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Bend It Like Beckham

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I don't know if you all have seen Bend It Like Beckham or not yet--I believe it opened quite a while ago in the major markets (L.A., New York, Chicago), but it just recently opened in a few theaters here--but if you haven't, go see it! Overall, it's a very good movie, I found it quite enjoyable. It deals with themes of cross-cultural misunderstanding (like My Big Fat Greek Wedding), but does so in a way that emphasizes individual happiness, and the role of the individual in valuing (like Chocolat).

Highly recommended...it's no T3, but I think you'll still get your money's worth. :P

Oh, also, I just remembered that someone at OCON (Dr. Bernstein) was telling me that one of the lead actresses in the film (I believe the one who plays Juliet) is an Objectivist. Not sure if that's true, but it's certainly interesting.

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Entertaining? Yes. Intentionally? ...Now that's another story. :rolleyes:

Actually, there were a few bits that I enjoyed, but I thought that the movie as a whole was one of the worst films I've ever seen. But it was so bad that I was laughing throughout (although at it, not with it), so I guess you could say in a sense that I was entertained.

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I was kind of entertained by the movie, and a bit excited at the prospect of human beings using their minds to save the world. But then, as the movie developed, and when I saw the ending, I was blind with rage.

I can easily say that T3 was one of the worst movies I've ever seen in my entire life. I haven't felt so angry at the end of a movie, well, ever.

This thread has given me an idea. Perhaps an interesting section on this forum could be a place to post movie, music, and book reviews and such.

What do you think?

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David already has created such a section at the main site (www.objectivismonline.net). Not too many reviews up there so far, but there's certainly potential.

(I posted my recommendation of Bend It... here because I didn't want to take the time to write a proper, full-length review at the moment.)

Edited by AshRyan
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I have to side with danielshrugged, the movie was entertaining, but that is it. It had cool effects and action and Arnold said funny stuff. Besides, I have seen worse. The end will be bad if there is no T4, but if there is, then it is like the end of a "to be continued" TV show; it's not the end.

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I don't care what they do in T4, it couldn't possibly solve the problems of T3. (I still have hope for the Matrix, though, depending on the next movie.)

This film was just so absurd (and malevolent) that it shouldn't be taken remotely seriously. So the machines developed self-awareness (somehow), and by the end of the film they seemed to have more free will than the humans, who were pathetic puppets of fate (for some reason). If it wasn't so laughable, it would be sickening. Worst plot-theme ever.

The chase scene was pretty cool, and there were a couple of things that Arnold said that were funny. But beyond that, T3 was a really terrible film.

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  • 2 weeks later...

When I watched T2, I was enjoying it until I got to Sarah Conner's comment about how innovative scientists and inventors all "create destruction". James Cameron seriously misunderstands what the source of destruction is: It is the man who kills another with a gun responsible for the murder? Or is it the man who invented the gun responsible for the murder? Apparently, James Cameron thinks it's the former. By the same reasoning, all the films that he made were not his, but the those who made the camera, computer, and whatever other tools he used to make his movies! :)

That quote would have been insignificant had it come from the enemy, but to hear it coming from Sarah herself, and then good Terminator saying that "humans are programmed for self-destruction"!

The one saving grace in T2 was their demonstrating the quote "no fate but what we make" by preventing "Judgmnet Day", which is totally reversed in T3.

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  • 2 months later...

Okay, so I got Bend It Like Beckham on DVD yesterday, so that was cool. I also got October Sky, which I just barely saw for the first time the other day and which is also a great movie that I highly recommend. Actually, the two films have almost identical plot-themes. A young person wants to get out of their current situation and do what they want with their lives by getting an opportunity to compete for a scholarship to go to college, but have to overcome obstacles such as an unsupportive family and circumstances that threaten to ruin their chance. Some of the details are different, such as the setting (1950s West Virginia coal-mining town versus present-day middle class neighborhood in England) and what it is the main character wants to do (rocketry versus women's soccer), but the films are essentially identical. And both are to some extent based on true stories. And both are absolutely great.

I think October Sky is a little better, because in addition to stressing individuality like Bend It Like Beckham, it throws in a good measure of rationality on top of that. In fact, almost every major Objectivist virtue is highlighted in the film--rationality, productivity, independence, etc. One almost has to wonder if the screenwriter has some familiarity with Objectivism, the movie is so consistent with it. (It even leaves out religion, and includes such great lines as: "Screw you and your damn union." :unsure: )

Edited by AshRyan
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  • 1 month later...

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