In Columbia Picture's The Karate Kid, 12-year-old Dre Parker (Jaden Smith) could've been the most popular kid in Detroit, but his mother's (Taraji P. Henson) latest career move has landed him in China. Dre immediately falls for his classmate Mei Ying and the feeling is mutual but cultural differences make such a friendship impossible. Even worse, Dre's feelings make an enemy of the class bully, Cheng. In the land of kung fu, Dre knows only a little karate, and Cheng puts the karate kid on the floor with ease. With no friends in a strange land, Dre has nowhere to turn but maintenance man Mr. Han (Jackie Chan), who is secretly a master of kung fu. As Han teaches Dre that kung fu is not about punches and parries, but maturity and calm, Dre realizes that facing down the bullies will be the fight of his life.
When I mention Julie & Julia to my musician friends, most of them haven't seen it. The movie was recently released as a DVD. That makes it easier to access. It's a smart idea combining two personal stories, very well done.I have two inspirational hits from this film, one for Julie and one for Julia.
The inspiration of Julia Child is the lesson of finding your passion. She was unfocused until she enrolled in Cordon Bleu to learn to cook French cuisine. That was the pivotal action of her life. The best seller book, Mastering the Art of French Cooking would never have happened. The TV show would never have been made. It all hinged on that decision to study the subject. She fell totally in love with French cooking. "Butter!" she says in an early scene. (The French word is even more seductive.) She is glazed and in a trance over butter. And French cooking. We all need a pivot to turn from just plugging along to really making a song out of our life. (Or a fiddle tune.) You've heard of "find your passion." Julia Child found hers. Everything followed from that. The second inspiration is Julie Powell's goal-intention-project of preparing all the recipes in Julia's book in one year's time and blogging about it. The ambitious, but doable project and the one year time constraint act as a wonderful motivational goad. The project met resistance. Of course it would. Somehow, persistence wins. The subtext of her idolization of Julia Child is an interesting study of emulation. Ultimately her achievement goes beyond the need for approval from her idol. A few years ago, I had a similar experience. I set out to play one hundred different tunes one hundred times each. To devote this much time to a tune about twice a week was not completely crazy. But it was not easy for my mind to accept. After a while I got into an accustomed process. I just did it. It raised my level of playing. This year, inspired by Julie & Julia, I'm choosing a similar project. The big idea is, Publish 100 fiddle tunes from my repertory online. Do this over the next year. It's fair to say that I strongly advocate the inspiration from the movie. If you have not connected with your passion, consider a big project to get started. Even, in the harshest case, you are defeated from achieving your target, you will learn so much about yourself, it's worth it.
Gordon Gekko, fresh from prison, re-emerges into a much harsher financial world than the one he left.
When a successful British ghost writer, THE GHOST, agrees to complete the memoirs of former British Prime Minister ADAM LANG, his agent assures him it's the opportunity of a lifetime. But the project seems doomed from the start not least because his predecessor on the project, Lang's long-term aide, died in an unfortunate accident. The Ghost flies out to work on the project, in the middle of winter, to an oceanfront house on an island off the U.S. Eastern seaboard. But the day after he arrives, a former British cabinet minister accuses Lang of authorizing the illegal seizure of suspected terrorists and handing them over for torture by the CIA-a war crime. The controversy brings reporters and protesters swarming to the island mansion where Lang is staying with his wife, RUTH, and his personal assistant (and mistress), AMELIA. As The Ghost works, he begins to uncover clues suggesting his predecessor may have stumbled on a dark secret linking Lang to the CIA-and that somehow this information is hidden in the manuscript he left behind. Was Lang in the service of the American intelligence agency while he was prime minister? And was The Ghost's predecessor murdered because of the appalling truth he uncovered? Resonating with topical themes, this atmospheric and suspenseful political thriller is a story of deceit and betrayal on every level sexual, political and literary. In a world in which nothing, and no one, is as it seems, The Ghost quickly discovers that the past can be deadly and that history is decided by whoever stays alive to write it.
James Cameron's "Avatar" uses cutting-edge motion-capture technology to blend the physical performances of the actors with the computer-generated world of the animators in a way that has never been seen before. James Cameron's new movie "Avatar" has been hailed for its innovative animation techniques. The film broke new ground with its use of motion-capture technology, which took months to develop. The motion picture combines computer-generated characters with live action to produce a spectacle that is mesmerizing moviegoers worldwide. To achieve the desired effect, Cameron and a team of computer experts created a new type of camera that captured the facial expressions of the actors and digitally recorded them for later use by the animators. Each actor wore a tiny camera that rested in front of his or her face. The images were recorded and then transferred to computers. This allowed for the physical performances of each actor to be translated accurately into the computer-generated animations. In contrast to traditional motion-capture techniques, in which the performances are added to computer-generated scenes in post-production, Cameron could also observe each performance in the virtual world as it was being captured. Much of the equipment used for the animation in "Avatar" was designed specifically for the film. Despite the high budget and number of years that it took to produce the film, the astonishing animation-and international box office blow-out-have proven worthwhile. Surely, the new animation techniques will be inspiring filmmakers and moviegoers alike for years to come. About the AuthorJames has been writing articles online for nearly 6 years now. Along with watching movies, he enjoys writing articles about entertainment and families, check out one of his favorite web sites Garden Harvest Supply which offers one of his favorite vegetables, the bean plant.
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