Tuesday, May 11, 2010

The Lovely Bones Film Review

The Lovely Bones is a story about a murder victim watching her family deal with the loss of her from their lives. Susie Salmon, the victim, watched as her family struggled to overcome the loss and fought to try and catch the murderer before he devastated another family. Susie was stuck between heaven and earth, unable to let go of her past and move on with her death. Peter Jackson, the movie director, overall did a good job to include quotes and scenes, they weren’t directed as good as they could have been though. The movie was a very different image than what I pictured while reading the book. The heaven was more cartoony than expected and Mr. Harvey’s death was portrayed very badly. I thought that the characters in the movie were a good match for the characters description in the book. The Lovely Bones movie had similar plot events as in the novel, just with a different sequence in how they took place, which made it worse than the book.

While reading the novel, the events that Alice Sebold painted in the reader’s mind were different from the way that the movie was directed. For example, Susie’s heaven was very “Disney” like, very animated. This was a downturn from the heaven that Sebold tried to create in the novel. Another example of a different image in the movie was Mr. Harvey’s death. In the book, he was knocked over by an icicle and then he fell over into a ravine. Although it was the same event in the movie, it was just poorly displayed. In the movie, there were many events that were similar to the novel, just portrayed differently than how Sebold told it in the book.

Peter Jackson did a good job in matching up the characters from the novel with the actors that he chose to fill the different roles. Mr. Harvey and Jack Salmon were both matched up perfectly. Mr. Harvey was the perfect man for the job, creepy and suspicious look to him, and Mr. Salmon was the perfect paranoid father after his daughter was murdered. I didn’t like how Susie looked super young in the movie while all her friends looked 5 year older than her, but in the novel they seemed to be the same age. Grandma Lynn was the perfect match to the novel, just very young for a Grandma. The characters were the best part of the movie, they were matched up very well.

The plot events in the movie were taken nicely from the book, especially important quotes. It was nice how Susie was talking in the background of the movie, just like in the novel, while using nice quotes in her lines. The author could have done a better job to use more suspenseful events from the novel, such as when Lindsey Salmon broke into Mr. Harvey’s house to look for evidence, or when Mr. Salmon got beaten up after running into the cornfield after Mr. Harvey. A bad example that Jackson used of plot in his movie was when he mixed up the events around Abigail Salmon leaving home and returning after he got beat up, when it was completely different in the novel. Overall, Peter Jackson did a good job of using suspenseful events from the novel in his movie, just a poor way of showing them.

The Lovely Bones movie was a bit of a letdown from what the movie could have been like. Some of the bad aspects of the film were the images that Alice Sebold created in the novel were very different from the images that Peter Jackson showed in his movie, as well as the plot events were mixed up from the novel and they weren’t very well directed compared to how well they could have been. Although not all parts of the film were bad, such as the Characters that were chosen, and certain events from the novel such as Lindsey’s break into Mr. Harvey‘s house. The movie could have been less imaginary and more realistic at parts. If you hadn’t read the book before, you might enjoy the movie, but if you read the book before watching the movie, be prepared for a surprise.

I would give the movie a 6/10

Monday, March 29, 2010

Ann Coulter is a columnist, author, and a political commentator who has extreme right wing beliefs. She is well known for standing up for her beliefs in very controversial ways, often by using acts of racism. Ann is often on television or radio programs, and gives speeches to groups of people. Her commentary has given her a bad reputation as being an offensive critic of liberalism. Ann has often been heard making remarks about other races, especially Muslims. Recently, she told a Muslim woman who attended one of her speeches to "take a camel" as an alternative to flying. This quote outraged many people of all races which then led to an immense crowd of protesters at her next speech, causing it to get cancelled.
Freedom of speech is the freedom to voice one's opinions without fear of censorship or punishment.. The right to freedom of speech is considered as a human right under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Canada, everyone has the freedom of thought, belief, opinion, and expression.Despite the protections from the Charter, Canada has had a few journalists and writers fined or put in jail for their political opinions as expressed through their writing. Courts continue to struggle with the conflict between groups not putting up with anything bad said about them and groups voicing their opinion about their beliefs. That being said, there is a limit as to what one can say. Under the Criminal Code of Canada, it is illegal to promote genocide, as well as publicly display hatred against certain people based on their colour, race, religion, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation, except if the statements are true or made in good faith.
Before Ann's speech at the University of Western Ontario, she received an email from the University stating that she be careful about what she says during her speech because of the Charter. Ann however ignored this warning and spoke in an extremely disrespectful manner, offending many groups of people, especially Muslims. Ann Coulter was warned before the speech about racism and how Canada doesn't tolerate it. There is a huge difference between voicing one's opinions in a civilized way and voicing one's opinions as to offend people. Ann went over the top with her conservative ways and should be severely punished for it. If Ms. Coulter does get charged, it might prevent her from making the same mistakes in the future, and she will think about what she says.

Monday, March 22, 2010

desctriptive paragraph

The dust finally settled on the old transport wagon. The chase was over, stopped abruptly after the wagon's wheel smashed on a jagged rock. Out of the wreckage crawled a man . His eyes were shielded by a soft brimmed top hat, desperately needing a wash. His face was hidden amongst a forest of scraggly facial hair, his mouth poking through like a groundhog coming out of it's hole for the first time. The shadowed eyes seemed to hiss at you, just waiting for the perfect moment to strike out and grasp their unsuspecting prey. The dusty old jeans that were strapped on at his waist looked like they had been worn one too many times, with rips scattered all over, just like potholes occupy abandoned roads. This man's boots snake skin boots were atrocious, almost as if they were undergoing an annual shed just like the snake had done before. With lightning quick speed this man pulled out his guns, and shot my companion in the head. I dove for cover behind the remains of the wagon, and when I poked my head out, all that could be seen was the silhouette of this strange man against the setting sun in the distance.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

entering a haunted house cliche paragraph

It was a dark and stormy night when some of my best friends and I decided to spend the night in the towns old abandoned haunted house. I think that we bit off more than we could chew, as we soon found out. We were standing outside the house, scared half to death, when I took one for the team and opened the creaky old door. We stepped forward cautiously into the house, waiting for any surprise that might jump out at us. Oh boy, we sure got a run for our money that night. The floor boards were creaking underneath us and the roof was shaking above us. Everything about the house screamed out danger, especially the noise. Thats when things took a twist. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. Then suddenly a masked figure jumped out at us and chased us right out of the house. I ran all the way home, heart racing, hands shaking, and my hair standing up on end. No one ever made the same mistake as us ever again. The mistake of letting one of your friends put on a mask and scare the living daylights out of you.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

blogging

I was wiping the last drip of oil off my hands. I had endured many endless days creating my time machine, but now it all seemed worth it. I was busy programming the last bit of information into the the cold key pad. Tensions were building. The machine fired up from it's sleep. I was planning on seeking revenge upon the retched man who created blogger.com. This was it. I was finally about to change history and prevent me and my English classmates from going through the many hours of torture that this blogging website had placed upon us. I stepped into the chilled time machine and set the date back in history to the december 5, 2007. With a incredible jolt of energy, the floor started to tremble underneath me. Suddenly it all stopped. I looked down at the emergency stop button that I had instinctivly pulled. I suddenly realized that there was no reason to stop the creation of the blogging website that controlled valuable class time used up during my english class. Why one might ask? Because I am finished.