Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s 11 movie is produced with so much wit, brains, dazzle, and virtuosity that hit me like a bucket of ice-cold water. It made me wonder what was gonna happen next.
Danny Ocean (George Clooney) is an ex-con and professional thief who is a compulsive charmer. Less than 24 hours after he struts out of prison in his penguin suit from a Jersey pen, the charismatic thief is already rolling out the most intricate casino heist in history with his eleven experts in Vegas—America’s playground.
Along with the rico suave Clooney, Ocean's 11 stars, Brad Pitt, Julia Roberts, Matt Damon and an tolerable amount other non-one hit wonders. Pitt plays a hip card shark who’s scruffy but sleek under his aviator shades—it’s like he’s straight out of Saturday Night Fever. Danny Oc...
Nelson Johnson, author of “Boardwalk Empire: The Birth, High Times and Corruption of Atlantic City”, is a native of Hammonton, New Jersey. Johnson graduated Villanova Law School in 1974, after receiving his Bachelor’s degree in 1970 from St John’s University in New York, majoring in political science. Johnson began his political career in 1975: being elected to Atlantic County’s Board of Chosen Freeholders, where he served until 1985. Johnson had a successful private practice culminating in appointment to be a Superior Court Judge in 2005. It is interesting to note that Gromley, who nominated Johnson to Superior Court, is featured in his book. Of further interest is that Johnson served on Atlantic City’s Planning Board at the conception of casinos.
In the first 20 minutes of 2001: A Space Odyssey you see a group of monkeys going through evolution. The first change you see is that of a leader. In the beginning, each monkey did their own thing, and was not bound to any organization whatsoever. The monkeys did what they want when they wanted. Then the change begins. A single monkey, by himself, rises to the top of a cliff. He stands and screams. The other monkeys notice him screaming and began dancing and rejoicing. They scream and jump around, in what appears to be reverence for their new leader. Stanley Kubrick shows the change very simply, yet its message is still very clear. The monkeys had never shouted as loud or danced as much as they had previously in the film. Their actions confirm that something in fact had changed.
become a slave to it. The Village is a film based more on a pitch than
In Daniel Wallace’s novel, Big Fish: A Novel of Mythic Proportions and Tim Burton’s film, Big Fish, the relationship between the dying protagonist, Edward Bloom and his estranged son, William Bloom, is centrally to the story in both the novel and film. Like many fathers in today's society, Edward Bloom wishes to leave his son with something to remember him by after he is dead. It is for this reason the many adventures of Edward Bloom are deeply interwoven into the core of all the various stories Edward tells to mystify his son with as a child. Despite the many issues father and son have in their tense relationship as adults, Daniel Wallace and Tim Burton’s adaptation of Wallace’s novel focalizes on the strained relationship between Edward Bloom and William Bloom. In both Wallace’s novel and Burton’s film, they effectively portray how the relationship between Edward Bloom and William Bloom is filled with bitter resentment and indifference towards each other. Only with William’s attempt to finally reconcile with his dying father and navigating through his father fantastical fables does those established feelings of apathy and dislike begin to wane. With Burton’s craftily brilliant reconstruction of Wallace’s story does the stories of Edward Bloom and his son blossom onto screen.
Steven Spielberg's Jaws and Ridley Scott's Gladiator The two films being examined are the thriller Jaws, directed by Steven Spielberg, and the action film Gladiator directed by Ridley Scott. Both directors create epic films; the films are momentous and are designed to manipulate the emotions. A thriller is intended to appeal to basic human instinct to the need of feeling fear and survival. Action movies are designed to appeal to our sense of danger: pace and experience is something we want but don't have in our everyday lives to this extent. Both films are examples of media, which manage to induce you into a certain way of thinking: Jaws into being scared and Gladiator into sympathising and rooting for Russell Crowe in his fight against evil.
In “The Hollow Men,” T.S. Eliot makes famous allusions to the works of Dante Alighieri, Joseph Conrad, William Shakespeare and to the story of Guy Fawkes’ “Gunpowder Plot.” Eliot also makes use of extended metaphors, perhaps most prominently a metaphor to Dryness and the idea of living in a desert. Eliot uses this metaphor, in conjunction with allusions and the idea that dryness represents the empty life the Hollow Men live, to explain how the Hollow Men he writes about experience the world.
Bill Nighy, who is well known for his appearances with Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Noah Calhoun starts off the story by talking about how is life isn’t easy to explain. But now, he has also had more ups and downs and that he is proud because, many people cannot say that about their life. He talks about his wife, Allie not knowing whom he is. He reads this notebook to Allie just hoping that, that day might be the day that she comes back to him.
The Quran is the religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be the word of God. And contrary to popular belief, the Quran never intended to reduce women to such a limited role with little to no rights. Biased interpretation of the verses in the Quran has contributed to the creation of a patriarchal society. It has played a major role on how Muslim women have been treated today and throughout history—si...
The most believable theory presented in Room 237 suggests that Stanley Kubrick, the director of The Shining, directed the movie to reflect the genocide of the American Indians. When first hearing this theory, it seems completely absurd. How can a horror movie about a homicidal maniac trying to kill his family have any correlation with the displacement, exploitation, and murder of thousands of Native Americans?
Breathless is in many ways the antithesis of the classical Hollywood cinema; the changes have a direct effect on the relationship the film has with the viewer. Classical Hollywood cinema includes standards such as continuity editing, highly motivated, character-driven stories and a coherent narrative structure. Breathless defies these elements of traditional filmmaking, instead defining what we know as French New Wave.
Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American epic coming-of-age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, Nigel Havers, and Christian Bale. The film tells the story of Jamie "Jim" Graham, a young boy who goes from living in a wealthy British family in Shanghai, to becoming a prisoner of war in a Japanese internment camp, during World War II.
The readings of this past week discussed women’s piety and roles as defined by Islam and the Quran. The writings of Barbara Stowasser discussed Hadith and Quranic histories which featured exemplary Muslim women. These scriptures are significant because the Quran and its histories are used to extrapolate laws and codes of conduct for men and women alike. The role of Eve in the Garden of Eden as revealed in revelation by Mohammed differs slightly from the Christian narrative of the same story. This seems to be a small change with much larger implications. The role of Mary in the Quran is interesting as her story is suggested as something for Muslim women to aspire to but at the same time Mary’s example is considered beyond human and divinely perfect. Lastly, the interactions between Mohammed and his wives, in Hadith and in scripture, play a pivotal role in judging what is acceptable and proper in the domestic sphere. These three examples influence women’s roles both positively and negatively depending on how well they mesh with modern sensibilities. One persons piety is another person...
You might have heard at some time or the other that Islam teaches that women are "inferior" and "unequal" to men. Women are described as weak, inferior, inherently evil (it is the nature of woman to promote fitnah (mischief)), we have deficient intellectual capabilities and are spiritually lacking. Furthermore, these evaluations have been used to claim that women are unsuitable for performing certain tasks, or for functioning in some ways in society.
As an Arab American, a Muslim and a woman writer, Mohja Kahf challenges the stereotypes and misrepresentation of Arab and Muslim women. Her style is always marked by humor, sarcasm, anger and confrontation. “The Marvelous Women,” “The Woman Dear to Herself,” “Hijab Scene #7” and “Hijab Scene #5” are examples of Kahf’s anger of stereotypes about Muslim women and her attempts to fight in order to eradicate them, in addition to her encouragement to women who help her and fight for their rights.