earl_sibley
Joined May 2007
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earl_sibley's rating
There are few movies that I can say resulted in lasting change in my life or personal behaviour, but a couple of days after watching this movie the visceral response remains with me. I will never set foot on a marine mammal park again. If that was part of the goal of this movie then mission accomplished Louis Psihoyos and Ric O'Barry.
This movie is about the exploitation and brutality man has shown towards a gentle, intelligent and harmless creature. It can be added to a long list of films with a simple message - man is raping his environment, exploiting life, and quite frankly caring for little else than the profit nature holds.
The movie will hold you to the last 10 minutes, at which point it becomes apparent to all why Ric O'Barry's life has changed. It must be seen as the story tellers wanted it to be seen.
If I have any criticism of the film it's the amount of time dedicated to dramatizing the message with the Special Ops segments. I appreciate the risk taken to get this footage however I think the danger element was overstated by the film. You gain the belief all through the film the OPS is being followed closely by authorities, that they're every move is being noted, their purpose known, they're faces ingrained in the minds of the people, yet on two occasions they load up a van full of crew and high tech equipment and head unchallenged into the "great secret". This aspect of the film, along with the early segments showing paranoid Ric O'Barry moments in which he says things like "they would kill me if they could" leads me to believe the filmmakers we hedging between taking the viewer on a adrenaline fuelled trip of espionage and a journey of education and awareness.
It has it's moments of contradiction as well. It goes to some great length to show that Japanese don't eat dolphin meat but this is not adequately reconciled with the fact that the Taiji school program served dolphin meat to it's children as part of it's mandatory lunch program.
An obvious cherry picking of interviewees in the cities of Japan with questions about their food supply chain elicited responses that I would expect to find in most urban centres. I live in Toronto, where I suspect many people would be surprised to find restaurants here serve alligator and other exotic protein. I know that slaughter houses provide my area beef but I would be hard pressed to tell you where they are or the methods employed. The effort to show the Japanese as oblivious to the scandals going on right under their nose failed to be convincing in my opinion.
Still, a very informative and inspiring film. I would recommend it to anyone who cares about these creatures. I have had the benefit of encountering these wonderful animal at open sea and know them to be curious, intelligent, playful, with strong ties to the family unit. They are better than we are and this film helped me realize this.
This movie is about the exploitation and brutality man has shown towards a gentle, intelligent and harmless creature. It can be added to a long list of films with a simple message - man is raping his environment, exploiting life, and quite frankly caring for little else than the profit nature holds.
The movie will hold you to the last 10 minutes, at which point it becomes apparent to all why Ric O'Barry's life has changed. It must be seen as the story tellers wanted it to be seen.
If I have any criticism of the film it's the amount of time dedicated to dramatizing the message with the Special Ops segments. I appreciate the risk taken to get this footage however I think the danger element was overstated by the film. You gain the belief all through the film the OPS is being followed closely by authorities, that they're every move is being noted, their purpose known, they're faces ingrained in the minds of the people, yet on two occasions they load up a van full of crew and high tech equipment and head unchallenged into the "great secret". This aspect of the film, along with the early segments showing paranoid Ric O'Barry moments in which he says things like "they would kill me if they could" leads me to believe the filmmakers we hedging between taking the viewer on a adrenaline fuelled trip of espionage and a journey of education and awareness.
It has it's moments of contradiction as well. It goes to some great length to show that Japanese don't eat dolphin meat but this is not adequately reconciled with the fact that the Taiji school program served dolphin meat to it's children as part of it's mandatory lunch program.
An obvious cherry picking of interviewees in the cities of Japan with questions about their food supply chain elicited responses that I would expect to find in most urban centres. I live in Toronto, where I suspect many people would be surprised to find restaurants here serve alligator and other exotic protein. I know that slaughter houses provide my area beef but I would be hard pressed to tell you where they are or the methods employed. The effort to show the Japanese as oblivious to the scandals going on right under their nose failed to be convincing in my opinion.
Still, a very informative and inspiring film. I would recommend it to anyone who cares about these creatures. I have had the benefit of encountering these wonderful animal at open sea and know them to be curious, intelligent, playful, with strong ties to the family unit. They are better than we are and this film helped me realize this.
Dark Knight.
If anything good came of this, the movie prompted me to get off my keester and sign up at IMDb, if only at the outrage (OK, maybe disbelief) that this movie is rated 9.1 and currently the 3rd highest ranked movie in IMDb history.
Long time reader and user but non-contributor here, now needing to get this off my chest.
Even if you go into this movie with the low expectations that need to go with comic book movies, this one stretches far fetched to new limits.
The acting, aside from the performance offered by Ledger, was given a terrible screenplay and it showed, and at time makes you want to look away. Bale is horrible as Batman, a hoarse menacing voice accompanied by an overacting mouth, made we wish for Michael Keaton again.
I could go on, but I won't. To say that this movie is better than Schindler's List, La Dolce Vita, It's a Wonderful Life, and about 100 other movies that are great to OK, makes me lose just a little faith in our internet institutions.
If anything good came of this, the movie prompted me to get off my keester and sign up at IMDb, if only at the outrage (OK, maybe disbelief) that this movie is rated 9.1 and currently the 3rd highest ranked movie in IMDb history.
Long time reader and user but non-contributor here, now needing to get this off my chest.
Even if you go into this movie with the low expectations that need to go with comic book movies, this one stretches far fetched to new limits.
The acting, aside from the performance offered by Ledger, was given a terrible screenplay and it showed, and at time makes you want to look away. Bale is horrible as Batman, a hoarse menacing voice accompanied by an overacting mouth, made we wish for Michael Keaton again.
I could go on, but I won't. To say that this movie is better than Schindler's List, La Dolce Vita, It's a Wonderful Life, and about 100 other movies that are great to OK, makes me lose just a little faith in our internet institutions.
It is with deep regret that my first submission to IMDb is to describe a movie that just doesn't cut it.
This movie is loaded with potential, and blasts off to a fast pace and near exhausting energy level in the early going. But the shine goes away as it spirals into a Jennifer Hudson yellfest.
Jamie Foxx gives us his normal great performance, and Beyonce is charming, but the performance superlatives end there.
As a viewer of AI I was very much captivated by the Jennifer Hudson ugly-duckling-rags-to-riches success story she'd become. But as I scrambled to disable the audio features of my home theatre I realized that the day had come to admit I was wrong about her talents. Her mediocrity weighted this movie down noticeably.
And I think that's where you'll see the lines of opinion drawn in this movie. Those that enjoyed Hudson will like this light hearted effort and come away satisfied, those like myself who failed to connect with Hudson's character and her thunderous, forceful, over-the-top vocals will be thankful they didn't pay theatre price.
If having your body rattled by 2 hours of Jennifer Hudson's merciless shouting is what you like, then this movie is for you. Otherwise save yourself the migraine.
This movie is loaded with potential, and blasts off to a fast pace and near exhausting energy level in the early going. But the shine goes away as it spirals into a Jennifer Hudson yellfest.
Jamie Foxx gives us his normal great performance, and Beyonce is charming, but the performance superlatives end there.
As a viewer of AI I was very much captivated by the Jennifer Hudson ugly-duckling-rags-to-riches success story she'd become. But as I scrambled to disable the audio features of my home theatre I realized that the day had come to admit I was wrong about her talents. Her mediocrity weighted this movie down noticeably.
And I think that's where you'll see the lines of opinion drawn in this movie. Those that enjoyed Hudson will like this light hearted effort and come away satisfied, those like myself who failed to connect with Hudson's character and her thunderous, forceful, over-the-top vocals will be thankful they didn't pay theatre price.
If having your body rattled by 2 hours of Jennifer Hudson's merciless shouting is what you like, then this movie is for you. Otherwise save yourself the migraine.