(photo courtesy of fromthefrontrow.blogspot.com)
By Philippe Boutros and Corey Fawcett, Staff Writers -- broutros14@up.edu & fawcett13@up.edu
GO SEE... SUCKER PUNCH
"Sucker Punch" has been getting pummeled by reviewers. A prime example would be what Christopher Toohey of the UK's Daily Mail wrote in his review: "It seems to have been made for 15-year-old boys by a sad middle-aged man whose only experience of life is from violent comics, shoot-'em-up video games and online pornography."
That guy is an idiot.
I went to go see "Sucker Punch" at the behest of a close friend of mine ("I know it's gotten terrible reviews, but it's good!"), and I definitely don't regret it. In fact, I highly recommend it (except for the first few heart-wrenching minutes – I haven't been this close to tears since Sarah Palin anointed herself as a ‘Momma Grizzly').
"Sucker Punch" is Zack Snyder's first experiment with writing and directing a screenplay, and it's a resounding success. Snyder created a movie as gritty as "Sin City" with an Inception-esque psychological subplot, epic action typical of his previous works and an extremely compelling story.
The main character is a young girl who is placed into a mental institution by her stepfather (her younger sister's killer). She creates a fantasy world in order to plot an escape before she has to undergo a lobotomy that her stepfather bribed a doctor to do.
Even if you're too dense to appreciate the plot (I'm talking to you, Toohey), you'd have to be a Quaker not to appreciate the action. The effects are more than superb – and I only saw the 2-D version. I don't think that I would have been able to handle the 3-D Imax experience.
How could a movie with World War I Axis zombies, dragons, samurai, a bordello and five highly attractive, scantily clad girls who could take on the entire cast of "300" and "Watchmen" go wrong? It can't, and that's my point. Haters gonna hate, but this kid loved that movie.
– Philippe Boutros
READ... THE WIND-UP BIRD CHRONICLE
Haruki Murakami is one of most renowned novelists of the 21st century, and he doesn't even plan out his books before he begins them.
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" was published in 1995, a few years after Murakami garnered international fame with his novel "Norwegian Wood." You may have also heard of "Kafka on the Shore," "Sputnik Sweetheart" or "Dance, Dance, Dance."
"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" secured Murakami's status as a prominent literary figure and rightfully so. It's pure magic.
The novel tells the tale of Toru Okada, a passive man in his early thirties. After his cat disappears, his wife, Kumiko, convinces him to hire a psychic to find it. She herself disappears soon after, and it is up to Toru to find her. He encounters a mystical world along the way, making friends with a death-obsessed high school dropout who works in a wig factory and making enemies with a demonic politician. What is real and what is not start to blur together for Toru as he steps outside time and space to find Kumiko.
The beauty of "The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle" is that no matter how surreal and elusive it gets, somehow you always understand what Murakami is trying to convey. The language he uses transforms even the most supernatural events in the novel into complete sense. He weaves together the tales of all of the characters in a chaotic, nonlinear fashion but also in such an artful manner that the themes – the fleeting nature of romance, the unfeeling nature of politicians and the tragedy of World War II – tie together neatly and logically.
– Corey Fawcett
(Photo by Jackie Jeffers)
