A change of Heart

                In both It’s a Wonderful Life and The Family Man there are many similarities and differences that are made. These similarities and differences vary greatly between both movies. I say this for many reasons and these reasons will be described as I continue throughout this blog.

I am going to start off with the similarities that both movies portray. In both movies, the main character has friends, but is portrayed as to being all for themselves. Another thing that is shown in both movies is that our main characters are men. Does this mean something? I think not. Also (in both movies) both of our main characters (protagonists) have business careers. As the similarities of both of our movies come along, so does more similarities. In the beginnings of both movies our protagonists are not in intimate relationships, but (however) this changes throughout the movies. So, as you can probably guess, both of our protagonists get into intimate relationships. Another thing that both of our protagonists/ main characters has in common in these movies is that they both have guardian angels. Last, but definitely not least, is the fact that both of our main characters/protagonists work for investment companies.

Alright now we’re in the differences between both movies. So, to start off with is that even though our main character in It’s a Wonderful Life is a business man, he did not choose to be. Whereas in The Family Man, our main character has chosen to be a business man and is even negatively passionate about his job. Another thing about The Family Man is that our main character is president of an investment house.

Well as you can see there are many differences between It’s a Wonderful Life and The Family Man as there are also many similarities. Done.

love actually

In my opinion, Love Actually was a very confusing movie. I say this for many reasons starting with the fact that the movie its self bounced around a lot. I also got confused by the story lines of each story and just as I thought that I began to understand the story, boom, it moved to a different story. I did like that each story ended up being intertwined with all the other stories. I also liked that each story, or the story as a whole, had a happy ending.

My least favorite part was when the one man in the one story had cheated on his wonderful wife with a girl that was probably not even half his age. Along with that part, the wife found out and was completely heartbroken; devastated, and even for Christmas he still continued to cheat. However, along with me having parts of this movie that I disliked, there were also parts that I did like. These parts that appealed to me the most include all of the happy endings, being intertwined, and the cute romance. I am usually not one to be greatly into romance, well typical romance. To me typical romance is a couple having an expensive dinner then walking on the beach afterwards to the setting of the sun. Blah. To me, a “romantic” date would be riding a four wheeler through the mud (or a horse), then for dinner would be ordering a pizza, and, last but not least, my significant other and I would just sit and talk. Just talk for hours on end. However that is not how any of the stories in this movie are portrayed there for being that I don’t “relate” to any of the stories in this movie. To sum it all up, the movie ws confusing but good.  

Is He a Hero

Out of all of the heroic movies listed (The Hunger Games, Star Wars: A New Hope, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Here Comes the Boom, The Natural) I have picked Here Comes the Boom. I picked this movie because, in my opinion, it is the most heroic movie listed that I have seen all the way through. I also picked it because, in my opinion, it has the best storyline out of all the movies and is very realistic.

                The basic story line of Here Comes the Boom is as follows. A high school biology teacher known as Mr. Voss (Scott Voss) is amazed by the music created by the high school’s band. However, Mr. Voss later learns (in a school board meeting) that the school has lost a lot of its funding and must cut the music program which means no more band class. At first Mr. Voss just thought of it as a shame and nothing more but when he realizes the importance of the job for the music/band teacher himself. He immediately tries his best to find ways to fund the music program and save the music teachers job without hesitation. Within his efforts to raise money, he becomes a night-school teacher for adults that are trying to become legal United States citizens. Long story short, he begins to privately tutor a student who inspires him to become a U.F.C. fighter where he can win so much money to lose a fight. So through this he starts training with that night school student and continuously gets his butt kicked. However, fortunately, through his training he learns from his mistakes, becomes a better fighter, and becomes famous throughout the high school that he teaches at. He raises almost enough, the guy in charge of the money loses it, and Mr. Voss has to re-earn all the money. Now, to sum it all up, he wins his last fight, raises enough money to save the music program and the music/band teachers job, and all his night school students became legal citizens. The end.  

The Hero Archetype

In both Star Wars: A New Hope and Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone there is a clear and strong example of the hero archetype. In Star Wars our hero is Luke Skywalker who defeated Darth Vader and saved the princess. However they themselves were faced with a journey of their own. Their journey consisted of them deciphering R2D2 and finding the princess and discovering their weaknesses and strengths to get through the conflicts that they were faced with. They also had to discover something about themselves along the way. It’s all part of the journey.

                In Harry Potter: The Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry and his friends also had a journey of their own. It’s part of the hero archetype. Unfortunately, however, I didn’t get to see all of the movie so I can’t decipher the whole film, but, from what I did see, Harry and his friends faced many conflicts but, as they faced these conflicts, they learned how to use their powers from spells that they learned in school and put them to good use. However from not seeing the rest of the movie from after the part of where they battled the troll I can’t describe the rest. The End.

The Search for Fatherly Approval

                In both Catch Me if You Can and October Sky both our main characters, Frank Abignale (Catch Me if You Can) and Homer Hickman (October Sky), are searching for their father’s approval.

In Catch Me if You Can, Frank Abignale is literally faking his way through numerous careers because he is just trying to find something that will gain his father’s approval. Frank becomes an airline pilot, opened up numerous checking accounts and used fraud to gain millions of dollars. He then later “becomes” a surgeon and a lawyer all through fraud and “educational” movies. However, he never fully earns his father’s approval (at least from what I saw).

On the other hand, we have October Sky with Homer Hickman (our main character) whose story is a bit different than that of Frank’s. In October Sky, Homer shows that he is not only very stubborn, but also very determined. If Homer sets his mind to it, he will do anything in his power to succeed. In October Sky, Homer decided to become a rocket scientist. He is a typical high school student that is living in a coal mining town/community. His dad is a hard to get along with/ hard to please coal miner. As Homer develops his love and knowledge for rockets, his dad becomes less and less pleased with him and instead develops a vision of Homer becoming a head coal miner. As father and son, they are not on the same page. As Homer becomes more and more successful with his rocketry, he learns and launches numerous rockets. However his father isn’t so pleased. Eventually, Homer does get his father to become involved and he does earn his father’s approval.

In both movies, there is one main goal and that is to earn fatherly approval. One does and one doesn’t.