone numbers afterwards. When the school year starts Troy is surprised to discover that Gabriella is a new student at his school in Albequerque, New Mexico.

The drama teacher, Ms. Darbus announces auditions for the upcoming Musical and Gabriella and Troy decide not to audition. Gabriella thinks she needs to focus on her studies and Troy thinks while Gabriella thinks his singing is good, his showerhead is the only thing that is very impressed with it.

As school life goes on, Troy tries to focus on his basketball and Gabriella on her science club but I guess it is not that easy because they both decide to admit their interest in singing and start to consider auditioning for the Musical. Troy's friend Chad is not too impressed with Troy admitting to such a feminine tendency such as singing and uses the basketball team to bully him into forgetting the whole thing. Meanwhile others around the school take Troy's example and admitting to inner-most desires such as cooking, or dancing, instrument playing and more.

Troy and Gabriella, after a few embarrassing moments, audition for the musical. They quickly find out that they are being called back for a second audition. The basketball team needs Troy to win and the Decathlon team (Science club) needs Gabriella to win. The two teams devise a plan to separate Troy and Gabriella and ensure they do not go for the callback audition and everything goes down hill from there. Gabriella gets angry with Troy, Troy gets angry with the team and his dad, the Decathlon and the Basketball team feel bad about what they have done and no one is happy.

So while this movie is still young and undeveloped in terms of acting abilities (and that is only my opinion of course), it still manages to pass on a few messages. Be yourself no matter what. Stand up for yourself and for what you want. Be confident and true to yourself. Support your friends in what they want instead of trying to fit them into your own molds of what they should be like. Accept the fact that people are different. Be honest, lying will catch up and bite you on the ass. There is no end to the things you can learn from a movie.

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

Narnia – The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

I have always loved fantasy movies, especially ones based in the olden days and in the past. There are many movies I can name that have been based on the fantasy genre but none as great as The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Based on the second book of The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis, The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe is set in London of World War II, where the German air raids were claiming many lives. The four Pevensie children - Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are sent away from London to a safer place with the eccentric Professor Digory Kirke (played brilliantly by Jim Broadbent) and his cranky housekeeper Mrs MacReady (Elizabeth Hawthorne) after their house is destroyed by a bomb.

Shortly after being introduced, a game of hide and seek gets under way and Lucy discovers the land of Narnia in the wardrobe in the spare room. There, she meets Mr Tumnus, a faun. After spending a few hours with him, she returns to the spare room only to find out that no time at all had passed from the time that she had hidden in the wardrobe. She explains all the experience to her brothers and sister, only to be laughed at.

Later Edmund follows Lucy and discovers Narnia for himself. Days later after smashing a window during a game of cricket, the four run to the spare room to hide in the wardrobe only to be poked and prickled by tree branches. The siblings apologise to Lucy for not believing her and are then greeted by a beaver who takes them to Aslan. The beaver then tells them that according to a prophecy, they are two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve that were supposed to defeat the White Witch who was causing the horrible winter in Narnia. Together the four Pevensies go forth to defeat the white witch.

I won't tell you the rest but I will tell you that the moral of this story is to never give up and listen to your siblings, even if they are not right, still believe them and go check out what they have found.

Here are some memorable quotes from the movie:

Susan Pevensie: [about Lucy] She thinks she's found a magical land...
Professor Kirke: Hmmm.
Susan Pevensie: In the upstairs wardrobe.
Professor Kirke: [eyes widening, he rushes to the children] What? What did you say?
Peter Pevensie: Lucy thinks she's found a forest inside...
Susan Pevensie: She won't stop going on about it.
Professor Kirke: What was it like?
Susan Pevensie: Like talking to a lunatic...
Professor Kirke: No, no, not her, the forest!
Susan Pevensie: [stares] you're not saying you believe her?
Professor Kirke: And you don't?
Susan Pevensie: Of course not. I mean, logically it's impossible.

Peter Pevensie: I don't suppose "we're sorry" would quite cover it?
Lucy Pevensie: No, it wouldn't.
[Pelts him with a snowball]
Lucy Pevensie: But that might!

[Peter hands Edmund a fur coat]
Edmund Pevensie: But that's a girl's coat!
Peter Pevensie: [nods] I know.

[Peter sees Mr. Beaver in the woods and doesn't yet know he can talk]
Peter Pevensie: Here, boy, tsk, tsk, tsk.
[holds out hand]
Mr. Beaver: I ain't going to smell it if that's what you want.

I warmly suggest this movie to any fantasy lovers and those who want some pure movie fun.

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

The Movie Formula

I was sitting at home with my family one night and we were discussing what makes the movies we like attractive to us. If we take all the Disney/Pixar movies as an example we came to the conclusion that all of them have a few key elements that appear in each movie, that draw our attention time and time again. For example, they all have a main hero who makes a mistake but gets a chance to fix it, an extremely funny and totally outrageous sidekick (who the movie would not be complete without), an evil entity and a moral (each movie teaches us a lesson).

Movie #1: Aladdin
Aladdin was the main character. His grave mistake was trying to fool the princess Jasmine into believing he was a prince so that she would marry him. He gets to redeem himself later on by saving them all with his wit and cunning. The utterly hilarious Genie is the sidekick (although Robin Williams can never be anything but the centre of attention). The evil entity would be the hideous and jealous Jafar and the moral of the story is that even if you had a genie that could grant your every wish, when it comes to love, you cannot fool anyone, you must be yourself so that you can be loved for who you are.

Movie #2: Nemo
This movie has two different heroes, depending on your point of view. On the one hand we have Nemo, and on the other we have Marlin. The ever so trusty sidekick is Dory the forgetful blue tang. Nemo’s naughty deed for the movie is ignoring his father and swimming out too far, but, he gets to save his fellow fish friends from a life in a tank. And Marlin, well, he probably should not have been on Nemo’s case all the time, but he gets to save him in the end, so it is all good. Moral of the story, children, listen to your parents. Parents, listen to your children. Children, your parents will come save you wherever you are. Parents, trust your children they are smart and resourceful.

Movie #3: Monsters Inc.
Well, our hero for this movie is Sulley. His big mistake was letting a human into the monster world, but I guess it was all for the better when he found out it was not really necessary for monsters to be scary. And our trusty sidekick would be Mike Wazoski, who, as we said, the movie would not be complete without. And like all great movies, we have an evil character, Randall the evil serpent. Moral of our movie is that if you have two options, either to scare someone into doing something, or making them do it by making them happy, the better option is usually to make them happy, they will do it better.

Movie #4: Mulan
Well, Mulan was our heroin for this movie, and her utterly hilarious sidekick was Mushu. Mulan's big boo boo was pretending to be a man, but she more than made up for it when she saved all of China from an invasion. Evil guy was probably Shan Yu the leader of the Hans, but I suppose all of them together would represent the evil entity. The moral of this story has a few parts. One, be yourself and do not try to turn yourself into something you are not. Two, follow your heart. Three, be flexible, adapt, accept that some things are different to what you expect. And the final one is probably the importance of family.

Each of these movies teaches us a valuable lesson and we get to see that lesson from different points of view, from the view of the goofball, the hero, and the villain. I suppose the main thing all these movies are trying to tell us is that if you are predominantly good, the world will do right by you. While this is not always true, because the world can be harsh, these movies give those 2 hours of knowing that everything will sort itself out in the end.

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

Healthy Movies make you laugh

I love a good laugh. At dinner time, when we tell jokes and recite funny scenes from movies, I can tell we are a healthy family. Funny movies are a constant guest at our dinner table. I guess this is our magic pill against sickness and sadness. I believe laughter is the best medicine, a wonderful vehicle to happiness.
There is a whole new science now, dealing with the importance of laughter to our wellbeing. Terminally ill patients watch comedy movies to heal themselves. Think about it, instead of a pill or a painful treatment, the doctor can prescribe – a movie!
There are courses that teach people how to laugh. Funny, isn't it?! Laughter is one of the most natural things in childhood, and yet we need to re- learn it as adults.
If you think of movies, you can see that most kid's movies are funny. If they are not, they have a character in the movie that makes the whole thing fun. Kids are in the mood for laughing most of the time. We can learn a lot from them, they are healthier.
Children laugh a lot. One of the greatest joys is to hear a baby laugh. More people find that irresistible. Children do not need a “real” reason to laugh. They laugh at things that seem silly. What do you think? Is it better to laugh over millions of silly things or only to laugh at rare “seriously funny” things? Who has more fun in life, kids or grown-ups?
Watching funny movies has great physical benefits and entered as a method in “Laughter Therapy”.
Laughing has great benefits like:
• It strengthens your immune system
• It enhances your cardiovascular flexibility
• It increases your motivation
• It helps you think more clearly and increases your intellectual performance
• It improves your information retention (memory)
• It increases your creativity
• It changes your emotional state to the positive
• It releases and transforms your emotional pain
• It develops your abdominal muscles
There are so many other benefits to laughter that it makes you wonder why we do not laugh more. If you want to enjoy a wonderful feeling, grab yourself a funny movie and start laughing.
If you are a typical adult and do not laugh very often, here are some tips to help you improve this natural medicine –laughing.
• Laughing is contagious. Hang around with people who appreciate laughter. Laughing in a group is easier to start, especially if you feel comfortable with the group (family, friends, and colleagues) find the right company to watch movies with.
• Find a movie that suits your style. Some like "Wayne's World" style, some love "Notting Hill" or parody movies. Stick to what works for you.
• Let go of any embarrassment associated with laughing – just go for it!
• You need a reason to laugh every day. Tell jokes or share funny scenes out of movies with humour lovers.
• Keep practicing until you get the hang of it. It will get easier over time
Movies are an easy tool to encourage laughter. As opposed to medication, they are much cheaper and they have no side effects. The effect lasts long afterwards and it actually keep you healthy.

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

Musicals are Back

Dating back to the time of the Ancient Greeks musicals started when the Greeks included music and dance in their stage comedies. From the 5th century B.C Musicals have developed into amazing acts and performances not even close to what they were in the past. Some include: Cats, The Phantom of The Opera, Broadway and newer ones like Hairspray and The Producers.

I have not watched very many musicals as they only come out every once in a while but one of the more recent ones is Hairspray. It is about a girl named Tracy Turnbland who manages to show everyone the stupidity in segregation and that 'coolness' is on the inside.

Tracy is a severely overweight high school student in Baltimore, Maryland whose favourite TV program is The Corny Collins Show that is broadcasted by Baltimore's WYZT station every weekday afternoon. The show involves young teens dancing and singing up a storm. The manager of the station, Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes out of her way to ensure her daughter Amber is prominently featured and that the show remains segregated. All of the kids on the show are white. Black kids are only allowed on the show on Negro Day, the last Tuesday of the each month, hosted by local R&B radio DJ Motormouth Maybelle (Queen Latifah).

One day, Corny Collins (James Marsden) announces that one of the dancers is going on a leave of absence and auditions are going to be held for a replacement the following morning – during school hours. Even though their parents are far from supportive, Tracy and her best friend Penny go to audition. Velma turns Tracy away for being overweight and supportive of integration.

Unfortunately for Tracy, she gets caught and sent to detention for skipping school, but lo-and-behold, detention is where all the black kids hang out and dance. Tracy befriends hot detention dancer Seaweed (Elijah Kelley), who as it turns out, is Motormouth Maybelle's son. Seaweed teaches Tracy some R&B moves that later get her a spot on The Corny Collins Show.

Tracy quickly becomes a big star on the show thanks to her great moves and bubbly personality but Velma does not see it that way. All she sees is how Tracy is a threat to Amber's position in the "Miss Teenage Hairspray" pageant and Amber's courtship with Link, the lead performer for The Corny Collins Show.

Out of anger, Velma cancels Negro Day from The Corny Collins Show and the black kids and their leader Maybelle have nowhere to express their talent.

Without giving too much away, Tracy shows everyone the importance of not giving up, of standing up for what you believe in and for the people you are friends with. While racism against blacks and segregation has stopped being the main focus in everyone's lives, it is still surprisingly popular today among the less accepting of society. This movie shows us that it is important to be proud of who you are and the people you are associated with, whether they are fat, gangly, black or even purple.

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

Movies, Antidepressants with no Side Effects

It is depressing news that according to Australian Government statistics, everyone will, at some point in their lives, be affected by depression, their own or someone else's.

Statistics show that:
• Us depression statistics are comparable to those of the Australian and the UK
• 15% of the population of most developed countries suffers severe depression
• Depressive disorders affect approximately 9.5% of the population aged 18 and older in any given year. This includes major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder and bipolar disorder
• Pre-schoolers are the fastest-growing market for antidepressants. At least 4% of preschoolers are clinically depressed
• The rate of increase of depression among children is an astounding 23% per year
• 30% of women are depressed. Men's figures were previously thought to be half that of women, but new estimates are higher
• 54% of people believe depression is a personal weakness
• 41% of depressed women are too embarrassed to seek help
• 80% of depressed people are not currently having any treatment
• 15% of depressed people commit suicide
• Depression will be the second largest killer after heart disease by 2020
• Studies show that depression is a contributory factor to fatal coronary disease

Reading these statistics, you cannot help but feel depressed. Realizing that there really is no way we can run away from it and we will all one day be affected by depression is shocking news. Of course we were not always such a sorry bunch, so there has to be a way to boost people's moods, right?

I have investigated depression in detail and there are many treatments for depression, some are more successful then other, some are cheaper than other, some are long term and others are shorter. One of the things you often hear about is people healing themselves with positive thoughts and laughter. I have to say, that is the best treatment I have found so far, movies- the anti depressant with no side affect besides an aching stomach from the laughter.

Funny movies make us laugh. Laughter has been found to be a great stimulator of many organs in the body. There is a whole science promoting health and wellbeing through laughter, people even study how to laugh, if you can believe it.

Laughing is so easy, but surprisingly, to combat depression around the world most medical institutions give medication. The pharmaceutical companies are growing and with them so is depression.

I believe the reason depression is on the rise is because fun is declining. People are just to busy to have any fun these days. We go to work every day, we are at work all day and sometimes on the weekends too. That leaves no time for fun and joy. People live to work not work to live. Laughter, joy and fun are harder to come by today.
Kids are in a much better condition; this is why depression most commonly affects adults. Kids laugh a lot. Even their movies are mostly funny. Make a short survey at your local cinema. What is the percentage of funny movies offered to adults and how many funny movies there are for children? In all the kids' movies, even if the movie is not meant to be funny, there is at least one character to lighten the mood.
So let's start laughing!
• Laughter is healthy; it is fat free and has no side affects.
• Laughter can cure cancer and heartbreak.
• Laughter does not need storage, you do not need to produce it in a factory and ship it from place to place. It functions without batteries and is tax free
• Laughter is not affected by temperature. And works great in any weather, especially on cold and rainy days.
• Laughter has no preservatives or food coloring. No traces of nuts and no allergic elements known to man.
• Laughter is good for people with high cholesterol and suitable for organic lovers.
• Laughter is the most natural anti depressant and is very cheap because you can use it at home, sitting in your living room and just watching a movie.

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