Weekend Recap and Movie Reviews

I spent the weekend with G, like I usually do.  We watched both the Washington Huskies football team and basketball team lose.  But the Seahawks won, which was unexpected, since they've been doing terrible. In other sports news, Stanford's football team remains undefeated, but we didn't watch that game.  Other than watching sports, we watched some movies and played video games.

I got to the next dungeon on Ocarina of Time and learned that my bomb-throwing skills really need some work.  G noticed that my new owl necklace looks like the owl from the game, only mine has fake gemstones.  I made some smoothies that we both thoroughly enjoyed.  I would give you the recipe, but I don't measure.  Peel and cut up a medium sized orange. That is the part that takes the most time.  Then put in about four frozen strawberries per person and some vanilla yogurt.  Then you just blend everything together.  Serve with or without whipped cream on top.  It's actually a super healthy and super tasty thing to make if you're trying to eat healthy.  Just leave off the whipped cream, and if you're really serious about healthy eating, use non-fat yogurt.  It's also really filling, so you can have it as a meal and be completely full after.

On to movies: I watched four, and I'm reviewing them all plus Gremlins 2, which I watched for the first time a while back when I was sick. G fell asleep at the beginning of A Clockwork Orange and slept through the whole thing, as well as Woodshop.  I watched Terminator with G, and then started watching How to be a Serial Killer, and he went to bed a while after I started that one.  I found them all on Netflix. If you haven't heard of A Clockwork Orange, then I'll try to refrain from asking what is wrong with you and instead inform you that it's a classic. It deals with psychological issues. Do not read past the picture if you do not like spoilers.  I would say it is worth watching once, but I, personally, do not want to watch it again.  It is rated R for a reason.  There is nudity and violence, as well as implied rape.  The rape is not shown but the part leading up to it is, and it is made very clear that it happened. Also, if you're easily creeped out, you won't want to look at this guy for an hour and a half.

A Clockwork Orange is a movie by Stanley Kubrick in 1971. He's the same guy who wrote and directed The Shining. A Clockwork Orange is set in a future version of Britain.  At the beginning of the movie, the main character, Alex,  and his friends, or "droogs" as he calls them are at a bar drinking some drugged milk before they go out for some "ultraviolence".  One of the most noticeable things about the bar, which is a theme that continues through the whole movie is how erotic it is.  The tables are shaped like naked women and the milk is also dispensed by what looks like a white plastic naked woman.  One of the most bizarre things about this movie, in my opinion, is how much erotic art is everywhere, which society as a whole seems to be entirely okay with.  At one point a crazy cat lady is murdered with a sculpture she has in her room, which is shaped like a penis.  After the fellows fill up on drugged milk at the bar, they head out on the streets, where they beat an old drunk man mercilessly.  They proceed to where another group of friends is about to rape a young woman.  They taunt the other group of friends as the young lady manages to run away.  Then the two rival groups brawl.  After this they trick an elderly couple into letting them into their house and then beat the old man and rape the woman, while Alex sings "Singin' in the Rain".  The rape itself is not shown but this scene is difficult to watch nonetheless.  We see Alex, a teenage boy, at home in his room listening to Beethoven music.  He claims that he particularly enjoys the 9th symphony. He also has a pet snake, but this factor isn't important to the movie.  The next morning his mother asks him if he's going to school.  He says that he still isn't feeling very well, so he's staying home again.  His mother says that he's missed a whole week of school.  She says to his father something about him working at night, which is apparently the lie he's told them.  Later, Alex is walking around in his underpants and then realizes that his probation officer is in the house.  The doctor and Alex sit on a bed and talk for a while.  After that, Alex goes out and picks up two girls from a music store then takes them home and has a threesome.  Alex and his droogs go out for another night of fun, and this is when Alex ends up murdering the crazy cat lady with her penis sculpture.  He gets arrested and becomes seemingly very spiritual, while actually picturing himself torturing Jesus and sleeping with maidservants.  He is selected as a candidate for aversion therapy and seems eager to be good.   He undergoes the therapy, which consists of wearing a torturous looking device, including metal things holding his eyes open, while being subjected to films depicting various violent things, all set to Beethoven music.  Then he demonstrates to an audience of important people how the desire to fight and rape now make him feel ill to the point of not acting on his desires.  Everyone is very pleased with what appears to be a great success and they release him.  Upon arriving home, Alex finds that his room has been rented out and he has to find somewhere else to stay.  He leaves with his possessions and then the old drunk who he and his droogs attacked earlier recognizes him and brings him to a bunch of homeless people, who beat him up.  Then he gets beat up by two of his former droogs, who are now policemen.  He struggles to get to a house, which he does not realize is the home of the elderly couple he beat and raped earlier.  The old man is now in a wheelchair and the wife is nowhere to be seen.  The man does not recognize Alex and encourages him to clean up and take a bath.  While Alex is in the bathtub, he begins singing "Singin' in the Rain" and the old man hears him from the other room and realizes who he is.  After his bath, the old man and his assistant encourage Alex to eat some food and drink some wine and then the old man tells Alex about what happened to his wife.  She died of pneumonia, but the man thinks she wouldn't have if it hadn't been for the violent rape breaking her spirit.  At some Alex accidentally informs the man that he has been conditioned against Beethoven music, as a side effect of the therapy.  Alex passes out in his spaghetti, from the drugged wine.  He awakens locked in a room upstairs, while the old man blasts Beethoven's 9th downstairs.  Alex shouts at the man to turn off the music, then bangs his head on the floor in an attempt to make it stop.  Then he decides to kill himself, and jumps out of the window.  He awakens in a cast in the hospital.  The government is in trouble for their experiments on Alex.  The Interior Minister visits Alex in the hospital to apologize for their actions.  He promises Alex a good job where he will earn as much money as he wants, in return for Alex helping the government.  Alex agrees and the press photographs the occasion.  The hospital plays him Beethoven's 9th and Alex imagines having sex in the snow and as the movie ends, he quips that he is cured indeed, friends.  The end credits roll to the tune of "Singin' in the Rain".  I am not going to analyze the movie, only review it.  I was equally bored and shocked at the beginning.  I stuck with it and the exploration of the effects of therapy to remove violent tendencies proved to be rather interesting.  I do not plan to watch this movie again, but it was okay to watch once.  I think it was very well-written, and the actors were very good. Some scenes were very disturbing which I know is what Kubrick was going for, but I wouldn't want to see them again. The movie made me think, which I like, so I give it 3 stars out of 5.

I think that this post is long enough already, so I'll end it here and review the other movies later this week.